Chapter 3
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Danny saw Kara leave the mess without her sidekick so he thought it was better to try and talk with her now. He rushed after her into the P-Way and found her leaning against the wall with her one hand. Was she okay?
"Everything ok?" She heard him ask as he walked towards her, but she had already heard him step into the corridor so she was gathering her posture and trying to hide the fact that she was beginning to feel nauseous. Despite being in the Navy, she hadn't spend much of her time on ships, so she hoped this was going over soon.
"Yes." Was her short reply and she turned to meet him like nothing was wrong. He felt somewhat puzzled by the fact that she had to have this tough act on her.
"Listen, about what happened the last time we met.." He began saying but was quickly interrupted by her.
"Save your explanations." She didn't want to hear what he had to tell her, she still felt like she had something prove. That she was good enough as the rest of them.
She was turning to walk away when she heard him.
"Lieutenant Foster, I order you to stay put." He said as he used his authoritative command voice, she would probably be even more pissed off at him now, but he felt irritated that she couldn't even hear him out.
She turned around and stood there. He saw that she was already annoyed with him.
"I didn't speak against you, but I didn't do anything in the situation either." He explained.
"I did report the matter to my commanding officer afterwards." He added, hoping that her demeanor would lighten up but it was like she was a doll. Holding her work face.
"Are you expecting that I thank you? That you came to my rescue in the end?" She stepped closer to him and he felt like he wasn't getting a break with this woman. And for some reason he was intrigued by her.
"No!" "I did what I felt was right." He met her steely gaze. He felt like shaking her and asking her 'What the hell is wrong with you?' But he couldn't do that. That would probably end up him being thrown overboard by her. Despite her small size, he suspected she was stronger than she looked. Although he was bigger than her.
She didn't know what it was, but she had her guard up with him. There was something that made her feel like she was drawn to him, like a magnet. And she was afraid of it. But hearing that he had reported the mean talking to a senior officer made her feel slightly glad that he had been on her side.
"If we're going to work together, you are going to have to cool down your temper." He said.
"Fine." She said calmly and he nodded. "But don't you ever order me like that again, when we're not on duty." She added and could see the smile lurking on his face. Just because she was part of his team didn't mean he had the right to misuse his position. But then again why had she even stopped?
"Or what?" He crossed his arms across his chest and stared at her. She was asking for this, deliberately pushing his buttons to make him agitated. So he was replying to fire with fire.
God he was irritating her, she felt like he was throwing gasoline into the fire inside of her. He could have just walked away, but instead he chose to show her that he wasn't budging. Men, always showing off, she thought.
"Look, I don't have anything to prove to you or anyone else." She said as she stepped closer to him, hoping he would back off. She had to lean her head a little backwards to maintain eye contact all the while trying to keep her cool even though she suddenly felt nervous as she sensed the magnet like attraction grip her body.
"What makes you think you need to?" He asked and was deliberately hovering over her personal place.
Before she could come up with a reply they were interrupted by Ravit. She left with Ravit and they got up to the deck because she felt like she needed the fresh air.
"So, what was that about?" Ravit leaned to the railing with her back.
"Nothing." She replied as she was trying to block the nausea from her body. Perhaps it was a mixture of jet lag, stress and new environment that was causing her body to feel like this.
"Oh come on Kara. I saw you two. Looked kinda hot and heavy." Ravit teased her.
She smiled and shook her head. She wasn't going to let some hot shot guy to get inside of her head. She was smarter than that.
Tom was standing on the lookout deck beside the bridge when Mike joined him with a burning cigar in his mouth.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Mike leaned into the railing and gave Tom a glance. He met his gaze and couldn't help but notice a black stain on Mike's cheek.
"You got something on your.." He said as he then tapped his own cheek with his finger, seeing that Mike reacted with a blush as he began wiping his cheeks clean of whatever it was.
He then remained silent, thinking about Mike's new wedding band which he had noticed but since Mike wasn't telling him about it, he hadn't asked either.
"Our new houseguest and I have met before." He told Mike since it would probably come up eventually.
"Oh?"
"We were together a long time ago." He gave a look to Mike and saw he knew what the problem was. Having been young once himself.
"If it was a brief fling, why are you thinking about it?" Mike looked at him.
"It started out as one. But perhaps I was more into her than I thought." Tom said.
"What happened?"
"She was here for the summer, and when she left I asked for her number, but she gave me a wrong one." He explained, still feeling somewhat hurt by her action. She hadn't even trusted him with her real name. Suddenly wondering if he had known the woman at all.
"Ouch." Mike said. "Guess she didn't like you back." Mike tried to lighten the mood.
"Perhaps, or it was the fact that we were too young to have something serious." He sighed. He didn't know why he was using time to dwell on the past, but somehow seeing her had brought all the good memories back.
"How about you? Who's the lucky lady?" He thought to ask and saw that Mike felt surprised of the sudden interest. Although he had his suspicions about the mystery woman.
"It was a spur of the moment thing." Mike said casually.
"And does this spur of the moment thing involve my Chief Engineer?" Tom gave him a knowing look. He knew he would've figured it out eventually.
He and Andrea had been spending time together before deploying again and as they were walking in the market, he had suddenly gotten the idea to ask her to marry him. Out of the blue. They loved each other, what were they waiting for, was his only thought. So when they walked past a flower stand, he bought a single red rose and got down on one knee right there and then. In front of everyone who were doing their shopping at the market at the time. He was smiling as he noticed her red cheeks, but her answer was yes and the rest is history. They eloped almost right after the proposal.
Mike nodded. "Congratulations." He got a short hug from Tom.
"But I do hope you understand the rules on this ship? I can't have my XO breaking the rules." Tom's voice was serious and he felt a little blushed. Like he had been caught in the act by his mom.
"Trust me, we are both adults. We know the rules. And the stain.. Well she had her hand on my cheek, but that's all." He explained feeling embarrassed.
Mike stepped into the helo bay, feeling curious about the mystery doctor they were housing for their trip. He thought to pay her a visit. Looking around he could see that they weren't wasting any time. They had already set up an isolation tent which was probably their working area.
"Can I help you?" He heard the voice of a woman from behind the boxes and she walked to the open so that he saw her. Brown, long hair, attractive looking woman. She reminded him of Christine. So she was the reason why Tom was lost in his thoughts of the past. She must have been a stunning sight all those years ago, although Mike had a suspicion that she still was. But he was married now, his eyes were only looking at Andrea.
"I thought I'd come and introduce myself. Mike Slattery, the ship's XO. Former homicide detective." He emphasized the word 'detective'. Wanting to keep the doctor on edge, since he wasn't here to just chit chat.
"Rachel Scott." She took his hand, trying to act normal but she did wonder why he had come. XO? Must be an important title, she wasn't familiar with the fancy titles aboard a warship.
"So birds huh?" Mike asked looking around.
"Yes. I gather you must have read the memo." Rachel crossed her arms on her chest and looked at Mike as he seemed to be searching for something of interest with his eyes.
"Yeah, I got the memo. But what I don't understand why virologists are studying birds." He said as he made eye contact with her.
"If you got something to say, just say it." Rachel said, feeling that there was a motive behind this discussion.
"Did Tom put you up to this?" Rachel continued being curious of this interrogation.
"No. I'm doing this for him. See, I just don't trust you, I think you're hiding something." Mike said firmly. Ever since he read the memo, he has had his suspicions and after his talk with Tom, he just felt he'd have to keep an eye on her.
They were interrupted as Quincy stepped inside the helo bay.
"There are theoretical studies about the feeding grounds to the birds we're going to study. Properties that may or may not lie in their feeding grounds. Such properties that might be valuable in the creating process of medicines." Quincy quickly explained.
"That's what we are studying." Quincy added.
"You must be Dr. Tophet." Mike studied the man who came to stand beside Rachel.
"Yes, Quincy Tophet." He offered his hand and Mike shook hands with him. "Mike Slattery."
"Was there something else?" Rachel asked.
"No." "But I'll be around." Mike said as he left the helo bay.
"Nice thinking Quincy. Did you just come up with that?" Rachel asked when she saw that Mike had closed the door to the helo bay.
"Well, it seemed I had to give the guy something." Quincy said as he lifted up a box.
"Let's just hope he won't ask for more answers." Rachel continued on with their organizing of the helo bay. A bloodthirsty detective, was the last thing she needed. They were 6 hours into the mission and they were already on thin ice about their actual focus of study in the Arctic.
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