I'm planning on going to a Civil War re-enactment tomorrow, so I put this up a day early. The daughter of a friend of mine is one of the Union soldiers, she is quite the civil war expert, considering she is a recent high school graduate.

Chapter 23

Meg and Allison both wanted to wolf whistle when Harm entered, since Harm looked very good in what was obviously a custom made suit, that Allison was sure had set Harm back a pretty penny, but then he was earning big bucks now. What was surprising to the group, Harm was with a blond teenager girl.

"General, I'd like for you to meet our next-to-eldest daughter, Amber MacLaren, she'll attend the Military Academy next fall." Mac introduced the soon to be cadet to the JAG.

"Consorting with the enemy I see," Creswell teased a twinkle in his eyes and in his voice.

"Yes sir" she replied, though she wasn't in uniform she stood at attention, 'Might as well get into practice' she thought. "At ease" he turned to Mac "Have you had a chance to introduce her Colonel?"

"No, she just got here." Mac explained.

"Sarah, I don't believe I've met your companion." Mic hadn't heard about the expansion of Mac's family.

"Mic, I'd like for you to meet one of my oldest children, Amber MacLaren, Amber I'd like for you to meet Captain Michael Brumby, RAN"

"He's the..." Amber had heard the story, both sides of it, that is Harm's and Mac's, 'so this was the guy.' She was not impressed.

"He is, where did your father wander off to?" Mac cut her off before she could embarrass herself.

"An Admiral Chegsomthing's here and wanted to talk to him." Amber told Mac.

"Chegwidden" the adults said in unison, laughing. A jean clad AJ Chegwidden was at the conference room door, also wearing a visitor's badge.

"Amber, we need to go" Chegwidden said. "Tour starts in an hour and half and we still need to get everybody from the Roberts'."

"What tour?" Captain Krennick asked.

Amber quickly explained as she left. "A Congresswoman that Dad knows arranged for us to have a private White House tour. See you tonight Mom." She said the last part to confuse some of the people attending the conference. Most of the group wouldn't have minded going along, as it sounded like they were going to get a very special tour, and they were 'stuck' at a conference. Harm and Amber then left, Mic saw Admiral Chegwidden depart with them.

"Why was Harm in civilian clothes?" Mic asked, seeing his old nemesis, very curious why he wasn't attending the conference.

"The Commander is in the reserves" was Bud's answer.

"Harm told me that the SecNav called him and personally told him that he's doing his duty doing what he's doing, besides after what just happened Harm didn't want to risk another crash, he's now inactive reserves, per the Joint Chiefs' orders." Mac explained, mainly to Meg, who herself had just returned from her own maternity leave just three weeks ago.

"Huh" Mic was confused, even though no one but Mac could tell.

"I'll explain later" she told her former fiancé, as the meeting had just been called back into order. At the next break Mic picked up where he left off, he wouldn't leave it alone; he still had no idea to whom Mac married.

"Long story short, this summer he became a CEO when his boss Darren died suddenly. With the recommendation coming from the Pentagon Harm went inactive. He doesn't want to risk any problems-not with our houseful. We now have six kids to think about." Mac was explaining to Meg, who had sat next to her during the last session.

Mic was eavesdropping, because the next comment anyone heard was. "Six kids!" Mic was astounded and spoke loudly.

That drew the attention of some of the other officers. Krennick helped her out. The one-time blond barracuda had seen Mic's countenance during the conference and made sure she stayed between the colonel and the Australian commander. "Let me get this straight Mac, your family is a sort of yours, mine, ours, and theirs family." Mac nodded and Allison explained. "The colonel and her husband have one child of their own; they have adopted two others. This summer the commander's boss and close friend died suddenly, now they're raising his three children. So six kids."

"That's amazing, Are they close in age?" Australian barrister Captain Alice Whitcomb asked, very curious how this American woman handled that large a group of children.

Bud laughed. He was glad the Rabb contingent wasn't staying at the house, and very thankful most of his children were boys. Harm had informed him of some of the bathroom fights that they'd already had. "Oldest to youngest or youngest to oldest" he asked the Royal Navy officer.

Alice Whitcomb, the mother of one teenager, replied first "Youngest to oldest."

Mac started "our son goes by Joey; he's nearly six months old and the spitting image of his father. Clae Rose and Brynn are seven, they're the youngest of the MacLaren branch of our crazy mixed up tree, Lilyana is fourteen, she's from Indonesia; when her parents died in the bombings last year she requested that Lilyana live with me. You just met Amber, she's seventeen. She is the oldest surviving MacLaren. Most might remember Mattie, she's nearly recovered from the accident, wasn't be able to attend Annapolis, at least this year, and she starts at the university next week." There was some looks of astonishment upon hearing about Mac's family.

"I'm surprised you're still working, I know it's not very woman's lib of me, but with that many at home, I'm surprised you aren't going insane" Alice commented.

"We have plenty of help. Bridget stayed on so we have a housekeeper, and believe me, with our schedules, we need one. She's watched the MacLaren kids all their lives; taking them to various activities when their parents couldn't, that hasn't changed. Joey goes to the daycare on base. Amber takes Lilyana to school. Mattie lives with Grandma Sarah until we get the studio apartment renovated, our house hasn't sold yet. My uncle lives nearby as do my in-laws; we have plenty of help and plenty of love to go around."

"How did your husband get to be CEO?" Mic asked. He'd figured Harm would stay in the Navy until he was pushed out or died.

Mac knew Mic, that he would pester her until he found out, so she told him, and the others from JAG that may not have heard about the recent events in their former colleagues life.

"Over a year ago Darren asked Harm to take over as a senior vice president in charge of legal affairs; Harm figured why not, he had his twenty in. He and Darren had stayed in contact over the years. Darren and Danny, his brother had always teased Harm, saying that he was the third MacLaren, but we didn't think anything of it. After Danny's death Darren asked Harm if he would be willing to take over if something were to happen to him. He agreed, fully expecting Darren to live for many, many years, not to be gone within six months." Mac remembered the conversation the three had had after Danny's funeral. "Darren legally stated in his will his wish for my husband to take over the reins of the company. He also stated that if any of the kids are interested in the company when they are adults, he's to groom them to take over eventually. Darren specified in the will that they did not have to be a MacLaren born offspring." It was to be from our bunch though." They were headed to the officer's mess while she said talked.

Captain Owen Sebring was headed in to have lunch with fellow judge Admiral Harrison. "Colonel McKenzie, it's nice to see you in DC. Say hello to your husband and thank you both for the letter of condolence." He'd been touched at the letter he'd received when his wife had finally succumbed to the illness that had plagued her for years.

"Thank you, Captain."

The admiral piped in, "It's sure been quiet without the Commander shooting up ceilings." There was a twinkle in the older man's eye when he said that.

"He's never going to live that down is he sir?" Mac laughed.

"No, I don't think so."

Mic was glad he was in the back of the group, he'd actually had not figured it out until the shooting up the ceiling comment that Harm and Mac married. He wasn't surprised; he was just surprised it had taken them as long as it had. He'd expected in 2002 to get a notice of the nuptials, but hadn't checked with anyone to find out why not, when he returned to Australia after the aborted wedding.

The Roberts/Rabb households not attending the conference were kept busy for the rest of the week between schoolwork and sightseeing, Mattie and Tom came up one day, from Blacksburg to show her 'sisters' around the DC area, the local point of view for a kid, not the educational, he ended up being the adult chaperone, and after dealing with six girls of various ages for the day, he was frazzled, but congratulated himself on the fact that he did not succumb to taking a drink of alcohol upon their return home late that evening. Mattie was proud of her father for that, and was more open to having a line of communication with her father after that weekend. Harm had scheduled meetings within the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill so he didn't get to go.

He did tell them that he wanted to be the one to escort them to the Vietnam Memorial. He decided to do it Thursday night; as he knew it would be the least busy. They parked a few blocks away and walked to where the monuments were. Harm had suggested they go to the Lincoln Memorial first, which they did and then they walked over to the long granite monument.

The girls let Harm take Joey and Mac to the section of the wall with Harmon Senior on it. "Dad, I bet you never thought the day would come when I would introduce you to my son. Here he is, Matthew Joseph Franklin, but we call him Joey." They stood there, the three of them, and Joey somehow sensed this was not a place to be fussy and was content to be in his father's arms. A few minutes later the rest of the group came and Harm explained to them about the memorial.

Tom had never been to the memorial despite living as close as he did to DC. His father had returned from Vietnam, changed from what his mother had said. He never knew anyone whose name was actually on the wall. Tom had heard of a few names of his father's buddies that didn't come back and went to the park ranger to find out exactly where they were located. He knew this was a special time for Harm and didn't want to intrude. The girls each traced Harmon Rabb Senior's name on a piece of paper. Tom told Harm and Mac to stay as long as they wanted, he would keep an eye on the girls. It was a nice evening so they took him up on it and walked by the reflecting pool, having a few minutes of nearly alone time. They headed back to the group when they needed to change Joey's diaper, and Mattie had the diaper bag.

Saturday afternoon they went to Baltimore to a baseball game, it was almost the last game of the season and even with that Harm was able to get good seats, they had enough people going that it was a group rate, especially as they invited the Roberts family, along with others of the JAG family. They'd need to leave in the morning, Mattie started classes on Monday.

They didn't know they would run into someone from their time at JAG headquarters at the baseball stadium.