The rest of the morning went by like a blur; Alabama focused on Lieutenant Casey’s slide show with rapt attention. She had changed back into her original outfit, though her dark hair remained.  He was surprised at how quickly she was absorbing all the information they were giving her. He showed her the highlights of the past several decades; Japan's defeat and it's rebuilding, as well as recent conflicts in the Middle East. The Abyssal attacks seemed to cause her to pale a little, he noticed, but he kept the observation to himself. Alabama made no inclination that she wanted him to stop.
 
 
The laptop was also a marvel to her, and she fawned over the idea of the internet. 

“This is amazing!” 

“So I can type any question into this little box, and Google will tell me the answer?” 

Casey’s nod sent her into a fit of giggles. 

“Land sakes, ain’t that the darndest thing!” 

Alabama marveled as she pecked away at the keyboard.
 
Casey smiled behind the enamored woman. It reminded him of when he was teaching his grandmother how to use her new computer. 

“Why don't you ask as Google to show you where U.S.S Ala... I mean, where you are on a map?”
 
“Oh? Let's see then.” 

She carefully typed the query into the search bar and hit Enter. A moment later, an overhead image of the ship flashed on the screen.
 
“Oh my Gawd! That’s something!” 

Alabama clapped in amusement. Casey reached over her shoulder to zoom in on the image, until her hull took up the entire screen.
 
“You can see everything.” 

She stared at the image, then looked down at herself. Casey jerked back, his cheeks flushing, and realized he had been gawking. You could definitely see everything, alright. Alabama clapped the laptop shut with one hand, while covering her bosom with the other.
 
“Well, um, that was something else.”
 
Casey faked a cough to hide his grin.
 
“And, anyone can see that?”
 
“Yes, ma'am. In fact you could look into my house's front door if you wanted.”
 
“Oh my heavens.” 

Alabama rose from her chair and brushed the wrinkles from her skirt.

“I do believe that's enough fun with this internet for one day.” 

She looked back at the closed laptop as Casey packed it back into his bag. 

“For a while, maybe. Let’s get some fresh air, hmm?”
 
Casey followed her as she stepped through the bulkhead and headed towards to the deck.
 
“Oooh the sun feels so good!” 

Alabama thrust her arms over her head and stretched. Casey fought the urge to stare at the curves of her back. He shifted his gaze, his eyes falling to her plump rear. This was going to prove to be difficult. Alabama’s sharp clap made him advert his gaze to more wholesome scenery.

She spun back around, her bright smile was back again. 

“Lieutenant, I just thought of something!” 
 
“Y-yes?”
 
“I feelin’ hungry, down right famished even! How's about we head out and get something to eat?”
 
Casey felt his pulse quicken. He had been in a few relationships in his life, but not with a woman of her, well, caliber.
 
“That sounds like a great idea. I'll get us a ride into town.”
 
Alabama latched onto his arm before his phone was out of his pocket. He looked down at the sparkling blue eyes that seemed to suck him in.
 
“I know just the place! There's a grill just down the road a bit.”

She pointed enthusiastically across the bay. 

“My guests used to say they serve the best crawdads in town!”

The back of his neck flushed as she pressed up against him. 

“I think we can make that happen.” 

He smiled, as he quick dialed Captain Sweet on his smart phone. 

“Sweet. Yeah, it's me, we're still fine. I need a ride for me and our guest to Felix's.” 

Alabama's tugging cut him off. He looked back down at the blonde, and she pointed to a few of the men who were carefully carrying a glass case through a bulkhead.

 “Let's just make that a bus, Sweet.”
 _
 Alabama mouth watered as she watched the plates of food brought to her table. Fish, shrimp, crawdads, corn, and rolls came out of the kitchen like a stream. Everything looked delicious; she didn't know where to begin. She picked up the bib one of the waitresses left on the table for her, and tied it around her neck.
 
“Hmm...” 

She raised one finger into the air.  

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which of these dishes will be the first to go?”
 
She grinned as her finger came to a stop over a plate of shrimp. 

“There we go~”
__
 All eyes in the room were focused on Alabama's table. Piles of empty plates surrounded the animated battleship. Plate full of food disappeared almost as rapidly as waitresses brought them from the kitchen.
 
“Hoe, Lee. Sheit.” Sweet took a sip of his drink. Where the hell does she pack it all away?”
 
“Looks like her jugs.”

Sweet shot Russell a look.
 
“Just sayin', sir.”
 
Casey laughed as he took another bite from his shrimp. The amount of food she was consuming was amazing. He had read the reports of the other returned ships: two or three girls putting a truck of food away wasn't an uncommon occurrence.
 
“Well Miss Alabama, how are the crawdads?”
 
Alabama smiled at Casey as best she could with a mouth full of crawdads and gave him a thumbs up.
 
“I think don't think you'll get any complaints out of her, Casey.” 

Sweet pushed his empty plate back. 

“So, what do we do with her now?”
 
“She's caught up on the situation, and she wants to fight.” 

Casey leaned back in his chair. 

“The Brass want to meet her too. From the sounds of it, they want to make a big deal about it.” 
 
“Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.” 

Sweet sighed and rubbed his temples. 

“Well I guess the only headache now is that sub. Did she know anything about the Drum?”
 
“Nothing that's gonna help us.”
 
“Damn. Alright, I guess it's about time to pay this bill.” 

Sweet waved to grab the attention of one of the waitresses.
 
Casey nodded moved to sit next to Alabama. She slide her chair over so he could fit and continued eating, butter and sauce dripping from her chin.
 
Casey grinned and grabbed a napkin. 

“I think you have a little something there, Miss.” 

He dabbed the napkin on her chin.
 
Alabama's face flushed blight red in embarrassment. 

“Oh goodness I am sooo sorry!” 

She grabbed the napkin from Casey and began cleaning her face. She removed her sauce and butter covered bib, carefully folding it up on the table.
 
“That was delightful. Thank you sooo much for bringing me out here Casey!”
 
She threw her arms around Casey's neck, pulling him into a tight hug.
 
“HURK! Alabama!”
 
He swore he could feel her squeeze tighter.
 
“Y'all have been so nice to me. I just don't know what to say.”
 
His vision began to narrow.
 
“Can't. Br-breath.”
 
Alabama's eyes shot open.
 
“Oh goodness I’m so sorry!” 

She released Casey and smoothed the wrinkles out his uniform. 

“This is just still so new to me, and everything is so incredible!”
 
“Ma'am, its fine.” 

Casey coughed as he tried to catch his breath. 

“We're glad you enjoyed it.”
 
“It was even better than I could've hoped. It's just been so much fun. I never imagined food could be this good!” 

Alabama sat back down and sighed.
 
A commotion behind him, caught distracted Casey from the now content Alabama.
 
“Sir I'm gonna have to ask that you settle down.”
 
It sounded like Sweet was already in the middle of the situation.
 
“Calm down? CALM DOWN?! Let me tell you about calm, buddy.”

Casey spotted the short, overweight man in a dirty apron and hairnet gesturing angrily at Sweet. Uh oh.
 
“Excuse me for a moment, Alabama.”
 
“It's no trouble, Sugar- OOOOH, is that pecan pie!?”
 
He left the distracted ship girl and made his way through the maze of chairs and tables to Sweet and now apparently the manager, who was unsuccessfully trying to calm the agitated man down.
 
“I don't care HOW much you're paying us, we're running out of food, and we have other customers to feed. There was only like twenty of you anyhow, where the high hell are you throwing all my food? Out the window?”
 
“I can promise you that's not the case. In fact, we're just about to leave.”
 
“Not till I figure out what the hell you've been doing with my food, dammit!”
 
“Hey, Sweet, what's going on? What's the problem?”

The cook rounded on Casey.

“The problem is I've been slaving away over a hot stove, and I find it's a buncha army guys wasting all my food, that's my problem.” 
 
“Sir I can assure you that your cooking has not been wasted. In fact it's been very delicious.”
 
“Well I sure hope so.” 

The angry man yanked off his hair net. 

“It's only just after one, and we're all outta food.”
 
“Excuse me, Lieutenant?” 

Casey started when he felt a small tug on his sleeve. Alabama stood behind him, her sauce stained bib still tied around her neck. 

“Do you think we can see if they have any ice cream too? I bet the boys will absolutely love that!” 

The Cook put his fists on his hips. 

“Dammit, and who are you?”  
 
Alabama stepped next to Casey and gave a small courtesy. 

“Oh silly me! Please pardon my manners, I'm Alabama.” 

She smiled and stuck her hand out to shake.
 
The man looked at her hand like it was a rotten fish. 

“Alabama? What kinda name is that?”
 
If Alabama noticed his hostility, she didn't show it. 

“Why it's *my* name, sweetie!”
 
“Alright, fine.” 

He grabbed her hand. 

“I'm the cook.”
 

“You're the cook? Oh my GAWD!” 

She yanked the fat man in a hug and lifted him off his feet. 

“That was the best thing I've EVER eaten! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”
 
She spun the man around and around with little effort.

“Oh shit.” 

Sweet jumped out of the way to keep from being knocked back by the swinging man's girth.
 
“Alabama, I think we can put him down now.” 

Casey dodged the fat man’s swinging legs. 
 
“Of course!” she sat him back down gently, grabbing him again when he started to wobble in place.
 
“Who-what are you?” The man wheezed as he caught his breath.
 
“I done told ya, sweetie. I'm Alabama!”
 
The cook took one last look at the smiling woman in front of him and fainted.
 
__
 
“That was marvelous!” 

Alabama sang as she hopped out of the Humvee. 

“Everything was so good! I can't wait to try all sorts of other foods too!”

 She twirled around to face Sweet and Casey as they followed. 

“You boys go on ahead, I need to freshen up.”
 
She skipped across the parking lot to the aircraft hangar, humming as she went.
 
The two men watched her for a moment before she bounced away.
 
“Dayum. I've heard the stories, but that girl can put away some food.” 

Sweet adjusted his cover on his head.
 
“Yeah but where the hell does it go?”
 
“I can think of a couple of places. Russell was probably right.”
 
Both men chuckled at the lame joke, and made their way back to their tent.
 
Joseph, looked up from his MRE as the two men entered, and tried to rise. Sweet waved him back down.
 
“Finish eating Joseph. Anything come through while we were gone?”
 
“No sir, nothing. We kept a squad at the Drum just in case, but no activity from her. Everyone else got chow.”
 
Sweet dropped into his camping chair with a pomf. 

“So, Case, now what?”

 Casey leaned on the table and sighed. 

“Well now we gotta see about getting her hull out.” 

He paused to glance out of a small window. 

“That’s gonna take a godawful lotta digging.”
 
“Can't she just, ya know.” 

Sweet held his hands out and brought them together quickly. 

“Go small?”
 
“We don't know. Can't hurt to ask her when she gets back. It'd make our live hell'ov a lot easier.”
 
He checked his smart phone, and brought up his emails. 

“Gonna have to get my report together soon, though. Don't wanna keep the Big Whigs waiting.”
 
“Mhm, same here. Need to explain these meal expenses too.”
 
Casey grinned. After they were able to wake the restaurant cook up, they were able to explain the situation. Alabama herself offered to help clean the kitchen after she realized the trouble she had caused. It was only the after the assurance from the restaurant owner, and the cook himself after he regained his wits, that she calmed down. She had insisted they leave a large tip, and even gave the cook a kiss on the cheek as a “little extra”. The grumpy man had turned jolly in an instant.
 
“I'm back~.” 

The tent flaps swinging open interrupted his thoughts.
 
Joseph looked up from his instant spaghetti, and immediately dropped it in his lap.
 
“Hey there, sweetie! I'm Alabama.” 

She bounced over to Joseph and stuck out her hand.
 
Joseph stared into the blight eyes of the woman standing in front of him, his mouth hanging open.
 
Alabama giggled. 

“What's wrong sugar? Cat got yer tongue? Don't be a stranger now!”
 
Casey fought off laughter and shot a glance at Sweet. He was enjoying the show too. Alabama helped clean the young man up and squeezed him into a hug.  Sweet couldn't help himself.
 
“What's wrong, Joseph? You look like you're about to pop.”
 
Alabama released the squirming Private. “Joseph? Oh what a precious name. It's so nice to meet you!”
 
“Y-you, too.”
 
Sweet exploded into laughter, doubling over in his chair. Casey covered his face with his hand, his shoulders convulsing with his laughter. 

“Well, Ma'am are you ready for us to get back to work? We still have a lot of stuff to move.”
 
“Oh, it's fine.” Alabama twirled around. “Everything has been taken care of.”
 
“Taken care of?” 

Sweet was still trying to get himself back under control. 

“Joseph, how the hell did y'all get everything off so fast?”
 
Joseph's eyes shot back up from behind Alabama. 

“W-what? N-no, sir! Aside from the guys with Drum, we've been eating.”

Sweet's laughter died in his throat.

“What?” 

Alabama’s face gleamed.

“Oh it's fine, captain. I had my crew finish up while we were gone. Everything is safe and sound in the hangar.” 

Confusion spilled over Sweet’s face.

“Huh?”
 
“Your crew?” 

Casey hoped off the desk. This was sounding familiar.
 
“Oh yes! Now I can move around a lil' easier.”
 
Shouting from outside caught Casey's attention.
 
“Where the hell did it go?” 
 
“Fuck if I know.”
 
“Holy FUCK.”
 
Casey shot through the entrance of the tent, his head shooting back and forth. His eyes fell on a group of men point in the direction of Alabama's hull. Except there was no hull. Sweet materialized next to him a second later.
 
“What the shit.”
 
Both men turned back around to look at Alabama. She smiled and gave a small wave from inside the tent.

Casey could only point at the now empty pool of water. 

“Uh, Ma'am, did you…?” 

She stepped outside of the tent to join them.

“Sure did! Ya wanna see?” 

 Sweet started to visibly shake.

“See? See what?” 
 
“See THIS!”
 
Light blinded the two men as it absorbed the woman. Casey threw up his hands to shield his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse between his fingers.
 
The light vanished as quickly as it appeared. Alabama stood as she did before, only now covered with battleship gray colored equipment. Three large turrets surrounded her, ten smaller ones hung closer to her waist. The number 60 was painted on either side of the armor belt. His eyes caught movement just above her head. A miniature float plane buzzed around her head, waggling its wings.
 
“So whaddaya think?” She smiled expectantly.
 
Joseph stumbled out of the tent, catching the end of the light show.
 
“Oh dang.”
 __
 
Alabama stood proudly with her hands on her hips, her impressive armaments surrounding her. 

“Everything feels good as new!” 

She began gyrating her hips. 

“My crew did a great job of getting everything back into ship-shape. I wanna go try it out! Ya mind if I go for'a swim, Lieutenant?”
 
“Bwuh, huh, what?”
 
She giggled as the men tried to recover their composure. 

“It'll be just for a bit, I promise. Oh gosh it's been so long since I stretched my legs.”
 
Casey shook his head, and rose back to his feet. He stared at the smiling ship for a few seconds before slowly nodding.
 
“Sure, but please stay close to shore.”
 
The words had only just left his mouth before Alabama had him in another bear hug.

“Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!” 

Casey gasped for breath. This was turning into an unwelcome habit.

“Hnnngh! N-No. Pro-problem.” 
 
Releasing him, Alabama made for the bay, eyes from everyone present following her.
 
Casey dropped to the ground. Sweet squatted down next to him.
 
“I think I'm going to need to start smoking again. 

Casey glanced at his comrade.

“Yeah, probably, and I could really use a beer right now.”
 __

Elation flooded though Alabama as she glided across the water; it had so long since she'd gotten to run under her own steam. She increased to flank speed as she got further away from shore. Aside from a few patrol craft and Coast Guard cutters, it felt like she had the whole bay to herself. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. The salty air invigorated her. It felt like she was home.

“Aaah, it feels so wonderful!”
 
Alabama closed her eyes. She felt the heat from her boilers, “saw” the returns from her radar array, and heard the radio chatter from the Coast Guard ships keeping an eye on her.
 
She sailed alongside one of the ships, waving at the bewildered sailors on the cutters deck.
 
“Hello~ How're y'all doin’ this afternoon?” 

Her sweet drawl seemed lost on them. One or two waved back weakly. At least one was holding up a small rectangle, it looked just like the mobile phone that Casey carried around.
 
Alabama laughed and broke away; she didn't want them to start panicking. Turning south, she steamed towards the entrance of the Mobile River.  A peculiar looking ship lay near the docks, its cannon aimed in the direction she had just traveled from. She wanted to take a closer look, but Casey's request made her pause. Well, she was sure she'd have time to explore more at a later date. In the meantime, she could ask Casey and Sweet when she got back. Setting a leisurely course back for her former dock, Alabama took a moment to feel the sun’s warmth on her skin. She could get used to this.