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She clicked the lock on her briefcase and glanced in the mirror one last time. Her dark hair
was neatly pinned up. Her blue eyes had ring of violet around them, and the dark mole on her cheek that had once bothered her growing up now looked like a mere imperfection. Even her dimples, which the men seemed to love, she would trade in a second to be a Cindy Crawford lookalike.

Joan grabbed her briefcase and headed out the door, her heavy shoes clicking down the passageway as she mentally planned her day. First, she had to meet with the captain and Joe, the good-looking XO—she smiled at that. Then she had to meet Petty Officer Johnson. She remembered an Abby who
had been mentioned in the mess hall. Several of the crew whispered that she had been in sickbay when it happened. Joan smiled, because with all the gossip she could still pick up from the crew, they were worse than a bunch of women at a tea party. This always made investigations that much easier.

She almost bumped into the captain when she rounded the corner to the wardroom. “Excuse me, sir.” Then she noticed the tall, dark, and extremely handsome XO behind him. He had the most amazing deep eyes, filled with a passion for life that her heart tripping over itself. She didn’t bother glancing at his ring finger, because sailors never wore rings.

“Good morning, Commander. I trust you have everything you need,” the captain said.

“Yes, thank you, Captain.”

“We missed you at breakfast.” Joe indicated the wardroom they’d just come out of.

“Ah, yes, well, I thought it would be more productive to breakfast with the enlisted and really get a feel for the ship and the crew. It helps with my investigation.”

“Ah, yes, your investigation. Well, let’s go to my cabin, then, shall we?” Eric led the way, listening to Joe and the commander chat behind him. She had one of those pleasant voices that he didn’t mind listening to, and she didn’t prattle on and on like some women.

Up ahead in the passageway, there were two enlisted persons scrubbing a side of the passage that had been clearly marked off. As he stepped closer, he didn’t miss the sway of long blond hair tied in a ponytail and the presence of a protruding belly on one of them. He had to blink a couple times before it sunk in. He was standing right beside her, and Abby was scrubbing his floors. He was speechless. She looked up with widened eyes as she wiped a lock of blond hair that had escaped from the elastic holding her hair back. Eric knew no one was talking. He could feel Joe behind him, and he heard the commander gasp.

“Commander, let’s continue on to the captain’s cabin,” Joe said.

Eric glanced at Joan’s wide eyes and Joe’s flushed face. Joe gave him another look of “What the fuck?” and gestured with his head at Abby.

Eric crossed his arms and blew out a couple breaths, then stared back at Abby, who held a scrub brush in one hand and was massaging her lower back with the other. He could feel a twitch in one cheek. It didn’t happen very often, only when his temper was pushed to the point where he was about to lose it.

It was then that the young man with her leaped up. Seaman Recruit Jeff Taylor stood ramrod straight, his face pasty. Eric ignored the young seaman and let him stand there. He extended his hand to Abby, and she, being the very smart young
lady he thought she was, put her hand in his and let him help her up.

Without releasing her hand, he shot a warning glance at the seaman.
“Report to my office in one hour. And you, come with me,” he growled while grasping Abby’s hand, tucking it under his arm and locking it there securely. Abby did not say a word as he took her into the now vacant wardroom and closed the door behind them. He put her in one of the big, comfortable leather chairs and then stood in front of her in a stance he used on deck. Then he leaned over, placing his hands on the chair arms, locking her in the chair. He brought his face within inches of hers.

“Just what the hell do you think you were doing?” He didn’t yell but ground out each word as if he was chewing on bullets. He didn’t give her a chance to reply. He continued ranting. “For God’s sake, Abby, you’re about to have a baby. What are you doing scrubbing the floor, of all places, on my ship? Every time there is no guard at your door, you sneak out.” His voice became louder and louder, and he was unable to suppress his rage. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Crossing her arms, glaring, she appeared far from afraid. She watched with a toughness and stubbornness he hadn’t seen before, but he had known it was buried somewhere under all that hurt and subservient brainwashing that had been hammered into her. She said, “I was trying to help you.”

Pushing up and away from the chair, he ran frustrated fingers through his hair, trying to comprehend what she was saying. “You were trying to help me?
How?”

Taking a deep breath and then smiling weakly, she explained, “I was trying to find out what’s going on, what you weren’t telling me, and I did.” Ungracefully, she managed to get up and out of the chair, then waddled over to him as a gray shadow fell over her face, betraying her frayed emotions. “Why didn’t you tell me that Gail filed charges against you for sexual harassment?”

Closing his eyes tight, he turned away, shaking his head and feeling his heart rip open, as if a hundred bees had rammed their stingers into his heart. This was it, and he couldn’t bear to see the hate, the disgust that she’d have for him now. For a minute, he wondered what it would be like to slit his wrists and allow all the warm blood to drain out.

“Eric,” she said softly as she touched the eagle tattoo and then ran her hand up to his shoulder. He slowly turned around and faced her, but he couldn’t look at her because he couldn’t bear to see it. “You don’t honestly believe that I’d think you even capable of something like that. God, how could I? You’re not a monster.”

“Abby, how do you know I didn’t do it? You don’t know me that well.” His voice sounded odd, even to his own ears.

“We haven’t known each other long, but I feel it right here.” She motioned with a hand to her heart. “I don’t believe you’re capable of it. You have more honor in you than any man has a right to. You’re honest, maybe a little arrogant, but I’ve never met a man so secure in who he is. I know
what a monster is, Eric, and I do know the type of man that could do something like that. And it’s not you. Gail’s not a very nice woman, and she hasn’t behaved honestly.”

He was touching her face, running both his hands over her cheeks and just holding her so he could look into those heavenly blue eyes that had lassoed him and dumped him right over the side of a cliff. He was a goner. “Oh, Abby, what am I going to do with you?”

Smiling, she whispered, “I just want to help. I won’t let her hurt you.”

He couldn’t help it: He leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead and then rested his forehead against hers. She didn’t flinch but slid her hand up over his shoulder and held him to her.

He
was absolutely hooked to her. She was his. After a few moments, he let out a heavy sigh. “You surprise me, but for now I want you to get some rest. No more wandering my halls and scrubbing my floors.” He walked her back to sickbay, helped her onto the bed, and pulled a blanket over her. “I may not get a chance to come back until later. If the doc says it’s okay I’ll take you up to the bridge and on deck tomorrow.”

“I would love to see your bridge, where you command everything,” she said. Then she winced, and her hand flew to her back.

“What’s wrong?” Eric touched her back in the spot where she was digging in with her hand. He used his thumb to massage in circles.

“Sometimes I think this baby is going to kick its way out of me. Don’t worry, I’m getting used to this.”

“Let me call the doc and have him check you out.”

“No! I’m fine, really. It was just a twinge. I have a lot of those lately. Besides, the doctor already told me this is normal at this stage of my pregnancy. I’ll be fine, really. I guess I shouldn’t have scrubbed the floor.”

Eric shook his head. “Promise me you will stay here.”

Abby laughed. “I promise. Besides, I’m tired. You’re right; I think I’d like to rest a bit.”

Eric couldn’t help himself. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, then brushed his thumb over her cheek before he finally he stepped away. “Get some rest, my girl. I’m going to get the doc to come and see you.” With that, he left and closed the door behind him.

Eric sat behind his desk, reviewing the reports of the day, trying to catch up on the endless paperwork. He couldn’t help smiling as he remembered Abby earlier in the day, on her knees scrubbing the passageway, and the expression on both the commander’s and Joe’s face when he finally joined them in his office. He’d sat back in his chair for a couple minutes and just listened to the two of them banter back and forth. They worked well together, and he’d been impressed by Joan’s work ethic. He’d damn near fallen off his chair when she slid two pieces of paper across his desk and used the end of her ballpoint pen to point out the inconsistencies in Gail’s
statement. He’d been speechless. Joe had smiled, and when the two of them left, the poor seaman who had let Abby help him in the passageway had been standing out in the hall shaking. Joe had leaned in and mouthed, “Go easy.”

Eric just waved him away. The poor kid stood ramrod straight, trembling, in front of Eric’s desk. For a moment, Eric worried he was being too hard on the kid, but then someone needed to teach the kid some values when it came to women. He listened when the seaman tried to explain how Abby had just appeared, offering to help. He had refused, of course, but she would not take no for an answer. Instead, she had picked up a scrub brush and just started to clean, and that was when the captain had come along.

Eric didn’t yell. Standing up, he walked behind the kid and paced behind him. “Son, when you are a man, there are several things you do and don’t do. One of the things you never do is allow a pregnant woman who’s not even in the Navy to help you scrub the floor,” he said. Then he had dismissed him. For a minute, he had thought the kid was going to burst into tears.

He knew Abby wouldn’t have taken no for an answer and the poor kid didn’t stand a chance. He just shook his head, smiling. He wondered if he was starting to go soft.

Stretching, he felt a weariness sink in, then decided he would turn in for the night. Gathering the papers together, he heard a soft knock on the cabin door. Taking a quick glance at his watch, he was shocked to realize it was just after midnight. Annoyed at the late hour, he wondered who would be disturbing him at this time of night. “What?” he barked, clearly annoyed.

Eric looked up as the door opened, then stopped halfway. Walking around his desk to the door, he could not believe his eyes as he saw Abby clutching the door, hunched over and grasping her belly in obvious pain. Reaching her in a few quick strides, he didn’t need any doctor to tell him she was in active labor. As she struggled for breath, he scooped her up, knocking the door closed with the heel of his boot.

“Abby…” He hurried across the room and juggled her in his arms as he opened his bedroom door and laid her on the bed. “Shh, I know it hurts,” he said. He put his hands over hers and waited for her to stop struggling, and then she looked at him and took a deep breath.

“I think I’m in labor,” she said, a little out of breath.

Eric flicked her hair back and tucked the strands behind her ear. “Oh, I think you’re right. Do you know how far apart the contractions are, Abby?”

Shaking her head, sounding a little breathless, she replied with a little panic. “I don’t know.…
Maybe two or three minutes. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.” Her voice shook, then began to rise as panic set in. “I was alone and I didn’t know what to do. I needed to come to you.” Her face scrunched and she let out a groan, and her eyes took on a wild, panicked look. She held her breath and curled on her side, fighting against the pain.

Eric cupped her chin with one hand and held it. “Look at me, Abby. Open your eyes now. Don’t hold your breath—it just makes the pain worse. Come on. That’s it. Take a deep breath in.… Let it out. Breathe through it.” He knew his tone was loud and stern, but it was what she needed right now, no kind words. They would be no help to her at this moment.

She grabbed at him, her wild eyes locked on to him. He placed his hand on her belly and could feel it tightening. The contraction seemed to go on and on repeatedly. “That’s it, look at me. Breath in and out.… You’ve got it, good girl.”

Just then, there was a gush of water, soaking her pants and the blankets on the bed. “Oh, Eric, I am so sorry.” She started to cry.

“Sit up. I need to get you undressed.” Eric helped her sit up. He helped her out of the damp clothes. Grabbing one of his shirts from the drawer by the bed, he slid it over her naked skin, her large breasts, and started buttoning it up. She grabbed his wrists, holding on and moaning as another contraction ripped through her.

“Come on, breathe through it. That’s a girl.” He talked her through it until he felt her relax a bit, and then he lifted her to the chair by the bed and ripped off the wet blankets, tossing them in a corner. He grabbed a blanket from his locker and spread it over the bare mattress, lifting Abby back on the bed when she doubled over again and cried out.

“Abby, let me call the doc. I’ll be right back.”

Grabbing hold, she began to cry. “Please don’t leave me. I’m scared.”