A/N: So I was feeling in the mood to spread some love to the Sea Patrol fandom. This is just my fluffy what-if-the-boat-never-blew for Jim and Kate.

One More

"One more game?" Jim asked as he shuffled the cards with tremendous ease. He had teased her about that already, jokingly boasting of his reign as the "Uno-King". But Kate McGregor always was a fast learner.

"Why? Up for losing again?" She replied cheekily, flashing him a cheeky smile. He took her quip for an affirmation and dealt two hands, before pointing at her.

"Don't get cocky. We're tied, four-all."

"Bull." She scoffed. "Four-three, Jim. Four-three to me."

"No way." He glanced at his cards, fanning them out in front of him. She copied him, playing a card. It had always been a quick game with them.

"Yes, way." Kate continued as they dealt their cards. "You've only won three times. You finished once with a red draw-two, once with a blue card and once with a wild."

"And with the draw-four." Jim cried, his voice ringing out in the empty house.

"No!" She shouted back as she rose out of her seat to jab a finger into his chest and very nearly upset the deck of cards. "Because I challenged you not saying Uno and we kept playing and I won."

"Lies." He smirked, laying another card flat. "You're such a liar." She raised an eyebrow and hit him with a draw-two.

At the end of the game he swore black and blue that he let her win.

"One more drink?" Kate asked, squinting and holding the bottle of wine up to the light. "Should be enough for both of us."

"Sure." Jim nods, leaning forwards so that she could reach his glass. "I love it when we've both got leave."

"Do you just?" Kate smirked. "And why would that be?"

"Because you're... you're you." Jim gestured to her attire, at the light cream cardigan and her blue jeans. "You let your hair down. You relax. You're not constantly stressing over shipments and tides and... and..."

"And?" Kate prompted, filling his drink. "Come on. Tell me what I do for a living."

"You… you…" Kate's face split into a cheeky grin as she watched him struggle. "You kick arse." Jim murmured, pulling her closer to him. "And I love you for it."

Kate stopped what she was doing, the wine bottle hovering five inches off her glass as she stared at him. "Love?" She repeated.

"Oh," Jim took the bottle from her lightly and rested it on the table. He reached across and took her hand, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of her hand. "I... yeah, Kate. I love you." He rushed to keep talking. "And I don't expect you to say it back. I just..."

But she cut him off with a kiss. It was awkward and unexpected, and she overbalanced, forcing Jim to seize her by the waist and pull her up. "Are you alright?" Jim asked.

"Better than." Kate replied breathlessly as she looked up at him. "I love you too."

"One more time, Jim! One more time and I swear-"

"Don't get angry with me!" Jim cut her off, taking another step towards her. "All I'm asking is-"

"No, I get what you're asking. That's why I'm angry." Kate paced backwards and forwards along the front step, forced to turn in tight circles.

"You can't go on like this!" Jim pleaded with her. "He's making your life-"

"I can handle Mike." Kate snapped back, cutting off his words. "I didn't need you to go over there and give him a black eye."

"He deserved it." Jim muttered, sounding a lot like a child justifying a schoolyard fight.

"Yeah, no arguments about that from me." Kate snarled. "But you can't go knock out my boss."

"He made you cry." Jim pointed out, reaching out to touch her face. She growled and pulled her head away, fury all over her face. "You're stressed. He's working you to the bone. You've been stressing out for weeks now, Kate, and it's not good for you."

"I can take care of myself." Kate snarled, turning away from him and beginning her walk down the path.

"Don't, Kate." Jim moved in front of her to block her path, hands in the air in surrender. "Look, I'll go and apologise to him. I mean it. I shouldn't have hit the prick. You're right. But you need to think about what you want. It's your life."

"Yeah, it is." Kate spat, not quite ready to give up the argument. But he knew her, and he could see the fury leaving her.

"But I want you to... to think about what you want. What you really want. If you want to stay on Hammersley, then I'll support you. But no one is going to blame you if you decide it's time to move on."

"Jim-" Kate began, her voice full of exhaustion.

"Just... no more fighting, okay? I've only got you for another fourteen hours. I want to enjoy my time with you." He pulled Kate into a tentative hug and it was only a moment before she returned it. "So, what did you want to do tonight? Anything you want."

"Uno?" Kate mumbled into his chest.

"Anything but that." He pleaded.

She won that night.

"One more, Smudge. Say it once more." Jim begged as he traced his fingers up and down her ribs.

"I've already said it about fifty times today." Kate laughed, shifting her head to get a better look at him.

"But I never tire of hearing it." Jim smiled.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Kate straddled his waist and leant down to press a kiss to his lips. "Fine," she conceded as they drew apart, her hair brushing his face. "Are you listening, Jim?" He nodded and she lowered her mouth to his ear. "Kate Roth."

"One more sip," Jim instructed, pushing the glass of cool water into Kate's shaking hands. "Come on, it'll make you feel better."

"Nothing is making me feel better. I hate this." Kate moaned weakly. The glass clinked against her teeth. "I'm so sick all the time." The nausea rose again and she rested the glass on the floor next to her, knuckles white against the toilet bowl.

"Well then, our baby is a narcissist." Jim told her as he crouched in front of her. "We'll get used to it."

"We? I don't see you chucking your guts urgh-" She paled once more and then heaved into the toilet bowl, down to bile.

"You told the crew yet?" Jim murmured when she had stopped, brushing the hair out of her face.

"I've told Swain in case there was a… medical problem but that's it. And Maxine. Oh no!" She threw her head over the toilet bowl, but after a few moments she swallowed and pulled back without incident.

"I'll change the nappies for a year, Katie." Jim murmured, forcing the water back into her hands.

"Make it two and we'll be even." She growled darkly at him.

"Two it is, then." He smiled into her hair.

"One more push, Katie. Just one more." Jim whispered, pushing a clump of sweaty blonde hair from her face. "Just one more."

"This is…. The eighth time… you've said… that ow!" Kate let out another moan as the contraction hit, and she turned her attention to getting this baby out as quickly as possible.

"Come on, Smudge. You're almost there. Almost. Just one more."

And so she repeated it in her head over and over again. One more. One more. One more.

And then…

There was the cry. The cry that seemed to fill her heart, her soul. Everything. And she looked down at the baby that was theirs, their child.

"It's a boy." Jim grinned, and she had never seen him this excited, this happy. And indeed, she'd never been this excited and happy. "A little boy."

"One more minute, Ty, and then it's time for bed." Kate called out after the four year old now racing around the yard. "So say goodnight to Daddy's friends." Tyler ran past the group of Jim's workmates and turned back, face full of excitement at having gotten away with mischief.

"Oi! Got you!" Joshua Hunt, one of Jim's workmates, stretched out and grabbed Tyler, easily hoisting him into the hair and tickling him.

"No! No!" Tyler squealed with laughter as he kicked his arms and legs in an attempt to get away.

"Hunt! You wouldn't be winding up my son, would you?" Jim barked, a twinkle in his eye.

"No, Sir." Hunt laughed, flipping Tyler upside down. "I'll put him down now."

"Not like that. On my feet!" Tyler laughed. Scott squirmed in Kate's arms, and with a sigh she put him down too, watching as Scott toddled over to approach his brother.

"Can't believe Scott's walking now." Jim mused as he wrapped an arm around Kate's waist.

"So I'll have three boys running away from me when I tell them that it's bedtime." She pointed out with a smile.

"You saying I'm a boy?" Jim teased, poking her lightly in the ribs.

She squirmed out of his reach and grinned at him. "Well you're certainly not a girl. If I had a girl she'd listen to me."

"Well then, we should have one." Jim snapped his fingers as if a child would materialise out of nowhere.

"What?" Kate crinkled her nose. "Yeah, yeah."

"I'm serious, Smudge." Jim grinned. "We should have another. A girl."

"Are you mad?" Kate shook her head and moved so that she could get a better look at him in the darkness. "You want to have another one? Despite the fact that we would need to move because, unless you get rid of the study, the boys will need to share a room. And then we'll need to get a new car, because three carseats are not going to fit in either of ours. And then on top of that, there's no guarantee we'd actually have a girl."

"I'm feeling lucky." He smirked at her. "And so what? We move some stuff around. But… we'd be together." He raised an eyebrow at her in query. "One more?"

In spite of all that she knew, all that they would have to do, when she looked at her two boys running around the backyard she could almost see the little girl following them. "One more." She agreed.