Morton Residence

Chip and Lynsey had returned from their honeymoon just over a week ago. Chip stood in front of the mirror fixing his tie as this was his first day back at work after his sick leave. He had to admit he was a little excited to get back. Lynsey had been right, as always Chip thought, that he needed the break before returning to duty. He finished getting ready and made his way downstairs to have some breakfast.

Lynsey was fixing pancakes for breakfast to help Chip face his first full day at work in two months. They had had a lovely time in San Francisco and she didn't want to ever forget it but today things were about to get back to normal.

Chip walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of juice and sat at the counter.

"You made pancakes?" He asked with a smile on face

"I did. Thought you deserved a treat on your first day back" She replied as she plated up pancakes for them both. She grabbed her glass of juice and they sat down to breakfast.

After they finished and chatted Chip looked at the clock and seen that it was time for him to be going. He picked up their breakfast dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

"So you ready commander?" Lynsey asked

"I am. I'm going to miss you though" He replied and gave her a kiss

"I'm going to miss you too; Remember just take it easy you hear me?"

"I promise. I imagine I won't be dealing with anything but paper for the next few weeks"

"I know but still…don't expect everything just to be as it was. You are going to take a little time getting back up to speed with things" She reminded him. She knew that Chip was going to be exhausted and she just wanted him to realise that it was going to be difficult getting back into things.

"I know sweetie." He said reassuring her. "What have you got planned for your day off?"

"Well I have a few errands to run and I said I would meet Janet for a coffee later". Lynsey had become close friends with Janet in the past few weeks. She had been round at the house a few times to visit Chip and she had even been over for dinner. During these times the two girls had chatted about the boys and how Janet was now going to be a Seaview widow like Lynsey.

"Ok. Well, have a nice day…I better get going" He said as he put on his jacket and grabbed his work bag.

Lynsey gave him a kiss and he left for the office. As she watched him reverse out of the drive way she hoped he would be ok. He drove out of the street and Lynsey went back into the kitchen to do the dishes.

NIMR

Chip made the 10 minute drive to work and made it to the front gate. He showed his ID to George the guard on duty who welcomed him back as they chatted briefly. He drove down towards the car park into his space and turned off the engine. He lay back in the seat and looked at the Institute. Although he knew there was nothing to fear about going back he still felt that nervous anticipation. He took a deep breath and grabbed his bag from the passenger seat; checked his tie for one last time and got out of the car.

As he walked across the car park he felt an arm link with his.

"So here we are boss" Janet teased him as they walked in together "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be" He replied

"I think you may have forgotten something?" She said

Chip looked at here with a puzzled expression on his face. "What?"

"Where's my coffee?" She teased. With everything going on this morning he had forgotten Janet's usual coffee.

"Oh my god Janet I am so sorry" Chip said genuinely mortified.

"I'm only teasing you Chip. It's your first day back; I'll let it slide on this occasion" She said as she let go of his arm and walked into the office. They got in the elevator and made their way into the office.

Janet took off her jacket and put it on the coat stand as Chip done the same with his and his cap. He walked through into his office and immediately seen all of the paperwork on his desk. He made his way around the piles of paper, switched on his computer and pulled back his chair to have a seat.

As he sat down Janet came in with a cup of coffee for him and placed it on the desk.

"Now I know that there is a lot of work here" She said gesturing to the heaps around them "But I have prioritised them into categories of urgent, required and can wait"

"Somehow that doesn't comfort me. Just so I can check…was I out for 8 weeks or 8 months? What is all of this anyway?" Chip asked searching for a pen

"Ah well…with the test mission it generated a bit of a backlog of work. We had to prioritise and this what you see now is the result." Janet said handing him a pen.

As the two chatted there was a knock at door and Lee and the Admiral appeared.

"Good morning Chip good to have you back with us" he Admiral said as he walked over to Chips desk and shook his hand.

Chip stood up and said "Thank you sir"

Lee came over and patted his friend on the shoulder as he wore a big smile as he was so happy to see him. He didn't think that this day was ever going to come.

"I agree" Lee said although now looking round the office he was beginning to wonder how Chip was going to cope with it all.

"How was the test mission admiral?" Although he had spoken to Lee since the mission returned they hadn't spoken a lot about how it had gone.

"It was as well as we could have hoped for. As you can imagine we have a few things to tweak and then we will have another test in a few weeks' time" he replied

"Complete with XO this time" Lee added

"Well if I can work my way out of this paper tunnel in time I'll be there" Chip replied

"Yes we have accumulated quite a bit of work. If it's any consolation my desk looks the same" Lee said sipping his coffee. The smell of the strong coffee reminded Janet that she had made Chip a cup yet he hadn't drank any of it – quite unlike him.

They chatted for a while then both Lee and the admiral retreated to their offices to leave Chip to get settled in. Janet grabbed a set of telephone messages that she had taken in the past few weeks and brought them into Chips office. He was sat looking at his computer screen trying to remember his damn password!

"Everything ok?" Janet asked

"Yeah I'm trying to remember my password I've clean forgotten it" Chip replied thinking that this had not been the best start to his day. He needed access to the network to complete most of the reports on his desk.

"You used to write them down in your black book in your desk draw" Janet replied

Chip leaned over to the drawer which was locked until Janet handed him the key from the bookcase. Why hadn't he remembered about the key? Or the book in the drawer? He opened the drawer and sure enough the black book was there and inside was the password. Something he should have remembered – his anniversary date. They went through the telephone messages and Chip had Janet set up some return calls for later in the afternoon. For now he needed to get logged in and start to make a dent in the paper mountain in front of him. He grabbed a bottle of water and got started.