Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Ship, Tom, Rachel, Mike, etc. Kudos to the writers and producers for creating this show!

Mike just had to send her. He had to send her, and she just had to kiss him.

The shower felt good against his stiff muscles; he had a hard time relaxing these days. Rolling his neck, the kinks didn't seem to relent. He let the water spray his face.

Mike put her in danger. If they had lost her...

His mind wandered back to the kiss. How stupid, creating a red flag like that. She could have easily kissed Tex to pass on the message. No doubt, she knew he would know exactly what she was doing; Tex may not have caught on. But for a split second, maybe even two or three seconds, he'd questioned her motives. The way she'd thrown herself into his lips, the heat she radiated, the look on her face when she saw him. Confusion was definitely something he felt right now. And bringing up the kiss didn't seem like a good idea, at all.

She paced the small area of her stateroom, running her fingers through her wet hair. She had a tough time calming down these days, sleep was hard to come by. Especially now.

She hadn't meant to kiss him for so long. She hadn't meant to run at him the way she had, but the adrenalin, the fear coursing through her veins, the fact she wasn't sure she'd survive, all those things had something to do with it. It was meant to be quick. But once her lips hit his, well...stepping back hadn't been as easy as she'd thought it would be.

The feeling of his strong back under her fingertips...she needed to focus, more work was to be done. She needed to sleep. She checked her watch, knew it was the middle of the day. Having been up for several hours however, after all the excitement, she wanted to be tired, needed to be tired. But exhaustion was the last thing she felt.

A knock sounded at her door, and she stopped abruptly, unable to step forward for a moment. She knew who it was on the other side.

Taking a ragged breath, she moved to the door, pulling it open.