Chapter 23

x

Danny was still feeling his head groggy as he was lying on the bottom bunk in the sickbay. The worst part was over according to Doc Rios, but the headache wasn't giving him any peace of mind. He was trying to sleep when he heard the door open and close, so he opened his eyes just enough to see who came in. It was Kara. Next thing he felt was that the bunk moved as she placed herself on the wall side of the narrow bunk, forcing him to move slightly.

She rested her head on his chest and he embraced her. He gave a kiss on the top of her head and caressed her hair as he held her. Something was clearly upsetting her.

"You wanna talk about it?" He asked gently. Not sure whether she would want to talk, or if it was just the comfort she wanted.

She remained silent and kept fidgeting with the IV-line as she clearly was thinking something through.

"I'm pretty sure Doc Rios doesn't want you messing with that." He moved to release the line from her hands and she continued on to stroke his shirt.

"What happened?" He asked again, hoping that she would tell him.

"Rachel told everyone." He heard her low voice.

"Told what? About you and her?"

A simple nod was all he felt on his chest. So everyone knew that Kara was Dr. Scott's daughter.

"Did she tell them that she arranged you on this mission?" He asked, feeling his heart take a few rounds as he thought about what it meant. No wonder she was distraught. Having everyone know that Dr. Scott is your mother was one thing, but knowing that she had gotten her only daughter on the ship when everyone else's family was left behind, would be rather upsetting. Hell.. It's not like he hadn't felt angry when he found out about it, but his blooming feelings for her had outweighed his anger. After all what he felt for her was something he knew wouldn't come across his path ever again.

"It's going to be fine." He tried to assure her and held her more tightly while closing his eyes for a moment. He wasn't sure how long he had slept but when he woke up, Kara was gone. Guess he was still pretty exhausted after the illness since he hadn't noticed her leave.

Kara stepped inside the cabin she shared with Ravit and as she closed the door she was immediately faced with a hug.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ravit asked and she let out a sigh as she went to sit on the edge of the bunk.

"You know what I need right now?" Kara took off her shoes and sat with her back against the wall.

Ravit came to sit beside her with a thoughtful look.

"Ben & Jerry's?" Ravit smiled and Kara gave her a smile back. She had taught her well.

"Ben & Jerry's." Kara confirmed and saw Ravit get up and go dig something out of her drawer. She watched as Ravit seemed to pull out a Snickers bar.

"Here. It's not Ben & Jerry's, but it will have to do." Ravit said as she offered the bar to her.

"Thank you." Kara said and took the bar. She held it in her hands and just stared at it.

"How long have you known?" Ravit asked quietly as she sat beside Kara.

"I found out when I was in isolation." Kara answered and met Ravit's gaze.

"You could have talked to me." Ravit said and she noticed that she was hurt that she hadn't told her. She spent half of her time with her and she hadn't told her.

"I didn't tell you, because that's why you're here too." Kara stared at the chocolate bar in her hands as she felt she couldn't face Ravit.

"So that's why they allowed me to be here." Ravit connected the dots.

"Because of me, you weren't there to protect your family." Kara said with a heavy sigh and felt like she would cry.

"Hey.." Ravit pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay. I'm not blaming anyone." Ravit whispered.

"Sir, she's a 18-year-old girl from Jamaica." Mason informed the Captain about the discovery he had made.

"You're sure about what you heard?" Tom eyed the young man. Noticing the slight redness on his ears as he was addressing him. The young man was nervous.

"Sir. I know that voice. I could recognize it in my dreams." The young man answered and he wondered if he had a crush on the girl.

"Something is wrong, I know it." Mason continued and Tom shared a look with Mike.

"Might be a trap." Mike leaned his head to the side a little as he sat on the edge of the table in the CIC.

"The Russians?" Tom asked.

"But surely they know we have an immune on this ship?" Rachel thought to ask and the two men shared a look with each other.

"Get Dr. Tophet." Tom gave the order to Mike and he left the room.

It didn't take long before Quincy was standing in the room, wondering why he had been summoned.

"How's your chess playing going?" Mike started out. Wanting to fish a little. He had figured out why the crew had become so nervous all of a sudden. One of the 16 names on the piece of paper was one Bernie "Bacon" Cowley, Quincy's chess mate.

Quincy stood there silently, his face wore a pouting look, like he was grumpy because someone had stolen his candy bar.

"Quincy?" Rachel met his gaze.

"What is it that you want of me now?" Quincy asked, sounding utterly careless.

"Your Russian pals are back." Mike said.

"Did you tell Ruskov we have an immune aboard the ship?" Tom asked straight and studied him as Quincy thought of an answer.

"No." Was his simple reply.

"Why?" Tom asked.

"Because it didn't matter." Quincy raised his voice a bit as he felt angry.

"Why didn't it matter?" Mike looked at Quincy but it seemed like he was holding his cold front again.

"It makes sense. Ruskov hinted that he had something, or someone on his ship that we don't have." Tom made the assumption and shared a look with Rachel.

"Question is who or what?" Tom added.

"You might wanna tell us more." Mike stepped a little closer to Quincy and whispered briefly "Keelhauling." Quincy rolled his eyes and nervously glanced at Tom who was studying the situation in front of him.

"It wasn't just Sergei I shared information with." Quincy started. Knowing this was a battle he couldn't win. He had already lost everything he held dear.

"We were a group of four. Myself, Sergei Kapustov, Niels Sørenson and one from the states. Robert.. Hamada, I think was his name."

"One of the scientists.. This Sørenson guy, he had a theory about conducting a splice overlap P.C.R reaction with an immune-modulatory gene.." Quincy explained but he was cut short when Rachel let her shocked voice out in the air "Oh god..".

"The extra gene!" Rachel looked at Tom like she had invented the light bulb.

"What about it?" Tom asked, wondering what was going on. He didn't understand a word of what Quincy had just said.

"He's the one who weaponized the virus. Made the virus 10 times more lethal!" Rachel exclaimed, horrified of this discovery.

"And you knew!" Rachel shoved Quincy a bit in her anger. Tom took a step to hold her back but she didn't push it further.

"I never thought he would actually do it!" Quincy gave his answer. "We stopped sharing information with him when we realized his crazy idea. At least I stopped.. Sergei, not so sure of." He tried to tell.

"Take him away." Tom gave a look to Mike and Mike was seemingly overjoyed that he would get the honor to escort Dr. Tophet back to his cabin.

"So what happens now?" Rachel asked.

Tom thought the situation through. If it was a trap the Russians would be waiting for them. They would have to come up with a plan.

"You're sure?" Tom turned to look at Mason who was startled by him talking to him again.

"I am, Sir. 100 percent sure." Mason said confidently.

Tom stood silently in the wardroom after he had contacted the young girl in question. Allowing the Russians possibly to hear them. He was acting after the gut feeling of a young Ensign, and hoped the young man was right about this.

"So what do you say, Tex? Up for a swim?" Tom gave him a faint smile as he asked if the man was willing to go along with the plan they had come up with.

"You know I'd follow you into the gates of hell." Tex smirked with a twinkle in his eye.

"That's only because you think it'd be exciting." Tom chuckled but the smile returned quickly to a more serious look as he weighed the entire plan in his mind.

"There's no guarantee that the girl is still on the boat. Or alive." Mike leaned against the table and met his eyes.

"I know, but we need to assume she might be." Tom stated.

"Lieutenant Foster, work on with the plan against the Vyerni." Mike ordered.

"Yes, sir." Kara left the room with the blueprints of the Vyerni in hand.

Rachel maneuvered herself silently beside Tom and gave him a worried look. "You know Ruskov is no fool. I need to go this time." She said breaking in her voice slightly as she thought about going aboard the Russian ship. Tom looked at her with a caring look and replied with a soft "I know" as he thought about what was at stake here.

After everyone had left the room, it was just him and Tex. Tom noticed Tex leaning against the table and looking at him. Like he was pondering about something.

"Is there something between you and the doc? I mean you're married." Tex asked and Tom felt he was taken off guard with the sudden interest about him and Rachel.

"What makes you think that?" Tom asked, trying to hide the fact that Tex was onto something.

"She was pretty worried when you were awol in the jungle back in Nicaragua."

"And the looks you two shared just now.." Tex seemed to eye him closely.

"She and I had something a long time ago." Tom admitted. Feeling all too well the emotions go through him again.

"Had?" Tex looked at him and knew there was no 'had' here.

"You'll see, she's not easy to forget." Tom tried to bring humor in the mix but the conversation was inevitably moving towards the stormy seas of emotions stirring inside of him.

"No, she is not." Tex admitted with a soft tone, making him feel slightly better that he knew how he felt. Looks like Rachel had really caught his eye also.

"And we have a daughter together." Tom continued as he placed his hand on the table and tapped its surface a couple of times with his fingers.

"So you're the father. You know, I can see a resemblance."

Tom chuckled a bit as he thought that Kara might have inherited some of his looks.

"She is rather smart." Tex added and he smiled back.

"Mother or daughter?" Tom wondered.

"Both."

"So what is the plan exactly?" Danny hissed through his teeth as he raised himself to sit on edge of the bunk in the sickbay. Still feeling weak. And now the Russians might be back and there was nothing he could do to help. He glanced nervously at Kara who had the blueprints of the Vyerni in front of him, Carlton and Ravit.

"Who's coming along for the ride?" He asked as he studied the structure of the ship.

"Cruz is fully healed, but we might be a little short on people." Carlton shared a look with Ravit and Kara.

"Might be?" He glanced up from the blueprints and wondered what was going on.

"Well Cossetti along with a bunch of guys are requesting to leave the ship." Carlton said.

"What?"

"They're just scared." Ravit explained.

"Aren't you?" Carlton asked and as he did so, Captain's voice on the comm got their attention.

"Good day Nathan James. This is your Captain."

"A lot was revealed earlier today, but not everything. There's something else you should know.."

There was a heavy sigh on the comm and clearly the Captain was thinking through what to tell everyone. Kara gave a nervous glance towards Danny and knew what was about to happen. She took a deep breath and felt Danny's hand holding hers.

"Dr. Scott and I used to be in love, a long time ago. And I'm the father of her child. Something I didn't know until recently."

Kara felt Carlton's eyes burning on her as he was clearly baffled over the revelation. Ravit knew already as she had confided to her about it.

"Now that everything is out, I need to ask something of you. After Dr. Scott's revelations this morning, we have discovered that the Russians might be back, and in their war against us, they've most likely taken a young girl as a hostage."

"I know that there's a group of you who may no longer continue on with this mission. Your enlistments are up, I will not hold you here, as a matter of fact, you are owed our gratitude for your services."

"But I'm asking for your help. Help to rescue that young girl from the Russians. Help to fight against them, as they sure as hell won't stop until we are all gone."

"I'm asking you to fight on because Dr. Scott has succeeded in her efforts to create a vaccine."

"That's right, she has a vaccine. But as long as the Russians are out there to cause havoc, we can't succeed in our mission."

"She has a vaccine?" Carlton asked as he listened to Tom speak through the comms.

"She does need to do further testing." Kara tried to answer cautiously.

"But it's true?" Ravit looked at Kara who nodded. It was a triumphant moment right there and then. Kara felt her cheek meet Danny's lips as he gave her a kiss in his post illness daze. She embraced him and met eyes with Ravit who seemed to be happy about the news too.

"So those of you who still wish to leave us, I hope we can come to an agreement after we've dealt with the Russians."

"After all the secrecy, all I can say is that whatever we do from here on in, we will do together. Carry on."

Love the reviews! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!