Chapter Seventy:

Harm, Emily, Mac, and four other guys from the air group all stood in front of ten very impressionable cadets giving many of them a stare which could cause most cadets to freak.

Captain Ingles came out and watched as Mattie refused to flinch, 'must be having to live with a marine and a naval commander.' "Hello Cadets. I am Captain Ingles, the captain of the USS Patrick Henry. I want to introduce you to the men and women who will be giving you the tour today. Starting left to right, Commander Rabb, Lt. Commander Graves, Lt. Michaels, Lt. Commander Jones, Commander Desia, and Commander Ngyun. I know all of you know Colonel Mackenzie, who has volunteered to help out on board. Today is the tour and we will show you the ropes. Tomorrow we are taking you guys out to sea where you will gain experience learning how a ship operates while underway. Any questions?"

No one hand any questions so they continued with the tour. "Commander Rabb, is it true that you convicted a terrorist named Mohandese?"

Harm looked up, "I didn't do it by myself, I had some really good help."

"When did you receive your silver star sir?"

"Playing tag with a dirty nuclear warhead. I had it chase me out to sea waiting for it to run out of gas."

"Why would you do something like that?" Liliana, a cadet that Harm knew, brought up in a small voice.

"Well, Lili, I couldn't let the nuclear warhead hit the battle group."

"It could have hit you though." Lili answered back.

"I had to try, we would have all been dead anyway if I didn't try."

They brought the cadets to the mess hall. "Okay who wants to hear the Afghanistan story?" Mac asked. All ten of them raised their hands. Harm looked up. "Harm, why don't we tell them stories while walking around?"

"Where do we begin?"

"Landmine? Almost getting blown up? Military tribunal of Mustafa Ateef? The murder of Commander Aiken? I mean the whole thing started with a vision of yours."

"A vision?" One of the cadets asked.

"Don't ask." Mattie told them, "Mom possesses a gift, and well, it's really cool for the most part. You would think though that you could have used that gift and had gotten some insight on Dad here."

Mac looked at their child, "Doesn't exactly work like that Matts. Your father and I were finally getting our footing back after losing our way. It is hard to work beside someone you love and never tell them."

Harm snorted, "That is the understatement of the year. Anyway, we got assigned to investigate Kabir Ateef. He was smuggling a dirty nuke to target American troops. While Colonel Mackenzie was driving a jeep, she swerved to miss a goat, and I got thrown out into a field of landmines."

"Commander Rabb decided to try to walk across the field to make it back to the humvee, but in the process stepped on what I think was a Soviet butterfly mine. He got lucky."

"Will you quit saying I was lucky to step on a landmine? Bright one here used a trick she got from a movie to get me off the mine. She replaced my weight with the ammo box and then we dove for cover. She saved my six. I was going to tell her how much I loved her, but we were in the middle of a war torn country, our friend just lost the woman he loved, another friend lost his leg a couple days later. I never told her how I felt until a few months ago."

Lili looked at Mattie's parents, "So let me get this straight, you both saved each other's life, but you still couldn't tell each other how you felt?"

"It's complicated, but we finally figured it out."

"Nothing beats Mac though dressing up like a Gypsy." Harm said laughing. Mattie laughed at her parents. She has heard their stories a million times.

"Let me remind you though, my parents have lived an extraordinary life. They aren't the typically military representative." Mattie said jumping in. She knew of the life, and hated that her parents lived through it.

Mac and Harm guided the cadets to the ready room. "This is where we get ready for missions, receive op instructions, and go over rules of engagement."

The cadets looked around the room and felt a sense of awe. Many important things must have happened in that room. For the last part of the tour, the officers took the cadets down to where they kept the planes. Mattie and Max disappeared into one of the helicopters.

"Mom, does Uncle Sergei still fly?"

"He is like your dad, every chance he gets." Mac said. "Don't wonder too far."

"Okay Mom."

Mac settled Mackenzie down on and held on to her as she tested her sealegs. She was enthralled. Mackenzie stopped short when she saw Harm standing next to one of the F-14s. "Da!" Mackenzie squealed and dropped to the floor holding up her hands to him.

Harm walked over and scooped her up. He walked over to his F-14 and put Mackenzie in the cockpit. Mac took out her camera and snapped a picture, this would be going next to the picture he had with his dad.

"I think flying runs in your blood." Mac stated walking up to them.

Mattie and Max came up and Harm let them climb into the cockpit. Mattie looked at ease behind the stick, she had flown Sarah several times and loved the feel of soaring through the skies. Mac noticed that look and groaned.

"Our next one is going to be a Marine!" She said decisively.

"Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged Flyboy." She said with a smile on her face. "Let's get these kids topside so we can get on with our vacation."

"I couldn't agree more with you Mac."

They corralled the troops and led them topside where Captain Ingles was waiting for them giving their instructors last minute instructions for what was going to happen on their trip out tomorrow. He saw the cadets walking towards them. Harm and the other guides saluted.

"So what do you guys think of my home?"

Tobey Anderson spoke up first, "It was great Captain. I can't wait until I can join up and get sea duty!"

Captain Ingles and the rest of the adults smiled at the youngster. "Harm, what do you think about the living situation?"

"I like my bed at home better, it accommodates my six foot four frame a whole lot better than these holes in the walls."

"The Commander here is one of our taller sailors. Poor guy has to duck half the time to make it through the hatch," Captain Ingles explained. "Okay, your tour portion is over. If you want to fly when we shove off in two days, I need your permission slip for that."

Mattie walked up to her dad, "Dad, I need you to sign this."

"Procrastinating Mathilda?"

"Not exactly Dad, I needed both guardians permission, and because I'm still classified as a foster kid, I had to get special permission to leave the country, and the social workers had to sign it, so I had to jump through a lot of hops." He took out the pen and signed the paper. "Oh yeah, Mom said the only way she would let me fly was if you weren't the pilot." Mattie said smiling.

Harm gave Mac a look, and she took off running and Harm took off after her. "You think you can hide on my home turf Marine?"

"You wouldn't dare, I have Mackenzie!"

"Big Bad Marine hiding behind her baby?" Harm teased as Mackenzie reached for him, and he took her from her mother's arms. He then proceeded to grab Mac with his free arm.

"You know I trust Mattie with you!" She said in between giggling fits.

Mattie smiled. Captain Ingles walked up beside her. "Are you parents always this childish?"

"Sometimes worse Captain." Mattie answered handing him her permission slip.

Harm walked over triumphantly and Mackenzie was still squealing, playing with one of her many stuffed tomcats. Harm collected Mattie from the group and they headed off to drop the kids off at his parents' villa for the night so they could have a couple of nights alone.