A/N: This chapter and the next are set during episode 5.06 The Stinger. Most of the action scenes would be the same, but the personal interactions, the meaning behind them and the dialogues between characters would be different. I hope you enjoy my take on the episode.
Disclaimer: I do not make a single cent out of this story. I simply borrow the characters for my own enjoyment.
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"Captain Roth was in that boat?"
"Yes Sir." Dylan then continued, "I'm sorry about my reaction Sir, it was a split second, I was just shocked to see him there."
Mike sighed at the event that had unfolded in this supposedly routine boarding of suspected FFV. "Do you think he was compromised, X?
Kate shook her head, "there is no way to tell conclusively." She then commented, a bit bitingly, "if Ms Cruise had told us the details of her operation during that briefing 2 weeks ago, we wouldn't have boarded the vessel in the first place, and this wouldn't have happened."
"Come on X, that's a bit unfair." Mike countered, "She probably didn't know the name of the vessel in the first place. This sort of operation usually came with as little detail as possible to avoid leaks."
Kate resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Mike's defence of the agent. "Maybe we can shadow the vessel for the next 24 hours? Just in case?"
"Wouldn't that alert them about our interest and endanger him even more?" Dylan frowned at Kate's suggestion.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Kate raised her eyebrows at Dylan.
Mike noticed the tension between the two and realised that he had to interfere. "Look, I'll call Ms Cruise first and find out more information about the operation. We will decide from there. Understood?"
"Yes Sir." Dylan and Kate both said in unison.
After their CO had left the ship's office, Kate took off to the galley to make herself a strong brew. Dylan followed her closely, worried that he was in her bad books now. "Hey, I'm sorry X."
She sighed. "You don't need to keep apologising. It's not your fault. I was just as surprised as you."
He leaned against the bench to continue observing her, "why are you so tense then?"
"I'm worried about Jim." She sipped her brew slowly while leaning against the bench opposite him.
"He'll be fine X. He is a special ops soldier. An experience one too." He tried to comfort her.
"But he's alone, against three burly men in that vessel and I just don't like his chances."
"We don't even know if his cover was blown."
"I know. I just…"
"Just what?"
She met his worried eyes and her gaze softened. "He tends to play hero. Charging into danger alone even though the situation calls for back-up. You remind me of him actually."
"Oh…" He felt a pang of jealousy at the hint of fondness he could hear in her voice when she talked about the other man.
"I caught up with him 2 months ago for lunch." Her lips curved up at the memory, "I forgot how easy our banter was. He just had a way of making me laugh."
"Did you regret the break-up?" He voiced his question as casually as possible even though he was dreading the answer. He had forgotten about the lunch that the boys had told him during the fishing trip. And he hadn't expected Kate to bring it up now.
"There is a reason why it didn't work out in the first place, you know." Their eyes met once more. "I want to move forward, not backward."
The vice around his heart loosened a little bit at her statement. "That's fair enough."
They smiled softly at each other before Kate finally stood up straight and tilted her head towards the door. "Come on, let's go back to the bridge and see if there is any news."
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"Is he going to be OK, Swain?" Mike stood at the wardroom observing his medic attending Jim's unconscious figure.
"I won't be able to tell until he woke up, Sir." Swain replied while carefully cleaning the nasty head wound. "With this kind of injury, he most likely will have concussion.
Kate and Dylan also stood at the back of the room, looking on anxiously. They had boarded the vessel after Dylan had seen Jim's altercation with another man through the EOD. They had found Jim bloody and unconscious on the back deck. They had also apprehended the three men from yesterday along with cases upon cases of AK47s and the most alarming one, a stinger missile.
A groan startled the occupants in the room and prompted them to move closer to the bed.
"Mate, how are you feeling?" Swain tried to get a reaction from the newly conscious man. He then used his pen light to check the man's pupil when Jim started to open his eyes. When the other man pushed his hand away and closed his eyes tight again, Swain could conclude that Jim had concussion.
"Did you find him?" Jim managed to speak in between his groans.
"Found who?" Mike frowned at the question.
"Meers, the guy I was in a fight with."
"We took all three men to austere. They were the one from yesterday." Kate answered his question.
"No. Not them. There is another one. He was below deck when you guys boarded yesterday. He suspected that I was an undercover agent. That's why we got into a fight. I pushed him overboard…." Jim cursed violently as he could feel his headache got worse. "I need to find out if my cover is intact. We need to find him."
"Jim, it's OK, we have secured all the weapons." Dylan tried to ease the other man's worry. But Jim was having none of it and lunged at the direction of Dylan's voice.
Kate saw Jim's move at the last minute and instinctively took few quick steps to her left to cover Dylan, resulted in Jim's fist connecting to her left eye.
Dylan was horrified as Kate went down to the floor. He crouched down in front of her to see whether she was alright. Bird also approached them having seen what had transpired from the other side of the bed.
"I'm ok… I'm ok…" Kate tried to reassure Dylan and Bird as they were fussing over her. Her left eye stung and she had no doubt that it would turn black and blue in a few hours, but her vision was not blurry, so she didn't think that it was really serious. She could feel Dylan's palms rested on her cheeks, so she tried to meet his eyes. "I'm really OK. Just help me up."
Dylan pulled her up gently and looked at her eyes again for reassurance. At her nod, he let go of her and squared up his shoulder to face the other man with barely restrained fury. "What the hell was wrong with you?"
"Dutchy, enough!" Mike tried to diffuse the situation before it escalated even further. He had seen what had happened to Kate and while he was not happy with Jim, he needed to find out more about the missing man and the undercover operation.
Dylan took a deep breath at his CO's warning and folded his arms on his chest to prevent himself from reaching out to Jim with his fist.
"Jim, what were you doing in that boat?" Mike prompted the now slumped man, who had used all his remaining energy for his failed attempt at punching the bosun.
"I was posing as an arms dealer, trying to sell weapon to Tarak, the leader of a terrorist cell. Meers was my contact." Jim explained quietly. "If my cover were blown, Tarak would source the weapons somewhere else, and millions of people would have been in danger."
"OK, we have to find Meers first then, before he reported about you to Tarak." Mike concluded.
Jim nodded weakly. Seeing his weak state, Swain had to interfere. "Everyone, let's give him some space. He needs to rest."
"Alright Swain, we leave you and Bird to it." Mike then looked at Kate who was holding a bag of cold compress to her eye. "X, are you OK to be on the bridge to help with the search?"
"Yes, Sir." Kate nodded.
"Let's go then." Mike motioned for his XO and bosun to follow him to the bridge.
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The search was unsuccessful. Instead of Meers, they found a lifeless body of a fisherman within the search area instead. They suspected that Meers had been alive and had hijacked the fishing vessel of that poor fisherman. Meers most likely would have headed to the closest foreign port to avoid Australian authority.
Hammersley wouldn't be able pursue him at this foreign location, but Mike managed to get Maxine to ask for permission to at least dock the ship on Kalewan port to drop Jim off. Unfortunately, now that Ms Cruise had learned about the current setbacks, she insisted on joining Hammersley for the rest of the mission. Therefore, they now had to wait for her arrival at Kalewan before resuming their patrol.
Kate was briefing her crews to prepare for restocking and re-fuelling when Jim interrupted her. "I'm off to take a look around town."
Alarmed, Kate handed over her briefing to Swain before motioning Dylan to follow her. "Jim, wait!"
Kate and Dylan managed to catch-up to Jim as he got off the gangway. "You are not well. What if you found Meers, what then? Are you going to fight him in this condition?" Kate stared at Jim incredulously. "Plus, none of us has authority in this town."
Jim smiled at Kate's question. "I'll be fine Kate. I've had concussion before. I'll be careful."
"Let me come with you then. I can help." Dylan offered seriously. He knew how much he had messed up and he wanted to make it right.
Kate looked at the two men back and forth and wondered why on earth she chose to surround herself with a bunch of stubborn alpha males. "You both are as bad as the other."
Dylan and Jim both raised their eyebrows at Kate's comment. "Come with us then. Just in case we both end up fighting each other." Dylan said jokingly.
"Shut up." Kate rolled her eyes at Dylan's cheekiness. But she finally relented. "Fine, we need to change to civvies then." She then looked at Jim pointedly, "stay here and wait for us. Don't move."
Jim smirked at Kate's order and held up both hands in mock surrender. "Yes Lieutenant."
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It was a few hours later when the three of them found the FFV that Meers had hijacked. There was no sign of the missing man, just a dilapidated boat with a broken radio and a pool of dried blood stuck on the deck.
Jim concluded that Meers must have gotten off somewhere in town in search of internet access to contact Tarak using a message board on a fake website. Unfortunately, the access to the website was password-protected and in the short time he had been on that boat with Meers, he hadn't managed to gain enough trust to be included in their inner circle.
His headache then got a lot worse after two hours of being out and about. He thought that he could handle this but as he was puking his guts out to the side of the deck, he realised that his current concussion was a lot worse than his previous experiences.
Seeing Jim's condition, Kate thought it would be better if they all got back to the Hammersley, but Dylan had other idea. He wanted to keep looking for Meers on Jim's behalf and he suggested they split up as Jim wouldn't be able to go back to the ship on his own. Kate didn't like the idea of Dylan wandering alone in foreign town, who knew what kind of trouble he could get into. But after some persuasion from both men and a promise from Dylan to check-in hourly via SMS, Kate relented and took Jim back to the ship.
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"I'm sorry about your eye." Jim touched the corner of her left eye gently as Kate was fussing over him. He could see the purple hue now, realising that her make-up must have faded after their outing due to the hot and humid weather.
"Apology accepted." Kate nodded as she inspected the stiches on his head. Satisfied that it was still intact, she then moved to the direction of the medicine cabinet in the corner of the wardroom to grab the anti-nausea medicine and some water for him.
"You know there is something that puzzles me." Jim said after swallowing the items that Kate had handed to him.
"Oh?" Kate grabbed a chair and sat down in front of him, grateful that she could rest a little bit.
"My aim might have been off because of this concussion, but it couldn't be that far off that it got you instead of him."
Kate chuckled. "Your aim was good actually. I might have moved in front of him. Hence, this purple-coloured-eyelid."
Jim raised his eyebrows at her confession. "He's your bodyguard Kate, not the other way around. And he could definitely take it. In fact, I think he would prefer it rather than seeing you hurt."
"He's not my bodyguard…" Kate protested weakly. She knew that the last part of Jim's statement had been true though. Dylan had pretty much expressed that sentiment last night as they had sat together during a short break in senior mess. She sighed internally. Yesterday, all she could see was the possibility of Dylan getting hurt and she had reacted based on instinct.
A chime from her phone interrupted her musing. She opened her phone to see his short text.
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Nothing so far. Have fun playing nurse. 😊
Dylan
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Her lips couldn't help but curved up at his teasing. They had also started to sign their text with their given names instead of their ship name after they had fallen asleep on her sofa following that dinner and conversation two weeks ago. She knew that her feelings for him was getting a lot stronger, but she didn't know whether she should do anything about it.
"You are a naughty girl, Kate McGregor."
Kate looked up to find Jim smirking at her. "What?"
"I know that smile." Jim stared at her knowingly. "You are smitten."
"I don't know what you are talking about." Kate denied automatically while trying to school her feature.
"Come on Kate, I'm not your Navy superior. Don't give me your standard denial." Jim tried to coax her. "That was from Dutchy right?"
"Yes, just the hourly update."
"And yet, it made you smile." Jim pointed out smugly.
"Fine." Kate shook her head at his stubbornness. "We are good friends."
"Most long-lasting relationship started that way."
"Jim!" Kate rebuked him sharply. "Don't go there please."
"Why? Is it because of Mike Flynn again?"
"What? No!"
"Because he's your subordinate?" Jim pressed further. "Transfer off then. Or ask him to transfer. I bet he would for you."
Kate's mouth opened and closed like fish out of water. This was too much. She was not expected being grilled over her personal life in the middle of a patrol.
After a few minutes of contemplation, she finally replied. "I have lodged a transfer request a few months ago actually. There is no position for me yet though. So, I'm still waiting." She shook her head softly, "but honestly, I'm a bit scared to do anything about it…"
Jim then stared at Kate seriously. "Kate, life is so short. Both of our jobs could take our lives away at any minute. Look at what happened yesterday. I might not seem grateful at first, but I now know that I am lucky that you guys stuck around to help. One day our luck may run out. And if I were you, I would take a shot at happiness anyway I could."
Kate's eyes softened at his speech. "Even though that happiness might not last forever?"
"I think forever is made up of a series of moments with the person you care about the most."
"Moments hey…" her eyes started to water as she began to understand.
"Yes. Just one moment at a time." Jim reached for her hand and squeezed it tight. "You are thinking too far Kate. That's why it seems so scary."
She squeezed his hand back, "Jim Roth, how are you still single?"
He smiled sadly, "because I chose to let you go back then. And I kept missing my chances along the way. Now, it seems that I am too late once again."
"Jim…." Kate didn't know what to say in response to his confession.
"It's OK Kate." He let go of her hand. "You deserve to be happy. And I hope he realises how lucky he is."
"I am not a price to be won." Kate rolled her eyes playfully. "I am far from perfect."
"None of us are. That's why it's even more important to create those happy moments."
Kate nodded. "Thanks Dr Roth."
Jim smirked at her cheeky response. "Anytime Katie…."
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Dylan was currently taking a breather at the lounge of the only hotel in town and sipping his beer slowly. He had circled the town twice before ending up at this hotel. He had questioned the bartender too, just in case the other man had seen Meers around, but the response had been a negative. He was slowly losing hope in finding the missing man. He also found out through the bartender that the whole town didn't have internet connection, which meant that Meers wouldn't have had the means to contact Tarak either. So, the situation could be an impasse for both parties.
"It seems that my security assessment is correct."
He looked up at the familiar voice. "Ms Cruise."
"Petty Officer." Madelaine sat opposite him and put her bags down before sipping her Vodka. "You managed to screw us up again."
He stared at her defiantly. "I own my mistake Ms Cruise. I know that I messed up. That's why I'm here to help out while Captain Roth is unwell."
"And you think flashing around Meers' picture in this hotel is a wise move? You don't think that the bartender could be in his pocket?"
"Is he? I bet you don't know that either."
"No, I don't. But you are missing my point." She then put her glass on the table. "Number 1 rule in my line of work is that everybody is a suspect until they are proven otherwise."
"What about innocent until proven guilty?" he challenged her once more.
She smirked, "that's why I am the professional and you are the amateur." She downed all her remaining vodka before speaking again. "You are out of your depth. Your continued involvement could do further damage to this operation. So, I suggest that you go back to the ship and leave this matter to the professionals."
She then got up from her chair and left without giving him a chance to reply.
Dylan shook his head in frustration at his interaction with the agent. He took his phone to dial Kate when it flashed with Hammersley's ship number instead. "Petty Officer Dylan Mulholland."
"Dutchy."
"Sir."
"The X told me that you were searching for Meers in town. Any luck?"
"No Sir." Dylan then proceeded to tell the CO about his progress so far, including the arrival of Ms Cruise.
"Navcom have ordered us to sail at 11.00 tomorrow. I presume with Ms Cruise in tow. I would suggest that you give it another hour to look around the hotel. If still no sign of Meers, then come back to the ship."
"Understood, Sir."
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Mike rubbed his temple as he tried to stay calm amongst all the chaos that had been happening at the last hour. Meers was now dead and apparently his bosun had killed him in Ms Cruise's defence. What a mess this had been.
"What happened to the body?" Mike finally asked.
"Local police took it and process the scene." Dylan replied quietly.
"Now we have no idea whether my cover was blown." Jim lamented.
"If only someone was not so heavy-handed…." Madelaine commented.
"Excuse me? I just saved your life!" Dylan was now outraged.
"I had it handled, Petty Officer." Madelaine looked at Dylan pointedly. "Another minute and I would've disabled him. You should not have gotten involved."
"The guy was choking you! You didn't have another minute!" Dylan stared at her incredulously.
Madelaine ignored Dylan's reply and continued to push his button. "What were you doing snooping around my room anyway?"
The implication of her question disgusted Dylan. "I was following the guy. I definitely didn't know that was your room!" He threw his hand up in frustration. "Far out!"
"Dutchy." Mike warned him from continuing to participate in the agent's game.
Dylan turned his body so that his back was to them. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He opened his eyes again to find Kate's eyes staring at him worriedly. To reassure her and to ground himself even further, he moved to stand as close to her chair as possible.
"What about the operation then?" Mike attempted to redirect the conversation to the matter at hand.
"I am inclined to call the whole thing off." Madelaine finally said.
"Hang on Madelaine, maybe we could have a crack at hacking the website to find out whether Meers had managed to contact Tarak."
"I agree with Jim, maybe our RO can give it a go." Mike offered his thought.
Madelaine looked at the two men coldly. "So far your attempts of fixing this problem had been highly unsuccessful. I think it's time for me to solve this myself instead of relying on other people. I will ponder this overnight." She then grabbed her bags and started to make her way off the bridge.
"Hang on Ms Cruise, where are you going?" Mike looked at her confusedly.
"Back to my hotel."
"And you don't think after what happened tonight, you would be safer staying here? I could make a guest cabin ready for you."
Madelaine huffed at the offer. "Don't patronise me Commander. I am armed. I can take care of myself."
"Very well," Mike forced a smile on his face to hide his frustration, "allow us to provide you an escort back to the hotel then." He turned to look at Dylan apologetically, "Dutchy, can you escort Ms Cruise please?"
Madelaine only rolled her eyes at Mike's insistence and turned around to make her way down the stairs.
Dylan ground his jaw in frustration before following his CO's order.
Mike shook his head at the two people who just left the bridge before turning to Kate. "X, can you follow them too please? Keep an eye on Dutchy."
"Yes Sir."
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Dylan followed Madelaine as she made her way through the ship to the back deck. As they both reached the deck, he pulled her to the corner to talk privately.
"I don't know what game you are playing right now, but I don't like your insinuation that I was stalking you."
"I thought that maybe you would like to resolve this sexual tension between us and that was why you found my room."
"What?" Dylan didn't know whether to laugh or shout in frustration at her words. "There is no sexual tension between us."
"Oh come on, Dutchy." Madelaine moved forward and started to caress his chest.
"Ms Cruise," Dylan caught her wayward hand and held it away from his chest. "Let me make myself clear. I am not interested in you."
Madelaine smirked. "Really? Are you sure? Aren't you just a little bit curious about us? Who knows, maybe all this hostility between us can simply be resolved after a good night together. I really wouldn't mind finding out for sure whether your bravado translated well to the bedroom."
"What's going on here?"
Relief instantly flooded Dylan's system as he heard Kate's voice. But as he turned to look at her gratefully, he was greeted by Kate's angry eyes. It was only then that he realised he still held one of the agent's hand on his and her other one had made its way to his chest too, making it looked like they had something clandestine going on. He moved back quickly to distance himself from the agent.
"Nothing Lieutenant." Madelaine smiled conspiratorially. "We are just straightening up some misunderstanding. Right, Dutchy?"
Dylan didn't reply. He just stood there with both fists closed in frustration as the agent finally made her way off the ship.
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Kate was quiet as she and Dylan escorted the agent back to the hotel. The scene that she had seen at the back deck and the suggestive words from the other woman had made her blood boiled. Also, the fact that her hands had been on his chest enraged her. How dare she?
"Do you want to grab a drink before going back to the ship?" Dylan finally spoke after they had witnessed the agent locking the room door behind her.
"Sure."
They made their way to the bar area where they saw their crewmates sitting around a table. Greetings were exchanged, new rounds of drinks were passed around and the conversation started.
"Hey Dutchy, are you OK?" 2Dads looked at the other man questioningly.
Dylan only nodded as he didn't feel the need to elaborate further. He was sure that words had gotten around the ship about the incident with Meers.
"This is not your fault, Mate." Charge tried to reassure Dylan, "You were trying to protect Ms Cruise."
"If only that woman had appreciated his effort though." 2Dads said pointedly. "She was complaining that the guy was dead instead of being grateful."
"Guys, I really don't want to talk about it." Dylan stated quietly.
The guys looked at him in sympathy and heeded his wish.
"You know Dutchy, your dynamic with her is interesting." RO looked at Dylan in contemplation, unaware of the glares that his other crewmates were sending him in warning. "According to this new article I read, relationship that was built on antipathy would be more sustainable than the one built on affection. You should definitely give it a go with her, maybe you could get a successful relationship out of all these unfortunate circumstances."
"Robert, what on earth?" Swain shook his head at RO's outrageous theory. "Relationship with affection is hard enough. It definitely won't work with antipathy."
RO shrugged, "I'm just reiterating what I read. The article also said that contempt could be signalling deep passion."
"Or, contempt could just mean contempt." Charge said incredulously.
Kate could feel her chest had gotten tighter and tighter as the banters progressed. She kept seeing the other woman's hands on Dylan chest, caressing it, staking a claim on it. "You know Dutchy, maybe you should go up to her room and test RO's theory. I'm sure she would welcome you with open arms."
Silence that greeted her words was deafening. Charge, 2Dads and Swain stared at her in shock. RO looked uncomfortable. But it was the sight of Dylan's gutted eyes that let her know that she had gone too far.
She could only look on helplessly as Dylan stormed out of the bar, leaving her and all his crewmates behind.
It was another minute before she took off after him, realising that she needed to fix this now, before it was too late.
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To be continued….
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A/N: Sorry for leaving you all there... :) You've probably noticed that I am currently updating this story every weekend. And I will continue to do so as long as I am able. However, my day job is heading towards a busy time in the coming weeks so I might not be able to stick to this posting schedule as I most likely will be working on weekends too. So it would probably be advantageous to hit the 'follow' button of this story so that you can get an email notification every time I post a new chapter if you are not a regular visitor of the website. But obviously it's up to you! Thank you to those who have been reading, reviewing or following this story so far.
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