Dedicated to Bluestar_seven because she made this awesome cover! <3
Hello lovlies! I have an update! Horray! I think I deserve a cookie :) anywhosers thank you to all of my new fans, you're wonderful! I am curious is any of my fans would be intersted in maybe doing a cover contest? Please let me know. Enjoy!
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Chapter 9
I woke up early, before my alarm. My side was hurting especially bad this morning. I dragged myself down to the kitchen. Jason was making breakfast and I made a mental note not to eat.
"Why are you up so early?"
"I must have slept wrong on my side. Every time I moved it woke me up." I offered.
"How's it looking?"
"I need Meri to change the bandages to see."
"Is she up?"
"Not when I left. Let her sleep."
"Jason laughed. "I'm not about to wake Meri up."
I laughed too then winced. "Ow, don't make me laugh." I groaned out through clenched teeth. "It hurts!"
Jason laughed harder at this. "Sorry, I don't mean to laugh,"
"Yeah, yeah,"
Rory walked in, his hair tousled from sleep. "Hey Kae. What are you doing up so early?"
"Just am."
"Alright. Jason, you're cooking?"
"Yeah,"
"Damn."
"What?"
"Dude, you can't cook to save your life."
"Don't hate."
"I'm not, I just don't want to die. Move over, I'll make something."
"Hey!" I watched these two grown men fight over who was cooking like toddlers, shoving one another here and there and then laughing about it afterwards. Rory eventually won and stepped in front of the stove and started adding this and that and suddenly it smelt amazing. Then a plume of smoke arose from the stove.
"And I'm the crappy cook," Jason pouted.
"Rory, I think you killed it." I looked at it and jabbed it with a fork. "Yup, it's officially dead." I laughed then gripped my ribs, which only made them hurt more.
"Mikaela, you alright?"
"I'm fine," I grimaced.
"How're the ribs?"
"Peachy."
"That bad?"
"Rory, I have broken ribs. It sucks, and it's that simple."
"I'm sorry,"
I shook my head. "Rory, stop. We can talk about this when we're on land. Until then, we have work to do and not much time to do it. I suggest you go and prepare yourself."
I walked out of the room, but Jason stopped me just outside the door. "Don't you remember that little chat we had last night?"
"Yes."
"Then you just aren't going to listen, then?"
"What?"
"Whatever, Mikaela."
Jason was about to walk off and I lost my temper. "No! Don't walk away from me. You get back here and you tell me what you mean?"
Jason shook his head. "Don't play stupid, Mikaela."
"Excuse you! Stupid isn't something I do. Now you tell me what the hell has gotten into my crew! What is going on that has everyone acting so weird!"
Jason stared at me for a long moment. "You really don't see it, do you?"
"See what?"
Jason sighed and shook his head. "Well I'll be damned. You really don't see it."
"See what?"
Jason gave me a sad smile. "It's not mine to tell. Go get your side taken care of." Jason walked away and I was in shock. What was going on with my crew?
I made my way back to my room and saw Meri getting ready.
"Hey, how's it going?"
"I'm fine. I need to change my bandages though."
"Alright, I'll help."
I was halfway through when Rory barged in. Hey, Santi said, oh shit, I'm sorry!"
"Rory! Get out!"
Meri shoved Rory out then closed and locked the door. "Honestly." She huffed. She finished the wrappings and opened the door to reveal a very abashed Rory.
"Sorry," he muttered. "But Santi says the storm has picked up speed, so we have to head back now in order to outrun it. He's already redirected us."
"Oh . . ." there was no denying my disappointment. "Anything else?"
"No, I guess not."
"Very well. Help Santi get everything taken care of."
"Right," Rory sulked away.
Meri was worrying her bottom lip. "Mikaela?"
"Yes?"
"You do realize he feels like a kicked dog, right?"
"What?"
"He feels guilty that you got hurt. He's angsty because you haven't forgiven him. And he's on edge with Trent. Being cold with him won't help anyone."
I gave Meri a pointed look. "Now you too?"
"Me too what?"
"Since when is everyone attacking me and the way I run my crew?"
"I'm not attacking,"
"Save it. I have videos to edit." I snapped and snuck off to the data room. I stopped short, Jason and Trent were talking. I really just wanted to be alone. I turned, but not quickly enough.
"Did you need something?"
"No."
"I'll just be going," Jason winked at me and closed me in with Trent.
"How are you feeling?" he started, offering a small smile.
"I'm fine."
He nodded. "How's the wound?"
"Healing."
"Did we get enough data?"
"No."
"Can we get it later?"
"Probably not."
"Oh,"
"Yeah."
There was a strained silence. I could tell Trent wanted to talk about something, but I wanted, no, needed some time alone with my thoughts.
"What has to be done when we get back to port?"
"The truck will need to be loaded. Santi's going to need some help getting the boat taken care of. That's just before we even leave the area."
"Okay. You shouldn't lift anything with your ribs,"
"I know,"
"Are you going to anyway?"
"I don't know."
Trent sighed. "Damn it, Mikaela," he groaned.
"What?"
"You've shut down again! I thought that maybe, just maybe, after last night I'd gotten a toe in the door. But no! You've gone and slammed the damn door shut again."
I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I saw the tension in his shoulders. His left thumb and forefinger pinched his nose and I noticed the black fringe of his eyelashes on his cheeks and the dark slashes of his eyebrows furrowed in frustration.
"Trent?"
"It's ironic. You accuse me of hiding things and you won't even be honest with yourself." Trent's eyes bored into mine. "I'm going to go help them pack up." Trent brushed past me and I felt my stomach drop.
What in the world had happened to my world? How had my world become so convoluted and turned so far upside down? For the first time in my life, I couldn't focus on my work. After about thirty minutes I gave up.
I went above deck to see Santi.
"Eh, chica,"
"Hey Santi."
"Everyone is wearing on you, no?"
"Yes."
"Si. It is obvious. You okay?"
"Sure."
"Ah, you don't want to talk about it. Sorry that we didn't get finished. I'll get The Adagio back out on the water and we'll get the rest."
"I hope so."
"We have this. You can trust us."
I nodded. "Thanks Santi,"
"We'll be in port in a few hours."
I nodded. "Alright."
"Go talk to him,"
"What?"
"Go talk to him."
"Who?"
"You know who. Go on now."
I walked out. Since when was I ordered around? I shrugged it off and made myself useful. I went down and attempted to focus on my work and edit footage. I monitored the tags we'd managed to secure and all of them seemed to be in working order. I made myself busy until we were about to dock. Only then did I emerge.
I did my best to work in silence as we pulled into port and I tried to help as usual, but no one would let me with my ribs. So I was just sitting watching. I hated being on the sidelines. When we were almost finished Trent sat on a crate beside me.
"What?" I grumbled out.
"Well, as we haven't had the chance yet, I'd really like to take you out on a date tonight."
"What?"
'A date."
"I don't have time for this."
"Mikaela, you have to eat at some point." Trent pointed out. "Have dinner with me. Get to know that stuff you accused me of hiding."
"I have work to do,"
"We out ran the storm on the water, but it's going to hit here in a few hours. It's not safe to be on the road. We're staying here tonight. The rest of your team is in agreement. Accept it."
I glared at my team. They didn't notice, they were laughing, probably at something Jason had said. Rory spared me a glance, then turned his back to me. I hung my head.
"Fine."
"Good. Decide what you want to eat and I've got the rest. Okay?"
"Yeah, yeah,"
Trent got up and went over to my crew. He joined in on the laughter and I was confused. How was the new guy included and I was suddenly excluded. I shook my head and sighed. I was staring at my shoes when another set of feet appeared. I looked up to see Rory.
"Hey," he offered tentatively.
"Hey," I smiled back.
"We're on land."
"That we are."
"I think we should have a talk."
I nodded. "Yeah, we should."
Rory offered me a hand and helped me up. "Let's get some lunch. It'll be nice to have a burger."
"Sure."
Rory and I walked to one of our usual haunts when we were in town. It was this great little bar and grill. They made some awesome food. We took one of the outside tables. Rory ordered his usual, a bacon barbeque double cheeseburger with a beer and I ordered the grilled shark kabobs. They were the best.
"Mikaela,"
"Yeah?"
"You know how sorry I am, right?"
"Yes."
"And you know how shitty I feel, right?"
"Yes."
Rory sighed. "I don't know what happened to me out there."
"What do you mean?"
"I couldn't just leave you down there."
I let that simmer for a moment. "You realize that you're my responsibility right? Not the other way around."
"Technically. But we're all really everyone's responsibility, especially out there. I mean, we're all we've got. Not to mention, if something happens to you, your mom is really scary. And I seriously think she might kill me." He joked. "But seriously, you have to learn to share the load. We're in this together. It's not just you."
I shook my head. "I don't know what to say,"
Rory laughed. "You never did have a way with words. That you aren't yelling at me tells me you at least are listening."
"Why has everyone been different this trip?"
"Because it's different."
"How?"
"Kae, first off, you brought somebody new in. Not only that, he's now our benefactor. That tends to change things."
"Why are we different now?"
Rory shook his head. "Don't ask that."
"Why?"
"You won't like the answer."
I stared at him for a long moment. "Rory, since when do we have secrets?"
He gave me a sad smile. "Kid, trust me."
I shook my head. "What has happened to my world? Why did I let Katie talk me into Vegas? My life would be so much simpler."
"Well, it happened. Accept it. It sucks, but it happened."
The waitress brought us our food.
"So,"
"Yeah?"
"How're the ribs?"
"I have broken ribs. What do you think?"
"I think you should go see a doctor."
"Maybe when we're back in Atlanta."
"I don't think it should be a maybe. I think you should go see a doctor."
"Whatever, Mom,"
"No, Mikaela. You don't get to do this this time. You don't get to act like I'm overreacting. If I'd gotten hurt or Meri or Jason, you would have marched us straight to the nearest hospital as soon as we stepped off the boat."
I thought about it and hated to admit it, but he was right. "Fine. I'll go get checked out. But I'm waiting until we're in Atlanta. Got that?"
I saw him visibly relax. "Good."
After that little tantrum, Rory started acting like himself again. Every time he made me laugh I had to remind him about my ribs. All the same, it was good to have my Rory back.
We paid the bill and found the others.
"Hey, you two disappeared." Jason noted.
"Yeah, went and got a bite to eat." Rory laughed.
"Oh really?" Trent chimed in. His eyes met Rory's and something happened. I can't say what, but tension was suddenly there.
"Yeah, we had a great time. A really good talk." Rory's tone was almost mocking. What was going on here?
"I'm glad."
"Hey Meri, want to go grab a drink?" Jason piped up.
"Sure. That sounds good. Hey Rory, you own Jason a drink anyway." Meri pulled Rory off and the three of them sauntered off.
"Hey . . ."
"Hey. How was lunch?"
"It was alright,"
"Good. How are you feeling?"
"Been better. You?"
"It's nice to be on solid ground again." Trent laughed. I nodded. "Feel up for a walk?"
I sighed. "Not really. My side is really hurting."
"Yeah, sure," he seemed annoyed again.
"But, I could sit for a while," I offered.
That earned me a smile. I hadn't realized before that he had dimples. "Sure. Mind if we sit somewhere with food?"
"Sure."
"You've been here before. You pick a place."
I took him back to the bar and grill. They really had the best food.
Trent glanced over the menu. "What's good?"
"Everything."
"Really? What do you recommend?"
"Well we each have our regular. Rory loves the bacon barbeque burger, Jason loves the Mahi Mahi burger with sweet potato fries, Meri usually gets sushi, and I love the shark kabobs."
"Hmmm . . ." his eyes scanned the menu. "I think I'll just get an appetizer. Save room for tonight."
Trent ordered the sampler which had a bit of everything, and a beer. I just ordered a water.
"So, Mikaela,"
"Hmm?"
"Here's your chance. Ask me anything you want."
"What?"
"You have no idea what to ask, do you?"
"No," I admitted sheepishly. I hated being put on the spot.
"May I ask you some questions then?"
"I don't promise to answer."
"Sure."
"Okay then."
"Alright . . . well, let's start simple. What made you choose biology?"
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Mikaela has her Rory acting kind of normal. Not everyone is angry with her now. And ooooh lala! finally some Trent and Mikaela time, and he's actually going to make her talk! What? Soooo, for the record Team Rory or Team Trent?
I hope you enjoyed. Please vote and comment <3 thank you lovlies :)