Kate

It was late at night and I wanted to rest before I had to go on patrol tomorrow for a fortnight. After a long and emotional day I needed the rest physically and most of all to clear my head. From Navcom I had gone straight home and locked myself in. Tomorrow I would face the world again but I needed to be on my own today. I looked at my phone which had stopped ringing and the person at the door, I knew it was Mike, finally left. Mike had tried to call me on both phones, regular and mobile, but it was best if I didn't talk to him right now. He clearly was persistent and had come round to my place, hoping it would make a difference, but I had nothing to say. If I would talk I would probably say the wrong things and that was the last thing I wanted to do. This morning Maxine called me to tell me to come in for a chat. I was almost certain it was about me getting a promotion to lieutenant commander. All the signs were right. Mike had added my name to the list. Maxine had approved and had sent my name to Canberra. Today was the right time for her to get a reaction back. What else could it have been? I was really excited about it so after Maxine had called I made a call myself, to Mike, to let him know what was happening. The promotion and the posting of CO would mean so much more. Me being posted as Hammersley's CO would mean Mike would return to Navcom and therefore we wouldn't be on the same ship anymore. We would finally be able to explore our personal relationship. In the past couple of hours all my dreams and hopes of a happy and relaxed future were thrown back at me. No promotion and no relationship with Mike. Of course I was disappointed but being angry wouldn't help me or give me my well deserved promotion any quicker. I had gone home, cried a bit and tried to put myself together again to make sure I would be the best XO of Hammersley the Brass had ever seen.

The next morning I woke up a long time before my alarm clock. I wondered why that was but then I heard a noise, something I had thought was part of a dream. I rolled out of my bed, put on something decent and walked out of my bedroom to find out where the noise came from. It was still dark outside and the clock in my kitchen told me I could have slept for another hour. I heard the noise again coming from my front door. I opened it just a little to see Mike Flynn on the other side almost pushing himself in before I could shut the door and go back to my bed. "I brought you breakfast. I'll fix it for you while you tell me what happened yesterday," he said, walking straight to my kitchen. "Mike," I protested, quickly shutting the door and then follow him. "You know what time it is? You can't do this and expect me to talk to you. Actually I'm not going to talk at all, I'm going back to bed," I said before I walked back to my bedroom and crawled back underneath the blanket. For some reason I thought he would follow me but he didn't. I did however hear him pottering around in my kitchen. I tried to listen and figure out what he was doing but I couldn't. My eyes were closed and the sounds came from far away until I didn't hear anything anymore.

My blanket was pulled back and a cold breeze crept over me. It woke me up. I opened my eyes and saw Mike holding a cup filled with a steaming liquid. "I made you a brew," he said. I shifted in my bed and tried to sit upright. "I think I fell asleep again," I stammered. My eyes were open but I wasn't really awake yet. "Well, it's time to wake up," Mike said. "I made you breakfast," he said pointing at a tray which stood on my bedside table. "And you want to talk," I said, not too happy about it. "Well," Mike started. "You kept ignoring my attempts to talk to you yesterday and I do want to talk to you before we sail." I shrugged as an answer. I had ignored his attempts because I did not want to talk to him and that hadn't changed. "What happened?" Mike asked. I could see his concern in his eyes which made me feel just a little bit sorry for my attitude towards him. "What did Maxine tell you?" I wondered. This time Mike shrugged. "Not much. The Brass don't think you're ready for it and Maxine decided to keep me on as CO until they do," he answered with a sigh. Instead of saying anything I took the tray filled with food and placed it on my lap. Mike had made me some toast, scrambled eggs and a bit of bacon. What was he thinking? If I would eat all of that I would have to be rolled unto the Hammersley. I decided to just eat some toast and took a bite before I looked at Mike. "I don't understand Kate. What do you need to show them before they do believe you're ready?" he asked when he saw he had my attention. I had my mouth full of toast and couldn't do much more than shrug so Mike pressed on a bit, piercing his eyes deeper on me. "Iw down't know," I answered, trying not to blow crumbles on his perfectly ironed uniform.

Mike laughed at the sight of me which made me laugh as well. With a hand in front of my mouth I tried to swallow the toast and catch any crumbs that were about to fall down. "Here's a napkin," Mike offered before sighing again. "There isn't much more I can add to what Maxine already told you," I said hoping he would except that there wasn't going to be a nice answer or a satisfying one but I should have known that Mike wouldn't leave it at that. "When I put your name on the list of candidates I didn't do it because I like you or because I've got alternative motives. I really do believe you're ready to be a CO," he said emotionally. I touched his upper arm and smiled at him. "I believe you and thank you for the support but be honestly Mike. You're not sitting here without alternative motives," I said a bit teasingly. He shrugged and looked down. Probably he didn't know what to say to my accusation. "Who were those two guys yesterday?" he changed the subject slightly. I bit my lip, trying to get out of answering this particular question. "They were—Those guys were—" I really didn't know what to say and decided to take another bite of my toast. "Kate!" Mike almost yelled at me. "Who were they? Were they feds? Why were they there? Have you done something?" he asked me. I almost choked on my toast and started coughing. "Out!" I yelled at him. It was cheap of me but it was the best way to not answer the question. Besides, Mike thinking I had done something wrong to get the feds onto me was preposterous. "If you think that I did something to prevent me from getting a promotion then you're wrong," I yelled at him while I got out of bed and pushed him towards the door. "If that's what you think of me—Ah—just leave," I said before I pushed him out of my house. I closed the door and leaned against it. Mike was going to ask me about it eventually and I would have to face him again but right now I just couldn't and that hurt. I walked back to my bedroom and saw the remains of my breakfast. I wasn't hungry anymore and started to clear it away when my mobile phone beeped.

'Meet me at the Shark tooth bar when you're back in port.' It read. It had started.