The boss and the X were the only two on the bridge deck of the HMAS Hammersley. Everyone had gone down for some dinner in the rec room and RO had just gone to join them after handing them a message from NAVCOM. They were discussing how to deal with a new personal problem that had only just arisen for one of the crew members.
"How are you going to tell her?" asked the X.
"Me? I thought you could tell her. What, with the two of you being cabin mates, good friends and two of the three female officers on board, right?" asked Mike.
"Yeah...good friends. Will she get time off?" replied Kate.
"Of course. As long as she needs. I'll turn her around so we can head back to port. No doubt Nikki will want to get home as soon as possible. She can be relieved from duty until we get back as well," answered Mike.
"I'll go talk to her now and send Spider and Buffer up when they have finished eating," explained Kate, solemnly leaving the bridge to go find the Nav.
"Kate," said Mike, catching her attention. "If she breaks down, you stay with her."
It took her all of five minutes to find Lieutenant Nikki Caetano giving Spider and ET flak, with the rest of the crew in the rec room laughing. She let them continue for a few minutes before breaking it up, receiving a small 'thank-you ma'am' from a red faced Spider and a small smile from ET.
"Nav. Can I see you for a minute?" asked Kate.
"Sure. Excuse me, Buff," replied the small navigator. The man sitting next to her gladly moved and even took her plate back to the kitchens for her.
Just as the two were about to leave, Kate turned back to the group of boys. "Spider and Buffer on the bridge when you're done."
"Yes, ma'am," replied Buffer. "Let's go, Spider Man."
Upon entering their shared cabin, Kate could feel Nikki standing directly behind her as she shut the door for some privacy, the younger woman's eyes burning her back. When she turned round, there was the Nav staring at her with a smirk on her face. Flirting had been going on for weeks seeing as Nikki had given upon ET after he arrived back on the Hammersley when he should have been on submarines.
"You do know that if you wanted to get into my pants, or in this case overalls, all you had to do was ask," said Nikki, taking a few steps back to lean against the bunks ladder.
"I wasn't aware that you were that easy," replied Kate, smiling softly. She waited for a beat before continuing, "Nikki, something has happened."
"What do you mean?" she replied, climbing onto the top bunk, her bunk, to sit on the edge and look down at her Executive Officer. Being on a first name basis with your X while out on duty was never a good sign.
"There has been an accident back on shore. A car crash," started the blonde. Before she could go on, she was cut off.
"Who is it?" asked Nikki, getting straight to the point. After a moment without an answer, her voice raised slightly. "Who?"
"Nikki, I'm so sorry. Both of your parents. Head on with a truck, apparently on their way to pick up...Lachlan," she explained, handing Nikki the paper she as reading from.
As Nikki reached for the paper, the realisation of her parents hit her, tears freely ran down her cheeks. Kate noticed that she was slightly swaying and only barely managed to grab her as she slipped from her perch on the top bunk to collapse on the cabin floor. Catching her was the hardest part. Getting her from the floor to the bottom bunk was easy because of her state of shock.
The young Navigator had completely broken down and it was getting harder and harder for Kate to manoeuvre Nikki. Minutes past as her violent shakes subsided to softer ones and after moving and grabbing a look at her watch out of curiosity, Kate saw they had been there for nearly two hours already, sitting and rocking together.
"I need you to sit up. Nikki, sweetie, come on. Sit up for me," pleaded Kate, unlacing the boots sitting in her lap. Placing them to the side, she reached forward to pull the buttons loose from each other on the gray overalls. Brown eyes caught blue and Kate spoke up again. "You'll be more comfortable in your own clothes to have a lie down."
Bringing her hands up to wipe her damp cheeks, she caught the X's wrist as the older woman stood to open the wardrobe for some clothes. "You'll st-stay right?"
"Of course, I will. Why don't you splash some water on your face and I'll get you some clothes, 'k?"
Sauntering over to the small bathroom, Nikki turned the tap on and out in the cabin, Kate rang the bridge to let the CO know she would be staying in her cabin for the night.
After they had changed, both in sweat pants and a RAN t-shirt, Nikki went to climb back up to her bunk.
"Hey, come here," said Kate softly, pulling on Nikki's waist from behind and directing her to the lower bed. Kate climbed under first and held the blankets up for Nikki to slip under. "Come and lay down here."
Kate was on her back, Nikki on her side snuggled into the blonde with an arm hanging loosely over her waist. Fingernails softly scratching back and forth up the Navigators arm and one up and down her back.
It wasn't long until stared shaking again with tears and grief. All the blonde could do was hold the distraught navigator.
Morning arrived slowly for Nikki and Kate, with Nikki crying most of the night. It was close to 5 am and Kate had fallen into a light sleep only minutes before. Nikki was still awake, head on the X's shoulder, a distant look on her face. Seconds later, the phone which was just feet from their current
position, rang quietly, but loud enough to wake Kate and sound like a bullhorn right next to Nikki's ear.
Stupidly reaching out in the dimly lit cabin for the phone, Nikki's fingers just touched the edge of the cradle when it fell, onto the desk below it and straight to Kate's head. The brunette winced at this.
Pulling it from its resting place, Kate mumbled, "X here."
"Yep," she said into the phone. Kate gently moved some hair from Nikki's face, "Alright, thanks Buff. I'll let her know."
"There was a message for you to call home as soon as possible. Your brother," whispered the X. "I'll go get us some coffee and you can take the call."