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."

That did surprise Jack off his train of thought. "Really? Well, I see no problem with that, I guess. I'll look into finding you a permanent partner."

"Actually," Joe blushed a bit and hoped he couldn't see it that well through the cam, "I was thinking that Kai could be my new permanent partner."

Jack looked surprised again. "Kai doesn't have permanent partners, Joe. He's never liked permanent partners. I assign him what he needs as he needs it. That was by his request."

"It was actually his idea." Joe smiled a bit. "He asked me."

Jack's stare became piercing. "Joe." he said deliberately.

"What?" she asked, in what she hoped was, an innocent way.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" he asked.

Since Joe had not included her growing relationship with the merman in her reports, he didn't know what was happening. And she really didn't want to tell him. "I can't think of anything."

"I want to speak to Kai, now." he said.

Joe tried to tell him that that wasn't necessary but he insisted so, a bit against her will, she called Kai up from the sub room where he was monitoring the unmanned subs that were still diving.

When he arrived, he sat beside Joe, put on his own headset and said, "Yes, Jack?"

"You're supposed to be protecting and working for Joe." Jack started immediately. "So what's this about being her permanent partner and Joe blushing up a storm over there?"

Kai, perfectly serious, said, "She's my filenada, Jack."

Joe didn't speak Greek. It drove her crazy when he spoke of her and she couldn't understand him. Then again, hearing that deep accent drove her nuts.

"Your girl?" Jack repeated and Joe was scared for a moment that he was going to get angry. But he thought it over for a second and said, "Fine. You two complete this mission successfully, I'll put you two together permanently. Don't let sex interfere with work either or I'll separate you. Got it?"

Not bothering to tell him that they hadn't had sex yet, both of them said, "Yes, sir."

XXXXXXXX

"Are you sure about this?" Josh asked as Kai climbed down into the sub.

"Completely." Joe assured him as she took their backpack.

"Joe, you just got fished from the water yesterday." Josh continued. He, and everyone else besides Ilia, Kai, and the doctor, were sure she had slipped and fallen off the deck. "I don't know that you should be diving this soon."

"Josh, I'm fine." Joe smiled a bit. "Thank you for worrying, but hypothermia is treatable, survivable, and, in my case, has no long term consequences. I was forced to go to bed last night against my will and rest. I feel fine. I'm going down."

"Kai can handle it on his own." Josh said.

"I'm not letting him go down alone." Joe smiled a bit. She still hadn't worked out a solution for the submarine problem and so figured going down and crossing their fingers was the best they could do.

Josh sighed, knowing when he was beaten, then looked around. "Where's Ilia? I'm surprised she's not here."

"She hasn't left her room since yesterday." Doug, a maintenance man, told them. Joe was sure he had been one of the men Ilia slept with. Then again, Joe was losing track.

"Oh, man. Who's with her?" Josh asked mad that two people were now slacking on their duties.

"No one." Doug laughed at both Josh's and Joe's surprised faces. "Yeah, I know. Right. She's been by herself on medical leave with permission from Doc. Said she needs some time to herself."

"Well, I guess we can do without her." Josh sighed. "Maybe I should talk to her."

"I already tried that." Spencer, another boy toy of Ilia's, Joe was sure this time, said, laughing a bit. "I went by earlier to see if she wanted company but she said no. Said she needed some time to think."

"I'll check on her when we get back." Joe promised. "I'm sure she's fine. Josh?"

"Yeah, yeah." he sighed. "I'm gone. I'll be in the sub room praying like hell. Take care of yourself, Joe. Alright?"

"You got it." Joe said as she turned to climb into the sub.

Despite her near homicide experience, Joe was feeling strangely...happy. Oddly...energized.

She was determined now to find out what those lights were, why someone tried to kill her, and taking it all down.

That was why she joined criminal, after all.

She had no skills with shooting, fighting, or chasing. All she could really do was deduct and reason and plan. But she found a weird happiness in that chase. The closer she got, the more interested and excited she became. And somebody trying to kill her off definitely meant they were getting close to some thing. That made her happy.

It probably wasn't all that healthy of a response to almost being killed, but it was Joe's response and it was what she lived for.

So she sealed the sub and sat next to Kai who was talking to Sara, the girl in charge of the sub room while Josh was out, coordinating the dropping of the sub.

She was munching on a piece of the beef jerky, her book, technically Kai's book, open in her lap when the sub dropped and splashed into the water.

"Are you still reading that?" Kai asked as he set the sub to auto-sink and sat up. The shades were drawn so the lights were on.

"I went back and started on the human chapters like you suggested." Joe smiled. "I like this chapter a lot."

"Which one?" he asked about to peek when Joe jerked the book away and smiled devilishly.

"Oh, that one." she said vaguely.

Kai stared at her blankly, she stared back a small smile on her face.

His hand suddenly shot out and snagged the book.

But Joe didn't release it and they began a little mini-war over it. Joe giggling and Kai smiling just a bit.

Kai, being the stronger, won. He clutched both her wrists in one hand, held it above her head, and took the book from her as he held her down with her body.

Joe struggled a bit on principle as he read the chapter title out loud.

"Chapter 9: Love; Feelings and Physical." he looked her. "Enjoying this, are you?"

"The book recommends trying to have a little fun in water." Joe said suggestively. "Do you think being in the mini-sub counts?"

"Maybe." he leaned over her and kissed one corner of her mouth. "You've been hanging around Ilia a little too much. You're so much bolder than you were."

"Does it bother you?" Joe asked, not the least bit worried. During her struggle, she could clearly feel the bulge of something hard on her belly.

"It will if you start looking at other men." he told her seriously.

"Ooh, I didn't take you for the possessive type." Joe smiled a bit. It was playful, it was fun. "I thought you merfolk weren't into monogamy."

"I said we weren't into marriage." he corrected. "There's a big difference."

"Well, we've got a few hours to kill." she said rubbing her body along his as much as she could being trapped under it. "Want to...have some fun?"

Kai was extremely tempted to take Kyma up on her offer. She certainly looked arousing even in the ugly green warmth suit they were wearing.

But he hesitated.

She had offered the very same thing to him the other day and he had turned her down.

He had told her he wanted her to rest, that doing that wouldn't be healthy after just being fished from the freezing ocean. And that was true but it wasn't the whole reason.

The truth was, he was just hesitating. He wasn't even sure why.

He knew, without being told, that after he finally took her to bed, or water, he wouldn't want to ever let her go again. He could just tell by looking at her, seeing those glorious tawny brown eyes and watching that deep red hair blowing in the ocean breeze always made him want to hold her, to adore her, to know she adored him in return.

And those feeling were strangely...frightening.

He had never felt something as overpowering as what he felt for her. At times, the feeling was so powerful it made his chest hurt. He never imagined he, anyone, could feel something like this for anyone.

When he had seen her, dripping wet, teeth chattering, skin pale after being pulled from the sea, his precious home, he had very nearly sworn off the treacherous ocean. How could something he loved so like the ocean hurt someone as precious as Kyma? His Kyma Kardia? It had hurt so much to see Ilia wave him away.

So why did he hesitate?

He leaned down and gave her a sweet, chaste kiss and said, "Some other time, agapi mou."

He didn't know why he hesitated, and until he figured it out, he wouldn't make love to her.