Recipe For Love

by Clairisant2000

This is a sequel story to Baby Baby. It focuses on Sturgis meeting and falling in love with AJ's daughter Francesca. They face many obstacles along the way to their happy ending, one of which is how to tell her father about their relationship.

1. Chapter 1

TITLE: Recipe For Love

AUTHOR: Clairisant and Brenda

CLASSIFICATION/RATING: Sturgis/ Francesca, AJ/Kara, George/Becky, Harm/Mac, Coates/Tiner/ NC 17

FEEDBACK: Would love to hear both good and bad feedback but please try to be kind and constructive.

SPECIAL NOTE: This story is a sequel to my story Baby! Baby! and begins two weeks before Baby! Baby! officially ended. Also Italian words used will have a translation after them the first time they are used in these {*} brackets.

Chapter 1

Friday, 9 May 2003

1045 EST

JAG Headquarters

Falls Church, Virginia

Commander Sturgis Turner sat in his office lost in thought. This was not unusual, what was unusual was, it was not a work related topic that had put the far away look on his face. Anyone that knew him would have a hard time believing this, but it was true. He was thinking about a lovely Italian beauty and how he had ended up with feelings for her when he was involved with someone else.

He had not intended to become involved with her. It had simply started out as a kind gesture. Colonel Mackenzie's car couldn't hold all of the things she had brought to the wedding/picnic last year, and a passenger so he had offered to drive Francesca to Mac's apartment. They had not met again until the JAG Christmas party at Admiral Chegwidden's house. On neither occasion had Bobbi Latham been with him. Oh, she had been at the Admiral's wedding, but had left right after, choosing to campaign rather than attend the picnic. And at Christmas she had gone home to visit her mother. Sturgis had been a bit surprised that she hadn't asked him to go with her. Even though he felt it was too early in their relationship for meeting the families. He knew that Bobbi saw them as much farther along in their relationship than he did.

Now he was wondering how to best end it with Bobbi because of these new feelings. Sturgis and his Italian beauty had begun emailing after the picnic. Then, after meeting again at Christmas, and learning that both loved cooking, they had started to phone and IRC (instant message) each other as well. He hadn't even had a date with her! That was not scheduled until her visit to the US on Memorial Day later this month. But he knew that his feelings for her were much deeper than anything he had ever felt for Bobbi. That was why he was sitting here in his office, during work hours, trying to figure out the most graceful way to end it with Bobbi.

"Figuring out your strategy for beating Mac on the Peterson case, old buddy?" Harm stood at the office door and interrupted his thought process.

"Do you ever knock, old buddy?" Sturgis asked with just a bit of the annoyance he was feeling coming through in his voice.

Harm smirked in the open doorway, took one step back, and knocked on the doorframe. "Better?"

"You know, no one likes a smartass, old buddy."

"Ouch! What's eating your six?" Harm asked in surprise.

Remembering the number of women that his friend had managed to go through over the years, Sturgis thought that maybe he might be able to gain some insight into his own problem here. "Come in, Harm, close the door. I have a personal question to ask."

"No, I won't bump Mac off so you can win the case," Harm teased as he came into the office and closed the door. Sitting down in one of the chairs across the desk from Sturgis, he looked up expectantly.

"It's not about any case, I need to know what you do when you are involved with two women at the same time."

"Celebrate!" Harm gave his friend his cocky grin.

"Great, I should have known that you would be no help!" Sturgis ran his hands over his hair in frustration. He should have known by this time in their friendship that he could never get a serious answer from Harm unless it was about a legal case.

"I'm sorry, Sturgis, this looks serious. How can I help," Harm offered after seeing that his friend really seemed upset about this…whatever 'this' was.

Relenting in his assessment of his friend's ability to help, largely because he had no one else to turn to in this matter, Sturgis asked. "How do you get rid of one woman because you have met someone else that you want to be involved with?"

To be continued…..