"I hate London newspapers!" Charlie shouted at the top of his lungs as he marched around in the hotel room. The thing about last minute trips, is that getting reservations to accommodate the President's staff gets a little tough. Stacy had one of the beds in the hotel room, hence forcing Gunny and Charlie to share the other one.
"Oh, it's going to be one of those days is it?" Gunny mused as he made the coffee using the hotel provided coffee maker on the counter.
"What days?" Stacy asked as she sat up in bed.
"I hate London newspapers!" Charlie's voice could be heard out in the hallway now.
"Ah, one of those days where we're pretty sure that working for the President has snapped what's left of Charlie's fragile psyche." Stacy got up out of bed.
"I hate London newspapers!" The shouts grew even louder.
"It's your turn to go get him." Gunny stated as he poured two cups of coffee. He noticed the attractive, blonde thirty-something Press Secretary in her Wellesley College t-shirt and pink panty/shorts.
"No, you went and got him last time, I went and got him the time before that." She pointed out. "It's Morley's turn and he's not here." They could hear the sound of a newspaper being torn out in the hallway. "Flip you for it?"
"You have a coin…in …those?" Gunny was gawking down at the panty/short things she was wearing. "What are those exactly?"
"None of your business." She laughed light-heartedly. "Do you have a coin?"
"Yeah." Gunny plunged a hand down into his pocket and came out with a coin. He flicked the coin in the air. "Call it." He declared.
"Tails." She called as the coin fell and landed in the middle of his palm. "I win, you go and get him."
"I really hate London newspapers!" Charlie shouted at the top of his lungs. Gunny walked to the door and opened it wide.
"Charlie!" Gunny shouted just as the Deputy Chief of Staff was walking past the hotel room door. "Calm down or I'll break your wrists!"
"Sorry, Gunny." Charlie stopped in his tracks. "But you gotta read this." Charlie handed him the newspaper. Gunny looked it over and started laughing.
"What is it?" Stacy walked over holding the coffee mug between her hands.
"White House Romance!" Gunny read aloud. "Charlie, you got whacked with a camera, Stacy tends to your head to make sure that you don't have a concussion and by the next morning, the London papers have you sleeping together." Gunny was laughing boisterously.
"What?!" Stacy spit her coffee out of surprise and it ended up all over Charlie. Charlie wiped his face off with his sleeve. "I'm sorry, I just, never thought they'd come to that conclusion."
"You know, there are some days I wonder how a Deputy from New Mexico can order around you three over educated people. And then you all have a day like today and I don't wonder anymore." Gunny headed toward the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower." He announced. "And Charlie?"
"Yeah, Gunny?" Charlie looked up from his coffee-stained shirt.
"Don't stare at whatever kind of underwear it is that Stacy's wearing, it's apparently none of our business." Gunny closed the door to the bathroom.
0728 ZULU
HILLINGDON HOSPITAL
LONDON, ENGLAND
Anna Ross gave a roundhouse kick to the vending machine in an attempt to get a Coke. She picked up the Coke and flicked up the tab. "So how long have you known Sergei?" She felt the annoying almost sandpaper like voice of Tamila Rosenbaum.
"Seven years." Anna answered. "I was the one who helped him meet the English qualification for the Academy. I was the first person to take him up in a Hornet. Of course, I never would have known the thrill of flying if it wasn't for him so I guess it's a two way street." She finally turned to face the other woman. "Are you in love with him?"
"I don't know, are you?" Tamila replied.
"That's a great non answer, you've got a future in politics." Anna snapped at her. "Is Mikey in with him now?"
"Has been for the last few hours." Tamila nodded. "So you're the friend who's getting married."
"Not any more." Anna answered as she headed for the room.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Did something happen?" Tamila was at least, it seemed, trying to make an effort.
"No offence, but we're not close, I don't foresee us becoming close in the immediate future and at this moment the only reason I find myself moderately able to tolerate your existence in proximity to me is because the man who has been my best friend for the last seven years is now lying in a hospital bed." Anna rifled off, her body running on a high amount of adrenaline caused by a low amount of sleep. "And before you ask, no I don't have a rational explanation for why I've taken such an intense dislike for you. I just have and that will have to suffice for now."
The two women just stood their like proud lionesses attempting to mark their domain. On one hand there was the trained Mossad agent and on the other, the pissed off Marine. "I'd back down, Anna, she's got a longer reach then you do." Johnny-Reb suddenly made his presence known. "She's also a trained killer."
"So am I." Anna replied in a challenge to Tamila more then an answer to Reb's question.
"Yeah, with Aim-9s, Aim-7s and AMRAAM missiles. She could kick your ass, hell, she could kick my ass without blinking or thinking twice or likely without even standing up." Johnny slowly walked over so that he was within whisper range. "She's Mossad, Anna."
Both women crossed their arms and looked up at Johnny as if expecting an answer as to how he knew that. "What? Are you trying to tell me that I am the only person that Sergei emailed during his whole time on the Bataan? I'm guessing he's right through there?" Johnny pointed to the door and Anna nodded. "Hey, kiddo, I'll have a talk with you a little later alright?"
"Yeah." She nodded and watched as Johnny headed through the door into Sergei's room.
"I think we should put our petty differences aside and just hope for the best for Sergei for the time being, you know?" Tamila suggested and Anna nodded.
0711 ZULU
HILLINGDON HILTON
LONDON, ENGLAND
Gunny knocked on the door and heard 'Come in!' shouted in the President's voice. He pushed the door open and saw the President already dressed in his suit, stuffing the last piece of a blueberry waffle into his face. "So, I heard an interesting rumour this morning that my Deputy Chief of Staff and my Press Secretary are sleeping together." Nate was fixing his tie.
"I heard that too, sir." Gunny laughed as he heard the running water in the bathroom turn off. The First Lady came walking out of the bathroom in a towel and she shrieked being slightly startled by having someone other then her husband in hotel room. "Good morning, Madam First Lady."
'Eyes front, Gunny." Nate encouraged as he did the knot in his tie.
"Yes, sir." Gunny nodded. "Maybe we should take this into the hallway, sir."
"Always thinking, Gunny." Nate gave Gunny a pat on the back and the two men walked out into the hallway.
"Where's Harriet? Or did the First Lady leave her Chief of Staff back in Washington?" Gunny asked looking around.
"The First Lady is very particular about details so when she found out we were headed to London; she had Harriet book a room for the First Family and one for herself." Nate explained as they stood out in the hallway.
"And we forgot to book one for ourselves, ingenious." Gunny was overly sarcastic.
"Yeah, well you guys were doing something more important keeping in mind that there is a war going on in the Middle East right now. By the way, are Charlie and Stacy sleeping together or not? You know the Press is going to want to hear about this, maybe Howard Stern too, think I should put a call into the New York City?" Nate was beginning to talk fast, a sign that he too was having an early high stress kind of day.
"I'm guessing that things didn't go to well with the British Prime Minister last night?" Gunny chanced, falling back against the rose coloured wall.
"I called him a tight ass and told him to do something other then decorate a chair in the House of Commons." Nate nodded and hung his head.
"You've got to learn to control that temper, Mr. President." Gunny laughed. "You want me to call him before the press conference that we're having at noon? Set up a meeting where the two of you can clear the air?"
"That's probably wise. You might also want to provide me with a case carrying two antique pistols and a copy of the Marquess of Queensbury rules, you don't need to provide one for Cunningham, he's so old fashioned that he can likely recite them by heart." Nate adjusted the cuffs at his wrists.
"Sir, a quick side question before we go any further?" Gunny chanced as the two of them started walking down the hallway.
"Better make it quick, Gunny, we've got to go join up with Charlie, Stacy and Harriet." The two of them stood at the elevator.
"Sir, you know those new fangled panties that they've got out now. The ones that kind of look like really tight shorts but they ride up really high?" Gunny explained, not caring that the President was kind of looking at him like he had two heads.
"Gunny, you have the unique privilege given to scarce few men in every administration and that is that aside from the First Lady you have more face time with the President of the United States then anyone else and you used that time to talk with me about panties?" Nate peeked a curious eyebrow. "Do I want to know what brought this on?"
"Not particularly, now do you know what they're called or not?" Gunny asked, trying to take a little pressure off.
"They're called boy shorts, Gunny." Nicole said as she walked passed the two of them into the elevator. "And no, Nate wouldn't have had any idea what they're called so, even though it might be a little embarrassing you'd probably be better to refer any lingerie questions to me or Harriet."
"You are really hot when you do that." Nate smiled as he got on to the elevator.
0827 ZULU
HILLINGDON HOSPITAL
LONDON, ENGLAND
Johnny-Reb left the room with Anna for a second to go down to the lobby and pick up a coffee. "Listen, kid, I'm sorry that I haven't exactly been there for you the last couple of weeks, the green pilots at Pensacola needed a little seasoning."
"Yeah, well you were the better pilot, Johnny." She ordered the coffee. "I broke up with Miles."
"I heard, your mother's got a big mouth." Johnny took a seat at the table. "What happened."
"I woke up one morning with the curious urge to smother him in his sleep and I realized that's not the kind of relationship that you're supposed to have with the man you're planning on marrying." Anna let out a self-deprecating chuckle. "At least not until you've been married for fifty years."
"I think my parents would agree to that." Johnny added. "So, what's on your mind?"
"My friend who's lying in that hospital bed right now having another unit of blood pumped into him because despite all medical reasoning that says he should have bled out yesterday, he didn't." Anna explained really quickly. "I also get the feeling that I may have to smack the collagen filled lips of his new Mossad agent girlfriend."
"She's really not that bad and she seems to really care about him." Johnny argued without raising his voice.
"So do I." She shot back.
"I never said you didn't." Johnny reminded her. "The fact is that both you and Sergei did a lot of running in this last year. You ran headlong into a romance that we tried to warn you about."
"You don't need to beat me over the head with that fact." She warned him.
"I didn't think I was." Johnny continued. "But Sergei ran too. He ran all the way out to an LHD in the middle of the Mediterranean. The region erupted into war and just like Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca, the two of them fell in love."
"Yeah, except Rick and Ilsa had to separate, twice, if memory serves, for the greater good." Anna reminded her friend.
"Sergei and Tamila are going to have to separate as well. Mossad isn't going to station her in Washington permanently and we don't have any bases in Israel that we can send Sergei to. Eventually one of them is going to have to face a choice of country or love. I don't see their bond surviving that conflict, I'm sorry." Johnny tore open a sugar packet and dumped it into his coffee. "Besides, what Sergei does or doesn't do with his love life is really none of our business."
"Isn't there something in our officer's oath that says something about not allowing our officer's to do harm to themselves? Isn't there some legal basis here?" Anna questioned.
"I'm sure that if we looked hard enough, we could find one but we don't want to do that." Johnny pursed his lips. "What we want to do right now, is pray for him to wake up. Then after that, we do nothing."
"But I wanna!" Anna pouted sarcastically. "I don't know why the hell I care about who he's sleeping with."
"I know why." Johnny laughed. "It's because you're jealous that he's not sleeping with you."
"I am not!" Anna protested. "Where the hell did you get that idea?"
"Maybe from the fact that in the time I've been here at the hospital, you've done nothing but bitch about Sergei's girlfriend." Johnny theorized. "Besides, I know about what happened last year after that exercise with the Cobras remember?"
"I'm not telling you anything any more." Anna vowed.
"Why? Because I use it against you when you're being petty and childish? If that was a reason for anything there's be a lot of very mute people in this world." Johnny took one last sip of his coffee. "Listen, kiddo, you played this game last year and it didn't go so well. It's someone else's turn at the game board now. Step off, let them have their turn with the full knowledge that it's only temporary and be prepared to jump back into the game when the board opens up again."
"Yeah, well I might not have time for that. I got a transfer out to the pacific. A few months at Fightertown until the Stennis heads back out to sea. Then I'll be on her." Anna finished off her coffee and got up from the table.
"I'm going with you out to the Pacific then." Johnny said as he stood up.
"Afraid I can't take care of myself?" She asked, slightly annoyed and turning on heel to face him.
"No, I'm just not going to let you run again. Last time a relationship didn't go so well for you, you ended up on the Lincoln during an exercise against North Korean navy presence in the Sea of Japan, I wasn't there to watch your wing and as a result none of your friends got any sleep for three days." He held up his hand to silence her objections. "And if you think there's the faintest chance in hell that you're going without me, you really should have you're head checked because you're obviously delusional."
"Do you think it's easy to get these kind of orders cut?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You forget. There are only three men in your life that your brother approves of and trusts implicitly. I'm one of them and he's the Commander in Chief, orders aren't a problem." He grinned at her sarcastically and she rolled her eyes.
0908 ZULU
HILLINGDON HOSPITAL
LONDON, ENGLAND
The conference room door opened and Nate watched as Prime Minister Cunningham walked in with his Chief of Staff. "Gentlemen, could you give us a moment?" Nate looked over at Gunny who was standing with the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff. They nodded and left the room. "Dick, the relations between our two countries are too important to be jeopardized because you and I don't agree on the peace plan for ending this crisis. By the way, I apologize for calling you 'stuffy' and accusing you of being a wallflower head of government."
"Apology accepted, Mr. President. I'm afraid I owe you one as well. To be honest, Nathan, you hit something of a sore spot. When I heard of this idea, I was distraught to have not received so much as a phone call from the White House letting me know that you were considering such an idea much less to not be included in the actual peace process." Cunningham began. "It's not an easy thing to have a friend push forth on something this monumental without acknowledging any role for you."
"The thing is, Dick, there really is no role in this for anyone outside of the people I already listed. The only reason I'm going to be there is because someone needs to be able to rein in Israel and Russia. The Egyptians are there because someone needs to rein in the Syrians, Turks and Iranians. I'm not going for peace but rather as Harry Truman put it, just 'the absence of war'." Nate answered as he moved away from the window. "I think there's one thing that we do need to talk about and that is getting our European 'partners' to crack down on security and terrorism a little harder."
"I couldn't agree more, Mr. President." The Prime Minister answered. "Nathan, if I might be so bold as to impart a few words of advice."
"A conservative giving me advice? I think members of my party might not be very pleased with me, Dick." Nate laughed. "What's on your mind?"
"You need to understand something, Nathan, you're a different generation trying to lead the world. The rest of the world's leaders are going to be spending the first year of your Presidency trying to find out who you are and what kind of President you are because they're all a generation older then you and they're not going to like being dictated to by someone that young. Don't take it as an assault." Cunningham suggested.
"What should I take it as?" Nate asked.
"An opportunity." Cunningham began to hit his pace. "When Wilson came over to Europe in 1919, he was the first President whose influence extended over the Atlantic and his fourteen points which were seized upon by the revolutionary minds of Europe. You are in a unique position to accomplish the same. You are in the position, Mr. President to shed the looming spectre of Reagan and the monolithic America. See, the way Europe sees it, the last twenty years it's been America & the Free World rather then just The Free World."
"You think I can do it without looking like I'm sacrificing America's role in the world?" Nate asked.
"Hell, Truman thought he could, and he was just a suit salesman from Kansas City." Cunningham answered.
1017 ZULU
HILLINGDON HOSPITAL
LONDON, ENGLAND
Harm sat by Sergei's bed through the night. Mac had taken the kids back to the hotel with Harriet some time around 2am. Mikey Roberts, Anna and Tamila had taken turns sitting at the other side of the bed. Harm had gotten to know them all a little more, by talking with them about Sergei. He'd had the chance to observe the real magnetism that his brother had through the people who were closest to him. It was very early or late, Harm couldn't even tell anymore because between the jet lag and the lack of sleep he wasn't quite sure in which direction time actually ran any more.
He rubbed his eyes and returned his focus to his brother's unconscious form. He swear her saw his nose wiggle. He rubbed his eyes again, damn this lack of sleep was getting to him. He felt the door open behind him. "Any progress?" Mac asked as she sat the kids down in two chairs.
"BP's up, Dr. Mallard thinks he might be completely stable within the hour and I swear I saw him wiggle his nose." Harm answered, leaning back to kiss Mac on the cheek.
"Okay there, sailor, I think you've been up just a little too long." Mac stood behind her husband and began to knead his shoulders. "You know, you could catch a few hours of rest, check out isn't until three for the room and me and the kids used."
"I'll sleep on the plane." Harm protested. He looked down at Sergei again, Mikey Roberts was in the room taking the shift for the friends half of the admitted guests. "Didn't you see his nose wiggle, Mikey?"
"To be quite honest, Admiral, I'm so tired I'm not sure I could identify my own nose much less his." Mikey answered drowsily. The two men kind of looked like bobble-head dolls as they sat their waiting for some sign from the heavens that Sergei was going to regain consciousness. When his finger twitched, they both bolted upright in their chairs. "You saw that?" Mikey asked.
"I did." Harm replied. They hunched over with anticipation waiting for something more. When they heard a loud groan and they saw his head move. Harm hit the button to page the nurse who came trotting in along with Dr. Mallard mere seconds later. By that time, Sergei had opened his eyes slightly. The doctor checked Sergei's vitals including his pupils and his glands.
"My young friend, I dare say that you gave your family, friends and two Heads of Government rather considerable scares." Dr. Mallard explained.
"I do not understand, the last thing I remember is the plane landing on the runway." Sergei began to sit himself up in the bed when he felt the stitches strain on his right side.
"My young friend, by the time that you reached surgery you were at a Class IV Haemorrhage. Your heroic ability to land the aircraft had aggravated the small tear in your axillary artery that was endured in the initial assault. You were suffering from tachycardia, your systolic and diastolic blood pressures were almost interchangeable and both were in the numerical range of the final score of an American football game. Your body had reached the very limits of its ability to compensate for such blood loss. If they hadn't gotten you here when they had, you'd be dead my young friend." Dr. Mallard made a note on Sergei's chart. "No sense in speculating about that one now. Your blood pressure is 121 over 84 and I'll inspect your stitches and dressing one last time before turning you over to the medical care of the President's physician."
"President's physician?" Sergei asked slightly confused.
"Yeah, Marine, you're a hero, you didn't think I would let you sit in Washington when I could be assuring that you have access to the best doctors possible?" Nate stood in the doorway. "I figured you'd want to get back home, so I hopped on Air Force one, brought my personal physician and the Surgeon General so that we could get you home without doing more damage."
"He also gave all of us a ride so that we could get here." Harm answered with a smile.
"Yeah, everyone except for me." Johnny-Reb appeared at the foot of the bed. "I got hauled off a beach at Pensacola to be here."
"Nice to see you, too, Johnny." Sergei chuckled as a nurse helped sit him up in bed.
"What about the rest of us?" Mikey Roberts leaped in. Sergei looked around to see Mikey and Anna standing with Tamila and Johnny.
"Well, I am rather excited to see all of you as well." Sergei went to swing his legs over the side of the bed.
"You're going to need to put your uniform on, Sergei. " Harm lifted the jacket. "Or at least try to anyway. There are a lot of people who are going to want to shake your hand. Hopefully they'll stick to shaking your left hand."
"You're an American hero, Sergei, not just an American one either. There were citizens of eight different countries on that plane including British, French, American, Italian and Greek and you saved all of their lives." Anna lightly put her hand on his arm. "I think my brother and the Prime Minister of Great Britain both have a few parting gifts for you."
Sergei stood up from the bed and both Harm and Mac jumped to his side to make sure that he didn't lose his balance. "I'm fine, my wound is in my shoulder and arm remember?" He held up his left hand. "I'm going to need to get changed, could I please be left alone for a second?"
Everyone nodded and left the room so that Sergei could get changed. The Presidential staff left to go out front of the hospital and handle the press scrum while members of the Rabb family and Sergei's closest friends waited out side the hospital door for him. Inside, Sergei was adjusted his dress blue uniform. The midnight blue jacket hung open and loose about his shoulders to accommodate the sling that his right arm was in. He gave a slight adjustment to the medals on the left side of the jacket and the slid his white cover under his arm. He gave himself a nod in the mirror and went walking out of the hospital room. "So, how do I look?" He asked, looking around at his friends and family.
"Like a Marine." Mac, Johnny and Anna all answered at the same time. "We're all really proud of you, Sergei." Anna added for the group.
"Thanks." He nodded a silent understanding and finally got a look at her left hand. She wasn't wearing her ring any more, this could only mean one thing. He was also not in the kind of environment where raising questions was appropriate in that regard. He just gave another nod and walked with his friends and family toward the front door of the hospital. They took it slow so as not to put too much stress on his stitches or overexert him. By the time that they got to the front of the hospital, they found Secret Service and Scotland Yard holding back the Press Scrum so that Sergei could stand next to the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
"Lieutenant Sergei Rabb, for your meritorious actions in the combating of terrorism, an enemy of the United States and indeed of all free persons, I present you with the Medal of Honour, on the behalf of the Congress of the United States." Nate walked around behind Sergei and tied the Medal around his neck. "Congratulations, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, sir." Sergei answered and shook Nate's hand.
"I believe the Prime Minister has something for you now." Nate responded, indicating that Sergei should turn around.
"Leftenant Rabb, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and on the behalf of Her Majesty and her government it is my most esteemed privilege to award you with the Victoria Cross for your actions on the morning of May 4th." The Prime Minister reached forward and pinned the cross on Sergei's jacket. "Courage of your calibre is a most precious and rare commodity young man. It bodes well for our civilization that we should produce such men as yourself."
"Thank you, sir." Sergei answered. He turned around to face Nate and raised his left hand for a salute which Nate returned in kind. "Permission to return to my family, sir?"
"Granted." Nate answered with a smile. With the conclusion of ceremonies, Nate and the Prime Minister stood out front of the hospital for a few minutes to answer questions while everyone else was loaded into the motorcade headed for Air Force One.
"Gunny?" Harm leaned on the limo next to Gunny. "That was awful quick to get a Congressional Medal of Honour out here."
"Well, Admiral, when you're the Chief of Staff to the President you can compel the Speaker to call a late session of Congress, you can compel the House Majority leader to introduced a motion that passes with unanimous support and you can have the JAG officers from the NATO office do a quick investigation all in twelve hours." Gunny answered with a superior grin.
"You're really enjoying your new job, aren't you?" Harm asked with a chuckle.
"I really am, Admiral." Gunny answered as he gave the Secret Service the signal to get the President to the motorcade.