**Enlisted Club. NTC Orlando, FL. October 3, 1989**
The Chief kept telling the admin crew not to date the students, but it didn't actually bother him when they did. It was a matter of wisdom, not regulation. But Tiner was too young and playful to heed the warning.
Jason was on a mission to kiss her that night.
Young was a nice girl. She wasn't loud or bouncy. She wasn't cruising the crackerjacks for a husband, and she spent most of her time studying because the subject wasn't exactly down her alley. They palled around together off duty every day and every weekend, more often with a gang than not. He'd taken her off base to the movies once and then for pizza once with a crowd, but since she was still in uniform 24/7 he couldn't lay a finger on her.
Today was the day she got her civvies chit. He knew this because the request had to come across his desk and he made damned sure that it was the first thing the Chief signed this afternoon.
Jodi had shoved a completed muster list of eighty in his hand, smiled, and asked him if he was going to go to the club with everybody tonight. Just as he opened his mouth to ask her out alone, on a 'date', Chief Dicks strolled into the room and stepped up beside him to look at them muster lists.
Tiner pulled out the muster list for him, and nodded at her. "I'll see you there."
The Enlisted Clubs in all A-schools were always hopping places. Nobody ranked enough to be able to afford a car by paycheck alone, and *everybody* lived in the barracks. It was like college with a campus bar, but since nobody here went to college, nobody figured that out. Officers were already rarely seen on this base, but the nice thing about Enlisted Clubs was that you were certain to *never* see them. Even the Chiefs had their own places to hang out. The E-Club was the only place the seamen and petty officers could be themselves.
Tiner arrived long before Jodi did, and he found himself watching the door while he talked with the quickly forming gang from Barracks 173. He found out that Jodi and two others from her company had ran off for the NEX as soon as they'd received their civvies chits. Pearson had lost so much weight in boot camp that her old jeans no longer fit. Butters emerged with punk chains and a shredded, offensively labeled T-shirt, was ordered right back inside, get back in uniform and go buy some real civvies. Young, the gang reported, simply had no civvies to wear.
He was standing at the table with a plastic glass of beer in his hand and two other tall sailors at each shoulder. He was a standard squid in civvies: comfortably fit levis, tawny suede hiking boots, and a crisply- pressed, peach-colored, short sleeved shirt hanging open over a white t- shirt underneath. Still in Florida, and still in the eighties, the Miami Vice theme still run amuck in the Orlando E-club.
The gang continued to joke loudly, but he was hung in a holding pattern for the real evening to start up. Maybe he could get her to take a walk next to the Nuke's Pond. maybe he could ask her out on a real date for next weekend and he could kiss her then. He threw in a comment at the table just so they'd think he was paying attention, but his eyes flick to the door again.
Butters growled out as she marched into the club. "You people are a bunch of fuckin' preppies!" She flicked at the US NAVY T-shirt and yelled at their little gathering. "Where in the UCMJ does it say that I have to dress like a dork while I'm in civvies?!" Pearson was behind her, smiling as she approached, and Jodi was at Pearson's flank.
He'd always wondered what she was going to look like in civvies. Her jeans fit better than dungarees did. The brand new t-shirt was slightly oversized and tucked in. The front was an old 40's propaganda poster. 'Gee! I wish I were a Man, I'd join the Navy.' She was wearing just a tiny bit of make up on her eyes, but Tiner could only tell that because he'd been staring in her eyes without any make up for two months already.
He smiled as she stepped up, and she marched directly to him, glittering eyes locked on him and everything. He suspected a friendly hug was coming and put out his hand and the plastic cup of beer to invite her to do so, but Jodi weaved between the other standing sailors to get to him, took his face with both hands, and pulled him down so she could lay one on him.
Tiner deliberately dropped his beer, paying no mind that it landed on his buddy's shoe and splashed all directions, and pulled her in by the hips so he could really make use of this moment.
The table was already loud, but they got louder now. The buddy jumped as the beer splashed and someone yelled at Tin Man about the Party Foul, but most of them were making noise about the instant kiss out of nowhere. "FRAT!"
She'd only intended a quick kiss, but Tiner didn't let her stop. His mouth went tender and tasted her some more. He peaked his eyes open just enough so they could silently smile his approval about it and she paused to shine her eyes back at him before ducking in to kiss him again. The next thing they knew, they were pressed lightly from knees to chests and kissing slow, sincere, and sexy like they'd just arrived on their honeymoon.
"FRAT!" They blatted at them because he was barracks admin and she was a student. "Frat!" Tiner didn't bother to open his eyes to flip them off. They laughed and someone threw a wadded napkin at the back of her head. Jason caught it in the air without interrupting himself, threw it down, and gently held her face so he could just stand there and keep on kissing her.
"Frat..!"
YN1 Tiner wasn't seeing anything the computer screen. He could still hear the live band playing in the background, Butter's loud profanity, Pearson's soft southern drawl, and Sikes' easy laughter, but the noise echoed in the back of his head like the fading ghost of childhood.
He still felt that young most of the time, even though he wasn't nearly as rowdy these days, and he realized why he liked being around her after all these years. Working with officers all the time had slowly beaten him into a permanent little kid. but as Jodi was coming slowly back into his life, the original cock-eyed-cover, booter-teasing, Jason 'Tin Man' Tiner was starting to emerge too.
"TINER! Wake up!" SLAP! A female hand pounded flat on the top of his monitor, and Tiner looked up to find an frustrated Lieutenant behind it. "Where are those files on the Dreadfield case?"
Tiner sighed and stood. "The Readfield case, ma'am?"
"Whatever!" Simms spat. "Just get them."
Tiner didn't stutter or jump. He simply nodded patiently, "Yes, ma'am," and moved to where the file was waiting. He met her eyes when he handed them to her over his computer. "Anything else, ma'am?"
Simms started looking scrambling through the Readfield files right in front of his desk and Tiner picked up a pen and tapped it on the desktop so he could figure out what he was doing before his mind wandered off.
Commander Rabb stomped up in much the same mood as Simms and already had his hand reaching for The Mahogany Door before he got his request out. "Is the Admiral in his office?"
Tiner looked at him from under his brows. "The Admiral asked not to be disturbed, sir."
Rabb paused only to turn to Tiner and make this decision for himself, "Who is he with?"
Tiner tapped the end of his ball point on the table again and repeated it, "The Admiral asked not to be disturbed."
Rabb glared caustically at Tiner and put a hand on the Petty Officer's desk, speaking slow and clear. "That is not what I asked you."
Tiner flipped his pen over to point at the little red light on Line One. "He's on the phone, sir."
"With whom?"
Tiner lifted his face and almost smiled about it. "I don't know, sir."
Rabb visibly fretted with this for a minute and Simms took her files and stepped away from the scene before Rabb did what he most certainly was going to do.
Tiner folded his hands on his desk and watched with a patient mouth.
Commander Rabb stepped to the door, paused a moment, and burst into the room. He marched right up to the desk and came to attention.
Tiner climbed easily out of his chair and went to the door to close it. He could have put twenty dollars down on this outcome.
The Admiral calmly put the SecNav on hold, yelled, "Get out of my office!" before Rabb opened his mouth to breath, and Tiner easily pulled the door closed as Rabb came marching out again.
"Tell me when he gets of the phone," Rabb said and hustled unhappily away.
"Yes, sir." Tiner knew he was going to catch hell for that even though it wasn't his fault, and sighed it away. Do they expect him to tackle people before they opened the door? Tiner slowly sat back down at his desk, picked up his pen and muttered to himself, "God, I miss working A-school."
The Admiral emerged a few minutes later and crossed his arms at Tiner.
Tiner looked up from his paperwork, sighed, and stood up from his chair to come to attention a little slower than usual.
"I thought I told you that I didn't want to be disturbed."
Tiner looked at nothing in front of his attention and didn't stutter this time, "I expressed that twice to the Commander, sir."
Admiral Chegwidden sighed heavily and closed his eyes.
"If the Admiral pleases, I can requisition a gun to guard his door with."
AJ's eyes flicked over.
Tiner's eyes smiled a little. He let out just enough of a shrug to be visible without moving out of attention.
The Admiral smiled, shook his head, and moved back into his office. "I want Colonel Mackenzie and Commander Rabb, individually, in that order."
"Yes, sir," Tiner stepped around his desk.
It was nearly lunch, and Jodi came in with a visitor's badge attached to her old, naked, pea coat as Tiner went to fetch the Colonel and the Commander. He motioned to her and she responded by moving to his little corner of the world and sat down to wait in the chair by his desk.
Mac gave Harm a look as they emerged and marched across the office with Tiner behind them. Harm knew exactly why he was being summonsed, and had a bone to pick with the Admiral about the case already. Mac did not know why she was being summonsed and it worried her that they were being asked for simultaneously.
Jodi lifted her brows at the group as they approached. Rabb looked like he was about to spontaneously combust if he didn't get into that office and Mac did her best to ignore him. She gave Jodi a forced grin of hello.
Jodi somehow managed *not* to sing through her teeth, 'Somebody's in trouble.'
Tiner opened the door for the Colonel. She thanked him quietly and marched in, reporting as ordered, and Rabb tried to go in too, but Tiner closed the door in Rabb's face. "One at a time was his order, sir."
Rabb looked at the ceiling and huffed, and Tiner stepped behind him, took the car keys out of the air where Jodi offered them, and sat down at his desk. He only needed to mouth the "ssshh" to keep her quiet, but her expression rippled that she really wanted to make some noise.
"At ease, Colonel." The Admiral started, "I have a strange personal request that I need to handle very delicately."
Her brows rippled with confusion. "Of course, sir."
He crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling to form his words. "Ms Cavanaugh raved about the earrings you received for Christmas. And I was wondering if you could find out who the jeweler was."
Mac licked her lips until they smiled nervously, "Of course, sir. But why can't you ask him yourself?"
He tightened his arms pointed out heavily, "*I don't know who he is.*"
Suddenly, she understood. She snapped back at attention, just for good measure, and nodded, "Yes, sir. I'll see what I can do, sir."
"Thank you. Dismissed." he said and paused before stepping out with her.
She hoped this session's topic had nothing to do with the next session's topic. She stepped out and closed her eyes in front of Tiner's desk for a moment.
Commander stopped trying to guess what happened by the look on Mac's face when the Admiral emerged from his own office.
Jodi bit her lips closed and tried to be invisible in the chair. Tiner came to attention next to his desk, the Commander inhaled to speak to him, and Mac stepped away as nonchalantly as she could.
"RABB!" His voice was angry, "The next time you ignore my assistant when I don't want to be disturbed, I'm going to let him requisition a gun so he can *shoot* your ass!"
The Commander snapped to attention. "Yes, sir!"
"*Get* in my office!" The Admiral snapped at him, glanced once at Jodi and yelled at Tiner too. "Tiner! Go to lunch!"
"Yes, sir," Tiner said, then collapsed from his attention and grabbed his pea coat.
The Admiral slammed his own door closed behind him.
Jodi's voice came out like a movie trailer narrator. "The Tin Man strikes again."
"Ssshh!" He giggled and got her out of there before she got him into trouble.
**Barracks 173 Quad. NTC Orlando. November, 1989. **
When Tiner made it back to the Quad after knock-off, seven members of Class 350 were sitting around a picnic table in rank-less dungarees or Wal-Mart civvies, but they each had their own black uniform in strange wads in front of them. With varying postures and experience, each were ripping out the patch of two red slashes and trying to sew on a patch with three. Tiner ordered Sikes to move, who managed it with a grumble, and straddled the bench facing Jodi and her sewing.
"Did ya'll hear about Evans?" Pearson smiled with her southern drawl. The topic had bounced from one sliver of gossip to another for the last half hour, so no one really looked up. "She sent up another request chit for sub duty."
Sikes sat down at a new section of the bench and groaned down at his sewing. "How far did it get this time before they laughed her out of the Navy?"
Pearson wrinkled her nose over the table at him, "This time she put Vic Evans instead of Victoria. It got all the way to medical before they tossed it out. She showed up for her exam and the Doc was already asking questions by the time he figured out she was a girl!"
"One of these days, man," Butters whined loud and bouncy. "They're gonna put a gun in our hands and learn what PMS is *all* about."
"That'll be the day," muttered Sikes.
"Not too long," Tiner argued softly, "They're letting women on the Lexington now."
"The Lady Lex?!" Butters blatted, "It's a training carrier! She doesn't go out for more than two weeks at a time!"
Young shrugged, "It's a step in the right direction. At least we're getting sea duty."
Sikes huffed a grin. "Yeah, the Love Boat. Tenders rank the highest in Frat busts."
Butters dropped her sewing and leaned into the man's face. "Well if you would let us on ships with GUNS on them we wouldn't HAVE that problem now WOULD WE!"
Sikes curled his lip at her, "Tenders have guns."
Pearson backed Butters up, "Oh please. I could do more damage with my brother's bee bee gun."
Tiner set an elbow on the picnic table. "All those things are for is to protect the ship from being arrested by the Coast Guard."
Suddenly, several people laughed in unison, held up pinched fingers in the air to echo a recent cartoon -- An itty bitty coast guard boat was arresting a big fat battleship-
"A joint! *Seize* this vessel!"
Young dropped her fingers and giggled until she bumped lovingly into Tiner and Tiner just glowed at her.
Butters leaned over to Sikes again, almost laying down on the table to reach him and pulled the sleeve of his cracker jack that he was sewing. "Oh, yeah, I get it." She ripped the thing from his hand and folded it down from the collar. "You want us to trust you with the big guns when you can't even manage a little needle." She showed it off to everybody that the man was sewing his sleeve completely closed.
As soon as everyone was chuckling at Sikes, Butter's threw it back in his face. "Does this mean we get to chop your arm off so you'll fit into the uniform?"
Tiner ducked in to kiss Jodi behind the ear.
"Awe, come on!" Butters blatted, but was grinning when she did, "No PDA in the Quad."
"That's not illegal," Pearson said.
"But it's *rude*!" Butters chuckled, "D'you know how long it's been since I got laid?!"
"Do I care?" Sikes pointed out.
Tiner whispered a twinkling suggestion behind Jodi's ear.
Jodi glanced back for a moment just to watch his eyebrows flick, and she started climbing off the bench. She tossed her blues jacket to the woman in front of her. "Hey Butters, take this back to my bunk for me."
Butters dropped her sewing and groaned up at the sky.
The gang started teasing and grumbling, but Jason and Jodi didn't stay to listen to it. Tiner pulled her by the hand and the two walked across the street to the five-acre pond. There was a bit of a beach and a few picnic tables around a barbeque and bathroom. The shore looked as if it was the place for students to hang out in the summer time. sometime back in the sixties. No one was here now. It was November, for one thing, and the ponds had too many things living in them these days.
They talked for hours that night. She told him tales of her father and uncles and he told her tales of his older brother and sister. She had stories of gang fights between Navy brats and the rich civilian kids and he told her about playing chicken on tractors. She grew up on Navy bases, he grew up in cornfields, but somehow, they seemed to just click.
When the sun started setting, neither wanted to go back to their separate barracks. The chill in the air made her curl into a ball, so he sat back on the brick wall that rimmed the barbeque and let her cuddle her back up into his chest. He wrapped her arms around her, keeping her warm and set his chin on her shoulder so they could talk and chuckle some more.
Long after the sun was gone, the conversation about old lives and distant family came to a lull. Jodi stared out across the water at the lights on the other side and Jason brushed the tip of his nose behind her right ear with a wishful sigh.
She turned her face to him a little, but couldn't croon enough to actually see him, "Why haven't you told me you love me yet?"
His head jerked back in surprise. He dumped his head against the wall. "Because I can't."
She shifted so she could look back at him.
He shrugged a little.
"Why not?"
He angled his head and grinned a little, "This is A school, Jodi. In a few months, you're going to be off to your first duty station. I'll still be here." He shrugged again, letting the disappointment fill his eyes. "There's nothing we can do about that."
"I understand that." She looked at the ground beside them and tried to breath away the sting before it filled up her eyes. "That's doesn't. tell me. why.."
He sat forward and tucked into the side of her face. "Listen to me," he whispered. "You know I'm not just hanging around to get in your pants. If I were, I would have been gone by now." He watched her eyes squeeze shut. "But the truth is, when your orders get cut, it's gonna hurt like hell. And the less we pretend that this is going to last forever, the better off we'll be."
"I'm not trying to pretend anything.. But Jason, you're asking me to pretend I'm not falling for you."
His forehead dropped into her temple. His mouth opened to breath and his eyes closed with a sudden emotional orgasm. He tried to smile sadly with his whisper, "It's already gonna hurt so bad when you leave."
"Yes, but I don't see how not saying it is going to make leaving any easier."
His whisper went so quiet that she could barely hear him. "You don't need me to say it."
Her eyes moved sadly over.
Jason lifted his face again, trying to just get away telling her with his eyes, but as soon as he saw hers, his plan fell apart. She opened her mouth to say it to him, and he desperately leaned in to kiss her before she did. She turned on her knees and kissed him back, but it only made the problem worse.
She cuddled up sideways to his chest, curled her legs up between his and talked softly into his chin. She watched the side of his down trodden face as she talked. "So, don't say it then, whether you feel it or not. But don't make love to me until you do."
His brows flicked a little with confusion. He ducked his chin down to look at her, "Do what?" He grinned a little, "Say it, or feel it?"
"Feel it," she chuckled at the miscommunication. "You can't make love to me until you feel the same way I do."
His face blossomed at this. He bit his lower lip in faux deep thought and lowered his chin, "Hm. Okay. But, how am I supposed to know if I do?"
She smiled all her teeth at him and muttered huskily. "Ah, its one of those sweet little ironies of life. Kinda stuck in a catch .22, aren't we?"
He chuckled at her evil trick and tried to throw her bluff back at her, "Yes, but you're making the assumption that I want to make love to you."
She tucked in at his neck again and let her lips brush on his neck with a smile, "How presumptuous of me." She gave him a long wet kiss on his neck.
The lower half of his body stiffened when his toes curled, but the upper half of his body remained absolutely still so she could go on and take his neck as long as she wanted to. The goose bumps were still rolling over his skin when she pulled her mouth away. She didn't wait for him to recover. She whispered into his earlobe. "I love you, Jason."
Jason was suddenly breathing in slow, deep heaves. His mouth blindly hunted hers down and kissed her again with sweet soft moves. She brushed her lips against his and squeezed her eyes shut to rest against his face. *Why can't you tell me?*
*Why did having to leave months from now have to spoil tonight?*
His heart was so wound up by then that every inch of his body wanted to lay her down and make love to her right then and there. He took a firm grip of her knee as if he was about to pull her to straddle him, but he didn't. He curled over to tuck his face under her hair and kiss her neck, but he didn't.
He paused for a long breathless moment, until it exploded with his voice. "I love you." His eyes widened with surprise that he'd said it, and he swallowed hard. She tucked back to look at him. He lifted his eyes just enough to nod. "I do. I hate it. but I do." He fell in to kiss her and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Jason slowly laid her down in the sand and made love to her on the lakeshore until sunrise.
The Chief kept telling the admin crew not to date the students, but it didn't actually bother him when they did. It was a matter of wisdom, not regulation. But Tiner was too young and playful to heed the warning.
Jason was on a mission to kiss her that night.
Young was a nice girl. She wasn't loud or bouncy. She wasn't cruising the crackerjacks for a husband, and she spent most of her time studying because the subject wasn't exactly down her alley. They palled around together off duty every day and every weekend, more often with a gang than not. He'd taken her off base to the movies once and then for pizza once with a crowd, but since she was still in uniform 24/7 he couldn't lay a finger on her.
Today was the day she got her civvies chit. He knew this because the request had to come across his desk and he made damned sure that it was the first thing the Chief signed this afternoon.
Jodi had shoved a completed muster list of eighty in his hand, smiled, and asked him if he was going to go to the club with everybody tonight. Just as he opened his mouth to ask her out alone, on a 'date', Chief Dicks strolled into the room and stepped up beside him to look at them muster lists.
Tiner pulled out the muster list for him, and nodded at her. "I'll see you there."
The Enlisted Clubs in all A-schools were always hopping places. Nobody ranked enough to be able to afford a car by paycheck alone, and *everybody* lived in the barracks. It was like college with a campus bar, but since nobody here went to college, nobody figured that out. Officers were already rarely seen on this base, but the nice thing about Enlisted Clubs was that you were certain to *never* see them. Even the Chiefs had their own places to hang out. The E-Club was the only place the seamen and petty officers could be themselves.
Tiner arrived long before Jodi did, and he found himself watching the door while he talked with the quickly forming gang from Barracks 173. He found out that Jodi and two others from her company had ran off for the NEX as soon as they'd received their civvies chits. Pearson had lost so much weight in boot camp that her old jeans no longer fit. Butters emerged with punk chains and a shredded, offensively labeled T-shirt, was ordered right back inside, get back in uniform and go buy some real civvies. Young, the gang reported, simply had no civvies to wear.
He was standing at the table with a plastic glass of beer in his hand and two other tall sailors at each shoulder. He was a standard squid in civvies: comfortably fit levis, tawny suede hiking boots, and a crisply- pressed, peach-colored, short sleeved shirt hanging open over a white t- shirt underneath. Still in Florida, and still in the eighties, the Miami Vice theme still run amuck in the Orlando E-club.
The gang continued to joke loudly, but he was hung in a holding pattern for the real evening to start up. Maybe he could get her to take a walk next to the Nuke's Pond. maybe he could ask her out on a real date for next weekend and he could kiss her then. He threw in a comment at the table just so they'd think he was paying attention, but his eyes flick to the door again.
Butters growled out as she marched into the club. "You people are a bunch of fuckin' preppies!" She flicked at the US NAVY T-shirt and yelled at their little gathering. "Where in the UCMJ does it say that I have to dress like a dork while I'm in civvies?!" Pearson was behind her, smiling as she approached, and Jodi was at Pearson's flank.
He'd always wondered what she was going to look like in civvies. Her jeans fit better than dungarees did. The brand new t-shirt was slightly oversized and tucked in. The front was an old 40's propaganda poster. 'Gee! I wish I were a Man, I'd join the Navy.' She was wearing just a tiny bit of make up on her eyes, but Tiner could only tell that because he'd been staring in her eyes without any make up for two months already.
He smiled as she stepped up, and she marched directly to him, glittering eyes locked on him and everything. He suspected a friendly hug was coming and put out his hand and the plastic cup of beer to invite her to do so, but Jodi weaved between the other standing sailors to get to him, took his face with both hands, and pulled him down so she could lay one on him.
Tiner deliberately dropped his beer, paying no mind that it landed on his buddy's shoe and splashed all directions, and pulled her in by the hips so he could really make use of this moment.
The table was already loud, but they got louder now. The buddy jumped as the beer splashed and someone yelled at Tin Man about the Party Foul, but most of them were making noise about the instant kiss out of nowhere. "FRAT!"
She'd only intended a quick kiss, but Tiner didn't let her stop. His mouth went tender and tasted her some more. He peaked his eyes open just enough so they could silently smile his approval about it and she paused to shine her eyes back at him before ducking in to kiss him again. The next thing they knew, they were pressed lightly from knees to chests and kissing slow, sincere, and sexy like they'd just arrived on their honeymoon.
"FRAT!" They blatted at them because he was barracks admin and she was a student. "Frat!" Tiner didn't bother to open his eyes to flip them off. They laughed and someone threw a wadded napkin at the back of her head. Jason caught it in the air without interrupting himself, threw it down, and gently held her face so he could just stand there and keep on kissing her.
"Frat..!"
YN1 Tiner wasn't seeing anything the computer screen. He could still hear the live band playing in the background, Butter's loud profanity, Pearson's soft southern drawl, and Sikes' easy laughter, but the noise echoed in the back of his head like the fading ghost of childhood.
He still felt that young most of the time, even though he wasn't nearly as rowdy these days, and he realized why he liked being around her after all these years. Working with officers all the time had slowly beaten him into a permanent little kid. but as Jodi was coming slowly back into his life, the original cock-eyed-cover, booter-teasing, Jason 'Tin Man' Tiner was starting to emerge too.
"TINER! Wake up!" SLAP! A female hand pounded flat on the top of his monitor, and Tiner looked up to find an frustrated Lieutenant behind it. "Where are those files on the Dreadfield case?"
Tiner sighed and stood. "The Readfield case, ma'am?"
"Whatever!" Simms spat. "Just get them."
Tiner didn't stutter or jump. He simply nodded patiently, "Yes, ma'am," and moved to where the file was waiting. He met her eyes when he handed them to her over his computer. "Anything else, ma'am?"
Simms started looking scrambling through the Readfield files right in front of his desk and Tiner picked up a pen and tapped it on the desktop so he could figure out what he was doing before his mind wandered off.
Commander Rabb stomped up in much the same mood as Simms and already had his hand reaching for The Mahogany Door before he got his request out. "Is the Admiral in his office?"
Tiner looked at him from under his brows. "The Admiral asked not to be disturbed, sir."
Rabb paused only to turn to Tiner and make this decision for himself, "Who is he with?"
Tiner tapped the end of his ball point on the table again and repeated it, "The Admiral asked not to be disturbed."
Rabb glared caustically at Tiner and put a hand on the Petty Officer's desk, speaking slow and clear. "That is not what I asked you."
Tiner flipped his pen over to point at the little red light on Line One. "He's on the phone, sir."
"With whom?"
Tiner lifted his face and almost smiled about it. "I don't know, sir."
Rabb visibly fretted with this for a minute and Simms took her files and stepped away from the scene before Rabb did what he most certainly was going to do.
Tiner folded his hands on his desk and watched with a patient mouth.
Commander Rabb stepped to the door, paused a moment, and burst into the room. He marched right up to the desk and came to attention.
Tiner climbed easily out of his chair and went to the door to close it. He could have put twenty dollars down on this outcome.
The Admiral calmly put the SecNav on hold, yelled, "Get out of my office!" before Rabb opened his mouth to breath, and Tiner easily pulled the door closed as Rabb came marching out again.
"Tell me when he gets of the phone," Rabb said and hustled unhappily away.
"Yes, sir." Tiner knew he was going to catch hell for that even though it wasn't his fault, and sighed it away. Do they expect him to tackle people before they opened the door? Tiner slowly sat back down at his desk, picked up his pen and muttered to himself, "God, I miss working A-school."
The Admiral emerged a few minutes later and crossed his arms at Tiner.
Tiner looked up from his paperwork, sighed, and stood up from his chair to come to attention a little slower than usual.
"I thought I told you that I didn't want to be disturbed."
Tiner looked at nothing in front of his attention and didn't stutter this time, "I expressed that twice to the Commander, sir."
Admiral Chegwidden sighed heavily and closed his eyes.
"If the Admiral pleases, I can requisition a gun to guard his door with."
AJ's eyes flicked over.
Tiner's eyes smiled a little. He let out just enough of a shrug to be visible without moving out of attention.
The Admiral smiled, shook his head, and moved back into his office. "I want Colonel Mackenzie and Commander Rabb, individually, in that order."
"Yes, sir," Tiner stepped around his desk.
It was nearly lunch, and Jodi came in with a visitor's badge attached to her old, naked, pea coat as Tiner went to fetch the Colonel and the Commander. He motioned to her and she responded by moving to his little corner of the world and sat down to wait in the chair by his desk.
Mac gave Harm a look as they emerged and marched across the office with Tiner behind them. Harm knew exactly why he was being summonsed, and had a bone to pick with the Admiral about the case already. Mac did not know why she was being summonsed and it worried her that they were being asked for simultaneously.
Jodi lifted her brows at the group as they approached. Rabb looked like he was about to spontaneously combust if he didn't get into that office and Mac did her best to ignore him. She gave Jodi a forced grin of hello.
Jodi somehow managed *not* to sing through her teeth, 'Somebody's in trouble.'
Tiner opened the door for the Colonel. She thanked him quietly and marched in, reporting as ordered, and Rabb tried to go in too, but Tiner closed the door in Rabb's face. "One at a time was his order, sir."
Rabb looked at the ceiling and huffed, and Tiner stepped behind him, took the car keys out of the air where Jodi offered them, and sat down at his desk. He only needed to mouth the "ssshh" to keep her quiet, but her expression rippled that she really wanted to make some noise.
"At ease, Colonel." The Admiral started, "I have a strange personal request that I need to handle very delicately."
Her brows rippled with confusion. "Of course, sir."
He crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling to form his words. "Ms Cavanaugh raved about the earrings you received for Christmas. And I was wondering if you could find out who the jeweler was."
Mac licked her lips until they smiled nervously, "Of course, sir. But why can't you ask him yourself?"
He tightened his arms pointed out heavily, "*I don't know who he is.*"
Suddenly, she understood. She snapped back at attention, just for good measure, and nodded, "Yes, sir. I'll see what I can do, sir."
"Thank you. Dismissed." he said and paused before stepping out with her.
She hoped this session's topic had nothing to do with the next session's topic. She stepped out and closed her eyes in front of Tiner's desk for a moment.
Commander stopped trying to guess what happened by the look on Mac's face when the Admiral emerged from his own office.
Jodi bit her lips closed and tried to be invisible in the chair. Tiner came to attention next to his desk, the Commander inhaled to speak to him, and Mac stepped away as nonchalantly as she could.
"RABB!" His voice was angry, "The next time you ignore my assistant when I don't want to be disturbed, I'm going to let him requisition a gun so he can *shoot* your ass!"
The Commander snapped to attention. "Yes, sir!"
"*Get* in my office!" The Admiral snapped at him, glanced once at Jodi and yelled at Tiner too. "Tiner! Go to lunch!"
"Yes, sir," Tiner said, then collapsed from his attention and grabbed his pea coat.
The Admiral slammed his own door closed behind him.
Jodi's voice came out like a movie trailer narrator. "The Tin Man strikes again."
"Ssshh!" He giggled and got her out of there before she got him into trouble.
**Barracks 173 Quad. NTC Orlando. November, 1989. **
When Tiner made it back to the Quad after knock-off, seven members of Class 350 were sitting around a picnic table in rank-less dungarees or Wal-Mart civvies, but they each had their own black uniform in strange wads in front of them. With varying postures and experience, each were ripping out the patch of two red slashes and trying to sew on a patch with three. Tiner ordered Sikes to move, who managed it with a grumble, and straddled the bench facing Jodi and her sewing.
"Did ya'll hear about Evans?" Pearson smiled with her southern drawl. The topic had bounced from one sliver of gossip to another for the last half hour, so no one really looked up. "She sent up another request chit for sub duty."
Sikes sat down at a new section of the bench and groaned down at his sewing. "How far did it get this time before they laughed her out of the Navy?"
Pearson wrinkled her nose over the table at him, "This time she put Vic Evans instead of Victoria. It got all the way to medical before they tossed it out. She showed up for her exam and the Doc was already asking questions by the time he figured out she was a girl!"
"One of these days, man," Butters whined loud and bouncy. "They're gonna put a gun in our hands and learn what PMS is *all* about."
"That'll be the day," muttered Sikes.
"Not too long," Tiner argued softly, "They're letting women on the Lexington now."
"The Lady Lex?!" Butters blatted, "It's a training carrier! She doesn't go out for more than two weeks at a time!"
Young shrugged, "It's a step in the right direction. At least we're getting sea duty."
Sikes huffed a grin. "Yeah, the Love Boat. Tenders rank the highest in Frat busts."
Butters dropped her sewing and leaned into the man's face. "Well if you would let us on ships with GUNS on them we wouldn't HAVE that problem now WOULD WE!"
Sikes curled his lip at her, "Tenders have guns."
Pearson backed Butters up, "Oh please. I could do more damage with my brother's bee bee gun."
Tiner set an elbow on the picnic table. "All those things are for is to protect the ship from being arrested by the Coast Guard."
Suddenly, several people laughed in unison, held up pinched fingers in the air to echo a recent cartoon -- An itty bitty coast guard boat was arresting a big fat battleship-
"A joint! *Seize* this vessel!"
Young dropped her fingers and giggled until she bumped lovingly into Tiner and Tiner just glowed at her.
Butters leaned over to Sikes again, almost laying down on the table to reach him and pulled the sleeve of his cracker jack that he was sewing. "Oh, yeah, I get it." She ripped the thing from his hand and folded it down from the collar. "You want us to trust you with the big guns when you can't even manage a little needle." She showed it off to everybody that the man was sewing his sleeve completely closed.
As soon as everyone was chuckling at Sikes, Butter's threw it back in his face. "Does this mean we get to chop your arm off so you'll fit into the uniform?"
Tiner ducked in to kiss Jodi behind the ear.
"Awe, come on!" Butters blatted, but was grinning when she did, "No PDA in the Quad."
"That's not illegal," Pearson said.
"But it's *rude*!" Butters chuckled, "D'you know how long it's been since I got laid?!"
"Do I care?" Sikes pointed out.
Tiner whispered a twinkling suggestion behind Jodi's ear.
Jodi glanced back for a moment just to watch his eyebrows flick, and she started climbing off the bench. She tossed her blues jacket to the woman in front of her. "Hey Butters, take this back to my bunk for me."
Butters dropped her sewing and groaned up at the sky.
The gang started teasing and grumbling, but Jason and Jodi didn't stay to listen to it. Tiner pulled her by the hand and the two walked across the street to the five-acre pond. There was a bit of a beach and a few picnic tables around a barbeque and bathroom. The shore looked as if it was the place for students to hang out in the summer time. sometime back in the sixties. No one was here now. It was November, for one thing, and the ponds had too many things living in them these days.
They talked for hours that night. She told him tales of her father and uncles and he told her tales of his older brother and sister. She had stories of gang fights between Navy brats and the rich civilian kids and he told her about playing chicken on tractors. She grew up on Navy bases, he grew up in cornfields, but somehow, they seemed to just click.
When the sun started setting, neither wanted to go back to their separate barracks. The chill in the air made her curl into a ball, so he sat back on the brick wall that rimmed the barbeque and let her cuddle her back up into his chest. He wrapped her arms around her, keeping her warm and set his chin on her shoulder so they could talk and chuckle some more.
Long after the sun was gone, the conversation about old lives and distant family came to a lull. Jodi stared out across the water at the lights on the other side and Jason brushed the tip of his nose behind her right ear with a wishful sigh.
She turned her face to him a little, but couldn't croon enough to actually see him, "Why haven't you told me you love me yet?"
His head jerked back in surprise. He dumped his head against the wall. "Because I can't."
She shifted so she could look back at him.
He shrugged a little.
"Why not?"
He angled his head and grinned a little, "This is A school, Jodi. In a few months, you're going to be off to your first duty station. I'll still be here." He shrugged again, letting the disappointment fill his eyes. "There's nothing we can do about that."
"I understand that." She looked at the ground beside them and tried to breath away the sting before it filled up her eyes. "That's doesn't. tell me. why.."
He sat forward and tucked into the side of her face. "Listen to me," he whispered. "You know I'm not just hanging around to get in your pants. If I were, I would have been gone by now." He watched her eyes squeeze shut. "But the truth is, when your orders get cut, it's gonna hurt like hell. And the less we pretend that this is going to last forever, the better off we'll be."
"I'm not trying to pretend anything.. But Jason, you're asking me to pretend I'm not falling for you."
His forehead dropped into her temple. His mouth opened to breath and his eyes closed with a sudden emotional orgasm. He tried to smile sadly with his whisper, "It's already gonna hurt so bad when you leave."
"Yes, but I don't see how not saying it is going to make leaving any easier."
His whisper went so quiet that she could barely hear him. "You don't need me to say it."
Her eyes moved sadly over.
Jason lifted his face again, trying to just get away telling her with his eyes, but as soon as he saw hers, his plan fell apart. She opened her mouth to say it to him, and he desperately leaned in to kiss her before she did. She turned on her knees and kissed him back, but it only made the problem worse.
She cuddled up sideways to his chest, curled her legs up between his and talked softly into his chin. She watched the side of his down trodden face as she talked. "So, don't say it then, whether you feel it or not. But don't make love to me until you do."
His brows flicked a little with confusion. He ducked his chin down to look at her, "Do what?" He grinned a little, "Say it, or feel it?"
"Feel it," she chuckled at the miscommunication. "You can't make love to me until you feel the same way I do."
His face blossomed at this. He bit his lower lip in faux deep thought and lowered his chin, "Hm. Okay. But, how am I supposed to know if I do?"
She smiled all her teeth at him and muttered huskily. "Ah, its one of those sweet little ironies of life. Kinda stuck in a catch .22, aren't we?"
He chuckled at her evil trick and tried to throw her bluff back at her, "Yes, but you're making the assumption that I want to make love to you."
She tucked in at his neck again and let her lips brush on his neck with a smile, "How presumptuous of me." She gave him a long wet kiss on his neck.
The lower half of his body stiffened when his toes curled, but the upper half of his body remained absolutely still so she could go on and take his neck as long as she wanted to. The goose bumps were still rolling over his skin when she pulled her mouth away. She didn't wait for him to recover. She whispered into his earlobe. "I love you, Jason."
Jason was suddenly breathing in slow, deep heaves. His mouth blindly hunted hers down and kissed her again with sweet soft moves. She brushed her lips against his and squeezed her eyes shut to rest against his face. *Why can't you tell me?*
*Why did having to leave months from now have to spoil tonight?*
His heart was so wound up by then that every inch of his body wanted to lay her down and make love to her right then and there. He took a firm grip of her knee as if he was about to pull her to straddle him, but he didn't. He curled over to tuck his face under her hair and kiss her neck, but he didn't.
He paused for a long breathless moment, until it exploded with his voice. "I love you." His eyes widened with surprise that he'd said it, and he swallowed hard. She tucked back to look at him. He lifted his eyes just enough to nod. "I do. I hate it. but I do." He fell in to kiss her and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Jason slowly laid her down in the sand and made love to her on the lakeshore until sunrise.