Deep Sea

Chapter 18: Hesitation

Chapter 18: Hesitation

"Joanne Hudders, you have a call in comm. room 2."

The voice over the intercom system drew Joe's attention away from her CBI shot.

"Almost done." Doc said.

CBI injections weren't always the same. The first one was just one shot. Subsequent ones never dropped below two. Joe didn't understand why but then she wasn't a doctor or a scientist.

This time, she was getting four injections. A single needle been put in her arm and the injections entered in at different time intervals.

She was on her last one now.

Doc finished giving her the injections, pulled the needle from her vein, and put a bandage over it.

"Alright, all done." he smiled at her. "Go get your call."

Joe said thanks and left the room.

Being inside a ship, walking down the halls that had no windows and, often, minimal decorations, was often confusing.

However, being at sea for almost a month had given her a pretty good sense of how to maneuver around. So she didn't get lost on her way to comm. room 2 which was pretty much on the opposite side of the ship of comm. room 1.

The comm. rooms were relatively simple. They were sometimes just a phone and a desk in case they needed to write something down. In Joe's case today, it was a video chat.

The comm. room over seer sent her to a computer screen that looked stereotypically comm. room. She even had to put on some large head phones with a mike as she looked at the screen.

She logged in and immediately, Jack filled the screen. She could tell she kept him waiting for a while because he was busy writing something.

"Hey, Jack." Joe said getting his attention.

"Joe." he greeted. "How's the mission coming?"

"I've told you everything in my reports." she said.

"I just got your last report." he said looking at her firmly. In her report, she had told him the truth about what had happened that night and why she was keeping it secret. She knew he would agree with that decision but she hadn't expected him to call and check in. "Are you okay?"

Joe nodded. "I'm fine, Jack. Promise."

"Where was Kai?" he demanded to know. "I assign you partners to protect you. Why wasn't he there?"

"It was late." she said. "I didn't want to wake him."

She was being careful not to say anything that might make the person who did it suspicious. She didn't know who it was so she didn't want to say anything anywhere.

"It's his job to be woken." Jack admonished. Joe had already gotten chewed out by the captain for being reckless. She thought it was enough to get a lecture for something she didn't do and take it like she did, she didn't want another one she probably deserved more.

"I know, I know." she cut him off early. "I've already heard it all from Captain Hughes."

"Yeah? Well, you're going to hear it from me, too." Jack told her. "I don't care that you don't want to wake him up. Kai is there for your protection. You do the thinking, he does the doing. That's how I choose your partners."

"Speaking on that." Joe cut him off again, really trying to avoid this lecture. "I was thinking about permanently moving to the oceanic criminal division."