Illicit Affairs (Or A Crashed Sailors Headache)
"Kate?"
A not so gentle hand pushed steadily against her shoulder, rousing the officer from the latest in a series of Mike inspired dreams.
She awoke with a start, feeling the roll of the ship beneath the swell mingle with her headache, and began wishing she was anywhere else than her bunk.
Apparently, carrying out an illicit affair with ones boss was more painful than she remembered.
She let out an unintelligible reply, batting at the intruding hand harshly, before her wrists were caught by her offender.
"Kate!"
She bolted upright, glancing round sleepily, before turning to met the harsh gaze of the ships Navigator seated on the edge of her bed.
"Yeah…what?" she mumbled, glad that her reputation as a non-morning person was firmly developed amongst the crew. Nav merely rolled her eyes in amusement.
"Captain's in a crap mood and has requested your presence on the bridge."
Kate growled in annoyance, flopped back against her pillow and buried her head beneath the sheets, willing her throbbing headache away.
Nikki watched on as Kate let forth a string of curses, most directed at the ships captain and the male species in general.
"Kate, seriously, any moment he's going to be down here…"
Nikki nearly jumped off Kate's rack as a loud crack reverberated through the cabin.
"Lieutenant McGregor!" roared a voice from outside, madly throwing their fist against the door.
Kate groaned loudly, rolled until her sheets were secured tight around her and buried herself against the wall.
Nikki, slightly scared at the bear on the other side, opened the door quickly, just in time to see Mike's face glower down in anger, fist raised for another bout of knocking.
"She's in there sir," she forced out quickly, squeaking as his eyebrows rose. "I think she's sick though… sir," she added hastily. She was brushed to the side as Mike strode into the room, brow creased darkly as Kate pulled the pillow over her head.
Nikki, completely puzzled by the officer's behaviour, exited the cabin with speed and shut the door; praying that what ever had happened between the pair would sort itself out.
It was minutes later, after Mike had firmly deposited himself within the center of the room, that Kate realised he had no intention of leaving and despite her earlier decision to ignore him at all costs, rolled slightly to the side, allowing her mouth to peak out from beneath the sheets.
"This is all your fault," she accused darkly, promptly disappearing once more.
Mike's face grew red as he watched her curl up, fists clenching as he tried to remember not to reach over and shake her from the blankets.
"My fault?" he asked instead. "You really want to claim this one as my fault?"
He scoffed in disbelief, throwing himself down into a spare chair before reaching over to switch the desk lamp off.
"You were the one who brought out the vodka," he heard her throw back. Suddenly a pair of socks came flying in his direction, the missile launched from behind the mass of sheets that was Kate, before the distinct note of her laughter floated towards him.
He felt his chest swell in annoyance before he buried his head in his arms, blindly trying to shut out the movement and the noise and the general sense of being that he had at this moment, headache beating steadily behind his eyes.
"If I remember correctly, you were the one with the wine," he bit back, giving in to desire and throwing the socks back at her harshly - or so he hoped.
He watched in disappointment as they bounced gently off her back - contemplated how angry she'd get if he threw his coffee at her.
"None of this would have happened if you hadn't convinced me to come over."
"We were having dinner Kate!"
"Only because you wanted to sleep with me!"
He paused a moment – one of the perks of holding an illicit affair was that they could now discuss these issues openly – and held his arms up in mock defence. Useless, really, as she was still buried beneath the sheets.
"Whilst that may be true, and if you remember the general drunkenness of last night made it all the more fun, I still don't think you can blame this all on me."
"Why?" she bit back, slowly extracting herself from her manmade cocoon.
"You wanted to sleep with me too," he mumbled lamely. His stomach pitched itself as Hammersley hit a rather stubborn swell, Mike silently, and then not so silently, cursing who ever the idiot was that had gotten stuck and caused his crew to be crash sailed.
He heard Kate chuckle once more and peaked over at her, her head now slightly visible beneath the sheets. Her blonde locks were falling in tangles around her flushed cheeks and as images of the night before, and many nights previous, flashed before his eyes Mike growled softly, wishing the month would be over already.
Kate, quite aware of his discomfort, giggled softly, wiggling her way towards the edge of the bed to flutter her eyes at him.
"Not fair," he accused. "You're taking advantage of my hungover state to try and seduce your way into making me let you off duty." He narrowed his eyes in mock annoyance, wincing as the movement sent a shot of pain across his forehead.
"The advantage of having an illicit affair with my boss," she sassed.
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"It's only illicit until you're transferred off Hammersley, even if that is a month away," he murmured, rubbing his hand across his forehead in circles.
"Marshall knows, I'm pretty sure Nav's figured it out and when the others figure out that we're both hungover I'm sure the rumour mill will go into overdrive."
Kate pouted slightly, relatively sad that her secret was now shared with the greater part of the Navy.
"Anyway," she started, voice picking up momentum as the annoyance of earlier returned, "Why am I requested on the bridge now? It's only 10, I'm not on duty 'til 11."
She glared at him darkly, ignoring the thrill that went through her at his glance and the general giddiness that invaded her personal being every time he was near.
Mike grinned crookedly, reached out suddenly to grab at Kate with both hands and hauled her up to a semi-standing position.
"We're almost at our intended destination," he murmured gently, shifting himself against her till she was pressed flushed to his front.
"Hmm?" she asked in confusion. "Now who's trying to seduce their way into something," she muttered.
He smirked softly, brushed the hair from her face before stepping away and throwing her clothes at her chest.
"Need you for a boarding party in fifteen minutes," he answered finally, watching with amusement her internal struggle. On the one hand she desperately wanted to curl up in bed and die, but on the other her job was calling, and she'd always prided herself on duty before pleasure.
She glanced at Mike once more and blushed - mostly duty before pleasure.
Fifteen minutes later she appeared fresh faced and with a slightly abated headache on the bridge. She glanced around in confusion.
"Where's the captain?" she asked, noting his lack of presence.
Nikki glanced up quickly, breathe calming at Kate's slightly healthier look.
"Not sure ma'am," answered Charge.
"But he said we were almost at out destination," pointed out Kate, glancing round once more before walking towards Nikki.
The Navigator shared a knowing look of exasperation with Buffer, the latter trying to hide a chuckle behind his hand.
"Ma'am, our destinations not going to be reached for at least another three hours."
Kate drew in a quick breath before turning on Buffer quickly, glaring at him as her head disagreed with the sudden movement.
"Ma'am?" began Nikki, wondering if now was time to test Kate's patience, whilst the boys tried to suppress their snickers. "The captain told me to tell you that you had the ship whilst he's asleep."
"Asleep?" asked Kate slowly, gripping the Captains chair tightly, wishing it were in fact the captains neck she was gripping. "He's asleep?" she muttered to herself.
She was going to kill him, illicit affair be damned.