Return to the fleet

Raising Arizona

Pearl Harbor.

Long-term care wing.

"Where... am... I...?"

A super-dreadnought girl blinked lightly on an elevated hospital bed, her body feeling extremely heavy.

Sunlight shone through an open window to her left as she could hear someone reading softly next to her on the right.

"Tennessee...? Is that you?" Arizona asked weakly as she turned to the southern voice.

"Arizona?! You're awake!" The blonde jumped to her feet in complete shock as Tennessee couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Keep it down will ya'?" Arizona groaned loudly as she tried sitting up.

"Please don't move too much, the doctors say you need more bed rest." Tennessee lied, like she had to the others, trying to lay the dark-haired girl back to the bed as Arizona shrugged her off.

"I don't need more bed rest, it feels like I've been...." Arizona paused suddenly, realizing she didn't even know how long she had been out for.

"Tennsy... How long has it been?" The blonde swallowed deeply as she took Arizona's hand.

"You've been in a coma for almost 3 years darlin'...." Arizona's dark green eyes widened slowly as she pulled away from Tennessee.

"Knock it off! Ya' lying!" Arizona yelled, yanking plugs from her body.

"Please Arizona you need to?!" Tennessee tried to calm the angered girl down when the door opened behind them.

West Virginia and Nevada marched into the room first with Okie behind them.

"It's your turn to clean her!"

"No, it's yours!" The two tomboys barked at one another, trying to push a bucket of hot soapy water back and forth between them.

"Arizona?" The blonde-haired Sooner asked strangely as the bucket dropped to the floor, splashing water everywhere.

"Y-You're really awake?!" West Virginia couldn't believe it either as the three rushed to Zona's bed and hugged her.

"Well the cat's outta' the bag now, Tennsy will you go get the others and grab me a sandwich, I'm starving." The blonde dixie girl nodded with a smile as Arizona looked to the others calmly now.

"Has it really been three years?"

Soon all of her Pearl sisters but Tennessee stood around Arizona as they all smiled happily.

"Hey Kid, how you doing?" Her sister Pennsylvania said softly, even though she knew Arizona hated that nickname given to her by her Shipyard Brooklyn Yard.

"Good." The dark-haired girl nodded evenly at her sister ship and looked over at Okie to her left, holding a newspaper in her hands.

"Can you believe it Arizona! You're famous! You're face was on every paper in America!" Arizona just shook her head embarrassingly as she saw the picture of her directing the others during the attack as West Virginia, Nevada, and Tennessee were also in the picture.

"A million words couldn't explain that picture."

"But all this would have cost so much money, why did...?" Arizona said sadly as it didn't make sense to fix her honestly.

"That's what the Navy said, but when the president of the United States saw the reel of you fighting, even when you took the biggest GODDAMN hit of all of us, he wanted you raised and put back together to show that nobody fucks with union." Nevada sneered viciously as the others nodded in agreement.

"So the Navy said then, maybe we should make you into a Memorial, but when all the American people saw the reel, and with the president's blessing, We rallied behind having you rebuilt. We reached out across the United States and they sent the best medical ships, retro-fitters, ship-builders, machinists, everyone from Brooklyn to Bremerton to have you rebuilt!" Maryland smiled widely.

"She looks weird...." West Virginia spoke up rudely as California punched her hard in the shoulder.

"What is she talking about?" Arizona looked around as Pennsylvania handed her a mirror and spoke softly.

"Don't be too surprised now."

"Ha! Trying to scare me Penny, good one!?" Arizona looked down into the mirror as she had to tilt it more.

"AHHHHH! I'M BIGGER!" Arizona couldn't believe it, lifting the mirror to her face as she yelped again.

"Since your keel and bow was so badly... They grafted an Iowa-class bow to your chest and reinforced your keel, so naturally they had to lengthen you a bit." Pennsylvania spoke again, looking at the others in different emotion states.

That's when Arizona noticed a small set of veins crawling up her neck from underneath her hospital gown.

"What the hell?!" Arizona suddenly rip the front of her gown off as it revealed a giant scar in the middle of her chest.

Hushed gasps and slight sobs filled the small hospital room now as Arizona used both of her hands to feel over the massive scar.

"I should be...."

Arizona couldn't stop staring at the scar as she heard the rustling of clothes around her.

She looked up to see all the others lifting their shirts and pulling their sleeves up to show the wounds they had received from that day of infamy.

"Not cool man." California even turned around and lowered her shorts as she had taken torpedo to the right butt cheek.

Oklahoma and West Virginia had horrible matching scars as they ran the length of their port-side's.

"Well girls, doesn't look like any of us are getting hitched anytime soon..." Arizona said somberly as even after 3 years of nothing, she hadn't lost her edge.

"Anyway, what have you all been up to?" The group made small talk as Tennessee eventually reappeared with a female doctor and nurse in tow.

"I'm back." The Dixie girl had a cold bottle of coke and a sandwich in her hands as she handed it them to Arizona, sitting patiently on the bed.

"Sorry for the wait, I hope it's still your favorite." Tennsey smiled at the dark-haired girl ripping open the wrapper.

"Pastrami, provolone, and mustard you know me too good Tennsy. Thank you." Tennessee blushed deeply as a stern-looking Red Cross doctor pulled up next to super-dreadnough's bed.

"Hello Miss Arizona, glad to have you back with the living." Arizona didn't pay the doc no mind, taking another mouth full of her sandwich and moaned loudly.

"Now, you've undergone some intense refitting and overhauling...." The doctor continue to drone on as Arizona pointed the coke to West Virginia silently.

The mountain girl grinned widely, taking the top off with her teeth and handing it back.

"She really shouldn't eat that, her body isn't!?" The nurse reached for the sandwich as a hand swiftly grabbed her wrist midway.

The stunned nurse looked up to see Oklahoma slowly shaking her head at her with glaring blue eyes. Arizona didn't stop, then paused for a long drink.

After a massive belch, she looked to Pennsylvania with a smile.

"Is it okay if I go out and get my feet wet Flagship Penny?" Arizona chuckled lightly as Pennsylvania slowly shook her head.

"Why ask me? You're the flagship of the US Pacific Battleship Fleet now Kid." Pennsylvania smiled lovingly, handing her sister a new gown as West Virginia quickly got a wheelchair.

"We make for docks ladies!"