Secrets From The Med

Chapter 10

Tabitha reported to the bridge promptly at 15:40 for her afternoon watch. She was glad that the wind and sea had calmed within the last few hours and that the temperature wasn't quite as cold as it had been that morning. She'd been able to grab an apple from the mess decks about an hour before reporting for watch and, thankfully, she wasn't feeling any signs of it coming back up.

Tabitha looked around the bridge for her instructor and spotted her standing in front of the status board speaking into the mouthpiece of a sound powered telephone. As she walked toward Reid, she noticed that the girl's eyes lit up. Tabitha was still taken aback by the apology she'd received earlier and was anxious to see how the next four hours would go. She knew that the two of them couldn't talk about personal things while they were inside the bridge, but she felt that they would talk more in depth when they went to port lookout for their second hour of watch.

"Are you feeling better?" Reid asked; the genuine concern in her voice and expression was unmistakable.

"I am," Tabitha replied quietly. "Thanks for asking."

"I'm glad," Reid said. "Would you like to wear the sound powered phone?"

"Sure," Tabitha accepted the phone from the other girl and carefully placed the earpieces over her ears and the mouthpiece directly in front of her mouth.

"Here on the status board, you're in contact with combat." Reid explained. "You'll maintain a list of all the ship's current contacts." She then pointed to the list of seven ships' names written on the board.

"So those ships are out here somewhere?" Tabitha asked, hoping she didn't sound too stupid.

"Yep, they are out here somewhere, although that doesn't necessarily mean they're close enough to be seen with binoculars."

Tabitha stood there and listened to her instructor and felt an overwhelming relief by the girl's complete change in attitude toward her. Reid now seemed excited about training her to stand watches on the bridge. Tabitha felt someone's eyes on her. She turned to find Williams, who was at the helm with Knight, looking at her with raised eyebrows and a little smile on her face. Tabitha knew that her friend had noticed what was going on with her and Reid and that she was pleased by it.

At the end of the first hour, the girls' relief came to take over at the status board. The two of them then went out to the port bridge wing to take over the duties of port lookout. Tabitha automatically took the binoculars and sound powered phone from the person they were relieving.

The two girls remained silent for a few moments. Tabitha lifted the binoculars to her eyes and scanned the horizon, only to see two contacts, which she knew had already been reported to the bridge. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her instructor take a deep breath.

"Like I told you earlier, I'm sorry for the way I've been treating you." Reid said slowly, her eyes gazing over the water. "It was wrong of me and I admit it." The girl angled her face to look at Tabitha. "You're probably wondering why."

Tabitha said nothing as she waited for the girl to go on.

Reid took in another deep breath. "I've got a sister who's two years younger than I am. She's petite and pretty, the cheerleader and homecoming queen type. Everyone, including my parents, has pointed out to me all my life that I'm not little and pretty like she is. My mother used to flat out tell me that I was ugly." She then looked at Tabitha tearfully. "You reminded me of my sister the first time I saw you. Then one day I noticed you looking at your photo album and your life looked so perfect in those pictures. I was jealous and there was no excuse for it."