Chapter 19

"Danika never said anything about her father being in the Marines but she's in the kitchen, let me go and aske her, hold on just a minute Bud."

Bud agreed to wait and AJ arrived in the kitchen to find Jessy and Danika laughing at Dammit's tendency of getting in the way. "Danika do you know if your father was in the Marines?"

"Mom always said he was. She said he died a hero but I thought she was just making up stories so I would have good thoughts about him. He died when I was only a few months old."

AJ reported what he' been told and Bud gave him the rest of the information he had found on her father. He also told AJ that he'd found the story Danika had told them about in the paper covering her mother's death. Bud said he would email it to AJ but that it wasn't a pretty story. However now that they had the confirmation that both her parents were dead they could proceed with the adoption.

Thanking Bud he hung up and told both Jessy and Danika what had learned about Danika's father. He also stated that he would look into death bennifits from her father for Danika.

"He was a hero," Danika whispered through her tears.

Jessy also had tears in her eyes when she turned to take her in her arms. AJ's heart tugged, the woman he loved and the young girl he already felt like a father to were in tears. Stepping closer to them he gently put his arms around both of them. Jessy smiled up at him through her tears and leaned into his embrace. When Danika felt his arms around them she gasped and started to sob.

Throwing her arms around his neck Danika cried, "I know you aren't my real dad Coach AJ but it sure feels like you are! Thank you for finding out about my…father it means a lot to know my mom wasn't lying about him. But most of all I'm really glad that you guys want to be my new mom and dad."

"So are we," Jessy and AJ answered in unison.

All three of them laughed and then they went back to getting dinner ready.

It was then that they told Danika they were getting married in just a few hours. Jessy asked Danika if she had a nice dress to wear. Danika gave her a funny look and said she didn't have any dresses.

Jessy smiled and grabbed her car keys. She told AJ that they would meet him at JAG Headquarters in two hours wether they found a dress or not.

"But I don't have the money for a dress!" Danika protested.

AJ gave her a hug and said, "Silly girl that is what parents are for."

"Come on," Jessy instructed as she gave AJ a quick kiss good bye and headed to the door.

At the dress shop Jessy told the clerk that both she and Danika needed dresses for a wedding. Danika was quick to add that her 'mom' was the bride and needed something special. The clerk appologized that they didn't have any wedding dresses but they did have some really lovely formals.

Jessy assured her she didn't want anything 'fancy'. She told the clerk to help Danika find something and that she would look for herself. Jessy told the clerk that she wanted to go with a fall colored pallet. So as Jessy looked for a dress the clerk found three dressed for Danika to try on. One in gold, one in coral, and the last in burnt orange.

While Danika was trying on the dresses Jessy found two that she thought might work for her. The first was sage green and the other was the color of butternut squash.

Danika came out in the coral and burnt orange dresses, they both made her skin look sallow however the gold dress looked fantistic on her. That decided it, then it was Jessy's turn to try on the ones she had selected.

Danika told her that both dresses looked good on her but that she didn't really think that the green was right for a wedding dress. Smiling at the young girl Jessy paid for the dresses and they wore them out of the shop because they had to get to Falls Church to meet AJ.

To be continued…..