A/N: This chapter picks up the next morning...
Disclaimer: The usual...
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Kate slowly woke up from her slumber as the sliver of the early morning sun hit her face. She could feel that the surface of her bed was not as smooth as she used to and that her pyjamas was unusually restrictive. She blinked her eyes once, twice and a few more times to get rid of the blurriness.
The first thing she saw was the side of a coffee table, then the TV on the wall. She then looked down to her bedding, which turned out to be a grey coloured sofa bed. Not recognising any of the furniture she saw, she started to panic and tried to get up, but she soon realised that the sudden movement was a terrible idea judging by the pounding in her head. So, she simply lay her head back down on the pillow and closed her eyes.
She tried to inhale and exhale several times, encouraging herself to relax and not panic. She then slowly cataloguing the sensation on each part of her body, ascertaining whether she felt any pain or discomfort, except the headache of course. When she had established that she was unlikely to be a victim of someone with nefarious motive and simply fell asleep in someone's house, she opened her eyes once more.
As she saw the coffee table again, she now realised that there were a tall glass of water and a packet of Panadol with a sticky note on it. She carefully grabbed the Panadol and what she read on the note made her lips curved up a little.
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Take two tablets.
Going for a run, be back soon.
Dutchy
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She moved herself gingerly and managed to get up to a sitting position before she had to stop because of the headache. She waited a few minutes to steady herself and when she felt that she could hold a glass of water, she quickly opened the packet and swallowed the tablets before the headache could get any worse and nausea took over.
She was about to fall asleep again when she heard the lock turned and her head raised up instinctively. Her eyes widened when she saw the man walking in. He was sweaty and shirtless, with sunglasses perched on top of his head and a black short clung to his powerful thigh muscles sinfully.
Headache momentarily forgotten, her eyes then followed a bead of sweat travelling down from his neck, down to his chest, passed his dog tag and the ridges of his abs before finally disappearing through the elastic of his short.
"Hey..."
His simple greeting broke the trance she was in and her eyes shot up to meet his. She saw amusement, curiosity and a trace of concern in his eyes. She could feel her cheek burned a little at being caught ogling her friend.
"How are you feeling?" Dylan finally took a pity on her and broke their starring contest by moving away from the door and closing it shut behind him. He then put his keys, phone and sunglasses on the top of the kitchen counter next to the door before moving closer to the head of the sofa and crouched down next to the coffee table to be at eye level with his XO.
Holy... Kate felt as if her brain had short-circuited as he stopped a few inches away from her.
"X?" Dylan looked at her worriedly when she stayed quiet in response to his question.
"Headache..." Kate finally said quietly, realising that the pounding in her head was back with a vengeance after a brief distraction.
"Did you take the tablet?"
She tried to nod, which only made her head felt worse, so she settled with a whispered Yes instead.
Dylan smiled in sympathy, "Go back to sleep then... it's only 7 am."
She managed a small smile in response before her eyes closed again, unable to stay awake any longer.
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The next time Kate was awake, the sun was high up on the sky and she felt uncomfortably warm. After moving the throw still covering her body, she then slowly moved to a sitting position and rested her back against the cushion. She didn't dare to move for a full minute, waiting to see if her headache was coming back. To her relief, it didn't.
She set her sight to the coffee table again and to her amusement, Dylan had topped up her glass of water and left her another sticky note, this time on top of a muesli bar.
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Eat this while I grab takeaway.
Hope you feel better now.
Dutchy
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She opened the packet gratefully, only realising in the last few seconds that her stomach was rumbling after more than 12 hours being empty.
She chewed the sweet treat while her eyes wandered to her surroundings. For a bachelor pad, it was neat and no dirty clothes were visibly hanging around. She guessed that being in the Navy helped as well; you never lived in your own house long enough to make a mess of it before another patrol called your name.
She then turned her attention to herself. While she couldn't see what she looked like, she could imagine that it wasn't nice. Yesterday afternoon she had thought that she had figured out the secret to a happy balance in her life, but now, almost 24 hours later, she was hungover and had terrible case of bad breath. If she hadn't bumped into Dylan last night, she might have passed out at the bar and in the mercy of anyone there.
She shuddered at the thought and once again she felt grateful that she was safe in her friend's home. And as the calories started to kick in and her brain lightened up, she realised that while she couldn't easily fix the mess that was her personal and professional life, she could definitely take a shower and brush her teeth as a start.
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Dylan came back from his errand to the sight of the made-up sofa and the neatly folded throw sitting on it. His first thought was that Kate had left as he couldn't see her sea bag around his living room. But as he registered the sound of water from the closed bathroom door, he exhaled in relief.
While he had no doubt that she would bounce back from this setback, he was still worried about her. He would never forget the feel of her body shaking behind him as she had cried during the whole bike ride to his home as well as the sight of her slumped figure when she had finally settled on his sofa last night. He wished he could do more for her, but he knew that it was not his place to interfere. She had to process this on her own. All he could do was making sure that he was by her side if she ever needed him during this crisis.
The sound of the bathroom door opening halted his musing and the woman emerging from it stopped his movement altogether.
He knew he was openly staring and it was rude, but the sight of her in a tank top and legging and barefoot while rubbing the tips of her hair with a towel in his home felt so intimate.
He could see that her eyes widened and her movement stopped at the sight of him. Their eyes met and they stared at each other for what felt like a long time although it must have been only a minute.
Kate felt vulnerable all of the sudden, realising that she had let her guard completely down in front of him in the last 24 hours. While she counted him as her friend and they had shared meals, drinks and conversation together over the last year, there had always been the last barrier of professionalism that had prevented her from sharing her innermost thoughts. Now that the barrier had been smashed, she didn't know what to do. Should she pretend that the last 24 hours never happened? Should she thank him for his hospitality and left straight away? Or should she explore this new territory even more?
"What have you got there?" She finally gestured to the bags on his hands, deciding that she would not be ashamed of her vulnerability and she might as well open up even more. She really had nothing to lose and plenty to gain with this friendship. He had proven to her by holding her secret with Mike for months that he was deserving of her trust.
At her gesture, Dylan finally remembered the bags of food that he had been carrying. "It's just some Chinese takeaway." He replied.
"Sounds good. Fried rice is my favourite when I'm hungover."
"I didn't know that..." He could sense the shift in their friendship as she offered the random titbit of information.
"Well, now you know for future reference."
His eyebrows raised a little bit at her statement. Realising that he had made things a little bit awkward with his silence, his lips finally formed a small smile before replying, 'well, it's a good thing I bought it then."
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"Are you sure you want me to join you?" Kate asked as she handed back her helmet to Dylan.
"Positive." Dylan smiled reassuringly at her while he stored both of their helmets and locked his bike.
"I don't want to intrude on boys' day out..."
"You won't be." Dylan replied, "they'll be happy to see you..."
"If you say so..." Kate was still feeling a bit sceptical, but an afternoon with the boys should be a good distraction for her. After all, Charge and 2Dads were not strangers.
She probably should have gone home today, but honestly, she was tired of being sad and lonely. While she knew that she couldn't avoid processing this forever, she just wanted a few days of being a normal person who enjoyed the feel of the sun on her face and the sea breeze blowing her hair, rather than a Navy Officer with a ton of baggage and life decision to make.
"X! What a surprise!"
Kate smiled at Charge and 2Dads' enthusiastic waves at her direction.
"I told you so" Dylan smirked at her before leaving her side to greet the duo.
She shook her head at his smugness before following suit and took her seat at the outdoor table.
"We got beer for you Dutchy." Charge said while gesturing to the glass opposite him. "Sorry X, we haven't got you anything yet, we didn't know you were coming."
"That's all good, Charge. I probably should just stick to water today." Kate grimaced a little as she remembered the terrible headache this morning.
"Oh, are you OK, X?" Charge looked at her worriedly.
"Yeah, just had too much to drink last night. I need to take it easy." She smiled at him reassuringly.
"Next round is your shout Dutchy." 2Dads piped in, "payback for bailing on us last night."
"Fair enough." Dylan replied.
"Who did you meet anyway? Was she hot?" 2Dads asked cheekily.
Dylan huffed, "I told you yesterday I was meeting an old mate of mine and his wife. Were you not listening?"
Charge sniggered, "you know him; the sound goes in one way and goes out again the other way."
"Hey!" 2Dads side-eyed Charge indignantly before looking back to Dylan's direction, "I thought you just went on a secret date. My money was on that ASIO agent."
Hearing 2Dads' theory, Dylan's beer almost went down the wrong pipe. "How the hell did you get that idea?"
"I don't know. You guys have some sexual tension there. It's like the 'will they, won't they' thing." 2Dads shrugged.
"Drop it 2Dads." Dylan looked at 2Dads seriously, "there is definitely nothing going on."
"Is your old mate from Sydney?" Kate tried to redirect the conversation to a more neutral territory as she could see Dylan's genuine annoyance at the mention of Ms Cruise.
"Yeah, we used to serve together at Newcastle." Dylan replied, grateful at the change of topic. "He is currently on his honeymoon here. Had a bit of spare time and he insisted on introducing me to his wife." He smiled at the memory of his interaction with Liz last night. "She is a great lady actually. My mate is definitely lucky."
"Hmm... Good luck to them I suppose. This job could be hard on relationship. Is she in the Navy too?" Charge weighed in on the conversation as he reminisced on his previous marriage.
"No. She's an emergency doctor."
"That's even harder because of the unpredictable schedule." Kate pondered at the revelation.
"I think it's about two people making a commitment to each other to make things work." Dylan said thoughtfully, "if you have found a partner who understand you, accept your flaws but also challenge you to be the best person you could be, I think you owe it to yourself to really put an effort to the relationship, which may require sacrifice from both parties."
"Jesus, that's deep." 2Dads was looking at Dylan as if he had grown two heads.
"Have you ever had that kind of relationship?" Kate was now wondering whether his contemplation stemmed from personal experience.
"I thought I had one that could turn that way," Dylan took another sip of his beer before continuing, "but then she broke up with me via email."
"What?" 2Dads couldn't believe what he was hearing, "just like Bomber and I then."
"Yep." Dylan continued, "then about a month later, I heard from a mutual friend that she got engaged to someone else."
"Wow. It sounds like you dodged a bullet mate." Charge said sympathetically. "The timing looked a bit suss. She could have been seeing him while she was with you as well."
Dylan shrugged, "I was in my 2nd rotation to the gulf at the time, so I wouldn't know."
"I'm sorry..." Kate bumped his shoulder gently.
"It's alright X," The corner of his lips raised a little at her gesture, "it was more than 2 years ago."
Their eyes met for a few seconds and Kate thought that this revelation peeled another layer of the mystery that was Dylan Mulholland. She couldn't help but wanting to know more.
"So, we can be each other's wingman then the next time we are out!" 2Dads said enthusiastically, breaking the moment between Kate and Dylan.
"What about me?" Charge scowled, "I thought I was your wingman?"
2Dads looked at Charge apologetically, "Charge, your technique is not exactly modern."
"Are you calling me old?" Charge narrowed his eyes at 2Dads, "besides, do you think that women would flock to you if you were with Dutchy? I bet they'll be like 'Leo who?'..."
"Wow Charge, firstly, I'm not calling you old. I said your technique is old-fashioned and I can hold my own in terms of women thank you." 2Dads rested his hand on Charge's shoulder to calm him down. "I just need to learn few more tips from the expert here." 2Dads gestured at Dylan, "you can definitely come too Charge."
Still miffed by the notion that he was 'old-fashioned', Charge only shrugged at 2Dads' suggestion.
2Dads patted Charge's shoulder a few times, realising that he was in the doghouse with Charge but also standing his ground on his believe that their success rate with women would improve with the bosun in tow for their next outing.
"So, what do you say Dutchy?" 2Dads looked at Dylan expectantly.
"Yes 'Expert', what do you say?" Kate teased Dylan too, enjoying this whole banter.
"Guys, I'm not an expert! If I were one, I wouldn't be single!" Dylan rebuked the notion forcefully; he was not proud of the persona that he had displayed in the beginning of his life in Cairns with the multiple girls and the flashy cars. In fact, he had stopped that lifestyle after that patrol in Karumba as he had heard from Swain that people in the ship, including Kate, were speculating whether the girls or the cars were rental. He was being a lot more discreet in terms of his personal life now especially since he had started to develop feelings for the woman sitting next him.
"But you always have a girl in your arms..." 2Dads was now confused.
"Really?" Dylan raised his eyebrows, "when was the last time you saw me hanging out with a woman that is not the X, Bird or Flick?" Referring to Kate, Jessica Bird and their newest recruit, Felicity 'Flick' Jones.
2Dads' mouth opened and closed like fish out of water, trying to rack his brain for any memory that could debunk the implication of the other man's question.
Kate was now starring at Dylan too. She had noticed that he really had been trying to change his lifestyle, preferring to hang out with his shipmates and riding a modest bike instead of the hordes of girls and the sport cars.
Had it been for her?
She had sensed the shift in their relationship just before the Gorsky incident. They had been getting much closer and she had enjoyed their outing and conversation immensely. But then, she had suspected that he had seen the kiss between Mike and her on that boat and he had backed out gracefully, leaving her free to rekindle her relationship with Mike. She had expected him to start expanding his wings again in terms of women after the whole saga, but to her surprise and strangely, relief on her part, her expectation had not eventuated and she had still been spending time with him off the ship as friends.
"Maybe we should ask the X for help. She would know what women would or would not like when being approached by a guy." Dylan was now teasing Kate after he had caught her starring at him just now.
"I'm so not the person to ask about that. My personal life is a disaster." Kate rolled her eyes at his teasing.
Dylan still didn't give up, "but you would at least know what a guy should not say, right? Especially since you almost broke the wrist of the guy that approached you the last time you went out. You need to tell our friends here the story so that they can avoid coming off as disrespectful."
Dylan's reference to last night's incident earned him a severe glare from Kate. But he wanted her to know that he was proud of her for standing up for herself, so he smiled at her encouragingly, not letting up until he could see that her glare had softened and the corner of her mouth had turned up a little.
Kate shook her head a little as staring at his smile was definitely dangerous for her resolve. She then looked at her other crewmates who had been staring at her interaction with Dylan with curiosity and amusement.
"Just don't say 'baby, want to suck on my lollipop?' Or any other variation of those." Kate finally reiterated the sentence from last night.
"That's really bad." Charge grimaced at his XO in sympathy.
"Agree," 2Dads was disgusted at what he heard, "you should have broken his wrist X."
"What about during a date X, any tips?" Charge tried to steer the conversation away a little, but not too much since this was a rare opportunity for him to learn more about his XO.
"Gosh…." Kate tried to think about the last time she had gone on a proper date. With Mike, since their relationship had been going on and off so many times, theirs could just pick up where they left off each time. But Charge's question was more about being on a date with a stranger. And then she realised, "I think my last proper date was around 3 years ago..."
Charge looked at her thoughtfully, "3 years ago would have been with Captain Roth then?"
Kate was impressed, "you have great memory Charge."
Dylan's ears perked up at the name. "You dated Captain Roth?"
"Yep." Kate nodded in confirmation.
"No wonder he was so familiar with you." Dylan huffed, remembering when he had heard Jim called her 'Katie' during the parachute drop rescue. He liked the man fine, but something about that interaction had irked him, now he knew why.
"Wait, the SAS guy?" 2Dads just connected the dots together. "Really?"
Kate narrowed her eyes at 2Dads, "is it so hard to believe that an eligible guy would date me? Should I be offended?"
"What? No, that's not what I meant!" 2Dads tried to line up his thought together, "I just think that you deserve someone as badass as you..."
Charge laughed at the hole that 2Dads just dug for himself. "Mate, he's the SAS. that whole division is a definition of badass."
"If he were so badass, why did we, the Navy, have to save him a few weeks ago, huh?" 2Dads then gestured at the three men, "and don't forget that Dutchy, yourself and I were the one who saved the ship from the explosion, not him and his SAS cohort..."
Kate smiled at 2Dads' passionate defence of their achievement at Samjung Island. "Come to think about it, we had to save him a few times 3 years ago too, didn't we Charge?"
Charge nodded thoughtfully, "yes actually. Even the CO had gotten injured while trying to rescue him."
Feeling vindicated, 2Dads continued to share his opinion, "See… he's not that great X, it's a good thing that you broke up with him…"
Kate shook her head sadly, "actually, he was the one who broke up with me..."
"Ok, that's official then," 2Dads slapped the table, "He's an arse!"
"2Dads, stop it!" Dylan had had enough of this discussion. "Your commentary is not helpful. People broke up. That's just fact of life."
"Why are you defending him now?" 2Dads looked at Dylan indignantly.
"Because Dutchy is right 2Dads." Kate rested her hand on the crooks of Dylan's elbow as a thank you for his interference, "Jim Roth is a good man. One of the best out there. Just because he broke it off, it didn't mean that he was the bad guy." Kate paused and followed her instinct for her next words, "it was the same with Bomber and yourself, she was not a terrible person either for breaking up with you. Sometimes, relationship just didn't work out."
Sufficiently chastised, 2Dads was now sulking in his seat. Charge had also gone quiet, a bit apprehensive now that the topic of conversation had died down.
Kate looked at the three men with her and felt a little bit guilty at the tense atmosphere. "I'll get the next round for you guys." she finally said.
"No. It's my turn remember?" Dylan shook his head at her and squeezed her shoulder softly before getting up from his seat. "What would you like?"
"Ginger beer please." She smiled at him thankfully.
"2Dads? Charge?"
"Just beer, thanks mate." Charge replied.
2Dads looked up to see the older man was waiting patiently for his order. He sighed and looked at his warm glass of beer. "Maybe something stronger. Scotch and coke?" He smiled ruefully.
Dylan's lips turned up at the request. "Sure thing. I'll be back."
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Dylan was almost back to their table when he noticed an unknown man sitting next to 2Dads. The man was older, maybe Charge's age or more, with an air of arrogance about him. He then saw that Kate was sitting ramrod straight at her chair, a sign that she was tense or in the work mode. He didn't like what he saw so he widened his steps to reach them sooner with the tray of drinks.
"Here you go."
Kate looked up in relief at Dylan's return. The newcomer to their table had made her skin crawled.
"Dutchy, this is Don, he used to be in the Navy ages ago, he is now running a diving business, isn't that cool?" 2Dads introduced the newcomer to Dutchy enthusiastically.
The man in question now leaned forward a little bit to offer his hand, "Don Andrews."
"Dylan Mulholland."
Dylan was currently assessing the other man quietly, judging the level of threat as he noticed Kate had dragged her chair closer to him to create a little bit of distance from the man.
"Wow, you dive in a shark cage?" 2Dads' voice broke Dylan's musing.
"Yes, shark is my passion, especially the Great White. When you feel their powerful pass along the cage, it's indescribable." Don said proudly. "I could spend a whole day there if not for the pesky thing called oxygen."
"Aren't you a little bit afraid of the risk? How strong is the cage?" Charge shuddered a little at the thought of being so close to a Great White.
"Strong, it only ever broke a few times. Twice the sharks almost got my hands as I fed them."
"And yet you keep coming back?" Charge stared at the man, not sure whether he was brave or foolish.
"Of course... It certainly beats doing rope or engine maintenance in the ship, right?" Don laughed at his own joke but only 2Dads grinned politely. Charge scowled a little bit at the disparaging comment about his job and Dylan had maintained a stony face throughout this brief interaction.
"So, what do you boys do in the Navy anyway?"
Dylan noticed that Don didn't include Kate in her question. Probably assuming that she was one of their partners instead of being a Navy herself.
"Oh, I'm an ET," 2Dads answered, "Andy here is a Charge and Dylan is a buffer," 2Dads then gestured to Kate proudly, "And Kate is our XO."
"Really?" Don looked at Kate up and down in the way that even made 2Dads lost his patented grin. "Back in my day, XOs didn't look like you, if they were, I probably would have been more motivated to stay in the Navy."
"Well, I presume your days in the Navy was 20 years ago?" Kate said with sickly sweet voice. "The world has made significant progress in terms of women's role in the defence industry. Maybe you would have noticed that fact if you had spent more time above water instead of under it."
The boys were struggling to hold back laughter at their XO's comeback. So, the three of them hide their faces by swallowing their respective drinks while they watched Don's face turned furious.
But before things could get interesting, a woman's voice broke through the stalemate, "Oh there you are. I was looking for you."
Dylan stared at the approaching woman as if he had seen a ghost.
The woman then kissed Don on the lips and sat next to him. "Who are your new friends, Don?"
"Oh, they are just some Navy boys," Don sneered in Kate's direction, "and girl... who are enjoying their shore leave."
"Hi everyone," she gave them a small wave, "I'm Laurel, Don's wife. Nice to meet you." As Laurel looked across the table to smile at everyone, she froze as she met Dylan's eyes. "Dylan?"
Now it was everyone else's turn to look at Dylan and Laurel curiously.
"Darling, do you know Dylan?" Don stared at his wife suspiciously.
"Uhmm, yes, he was an old acquaintance from Sydney," Laurel smiled at Don. "Last time I heard about him, he was in Iraq, I think?" Laurel then looked at Dylan for confirmation.
"Yes, and Afghanistan too." Dylan replied quietly.
"Glad you came back alright..." Laurel finally said after a few second of stony silence from Dylan.
Kate had observed the awkward interaction between the two people sitting on both sides of her and wondered whether there had ever been more than friendship between the two of them. Their interaction looked much more like exes rather than old friends. She then searched Dylan's eyes questioningly while mouthing, 'are you OK?'
Dylan shook his head slightly at Kate, mouthing 'Later' at her question.
Kate squeezed his elbow in understanding before paying attention to the conversation around her again.
"Do you boys want to try on the shark cage at dawn tomorrow?"
Realising that the man had excluded their XO once again, the boys looked at each other questioningly.
"Oh, and of course Lady XO can come too." Don added mockingly, "maybe the ladies can keep each other company above water while we have fun under it."
Dylan was about to open his mouth to tell the other man that he could stuff his stupid shark cage to his arse when Kate touched his elbow gently and said calmly to him, "I think you and 2Dads should go try it out. You guys love diving."
2Dads looked at Dylan hopefully. He really wanted to try the cage, but he wasn't sure whether he should have accepted the offer out of loyalty to his XO.
Dylan raised his eyebrow at Kate, wondering why she was volunteering him to go to this outing. But after noticing 2Dads' hopeful look at the both of them, he realised that Kate had wanted him to babysit 2Dads. He sighed. "Sure. 2Dads and I will try it out."
Kate's lips curved up slightly at Dylan's agreement before she schooled her feature once more. 2Dads had no such restraint, he openly grinned in excitement.
"Charge, you don't want to come with us?" 2Dads turned to his friend.
"Uhmm..." Charge hesitated, in contrary to the other boys, diving was just not his thing.
"Actually Charge, we have bowling tomorrow remember?" Noticing Charge's hesitation, Kate had run interference once more. "It's a two for one special on Tuesday."
Charge smiled gratefully at his XO, "yes, we don't want to miss that."
"Hey 2Dads, you should bring your underwater camera and record the experience," Kate said encouragingly, "you could show Charge and I the footage later."
"Oh, great idea X." 2Dads nodded in agreement.
Laurel admired how the petite woman next to her had handled the situation effortlessly. Even in the face of her husband's openly mocking tone, she had not gotten defensive or angry. Instead, the woman had been showing to her husband without even replying to him that she hadn't care about his opinion and his misogyny. Laurel also noticed that Dylan's gaze had followed the other woman's every movement. He was quite subtle about it, but as the recipient of that gaze in her past life, she recognised it for what it was, deep affection.
Laurel had hoped that when she had finally arrived in Cairns that she could have contacted Dylan on her own and explained her situation to him discreetly. She had counted on their mutual friend who had informed her that Dylan had been single, but it now seemed that the mutual friend had been wrong, because judging from what she could see in front of her, Dylan Mulholland was definitely smitten with a woman. Whether the woman in question reciprocated his feelings was a different issue. She had known that the man was loyal to a fault, so he would not have even entertained the notion of looking around while he had been pursuing this one. Dylan was the opposite of Don in every way, she thought bitterly. This new development had made Plan A unlikely to work.
"Darling, we are leaving now." Don's voice halted her musing and she noticed that everybody had stood up from the chair, ready to leave. She got up and went to Don's arm as expected of her. "I guess I'll see some of you tomorrow then." She said in parting.
The group said goodbye to her politely and left the table together, leaving her and Don in each other's embrace. I guess Plan B it is.
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Kate woke up to the sun shining on her eyes once more. But this morning, she knew exactly where she was and no confusion to be had, just contentment. She was seriously considering buying the sofa for her own place as it was just so comfortable.
Well... if she wanted to be honest, she knew it was not the sofa that had made her so content. It was the owner.
Sleeping on a living room of a small apartment shouldn't be so nice, but the presence of the man just behind the closed bedroom door had made her felt so safe, as if he would have fought every single one of her demon to protect her from harm.
She sighed. She knew that the situation was unfair to him. She couldn't expect Dylan to fix her problem. She needed to fix it on her own. So, she decided that she would go home today. She would face her demon. And when she had straightened things out and made some decisions, she would rebuild her life from the ground up.
Her musing stopped when she heard the door unlocked as Dylan came back from his diving trip with 2Dads and the Andrews.
Dylan had told her last night that Laurel Andrews had been the woman he had referred to in his earlier story about his potentially serious relationship when he had been in the gulf. She had instantly regretted her insistence yesterday about the trip, but as usual, he had shrugged and reminded her that based on 2Dads last diving trip in which he had been missing, presumed dead and had to be rescued by Hammersley, that her judgement in 2Dads needing chaperone would have been sound. But she still had been worried about him being on a front row seat to his ex and her husband's PDA. That would not have been nice at all.
"Hey, how's the dive?"
He replied with a scowl on his face which instantly alarmed her.
She then got up to a sitting position and moved to the back of the sofa against the cushion to create a space for him to sit down at the front. "What happened?"
Dylan sat down gratefully and closed his eyes briefly before looking at Kate again. She was really a sight for sore eyes with her bare face and her open expression.
"The winch was jammed, so we had a little bit of trouble when 2Dads was in the cage underwater. Thankfully we took turns and didn't go tandem, so I was on the boat with Don and we managed to fix it and pulled him out safely."
"What? Is 2Dads OK?" She hadn't really expected any dubious outcome would eventuate today, but now her intuition yesterday had seemed like a premonition.
Dylan nodded, "he's fine. I dropped him off at the goat central just before. A bit shaken but otherwise happy that he got his footage on his 2nd dive attempt."
"Thank God..." She breathed a sigh of relief.
"I had a bit of a go at Don after Laurel let it slip that the winch often jammed in the last few months. Let's just say that he's not happy that I questioned his safety record."
"Not only he's a prick, he's also dodgy." She shook her head, "as if I don't have enough reason to dislike the man."
Dylan laughed, "he's really a piece of work. Honestly, I really don't know what Laurel saw in him."
"Did you get to talk to her today?" Kate asked curiously.
"Nope..." Dylan shrugged. "She tried to get me alone to talk but I'm really not interested in what she had to say."
Kate frowned, "didn't you say last night that you needed a little bit of closure from her because of the way she had broken up with you so abruptly?"
Dylan sighed and turned his body to face Kate directly. "I thought about it some more before I fell asleep last night and I realised that I didn't need to know her reasoning because I have moved on."
Their eyes met as he continued, "she made her choice and I respected it, regardless of what I thought about the man she had chosen. Talking to her would only open up old wounds. I need to concentrate on my future, not my past."
Kate had to look away from his intense stare at her. She couldn't help the feeling that he was talking about her when he had mentioned his future. Her heart beat faster at the notion of him thinking about her romantically. This frustrated her greatly as she really should not entertain the idea of being with him when she was still with Mike.
"Hey..."
Kate looked up again as she heard his gentle nudge.
"One day at a time Kate..." He said softly.
Her cheeks started to burn as she heard what she thought off as affection in his voice when he had said her name.
Suddenly, loud noises from both of their mobile phones broke their bubble.
"Really?" Dylan huffed in frustration as his phone showed RO's name in the incoming text. He also saw an incoming call with the boss' name at Kate's phone along with the same incoming text from RO, which could only mean that they were crashed sail.
.
.
To be continued...