Hey people!
We're nearly done on my longest fic yet!
Thanks to those who left feedback, much appreciated :)
I've just started to re watch from the beginning for some inspo and the more I watch the more annoyed I get at Mike haha (sorry to the MK fans) I'm feeling some Kate and Dutchy fics coming on haha.
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure everyone is aware that I do not own the characters nor did I create them so please don't sue... lol
Charlotte
Chapter 9
RO repeated the radio calls over and over, the crew were silent. They jumped when a voice came over the radio.
"Sierra 91 to Papa 91, do you copy?"
Kate snatched the radio from RO.
"Papa 91 to Sierra 91, receiving, Swain, what is happening?"
"Ma'am, Mike and Jim ordered us off the boat. We have Madelaine Cruse in custody..."
"What do you mean ordered off the boat?"
"Ah, Madelaine had activated the vest; Jim was trying to diffuse it, I think one of the crew attacked them, they were on the boat when..."
Kate dropped the radio and closed her eyes, tears streamed down her cheeks. The sat phone rang, RO answered it and passed it to Kate.
"It's Maxine Ma'am..."
Kate took the phone and held it up to her ear.
"Kate, are you ok? Kate? The Kingston is steaming towards your position they should be about 30 minutes... Kate, did you hear me?"
Kate couldn't speak, RO took the phone from Kate's hand.
"Ah, Ma'am could you please repeat that..."
RO nodded at Maxine's orders.
Dutchy ordered the rest of the crew to launch the RHIBS and conduct a search, he turned on the flood lights on the outside of the ship. Swain and the others returned to the ship to put Madelaine and her crew in Austere, everyone but Swain returned to the search. He went up to the bridge to check on Kate, she was sitting in the captains chair staring at the burning debris
He squatted down next to her chair.
"Kate..."
Kate's face was expressionless, she didn't respond.
He put a hand on her shoulder.
"Kate, can you hear me?"
She swivelled round on the chair and looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"They're gone, aren't they?"
Swain dropped eye contact, he knew the likelihood of any survivors was low, he decided it was better not to answer the question.
"We're looking for them now. C'mon we're anchored, why don't I make you a cuppa hey?"
Kate was almost in a comatose state. Swain left her where she was and went to make her a cup of tea. She walked out on to the deck too see if she could see anything, all she could see were the lights of the Kingston approaching.
She started to sob uncontrollably, she tried to compose herself multiple times as there would be visitors from the Kingston onboard soon but it was no use, the tears kept coming.
The Kingston arrived and joined in the search, Kate was in her cabin still trying to wrap her mind around the evening's events. She took a deep breath in and remembered that Madelaine was onboard. She walked to austere and opened the door, Madelaine was on the floor and restrained to one of the beds. Kate walked up to her with a blank expression on her face, she stopped in front of her and stared. Madelaine got up and sat on the bed, she made eye contact with her. Kate slapped her across the face, the force threw Madelaine's head to the side, she turned back to face Kate and laughed.
"Oh c'mon Commander, you can do better than that..."
She laughed in Kate's face, Kate moved closer and leant down, their faces were centimetres apart.
"You will pay for this, I swear to god I will make your life a living nightmare."
Madelaine was un-phased, she scoffed.
"It was worth it!"
Kate started to shake, her grief and rage took over. She lunged at Madelaine and began to slap and punch her.
"You killed my little girl! My family! I will kill you myself!"
Swain came running in and pulled Kate back.
"Kate! Kate! She's not worth it!"
Madelaine spat the blood out of her mouth and sat there smiling.
"Poor Kate, she's all alone! Look what the Navy has done to you! You didn't even believe the word of a man who was willing to risk his life for you, twice!"
Kate struggled out of Swain's grip.
"What are you saying? Jim was innocent?"
Madelaine smiled and said nothing, Kate took a step closer, Swain's hand was still wrapped around her arm, just in case.
"How did you know about Charlie then? All the inside information?"
Madelaine laughed an evil laugh, Kate lunged at her again, Swain dragged Kate out of austere. He slammed the door shut, he grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Kate, please, don't lose your job over this! Mike and Jim wouldn't want this."
Swan lead her to the ward room, he sat her on the bench.
"Please, just wait here..."
Swain shut the door and left, she sat there with her knees up at her chest trying to convince herself that everything would be fine, that she didn't just lose her entire family.
There was a knock on the door, she didn't hear it though her sobs.
She looked up as the door opened, Mike walked into the room soaking wet, she leapt into his arms.
"Oh my god, you're alive."
She hugged him tight then held his face in her hands.
"Charlie?"
The door swung open and Charlie ran in.
"Mummy!"
Kate hugged her tight.
"Mummy, you're squeezing me too tight!"
She smiled and looked at them both.
"Where's Jim?"
She looked behind Mike expecting him to be there, Mike took a deep breath in.
"Kate..."
Kate looked at Mike's expression, tears started to stream down her cheeks once more, he didn't need to say anything, his face said it all. Bird walked past to check on them, Mike reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Can you take Charlie for a minute?"
Bird nodded, Mike turned to Charlie.
"Sweetie, why don't you go with Auntie Bird, she'll get you some new clothes and she can make you a hot chocolate."
Charlie nodded and left the cabin.
Kate sat back down in her chair, Mike sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her.
"He was defusing the vest when Harrison pulled a gun on us..."
Kate looked shocked.
"Harrison?"
Mike nodded.
"He attacked us out of nowhere. Madelaine was distracted so the others were able to restrain her. We ran, Jim chucked Charlie on to the RHIB and ripped the vest off her and flung it at him. He was struggling with Harrison when he yelled for us to leave, I was already in the RHIB, I couldn't let Charlie... what was I supposed to do? We were only a few metres from it when..."
Kate lay down on the bench in the foetal position, Mike knelt down and put his hand on her knee.
"When we were going out there he said in case anything happened he wanted to tell me to tell you that he loves you and he understood why we did what we did..."
Kate began to cry hysterically, Mike tried to hug her to calm her down, she started to thrash out at him but he refused to let her go, he held her tighter as she sobbed. Swain knocked on the door, he handed Mike a glass of water and some tablets.
"If she needs them..."
Mike nodded, Swain left.
"Kate, here, take these..."
She shook her head.
"Please Kate, I'll bring the ship in..."
She sat up.
"No! We can't leave, not until we find..."
"Kate, I will take care of it, I promise, please just..."
He put the tablets in her hand, she reluctantly swallowed them and Mike led her to her rack. He left her cabin to go find Charlie, he walked into the mess and found her asleep on Birds lap. He smiled and nodded at her.
"Thanks!"
She mouthed "no problem", he shut the door and headed for the bridge.
He walked up the stairs and sat in the Captain's chair, Dutchy walked up behind him.
"Boss, do you want us back out there?"
"I promised Kate that we would find him and bring him home..."
"Boss, with all due respect, what do you expect to find? Let the Kingston complete the search, she needs to be at home."
Mike sighed, he knew Dutchy was right.
"Okay, take us home..."
Kate awoke with a jolt, the lights were bright, she squinted and rubbed her eyes. She saw a figure sitting in a chair next to her.
"Jim?"
She re focused her eyes, it was Mike. He pulled his chair closer.
"Kate..."
She sat up realising she wasn't on the ship, Mike touched her arm.
'Kate, it's ok, you're in the hospital."
She was confused.
"Why?"
"We thought it was best, for your own safety."
She sat there for a moment trying to figure out what was going on.
"Ah, what time is it?"
Mike looked at his watch.
"It's 1800..."
Kate didn't believe him, it meant she had been out for nearly 24 hours, she grabbed her phone to double check, tears started to well in her eyes.
"So you found him?"
Mike broke eye contact and looked at the floor.
"No..."
She was angry that he had gone against his word, she tried to get out of bed.
"Why aren't you still out there looking for him..."
Mike tried to hold her back.
"Kate, there may not be anything to find..."
Mike realised what he had said, she dropped back on to the bed.
"Where's Charlotte?"
"She's just in the cafeteria with a nurse...I'll go get her."
Minutes later Mike returned with Charlie, she ran up to the bed.
"Mummy! Are you ok? You slept for a long time?"
She nodded, trying to act as normal as possible. She patted the bed.
"Get up here and give me a hug! Are you ok? Did she hurt you?"
Charlie jumped on to the bed and gave Kate a hug.
"I'm fine Mummy, it was scary but I knew you, Daddy and Uncle Jim would find me!"
Charlie sat upright on the bed and tilted her head.
"Where is Uncle Jim?"
Kate looked at Charlie and tired to hold back the tears, she bushed the hair away from her face, she saw so much of Jim in her and it hurt so much.
"He had to go away again sweetie..."
"Where? Is he ok? He was on that boat..."
Charlie's worried face broke Kate's heart.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye!"
Kate hugged Charlie tight.
"I know sweetie..."
She looked at Mike.
"I want to go home..."
"OK, I'll go speak to the doctor."
As Mike and Charlie exited the room she burst into tears, she didn't know how she was going to explain everything to Charlie. She tried to tidy herself as Maxine entered,
she sat at Kate's beside and put her hand on her arm. She glanced at her sympathetically, she didn't really know what to say.
"I'm so sorry Kate..."
Kate wiped the tears from her face, she didn't want more sympathy, she wanted answers.
"I don't understand Ma'am... Harrison attacked them?"
Maxine paused, Kate needed to rest and grieve, this wasn't the time to be discussing it.
"Kate, I don't think we need to go into this now, we will have a full debrief when you're ready."
"Ma'am, I need to know what happened, I need to know that this isn't my fault."
Maxine frowned, how could this be Kate's fault?
"Kate, this was absolutely not your fault!"
Kate rubbed her hands over her face.
"Max, he came back for me, he wouldn't have been on that boat if it wasn't for me..."
Maxine squeezed Kate's arm.
"Kate, this would have happened with or without you, Harrison was in this from the start, he was recruited by her years ago. She wanted finish what she had started and revenge on everyone that put her away..."
Kate looked confused.
"She told you this?"
Maxine shook her head.
"Harrison..."
Kate inhaled sharply.
"He's alive?"
Maxine nodded ever so slightly, she wished she hadn't mentioned his name. Kate started to get worked up.
"So you're telling me that Madelaine and Harrison survived and Jim's..."
She couldn't say it out loud, if she said it out loud it would be true.
Maxine stood up.
"I know, it's not fair Kate but if it's any consolation they will be locked up for the rest of their lives."
Kate shook her head.
"No, it's not, it should have been them..."
Mike stood in the doorway, Maxine glanced back at him.
"Get some rest, I'll talk to you soon..."
They entered Kate's house, she had been silent the whole car ride home. Mike carried a sleeping Charlie to her room and put her to bed. Kate sat on the couch, Mike came out of Charlie's room and sat next to her.
"Why don't you try and go to bed?"
Kate shook her head.
"I can't sleep, I need to know if they find anything..."
"Kate, please, I promise I will wake you if I hear anything...plus we're going to have to tell Charlie eventually, I think we need to do that together."
He handed Kate a prescription bottle.
"The doctor gave me these in case you need them. I'll sleep in the spare room tonight ok?"
She reluctantly took the bottle from Mike and headed to bed.
She stood at her bedside and took a tablet out of the bottle, she shook her head and put it back in the bottle and placed in on her bedside table and got into bed.
After tossing and turning for a few hours she finally drifted off to sleep but her nightmares took over. She saw the boat explode over and over again, she screamed and woke herself up, Mike ran into her room.
"Kate!"
She was breathing heavily and crying, he hugged her.
"I keep seeing the boat explode..."
He sighed and picked up the bottle beside her bed.
"Kate, please..."
She opened the bottle and swallowed a tablet. He lay next to her while she fell asleep. He heard his phone vibrate, he slowly got up so he didn't disturb Kate and tiptoed out to the lounge room, he answered the phone in a whisper.
"Mike Flynn..."
"Mike, it's Maxine, sorry it's late but I thought you should know I'm hearing that they might have found Jim, nothing 100% but..."
'Thanks Max, are they transporting him back to Australia?"
"Yeah, look I thought Kate should know any info we have ASAP, I'll let you know if I hear anything more..."
"Thanks Max, talk to you soon..."
As he hung up the phone Kate walked out of the bedroom.
"Hey! You should be in bed..."
Kate was unsteady on her feet.
"Was that Maxine? What did she say?"
Mike put his phone down on the table and walked over to Kate, he led her back to the bedroom.
"She said ahh, she thinks they have found him, they'll be bringing his body home but she doesn't know when, she said she'd keep us updated."
Kate lay down and closed her eyes.
"I can't believe this happened again... Mike, I don't know if I can deal with this..."
He kissed her on her forehead.
"We will deal with it together..."
He pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in.
Kate started to stir in the early hours of the morning, she felt terrible, groggy, she was drifting in and out of sleep. The sleeping tables and anti anxiety medication were causing her to have strange dreams all night. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her breathing to clear her mind, she smiled as she saw Jim leaning over her.
"Katie, I love you so much..."
She reached out to touch his face but couldn't feel it.
"Jim, I love you too..."
"Katie, I'm sorry for all the time we lost, Charlie is so amazing..."
Kate became panicked as his image started to disappear.
"Jim! Please don't go!"
His face disappeared but she still heard him.
"I'm not going anywhere!"
Kate awoke, it was morning. She got up and walked out to the kitchen rubbing her face. Mike was sitting on the couch sipping a cup of coffee, he stood up and walked her to the couch. Kate sat there staring into space.
"I saw him Mike..."
He looked at her strangely, Kate shook her head slightly, she knew it sounded crazy.
"In my dreams..."
Mike put his arm around her.
"It's not uncommon, you're brain is trying to comprehend everything..."
Kate moved from his embrace and snuggled into the couch.
"It was just so real, he told me he wasn't going anywhere..."
Mike didn't want to give her false hope, he looked her in the eyes.
"Kate..."
She knew what he was going to say, she interrupted him.
"I know it sounds completely insane but I can feel him...have you heard anything from Maxine?"
Mike shook his head.
"Kate, maybe you should go see a..."
Kate shot an angry look at Mike,
"Don't say counsellor Mike, don't even..."
Mike moved closer to her.
"Kate, after everything you have been though..."
Kate got up off the couch and went into her room and slammed the door. Mike put his head in his hands, Charlie came out of her room and jumped on the couch.
"Where's Mummy?"
Mike pulled her close.
"She's resting, do you wanna watch Moana?"
She grinned and turned on the TV and sat on the floor.
Mike got off the couch and went into the kitchen to call Maxine.
"Mike?"
"Hi Max, any news on Jim?"
"Yesterday was a false alarm, it was one of Madelaine's crew, he had washed up on a nearby island. How's Kate?"
Mike sighed.
"She's having dreams about Jim, I think she's hanging on to hope that he's still alive..."
"Mike, sometime's hope is the only thing that gets you through..."
"Seriously Max, not you too. It's not healthy, we all saw the boat blow up, there's no way and indulging her is not going to help!"
"Mike, just go easy, I know you're trying to help but you've all been through a lot, just be there for your family."
Kate lay on her bed flicking through the photos on her phone, she began to feel drowsy and tucked herself in to bed, she fell asleep soon after. Hours later she woke up startled, she had had more dreams about Jim. She looked at her phone, it was the morning. She did a double take, there were 12 missed calls from Maxine and Navcom, she was about to call back when Charlie came running into the bedroom.
"Mummy, they found Uncle Jim..."
Kate sighed and lifted Charlie onto the bed.
"Yeah they did sweetie, where's Daddy? There's something we have to talk about..."
Charlie pulled on her hand.
"Not now mummy, he's making chocolate chip pancakes!"
Charlie ran out of the room, Kate sat there for a moment completely confused. She heard Charlie giggle, she immediately got up and chucked on her robe and ran into the kitchen. A man was standing at the stove with his back towards her, she blinked a few times trying to focus.
"Jim?"
End Chapter 9
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