Disclaimer: I don't own the JAG characters, I'm just borrowing from DB's toybox for a little while.

Spoilers:

Ignores Hail and Farewell. Changes the fact from Harriet's first pregnancy about the fate of her baby.

Chapter 2: Meeting Someone

November 17th, 2004

1330 Romeo

Grave of Sarah Roberts

Gettis turned to face them. Harriet was shocked to see that there were tears streaming down his face as well. He spoke. "I'm sorry – I intended to be long gone before you got here – the caretaker says you usually come on your way home from work. I know I'm probably the last person on Earth you want to see right now, so I'll get out of your way." Having uttered his apologies rapidly, he caught a breath and turned towards a navy blue convertible.

"Is that your car? I wondered whose it could be – plus, I thought you drove a Porsche." The Admiral questioned.

"After what happened with Sarah while I was out test-driving the thing I couldn't stand to look at it. I gave it back to the dealer." Gettis spoke softly. "Plus, this has a backseat suitable for a car seat."

"A car seat?" This time it was Harriet doing the questioning.

"Yeah – it would be easier to just show you – do you have anywhere to be in the next hour or so? There are a few people I want you to meet."

Harriet shook her head, looking to the Admiral. He said only "Do you have directions, or do you want us to follow you?"

'We're going to Children's Hospital – but you can take your time here and meet me there. Would an hour give you enough time? After Harriet nodded, he said, "just go up to the desk and ask for me. I'll tell them I'm expecting you."

November 17th, 2004

1500 Romeo

Children's Hospital

Harriet stared at the doors of Children's Hospital with trepidation. The last time she had been here was not quite four years ago when she and Bud had brought the box of Sarah's things to donate. Her little shoes, her baby book – giving those away was one of the hardest things she had ever done. The Admiral took her arm and led her into the main hall and across to the desk.

They didn't even get a chance to speak. The volunteer at the desk said, " You must be Mrs. Roberts and Admiral Chegwidden. Dr. Gettis is expecting you. Tracie will show you upstairs." She nodded to a teenaged candy striper who was looking up patient room numbers for the florist making his afternoon delivery.

"Right this way Ma'am, Sir." She escorted them to the elevator, pressing the button for the seventh floor. As they stepped onto the floor, there was a sign that said "SHHH! Babies Sleeping." Dr. Gettis stepped out of one of the rooms down the hall with a baby in his arms, obviously only a few minutes old. He said "let me hand her in to the nurse to get washed and weighed, and I'll be right there. Tracie, can you help them get washed up?"

Tracie led them to a sink, pointing to a dispenser of anti-bacterial soap. "Anyone visiting patients needs to wash thoroughly up to the elbows, faces and exposed parts of your neck too, since the babies like to snuggle there."

Dr. Gettis came in and washed up again. "That was a tough one. The mom didn't even want to see the baby before it went to the adoptive parents – didn't even ask if it was a boy or girl, just if it was healthy. She's only seventeen and this is her second child."

Harriet said, "I know how she feels – I didn't want the baby I was pregnant with when I was that age. I didn't ask either. I hate myself for it now. I can't even begin to look until she is eighteen – and I only found out I had a girl during my own testimony when your lawyer brought it up."

"I'm sorry, Harriet. I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories. Do you think it would help her if you talked to her? Maybe tomorrow if you have time – the meds I gave her will keep her out for the rest of today. I guess you are wondering why I brought you here. I wanted to show you that when I said I would never willingly let anyone hurt like you did, I meant it."

Harriet just looked at him.

"Sarah's death was a turning point for me – it forced me to look in the mirror, and I was disgusted with what I saw. I volunteer here three days a week, plus deliveries. I work with the pregnant teenagers in the crisis pregnancy program, making sure they get medical care whether they have insurance to cover it or not. I'd like you to meet some of the girls – they need good role models, and that's something I can't do. But that wasn't who I brought you to meet today." He led them down the hall to a self-contained ward.

"This is a baby ward for babies that need constant care some that teenage moms just can't cope with. Some stay here for over a year – its sort of a step down from the real hospital. There are apartments upstairs that the mothers can have. Instead of rent, there are required classes – parenting, housekeeping, budgeting, etc. –plus they can work on a GED if they didn't graduate. There are a few kids here without parents that just stayed instead of being placed in a foster home. One of them is very special to me."

He led then to a small door with a nameplate that had a rubber duck on it. Harriet began to shake as she read the name. "Sarah."

He opened the door softly. A little girl about a year old was snuggled in the crib fast asleep. She was of Asian descent, with almond shaped eyes screwed tight in sleep, a lock of black hair falling across her face. One chubby hand was wrapped in the blanket; the other was around a stuffed Oscar the Grouch doll. "She loves Sesame Street, Gettis said " we can visit with her when she wakes up."

Harriet meanwhile had spotted something on the shelf above the changing table. She reached up and slid the slender volume from its place, running her hands over the embossed letters spelling out – Sarah's Baby Book. Tears began to slip down her cheeks again.

Gettis walked over and took her arm. "Let's talk in the conference room. I don't want to wake her. You can bring the book if you want"

Once they were settled in the conference room, Gettis began to speak once more, addressing Harriet. " One of my first days here was about two weeks after Sarah died. I saw you and your husband come in with the box. After it had been logged in, I took it to my office. Most of the items I gave back to put in the donations closet, but I kept a few. Her book, her shoes, and the pink blanket with her name on it – I gave the shoes to a baby born about a month later. Her mother had used every scrap of her allowance to buy an outfit for her to come home it, but didn't have shoes. So I gave them to her. I still see them every few months, when Laura brings Bethie in to see the pediatrician. The shoes are bronzed now, on Bethie's shelf in her room."

He stopped to catch a breath. "The blanket and the book I kept until just over a year ago, when someone dumped a baby on the steps. No note, nothing to tell us who she was or where she came from. So we named the baby to match the book."

TBC