1. Sorry this took so long. Developed a touch of writer's block as I tried to figure out how I wanted to go about this chapter. I finally decided to cover the entire week leading up to AJ's birthday party. I've included Harm's comment of everything that's happening during the week as a reminder.

From Part 29 Jimmy starts allergy shots tomorrow afternoon. AJ's birthday is Tuesday. Kindergarten round-up is Wednesday. The boys' maternal grandparents arrive Friday. We're having a birthday party Saturday afternoon, and Mattie's going to the prom with a friend Saturday night. I really need to be home. I promised Colonel Mackenzie I'd be home to help with everything.

Mac's Office
05/24/2004
0934 Hours

Okay, AJ's present is ready to be picked up. Now I just have to figure out when we're going to get that done. Which would be a lot easier to do if Harm was back. He was supposed to be back late last night, but he was late leaving the ship, and then his transport was delayed because of weather.

~knock, knock, knock~

"Harm!"

"Hey, Marine."

"You look exhausted. Why don't you go home?"

"I got some sleep. I think I'm at the point where I'm better off staying up now and just going to bed a little early tonight. You know what I mean?"

He's got a point, sometimes the best way to beat jet lag doesn't involve going to sleep.

"Yeah, I do. So what are you going to do today?"

"Paperwork. I'm a little behind and don't want to have to worry about it later in the week." He admits rather sheepishly.

"Harmon Rabb Junior behind, I never would have guessed." I smirk.

"Yeah, yeah. Comments like that are not going to get me to buy you lunch, Mac."

"You'll buy me lunch."

"And why do you think that?"

"Because you know first hand how dangerous a hungry Marine can be."

"Good point," Harm chuckles, "Later, Mac."

"Glad you're back, Harm."

I feel much better now. Maybe we'll get through this week okay after all.


Harm's Office
05/24/2004
1327 Hours


"How's it going, Harm?" Good, I hope, because one of us needs to take Jimmy to the doctor and it doesn't look like it's going to be me.

"Not too bad. I've gotten caught up, for now anyway."

"Good, then you can take Jimmy to his appointment?" Please don't give me a hard time about this Harm.

"I thought we were both going to go." He looks confused.

"We were. The admiral gave me a choice: either go to Norfolk and deal with an idiot of a captain, or a murder investigation at Great Lakes."

"And you chose the idiot captain." He smirks at me.

"Well not really, Varese is in Chicago this week and Sturgis practically begged the Admiral to send him."

"Okay, so do you think you'll be gone over night?"

"I hope not, otherwise I'm going to need a good lawyer." I growl.

"I don't understand."

"If this takes more than a couple of hours, I'm going to kill that idiot Captain!"

"You're talking about a superior officer, Mac." Harm tells me, but he's smiling too much to be very serious in the attempted reprimand.

"A Petty Officer on guard duty went UA over a holiday weekend after his wife went into premature labor. The wife has had 3 previous miscarriages so they were both terrified. The guy can prove he tried to call the duty officer, and the CO, who were both unavailable. He left messages on 4 different phones before leaving his post. This should be handled by non-judicial punishment or a Captain's Mast, right?"

"I wouldn't want to prosecute it. It would be to hard to avoid alienating the members."

"Exactly! This idiot wants the guy charge with violating articles 86, 92, and 113."

"What? Is the guy an idiot?" Harm sputters.

"I think I covered that already." I smirk.

"Yeah, you did," Harm chuckles, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to calmly explain that charging the man with unauthorized absence, dereliction of duty, and misbehavior of a lookout, is overkill and just sends the message to everyone that he's an ass."

"And if that doesn't work?" Harm asks. He knows me too well.

"I'm going to charge the idiot and his XO, who was the duty officer that day, with dereliction of duty for not being available by phone or pager as the regulations require."

"Go get them, Marine! I'll make sure Jimmy makes his appointment." Harm chuckles.

"Great! See you later, Harm."

"See you at home, Mac."

Harm and Mac's house
05/24/2004
1911 Hours

"I'm home!"

"We're in here." Harm and Mattie yell. Sounds like they're in the family room and sure enough, that's where I find them.

"How did it go, Mac?" Harm asks.

"It went. It took some time but the whole thing has now been settled with 2 weeks of extra duty for the Petty Officer."

"Not bad, Marine."
"Thanks, Harm. How did Jimmy's shots go?"

"Not too bad." He tells me and then turns to Mattie. "Mattie, can you take AJ upstairs to get ready for bed? I need to talk to Mac for a minute."

"Sure, Harm."

Harm doesn't say another word until he's sure AJ and Mattie are upstairs.

"What's wrong, Harm?" I'm a little worried now.

"Nothing, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I double checked with the doctor about AJ's birthday present. He suggests that we baby gate Jimmy's room and not let it in there."

"Sounds like a plan. We should probably pick up several baby gates, Jimmy's going to be walking soon and we'll need them." Harriet never really needed them with AJ, since they lived in an apartment when he was little.

"Already taken care of, Jimmy and I went to Wal-Mart after the doctor." Harm smugly admits.

"Great! So that's one less thing we need to take care of. How are we going to handle things tomorrow?"

"I'm going to leave work early to go pick up the puppy. Then Mattie's going to watch the puppy while I go pick up dinner. We should have everything here by the time you get home with the boys."

"Sounds good." I smile at him.

We spend the rest of our evening, after the boys are in bed, on the couch watching a movie. Actually, it was more like snuggling than sitting.

Harm and Mac's House
05/25/2004
1730 hours

"Harm, we're home!" I call as I open the door for AJ to run into the house.

"Uncle Harm!"

"Hiya, AJ!" Harm says as he and Mattie come around the corner.

"Hope you're hungry. Harm stopped and got dinner." Mattie tells him.

"Did you get McDonald's? You promised you would Uncle Harm." AJ tells him.

"Yes, I did promise, and I did get McDonald's. Shall we go eat?" Harm asks AJ.

"Yeah!" With that said we head for the kitchen and a dinner of burgers and fries. Well, except for Harm, who has a chicken caesar salad and a yogurt parfait.

30 minutes later

"Can I open my present now?" AJ asks once the table is cleared and the trash is taken out.

"Well, you can have your present now but it was something we couldn't really wrap so you can't open it." I tell AJ while Harm heads to the laundry room to retrieve the present.

"I don't get it." AJ tells me.

By this time Harm is back in the kitchen holding AJ's present. He calls AJ's name softly and AJ's head whips around and his eyes widen as he sees what Harm's carrying. It's a three month old male miniature poodle puppy. Bud and Harriet had promised AJ a puppy for his birthday this year and we decided to help them keep the promise. Jimmy's allergist recommended the breed to us.

"I think he likes it." Mattie comments rather dryly as AJ and the puppy are rolling around on the floor together.

Harm and I just chuckle.

Kindergarten Round-up
05/26/2004
0830 hours

AJ, Harm, and I head into the kindergarten room to get him registered for school. For now, AJ will attend a school near the sitter's. We decided it would be easier than having to get the boys to 2 different places in the morning. We can drop AJ at the sitter's and he can take a bus from there.

"Hello! Welcome to Kindergarten round-up! My name is Mrs. Frank. What's your name?" The lady in front of us is dressed in a suit that makes her look more like a stereotypical grandmother
than a teacher or administrator.

"AJ Roberts." AJ tells her as he reaches out to shake her hand.

"And you must be Mr. and Mrs. Roberts?" Mrs. Frank asks after shaking AJ's hand.

"No, I'm Commander Harmon Rabb and this is Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie."

"Where are the boys parents?"

"They were killed in a car accident on Christmas morning. We're his guardians." Harm's voice is so cold we could use it to freeze ice cream. Another woman hears the conversation and comes over.

"Welcome to Kindergarten round-up AJ. Why don't you go sit with the other kids and color while the Colonel and the Commander fill out some paper work?" AJ does just that. Once he's on his way she turns to us.

"I'm sorry about that. Mrs. Frank tends to forget how much things have changed since she started teaching. I'm Mrs. Young, the principal. We have a few papers we need to have you fill out, comma if you can just come this way."


We're lead over to a table, fortunately for Harm, it's a bigger size table than the standard kindergarten table. I chuckle a little at the thought of Harm trying to sit in a kindergarten chair.

"What's so funny, Mac?" Harm asks.

"Just picturing you in one of those little chairs." I smirk at him as we take a seat and begin dividing up the paperwork. It takes us twenty-five minutes to fill out the paperwork. Once we're done we hand the papers to Mrs. Young and are preparing to leave when we hear Mrs. Frank talking to AJ.

"What does AJ stand for young man?"

"Nothing." AJ tells her.

"Your parents didn't give you a name?" Mrs. Frank continues on with her interrogation.

"My name is AJ." He tells her. Harm looks ready to strangle the woman. Maybe the Marines better handle Mrs. Frank this time.

"Mrs. Frank, AJ's parents decided to name him after their commanding officer Admiral A.J. Cheggwidden, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy. When they made that decision, however, they didn't know that A.J. stood for Albert Jethro, so they decided to just name him AJ. Feel free to check his birth certificate. Come on AJ we need to get you to Becky's so Uncle Harm and I can get to work."

"Okay." To my surprise he turns and hugs another adult at the table.

"Well thank you, AJ!" The lady tells him, then turns to me. "I'm Mrs. Jones, the other kindergarten teacher here. You must be AJ's Aunt Mac?"
"Yes, I'm Sarah MacKenzie and this is Harmon Rabb."

"Nice to meet you. I'll let you get going so you can get to work."

"Nice to meet you." Both Harm and I tell her.

We head out of the school and to the car. AJ talks about Mrs. Jones the whole way to the sitter.

"Is it too terrible to hope that AJ gets Mrs. Jones instead of Mrs. Frank for a teacher?" Harm asks once we're on our way to JAG.

"No, it's not terrible but you must admit Mrs. Frank is experienced." I tell Harm.

"Is that a PC way of saying she's an old bat?" Harm asks.

"Something like that." I laugh.

Reagan National Airport
05/28/04
1905 Hours

The Sim's plane should be landing any minute. Which is a good thing because Harm, AJ, and I have been sitting here for the past 52 minutes and 13 seconds waiting for the plane to land. I'm really glad we decided to leave Jimmy home with Mattie.

They just announced the flight and we can see it taxi to the jet way. AJ starts looking for his grandparents. Sure enough, they're one of the first ones off the plane. I guess there are advantages to flying first class.

"Grandma Sims! Grandpa Sims!" AJ hollers and goes running, Harm and I following behind him.

Mr. Sims gives AJ a big hug and Mrs. Sims gives him a kiss on the cheek before they turn to us.

"Commander, Colonel, it's nice to see you again." Lydia Sims says in a tone that tells us it's anything but nice to see us.

"Harm, Mac, How are things going?" Roland seems honestly interested.

"Fine but it's been a busy week, Mr. Sims." I tell him.

"Please, you're raising our grandchildren call us Roland and Lydia." If looks could kill, Roland Sims would at least be in intensive care after the look his wife gave him for that remark.

"Thank you, Roland." Harm says with with those great manners his mom taught him.

Harm has better manners than most men I know. I used to think it was all the female influences he had in his life, but then I met Mic. Mic had more females in his life but didn't have near the manners. I asked Trish about it last time she was here and she said it's genetic, his father had the same suave demeanor.

"Gramma, Grampa, are you coming to my party tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't miss it for anything." Roland confirms for AJ.

"Great! We're going to have pizza, and strawberries, and angel food cake with cool whip and"

At this point Lydia interrupts AJ, "Who picked that menu for a party?"

Harm starts to say something but I signal him to wait a second. AJ looks at his grandmother and tells her, "I did. Aunt Mac and Uncle Harm said since it was my party I should get to pick the food!"

Lydia looks a little taken back but Roland just smiles and tells AJ, "And your aunt and uncle are right, AJ. What do you say you guys get us to our hotel and we'll see you tomorrow?"

"But I wanted to see Jimmy tonight." Lydia protests.

"He'd probably be asleep by the time we got there." Roland tells his wife. Harm and I shake our heads in confirmation, and with that decided, we head for the luggage and the car.

Harm and Mac's house
05/29/2004
1500 hours

The food has been eaten, the presents opened, and AJ and his friends are currently playing baseball in the backyard with Harm, Roland, the Admiral, Jen, and Jason. Jimmy is sitting in his walker dividing his time between watching the baseball game and looking at his grandmother like she's an idiot every time she talks baby talk at him. Everybody else in the boy's life talks to him like he's a person, except Lydia.

"Go AJ!" I call out as he smacks the ball off the T that Jason gave him. AJ ends up getting a homer out of the hit. Not because he hit it that far, but because Roo, the puppy, had to be chased down before they could get the ball back. Everyone is laughing and having a grand old time.

Everyone is having a grand old time except for Lydia. She doesn't like dogs and she thought the party should be adults only with 'grown-up' food. Roland on the other hand let Roo up on his lap, helped make the pizzas, has made conversation with everyone at the party including AJ's friends, and has spent most of the afternoon playing with the kids. I can tell which of her parents Harriet took after.

Harm and Mac's house
05/29/2004
2100 hours

I'm laying on the couch resting when I hear Harm come into the room.

"AJ asleep?" I ask "He was a little wound up from all the excitement

"Yep, the Sims leave?" Harm responds.

"Finally!" I sigh.

"Hey, Roland's an okay guy. He told me Lydia's given up on trying to get custody. She did go see a lawyer, but he told her she didn't have a snowball's chance in hell unless she could prove us unfit. Roland pointed out if we were unfit, AJ wouldn't be so happy."

"True." I chuckle. I feel Harm sit down next to my feet on the couch and I move them so he can lean back.

"What you thinking about?" Harm asks.

"When AJ was born. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when you suggested going halves on a kid." I chuckle.

"Wasn't what I had in mind either. You still want one you carry don't you?"

Boy he cut right to the chase. "Yeah, I do, but I don't think any of us are ready for that yet." I admit.

"When you're ready, I'll be here. This is forever as far as I'm concerned."

I open my eyes and just look at Harm. He looks serious. This is the closest he's ever come to declaring his feelings.

"Harm?"

"You once told me you wanted me to state my intentions. That's what I'm doing. I know you've got a lot you're dealing with, but I just thought you should know."

"Thanks, Harm. It does help, and I won't keep you waiting to long."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The bit with the teacher assuming Harm and Mac are Mr. and Mrs. Roberts comes from something I've been dealing with for years. My daughter has her dad's last name and I don't. I swear the next teacher who calls me Mrs. Burns is going to get a free tonsillectomy. (Especially since she goes to school in the same district I teach for!)