Chapter 3
Friday, January 10, 2003
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
The day was just as bad as AJ had expected it to be. In fact, it was almost worse. AJ wasn't sure if it was because of his own foul mood, or if his staff actually were happier than normal, but seeing smiling faces all around him just made his mood all the more dark. He had to restrain himself from snapping at everyone and the three calls from Meredith to his private cell phone didn't help his mood one bit.
Glad he had caller ID and that he'd been able to avoid answering her calls, he still turned his phone off after the third call. Couldn't the woman take the hint that he didn't want to talk to her? At least she had enough sense not to call his work number!
However her sense seemed to run out about 1630 EST. AJ was coming back from the break room with a fresh mug of coffee when PO Coates cheerfully announced that his fiancée was on line one for him. Her stunned look played over and over in his mind on his drive home. He had forcefully plunked his full mug down on her desk, managing to splatter her phone and appointment book with the hot liquid as he told her, "Tell her I've gone home for the day!"
Without stopping for his briefcase or his cover, he strode through the bullpen into the elevator and went home. His shocked staff watched his exit and speculation ran wild as soon as the elevator doors closed behind him.
AJ got home to find six messages on his machine. Although he had no desire at all to hear Meredith's voice, he was much too responsible of a person to just assume all the calls were from her and delete them. However, he had no hesitation in doing so the moment he heard the call was from her. He did so four times. One call was from Francesca saying that she was going to be out of town for the weekend and because she didn't know what her schedule would be like, she would call him for their Sunday chat. The other was to inform him that his newspaper subscription was up soon and reminding him to renew it.
Before he finished dealing with the messages, his phone was ringing. Thanks to the caller ID, he was able to see that it was Meredith and he even turned the volume down on the answering machine. She continued to try and get through to him all weekend.
With everything still so fresh in his head and her persistent calls, AJ found himself tuning in Dr. Huggins talk show both Friday and Saturday nights. He was still drawn to her compelling voice. Her sound, and some times insightful advice, caught him by surprise both nights.
Sunday evening the caller ID let him know that his twin sister was calling from Texas. Picking up the receiver before the answering machine could get it, he greeted her warmly.
"AJ, why aren't you taking calls from your fiancée?"
He sighed, just how much should he tell his sister? But before he could decide that he had to know how much Meredith had told her. "Why in the world would Meredith call you Adele? The two of you haven't even met!"
"She was very upset AJ, she said she'd been trying to get a hold of you for days. If you're avoiding her calls, you two must have had a pretty bad fight."
"That doesn't explain why she called you."
"It does if you're not taking her calls. She called me to ask if I'd ask you to talk to her. What did she do or say to make you that angry?"
"How do you know it was her and not me that did something?"
"God! You're still a lawyer at heart, answering questions with questions! I know because she is the one trying to get a hold of you, not the other way around. She sounded pretty desperate. What did she do AJ?"
"I'd rather not say Adele."
"Wow, that bad? Does that mean the wedding is off?"
"I guess I hadn't thought about it to that extent, but now that you've brought it up, yes, there will be no wedding."
"Oh AJ! I'm sorry! What happened?" Adele's voice had changed from a slightly perturbed tone to a very sympathetic one.
"Adele, I'd…"
"Rather not say…I know, but you know me well enough to know that I won't give up till you tell me what's going on."
To be continued…