A/N: Apologies for being MIA for the last few months. Real life was hectic for a while. The good news is that I have finished this story so you can expect weekly updates from now. The rest of the chapters would be based on episode 5.13 One Perfect Day (series finale) and the aftermath. This one is set a week after the last.
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"Everyone, can I have your attention please?"
The crews on the bridge all looked up from their respective posts and paused their own conversations to pay attention to their CO.
Once Mike saw everyone was listening, he started his address. "Before we start our patrol, I have an announcement to make," he then motioned for Kate to stand up next to him before continuing, "Lieutenant McGregor has accepted a position as the Senior Warfare Officer at HMAS Ballarat based in HMAS Stirling, Western Australia effective next month. So unfortunately for us, this would be her last patrol as Hammersley's XO."
The gasped of shock reverberated throughout the bridge and everyone started speaking at once, interrupting their CO's address.
Mike then had to use his stern voice to calm everyone down. "Everyone, stop!"
The noise went down to a couple of murmurs after his shout. So, he continued, "Navcom has not decided on replacement yet, but I am expecting that they will make their decision in the coming weeks. In the meantime, let's make this patrol our best one as a proper send off to our XO."
"Ma'am, you can't just leave us here with these boys alone." Flick said almost forlornly referring to her and Bird.
"Hey, we are not that bad, Flick." 2Dads nudged Flick playfully before nodding at his XO, "It won't be the same without you, X. Although I won't miss having to clean heads with toothbrush."
"Mate, who says that the new XO won't ask you to do that too?" Charge smirked at the younger man. "You are lucky that our XO here is a patient one. Most people wouldn't put up with you, 2Dads."
"Hey, come on Charge…." 2Dads started to whine indignantly before a glare from his CO shut him up for now.
"Do you have any time off before moving to Stirling, X? We should do a farewell drink or party at the pub before you leave." Swain was surprised by the news and would like to at least give his longest XO a proper farewell.
"Not really." Kate said thoughtfully, "I have about a week break before my flight there and I'll be busy packing for most of it. But I could go down to the pub one night to have a drink with you guys. No need for anything fancy though."
"We'll organise one for you." Swain said definitively, "congratulations X."
"Yes, Congratulations X!" Everybody chimed in following Swain's lead.
"Thank you everyone." Kate looked around at the faces of her crews and could feel her heart grew heavy at the thought of leaving them. "I will miss all of you. It has been an honour serving with you in Hammersley. I'll never forget the last five years with this ship. It will stay in my heart forever."
"I think I can speak on behalf of everyone that we will miss you too, X." Charge replied solemnly, while everyone else nodded at his words. "But I think we all know who's going to miss you the most. And that's the big fella over there." He tilted his head to Dylan's direction, who he thought had been particularly quiet at the announcement.
"Charge, give it up." Dylan could only shake his head at the engineer. He had been purposely leaning quietly against the console to not attract attention to himself during the announcement. But he guessed that was too much to ask for.
"I'm sure that he'll be too busy with the new XO to even miss me." Kate answered with a small smile.
"X, come on." Charge continued his push as he was worried that the two hadn't really talked about their possible feelings towards each other. "He would definitely be miserable without you. Right Dutchy?"
"Charge." Mike warned him gently to back off. "That's enough."
"But Sir, the X is going all the way to the other side of the country and the big fella here won't do anything about it still. Frankly, we are all rooting for them and we just want the best for them. Isn't that right everyone?"
The rest of the crews were smiling at Charge's bravery before nodding their heads in agreement. Most of them had seen and felt the undercurrent of electricity between the pair and while they knew that the rules were there for a reason, they also knew that sometimes these things couldn't be helped.
"I have not finished with my announcement yet." Mike looked at all the hopeful faces of his crews then indicated to Dylan to stand beside Kate. "Dutchy will also transfer to Stirling base in the coming months. He will take shore position as Maritime Training Instructor temporarily while waiting for his next sea posting. He has kindly delayed his departure to help us with the transition to our new XO and that would give time for us to find his replacement as well. I was going to delay the announcement for Dutchy until the next patrol but since everybody is so impatient, you've now heard it."
"Woohoo!" Charge whopped in happiness as he realised that the bosun must have taken his advice a few weeks ago and had done something about the status quo.
"Geez Charge, are you that eager to get rid of me?" Dylan smirked at the older man's enthusiasm.
"Yes, if that means that you both are together now. You are, aren't you?" Charge narrowed his eyes at the two of them.
Kate didn't know what to say to everyone's reaction. She honestly wasn't expecting Charge's push and Mike's initiative to announce their departure at the same time. She looked up to Dylan to gauge his reaction, but he just looked back at her with a soft smile and slight tilt of his head, as if saying it's up to her now. Making her decision, she then smiled back at him, leaned up to kiss his cheek briefly and finally entwined their hands together as her answer to Charge's question.
"Yes!" Charge and 2Dads high-fived each other at the pair's interaction. Swain looked amused but started clapping in congratulations. RO shook his head with a small smile before putting his headset back on. And Bird and Flick beamed at each other before clapping as well.
Mike rubbed his temple at the chaos that the announcement had caused, but he also couldn't help but smile at the genuine happiness that his crews had shown in relation to the pair. His crews were indeed good people.
"Alright everyone, that's enough celebration." He nodded to all of them before continuing, "let's go back to position and start this patrol."
"Yes, Sir."
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Kate looked up as the radar made a ping sound. "Sir, we picked up something on the radar, right where the coast watch said they have spotted a possible SIEV."
"Right. What's its speed?"
"Barely moving, Sir."
"That's strange." Mike frowned at Dylan's observation on the EOD.
"Sir, the AIS shows the vessel's name to be Kunta Kiti, registered in Indonesia."
"Thanks X. RO, can you check AFP database for more information about this vessel please?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Let's observe this vessel for a few more minutes before we decide on course of action." Mike then ordered the helmsman to slow the engine down so that Hammersley would not be on top of the SIEV too soon.
It was 30 minutes later when they decided to board the vessel and found the two men dying from suspected radiation poisoning. After they were brought to Hammersley and questioned, Kate and Dylan reported their findings to the CO while Swain concentrated on keeping the men comfortable.
The two men had admitted being illegal smugglers who had been paid to transport two passengers from foreign port to a specific coordinate where another vessel had awaited them. Those passengers had been carrying two extremely heavy suitcases which had turned out to have lots of metal rods in them. Those smugglers hadn't known at that point that those rods contained radioactive material and they had been on their way home when they had suddenly fallen ill. By the time Hammersley had found them, they had been sick for more than a few days and the poisoning had become so acute that Swain had indicated to Kate and Dylan that the men wouldn't survive the night.
Hearing the report, Mike had no choice but to request permission to Navcom to return to port and have Glenelg cover them for a few days until they got this matter sorted out. Hammersley was to steam through the night for Cairns and the Federal Police would meet with them for a handover in the morning.
Kate was typing her report of the boarding operation of Kunta Kiti in the ship's office when a fresh cup of coffee appeared in front of her. She looked up to find her man stood next to her with an identical cup of coffee on his hand.
"Why the long face?" Dylan commented as he saw her face.
She sighed. "Those poor men are dying right now just a level below us. I wished we could do more for them. And of course, the hot rods. Where are those now? What are they going to use those for?"
"Hey, one thing at a time." Dylan squeezed her shoulder, "right now we are steaming home. And who knows, maybe there could be some miracles for those men and they could hold on until we got them to the hospital."
"Yeah," she then took the cup and sipped the liquid carefully, "thanks for this."
"You're welcome." He smiled at her and took his hand off her shoulder before anyone noticed. They were still at work after all. "I will miss this, you know."
"Me being a Debbie Downer?" She raised her eyebrows at him teasingly.
He smirked. "No, just being with you, talking about ship's business, bringing you coffee…."
Her eyes softened at his remarks, "I will miss this too. But you can still bring me coffee at home. And frankly we have better coffee there."
"Yeah…." He quietened a little bit and then stared at her seriously. "I'm worried that once we don't work together anymore, we would have less things in common and we would grow apart. I guess I'm the one being a Debbie Downer now."
"Don't you dare bail on me." She raised her left palm to cup his cheek and stared at him pleadingly.
He sighed, "No, I won't do that. I am with you 100%. I'm just thinking out loud. You have to admit that it's a possibility though."
"Yes, but only if we let it happen." She reached for his dog tag and played with it as she looked at him contemplatively. "We have to keep sharing our thoughts, needs and wants with each other. There is no one else I would rather talk shop with. And trust me, I won't stop bothering you with Navy business, even if I have to make it a hypothetical scenario to protect the anonymity of my next crews."
His eyes softened at her promise and his lips curved up as his heart felt lighter. "I guess my stories for the next 6 months would be about all the mishaps I would be experiencing with all the trainees I'm responsible for."
She smiled at the thoughts of their not-so-distant future. "And I can't wait to hear them all."
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"Preliminary autopsy result of the two smugglers indicates that they died of Caesium poisoning."
"Caesium?" Kate frowned at Ms Cruise's statement.
"Caesium-137." Jim elaborated further. "It's the main source of radiation during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster."
Mike handed over the autopsy report to Kate for her perusal before responding to their guests. "We have been tasked by Navcom to find the vessel that the two mysterious men boarded after being smuggled into Australia."
"That's good. We need to find those men and the Caesium as soon as possible. My agency believes that the terrorist cell we have been pursuing is behind the Caesium purchase, obviously with some nefarious motive in mind."
"Is this a new terrorist cell or still related to Moshir group?"
"We believe they are all related Commander. And now they are even more dangerous with this radioactive material in their hands."
"Very well, let's carry on then." Mike then looked at Kate, who was still reading the report. "X, is there anything else that you would like to discuss?"
Kate looked up from the report to meet all their eyes seriously. "It seems that the exposure risk from this Caesium is quite high. We need to protect our crews during this operation. Maybe we need to discuss with Swain on how best to mitigate the risk."
Mike nodded. "I agree. I will talk to Swain about this." He then looked at Jim and Madelaine again. "Let's get you both settled first. X, can you escort them to the guest cabins please?"
"Yes, Sir."
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It turned out that both guest cabins were out of commission due to leaky pipes. This was why Kate ended up sharing her cabin with the agent for the remainder of this patrol. It felt weird to share her cabin again after Nikki had left Hammersley almost two years ago. Especially with someone like Ms Cruise whom she still had mixed feelings about.
And it didn't help that the agent was constantly on the phone or having multiple text message notifications during the night. Ms Cruise had apologised to her about it but she said that unfortunately her job had required her to always be on alert and she couldn't possibly put her phone on silent just in case she received important news or intel.
Frankly, Kate was now exhausted due to the lack of sleep for a couple of nights and she was really tempted to slip into Dylan's cabin and share his bed to have some peace. But of course, that's impossible and not to mention highly inappropriate. She could already imagine Swain's mortified face if he ever found her snuck into the men's shared cabin during the night. This was why she chose to sit at the back deck during her 15 minutes break to get some fresh air so that she was not falling asleep on the bridge.
"Hey."
She looked up to find Jim had taken a seat on the bulkhead in front of her. "Hey, how are you going?"
"Better than you by the looks of it." He teased her at the sight of her long face and the bags under her eyes.
Kate rolled her eyes at him. "Try to have someone whose phone is constantly ringing off the hook as your bunkmate."
Jim smirked at her, "Charge is also a snorer. So, my sleep is not completely peaceful either." Referring to the fact that he had to share cabin with Charge this time around due to the guest cabin issue.
"You snore too!" She said pointedly, "that is not comparable to this."
"Hmm…." Jim looked at her seriously, "maybe instead of being annoyed, you can start listening to her conversation."
Kate raised her eyebrows at him, "are you suggesting me to spy on her?"
He shrugged, "it wouldn't hurt."
"Jim, what's going on?" Kate whispered as she carefully looked around them to make sure they were alone.
"I guess I'm just a bit frustrated." Jim sighed in annoyance. "I'm putting my neck out there for all these operations. And every time I thought we got closer to capture these terrorist cells, either they ran away just before we arrived or they were fully prepared to face us as if they knew we were coming."
"But we were successful against Horta Cheng and we caught both Tarak and Lennox Rahman alive. And although Moshir got away, we managed to obtain a lot of information from his camp."
Jim smiled, "yes, and that's because Hammersley was involved. Dutchy was the one who saw the hiding place of important papers during the raid at Rahman's hideout. And he disarmed the suicide vest remember? We caught Tarak because he again took over when I was incapacitated. We got that much information from Moshir's camp because your man disrupted the peace and went after the man that had almost executed you. Do you see the pattern there? And with Horta Cheng, if it wasn't for Charge's involvement with Lani and Horta Cheng's blind anger about that, I wouldn't have the perfect opportunity to take him out."
"Right," Kate looked at him thoughtfully, "are you saying that without Hammersley playing the neutral party in these operations, the result would have been different?"
"I'm saying that I find it odd that even after Agent Smith's death and him being found out as the mole, that I am I still encountering very slippery terrorist cells that seems to know our every move."
"Maybe there is another leak that we don't know about." Kate threw another theory into the mix.
"Or maybe Agent Smith was never the leak in the first place. Maybe we should be looking closer into someone that is currently still in the operation." Jim concluded.
Kate sighed. It was alarming to see that even Jim had his suspicion about Ms Cruise. At the same time, it was good to know that her mixed feelings about her current bunkmate was somewhat justified. "I don't trust her either. Her decision during Moshir's operation didn't make sense and plus she kept trying to mess with Dylan's mind."
Jim smiled. "He's too emotional. It made him an easy target to mess with."
"That's what I don't understand. Her obsession with trying to get to his psyche."
Jim moved closer to her and stared at her seriously. "Kate, in this kind of business, someone like Dutchy, who wears his heart on his sleeves is a liability to the operation."
"What?" Kate stared back indignantly, "you just listed all his achievements before. And you are now bagging him?"
"I'm not saying that he's not a good operator. He is a very skilled individual and I think his skills are great assets to the Navy or any other agencies that he chooses to be a part of. But he is not very good in hiding his emotions and participating in the so called mind games that people in intelligence agency are known for. Someone like Madelaine Cruise is trained to seek, exploit and use other people's weaknesses to their own advantage. If she was indeed the mole, then she would look for a scapegoat to rest the ultimate blame on. Someone like Dutchy would be ideal because one, he would willingly take the blame upon himself. Two, I read his file about the incident in the gulf. And it was said that he was suffering from PTSD because of it and he required mandatory counselling back then. That fact could easily be twisted to make it seemed like he was unstable and prone to mistake."
Kate shook her head at Jim's assessment. "But that's why he's a good man. His ability to empathise with people."
"Yes, and I think that's why he is the one who gets the girl in the end." Jim teased her again. "He is emotionally available."
She huffed in amusement. "I presume you've heard the news."
"Yes. And you need to presume that Madelaine knows as well." His tone turned serious once more. "Dutchy's feeling for you is his biggest weakness right now. And if I were the bad guy, I would target you to get to him. So, you need to be careful."
"I think you underestimate his ability to be a professional, Jim." Kate replied thoughtfully. "But thank you for the warning."
"XO to the bridge at the rush."
Kate shook her head as she heard the pipe. "Well, duty calls. You better come with me just in case this is important."
Jim nodded, "after you then."
Both Jim and Kate made their way back to the bridge and once they arrived, they could feel the tense atmosphere there.
Kate was not sure what had been happening in the 15 minutes she had been away, so she made the beeline to Mike instead. "Sir, you call for me?"
"Yes, X, we saw a possible FFV and I want to board it."
"Yes, Sir." Kate took the radio to announce the call but before she could do that, Ms Cruise's voice interrupted her.
"I think we should ignore it."
Kate raised her eyebrows at the woman's audacity. She didn't need to see Mike's face to know that he was extremely annoyed right now.
Ignoring the disapproving eyes of the crews on the bridge, Ms Cruise continued, "These FFV boardings can become prolonged. It takes valuable time away from the hunt of the Caesium. I think the matter of national security should outweigh illegal fishing problem."
Mike stood up from his chair and faced the Agent directly, "with all due respect Ms Cruise, the last time I look, I am still the Commander of this ship. And in my view, every vessel out there is a possible suspect in this hunt."
Mike didn't wait for the Agent's reply before turning and addressing Kate once more. "X, make the call."
"Yes, Sir."
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"Dutchy, full Kevlar and extra plates please." Kate said as the boarding crews reached the locker.
Dylan exchanged a confused look with Swain before replying to Kate. "X, isn't that a bit of overkill? This is FFV yeah?"
"Yes." Kate understood her crews' confusion, so she explained further. "But I found it really interesting that Ms Cruise chose to complain about boarding FFVs just now. This will be our fifth FFV for the day. Why didn't she speak about it on our third or fourth ones just over an hour ago? Why doesn't she want us to board this one?"
2Dads grinned at her broadly, but wisely chose not to say anything. Swain had no such restraint. "I think Charge has been a bad influence on you Ma'am."
Her lips curved up in amusement at his teasing. "Just humour me alright? I give you all permission to call me paranoid if this turns out to be a normal FFV."
"Yes, Ma'am."
The crews donned their gears as requested before Halfy took the lead and headed to the back deck first.
Dylan waited until everyone had left and turned to Kate curiously. "Hey, is everything alright? You look tense."
Kate looked up to her man and remembered Jim's warning before. She couldn't help but felt a vice in her heart at the thought of someone having a possible ill will towards him. She vowed to never let that eventuate. She must do whatever it took to mitigate the threat against him. If she had to spy on Ms Cruise to do that, then so be it.
"Kate?" Dylan frowned at her silence.
She finally smiled at him and patted his chest fondly. "I'm alright. I just had a hunch. Let's go and check this FFV out hey."
Dylan nodded but made a mental note for himself to check on her again tonight.
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It turned out that Kate's intuition had been correct about the crews needing extra plates as they encountered heavy resistance when boarding the vessel. Even after Charge had disabled their engine with his precise typhoon shooting, the 'FFV' crews continued their relentless assault on the boarding crews. When Dylan made the final shot that allowed him to clear the upper deck, he breathed a sigh of relief and joined Kate in searching below deck. It was not long when they both found what the men had guarded so fiercely before. A case of Semtex explosive, another puzzle in the continuing saga that had stumped them for the last week.
A thorough search didn't reveal anything of else of value, so Kate ordered the crews to bring the Semtex case to Hammersley and prepare a towline for the vessel. The bodies of the 'FFV' men also had to be brought back to Hammersley for cold storage and processing before being handed over to the Federal Police when they would rendezvous with them tomorrow.
They were back to the locker room and in the process of taking of their gears when 2Dads started to speak. "X, can I ask you a serious question?"
Kate handed over her Browning to Dylan before looking at 2Dads curiously, "of course."
"How does it feel to be right all the time?"
Swain snorted at 2Dads and Dylan just shook his head at the younger man.
"Don't be ridiculous 2Dads. That's not true." Kate rebuked the notion while continuing to shed her gear. As usual, Dylan had to help her with the Kevlar and the plates as they were heavy.
"But X, if not for you insisting that we needed extra plates, we'd be a pancake today."
Kate sighed and looked at her junior sailor seriously. "2Dads, I don't take pride in being right in these circumstances. But I am grateful that by ordering the extra plates, I can help keep you safe. You are all sailors under my command and during these boardings, I am responsible for your well-being. So, when I issued the order, I didn't think whether I was right or not. I thought about doing my job properly so that you can go home to your friends and family. Does that answer your question?"
"Yes X." 2Dads replied quietly.
Kate patted his shoulder briefly before turning to leave the room and back to the bridge to discuss the development of the situation with Mike. "Dutchy, can you make sure the Semtex is secured in austere please? Swain, get some juniors to help you with the bodies and maybe show Bird how to write the report for the Feds so that she can learn?"
Dylan and Swain quietly acknowledging the order before watching her leave the room with a fond look on their faces.
"She's special, isn't she?" Swain nudged Dylan teasingly. "But of course, you already know that."
Dylan shook his head at the ribbing. Ever since the announcement, he had been getting a bit of it here and there. It had been harmless so far thankfully. But he had made himself clear on a few occasions that he wouldn't tolerate any disparaging remarks about Kate.
"Dutchy?"
"Yeah?" Dylan raised his eyebrows at 2Dads.
"How do you handle the fact that your girlfriend is way above your league?"
Swain laughed at the question before leaving the room to find Bird.
"I don't handle it, 2Dads." Dylan squeezed the other man's shoulder briefly, "I just accept it and frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way."
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To be continued….