Chapter III

Going for a Ride

As the Artemis lifted free of her moorings and was towed to the huge bay doors, Matt was still immensely pleased with himself. He stood in the bridge, giving the barest directions to his small crew.

"You've got the first day's schedule, correct, Mr. Gavin?" he asked his navigator.

"Correct, sir. We'll start out over Germany. I've cleared it with the international checkpoint guards, too. We're free to pass." Matt nodded.

"Good. Mr. Farrow, at the ready to start the engines. Mr. Hull, check hydrium pressure." As he felt the ship come to life beneath his feet, Kate de Vries walked onto the bridge.

"Permission to come onto the bridge," she asked, even as she was already there. Matt glanced at her.

"Do you need something, Miss de Vries?" Today she was wearing a simple white blouse and dark skirt that seemed to emphasize the curves of her body to Matt.

"Kate, Matt. Please call me Kate. I can't stand this formality from you." She crossed her arms, standing at his side. They were silent as the Artemis lifted, humming and creaking a little. Matt smiled as the sky opened up ahead of them and they drifted free from the crowds of Paris. "You have a nice ship, Matt."

He almost didn't hear her, but he glanced at her again and their eyes met for a moment.

"Thank you," he replied, a little surprised and more than a little pleased. "She is a good ship." At this his formal tone lessened, his stiff posture softened. He felt more at ease.

"You've done well for yourself," she continued.

"I…suppose. Just a moment." He diverted his attention to the ship. "Farrow, take her up thirty degrees and head out over Germany." With that, he gestured for Kate to leave the bridge and he followed. They went into the Lounge and Matt shut the door behind him. Kate stood by the large bay window, looking down as they sailed over Paris. He saw her smile and smiled himself. "So…how have you been, Kate?"

She looked up and Matt had a little trouble breathing as their eyes met. Usually he felt the steadiest in the air, but now he felt quite the opposite.

"I've been…well, I suppose." Her eyes drifted to the window again. "After you…I moved to London with my parents and finished university at Oxford. I've moved up in the scientific world. That's part of the reason I'm doing this trip, actually. I need concrete evidence of the cloud cats for a paper I am writing to get a degree."

"And I hear you're getting married." The words were out before Matt had a chance to think them through.

Kate froze. "I am." Her eyes met his again. "I met Landon at university. He's a doctor." Matt felt his stomach sink. A doctor. "The wedding is going to be in London this fall. October second." She looked back out the window, her hands clasped in front of her. "And what about you? Getting married anytime soon?" Her words were nonchalant.

Matt gave a hollow chuckle. "Married? Me? No. I've too much work. I'm practically married to the Artemis." At this Kate smiled for real.

"I always imagined you with a ship like her, actually." They both paused as Kate realized what she had said and Matt thought through her words. Silence fell and Matt put his hands in his pockets.

"So…who is this Luke fellow?"

"Oh, my assistant. He's one of the few who actually believes me about the cloud cats, so he's coming with."

"Well, I like him already. The others still don't believe?" Kate shook her head. "That's ridiculous. Those smoky old farts. All they do is sit around all day and talk. They didn't almost get eaten by one." They laughed, and for a moment it felt like the old Matt and Kate were back. Then their smiles fell a little as they looked at each other.

"Matt – "

"We're going to have to come to some sort of a truce if we're to sail across half the world together," Matt broke in. Kate closed her mouth and nodded a little sadly. "So, truce." He held out his hand, smiling neutrally when all he wanted to do was take her in his arms.

She was still for a moment before holding out her hand. "Truce."

They shook, and for a second their hands stilled. Matt felt a magnetic pull towards her that was suddenly broken off by her pulling away.

"I have to get back to Luke. We have a lot of planning to do."

Matt barely had time to nod before she walked out the door.

--

A week later they were flying over Asia and Matt still felt incredibly uncomfortable about having Kate on his ship. He often walked her length at night, and was always aware that Kate was right there through that door. He often avoided her during the day, which was all right because she kept to her room a lot.

Meals were never silent, as Baz told storied about their wild adventures in the past few years, everything from geese vendors in southern Asia to a German couple who ran a fueling station and hadn't let them land for three hours. Matt interjected sometimes, adding in little tidbits that Baz, in the excitement of storytelling, had forgotten.

Kate, as always, was an avid listener, and Matt had trouble not staring at her. Her features had evened over the years, lost some of their girlish roundness and had become more like soft angles. Her hair was still waves of thick chestnut, and she mostly wore it down, which just about killed Matt. He lay awake at night wondering if she still smelled the same – like paper and vanilla – and if she was lying awake thinking of him.

It was another week before they reached the Pacificus, and another three days before they got in the vicinity of the island. They had stopped for a day in Beijing to refuel.

Matt stood, looking out over the expansive of blue before him, and felt odd. The last time they had been here, he had been fifteen and a cabin boy. Now he was almost twenty-two and captain of his own ship. The hum of the Artemis around him was comforting.

At dinner their first night over the ocean, Kate addressed him directly for almost the first time since their truce. They spoke, certainly, but they hardly ever looked each other in the eye and it felt stiff and formal.

She took a sip of her soup, a plain chicken and rice (their cooking was done by whoever was off duty, so it was never terribly impressive. Matt was still working on getting Vlad on his ship.).

"So how far from the island do you think we are?" Her brown eyes darted up and met his, and he put his fork down.

"A day and a half, maybe. I've got an extra person on watch to try and locate it. It's still only on some of the maps, so it's a little difficult to find."

Kate nodded and smiled a little. "I suppose we ought to name it, don't you think?" As she raised her eyebrows at him with a playful little smile, Matt felt his stomach twist.

"I'll leave that to you," he replied, looking down. Finishing his soup, he stood. "Now if you all will excuse me, I'm on watch duty starting at seven." Walking out of their small dining room, he walked through the halls of his ship, listening to her hum around him. He could still tell whenever a ship moved, when it climbed or fell even the slightest amount.

The bridge was empty save for Hull, who was standing behind the wheel. Matt relieved him, taking hold of the smooth wood gently. The ocean spread out before him and the nearly 360 degree windows gave him a beautiful, panoramic view. The sun was low in the sky, maybe an hour from sunset. Matt felt utterly content at the moment, even though the love of his young life was aboard and yet completely out of his reach, even though he was headed off to explore a dangerous island. He was flying, and that was enough for him at the moment.

The sun was just about to dip below the waves when there was a small noise behind him. Turning, he saw Kate stepping onto the bridge, the fading sunlight red on her face. She smiled.

"Permission to come on the bridge?" She asked quietly, a little playfully. He nodded and turned back to face the sea. There were hardly any clouds in the sky – they had had remarkably easy sailing – and so he had little to do on his watch. "I thought I would come and help look out for the island."

Matt nodded. "You're welcome to help look for a while."

They stood in amiable silence for some time, though Matt was hyper-aware of her presence. She seemed content to just stand there and gaze out over the ocean, which was steadily falling into darkness. Matt reached out and switched some controls to slow the Artemis down. They could easily sail past the island without seeing it.

"So," Kate began conversationally. "have you kept up with Hal or Nadira at all?"

Matt instantly froze. In those years without Kate he had been desperately lonely, especially at first. And Nadira had provided companionship, and later more than that, when he had been at his lowest points. He saw in a flash her dark eyes looking down at him, her smooth skin lit by candlelight.

"A little. I've seen Hal around the aerodrome – he's doing quite well for himself."

Kate raised an eyebrow at him. "And Nadira?"

"I've seen her some too." Matt closed his mouth tightly, praying she wouldn't ask any more. Luckily she didn't seem to be more curious on the subject, and dropped it. "Have you? Or – well, I guess you were busy in London." Matt wanted to kick himself for saying something so awkward, but somehow his mouth kept going. "So, tell me about Landon."

Kate shot him a glance and then smiled as she looked straight ahead. "Oh, he's lovely. Very smart, you know. Dedicated. He graduated a year early from university and is working at a hospital in London." Matt was very still as he paid attention to her words and the way she said them. It seemed to him that she sounded a little unconvinced of her words, as if she had practiced them. And he felt a little bubble of hope well up in his chest.

"That's good," he made himself say. "What does he think of this whole cloud cat business?"

Kate was silent for a moment. "He doesn't know, actually. Well, I mean, he knows about the cloud cats and I think he thinks they are…fanciful. He won't outright say they're false, though." She was silent again before continuing. "Actually, he doesn't even know I'm on this trip. He thinks I've gone to Paris to stay with some friends and tie up some loose ends before the wedding."

Though not looking at her, Matt smiled smugly. "I know."

Kate whipped her head around. "You know? How do you know that?"

Matt shrugged, repressing a smile and trying to remain enigmatic. He laughed when Kate hit his arm though.

"Alright, alright! Baz looked around a little. Before you signed on with us. I knew you were looking into ships discretely." Kate was looking at him, but he kept his eyes forward.

"Did you really?" She couldn't help but laugh a little, and Matt felt the air around them warm considerably. "I never took you for a stalker, Matt."

He snorted. "Stalker? Not a chance. I've been avoiding anything to do with you for years." There was a pregnant silence after he said that, and Matt felt his smile fall. He hadn't meant to say that.

"I came to Paris," she said after a while, "looking for a ship. Any ship would do, really, as long as they were sort of secretive. But…really, I was almost hoping that by this time you would have a ship, and that the ship I took would be yours." He turned to look at her and the corners of her mouth turned upwards for a moment. "I tried to keep tabs on you, sometimes. Whenever there was a news press about airships or anything to do with them, I'd pick it up and try to find you. But you flew rather under the radar." When she trailed off. Again, Matt felt as though something was drawing them closer, but a voice suddenly called through the tube system.

"Captain! Twenty degrees off the port side, looks like the island!" Baz sounded excited for the crowsnest, and Matt jerked his gaze from Kate to look out the window. Sure enough, there it was, just off the port bow. Kate rushed forward and leaned close to the window, trying to get a good look at it through the darkness.

It rose out of the dark blue ocean, very hard to see, but there it was. Matt slowed the Artemis drastically and started to bring her down, aiming for the small dark hump of land.

A/N: I've said this to a few people who reviewed the last chapter, but I just wanted everyone to know. First off, THANK YOU so much for all the support I've been getting for this fic!! I'm ecstatic that it's going over well, it means a lot to me.

Second, I'm just finishing up my first year at college and I am incredibly busy. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update in the next month or two, so even though I have a couple more chapters written, I'm trying to spread them out so there's no massive lag in my updates. But there's more coming soon, I promise!!

Next time: Kate gets excited and Matt gets cranky.