Chapter 6

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Mike was sitting in his cabin while listening to Tom as he was telling him about what happened after he and Andrea had left him alone with Rachel. Apparently he had confronted Rachel after the dinner and felt he needed some support.

"Just make sure I'm not alone with her during the rest of this mission. I don't trust myself when I'm around her." Mike heard Tom say and he studied the man.

"So it was that serious then. But you moved on from her?" He asked and Tom walked around in the small space.

"Eventually yes, at least I thought I did. I had a thing with Sasha, you remember her? And well.. I married Darien." Tom explained. Mike nodded, he knew the history there. It was the history with Rachel he didn't know anything about. But whatever had been between the two of them, had to be serious.

So as he sat on his bed, he began thinking in his mind.

1. Be the XO.

2. Keep the crew in line.

3. Remember the fraternization rules.

4. Don't break the fraternization rules.

5. Keep an eye on Rachel.

6. Babysit Tom.

His list of jobs was getting longer by the minute.

It was a couple of days after they had arrived to the Arctic. Andrea hadn't really gotten a chance to talk with Rachel. She had met her in the wardroom a couple of times and tried to chit chat over coffee, but Rachel wasn't a talker. At least not with someone who she wasn't familiar with. But with Kara and Ravit the conversation was floating on like a moving train. Without a hitch. So she decided to listen in on the talks, perhaps she would learn a thing or two that might be a conversation starter later. She was deeply 'reading' a magazine a few chairs down from the group.

"Come on, auntie Rachel! Who is your celebrity crush?" Kara teased with a smile.

"I don't really follow such things." Rachel felt the blush raise on her cheeks and took a sip of her coffee. To tell the truth, she didn't have time for such thinking, but she couldn't admit it to the girls, that she had become obsessed of her work, not having any time for a social life of any kind.

"Mine is Johnny Depp." Ravit blurted out as if it wasn't a secret. Kara chuckled, she had already heard about her crush on Johnny before. And she had heard Ravit a couple of times in her sleep..

"And Kara's recent one is a hottie, although he's not famous." "Blond, those green eyes, very fit and muscular.." Ravit was describing Danny like he was a dessert, and Kara felt like she was totally red in her face and bumped her foot against Ravit's under the table as she saw Danny, Frankie and Carlton walk in.

"Sounds like a dream." Rachel smiled and gave Kara a wink. She knew she would probably ask her about this mystery man later.

"I would love to stay and chat, but my work calls. I need to finish analyzing the samples from today." Rachel stood up and left the wardroom.

"So what are you girls talking about?" Frankie sat down beside Ravit as Carlton and Danny sat across from her and Ravit.

"Oh.. We are just sharing our celebrity crush.." Ravit said and felt a hard kick on her foot this time around. She was just trying to stir up some emotions with the guys. See how they reacted. What she didn't expect was Kara acting like she was back in school. But she thought she had made some progress since Kara wasn't keeping her tough front at the moment.

"Oh I know all about Kara's crush." Carlton had a smug smile on his face as he noticed that Ravit was getting kicked under the table.

Kara felt she was backed into a corner and decided to leave before the conversation was getting out of hand. She went to the armory to take an inventory of the supplies needed for the next day. Wanting to be prepared.

"So Brad Pitt huh?" She suddenly heard Danny's voice behind her. She felt like she had frozen in the moment, but she continued on, ignoring him.

"Come on. Lighten up a bit." She then heard him say.

She stopped writing on the paper that was on the clipboard in her hands and turned to face him.

"So you know mine, who's yours then?" She met his gaze and saw the hesitation in his eyes.

"Let me guess.." She tapped the pen against her lips as she pretended to think.

"Megan Fox? Angelina Jolie?" She threw the names casually, but none of them gave away anything in his demeanor. She just registered a soft chuckle from him.

"You're right about the hair color, but she is shorter than the ones you named, and has a hell of a right hook." He gave her a wink and a smile before leaving her alone with her thoughts. She stared after him as he walked away from her, focusing her gaze down on a particular part of his body. Ravit was right about his ass, she thought and then she began to wonder if he had hinted towards her just a moment before. This was a dangerous game she was playing. But she couldn't help it, he brought out this side of her.

Rachel was walking towards the helo bay deep in her thoughts. She had her arms crossed over her chest as if she was freezing at the moment. All the talking about infatuations had made her think about the encounter with Tom. How she had admitted to him that he hadn't just been a fling. And if she was honest to herself, he meant so much more to her than he really knew. She could almost feel his hand touching hers again as she thought about their joined hands for a brief moment.

But as soon as the thought came, it went. He is married. Married. He has a wife. He has a family. She forced herself to say the words quietly in her mind, reminding her that he wasn't single. He is a married man, a husband and a father. She wondered what kind of father was he? Was he kind and funny, or was he spoiling his kids, since he was away so much?

She reached the door to the helo bay and entered to her laboratory space only to be met by Quincy who was looking rather upset and disappointed. She knew why.

"The results?" She asked but it was a pointless question really. From Quincy's appearance she knew the answer already.

He shook his head in defeat and she went to the desk to see the results with her own eyes.

"I calibrated the machine, it might help. Or perhaps it's the temperature drop when we're outside." Quincy told her.

"We'll try again tomorrow." Rachel met Quincy's gaze and he left her to look at the results.

She glanced briefly as he walked out of the helo bay. When she saw the results on the field today, she thought it had been too easy. On their first week in the Arctic, they had found what they were looking for. It would have been quite the statement to show the others who had doubted her belief to find the primordial strain here in the Arctic. Some had even called her crazy.

But it wasn't that easy. She sat on her chair and stared at the papers. Tomorrow was a new day. Perhaps they'll succeed tomorrow, she thought.

Andrea stopped quickly by the engine room to get the latest report. Then she headed to her cabin. As she stepped inside, she dropped the report as she noticed Mike sitting casually on her bed, feet on the bunk, reading her paperback version of Outlander. She hadn't expected to see him there, so she was startled.

After getting her posture back she smiled softly and closed the door. "Don't you have a ship to run?" She then picked up her report and gave a speculative look at him.

"Tom's on the bridge. He needs the distraction at the moment." Mike replied and lifted the book up a little as to show her what he was reading, Andrea shook her head as she knew what he was going to say. Her mind didn't even realize the meaning behind Mike's words about Tom.

"I can see why you don't need me to warm your bed.." Mike was squinting his eyes as he tried to read the book.

"I found myself held against the length of a sizable male body.." Mike quoted from the book and Andrea took the book from him.

"It's just light reading." Andrea met Mike's eyes as he smiled at her.

"Well if it's men in skirts that ring your bells.." Mike tried to say in a seducing manor, but failed as he began laughing at the thought of him wearing a skirt.

Andrea chuckled at his comment and placed both the book and her report on the table.

"About my little side project.. I got nothing to report." Andrea thought to give him an update and glanced at Mike before she began undressing from her uniform.

"She's too clever to slip out something." Mike stated as he followed Andrea with his eyes. At the moment his mind was thinking all kinds of thoughts and Rachel wasn't one of them.

"I still think you should let go of this paranoia." Andrea threw the uniform in the corner of the room as it needed a wash.

Mike only nodded as a reply and Andrea said "I'll be back" as she took her toilet bag and a towel and left the room to take a shower.

Mike reached for the book on the table and continued reading with a smile on his face. He would be teasing her more when she got back.

The following day Danny and Frankie were on watch, sitting on their snowmobiles looking in the far distance where Dr. Scott was with her partner Dr. Tophet. Kara and Ravit were in close proximity to them.

He sighed as he glanced around. Snow, ice and more snow. And it was cold. Frankie must've picked on his grumpy mood as he suddenly broke the silence.

"What are you mooning about now?"

"Nothing." He said quietly and glanced around him.

"Are you upset that we aren't in the first guard group?" Frankie turned to face his friend. Even Halsey got up from the ground, alert to the sudden change in the atmosphere.

"No." He tried his best to say it neutrally, but it did kind of suck that he and Frankie had been 'demoted' further from the subject they were guarding because of Halsey. She was scaring the doctor's precious birds.

"It's killing you isn't it? Not being the favorite one?" Frankie shook his head a little and dug out a frisbee from the snowmobile's storage room. He got up and threw the frisbee and Halsey ran after it.

Danny kept silent. Thinking about Kara and Rachel. Since Kara knew Dr. Scott from before, she asked mostly Kara and Ravit to accompany them. And of course they didn't have a dog with them.

"By the way, you never told me what happened in Coronado?" He heard Frankie change the subject.

"I reported the two men to my commanding officer." Danny replied casually.

"Outed your own? Sweet, what happened?" Frankie was curious and kept throwing the frisbee to Halsey, keeping the dog warm.

"Hell Week number 2." Danny glanced at Frankie and he was smiling a bit.

"I took the punishment too." Danny added. He wasn't punished, but wanted to take the same heat as his two colleagues. After all, he felt he should have done something in the moment and not just rat his fellow men to a senior officer.

"You did Hell Week for the second time?" Was that why your training took longer than usual?" Frankie remembered.

He nodded and Frankie chuckled.

"All that for her? I think you liked her back then already." Frankie gave him a look and he turned to look at the spot where Ravit and Kara were. Perhaps Frankie was right, perhaps it was more than him just wanting something that was forbidden.

The next day Burk was replacing Frankie since he was down with a fever. Probably gotten a cold during the watch duty on shore.

"Burk and I'll escort Dr. Scott." Ravit stated as they got the snowmobiles on shore and Kara gave a puzzled look at her friend. Burk too seemed a little surprised as he sat on one of the snowmobiles.

"Since when do you want to go with Burk?" She asked, noticing Danny's posture stiff a little beside her.

"He's not that bad." Ravit smiled and hopped on a snowmobile and then the two of them were off with Dr. Scott and Dr. Tophet.

Kara glanced at Danny and saw he might have gotten a little hurt by her comment just now. Halsey gave a small whine between them. Perhaps she could throw the frisbee to the dog the entire day, so the time would pass quicker.

They were sitting on the snowmobiles side by side and watching the horizon. She glanced at the James in the distance. She had seen the helo drop a target for the weapons testing, so it wouldn't be long before they would see the James fire to take out the target.

"We can't just be quiet all day.." She heard Danny say with a frustrated tone. She met his eyes and heard him continue "I've tried being professional, I've tried being nice and gone even along with your teasing. So far nothing's working, or when I think you're finally allowing yourself to be you, you shut me out again."

"So can't you just stop fighting whatever it is you're fighting and work with me? I'm not saying we need to be friends, but it would be nice." Danny stated and she wondered if she had heard a tone of sadness in his voice.

She saw him look down on the controls of the snowmobile, he did look a bit sad. She knew he had done his best to make amends with her. But she couldn't help but feel a little scared of what would happen if she let herself be that close with him. She felt the attraction between them every time she was near him, and he must feel it too. Or did he?

She sighed and asked "What do you want to talk about?" Perhaps it was best to just give in, stop fighting. She just hoped she wouldn't end up regretting it. She saw the relief on his face and smiled a little. Poor guy, she thought. She has been a little hard on him.

"Why did you become a SEAL?" He asked. He had wanted to know why she had set such a high goal for herself. The girls he had known in his teens had totally different plans.

"My dad.. He was a SEAL and I wanted to be just like him." She replied with a soft voice, remembering a faint memory of her father.

Every time she knew he was coming home, she sat on the steps to the house and waited for him. Remembering how her mother always came with food and beverage for her, as it could take a few hours before he was home. And when she finally saw his car approach the house she took a miniature Navy flag and waved the flag as he drove the car in front of the house. But one day it hadn't been his car that approached the house..

"Although my mom did everything to stop me in following his footsteps." She added wanting to continue on the conversation.

"Like what?" She heard him ask.

"Like signing me up for a Harvest Queen Pageant.." She smiled as she said it out loud almost wondering why of all things would she tell him that?

"Did you win?" He asked, but he knew the answer. Why wouldn't she win? She was gorgeous, those eyes, her smile. And he had to admit it.. Frankie was right, he did like her.

"You're with the Harvest Queen 2008." She presented herself like she was royalty.

"So you're royalty? Too bad I ain't a prince." He smiled a little.

She bumped his overarm with her hand and said "Perhaps you're a frog."

"You hoping that I'll turn into a Prince then?" He let out a chuckle as she met his eyes.

"Seriously though.. You can't tell this to anyone." She gave him a serious look.

"We'll see about that." He smiled teasingly at her and saw that she bend down to take some snow in her hands and began forming it to a snowball. He got up as quickly as he could but she had already managed to throw the ball and it hit his neck. He could feel the cold snow reach his skin. So he got some snow in his hands and prepared to throw a snowball at her way. The snowball war was about to start..

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