Old Habits Die Hard

By: Jane Minatti

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN A DAMN THING! STOP SENDING THE LAWYERS TO MY DOOR!

Rating: T

Summary: i already wrote one in my Bio. go read it!

Prologue: Meet the Fleet

The state of Alaska's Department of Commercial Fishing was furious about what had happened on the last season of the Discovery Channel's hit TV show "Deadliest Catch". They decided to put into effect for the following season a set of rules. All commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea were now to employ Registered Nurse Practitioners.

The process was lengthy and tedious. The crab boats put up a big fight against it, but they lost in the end. Several hundreds of men and women stepped up to the rigorous training schedule, however, only eighty nurses survived. All of them were women. Out of the eighty nurses chosen for the job, five were pulled aside. These were to be the nurses featured on the show, and they had to be briefed. These were the nurses that were pulled aside.

June Reynolds, the leader of the pack, was a woman with many years of emergency room nursing under her belt. At age 43, she wouldn't give up for anything, not even for men.

Kristina Maloney, age 23, was the youngest of the group. She was June's protege. Everything Kristina learned, she learned from June. Kristina left home to help June with preparing and training of the nurses. Her parents died when she was 8 years old, leaving her Navy proud grandfather to raise her. Kristina's grandfather was diagnosed with a severe form of lung cancer before she left for Dutch Harbor, so she had constantly worried about him since she left home. Her grandfather practically had to shove her out of his house to get her to go. Kristina made her aunt promise that if anything happened to him, she would be notified at once.

Jamie Darlenea, age 30, was a nurse with experience in emergency medicine as well. She was also a mean practical joker. She pulled pranks on her fellow nurses when it was appropriate to do so. They all loved her for it.

Angela Morales, age 35, was Jamie's best friend and co-worker. She had a lot of patience, but she also had a short temper thanks to the benefits of her Mexican-American blood. She was always serious about her work, and that wasn't about to change a bit. She always did like Jamie's pranks though, and she always helped her out with them as much as she could.

Xiaryn Taladega, age 24, was Kristina's best friend since high school. She was smart and graduated as Valedictorian in her class. She was aspiring to be a doctor in emergency medicine, and she took the job to gain more experience.

These were the women chosen for the five main boats of the Alaskan crab fishing fleet, and everyone hoped that they would be up for the challenge.