"What do you think?" Norma Jeane shows off her new dress to Bogg and Jeffrey. They are both speechless. "That good, ha?"
Pam joins them.
"You finally decided to join us?" Bogg asks.
"It was getting cold out. I was thinking, what are we doing for sleeping arrangements?"
"You don't have a cabin?" Norma Jeane stops twirling when she hears.
"We're kind of stowaways," Jeffrey replies.
"Oh, that's not good. I have an idea. Wait here."
Norma Jeane storms off, for however much that is possible in a tight dress. Bogg and Jeffrey look at each other and shrug. The threesome follows her. They see Norma Jeane talking and flirting with a ship's steward.
Bogg spots something in the corner of his eye.
"That can't be," he whispers.
"What is it?"
"Nothing, I hope. You wait here." Bogg runs away. Pam gives Jeffrey a questioning look. He shrugs in response.
-oOo-
Bogg hurries down the corridor in pursuit of the person he thought he saw.
"Drake! I thought it was you I saw slippering down the corridor."
A man dressed in black turns around, a smug smile playing around his lips.
"Phineas, we have know each other for such a long time, and still we aren't on a first name basis? Why don't you call me Harry?"
"It's a name that doesn't suit you. It makes you seem human."
Drake slaps a hand to his chest to show his hurt. "How have you been? That boy still giving you trouble? I could fix that fo--" Bogg grabs Drake by the lapels. "Careful, you'll wrinkle up the suit."
Bogg twists his hands a little more. "If you hurt Jeffrey in any way I'll ... I'll ..."
"You'll what? Hunt me to the end of time? You haven't been very successful at that so far."
Bogg let's go of Drake with a push.
"Besides, I have bigger fish to catch." Drake straightens his jacket. "I also see you've got a new member to your team."
"Don't you dare touch her either."
"Why? Is she your girl-friend?"
"She's a person. And as such off limits to you."
"Such hostility. I don't have time for that. Ta ta." Drake takes his omni and is gone.
-oOo-
"What was it?" Jeffrey asks when Bogg joins them again.
"Humph. Whatever it was it has gone now."
"What did you think you saw?"
"Nothing."
Jeffrey finds this answer very unsatisfactory, but he also knows he isn't going to get a better answer from his friend so he doesn't bother asking for one. Norma Jeane rejoins their little group holding a cabin key.
"Thanks." Pam takes it.
"Phineas saved my life this afternoon. The least I can do is get you a cabin to stay the night. Besides, it gave me a chance to test how good this dress really works."
"It worked like magic," Bogg notes.
"I'm not even a blonde yet."
"A little attitude goes a long way," Pam says.
"I never realized I had this power. And now that I do, I want more. First I'm going to die my hair blonde, and then paint this ship red. Mind if I borrow him for that?" Norma Jeane pulls Bogg on his sleeve.
"He's all yours," Pam replies, giving away what was never hers to begin with.
"But you should change your outfit, Phineas," Norma Jeane coos in his ear. "As an aspiring star I don't think I can be seen with a grown man in a pirate's suit. At least not when I'm not on a movie set."
"Leave that to me." Bogg gives her a wink and sets of in his long stride.
"Hair dying time." Norma Jeane claps her hands. Pam and Jeffrey just laugh at one another.
-oOo-
A few hours later Norma Jeane has become a blonde bomb shell, sex on legs. Pam and Jeffrey are sitting on the bed in her cabin while she practices ways to introduce the new her.
"With a new appearance should also go a new name," Jeffrey suggest.
"Why? What's wrong with Norma Jeane?" Pam asks. Jeffrey nudges her hard in the ribs. Pam throws him a dirty look while rubbing the sore spot.
"Yeah, I think you're right. I need a new name for the new me. I'll think about one. But thanks to the two of you today, the tenth of July 1946, is the day Norma Jeane Dougherty died."
"Spooky," Pam whispers to Jeffrey.
"Very."
"Now I just need to pick out a lipstick color. Which one?" She holds out three lipsticks to Pam.
"I like the red one," Jeffrey says.
"Sure, if you want people not to notice a single word you're saying because they're too busy looking at your lips."
"That's the image I'm going for." Norma Jeane clasps the red lipstick in her hand as an emblem of victory. She heads back to the bathroom.
"One day you are going to regret that people only think of you as a dumb blonde."
"Not one day soon, I think," Norma Jeane replies from the bathroom. There is a knock at the door. "Will you get that? I'm just putting on the finishing touches."
Pam gets up to get the door. She opens it to Phineas Bogg in a tuxedo. Looking handsome as can be.
"Wow!" She lets him in.
"I know." He fixes a cuff link. "I clean up very nice."
"No, I meant wow: you can actually button a shirt." Bogg throws her a look flexing his eyebrows. She starts to smile in return.
Norma Jeane walks back into the room.
"Hello, miss Norma Jeane, am I a suitable escort for you this evening?"
"You will do very well." She takes the arm he offers. "Don't wait up." And they have left.
"So, er, what do we do for dinner?"
"Come, I'll show you."
-oOo-
Pam wakes up from a little noise. It takes her a moment before she realizes where she is. And another few moments before she accepts this. There is another knock at the door. She gets up to answer it. Bogg comes stumbling in.
"I didn't have a key."
"The door wasn't locked."
"You should never leave a door unlocked."
"We figured you didn't have a key. Did you have fun?"
Bogg tries to wrestle off his jacket.
"Very much so. We were the belles of the ball."
"You're drunk." Pam has a good mind to cross her arms and thump her foot impatiently.
"I've only had two glasses of champagne. I'm slightly intoxicated at the most."
"Same difference."
Bogg sits down on the bed to undo his shoe laces.
"What have the two of you been up to tonight?"
"First we scavenged to get ourselves fed. And the rest of the evening Jeffrey kept telling me stories of how great it is to be a Voyager."
"Not convinced you, has he, huh?"
"Nope."
Bogg finishes undressing. "Which side of the bed do you want?"
"The inside."
"Very well." Bogg makes himself comfortable on top of the blankets. Pam slips back underneath the covers. "Nighty-night." Pam growls in reply.
-oOo-
"I just brushed my teeth with a towel," Pam says when she returns from the bathroom the following morning.
"That'll work," Jeffrey replies. He's sitting on the floor tying the laces of his sneakers.
"So, how do you do that when you're voyaging, personal hygiene I mean?" Pam takes a sniff at the arm pit of her shirt before she puts it on. "What about deodorant? Or a fresh set of clothing?"
"Well, we travel a lot to times where most people don't use deodorant anyway."
"That's nice."
"And the time stream kinda works like a washing machine. Every time I come out of it I'm clean as a whistle and my clothes are as good as new."
"A time stream, every home should have one. Don't worry about what the label says, just jump in and be careful when landing."
"Exactly."
"What are we gonna do about our drunken sailor?" Pam nods towards Bogg, who is still sleeping on the bed.
"Let him sleep till he's sober." Jeffrey shrugs.
"I have a better idea." Pam goes back to the bathroom and returns with a glass of water. She throws the water in Bogg's face.
"Huh, what?" He sputters and sits up. "Who did that?"
Pam and Jeffrey immediately point at each other.
"Very mature. I didn't know that you were both thirteen."
"Well, physically I'm not. Mentally I have relapses," Pam replies.
"I'm gonna get you for this." Bogg jumps up. Jeffrey and Pam each run into a different direction. Bogg chases them around the cabin in turn until he catches Pam and pins her to the bed. "How would you like to sleep in the wet spot?" He rubs her face in it. She's laughing so much she can't reply.
"Hey, Bogg. If you get dressed maybe we could go out to get some breakfast."
"Right, kid." Bogg gives Pam another push, gets up and retreats to the bathroom.
Pam sits up, still chuckling.
"You're blushing."
"Oh." Pam feels her face. "I always turn red when I have to laugh." She puts her head in the wet spot to cool her face.
Not much later Bogg, Jeffrey and Pam are enjoying the breakfast buffet when a seething blonde dressed in a long, dark blue pencil skirt and a white shirt approaches their table.
"Phineas Bogg, what did you do? Two ship's stewards just asked me what I was going to sing tonight. Apparently the ship's entertainment for tonight has fallen ill and you told them I could cover for them. Why did you do that?"
"Well, you said you wanted to be a star," Bogg says a little bewildered. "I thought I was helping."
"Well, help me with this ... what am I going to sing tonight? I don't know any songs that go with the new me."
"You can sing anything, Norma Jeane. With your voice you could make Happy Birthday sound sexy."
Pam and Jeffrey chuckle. Bogg and Norma Jeane look at them.
"What?" Bogg inquires.
"Nothing." Pam waves her hand and covers her mouth while she continues her chuckle.
"It was his birthday yesterday," Jeffrey explains. "Why don't you sing for him?"
"Was it your birthday?" Norma Jeane shakes of her anger. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I, er ..." Bogg shrugs.
"You want me to sing for you?" Bogg nods. "All right.
Happy birth-day ... to you." She sings in a husky voice.
"Happy birth-day ... to you
Happy birth-day ... dear Phineas
Happy birth-day ... to you." Norma Jeane blows him a kiss and receives a round of applause that well extends their table.
"Bravo, Marilyn, that was wonderful," Pam says.
"What did you just call me?"
"Uh, sorry, I got confused. I know this girl named Marilyn Parker. You sort of reminded me of her."
"I like the name Marilyn though." She thinks for a moment. "Maybe I should call myself Marilyn Parker? Does that have a nice ring to it?"
"Maybe you should try something that rhymes," Jeffrey suggests.
"Marilyn Parylin," Pam says.
"Rhymes in the front," Jeffrey corrects.
"Marilyn Marker, ouch." Pam rubs her leg where Jeffrey kicked it and throws him an angry look.
"Marilyn Marker, that has a better ring to it. I'll have to think about it. But you're right: I can sing any song I know. Will you help me pick out just the right ones for tonight?"
"Sure." After a song like that, Bogg can only hope for more.
"Would you like to come too?" She asks the other two.
"Count me in," Jeffrey says.
"Count me out," Pam says. "There's a whirlpool on this boat and I'm going to do some serious soaking this morning."
"All right. I'm going to have some breakfast and I will see the two of you..." Norma Jeane points at Bogg and Jeffrey each. "Later." She walks away, and Bogg can't help but follow her sway.