Part 4
Nassau Hilton
The Bahamas
Early October 2003
Harm had a week and a half off, 'mandatory downtime' Blasdell had called it. Harm was insanely busy until the head of the medical department had said they were grounding the aviator or Blaisdell give the man time off. Blaisdell knew he had no choice in the matter. Within minutes of being told he was on downtime, Harm was on the phone, arranging for his wife to meet him for a belated honeymoon, in the Bahamas.
A few mornings later
In the Bahamas
"We need to tell my parents, if something happens to me, I want Mom and Dad to be aware of you and the baby." Harm told his wife while they eating breakfast. "I know Marcella is unreasonable about my choice of a career but I married you not her." Harm told his wife, as he had a second helping of fruit.
Marcella Peretti had been quite vocal in Francesca's current choice of 'lovers'; it was obvious she wanted her daughter to marry someone Italian, and not working for the American government. Marcella's disdain had caused strain between mother and daughter since Francesca told her mother she was with an American government employee. Apparently, in Marcella's opinion, it was fine for her to be with a man who was involved with very organized crime, but apparently, someone with character who was also an American was not good enough for he daughter. Harm knew he would never be in the good column with the woman. Her loss. At least he had a decent relationship with AJ.
That evening fate was in a fickle mood as they entered the four star restaurant at their hotel when Harm stopped suddenly; standing there not five feet away were Patricia and Frank Burnett.
Francesca wondered why her husband stopped so suddenly and surprisingly he also looked pale, so she asked, "are you okay you look…pale."
"I'm fine, its just Mom and Frank are standing right in front of us," he whispered in her ear.
"Oh! What do we do?" she whispered back?" She was relieved to know he wasn't suddenly ill just ill at ease with the situation. She remembered that her husband had said her in-laws often vacationed on this very island.
Frank Burnett turned around to look; as he thought he'd heard a familiar voice. Sure enough, there was his stepson and a light brown-haired woman who appeared to be much younger than the Renee woman he'd dated over a year ago. "Trish I think we have company" he told his wife who turned to see who might be joining them.
"Harm I didn't know you were here, but then I haven't talked with you very much lately." Patricia gently chided her son who had the tendency not to call often. She was relieved to see that her son Harm looked to be a man very much in love.
"I'll let the maitre d know we're here, and have the reservations changed to a table for four," Frank said. He chuckled to himself as Harm as well as the woman he was with looked like kids caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"That sounds good, besides Fran and I have things to say to both of you."
'Well at least now we have her name.' Trish thought as Frank talked with the maitre d who'd known the older couple for years as they'd been coming to this restaurant for years. The cottage they often stayed at was just a few kilometers from the hotel. Gerard quickly made the changes, and within minutes, the four were sitting in the private dining area. This development welcomed by Harm who knew the upcoming conversation could be intense. AJ could take interrogation lessons from his mother. The two couples were silent until they were seated and left alone.
"Mom, Frank I would like for you to meet Francesca Peretti". Fran I'd like for you to meet my parents Patricia and Frank Burnett."
"It's nice to meet you; Harm's told me so much about both of you" Fran told them warmly. She knew Harm hadn't told them yet, despite her insistence they should know, in case something would happen to him while on the job. After all, Harm was flying for the CIA, not exactly a low risk job.
"I wish I could say the same thing, he hasn't told us very much about you. How long have you two known each other?" Trish got to the point, as a mother she was glad to see her son, and knew that she hadn't seen him this happy for a long time but most of all he looked content. This was surprising, as she knew he didn't really like his new job, he'd admitted that much to her in their infrequent e-mails since his change of careers months earlier.
"We've known each other about six years or so. Actually, we met in the JAG parking lot where we literally ran into each other." Harm told the Burnetts what had actually happened, that even though they weren't officially introduced to each other until later, they'd actually met earlier when their cars had slightly collided. Frank and Patricia got a chuckle out of that "later that day we met again, in Admiral Chegwidden office, Fran was there visiting her father."
"You're Admiral AJ Chegwidden's daughter?" Frank wanted to make sure he had the connection correct. This had to make the situation uncomfortable for Harm; as his former boss was his current girlfriend's father. Maybe it was good that he was no longer in the Navy.
"Yes he and momma divorced when I was very young. I was raised by my stepfather and took his last name at momma's insistence." Fran explained.
"We were both on St. Thomas a couple of months ago when I saw a familiar face. We talked, and the rest is history," Harm told his parents.
"I'd just broken up with Lorenzo, I recognized Harm, and like he said, we talked."
Harm took over; since the rest of the story would be easier coming from him since he was their son. "We decided to fake an engagement, to give each of us a time to 'lick our wounds', so to speak. One thing led to another, the engagement no longer fake, the very next day, we eloped, and because of my job I had to return to DC earlier than planned." Francesca had been holding his hand as he told them the story. "We are on our honeymoon."
"Harmon Joshua" was all that his mother could say. She was equally delighted her son finally married and appalled they'd eloped after such a short engagement, an engagement that had started out a ruse to get people off their backs about dating.
"Other than our witnesses, the justice-of-the-peace, AJ and his fiancée, and the personnel department of the Agency, you're the first to know" Harm said gently, trying to placate his mother who he knew was disappointed in him for not informing him sooner. She knew he'd started with the CIA in June.
"Just how long ago was that?" Trish asked, noting Fran or Francesca had ordered iced tea and wasn't drinking any of the wine that Frank had ordered.
"June 6th" Harm admitted a sheepish look on his face. The look on his mother's was bordering on disappointment.
"How long were you going to keep this secret?" the hurt was evident in her voice.
"We wanted to make sure it was the real thing, we'd have annulled the marriage if we changed our minds" Harm squarely took the blame for their silence on the subject; it had been his idea not to tell his parents. He didn't want Francesca to be at odds with his mother as well as her own. "I quickly realized we want to make a go of this marriage and that was before I knew we were pregnant. All it took was being away from her on that first trip."
"Trish and Frank we have other news" Francesca knew they needed to know about the baby. It would take the sting out of the elopement.
"Call us Mom and Frank" Trish interrupted.
"Mom by the middle of March of next year, you'll be called grandma," Harm told the news his mother had waited over a decade to hear.
"We've known for a couple of months, but we wanted to make sure Fran passed her first trimester, her mom had some miscarriages so she's naturally apprehensive."
"Congratulations Harm and Francesca. I was beginning to give up any hope of being a grandma." Trish said with a twinkle in her teary eyes.
Their waiter came at that point, with their food, as they had a pr fix menu.
During the meal, they told how AJ had found out; by dropping in on his daughter unexpectedly, "When I walked into the living room and saw him there I thought he was going to kill me with his bare hands. Thankfully Meredith was there, I think she held him back until we had a chance to explain." Harm said, now able to laugh about the look on his father-in-law's face.
"I went and got the wedding certificate I figured him seeing it would help," Francesca explained. "I was right, he calmed down."
The Burnett's laughed, they'd met the admiral, and knew he was an intense man, and no matter what the age, no father wants to walk into his unmarried daughter daughter's apartment and find a towel clad man there unexpectedly. "Where do you two live?" Frank asked. It was obvious with her accent; she had not been living in the states for many years.
The younger woman blushed but Harm stated matter-of-factly "I still have my apartment in DC and Fran still lives in Rome. I'd been so busy at work; in fact, I've been gone more than I've been at home. When I do have any time off, and with that, I mean more than time to sleep, and not be in violation on concurrent flight hours, we have tried to meet. To tell the truth, Mom, Frank, we haven't decided where we want to live; now I guess we have about six months to decide. Fran's a clothes designer most of her clients are in Europe, no matter what we decide, we'll likely keep her place there. I'm thinking of selling the loft since I haven't spent more than four nights there since my release from the brig."
As she wanted to keep the mood light, Fran took over the conversation. "I've wanted to design in the States; in fact, one of the design houses in New York has been asking me to join them, if I live in DC that would work" Francesca told her in-laws. "As you see, we have a lot to discuss; we still need to let my mom know about the baby, about the marriage. All she knows is I'm seeing a guy named Josh." Trish recognized the abbreviation of her son's middle name.
"How's the admiral taking it?" Frank asked.
"Better than I expected considering how he found out. Momma, she doesn't approve of Harm." Francesca confessed with the hurt of the estrangement evident in her voice. However, she talked with her father on a weekly basis now, especially since he found out about her new life. That was a something she'd wanted for years, and now finally had. Her childhood dream of a good relationship with her father had finally taken place.
"You never know, Francesca give her time I have the feeling the little one will help." Trish comforted her daughter-in-law. She was speaking from experience, as her relationship with Sarah Rabb had been frosty until the news of the pregnancy that resulted in Harm, Jr.
"Let me get this straight, you two had a wedding in judge's chambers and no reception." Frank was surprised they'd been so low-key, even for an elopement.
Harm and Francesca nodded. "In fact this is our honeymoon. We've had that one night and the weekend when AJ visited. Other than that we've kept in contact by email or phone. Or just a few hours together."
"I think after the baby is born, we'll have wedding we invite everyone to on first anniversary. That'll give me time to lose baby weight." Francesca had been trying to figure out when to have it, the anniversary date made sense in many ways.
Trish seemed pleased with that, she'd still be able to be at her son's wedding, or at least the renewal of vows.
Gerard came in and told Harm he had an urgent international call from a Mr. Blasdell. Harm just knew his honeymoon had been cut short, but with a family to support he couldn't very well just up and quit an agency which seemed destined to constantly interrupt his precious family time. He took the call by stepping into the office of the restaurant and then returned moments later after getting the flight information.
"I need to leave in the morning something came up and my presence is 'requested'. It seemed every time he and Francesca spent any length of time together his boss called. Harm was already disgusted with the interruptions, it had helped him to decide that as soon as his twenty years were up he'd retire and find something in the private sector.
The news put a damper on the celebratory feel to the evening, Harm switched to mineral water, as he knew he'd be flying in a matter of hours. After a leisurely dinner, the younger couple bade the older couple good night to have some private time. Francesca would check out of the hotel in the morning going to stay with her in-laws for her remaining vacation.
Two mornings later Frank was watching ZNN when a news bulletin interrupted his business affairs show, and he quickly called Trish and Fran into the den, they were surprised to see Harm on the news, it appeared he'd saved the lives of several people with a daring landing at sea.
"I have the feeling Harm will be looking for work. I don't think the Agency takes too well to their pilots making news, positive result or not" Frank told his wife and daughter–in-law.
