“I was sad, but the news came in stages, so it wasn’t as much of a blow.”“What do you mean?”“Well, we heard that someone had fallen at the... party and they had to call an ambulance and then cops had gotten involved and the whole party had turned into a zoo. Separate from that, we heard that Cheryl had fallen on the weekend and had lost the baby. It was Jessie that put the two events together and figured that she was the one that had fallen at the party.”She nodded. “And you don’t feel at all. I made sure she was ready and told her I wanted her to set the pace again so she could focus on her form. She smiled and said she was ready before taking off at an easy pace. She quickly worked her pace up and we finished our run in good time.Once we caught our breath, she put her arms around me and kissed me soundly before thanking me and heading back into the pens to clean up for work. I jogged back to my cabin and started a pot of coffee before stepping into the shower. By the time I got. "I thought through Carol's points again:"She can hold my arm easier." Probably true, or she could hold Julia's instead."Carol and Julia could be affectionate in public." Just try to stop them! I had no doubt Julia would overdo the PDAs."Reduce boy pickups, increase girl pickups." The boys had been dealt with, but there was a problem with the girls.I asked, "Why do you want more girls to pick you up, Carol? I thought you were happy with Julia?"Both Carol and Julia laughed. That was never a good. That last interview with Admiral Sykes was just a formality. I hadn't completely gotten my way; we were divided into several separate crews, but I had at least partly won. My crew had been loaded with the cream of the people.My XO was RAN Commander Richard "Dickie" Wilson. He was also slotted as my Weapons Officer. He had been skipper of an Australian boat before he lost an arm in a car accident and retired. The med-tubes had no problem with that; he just had to stay in the tank overnight and.