“And yet this ship is so big, we don’t even notice it.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” he said with a smile, “But even she can get to rocking when it gets bad.”
“Well, I’m glad it’s not bad yet then,” she said, laughing. “I’m not sure I have too much interest in seeing it get bad …”
“Interest?”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way,” she said, laughing. “Just that, I don’t want to be out in the storm anymore. So, if I get to enjoy a nice quiet sail until we’re back on shore, that suits me.”
He said, “A word of warning, it’ll get noisy when we go up to dinner.”
“Right. Does everybody eat at one time?”
“No,” he said. “We run shifts here, like everywhere else.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’m really hungry.”
He stood in line and introduced her to the seamen working the line, as they went through getting food. By the time she had a full tray of roast beef, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, and steamed vegetables, she was in awe. “I can’t believe you can eat like this.”
“Good food is part of keeping a happy crew, you know? It’s how a system like this works,” he said. “Just imagine the dissension we would have if nobody was happy with the food.”
“I guess,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s amazing.”
He escorted her to an empty table and said, “I’ll get some juice and water. Can I get you one?”
“Yes, please, to both.” She waited, looking around to see a few curious gazes sent her way, but generally everybody ignored her as they went about eating their food. But then they probably only had a certain amount of time before getting back to whatever work they had to deal with. Ships like this had to be run with an exact schedule, to keep things from coming apart.
She was amazed at the number of people here and how seamlessly everything seemed to run. By the time Joe returned, she’d already dug into her food. When he set the juice down in front of her, she looked up, smiled, and said, “This is delicious.”
“Good,” he said. “I’m glad to hear it. I’m really hungry myself.”
She took a sip of her water too and looked around. “Does everybody know about the rescue that happened today?”
“Sure,” he said. “Plus, there are announcements. We do take part in a lot of rescues. So, although it’s a major traumatic event for you, it’s commonplace for them. No offense intended.”
She laughed. “No. Of course not. I understand.” As she finished off her plate, she sagged back and said, “You don’t realize just how much a home-cooked meal like this really hits the right spot.”
“Especially when you’re tired, cold, injured, traumatized, in shock, and—” he just continued to list off various states.
“Right,” she said. “I did see some dessert up there.”
He looked at her in surprise and said, “Go. Help yourself. By the time this lot has been through it, there won’t be any dessert left.” He added, “Would you mind grabbing me another bun, so I have something to sop up this gravy?”
She agreed and made her way back to the lineup and picked up a bun for him and a huge piece of chocolate cake for her. It had some hot liquid center to it. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but it looked delicious. At the drinks station, she grabbed coffee for the two of them and came back. “I didn’t know if you wanted a coffee,” she said, “but I decided I’d grab you one just in case.”
“Ah, thanks for that,” he said. “I’ll be nice and walk you back to the medical bay afterward.”
“And that’s why I did it,” she said with spirit. “Because, Lord knows, it would take me forever to find it on my own.”
He laughed. By the time he was done, and she’d finished her coffee and dessert, the room had more or less emptied.
“Wow,” she said, staring around. “That’s an awful lot of people in and out in a relatively short time.”
“Yep,” he said, “but we all have a purpose.”
She nodded and waited until he had his dessert.
At that point he said, “Come on. Let’s go. You’re getting antsy.”
She smiled and asked, “How can you tell?”
“Could be your fidgeting,” he said.
Indeed, she was playing with the handle on her coffee cup and moving the cup around in gentle circles. She laughed. “The things you don’t realize you do, until it’s pointed out to you.”
He hopped up, and together they carried their dishes over. He showed her how to sort through and distribute the trays and the dishes. Then he led her outside the dining room. “Everybody has to help keep their corner of the world as clean as possible around here,” he said. “There are too many of us, and it all piles up if we don’t.”
“Hey, I’m all for it,” she said, laughing, as he led the way through the ship again to the sick bay. This time, she tried to memorize how to get there from the mess hall.
He turned and said, “By the way, if you need a snack or something hot to drink later tonight, you can come back up and get it. There’ll always be something.”
“Good to know,” she said. “Hopefully, once I get to bed, I won’t budge until morning.”
“I hope so,” he said, then pointed up ahead to the double doors. “I’ll leave you here. I have to report to my duty officer.”
She smiled and called out, “Thanks.” Pushing open the doors, she headed into the calm atmosphere of the clinic. One person was in attendance at a desk on the far side. Tabi lifted her hand and said, “I just came in to see Ryland.”
“Are you okay to go in on your own, or do you want me to go with you?” the woman asked.
She looked at her in surprise. “I’m fine to go in alone, assuming he’s awake. I don’t want to wake him up, if he’s getting some rest.”
“I think he’s awake. He just finished dinner not too long ago.”
Tabi nodded, walked to his room, and called out softly, “Ryland, you awake?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
She stepped closer and saw a table with an empty tray and dirty dishes sitting beside him. “I just finished eating too,” she said with a smile. “Did you enjoy it?”
He nodded and smiled. “It was good. Nothing like a warm tummy.”
She nodded and smiled. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she said, “It works.”
His face lit up. “Did you contact them?”
“I did,” she said. “So they know about you and Garret, and I told them that there was no sign of Bullard.”
He nodded and sank back. “Thank God for that,” he said. “Did they say anything else?”
“No, he just asked me a bunch of questions about what I knew, where I was from, things like that,” she said, with a shrug. “Honestly they seemed to be more interested in knowing what happened to the plane and what happened to you and, of course, how bad Garret was.”
“Of course,” he said, with a note of satisfaction. “They’re not only my team, they’re my friends. Obviously they’re concerned about us.”