Chapter 2

Kate glared at Dutchy, her eyes challenging him to the truth. Unable to speak, Kate just kept staring at him until he sighed. Did he really have to go there, right now?

'I wanted to come home' whispered Dutchy, his eyes red and threatening to leak.

'Home? Cairns isn't your home!' exclaimed Kate. She stood up and looked down, tears falling from her own eyes. 'You left us ALL! The whole crew needed their buffer and you ran away! Do you know how hard it was to deal with the loss of Jim & Swain' Kate paused before continuing. 'Dutchy, I needed a friend, someone who had my back on the ship and on the shore.

Before Kate could continue, Dutchy cut her off, his temper flaring. 'Do you know why I left Kate? Do you know how hard it was to take that posting?' his breathing hitched before he continued. 'You were about to get your happily ever after, there was no place for me in your life Kate! I wasn't going to sit by and witness your fairytale ending, there was no place left for me and I made the decision to go'

Kate had sat back down, her hand covering her mouth. Shocked and at a loss of words she bowed her head at him as he towered over her. His temper was still raging, the muscles in his jaw twitching as he held back tears. After a long silence she finally spoke.

'Dylan, why didn't you ever say anything?' she managed to croak, as a fresh batch of tears spilled down her face. Realisation had hit her, if they had been honest with each other they may have spent the last 5 years together. She paused and a million memories flashed through her mind causing her to scrunch up her face and close her eyes. He had known she was romantically involved with Mike Flynn but he never let slip that he was aware their feelings were stronger then purely professional and for this she was eternally grateful. Jim Roth was suppose to be nothing but a temporary placeholder until Mike took his shore posting and they could openly have a relationship, but as things turned out that shore posting never came and Jim proposed.

Kate opened her eyes to Dutchy gently touching her arm, she shut them again as a warmth took over her body by surprise. She could see him waiting at the dock with a little blond haired girl with green eyes, Kate's eyes. They would both be smiling and waving as the ship was brought alongside, the child eager to see her mother. He would embrace Kate on the dock after she had finished with the ships paperwork and then they would have shore leave as a family until one of them sailed again. She would have command of Hammersley and would be safe on the bridge of the ship. He would still be at sea too, probably on another patrol boat, one with a close overlapping scheduled. Dutchy's parents would help care for the child whilst duty called. Kate knew at that moment she had made some big mistakes.

'Kate, Kate, X, Kate look at me. Kate are you ok? Kate, hello earth to Kate' chimed Dutchy as he struggled to get her attention. His tears were long gone and he was now focused on the task at hand, getting Kate out of her trance. He cupped her face and tilted her head towards him as he felt her take a shallow breath.

'Im going to call you Dylan off the ship' said Kate as she kissed his cheek. Professionalism be gone she thought as she felt him pull away. 'It's ok' she whispered as she took his hand, entwining their fingers.

Dylan hesitated; this was not the way he wanted to start his new posting. He came back to Cairns as an XO with no intentions of working on the same ship as Kate. He had hoped they would eventually meet up, talk and catch up then eventually be friends, going for the occasional coffee and catching up when they had shore leave. She would be happily married and although he was prepared to fight Mike Flynn for Kate's friendship, he was hoping he never had to.

Eventually he spoke, after studying their fingers entwined. 'What are we doing Kate? Let's just catch up as friends first and see where this goes ok? Otherwise it's going to be the same situation you were in last time' He smirked as he thought about how dirty a secret romance could be.