Chapter 19

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Danny was walking down the P-Way while telling the new guy they had picked up from Gitmo about the life and rules on the ship. He saw Kara talking with the Captain in a distance. Sensing how his face automatically pulled his mouth into a smile as he saw her. He let his mind drift back to their encounter in his cabin.

He felt the jolting touch of her hands as she placed them on his chest, looking down on her still wet clothes that were now glued against her fit body. Tempting him even more as he studied her curves, thinking how it would be to touch her. He felt weakened by her right now as he gave in and leaned towards her, sensing the tension grow as their lips were inches away from each other. Her breathing was rushed and he could see the desire in her eyes. But their loaded moment was interrupted when someone tried the door. Startling them both.

"Hey! What gives buddy?" They heard Tex's voice behind the door.

"She is tasty now. Is she not?" He was brought back to the present by Tex's drooling voice over his shoulder.

He turned around and gave him a scowling look.

"Oh lighten up dude, I'm just saying. It's the end of the world, right?" Tex smiled happily and took another glance towards where Kara and the Captain were standing.

"Nothing wrong with spreading a little love around." Tex continued and Danny was doing his best to keep his look serious. It would be such a funny moment to see Tex trying to hit on Kara.

"I ain't Navy so.."

This guy wasn't giving up! Danny glanced towards Kara and Tom, and saw them coming their way now.

"No fraternizing while on the ship, period." Danny said and moved to the ladder. Reminding himself of the rules as well. Thinking how it had been a close call the other night.

"Yeah, Yeah.. And what were you doing with her the other day?" Tex raised his eyebrows suggestively a bit and Danny deepened his scowl even more, hearing from the footsteps that Tom and Kara were behind them.

"Well, I get it. Hey, um.. Where's the lab?" Tex asked and Danny could sense the Captain lurking behind them.

"You lost?" Tom asked and shared a look with Tex.

"I was just going to pay a visit to that scientist lady." Tex replied in a cheerful tone and gave a wink towards Kara which made her smile.

"She's a civilian, right?" Tex whispered rather loudly to Danny by his side.

"Can't believe I have to bunk with you." Danny got up the ladder and Tom noticed Kara leave to follow after him.

"Seriously, where's the lab?" Tex asked the Captain and Tom stared at the man. He had heard bits of the conversation the man had with Lieutenant Green. First he's all over Kara's figure, he's old enough to be her father, he thought. And now he's after Rachel.

"Dr. Scott doesn't need any distractions." He stated with a stiff voice, more than anything he wanted to give this man a good dressing down, state that the lovely young woman he had just now stared at was his daughter and Rachel her mother.

"I'll just take a walk then." Tex nodded and left his company. Tom went outside to the deck, puzzled over the fact that he felt threatened by the old man. Like he was there to take something of his, when in fact Rachel wasn't his at all. He was walking down the stairs in deep thought when he heard her voice.

"I need to complete the sequence analysis of the three known virus strains, primordial, Eqyptian, and the sample I extracted from the cruise ship." He reached the lower deck and turned to look at her. Despite him being married, her presence around him made him feel that tingling emotion.

"Which means exactly what?" Tom asked, pushing away his thoughts about her.

"I need Quincy, unless you have a highly trained expert in bioinformatics hiding up in your sleeve." Rachel stated.

"What would you have done?"

Quincy's words came back to haunt his mind. What would he have done if he had been in Dr. Tophet's shoes? Answering that question was giving him the chills. Would he have asked for help?

"I'm not so sure he's going to cooperate with us." Ever since Quincy helped them with their surprise attack against Ruskov, he lost his motivation to fight on. To him, his family was gone.

"Well I need him, so we need to get him on board." She sighed as she knew there was no one else.

Rachel stepped inside Quincy's cabin where he was sitting with a book. He was in pain, she could see that.

"I managed the sequencing. All three strains."

"Wasn't sure I was gonna be able to do it with the equipment on hand, but the data is in." She explained and noted his cold attitude against her.

"And you need me to analyze it." He stated not wavering his look from the book. And from the tone of his voice she noted the obvious 'I couldn't care less' -attitude.

"I am sorry for you and for your family. For Kelly, and Ava." She said wondering what would have happened if she hadn't been on the bridge when Kelly made that call? What would he have done in his attempt to save his family? Kidnap her and the samples like Ruskov had wanted?

"I know there's nothing I can say, but I also know you understand that the world needs us."

"Please don't preach to me, Rachel." Quincy raised his voice, irritated by her presence.

"I've had it up to here with your high-mindedness."

"I'm not preaching.." Rachel tried to say but he cut her off "The world needs you and that's just the way you like it."

"Quincy, what are you talking about?" She was baffled, not sure why he was attacking her right now. She was ambitious yes, that much she would admit.

"I know you're in pain here but.."

"I told you we should share information, that sneaking off to the Arctic.. Wasn't the way to do this, but you loved the whole 'top secret' thing." Quincy's sharp words got to her.

"That's not fair because.." She tried to explain but was yet again cut short by him. This was pointless she thought, he would never calm down enough to work with them, work with her.

"No, it's mine."

"For following you. I mean, what were you risking really?"

"You've got no family. You've got no friends."

She walked back to the lab thinking about his words. Knowing that when the secret would get out, that Kara was her daughter and she had saved her.. She wasn't sure if the people following Tom would be so forgiving.

Lying on the bed in the sickbay, Andrea felt her entire body restless. She wasn't cut out for laying still but it was the Doc's orders. She glanced at the noise coming from the door and saw Mike enter with breakfast on a tray for her.

"I didn't realize the sickbay had room service." She smiled as he placed the tray on a small table beside her bed.

Mike chuckled a bit at her comment. "Here's breakfast for you ma'am, along with your favorite kind of news." Mike handed her the engineering report he knew she had been waiting for.

He watched her as she got up to sit on the bed, seeing from her look that it was still painful to move.

"Apparently she's not purring." Mike leaned against the doorway in the tight quarters and wondered what did she think of the state of the engines.

"Mr. Chung will handle this." Andrea stated confidently as she read the report, and took a bite of her bread.

"The situation is pretty severe. We're going to run out of drinking water." Mike met her gaze and wondered if she was up to date here. The fire in the engine room had caused quite the problems for them.

"Like I told Mr. Chung, he qualified for EOOW faster than anyone I've ever seen. He'll handle this." Andrea said forcefully and he nodded. Noting the confidence she held for the young Lieutenant.

Rachel stared at the screen of the tablet in her hands. The temperature was holding steady. But she couldn't help but choke at the thought that all her samples including an experimental vaccine was at the bottom of the ocean right now. This is the safest place on Earth for our scientists to do their work. On a 3-billion-dollar piece of machinery, she couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the thought that this 3-billion-dollar piece of machinery was now failing right under them. She briefly glanced over the tablet and saw Tom standing in the middle of the deck, desperately looking for a sign. Sign that the winds he was promised would come.

"You'll get a headache." She felt Kara sit down beside her while eating an apple.

"I'm afraid I won't rest before those samples are back on this ship." She said and held her eyes on the tablet again.

After a moment of silence the severe tone of Kara asking her "Why Debbie?" made her take her eyes away from the tablet she had been gazing for hours, while she looked at Kara. She let out a sigh as she thought about her decision to give her up for a adoption. "It was her idea." She gave her reply, hoping Kara would get some answers.

"And it gave me a possibility to be near you, but not all got that same chance." Rachel briefly glanced at Tom who stood on the deck with the Master Chief. She still felt the burden on her shoulders that he hasn't been there for her birthdays or seen her learn to walk, run.. More importantly he didnt get to hold her in his arms when she was just a little baby, he didn't get to comfort her when she was hurt as a child, or to support her when she faced tough times in school.

"Why didn't you tell him?" She heard Kara's serious tone and felt her pulse restless. She wasn't sure if she should be completely honest, after all she had left this bit out when she spoke with Tom.

"I did try." She met Kara's gaze and saw she was confused about it all.

"I sent him a letter, which I assume he never got, since he was utterly clueless about you." Rachel explained. She hadn't told Tom about her attempt to get in touch with him, because it didn't matter anymore. What was done, was done.

"Is everything okay?" She asked and placed her hand on Kara's back with a slight hesitation. Kara leaned against her side which she welcomed, but it was difficult for her to try and reach out to Kara when her entire life she had been living only for her work, and been the come and go 'fun aunt' for Kara. She had forgot everything around her, even in the last few years, she and Debbie hadn't been that close. Just another thing to regret, she thought as she felt her heart ache for her friend.

Suddenly Quincy's words to her were even more painful "You've got no family. You've got no friends."

She had isolated herself, trying her best to fight against disease after disease. Ever since she had lost her own mother, she had felt a spark inside of her. A spark to help others. To save lives by finding cures to viruses. Hoping there wasn't a young child left without their mother or father.

"I was in the ICU for 82 days."

"Seven times I coded, seven times they brought me back."

"In between I had plenty of time to think and wonder: why did God leave me here?"

"I am here for a reason. As are you, as is everyone aboard this ship."

Tom stood on the deck waiting for the winds to pick up. He thought over the talk he had with Master Chief Jeter. About why they were here, on this ship. According to the Master Chief there was a voice inside of him. A voice that made him stuck his hand in that engine fuse, a voice that turned them away from home, a voice that got them out of Gitmo.

And where had that voice gotten them now? They were almost out of water, waiting for winds that may or may not come.

"If the winds don't blow our way, we kill our crew."

The words from his XO were taunting him in the back of his mind as he thought about his words to his crew back when he turned the ship away from home. We do whatever it takes to stay alive at sea. Now it might seem that whatever it takes wasn't enough.

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