(Military Campaigns and Otherwise)
There was a long, exaggerated exhalation of breath and Kate looked up from the newspaper report she was reading. A small smile of amusement twisted her lips as she observed the scene around her in the living room. All four of her children were strewn around the space in various positions, all four of them reading a book of some sort. The huff, obviously, had been emitted by her elder daughter.
The twins' teacher had caught Kate at pick up a couple of days previously and suggested that Henry could do with spending a little more time reading at home. She was very quick to reassure her that there was nothing wrong with his reading – the twins were still working at a higher level than any of their peers – but it was his attitude to it that she wanted to change. When Kate had reluctantly admitted that neither she nor Osgood had much opportunity to read themselves, guessing that Henry had picked up on that fact, Mrs Phillips suggested that seeing his family enjoying reading might help.
That was why Kate had roped Gordon and Emily into helping out. Her elder son had been more than happy to have an excuse to sit and read for a while, but her daughter had been less than thrilled. After Kate had vetoed her suggestions that magazines and comics were basically the same – reminding that young woman that they were supposed to be encouraging Henry that reading books was fun – she had reluctantly consented to borrow something off Jason.
"Could he not have found anything a little… lighter?" Kate had asked when her daughter turned up on the doorstep with a book about cold war military strategy in her hand.
"By lighter, do you mean weight or content?" Emily had retorted petulantly.
Kate had laughed and pushed her into the living room where her siblings were already settled. Henry rolled his eyes at the sight of the book in his sister's hand and their mother had nudged Emily in the ribs and shot her a warning look before she could return his expression.
"Is that your favourite book?" Osgood teased a while after her arrival, handing her stepdaughter a mug of tea as Emily lounged on the sofa beside her sister.
"Em's favourite book?" Kate snorted with amusement. "I doubt Emily has ever read a whole book in her life. In fact, I didn't think she could read for a long time, although her teachers assured me she was completely literate."
As her other children laughed, the young woman in question pouted again and threw a cushion in her mother's direction. "How would you even know? I bet you can't even remember what school I went to, let alone my teacher's name."
Some of the sting was taken out of her words by the tongue she poked out to accompany them, but Kate still felt the accusation. "Which school are you talking about? There were enough of them seeing as you kept getting kicked out."
"Kate." Osgood murmured, sending her a warning look, signalling that they shouldn't bring up such a sore subject at the moment. She bestowed the same look on the younger brunette, before asking whether the twins wanted a drink.
They returned to their reading for a little while. Despite her best efforts, Emily found that she was actually enjoying reading Jason's book, interested in the strategies and ideas set out within it. Reluctantly deciding that she would ask Jason if she could keep hold of it until she'd finished reading it, she wrinkled her nose and started the next chapter.
"Em?"
"Hmm?"
"Blimey… were you actually enjoying that?" Gordon teased, nudging her in the thigh with his toe.
"No." She muttered, attempting to kick him back.
"Stop it, you two." Kate ordered lazily, slightly relieved that the twins had gone upstairs and were missing out on witnessing their elder siblings' childish behaviour. "Are you staying for tea?"
"What is it?" Gordon asked before giving her an answer.
She rolled her eyes. "Tagliatelle carbonara."
"I'll stay." Her two eldest chorused, equally broad grins on their faces.
"Of course you will."
"Serena's on a double shift." Emily explained with a shrug, flopping back against the cushions and reaching for the TV remote.
"Lorna's gone out with some friends." Gordon added, snatching the device from his sister's hand and changing the channel immediately.
"Oi! I was watching that!"
"No you weren't. You've just turned it on. Besides, the Antiques Roadtrip is so not you."
"You don't know me."
"I think I do. I've spent enough time trying to pretend I don't, but it never works."
"Will you two stop it?" Kate demanded, frowning between them. "You're honestly worse than the twins."
"The perfect twins." Emily rolled her eyes half-heartedly.
"The Stepford children." Gordon agreed.
Kate rolled her eyes again. "Henry and Alice are far from perfect, but at least they are six and don't just act like it."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever…"
"If I thought for a second that you meant any of this…" Their mother told them sternly. She sighed, looking between them. "They look up to you to, for some unknown reason, so you have to set them a good example."
"One of us does." Gordon reminded her, shooting his sister a smirk.
"Shame about Gordy." His sister shot back.
"Honestly, what has happened to the pair of you?" Kate asked in exasperation. "Why are you so intent on acting like bratty children just when I need you to step up and be a good influence?"
"I've always been like this." Her daughter reminded her. "It's just my personality."
"You never used to be. When you were the twins age your teachers used to say you were very mature and responsible."
"You're kidding, right?" Emily laughed at her mother's words. "You're probably thinking about Gordy. How would you know, anyway? You never went to any of my parents' evenings. My primary school didn't even know what you looked like, Mum. Melanie Walters thought I'd cut your photo out of a magazine when I did my year 4 family tree project."
"Em…" Gordon shook his head, seeing that she might be pushing their mother too far.
"What? It's true."
"It is not true." Kate replied irritably.
"OK, name one of my primary school teachers?"
There was a long pause as her mother thought about it. "Mr Heatherington."
"Nope."
"He was one of mine." Gordon admitted with a slight wince.
"Mrs Tompkins, Miss Leadwick and Mr Grant."
"All mine again."
Emily shrugged. "It's fine if you can't think of one. I know you were way too busy."
"Emily…"
"No, honestly. I get it." The younger woman replied. "Just please don't pretend my childhood was something it wasn't." She stood up, grabbing Jason's book off the coffee table. "I don't think I'll stay, after all. I'm due on drills at four tomorrow morning… I should probably get an early night."
Neither Gordon nor Kate moved as they heard Emily calling goodbye to Osgood and the twins and leaving the house. The front door closing behind her was Kate's cue to drop onto the sofa and put her head in her hands. Gordon shifted to sit beside her, draping his arm around the woman's shoulders and nudging her gently.
"She'll be alright… you know she's just a bit sensitive about it all."
"I thought she was over it all." Kate admitted. "I know it was my fault… that I should have been more involved while she was little, but I thought we'd moved on."
"She has, Mum." Gordon assured her softly. "Mostly, anyway, but I suppose having it rubbed in her face that you're so invested in the twins education that you've drafted us in to set them a good example – and then pretty much lectured us about it – might have been a step too far."
"When you put it like that…"
"Essentially all Em wants is your acknowledgement that maybe you could have done things differently and that you've learnt from it." Her son continued. "She doesn't want you to change how involved you are with the twins school, if anything she's pleased about it. She's just… she's Em. She doesn't make things easy for herself or anyone else. She overreacts and then regrets it. You know that."
"I'll try and catch her tomorrow when she's calmed down." Kate murmured, knowing that he was right. "I need to discuss her latest report anyway."
"I mean… I think she'd appreciate more of a personal chat, but I suppose that's a start."
Chuckling, Kate swatted at him and heaved herself off the sofa. "Less of the cheek, you."
"Ma'am? General Kettani has sent over his report from the Marianas Trench." Andrew announced as soon as Kate strode past him towards her office the next morning.
He waved the manila envelope containing the information they'd received that morning in her direction, flinching slightly as she snatched it from his hand and slammed her office door. Used to his boss' volatile behaviour – knowing that there would be a heartfelt apology heading his way once she'd calmed down – the PA returned to his desk and checked through her schedule for the rest of the day.
Kate flicked through the graphs and charts quickly, furrowing her eyebrows as she attempted to make sense of General Kettani's report. After reading the same paragraph for the third time, she sighed and dropped the papers onto the surface of her desk. Removing her reading glasses, Kate rubbed her eyes tiredly. She was pretty sure that her next move should be to deploy the Taskforce to the region to deal with the threats outlined in the report, but that would mean an immediate deployment and no chance to speak to Emily properly before she left.
"Ma'am?" The tentative knock on her door was followed by Andrew's apprehensive face appearing. "I know you're busy, but I've got Hester Lane on the phone from Homeland Security. They want the latest from the Mariannas Trench."
"Tell her I'm in a meeting and I'll phone her back when I can."
"Yes, Ma'am. I've also been speaking to Jeffrey from–"
"I'm not going to be able to speak to the Treasury today, Andrew."
"I understand, it's just that you skipped the last financial surgery and–"
"I was a little bit caught up at the time." She reminded him, arching an eyebrow.
He nodded hastily. "Of course, but they're saying that this time they're going to cut the–"
"Fine! What time do they want me?"
"Three."
"Right. Make sure I'm available, please."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Can you also ask Colonel Parks to come and see me as soon as possible." Kate requested reluctantly, her head overruling her heart as she made a decision on her next move. "Stress that it's urgent, please, Andrew."
"Of course, Ma'am."
"Thank you."
Letting out a long breath, Kate picked up her mobile and selected her wife's number. Propping her forehead up on her hand, she waited for Osgood to answer. Unsurprisingly, the younger woman sounded thoroughly distracted when she said her name, clearly caught up in the middle of something or other. Kate smiled, warmth flooding through her as she realised that Osgood had answered her call anyway.
"Everything OK?"
"Have you got ten minutes?"
"Ummm… not really. I could spare five, I think?"
"I'll take it." Kate agreed at once. "I'll have coffee waiting."
Crossing to the door, the blonde smiled at her PA and set about making the drinks. She made a third, setting it on Andrew's desk with a weak smile and a mumbled apology for her terrible mood earlier, before disappearing back into her office and closing the door. A moment or two later there was a light tap and Osgood appeared.
"You alright, love?" She asked immediately, settling herself in the chair opposite Kate's desk and reaching for her coffee. "What's happened?"
"I'm going to recommend Parks takes the Taskforce to the Pacific."
Osgood winced. "They've not long come back from their last trip. What with Dr Piper's accident..."
"I know." Kate admitted with a deep sigh. She pushed the file across the desk and leant back in her chair, wrapping her hands around her mug, almost defensively. "But look at that and tell me I've got another choice?"
Flicking through the pages in silence for a couple of moments, Osgood read the information they contained carefully. Then she let out an equally deep sigh and shook her head. For another minute or two she stayed silent, contemplating whether there was another other option.
"You're completely right, of course." The brunette nodded. "There is no other choice. The Sea Devils are getting a bit uppity again."
"Hopefully it'll be a routine operation and they'll be back by the weekend."
"Nothing to suggest otherwise." Osgood agreed, motioning towards the file.
"It's going to go down like a lead balloon. It's Josh Carter's birthday tomorrow."
Shooting her a knowing look, Osgood didn't comment on that piece of information. "Have you managed to catch Emily yet?"
"No, she's leading some training for the Taskforce. Doctor Walsh has shingles, so she's stepped in to do it instead."
"Emily voluntarily stepping up to take some responsibility? She's changed."
Kate chuckled. "Tell me about it. Now, I thought you said you could only spare me five minutes? Haven't you got something important to get back to?"
"Mmmm… Malcolm and Osgood think they've made a breakthrough on those mutated virus samples we've been testing for the last few weeks."
"The ones we found at that chemical lab in Bristol?"
"That's the one."
"What are they indicating now? I had assumed that it was some kind of virus intended to destroy the immune system, but there were some markers missing which made me question that."
Her wife nodded quickly. "That's what confused us, too. There were some key parameters that seemed to have been tampered with when we ran them through initial tests. Malcolm's current theory is that the mutation the virus has undergone means it's completely harmless to a large percentage of the human race. He thinks it's focusing on the Rh positive blood type."
Kate smiled fondly at the excitement on her wife's face and in her tone. "I'll let you get back to it, then. Wish me luck with Colonel Parks."
"You don't need luck, love." The brunette said, sending her a reassuring smile and squeezing her arm as they paused beside the door. "You're doing the right thing."
