Disclaimer: I don't Sea Patrol.

Chapter 20

Kate turned and saw Pete standing behind her, his huge, tattooed arms by his sides. A surprised look was on his face.

"Buffer? What are you doing here?" Kate asked with a surprised voice.

"I could ask you the same thing Ma'am? You just don't strike me as the playground type person, not that I was insinuating anything." He added quickly as he joined her on the bench.

"I'm sitting here waiting for someone." Kate thought quickly while glancing at Annie to make sure that she was ok.

Pete followed Kate's gazed and saw that she was looking at a miniature version of herself. "Is that…?" His voice trailed off.

Kate kept her eyes on Annie and nodded "Ah huh." She murmured softly.

"When are you coming back that is, if you are coming back?" Pete turned his head and watched his comrade and whom he'd like to think of as a sister.

Kate pulled her gaze away from Annie and turned to look at Pete. "Soon, I promise. I just have so much to do right now that work is the last thing on my mind."

Pete nodded then put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. "If you need some help, I'll be here." Pete held her eyes as he said, "I promise." He gave her shoulders another squeeze then got up and smiled and Kate. "I'll see you later, Ma'am." He turned and walked away.

"Buffer wait!" Kate called, causing Pete to turn around and look at her. Annie looked up to see what was going on. Kate gave a half smile and said, "It's Kate, Pete, Kate!" Then she raised her hand and waved goodbye.

Pete smiled and waved then walked away.

"Who was that?" Came a small voice to Kate's right.

Kate turned and saw Annie standing next to her, with dirt on her face.

"That was a dear friend of mine." Kate said with smile on her face.

Annie's brows creased together as she asked, "Is he a special friend?"

When Kate stared at her with confusion on her face she added, "You know, a special friend that gives you a ring and you play weddings with." She paused then added, "Well, that's what Sop…" Annie paused again, "Well that's what someone told me."

Kate laughed when she realised what Annie meant, "No silly." Kate said as she gently tugged her hair. "He's kind of like a big brother, always looking out for me and trying to…" Kate paused as she thought about it. "…to keep me safe. He's saved my life so many times." Kate smiled as she remembered the times she and Pete went on boarding parties that didn't exactly go to plan.

"Oh." Annie's eyes went wide as she finally understood who that man was. She opened her mouth to ask something when Kate cut in.

"It's time to go home. Come along Annie." Kate said as she got and held her hand out for Annie to take.

Annie immediately forgot the question she was going to ask and took Kate's hand.

Ten minutes, later Kate and Annie walked into Kate's house and took off their shoes and walked into the living room.

"I suppose I'd better give you a tour then." Kate said as she got Annie to follow her around the house as Kate pointed out the rooms and important things that Kate thought Annie thought she should know.

They got to Kate's room and Kate stood outside it. "That my room. When I start work again and when I'm home I'll probably be in there doing work. Always knock before entering, ok?"

Annie nodded.

"Well did you want something to eat? A sandwich? I think I have some bread in the freezer." Kate asked.

Annie nodded. "Do you have vegemite and cheese?"

Kate smiled as she remembered eating cheese and vegemite sandwiches when she was a kid. She always kept a store of cheese and vegemite. "Sure I think I can manage that. Take a look around the place and I'll give you a call when lunch is ready."

Kate smiled as she walked down the hallway to go and prepare lunch, leaving Annie standing outside Kate's room. Annie waited until Kate was out of sight before she turned the door knob on Kate's door.

The door swung into the room and Annie looked around the room. It was quite boring, there were a couple of paintings on the walls and the room was really neat. Annie was about to leave when she saw something sticking out of a drawer that was next to her bed.

Annie walked over to the drawer and pulled the drawer open. It was a photo that was sticking out of the drawer. It was creased, as if it had been held and looked at a lot. Kate was standing infront of man with sandy blonde hair. His arms were wrapped around her and she had her hands resting on his. They were both looking at each other with big smiles on their faces.

"They both look happy." Annie murmured. Is this her special friend? Annie thought. Annie grabbed the photo and went to go ask Kate when the door bell rang.

"Annie! Could you get the door please?" Kate yelled down the hallway.

Annie turned left towards the door, instead of right towards the kitchen. Annie reached up and turned the doorknob and opened the door.

"Thank goodness your back Kate. I need those papers on the patrol on the 23rd of September." A man said while he was looking at his pile of notes. He glanced up and noticed no one was there.

Annie cleared her throat to get the man's attention. The man moved his stack of paperwork aside to see who made the noise. Annie's eyes widened and she looked down at her picture in her hand and then looked up at the man's face and realised he was the same man.

"Ah, hi, um, does Kate live here?" The sandy haired man asked his blue eyes looking confused.

Annie just stared at him.

"Annie! Who's at the door?" Kate said as she walked down the hallway while wiping her hands on a tea towel. "Lunch is ready by the way."

Kate got to the door and looked at the new comer. "Mike! What are you doing here? And how did you know I was home already?" Kate gave him a funny look. "What's with all the paperwork?"

Annie looked from one adult to the other, feeling small. "Um, excuse me Kate but, is he your special friend?" Annie asked as she looked at him with a curious look on her face.

Kate looked at Annie completely surprised that she was there. She had completely forgotten about her. She shook her head and said, "Forgive me, Annie this is Mr. Flynn." She gave Annie a look. "He's my boss. Mike this is Annie." Kate said nothing more.

Mike looked at Kate for an explanation but Kate didn't say anything. So Mike decided to take matters into his own hands. "Here Kate." And he handed her his paperwork.

He held out his hand to Annie. "It's nice to meet you Annie and you can call me Mike. Mr. Flynn makes me sound too old." He gave her a wink. Annie smiled and she took his hand.

Annie turned to look at Kate. "I like him." She said smiling. "If he's not your special friend then what's this picture about?" Annie asked as she held up the picture of her and Mike.

Kate paled.

"What photo is this?" Mike asked as he saw Kate turn pale. He was curious. Annie turned to show him the photo when Kate snatched it out of hand.

"It's nothing Mike. Don't worry about it." She looked at Annie. "Go and have your lunch, we'll talk later."

Annie nodded as she gulped. When someone says they'll talk later it means that she was in trouble. She quickly turned and left Mike and Kate while she went to go and get some food.

Kate sighed as she watched Annie leave them. Glad, she was able to stop her from showing Mike that photo. She turned her attention to the man infront of her.

"How old is she?" Mike asked his face serious.

"She's eight." Kate said as she wondered where this conversation was going.

Mike's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me Kate?"

Kate looked at him quizzically, "Why should I have told you? She's got nothing to do with you."

Mike looked at her strangely, "I think I have every right. I mean when were you going to tell me? When she asked who her father was?"

Kate stared at him then it clicked. He thought that she was his child. Kate mentally figured out that Annie would have been born about the time that they had broken up. Kate opened her mouth to correct him but was cut off.

"Did you honestly think that I'd not give you any support?" Mike looked at her. "Kate I've tried to be a good friend but I think I deserve to know something like this. I thought we trusted each other. Obviously I was wrong." He gave her a look that Kate couldn't decipher and he took his paperwork from her arms and went to go when a piece of paper fell to the floor. It landed face up. It was the photo of them.

Mike stopped and stared at it. Mike placed his paperwork on the step and picked up the photo. Kate had gone white again.

He looked at her. "Does she know who I am?"

Kate opened her mouth but Mike cut her off. "Don't bother I can tell by your face that you haven't." Mike turned to go when Kate grabbed him by the arm.

"Mike it's not what you think. She's not my daughter." Mike turned to stare at her. He stepped closer to her. "Who is she then? And why does she look a lot like you?" He stared at her closely. "Please don't lie to me, Kate." He said softly.

Kate looked at him. She opened her mouth but no words came out. How could she explain it to him? He had no idea what she had been through and now he was jumping to conclusions. Kate stepped back from him her eyes closing up all emotion. The only thing was that there was a step behind Kate and she tripped and started to fall back when a pair of hands wrapped around her body and pulled her up.

Kate found herself in Mike's arms. Her head resting on his right shoulder, hands resting on his chest. Mike's arms were tightly around her. Kate closed her eyes and breathed in his smell. She sighed; it had been so long since she had smelt it. With a pang she realised how much she missed it. Her eyes watered and she tried not to cry. She sniffed and his arms tightened around her waist.

"Kate." Mike whispered in her ear.

Kate squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't do it, she couldn't say that Annie was her sister because that meant her life had to change and she knew it had to but she just couldn't say out aloud. Not yet, she thought.

Kate pushed away from Mike and said, "I'm sorry I just, I just can't." She quickly went inside and shut the door, leaving Mike on the doorstep with a haunted expression on his face.

A/N: Ok I took pity on you guys so I decided to post early. I honestly don't know when I'll post next just thank your lucky stars that it is a long weekend where I am. Please, pretty please let me know what you think. I bet no one thought it would be Buffer, hahahahaha! I always like to throw something in that will throw people off the scent. I hope I succeeded in surprising you guys.

Oh, Easy-em, I can't reply to your question because you don't have an account but to your question I'm a young adult, in my early twenties. Thanks for your comments too. To everyone else I try to thank your personally via msg. But THANKS ALL!!!! :D

Until next update,

Fantasy