Chapter Fourteen;
Family Is…

"Your mother is critiquing my soup." Bomber said, exasperated. Spider, who had been lurking about the galley hoping to get some attention, just smiled as she finally spoke after ignoring him for the last 20 minutes.

He chuckled. "Get used to it. No one cooks good enough for her precious son like she can." He'd expected enough from his mother. Up until now the nosy woman had managed to stay away from Bec as much as possible, but like all mothers Julie couldn't help but find out more about the woman that threatened to steal away from her her little boy.

"Well I should just give up now. Her 'pwecious Biwi' needs top quality grub." She pinched his cheeks and he tried to bat her off, but she pinched harder. She stopped when she heard a voice at the door.

"Rebecca?"

Bomber dropped her hold on him and looked to the door to see Spider's mum standing there watching them. She smiled. "Hello Mrs. Webb." Behind her Spider chuckled and she shoved an elbow back to shut him up. It caught him in the stomach and he let out a soft groan. "Is there something you wanted?" She smiled.

"No Rebecca. Just came to see how you were going with dinner and to see if you wanted any help."

Bomber shook her head. "I'm alright, thanks. Billy is helping me."

Mrs. Webb nodded and walked away. Spider let out a snort he'd been denying. "Nice handling."

"See, she hates me." Bomber put her head in her hands. "God this is going to be fun."

Spider hugged her. "Calm down Bec, she doesn't hate you." She removed her hands from her face and placed them on top of his. He leant closer to her ear. "She just doesn't think you're good enough for me."

Turning in his arms, Bomber smacked him. "Not helping!"

Spider smiled and kissed her softly. Pulling away he just grinned. "She's wrong." Bomber smiled. "You're good enough." Bomber smacked him again and he let go. "Okay, okay." He held up his hands in surrender. "I'll do whatever you ask, just spare me."

Chucking a potato peeler at his head, Bomber went back to the dinner.

***

"It's Holly's birthday in a month. Thirty-Five. She intends to make some sort of big deal about it. Says she'll party till the world ends, 'specially seeing now the Air Force has fallen into nothing and she's out of a job."

Kasey glanced up from the washing machine and saw Robert standing in the doorway, watching her. She shoved in one last shirt and stood up. "Yeah? Sounds like a good plan." Tapping the door shut with her foot she glanced back at the other piles of washing she'd just removed from the two washing machines. "Uh, does anyone pick up their laundry anymore?"

RO just shrugged. "Don't know whose they are. Checked the tags?"

"No, that didn't occur to me." Kasey mocked. She picked up an overall from each pile and RO almost smiled when he recognized them. "Drake and Kent. If you put those two together you just might find a brain cell in there somewhere."

"Two weeks in and you've already summed up the two specialist members of our crew." He bent down and picked up one last sock she'd left out. "Yours?"

Kasey nodded and took it, shoving it into the machine and flicking it on. She took a seat across from it, picking up her laptop that Robert hadn't noticed she'd brought in with her. "So, when's the party?"

RO frowned then remembered why he'd come looking for his wife in the first place. "February 16th. She's prepared to put us up at hers… if you're interested." He added quickly at the end.

She shrugged. "I'm not doing anything that week. Tell her I'd love to come." She gave a brief smile over her laptop then went back to her furious typing. When RO didn't leave she looked up again. "Is that all?" They both glanced at the washing machine as it flicked over to the next setting.

"You're agreeing to come?"

"You're making me sound unreasonable Robbie." She gave him a smile. "The only unreasonable thing I've ever done was let my mother design my wedding dress."

"You looked beautiful." Kasey glanced up shyly then went back to her computer, typing a lot less violently than before. RO coughed and took a step back. "I'll let you get back to, uh, your washing." He turned to leave.

"Rob." Kasey called. RO glanced back. "Tell Clark and that goose Seagull to get in here and grab their belongings before I hang them off the semaphore rigging in such a way that spells out 'these two seamen are idiots'." RO nodded and left as Kasey returned to her typing.

***

"Take her." Nav turned to find Swain holding out Cassie in front of him. She laughed and squirmed in his hands and reached out for her mother. Taking her in her arms, Nikki assessed her daughter. She was covered in bandaids, plasters and bandages.

"What happened?" Nav frowned, pulling a plaster off her forehead.

"She and Chloe got into my medical supplies. You should see my little one. Sally nearly fainted when she saw her, thought she'd fallen down the stairs or something." He took a bandaid that Cassie had pulled off and offered to him. "Thank you Cassandra."

"I'm so sorry Chris. I'll make sure I keep an eye on her frown now on." She glared at the EOD as if blaming it for her problems.

"No problem ma'am. Personally I think it was Chloe that led her astray."

"Not likely." Nikki held her daughter's face to hers as the child giggled, reaching for her mother's nose. "She has her father's impulsive streak." Swain grinned and left. "Now madam, where is your father?"

"Daddy go bang bang." She waved her chubby little fist. "So he say I go play wif Chlo-eee." Her top lip pressed her bottom one in a straight smile, a look that ET had taught her. "Sorry mummy."

Nav shook her head. "Where is he?"

"With Sparksie. He says something with a long name got broken and he had to fix it."

Nav frowned. "No one told me anything was broken."

Cassie laughed. "Cassie knows more than mummy. Cassie knows more than mummy." The child taunted Nikki as the CO carried her downstairs and back to her cabin. Finding it empty, Nav went next door where young Oscar Drake was playing on a laptop that Nav recognised as Radar's. "Oscar, is Julie Webb here?" Oscar nodded and motioned to the bathroom door. "Can I leave Cassie with you?" Oscar nodded again, silently, then moved the laptop so she could see it. Cassie took a seat as Nav left, determined to get any kind of explanation out of ET.