A Fox For A Brother [MCU/Deadliest Catch]

Flashbacks & Nightmares

Fox Hansen sat in the co-captain seat of the Northwestern, while Jake Anderson headed up to relieve Norman from wheel watch, especially during a rough, cold, freezing spray-filled night.

They were heading up to Dutch for their last offload and then heading home.

"You'll have the wheel watch an hour, then Edgar will get up and get us to the harbor," Norman told young Jake Anderson as he took control of the boat.

"Will do, Norm," Jake nodded, as the boat captain headed down to his stateroom to sleep. Jake wasn't aware that his name twin was sitting mere meters away from him; Fox was quiet and hidden in the dim, wheelhouse lighting.

"Hey, Jakey," Fox said quietly, but it was loud enough for Jake to hear it. Anderson jumped slightly at the quiet voice, the young man was just surprised the young Hansen was even awake.

"Fox, Jesus, please don't scare me like that," Jake breathed, recovering quickly from the shock.

"Sorry," Fox replied just as quietly as he made himself known.

"Can't sleep?" Jake asked, glancing over quickly to the older man.

"Nightmare, yes," The young Hansen said.

Jake finally looked over at him fully, realizing that Jake Hansen was curled up on the co-captain chair, cocooned in a blanket, and looked almost scared.

"Would you trust me enough to tell me what it was about?" Jake asked, glancing at the man, who nodded slowly.

"Remember when...the broken-bones incident happened a few months ago?" Fox asked, his voice more...normal, soft, from talking to the camera crew.

"I do, was that what the nightmare was about?" Jake questioned with a soft voice, he was the first one to find Fox, who had dislocated his shoulder, broken three ribs, and his collarbone when he was thrown from his bunk when the boat listed heavily over a rogue wave.

"Yes," Fox simply replied, not talking about it much since it was a painful memory.

Jake nodded, bracing himself as they went over a particularly tall wave.

Since Fox was curled up so tightly in the co-captain chair, he didn't need to brace himself.

Once the wave was over, Jake allowed himself to relax but kept his guard up for any surprises the Bering Sea would throw at him.

"I remember it, the moment I woke up and saw you, I'm sorry it happened," Jake shivered slightly, the flashback of the moment haunting his vision.

"It's not your fault, Junior, he's just lanky, and a lightweight."

Edgar bound up the stairs, looking like he'd slept twenty hours over the eight that he slept.

"Why are you two talking so loudly, I can hear you from the galley," Edgar scowled at the two youngest working on the boat but gave Fox a sympathetic glance.

"Sorry, Ed," Jake apologized, keeping his eyes on the water ahead of the Northwestern.

"What were you talking about, Junior? Rev?" Edgar questioned, sitting down on the cushioned seat right beside the stairwell wall.

"The broken-bones incident a few months ago," Fox replied, albeit quietly, but the pain behind it was as sharp as a knife.

Edgar's gaze immediately morphed into that of a well-hidden mental suffering.

"Can't sleep?" Edgar asked quietly.

"Hadn't since this trip started," Fox replied, ashamed and embarrassed about that fact.

It was at that moment that Fox was happy the camera crew was sleeping, and that the cameras in the wheelhouse were turned off for the night.

"What?" Edgar almost yelled, "We've been working our asses off for two weeks, and you hadn't slept at all?"

Jake looked wearily at the two brothers, the older one looking angry and worried, and the younger one looking sad and embarrassed.

"I took a few naps! But nothing longer. The nightmares are horrific, Edgar!"

That was Fox's loudest reply yet, it was just above a yell.

The whole boat went silent, even the snoring from downstairs.

The tension began growing throughout the three like a green-wave approaching, the tension becoming so heavy you could cut it with a pin drop.

"Nightmares?" Came Edgar's whispered voice, sounding choked.

"I laid there for three hours. Unable to get up. Getting bashed around on the floor, because I flew out of my bunk after we took a rogue wave. Ed, that isn't something I can forget that easily. Or man up and forget it. I couldn't even call out for help."

Fox's voice broke on the last word, showing just how bad the whole experience was for him.

"I needed to get surgery to get my shoulder back in place because it was out of place for so long. Although, yes, I fully recovered from it. But there's a phantom pain whenever I try to sleep."

Junior glanced over to Fox, watching him with sympathetic ice-blue eyes.

- - - - -

Tying up behind the Aria Epip at the dock for their final offload for the season, Edgar went downstairs to wake Sig up.

Fox was still awake, and Jake went to take a nap, by the time they tied up.

Edgar walked back up the stairs with a groggy Sigurd following close behind him.

"Holy fuck, Fox? Are you feeling alright?" Sig's eyes widened when he saw the sunken-in, tired, and unusually pale face of Jacob Hansen.

"I'm alright, Siggy, I'm good," Fox mumbled, keeping his head up, despite the bone-deep exhaustion he currently felt.

"Jacob Noah Hansen, I confine you to your bunk," Sig said coldly but the tone had a deeper meaning.

Fox glanced to the cameraman who had begun filming Sig, he decided not to try to talk himself out of it, instead, he went downstairs to his bunk to finally sleep.

"God, that kid will keep himself awake until he passes out, or worse," Sig tiredly ran a hand over his face, trying to rub any sleep out of his eyes.

"Is that normal for him?" Camera-man asked, still keeping the camera on Sig.

"No, it isn't," Sig confirmed.