Over the weekend Brad does his best to spy on Mike and Kate without making it obvious. He snaps a few photos of the two of them together and casually asks some of the students in their class if they have noticed anything between the two, arousing their interest as well.
Mike and Kate enjoy the weekend spending some time together on base and off, they go to dinner at Bill and Lucy's on Saturday and have a great night with them. Kate notices at different times Brad is around watching them.
On Sunday both Mike and Kate are sitting outside under a tree both reading, Mike is reading a book while Kate is reading course work. Kate notices Brad and a few other fellow students not too far away. What is he up to? He better not be doing anything stupid, oh hang on he is stupid. If he thinks he is going to do anything, I have to trust Mike. No matter what happens, he is not running from this and I have to stop doing the running and be more open. Kate elbows Mike and inclines her head towards the small group. Mike understands the gesture and he moves his eyes towards were she has suggested.
"Don't worry about him, Kate. He can't do anything," he replies with a smile and goes back to his book. He looks up and smiles, acknowledging her whispered thanks.
"Anytime honey, now get back to those books. I promised Nikki that once you had done enough reading she could kidnap you for the afternoon."
"Ah, so that be why I've not heard from her."
"Yes, you need some time to read through all this. I know you're probably familiar with it all, but still I know what you can be like."
"Thanks for thinking of me like that."
"Anytime, now get back to it." He smiles and turns to his book.
Two hours later Nikki turns up to kidnap Kate for the rest of the afternoon. They go into town and go shopping for a few things, and of course more gossip. Mike uses this time to go off base and run a few errands he needs to do.
Back in Cairns the crew has been crashed sailed. When they arrive they notice Kate is missing, and there is another male officer there instead. Dutchy asks what is going on and is informed that Lieutenant McGregor is away and that he is filling in for now. Of course the crew are not impressed about being crashed sailed when they are meant to be on shore leave. Little does the crew know that the XO that has been placed on board to listen for any information regarding Mike and Kate while on the boat, as per Steve's request. He is hoping if he does it without doing interviews he will get a true understanding of what has been going on, he knows the crew is far too loyal to say anything against the two officers.
Also during the weekend, Steve does more digging and background checks on all three officers. After having full and total access to Mike and Kate's emails and having been through everything, he is so far able to establish that Mike did not know of the abortion Kate had not long after he left, and that once he had left there was no contact via email or phone. The only email Steve found was in Kate's drafts, it was unsent, when Steve read it, it brought a few tears to his eyes, he wondered if Kate even knew it was still there amongst all her other draft emails. This was the only email from the time the navigation course ended and her stepping back on board Hammersley that was addressed to Mike.
In Mike's emails there are a lot between him and Maxine. It takes most of Sunday for Steve to sift through them all and sort out the personal from the work. But what surprises him is around the time of the navigation course the emails of a personal nature die down to basically nothing. He reads a couple from around that time that are address to another friend of Mike's. One, by the looks, that Mike confided in to a degree. The details are very basic but there was enough there for Steve to know that Mike has been telling the truth about how he feels about Kate. He then moves on to the emails from the last few months and he notices a change in them. He decides that on Monday morning he is going to have to set a date for a proper hearing into all of this.
Maxine is going to need to explain herself big time about the state of some of these emails. He is not happy to have to do it this way, but he has no choice. I have no idea what happened to Kate's application for promotion. It looks like it has either been lost in the post or Maxine never sent it. Going by those emails and her disclosure about Mike's comment to Fleet Command, I would not be surprised if Maxine did it to get Kate away from him for her own personal advantage and that is not right, especially using her position to do it.
Now my only concern is how Mike will handle all of this, and if he can keep his temper in check. I don't need him to have another heated debate with her about all of this.
Marshall gets to work at writing up four separate emails. One for each for Mike, Kate and Maxine and also one to HMAS Watson to inform them of what is going on. After receiving the specific details from Canberra tomorrow, all he has to do is enter in the date and time to the emails and send them off.
Monday morning sees the group being split up; one lot going to the firing range to do firearm training, while the other group is in class going over procedures regarding their position on the boat.
They come back together at as a group after lunch. Bill is going through different things with the group when the Commanding Officer of the base Captain, Jarrod Patterson, enters and walks up to the front of the class.
"Mike, a word with you and Kate, outside please," he whispers to him.
"Yes, Sir," Mike replies as he gets up. "Lieutenant Commander McGregor, can you come with us please." Mike sees the look of shock pass over her face before she puts on her game face again. They both follow Jarrod out of the room, the whole class watch as the two leave, Brad with a smile on his face, Nikki is worried.
Inside the room Bill gets the students back on track. Every few minutes Brad turns his head to see if he can see anything through the glass window on the door.
"Have you two checked your emails today?"
"No, Sir," they both reply at the same time.
"Why do you ask, Sir?" Mike questions him.
"I got an email from Captain Steve Marshall, saying you two are needed for a hearing regarding Commander Maxine White," Jarrod asks, seeming puzzled by this as until the email from Steve he had no idea.
"Ok, that was to be expected," Mike says. Kate just stands and listens. Jarrod is a tad shocked at Mike's response.
"Mike, what is going on? Steve said you're both involved with this and I thought you and Maxine were the best of friends?"
"Well we were, until she decided to take my personal life into her own hands. I made an official complaint, the rest of the details I can't tell you."
"I understand that. Now they have asked for it to be a video conference call between here and Cairns. Steve said something about it being best not to have you and Maxine in the same room. Now, Steve has someone coming in later to speak to you both straight after class. The hearing is on Friday, so you both be out of class for the duration of the hearing."
"Sir, is that wise? Friday is test day."
"I know that but I have been informed by Steve that it won't matter with Kate. She could do your job blindfolded and with her hands tied behind her back." This causes a slight giggle from Kate.
"So, what time Friday?"
"Steve said ten, but you guys can be in the conference room from eight if you want to be."
"Will someone be going in to help Bill?"
"Yes. I will organise someone to help out, as I will be with you two."
"Well, Sir. You may want to be with us this afternoon when we go through things with our representative," Kate says. Mike looks at her in shock.
"Kate, are you sure about that? He will learn some very personal things about us," he asks, worry sounding in his voice.
"Well, what would look better? Him finding out today and having a few days to process it all, or finding out on Friday via video conference and looking shocked and stunned?" Mike turns to face her.
"It's not me I am worried about here, Kate. I couldn't care less right now what they bring up about me, but you? That is a different case. Some of these things Maxine has found out, Kate, you've not even been able to tell me. Are you sure you can handle Jarrod here finding out? Can you cope and deal with that?" Jarrod watches as the two of them stand there looking at each other. What is Mike so concerned about that involves Kate? What is it that she might not be able to cope with?
"Yes I can. You told me if I want this to work I've got to stop running and hiding and talk, so that is what I'm doing. Small steps as they come along." They smile at each other.
"So, Jarrod. We will see you after class, will we?"
"Yes, I will be there, if that is what you both want?"
"Yes, it is."
"Ok then. I will see you both in about an hour."
"Thanks for letting us know."
"No problem, you two. Now get back to class before tongues start wagging," Jarrod says before he heads back to his office.
When Mike and Kate re-enter the class, Bill and Nikki can see a change in them.
The next hour and half goes by quickly and before they know it, Jarrod is back at the classroom to make sure they both go to the meeting. Mike dismisses class, and Kate approaches him, followed closely by Nikki. Bill watches the scene unfold and asks if everything is ok.
"I'll explain it to you later, Bill. Right now I can't say anything, sorry mate," Mike says sounding a bit flat. Once Kate is beside Mike, he can tell she needs a hug and he pulls her into him.
"Anything I can do sir?" Nikki asks.
"Not right now, Nikki, but if something comes up we'll let you know."
"Thank you, Sir. Kate you coming?" asks Nikki.
"Sorry, Nikki, she can't. We both have to go with the Captain," Mike says as he nods towards were Jarrod is standing.
"Ok," she says as she heads off. Once Nikki has left the room Jarrod speaks.
"Bill, on Friday you will have another teacher here with you. Both Mike and Kate will be unavailable all day."
"Thank you, Sir, for the heads up. Anything I can do to help?"
"If there is we will let you know. Mike, Kate we better go, the lawyer is waiting for you." Kate moves from within Mike's warm embrace. He looks down at her when she looks up and gives her a soft kiss on her forehead, softly letting her know that it is going to be ok before they collect their stuff and follow Jarrod out of the room.
During the meeting with the navy lawyer that Steve had organised for them both, Jarrod finds out a lot of interesting information about the two of them. During all of this he can now understand why Mike did what he has done with Maxine. He is surprised Maxine is still in one piece, but then again Mike has been down here away from her, and away from what is going on up there. Of course Jarrod is only hearing Mike and Kate's side of things, but he does hear what Maxine has said that has been passed on to the lawyer.
During the meeting more personal information is brought about Kate. Kate thought Brad was bad but Maxine she is sure is worse. Mike starts to pace the room which, for Kate, is a sign that he is stressed and getting upset at what is going on.
As dinner time approaches Jarrod gets someone to bring food in for all of them. Neither Kate nor Mike want to stop right now, they would prefer to go through all of this tonight. Get it over and done with. He also gets him to send a message out to his second in command to conduct the Monday night meeting and that all the information for it is sitting on his desk.
By the end of the meeting Jarrod is in shock. He can't believe Maxine is going this low to bring these two down. He watches how Mike and Kate interact with each other. When the subject of Kate's abortion comes up, he is surprised to learn that Mike never knew about it until just before he came down here, and that Kate went through it all on her own with no support. He knew Mike was not a rule breaker so for him to have broken the rules back then meant Kate was someone special to him, even when he was not even ready to admit it to himself.
He is pleased that he was there to hear all of it before Friday as some of the personal information he has heard shocked him. He never knew Kate had that type of past, but then again it could of been a lot worse for her as well.
2100 hours roll around and they seem to have covered everything. The lawyer informs them he will return on Thursday afternoon to do one final review before Friday morning. Jarrod stays back to talk to the lawyer while Mike and Kate head to his room, neither worried about what others think, they just want to be in each other's company. Five minutes after arriving in Mike's room they are both curled up together on his bed asleep, only just managing to get changed out of their whites, Kate wearing a pair of Mike's shorts and one of his t-shirts.