Chapter 9


A couple of hours later,

Wolf walked back into the bar and found that all the broken glass and blood had been cleaned up. There were still some of crew around drinking coffee and tea as they waited for news. Wolf knew their roles were non essential to the lock down of the hotel and basically were waiting for news or orders in case they were needed after all.

Danny and Cruz were already on route to the hospital to stand guard and support Tex. He had no clue where the Captain was but he'd already been stopped by the X.O. and informed that he was to rest up and go to the hospital to relieve Danny and Cruz with Miller.

Miller sitting on one of the two seater lounges with Larrin on the opposite end. They looked fairly engrossed in their conversation as they hadn't noticed him walking up. He looked to see Kathleen was curled up an armchair asleep with his jacket over her.

"I felt like an idiot." Miller confessed to Larrin who gave a chuckle. Wolf was glad that Larrin was looking less shaken even if she was flirting with Miller yet again. He had real mixed feeling about them but decided not to intervene too much.

"Yeah well our Mum really loves Shifter romance novels." Larrin told him to try and explain why she and her brother all had uncommon names. Wolf immediately knew that Miller was telling her how Miller asked him where he got his name not realising it wasn't a nickname but what was written on his birth certificate.

"Shifter romance?" Miller asked confused as he had no idea what that mean. Larrin blushed lightly and pressed the side of her face into the lounge as she tried to find a way of explaining it without it sounded too dirty.

"Yeah, Alpha males who can transform into animals at will. Hence the term 'shifter'." Larrin explained with an awkward smile.

"Ah. Ok." Miller said with a smile of his own even though he didn't really understand the appeal.

"Yeah, our Mum also writes them." Wolf said joining the conversation. Miller looked at both of them and Larrin gave a nod as it was true. Their Mum wrote raunchy supernatural romance fiction for a living and was pretty good at it even if she didn't make a lot of money; she had loved it. It did work well given they had to move a lot for their Father's job in the military.

"Really?" Miller asked them.

"Yeah, she was a really good storyteller." Larrin said wistfully. Tears burned the back of her eyes as she thought of how she hadn't spoken to her mother in months and how much she missed her.

"She is a good storyteller." Miller said in a gently manner changing Larrin's tenses to remind her not to give up hope. Larrin blinked a couple of times and gave a closed lip smile. Wolf couldn't help but agree with Miller even though he couldn't say it out loud as he like Larrin felt that isolation of being lost in a foreign country and the pain of not knowing what happened to his and Larrin's family.

"So did you find Dr Scott?" Larrin asked Wolf changing the topic.

"Looked critical, she's been taken to the hospital. Tex, Danny, Cruz and Kara are there with her. We'll be spelling Danny and Cruz at 0900 tomorrow. So we should pack this up and get some rest." Wolf said talking to Miller for the last part.

"Ok." Miller said.

"What about Kathleen?" Larrin asked.

"She'll be staying with us tonight." Wolf said before he turned to Kathleen and gently shook her by the shoulder. The girl slowly woke up and frowned as she saw his face.

"Where's my Dad?" Kathleen asked looking around.

"He's gone to the hospital with Dr Scott. He asked me to look after you until he gets back tomorrow." Wolf told her. The girl looked a little lost for a moment.

"Oh." she replied dully and Wolf realised that she must have misinterpreted his meaning. He gently poked her shoulder to get her attention.

"He isn't gone for good. It's just that the doc had a mean grip on him." Wolf told her with an amused smile. Kathleen didn't look so convinced. "He'll be back for breakfast but until then he'd like you to hang out with us. So why don't we stop by your room get your gear and you can stay in my and Larrin's room for the rest of the night." He said to her.

"Ok, but I don't have any stuff." Kathleen told him looking incredible awkward about being possession less and not entirely enthusiastic about it but agreeing to it none the less. She rose from the chair and awkwardly held out his jacket to him.

"Keep it for now, you can protect it from Larrin's attempts to dismantle it and we'll find you something to sleep in if you want it." He told her, at that Kathleen gave a small smile as she knew that Larrin had been surreptitiously pulling buttons and threads off his jacket to get him to leave her alone with Miller. Hell, she had managed to lift one of his ribbons from the jacket and given it to Kathleen leaving him to have a mini freak out as to where it could have fallen off.

"Larrin." Wolf said catching his sister's attention, he gave a tilt of his head indicating for them to leave.

"I'll catch up with you at the elevators." Larrin told him, he gave a sigh and nodded deciding it was best to pick his battles carefully and after tonight he trusted Miller more than ever before as the man had literally thrown himself on his sister to save her from being shot.

"Night Miller, see you for breakfast at 0800." Wolf told him.

"Done." Miller said he and Larrin watched as Wolf and Kathleen walked out of the bar area, Larrin snorted a laugh as Wolf told Kathleen she was lucky to be an only child.

She turned Miller as they lapsed into silence. Both not knowing what to say or how to proceed as tonight's events had shaken up all conceived ideas they had of the future. After a moment Miller spoke as he decided to just take a chance.

"Bar all the bad stuff that happened tonight. I had a really good time." Miller told her, Larrin smiled and blushed lightly.

"Yeah me too. Maybe we could do this again minus all the violence and my brother lurking in the background." Larrin said with a chuckle. Miller rubbed the back of his neck and laughed as well.

He felt like he'd just won the lottery by Larrin suggesting they meet up again as it meant it wasn't over between them yet.

"Definitely." he told her as he meant it.

"Good, I'm going to go before Wolf chucks a man-tanty." Larrin said, she rose from the lounge and Miller stood with her. She gave him another shy smile before she walked away.

But she only made it about five steps before she turned on her feet and raced back to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. She felt Miller's arms wrap around her and couldn't help but enjoy the strength in the before she pulled back completely from the hug she pressed a kiss to his cheek and stepped away.

"Thank you for tonight and I'll see you around." Larrin said pulled back and gave a shy smile. She turned on her feet and ran back out of the bar leaving Miller standing there by himself. A goofy smile played across his lips as he touched the side of his face.

Larrin bit the tip of her thumb with nervous energy and smiled as she looked over her shoulder to see Miller still watching her leave with a smile on his face. She made it to the elevator and saw Wolf and Kathleen waiting.

"You took your time." Wolf said as he punched the button for the elevator.

"I was just thanking him. He did save my life." Larrin said.

"Right, don't get gooey over him. He's Navy which means he'll always leave." Wolf warned her.

"Give me a break. I've only known him for less than twelve hours." Larrin said as the doors slid open. Wolf Held the door opened and waited for the ladies to walk in. Once they were in the elevator he stepped in gave Larrin a serious look.

"Uhuh, I know that face and it spells trouble." Wolf told her.


Tex sat in the plastic chair staring at the blood that had dried on his hands. He'd been sitting for hours waiting for news about Rachel and if she would make it. She had crashed twice on the way to the hospital in the ambulance and the way the paramedics were shouting at each other had made his gut twist painfully as it wasn't a good sign.

They had arrived at the hospital quickly and Tex of course moved out of the way and watched helplessly as they rolled Rachel down the hallway through the emergency doors that he couldn't pass through as it was access only for hospital personnel.

He stood at the doorway like a pathetic puppy waiting for his owner to come out for a long time until a nurse directed him to the waiting room. He obediently sat down on one of the chairs and waited, waited with nothing to do but think about what happened and grow angry about how lax they become in their protective measures in a such a short time. The blood on his hands was proof of that. He squeezed his hands into tight fists as anger and rage boiled through his veins.

"How is she?" Tom asked, Tex looked up from his hands to the Captain and couldn't help but feel a bitter resentment towards the man as Rachel had chosen that asshole over him, the same man that Tex respected as soldier but despised as a man for the way he treated Rachel and now he had the gall to race here hours after Rachel was shot and look like he gave a damn about Rachel.

"How is she? So now you care?" Tex asked him incredulously as he rose from his seat not bothering to hide his anger. He moved towards Tom and shoved him into the wall. "You fucking give her the cold shoulder for weeks after Baltimore, you treated her like she was dirt when she saved all our asses now she's dying in there and you act like you fucking care." Tex told him in a scathing tone.

Part of him wanted Tom to fight him just so he could hit someone. But the man just held his gaze and remained calm as he waved his sailors to stand down.

"I've always cared." Tom told him. Tex made a scoffing noise as he tried to understand how the man cared for Rachel when he spent weeks ignoring her existence and only acknowledging her when he needed someone to blame or to shout at.

"Yeah, just enough so you could blame all your actions on her. I heard you two fighting, how you told her she put blood on your hands. You made those decisions, anyone you killed was on you but if you're so keen for blood on your hands. Here." Tex said, he released his hold on Tom and spat on his hand where Rachel's blood had dried. Then swiped it over Tom's palm leaving wet brown streaks of Rachel's blood on Tom's hand.

"You can have hers." Tex told him, he turned and walked away. He walked away because he knew if he stayed he would do more than punch Tom's calm and self-assured pretty face into the wall. The only thing that stopped him from doing so was that he knew deep down that Rachel would hate him if he hurt the man.


"I'm going to crash next door in Green's room. So if you need me or anything at all just let me know" Wolf told the ladies.

"Ok, but before you go I could use a snack." Larrin told him, he looked at her incredulously as he couldn't believe she was hungry after everything that happened and what she'd consumed over the last few hours.

"Really? And what are you hankering for at this hour?" Wolf asked reminding himself that he needed to be kind to his sister and now they were together he had to watch out for her and apparently feed her.

"Caramel Milkshake and hot chips with ketchup." Larrin said with a dreamy face before her eyes lit up with another idea. "Oh and waffles too. With chocolate sauce." Larrin added.

"You're going to eat me out of pocket at this rate." Wolf told her, he looked to Kathleen. "You want anything?" he asked her.

"A milkshake sounds good." Kathleen said hesitantly.

"Flavour?" Wolf asked.

"Lime." Kathleen said shyly like she was pushing her luck just by jumping on the bandwagon. Wolf gave her a look as he was pretty sure it was not a flavour on offer. "Or Strawberry." Kathleen added quickly.

"Right, I'll be back." Wolf said as he knew room service wasn't on offer in the hotel yet as he'd ask about it before though it had been regards to breakfast not the black hole that had taken up residence in his sister's stomach. He picked up the room keycard and left the room.

"Are you really hungry?" Kathleen asked her.

"Not really, but I figure this free ride isn't going to last long so I'm going to enjoy it before it ends." Larrin said as she walked over to her brother's sea bag and opened it searching through his clothes to find something to sleep in as her clothes stank to the high heaven and she refused to sleep naked with her brother and Kathleen in the room.

"I thought I was the only one who felt like that." Kathleen confessed. Larrin looked over her shoulder to the young girl and recognised a fellow survivor. "Everyone here pretends like the pandemic never happened like did you see all that food and the fancy clothes everyone was wearing tonight?" she asked Larrin.

"I know." Larrin said as she pulled out a shirt and gave it a tentative sniff. "Do you have pyjamas?" Larrin asked her.

"I only have what's on my back." Kathleen told her.

"Here, Wolf won't mind." Larrin said as she tossed the clean t-shirt towards the girl before she continued to rummage through the bag, Wolf was going to be pissed about her not asking permission and invading his bag but she couldn't break out of her scavenging ways and frankly she was too embarrassed to remind him of how little she owned. "I'm the same, I spent months running and hiding from the world. It was just easier to carry what was on my back than drag around a bag. Walked from Colorado to here." Larrin said sharing part of her life story to help Kathleen feel more comfortable.

"You walked?" Kathleen asked in disbelief.

"I managed to hijack a few abandoned cars but the roads were fairly jammed up and it was easier to run from the Scavengers." Larrin said in a conversational manner even though the memories of those months were traumatic and lonely. She knew she should shut up, it was not appropriate to talk about with someone as young as Kathleen.

"Scavengers killed my Mom." Kathleen said in a quiet voice, she looked down at the t-shirt Larrin had given her and fiddled with the fabric. Larrin turned to her and gave her a look of empathy as she moved to Kathleen's bed and sat down.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Larrin said as she reached out and gave Kathleen's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Me too, but I got my Dad back." Kathleen said as she pointed out the silver lining of a very bleak looking cloud.

"He's pretty awesome." Larrin said with a smile.

"When he's around." Kathleen added glumly.

"He'll be back at breakfast which is when we'll gorge ourselves and make him pay." Larrin told her, Kathleen smiled at that and gave nod, her mood instantly lifted.