Jane had moved to Greenbank to begin working at Stena Drilling Oil company in Scotland after having been noticed for her hard work at their sister company in the U.S. She always told herself that this was temporary and that she would never go out in the ocean, but here she was on a helicopter taking her out above the South Atlantic. frost covered most of the windows and she tucked her coat under her chin as she began to tremble; she liked the cold, but would she be able to survive this for eight weeks? She was an engineer who'd be placed primarily on the top control deck, overseeing and making sure nothing went wrong.
"Do ya have a family you're going back tah?" the man to her right asked, in a thick accent.
After taking this job, she never realized how different their accents would be, or how hard it could be to understand someone apparently speaking English.
"Excuse me?" She asked, seeing the blue helipad through the fog off in the distance.
He smiled kindly, "Do ya have a family to go back tah?" He said slower, "It helps to have somethin' to look forward tah when you sequestered on a rig for a while."
She smiled back when she finally pieced together what he'd asked her. "Oh! No, I'm afraid not."
Jane hadn't been with anyone for a few years, dating or for simply a hookup. She didn't personally like the idea of a hookup having decided to just wait to be intimate again till she was married. She was twenty-six and anyone who asked similar questions always looked surprised when she told them she was alone.
"Well, who knows - you might find a man here." he laughed as they touched down on the helipad.
She laughed back, forgetting that the majority of this rig was men who hadn't been with women for months. The idea sent a shiver down her spine as she climbed out of the chopper and onto the wet concrete. The Rig manager, Paul, came out to welcome her personally after having heard all the great things she's accomplished from his bosses in Maine. They advised him to personally groom her to become a Chief Engineer after seeing her skills firsthand during a drilling disaster back in Athens. Paul showed her around the top deck and showed her where she'd spend half of her time working, the other half she'd spend below in what he called the Leccy - A nickname for Electrical. It was one of four rooms similar to the one up top, but slightly smaller and a lot darker. Paul hardly ever went below deck, not that he wasn't supposed to, just that he chose not to.
Jane would be working in a team of Engineers, split into two for the left side of the rig and the right. Each staking claim over two "Leccy" control rooms, and a few switching between the top and lower deck. The Chief Engineer she'd be working under was a tall, muscular, and very rugged-looking man by the name of Gerard, who towered over Jane by at least a foot. He smiled down at her, his eyes wandering over her body when no one was looking, and the smell of her perfume made his mind wander. After Paul was done with whatever 'this-rig-is-a-family-speech' he had rehearsed, he told Gerard to show Jane the ropes and where she'd be sleeping.
For the first time in five years working with Paul, Gerard didn't talk back or refuse one of his bogus orders, even when he knew he wasn't in charge of the welcoming committee. He advised everyone else to get back to work while he made his way around with Jane, showing her the cantine, the bathrooms, laundry, and any other common area he could think of as she was distracting to be around. He'd been working since four that morning and wondering if he smelled as bad as he felt. They both hardly spoke to one another as she felt intimidated by him and he was overwhelmed with an unfamiliar desire for her. Much like Jane, Gerard was recruited in his twenties, and after a year of grunt work and training, he became a chief engineer when he turned twenty-four to replace someone going into retirement from an opposite schedule. He figured Jane was here for the same purpose, probably to replace Mandy who announced her retirement at the beginning of their stint.
At the end of their tour, he showed her where she'd be staying. "This room is yours, you can decorate it however ye like. If ye need duct tape to hang anything up, like pictures or posters - it should be in the drawer otherwise just let me know and I'll getcha some." He said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Thank you, Mr.?"
"McCleary, but you can just call me Gerard like everyone else." He said.
She smiled, and his member shifted in his jeans. "Thank you, Gerard."
"Word of advice, Lass- take today to get yer bearings. Walk the halls, along the route you'd take between the Leccy's and alternate ones in case of emergency. Get something to eat, get some sleep, and I'll see you in the mornin' at four o'clock sharp. Alright?"
Gerard's presence made Jane tremble, and not out of fear. She didn't know why she felt this way, but she hoped he just copped it up to the cold. He was handsome in his ruggedness, and how he had to bend his neck to not hit the door frame which made the muscles in his back flex. She didn't dare to speak, afraid that her voice would give away her sudden desire for a total stranger.
Over the next couple of weeks, she fell into a routine of waking up at three o'clock and working alone with Gerard for an hour before going to the top deck to turn on the equipment for everyone who had to wake up at 5:30am. She'd then go down for breakfast at six in the morning with part of her group, apart from Gerard who usually decided to sit alone. But over time, they both decided to open up and she began to pick up that he had feelings for her, or maybe lust for her. Not that she blamed him as he'd been working on the rig a few weeks before she showed up and figured he was getting a little restless, not that he actually wanted anything more to do with her. But he then started to refer to her as his ròs àlainn Beurla, which she didn't know the meaning of, even when she asked he'd simply laugh and walk away.
One night at the end of their shift, she found him with a few other men in the cantine drinking and laughing. When he saw her he said, "There's my girl! What brings you down here?" He asked as he pulled her down on his lap. She struggled against him, smiling sheepishly at the contact, but knowing he was too drunk to grasp what he was doing. But it didn't stop the way her heart raced when he referred to her as his girl.
"Just came for something to eat." She replied and the men laughed and asked for her to join them.
"No thanks, I have an early morning, and so do you," She said to Gerard, who gave her a chased kiss on her neck.
"Tell me, lass, when are yeh gonna let me marry you?" he asked.
