CH4 (85)

Alexis didn't have her list but she and her dad had Kate to help pack. They had compromised on staying a week which Alexis was still moaning about. The problem was they were taking over control of 2 shuttles and 3 of the quads from the colony, which was a lot to ask for.

"How we doing pumpkin?" Rick was used to Alexis being in charge of the camping trips. Even the loading of the Range Rover was something Alexis had handled, including some of the manual labor.

"The shuttles are loaded with supplies and the quads have been loaded with items we will need. We just need to load the quads onto the shuttles and we are good to go." Alexis explains.

"Perfect, then let's get the quads onboard and we can leave in the morning." Rick tells her and fires up the first quad and backs it into one of the shuttles.

They headed for the very northern tip of the land mass.

A landscape ranging from mangrove-fringed plains to lowland hills and sandstone cliffs. The unique biodiversity and exceptional beauty in landscape and wildlife.

Home to 1600 plant species and thousands of different species of animals, many of them are found nowhere else in the world.

Crocodiles are a way of life in the Top End. Freshwater crocs are smaller and shy, but fully grown saltwater croc is afraid of nothing and earns respect. Buffalo, wallaby and goanna also roam freely in the wild plains.

Monsoon forest and over boulders to a deep plunge pool surrounded by spectacular 150 metre high cliffs.

Enthralled by the majestic views on the way to the top of the gorge and pools can be found along the creek above the falls.

Raft or canoe your way upstream to the beach by the gorgeous falls. However, swimming is strongly discouraged as saltwater crocs have been known to roam the areas from time to time. A rough trek up to the top of the Twin Falls offers stunning views and even pools to frolic in.

Due to the saltwater crocs downstream of the falls they decided to camp up top not far from one of the many pools that were safer to swim in.

However having salt water crocs with a Kate who was always armed and a Rick who knew just what to do with a dead crocodile, their campfire dinners were very tasty.

It took them some time to set up two of the three tents. Initially Rick and Kate were thinking the two girls would want their own tent while Alexis and they would have her own. However Emily wanted to sleep with Alexis the first night, so that left Kali to sleep with Rick and Kate.

Kate had killed their first croc and Rick had trimmed it for a couple of meals and then dragged the unused carcass over the falls to be eaten by the crocs at the bottom.

They had used the quads to collect campfire wood and Emily and Kali got their first taste of camping.

"Mom, I have to go." Emily was squeezing and doing the pee pee dance.

"I'll take her mom." Alexis offers knowing just what to do. While Rick went looking for the shovel for when things got more, …. stinky.

Everyone had their own chair and was sitting around the campfire watching the flames dance. "Ready for smores dad?" Alexis offers. Instantly getting Kate's attention.

Kate watched Alexis fish the chocolate out of one of the coolers and came back with the marshmallows and the graham crackers.

Alexis helped put together Emily's very first campfire smores while Kate helped Kali put hers together, before they each did their own.

Emily and Kali were having fun eating and making a mess of their face while Kate bit into hers. "Hhhmmm, chocolate!" Kate promptly melts into her chair and is suddenly calm.

Alexis and Rick just sit there nibbling on theirs grinning while watching Kate slowly disappear.

"Is mom ok?" Emily turns to ask Alexis, having never seen Kate react like this before.

Alexis just grins. "Mom is fine. She just loves chocolate." Alexis explains.

"Ooohhh." Emily was glad it wasn't permanent.

Emily gets up out of her chair and stands next to Kate. Then snaps off a small piece of her chocolate. "You can have some of mine mom." Emily holds out her little piece.

Kate melts a little more, just for a different reason. "Thanks sweetie, but you should eat it. I have more than enough. But thank you." Kate leans in and gives her a quick kiss to the side of her head.

Emily just stands there offering her little piece. She was willing to share with her mom.

"Ok." And Emily pops it in her mouth and goes back to sit down.

Since they are camping the girls are allowed to stay up later than their normal bedtime. However it isn't much past that time when both Rick and Kate spot Emily and Kali fast asleep in their chairs.

Rick picks up Emily while Kate takes Kali and gets them stripped down and snuggled into their sleeping bags.

Back to sitting at the campfire, this time sitting side by side, they start roasting marshmallows. "This is great dad. I love getting away from it all." This reminded Alexis of leaving New York and spending time at their summer home and their camping trips to the lake where Kate crashed.

"You like being out here away from it all don't you." Kate was noticing.

"It's quiet and it's peaceful. No noise, no people. No one wants something." Alexis loved relaxing.

"But don't you miss school, miss your friends? There are no greenhouses out here. It's just us." Kate was looking for answers.

"Oh I don't want to live the rest of my life here. Camping is a vacation. Someplace to do something different or nothing at all." Alexis gets quiet for a time.

"Yeah, I miss having friends sometimes and school sometimes. But I have what I want most." Alexis is quiet again.

Rick however reaches across to place a hand on her leg, silently asking her.

Alexis looks at him and decides to share just not sure what to say. "I love you dad. I've always loved you. … It's just, …. A lot of kids at school have families, small ones or big ones, ….." Alexis stops not sure what to say next.

"And you've always wanted one." Rick tells her.

Alexis nods her head. "It's not you dad, I swear it's not. If it was still just you and me I'd be happy. … Mom was never there and I learned early that she never was going to be. But I didn't care, I had you. I even wished mom would just go away when she did show up" Alexis pauses just looking at Rick and not seeing the tears roll down Kate's face.

"Then you married Gina. … It's not that I hated her, but she didn't have any interest in me at all. She hardly talked to me, take me anywhere or care what I was doing or how I was feeling. Which was fine. … I thought you married her because you loved her. …. But she treated you so badly dad. I didn't want to hate her, but the way she treated you made me mad so I tried to ignore her even harder.

I'm really sorry dad, but I was glad when you divorced her. She wasn't nice. And she still treated you badly even after you were divorced. I never understood why you put up with her." Alexis stops worried she had gone too far.

Kate's heart however was breaking. Rick had explained why he had married Meredith and Gina and all it did was hurt Alexis. Emily and Kali were hers but to Kate, Alexis was also hers, and listening to this was painful, ever so painful.

"I'm sorry pumpkin. Meredith told me she was pregnant so I married her thinking it was the right thing to do. Give you a mother and a father. A family like everyone else. I never did understand why Meredith did what she did. I kept hoping she would come around and love you like a mother should.

As for Gina, I was still trying to find that family life for us, …. for you. I finally gave up on her for that and decided it just wasn't going to happen. …. I decided that it was just going to be you and me." Rick explains blinking back tears.

"And then mom showed up." Alexis turns finally to look at Kate who was sitting there quietly crying with tears rolling down her face. Kate hated the pain Alexis had been forced to go thru with the supposed adult women in her life. It broke her heart knowing how sweet and loving Alexis really is.

Alexis has noticed and gotten up out of her chair and does her best to hug Kate who was still sitting in hers. "It's not your fault mom, it's not."

Kate scoots forward in her chair to get a better hold on Alexis. "I know pumpkin, but it doesn't hurt my heart any less. I love you too much to not want to try and make the pain go away."

Rick sat in his chair with his own tears rolling down his cheek. When he wasn't even looking anymore, the perfect woman for both of them crashes in his backyard. And now look where they were.

After breakfast they decided they would head up river to see what there was to see. Emily and Kali resisted at first, they would rather go swimming in the pond. That was until they found out they would be going in their swimsuits using the quads.

These quads unlike the ones Rick and Alexis used on Earth, they were a lot quieter so everyone could hear Emily's and Kali's WOO-HOO and they splashed their way up river.

Finally stopping at a pond to do some swimming in.

They had packed lunch on the back of Alexis's quad so they had something to eat after they were done swimming. Then it was back downstream to their campsite where they had to search for more firewood for later.

"You two know tic-tac-toe?" Rick asks Emily and Kali, getting them to shake their heads.

"Oh it's easy. Find yourself a stick to draw with." And while they look Rick draws the lines needed to play.

Once they are back. "Ok the goal is to get three X's or O's in a row with each person getting a turn. Since this is your first game you two can go first and draw an X in one of these squares."

Emily draws an X, while Rick draws an O. Emily soon has three X's in a row and Rick draws a line thru all the X's. "You got three in a row, you win! …. Ready to try again?" Rick rubs out the X's and O's and Rick goes first.

As the girls play they soon find that no one wins all the time, but haven't as yet caught onto putting their first mark in the center first.

Dinner was left over croc that had been stored in one of the coolers that was kept inside one of the shuttles.

After dinner Rick had everyone pull out their sleeping bags so they could lay on them and watch the night sky. "First one to see a shooting star gets to decide what we do tomorrow." Rick offers.

Remarkably Kate went along with this. Doing nothing lying on her back staring at the night sky, with her family around her who is doing the same thing.

It's not lost on Kate that being trapped at their summer home has prepared her for this moment. There was a time when this just wasn't possible. Rick, Alexis and now her own children had changed her.

Kate was lying there thinking about her life ever since she had met Rick and Alexis. She had no idea what her life was going to be like after losing her mother, but this just wasn't on her list.

"MAMA!" Kali was pointing. Kate saw the remnants of the asteroid/shooting star streak across the sky.

"Very good sweetie." Kate leaned over to kiss the side of her head since Kate was the closest to her.

Now Kate was wondering what a 2 year old would want to do tomorrow. Maybe she would forget that part. Yeah, like that was going to happen.

After breakfast Kate remained silent. Maybe if she didn't bring it up Kali would forget, a little worried what a 2 year old would come up with.

Didn't work though. "Mama, can we go swimming?" Kali asks immediately after their light breakfast.

"Of course sweetie, go find your swimsuit." Kate tells her and Kali is off to their tent to look.

They all spent the morning in the pond till most of them were prunes. "Look mama, my fingers look funny." Kali holds out her hand so Kate can see her finger tips.

"You've been in the pond long enough sweetie, time to go dry off and change clothes." Kate tells her.

After lunch Rick and Kate had to go hunting for another croc for dinner. What Rick didn't use went over the falls like last time.

While he was cleaning Kate and Alexis got the sleeping bags back out to lay on them and look at the sky.

"What does that cloud look like?" Alexis asks pointing while looking at Kali.

Kali didn't get it. It was a cloud so it looked like a cloud.

"That one looks like a giant finger fruit." Alexis offers looking at Emily. Maybe she could see something.

"That one looks like a shuttle." Emily points.

"A shuttle?" Alexis questions.

"It's upside down." Emily clarifies.

"Ooohhh." Alexis twists her head to see it.

Kali only ever did see a cloud.

After dinner was marshmallows around the campfire.

"MOM!" Emily cries out when she sees hers fall off her stick and into the fire.

Kate calmly pulls out another one and hands it to her so she can start over again; they had most of an entire bag still, plenty to last for days still.

The next day was taken up with mostly a hiking trip with a quick stop to cook lunch. With Kali being only 2 years old was carried by Rick for most of the time.

Alexis did her best to keep the girls entertained by asking them what each plant they came across was. Emily got most of them and was getting pretty good at it.

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If anyone from Australia is reading, the campsite is Kakadu National Park. Jim Jim Falls to be more precise. Almost the dry season.