Chapter 15

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Kara stepped inside the cabin she shared with Ravit. There was a reason why she was sneaking about in the early morning hours through the still sleeping ship, to her surprise Ravit got up immediately as if she was waiting for an imminent threat.

"Kara?" Ravit looked at her a little shocked since the last time she saw her, it was through a plastic wall.

"It's okay. I'm clean." She managed to say to calm down Ravit before she would panic over the fact that she had come to the cabin and had been walking around the ship freely.

"You're alright?" Ravit hopped down from the top bunk and gave her a puzzled look.

"I'm immune to the virus." She said, still feeling rather strange about the whole thing.

Ravit almost jumped to hug her as she heard her news and she smiled as she hugged her friend.

"I've been praying for you." Ravit whispered to her ear.

"Did you tell Danny?" Ravit broke off their reunion and studied her as if she was making sure she was alright.

"Not yet."

"You know he's not been himself lately." Ravit said and she nodded. They hadn't really spoken that much about how they really felt about each other, but she knew there was more between them than just attraction.

"You think he's awake?" She asked with a coy smile and Ravit smiled back at her.

"Go find out! I would love to be in the room to see his face, when he wakes up and sees you." Ravit said.

"But Frankie's there." She reasoned.

"It's 0530 hours. He's taking Halsey out soon." Ravit smiled and gave her a wink as she suddenly felt her cheeks burning red. Her heart taking extra loops as she thought about him and his reaction to her news.

She was just about to reach for the door to the cabin were Danny and Frankie were staying when the door opened. Frankie came out with Halsey and she placed her index finger in front of her lips to make sure he wouldn't say a word, but he wore a rather frightened facial expression.

She gestured him to close the door. Danny was still lying in his bunk blissfully unaware of what was going on around him.

"Kara?" Frankie whispered. Halsey was rubbing herself against her legs and she patted the dog briefly.

"I'm not sick." She gave her short reply with a hushed tone as she wanted to surprise Danny.

"Is it true?" Frankie whispered and she saw the happiness on his face.

"Yeah." She smiled faintly and gave a glance at the cabin door. Frankie seemed to understand why she was there, so he left with Halsey whistling in a happy tone as he moved further down the still P-Way. The whole ship would be awake soon, she thought.

She glanced both ways on the P-Way and opened the door to the cabin. Danny was sleeping his back towards her. She closed the door quietly and tip toed towards the bunk. She knelt down and leaned to whisper something in his ear. For a Navy SEAL she thought he was rather unaware of the impending 'threat' in his vicinity. Perhaps he was exhausted, she wasn't sure how much sleep he had gotten in the last few days.

"Hi sailor." She used her soft voice as she whispered the words to his ear smiling in expectation to see his face.

He was utterly exhausted, he heard Frankie getting up to walk Halsey on the deck. He turned to his side, dozing off to dreamland immediately. Seeing Kara in front of him as he looked at her. She was smiling at him, and then he heard her voice, that lovely soft tone she uses. It sounded so real and made his heart ache for her.

He didn't know if he was totally out of it or what, but he could swear he felt her touch on his cheek, the warmth of her skin burning and giving him the familiar feel of butterflies in his stomach.

Suddenly he felt a breeze over him and opened his eyes and turned to see what was going on. He looked right up and saw her. She was holding her hand on his cheek and he felt his breath taken away. He didn't know what to say, he held his mouth open as he looked over her just inches away from him as she was leaning over him. There was no mask between them now, and he saw her smiling at him. He locked eyes with her as she slowly leaned down and crash landed against his lips. He pulled her in as he rejoiced the taste of her. Kissing her senseless while he embracing her.

She pulled upwards from their kissing and rested her forehead on his as she closed her eyes.

"Are you for real?" She heard his rushed voice and opened her eyes to meet with his.

"I'm immune." She said smiling and saw him chuckle briefly in a happy manner. He was genuinely glad that she was going to be okay.

"I thought I was going lose you." His voice sounded more serious this time around.

"Me too." She replied.

"There's a difference between love and lust. Make sure you know how you feel about her." He heard the Captain's words in his head and thought about the meaning of the words. He thought it had been a strange advice at the time since there wouldn't be much time left to be with her, but now he knew that the Captain must've known something already during their conversation.

And he knew exactly how he felt about her.

"I love you." He said sincerely staring at her beautiful eyes and seeing the glow come on her face as she registered his words.

"I love you." He heard her soft voice again and saw she was rather emotional. He pulled her in to kiss her again. Who knew how long it was til the next kiss, he knew they would have to restrain themselves, no matter how hard it would be. Even if right now he felt his entire body aching for her, longing for the feel of her touch, her lips burning on his skin.

He broke off the kiss as he felt he needed to breathe.

"Kara.. We need to stop." He said as he moved to sit up and looked at her.

"What?" She gave him an odd look as she placed herself on the edge of the bunk.

"Captain Chandler had me in for a talk. He's onto us, and I.. I admitted to him that we've broken the rules." He told her, seeing her rather worried look.

"You did? What did you tell him?" Kara asked with a scared tone. Oh god this was bad. If the Captain knew about them, her father knew what she had done.

"I thought you were dying. I didn't care what would happen to me. So I told him we kissed." He explained.

"Just that we kissed?" She met his gaze and felt rather relieved that it was just a kiss, her father.. the Captain knew about.

"Yeah. I left out the other part." He said shyly and reached to hold her hand.

"You're going to be glad you did." Kara raised her eyebrows and smiled. She felt she wanted to tell someone about her news.

"Why's that?" He gave her a puzzled look.

"Well.. Because Captain Tom Chandler happens to be my.. biological father." She let out and Danny looked at her in shock.

"He's your father?"

"It appears so. I was adopted." She told him.

"But how.. What?" He wondered and felt completely afraid now. The Captain knew that he has been courting his daughter and he wondered what he thought of him now. A young man who broke the fraternization rules. It was the first ever time in his career that he had done so, and he hoped the Captain didn't think he did this on every deployment.

"It's a long story. Oh and Rachel is my mother." She said and saw the confused look on his face. It was a lot to process. So she filled him in on the details.

"That's quite the story. But it explains why she wanted you here so badly." He stated and she nodded.

"You know I'm taking a punishment for our actions." He changed the subject.

"Well, you should have thought about that before you pushed my buttons." Kara said with a smile.

"You're the one who pushed mine. And kissed me first." He smiled knowing what game he was about to play.

"Don't do that." She shook her head playfully and looked at him.

"Do what?" The game they were playing was quite the turn on and it would be long days ahead of them. But now that he knew the Captain was her father, he felt he had to show him what kind of a guy he was. That he was worthy of his daughter.

"If you're going to make me suffer, I'll do it too.." She slid her hand briefly inside the loose neckline of her blue shirt as she played along in their game. The tension between them was rising and she knew they were just talking, teasing each other even though she wanted him now more than ever. But if Tom knew about them already, she had to go and face him, take the heat from her commanding officer, even if her commanding officer was her father.

Danny made a frustrated sound as his eyes followed her hand, that briefly seemed to touch her divine breasts.. Before he would totally surrender to her, he got up from his bunk and grabbed his towel placing it strategically in front of his waistline. Getting a chuckle out of Kara as he did so.

"You better hope this ship will make port soon. I need a cold shower now." He gave her a wink and left the cabin and heard her lighthearted comment about her joining him, but he ignored her. She was completely inside of his head now.

Ravit was sitting in the wardroom and was in a staring contest with Carlton as he sat across from her. They both smiled at each other, playfully staring at each other. This was their way to survive through this chaos around them. Find a brief moment of light in the darkness, she thought. But their little game came to a halt as the Captain's voice began circling through out the ship.

"This is the Captain speaking. We have no contact with home, and I have a good reason to believe that the American government is no longer functioning."

She focused her gaze on Carlton and saw his expression get darker, showing a variation of emotions: worried, afraid, sad.. They listened as the Captain was speaking.

"We left these shores four months ago as members of the United States Navy, but now we are more than that. Now our duty is to the entire world. On board this ship is the hope, for our futures, for our families and for all humanity."

She reached over the table to take his hand in hers as she thought about the Captain's words. She felt lucky, lucky that she was on this ship. But thinking about her family back home, made her mind feel blue. But she held back her tears as she thought that she was here fighting, fighting for them.

"Because in that lab in our helo bay are the ingredients for a cure and this is the safest place on Earth for our scientists to do their work. On a 3-billion-dollar piece of machinery protected by 217 sailors in the U.S Navy."

Andrea felt the boat turning before the Captain started speaking and felt her heart jump to her throat as she thought about what it meant. They were turning away from home. Turning away from Lily.

"Our mission now is simple. We do whatever it takes to stay alive at sea until they find that cure."

She was gasping for air as she hurried the P-Ways and stairs up to the deck. She reached the rear of the ship and saw him.

"You okay?" Andrea rushed by Mike's side as he held tightly onto to the railing of the ship, looking at the horizon they were leaving behind. Home.

"I'll be fine." Mike said with a devastated tone. He wondered if he should have fought more to state his cause to Tom, but he went over the possibilities in his mind. All the variables that might wait for them when they got back home. Tom might be right.

Andrea placed her hand on his back, trying to comfort him.

"He's turning away from his family too." She said, wanting to hear the words herself. The Captain was turning his back to his own family too.

She noticed Mike's sarcastic tone in the "Hmmph" she heard from him.

"What is it?" She asked, not sure what was going on.

Mike met her eyes and thought about telling her the entire plot. The truth about Rachel and Tom, and their lovechild that she had arranged on the ship. But as he assessed the position he was in, he was there to put out fires, not to start them. He knew how the crew already felt about Dr. Scott. Deceiving them for months, while their families were suffering back home. It might just cause more friction if he told Andrea the truth now. Not that she would tittle-tattle, but the more people knew about it, the more likely it was to spread around.

But she was his wife, lying to her felt wrong.

"Rachel and Tom.. They have a past together." He let out too easily and saw her familiar wrinkles on her forehead be more wrinkled.

"What kind of a past?" She asked.

"They we're lovers." Mike met her gaze and saw she was thinking the news she was hearing.

"How long you've known?" She wondered why he hadn't mentioned it before.

"From the beginning. Tom confided in me, it was not my place to tell people." Mike explained and took Andrea's hands in his.

"And.. It turns out that Lieutenant Foster is their daughter." He looked at her eyes and saw she was beginning to get irritated, even angry. Perhaps he should have kept his mouth shut.

"What?" She looked at him fiercely.

"Yeah. Dr. Scott got her assigned to the mission." Was the words out of his mouth and he saw her retreat from him and head to the helo bay. He followed after her.

"You had no right!" He heard her voice as he rushed after her to the lab.

"What makes your family more important than ours?!" He watched as Andrea confronted Rachel, seeing his wife for the first time rather angry. Suddenly hoping he would never make her this pissed off.

"I.. All I can say is that I'm sorry." He registered Rachel's honest voice and felt his insides twist as he thought about his actions. She was sorry about it all.

"Sorry?! Sorry! Our families are probably dead and you got yours right here on this ship!" Andrea yelled and intruded Rachel's personal space and gave her a tight slap on the cheek.

Before Mike could stop the situation, Andrea was already heading out of the helo bay.

"I'm sorry." Mike gave a look to Rachel and saw her holding her cheek with her hand. He left to follow Andrea.

"Andrea?" Mike knocked on her cabin door and heard the sobbing coming through the thin door. He slowly opened the door and saw his wife lying on the bed, crying against her pillow.

"You want me to go?" He asked, not sure if his company was wanted. He had after all lied to her. Kept secrets, but those secrets weren't his to tell.

He saw her turn around on the bed and reach towards him with her hand. He closed the door and took her hand, and laid himself on the tight bunk with her. Holding her as she let the tears run down.

"We will come through this together, and we will prevail." She kept thinking the words Tom had said. We will come through this together. At the moment the crew was distrusting her and with a good reason. Who was she to save her family, when others didn't even get to say goodbye? She wasn't sure if the news of her newest deceit would be common knowledge, but Andrea had been furious. She held the ice pack against her cheek to ease the pain and heard the door open. She glanced at her visitor and saw Tom come inside.

"I heard about the incident. You okay?" He walked to stand in front of her and she took the ice pack off her cheek. Turning slightly to the side as he inspected her injury.

"I'll live." She said stiffly and saw that he reached to touch her cheek gently. She felt him sliding his thumb softly on the skin of her cheek as if he was blowing the pain away and at the moment it was helping, since the only thing she was feeling was warmth. Suddenly sensing that her other cheek was getting a color to match the other one.

"They'll come around." He withdrew his hand and said in a assuring tone.

"I hope so, but I'm not keeping my hopes up." She stated and shared a look with him.

She still felt his touch on her skin and her mind got carried away with her imagination briefly as she thought of being held by him again, feeling his lips against hers. But as quickly as she let her mind get carried away, she came back to the present and wondered if he was indifferent about his feelings towards her, or was he too fighting the obvious attraction they shared? But his eyes were telling her the truth as they seemed to be like a reflection from her own. She saw the desire, the longing in his gaze. The affection he held for her.