Hey everyone,

Okay so I've had this crazy idea for this fic, I'm loving it and hating it at the same time.

So... I'm going to do a "chose your own adventure" thing, don't know if you guys are old enough to remember those books? Or that terrible movie "Sliding doors?" yuck, I'm showing my age... So basically the concept of the movie was that life could have been very different depending on your timing and decisions and in the 'chose your own adventure' books you could chose what your character was going to do in a certain situation and that lead them down different life paths.

So after this chapter there will be options, I'm basically writing 2 fics in 1, yeah that's right like I have time for that lol but at least I might kept everyone happy? You'll just have to put up with shorter chapters because I now have to figure out 2 ways to end this thing and find time to write 2 stories haha.

So this is chapter 8 which is super short as it will lead into the different options which will be Chapter 9 – option 1 and Chapter 9 option 2 which I'll also post now. Lol hope that all makes sense! I'm not sure that it's gonna let me label both chapters 'chapter 9' so I'll put a short description of the chapter so you know what story you're picking. you should be able to select your chapter/decision, but I'm hoping most people will read both options! lol

Hope you all enjoy this concept!

So here we go...

The Ties that Bind

Chapter 8

Dutchy and Mike arrived back at Kate's house to try and make sense of this mess, Dutchy sat on the couch as Mike paced around her house trying to think of their next plan. He let out a frustrated grunt, he had no clue as to what to do. He suddenly sprinted up the stairs and into Paul's room, he looked around and sighed. Dutchy was right, it was basically empty, he sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. Dutchy followed him and stood in the doorway.

"Maybe we are being paranoid?"

Mike leapt off the bed and pulled out the dresser drawers and flipped them over, hoping to find something, anything, there was nothing there. Dutchy looked puzzled at his actions.

"I'm assuming they already looked through all of this... What were you expecting to find?"

Mike shrugged and sat back on the bed, Dutchy sat next to him.

"I don't know... You know I wanted him to be innocent right? She acted like I wanted him to be guilty."

"I know Mike, me too, I mean we got along really well. I feel terrible, how did I not see it? He seemed so genuine, I mean, I'm not doubting that he loved her but maybe he was in trouble? Maybe he didn't have a choice?"

Mike shook his head in disagreement.

"There's always a choice Dutchy..."

Dutchy was going to disagree but decided better of it, his energy was better spent trying to help Kate. He got up and went into the en-suite and took out cabinet drawers, Mike followed him hoping to find something. Dutchy flipped them over, nothing. He shrugged and looked up at Mike.

"Was worth a try?"

Mike nodded, they looked at each other for a moment and ran to the bed, they flipped the mattress off the base and poked their heads through the slats, still nothing. Mike let out an irritated growl, Dutchy went to walk out of the room, he was aggravated and wasn't concentrating and tripped over the mattress and fell flat on his face. Mike could help but chuckle, Dutchy looked back at him and went to push himself up of the floor when he noticed an air-conditioning vent behind the dresser. He got up and pushed the dresser aside and unscrewed the vent, he reached inside and patted around the area, trying to feel for anything. He felt something flat, he shimmied it out of the vent, it was a laptop.

"Bingo..."

They sat back on the bed and turned it on, it was password protected. Dutchy grunted in annoyance.

"Great..."

They sat there thinking of the thousands of options.

"Try his birthday?"

Dutchy scoffed.

"I don't know his birthday, do you?"

Mike gave him a blank stare.

"Kate's?"

Dutchy proceeded to type in Kate's birthday, denied. He tried "Kate", "Katie", nothing. He thought for a moment and laughed to himself and typed in "Barry", it was correct. The computer loaded, Mike looked at him questioning the answer.

"Oh, it was their first dogs name..."

Mike was bewildered, how on earth did he know that?

"How..."

Dutchy could see that Mike was surprised, irritated even, that he knew that piece of personal information about Kate.

"Oh, just a story she was telling me about how Paul made all his friends go and look for him when it was lost because she was so upset. It was when she was trying to convince me that he was a good guy, that's all."

They focused back on to the laptop as the desktop loaded, on the screen was a program labelled Dutchy. Dutchy was concerned as to why his name was being used, he cringed as he double clicked on it worried what it was going to open. A window opened with a basic map and co-ordinates all over the page.

There was a flashing dot at the docks and a flashing dot a little further away, it looked like it was out at sea.

"Could this be the tracking system they were using?"

Mike looked closer at the screen.

"Yeah, but what are they tracking? People? Drug shipments? I thought he was tracking us..."

They both watched at the screen for a moment, Mike went to grab the laptop.

"We should probably hand this over to the feds..."

Dutchy pulled the laptop back towards him.

"Are you sure?"

Mike shrugged.

"Well they're going to be able to figure this out better than we will..."

He got up off the bed and held out his hand wanting Dutchy to hand it over, he hesitated.

"Dutchy we have to, it may make you look more guilty if you hang on to it."

Dutchy exhaled loudly, he was probably right. He followed Mike out the room and they drove to Navcom.

Kate sat tied up below deck, she needed to think of a plan. She didn't trust these guys, she was sure they'd kill both of them no matter what.

Her hands were tied behind her back, she tried her wiggle her fingers free, Terry came below and caught her, he grabbed her by her hair, she winced in pain.

"Seriously? You don't believe me?"

He took out his phone and dialled a number.

Back at the unknown location Paul paced the room wondering who the other person was in the other room. A man entered the room with a balaclava, he was on the phone. He pointed the phone towards Paul and kicked him in the stomach.

Terry held the phone to Kate's face, she focus on the man on the screen, it was Paul, he was being punched and kicked. She screamed his name

"Paul..."

Paul looked up hearing Kate's voice.

"Kate?"

Terry hung up the phone and shoved Kate back on to the bed.

"Next time we won't stop..."

Kate stayed silent, she wasn't in a position to argue.

Back at Navcom Mike and Dutchy raced into Maxine's office.

Maxine looked up from her desk frustrated at the interruption.

"Mike, Dutchy what..."

Dutchy slammed the laptop down on her desk.

"You're gonna wanna see this Ma'am..."

He opened the laptop to the GPS screen, she frown not understanding what they were showing her.

"What is this?"

"We found it in Paul's room..."

She took a closer look.

"It looks like tracking software..."

Mike and Dutchy nodded in agreement.

"But who?"

Mike sat down at the desk.

"We were hoping the agents could find out..."

Maxine pointed to the one at sea.

"This one is moving, is it in the water?"

Dutchy nodded.

"Yeah, I think so...maybe you could send us out to have a look?"

Maxine gave him a disapproving look.

"Dutchy, you know I can't do that, it's not our mission. If we have to do anything that involves this case I'd have to clear it with the feds."

Dutchy let out a frustrated huff, he didn't trust the Feds because they didn't trust Kate, and if Kate wasn't straight who was? This was the one lead they had and he wasn't prepared to give it up.

"They'll just think that we're in on it. I found the computer, they already think I'm involved, this will just be another nail in my coffin...no, I'm not giving it to them..."

He slammed the laptop shut and went to take it off the desk, Maxine grabbed his arm stopping him.

"Petty Officer..."

Dutchy shook his head.

"No Ma'am, sorry, I'm suspended, just pretend we didn't have this conversation..."

He snatched the laptop off the desk and walked out of the room, Mike stood there dumbfounded at his actions, Maxine gave him a stern look.

"Talk to him Mike, it'll make things worse..."

Mike chased after him and pulled on his arm spinning him around.

"Dutchy, Maxine's right, we need to let the Feds handle this..."

Dutchy was frustrated that he was siding with Maxine, if he really cared about Kate he would help him. He knew that Mike cared for her more than professionally, he tried a different tactic.

"Mike, do you know why Kate doesn't confide in you?"

Mike hesitated, he knew Dutchy and Kate were close, he had suspected there was even romantic feelings between them. He was annoyed that Dutchy thought he knew her better than him but on the other hand maybe his annoyance was actually fear that he did. He stayed silent, too scared to answer, Dutchy took the opportunity to continue.

"Because you don't take risks for her, you don't show her that she is the number one priority in your life. I know there are rules and this is a really shitty situation but she needs you to step up... this is your opportunity."

Mike was shocked at Dutchy's revelations, he didn't know what to say.

"Dutchy, I..."

End of Chapter 8

Okay guys so this is the story changing decision... Does Mike grow some balls and stand up to everyone to prove that he cares about Kate or is he a stubborn fool and leaves the gate open for someone else... (we can all guess who) hahah! i will post both options now so you can continue...

Oh and please don't forge to review and let me know what you think of the idea and story concept!