Five hours later
Hammersley is coming into port when Steve makes his way down to Hammersley. Once Hammersley had finished its docking procedures, he was standing there waiting. As the crew was off getting changed, Mike and Kate came out to the boat deck to talk to him while they waited for the rest of the crew to get changed and arrive.
Fifteen minutes later the crew of Hammersley are all assembled on the boat deck.
Steve, in front of the crew and with the help of Mike, changes Kate's shoulder ranks over from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander. He then informs the crew they have some unexpected shore leave. Everyone is pleased to see Kate get her long awaited promotion.
Three hours later
Kate's apartment
Kate is sitting on her couch and is wondering if it was wise to be staying here at her apartment with her father on his way or if it was better to stay elsewhere like Steve had suggested she should do. So far there was no one following her or camping out outside her home. She had Mike on speed dial and he was only ten minutes away from her place. He had also offered to stay at her place and even Zoey said she would come and keep her company with the kids if she wanted her to. But Kate being Kate didn't want that to happen. She wanted to be able to do this on her own and on her own terms hopefully. There was no way she was going to allow her father to push her around, but now she was wishing Mike was with her holding her telling her it was going to be ok after all. As the shock of her father coming and her promotion, the freedom to date Mike without worry of dismissal.
She sits there semi watching television thinking. Nothing was making any sense to her. As everything swirled around in her head she started to get tired so she headed off to bed, hoping she would get some sleep.
The following morning
"Neil we have to do this the right way. We just can't turn up on her door step. Why don't I ring the CO of the navy base here in Cairns and find out if she is out or not?"
"Ok Fine you win."
"Neil I'm not winning. We just know that my more tactful approach will be better than yours. I know you have missed her and so have I, but I want this to be done in such a way that she doesn't feel pressure. She needs to know there is some control over all of this considering she has no idea about us coming over."
"Helen, I have missed her so much. I know she isn't that same child that left, but I just want to see her, talk to her."
"I know, but this has to be done right. Now let me go make that call."
"Hello, I'm wondering if you could help me please." Helen says after the person on the other end picks the phone up and introduces themselves.
"What can I help you with, Ma'am?" the young seaman asks her.
"I need some information on when Lieutenant Kate McGregor is due back home or if she is at home already."
"Sorry ma'am, but I've been instructed not to give that sort of information out."
"Ok, could I please speak to someone who may be able to help me?"
'Yes ma'am, I will go see who is free. May I have your name please?'
"Helen McGregor." She hears music playing as the sailor goes off.
He knocks on Maxine's door and she says come in.
"Ma'am, Sir there is a Helen McGregor on the line wanting information on Lieutenant Commander McGregor. She would like to speak to someone who can give her more information." He says politely.
"Put it through to Commander White's office and I will take the call." Steve says to the sailor, who then quickly heads off to does as he has been instructed.
"Ms McGregor, I'm putting you through to Admiral Steve Marshall now." The young seaman says and he does it before she gets a chance to correct him.
"Admiral Steve Marshall speaking." He says into the phone when he picks it up. Maxine has left the room already to give him the space to talk to this person.
"Admiral, this is Mrs Helen McGregor."
"Mrs McGregor, what can I do for you?" He says politely and he notices the English accent of the caller.
"I'm ringing because I would like some information on my step-daughter Lieutenant Kate McGregor. I am pleased that you just don't hand this sort of information out to just anyone who calls." She says to him.
"We do not permit our office workers to hand out information to just anyone, including Miss McGregor. What information are you after before I can decide if I can help or not?" He says to her in a professional tone. She can tell from his tone that he is someone not be crossed, someone who takes his job seriously.
"Well my husband, her father, and I with our children have come over to Australia after being informed that she was living over here. I'm not sure how much you know of her background Admiral." She says to him.
"We do know a good amount, enough to know that her father and her have had no contact since her mother took her away."
"That is correct, you would then know that it was her uncle that came across her when they did a boarding. Anyway we have flown out here hoping that we may be able to catch up with her at some stage, Meet her again and maybe start building a relationship with her."
"Ok." He says into the phone.
"And I was wondering if the information on her patrols was able to be given to me so that we can work out when she will be free here in Cairns to talk to us." She says as her husband reads the paper. He notices an article about them and his daughter.
"Well the crew of Hammersley are on shore leave at present, would you like me to set up a time and day with her for you guys to meet?"
"That would be wonderful. You are more than welcome to be there if it helps her. We are staying at the Rayland Hotel, room 49." She says before then passing on her mobile number. The two talk for a few more minutes before they say goodbye after Steve promising to get in touch after speaking to Kate.
"Kate, its Steve speaking." He says after she answers her mobile phone.
"Sir, what can I do for you?" She says as she sits outside her place reading a book, knowing Mike was due in Navcom that morning to sort out start date for his desk job.
"Your step mother rang. She would like to tee up a day and time for your father and her to meet with you." He says and Kate is silent on the other end of the line. There is nothing, he tries to get her attention, but still nothing from her. He sees Mike walking past the office and taps the window and indicates for him to enter which he does.
"Mike, I just spoke to Kate told her, her father and step mother want to meet up and she has gone dead quite on the other end of the line. Can you see if you can get anything from her please?" He says before passing the phone over to him.
"Kate, its Mike. Are you ok?" He asks her as Steve stays sitting there in the room, but Mike gets nothing.
"Kate talk to me, say something please?" He says to her and he hears a big deep breath from her, he can tell she is just trying to control her emotions. He knows this hasn't been easy on her at all. Mike pulls out his mobile and texts his sister asking her to go around and see her since they are still in Cairns.
"Kate, the Admiral would like an answer to his question." He says to her. Still not getting a response he decides to use the one tack that will most likely get him in hot water, but right now he just wants a response from her.
"Lieutenant Commander McGregor." He says in his officer tone and it snaps Kate out straight away.
"How dare you say that to me." She fires back at him.
"Well then respond when spoken to. Steve wants to talk to you." He says as he passes the phone back over.
Steve and Kate then sort out a time to meet up with her father deciding somewhere public, but not to public would be best. Steve even tells Mike of the meeting so that he knows about it. Not sure if he will come or if Kate wants him there, but he does know that the two are now together as a couple.
Once she had finished talking to Steve, Kate wasn't sure if she had done the right thing by agreeing to a meeting so soon.
Maybe I should have given myself another day or two first, but then you would find another excuse. No get it out of the way now so it is over and done with. She thinks to herself as she heads inside to have a shower and get ready to head off to this meeting. While in the shower she thinks about whether or not Mike should be going with her or not, but then she thinks about the newspaper articles and decides that maybe a more private meeting is best away from reporters. Who's to know who is secretly following who and then snapping pictures of them.
Once out of the shower, she rings Steve back and they change the location to another venue a more private place to meet. One where if she or her father are followed, the press can't get to it as she has asked Steve to have it at Navcom. It maybe her place of work, but there they can have some privacy in one of the conference rooms. As there are gates to go through, the press can't follow, giving them all the privacy they need to get to know each other without fear or worry.
An hour later Kate arrives at Navcom to go over lists for her new XO, Steve is helping her pick who she may like to work with on Hammersley. They spent the next hour going over the lists. Steve goes over the list with her and she narrows it down to four that she will happily work alongside.
While she has been working away in Mike's office with Steve, Mike has been busy elsewhere within Navcom dealing with some other matters of business.
Lunch comes and goes and before long it is meeting time with her father. By now Kate had time to relax and not let her nerves get to her. She was in uniform and working it gave her the strength she needed to proceed with what was laying ahead of her.
Before Kate goes into the conference room Mike catches up with her and he passes on some words of comfort and support to her and lets her know he is just a phone call away if she needed him.
When she walks in she finds six people in the room. Steve and five others. She recognises her father straight away he still looks the same as the photo she has of him, just aged.
As she looks at him the two meet each other's gaze and her eyes start to glaze over. She can't believe that after all this time he would fly all the way here to meet her, that he hadn't changed much and the look of love that she sees on his face doesn't help her to keep herself composed.
"Father?" she says softly to the man who smiles at her when she speaks.
"Yes Katie it's me." He says and before she knows it they are hugging each other, both having moved towards each other without really noticing it. Steve stands there with a smile on his face. So far this is going better than planned.
"Kate, do you remember Helen?" Her father says once they break apart.
"I remember someone named Helen, Sam told me she use to look after me."
"That is correct she was one of our workers and your part time nanny. Well she was the only one you would settle for and do as you were told." He says as a smile breaks out on his face. "She's your step mother now and you have three younger siblings." He says as he introduces her to her brother and two younger sisters the twins.
"It's so nice to see you again after all these years." Neil says to her once the introductions are over with.
"Look before you say anything else Neil, we should tell you Kate that we are not here to force you to come back to England with us." Helen says quickly before Neil can get in another word. "We want to get to know you and to mend any bridges that need mending. Hopefully by the time we leave, we have some sort of relationship between us. Now you will have to excuse your father he can be very bossy and pig headed at times." Helen says as she smiles at Kate and goes and sits down beside her.
"Look I don't know about you, but this seems so overwhelming to me." Helen quietly says just loud enough for Kate to hear.
"Yea it is." She replies back.
"Great, I'm pleased I'm not the only one then, and those three over there don't seem at all bothered by all of this. Would that be some teenage thing would you say?"
"I don't know, I've not had to deal with a teenager."
Kate mobile then goes off and she is not impressed.
"Excuse me I need to take this."
"Dutchy, what is so important that you needed to ring me on our time off?"
"Ma'am there is a lady down by the docks here wanting to see you."
"Ok Dutchy, can you send her up to Navcom please? I'm there at present."
"Yes Ma'am will do." And they say a few more words before hanging up.
"So Kate how did you become interested in the Navy?" Neil, her father asks her.
"I just did. It seemed like a great career, plus it also meant I could further my education without too much worry. It's been hard work, but I have loved every minute of it. Well nearly every minute of it. I spent three years at ADFA also known as the Australian Defence Force Academy. Then I worked on a number of frigates before I got posted up here, though at times I also had to do courses and work on land as well. The last five years I have been based out of Cairns and on Hammersley."
"I thought the Navy involved loads of moving around?"
"Yes and no. You may move from frigate to frigate depending on how hard you work to go up the ranks, but since moving here I have stayed on Hammersley as her Executive Officer until yesterday when I was given the command of her. I know her old Commanding Officer."
"Kate, Mike wouldn't like you calling him old." Steve chips in and they all laugh at that comment.
"Well he has spent the last ten years here in Cairns on Hammersley. He has stayed on the patrol boats and only worked on frigates when it has been a must."
"So what brought you from all the frigates to a patrol boat?" Her father asks knowing until Cairns she had never stepped foot on a small boat. Well a Patrol Boat.
"Well I have been working my way up to become Chief of Navy one day and to do that I needed to get some experience on a Patrol boat. You see we can set out career paths and goals and they will help you work to them. Well I came up for… what was it six month stint on the old Hammersley? After a few months, I began to enjoy the smaller more tight knit team that we had. You felt like they had your back more than on a frigate. There were times I hated it and still do, but it is like one big family and I wouldn't trade that for anything."
"So what made you stay? Was it some guy?" Her father says and Steve looks at her.
"Not totally. I stayed for many reasons. The crew was excellent to work with. We were friends, co-workers, and I there boss all at once. We could go from sharing a joke and laughing to me being able to order them around and they take those orders without a second guess." She stops and waits a few moments before she talks again.
"On the patrol boats you do far more boarding's, frigates we do them depending on where you are deployed, but you are often doing exercises. Being able to put all that training, all those exercises into the real thing the adrenalin was like WOW. It's like a drug. I got addicted to it. Then there is the beautiful coast line of Australia that we often see. The little islands out on the coast, and then there are our good will visits to other places as well. It's a job and a vacation all at once. Some of the things I have seen, places I have been too there is no way I would or could have done half of it without this job."
"Well your Uncle Sam had only high praise for how you acted and did your job that day." Neil says to her and she just smiles at him.
"It's what I do every single day when out on the water…Well did. I now no longer do boarding's as I have my own command now, but I am fine with that. It opens up other areas for me."
"And what are those?" Helen asks her she hasn't seen any sign or talk of a male, a partner yet and she was hoping to meet this man today.
"Well getting command of a patrol boat means a promotion, which I got. It then will help lead me on to another promotion which can lead me to commanding my own frigate one day."
"WOW really you would get to command one of those huge as warships?" Comes from Mary.
"Yes I would."
"That sounds so cool." She says with a smile before turning back to her book. Her parents looking on at her.
There is a knock at the door and Mike pokes his head in.
"Lieutenant Commander McGregor, a word please outside." He says in a professional voice, though Steve doesn't miss the look the two shares with each other as she gets up and heads out the door to talk to him.
"Mike, what are you doing?" she says crossly to him as she crosses her arms across her chest.
"The lady Dutchy has brought up to Navcom is your mother."
"What my mother? What the hell is she doing here?" She says loudly and loud enough that the people in the room, her father and Steve to have heard.
"You two in here now. Now what has you yelling?" Steve says once they are in the room as he looks at Kate.
"Mike has just informed me my mother has turned up."
"Did you know of this?"
"No I haven't spoken to her since I left for ADFA, Sir."
"Ok Mike where abouts is she right now?"
"Sitting outside my office with Lieutenant Brownless keeping an eye on her."
"Steve, why don't you get her brought here?" Neil says to Steve.
"No way." Kate says firmly to her father.
"Kate, I have questions for her."
"And you two can do that another time. I'm not going to have her ruin things, not again." She says emotions now finally getting the better of her. Mike stands there wanting to provide some comfort to her, but since they are in uniform and haven't set any ground rules re their relationship he has no idea what to really do.
"Kate, she is your mother and she has a right to be here just as much as Helen and I do." Her father says to her. "Steve, get her brought in. At some stage the two, no all of us will need to be in the same room might as well get it over and done with now." He says and Steve nods.
Five minutes later Mike enters with Kate's mother as he goes to leave, Kate stops him when she places a hand on his arm.
"Kate, I have work to do." And she looks at him her eyes asking him to stay for her. He looks at Steve.
"Stay Mike, we may need you." He says.
"Steve, Navcom can't run itself."
"You have your mobile, they can ring you on that." He says and then Kate clicks on to something and looks up at him.
"Tell you later." He says
"Neil, what are you doing here?" Kate mother says
"I could be asking you why you never bothered to tell us where you went, but I'm here finally getting to see my oldest daughter." He says as he looks at Kate and the man standing beside her.
"Look I do not want any fighting. If you guys want to fight, then leave. I'm not going home with either of you two. I'm staying right here where I am. Any problems the two of you have with each other, deal with it later away from me." She pauses before talking some more. "Look I have had a long day and getting to meet my father again after twenty five years has been great, but I do not need you, mother, interfering with this. You are the one that stopped me having any contact with him once we moved here. You are the one who never sent any of my letters I wrote, and I know you didn't because I found every single one of them. By the time I had found them, he had already moved to a new location. The fact that as soon as he found out I was alive he, dropped everything to come here to see me without asking me first, shows how much he cares about me. He dropped everything just like that. He does care unlike what you told me." Kate says firmly to her mother.
"Mother, I would think carefully about what you say in this room. Because I will have no issues informing everyone here what it was like living with you."
"Kate, darling it wasn't that bad." Kate takes a big deep breath at this and Mike moves and places his hand on the small of her back to provide some comfort, but also some extra strength to deal with what lies ahead.
"Ok do you think living in some dirty, stinky mining town as bad, then think again. It was hell. No trees around and if we did play outside, we had to be careful not to fall into any old mine shafts. Then when he left, what did you resort too? MMMM" She says to give her time to think. "Then as I got older, I ended up doing everything. If I didn't wash my uniform and iron it or cook the meals, neither of us would have been feed, or I would have gone to school in dirty clothes. No you were too busy passed out from whatever you did the night before. You may have kept a roof over our heads, but the way you did it was horrible and no child should have been brought up like that." She says firmly to her and she finally feels another weight being lifted off her shoulders at finally saying these things to her mother. "Why do you think I left and have never been in touch? I couldn't stand what you were doing. My own mother was selling her body to get money and worst of all you brought it into our home. I saw some of what you did. I had honestly hoped that me leaving you would have made you wake up to what you were doing and then come after me, contact me, but you never did and I was ok with it. I had learnt to deal with your rejection of me at an early age. Doing it at eighteen was easy more so when I was busy studying." She says. Neil and Helen stand there in shock at what Kate has just said. Neither had thought that Kate may have had a bad up bringing since leaving. They had always thought her mother would have made sure she had a good upbringing.
While Kate was talking to her mother Helen had noticed Mike and how close the two stood to each other, she had seen the look the two shared when he first tried to leave the room and now she notices that he has a hand on her back. This is the guy Kate was talking about then, her partner. She thinks to herself.