Ch 40
Until the day Kate and Emma were authorized to leave the hospital, Mike showed up early every day and left late into the night. When he returned from getting the stroller from the car to take Emma out of the hospital, Kate was finishing getting Emma dressed.
"Hey, almost ready?" she looked up and smiled.
"Yes, we are."
Mike moved the stroller to the end of the bed and walked to kiss Kate and then, pick Emma.
"Hello sweetie, ready to come home?"
"Yes, she is. And so am I"
"Then shall we go?" Mike said placing Emma carefully in the stroller; he buckled her in before covering her with a thin blanket. Then, he straightened and turned to Kate.
"Let's go home."
"Sounds good to me," she whispered as he enveloped her in a hug before letting her go.
Mike grabbed the few remaining things, as Kate pushed the stroller out of the door.
"I can believe how many gifts she got." He said trying to accommodate a teddy bear that had arrived that morning. The rest of the things he had taken home on several trips.
"Wow, Mike… you did all this?" Kate asked in awe as they entered the condo later that day. The Christmas tree was up, and the whole place was decorated.
"Yes, do you like it?"
"I love it, Mike."
Mike placed the latest flowers on the breakfast bar; then he walked past Kate taking her bags to her bedroom. He stopped by Emma's room placing some new gifts in place while Kate strolled around looking the things Mike had done.
"What would you like to do Kate?" he asked as he walked over to her
"Can we go for a walk? I've been stuck in hospital for a week"
"Sure, I'll get Emma's bag then we can go." He grabbed the bag he had just left in Emma's room and returned to them, stuffing it under the carriage of the stroller. "Shall we?"
"How did you do that?" she asked surprised
"The bag?" He asked, and she nodded. Mike chuckled.
"Kate, I know you. I had it ready because I knew you would want to go for a walk."
"Can you blame me? It is a beautiful day. You know, we could do our Christmas shopping as well."
"Good idea!" Mike turned the stroller around, and they walked to the door.
They went for a walk along the beach front, and almost an hour later Emma woke up hungry. "There!" Mike pointed to a bench under a tree.
They walked over to it and sat down; Mike got a blanket out while Kate placed Emma on her lap and lifted her top slightly to unclasp her bra. Mike grabbed the cotton sheet and placed it over Kate's shoulder allowing her to lift her top further up. Emma latched to her nipple as soon as she was close to it.
"You are a natural, Kate." He told her looking at them enamored.
"You think so?"
"Yes, I do."
He turned to get a towel out from the bag as well a diaper and other things knowing that after Emma had her feed, she would need her diaper changed. They talked until Emma had her fill, then Kate passed her to Mike since he got a towel over his shoulder, he placed Emma against his shoulder while rubbing and patting her back.
Kate fixed her clothes and then placed everything back on the carrier and smiled as she heard Emma burp. She turned towards them and sat back leaning against them. She was about to kiss the top of her head when she burped again.
"She's full of wind," Mike chuckled.
"
Yeah, she is, and she's happy."
"True," Mike then moved to change Emma's diaper.
Once the change was done and everything was cleaned, he picked Emma who by then was asleep. Kate turned her head to see someone in white walking towards them.
"Mike," she called, and he looked up following her gaze and smiled when he saw who it was.
"Commander Johnson"
"Lieutenant commander Flynn, I heard congratulation are in order."
"Thank you, sir. Commander Johnson, my wife, Lieutenant Kate McGregor."
"Sir"
"Lieutenant, you got a beautiful little girl there."
"Thank you, sir. She already got Mike wrapped around her little finger," she grinned, and the Commander laughed
"I bet she has. I know what is like, my wife and I got four children of our own. The first born is always the most amazing child ever held and loved...that's until you have the second, third and fourth one."
"We haven't decided on how many we going to have," Kate said
"Just be warned your parents are going to spoil her rotten."
"Mike already has done that for his parents. They, on the other hand, treat all kids equally, so there's no favoritism."
"That's a clever way, Lieutenant. What about your parents?"
"My father past away a few years ago."
"Sorry to hear that, and your mother?"
"I haven't spoken to her since I was sixteen. It's something I really don't want to talk about, sir." he nodded
"I understand, I'll leave you three alone and congratulations."
"Thank you, sir," Kate said.
"Are you ok?" Mike asked her once the Commander left.
"Yeah, I am." she looked down at Emma who was asleep in Mike's arms
"Shall we go and do some Christmas shopping?"
"Why not?" Mike said
When they returned to their condo hours later, Emma woke up for a feed.
"I'll take care of Emma," Kate said
"Would you like a drink?" Mike asked lowering the bags.
"Yes, thanks." Kate pushed the stroller down and into Emma room leaving Mike to take care of the shopping bags.
When Mike finished sorting their shopping bags, he poured drinks for Kate and himself. He smiled at the sight; Kate was in the rocking chair breastfeeding their daughter and talking to her softly. Kate looked up when she felt observed.
"Everything's done?" Kate asked
"Yes, what would you like for dinner tonight?"
"Smoke salmon and salad."
"Sounds good to me, here is your drink."
He lowered both drinks on a table which was next to the rocking chair and picked the towel that was thrown over Kate's shoulder and placed it on his before grabbing Emma. He rubbed her back and walked around the room talking to her. Kate smile and took her drink.
"Aye, does that feel better sweetie?" Mike asked as Emma burped. As an answer she burped again, "you sure are full of wind."
With Kate seating and Mike walking Emma to sleep, they remained in the room until the baby was profoundly dreaming before Mike stopped in front of her bassinet and lay her carefully down. Kissing her forehead, Kate turned the baby monitor on before they both left the room.
Over the next two weeks, Kate and Mike got into a routine with Emma as they figured when she woke up for a feed or diaper change. They went into town four times to finish their Christmas shopping as well for Kate to go swimming, she wanted to get back in shape before returning to work. Mike kept in contact with his family, and they were looking forth to meet Emma on Christmas day.
The day before Christmas Jack was sitting in his office finishing off his paperwork before he and Sam left to finish their Christmas shopping. For the season only a skeleton crew was scheduled for the next couple of days, and the same happened around the new year. He finished signing the last document when Sam walked into his office.
"Hey, let me guess, you finished your reports," Jack sighed when he noticed Sam carrying files in her hands
"Yes, I did. But they can wait until after Christmas for you to read them."
"Good, let's get out of here and finish that Christmas shopping for once?" Sam smiled
"Well, sir," she trailed, and he squinted at her knowing that every time she said 'sir' in such way meant she wanted something.
"Yes, Colonel?" he played her game making her smile.
"Well, sir, I was thinking."
"When aren't you thinking, Sam? Your brain never stops," he added, and she giggled.
"Australia"
"Australia?"
"Yes...the letters?" Jack thought about it
"What about it?"
"Well...how about you and I fly over there and see what happened to those people?"
"Fly as in..."
"Yes, Jack." She rolled her eyes. "Using the ship, plus it's a good time to see if it can pick up voices through walls."
"Are you sure Sam?"
"Yes" she picked up a top file and pass it to him
"It's up to you, sir." Jack took the file and opened it to see names of each person and their addresses, then he looked up at Sam. "Aren't you a bit curious about those people?"
"Well...yes I am," Jack looked at Sam for a minute then he closed the file and leaned forth picking up the phone and pressing couple of numbers
"This is General O'Neill. Get the ship ready...thanks." Then he hung up and stood up, "Ok, Colonel; you win" he walked around the desk
"I must say Jack you will be rewarded accordingly tonight," Sam smiled at him making him Jack groan
"Sam our family will be there."
"Well, there's the ship," she turned around and walked out the door. Jack shook his head before following Sam out of his office. Ten minutes later Jack flew the ship out of the garage and to Australia with Sam next to him.
"Ok where to first?" Jack asked
"Cairns."
"Who's there?"
"Andy Thorpe and Mike Flynn, they both on HMAS Childer, we can check the navy docks first to see if the boat is there or not."
"Good idea," when they reach Cairns, they went to the navy docks first.
"It's not here, let's see if we can find it," Jack said as he flew higher and out to sea.
"See if you can pick up the navy transponder, use the signals from the patrol boats that are in the dock," Jack nodded and pushed a couple of buttons and in the screen red, and green dots appeared. Jack then made the green dots disappeared
"Ok, let's see if we can find the boat," Jack widened the search until he found four patrol boats and a frigate. He flew near to the first patrol boat to see if it was a Childer.
"There she is! See if you can pick up their voices," Jack turn the volume up so they could hear the crew talking. "Isolate them," Sam asked.
"That one... that's Charge voice," Sam said. They could hear Charge and another voice.
"It a shame we are spending Christmas and new year out here," Charge said
"Yeah, so how are Amy and Jamie doing?"
"Good! Jamie on HMAS Darwin and Amy is finishing high school. She will be joining next year; she wants to be an engineer like me."
"Good for them! Does Jamie get a chance to spend Christmas with his mum and Amy?"
"No," he let out his breath
"Amy will be spending it with him in Sydney. Otherwise, they would have spent Christmas with me, my X-wife and her husband, Brad, are on a cruise for a month."
"It's hard to families being away over Christmas."
"True, lucky I sent them their Christmas presents before we left for our patrol."
"Cool. Any word from Lieutenant Commander Flynn?"
"Yes, he called me last week. He and his wife will be up in Cairns after Christmas for a few days and until next year."
"It's a shame we can't be there to meet his daughter."
"Emma. Yeah, it is a shame."
"So, he's still down in Sydney then?"
"Yep, he was disappointed that we are out here, but he understands."
"It hasn't been the same since he's not around."
"True" Jack and Sam looked at each other as Jack turned the ship flying south.
"Now we know where Mike Flynn is," Sam said
"Yes, who next?"
"Kate McGregor"