A/N: Wow, I'm surprised by the number of PM's and comments on part one; I'm glad you seemed to like it this much. To answer a couple of questions, I'm not sure who is going to make a regular appearance in this story, but if she has character art then she has a chance of making an appearance. Another other question I'm going to answer here is I don't know how strong Mitchel's link to the kansen will be yet, he already has physical similarities to Wales, I just don't know how far down the hybrid rabbit hole I'm going to go yet. And lastly, as to why Henry lied about Mitchel, well I haven't worked that part out yet, but it was a key part of the challenge that planted the seed for this story.

Part Two – Red, white, and cookies

Yesterday had been a crazy day, I met my mother and got assigned this stacked silver-haired beauty… that I was in the middle of dreaming about when I suddenly felt the sunlight burst into my face and her voice saying, "It's time to get up Master, your breakfast is ready. If you don't hurry, you'll be late."

I roll to my side to sit up and toss the covers back before standing and making my way to the bathroom, as I walked past her I heard her say in a tone that made me blush, look down to see my state, and then cover myself, "Master, control yourself!"

I had said I was having a very, very good dream…

I get into the shower and call back to her, "Belfast, do you know what is on my docket today?"

"As far as I know Master, your day has been cleared of most official duties today, your…" she paused there, I knew why after all, she was coming to terms still with my origin.

"mother, requested you for the day so that she could introduce you to your other aunts, as well as some key players in our detachment here." She finished out.

I hurry through my shower, get in a quick shave before stepping out of my bathroom with a towel around my waist. To my surprise when I stepped out, Belfast was standing by the door, facing my bed, hands folded in front of her and I suddenly felt very, very awkward. I clear my throat before I say to her, "I can handle getting dressed… Belfast, you don't need to wait for me."

She gave a curtsy before leaving my room and letting me relax with a heavy sigh and I started to wonder if this was going to be a glimpse into what the rest of my days are going to be like here… I get on my summer uniform before stepping out into the hall to see that Belfast had moved off to someplace else. My nose gave me a clue as to where to go. I head to the kitchen and see her standing by the table, teapot in hand, but at my table I see my mother, in her red and white uniform, sipping tea and looking out the window. As soon as I crossed into the kitchen I heard my mother speak, "Good morning Mitchel, did you sleep well?"

At first, I wondered how she got in, but if anyone would be able to get past Belfast it'd be my mother by the virtue of who she is, my mother. As soon as I take my seat, Belfast moves like a blur, placing down a traditional English breakfast and pouring me some black tea, I cut into the sausage as I answer Wales, "Well enough, sorry if I kept you waiting."

The air was still awkward and heavy, to be expected really, we've barely spent a few hours in each other's company over the course of twenty-five years. I watch as she puts her tea down and goes to say something before brushing a hand through her hair and sighing, I know she felt conflicted about me right now. Happy know that I'm alive, furious that I was taken from her, and heartbroken that she doesn't know me on a personal level.

As I keep going through my breakfast Wales sips her tea again, looking like she is trying to figure out how to say something before she finally comes right out and asks, "I understand that being here may be difficult and lead to… some rash impulses… have you ever cared about someone deeply Mitchel?"

I almost choke on the eggs… even Belfast flushed in the cheeks a little at the question, the meaning of it not lost on me, she was asking me if I'd ever loved a girl. I understood why after all she was trying to paint a picture of my life that she missed out on. After a moment I drink some tea to help get my eggs down before I admit to her, "I've been in a couple of relationships… once in college then again at the naval academy."

My mother seemed to relax a little at my answer, almost like she feared I was a womanizer or something… I smile at her and say, "Let's change the subject… who did you want to take me to first?"

My mother shifted in her chair and adjusted her coat before telling me, "I'm debating on taking you to see Yorkie or Howe first. I think Yorkie could be amusing if only because she is such a night owl and waking her early could be amusing."

I run the name Yorkie over in my head, George had mentioned her before too, yet the idea of rousing a battleship for an early morning didn't sound like such a hot idea to me at the moment, so I suggested, "Then how about we start with Howe, the idea of poking the proverbial bear with Yorkie sounds dangerous to my health…"

XXXX

XXXX

It didn't take us long to reach the Royal Navy dorm, as we closed in on the kitchen the smell of fresh cookies filled my nose, my mother spoke up by saying, "Smells like Howe is up and working away in the kitchen."

I do a quick look around, I knew Belfast had been following behind us, but she seems to have vanished and I ask, "Where'd Belfast go?"

Wales shrugs and tells me, "She likely went ahead through a side door to make sure the dorms were up to her standards."

I sigh as we start to close in on the kitchen I admit, "I still don't understand why she chooses to be a maid of all things?"

My mother laughs and informs me, "Your father encouraged us to find roles for ourselves outside of combat; he had said it was unhealthy for us to live only to fight… looking back on it, it is one of the few things I am thankful that Henry gave us."

I nod, I had learned between some records and the short chat with my mother, that my father had been their first commander and that she had gotten close to him working as his secretary, and one night, things happened that resulted in me being born nine months later. I push the door to the kitchen open and see yet another blond with a red jacket facing away from me, bent at her knees in front of an open oven.

Without looking at us, she spoke with a soft tone that seemed full of warmth, "The cookies need to cool first, but you're welcome to wait."

We both walked in and she stood, turning around to fully greet us, when she saw me her blue-green eyes went wide, the cookie sheet tilted down, her mouth opened in time with the cookies falling to the floor. Her eyes darted to Wales, then back to me, then back to Wales, and finally back to me, I could see her mouth moving, but no words were coming. As the first cookie hit the floor, she snapped out of it, looked down, and said the most amusing curse I hadn't expected, "Oh sugar! I dropped the cookies…."

I hurry over and start to help to pick them up and getting them on the metal table, she looks at me as I'm doing this, her brow knitting together then looked at my shoulder boards before saying, "You look a lot like my sister, Commander…"

I nod, I guess she must have been awakened after the whole mess with Wales and my father… thankfully my mother speaks up, "There is a good reason for the How; he is my son."

Her attention snaps to Wales so quickly that I thought she'd get whiplash as she said, "How? I thought you said he was still-born?"

My mother hugged her own hips with her hands going across her belly as she said, "I hand been told he was… His father stole him away, raised him away from me…"

To my surprise Howe seemed to be the one to take this news the best so far, she just smiled at me before she wiped her hands on her apron and wrapped me in a warm, welcoming embrace as she said, "It's so nice to actually get to meet you!"

I didn't get to say anything else as a call rang out into the kitchen, "Wherefore art thee so loud? Th're hast bett'r beest a valorous reasoneth f'r thee to rouse me from mine own slumb'r!"

I looked to my mother to see her pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh out, "Well at least this way we can knock out two birds with one stone it seems…"

Howe let go of me and said, "York, I'm so sorry… but you know better than to sleep in with the wine racks…"

I followed with my eyes where the sound was coming from to see a woman with messy long red hair, pointed ears, and bloodshot blue-green eyes like Howe's own, her red jacket open at the top, exposing her bust, an empty wine glass in one hand, a bottle in the other and she said, "Wherefore slumb'r elsewh're? t is wh're the most wondrous of the w'rld can beest hath found."

When she spotted me, she blinked a few times and looked at the wine bottle, shaking it back and forth before saying, "I might not be but dreaming, f'r I seeth an apparition"

I look to Wales and ask, "Do you understand her?"

"Sadly, yes. She's wondering if she's still dreaming as she is seeing a ghost." my mother says to me.

I go to say something, but I don't get a chance to as somehow York crossed the room in all but a blink of an eye, having placed down her glass and bottle before gripping and pulling my cheeks as she sniffed at me before saying, "That gent doth feel real and smells real, yet cannot as that gent is longeth dead, having nev'r hadst a chance at life."

I go to say something when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, I see a woman with long brown hair, her eyes were closed, and she was in a big baggy tee-shirt with the crest of the Royal Navy on her chest slowly padding her way into the kitchen, almost like she is being led by her nose. She looks familiar, but I can't completely place her…

I follow her with my eyes as she goes to a fridge, pulls it open before taking out what looks like a little jar of this glowing blue bubbly liquid. She opens the jar and starts to drink it down before she makes a happy sounding sigh and opening her rose-colored eyes, and that was when the name came to me as I managed to speak more clearly than I thought I could, "Good morning Swiftsure."

Her attention snapped to me, she blinked a couple of times, likely confused at seeing me in the Royal Navy kitchen with the KGV sisters and having my cheeks being pulled on, this was made evident by her tone of voice as she asked, "Commander Thatcher?"

I nodded my head up and down, while York was still pulling on my cheeks. Poor Swiftsure, her cheeks started to go very, very red as she squealed and sprinted from the room as she moaned out, "The Commander saw me in my pajamas!"

That was when York said, tugging a little harder, "Thou art most definitely not Henry Thatch'r…"

My mother sighed and Howe seemed to giggle before I inform her, "He was my father."

That did it, she let go of my cheeks finally before stepping back to look in her wine bottle as my mother says to her, "You were right this entire time York, I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

York moves over to my mother and pats her cheek as she says, "Thee shouldst trusteth thy young'r sist'r m're and the w'rds of a charlatan less."

York turned back to me and told me, "I shall beest joyous to welcometh thee backeth to the landeth of the living, just not this m'rning, f'r t is far, far to early f'r this."

She got closer and patted my cheek the same way she had to my mother before heading back into the wine racks only to emerge a moment later with another bottle and off to what I would guess is her room.

"Huh, that went about as well as I thought it would." my mother said as her sister disappeared into the labyrinth of the Royal Navy dorms.

I rubbed the back of my head and sighed, causing both Howe and Wales to look at me, tilting their heads to the side and asking, "What's wrong?"

"I kind of feel bad for Swiftsure… clearly she's embarrassed," I say.

My mother sighs as she leans against the metal table while Howe starts working on the next batch of cookies and I ask, "Should I go find her and talk to her?"

"She's on the second floor, third door on the left from the end of the of the west end." Howe informed me, before adding, "Swiftsure is… well she's Swiftsure, she's not the most confident girl here."

XXXX

XXXX

By the time I get up to the second floor and down the western hall, I hear a noise, like someone tripping or bumping into something come from the room that was on the left, third from the end and the voice of Swiftsure groan out, "Bollocks!"

I knock twice on the door and hear her call out, "Who is it?"

I clear my throat as I say, "Commander Thatcher."

"Uhh! Ju... Just a minute!" I hear her trip over her own tongue before what sounds like the rapid clicking of heels on a floor like she's hurrying to try and get things squared away.

A moment later she cracked her door open and said, "Come in, sir."

When I entered her room, I honestly did know what I expected, but I knew I didn't expect something like this. I do a quick scan of the room and see that it was hastily made to look presentable, I can see makeup on the vanity, and her bed looked like it was made in haste. Speaking of the bed, it looked so inviting with a white duvet and pillow collection, but it was the plushy ship on it that made me tilt my head to the side. She turned her head to see what I was looking at as her cheeks went bright red again and she started to fidget with her hands as she mumbled out, "I… I can explain…"

I turned my attention to her to see that she had gotten into her uniform, just like yesterday it seemed to just hug her, really it left me thinking things I probably shouldn't be… I give her a soft smile as I say, "You don't need to."

She lets out a breath, bringing a hand up to her chest as it goes out and she asks, "What brings you to the dorms this early sir? Am I running late?"

I shake my head and ask while I gesture to her bed, "May I sit?"

"O… Of course sir!" she said and making sure that it was clear for me and going back to fidgeting while I rubbed my hands together.

I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly before I fill her in on the things I'd learned over the last couple of days. To my surprise, Swiftsure seemed to take that information almost as good as Howe did, nodding as she said, "That would explain why you look so much like the current Knight Commander and the former Knight Commander…"

I tilt my head at her in surprise as I ask, "You don't seem too shocked by that…"

She shrugs and says to me, "I'm so low on the totem pole in the Royal Knights, I just kind of go with it."

I lean back, propping myself up with my hands, and let out a howl of laughter as I say; "You have no idea how refreshing that is to hear."

Swiftsure sits down beside me, crossing her legs at her knees, and asks, "So… you said that you saw Commander Hawker and the Knigh… George? How are they doing?"

"They seem to be doing okay, their restaurant is doing well and they are apparently going to start trying to have a kid." I tell her, I notice that she looks a little sad when I tell her that and I ask, "Everything okay?"

She gives me a weak smile before knocking herself on the head softly as she says, "Just a foolish wish that I knew was silly."

I was about to say something else when there was another knock on her door, followed by a voice I didn't know, "Oi, Swiffy are ya decent?"

I mouth the word 'Swiffy' at Swiftsure and she blushed, brightly before she said, "I'm kind of busy Fiji…"

"Who am I kidding, you're always decent!" says the voice again before the door opens up and I see this busty blond with green eyes a rather open white top, and a short red skirt.

When her green eyes landed on me, she looked to Swiftsure and said, "You should'a said you had someone in here with ya!"

I get off the bed and introduce myself, "Commander Mitchel Thatcher, a pleasure to meet you."

She looks me up and down again, smiling before taking out her phone, snapping a picture, and saying to me, "You don't look too shabby! Nice seeing you, I'm Fiji."

I'm a little bewildered by the phone but before I can ask about it, she stuffs it into her top, a second later I hear a trilling noise come from Swiftsure. I turn to look at her and she takes out her phone to show me a notification on an app called Juustagram, she blushes again and opens it.

What I saw made me tilt my head; it was me, in Swiftsure's room with a caption that read: Looks like Swiftsure has a head start!

Poor Swiftsure, she went almost as red as her uniform.

Almost instantly, I heard the same trilling noise coming from almost every other room on the floor, Swiftsure looked at me and said, "We need to get you out of her sir…"

Her attention shifted to Fiji and she asked, "Does Jamaica still keep her bike in the same place?"

Fiji put her arms behind her head as she said, "Yeah…"

The next thing I know I'm on the back of a motorcycle, my arms wrapped around Swiftsure as she zipped me through the base. By the time we came to a stop, we were outside another dormitory, this one marked with the crest of the Eagle Union. As I let go of Swiftsure she slowly took off her helmet and said to me, "Go in and find Cleveland, she'll help you hide out for a few hours."

"Why do I need to hide?" I ask her.

She twisted around and gave me a weak smile before saying, "I need a few hours to explain things so that everyone on base doesn't think I was trying to get into the new Commander's pants."

Oh. Not that I'd be against it, I mean she is attractive…

She paused and bit her lower lip before adding, "When I get back to the dorm, I'll let your mother know where I stashed you."

I don't really get to give my thanks to her as she spins the bike around and zips off again, leaving me standing on the steps to this new dorm. Well, I had planned on meeting with the Eagle Union second anyway, this just moved things up a bit I guess.

With a sigh, I climb the steps and just get my hand on the door to open it as it opens inwardly for me and I bump into another well-endowed blond, but this one looked like she was ready to go out for a run and I say right away, "Sorry about that…"

She steps back and looks me up and down, raising an eyebrow as she said, "So you're the one that was in Swiftsure's room, huh?"

Oh hell!

"It was just to talk to her, I swear!" I protest.

She gets a grin on her face before flicking her long blond hair that ended with pink dye and said to me, "I'm Marblehead by the way."

"Commander Thatcher." I return the greeting.

She runs her hands across my shoulders and smooths out my tunic and nods, "Aha, I dig the Royal Navy uniforms… we should hang out sometime Commander, but right now I got to get my run in before the exercise later with my Omaha class sisters."

She was just about down the stairs when I called back, "Swiftsure told me to find Cleveland, is she inside?"

She turned and started to jog backward as she called back, "She should up on the third floor with her sisters."

"Thanks!" I hollered back and waved as she waved back before turning around on heading off on her run.

Once she's gone I let out a heavy sigh and head-on into the building, I had just crossed through the entryway when I hear two voices arguing, "No, I won't wait to track him down!"

Well, clearly this must involve me… aside from some of the meowficers I know I'm the only male on-base…

A second voice speaks up, "But Washy, he was likely busy yesterday…"

Washy? I started to run ship names through my head that could be bastardized into a name like that but I kept coming back to one, Washington…

The first voice spoke again, "Carol, he blocked off his whole day yesterday to meet with the Royal Navy… even has his schedule showing he's with them again today! Is he snubbing the Eagle Union?"

Yeah, this has to do with me… I take another breath and go around a corner to my left where the voices were coming from to see a short-haired platinum blond and a long-haired golden blond facing one another, both with similar-looking white jackets, though the platinum blond had a black skirt while the golden blond had a white one on. They both turned their blue eyes on me and I got the impression that I may have found myself in that meeting I wanted to have with the faction rep of the Eagle Union already.

I rub my hands on my pants and extend my hand as I say to them both, "Commander Thatcher."

The golden blond smiled a welcoming smile at me, the other one… well let's just say she needs to work on her smile. The platinum blond took my hand in a tight grip as she said, "I'm Washington, and this is…"

She paused to gesture to her sister as she added, "North Carolina. What brings you by here so early?"

I give a half laugh before I say, "A long and complicated story."

Washington shrugs and says, "We got time Commander, do you like coffee, or are you one of those limy bustards that only like to drink tea?"

Again I laugh; this is actually a really refreshingly frank conversation and I say to her, "Well I tend to drink tea, but I don't mind a good cup of Americano."

"Good. Carol, would you mind getting us some, while I take the Commander here to the rec room so we can get started getting to know one another?" she says to her sister.

"No problem Washy, I'll meet you two there." North Carolina said before walking off, leaving me with Washington.

Once she was away, Washington looked at me sideways and asked, "You're Wale's kid right?"

I blink at her a couple of times and trip over my own tongue, "H… How did you know that?"

She shrugs and starts to lead me through the dorm as she says to me, "I remember her having one, and I remember old Henry Thatcher taking a baby to the docks and sending it off with one of those Royal Navy girls that wears a maid uniform."

Just as we enter a room that had a big table in it and some chairs she added, "All I remember about it was not long after that old Henry left the base under some really shady reasons."

Huh… Fitting that Washington would know something about this… I mean the old man did keep a model of her hull in his study and was the first number in the combination that sent me on this trip.

XXXX

XXXX

A/N: Going to end the chapter here, if I don't it could go on forever. I hope that this chapter met with your expectations and I'll have your continued interest for the next chapter. I've also introduced a few of the potential romance interests for the Commander in this chapter, but nothing is set in stone as some will be placed in his orbit deliberately rather than by happenstance.