Crisis Point

Chapter Seven;
Guests

Three young men stood on the quarterdeck of the Hammersley, watching the crew and their families join them. Two of them were Navy, the other a guest himself. The eldest of the three, Hammersley's CSO 'Seagull', laughed as two figures entered the dock. One was their crewmate. The other was…

"Spider's mum!" Seagull and his crewmate Able Seaman Paul 'Clark' Kent said together. They laughed. "That man is a walking cliché." Seagull shook his head.

The other man with them, Seagull's brother Oscar, frowned up at his older brother. At only fourteen Oscar looked up to Seagull in a big way. He idolised his older sibling and was relishing the chance to see him at work. "What's so funny?"

Clark explained. "Spider's mum is kind of an icon on this ship. That said; few people have actually met her. Now we get the pleasure of sailing with her. I feel honoured. How about you Seagull?"

"Terribly." He grinned. They turned their attention to a few others as they walked onto the docks. "Hey, who's the cutie with Bomber?"

Clark laughed. "You're a sleazebag Seagull. That's Bomber's sister. And clearly you didn't notice the husband and son with her." He met Seagull's eye and shook his head. "This is why you don't work on the bridge mate, your observation skills are seriously lacking."

Seagull made a face. "Yeah yeah, shut up."

Sally and Chloe gave a wave as Sally carried her daughter towards the Hammersley. Swain was behind them, dragging a case larger than little Chloe, and giving them a smile. He nodded to the figure at the end of the dock then carried on. RO, who was waiting and praying his wife would turn up, just returned the smile half-heartedly. It had been a long time since RO had been the closed-up, cynical individual the crew of the Hammersley had gotten used to. He wasn't exactly ET when it came to sharing his personal life with people, and he wasn't as friendly as Bomber, but he had opened up. It had all been down to Kasey. She'd let him see that the world wasn't as bad as he made it out to be, which was a good thing when the world did start to turn horrible. But a while ago now he'd really stuffed up with her and now he had no idea how to undo it.

"Hey RO." A chirpy voice said from nearby. He woke up from his thoughts to see Scruffy standing there holding the hand of a tall, young Army man. "You there RO?" She laughed.

RO nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." He glanced at the man. "Hi, I'm Robert."

"He's technically my boss so be nice." Scruffy whispered to the man.

RO smiled. "I'm not her boss."

"Be nice anyway." She whispered again.

The Army man smiled and offered RO a hand. "Luke Haynes." RO shook his hand. "And I'm not as horrible as she makes out."

RO glanced at Scruffy. "She has a habit of overreacting to things, I know that now."

Scruffy put her hands on her hips, glancing between them. "I am still here you know!" Luke laughed and RO just smiled. Scruffy turned on him. "Who are you waiting for?"

"My wife Kasey. I don't know if she'll come though." He admitted.

Scruffy frowned. "Why wouldn't she come?" He didn't answer and Scruffy shook her head. "Shut up Emma, it isn't your business." She muttered to herself.

"It's okay, it's just we…" RO started but was cut off.

It was Luke, however, that interrupted him. "Is that her?" he asked, pointing to a figure starting towards them. RO glanced up and saw Kasey, dressed in faded denim shorts and a black t-shirt, coming towards them with a bag slung over her shoulder. She met his eye but didn't make an effort to do anything to show him she had. "We'll go." Luke said, RO having forgotten they were there. He heard Scruffy make a small protest, but soon enough they were gone. Kasey joined him a minute later and RO failed to hide a smile. "You came?"

She nodded. "Yeah, the Commander cleared me to work on here. I have to go see your CO first though."

"Sure, I'll take you to her." He held out a hand. "Can I take your bag?"

She handed it to him slowly. "Thanks." Then, giving her one last look, they headed for the ship.

"Daddy's shirt!" Cassie wandered into her mother's office wearing her father's large camouflage uniform shirt, her arms splayed wide and her grin a mile wide. ET was right behind her, smiling at his daughter. "Mummy! Daddy's shirt!" she said, trying to get her mother's attention.

Nav looked down at her child. The shirt swamped her and trailed along the ground behind her. She looked tiny in it but terribly proud of herself. Nav smiled. "Where'd you get that Cassie?"

Cassie giggled. "Daddy's bed."

Nav glanced up at ET who was only sporting the grey t-shirt he wore beneath his uniform. He shrugged. "I didn't even know she was in the room."

Nav frowned. "What do you mean you 'didn't know'? I left her with you."

"And I left her with Buffer." He explained, the smile on his face fading. "What's wrong now?"

Nav glanced at Cassie who was now staring up at her mother's files in wonder. "Not right now Josh" she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Later."

"When? If I recall, this…" He motioned to Cassie. "… was your brilliant idea." He went to his daughter and scooped her up in his arms. "Mummy's busy sweetheart. Let's go."

"Bye bye busy Mummy." Cassie waved over ET's shoulder as he carried her out. With a sigh Nav watched them go then, shaking her head slowly, Nav went back to work.