Rivers Run Deep

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Cliff smirked. "They wouldn't have much of a team if there weren't," he chuckled, then coughed again. "Maybe, once I'm back on my feet, I'll take you out to my favourite course. It's just outside the city proper. That could be my way of saying thank you," he suggested. "I'm pretty sure you're not the plug. I don't think yanking you out of there for awhile won't sink the boat." Cliff winked at him and then caught a bit of a coughing fit.

He sagged back onto his pillows once he'd finished and caught his breath. "Ugh, that wasn't fun at all. I guess I'm getting a bit tired with all this talking." It was a very reluctant admission; he was actually enjoying talking to the burly chief, more than he thought he would.
 
The burly chief smiled and stood up, tail wagging slowly as he made sure he had everything he came in with minus the card. "I'd better get out of your hair and let you sleep." The setter said, moving over to extend his hand to Cliff. "I think I'd like that though, to get out and go for a round of golf. I'm pretty sure I still have my old clubs somewhere. Probably in my apartment buried under something. Back of the coat closet maybe." He shrugged and smiled. "You rest up and get better, Mr. West, and I'll look forward to seeing you again. Stop by the boat any time. Plug or not, I'm always there." he said with a happy laugh. It was really always a wonderful thing to find out the person he had pulled out of the water was going to survive. He seemed like a strapping young man, fit enough to fight off a little bit of pneumonia. He'd be fine and that put a bit of a spring in the old chief's step. He could put one up on the board of people he'd saved.
 
"Cliff, just Cliff," he reminded. "Thanks again, Chief. I'll see you around..." he said, shaking his paw in return and settling down in the bed again, closing his eyes with a tired sigh.

A few weeks later, Cliff coasted his car to a stop in front of the Coast Guard ship. He parked just to the side and stepped out, breathing in the smell of the river. It felt like he'd been gone for years. Finally over his pneumonia, and done with the court case against his attackers, Cliff was finally free to get on with his life again. He resettled his hat onto his head and headed for the gangplank. "Hello, the ship!" he called to the officer on duty. "Is the Chief around?"
 
"Well if it's just Cliff, then it's just Joshua." He smiled and waved a little, then walked out.

The deck officer of the day was a seaman. He popped up out of his seat and walked to the edge of the ship. "Which one?" he called, heading down the plank himself. He smiled and held out a hand. "Chief Monro or Chief Woodward? Chief Monro is on board, Chief Morgan went out to buy parts or something."

Chief Monro walked out of the ship's superstructure and out onto the deck. "Mr. West! Hey!" He walked over and pat the seaman on the shoulder. "I'll take it from here, Price."

"Aye aye, chief." The seaman nodded to Cliff and went back up on deck to write things down in the log book.

"Glad to see you up and about." Chief said to Cliff, a bright smile on his face and, a little embarrassingly, his tail was wagging quite a bit.
 
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Cliff shook Joshua's hand. "Hey, Chief. Joshua, you said, right? Yeah, finally back on my feet and fresh out of the courthouse as well. How've things been going with you?" he wondered, looking up at the ship with interest. He really didn't remember much of it from that day, but he had seen it in port plenty of times. He was very interested to see what it looked like on deck.
 
"Quiet." He laughed. "Things have been pretty quiet. We've done a couple patrols, stopped a couple of boats, offloaded some bootleg hooch." He shrugged and waved. "Come on aboard." he said, turning and heading up onto the ship. He turned to the bow of the ship to give a salute to the flag there before heading on aboard. "You want the grand tour?"
 
Cliff watched him salute before following him aboard. "Sure, I'm interested to see it. I see it in port a lot, it looks like it'd be much different to the shipping boats and cruising paddle steamers," he agreed, nodding. He declined to comment on them offloading the bootleg. While the company didn't import, they did keep the pleasure vessels well stocked on certain voyages. He did, however venture a related question.

"If it's not overstepping anything to ask, I know you're bound to uphold the law, but what's your view of the whole thing?" He figured that was a safe enough question. Everyone had an opinion. It was just whether or not they could voice that opinion, one way or another.
 
"I consider it job security, but I think the whole thing is a load of shit." He looked over, starting to walk him around the deck. "All it does is cause more crime and anyone who wants to drink knows where to go and get it." He sighed a little and shrugged. "But, like I said, job security for some of us, the police and us Puddle Jumpers. And the government gives us pretty fun toys." he laughed a little.

"This boat used to be a sub-chaser back in the war." He said, walking up to the bow and putting his hand on a nice big gun, which had a cover over it to try and keep some of the water off of it. "It has some nice toys like this one." He smirked. "Not that I ever get to play with it." He looked back at Cliff. "I do all my job in the wheelhouse when we're afloat and out on deck when we're ashore. Mostly I just tell the younger crew members what they should be doing." He motioned to a couple guys swabbing the deck, then to a couple more who were painting.
 
Cliff smirked at the young officers and nodded. "Much like me when our boats are in port. Always got to keep the boats in top shape, even just the shippers. As for the other, I doubt it'll last forever, but I'm sure they'll find something else for you to do when that happens. I mean, with the amount of money they say the runners and gangs earn, the government's going to want to get in on some of that eventually. So what kind of engine does this girl run?" he wondered, examining the gun with all of the appreciation of a casual observer.
 
"Oh, the government will want their hands back on it soon, I expect. Or at least clear the jail cells out for real criminals." He shrugged and smiled. "The engine? No idea. A big noisy one, I know that. I should probably know, but I don't. The Captain does, I'm sure, and I know Chief Morgan knows. He's head of the engineering department, so he'd better, right?" He laughed happily. "Do you want to go down and see it?"

((I remembered the name I wanted to use and fixed it up in the other post too :D))
 
Cliff nodded eagerly. "I love all kinds of engines, and I'm learning to fix the engines on our own ships, or at least be able to help with the maintenance," he explained. "I fix up my own cars, and I've got a little boat whose engine I'm working on as well." His tail swung happily as he trotted after the Chief. "I could probably tell you what it is," he boasted. Not that he was trying to impress Joshua, but he was pretty proud of his engineering and mechanical skill. Especially since most folks thought of him as just some fancy sporty kid and scared to get his hands dirty.
 
Joshua laughed. "Well then! Lets go have a pop quiz, huh?" He held the door open. "Watch your feet, watch your head." He laughed a little. "Sorry, you know that, don't you? Alright, down the ladder well two decks and we'll be in the engine room."
 
The pair perused the engine room, much to Cliff's eager interest, and Joshua's equal amusement. By the end of the tour, Cliff had gotten himself worked up enough that his cough was trying to creep back. He wisely decided to head off away from the docks and relax himself somewhere warm. Offering Joshua some coffee and a chance to ride in his sportster, the pair soon found themselves nestled in his favourite cafe near the university. It was pretty quiet since it was summer and there were few classes happening on campus. Cliff waved casually to a few familiar faces as he sipped his coffee and enjoyed some of the cake on offer.
 
Joshua jumped at the opportunity to ride in the sports car and settled into the coffee shop well enough. He sipped his coffee and sighed happily. It had been a pretty damn good day so far. "So," He looked over at Cliff with a smile. "How's business? I'd imagine your business picks up over the summer."
 
"It does quite a bit. People love to get out of the city and relax. We do some day trips on some Saturdays, or overnight trips on some of the smaller ships on the occasional weekend. Dad's really glad that I'll be getting back to work soon. He doesn't enjoy the pleasure boat side of the business as much as the shipping. It's much more my realm," he explained. "I come about it pretty naturally," he added with a smirk.
 
"No offence meant to your father, but you are definitely more people-oriented. Not saying he's a bad person, just that he doesn't seem like he enjoys dealing with people all that often. And you are definitely a people person." He shrugged. "You know more people than I do anyway." He laughed. "I don't know if that's saying much, though. My crew tells me I need to get off the boat more. I have some uniforms I've been meaning to take somewhere and get fixed and just haven't." He shrugged and took a drink of his coffee. Mmm, coffee. A chief's blood supply.
 
"No, I am definitely more social than he is," Cliff said with a laugh. "We have our own joke that I have an unfair advantage, and not just the fact that I'm young and good-looking. He jokes that I put my secret weapon to work, which is always great until I get half-beaten to death. He doesn't like to joke then, but I make him. Keeps him from getting too worried about me." His laughter dried up a bit, but he turned more thoughtful than sad.
 
A secret weapon? What on earth kind of secret weapon would help him be so good at his job. He was a well-mannered young man, that's all that Joshua could pick out. "Humor is often the best way to diffuse a situation. Humor and at least seeming like you know what you're doing." He smirked. "It's how I made it to Chief. A lot of laughs and a lot of bullshitting."
 
Cliff barked out a laugh, more than the joke seemed to call for. "You really don't know, do you?" he chuckled, giving Joshua an amused look. "My secret weapon, and the reason I got beaten up and thrown into the river?" He shook his head, then looked the older man in the eye. "I'm gay, Chief."
 
The spaniel looked at Cliff for a moment, barely a blink, before letting out a laugh. "Well! That certainly makes a lot of things make more sense..." He shook his head, grinning. "Sorry." He reached up to run his claws through his hair and make sure his ears were lying flat. "I really don't understand why anyone would beat someone up for that...sad world really..."
 
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