The next morning she caught Buffer by surprise. It was barely light when she padded down the stairs. Buffer stood in the kitchen, his bare back to her. He was leaning against the countertop, his head resting on his arms and she watched the muscles of his back flex and shift as he breathed. She watched him until it felt strange and then cleared her throat.

"Good morning."

His head shot up and he straightened.

"Morning, X." He looked awkward, as though she had caught him doing something wrong.

"Morning, Buffer." She stepped behind him, heading to the kettle.

She turned back to him while the kettle boiled.

"I think the water should be low enough for us to get further on the road today." She watched him carefully. "I thought we could go check your place."

She knew she'd hit the nail as he stiffened. He'd been so careful not to let her see how affected he was but there was no way losing his home wasn't having an impact.

"I suppose I have to face it sometime." His reply was rueful, caught and she couldn't stop herself from stepping forward and laying a hand on his arm. "At least it's a rental and I don't have to worry about the damage to the property." He let out a long breath and smiled bitterly.

It took them nearly an hour to reach Buffer's. They'd had to detour in places and stop to clear debris in others. But Kate felt strange to know that as distant as Buffer had felt once he left the Hammersley, he was living less than 10 k's away.

They drove past crowds of people, clad in gloves and gumboots, lifting and carrying and pushing brooms.

She was a little surprised to see such a crowd forming around the old weatherboard house Buffer directed her to.

She glanced over at him and he looked as surprised as she did but also pleased.

"Friends of yours?"

"Some of the junior sailors." He grinned. "I'm not going to turn down free labour." He rolled down the window and waved out of it, letting in the pungent smell of rotting vegetation and drawing the crowd's attention.

"Buffer!" The name was called out by at least three different voices and they crowded around the car as she put it in park and turned off the engine. A curly head appeared in the window and a young man offered his knuckles for a bump.

"Thought you might have died when we got here and found your car but no you."

"Windy, so you were the one dumb enough not to recognise an empty boat trailer when you see one." Windy grimaced and stood back, his fellow sailors mocking him as they also reached through the window to greet Buffer.

"Okay, now that you know I'm not dead and Windy's an idiot, get out of the way so I can open the damn door." Buffer's voice was mocking but she recognised the fondness in it from the times when Spider had shown glimmers of his possibility. They scurried back and he stepped out of the car. Kate followed suit on her side, shutting the door behind her. She instantly had the attention of three surprised sets of eyes. Buffer obviously noticed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Windy, Shady, Pincher - meet Kate McGregor." Kate nodded at them and then he made very deliberate eye contact with his sailors. "You can call her Lieutenant or Ma'am."

Three heads bobbed obediently and she received three servisible salutes.

"Ma'am." They all chorused. Then Windy looked towards Buffer and opened his mouth to comment something. Kate wasn't sure what it was but his crewmates obviously knew when he was about to drop himself in it and he caught a quick elbow in the side. She could see Buffer hide a smirk before he gathered their attention back to him.

"Well, now that we've got that sorted, let's go see the mess we've got to deal with."

Kate's focus was on Buffer as he unlocked the front door, shoving it in against whatever had piled up behind it and the warping of the floorboards. She saw the pain that flickered across his face as he got his first look at the muddy mess that awaited him.

She watched him take a deep breath and let it out. He pulled a roll of bin bags out of his backpack and threw it at Shady.

"You take the kitchen - I don't want anything the water touched. Bag it and throw it out on the verge."

Then he turned to Windy and Pincher. "You two are going to follow me and carry out anything I tell you to. You don't touch anything unless Kate or I tell you too. Understand?"

The two of them nodded, a little cowed under Buffer's commanding tone. "Go get the plastic tubs from the car and then meet me in the bedroom." Kate watched them scurry away before returning her focus to Buffer and the tightness around his eyes. She wanted to reach out and comfort him but something about the stiffness of his shoulders told her that sympathy like that might crack the fragile facade of his calm.

He let out a long sigh as he stepped into the hallway, his eyes darting around from the mud to the belongings strewn across every surface.

"At least I don't have that much stuff." He shrugged resignedly. "I only moved out of base housing a few months ago."

It was a brutal experience to watch him pick through the remains of his belongings, throwing the vast majority of his putrid and stinking things into bin bags, with only the occasional item deemed salvageable. She helped as much as she could but was thankful for the obedient assistance of his junior sailors, who carried a house's worth of furniture to the curb and then dumped bin bag after bin bag on top.

As the last of the sunset they were left, mud streaked and exhausted, in the empty shell of a house, the only things left of Buffer's life were the 5 foul smelling plastic tubs in the back seat and boot of her car and what he had carried to safety on the boat.

They sent the junior sailors away with their thanks and Buffer's promises to see them tomorrow when the road was predicted to be fully cleared to the wharf.

As they disappeared into their own cars Kate watched Buffer's shoulders slump. She finally let herself touch him and he turned into her, his chest heaving and she wrapped her arms around him as he pressed his face into her hair.

She knew the lines that had separated them were blurring but in that moment she was not thinking about what might be, just what was. And that was the way Buffer's shoulders shook as he breathed raggedly in her arms. After a long moment, he took a few deep breaths and stood back, his face smoothing as he forced himself under control.

He looked around once more and then turned towards the car.

"Time to head home."

Kate wasn't even sure if he noticed what he had said but it matched the truth of his slumped shoulders - this wasn't home anymore.