All for you

Chapter 18

Day 7 in Base

I awake to my normal blaring alarm. It doesn't have a snooze button so sleeping in is impossible.

I roll over turning the alarm off and checking my phone. It rings just as I pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ivy, it's Swain. Did I wake you?"

"No, you didn't. What's up?"

"I was hoping Dutchy told you that we were training today."

"Yep he told me. What time and where do you want to meet?"

"Uhh just meet me at training wing after 8."

"Alright, cool, I'll be there."

I drag myself out of bed, walk through the apartments and down to the training wing. Swain is sitting waiting, coffee in hand.

"Morning."

"Good morning, Ivy."

"We've got a lot to cover. You ready to start?"

"Yep. Let's go."

We walk into the training building and into a small classroom. Once again we have training areas all to ourselves.

We start the day with learning ship/sailing/boating/nautical terms. Stern, bow, port, starboard. I got the hang of this pretty quickly. I learnt the meaning of colours with direction, bearings and other navigation skills.

Swain stopped explaining things and looked at me.

"Did you want to actually want to join?"

I drop the pen on the table and look up at Swain.

"If you had asked me a few years ago, I might've considered it but I think I did this out of desperation; for my safety and for my boyfriend's safety as well."

I quickly return to looking back at my paper. Swain takes notice and changes the subject quickly.

We finish all of the nautical themed work and he hands be a thick textbook.

"CO told me you'll be working closely along side myself and Dutchy. Medical and weapons. You excited?"

I nod with a smile on my face. "Yep."

"The text book is all medical stuff. I haven't read it but I've been told you know some first aid so I thought this might give you an advantage over my skills."

"If I learn anything, I'll teach you."

I grin widely and quickly flick through the pages. Over 500 of them. It's a good book. It's new and with really good diagrams.

We spend the rest of the day looking through Navy protocol and starting to revise some hands on medical training.

By 1600hrs, I'm back at my apartment. I'm totally drained. I throw everything down and run a bath.

It's a humid day but the air-con inside makes it much more bearable. The bath water is warm. It's silent. All I can hear is my breathing. My body still has lingering aches. I feel so drowsy just sitting in the water. It's been the first time in more than 9 days I've felt relaxed.

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I wake up before my alarm. Its 5:56. I haven't yet seen a sunrise. I pull my curtains open and sit cross-legged on the edge of my bed, a white sheet hangs over my shoulder and I pull it tightly  against my stomach.

The sun is just starting to rise. It's a lighter dark; not dark but not light yet, just in between. I sit until the sun has completely risen. Clouds change quickly. Colour. Shape. Size. Position. They're constantly changing. They started off as one big group all dark, then separating into thin wispy clouds that turned orange and pink as the sun rose and then white and streaky after that.

My phone buzzes around on my bedside table.

"Yellow."

"Blue?"

"Swain?"

"Yep."

"What's up?"

"Training. Same time same place. Meet you there."

"Cool. See you soon ish."

"Yep. Bye."

I find some clothes and throw them on. Swain is sitting almost exactly like he was yesterday. Coffee in his hand and he's over looking the water and the rest of the base.

"Morning."

"Morning."

He finished his coffee and leads me inside.

"Last day of training. You ready?"

"Yep."

We spend the whole day on medical procedures and Navy protocol.

"If you don't continue working for the Navy when you get a job, what are you going to do."

"To be honest, is didn't know if I was going to wake up this morning. You've got to take every day one at a time. I can't be getting ahead of myself. But when it comes time, I have lots of people that I can talk to. Honestly though, no idea."

He seems to be inspired by every word coming out of my mouth and takes everything into consideration. 

After another long day, I return to my apartment. I pull out my phone and see what's happening. I text Yvan.

What u doing tomoz?

Nm. U?

Nothing. Wanna hang out?

Yep.

Meet me tomoz morning at the base and I'll come get u. 9 ok?

Yah.

Cool.

I lie down on the couch and stare over my feet out to the water. A ship is coming in to dock. The wake behind the boat is a foamy white and the the water is a blue with shades of green, a beautiful turquoise water.

I almost forget that 8 days ago, I was in a escaping a dusty building filled with assholes.

Everything just melts away for a while.