Chapter 2

Eva was sitting behind Stephen and Frank and couldn't help but over hear the conversation. Her seat mate, Dr. Natalie Durant had just left to check on Miles. "Interesting" she thought to herself. Natalie was a brilliant and beautiful doctor, but ever since her divorce from Mark, a professional hockey player, she was very guarded, and reserved and threw herself into her work at the NIH, preferring test tubes and Petri dishes to a social life, or maybe enjoying the company of a certain doctor? After they returned from their assignment at the ice station in Greenland, the team was joking that the staff at the station was right when they said that the place made people do crazy things. Natalie agreed, and then quietly admitted to Eva that when Stephen made it back safely after he went out in a blizzard to restart the generator in the adjacent building, she was so happy to see him that she broke into a full run, and hugged him so hard she almost knocked him over.

"Can you imagine, little ol' me knocking over a man as big and strong as Stephen?" Her face was glowing and her smile was so big as she recalled that memory and Eva knew that there was more to the story.

She kidded her about it saying "So you and Connor, hmm…seems like there were sparks between the two of you."

"For goodness sakes Eva, we're colleagues, friends, that's all," Natalie remarked dismissively, but Eva knew better. As Natalie got back into her seat, she glanced over at her. "Interesting indeed." She repeated to herself.

"Did you say something?" asked Natalie.

"No, just thinking out loud. So how is Miles?" Eva responded.

The plane finally landed, and when they got back to the NIH, Stephen reminded them about their debriefing in the morning.

"Get a lot of rest; we'll be back here tomorrow at 10:00 am." Stephen then turned to Natalie and took her aside.

"I wanted to let you know before the others," he started. "Nat, I'm planning to take some time off, I need to re-prioritize my life, spend some time with my son, straighten things out with Lisa. I already spoke with Kate and I told her that the team will be in your very capable hands while I am away."

Natalie did not respond right away, her mind was racing. "Straighten things with Lisa? What did that mean, I thought that was over, is he still in love with her? They are divorced…. Lisa?"

"Natalie, are you ok?" Stephen asked. He gave her that look that would always make her smile and blush, but this time she looked back at him with a blank expression on her face.

"H--how long will you be gone?" She managed to ask.

"I don't know, I'm thinking a month. I know it's a long time, but you will be okay, and I really need this time."

"Sure Stephen I understand, you will be coming back won't you?"

"I hope to, but there are so many things that happened over there that I have to sort out. I almost lost you," he paused, then quickly added "and, uh the rest of the team and I feel that was my fault. I sent you, Eva and Miles down there; I should have been there too. Instead, I was here drowning my sorrows because of my personal problems. Then I made a promise to a father I couldn't keep, I should have known better. I'm not sure if I deserve to be in charge of this team anymore."

"Stephen, we were all under a lot stress, you did a great job, everyone, including Kate looked to you for guidance. You can't blame yourself for what happened to those boys. They knew the risks, their father knew as well. You did everything you could to save them."

"That's what Frank said, but I didn't even have a chance to tell him, I think he deserved that from me. Natalie, I promised him I would bring them back." The look on his face was so sad that she wanted to hold him and tell him it would be ok, but she remained objective and reserved.

"Take as much time as you need Dr. Connor," she said with a mock formality. "We'll be here waiting for you when you get back." She smiled at him, he gave her a smile and a quick hug, then turned, picked up his bags, got into his car and left.