Chapter 36

"Yes, Sir, I know when not to tell," promised Shawn.

"Okay. You're mom was so nervous about seeing you for the first time that she had to go to the bathroom to throw up. She's very worried that you won't like her," AJ confessed.

"She is? Really?"

"Yes really, I would never lie to you, Shawn. She's worried that because she has some scars you might not like her, but I told her that if you knew how she got them you wouldn't mind at all."

"How did she get them?" Shawn asked, his eyes as round as saucers.

Lieutenant Commander Aguilar watched the interaction between them and thought how sad it was that the Admiral had gone into the law instead of counseling.

"Before you were ever born, your mom was caught in an explosion and because you were in her tummy, she wanted to protect you. That was how her face got hurt."

"Oh…is she mad at me for that?" Shawn asked.

"No! Why would she be?"

"Because Mama…Ruby gets mad at me when I do bad things."

"All of us get into trouble at times, but I know that your mom loves you and wants very much to meet you."

"She won't treat me like Pinocchio?"

"Pinocchio? What do you mean?" AJ asked.

"Ma…Ruby said if I was her real boy, then I would behave better. I want to be real! And I try my best to be good!" Shawn's lower lip began to quiver.

"I'm sure you do," AJ said, and not knowing quite what else to do, instinctively did just what Shawn needed most. He simply opened his arms, and Shawn threw himself into them.

That was how Luna found them when she entered the room. Her eyes had gone immediately to the child in AJ's arms and her gaze all but devoured him. Looking up when he saw movement at the door, AJ saw Luna and the almost hungry look she gave Shawn. He whispered something in the little boy's ear and the child shyly turned his head to get his first look at his 'real' mother.

Shawn turned back to AJ and whispered something in his ear too, then threw a quick glance at his mother and added something else. Grinning at the child, AJ let him go and got to his feet. He told Shawn out loud, "You should tell her both those things." Taking Shawn by the hand he walked over to Luna. "Shawn, this is your mom. Her name is Luna, but I bet she'd love it if you called her mom or mommy."

"Hi," Shawn said shyly, still clinging to AJ's hand.

Luna tried to keep the scarred side of her face turned away from him, but she wanted to take in everything about him, so it was very difficult. Bending down so they were face to face, she said, "Hi Shawn, what was it that AJ wanted you to tell me?"

"I said that you were pretty," Shawn answered, then added, "Oh and that you had hair just like mine!"

Luna's eyes flew to AJ's as if for conformation, when he gave it to her with a nod of his head, her eyes filled with tears. Unfortunately this scared Shawn into thinking he had said something wrong. Instinctively, it seemed, he hid behind AJ's legs.

AJ looked down at him and asked, "What is it, Shawn?"

"I made her cry, now she'll be mad at me!" the little voice shook as tears began to slide down his cheeks.

Wiping her eyes, Luna spoke, "Shawn, I couldn't possibly be mad at what you said. That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."

Watching as the child took a step closer to his mother, AJ realized that Shawn had been right. With their heads on almost equal level it was clear where Shawn had gotten his head full of white-blonde hair. If AJ had thought about it at all, before seeing Shawn, he would have guessed Luna's color had come from a bottle. Not that there would have been anything wrong with that, but he was glad that this gave the two of them some equal footing to start on.

"If you're not mad at me, why did you cry?" Shawn asked.

"They were happy tears, Shawn. I'm just so happy to finally meet you."

"Dad was mad when they came to the door and said you wanted to see me. Then he got really mad when they put the handcuffs on him and took him away."

To be continued…