Chapter 4

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The following day Kara was sitting in a briefing in the mess about the training mission. Still feeling her stomach whirl. She was sitting across from Danny and couldn't help but notice that every now and then during the briefing he was looking straight at her. She felt like kicking him in the leg under the table to stop him from looking, but that would cause a scene. So she tried to focus her eyes on Commander Slattery instead.

"We are going to be conducting a series of weapons testing which requires the icy water of the Arctic. Since the targets won't have a heat signature in the water. They are thus harder to find." Slattery explained.

"Even though this mission seems to mostly require the CIC, it is why Captain Chandler and myself have decided this is the perfect time to practice our other skills. There'll be training and more training." Slattery added glancing at the junior and senior officers in the mess.

"As you may have heard, we also have virologists on board, who will be doing their study up there. And somehow our government has thought that bird studying is a dangerous task since the doctors need the protection of our finest." Slattery informed and glanced at the SEAL's around the table.

So that's why the Navy SEAL's are here, she suddenly understood. Although she thought Burk's team would have managed this job.

"But perhaps the government is concerned for a polar bear attack or that they'll freeze their asses off." Slattery smiled, hoping to cause a few laughs which he did. But it wasn't his best line.

After the briefing Kara took a short trip to the wardroom to find something to eat before hitting the gym for training. Hoping that she would keep it in this time around. But when she stepped inside the wardroom she was surprised to meet one of the virologists on board the vessel.

"Rachel? Aunt Rachel?" Kara looked at the woman standing in the room.

"Kara?" Rachel tried to hold back her smile a little as she recognized her old friend's daughter.

"It is you." Kara rushed to give her a hug.

"So good to see you. You've grown since the last time I saw you." Rachel gave a glance at her. Remembering her as a little girl with a long dark braided hair.

"I'm sorry about your mother." She then added sadness in her voice, and remembered the last phone call from her friend.

"Debs! So nice to hear your voice."

"Rachel.. I know it's been a while after our last talk and this isn't a social call."

"Something wrong?"

"I'm dying."

"Debs.. I'm so sorry.. Is there something I can do? I can come and.."

"The doctors have already done all they could. But you need to promise me something."

"Anything for you."

"Take care of Kara. Promise me you'll do that?"

"I promise."

She felt somewhat betrayal on her part, had she kept her promise? She hadn't even been at the funeral as she was tied to her work elsewhere at the time. She had only talked with Kara on the phone. Promising her that she would pay a visit to her when she got around to it.

"So you're the virologist who we're suppose to protect from polar bears." Kara changed the subject.

"Polar bears? I don't quite follow?" Rachel wondered what she had been told.

"The XO briefed us about our mission, and joked about the government having skilled members of the Navy to protect you." Kara explained. "From polar bears." She added.

Rachel smiled a bit. Oh boy, it sounded like there would be questions raised about their research. This is what happens when things happen quickly. Not enough time to come up with a good enough of a lie.

"So what are you studying up there?" Kara met her gaze and she felt nervous. Lying to people she hardly knew felt easier, but lying to her close friend's daughter.. and lying to Tom..

What was it that Quincy had said to XO Slattery? She was trying to remember the exact words.

Kara was doing her best to hide the fact that she was seasick. The SEAL's were at the gym for their training session and she was trying to keep up. She didn't want to show any weakness and give the guys a reason to doubt her. After all she had been through far worse than this.

"You're doing great." She heard Danny's voice as he was holding the boxing bag and she was punching it. It had been Frankie's idea that Ravit would train with him, and she with Danny. Of course Ravit had gone along with it since she knew Danny would be getting to Kara's nerves.

She didn't have time to reply to him, her only focus was the bag in front of him. Which she was trying to hit as hard as she could.

"You could talk." He was trying, really trying to make contact with her, but she was still holding her mean face. After the training she had just left, looking a little pale which made him wonder about her. It seemed that she was a real firecracker and clearly wanting to show them or more likely him that she was good enough for the job. But then again he had already looked at her file and knew that she didn't have to try so hard to impress him.

So later the day when he still hadn't seen her around that much, he had run into Ravit who had given him the sensitive information that Kara was experiencing seasickness. So he then thought to pay her a visit. Offer her a olive branch.

He knocked on her cabin door and waited. It took a while but the door opened and he could see it from her face that she had it bad. And pushing on in the training earlier hadn't probably helped all that much.

"Here. Drink this." He handed her a glass of a mixture he had made.

She looked at him. Looking at the glass in his hand. It was some kind of weird green like mixture. She felt awful and at the time any kind of remedy was a welcome sight. She took the glass, drank the mixture in one go and gave the glass back to him. Hoping he hadn't just poisoned her or something. She wasn't sure if she even wanted to know what she had just swallowed down.

Then she just closed the door and heard his voice from behind the door "Your welcome." First she wanted to see if it actually did work, before she went thanking him. But she supposed it was probably the thought that mattered.

Later in the evening she had to admit to herself that whatever nasty drink she had gotten from Danny, it had worked. She wasn't feeling nauseous anymore, she had kept food inside of her. So after a refreshing shower, she went to look for him.

She entered to the Crew Lounge and saw Ravit playing cards with the guys.

"I got you Miller." Ravit said with a victorious tone. Kara smiled, looked like Ravit was already fitting in quite nicely.

Then her eyes wandered to the man back of the room, playing a video game of some kind. Well she knew what it was. Mass Effect 2. She walked to stand beside the couch Danny was on.

"So this is how you gained your expertise." He heard her say.

He chuckled at her comment and noticed that she sat down beside him. Actually sat beside him out of her free will. This was progress, he thought.

"Thank you for the drink. It helped." He heard her voice and could hear she meant it.

Part of him wanted to tease her more. "What was it that you said?" But he thought that it must've taken a lot from her to come here and to thank him, so he just said "Your welcome."

He tried to focus to the game but due to losing his focus, he had failed and she offered to play instead of him. He gave the control to her, smiling a bit as he thought she would fail this. It wasn't a game for her, he thought. But as it turns out he was wrong, she managed to play the game without a problem and it seemed like she had done it before. He gave her a puzzled look.

"What? I was roommates with Burk. It's probably his game." She shrugged her shoulders and played on.

"Just roommates?" He didn't know where the question came before he had already said it. Hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"Jealous?" She gave him a look before giving a wink to Burk which he replied with a smile from the table were he was deep in a card game.

He shook his head a little. Sensing that she was trying to make him go down that path. He just wasn't sure if he should tease back to her.

"Should I be?" He met her eyes which made her do a mistake in the game. Hah! He felt victorious that she too failed in the game.

The rest of the evening they were talking and taking turns in playing the game. Having fun, which he thought was nice. Perhaps she wasn't that tough after all.

"You seemed to be enjoying tonight." Ravit said as they entered to their cabin for the night.

"I thought you disliked the guy?" Ravit asked as they began undressing from their uniforms.

"I had to be nice, he cured me from my seasickness." She replied, but she had to admit to herself that perhaps he wasn't that bad of a guy. She had enjoyed their gaming night with the teasing back and forth. But she also knew she couldn't let him too close.

"Is that why you flirted with him?" Ravit gave her a wink. "But I can see why, he is fit, cute and have you seen his ass?" She added and Kara felt like blushing.

"Ravit!" She exclaimed. "If he's so cute perhaps you should try him out." She smiled and went to lie in her bunk. Ravit climbed to the top one.

"He's into you not me." Ravit said and she turned of the little light by the bunk.

"Good night Ravit." She said totally ignoring her friends suggestive idea's. Danny wasn't into her, she thought in her mind.

"Good night Kara." "I wish you sweet dreams.." "about Danny." Ravit whispered and she sighed. She did wonder what had made her stay and talk with him the entire evening, letting herself relax a little. Enjoy some fun.

"Mike! Stop that!" Andrea tried to button her uniform but Mike was hugging her from behind. He had come and check up on her a moment before.

"Do I have to remind you of the rules?" Andrea smiled and turned to look at her husband.

"No, Tom did already." Mike answered.

"This is why we spent the last 40 hours in bed before this deployment." Andrea explained and brushed Mike's uniform with her hands like it had gotten dusty.

"I just can't help myself. I feel like a teenager again." He pulled her in his arms and kissed her. His better judgement was quickly thrown away. They were in her cabin and they were married. He was just kissing his wife.

Andrea pulled away before things could heat up more. "You're going to have to wait sailor." She smiled with a tease and buttoned her uniform and Mike sighed. She was going to drive him crazy.

"So.. have you met the lady doctor?" Mike leaned to the wall a bit and cleared his throat since he felt a little unsure about mentioning Rachel to Andrea.

"I've seen her around." Andrea answered and gave Mike a speculative look as she expected there was a additional thought behind his question.

"Out with it." Andrea said as she met his gaze.

"It's just.. her whole studying of the birds.. It's weird right?" Mike wondered. Not wanting to share Rachel and Tom's history just yet with her. Tom had after all confided to him about Rachel.

"I say don't go looking for something that isn't there." Andrea tried to reassure him as she placed her hands behind his neck and felt his hands tightening around her waist.

"Perhaps you're right. But you could talk with her." Mike suggested. Andrea gave him a puzzled look.

"You know.. Bond with her, or whatever it is you girls do." Mike smiled.

Andrea chuckled. It was a long time since she was referred to as 'a girl'. "I can talk with her, but I'm not going to be forcing answers out of her." Andrea stated and gave him a kiss on the lips.

"Now, I got to get to work." She said and left her cabin. Mike waited a few minutes before exiting himself.

They had almost reached their destination when Tom finally saw Rachel on the P-Way heading his way. She had suddenly become invisible which made him wonder if she was deliberately trying to hide from him? Although he knew exactly where she would be on the ship most of the time, so perhaps it wasn't a hide and seek game they were playing.

"Captain." Rachel slowed in her tracks a little as she came face to face with him.

"Rachel." He said, but it felt strange to call her with that name. He still thought of her as Claire. Puzzled by why she had lied to him about her identity?

She had almost walked past him when he asked "Why did you say your name was Claire?" He turned to face her while she was still standing her back towards him.

Rachel turned and glanced around. It wasn't the private room she had hoped for, but no one seemed to be around in the still corridor at the time.

"It silly really." She started. "I just wanted to be someone else." She admitted. She had grown up in a family where everything was strict and she had begged to get to visit her friend in the US, which she finally was promised. So she had felt the need to forget about this Rachel person as if it wasn't her anymore. Like she was a whole new person under the alias Claire.

"And is Claire still around?" He felt like asking even though it sounded silly. Rachel was Claire. Or was she?

"I still am Claire.." "Or was." Rachel said not meeting his studying gaze. Not sure if he really understood her point of view.

"Are you?" He glanced at her before he left. Sensing that somehow she wasn't the woman he had once known. Perhaps his memories were haunting him for nothing. He took hold of his wedding band as he walked the narrow P-Way, trying to remind himself that he was married. Married to Darien. Why was he so obsessed of Rachel?

She followed him with her eyes as he walked away from her. Repeating his question in her mind, was she still Claire? She hoped she still had some of the traits she had learned as being Claire, how to have fun and enjoy the moments right there and then, be more relaxed. But her work has dictated her life for the most part for such a long time. Perhaps she had drifted far away from the person Tom once knew. And as she walked back to the helo bay she was wondering why Tom was so upset about the past? It seemed like she had gotten under his skin after all these years, married or not.

It's nice to read the reviews, and I'm glad I've managed to create an intriguing story. Hope it still is that after this chapter. :) As you can see, twisted things up again by having Rachel as an old friend to Debbie.