After we finished our whale trip and seal watch, I sat down at the kitchen table (with coffee and Logan, of course) to identify the whales we had seen that day.

I studied a couple potential suspects for the first fluke on our list, but neither of the whales already in the system seemed to match the one that we had seen earlier.

"Hey," Logan said, then pointed at the screen.

"You find something?" I asked.

"Not really, but that one is named Fighter. I desperately need to know the story behind that," he said.

I let out a sigh, but I clicked on the whale anyway. There wasn't much information on him, but I read it for Logan. "He's about fifteen years old, and he attempted to knock over the boat when he was being photographed."

Logan laughed. "He lives up to the name, then.

I nodded without a verbal reply, since there was still work to be done, and I continued scrolling through the whale photos.

"You know, there's always the possibility that the one you're looking for hasn't been identified yet," Logan said, and I looked up from the screen.

"Huh. I guess that's true," I said, then flipped back to the fluke picture I had taken. There were spots that lined the outside of the fluke of the humpback whale, and I hadn't seen any pictures with the same pattern.

Maybe I was the first to find that particular whale. It wasn't a huge accomplishment, but my heart still warmed up with pride.

"So what do you know about it?" Logan asked.

"Well, since it was by itself, I want to guess that it's a male, but that's not definitive. I can get a better idea once I figure out how large the whale was, since the females are a little bigger, or if I can find a picture that goes just below the tail fluke," I replied, and when I looked up at him, I noticed that he was already looking at me.

"Can I name it? I mean, you named my fly trap, so it's only fair if I get to name your whale," Logan asked, and I laughed.

"Sure. You can name it after we determine its sex."

Logan took the laptop from in front of me and tilted it in his direction. "How hard can that be? You took at least ten thousand pictures of it, and—" He trailed off as Darrell entered the kitchen.

"Are you busy right now?" Darrell asked.

Logan looked back at the computer screen. "Well, I'm trying to find a whale penis, so kind of."

"You're not going to find a penis. It's not really good for hydrodynamics for it to just be out in the open like that," I said. "It's just like a seal in that regard."

Darrell nodded. "Maybe you should just leave the whole whale thing to her, since she is much more competent than you'll ever be, and instead come with me. We have some gull recordings that need to be taken, and—"

"What about Jia?" Logan asked.

"She's a bit under the weather right now, and I need someone to carry all of the equipment that I need, which is normally her job," Darrell replied.

"Wow, no wonder she fucking hates you," Logan said as he stood up.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"She said that she's fine, but she's curled up in a little ball that she refuses to move from because she can't stand up," Darrell said, and I shut my laptop.

"That doesn't sound good." I stood up. "I'll go check on her while I wait for you two to finish up your bird thing."

Logan looked over at Darrell. "I'm not going to just carry all your stuff. I'm too qualified for that kind of disrespect."

"You didn't even know that whales don't—" Darrell began, then took in a breath. "Come on, and you're going to have to carry at least three-quarters of the equipment."

"Half," Logan said, and before I had to listen to any more negotiating, I headed upstairs to Jia and my room where she curled up on the bottom bunk.

"You okay?" I asked.

Jia moved her head slightly, and I couldn't tell if it was a yes or a no.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm fine, mostly, except everything hurts and I wish I was dead," Jia grumbled, then poked her head up. "Do you think I'm being a little bitch?"

"Not at all." My hand flew up defensively. "Just explain to me what's actually wrong."

"There's just this pressure—" she winced, "and my piss burns like—"

"Okay, good to know."

With that helpful information, I could diagnose her with—

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Brett said from behind me, and I jumped at the sound of his voice.

Of course. Just the person I wanted to see with just the diagnosis I wasn't about to make.

"Right, you've figured it out. You're a genius, Brett. Get the fuck out of here. Fuck off," Jia said.

"I'm trying to help," Brett said.

"Well, this is clearly a girl talk, and you don't exactly fit the requirement of being a girl to participate. So, off you fuck," Jia said and raised her hand just enough to wave him off.

She was about as good as handling her misery as Logan. Neither one of them was particularly pleasant to be around when they were uncomfortable, but somehow, it always ended up being me who had to be the one to support them to the best of my ability (which was not particularly impressive, according to the data I had collected).

Brett replied with a not-so-friendly gesture, and as he continued down the hall, I took a seat on the floor next to Jia's bed.

"You could have a UTI, Jia," I said. "You'll need some antibiotics to take care of that. But I'm not a doctor, of course, so I probably should just shut up."

"Well, this sucks. I don't like it," Jia said.

"I know."

"It feels like everything is on fire and about to explode."

"I know."

"Have you ever had one?"

"I know. Wait, no." I laughed. "Sorry, I was in listening mode."

Well, I couldn't fix her problem, and I couldn't effectively listen to her vent about it, so what was I even accomplishing?

Jia didn't reply to that; instead, she tucked her head back under the covers to reform her fetal position.

I turned from her and set my gaze on the closest object to me, the garbage can. Jia and I typically didn't produce much trash since there wasn't much to waste out in the middle of the ocean or anywhere to put it really, but it seemed fuller than we ever kept it. Odd.

"Why are there so many gum wrappers in our trash can?" I asked.

"I think those were Hailey's. She and I hung out in here a while when you were downstairs working on your project," Jia replied.

And her germs had just been sitting there for days? I shuddered. Not in my house.

"I need to take out the trash, then. I'll be right back," I said, and before Jia could tell me that it wasn't even close to being full, I scooped it up and took it out into the hallway. I wasn't exactly a neat freak, but it was a little unsettling that Hailey's presence continued on Paradise City, which pretty much took the paradise right out of the phrase. Also, I needed an excuse to leave Jia alone. After further research, I could definitively say that I still sucked at comforting people.

There was also garbage in other rooms in the house, so to make my escape believable, I probably had to get the trash from other rooms. I headed down the hall to Carter and Darrell's room and knocked on the door twice before opening the door. Darrell was with Logan doing their bird-watching thing, and Carter was probably downstairs looking in the microscope like always.

But the room wasn't empty. Carter sat at the desk in the corner, and a tiny little light shone right beside him. He turned to look at me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt whatever you're doing, but I wanted to know if you and Darrell wanted me to, uh, take out your trash," I said.

"We're fine," he replied, then turned back to his work (or whatever strange thing he was up to now).

Beside the desk was the garbage can, and from the way crumpled-up papers spilled over the top, I found it hard to believe that they didn't need the trash taken out.

"You sure? It looks pretty full to me," I said.

He looked down at the can next to him. "Oh, I forgot about that. You can empty it."

He certainly lived in his own little world, didn't he?

"What are you working on now? Normally at this time, you're in the room downstairs looking at copepods and diatoms," I said as I took the trash.

"I've run out of water samples for now," he replied.

I blinked. "We're on an island. We're literally surrounded by water."

His eyes widened in a rare expression of emotion from him. "That's right." He crumpled up a sheet of paper, tossed it into the trash, then headed out the door.

"You know, you could at least recycle that," I said, even though he probably didn't hear me. I picked it out of the can and stuffed it into the trash bag I held. "And people wonder why the world is going to trash."

We didn't even really have the option of recycling, but at least we didn't throw all of our garbage into the ocean. But instead of getting all worked up over that, I decided it would be better for me to collect the trash from Brett and Logan's room.

The door was wide open, and Brett laid on the top bunk with his phone.

"I'm sorry that Jia was snippy with you. She's just really miserable right now, but—" I began, but Brett interrupted.

"It's fine. I'm not mad about it or anything. I was just kinda lonely."

"Oh, I'll hang out with you, if you want."

He smiled. "Yeah, I guess you'll do for now."

"Just let me get your trash. That's the real reason I came in here," I said. It was right by their desk as well, and there were papers stacked on their desk. I picked one up and held it up to the light shining through the window. "What are these? Do you want to keep them?"

"I don't really know. I think those are the letters Logan got from his friends and family," Brett replied.

"Wow, he got a lot of them, then." I leafed through the stack. "Especially for someone who hates people."

"Yeah, there's a reason they're all up here. He, Darrell, Jia, and I didn't want to make you feel bad that all you got that day was a bunch of data for your whales and not a single letter."

I paused. "Oh."

"And I just made you feel bad. I'm sorry, Reagan. I'm so bad at keeping secrets," Brett said.

"It's okay." I let out a breath. "As long as you're keeping my secret, I don't really care."

It was sweet of them to keep my feelings in mind, but I made my choice, and at this point, I was pretty much okay with it.

"Don't worry about that. I haven't told anyone about it." He smiled. "I bet you could find out what he's like off the island by reading a few of those letters."

"I wouldn't do that. I'm sure he's exactly the same here as he is off the island." I thought for a moment. "You don't think he'd change, do you?"

"Reagan, I'm sure I don't have to explain evolution to you. Creatures change to better suit their environment," Brett said.

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that, and I'm not going to—" I looked down at the top letter and trailed off.

Logan,

I'm sure you don't want paragraphs about the way I miss you, so I'll keep it brief. There are no words to describe how I feel without you. Lost, alone, broken. I suppose that twelve years together that suddenly ended would do that to anyone, but as long as you're happy, so am I.

Forever yours,

Morgan

"Who even has time to write letters anyway?" I said with a laugh. Logan's off-the-island girl did, apparently.

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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading and bringing me joy pretty much every week. I really appreciate your ongoing support.

So what's going on here? What's Reagan going to do? So many questions, so little time. I'm not screaming.