Kate was loving motherhood. She didn't think she would take to it so well or so easily, but what surprised her more than anything how natural it felt to her and how she was so protective of her little bundle of Joy.
She was enjoying being at home looking after her and being the ever so doting house wife at present, she was just enjoying having a routine and not one set by the Navy and it's no sense of timing, she was loving sleeping in the bed she shared with Mike. Even more she was loving having him home every night as well.
She knew she would have to go back to work at some stage but right at that moment she was just enjoying life as it was.
A year after the birth of Louise Kate has returned back to work full time, this time as the CO of Hammersley, Mike's parents along with Steve's wife taking the pleasure of watching Mike and her daughter during the day when Mike was working. She knew her daughter who looked like her father, with a head full of blonde hair, and she had her mother's stuppen strike was in safe hands, being spoiled with so much love, more love than Kate could ever remember getting as a child. It left her with more unanswered questions about what her mother had done when she was little, and left England for Australia.
Dylan and Jess are planning their wedding, a small wedding if Jess has her way, but Dylan has other plans, he wants her to feel like the Princess he sees her as. Plus he has been trying hard to get her parents on side, as he knows how important it is to Jess to have them a part of her life, and have her dad walk her down the aisle, but he knows she has asked Mike to do this honor instead. She has given up on them ever talking to her again. Even with her now being a fully qualified medic, and the two of them being together for some time now. After two and half years you would think they would have gotten over themselves, he just hopes they can see what they are missing out on before it is too late. He was able to get a posting out of Cairns working on Melbourne. It's not Hammersley but it was a posting that kept him in Cairns with Jess and for him that is all that mattered, and he couldn't wait to call Jess his wife. His parents loved her like she was one of their own children. When he returned he saw just how much his parents and Jess had bonded while he was away and they have bonded even more since his return. She had shown them many times how she is far more responsible than most kids her age are, she even told them about her Ex, and what brought her to working for the Navy.
Chris was walking now on his own, he was never going to be able to return back to sea but Mike and Steve had set him up well he was now teaching courses out of the Cairns Base to help others who do his position on the water, and he was enjoying it far more than the paperwork that he was doing to start with. He counts his lucky stars that he survived that day, he does at times feel down that Jim had to die but he is pleased he gets to see his kids grow up and they get to have him around.
They are all now enjoying life, they all remember what Jim and Chris did to save the lives of all those in Cairns, Kate always sends Jim parents flowers every year to place on his grave, on the day he died. But those on Hammersley remember the sacrifice Jim made for the family that they are, Steve always has them in port on the days around the date, he has learnt it is much more easier for them to give them a few days off to remember, to get drunk and work through it all in their own way, but also for him it allows him to just keep that closer eye on Kate.
Everyone is happy with where their lives are taking them at present.
I hope you enjoyed this story. I struggled to figure out how to end this story as it could have gone on for so much longer. Hope you are all ok with it ending here.