Chapter Eighteen

The Oval Office

C.J. walked down the portico and entered the Outer Oval Office. She walked to the Mural Room where the Whiffenpoofs, an all men's chorus, were singing Christmas Carol. She motioned Carol to come to her.

"It's really starting to get socked in out there and I'm worried about the airports," C.J. said.

"You think they should wrap it up?"

C.J. listened for a moment. "Well, one more after this."

"I know. Aren't they great?" Carol asked happily.

"You just want them to take you to their place and..."

A fake lusty look came over her face.

"They're 20 years old, ma'am," Carol said, feigning shock.

"Yes. Sing... is what I was going to say. Take you to their place and sing."

"Of course, C.J.", Carol said, smiling. "And don't pretend that you'd like to have a private performance with them, considering the hunk of a man you have at home."

"Yeah, he can, uh, sing very well," C.J. deadpanned.

C.J. and Carol looked at each other and smirked.

C.J.'s Office

"When I left, they had 97 runs," Danny Concannon told C.J.

"The score gets that high?"

"A high score is 400."

"When did you start liking cricket?"

"Well, I haven't yet. But last week I took four days in Bermuda."

"Oh, I love Bermuda. I like the scooters."

"I do too, and I got one, and I was riding into Hamilton when I saw a bunch of people playing cricket. And I like sports, though it turns out, not as much as I'd thought. But that's not the point."

"What was the point?" C.J. asked, immediately knowing that she wouldn't like what Danny was about to tell her.

"I met a guy there, a Bermudian whose name I'm not going to tell you right now. He was explaining the game to me. He's a cricket nut. He plays in a league. And he's a ramp signal agent at a small airstrip. He marshals planes as they're coming in. He was telling me a story to illustrate how much he loves cricket. There was a day his supervisor told his four-person crew they had tomorrow off 'cause a training crew was coming in to work their shift. Well, the next day, the guy realized he left his cricket bat in his locker at work and his wife had the car, so he walks six miles back to the airstrip to get it. Except, when he got there, he wasn't allowed in. Three men in coveralls who identified themselves as being part of the training crew were standing out front. All three of them were white, two of them had Southern accents. On May 21st, he was told to take tomorrow off. On the 22nd... Abdul Shareef's plane went off radar 85 miles from Bermuda."

C.J. was silent for a moment, digesting what Danny had just told her.

"This is like something you'd get on the Internet."

"I'm back and I'm happy about it. And I think you know how I feel about you."

When C.J. started to say something, Danny held up his hand. "Don't worry, I know that you're happy with your sailor, but I am still your friend. But C.J., friend or no friend, don't mess me around on this story, okay? The three guys out front were U.S. Army Rangers," Danny stated, and walked out C.J.'s office.

C.J. watched Danny as he left. She sighed. She immediately understood that things were about to get bad. How bad, she didn't know yet, but they would get bad. She remembered her suspicion when she heard that Shareef's plane had gone down. She had also various conversations with Harm about that. Harm was many things, but he was no conspiracy nut job, but even he had told her he thought the complete accident was very suspicious. And now the truth would get out, whether or not they liked it.

C.J.'s apartment

The next day was the day, the Judge would decide Mattie's guardianship. Together, they had decided that Harm and Mattie would move into C.J.'s apartment. It had been obvious to all that Harm's apartment hadn't been an option. They had tabled any discussion about buying a house for now. So, with the help of Sturgis, the Roberts, Josh, and Toby, they had moved Harm's belongings to C.J.'s apartment.

Since then, CPS had visited them several times, and they had the apartment inspected. Harm and C.J. were unsure how the process was going for them. They both understood that their work could represent an obstacle. Both of them could be out of town for several days, and worse, they could even send Harm into a war zone. But they had rolled the dice, now they'd get to result whether or not they win.

"Do I really have to wear a dress?" Mattie asked them again. She had asked the same question several times already and Harm was honestly tiring of it. But he knew that this would be a recurring theme in their household if they'd get guardianship of Mattie.

That's what you get when you want to take care of a headstrong teenager, Harm thought to himself.

"Yes, you have to wear a dress. It shows respect for the court," Harm replied wearily. "You know that; I've told you that several times now, and so did C.J."

"Lying to the court shows respect?" Mattie challenged him.

Harm looked straight at her. "How are you lying to the court by wearing a dress?"

Harm asked. By now C.J., had come into the kitchen. She remained silent for the moment, letting Harm answer the question. 'Though she didn't like the accusation either.

"Well, isn't pretending to be someone else lying?"

"It can be, but not in this case. As I said, wearing nice clothes shows respect," Harm replied.

Harm saw that Mattie wanted to say something, but changed tracks.

"Mattie, you told me you went to church with your mother from time to time. Did you go there in jeans and shirt or did you dress in more formal or nice clothes?"

Harm, and C.J., could see that Mattie didn't like where the conversation headed.

"I see you understand where I'm going with this. You wore nice clothes to show respect," Harm said. "We told you to either wear a dress or a skirt and jacket. You chose the dress. So, can you stop it now? Our answers will not change."

Mattie looked from Harm to C.J. back to him. She recognized the tone of his voice. While he hadn't yelled at her so far, there have several instances where his voice had become more clipped. It was a sign that he was getting exasperated. And while C.J. had said nothing, she didn't look happy with her either.

Mattie sighed. "All right, I stop nagging you."

"Thank you," Harm said. "You still remember the rules for the court?"

"Of course, I do. You told them to me several times," Mattie replied.

"We also told you several times that you had to dress more formal than usual. But, for some reason, you had problems remembering that," Harm deadpanned.

Mattie looked at Harm incredulously, like she couldn't understand that Harm was really going there. C.J. just chuckled.

"All right, you got me there," Mattie said.

Harm just nodded. "Good. Let's hear them one last time."

"Ughh," Mattie sighed, rolling her eyes theatrically.

"I'm respectful to anybody; call the judge 'your honor' and everybody else 'sir' or 'ma'am."

"And?" Harm prodded.

"I answer all questions honestly, but I don't volunteer more information than is asked for."

Harm nodded approvingly. "Good, keep it simple!"

Courthouse

At the courthouse, the three of them met up with the Roberts who would be their character witnesses. They had thought hard and long about the people who could stand up for them. Normally, his mother and Frank would be here, but Frank had an episode with his heart and was currently in hospital. Harm had told his mother not to worry and to concentrate on her husband.

In the end, they decided on the Roberts from Harm's side and her C.J.'s sister-in-law Brooke and her niece Hogan.

At their first, Mattie had been reluctant about meeting the other girl, but after a few minutes of awkwardness, they had come to an understanding. Now, they got on like a house on fire.

They also had several written statements from C.J.'s closest colleagues and Sturgis, which they had submitted.

They met with the Roberts when C.J.'s family joined them. After a brief introduction, they entered the sparsely populated courtroom. Harm looked to the front and was relieved not to see Mattie's father. That had been a big concern for them. Both knew that his appearance would have been bad for their petition.

The trio took their seats at the petitioners' table in the courtroom while the others sat behind them. They only had to wait a few seconds before the court was called to order.

"Ms. Cregg, Commander Rabb, you have petitioned the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to become the guardian of Matilda Grace Johnson, a minor child."

"We have, Your Honor," Harm replied.

They had decided that he should be their spokesperson unless the judge specifically asked C.J. or Mattie a question.

"I have read the report by Donna Le Moyne, the Guardian Ad Litem, and the housing inspection report by Morgan Watley. Both reports raise questions, but both show a refreshing honesty and a realistic appraisal of the challenge you face."

Harm leaned slightly forward in his seating, his hands lightly clasped on the tabletop in front of him, "We would be glad to answer any questions the court has, Your Honor."

"And you will have your chance," the judge responded.

"First, I want to know why you thought it was a good idea to bring Matilda to your home instead of immediately alerting CPS?"

Harm stood up to answer the question. "I did that for several reasons, Your Honor. From what Mattie told me in our brief conversation was that she was alone and needed help. From the little I knew of her, I guessed it was a pretty enormous leap for her to ask anybody for help, especially somebody she barely knew. I didn't want to shatter the little trust she'd shown to me, to us," Harm pointed at C.J., "by calling CPS."

Harm paused for a moment. "Your Honor, I have some experience with CPS and 'the system'. I mean no disrespect to Ms. Le Moyne, but my experienced were mostly rather bad. I didn't know how Mattie would react when suddenly a stranger arrived at her home. We thought that it was better for Mattie to feel safe for a moment. That would also give us time to assess her situation, get all the details, and formulate a plan. I told Mattie from the beginning that we would contact CPS, and we did as soon as we had a better picture of what was going on with her," Harm reported.

The judge looked at him for a moment. "I see. What about her schooling?"

"Your Honor, we've made provisional arrangements for Mattie to attend a DC High School with the beginning of the New Year," Harm replied.

"We decided not to enroll her in a local school until now because we didn't want her to leave again should you not allow her to stay with us. However, we have contacted her previous school to find out the curriculum Mattie had missed in the previous months she'd not attended school. We had her work through the material since then. In addition, Ms. Cregg's niece, Hogan," Harm turned around to point to her, "has tutored her several times."

"Thank you, Commander," the judge said again and wrote something down.

"I have several statements from character witnesses from colleagues and friends. I think that is the first time that somebody in my court had the First Family as their character witnesses," the judge said.

The judge must have seen the surprised looks on theirs faces. "You look surprised Commander Rabb, Ms. Cregg?"

Harm looked at C.J. who nodded. C.J. stood up. "Yes, Your Honor. We didn't know that. We had only asked my immediate colleagues for a character reference. We didn't want you, uh, the court to get the impression that we'd try to unduly influence the court."

They had tried to leave the politics out of the entire process as best as they could. That was the reason none of her colleagues were in attendance but had only written a character reference. C.J. wondered who of them had told the President.

"Don't worry about it, Ms. Cregg. The court doesn't feel pressured," the judge said. "All character references were very complimentary of you and the little they knew about Mattie. Anyway, I now want to hear from the character witnesses who are here today."

First up were C.J.'s sister-in-law Brooke and her niece Hogan. They told the judge about C.J., the time she spent with them. Hogan pointed out that despite her demanding job, her aunt would always take time for her. She was always available to her if she needed someone to talk to. And if her aunt couldn't talk to her immediately, she would call her back as soon as possible.

They also spoke about Harm and their impression of him. They told the judge that he had always treated them with respect. They recounted what they had witnessed about his behavior towards Mattie. That he was calm, respectful, and showed her affection. Hogan stated she felt comfortable being alone with Harm; that he didn't give her the creeps like some other men she had met. Hearing that, Harm looked over to C.J., both silently agreeing that they would look into the men that gave Hogan 'the creeps'.

The next up were Bud and Harriet. First, they told them they had watched Harm mentoring younger officers, both as navy officers and as attorneys.

They told them about their relationship with Harm. That he had become one of their best friends even though he was their superior officer. That he was always there for them when they needed him, e.g. during Bud's TAD and then during his recovery after Bud's injury.

Of course, they told the judge how their son, A.J., loved his godfather, Unca Harm. That Harm took as much time to spend with little A.J. as his schedule allowed. They, too, recounted times they had spent with Mattie and what they had observed about Harm and C.J.'s treatment of her. They both concluded that they didn't doubt that Harm and C.J. would give Mattie the best home possible.

Towards all this, Harm had to dig deep into his military bearing to remain impassionate. He was moved and very grateful for the words of his friends.

After she had finished with the witnesses, the judge asked for Mattie. "Ms. Johnson, you are old enough to be heard in the court…" She couldn't finish her sentence as Mattie interrupted her.

Mattie stood up. "Ma', uh, Your Honor, could you please call me Ms. Grace? That is the maiden name of my mother. I don't like to be called Johnson because that is HIS name."

Mattie glanced at Harm and saw his look. "Sorry for interrupting you, Your Honor."

The judge looked at Mattie. She could clearly hear what Mattie thought about her absent father and made some notes. She could also see that the mostly stoic Commander didn't know how to react to Mattie's brief outburst. He looked like he was proud of her standing up for herself and horrified at her outburst. She had to fight hard not to laugh.

"All right, Ms. Grace. Why do you want Commander Rabb and Ms. Cregg to be your guardians?"

"Ma'am, before the night I called Harm, uh, Commander Rabb, I had only met both of them once. They had come out to the airfield to fly. I asked the Harm, uh, Commander Rabb."

"You can call him Harm, Ms. Grace."

"Thank you. Uhm, I asked Harm whether I could help with the check-up of his airplane. To be honest, I thought he'd give me the brush-off as many other pilots had done before. But he didn't. He agreed to let me help. More than that, he explained to me what he was doing and why. He answered all of my questions calmly. And, ma'am, I had a lot of questions," Mattie said with a bit of humor.

The judge observed as Mattie looked at Harm, who just smiled at her. She made another note in her file.

"But it wasn't all Harm, I got to speak with C.J., too. I liked that she, too, didn't treat me as a child," Mattie continued her statement. "After they had gone, I felt lonely for the first time, ma'am. And I hoped they come back soon. Sadly, they didn't."

Mattie paused for a moment. "What I mean is that they were the only people I felt comfortable to call when I needed help. I, I didn't know what would happen, ma'am. I thought that they call someone else or something like that. But ma'am, that didn't happen. As soon as Harm realized that something was wrong, he told me he was on his way to get me. I,"

Everybody in the courtroom could see and hear that Mattie was fighting with her emotions. It impressed the judge when she saw how the Commander put a hand on Mattie's back and Ms. Cregg grabbed Mattie's hand.

Mattie took a deep breath. "I was happy to get out of the cold house and spend time with them. I know now that they took a big risk to not call, uh, CPS, immediately. But ma'am, they told me from the beginning that they would do so," Mattie said, looking at the judge who nodded.

"Anyway, since then, Harm and C.J. made a place for me in their lives. I understand that wasn't easy with their busy lives, but they did it anyway. They also offered me more parenting in the weeks since I had since my mom died. And I want that, Your Honor. I promise to do as they tell me and that I won't cause any trouble for them."

The judge shook her head slightly. "Ms. Grace, Mattie, trouble is a part of life. I am only interested in how Commander Rabb and Miss Cregg are going to handle that trouble."

The judge's words brought Harm to his feet, "Your Honor, I lost my father when I was young, not because he left, but because he went missing in action in Vietnam. Ms. Cregg lost her mother when she was a little older than Mattie. We know what it's like to grow up without a parent, and we don't take the responsibility of parentship lightly. I give my word to this court, Your Honor, that I, that we will do our level best to ensure that Mattie gets everything she deserves. We've given her my word that she will never be alone in this world again!"

Mattie looked at Harm, then at the judge. "Ma'am, may I add something?"

"Go ahead."

"I know there will be trouble, ma'am. We already had some smaller arguments, but I had those with my mother, too."

After she said those words, Mattie realized she should probably not have said something else.

"Can you give me an example of such an argument?"

Mattie looked at Harm, silently asking for an apology. Harm just smiled and nodded, silently encouraging her to go on.

"Yes, ma'am. Uh," thinking about an example, she looked down at her dress.

"Your Honor, our most recent dispute was about what I should wear today. Harm and C.J. told me that I couldn't wear jeans and a shirt, but something more formal. The thing is, Your Honor, I, uh, don't feel comfortable in dresses. And I kept on trying to change their minds for the past few days. And, I guess, I acted a little like a normal teenager," Mattie said.

That statement brought some smiles to the attendance faces. They understood what she meant. "Anyway, I, uh, despite me bothering them constantly with it, Harm and C.J. remained calm. They took their time to explain their reason for it. And repeated it several times when I asked them again," Mattie said sheepishly. Then she turned serious again. "At no time did they yell at me or tell me just to do like they told me."

"That doesn't sound too bad to me."

"No, ma'am."

"Anything else you want to tell the court?"

Mattie thought about it for a moment. "Uh, yes, Your Honor. As you know, I had difficulties paying the bills for my house and the business. Harm and C.J. have agreed to take care of or have already taken care of it."

The judge looked at Harm. "Commander?"

Harm stood. "Your Honor, we all have discussed what to do with the house and the business. Mattie wants to keep both, as they are her only links to her mother. I have paid the outstanding bills. I'm also paying the mortgage according to the schedule. We haven't done more at the moment as we wanted to wait for the courts' decision," Harm said.

"Your Honor, as you can see in our financial details, both Ms. Cregg and I are financially independent. We want to stress that our decision to ask for guardianship has nothing to do with the house or business. Ms. Cregg and I are both willing to help Mattie keep them both, even if you decide not to grant us guardianship. Going forward, we are happy to work with a lawyer the court appoints or ask one of our colleagues to represent Mattie's best interest," Harm said. He turned around to Roberts. "And I want to add that I won't ask Lieutenant Roberts, as it may be seen as a conflict of interest, nor will I ask any other subordinates."

"Thank you, Commander," the judge said. "Let's take a fifteen minutes recess."

During the recess, Harm, C.J. and Mattie took time to thank their witnesses for their kind words. C.J. and Harm told them they hadn't known that the Bartlet's had written a character reference.

Fifteen minutes later, Harm, C.J., and Mattie stood looking at the judge, nervously awaiting her decision.

"Commander Rabb, Ms. Cregg, Ms. Grace, I have to say this was one of the more unusual petitions I have seen in all my years. To be honest, I am not happy with the fact that you didn't immediately inform CPS about Mattie. In addition, there is the fact that according to yourselves, you, Commander Rabb, and Miss Cregg have only known each other for a few months. Your relationship is even shorter. I have difficulties imagining how you think you can make your relationship work with both of your careers AND take guardianship of a teenager you barely know," the judge said.

"However, your actions so far show that you have assessed the situation and made the relevant plans and decisions. Furthermore, the glowing character references from your family, friends, and colleagues are in your favor. As is the fact that the court couldn't get hold of Mr. Johnson or that anybody from his family appeared today," the judge paused.

"The court decision is the following: Custody of Matilda Grace Johnson, a minor child, is awarded to Harmon Rabb jr. and Claudia Jean Cregg. You will get unannounced visits from a CPS worker who will check on Mattie. And in six months, if their reports are satisfactory, and wish to do so, you'll be able to petition for adoption," the judge said. "Court dismissed."

"Thank you, Your Honor."

"Yes, thank you, Your Honor."

"Merry Christmas, Commander, Ms. Cregg, Mattie."

After a short round of congratulations, the Roberts left as they had many things to do for their Christmas celebration. Harm had thanked them again and apologized that he wouldn't be at their get-together later.

"Don't worry, sir, spend time with your family," Bud had replied.

They made plans to visit the Roberts, or more specifically, to visit his godson, in the coming days.

"Congratulations, Aunt C.J., it's a girl," Hogan said to C.J. to everybody's amusement.

"You know, C.J., I speak from experience when I say that the time from Hogan's birth until now seemed to have flown past rather quick. But you went from a single woman to a mother figure of a teenage girl in less than six months. Your brother always said that you're an overachiever, but this," Brooke said and winked her hand, "all this is rather spectacular. Even for you."

C.J. just looked at her sister-in-law, her niece, then to Harm, and lastly to Mattie. Everybody could see the moment she realized the truth of Brooke's words. They waited for her to react. Especially a young teenager looked at her with some worry.

It took a few moments for C.J. to react. She put her arms around Mattie, hugged her to her and said, "Worth it."

That put a smile on anybody's face. A few minutes later, after making plans for another visit, Brooke and Hogan left.

From the courthouse, they made their way to the Memorial Wall. When Harm had suggested that he could go there later on his own, both C.J. and Mattie had told him they wanted to 'meet' his father.

When they reached the place where his father's name was located, C.J. and Mattie wanted to give Harm a moment alone, but Harm declined. With his gloved hand, Harm traced the inscriptions of the name Harmon Rabb SNR.

"Merry Christmas, Dad," he said silently. "It's been 33 years since I lost you, dad. There haven't been many happy Christmas holidays since then. However, that will differ from now on. Today, I gained a daughter," Harm said. "This is your granddaughter, Matilda. We call her Mattie because, just like you and me, she has a goofy name. And next to me is the very special woman who joined me on my way to fatherhood. I don't know what will happen, dad, but maybe, one day, we can add more some more grandchildren to our little family," Harm said, looking at C.J.

Both C.J. and Mattie were fighting with their emotions. The unconventional family stood there for a few moments, silently hugging each other.

C.J. stepped back for a moment and looked at Mattie. She could see that Mattie wasn't able to say anything, so she stepped forward.

"Lieutenant, America and the world will never forget you and your sacrifice," C.J. said. "On a more personal note, thank you for bringing this wonderful man into our lives. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that you would be very proud of the man he had become. And while I cannot promise you more grandkids at the moment, I am sure that we'll know about that Christmas next year."

When C.J. stepped back, Mattie walked up to the panel. Like she had seen Harm and C.J, do, she lightly traced the name and with her fingertips.

"Thank you, grandpa," she silently said and stepped back again.