Nicki preceded into the cabin before Antonia, opening the door and waiting until the smaller woman was in before closing the door and shutting out some of the noise of the ship. She walked to the table she worked on her patient’s at and settled into her normal seat, gesturing to the empty seat across from her. 

There was a faint scent of vomit in the room, bile and booze, pretty unmistakable without the odor of sickness that illness induced vomit carried. It spoke a tale that she would rather not have told but there was little for it just then. She refused to remain a spectacle out on the deck any longer. She glanced around, the books were still scattered on the floor around where she and Jax had slept, curled up together. There were still the empty bottles, laying on their side, forlorn and sad, telling their own tale. One cheeky bastard even rolled with the sway of the ship, a soft [i]chink chink[/i] emitting from its bid for attention. Nicki paid it no mind and prayed that Antonia would as well. Oh she knew full well those grey eyes would see, but she hoped that they would not read into it. Her bed was completely made, unmussed unlike the rest of the room which bore a decided lack of military neatness. She felt a soft flush on her cheeks, ruined and whole as she looked at the woman before her choosing her words with care. She wanted to be correct, but she did not want to be ungracious but she was uncertain if she could accept anything from the strange woman, the Captain’s woman or not. 

“I appreciate your gesture Mademoiselle, but I want you to know it is unnecessary for all that it is appreciated. I did what any first mate would have and should have done. I am certain that were the situation reversed that the Captain would have done the same for me.” 

She looked down at her hands and wondered if she’d just lied. No, she shook her head to herself, recalling the fervent light in the Captain’s eyes when he’d ask from her that which she could not give. He was a worthy captain and she was churlish to doubt him, even in the privacy of her own thoughts.