A/n, I don't have a real specific time frame for when this takes place. Before the events of SeaQuest of course, but how long before that, I'm not sure. Anyway, I don't know why but the relationship of Ben and Katie has always been fascinating to me. So this is my take on how they got engaged. As always I hope you enjoy. Any comments are appreciated, especially constructive criticism.
Katie refreshed the browser page for the third time in the past five minutes. She sighed and looked down at her cell phone. No missed calls, no text messages. His flight landed fifteen minutes ago and she had yet to hear from Ben. This was the first time they would have leave together in almost a year. Sure they had a day here, a few hours there, but this would be two full, uninterrupted weeks of leave together. The first she'd seen him since her relocation to Jacksonville for training.
She closed the browser, went back to her iTunes page, and scrolled through her music collection. Ben had suggested taking a drive down to the Keys to go scuba diving, and spending over eight hours in a car needed a playlist. Katie had never been to the Keys, but Ben had assured her they were amazing. She picked a couple of Breaking Benjamin songs from her music collection and then looked over Ben's music. He had uploaded some of his usual Jimmy Buffet and Rolling Stones, but it was the original Nirvana album that made her smile. He still had the hard CD. It was one of the few things she and Ben had in common: a love of early 90's rock. They had spent many hours bonding over Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Nine Inch Nails back at the Academy. It brought back happy memories for both of them. Katie would sit for hours on her older sister's bed while Christina painted her nails. Christina was ten years older and always had the latest nail colors, even green. Ben's father used to coach high school baseball, and would let him hang out with the older boys after practice. Ben looked up to those high school boys thinking they were coolest people ever. The music they listened to, by default, was the coolest ever too.
Katie's cell phone lit up and Ben's name played across the screen.
"Katie?" Ben's voice came through the line.
"Hey Ben," she replied back quietly, switching the phone from her right side to the left, so she could finished browsing the play list. "Where've you been?"
"Where've I been? I just landed." Ben sounded confused.
"You landed fifteen minutes ago." Katie smiled to herself, and she could almost hear Ben rolling his eyes.
"Very funny. The plane may have hit the tarmac fifteen minutes ago, but we just arrived at the gate. I, uh, think the pilot got lost on the runway. Anyway, I still have to get my bag and pick up the rental car. I should be there in an hour or so."
"What do you want to do for dinner?" The age old question, and there wasn't really a right answer.
"Whatever you want, I could pick up something the way?"
"Hmmm," she paused for a minute. She thought about sushi, but after being stationed in Yokohama for six months, no sushi in the States would ever be good enough again.
"What about the Cuban place just off base? I've been craving Cuban." Ben asked after getting no response.
"Which one?"
"Padrino's Cuban Café." Should she be bad? She did go for a ten mile run this morning and finished her full weight rotation in the gym.
"That's fine. Can you get me some chicken and rice with a side of plantains?"
"No problem, I can't wait to see you Kats."
"Can't wait to see you either, B. Love you."
"I love you too."
A sigh escaped her lips and she couldn't help but smile, Ben was on his way. Their relationship seemed so strange to anyone outside looking in. After they both left the Naval Academy, they hadn't spent more than a month together. When the finally did see each other, their passion would boil over. It was great the first couple of weeks, and then they'd start to fight. By the time the fighting started to escalate, one would inevitably have to leave. Then whole process would start over again. Such was the life of two naval officers, but it seemed to keep them each in the perpetual "honeymoon" mentality. One thing was crystal clear: love.
Katie closed her laptop and turned on the TV. Normally she tended to eschew television. It was mindless and she always thought herself lazy when she watched for too long. But a little news couldn't hurt while she waited for Ben. From what she could tell, it was a typical news day in Jacksonville: a CVS pharmacy had been robbed, and some guy in a sleeveless t-shirt was giving an interview about what he "sawed durin' that there robbery." Being from up north, Katie could never understand Floridians. How could her boyfriend call this state home?
She felt a twinge of pain stab her in the side and frowned. It felt like cramps but it shouldn't be her time. Although . . . the way she'd been pushing her body though school and training these past few months, her monthly friend had been irregular at best. Damn, she thought, Ben would not be happy if she was finally starting now. It had been way too long for both of them. She took a couple deep breaths and the pain subsided for a little while. But about twenty minutes later the pain came back sharper than before. Katie got up and scrounged around her medicine cabinet for an ibuprofen. Hopefully it was just a pulled muscle. She contemplated taking a hot bath to ease the ache, but the knock on her door cleared that thought. Hmm, the bath could wait just a little, she thought naughtily.
She opened the door and Ben stood there, tall and admittedly dashing in his fatigues. Even as Katie stood clad in her gray sweat pants and tank top, she looked as radiant as ever. He had almost forgotten the dazzling blue of her eyes when she was excited. Ben dropped his bags, and went straight for her. He lifted her up and passionately kissed her. To her, he tasted familiar, like warm coffee. But to him, she tasted exotic like a fusion of cinnamon gum and mint lip balm with just a hint of citrus. He traced the inside of her lips with his tongue.
She broke away first and turned her gaze to his bags.
"Um, Ben," she said starting at the bag of take out that was now on the ground, but thankfully, right side up. "I think you forgot something."
He gave her a lopsided smile. "Yeah I guess I did, but how could I remember something so trivial when you're standing there."
She grinned at him, bit her lip, and pecked him on the lips again. He was always so charming. She took the Styrofoam containers and brought them into the kitchen.
"It's been too long. Seventh Fleet doesn't seem the same without you," Ben sighed as he rummaged through the draw for a fork and knife.
"They're in the third draw. How was your flight?"
"Long and boring as usual. I sat next to a couple business guys on the way to Atlanta. One of which I know ate fish before he left. I could smell nothing else the whole flight. I hate the middle seat, always having to wrestle just to get an edge of the arm rest. The flight to Jacksonville was nearly empty so I got a row to myself."
Katie chuckled, she knew Ben probably check in late, leaving him an undesirable middle seat as the last one available.
"But it was all worth it huh," she suggested coyly as she slid part of her tank top strap down slightly.
"Yes ma'am."
His interest was piqued and he started edging her to the kitchen table. She slid out of his embrace and looked back brazenly.
"After dinner, I'm starving."
"Me too!" he scoffed shaking his head.
Katie sat down and he followed suit. A small frown danced across her lips as another twinge of pain nagged at her stomach. Ben raised his eye brows.
"Everything okay?"
"I'm fine, just hungry."
He shot her a skeptical glance but decided to let it go. Katie was one of the strongest women he knew. If she said she was fine, she was fine! Katie was one of the few people who never lied to him.
"I talked to your Uncle Gregory the other day," she changed the subject.
"How is Uncle Greg?"
"He's great. Your aunt is in Greece all summer visiting family. Anyway, he wants to see us for breakfast or dinner at least once while you're in town."
Katie loved Ben's uncle. When she first moved to Jacksonville; he took her under his wing and showed her the ropes around her new city.
Ben paused for a moment while he savored his Cuban sandwich. There was nothing like it in San Diego. Sure, they had world-class restaurants and great Mexican food. But there was absolutely no Cuban sandwich, perfectly pressed with the proper bread and mustard.
"Yes, of course," he finally managed to get out between bites. "Maybe on Friday, before we head down south? Maybe some . . . Waffle House? It is a Southern tradition."
"That sounds good. Did you want to stop in Ft. Lauderdale to see your Mom too?"
Ben cringed. He loved his mother, but she constantly nettled him. "You know Linda down the street's boy played in the stock market," Ben's mother would nag. "He's made over a million dollars and counting. You could do the same and then take your dear old mother out for a nice vacation. I've not left this state in years." This was all he heard since his father passed. It wasn't enough that he graduated top of his class and came out of college, and grad school for that matter, debt free unlike half of peers. It wasn't good enough that he was a commissioned naval officer. He was constantly being compared to their neighbor Linda's boy.
"Maybe…um, maybe on the way back."
Having Katie all to himself for a few days would soften any guilt trip his mother dished out. Oh, how he missed his father right now, but his mother was right, she was living off a retired school teacher's pension and whatever was left from his father life insurance. Neither one of them knew how long it would last.
"It's those changes in latitude, changes in attitude, nothing remains quite the same," Ben sang to himself as he washed the plates. "Though all of our running, and all of our cunning, if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."
After they cleaned up what was left from dinner, Ben and Katie spent just a few minutes holding each other. He was wearing the cologne she'd sent him for Christmas, musky with just a hint of powder.
It really had been too long.
Katie was holding a secret hope that Ben would finally propose to her on their vacation. Life had been so unexpected the past few years she was afraid he'd forgotten.
Ben originally wanted to propose his senior year, but Katie still had one year left. Engineering was a five year undergraduate degree. When Ben went to ask her father for permission for her hand, he said no. Her father wanted Ben to wait until Katie had graduated as well. Then Ben was accepted to the space program and thought it best postpone their engagement until his training was finished. But some dreams are never realized and he was medically released from the program. During his flight training he kept throwing up during the twists and turns pilots needed to endure. When the doctors examined him, they found he had a defect in her ears causing vertigo. It wasn't enough to discharge him from the Navy, just enough to keep him from flight school and out of the space program. So with his first option shot down, Ben went back to school and got an MBA in accounting. This meant their engagement had to be postponed . . . again.
Now, Katie was back in school and training to get her underwater welding certificate. She wanted to be a submariner now that women were finally allowed on submarines. She wanted to be the one of the first female engineers on board. Being able to scuba dive down to crushing depths and repair the hull was the extra boost she needed to impress the Brass. Things were finally falling into place now. Ben was transferring to a stable position as a SUPO — supply officer — on a ship out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and once she got her dolphins, she would head back to Hawaii too. Then they could finally get married. A wedding in Hawaii, she could get used to the idea.
"Want to watch some TV?" Ben asked looking at her new flat screen. "Big Bang Theory's on." Big Bang Theory was one of the few shows Katie did actually sit down to watch. But she was definitely not in the mood for that.
"Not really," she replied in a husky voice, slinging her hand down his leg. "I was kind of hoping . . . we could take a bath together."
She didn't have to ask twice.
It was three in the morning when Katie awoke with a white hot throbbing in her side. Ben's arm had been draped over her and she shoved it off. She was going to be sick. After returning dinner to the toilet, Katie curled up into a fetal position. The floor was cold but the pressure seemed to help her feel better. The pain was nearly unbearable and part of her wondered if this was what it felt like to be shot. It was all she could do to breath through clinched teeth.
A light turned on in the bedroom and she heard Bed rustled around.
"Katie?" he called.
His voice sounded confused.
"Katie, are you alright?"
He must have woken up when she shoved him off. She gritted her teeth in pain and sucked in a deep breath.
"Ben," she called back.
She knew she sounded shaky. She squeezed her eyes shut. He must have found her quickly because he felt his arms around her and his eyes wide. He was trembling. Was Ben scared? She'd never known him to be afraid of anything.
"Oh, Katie," he gasped as he combed a hand through her hair. "What's wrong? Tell me."
"I'm — I'm not sure, but I think it may be my appendix. Oh, God, Ben, it hurts…"
He scooped her up in his arms and started looking for his keys.
"Ben, you need pants first."
Katie hoped that by pointing out that he was naked, he would also noticed she was still naked as well.
"Oh, right."
She saw him smile slightly.
"Are you sure you don't want to go like this?" he asked. "I could pretend I'm wearing beautiful robes."
He placed her gently on the bed while he dressed himself. Then he grabbed Katie's running shorts and helped her in them. He picked her up again.
"I can walk," she said.
"I know, but I've got you."
She held on to him as he carried her to the car. He didn't say a word as he drove to the emergency room. All he did was stare straight ahead and grip the steering wheel, completely focused on the task at hand. She briefly wondered if this is what he'd be like if she ever went in to labor.
The ride was short and Ben was probably driving twenty miles over the limit, but it felt like an eternity to Katie. Every breath was agony. Finally, they pulled into the parking lot and Ben ran to grab a wheel chair.
"I've got my girlfriend here with severe pain in her abdomen," he shouted to the receptionist who looked less than amused. He had practically shoved Katie at the middle aged woman who proceeded to roll her eyes.
"Alright sir, please fill out these forms and we'll be with you in just a minute," the older woman droned.
Ben stood blinking rapidly, actually speechless for a change.
"But — but she's in pain! You have to help her! Come on! I get faster service from the IRS!"
"Sir, we just had a car wreck and a stabbing come in, our doctors are very busy at the moment. It's three in the morning and we're bringing in our on-call residents."
"Ben," Katie groaned, watching her boyfriend's face contort in a mix of stubbornness and rage. If she wasn't in pain she probably would have laughed.
Ben's eye kept twitching, and he kept scrunching his lips together.
"Just sit," she said. "You have all my medical information anyway. Just fill out the forms." Even sick she managed to keep a cool head.
He huffed a couple times and sat down.
"At least you don't have any unexplained holes in you," he tried to joke. "And my driving wasn't that bad. I learned how to avoid the old farts driving the wrong way on the turnpike when I was sixteen. Tourists, by the time I was eighteen."
She smiled in appreciation as she focused on a mark on the wall. It was how she got though some of her more strenuous workouts, by disengaging herself from the pain and focusing on one point. A Pink Floyd song started playing in her head: Hello: is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me . . . There is no pain you are receiving. You are only coming through in waves. I . . . have become comfortably numb.
Thankfully, they didn't have to wait too long.
Katie hissed as the doctor pressed on her abdomen and he nodded knowingly. "Yep, looks like acute appendicitis," the doctor replied looking up from her tests results. "How long have you been having these symptoms?"
"Since last night. About 1730, er 5:30 p.m. I just thought it was cramps at first, or maybe a muscle pull."
The doctor shook his head and frowned. So many people ignored their pain until it was too late.
"You're lucky we caught this when we did. If you'd waited any longer it may have burst. I wish you had come in earlier. We'll get you prepped for surgery and have you fixed up in no time."
Ben had been a statue in a corner while the nurses and the doctors were poked and prodded his girlfriend.
"Surgery Doc . . . Johnson?" Ben questioned as he seemed to suddenly come to life.
The nurse came in to wheel Katie to the operating room. Ben clutched her hand until the very last minute.
"Is she going to be alright?"
"I'm not going to lie," replied the doctor. "She's very sick and her appendix is very close to bursting. We have to remove it now to prevent any further damage."
"What can I do?"
"At the moment, wait and let us do our job."
"And maybe call her mother?"
Dr. Johnson shook his head and placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder.
"Good luck with that, son."
Four hours? How long was appendix surgery supposed to take?
Ben was now pacing back and forth in the waiting room. He had created a small trail for himself in the carpeting. A couple people had glared at him, but most had just shook their heads. He wasn't sure what else he could do, he filled out all of Katie's insurance forms, called her mother, and tried playing a game on his phone.
The phone call to her mother had not gone well. Her mother was overprotective, and she was already looking up flights to Jacksonville. It took all his charm to calm her down. Besides, Katie was with him, in good hands.
Four hours, and he could feel each second ticking by.
That was Katie in there. His Katie! He felt completely helpless, it wasn't a feeling he was very accustom too.
"Mr. —er, Lieutenant Krieg?" a nurse called.
The nurse was younger than the older woman Ben had met in the ER. His name tag read "Redding".
"Yes," Ben replied racing up to the nurse. "How's she doing?"
Nurse Redding smiled and nodded.
"I was Lieutenant Hitchcock's scrub nurse. The surgery went great. She's just waking up now from the anesthesia. I warn you, though: she's going to be a little loopy."
Ben didn't care he just wanted to see her.
Katie looked like she was sleeping when he walked up, but her heart rate monitor sped up when Ben grabbed her hand.
"Hey, B," she slurred out. "I've not seen you in years. Where'd you get that hat? Daisies are a good look for you."
"Kats," he chortled, "I'm supposed to be the one making the bad jokes."
"Jokes? Hmmmm . . . " Her eyes closed again.
It was a few more hours before the hospital was able to get Katie into a proper room, and she spent the whole time sleeping, with short periods of waking. Even in the short hospital gown and beeping machines, Katie somehow looked ethereal. Her hair seemed to spread out gracefully over the pillow. Besides, Ben didn't mind the revealing hospital gown.
Ben was dozing off with his head on Katie's bed when she finally woke up. He'd been with her the whole time, but the stress of the day was now wearing on him. It wasn't hard to see why: he'd been awake since 0300. One of the floor nurses brought him a cup of coffee, but even the sweet sweet nectar of caffeine could not keep him going. His adrenaline had completely worn off.
He woke up to a soft hand combing through his hair.
"Hey, sleepyhead," Katie said and she looked him over.
"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" he asked. "You've been sleeping all day. I'll start calling you Sleeping Beauty from now on." Then his tone changed, more serious. "How are you feeling?"
"A little sore," she admitted. "But I'll be fine."
"The nurse said you'll be here until tomorrow, and then it's plenty of rest and no lifting me for two weeks."
"No lifting . . . you?"
"Yeah, no lifting heavy objects. Basically anything over ten pounds, so sorry Katie, you can't pick me up."
She rolled her eyes. "So our vacation to the Keys is off then?"
"I guess so, but that's alright. I still get to spend time with you."
"I'm so sorry; I know you were looking forward to diving. At least if I have to get sick, I don't have to take time off. I'm already on leave."
"Speak for your self. If I ever have an appendectomy I want to be on duty. Come on, how can you say no to paid vacation?"
She shook her head. "I don't have time to take off, I miss a couple days of class and I start all over again. But I understand where you're coming from."
She shifted uncomfortably and scrunched her nose.
"What's wrong?"
"I think whatever they've been giving me is wearing off, the throbbing is coming back."
"I'll go get the nurse"
"No, wait, B. Just spend some more time with me. At least for another minute. You're warm."
Ben sighed and patted his pocket. He was planning on proposing to Katie on the boat after their first dive, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening. Thankfully, the ring was still in the rental car, and he was able to grab it while Katie was passed out.
"Is this what it's going to be like if we ever have kids?" he asked. "I don't know if I can handle you going through childbirth."
"What do you mean, B?"
"I don't like seeing you in pain, and me helpless to help you. I'll be the dad who passes out in the delivery room."
"I think you're getting ahead of your self. We're not even married yet, and I don't even know if I want kids."
"Come on, Katie; you'd be a natural mother."
"Are we really having this discussion now?"
"Well, yeah, I guess we are. Hey, Katie, I was hoping to make this more romantic, but I mean . . . "
"Spit it out, I'm about to fall asleep." She yawned to punctuate her point.
"I wanted to ask you while we were out on the dive boat, but, uh — oh, piss it." He wiped his brow quickly. "Katharine Mary Hitchcock, I was hoping you would do me the honor of becoming my wife."
"Ben, are you proposing to me?"
"Yes, I am. I've wanted to ask you for so long. But if watching you go through this . . . ordeal had taught me anything, it's that I would like nothing more than to be your husband."
"Why do I feel like this is appendicitis with a side of a proposal?"
"Or maybe it's a proposal with a side of appendicitis. So, what do you say?"
She smiled. "Yes. Of course. But I think you already knew that. I can't wait to marry you."
Well, it was unconventional at best. But then again with Benjamin Krieg everything was unconventional.
"I love you so much, Kats."
"I love you too, B. How does a wedding in Hawaii sound?"
A/N I started getting this idea after I had to take my room-mate to the ER for appendicitis, a few months before that my intern had an emergency appendectomy as well. I just hope I'm not next.