A Daughter's Dedication (Kancolle)

What have I gotten myself into?​

[x] Stay in the room

There were many choices you could have made in this situation. More than you cared to count even. Admittedly, though, your first few probably wouldn't have worked.

Well.

They would have worked, but you imagined that 'hoping you're as strong as your ship form and punching a hole through Mama Sara's hull to drag her out with you' would probably have made your mother scold you. And hurt your hand a lot. Possibly gotten you shot at when people saw a human-shaped-hole in the side of the new battlecruiser with two women surfing along the water. And that was just the least extreme option, you could just punch out the man on the other side of the door and then do the same to everyone else aboard the battlecruiser. Though...Mama Sara probably wouldn't appreciate you punching her crew senseless either. Damn.

"Lexie, stay behind me."

For her part, Mama Sara still stood stock-still in front of you. Her broad shoulders- if slimmer than you remembered her being -covering your line of sight to the door. The long blonde hair was at least familiar, the same form that had stood in front of you when your sisters teased you about looking like Aunt Lex sometimes.

Mama...

"Can that man see you, Mama?" Despite the nostalgic smile tugging at your lips, you weren't the Blue Ghost for nothing. You squared your own shoulders, and tapped your mother on the back. When her head turned to look at you, you stared into her blue eyes with nothing but seriousness in your identical ones. "No one could see us where, when, I came from."

Your voice was kept at a low whisper, so as to avoid being overheard. No point in sounding insane if that man couldn't see your mother.

Though it would raise the question of how he could see you but not her.

"Of course." Sara seemed determined to throw you for a loop with everything she said, though. The wide smile on her face didn't help much.

You stared at your mother with a deadpan expression, slowly repeating her words. "Of course."

[x] Let him make the first move?

Naturally, though, in the time it had taken you to figure this out with your mother, the man seemed to have gotten impatient. You could hear tugging on the wheel to your little hide-away. Your entire body tensed at the familiar squeaking of a well-oiled wheel, your mother returning her attention to the hatch instead of your now-worried face. If the man could see and hear your mother, and presumably you as well, then what were you going to do? Part of you had been selfishly hoping that you had come back as a spirit like you were before.

That no one but your mother and other ships could see you, and that you could just spend your life without worrying about the future. Let what came, come, and deal with it when it was necessary. Sure, you were planning on heading out and tearing the IJN apart if Japan even looked at America funny. But that wasn't the same as talking to someone-- to a regular man!

I'm not ready for that. Not so soon.

Ready or not, you didn't have much of a real choice in the matter. For the hatch slowly swung open, though you could not see past your mother to tell who had opened it.

"Saratoga? I thought it was you, but I heard someone else too." That same male voice spoke up, relief practically filling the air.

"Well, Captain, you see...there is someone else here." Your mother didn't even seem to be phased by the fact she was doing something that, to you, was impossible. "You'll hear us out, right?"

A hearty chuckle answered that statement, "Now why wouldn't I, Saratoga? You've never been any sort of a problem." The chuckle slowly faded away, though, replaced by a much more serious tone. "Still, if there is someone aboard that shouldn't be, I need to know."

That was your cue, wasn't it?

"Captain, this is Lexie."

Sara moved aside, allowing you to see her presumable Captain, and for the man to see you as well. A dark-haired man with brilliantly blue eyes, set in a well-lined face that looked like it smiled often. Nothing like Admiral Halsey, if you had to pick an example that rushed to mind. This man looked kind and gentle. Quite an odd view for a naval captain.

But not a bad one either.

"Lexie," the man's voice tested your name, his lips moving slowly. While his eyes stared at you, running up and down your body as if he was confused by what he saw. "The uniform is all wrong, and the hair is cut differently. But you look a lot like Lexington. Her twin, even."

Your mother giggled softly, "I'm her twin sir."

"Perhaps, but you two hardly look like it." The Captain's lips definitely quirked up into a smile now. Though his eyes never once left your face. "I admit, its a bit hard to tell who you are with your hair falling like that."

A burst of indignation got past the worry fogging your mind, as you crossed your arms and blew the loose bangs from your blue eyes. "Sorry, this is how my hair always has been. I got enough about that from my sisters and Ma...Sara."

"Lexie, don't blow your hair like that."

For just a moment, you could have imagined that you were back where you belonged. Sitting with your mother as she scolded you about blowing your loose bangs from your eyes. Frustrating as it was to do that, you loved your hair. It set you apart from Lexington and your sisters, and your mother loved it too. Even if she did fuss about how you took care of it.

The moment was shattered, however, when the Captain began to chuckle again.

"You act like her mother, Saratoga." His blue eyes finally shifted from you, and back to your mother. The smile refused to leave the old man's face, even when he looked Sara. "Who is she, really? Because that jacket she's wearing looks like Lexington's."

'That jacket' was indeed Lexington's, though your aunt had never worn it. You tugged it closer to your body, the familiar fabric warm against your chest. Also, coincidentally, covering the short cape underneath it that bore your identification number of CV-16. Not that anyone would have believed it anyway--

"Lexington, sir. CV-16, Lexington, to be specific." Mama Sara didn't even hesitate to tell the truth. In fact, her face practically sparkled with mirth when she looked over her Captain's shoulder at your sour face.

"Did you have to tell him right away?" Your complaint was more plaintive whining than an actual complaint. Though you didn't actually pout or whine.

Not at all. No sir.

Mama Sara only giggled at your expression, "Captain Henderson is my Captain, Lexie. I can't tell him a lie."

Henderson?

The only Henderson you knew was Henderson Field. Was this man related to that field's namesake? Questions that would have to be answered at another time, since Captain Henderson was staring at you much more intently now. The humor had fled from his face, and the lines had scrunched in together to show a man much more interested in you than before. In fact, you daresay more interested than anyone since your fathers- that is, the men who had lobbied so hard to have you become Lexington instead of Cabot.

"CV-16, Lexington." The words the man spoke lacked any of his previous levity, all business and gruffness that would have made your own Captain's proud. "That's impossible, the only carriers we have are Langley, Constellation and Constitution. Lexington is still a battlecruiser."

"It's not a lie!" You couldn't stop yourself from snapping those words.

Not out of any worry about this man believing you. But because, not as deep down as you would have liked, there was a nugget of fear. A fear that your mother may change her mind on believing your story, and believing who you were. And that would destroy you more thoroughly than that damned super-bomb had destroyed the Sara you remembered. Tears wet your eyes at the very idea.

Forcing down a steadying breath, you clenched your hands in the fabric of your short dress. Your eyes locked into the Captain, daring him to dispute your next words. "It's not a lie. I still don't know how I got here, or even where here is. The Sara I remember was a carrier...was my mother in all but blood. She was not a battlecruiser, and I never knew my Aunt Lex or Constitution or Constellation."

Shaking your head, you walked over to your mother. You stood by Sara, noting out of the corner of your eye that she resisted the urge to wrap her arm around you. An urge you couldn't keep yourself from doing, letting go of your dress and grabbing the taller battlecruiser's arm. Squeezing it tightly, as much to reassure yourself as make a symbol for the Captain. You were not letting your mother go again.

"If you don't believe me, is there anything I can show you that would make you? I'll do anything."

You had the feeling that you may regret saying that, but you were more than desperate.

All Captain Henderson did in response was allow the smile to come back to his face, as he shook his head slowly. "I could almost believe you were Saratoga's daughter with how stubborn you are. But that won't be enough."

The Captain walked forward, his eyes flicking between you and your mother. His expression, smile or no, remained quite serious indeed.

"If you are a carrier, then you should have a hull around somewhere, yes?" Henderson spoke softly, his intense gaze boring through you. "I understand, a little, how you women are. If you are who you say you are, that would be the way to prove it. Can you?"

Could you?

"Lexie...where is your hull?" Mama Sara's voice held the first worry you had heard from it in a very long time, as her bright eyes stared down on you past her blonde hair.

"I..."

You didn't know how to answer. You had left your old hull behind, something that was as impossible as the idea of a crewmember seeing you. It was gone, back at that godforsaken atoll where you had held your mother's dead body. Could you even bring it here? And if you did, what would it be like? Would your crew come with it? Or would it be an empty hulk?

Nothing made any sense, and you didn't even remotely know what to say.

Other than...

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-[] Lie. You don't know where your hull is, since you don't know how you got here. (Stall for time)
- - [] Explain that you don't know how to get it. (Write in?)

-[]Tell the truth. You don't know where your hull is, but you're willing to try getting it. (Attempt to 'summon' your hull)

-[] Tell the truth, but explain that you don't know the first thing about finding your hull. It will take time to do that. (Convince the Captain some other way)


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