A/N: This is the third story in my AU Kate series. The other two stories are Sweeter Far Than Flowing Honey and Having New Eyes. It's not necessary to read those stories to get this one (although I'm really proud of how I rewrote the end of Twilight to make it all work, but the basics are that Kate wasn't killed in Twilight. Ziva stopped Ari from killing her, and things progressed with Kate staying on the team. Ziva was added in later, so she's there, too. In this story, Kate has taken an Agent Afloat assignment and this mostly takes place after she's been at sea for six months. Yes, the rest of the team is there, too.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of its characters, and I'm still not making money.

Losing Sight of the Shore
by Enthusiastic Fish

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."
Andre Gide

Chapter 1

The ocean was always different. From one moment to the next, it was never the same. At the same time, the days could pass with it looking exactly like it had the day before. It was a paradox, but that was the ocean itself. A beautiful, dangerous, exciting paradox.

Kate inhaled deeply, smelling the salty air, feeling her hair blowing back behind her. She kept it in a ponytail most of the time, but sometimes, it was just nice to let it stream out free in the wind. After six months at sea, she could really understand why Stan loved it so much. At first, she had been reticent to walk around the ship, worried that she'd do something that would make her look silly, for fear of losing the respect of the sailors. As the Agent Afloat, she was keenly aware of her role as the sole investigator in the entire carrier group.

...but she had lost that worry after a few weeks. She was in a position of authority, and so far, had been treated with respect. So she had spent one of her days off walking through the entire carrier, investigating all the nooks and crannies she could find. She had got lost multiple times, but she was just wandering; so it didn't matter so much.

On deck, she found places where she could get an amazing view without being in anyone's way...a view like she had right now. There was the barest hint of clouds on the horizon and the only encumbrances to the horizon were the other ships in the carrier group. She would never have thought that such a sight would be beautiful to her...but it was.

"Agent Todd!"

She turned.

"Yes, Ensign?"

"The skipper needs you on the bridge."

Kate nodded in acknowledgment. The ensign turned and headed back to his post. Kate took only enough time to pull her hair back into its usual ponytail before following after him.

"Skipper?" she asked once she got onto the bridge.

Captain Warren Jones, the skipper, ran the HST like a well-oiled machine. The crew respected him, and he deserved it. He'd been assigned to the carrier for fifteen years and had a lot of experience. He looked up from a readout.

"Agent Todd."

"What is it?"

"The exercises have been cancelled."

"Why?"

He handed her the papers. It was a weather forecast. Kate grimaced. She didn't like what the Doppler was showing. Those deceptively distant clouds were more than a pretty view.

"That looks like a bad blow, Skipper."

"Yep. Came up too suddenly. Can't avoid it, but we can be smart and batten down the hatches."

"So...why tell me separately? You'll make an announcement to the whole ship. I could have learned then."

"The CMC has informed me that there could be some trouble."

"Paulson and Rossi, again?" Kate asked. The two petty officers had fallen out over a girl and had actually come to blows over her.

"Exactly."

"I thought they'd worked through that."

"So did I, but scuttlebutt says otherwise."

"What do you want to do about it? I can't punish them for the potential of something going wrong. Scuttlebutt has gone astray before."

Capt. Jones smiled.

"Obviously. I want you to be aware of it. If we're shut down for a couple of days, this has the potential to blow up out of proportion to the issue."

"Understood."

"While we're preparing for the storm, I don't anticipate any problems. Everyone will be too busy. It's while we're waiting for the storm to pass that I think we could run into a problem."

"Another fight between those two and they could get into more trouble than they want."

"I know that, and they're both good sailors. I'd hate to see them ruin their future in the Navy because of a girl. ...no offense, ma'am."

Kate smiled. "None taken."

"This'll be your first real experience with bad weather out here. You ready, Agent Todd?"

"I'm ready, Skipper."

"That'll be all, then. I'd recommend that you secure your quarters."

"Will do."

Kate left the bridge and headed for her only private space on the carrier. It was small, but she had it carefully organized and, since it was her own, she treasured it. Quickly, she secured her clothes and the few knick-knacks that she had brought with her. There were some photos taped to the wall above her desk. Mostly, they were NCIS pictures. She had pictures of all of her friends there, plus one of Stan. She'd also hung a framed family photo above her bed. She smiled at it and then took it down and put it in the drawers under her bed. Better safe than sorry.

After that, she went to her office and secured her space. Again, better safe than sorry. That was her mantra for a lot of things on the HST. It was better to stop problems before they started, before they could decide to become problems. That brought her thoughts around to Paulson and Rossi again.

Kate decided to take some time to go through her notes again. The CMC was on top of scuttlebutt, but even he had been taken by surprise by the animosity that had suddenly arisen between the two men. She'd never liked it, but beyond the feeling that there must be something more to it than a fight over a girl, she'd had nothing to support her suspicions.

She looked at the notes she'd taken on the initial incident. Rossi had suddenly taken a swing at Paulson in the middle of the flight deck. Luckily, there had been no serious injuries, but they had both got into it. Paulson ended up with a black eye and a bloody nose. Rossi had ended up coming into close contact with the flight deck and had been knocked out. Both had been put in detention. Both had talked about a girl Rossi had been dating back home who had apparently made the switch to Paulson.

On a whim, she looked at the name of the girl they'd given: Deirdre Lee Mason. Ideally, she could look up this woman herself, but the Internet connections weren't always the best, and with communications among all the ships in the group, it could easily become difficult to make those connections.

Then, she smiled to herself. What better excuse to contact NCIS than to ask someone to look some information up for her? Kate knew she didn't really need an excuse, but she didn't want to abuse her position by taking up bandwidth chatting, particularly when the sailors had to wait in line to contact their families.

But if she was going to do this, she'd better get it done before the storm hit.

Decision made, she headed for the Communications Department. She waved to a couple of the men on duty. They knew her. There was a space available and so she sat down and dialed one of the numbers she knew very well. She would have been happy to call anyone back at headquarters, but she did have a specific request in mind.

The phone rang and rang and rang. She was about to assume that no one was around.

"Agent McGee's desk. This is Officer David."

"Ziva!" Kate said in surprise. "Where's Tim?"

"He is down with Abby. What is it?"

"I need to get some information."

"About what? Perhaps I can help?"

"You probably could, although I didn't think you enjoyed computer searches very much," Kate said with a smile.

Ziva chuckled.

"No, I do not. I have threatened to kill my computer more than once, but if it is not complicated..."

"It's not, actually. I just need to get some information about a woman by the name of Deirdre Lee Mason. She should be somewhere around Norfolk."

"What is it that you are wanting?"

"I have two sailors, Craig Rossi and Quint Paulson who were apparently fighting over her, but something doesn't feel right to me, something about their stories doesn't work. If I'm wrong, fine, but scuttlebutt is saying that these two might be going at it again, and I don't want that to happen."

"I will look."

"Thanks, Ziva. We've got a storm headed our way; so you may not be able to get through. It's not a huge rush, but whatever you can find."

"Do not fall off the boat."

Kate laughed. "I won't. Bye."

She disconnected and went out on deck again. Off in the distance, she could see the clouds. They stretched out as far as she could see.

The storm was coming, and that meant some rough seas and no port in sight.