Kate awoke to the sound of the kettle. There was sun in her window, early morning, but she still somehow felt like she'd slept in.
The skin of her back pulled as she lifted off the shirt she'd slept in, but the worst of the pain last night had been replaced with tightness and a dull, throbbing ache that matched the muscle soreness in her shoulders and legs.
"Morning." Buffer's voice was sleeprough in a way that was familiar and yet still felt unexpected. "Hope you don't mind but I dug around into your cupboards until I found the kettle." He gestured to where a red cast iron kettle that Kate had honestly forgotten she'd owned sat on the stove.
He handed her a mug. "I did you up a brew, good thing you've got gas."
She took the mug, sipping on the coffee made exactly as she took it. They drank in a comfortable silence that felt familiar, leaning against benches the same way they had the consoles on the bridge.
"How's your back?" Buffer finally offered into the silence.
Kate rolled her shoulders illustratively. "Closed up I think, it's just sore now."
She watched the way his hand flexed almost imperceptibly on his mug and his teeth bit at his lip.
"I'd like to check it if you don't mind." He sounded cautious, as though he didn't want to push the boundaries she had placed between them.
She took a long drink of her coffee to give herself a moment to examine her knee jerk reaction to say no. She knew why, knew why she'd been reluctant the night before too, she was still fighting the barriers she'd placed in herself on the Hammersley. The lines she had drawn so that she would never consider anything more.
"Of course." She told him, placing her mug on the bench and turning her back to him.
It took a long second for him to place his own down and she was suddenly conscious of both the way he had seen her barriers before and the lines he may have also had to place for himself. A hot rush of shame filled her, she had been thinking of her realisations but had considered nothing of how Buffer felt, years after knowing her.
His hands were gentle again and he touched the skin around the dressing, hovering his hand over it to feel for heat. Kate suppressed a shiver.
"Looks pretty good. I think you were lucky. But you'd better keep it dry until it's properly healed."
Kate nodded as she resettled her shirt, pulling out her mobile to ease the awkwardness that had once again taken over their interactions.
She waited until the tone of her phone turning on sounded and held it up to Buffer.
"Have you heard anything from your captain or NAVCOM?"
Buffer looked thoughtful and fished his own phone out of his pocket.
"Yesterday all I got was 'shelter in place' and I don't think the roads are open yet."
Kate's phone chimed a few times as it connected to the network.
"I've got emails from NAVCOM and messages from the Captain and the duty watch." She turned her phone towards him.
Buffer slid up beside her, looking at his own phone as it connected and chimed.
"Looks like we've both got the same email from NAVCOM and I've got one from my captain as well."
It was a much longer message than the last one she'd received.
"Only return to duty stations if safe to travel… blah, blah, blah…leave for affected staff…that'll be useful…" Buffer read it aloud. "That's surprisingly reasonable for the Navy."
Kate bit back a laugh, turning her attention to the messages.
Kate, I hope you're safe. Mike's familiar address was not as welcome as it had been in the past. We don't have enough crew to sail, so do what you can where you are.
"Some of the junior sailors went to check on me and apparently they're not smart enough to recognise an empty boat trailer." Buffer's laugh was amused as he tapped out a response to what she assumed was a status request.
Kate opened the message from Dutchy but it was just a long series of complaints about being stuck with just RO, Charge and too many Seamen.
"Hammersley isn't sailing until the roads open again."
"Neither's the Kingston." He shrugged. "Boat's out while you've got an open wound, but I'm sure there's plenty to get done on land."
The idea of work was a relief, nothing good was coming from the free time she had to think.
Kate and Buffer joined the mud army down near the water's edge, a line that had already moved back to reveal the first houses, strewn with debris and mud. It felt invasive to stick their heads into a stranger's home and help them turf their belongings out onto the verge. Kate was also forced to realise that as much as she wanted to help, her injury prevented her from being as much help as she had hoped.
"Don't tear that back open," Buffer told her, his hand stopping her from lifting an armchair to set it back on its base.
"And what should I do then?"
Buffer smiled somewhat sheepishly at her and handed her a lamp. Kate looked at it and then back at him and he smiled more broadly as he hefted a stack of chairs in his arms and walked out of the room.
At lunch, Alison, trailed by a team of older children, came around with a tub of sandwiches and drinks. Kate had just finished binning the contents of the fridge when Buffer stuck his head around the door.
"Food's up."
It wasn't until that moment that she realised how hungry she was. She wiped her forehead with a relatively clean part of her sleeve and followed him out of the still dripping house.
Kate was handed a wet wipe by one child, and then a sandwich and a bottle of water. She sat down on a mud streaked plastic tub under a tree and tore into her sandwich, watching the workers in the houses around her weaving through the paths they had left in their already towering verges. She had just cracked the bottle of water and guzzled half in one long drink when Alison propped herself against the tree beside her.
"So, you're an officer aren't you?" Kate glanced up at her and nodded.
"Lieutenant."
"Excellent," Alison told her, offering a hand to pull Kate to her feet which she bemusedly took. "I need someone who knows logistics and order."
Kate must have hesitated a moment too long because Alison smirked at her. "You're being conscripted. Someone left me in charge of making sure this lot are fed and watered until the water goes down and the power comes back. You're a fucking godsend." She walked off, and the part of Kate that had been following orders since she was a teenager fell in line behind her. She glanced over at Buffer to let him know where she was going and instead caught him watching her and Alison with a pleased smirk.
Kate spent the rest of the day taking stocktake, organising rosters and allocating resources. In a tent with the hum of a generator in the background, it was barely different from what she'd done in dozens of disaster areas. She let herself get pulled into the work, emerging only when a hand appeared in front of her holding a bowl of spag bol. She looked up from the bowl to the man holding it.
"Good to see you found somewhere to be useful." Buffer commended and handed the bowl to her. Kate pushed back the camp chair she'd been sitting on and noticed how low to the horizon the sun was.
"I'm assuming I have you to thank for it."
Buffer sat down on an esky with his own bowl and shrugged.
"They needed someone to lead. You're one of the best leaders I know."
Kate couldn't help her smile and the warmth that built in her chest at his words.
"It looks like they found your calling too." She nodded at the way he was splattered with mud from head to toe.
"Who would have thought that my experience with carrying heavy loads would have come in handy? It's okay X, we know that skill disappears as soon as you're commissioned as an officer." He leant away from her as though expecting a smack, his grin broad and amused.
Kate found her own smile broadening against her will and she shook her head at him, distracting herself with a forkful of food.
They ate in silence and when they were finished Buffer reached for her bowl, stacking it on his own before offering her a hand up.
"Let's head home." He started walking away from the tent and she opened her mouth to object.
"Alison said you're done. Everyone's fed and they've got the supplies and rosters for breakfast. You're all done." Buffer told her, half turning to urge her on.
Kate followed him, wondering how easy it had been for her neighbours to start treating the two of them as a single unit.