Leaning back in her seat Kate sighed. Her morning hadn't got off to the best of starts. As her satnav had assured her that she had plenty of time to get across town to Navy headquarters she made a little detour for coffee. She ordered a large black coffee and some raisin toast as she had missed breakfast as she was focused on getting the girls sorted and out the door for school. As she took her drink from the window her foot slipped on the Clutch causing her car to jolt forward and the lid to come off her coffee and it ending up all down her uniform.

Thankfully past experience had taught her well and she always had a spare clean uniform in the car just in case. The staff at the Starbucks has been quite understanding and made her a fresh drink and given her a cake of her choice for not putting the lid on correctly.

Then there was a serious accident on the route that the satnav but it wouldn't let her reroute her journey so she had to sit in a traffic jam for almost an hour whilst the police and emergency services cleared the road.

She eventually got in 40 minutes late. Commander Marshall was waiting for her in the atrium.

"i am so sorry Sir. There was a accident and my sat nav failed and..." she said slightly out of breath. She hated being late with a passion and normally made a effort to be 10 minuets early for everything.

"its Fine Lieutenant. It sounds and looks like you have had a hell of a morning" he smiled looking at her uniform

"Sir" she smiled looking down at her coffee-stained uniform thankfully most of it was on her shirt and was nowhere embarrassing on her trousers.

"just don't make a habit of this" he smiled

"yes sir" she smiled

"right let's show you to where you will be working and then you can get changed" Marshal smiled turning heading towards the lifts

"thank you, Sir," Kate said walking quickly to keep up with him

A knock at the door brought her back to the present moment. Looking up she smiled seeing Mike stood smiling at her.

"so, a little bird told me that it is actually your first day" he smiled walking up to her desk

Her mouth twitched in to a smile "really and this little bird, would it happen to be about 5 foot 4 have long brown hair worn mainly in a pony tail and is more commonly known as a loud-mouthed Nikki bird" she grinned

"a what!" Mike grinned

"a loud-mouthed Nikki bird. Its main habitat is the Cairns region and HMAS Hammersley" Kate said trying not to laugh

"no comment" Mike grinned "anyway I got you this" he smiled "lifting up a hot pink holographic bottle bag"

"you didn't have to" she smiled taking the bag from him

"i know but this is a must have" he said

Opening the bag she pulled out a large flask. "thank you" she said not quite knowing what to say. She had thought it may be a bottle of something nice.

"you're welcome. This flask is amazing. If you knock it when it's on the desk, it won't spill all over your work" he smiled

"that's actually pretty cool" she smiled watching as he sat down Infront of her.

She watched as he leaned forward picking up one of the photos she had placed on her desk. "is this your twins" he smiled looking at the picture of both girls in their favourite princess dresses.

"yeah" Kate smiled as he placed the picture back on the desk. "that's Sovay" she pointed to one in a Rapunzel dress "and that's Aimee" she said pointing to the other one who was in a sleeping beauty dress

"was there anything else. Sir." she smiled

"yeah, do you want to go and get a coffee" he smiled

Looking at the time on the computer she actually had lost track of all time. She had spent most of the morning reading up on the patrol boats, the crews and technologies that were on board. Her eyes were beginning to go blurry from all that reading.

"that sounds good" she smiled reaching for her hat that was on the side of the desk, following him out.

"Mike" a voice came from behind them

"Max" Mike smiled "long time no see" he smiled as the woman wrapped her arms around him. "what brings you here" he asked as she pulled back

"oh you know what Navy is like" Maxine grinned

Standing back Kate tried to hide her awkwardness, not quite sure what to do or what to say.

"can I help you Lieutenant" Maxine said looking over at Kate.

"I was umm." Kate paused

"Max this is Kate she just transferred from Sydney, Kate, Commander Maxine White who is gracing us with her presence all the way from the bright lights of Canberra" he smiled

"Ma'am" Kate nodded a polite hello.

"yes, well Mike why don't we catch up in my office and I know Ryan is desperate to see you" Maxine smiled

"i was actually on my way-out Max maybe another time" Mike smiled

"oh right" Maxine replied looking between Kate and Mike "sure" she said turning walking back towards her office. There was something between them she was sure of it

They went to a little Café just on the water a short walk from NAVCOM. Sitting on a small table outside

"so how do you know commander White?" Kate asked sipping her coffee.

"we were in the same class at ADFA. She used to copy my notes" he smiled

"you seem close" Kate smiled weakly

"what are you saying" Mike asked looking at her

"nothing" Kate sighed closing her eyes. "she isn't your" she paused running her fingers along his left hand stopping at his ring finger

His eyes fell to her hand "no. I mean we did once but no" he said softly

"I'm sorry" she said pulling her hand away "it's just I don't want to get in the middle of a work place drama between Ex's" she said "so who was she" Kate asked

"she was a marine biologist. And she did a runner with all my savings after getting in with a dodgy deal extracting toxins from a rare crab found on Bright island" he sighed

"i am so sorry I shouldn't have..." Kate said standing to leave

"it's fine" Mike smiled "it's good to talk. If anything, I need to I kept it bottled up for a long time. It affected everything and my crew didn't thank me for it. I was a right mardy git for a while let things slip made it my mission to get the guy" Mike said "anyway do you want another" he smiled indicating to her empty cup

"um" she looked down at her watch, "go on then" she smiled

He returned 10 minutes later with two fresh hot coffees.

"thanks" she smiled

"so how has your first day been so far" he smiled

"well apart from being over 40 minuets late and spilling my coffee all down myself. Not bad. It's a different atmosphere than in Sydney it seems more relaxed." she smiled

"last night I had a really nice time" he said softly

"i know" she grinned "me to"

"maybe we can repeat the experience" he said leaning closer.

They were inches apart when her phone buzzed loudly on the table. Closing her eyes, she pulled away looking down at the caller ID. Seeing it was the school she knew it couldn't be good.

"i best get this" she sighed

"of course," Mike smiled leaning back feeling frustrated. He desperately wanted to kiss her. He was falling head over heels. He watched as she listened tentatively to whoever was on the other end of the phone.

so hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.