Tropico (Kate and Horatio)
Who: Kate and Horatio (the big one)
What: After the Jack-That's-Not-Jack tried to kill her, she spends her recovery time Eiko's pocket universe, Tropico, with Horatio.
Under any other set of circumstances, Kate would have loved an island getaway. Tropico was more than pleasant for such a trip. However, the better part of her days in the island dimension were spent sleeping, sitting, more sleeping, and more positions that required her to do nothing. There were the occasional times during the day when she applied an ointment to her bruises and ate. It was only during the middle of the week when Kate started to extend herself. The sea was good for injuries and for a few moments, during the middle of the day, Kate would go into the ocean. It wasn't quite a swim mind you. She didn't go out past her shoulders as far as depth goes but it was relaxing to just float, letting the swell of the waves rock her body. That was where she was now, clad in a simple brown one-piece suit. She took a deep breath and sunk under the water only to resurfaced in a more vertical position. Her eyes were cast shoreward. She supposed that she should go back now.
The tropical island reminded Horatio distinctly of the West Indies -- his tour of duty in the HMS Renown under Captain Sawyer, the action at Samaná alongside Lieutenant Bush, and the long weekend in Kingston that followed their prize money he couldn't quite scrub clean from his conscious -- and, under other circumstances, it might have been a pleasant thing to think upon. Hornblower, however, was much more concerned with Kate and her well-being. Now, with her rehabilitation taking her to the ocean, he was especially so, not wanting for her to overexert herself too soon. Therefore, perhaps awkwardly, he joined her at the beach that day, settled into the warm sand out of the reach of the surf. Horatio had relegated himself to somewhat modern attire for the occasion, dark slacks probably too warm for the tropics and a white dress shirt he kept buttoned most of the way, though he looked more uncomfortable at the near nakedness of modern attire than the uncomfortable way it didn't seem suited for the beach.
Kate kicked up in the water, swimming a bit towards the shore but walking the rest of the way when the water became too shallow the waves too crashing. She'd not been in long, less than an hour, and yet she was tired. So this is what normal people feel like? Once on the shore, Kate scooped up her towel. As she walked towards Horatio, she wrapped it around her body like a sarong. Most of the bruises were gone now, save for faint traces of yellow and purple that would take another couple of days to get rid of. "Hey." She said simply, and dropped down to sit next to him. He was always watching over her, wasn't he?
He was. Except when she was naked by nineteenth century standards and dripping with water. Horatio had looked away, too embarrassed by the practically criminal amount of clothing she wasn't wearing, averting his eyes until he felt her shift to settle into the sand next to him. If she looked carefully, he was flushed red from more than just time spent in the sun. "How are you feeling?" he asked, carefully regulating the embarrassment and whatever else out of his voice.
Normal. "I'm a bit tired but okay." It was only a small lie. She was a little bit sore but she had not done anything physical for several days now. Kate turned her head to look at him and noticed that a small amount of redness had crept into his skin. She could remember Eiko saying something about the sun not being able to give you a sunburn. Oh. She felt dumb and just a little bit embarrassed herself. Knees, ankles and elbows were one thing but Kate was wearing a bathing suit and a towel. She had never really thought about it before. "I think I should probably go and change."
Horatio, realizing that he was flushed a really brilliant shade of red, glanced down at the sand - which was less than conveniently where her legs were - and then off in the direction of the ocean, squinting and trying to look less embarrassed than he actually was. "It's fine," he answered, understanding that she was offering just for his sake. "I have ridiculous, out-dated sentiments about things, Kate, don't mind me." Don't mind him and he'd try his best not to stare at her bare legs, despite the fact that they were nice and probably the first explicitly bare legs he'd seen in such an obvious, unanticipated context. Then, to shift the subject, he added, "I'm glad you're feeling okay. You should be tired for a few days, it's quite normal. I'm not sure how Doctor Takashima managed to cure you so quickly, but I'm glad for it. I've been injured as badly and it was a long, painful recovery I wouldn't want for you."
"I have never really believed that you were ridiculous Horatio." Out-dated? Okay, yes. They were from two completely different times. "I should probably change anyway. The sun will be setting soon and I should rinse the salt water off." Kate cast her gaze back out at the ocean. The sun wasn't very high in the sky. When it came to the subject of her being healed so quickly and the mere fact that she survived, it took her a few moments to gather her thoughts. "Yes. Doctor Takashima is a genius. She has a lot of technology that a lot of people, myself included, don't understand." So it wasn't just a matter of him being from a different time. "There was a bit of magic too. Professor Snape is a very skilled wizard and a potions master." A soft sigh was expelled, "But, and I don't know how I can ever express my gratitude well enough, if you hadn't have been there..." She can't quite force herself to mention what might have been.
If you hadn't have been there... The mere thought of what might have happened had Horatio's hand inexplicably closed over Kate's, squeezing in a reassuring way he usually wasn't, unchecked and openly honest. "Don't think on it. I learned in the service that one should never think of things that might have been, for it's often morbid thought that gets one nowhere. You are grateful, I understand, but you must know that I would never let any harm come to you, Kate, and thinking on it any further than that isn't necessary."
She had thought about it. Kate's hand squeezed his in return. I would never let any harm come to you. She smiled at Horatio. "Thank you. I think I'm very lucky to have someone like you in my life and I'm not sure that I deserve it. I ask an awful lot of you sometimes, sometimes I'm very selfish." She did. She knew it. Kate pushed him out of his comfort zone on more than one occasion. "I've never said this before but I do care about you. I can about you an awful lot." See. She was even pushing him out of his comfort zone as she spoke.
Horatio, for all his protesting, was probably even less innocent than Kate, only better at masking it behind a polite facade. He was a married man, under the eyes of God and according to several reputable witnesses, and yet while he had been at sea he had been something else completely - and was again here, sitting on the beach with her. It wasn't new, not really, but it wasn't something he perfectly accepted and did not lament being. How could he? "I would not be anywhere else, I swear to you," Horatio answered, though he knew he was lying just a bit. He would be dueling Jack right now if he had the opportunity, as Kate was mostly recovered and that was the only honorable conclusion to the matter for him. "Right now?" he asked, stalling to give himself time to push aside the thoughts of doing serious physical harm to Jack so that he could, in good conscious, answer her honestly. Horatio glanced over again, perhaps leaning a little closer - or was that the wind? "I'm thinking it would be nice to stay here, on holiday, for a while."
That made her smile. She wasn't the type that needed daily affirmation of someone's love or of their feelings. However, when it was offered so freely, and she knew that it must be very hard for him to say, it touched her heart. "That's means a lot to me to hear that." When the subject came to extending the stay to a vacation, Kate didn't quite know what to say. Instead she drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. "A vacation would be nice." She didn't disagree. However, she did have a lot of responsibilities that she just couldn't walk away from. "What about my students? Prime?" Kate stopped herself from saying Jack. She was worried about him. It wasn't something she could deny. "I would very much like a vacation though. I'd like to see the South Pacific."
Horatio glanced out towards the ocean. "I'm sorry," he apologized without slipping entirely back into the formality that proper social conduct dictated. It was too nice, the moment, to bother with the stricter side of things that only he really observed in the insanity of this place and its people. While he was British and, be damned, the whole world could fall down around him while he still kept his composure and dignity, it seemed...unfitting. "I had not spared a thought for your responsibilities at the Institute. I'm sure Headmaster Snape would not approve of my stealing away one of his employees, even for a much needed holiday. I wish - " He thought of Jack, how he could be in three different places on the same day at one time, but failed to grasp the uncertainties of the thing. " - I wish there were some way that we could manage it without interrupting your obligations, but it seems fanciful to me." South Pacific? Was that where they were? He glanced back towards Kate. "I've never been to the Pacific, actually, though I do miss the ocean. I would...greatly enjoy sailing upon it again, even for a few days." Greatly enjoy, it seemed from his tone, was the way Hornblower said love.
"You don't have to apologize to me Horatio. It's a nice thought." Perhaps they could go someplace and she could teleport, via her PINpoint, back and forth? "It might not be so fanciful." She said after a few short moments and lifted her chin up off of her knees. Kate turned her head and looked back to him. "I have a device. Have you ever heard of a PINpoint? It allows anyone to instantaneasouly move from one place to the other. We could go." Kate watched him carefully as he spoke of sailing. "Do you know, I've never been sailing before." It wasn't a lie. She'd been on a boat and a ferry but it wasn't quite the same thing. "Where was your favorite place to sail?"
He nodded, just simply. He didn't want to explain that Jack had, often enough times, attempted to explain the technology behind the device - and others - to him, as it was still a sore subject for them. Harkness. Horatio squinted and glanced down at the sand between them, carefully masking the way his jaw clenched and the anger that no doubt flashed in his eyes. "...if we could, then I should like to take you sailing," he said, while still looking down, though his voice was softer than anticipated. He looked up after a moment and smiled. "I sailed wherever my King and country needed me, Kate, and it didn't matter to where. I felt truly free." He realized the magnitude of that statement and tried to play it down with another smile.
She would have to go back to Cardiff first. Both would have to pack. "I'd like too. I don't care where to either." Kate tilted her head in his direction. Her hand moved just a little bit to where her fingertips brushed his. "It's hard for me to imagine that you could just look up at the stars and the position of the sun to figure out where you are. It seems pretty amazing or am I over simplifying it?" Kate could read a map with a compass but without said compass, she should be lost. "Free. Hmmm." There were questions that she wanted to ask him. She wanted to ask him if he missed it. If he could go back, would he? However, she also didn't want to pry. "I'm know that this time is different from your world. Sailing is almost a thing of the past the way you know it and I have to say, that if I were in your situation, this far out of my own time, I don't think that I would be handling it this well or this bravely."
Horatio glanced down at the way her fingers brushed against his, such a purposeful movement at such a moment in time was not sheer coincidence and he did not take it as such. All things considered, Hornblower was never a man to do anything halfway or almost, leaving nothing incomplete and left entirely to chance, so it was little wonder that he shifted his hand to grasp hers solidly, lacing their fingers with a deft movement of his elegant ones. He hardly missed a beat in the conversation itself. "It is a mathematical certainty, though a map and a compass are needed for expert navigation by sea. It...isn't very simple, no, but I have done it so often I fail to see the amazement in it. Thank you." His attention didn't wander, just moved slowly up from their hands to her face - his expression just a shade of unreadable. "I will not lie and say that I haven't fallen apart many times since arriving here, but it was always your kindness and care that put my pieces back into place. I fear I shall fall apart many more times before I grow accustomed to this new life, but - I'm British, I have to soldier on, it's what we do." In his day, still, the sun had not set on the British Empire.
She shook her head. "Beyond using it in everyday situations, mathematics has never been my strong suit." Oh, she passed algebra and she had taken astronomy. She was no scientist. She wasn't even a geek or a nerd. Kate was far too creative. "That's just it. You've done it. Most people nowadays have to rely on a gadget to tell them where they are. Everyone is use to doing things the easy way." It wasn't false praise. It was the complete and utter truth. "Horatio. You're my.." She stopped. To say that he was her friend just didn't seem right. He was much more than that. "You shouldn't thank me for it. I do it willingly because I care for you a great deal." She lowered her head. "I'd also like to say that getting angry at you over my coffeepot was probably the most idiotic thing that I've done in a while.”
"I'm sure it's only because man must make the world smaller because he can truly move beyond it to other places," Horatio said logically of the technological advancements people relied upon in the future. He blinked as she stopped herself, wondering what she meant to say without actually showing curiosity in his expression. Instead, he waited for her to move on with what she hadn't clearly intended to say and kept wondering as she spoke. "I should thank you for it, Kate. The understanding of certain feelings should not negate the necessity of expressing how one feelings." Hypocrite. "I'm sure, at the time, it was a tragic loss. I still feel remorse for blundering so carelessly with your things."
"That's a very wise way of looking at it." Kate said with a nod of her head. He wasn't just her friend. There just wasn't a word for it which was a shame. Horatio was very good at schooling his expressions. It was very hard for her to even attempt to guess at what he was thinking. "No. It was just caffeine. I was annoyed and I made a bigger deal out of it than I should have. It was just a machine and easily replaced. I was dumb and for that I apologize." She let out a deep breath and scooted a little bit closer to Horatio. To be fair, the wind had kicked up a bit and the sun was even closer to the horizon line by now.
She must have been cold. And he wasn't entirely wonderful at communicating, so her moving closer perfectly coincided with his releasing her hand. A moment later, however, Horatio had shifted closer in the sand and put a very tentative arm around her shoulders. "It doesn't matter now, Kate. It's only a machine and I'm...just a fool when it comes to machines. I'm getting better - " Under Jack's tutoring, that is, and he paused at the near-mention of Harkness, stiffening just a little with all the repressed anger he felt towards the man. Then, after a few moments, he suggested, "Perhaps we should go inside now? It's getting dark and you're...probably cold." He explained the arm around her very tactfully.
What: After the Jack-That's-Not-Jack tried to kill her, she spends her recovery time Eiko's pocket universe, Tropico, with Horatio.
Under any other set of circumstances, Kate would have loved an island getaway. Tropico was more than pleasant for such a trip. However, the better part of her days in the island dimension were spent sleeping, sitting, more sleeping, and more positions that required her to do nothing. There were the occasional times during the day when she applied an ointment to her bruises and ate. It was only during the middle of the week when Kate started to extend herself. The sea was good for injuries and for a few moments, during the middle of the day, Kate would go into the ocean. It wasn't quite a swim mind you. She didn't go out past her shoulders as far as depth goes but it was relaxing to just float, letting the swell of the waves rock her body. That was where she was now, clad in a simple brown one-piece suit. She took a deep breath and sunk under the water only to resurfaced in a more vertical position. Her eyes were cast shoreward. She supposed that she should go back now.
The tropical island reminded Horatio distinctly of the West Indies -- his tour of duty in the HMS Renown under Captain Sawyer, the action at Samaná alongside Lieutenant Bush, and the long weekend in Kingston that followed their prize money he couldn't quite scrub clean from his conscious -- and, under other circumstances, it might have been a pleasant thing to think upon. Hornblower, however, was much more concerned with Kate and her well-being. Now, with her rehabilitation taking her to the ocean, he was especially so, not wanting for her to overexert herself too soon. Therefore, perhaps awkwardly, he joined her at the beach that day, settled into the warm sand out of the reach of the surf. Horatio had relegated himself to somewhat modern attire for the occasion, dark slacks probably too warm for the tropics and a white dress shirt he kept buttoned most of the way, though he looked more uncomfortable at the near nakedness of modern attire than the uncomfortable way it didn't seem suited for the beach.
Kate kicked up in the water, swimming a bit towards the shore but walking the rest of the way when the water became too shallow the waves too crashing. She'd not been in long, less than an hour, and yet she was tired. So this is what normal people feel like? Once on the shore, Kate scooped up her towel. As she walked towards Horatio, she wrapped it around her body like a sarong. Most of the bruises were gone now, save for faint traces of yellow and purple that would take another couple of days to get rid of. "Hey." She said simply, and dropped down to sit next to him. He was always watching over her, wasn't he?
He was. Except when she was naked by nineteenth century standards and dripping with water. Horatio had looked away, too embarrassed by the practically criminal amount of clothing she wasn't wearing, averting his eyes until he felt her shift to settle into the sand next to him. If she looked carefully, he was flushed red from more than just time spent in the sun. "How are you feeling?" he asked, carefully regulating the embarrassment and whatever else out of his voice.
Normal. "I'm a bit tired but okay." It was only a small lie. She was a little bit sore but she had not done anything physical for several days now. Kate turned her head to look at him and noticed that a small amount of redness had crept into his skin. She could remember Eiko saying something about the sun not being able to give you a sunburn. Oh. She felt dumb and just a little bit embarrassed herself. Knees, ankles and elbows were one thing but Kate was wearing a bathing suit and a towel. She had never really thought about it before. "I think I should probably go and change."
Horatio, realizing that he was flushed a really brilliant shade of red, glanced down at the sand - which was less than conveniently where her legs were - and then off in the direction of the ocean, squinting and trying to look less embarrassed than he actually was. "It's fine," he answered, understanding that she was offering just for his sake. "I have ridiculous, out-dated sentiments about things, Kate, don't mind me." Don't mind him and he'd try his best not to stare at her bare legs, despite the fact that they were nice and probably the first explicitly bare legs he'd seen in such an obvious, unanticipated context. Then, to shift the subject, he added, "I'm glad you're feeling okay. You should be tired for a few days, it's quite normal. I'm not sure how Doctor Takashima managed to cure you so quickly, but I'm glad for it. I've been injured as badly and it was a long, painful recovery I wouldn't want for you."
"I have never really believed that you were ridiculous Horatio." Out-dated? Okay, yes. They were from two completely different times. "I should probably change anyway. The sun will be setting soon and I should rinse the salt water off." Kate cast her gaze back out at the ocean. The sun wasn't very high in the sky. When it came to the subject of her being healed so quickly and the mere fact that she survived, it took her a few moments to gather her thoughts. "Yes. Doctor Takashima is a genius. She has a lot of technology that a lot of people, myself included, don't understand." So it wasn't just a matter of him being from a different time. "There was a bit of magic too. Professor Snape is a very skilled wizard and a potions master." A soft sigh was expelled, "But, and I don't know how I can ever express my gratitude well enough, if you hadn't have been there..." She can't quite force herself to mention what might have been.
If you hadn't have been there... The mere thought of what might have happened had Horatio's hand inexplicably closed over Kate's, squeezing in a reassuring way he usually wasn't, unchecked and openly honest. "Don't think on it. I learned in the service that one should never think of things that might have been, for it's often morbid thought that gets one nowhere. You are grateful, I understand, but you must know that I would never let any harm come to you, Kate, and thinking on it any further than that isn't necessary."
She had thought about it. Kate's hand squeezed his in return. I would never let any harm come to you. She smiled at Horatio. "Thank you. I think I'm very lucky to have someone like you in my life and I'm not sure that I deserve it. I ask an awful lot of you sometimes, sometimes I'm very selfish." She did. She knew it. Kate pushed him out of his comfort zone on more than one occasion. "I've never said this before but I do care about you. I can about you an awful lot." See. She was even pushing him out of his comfort zone as she spoke.
Horatio, for all his protesting, was probably even less innocent than Kate, only better at masking it behind a polite facade. He was a married man, under the eyes of God and according to several reputable witnesses, and yet while he had been at sea he had been something else completely - and was again here, sitting on the beach with her. It wasn't new, not really, but it wasn't something he perfectly accepted and did not lament being. How could he? "I would not be anywhere else, I swear to you," Horatio answered, though he knew he was lying just a bit. He would be dueling Jack right now if he had the opportunity, as Kate was mostly recovered and that was the only honorable conclusion to the matter for him. "Right now?" he asked, stalling to give himself time to push aside the thoughts of doing serious physical harm to Jack so that he could, in good conscious, answer her honestly. Horatio glanced over again, perhaps leaning a little closer - or was that the wind? "I'm thinking it would be nice to stay here, on holiday, for a while."
That made her smile. She wasn't the type that needed daily affirmation of someone's love or of their feelings. However, when it was offered so freely, and she knew that it must be very hard for him to say, it touched her heart. "That's means a lot to me to hear that." When the subject came to extending the stay to a vacation, Kate didn't quite know what to say. Instead she drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. "A vacation would be nice." She didn't disagree. However, she did have a lot of responsibilities that she just couldn't walk away from. "What about my students? Prime?" Kate stopped herself from saying Jack. She was worried about him. It wasn't something she could deny. "I would very much like a vacation though. I'd like to see the South Pacific."
Horatio glanced out towards the ocean. "I'm sorry," he apologized without slipping entirely back into the formality that proper social conduct dictated. It was too nice, the moment, to bother with the stricter side of things that only he really observed in the insanity of this place and its people. While he was British and, be damned, the whole world could fall down around him while he still kept his composure and dignity, it seemed...unfitting. "I had not spared a thought for your responsibilities at the Institute. I'm sure Headmaster Snape would not approve of my stealing away one of his employees, even for a much needed holiday. I wish - " He thought of Jack, how he could be in three different places on the same day at one time, but failed to grasp the uncertainties of the thing. " - I wish there were some way that we could manage it without interrupting your obligations, but it seems fanciful to me." South Pacific? Was that where they were? He glanced back towards Kate. "I've never been to the Pacific, actually, though I do miss the ocean. I would...greatly enjoy sailing upon it again, even for a few days." Greatly enjoy, it seemed from his tone, was the way Hornblower said love.
"You don't have to apologize to me Horatio. It's a nice thought." Perhaps they could go someplace and she could teleport, via her PINpoint, back and forth? "It might not be so fanciful." She said after a few short moments and lifted her chin up off of her knees. Kate turned her head and looked back to him. "I have a device. Have you ever heard of a PINpoint? It allows anyone to instantaneasouly move from one place to the other. We could go." Kate watched him carefully as he spoke of sailing. "Do you know, I've never been sailing before." It wasn't a lie. She'd been on a boat and a ferry but it wasn't quite the same thing. "Where was your favorite place to sail?"
He nodded, just simply. He didn't want to explain that Jack had, often enough times, attempted to explain the technology behind the device - and others - to him, as it was still a sore subject for them. Harkness. Horatio squinted and glanced down at the sand between them, carefully masking the way his jaw clenched and the anger that no doubt flashed in his eyes. "...if we could, then I should like to take you sailing," he said, while still looking down, though his voice was softer than anticipated. He looked up after a moment and smiled. "I sailed wherever my King and country needed me, Kate, and it didn't matter to where. I felt truly free." He realized the magnitude of that statement and tried to play it down with another smile.
She would have to go back to Cardiff first. Both would have to pack. "I'd like too. I don't care where to either." Kate tilted her head in his direction. Her hand moved just a little bit to where her fingertips brushed his. "It's hard for me to imagine that you could just look up at the stars and the position of the sun to figure out where you are. It seems pretty amazing or am I over simplifying it?" Kate could read a map with a compass but without said compass, she should be lost. "Free. Hmmm." There were questions that she wanted to ask him. She wanted to ask him if he missed it. If he could go back, would he? However, she also didn't want to pry. "I'm know that this time is different from your world. Sailing is almost a thing of the past the way you know it and I have to say, that if I were in your situation, this far out of my own time, I don't think that I would be handling it this well or this bravely."
Horatio glanced down at the way her fingers brushed against his, such a purposeful movement at such a moment in time was not sheer coincidence and he did not take it as such. All things considered, Hornblower was never a man to do anything halfway or almost, leaving nothing incomplete and left entirely to chance, so it was little wonder that he shifted his hand to grasp hers solidly, lacing their fingers with a deft movement of his elegant ones. He hardly missed a beat in the conversation itself. "It is a mathematical certainty, though a map and a compass are needed for expert navigation by sea. It...isn't very simple, no, but I have done it so often I fail to see the amazement in it. Thank you." His attention didn't wander, just moved slowly up from their hands to her face - his expression just a shade of unreadable. "I will not lie and say that I haven't fallen apart many times since arriving here, but it was always your kindness and care that put my pieces back into place. I fear I shall fall apart many more times before I grow accustomed to this new life, but - I'm British, I have to soldier on, it's what we do." In his day, still, the sun had not set on the British Empire.
She shook her head. "Beyond using it in everyday situations, mathematics has never been my strong suit." Oh, she passed algebra and she had taken astronomy. She was no scientist. She wasn't even a geek or a nerd. Kate was far too creative. "That's just it. You've done it. Most people nowadays have to rely on a gadget to tell them where they are. Everyone is use to doing things the easy way." It wasn't false praise. It was the complete and utter truth. "Horatio. You're my.." She stopped. To say that he was her friend just didn't seem right. He was much more than that. "You shouldn't thank me for it. I do it willingly because I care for you a great deal." She lowered her head. "I'd also like to say that getting angry at you over my coffeepot was probably the most idiotic thing that I've done in a while.”
"I'm sure it's only because man must make the world smaller because he can truly move beyond it to other places," Horatio said logically of the technological advancements people relied upon in the future. He blinked as she stopped herself, wondering what she meant to say without actually showing curiosity in his expression. Instead, he waited for her to move on with what she hadn't clearly intended to say and kept wondering as she spoke. "I should thank you for it, Kate. The understanding of certain feelings should not negate the necessity of expressing how one feelings." Hypocrite. "I'm sure, at the time, it was a tragic loss. I still feel remorse for blundering so carelessly with your things."
"That's a very wise way of looking at it." Kate said with a nod of her head. He wasn't just her friend. There just wasn't a word for it which was a shame. Horatio was very good at schooling his expressions. It was very hard for her to even attempt to guess at what he was thinking. "No. It was just caffeine. I was annoyed and I made a bigger deal out of it than I should have. It was just a machine and easily replaced. I was dumb and for that I apologize." She let out a deep breath and scooted a little bit closer to Horatio. To be fair, the wind had kicked up a bit and the sun was even closer to the horizon line by now.
She must have been cold. And he wasn't entirely wonderful at communicating, so her moving closer perfectly coincided with his releasing her hand. A moment later, however, Horatio had shifted closer in the sand and put a very tentative arm around her shoulders. "It doesn't matter now, Kate. It's only a machine and I'm...just a fool when it comes to machines. I'm getting better - " Under Jack's tutoring, that is, and he paused at the near-mention of Harkness, stiffening just a little with all the repressed anger he felt towards the man. Then, after a few moments, he suggested, "Perhaps we should go inside now? It's getting dark and you're...probably cold." He explained the arm around her very tactfully.