Sitting on the deck on a sunny Monday evening Kate smiled watching Sovay and Aimee in the garden. It was lovely to see them outside and actually using their imagination. They had used Nikki's clothes horse as a sort of shop and they were each taking it in turns to play the shop keeper. Hamersley had been out a week which was longer than expected and it was unusual for a so-called simple search and rescue. But she had a message from Nikki saying they should be back in port tomorrow lunchtime so she had less than 12 hours to actually make sure the house was tidy and in a relative state of order.

Both girls came running over having gotten board of the game they were playing

"mummy" Aimee said in a sing song voice

"yessy" Kate sighed looking up from her book.

"what's for tea?" she asked

"pot luck" Kate smiled

"yay" both girls jumped up and down.

Laughing Kate stood up walking in to the kitchen amazed at how the simple things were what pleased the girls. Pot luck literally was left over chicken from yesterday's dinner with hot chips and some salad. Simple but the girls always seemed to beg for it. Saying that they always begged for vegetables when they were in Coles, so much so a woman who was stood next to them in the veg isle the other week a woman gave them a odd look aghast that there were two 6-year-olds begging for Spinach like they had been denied it for their whole life.

Opening the freezer, she pulled out a bag of oven chips tipping them on to a tray she spread them out so they would cook more even and crisp up. And that was all the cooking she had to do really. The chicken was already cooked and cut up and she just had to add a bit of salad and cut up some of the French bread she had brought before picking the girls up from school.

20 minutes later she began plating up making sure Sovay only had the breast meat as she hated the dark meat and the last time, she had just one piece of leg meat WW3 erupted and she refused to eat any of it and there has been a lot of tears

Carrying the plates over to the table she placed them in front of the girls returning for her own.

"that's not fair Sovay has more chips than me" Aimee wailed looking at her sister's plate

"Aimee" Kate sighed "you both have the same. Stop moaning and eat your dinner" she continued to cut in to her chicken.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Aimee reach over to pinch one of Sovay's chips from the edge of her plate. Unfortunately, Sovay had also caught her sister and treated her to a hard smack across the back of her hand with the knife.

"Sovay!" Kate called "apologise now"

"she was pinching my chips" Sovay protested

"i was just claiming what is mine" Aimee resorted

"just apologise Sovay" Kate said resting her head in her hand

"sorry" Sovay said

"Aimee now you apologise for taking chips" Kate said. Half the time it was like negotiating with treacle. Impossible and always a battle. They would fight over the littlest things yet would not do anything without the other.

Clearing the plates Kate left them on the side promising herself she would sort them once she had got the girls in to bed. It was going to be easier at least she could keep a eye on them beforehand.

Sitting at her desk the following morning Kate checked her emails to see If Nikki had said anymore of when Hammersley. She said they were due in port at lunchtime. Which was perfect she just had 4 hours to wait and keep her mind busy which shouldn't be too hard as Commander white had dumped a mountain of paperwork on her desk that she wanted sorted before lunch.

Most of it was just past patrol schedules and reports. She knew why White was doing this; it was to stop her or at least try and stop her from meeting Hammersley as she returned. It wasn't hard to see she was jealous but what Kate couldn't understand is why she had done nothing and Mike had said that they had nothing going on apart from friends.

Three and a half hours later Kate bundled up all the files carrying them down the corridor. Thankfully Maxine wasn't in her office. Walking in Kate dropped them all on her seat before walking out

"What do you think you are doing Lieutenant" Maxine said marching down the corridor towards her spying her coming out of her office. "you don't go in to an office without being invited" she snapped

"i was just returning those files ma'am" Kate smiled "I wasn't sure where you wanted them" she said "i left them on the side" Kate said turning to walk away

"well hold on I need to check..." Maxine began

"with all due respect Ma'am, I should have been on my lunch half an hour ago. I am taking that break now" she said walking up the corridor. Although as soon as she assumed Maxine couldn't see her she quickened her step she was running late and Hammersley would already be docked by now.

Walking down the Quay she had arrived just in the nick of time to see Mike walking over the gangway in his whites.

"hey" he smiled

"hey yourself" she smiled wrapping her arms around him standing on tip-toe teasing him in to a kiss.

"put him Down Kit you don't want to know where he has been" Nikki grinned walking over the gangway

"saying that what is that smell?" Kate asked stepping back.

"oh, Trochus shell. The FFV we were chasing launched a load at us in the hopes of getting away. I did have a shower honest"

"well I think you may have missed a bit" Kate grinned

Stepping closer he smiled "well maybe you could give me a hand later" he whispered

"really" she laughed at how corny he sounded

"alright. Seriously though how about dinner tonight"

"I will have to see if Nikki can look after the kids" she smiled

"i already ran it past her as we were coming in. She said that it wouldn't be a problem."

"fine" Kate grinned.

"great, I will pick you up at 6" he smiled "now can I walk you back to NAVCOM"

"go on then" Kate grinned watching his hand as it slipped in to hers

Walking up the steps leading to the third floor, Kate dropped his hand out of hers seeing Maxine marching up towards her.

"lieutenant McGregor, did you think that would be funny?" she asked demandingly

"what funny ma'am" Kate said hoping she looked innocent

"dumping those files in the wrong order in my chair"

"they were in reverse order which is hardly the end of the world Ma'am and I put them in the chair as there looked like you had some important documents on the desk and I didn't want to get them muddled" Kate half lied

"Max gives her a break, if she had put them on your desk you would have had a go" Mike stepped in

"this is none of your concern Mike and are you not supposed to be meeting with Commander Marshall about now" she said

"on my way"

"you are skating on thin ice Lieutenant" Maxine said

"ma'am" Kate said through gritted teeth waling in to her office. She resisted the urge to say that any sort of ice may be an issue in cairns given the tropical temperatures but it was more trouble than it was worth. Sitting at her desk she began looking over the latest charts to see if anything had changed that would impact the usual routes for the patrol boats. She was actually looking forward to tonight she found she had missed him, her dreams getting more vivid although there was still no clue as who 'valentine' was she had her hunches that it was him, he was the first man she had seen since her divorce and she was attracted to him.

so really hope you like this, i used a lot of my own twin history in this as pot luck was always my favourite tea as a kid and it came about as my mum didnt know what we were going to have when we asked so she said pot luck and we got chicken and chips so from then on chicken and chips became pot luck. we also were the weird kids asking for veggies in the middle of Sainsbury's. My sister was also a daemon for pinching my chips saying i had more so i did wack her with my fork the one day and i dont think she did it again,

anyway enjoy and let me know what you think