"Kate?"

He watched as she stood near the window, gazing out at the pools of people in the backyard below.

"How are we supposed to tell them?" she murmured softly, pushing back the curtain. She stepped away, turning with her arms wrapped around herself to watch him by the bed.

"It was so much easier hiding from them" she sighed and at once collapsed into his outstretched arms, letting his hands rub there way up her forearm to warm her.

"What's so scary?" he asked gently, brushing the hair from her eyes. He watched her blink slowly before she shrugged, huffing anyway.

"This coming from the woman who takes on hostage takers and mercenaries and god knows what else everyday without flinching"

He smiled as she shuffled defiantly in his arms, head still resting against his shoulders even as she stepped back from him.

"Not anymore" she mumbled and for a second both's thoughts flew to the new XO that would be gracing Hammersley soon.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell them" suggested Mike lightly, hand now rubbing up Kate's back. He smiled as she laughed slightly, both thinking the same thing.

No one would ever fill the shoes she was leaving.

"You ready?" he asked suddenly, tugging her towards the waiting door.

"Nooo" called Kate quickly, pulling him back the opposite way. Her eyes were wide and slightly desperate so he didn't put up much of a fight as her small arms gripped him tight, causing them both to fall back on the bed.

He did, however, roll quickly, pinning her beneath him.

"Half of them already know" he tried, smiling as her brow crinkled in worry.

"So, relax" he added, and before she could reply his lips were upon her.

"Mike.." she whined, pushing him away.

"Sally knows, and Nikki's suspicious" she stopped a moment "Who else knows?"

" Well I think we can safely rule out the guys"

"Chloe? Maybe?"

Kate pushed a hand against Mike's shoulder, sighing as he grinned at his own joke.

Without warning he rolled off her, resting an arm behind his head so they were lying side by side.

"I'm a little scared" he pondered aloud, reaching the tips of his fingers out to lay against hers.

"We're going to get hell from the guys, aren't we?" asked Kate, shuffling onto her side to face Mike.

"Especially when they realise it was you in my shirt that morning"

"And that you lied to them"

"You lied too" frowned Mike indignantly.

Kate smiled happily.

A soft smile Mike catalogued mentally, storing the image away with the millions other he'd collected over the past few weeks. He reached out a fingertip to run across her bottom lip, lips following as her eyes drifted shut.

"Let's run away"

he chuckled as her lips moved against his, the words jumbled between the taste and feel of each other.

"Why's that?" he asked, propping himself up on his elbow to gaze down at her. Instinctively her knee bent to throw her leg across his own, body shuffling closer to his chest. He'd been amused to discover she was still in favour of physical closeness – even if it was in the locked safety of either of their homes where no spying eyes could penetrate – it made him feel safe somehow, the knowledge in the middle of the night that the weight across his stomach was the woman he loved.

"We could elope in Vegas" he grinned casually, running a finger up her arm and ignoring the rambling explanation she'd expressed for running.

She stopped abruptly, eyes wide, before tilting her head to the side.

"Was that a proposal?" she asked, lips quirking slightly.

The eyebrow rose with it and he resisted the urge to laugh, assured that his unknown slip had been taken lightheartedly.

"Do you want it to be one?" he leered and leant closer, blinking his eyes shut as she leant towards him.

He gasped as her tongue flickered out, caressing the soft mark between his eyes from a long forgotten childhood accident.

"Kay" she mumbled before turning away, leaving him short of breath and wide eyed.

"Mike?"

Somehow he managed a mumbled response.

"Love you" she called across the bed, now curled up with her back to him. He breathed out slowly, smiling softly as he realised she was falling asleep on him. He turned on the bed, resting a hand on her back and pressing down lightly.

It wasn't often that she told him, wasn't often either said the words if he was being truthful. But they both knew, every morning when they woke and the other was still there.

He pulled himself across the covers so he was lying on top of her, elbows stopping his large frame from squashing her.

He hated replying to her with 'I love you too', the fourth word making it sound like an after thought, or a forced expression he had to say because she had.

Instead he liked saying it as if it was a revelation; a miraculous wonder that she had given him another chance. Which when he really thought, it was.

"Hey Katie"

She yawned and shifted beneath him, eyes gazing terribly bright into his own.

"I love you"

His stomach flipped at the smile he was cataloguing. It was his favourite and by far her rarest.

"You know what?" he asked, settling down so his face was millimetres from her own.

"I don't know what you're worried about, if you can handle loving someone like me than telling that lot of scoundrels should be a walk in the park"

Kate laughed softly, flicking a finger against his forehead affectionately.

"Well then sailor, what are we waiting for?" she smiled, wriggling herself up against him before sliding away off the bed.

"Oy!" He called, following quickly "Don't start something you can't finish" he mumbled as an arm wrapped around her waist and is head found her hair.

Vanilla. Sea. Some type of shampoo he'd have to discover the name of tomorrow in the shower but was really beginning to like.

Kate.

"Guess we'll just have to get this over and done with quickly then" she grinned, tugging his hand towards the stairs.

"Then home?"

"Mmhhh"

"Bed?"

"Maybe…"

"Lounge then, I open to all options…"

He laughed happily as her hand collided with his shoulder.

"That a no?"

"Shut up Mike"

"Yes Ma'am"

She paused at the sliding door and glanced around at her friends, watching them quietly in the soft evening light before stepping back against Mike's chest.

His hand sought hers and squeezed it gently, other reaching out to rest on the doorhandle.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be"

They stepped forwards slowly, first stars light guiding them gently.

don't care what they do…

being here with you…

It's news to me, tell everybody

The lights are back on