If Only the Dead Could Talk

Peter

Disclaimer: The characters of JAG are the property of Donald Bellisario and Bellisarius Production, Inc. Used without permission. No copyright infringement intended. May be reproduce if unchanged, author given full credit, and no financial transaction is involved.

Spoiler: None

Pairing: Harm/Mac, Victoria/Henry

Alternate Universe

Summary: When the future meets the past, strange things happen. The son of a lost love of Harm meets Mac's daughter at Annapolis with interesting results.

Author's note: This is a continuing story of an "A Special Child" Mac's daughter, given up at birth, reunited with Mac, is now attending Annapolis.

part one

1258 hours

Wednesday

28 Sept 2005

Naval Academy

Tory was running late for class. She had spilled some food or drink on her uniform at lunch and had to go back to her barracks to change. It would be cutting it pretty close under normal situations, but going back to her room to change wasn't going to help.

Fortunately for her she realized her accident early during her meal so she was able to cut her lunch short. It hadn't taken her very long to get back to her room to change, but unfortunately her roommate was there. She had the stomach flu so she was in the room resting.

She hadn't had any visitors all day so when Tory showed up she wanted to talk. Tory had to give her a quick synopsis of what happen in classes today, but she didn't have time and needed to get going. Her roommate whimpered in disappointment that she had to leave.

Her talk with her roommate put her further behind schedule. She would have to double time it to class if she wanted to make it on time. Double time wasn't exactly her idea of fun. She hated to get sweaty for no apparent reason.

It was bad enough when she had to exercise or do drills for hours on end, but to run and get dirty and sweaty for no reason didn't sit well with her.

She was almost to the building where her class was being held. She turned a corner and ran into what felt like to her a brick wall. But there shouldn't have been a brick wall there, at least not in the middle of a sidewalk.

She fell hard to the ground with her books flying everywhere. She heard something or someone groaned and then laugh at her expense or so she imagined. She let out a few choice Marine curses she had once heard her mother use.

This once again brought out the sound of laughter. She looked up to see a giant of a man standing there towering over her. He leaned over and held out a huge hand to help her up. She recognized him as a second year cadet.

She knew she should take the proffered hand or risk hearing him reprimand her, something she didn't need at this time. She reached up her smaller hand, which he took. He easily pulled her to her feet as though she weighed a feather.

"Sorry Sir, I guess I wasn't looking where I was going. I need to gather my things and get to class, I don't want to be late Sir." cried out Tory as she stood at attention.

"You look like someone I know Plebe. What's your name?" the stranger asked her.

God, I don't need this right now. Didn't he hear me? I'm going to be late. Though she had to admit he looked familiar to her too.

"Plebe Victoria Sullivan Sir." she replied. "Sir, I really need to get going. I have two minute fifteen seconds to get to class."

"I know, you look like my mother." the stranger continued.

"Sir!" she pleaded. "If you let me go now, I'll meet you later if you want to talk."

He had wanted to teach her a lesson about running. In this case running to avoid being late. If she was more disciplined she would have left enough time from wherever she was coming from and would have had ample time to get to class.

But he was having second thoughts about making her late. He wanted to see her again. He needed to find out who she was. Why did she look like his mother? He didn't have any sisters. He needed answers.

"Okay Plebe, I'm going to let you go this time, but I want to see you here Saturday morning 0900 hours. You better not be late Plebe." the stranger relented.

"Yes Sir." she replied.

She quickly gathered up her books with the stranger's help. She quickly moved into the building. She made it to her class with five seconds to spare.

The stranger walked back to his room for second year cadets. He began to think about meeting Victoria Saturday morning. A meeting he was looking forward to. She was beautiful. She reminded him of his mother.

It was times like this that he missed her the most. It had been nine years since she died. His grandparents never did tell him how she died. He knew it had been a tragic death. Some day he would find out how.

Saturday

0900 hours

1 Oct 2005

Naval Academy

A few days later Tory quickly made her way to the academic building after eating a healthy breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and pancakes with a large cup of coffee. It was something that she learned from her mother that breakfast was essential. It would get you through a long day.

She was apprehensive about meeting with the stranger she had met a couple of days ago. She didn't know who he was. She didn't know if he could be trusted. She had heard about upper classmen taking advantage of plebes, though they were in the Air Force, not the Navy.

But then again she was also interested in seeing him again. At the time he reminded her of someone. She didn't know whom, but he did look very familiar. After sleeping on it a couple of nights, she finally realized he looked like Harm, her new father.

The thought kind of excited her. She had thought her mom was the luckiest woman in the world to have Harm as her husband. He was perfect in every way. This guy looked very similar to Harm.

If she didn't know better, he could be his son. She like the idea of getting to know him better, maybe in the future they could become good friends. They couldn't right now. He was an upper classman and she was a lowly plebe.

The thought of a long term relationship with him intrigue her. If he was anything like Harm, she would be very lucky. He was so tall and good looking. His eyes were so blue. She had begun to dream about him every night.

She was so caught up with her reflection of the past few days that she wasn't aware of his approached. He reached over and tapped her on her shoulder when he reached her. She looked up in surprise to see him there.

"Are you day dreaming plebe?" he asked her. She probably wished she had gone anywhere but the academy.

"I was lost in thought Sir. I was suppose to meet someone here at 0900 hours, he's five minutes late Sir." she replied. She didn't want to tell him that she was dreaming of him.

The stranger looked at his watch. It was 0905 hours. He wondered how she knew the time. Her hands were in the front pocket of her sweatshirt. She hadn't looked at her watch. In fact she wasn't even wearing a watch.

"How do you know that I'm late Plebe? You're not wearing a watch." he asked her.

"I just do Sir. It's a gift." she smiled.

Not many people were astute enough to realize her talent at first. When they did they usually were in awe. They would ask her how, but she wouldn't tell them. Mainly because she really didn't know herself.

"Alright Plebe. Since it's Saturday and we're out of uniform, you can call me Henry instead of Sir. What name do you like to go by Miss Sullivan?" he asked.

He knew her name was Victoria. How could he ever forget. She was very beautiful and her name said the same. He also knew that there were many nicknames for Victoria. Vicky, Tory, and Rory came to mind.

He was amused by the look on her face. Why she looked surprised he didn't know, but he like being able to surprise her. It meant there were endless ways to impress her, to show her how much he cared for her.

Tory was surprise that the stranger remembered her name. She was after all only a lowly plebe. Maybe he was more intelligent than he look. Just maybe there was a possibility or more. A thought she liked.

"My friends call me Tory, Henry." she replied with a smile.

"Let's take a walk to the marina Tory. We can talk as we go." he replied with a smile.

He couldn't believe the beautiful smile she gave him. It was truly amazing. It was like she lit up the sky. She was so beautiful. He had to find out more about her. Where was she born? Where did she live? Why was she here? What were her interests?

He had to find out why she looked so much like his mother. There was always the possibility that she was his sister, but if she was, why would his mother have given her up?

From what he understood about women, which wasn't very much, most women wanted girls more than they wanted boys. That's not to say they didn't want boys, only that they identified with little girls more.

There was also the possibility that since she was a single mother, she wouldn't be able to raise two children by herself. Which was possible, but then again he had lived with his grandparents all his life except for a few months when his mother was stationed stateside.

Which meant that she probably would have kept another child if she had another one. His grandparents would have helped her out. To them there were never enough grandchildren. That left the possibility of maybe one of his uncles or aunts.

But he had to rule that possibility out too. None of them looked like his mother. In fact now that he remembered. His grandfather had told him that his mother had been adopted as a baby. They had wanted a girl. She was the youngest member of the family, a good ten years younger.

He didn't have an answer. All he could do he thought was to carefully ask Tory about her parentage. Maybe he would get some kind of clue as to why she looked like his mother.