Chapter 48

03:55 Friday, November 15^th, 1991

Parking lot, south side of Building S-18

NAB Coronado, San Diego, CA 92155

Lenore parked the rental by the small group of other cars in the parking area behind their building, near the picnic tables. Unable to sleep, she'd come over early, hoping to find Oscar Platoon performing their morning PT.

Frowning at the empty courtyard-like area between buildings, she trotted around to the front of the building, and saw dark shapes in formation on the beach against the strangely-white light of the surf. With a deep breath drawn through her nose, she could smell the fresh, clean salt air, and she was glad to be alive.

No one said anything as she joined the formation and began stretching. "Right over left," LPO Delafuente called, softly, and she bent over to touch the ground while stretching her left calf and hamstring.

A moment later, and Delafuente called softly, "Calesthenics. Collins, modify the Hop and Pop ... I don't need you going down with an injury. Jumping jacks, on my mark ... begin."

Lenore understood what he had meant when the men began an exercise that had them throw themselves to the ground, kick their legs out, and then do a pushup, then jump back to their feet. She made do with squats and pushups, without the violent absorption of momentum with her shoulders and biceps the men were doing, recognizing she'd probably do her shoulders serious damage if she had to do it repetitively.

She began to lose herself in the exercise, and was grateful for the run from the beach around the jetty, and back.

When they'd returned, Delafuente called her over, and told her quietly, "Go back to your hotel and take a shower there. You don't have shower shoes, and you'd get a truly awful case of athlete's foot from the showers here." She appreciated that there had been no overt mention of her gender – she would have taken her shower after the men had, but she appreciated the warning about the shower shoes more.

07:50 Friday, November 15^th, 1991

Room 122 Building S-18

NAB Coronado, San Diego, CA 92155

"Lieutenant," Lenore called. The morning's briefing had ended, and Rudolfs hadn't mentioned the Chief. Nodding, he headed toward her.

"I was told," he said right off the bat, "but I didn't want to spread word until I knew more about his condition."

"He thinks this will be the start of a long slide of debilitating afflictions, Eric," Lenore said quietly, sadly. "He's worried about pneumonia, and infections, that his general health will deteriorate rapidly."

"He's probably right, you know." Rudolfs seemed sad also.

Lenore nodded. "He's a warrior and warriors should not go out sliding into decrepitude. It's amazing that he's lasted this long, as vital as he is. This - you, me, and some other projects he's had are what's been keeping him going." Lenore meant the Joy Redux' role in Keen Image, and Rudolfs understood, but she also meant his investment in the people he'd worked with in the last year.

"I also have a project that I got saddled with by the XO of the Student Battalion," she told him. "A real hard case of a Midshipman, who thinks he knows what the Navy is all about. He, my XO, asked Commander Fales for permission for me to bring him down here the next weekend that I come ... I had absolutely no control over the situation. Shiplett will also be sailing the Joy Redux to El Salvador – that is where we're sailing her to – with me and Lieutenant Brophy, to take third watch, since the Chief..." Lenore trailed off.

"What the hell am I? Nose Wiper Second Class? CORTRAMID is supposed to do that shit. Commander Fales agreed, you said? At least it'll be Kevin wiping his nose and not me."

Lenore nodded. He gave a roll of his eyes, and then suddenly smiled at her, confusing her momentarily, and demanded, "So tell me how the Birthday Ball went?"

Lenore shot him a grateful look. "I'm engaged," she said.

Rudolfs whooped, and immediately looked sheepish. All the men in the room looked over at him in surprise.

"My Gunny proposed, and I accepted," Lenore told them, in a voice that carried clearly. Rudolfs nodded his head energetically. There were looks of puzzlement around the room, but no questions came.

Lenore spoke quietly again. "Eric, I know they think I'm good enough. I want to remind them I'm a woman, too ... I had a conversation with a Sergeant Major's wife at the Birthday Ball. Do you know where I could find an oven and do some baking Sunday morning?"

Eric Rudolfs stared at her for a moment, and then started to laugh. "You," he said, "want to bake them brownies?"

Lenore and Senior Chief Pierce, the Targeting/Ops Leading Petty Officer for SWSOGRP-8, a man working for Lieutenant Osterweiss and whom Lenore had not met before today, drove her over to the commercial marina the Chief had had fit the Joy Redux with fishing gear and the small boom. Lenore was in her whites, since there would be no physically-demanding tasks asked of her for the day, while the Senior Chief was in dungarees. In fact, there's probably not much point in me being here this weekend, except to accept the work done to the Joy Redux.