Legends

Chapter 53~ Shenanigans and Confessions

Titanic was used to chaos. She was a shipgirl after all. Chaos was often the standard for ones like her. So when she sailed into the base at Norfolk, she was more amused than surprised at the sight that greeted her.

Bluenose and Theabaud were holding paint wars in the middle of the harbor. They had even gone so far as to set up different obstacles and objects which to hide behind. They were hardly alone in this game either. Hindenburg had decided to join in the fun and it was good to see the airship out and about again. After the loss of Macon, she had become largely withdrawn. It was also no surprise to see the destroyers both American and Canadian minus Cassin Young who was as always looking after Constitution.

What was surprising, however, was to see who else was taking part in these games. While the schooners led the team of crazy murderballs, the other team was made entirely of Titanic's fellow ocean liners. Normandie was leading it, using her rigging to launch arrows full of paint rounds in the schooners direction.

A yelp and the sudden splattering of pink paint along one of the Flower-classes sides indicated that the submarines were having their fun too. Titanic really should not have been surprised. Not surprised at all that the base had turned into giant Pollock painting. Neither should she have been surprised that her lover was leading that recreation.

Nonetheless, she risk stepping into the middle of no man's land with white flags fluttering from every part of her rigging that she could fit them. Then she put her hands on her hips and growled in her most demanding tone "what the hell are you all doing?"

Unsurprisingly it was Bluenose who replied. "Isn't it obvious. Paint wars, duh."

"The what is meant to be rhetorical sweetheart." Titanic said, and the schooner shrunk back. She knew that Titanic only used such endearments when she was really mad. "What I want to know is why you are doing it."

This time, Queen Elizabeth spoke up and Titanic softened her stance around her youngest daughter. "It was my idea." She said. "Queen Mary and I were arguing about who was the better shot during the war not that either one of us ever really had a chance to prove that. So we decided to settle it once and for all. Whoever gets the most kills with the fewest paint splatters on their own hulls wins."

"So you enlisted the help of the one group of ships on the base who are renowned for causing chaos, even without trying." Titanic sighed.

"Admittedly it sounded better in my head." Queen Elizabeth said, and her mother face palmed.

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Most ships would not be given the permission to make such a detour as Enterprise was making now. The situation in the Atlantic was too fluid, the status of America's allies to precarious to permit the deviation of such a crucial platform to the war effort. But Enterprise was not most ships.

The decorated war hero had more than enough pull to get her way which she rarely exhibited. But this was different. The sacred Duty of the CAO had been around for almost as long as the US military itself. And now that ships were counted amongst the living, this duty applied to them as well.

So it was that Enterprise found herself in Wilmington, North Carolina. The battleship, which bears the state's name looked the same from when the carrier had last seen her. Showboat had been her closest friend and confidant during the war. Enterprise's memories from that time were still faint and blurry as though she was still seeing them through the eyes of her crew. But it was very much her own emotions that filled them. And the key emotion there was love. She hadn't fully understood it at the time. Let alone accepted it. After all, given the losses she suffered, what was the point in feeling something for another only to lose her to the Japanese as well? But love North Carolina she did. And she was sorry that she had never gotten the chance to admit it to the battleship when they were both still alive as ships.

But now they had been reunited and the carrier kanmusu came not only to profess her love for her dearest friend, but to share with her the solemn news she carried. The volunteers cleared the decks for her, just as had been done for New Jersey when she went to visit her sister before she was summoned. And in the quiet of the setting sun over the Cape Fear River, Enterprise began to speak.

"Showboat it's been a long time. Too long I'll admit. There's so much that I want to tell you. That I need to tell you. I wonder if you already know some of it. Yorktown tells me I've never exactly been subtle about my feelings."

North Carolina shifted beneath her as the battleship listened to the words of her closest friend. Enterprise rested a hand on her starboard rail and continued. "Your sister was a hero. I want you to know that above anything else. Washington was there to defend the coast of California from an enemy that even now the rest of us struggle to comprehend. And in that she succeeded. Not only did she succeed, but her bravery. Her courage is such that she's been made a member of Taffy Three. I trust you recall those destroyers."

North Carolina dipped her bow in a gesture close enough to a nod. "I don't think I've ever heard Johnston so emotional. She gave such a beautiful eulogy for Washington. None of us had a dry eye. Not even Prinz Eugan and she's often the perfect stereotypical example of German stoicism. Iowa was the one who's the most beat up about it. She had tried her damnedest to get Washington back safely. New Jersey tells me she hasn't seen her sister this depressed since the '89 incident. Hopefully she'll come around."

Enterprise left her position on the rail and found a spot midships. She leaned back against North Carolina's super structure and slid slowly down to where she was sitting on the deck. "It's been a long, hard few months. Certainly would be nice to have you back." North Carolina rocked back-and-forth in a manner that was almost soothing. Enterprise could sense the battleship's own grief, but even so she still made an effort for the carrier. "I love you Showboat." She said softly and closed her eyes, welcoming North Carolina's soothing clicks.