***Chapter 14
Kate sat in an armchair in the waiting room, her ankle rested up high with a new splint on it and tried to concentrate on her book. Mike was seated next to her, asking her over and over again if she was in need of something, if she was feeling alright, if he could do something for her. Finally she couldn't stand it any longer.
"Sir, please. I'm fine, only a bit tired. Let's just wait for the X-rays, ok?"
Mike nodded then stood up and started walking up and down the hallway. The blonde rolled her eyes. He wouldn't relax until he was sure she was ok. Kate wondered if there was anything that could divert him and allow her to continue the thrilling story. Her face lit up when an idea entered her mind.
"Why don't you go and see if Miss River has come round? You can pick me up on your way back."
Mike was in two minds. On the one hand he wanted to wait with Kate for the results, on the other hand it was tempting to get an update on Sara's condition.
"You're sure you're ok about me going?" he finally asked. Seeing Kate giving him a nod and a warm reassuring smile, he turned towards the elevator to get to the intensive care unit. Just halfway down the corridor the CO met the young intern that had examined the XO's ankle earlier on approaching them with some files. So Mike turned round again, he too wanted to know the results of the X-ray.
107737. Wrong again! There was no point in carrying on any longer, Robert had to admit. By now, he was fairly sure that the numbers Sara had given them weren't part of a container code. The ones with partly matching numbers had all had a cargo that didn't looked suspecting at all. And even if so, there would be no chance at all to find out which one she meant with just three figures. He took a glance at his watch, it was definitely time to go and hit the rack. Hopefully he wasn't having trouble getting off to sleep. The Radio officer sighed. The first watch started early in the morning and by then he was supposed to be at the bridge performing at his best. But what if the solution to the puzzle was staring directly at his face? Torn he cast one last glance at the endless red and blue rows. No chance! Feeling a little bit irritated RO gave up his search and headed back to Hammersley.
Out of curiosity he allowed himself one last look into a blue container on his way back to the patrol boat. The figures where partly matching. Of course there was nothing interesting in it, nothing but lemonade and water. Robert snorted annoyed. I'd better not tell anybody what I did that night.
"Oh great, now see what that land us in!"
Spider was furious. He completely forgot that it was absolutely inappropriate to talk to a senior sailor like that. Anger, fear, tiredness and the after-effects of the night at the bar came together and made a highly explosive mixture.
"The CO will be angry and who will cop the blame? Hey, I think the bosun's mate hasn't done deck scrubbing for some time! Why don't we let him do that for the rest of his life?!" Angrily he punched the package next to him and flinched. It was harder than he had thought.
The chief engineer allowed his mate to let off steam. He waited calmly until Billy had finished his angry tirade and was massaging his fist before suggesting:
"If you're done, you could probably try to reach Bomber? She left shortly before we did and could be still awake. I'm going to try Swain and Buffer."
Sally nuzzled up against the bare chest of her husband and buried her head at his shoulder. They had left the bar early accompanied by the cheers and whistles of Swain's crew mates. But that hadn't bothered her, she was a sailor's wife not just since yesterday. In the still of the night Sally could hear the strong and even heartbeat, feel the warm skin under her cheek, smell the familiar aftershave, it was just the two of them. She suppressed a sigh. Those nights were rare, especially since they'd got their little girl. They wouldn't trade her for the world of course but now and then a night just as a couple... Sally made a mental note to thank her parents one more time for the baby sitting. Now she felt Chris pulling her closer, laying an arm around her waist. Looking up she saw him smiling drowsily.
"Awake again?" she asked and let her fingers playfully follow the line of his chin. His brown eyes sparkled.
"Not tired at all." he answered and pulled her even closer into his gentle embrace. With her ear still at his jest she could clearly hear Chris' heartbeat quicken. Her breathing accelerated as her own heart followed his example. How she loved that man.
Absorbed with themselves none of them heard the cell phone lying at the nearby coffee table vibrating so heavily it fell to the floor.
"So the good news is your ankle isn't broken and the ligament is intact. But you really should take it easy for the next few days."
The young intern looked at her seriously. "I only clear you fit for light duty if you promise you'll stay off your feet for as much time as possible!"
Having expected something like that, Kate nodded. She glanced sideways to see how the CO took in the news. He seemed relieved but a bit distracted.
"Come on Bomb, just pick up the phone." Spider prayed silently, counting the ring tones. He looked over to Charge who shook his head. No luck with Swain it seemed.
"Try Buffer" he mouthed expecting Bomber to pick up the phone any second.
The water burbled along and the bathtub was almost full, thick steam filled the room and dampened the noises from outside. Rebecca turned the tab off, slowly slid into the tub, leant back and closed her eyes. There was nothing more unwinding than having a bath. The warm water helped her easing the tension she had felt the whole day. Well, to be honest, to wallop the boy's at pool had helped too. She smiled remembering the engineer's face when he'd realised that he had been defeated. Her thoughts drifted off and she fell into a doze. A ringing started her up. Her cell phone was calling for immediate attention. A short glance at the watch told her she had just sat down. Bomber decided to ignore the angry ringing and it wasn't before her fingertips began to wrinkle that she forced herself to get out of the tub again half an hour later. By then she had completely forgotten about the call.
The bosun lay on his rack face down and snorted like there were some square kilometres of forest to be sawn down. The first three signals therefore resulted in no reaction whatsoever. Only with the forth ringing he lifted his head a bit, moaning in pain when the last few drinks he'd had took their toll. Buffer groped for the source of the disturbance and glanced at the display with glassy eyes. It said "Charge". The tall sailor thought for a second then rejected the call. All he wanted for now was sleeping it off. Not on his had-to-do-right-now-list was – sure as hell – to talk to a drunken engineer complaining about the injustice of live that had led to his defeat by a young woman who could by age be his daughter.
Just before drifting into some weird dream about Asian fishermen challenging the crew to a pool competition he heard a signal indicating that there was a new message waiting in his mailbox. Last thing he thought was that it sure could wait until the next morning.
"Anyway, if you hear that please come to the docks and get us out of here. I don't know the number but the container's colour is..."
Spider looked at Charge for help. The engineer shrugged his shoulders. "Blue or green? I didn't pay attention. Not red!" he then added after a short pause.
"The colour's not red, we think it's blue and there's lemonade in here." Spider continued. "And if you..." A high-pitched bleeping interrupted the last sentence. "Oh crap!"
The seaman looked at his crew mate, seeming slightly horrified now.
"What is it?"
"The battery's down."
Andy was surprised how fast one could get sober when the adrenaline levels just rose high enough. He glanced down at his own mobile knowing all too well that nobody would be able to locate them if both mobiles pegged out. A small bar was blinking indicating that there wasn't much energy left. He swore under his breath. If possible that made Spider look even more terrified than before.
"Yours too?" he whispered not sure if he really wanted to hear the answer.
"Don't you even think of cracking up now. We've been in much worse situations than that. Let's see what we have: a partly charged mobile" Charge tried to let it sound positive, "some hundred bottles of water and lemonade and" he turned round and pointed at a small vent at the back wall "fresh air. You've informed Bomber, I left a message with both Swain and Buffer. So we just have to sit down and wait for them to get us out of here. They're coming, at the latest tomorrow morning, you'll see."
Hearing the other one sounding so confident, Spider relaxed a bit and let himself slide down at the wall. He even managed to grin.
"So that may not be the best drink we've ever had but may I offer you some lukewarm lemonade whilst we're waiting for our rescue?"
After pointing out for what felt like a thousand times all the problems that could occur if Kate wouldn't stay of her feet the physician finally allowed them to go home. On their way to the door, a young nurse greeted them broadly smiling and addressed Mike: "Lieutenant Commander Mike Flynn, good evening. Back so soon?"
She eyed Kate's leg with the splint and added half curious half concerned "I hope it isn't something serious?"
"Just sprained, thank you for your concern." Kate answered wondering what was going on between the nurse and the CO. The assistant clearly was flirting. And she could swear that Mike blushed a bit under his tanned skin.
"Miss River got a visitor, a relative is currently with her. So I was wondering, maybe you want to talk to him? He sure would be glad to meet the people that saved his niece." the nurse continued, still smiling. Wishing the two officers a good night she then went on with her round.
Kate looked at Mike who seemed to think of something that bothered him. She waited for him to say something but when he didn't came forward Kate asked:
"What is it? There's something wrong?"
"You know" Mike began then hesitated for a moment. Maybe I'm imagining things here. He inhaled deeply. "Don't you find it odd that we never heard of an uncle of her? In fact, the Feds didn't mention any relatives at all when they were looking for Sara. There was talk of the marine biology institute and of her colleagues yes but nothing of any family member. And now there's an uncle paying a visit in the middle of the night? I don't know."
Kate shrugged her shoulders. "I've never heard something of a relative either but that mustn't mean that there are none, must it? I can only hazard a guess here, maybe the uncle's from the south and couldn't come earlier? But as we're already here, why don't we go and have a look as the nurse suggested?" She linked arms with him and smiled. "You have to help me though and we should probably take the elevator or the young man back there will get a heart attack." Kate nodded at the young intern that was standing where they left him watching them with eagle eyes.
Mike nodded greatfully and led her to the elevators. As always, that woman seemed to be able to read his mind. He sure wouldn't get a wink of sleep if he hadn't had a look at that ominous uncle first.
By the way: Happy Easter holidays! :-)