TERROR DOWN UNDER – CHAPTER 21
This follows on from Mike and Kate's talk prior to the memorial service in the series finale "One Perfect Day." The departure from canon being, of course, that in my AU, Swain survived.
And I must apologise for having skipped an important fact in my previous narrative – the news that Jim Roth died in hospital from his wounds, hence the conversations on the Hammersley at the close of the previous update referring to the forthcoming Memorial Service.
Reviews are very welcome – in fact, they feed the muse
Chapter 21 – (Friday – a week after Jen's rescue)
Harmon Rabb pulled his wife into his arms and held her tightly. He knew how close he had come to losing her and his innate protectiveness had been severely tested over the past few days. Jen snuggled into her husband's warm embrace, relaxing against him and allowing the past few days' stresses and cares to melt away. They had attended the solemn memorial service for Captain Jim Roth and Corporal Lindsay that morning and both felt drained. Although Roth's injuries had plainly made his chances of survival unlikely in the extreme, the news of his passing had been no less devastating for all his comrades.
The service to honour the two men who had given their lives so that others would live had been a solemn celebration of the two soldiers' lives whose sacrifice was recognised with full military honours. Following the service, the SAS Unit to which both Roth and Lindsay belonged had invited the Hammersley crew, along with Harm and Jen, to join them at the wake for the fallen soldiers. A private room in one of the shore-front hotels had been booked and they had appreciated the time spent with their new friends, sharing memories and listening as they had all finally relaxed over lunch together.
Afterwards, Harm had driven Jen to look at the house that had finally been arranged for them. It was in a quiet leafy suburban street, not far from Mike's own home and was a similar style – high-set pale cream painted timber with verandahs running full length along both the front and back of the house – and a lush tropical garden. There was no in-ground pool in this house's back yard, but Mike had told Harm to keep the spare key to his own home and pool, inviting them to make as much use of it as they wished. The house was currently unfurnished and they were awaiting the arrival of the container with their own furniture and personal house-hold goods before finally moving in.
Hand in hand they wandered through the empty rooms, discussing and gently debating where their own furniture would be best placed. Both were pleased to see the large master bedroom, at the rear of the house, had sliding glass doors that opened on to the wide back verandah which ran the length of the house. A roomy walk-in wardrobe ran along an adjacent wall (the wall that separated the bedroom from the lounge room they soon discovered) and a small, but well appointed en-suite opened off the wall opposite the verandah. Harm glanced approvingly at the cool grey floor tiles in their bathroom. It was obvious that the bedroom and en-suite had recently undergone a modernising renovation and the result was very pleasing.
Jen had been relieved to see that the highly polished dark reddish-brown timber flooring, almost identical to that in Mike's home, ran throughout and there were no carpets. She had come to appreciate the benefits of a clean, cool timber floor in this tropical climate and was quick to assure Harm just how pleased she was with this aspect of the house, at least. The other two upstairs bedrooms and bathroom area were almost identical with Mike's, with both front facing bedrooms also having doors that opened onto the long, wide front verandah.
The upstairs living areas included the lounge whose back wall was a long line of café-style folding timber-framed glass doors, opening the room completely out to the back verandah. The entire back verandah was enclosed in fine insect screening, with a screened security door at the top of the rear staircase. The wide, lengthy verandah would certainly lend itself to entertaining, they both agreed as they re-entered the house and began exploring the large kitchen which ran almost the entire width of one end of the house. Complete with walk-in pantry and an appliance cupboard in one corner, together with ceramic-topped hotplates and a generously sized wall oven, the kitchen was also the obvious result of recent renovations.
"What do you think, Jen?" asked Harm as he glanced around approvingly, noting the family-sized fridge beside the pantry and the glass-fronted Western Cedar timber-framed cupboards lining the walls above the marble counters.
"I think we've scored very well, Harm," Jen was beaming with delight. She had already fallen in love with the house and its tropical charm. The large ceiling fans discretely hanging in each room throughout the house, together with the air-conditioners she had seen adorning the walls in each bedroom and the living areas, had quelled any apprehension she may have felt about living in this tropical climate.
"I can't wait to move in. Do you know how long it will be before our container arrives?"
Harm gently touched one long finger to his wife's nose and smiled. "A little bird told me that someone pulled some strings and managed to get it on to a C130 to Darwin instead of sending it out by sea. I believe it's now on a semi-trailer travelling somewhere through the Australian outback to Cairns so I think we can expect it to be here any day. I'll follow up on it," he promised. "Mike's been more than generous in sharing his house with us but I want to move in to our own home as soon as we can."
Mike had taken the Rabbs into his confidence and both knew of Mike's imminent promotion and transfer. The Hammersley would be undertaking one more short patrol with Mike Flynn as its captain – something Mike considered to be a bonus as his original orders had been that the patrol immediately prior to the SAS memorial service was to have been his last. The patrol boat and its crew were due to sail on Monday at 0800 hours giving everyone much appreciated shore leave for the two days following the service.
(Earlier that day at Kate's house…)
Mike watched as Kate straightened her dress whites and reached for her cover. From the time he had walked through her front door some minutes earlier she had avoided making eye contact with him. He took a deep breath and asked, "Are you okay?"
Slowly Kate shook her head, "No. No, I'm not."
Brokenly, she unburdened her feelings of guilt for not having had the chance to tell Jim that she would never marry him because, whilst trying on wedding dresses, she had realised that the only person she could ever imagine herself marrying was Mike.1
"Me too," he told Kate simply. The two looked at each other in silent understanding for a long moment before Mike gestured towards the door. "I'm not going to let you go again, Kate. We need to talk but we have to go now. We're both off duty after the service and the wake. Will you have coffee with me so we can really talk?"
Kate gazed up at Mike, aware that his heart was laid bare in those expressive blue eyes.
"Yes," she said simply. "I'd like that."
After Kate passed through the door ahead of him, Mike followed her, quietly pulling the door closed behind him and together they walked towards the car. Despite the pain and grief, they each felt a quiet peace settle on their hearts.
After leaving the wake, Kate and Mike had changed into casual civvies and driven north to Machans Beach where a more secluded restaurant overlooking the secluded beach offered them a quieter location for their coffee and heart to heart talk. As they sipped their cappuccinos in the peaceful surroundings, Mike placed his mug back in its saucer and nervously cleared his throat.
"Kate, I know what Maxine said to you and the veiled threat she hit you with. So does Marshall. As you know, Max has been reposted to Darwin. What you obviously don't know is that Max was, and is, very much in my past. I can't, and I won't, make excuses for what happened between us, but she has no claim on me. Yes, she is my son's mother – but that particular bomb-shell was dropped on me. A whole heap of heart-ache has arisen out of one drunken night when we both crossed a line that we shouldn't have. And the one's who've been hurt the most are Ryan, you, and Stewart. I'll never have the opportunity to talk with Stewart now, and if I'm to be honest, I'll always wonder if I'd have had the moral courage to do that if he'd lived. I'd like to think I would have. But that's something I'm going to have to live with. As for Ryan, I'm hoping we're going to be able to eventually build a relationship. It'll take time, but I want to be there for him, for Jess, and for my grandchild." He paused, raised his mug for another sip, replaced it and raised his eyes to the woman he loved and for whom he was willing to sacrifice his career if that was the only way they could be together.
"Which brings me to you…to us. I want there to be an us, Kate. What you said this morning has given me hope that you want the same. Can we sort out the pain of these past months and start again?"
Kate's eyes hadn't left Mike's face during this uncharacteristically lengthy speech and she allowed all her heart to shine out as she answered.
"Yes, Mike, I want there to be an us, too. It's what I always wanted." She paused and, in turn, took a sip from her coffee. "I know I hurt you when I came back from that meeting with Maxine, but the only way I thought I could survive was to deliberately alienate you so you wouldn't suspect the truth and go haring off to Navcom and carry out your threat of resigning. It nearly killed me to break it off the way I did, and then poor Jim turned up and it just seemed so fortuitous to let you think that…" she broke off as tears welled up. Brushing them aside, Kate looked over Mike's shoulder to the gentle waves that caressed the white sand just beyond the palm trees. "When Jim asked me to marry him, it seemed like the answer. We got on well together, he was fun to be with and I believed we could have a happy, undemanding life together. But, I knew I didn't love him the way he deserved to be loved. He was a good man – a really good man. It would have been selfish and unfair of me to marry a man like Jim simply because I could never be with the one man whom I really loved. Jim deserved an honesty that I realised I hadn't given him."
Mike reached out and covered Kate's hand with his own.
"He was a good man, Kate. And I think you underestimate his level of understanding. We're both richer for having known him." Mike took another mouthful of his rapidly cooling coffee, his eyes never leaving the tearful ones opposite.
"This may seem like the worst and most insensitive timing ever, but I have to ask. Will you marry me, Kate? I was going to propose on our ill-fated trip to Tahiti. I had all these romantic plans for how I was going to pop the question, but I don't want to waste any more time. I love you Kate. I think I've known, at some level, ever since you stepped onto the Hammersley that I'd never really stopped loving you. I tried to forget you, but no other woman ever claimed my heart like you did. I want to tell you I'm sorry for being a coward all these years and for not being honest with both you and myself. I wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted you but I didn't want to give up the Hammersley. When everything was coming together for us, I was sure you'd get the promotion and be Hammersley's next CO. I was knocked sideways when that didn't happen. That's when I went to Command and demanded a shore posting or I'd be resigning. And I meant it, Kate. I finally knew that I wanted you more than my career."
"And that's when Maxine stuck her oar in," Kate commented quietly.
"Dutchy told me what happened, Kate. I was furious. Believe me, Maxine's under no illusions about what I think of her over that. But, I know that I have to be able to build a relationship with Ryan and it will be easier all round if I can improve my relationship with Max in the future. She'll never be the friend she used to be, but I'm hoping we can all move on." When Kate would have interrupted, he smiled gently and held up a restraining hand.
"I'm on a roll, here Kate. Let me finish what I need to say. This coming patrol will be my finale. You are to get your promotion – it'll be gazetted in Monday's lists – and you will be the new CO of Hammersley. I'm taking up a new position as CO of NavCom in another two weeks. It was supposed to be next Monday, but with everything that's gone down over the past couple of weeks, Canberra's decided to defer it to the end of May."
Kate's eyes had widened as he shared their future career directions (something he had run by Steve Marshall earlier in the day, to ensure he had permission to do jump the gun) and her gaze never faltered as she, in turn, squeezed Mike's hand.
"The answer's yes, Mike. That's what I've been trying to say, but you wouldn't let me get a word in! I don't want to waste any more time either."
Mike's smile nearly split his face as he dug one hand into the side pocket of his cargo shorts. He pulled out a small jeweller's box and placed it in front of Kate.
"Let's make it official. I'm not going to risk losing you again."
Kate gasped as she opened the box and saw the beautiful Argyle diamond sitting in the centre of a shoulder of small emeralds. She fingered the ring gently, lost for words.
"Here, let me make this really official." He removed the ring and gently slid it on to Kate's ring finger. He gave an exaggerated sigh when it was seen to be a perfect fit.
"At least we won't have to return it to the jeweller to be re-sized."
"How did you guess my ring size?"
Mike had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "Time for confession. Remember when you thought you'd lost your grandmother's ring back before everything blew up in our faces? Well…ummm…I'd borrowed it to get the sizing right. I'd hoped to be able to return it without you being any the wiser, but we got that emergency crash sail order and I left it with the jeweller and headed straight back to the Hammersley instead of going home and putting your ring back. I felt an absolute heel during that tour when you were so upset about "misplacing" the ring."
"Mike Flynn!" Kate shook her head in disbelief. "I'm stunned. You know, I could never understand how I'd overlooked it when we returned home and there it was right where it should have been. I was seriously giving credence to gremlins having taken up residence." She laughed and gazed at the ring on her finger again. "This is just beautiful, Mike. I love it."
If anything, Mike's smile grew wider. "I'll call in to see Steve Marshall before he knocks off this afternoon and tell him our news."
tbc
1 See Season Five, series finale, "One Perfect Day."