TITLE: We'll Get Through This Together

AUTHOR: Clairisant and Brenda

CLASSIFICATION: AJ

FEEDBACK: Always welcome.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is an addendum to Mama Mac. Our beta reader asked us to tell the story of how AJ came to have his grandson.

CREDITS: A special thanks to our beta reader Qupeydoll.

Friday, February 25, 2005

1915 EST

Capodichino Airport

Naples, Italy

Chapter 1

AJ arrived in Italy his emotions still on hold; this was something that he had learned long ago how to do. He had been trained that giving in to his emotions on the battlefield could get him killed and it had served him well on a few occasions in he personal life since then. One of which had also involved his daughter, but on the previous occasion she had only been two years old when her mother had taken her back to Italy with her while he'd been on a mission. AJ had returned to empty quarters and a note.

This time however it was his heart that was empty. His daughter was dead, his only child! She had been gone for nearly two weeks and he had only just found out. AJ replayed the call from his ex-wife, Francesca's mother, over and over again in his mind.

Speaking Italian, he said, "Marcella, I really don't have time to get involved in your latest battle with Francesca."

"Si, Alberto! You are right you never have the time!" his ex-wife's nearly hysterical voice came across the line. "You won't ever have to take the time again though! All you have to do is to come and claim your son!" she shouted.

"Marcella, unless Francesca has had a sex change, we have a daughter not a son," he sighed. Maybe she had really lost it this time, he had never heard her this hysterical before.

"That is what I have been trying to tell you for WEEKS Alberto! Our daughter is DEAD! She died giving birth!"

AJ felt the receiver slip from his lifeless hand. His daughter, his beloved Francesca, was dead? How could that have happened? So soon after they had come to know each other again. Wait a minute! Had Marcella said she died giving birth? He hadn't even known she was expecting!

Grabbing for the phone again he lifted it to his ear to hear that Marcella was still screaming at him. "Marcella!" his shout got her attention for just a moment at any rate and she was quiet long enough for him to ask, "I was out of the country and just returned, please explain what's happened?!"

"Francesca got herself in the family way and since she would never tell anyone who the father of the child was, she was going to raise him alone. But when she knew at the last that she was going to die, she said that she wanted you to have her child and not me! So she listed you as the father! Since you have a different last name than her, the doctors didn't question it! So you have a two week old son here that you need to come and claim, or they will turn him over to the court!"

AJ listened to his ex go on with her tirade about his lack of concern for his family as he tried to come to grips with the fact that his daughter was dead. He couldn't even begin to grasp the fact that she had been pregnant, and had a child before she died.

It was her shrill demand of, "So are you coming to claim the baby? He doesn't even have a name yet because she said you should name him! I don't know how she could give her baby to you and not to me, but she wouldn't listen to me!"

"You were arguing with her even as she was dying?" AJ asked stunned at her lack of sensitivity.

"She wouldn't listen to reason AJ! How will you be able to take care of this baby?" she demanded.

"Marcella if it was Francesca's last wish that I raise her son then that is what I will do. I will let you know when I'll be arriving as soon as I can get a flight," he paused and then with a voice that was not his normal take charge, assured voice; a voice that pleaded for reassurance about his daughter's passing; a voice that even reached through to Marcella in her near hysteria, he asked, "Did she suffer?"

There was a silence on the other end, as if she were trying to decide if she wanted to answer or not, then she finally said, in a voice that was nearly kind, "No Alberto, she didn't. I'll see you soon," and hung up.

Not only was his only child dead, but she had kept a major secret from him during the last months of her life. Had she thought he wouldn't understand? Or that he would be angry or disapproving? Would he ever know her reasons for keeping her pregnancy a secret?

To be continued…