Chapter 63

Sturgis had been the one sent out by Creswell to investigate, and without any investigation whatsoever had insisted Harm be grounded from any further flying, and more importantly face a court-martial as soon as the investigation was completed. Sturgis didn't confine him to quarters and insisted Harm not leave the ship. The truth about the incident came out two days later when a Canadian ground unit found the supposedly deceased Iraqi official.

It turned out the person flying the plane, impersonating the official, had been a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda, Sadik Fahd. Fahd had not been seen since somehow escaping the bombing of the convoy in Paraguay. The 'deceased' official had been kidnapped on his way to the airport, and when rescued he told the ground unit what was to occur. One of the guards while he'd been held had bragged that they, Al Qaeda, planned to make it seem that he was the hero of the Iraqi people by being a suicide bomber, flying his small plane into one of the American Navy ships off his country's shore.

That had been the plan until Harm shot the plane down, their man in records simply had to switch ID's and then state that he'd been the pilot shot down. Fortunately, for Harm, the kidnapped official had been meeting regularly with several coalition commanders; they were able to verify his identity.

This cleared Harm of any charges; and he was able to finish his quals before leaving the next day. Harm intentionally stayed away from Sturgis while they were both on the carrier.

However, they had time to talk while on the COD. Harm said he was hurt that his friend assumed that he was guilty of shooting down an unarmed plane. "Sturgis, you didn't even do any investigation before you brought me up on charges. I have to say that hurts, you are my friend, you have been for years, but what you did...well I think we'd better forget about meeting for basketball for the time being. Maybe in a few months, but right now, let's just be civil to each other at work."

Sturgis could tell that his friend was mad at him, couldn't understand he'd been placed under intense pressure from Sheffield, who'd called him into his office. Sheffield stated, "Because you've been friends with Rabb for years your actions will be monitored even closer than others will, this is a high profile incident."

Sturgis had been caught in a bind, what ended up being sacrificed was his formerly close friendship with Rabb. "Let me know, when you're ready to play" was all that Sturgis said.

By the time all the dust had settled and they were home, it was almost Valentines Day. Harm looked forward to the day, he always had to tell the truth, but it was much easier now that he was married. He knew what his 'valentine' wanted and he'd been able to get some chocolates for Mac before all the craziness had hit. Valentine's evening, the two of them went out for supper, Mattie was in between boyfriends, to her father's unspoken delight, and had offered to babysit her baby sister.

Valerie was crawling and getting into everything not nailed down so Mattie would earn her money until time to put her down for the night. Harm was surprised Mac hadn't given him anything yet, but knew she'd been busy while he was gone.

After they shared a dessert, Mac reached into her purse and pulled out a card. "Happy Valentine's day Harm, I'm sorry that I didn't give this to you earlier, I guess I didn't want an audience." Harm was puzzled, they were in the middle of a restaurant, and then he realized she meant without any other family members present. On the outside of the card, it said Happy Valentines Day to my love, no big surprise there it was after all that one day set aside for romance. He opened the card and it was personalized on the inside.

My sailor, your swimmers are gold

or so I am told

we are now a family of four

soon we'll add one more.

Harm realized that Mac was pregnant, "how...when?"

"I think you know how" Mac's eyes danced as she said this. "I believe it was our little Christmas present to each other since I'm nearly two months along. We'll have two in diapers, so you aren't going to wiggle your way out of changing them flyboy. With two little ones I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to be a grandma any time soon."

"Me neither" Harm said and then realized what Mac had said. "You know what I meant. The doctor said he wants me to take it easy, modify my workouts, and go on leave at seven months. I need to let Sebring know, so he can schedule someone to fill in."

Giving her husband an enigmatic smile, she continued. "On a completely personal topic, I had a happy blast from the past in the mail at work. There was a letter from a gal I used to know in high school. She's going to be in DC for some national high school competition in a few weeks, and she wanted to know whether I wanted to get together with her. She said to email her. She was one of the few people from high school that I don't mind seeing again. Her father was an alcoholic and she was one of those kids who absolutely refused to drink, even if everyone else at the party was, she was that adamant about not drinking, I admired her for it even then. Cara's is probably the only one I've kept in contact with from back then. I think she was the one to find Eddie and me after our accident; if she hadn't been stone sober, I don't know if I'd have made it. So in one respect I will always owe her my life."

"I hope I'll be in town and not out on some investigation. Speaking of investigations, we have new lieutenants joining JAG, at the end of the month, Mayfield and Vukovich. Both from San Diego. Vukovich is supposedly the hotshot, but I've heard some grumblings from Captain Celia Alvarez that she thinks he's cutting corners, she just couldn't prove it, told me to keep an eye on him." They ended anything that resembled shoptalk for the rest of the evening. They went dancing for a few hours before returning home. Valerie was sound asleep, as was Mattie. "We'll tell her in the morning. When do you want everyone to know?" he asked as they climbed into bed.

"Just Sebring and our family, for now"

The rest of February went by quickly, it always did.

Cara emailed Mac her schedule and they agreed to meet at the hotel the students were staying at for breakfast. Mac had already arranged to go in late that morning as she had a dentist appointment scheduled. This would give her a legitimate excuse to leave if things didn't go well. Cara sent her a picture so she knew who she was looking for. Cara had mentioned in her letters that she'd lost weight but she was still much heavier than when she was in school. The Cara she remembered had worn glasses, as she couldn't wear contacts for some reason, but had recently had laser surgery; a gift from her husband and for the first time in nearly thirty-five years was no longer needed help to see.

TBC

The part where Cara had eye surgery is my story. No glasses for me, except for distance)