Chapter 50

"I really don't want to talk about that, Pop."

"Sturgis, I can see it in your eyes, that this is a painful subject, but you know that you can tell me anything. What happened, son? You were so happy and excited about proposing before your trip. You seemed sure enough that she would say yes, that you bought that lovely ring….."

"Pop, there is nothing to say," Sturgis got up and started pacing, he could tell his father was not going to let this drop and go on to the other thing he had come to talk about until he was satisfied.

"My greatest wish was to see you married and as happy as your mother and I were before…"

That stopped Sturgis mid-pace. "Before what, Pop?"

"Well, that was the other thing that I needed to talk to you about. Son, my doctor tells me that I have cancer."

"Pop!" Sturgis went over to his chair and squatted down in front of him, reaching out for his hand. "There are a lot of treatments for that these days…" He stopped talking when he saw his father shaking his head 'no'.

"Son, that might give me a few more months, but weighed against the quality of those months, I decided it was not worth it."

"You're dying?" there was a catch in Sturgis' voice.

"They give me six months. That was why I was hoping to see you married before then. Please tell me what happened, son."

Sturgis stood and went to sit on the couch again, "I don't really know, Pop. She accepted the ring, everything was fine, and then, three days later, she came home from work and said it was off. She would give me no explanation, just asked me to leave. I have been trying to contact her since, after giving her some time to calm down, but she won't take or return my calls."

The next day, Chaplain Turner waited until he knew that Francesca Paretti would be home from work before placing a call to her apartment.

"Pronto!"

"Miss Paretti? This is Chaplain Turner," he said.

Francesca had stopped screening her calls, because both Sturgis and her father had given up on trying to reach her that way, so she felt safe answering her phone now. However, she was not prepared for Sturgis' father to be calling her. "Si?"

"Miss Paretti, Sturgis told me about your broken engagement last night."

"Just last night?" she inquired with a gasp. She could not believe that Sturgis was hiding the fact that they were not getting married from his father.

"We have both been busy lately, and I had gone to see him on another matter and that is when he told me."

"I see."

"I hate to see my son hurting and his heart is breaking over this, my dear, I was wondering if you could tell me what happened? All I could get from him was that he did not know your reasons for not wanting to marry him."

"I really do not wish to talk about it, Sir," she told him with a catch in her voice.

"My dear, may I call you Francesca? I can hear that you are hurting too, is there something that I can do?"

"No, there is nothing that can be done!" she was softly crying by this time.

"My child, please allow me to help the two of you!" William pleaded.

"There is nothing that you can do! I will not hurt my Papa' that way!" she wept.

"Are you saying that your father does not approve of the marriage? I have spoken to him and he seems as confused about this break up as Sturgis is!"

"No, Papa' was happy about us, but I know how much he loves being JAG!"

"My dear, your father is no longer JAG."

"You mean they fired him anyway!" there was hysterical weeping from the phone now.

To be continued…