„Red, how are you? Have you been getting enough sleep?" a cheerful Swain asked me . "I'm doing good, getting lots of sleep," I replied, "But what's got you so chipper?" "Look at this," Swain thrust something into my hand, "It's my baby. I'm going to be a father soon." I looked at the ultrasound Swain had given me. You could already see the features of a little baby unlike the last picture he had shown me. "Aw, that's cute. I'm so happy for you." "Thanks." Swain was grinning like he would never stop. I handed him the ultrasound back and listened to him talk about his baby. He was as happy as a little kid on Christmas. But I guess that was understandable, considering he was becoming a father soon.

But seeing Swain that happy made me feel really lonely for the first time since Zack and I had broken up. I knew, having a relationship and being in the Navy were hard to combine, but Swain and Sally made it work.

"Hey Red, how's it going?" ET asked me on his way to the bridge. "Fine," I answered. Having a relationship with someone who is in the Navy as well can't be easy either. If we were on the same ship we would have to be worried about the non-fraternization rule. And if we were stationed on different ships, we probably wouldn't see each other often. So no matter how you look at it, the Navy was a love life killer.

I sighed. I should just stop thinking about stuff like that. It wasn't like anything would change anytime soon.

"Good morning," I greeted the CO, Nav and Spider on the bridge when I got there. "Morning. Did you sleep well?" Spider asked me. "Like a baby," I replied even though it wasn't completely true. I had had some trouble falling asleep. But Spider believed me and smiled, resuming his duty.

We were heading for Bright Island as Nav spotted two contacts on the radar, seemingly a fishing boat meeting with its mothership. The CO decided we would take a look. As we neared, I went up on deck with binoculars. There wasn't any fishing to be seen done on the ship, but there was a zodiac attached to it. The CO gave orders to check it out to see what was going on there. "Red, you stay here," the CO said just as I was about to follow the X to boarding station. "Yes, Sir;" I stopped and resumed watching the ship through my binoculars. The zodiac was leaving with two men on it, as the boarding party got ready to take off. I kept watching the other ship. There were two people on board. "Um, Sir," I spoke up, "The people on board that ship… aren't they." "Federal Agents. What the hell are they doing there?" the CO cursed. Uh oh, this wasn't good. The boarding party was already heading towards them. The CO tried to radio them, but the transmission seemed to be disturbed. Yep, this wasn't good. Those Feds were going to be mad. This was obviously some undercover operation we had just ruined for them.

We got a distress call from a cargo vessel that was taking on water after the Feds had left again. The CO didn't seem to be in a very good mood anymore, understandable since Feds had probably given him a lot of grief.

I was assigned to be part of the boarding party alongside the XO, Buffer, Spider and a not very pleased Charge. The cargo ship, Pacific Investigator, didn't seem to be in good shape at all. The captain of the ship seemed friendly enough. As the X requested, the first mate took Charge below deck to check out what was wrong. "Buffer, Spider, Red, go with him," the X said to us. "Yes Ma'am," we replied and followed the first mate and Charge below deck. To say this ship wasn't in good shape was an understatement. There was water coming in from everywhere.

"I recommend abandoning ship," Charge told the XO once we were back outside. "I don't see how I can do that," the captain said. "Sir, in 24 hours she'll be sinking and there's nothing we can do about to save her," Charge explained to the captain. But he was worried about salvage rights and wanted to stay until she had really sunk. The XO radioed the situation to the CO and he talked the captain into abandoning ship. So we transported the five crewmembers to Hammersley in groups. I was sent back to Hammersley with the first group.

To greet our guests properly the CO ordered Chefo to prepare a nice barbecue. I volunteered to help him.

It turned into a fun evening outside on the deck with the crew and our guests. One of them actually started flirting with me. It was kind of nice, but I shut him down pretty quickly, he didn't appeal to me.

"Hey, did you hear that everyone?" Swain suddenly exclaimed, "Jake here reckons I'm having a boy, a little Swain." He was so happy, Swain was grinning from ear to ear. I smiled at his happiness as the gathering turned into a celebration.

I went to my cabin as things started calming down, but no matter how I tried, I couldn't fall asleep, so I got up again and went out on deck to get some fresh air. A loud noise made me jump. It had sounded a lot like a gunshot. I ran into the direction the sound had come from to find the CO leaning over a wounded Harry while one of the rhibs was being taken away by three of the men from the cargo ship, along with Swain at gunpoint. "Red, go get help!" the CO yelled at me. I ran inside and called the first guys that I saw over. I followed as they brought Harry to the wardroom.

My brain wasn't able to comprehend this situation. Just what was going? Why would they shoot someone? Why would those guys take Swain as a hostage? They seemed thankful enough that we helped them, just why? I was scared, I was worried. What if they hurt Swain? Or if they killed him. They couldn't. They couldn't do that. Swain had a wife, and soon a child to take care of. If something happened to him… I didn't even want to think about it.

I helped Chefo as good as I could with Harry. We couldn't really pursue the men who had taken Swain because they had threatened to kill him, so there was pretty much nothing I could do. And that was the worst feeling, I felt useless. I needed to do something.

The sun had already risen when we moved in on the abandoned cargo ship, after the men had gotten what they were looking for. As the CO concluded, Swain was probably left behind on the Pacific Investigator by them. I couldn't stand still. I paced up and down the railing as we came closer. "Sir, I'd like to be part of the boarding party," I requested. "Are you sure?" the CO asked. "Yes, Sir," I stated firmly. I needed to be on that boarding party. I couldn't just stay here and wait. The CO mustered me for a few seconds as I stood straight. "Alright, get ready." "Aye, Sir." I saluted and left quickly. I got ready for the boarding party.

We were silent and careful as we boarded the Pacific Investigator, not knowing whether there was anyone else on board or not. I followed Buffer and the X below deck. Buffer noticed a shut door, that had been open before and tried to open it. I rushed to help him. As soon as the door was open, I dove in. If Swain was in there, we had to get him out, the room was almost completely flooded. And Swain was indeed in there, tied to a pole. I tried to get the rope off, but it took Buffer's help to get him free. I had no idea how long Swain had been underwater without air. I feared for his life as we brought him to the surface. But he was breathing and conscious, as the X pulled him up further out of the water. A wave of relief washed over me. I felt crying out of joy. Swain was alive. He was alive. We quickly got him out of there and back onto the Hammersley before the ship could sink and take us with it.

Back on Hammersley Swain reported what had been so important on the Pacific Investigator, diamonds. I was posted up on deck as lookout since it seemed that Swain, even in a hostage situation, managed to sabotage the rhib, so that those smugglers or whatever they were couldn't get far. Swain came up on deck as well to join the lookout. I couldn't help but smile. He was alright. He was fine. And he was the first to spot something. Two men in the water. The captain had dropped them as well. And the rhib wasn't far either. I felt like beating the life out of the guys that had almost killed Swain, but I was just too happy to have him back.

"I'm so glad you're okay," I finally said to Swain as I hugged him as tight as I possibly could. "You and me both," Swain laughed as he patted my head. I let go again and looked up at him. I was so relieved to see that he was really alright. And then my vision suddenly went black.

"…king up! Swain!" My eyelids fluttered as I tried to open my eyes. "Red?" A blurry figure appeared in my view, but the voice told me it was Swain. I groaned. I had a splitting headache. "What happened?" I croaked. "You collapsed," Swain told me as he helped me sit up, "How are you feeling?" "My head hurts," I answered, squeezing my eyes shut again. "I got some water." It was ET who came back into the ward with a glass of water in his hand. He gave it to me and I downed the whole thing to wet my dry throat. "You fell pretty hard. You might have a concussion," Swain said. He did some tests with me. "Well, looks like it's only a slight concussion. I'm gonna give you something for the headache and then you're going to rest until we get back to port, alright?" Swain said to me and I nodded, "And make sure you get some more sleep." "Sorry."

I could see the concern in both Swain's and ET's eyes and I felt guilty. "You know what," Swain suddenly said, "From now on you're going to keep a sleep journal. So we can figure out why you're not sleeping enough, alright?" He explained the concept of a sleep journal to me before sending me back to my cabin to rest. I wasn't sure whether it would really help. But it was worth a try.