A Spider's Reaction

Pairing – MK

Rating – M to be safe but nothing too bad.

A post 'A Brilliant Career' episode story.

Author's note - Many thanks to Cami for the magic red marker.

Disclaimer - I don't own them but I promise to return the crew to the boat when I've finished.

Chapter 1

Barry General Hospital

Sighing, Kate thanked the heavens as she glanced at Mike when they reached the bottom of the final flight of stairs.

The longer they walked the more breathless Mike had become and the more pronounced his limp had appeared despite his best efforts to disguise it. The sheen of sweat forming on his forehead was a dead giveaway that all those stairs had been too much for Mike, even with the distraction of talking about Walsman, the Samaru Islands and the mercenaries.

"I should've picked you up from the main entrance, sir," Kate apologised.

Wiping his forehead, Mike gripped the hand rail as the throbbing pain in his leg increased. "It's all right, Kate. I want to walk out of hospital on my own two feet, unlike how I arrived." He may have fooled the doctors, but it was obvious that he hadn't fooled Kate, despite his best efforts. He'd pushed himself and had told a few white lies to get out of hospital as quickly as possible. The only thing that kept him from going insane with boredom for the two weeks that he'd spent in hospital had been Kate's and his crew's infrequent visits … and the discovery and subsequent suspicious death of the mercenary that Kate had shot … and the way that Ray Walsman's visit had coincided with the man's death.

"Sir, you still would've walked out." Shaking her head, Kate had more proof that Mike was born under the star sign, stubborn. "Just not so far."

"Kate, where's your car?" Mike ignored her but knew she was right.

"Over there, sir." Kate pressed her keys and the silver Volvo's indicators flickered. "Just a moment." She threw Mike's blue backpack on to the backseat, and then she adjusted the front passenger seat back as far as it would go, so Mike's tall frame could easily fit in her small car.

With a bit of struggle and a few over the top melodramatic grunts, Mike slid into the front passenger seat. "Should've driven my car."

It was Kate's turn to ignore his light-hearted barb as they drove to Mike's house.

After changing into some comfortable long shorts, Mike collapsed on to his couch, relieved to be home at last as he rested his foot on the coffee table. The heavy denim fabric of his jeans had rubbed the still healing wounds on his left thigh.

He could hear Kate pottering about in his kitchen. "Kate, what are you doing?"

Closing the fridge, Kate replied. "Checking what you need, Mike." She thanked her lucky stars nothing had gone off. Mike hadn't had too many perishables in his fridge, just a slightly wrinkled apple and an extremely limp carrot.

"And so what do I need?"

"Almost everything. The cupboard and the fridge are empty. You do have, for some unknown reason, a lot of beer and wine."

Mike was happy that the he'd taken care of the important things. "All I want now is a cold beer."

Like any good X, Kate had anticipated his request and was already walking into the living room, carrying his brew. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Mike savoured the cool amber liquid. It had been too long between drinks.

Knowing how terrible hospital food was, Kate picked up her keys. "I better do your shopping so you can have something decent to eat."

"Don't worry, Kate. Leave it." Mike was tired and really didn't have much of an appetite anyway. He couldn't help but notice the dark circles under Kate's eyes. She looked exhausted too. Breaking in a new CO was hard work under normal circumstances, but when the new boss had an undiagnosed brain tumour that had made his behaviour increasingly erratic, it was no wonder she looked completely knackered. He tried his luck, hoping that she'd keep him company. He didn't want to drink alone and he was in no condition to go to the pub with his crew yet. "Please stay. I'm happy with pizza if you are."

"Okay. Pizza it is." Returning with her own beer, Kate sat down next to Mike. Worn out, once she sat down on his comfortable sofa, she knew she was unlikely to move for several hours. She was happy to accept his invitation to stay because she really didn't want to fight an unwieldy shopping trolley or deal with screaming toddlers in an overcrowded supermarket on this night.

The last two weeks had been hell. She was tired, but at least NAVCOM had come to their senses and had given the crew two weeks leave considering what had happened in the Samaru Islands and then with their replacement CO. Then, she'd endured an extremely difficult debriefing from Marshall. It wasn't surprising considering the Navy had a dim view on mutiny, no matter how justified.

"Good." Mike half smiled as he turned on the TV, flicking through the channels.

Kate grinned, recalling an incident in a secluded pizza bar years ago. "No hairy fish."

Mike laughed. "You remember that?"

In a pizza bar near Watson Bay, a younger and yet strident, Kate had called him very strange and a few other things, for ordering the horrendously sounding 'Death by Hairy Fish' pizza. It had been an all anchovy pizza - his favourite. If he'd been honest, he'd thoroughly enjoyed just provoking her, just to see the fire and passion in her eyes. She'd looked so damn sexy, and it had been the first time that Mike had realized that he'd fallen in love with Kate. He'd seen that fervour a few times since she'd been on his boat and it brought back a flood of warm memories, but also a mountain of regrets too.

"How could I forget? It nearly made me throw up." Despite the pizza, she remembered how happy she'd been at that time. They'd made love for the first time that night. She beamed, remembering all the sensations of the passion they'd shared for each other. Kate had known exactly what Mike was doing and why, and she'd been only too happy to go along with it just to see his crooked smile light up his handsome face and the twinkle in his eyes when he thought she hadn't been looking. She missed how easily they'd connected and the feelings he provoked in her.

"Be prepared, I'll be ordering my favourite ..." Mike smirked as he paused for effect. "'Death by Hairy Fish' anchovy pizza."

"Yuk!" Screwing her face up in disgust, Kate said, "You're still weird."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Crossing his arms, Mike put on his best toddler impression. "I am not!"

"How old are you?" Kate shook her head, but unable to hide her mirth. Maybe she should take him shopping so he could show a toddler how to act.

Mike phoned the pizza delivery company.

"So what's the plan while you're on medical leave?"

"I've got exercises I need to do every day I see a physio twice a week." Mike wasn't looking forward to the rehab exercises sessions with the physio. He knew it was necessary if he wanted to get back on the boat as soon as possible. Just the thought of the physio's thumbs digging into his scars was enough to make him wince now. Mike shifted position on the couch as the ache in his thigh grew, rubbing his leg, dragging the material of his shorts up with each stroke, exposing his thigh.

"Oh … God." Kate cringed. For the first time, she saw the pair of horrible reddish scars where the hot shrapnel had cut a ragged path through his thigh. Both jagged marks were around ten centimetres long and each still had the dotted lines of the staples running on both sides of the main incision mark. Just a decade ago, this type of wound would have cost him his leg and probably even his life. A chunk of ragged metal had nicked the popliteal artery. Only Swain's skill and the new emergency medical technology born out of the modern battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan had prevented Mike bleeding out in the wardroom.

Unable to prevent the flashback, Kate paled as the blood drained from her face, unable to look away. Jumbled painful memories played over and again in her mind.

The fireball of the white Ute exploding on the dock.

The thud of Mike hitting the ground.

Mike's dark, crimson blood staining his grey overalls. His very lifeblood oozing so quickly through Bomber's fingers despite best her efforts to stem the flow.

Swain's stressed voice as he answered Fleet Medical's questions.

In her slightly better nightmares, he'd lost his leg, his job and his sanity, but in the truly terrifying ones, Swain and Bomber had been unable to save him and he'd died on the boat, in the place where they'd had so many lively rip snorting debates about missions and so many other things. It had been no wonder that she'd found going into wardroom difficult and sleep elusive.

Shaking her head to rid herself of those morbid thoughts, Kate tried to recall the huge relief she'd felt the first time she'd seen Mike awake after his surgery. It had been the moment she'd actually believed that he'd survived, but the fear of how close he'd come to dying had made ridding her mind of those awful and realistic thoughts almost impossible. It scared her far more than she'd ever care to admit. Although not religious, she'd prayed to whatever particular deity had happened to be listening to her for him to survive, unable to contemplate what the hell she'd do if he'd had died. Now the guilt welled up with how little she'd thought about Jim as she'd focussed completely on Mike. Kate realized now that she was in big trouble. Despite her attempts to move on, she was still very much in love with Mike. It was undeniable.

The deathly white look on her face nearly killed Mike, hating seeing her in pain. He took her hand and rested it on his damaged thigh. "Kate, it's all right. I'm okay."

He could only imagine what she'd gone through. Mike remembered vaguely saying something to Jim in the back of the Ute as they'd headed to the dock, but he had no memory of getting out of the Ute, the mortar explosion or its aftermath. But he knew Kate would've seen it all from the Bridge. It must've been horrendous for her, watching it all unfold, unable to do anything to stop it. Somehow, she'd finished the job and got his boat and his crew home. Marshall had filled him in on how professionally Kate handled everything, just as Mike had known she would. To be honest, the way he felt now as he held her hand, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to do the same if she'd been the one hurt.

"Mike … I thought I'd lost you," whispered Kate.

"I'll be fine. Really. Now that you're here. With me." Mike squeezed her hand, reassuring her, and more importantly, to himself that they were there together. His thumb slowly rubbed the back of hers. He had been grateful to Jim though despite their cool relationship. While Mike had been in hospital, Jim had come to thank Mike for saving his life. Jim had told him what had happened in the wardroom, and in typical gung-ho SAS fashion, Jim had told Mike what he should do about it. And, Jim had been a hundred percent right. After this particular near death experience, he finally realised that life was far too short to put the Navy above his chance of the love of a beautiful woman and a lifetime of wonderful memories.

Although Mike had no memory of anything Kate said on the boat, the first thing he'd recalled had been her hand squeezing his hand in hospital. Even through the fog of pain and the drugs, he'd recognized her touch, her delicate hand on his, and it had calmed him, bringing him peace, knowing that he was still alive, and perhaps he'd something to live for.

Kate moved closer to him, sliding her arms around him, drawing him into her, and then she rested her head gently on his broad chest. She wanted to hear his heart beat, to convince herself that it wasn't a sick nightmare. She needed the final proof that he was okay. And he was. His strong heartbeat was a tonic to her soul, filling her with a sense of peace that she hadn't felt for years. Her hand feathered along his cheek and then wove through his dark hair, moving him closer to her, as she searched his face for any hint of doubt, but only found love.

Mike edged closer too, his gentle fingers caressing her face and neck as his lips closed in on hers. Kate's warm breath tickled his face. The look of love in her green eyes astounded him. He was hers totally, and realised that she was his. "I love you, Kate."

The distance between them finally closed, they kissed, and then they were one.

With his arms around his Kate, caressing her back, he enjoyed how wonderful she felt against him as Kate snuggled in as close as she could. It had been far too long since he'd felt her next to him. Her scent hadn't changed. He couldn't deny it or her anymore.

Content, Kate relaxed completely comfortable in his arms.