Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beginnings
Chapter Four: The Party
By Ann Parker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1830 EST
21 March 2003
The Roberts' Residence
Great Falls, Virginia
Everyone except for Harm and Lisa, were already at Bud and Harriet's to celebrate Gunny's return. The men were all gathered around the couch, drinks in hand, discussing what it would be like with Gunny back. The women, by the window, talked about other topics, such as Harm and Mac moving in together. Mac did her best to stay focused, but her eyes kept drifting to the window. She hadn't spoken to Harm since this morning and Bud was the one to inform her of Dan and Lisa's breakup. All Mac could really think about was how Lisa was handling it.
"Mac?" asked Harriet for the third time. Her best friend turned to her and smiled apologetically.
"Sorry Harriet, I was just lost in thought. What did you say?" Mac asked.
"It's okay. I asked if you knew what caused Dan and Lisa to breakup. They seemed so happy at the Christmas party," Harriet repeated. Mac shook her head as Meredith made her way over to the women.
"Dan and Lisa broke up? What a pity," Meredith said, receiving a few nods of agreement. Mac was the only one that didn't nod. She always felt that Lisa could find a better match. Someone that would treat Lisa with the same dignity and respect like Harm treats her.
"Sorry, girls, but I know just as much as you do. I haven't had the chance to speak to Harm since this morning. I didn't even know they had broken up until Bud told me," informed Mac. Harriet, Meredith, Bobbie and Jen all nodded as a few of the men joined them.
"Discussing the breakup, are we?" questioned AJ. The woman nodded.
"Maybe the Commander knows some more and can fill us in," commented Jason. Some nodded, but Sturgis shook his head.
"I don't think that is going to work. Harm may be the only person that gets Lisa to open up and talk about this, and he isn't going to break her confidence. If she found out that he did, it would be very hard for her to open up to anyone, and with her past that would be a disaster," he said.
"What do you mean her past?" asked Gunny. He was very interested in anything he could find out about Lisa. Mostly he turned to Sturgis to answer, knowing Sturgis probably knew Lisa best after Harm.
"When she was ten, she lost her parents in a car accident, and at 23 she lost her brother in a plane crash. It took an extremely dedicated Harm a long time to get to her to open up and even then she has remained very closed off to most, afraid of being hurt. The Lisa most of you got to know in December was her fun yet determined side. Very few ever see the fragile, scared side of her and I suspect Dan was one of them. No doubt this break up is going to be very hard on her," Sturgis stated.
"Why don't we stop talking about this and focus on cheering her up while celebrating Gunny's return," said Mac. All nodded and she raised her glass of punch. "Welcome back, Gunny." A few 'here-heres' went around the group.
"Hey, what are we toasting to?" asked Harm, walking into the room. Mac walked over to him and kissed him briefly.
"Just toasting Gunny. Where is Lisa?" she asked. A child's squeal and laughter stopped Harm from responding. Everyone walked into the entryway to find Lisa laughing as she ticked AJ, who was lying of the floor.
"Auntie Liiiissssa! Stooooooop!" AJ squealed between giggles. Lisa obliged and stopped tickling the little boy, picking him up. AJ wrapped his arms around Lisa's neck and hugged her tightly. "I missed you."
"Awww, AJ, I missed you too buddy," Lisa replied as she set him down. The rest of the household smiled as they watched the two.
"He kept asking about you for weeks after you left," said Harriet, walking towards her son. Lisa smiled.
"Well, guess what AJ?" she said, bending back down to his level. "I'm moving here so I'll be able to visit all the time now."
"Yay!" exclaimed AJ, hugging her again.
"Now, young man, you are supposed to be in bed," commented Bud, walking over to his son. AJ pouted and opened his mouth tospeak. "No buts, mister. Time for bed, let's go." Bud grabbed his hand to take him up stairs.
"Let me, I know how to get him to fall asleep really fast," said Lisa, taking AJ's hand. Bud nodded. AJ smiled and pulled Lisa up the stairs.
"Are you going to sing?" asked AJ, as they walked away from the rest. Lisa laughed nervously, noticing the few looks from the group downstairs, but nodded. "Sunshine song?"
"Any song you want, little guy," she replied as they made it into his room. Everyone just watched the two disappear into AJ's bedroom for a few minutes, hearing Lisa's voice through the door.
"What is the Sunshine song?" asked Bobbie as the rest went back into the living room.
"You know, I'm not sure. Maybe she sang it to him when she occasionally baby-sat for us so we could go out," replied Harriet, sitting on the arm of the couch with Bud at her side. "Do you know Commander?"
Harm rolled his eyes at her use of his rank, "Harriet, it's Harm and yes I think I do. I know her mother used to sing a song called "You are my Sunshine" to her before she died. After that, Hank sang it to her when she had the nightmares."
"Nightmares?" asked Gunny.
"About my parents' crash," replied Lisa, walking back in the room. She had heard the last part of the conversation and knew Harm wasn't going to answer. He always tried not to bring up her past, but she had learned to accept it, well as much as humanly possible. "You forgot that you sang it too, Top Gun. Hank's voice wasn't as good as yours," she finished, winking at Harm.
"I guess I'll take that as a compliment," Harm laughed. He was glad to see she was open to talk, at least a little. Lisa smiled.
"Anyway, when we arrived, I do believe we were toasting Gunny. Shall we continue?" she said, taking a seat on the floor, which happened to be between the chairs Harm and Victor were occupying.
The Admiral nodded and cleared his throat, silencing the rest of the group. "Tonight we are here to welcome back Gunny to JAG. It would be a lie to say you weren't missed while you were gone, but your reason for leaving was an admirable one. You made us all proud and we're glad to have you back." Everyone raised their glasses again and cheered.
"Thank you everyone, it's great to be back," commented Gunny, smiling at the family around him. All smiled and nodded, and a few couples kissed briefly, including Harm and Mac. "Wow, that's going to take a little getting used to," he added, gesturing towards those two, causing everyone to laugh.
"I hear you're the one responsible," he said to Lisa.
"It was nothing, I was just tired of all my conversations with Harm being about Mac," she replied, making everyone laugh. "Oh wait, they still are," she teased Harm who playfully hit her arm while laughing.
"They are not," he countered.
"Are too," Lisa replied.
"Are not," Lisa and Harm stuck their tongues out at each other and laughed while the rest just watched. This was definitely a new side of Harm. Most didn't see Lisa and Harm interact while she was living with the Roberts.
"Okay, you two. Let's not go back to your childish fights from years ago," commented Sturgis, making quite a few to raise their eyebrows.
"You know, we never really heard a lot about you days at the Academy with Lisa running around," said Mac, "Aside from the prank, of course."
"What prank?" asked AJ. As soon as he asked, he realized he probably didn't want to know. Especially as Lisa's laughter countered Harm's grimacing face.
"Not prank, pranks. And lots of them," corrected Sturgis, causing Lisa to laugh even harder. She was really enjoying spending some time just laughing, it certainly made her feel better. Especially after the voice mail she received earlier on her cell phone. She told Harm it was the wrong number, but it was Dan trying to convince her to talk things out. She was going to have nothing to do with it.
"Aw, did we not like our Lime Jell-O underwear?" she giggled, making almost everyone laugh. "Do you mind if this turns into story time?" she asked Gunny, not wanting to stomp on his parade.
"Not at all, something tells me this is will be very entertaining," he replied. Sturgis and Harm both groaned.
"Do we have to?" whined Harm. Lisa and Mac both rolled their eyes, all too used to his boyish whine.
"I'll be nice, Harm," said Lisa before turning to the rest. "Let's just say if there was one thing that Hank taught me before he died, it was how to be the master of pranks."
"I think the student outdid the master on quite a few occasions," replied Harm with a slight grin and Lisa smiled in return.
"Thank you. Anyway, I'm sure Sturgis wouldn't like to relive the shaving cream dream or the Jell-O underwear incidents again, and I know Harm doesn't need to remember the many, many things I did to him." She smiled devilishly, waiting for the next question.
"Like what?" asked Gunny, very intrigued by this side of Lisa. Harm smacked his forehead and sighed.
"I'm glad you asked, Gunny," Lisa replied, ignoring Harm. "Let's see…there was the standard snake in the bed and frozen underwear. Then there were ones like the tie dying all his shirts. Diane hated me for that one, even though I thought he looked adorable in that pink and purple shirt," she said, pinching Harm's cheek and making him glare at her. "Hmm…the pudding layered bed, the non-existing teacher meeting…and the best one was the tailored uniform including little flowers, the one that ended the pranks."
"Yeah, because I got in serious trouble for it," countered Harm and Lisa sighed.
"Well, you played right into it. You were running so late that you didn't notice the one other uniform I left in your closet. If you had woken up at a proper time, you would have noticed and had time to change." At this everyone laughed, except Harm of course.
"So, your typical tardiness was a problem even back then?" teased Mac. Harm just rolled his eyes and let them laugh. It was good to see Lisa enjoying herself after the recent events with Dan.
"Lisa, where did you come up with all of those ideas?" asked Harriet, somewhat shocked. She had no idea that the woman who lived in her house for a month was such a prankster, and a very good one at that.
"Well, a few Hank helped me come up with. Then of course, there was always the help of Luke and Jack…" she replied. Many didn't know exactly whom he was referring to, except Mac, Bud, and AJ.
"Why does it not surprise me that Keeter was involved?" asked Bud. A few more joined in the laughter, now recognizing the name.
Lisa smiled and stood up, heading into the kitchen for a drink. It also signaled the end of the conversation and people broke off into groups. While most of the girls went to talk each other and the men gathered together, one person went to the kitchen where Lisa was.
"Need some company?" Gunny asked as he walked over. Lisa turned to face him and smiled.
"Sure, why not." After Gunny got some punch, they went to the dining room table and sat down. "How does it feel to be back?" she asked.
"Great. I never realized how much I love hanging out with these guys until I left for Afghanistan," he replied. Lisa nodded at his response.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I never realized how much I missed being around Harm and Sturgis until I came here in December. When I had to leave, I knew I just had to move here. Everyone is so wonderful." Lisa smiled briefly before looking down at her drink, thoughts of Dan invading her head. She remembered how wonderful Christmas had been and fought to keep the tears away. She had promised Harm, not to mention herself, no more tears would be wasted on Dan.
Gunny could sense something was wrong and knew he had to help. He placed a hand on one of hers, shaking her out of her revere. "Are you okay?" he asked. She looked up and smiled slightly.
"Yeah, sorry, I was just remembering Christmas and it brought back memories of my ex-boyfriend," she sighed.
Gunny frowned, she must have cared for this man a great deal. "Want to talk about it?"
Lisa shook her head, "That's okay. I guess it's still hard to believe that it's over, but I'll get used to it. I'm surrounded by a great group of people I got to know really well in just a month. And now I have someone else to get to know." Gunny and Lisa smiled at each other, not noticing the set of blue eyes watching them.
Harm smiled, left the kitchen doorway, and walked back over to Mac.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"I think everything is going to be just fine," he replied and kissed her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~