Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MEMPHIS

"Duuuuude," Orion exclaimed in shock as Trophy just stared at Noah in disbelief. "Tell me you are smarter than me and didn't fall for the oldest trick in the book?"

"Second oldest," Trophy interrupted quickly, holding up a finger – to which Orion made a circle with his fingers and slid it onto the other man's hand making a foul gesture that wasn't lost on any of them.

Trophy snatched his hand away and muttered something about catching a disease. This caused several more titters of laughter from the other aviators surrounding Noah as he glared at his best friends.

" Immigration …" one guy mocked, while another cupped his own cheeks batting his eyelashes playfully. " Hola, mi amor…"

"That's Spanish, and we were in Egypt – say it again, but in Arabic. "

"I don't know any Arabic words… and your mama is the one who taught me the other phrase last Friday night."

"Shut up, all of you – and it's not like that," Noah began – only to see Trophy roll his eyes in disbelief, turning away in obvious disgust, putting his hands on his hips as his shoulders slumped before he looked back at him in disbelief.

"You didn't even get to bang her?"

"Seriously?" Noah snapped, getting to his feet. "That's the question you are asking me? Not ‘ Hey, how'd you meet ' or ‘ What's she like ' – but you want to know if I banged her? No wonder you're single."

"Single and ready to mingle," Trophy grinned.

"Our boy has it bad," Orion taunted, pressing his hands to his chest, looking upward at the large metal ceiling above them. "It's twwooo wuvvvv…"

"Oh my gosh, fellas," Noah chuckled, embarrassed and chagrinned at how this conversation was going – and close to home that their words were. "It's not like that at all. I was just helping her."

"Helping…" Trophy taunted, making another foul gesture with his hands – one that Noah immediately slapped away, causing Trophy to giggle. "Sorry. I forgot the lotion."

"Maaaan, shut up – would you? I swear."

"I thought we had a meeting?"

"I thought we did too…"

"Maybe they canceled it?"

"Where's the ‘nugget'?"

"The newbie? Oh, he's got mail buoy watch today…"

"Wait," Orion blurted out, holding up both hands and grinning. "Don't listen to Memphis. He'd trying to distract us from the real topic at hand before we are assigned to do another walk down on the deck. "

"We just did one yesterday…"

"Dude – we do them all the time. Shut your yap and focus," Trophy snapped, putting his finger in the other man's face. "Pretend you are about to get some; that's the dedication I wanna see on your face as we all shut our yaps and get the deets from Memphis on his new bride."

"First off," Noah grinned. "There is life outside of Trophy's trousers…"

The other aviator just grinned, crossed his arms, and shook his head.

"Secondly – I don't kiss and tell."

"So you banged her?"

All of the men shot up from their seats and desks where they were waiting for this supposed meeting to start – and Noah laughed embarrassedly. He knew what they were doing and expected no less. Anytime one of them got married, had a new girlfriend, or announced that they were going to be a father, it was the same thing.

Hands up, bend your knees, start dancing and grinding on the ‘victim' until upper leadership walks in to break up the scene. Anyone in the hallway passing by would sometimes dart in and join the ‘celebration.' Sure enough, the guys were laughing, smiling, and dancing around him, making all sorts of renditions of ‘let's make-love' music… while Noah stood there good-naturedly, blushing.

These moments were the ones that would stick with you forever, he thought silently as they got more rambunctious and louder. Yeah, he adored his teammates, and this was a way that they all let off steam to keep from missing their homes, friends, and families.

"Just tell us she's not a stripper like Orion's ex-wife," Tic-Tak laughed, high-fiving Trophy as the other man glared at the two aviators.

"ATTENTION ON DECK!"

At that loud cry, every man snapped to attention where they stood, and Noah held his breath. Yeah, getting busted by the C.O. fooling around when people were supposed to be on duty, in a meeting, or working was not exactly how he wanted to end his afternoon.

"What are you nitwits doing? There's no meeting – we've scheduled an F.O.D. walk down this afternoon before pulling into port again… NOW GET UP THERE AND REPORT IN!"

Noah didn't hesitate – they were pulling into Naples next, and he already had a tour of Pompeii booked for himself. Darting through the rush of bodies trying to get out of the meeting room was almost comical. The men were all stomping up the stairs as quickly as possible, remembering to duck and lift their feet at the openings when necessary. You only hit your shin on the hatches a few times before it became an instinct to ‘step lively' as his friends would say.

Getting to the deck, the sun hit Noah's face and he took in a deep breath of the sea air before getting to work. These ‘walks' were done by everyone on the ship to make sure the flight deck was clear of any possible debris before they took off again. No one wanted a piece of metal sucked into the engines, a popped tire, an injured sailor, or something getting caught in the machinery that would fling them off the end of the carrier at breakneck speeds. Everything was a potential ‘foreign object' no matter how small or minute. Ink pens, glasses, coins, a paperclip… anything had to be removed, picked up, and stowed into a refuse bin.

Looking out over the ocean, Noah couldn't help but wonder if Madeline and his mother were getting along. He'd been very short in his email, almost protective, with regards to what he shared. Yes, it was his mother, and he was asking for her help, but a part of him didn't want to make a mistake with Madeline.

He intended to take her to dinner one night – as a real date with his ‘bride' to cash in on that celebratory kiss once things settled down. Maybe when he got back to Mayport, perhaps he would look at putting in leave and going to visit her in New York, or maybe he could make arrangements for her to stay at the Navy Lodge on base if she wanted to check out the Jacksonville area… just in case.

And he hesitated.

"I must be dreaming," he muttered under his breath, realizing that he probably needed to focus on doing his job – instead of fantasizing about dating his sort-of wife. If she wanted her freedom, he'd ask for that dinner date and kiss first, but if she chose to actually give this a shot between them?

Noah swallowed.

He was just a normal guy, quiet and boring. Deployments and flight exercises were the extent of his thrills. He didn't do the whole bar-hopping scene despite Trophy and Orion dragging him along several times in the past and Madeline?

Man, his wife was classy, intelligent, and obviously used to researching fascinating bits of history located in some harsher climates. There was nothing like that on base, and the odds were not great for active-duty sailors. Every time they pulled back into port, someone had a change waiting for them. A child, a new car, a new address, and sometimes, a new marital status that came with divorce papers that were served on the pier. That just seemed so brutal to him, and he swallowed nervously.

Noah grimaced, remember Orion's own divorce after the last cruise. His friend's wife had been waiting on the pier with her new boyfriend . He really hoped deep down inside that Madeline could handle being a military wife – and being married to him.

"I don't want to get served divorce papers when I get home."

Hours later, Noah was logging in to check his email and couldn't fight the smile that touched his lips. Madeline had written him. Double-clicking on it, he was slightly disappointed to see it was such a short email, but then again, she was probably tired. Her flight was supposed to have landed last night at 11 p.m. Central time.

Reading carefully, he finally clicked reply and began to type.

Dear Madeline,

I am so happy to have gotten your email and glad you took a moment to write. I'm sure my mother is pulling out every baby book, telling you every embarrassing story about me as a boy, and probably feeding you like you are a starving person who hasn't seen a meal in weeks. I hope you two get along well – my mother has a big heart and will take you right under her wing.

Yes, I know you claimed you weren't a nurse but the med-tech on ship said that it looked great at the clinic. I guess things are back to normal for me. I'm back on the ship and we are moving to our next port. I'll call from my cell phone when I get there if it's not too late in the evening .

I have a tour booked to take me to Pompeii and to see Mount Vesuvius, so I'm pretty excited about that. Deployments are hard because you miss your family, friends, and home; but being able to see all these wild places does tilt the scale to almost an ‘equal' ratio. I know you studied Egyptian history but did you ever research anything else?

I'll be back in two months, so while I know you'll be busy, don't forget to pencil me in for dinner one night.

Yours,

Noah

Clicking send, he also sent his mother a quick note just to update her on his leg and check to see how Madeline was settling in. He worried that she was regretting her choices or looking over her shoulder. Opening another tab, he looked for a small surprise, wanting to replace her watch and necklace that she'd volunteered for the first part of their escape together. He selected a sleek Citizen watch that would never need a battery replaced and bought her a small gold compass necklace. He couldn't remember what she had before, but a part of him just felt like it was fitting. Completing his purchase online, he logged out and stood to allow the next sailor to use the computer.

All he could do now was wait for a reply.