Authors Notes: For those who liked where the last chatper ended, you may not want to read this chapter...for those who like a somewhat happier ending I hope you enjoy the final chapter of this story. I did consider a complete re-write of this chapter, but then I also promised the true MK'ers to keep the faith so left it as is. Thanks to everyone for reading/following and most of all reviewing. Enjoy :)

Chapter 14

Despite Mike's insistence that he wanted to be left alone, Maxine and Ryan turned up at his place with dinner in hand. Standing at his front door he contemplated sending them away. He was not in the mood for company, but politeness prevailed and he let them in. Dinner was strained, Mike's throat was so constricted by the big lump that had settled there that he found it impossible to speak, let alone eat.

Both Maxine and Ryan tried to engage Mike into a conversation, but Mike barely spoke to either of them, even when they were asking him questions directly he would just mumble something barely audible and go back to pushing food around his plate, which didn't go unnoticed by Maxine and Ryan. It didn't escape Maxine's attention either that he was barely drinking. There was a half drunk beer on his kitchen bench, and he had barely touched his glass of wine.

Somewhere though the evening Maxine had started cracking her knuckles, it was a nervous habit she had formed years ago and never broken. While Mike was too absorbed in his own misery to notice it, eventually Ryan did and snapped.

"Ok Mum, what are you hiding?" Ryan asked sounding a little harsher than he meant. Maxine just looked at him a little confused before he explained, "Whenever you're nervous or hiding something you crack your knuckles. And you can't be nervous, we're just having dinner, so what are you hiding?"

The question was enough to at least make Mike pay attention as he looked up and watched Maxine's reaction. He knew Ryan was right, but he didn't really care. He had lost Kate and didn't care about anything else. Mike lowered his eyes again, and when he did, something inside Maxine snapped, feeling guilty for his misery that she knew she was partly to blame for. She reached out and placed a hand on his arm to try and get his attention. "Mike, it's about Kate."

Mike glanced at Maxine before lowering his eyes again. "I don't want to talk about Kate, Maxine. She is going to Sydney with Jim. She's gone." Mike choked out defeated. He was past sad, past depressed; he had shed too many tears already. He just felt empty and numb.

Maxine didn't know what to do. She was watching her friend falling apart before her eyes. She had two options: Tell him that Kate was going to Perth alone, or say nothing and hope he would return to his normal self. Kate had asked her not to say anything about where she was going, and on some level she had to respect her wishes.

She also still didn't know what had happened to prompt her to transfer – even if she told him would it make a difference? In the end, she just couldn't handle seeing him hurting so much. She had never seen him like this, he had been bad once before, years ago, but not like this. He looked completely and utterly broken. Making up her mind that he deserved the truth, "Mike, Kate is not going to Sydney, she's going to Perth, and committing career suicide in the process..." Maxine continued but Mike wasn't listening anymore.

All he heard was Kate was going to Perth, not Sydney, which meant she wasn't with Jim. A million thoughts ran through is head. Why didn't she tell him? Why did she lie? Why would she leave them both? But he couldn't help the smile spreading across his face. She wasn't with Jim. He still had a chance. He probably should have thought it through more, but the adrenaline kicked in and he couldn't stop. Cutting Maxine off, he spoke for the first time that night. "Sorry Max, I have to go. Let yourselves out and lock the door behind you.." Mike said running out of his house.

He wasn't entirely sure why he ran to Kate's house instead of driving, all he knew was that he had to get there as fast as he could.

After Kate had seen Mike earlier in the day, she was exhausted from the continuous losing battle of trying to hold onto him. Arriving back at her place she was too tired to think clearly, so instead grabbed a bottle of wine, a glass and took up residence on her couch where she remained for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

There was so much she needed to do for her move, but couldn't bring herself to do anything. So she sat, quietly, on her couch, mentally trying to make a list of what she needed to do. At some point she dozed off, and probably would have stayed there all night if she wasn't woken up by a loud knocking at her door with someone calling out her name. She didn't need to hear the voice, she knew the knock. It was Mike.

She couldn't handle seeing him again, so sat quietly hoping he would go away, but her plan failed. There were a few more knocks at the door and calls of her name before she heard her door being opened. If she hadn't been so exhausted when she came home she would have remembered to lock the door, but in the state she was in it was a wonder she closed it. When she heard him coming down the hallway she knew she was going to have to talk to him again.

The footsteps stopped, Kate could smell his aftershave and knew he was very close, but she couldn't face him. It was too painful. Instead, sounding more angry than she meant, she said "You know, when someone doesn't answer their door, it isn't an invitation to open it and walk in."

"OK, so tell me why you lied to me and I'll leave." Mike said as Kate turned around to face him, confusion all over her face, "You said you were going to Sydney with Jim, when you're actually going to Perth...alone, why did you lie."

Kate rolled her eyes and half smirked. "I never said I was going to Sydney. You assumed, I just didn't correct you."

"So why aren't you going? I thought Jim was offering you everything you wanted for your life?" Mike asked getting more desperate by the second.

Kate's head was spinning and her heart was racing, she couldn't work out what was going on. When she had left Mike earlier she desperately wanted him to ask her to stay. And now, he was here in her living room, and she could not understand why. Was it just out of relief because he found out she wasn't leaving with Jim, or did he actually want to make a commitment to her? They had been here so many times before and they had never managed to get things right. She knew she couldn't survive another failed attempt.

Kate took one look at Mike and knew she couldn't lie, even if it was to protect herself, she couldn't lie to Mike. "Because he isn't you." Kate whispered, turning her gaze down.

Mike's heart was beating outside his chest. He didn't know for sure if he had just heard what he thought he heard, but there was no way he was going to ask her to repeat it in case he was wrong. He still couldn't believe that she hadn't left with Jim. And that she hadn't gone because Jim wasn't him. Did that mean she still loved him? That she still wanted a future with him? He had no idea how this was going to go, all he knew was that he wasn't leaving without Kate knowing how he felt, and what he wanted.

"Not so long ago, I made you a promise. I said that I would back off, but as soon as I was off the ship I'd be back, that I wasn't ready to give up on us. It might be you that has transferred, but I'm back, and I'm still not ready to give up on us." Mike said, trying to control his nerves and with his heart pumping through his throat he inched closer to Kate.

"Mike, how many times have we been here? And now where here again, when we are about to be posted on opposite sides of the country. I mean, how do you expect this to work. We would never see each other." Kate said, not realising she was inching closer to Mike as well.

"I have no idea how it's going to work. All I know is that for a few hours today I thought I had lost you forever and I felt...I just felt...empty. I felt like the world has crashed on top of me..." Mike said with a vulnerability to his voice that Kate hadn't heard before. "I can transfer to Perth, and if there are no postings I can take leave. Or we could talk to Maxine; see if we can't sort something out in Cairns. Or we could both pack it in, invest everything in a yacht and spend our time sailing around the world." Mike said with a slight smile, unable to hide his joy at the idea of spending his days sailing the ocean with Kate. "But all that is secondary. There is one question you need to answer first. You and me, no rules, no regulations, no hiding. We give 'us' a real go. All or nothing. Are you in?" Mike asked with a slight smile still on his face, and voice almost sounding confident, although even he was unable to hide all his nerves.

""I'm scared Mike, if we did..." Kate started before Mike cut her off.

"The question wasn't whether or not you are scared Kate, I'm scared too. It was whether or not you want to give us a real shot." Mike said, inching closer to Kate again.

"No regulations?" Kate asked, stepping closer to Mike.

"No regulations." Mike nodded in response.

"And no hiding?" Kate asked, getting closer still to Mike.

"If you want, I'll take you down to the base now and show you exactly what I mean by no hiding." Mike said taking the final steps to close the gap between himself and Kate. He reached up, gently cupping her face with his hand, tilting it up so that she was forced to look him in the eye. "I love you Kate."

Kate's heart and head were running at a million miles a second. She had waited for this moment for so long, but her first instinct was still to protect herself. In reality she was about to move to Perth. Where would they live? Would they both stay in the Navy, or would one or both leave? And if they left, what would they actually do? "Mike there are so many..." Kate started before Mike cut her off.

"I love you." He repeated softly.

"Mike..." Kate whispered as her eyes looked away from Mike. She wanted to give in, wanted to tell him she felt the same way and begin their lives together, but she was scared.

"I love you." He repeated again, leaning down to rest his forehead on hers, their noses touching. His arms reaching around behind her back, pulling her body even closer to his. He was so close now and he knew it. He was desperate to let his lips fall onto hers and show her exactly how much he meant what he was saying. But he couldn't yet. If this was going to work, he needed her to make the same commitment to him. Knowing that someone loved you was one thing, but hearing it was another. As close as they had been, they had never actually said 'I love you' and now Mike had said it three times, and needed to hear her say it before they could actually move forward.

His heart was beating so fast he was sure Kate would be able to feel it. The longer the silence lasted, the more Mike started to panic that Kate would not be able to say it. Just when he didn't think he could take the silence any longer, he saw Kate's face change. Here eye's softened and her lips began to form a smile. Then he felt her hands moving up his back, forcing her body to press against his.

"I love you Mike," Kate said, her beaming smile now reflected by Mike's as they both took a few seconds to enjoy the moment that had just passed between them. And then they couldn't hold back anymore.

Their kiss was frantic and desperate at the start, before it slowed and intensified, both trying to commit every moment to memory. They had come so close to losing each other forever, and now they were here, telling each other that they loved the other over and over. As Mike moved to take Kate to the couch he tripped on the coffee table, breaking the intensity of the moment but not the intimacy. They both laughed a little as they continued to kiss, their hands roaming each other's bodies.

"Would you really have done this down on the base?" Kate asked playfully, enjoying being able to tease Mike. She knew he wasn't a fan of big public displays of affection, but then neither was she.

"All right, come on," Mike said getting up of the couch, pulling Kate up with him, taking her hand and pulling her towards the door.

"Mike what are you doing?" Kate said laughing, enjoying seeing the impulsive side of Mike.

"You want proof that this is serious, so..." Mike started taking a step back to kiss Kate, "I'm taking you down to the base," he stopped to kiss Kate again, "or the pub, or anywhere else you want to go, and I'm going to do this..." he paused again to kiss Kate passionately, "and this..." kissing down her jaw line, "and this..." He said pushing Kate against the wall kissing down her neck.

"Well, that's one option," Kate said trying to maintain some composure, "but there are a couple of other things we could do instead that can't really be done in public," Kate said raising one eyebrow and playfully kissing Mike while unbuttoning his shirt.

"Your right." Mike said picking Kate up taking her into her bedroom. "The base can wait for tomorrow."

"Or the next day," Kate said, enjoying that there was going to be a tomorrow and the next day.

"Or the day after," Mike said, placing Kate down on the bed, his heart skipping a beat as he looked at her. It wasn't like they hadn't done this before, but this time was different and they both knew it. They both had to take a moment to take a deep breath, before they both smiled and continued what they had started. They knew this was just the start of their life together.

Fin.