Mike is lying in bed, silent tears falling down his face, letting all his emotions out, he is no longer this big tough Navy Commanding Officer, A Commander in the Navy, but a man, a man feeling the loss of someone close to him. He wishes she was dead because it be easier for him because he could openly grief for her, grief the loss of her, and it wouldn't just be him grieving his whole family would be bad so would many others, but this grief is one he can't let others see, the grief of losing the love of his life to another man, and he knows it is all his own, the first time around he should never have just upped and left like he did, he should've waited and hoped she would come around at some stage, and been available to her when she did finally want to reach out and not shut her out like he did until he was confronted with her when she got posted to be his executive officer on Hammersley.

"Dad, I'm okay. Go back to bed please, I'm still the same as last time you checked on me." Mike says as he hears his bedroom door opening, he thinks it's his father, as since helping Mike get to bed after his emotional breakdown in the shower, he has been coming in every hour to check on his son, he himself isn't able to sleep at all either. Mike is facing away from his bed. The person that has entered his room hears a broken Mike, a broken soul in front of them.

"It's not dad, it's me is it okay to be here?" Mike suddenly moves within his bed and looks at Kate, he heard her broken timid voice when she spoke to him, he is shocked to find her in his room at the hour that it is.

"Are yea it's okay to be here, you should know I would never turn you away." He says as he sits up and looks at Kate, who walks around his bed and sits facing towards his window

"You did once." She says back to him, and what surprises him this time is there is no venom in her voice when saying this to him. She normally says this to him with venom and as a way to make him feel like shit. Instead, he hears regret and sadness in her tone.

"What can I do for you?" Mike asks Kate after a few minutes of silence from her. He isn't sure why she is here, and personally, he would prefer her not to be in his room on his bed, with her partner and soon-to-be husband in the house as well. He doesn't really want to be caught like he is in his bed with her here as well, as Jim may take it the wrong way.

"I wanted to say sorry for what I did that night, I wished I had listened to you back then and not answered my phone," Kate says to him and he can tell she is sorry for doing what she did that night.

"I doubt it would've changed the outcome though," he says to her, trying to not have her feel bad for what happened back then, as much as he hated what happened now after spending time with her, he doubts it would have changed what had happened to them.

"I know it may not have changed things but I still feel like shit for what I did to you. It sort of makes what you've put me through seem like nothing, considering how close you came to giving me what I had dreamed of from you back then." There is some silence between them. Mike isn't sure what to say to her at the moment. He never expected her to say sorry for what nearly happened and then the comment about what he has put her through.

"It explains why you have been like you have with me, and been so closed off. Here I have been, at you about leading me on, not really wanting to get off Hammersley, and us not getting anywhere when all along you had tried once and I threw it back in your face, right at the worst time to do it." He hears the guilt she has for what has been going on between them, he knows it's both their fault but to hear her finally admit that some of it isn't his fault is a relief to him.

"For over a year Kate I've been serious about there being an us, the talking we did after my kidnapping gave me hope you would talk to me and not shut me out. I dropped my walls because I thought maybe we could do this; we were both older and wiser." He says to her, Kate can tell looking at him that he has something more to say so she stays quiet waiting for the next words from him.

"When you turned up as my XO, it threw me, we hadn't spoken to each other for close to eight years, and the odd conversations at my parents don't count," he informs her because he knows and so does, she that until she was his Xo talking was something they just didn't do

"There was Watson Bay." She reminds him of their time together when he was her instructor, she the student. But what throws him is she doesn't say it with any force but with total regret.

"Yes, there was but we never talked about what had happened between us, we allowed our sexual feelings to take control, and don't get me wrong I loved every single minute of being with you but trying to figure out what or where to go to next, never happened, as you would shut me down if I tried to bring up the past, or talk about the future. So, I took what I could get from you. Knowing that come to the end of the course I would lose you again. It's why I left like I did, telling you I was leaving in person. I knew I couldn't do it not without my emotions taking over and demanding that we try and make this work." he says to her, his voice letting her know he is tired right now, and also hurting too.

"True," she says back to him, she knows she still really hasn't gotten over how fast she lost her mother. She had been battling her cancer and winning, but then something else happened, a car accident that then led to her losing her life.

"I know it was hard for you to deal with, your mum going as she did, but it was also hard for me as well Hun." Hun just slips out when talking to her and he hates himself for calling her that, because right now she isn't his and calling her that is not on, a few tears fall down Mike's face after calling her Hun, his own emotions are running so high right now he is surprised he can even talk to her in a civil manner.

"Not only did we lose her I also lost you in the process of it all. What happened then and going forward until we started working together was why I had my walls up, why I was that emotional coward you loved to call me, but that was because I've had my emotions thrown back at me, which in the end happened again, you shut me out again Kate. You can't help yourself as when something personal happens to you, you just shut out those who love you. I know you well enough Kate to know that something happened that day that caused you to do what you did, I know why you did it on Hammersley, you did it there knowing full well I couldn't do anything to stop you without bringing attention to myself and you, then afterward you did the same thing to me as you did when you lost your mum. Only talk to me when it was needed and not about anything important to me, in regards to us. And thanks to Marshall's phone call the other day I'm pretty sure I now know what happened that day, I first thought it had to do with Jim, but then I was talking to Marshall and something he said in his last conversation to me had me rethinking that day, rethinking why you would just call it quits on us again and my other thought is Maxine, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if she tried some underhand tactics to get you away from me. So, am I correct? Was it Maxine who made you do what you did back then and call it off even though we hadn't done anything that would or could have resulted in us being fired?" He asks her he decides fuck it he is going to ask and see if his so-called ex-friend was the one behind her calling it quits, because once things are over with her Maxine starts to try hard to have a relationship with him, one he doesn't want regardless of Ryan being his son, which he knew could be possible, but Maxine had always said no to him.

"Don't worry you don't have to tell me, Kate, I know this is a two-way street. A relationship doesn't work unless both parties are prepared to work at it. Make sure you work with it with Jim okay. Learn from the mistakes we have made together to not let it happen to the two of you." He says, he is just so broken and she can hear it in his voice, as well as see the broken man in front of her. She feels even more broken for what she has done to him now, it is now breaking her even more. She had no idea that all this time since she was eighteen years old, he was prepared to give her the world, give her everything she wanted and be there for her and give up so much, give up everything that caused his first marriage to fall apart because he refused to give it up for Penny, but he had no issues doing it for her.

Mike knows why he was prepared to give it all up for Kate, Kate was his true love, the one that held his heart the most. He did love Penny but it wasn't until he was with Kate did, he find what real love found his soulmate. But he also found someone who was prepared to work, who didn't rely on him to provide everything to them, they were prepared to work just as hard as him, in all aspects of life.

Mike gets up off his bed and walks out of his room leaving Kate sitting on the edge of his bed not sure what the hell to do, but he didn't feel right asking her to leave his room, cause if things were his way, she would've been sleeping in that room with him.

"Hey son, do you need anything?" Mike suddenly hears as he walks through the lounge room, he gets a shock from hearing his father's voice.

"Rewind button, be a nice dad," Mike replies to his father as he goes and sits down on the couch beside his father.

"Sorry I don't have one. Though why do you want a rewind button for?"

"So, I can redo my life all over again."

"Mike, redoing it all over again, it may still turn out the same, or different and you may still not be happy with it."

"I know dad, it's just I feel like crap. I am the oldest ones in the family, I have a failed marriage, a kid I was told wasn't mine, turns out to be mine and my soulmate doesn't want me. I now know how Penny must have felt when I called it quits on our marriage, it explains why she has been like she has. This has made me rethink how she has been towards me, as much as I hate how she has been, I know how it feels when you lose the person you love dearly." Mike says as he takes a sip of his father's drink. The taste of neat scotch burning as it goes down his throat. His dad gets a second glass and pours them both glass.

"I heard Kate and you talking in your room earlier on, did everything go okay?"

"Yes and no."

"Prepared to go into detail, I know there is a lot more going on with you two than what we have been told, and that's okay you don't have to tell us everything that goes on in your life's, but when you gave back those rings tonight has set something off for both of you. And I know once Lizzie died those rings were placed into my safe and never touched which makes me think you were preparing to ask her but hadn't gotten there yet." His dad says to him he has no idea just how close Mike came, to asking her to marry him.

"The night of Lizzie's car accident, I was second away from asking her to marry me, dad. She figured it out when I gave them back to her. She feels bad for not ignoring her phone as I asked her to. I told her I don't blame her now, as even if she had ignored it and said yes, I bet it would have led to a broken engagement, instead of just a broken relationship." Mike says to his father, it's the first time he has informed his dad how close he came to having her as his. For his father, it explains why his son was the way he was in the shower.

"Shit I didn't know you had gotten that bloody close son." Mike hears the emotions from his father on how close Mike came to having it all with Kate, and how it is also affecting him as well. Mike's father feels gutted for his son.

"Giving those rings back broke me tonight dad, it was like nailing the last nail in the coffin. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get through the next few days with her here, I'm thinking of going into town and staying in a motel until she leaves, or going for a drive and seeing places just so I'm not around to cause issues, because I know if I stay, I am bound to say or do something that is going to cause issues."

Mike's father looks at his son, and Mike can tell by his facial expressions that he wants to know more.

"I've already crossed boundaries with her tonight dad, I can't stay knowing I have done something I should never have done considering she is with Jim. I kissed her dad, I kissed her on her lips, a kiss I should never have given her." Mike's father hears the guilt in his son's voice over what he has done tonight.