It's getting a little hurried from now on in, but I'm keen to start uploading my next story!
Kate re-read the email from her aunt updating her on how things were going back on dry land; the visit from their eldest son and his family, Steve's continuing venture into restoring the old sail boat he had picked up, Liz's continuing attempts to introduce him to a heathy diet and a detailed description of the members of the art class she had recently started. Obviously all the information was a pre-cursor to the information Liz really wanted – how was Kate's first patrol going?
Kate thought back over the past few weeks, she had obviously been back in Cairns since her initial departure with The Hammersley but not for extended periods of time and certainly not long enough to properly catch up with her aunt and uncle.
Without thinking, Kate just sat at the keyboard and allowed her fingers to gracefully type out her inner most thoughts and feelings.
Kate described how her first couple of weeks sharing a cabin with the Ship's Navigator had been an absolute nightmare, Nikki was doing the whole spoilt child routine and Kate was quickly tiring of being cast as her wicked step-mother. She recounted how on her first night Nikki had led her to believe that The Hammersley's Senior Sailors formally dressed for dinner. Kate, only having been on Patrol Boats for short stints (mainly as a means of transferring from one location to another) didn't question the information she had been given; when serving on Frigates the Officers dressed so she presumed this was a given on smaller ships. Unfortunately Kate didn't realise she was being set up and of course walked straight into the CO who, in her hyperaware state, set her right then had the cheek to suggest she ask the Navigator to keep her right!
Kate recounted the awkward conversation she had with the Navigator after this and ordered her off the lower bunk; Kate acknowledged she was being petty but she really didn't care, all she wanted at that particular time was revenge.
Kate drew the line at telling her aunt the other reason she wanted the lower bunk as Liz would automatically tell Steve, who would summon her to NAVCOM and make her spill her secrets. As far as the shrink and everyone else was aware, Kate's nightmares were over and she was getting the prescribed 6-8 hours sleep each night; what Kate was neglecting to tell everyone was that the nightmares were as real as they had ever been and she was skulking off to The Ship's Office in the middle of the night and keeping herself going on caffeine and paperwork. Kate only really chanced sleep when she was so tired she knew she didn't have the energy to dream or when she knew Nav was on night watch and she had the cabin to herself.
Kate described in detail the mistake she had made on her 2nd full week aboard, when she ran the ship into buoy set by drug smugglers and the comments the crew had made behind her back. Cheffo in particular had been very vocal about her, he didn't seem to realise that Kate had heard more comments than he was aware of. Kate didn't bore her aunt with the details of catching the smugglers and her lie about a dead brother, she couldn't face the disappointment her aunt would express after reading that particular snippet of information.
Without thinking, Kate also described the meeting of Dr Morrell and the budding relationship that was forming between the good doctor and her CO, who in Kate's head she was beginning to dub the "man whore" in the privacy of her thoughts.
"Oh and get this – Mighty Mike Flynn, Patrol Boat Captain extraordinaire is banging some blonde bimbet! I swear to goodness, he is so oblivious to her games, she feigned fainting when having to identify the body of her alleged friend and colleague. What type of friend leaves another friend on an Island without appropriate safety procedures in place – I tell you, a bad one! Mike Flynn, who shall now be referred to as the 'man whore' is falling for her crap so badly; he can't see the manipulation, she actually pretended to faint – I mean FAINT in his arms on their first meeting. She had no reason to but the man whore just lapped up her attention, I swear it was nearly like the end scene to An Officer and a Gentleman where Richard Gere carries Debra Winger out of the factory; I half expected the corpse in the morgue to sit up and start applauding! You really shouldn't have made me watch that film! Now we can't rid of her – seriously, she is everywhere and now the man whore wants to discuss her with ME! I know you don't know that I've known the man whore for longer that you know but now I don't know anything! Arghhhh, the man whore is just so infuriating and I can't get that stupid ending song out of my head everytime I see them together! I swear I'm not going to last until The Hammersley's decommissioning date, he keeps rubbing his new relationship in my face without a second thought; I might just accidently throw him overboard in shark infested waters see how the good doctor would faint in his arms then"
Taking a moment to rest her fingers that were starting to cramp, Kate glanced over her email; whilst it had been cathartic typing some of her worst moments she knew she could never send the email. Using the keyboard shortcuts to highlight the words on the screen, Kate hit delete and began her email over again with a slightly more positive and edited version of events.
Satisfied with her work, Kate was clicking send when the afore mentioned man whore's voice rang through the internal speakers "Executive Officer to the Bridge; hands to boarding stations, hands to boarding stations, hands to boarding stations". Sighing, Kate shut down her computer and made her way to the Bridge fearing a long day was ahead of her.