"No problem Kate you said you needed me so why wouldn't I come?"

"Because I treated you like shit. I ended things between us, then started going out with Jim."

"And never in the time I have known you, have you ever pleaded with me to be with you. Begged me and said I need you." He says as he feels his shirt getting wet again from the tears that are falling from her.

He would prefer not to be in her bed with her not so soon after losing Jim, but something in his gut is telling him her reaction isn't because of losing Jim. And instead of going with his brain which is saying he shouldn't be here with her, he is going with his gut and his heart.

"When the explosion happened all I kept seeing was the sub blowing up. I knew Jim and Swain where out there that it was them but my mind it kept on replaying the explosion that I thought had killed you." She says to him as she cries into his chest. "Jim he died protecting Swain, protecting one of my crew. Something I should have been doing."

"Kate if you had stayed it would be you lying in that hospital bed or…" Mike can't finish his sentence the thought of losing Kate even though they aren't together hurts him.

"Why are you on Melbourne?" she asks after a few moments of silence between the pair.

"I've been transferred."

"Did you request it or was it the brass."

"My shrink requested it." He says knowing full well that she knows he has been seeing one on an on-going base.

"When were you going to tell me?" she asks and he says nothing at all to her.

"Mike were you ever going to tell me?" She asks again as she looks at him her voice a tad more forceful.

"I was but when I found out about Jim asking you to marry him I left it."

"Why the hell did you decide to leave it and not tell me." She says to him and he moves to sit up in the bed, moving Kate off his body, meaning she also had to move.

"Look when I was told, you were helping Dutchy bring that boat back to port, he had already informed me as you well know of the proposal, when I took you out for coffee to talk to you I was going to tell you but when you said you were seriously thinking about marrying Jim I decided I wouldn't tell you."

"Why did you decide to do that don't you think I had a right to know?" She asks him again, her voice angry at him for not telling her.

"Just like I had the right to know what was going on within my ship, you could have had me fired over that stunt you pulled." He says to crossly to her before carrying on in a more gentler tone of voice "I decided not to tell you because you would have taken it the damn wrong way, you would have gone on about how I'm only doing this now because of Jim, and either you would have said I am running away from my emotions, or doing it to get you to dumb Jim. So I decided that if you are serious about him then you didn't need my messed up life getting in the way." He says as he gets up off her bed and goes to leave her room.

"Mike come back." She begs to him.

"No Kate." He says as he walks away from her and heads down stairs to sit on the couch.

She watches from above as Mike sits on the couch his head in his hands. She quietly walks down the stairs towards him and then sits down beside him on the couch.

"I'm sorry." She says as she wraps her arms around his waist, laying her head on the side of his arm and shoulder.

"Mike talk to me please?" She pleads with him when he doesn't say anything to her, he turns and looks at her and she sees his red puffy eyes, the track mark of tears having rolled down his face, as she then catches the sight of one leaving his left eye.

"Kate I'm exhausted I've had about five hours sleep in" he looks at his watch "twenty six hours, and that has been broken sleep. It's been an emotional training period and I would just like to go to bed and sleep." He says as he gets up and ascends the stairs and heads to the spare room and goes in and climbs into the bed and quickly falls asleep. His exhaustion taking over in shutting his body down into sleep mode. Kate watches on from the couch as he heads to her spare room and not her bed.

She sits on the couch for about ten minutes trying to sort herself out, before climbing the stairs and going to the spare room to climb into bed with Mike. As she snuggles up closer to him, wrapping her arms around his body, he moves and wraps his arms around her in his sleep, this action by him in his sleep lets her know he isn't pushing her away, that the lack of sleep the news of Jim and that Swain is in ICU still very critical making it all too much to handle on no sleep. It doesn't take her long to fall asleep in his arms, the sound of his beating heart and slow rhythmic breathing sending her to sleep again.

Mike hears the sound of his mobile ringing he reaches over towards where he would normally keep it had he been at home to then realise as he finds something else that he isn't in his home, as the ringing stops he realises that there is someone else in beside him, he looks down to find Kate beside him, her head on his chest, one of her arms wrapped around his waist. His mobile rings again and he gentle moves Kate off him and gets out of the bed. As he gets to his mobile it stops ringing. As he is about to check to find out who the two missed calls are from it rings again, as he looks at the screen he sees this parents name flash up and he answers it.

"God Son you sound totally shattered." Mark Flynn says to his son.

"That is one way of putting it dad." Mike replies back to his father as he sits down on Kate's bed his back to the door.

"Did I wake you?" He says now feeling bad having woken his son up.

"No my phone was ringing before you rang and I missed the call, but that doesn't matter what can I do for you dad?"

"We have just arrived having decided to come up and see if we could do anything after hearing yesterday's news and your mother was worried since she was unable to find you here at your place she was going to ring Hammersley but I said I would try you on your mobile."

"I'm at Kate's place." He says into the phone.

"Ok well I told your mother you would either be here or on Hammersley, what you doing there?"

"Long story dad."

"Well I have all the time in the world son. Anyway how much sleep have you had?"

"Um…about eight hours now since I got up yesterday morning." Mike says noticing the time having been able to get a few hours of sleep at Kate's.

"What did they do make you work all night?'

"Yep." He replies back. His voice flat and deflated.

"How can they ask you and your crew to work twenty four hours straight after something like this?"

"The crew knocked off yesterday evening but I worked all night. And anyway when we are out on the water we work twenty four seven."
"Yes son but you have a roster and you don't witness what happened yesterday on a daily bases. You get time to rest, sleep, eat and recharge the batteries. It won't just be the fact you haven't sleep but the emotional drain on you that will also be making you feel even more tired than normal." Mark says to his son, Mike being reminded yet again that just because his dad is now a farmer doesn't mean he didn't get an education before taking over the family farm. "So how come your crew got the night off and you didn't?" He asks Mike.

"Well my old crew got the night off, my new crew didn't they also worked a full night after cruising back to port during the day." Mike says as he feels a body come up behind him and press against his back and arms going around his waist as he talks.

"New crew?" Mark says sounding surprised.

"The transfer I told you guys about that the shrink had me do came through yesterday of all days brought the change of command forward twenty four hours." Mike says.

"So what is happening re Hammersley then?"

"Well it isn't my concern but I will be keeping an eye out for what goes on there."

"I bet you will with Kate on board there be no way you wouldn't." Mark says knowing how Mike feels about Kate, and also knowing what has been going on with them as well.

Mike moves to lie down on the bed as his father speaks to him some more. His free arm wrapping around Kate's body, his hand caressing her hip, as she cuddles back up into his side on her bed.

"Well make yourselves comfortable I will come around just before I head back off to work tonight."

"You working again tonight?"

"Yes I have to go to work; Melbourne is on night duty watch of the area where the explosion happened. The AFP have to do their thing which will take most of today before the clean-up can even begin, plus the with the clean up everything will have to be bagged and tagged for evidence use later on, which in turns take even longer and most likely AFP will want to be there doing it as our guys do the clean-up, them getting the easy job." Mike says giving his father a brief out line of what he can tell him without leaking anything.

"So what time will we see you then?"

"Around 4.30 I have to get a few things before heading to the docks."

"Your mother would like to see you sooner."

"Well Kate needs me here and after yesterday she comes first." Mike says to his dad.

"Mike is there something you're not telling me?"

"I can't tell you dad it's not my place to."

"Mike cut the bullshit would you please, I know when you are trying to deflect the conversation and you are doing it right now. Is Kate in a state because of Jim dying?"

"Yes, No Dad it's not my place to tell you ok." He says trying to plead with his dad not to make him tell him and break Kate's trust in the process. Kate hears him pleading with his dad. "Look dad I will tell you when the time is right which isn't right now." He says as he pulls Kate closer to his body.

"You will be telling me when I see you later, now I shell let you get some more sleep." His dad says before the two say goodbye and Mike puts his mobile back on the bed side table.

The two are only curled up with each other in the nice quiet of the house for only a few minutes before Mike's mobile rings again. As he picks it up he checks his screen and sees Maxine White flashing across it.

"Maxine what the hell do you won't?" Mike says into his mobile phone.

"Nice way to speak to your superior Mike." And the voice on the other end of the line has Mike sitting upright quickly; Kate sees the shocked expression on his face.

"Captain Marshall what can I do for you?" he says into the phone.

"Well I am ringing off Maxine phone as she is on mine talking to the Chief, I am wanting to know how you are doing and also Kate. Maxine said that you were keeping an eye on her."

"Well I am tired but that is to be expected with the situation at hand. Lieutenant McGregor she is not doing so well Sir." He says to Steve.

"Mike there is no need to be so professional, I'm ringing more as a friend right now to be honest. We have known each other for a long time now Mike so please be honest with me how are you two?"

"I'm shattered, a good amount of uninterrupted sleep would be wonderful, Kate on the other hand is not doing so well."

"Yes I heard that Captain Roth was her partner."

"Yes he was but it's not just that, which is causing issues."

"So what I could see is true she does have feelings for you and you're kidnapping and sub explosion are now replaying in her head along with yesterday's explosion."

"Yes your hit the nail on the head there Steve."

"Is she up to working at all?"

"No."

"Is she in any fit state to do anything?"

"Par sleeping no, but then again she isn't sleeping well either."

"Which in turn would be meaning you are getting even less sleep because of it all?"

"That is correct."

"How much sleep have you had since yesterday?"

"Well I was up at zero five hundred hours yesterday morning by zero seven hundred this morning I had about five hours broken sleep and since then I have had another three to four hours sleep."

"Well I think going by that you're in no fit state to work tonight Mike, so I will sort out something at this end maybe even send Maxine out on Melbourne for the night. You look after Kate and once you have had some more sleep ring me and let me know how she is doing and I also want a progress report on her tomorrow morning of what sort of night the two of you have had."

"Sir?" Mike says unsure of what Steve is going on about and why he is being so nice about it all.

"As far as I am concerned there is nothing to look into you are both on separate boats, no chain of command being broken, so nothing to worry about. Now I will let you get some more sleep." Steve says before they both hang up the phone. Mike stays sitting up still trying to get his head around the conversation with Steve.

"What did Marshall want?" Kate asks quietly.

"He was seeing how we both are doing. I have the night off, but I do have to go home at some stage today as my parents are up." He says and after he has finished his sentence she rolls away from him, wiping away the silent tears that are falling down her face. Mike rolls over and curls up behind her wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back flash against his front.

"I have plenty of time before I have to go see them. Let's get some more sleep." He says as a sob breaks loose from her. He mangers to roll her over so she is facing him.

"I'm not leaving you ok, but I do need to go see my parents." He says as he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as he talks to her. "Maybe you should come, and talk to dad." She shakes her head to indicate that she doesn't want to. "It's going to be ok. We will get through this I promise you that." He says to her as he pulls her in closer to him holding her, and at the same time rubbing a hand up and down her back.

"You sure you made promises before and you broke them." She says quietly to him.

"I didn't break all of them." He says trying to keep the anger and hurt out of his voice but failing a little as he feels her flinch within his hold.