Thanks a lot to Emily, who betaed this for me! :)

I hope you guys like it :)

(2340 Words)

Blind Dates

"Come on, Nikki. It's been two years, and you said yourself that you'd like to go out and meet someone," Lieutenant Susan Brooks, a friend of Nikki from Officer's School, exclaimed, leaning over the table to her friend, who didn't look too convinced.

"I did, but I've never had a blind date before. I don't know if that's the best way to get back into business," she replied, stirring her coffee absent-mindly. Susan reached over the table and gently placed her hand over Nikki's free one.

"Look, Nikki, I know you're hesitant, and I can understand. I don't want to pressure you into something, but... there's this friend of mine, he's in the Navy too-"

"I don't know if I want to date someone who is in the Navy again," Nikki interrupted her, biting her lip. The memory of the mess her relationship with Josh had been at times was still vivid, and she'd decided for herself that she never wanted to have something like that again.

"Don't judge him by his job. I mean, it's not the worst, really. You both know how the Navy life is, and would understand if the other one has to leave on short notice. And he's definitely not on your ship," Susan argued, giving Nikki an encouraging smile. "Give him a chance. He is a great guy; mature, supportive, sensitive... and not bad-looking either."

Nikki stared into her coffee for a few moments, pondering Susan's offer. She'd never really wanted to be set up, but given that her job didn't leave her much time to go out and meet someone new, it seemed like her best option. Also, she trusted Susan – they were good friends, and Susan knew her well enough to be able to tell if someone matched her or not.

"And if you two don't click romantically, he definitely makes a good friend," Susan added, causing Nikki to take a deep breath and finally smile.

"Wow, you're really trying to sell him to me, aren't you? Okay, okay, I'll meet him."

It felt good to have finally said it, even though nerves were immediately starting to creep into her mind. While Susan gave her an enthusiastic grin and grabbed her phone to text this friend of hers, Nikki asked herself if she was really ready to date someone again.

OoO

For the seemingly thousandth time, Nikki smoothened her casual blue dress as she walked towards the pub that Susan had named. Susan had taken care of setting the time and place of the date, and Nikki was glad that she'd settled for a casual place like a pub – a few drinks, chatter... nothing fancy, no forced romance. Just two people that wanted to get to know each other.

And still, it felt odd to go on a date again. It was a little bit as if she was betraying Josh, even though she was sure that he wouldn't want her to stay alone forever. And two years of mourning him was a long time; it had been hard to take off the engagement ring. He would want her to move on at some point, to leave the sadness and grief behind her and find someone who made her happy.

But though she was aware of all these things, the feeling of unease still lingered in the back of her mind.

And to say that she was nervous was an understatement – she'd spent hours in front of her closet, trying on different outfits and stuffing nearly all of them back in, some being too casual, others way too dressy for the pub. She'd been looking for something that would make her feel confident and comfortable, but that was hard if you weren't all too sure about the date in general.

Running a hand through her shoulder-length brown hair, which Nikki had curled for the occasion, she entered the pub, clutching her purse a little bit tighter than necessary. Her heart was beating hard in her chest and she tried to calm herself down as she entered the pub and let her gaze wander around, searching.

Susan had texted her while in the cab that her date would wear a grey t-shirt and dog tags, and as it was still early in the evening, the pub wasn't too full and Nikki soon spotted a man sitting a little bit away from the door. He had his head turned away, but the grey t-shirt and the standard dog tags were clearly visible, and while she slowly approached, taking deep breaths to calm herself, Nikki had time to examine him.

His shoulders and chest were broad and muscular, and he looked as if he was a good head taller than her; his hair was shaved short and his skin was nicely tanned, proving how much time he had to be spending working under the Australian sun. And his hands... they looked a bit calloused and rough, but she secretly liked it.

Nikki was only a good meter away from him as he turned his head, looking directly at her, and Nikki's eyes widened in surprise.

"Buffer," she gasped, blinking a few times to make sure that it was truly her ex-shipmate from HMAS Hammersley who was sitting there, looking back at her with the same flabbergasted expression.

"Nav," he replied, getting up from his chair and shuffling awkwardly before he walked around the table, stopping right in front of her. "The world really is small. I'd never thought Susan would set me up with you, Ma'am."

They both started to laugh, feeling some of the odd tension vanish, and Nikki shoved a strand of her hair out of her face, saying: "Well, uh... do we still want to stay the course? I mean, see this as a real... casual date?"

"Why not?" Pete shrugged, smiling sheepishly before reaching out to take her hand. "Hi, I'm Pete."

Nikki chuckled lightly, feeling how all her nerves seemed to fall off her, and shook his hand.

"Hi Pete, I'm Nikki, nice to meet you."

"Oh, the pleasure is mine – you look lovely. Have a seat. What would you like to drink?" Pete answered, pulling back the chair for her before sitting down opposite to her.

"Beer would be great, I think."

"Hey, a beer for the lady, please!"

"So, Pete, what do you do for a living?" Nikki asked playfully, temporarily feeling a little bit of guilt inside of her as she realised that she hadn't really tried to keep in contact with him and the others of the old gang. Kate was the only one with whom Nikki was regularly exchanging emails, even though she would have loved to do the same with some of the other boys.

"Well, I'm still a buffer." Pete sighed after taking a sip from his beer. "Though they promoted me to Chief Petty Officer recently. I'm currently working on the HMAS Wollongong. Nice ship, but not the same as Hammersley."

Nikki nodded, smiling to herself – some things never changed, and she couldn't imagine Buffer in any other job.

"And you?"

The waiter placed Nikki's beer in front of her, distracting her for a short moment, then she focussed on him again.

"Believe it or not, I received my new posting this morning – Executive Officer on the HMAS Hammersley, under a certain Lieutenant Commander Kate McGregor," she grinned, and Pete looked at her with wide eyes.

"No way – I knew that they finally managed to tie the boss to a desk, but I didn't know that X would take over the ship. That's great news, really... are you... are you okay with it?"

The concern in his eyes was obvious, and she knew what he meant, of course. And really, her excitement about her promotion to XO had been a little bit darkened when she'd read the ship's name – after all, this ship was tightly connected to her past with Josh. But on the other hand, it had been the best time of her career. No crew, before or after her Hammersley posting, had been so much like a family to her.

And so she already knew what her decision would be.

"I'm going to accept it." she smiled at him, feeling warmth spread inside of her. She'd nearly forgotten how caring Pete could be, and experiencing it again was truly wonderful. "It's taken some time, but I think it'll be nice to be back on board. Robert's still serving on Hammersley, I think."

"He's part of the inventory by now," Pete winked, and a moment of comfortable silence passed between them as they smiled at each other, thinking of their former shipmates. Then, their smiles simultaneously faltered.

"Swain, did you... were you at his funeral?" Nikki stammered, hating how their conversation was suddenly shifting away from the comfortable lightness. "I... Kate wrote me, but I was on patrol."

"Me too, I... I wished I'd been there."

They were silent for some time, both staring down at their beer bottles, and then Nikki cleared her throat. "Damn. Here we are, having a date and all we talk about is work and death. We should be laughing about the tiny chance of meeting again through being set up. Or talking about things that you normally talk about on a date."

"Yeah, right." Pete chuckled, nodding a little bit harder than necessary, as if he wanted to shake the sadness off.

"So... uh... what do you normally talk about on a date?" Nikki asked, cocking her head to the side slightly. "It's been ages since I last went on one."

"For me too," Pete admitted, giving her an encouraging smile. "And if I'm supposed to be honest, I feel like I once told Susan that we served together on Hammersley."

"You mean you think she did this on purpose?"

Buffer shrugged, looking her directly in the eyes as he replied: "It would be like her. Have you talked about me with her?"

"Well, she definitely saw the crew photo in my flat. And I probably mentioned you a few times..."

Buffer supported his chin with his hand and smiled at her with a slightly cheeky expression as he asked: "You talked about me? So what did you say?"

Nikki rolled her eyes, chuckling, but that couldn't quite mask that she was a tiny bit embarrassed because what she'd said about Pete now kind of fit into the bigger picture of Susan setting them up. Clearing her throat, she answered slowly: "That you're supportive and were always there for me. You're a good listener and helped me when I needed it. And maybe that I regret that I didn't stay in contact with you."

They looked each other in the eyes for a very long moment, and Nikki was glad that she wasn't blushing about the fact that she'd just registered that she hadn't used the word 'friend', unlike a few years ago. Was it true? Had she somehow stopped seeing him as someone who would always only stay a friend for her?

"I think she tricked us," Pete stated matter of factly, and Nikki was glad that he was saying something – because she felt like she only would have been able to stammer, confused by her own feelings.

"I guess so," she mumbled, her fingers starting to peel the label off her beer bottle, only so they would be occupied. She felt like they were stumbling from one awkward topic to the next, and she didn't like that. This was Pete, it should have been easy to speak about all kinds of things with him... He already knew her so well, and she knew him, so why was this so difficult for her?

Maybe, a voice in the back of her head murmured, maybe because something has changed between you.

Nikki let her gaze wander over his face, and felt like he was looking at her in a different way than she was used to. She could remember that he'd given her such a glance before, once, many years ago. Back then, it had made her uncomfortable, but now... now it was really different. The way he looked at her made her feel good, and warm on the inside.

"How about we go for a walk along the water?" she proposed suddenly, desperate for a change of scenery. She wanted to escape the awkwardness this location was holding for her, and maybe the wind would help her clear her thoughts.

OoO

Though Nikki hadn't really had expectations for the evening, she felt like she wouldn't have thought that the evening would progress so nicely once they'd left the pub. They were walking along the water, joking around and talking about movies they'd recently seen. At some point, they started to hold hands, and for Nikki, it didn't feel awkward at all – it was nice how he gently held her hand in his larger one, fingers curled around each other. Pete seemed to sense the speed she was comfortable with, keeping a certain distance from her, not grabbing her too tight, and letting her lead the way. And though Nikki would never have needed him to be so thoughtful, it was nice how he gave her space in case she needed it.

They sat together on a bench, watching how the sun disappeared into the ocean, glowing in the most beautiful colours, and Nikki leaned against his shoulder, relaxing with a small smile on her lips. Maybe it hadn't been such a bad idea from Susan, and she was glad that she'd agreed to this. They would go slow and see what this would lead to. But Nikki already knew one thing: she wouldn't let contact break off for a second time.