Chapter Two
"Yes."
"I'm fixing to close on a new house there as well…if I remember correctly, the only other empty house is right next door."
"So you're the one who is purchasing the other house we own there. Since it hasn't closed yet…well it's one of the reasons why we are in town for this week anyway. IF we can get Jen's adoption done this week…we will reduce your cost by half of what you were going to pay for it."
"Deal." Catherine grinned.
Mattie burst through the door. "Grandma…Grandpa." She ran up to Trish and Frank and gave them a huge hug each. "How long can you stay for this time?"
"It depends on what Jen says in a few minutes."
"Huh?"
Jen and Harm walked through the door.
"Mom...Frank! This is Jennifer Coates. Jen, my parent's."
"Hello, Ma'am and Sir."
"Pull up a chair…we have something very important to ask you."
"Ok." Jen sat down in the chair that Harm had used.
"Jen, this is Catherine Gayle. She's going to expedite the process that we talked about earlier this morning."
"Great! I cannot wait to change my name and not worry about losing my family environment again."
"That's what we want to talk to you about." Trish started and Jen turned her head towards her. "Catherine told us that it's a easier process for her if you go the adoption method of changing your name. So, I'm asking you if it would be alright with you if you would allow me to adopt you as my daughter and then you will become his sister."
Jen opened her mouth and couldn't say anything.
"You can still be a Rabb since I still use it for most of my legal stuff. You would not only gain Harm as your brother but you would gain a mother, father, and grandmother. And hopefully soon, a little sister as soon as the court finalizes Mattie's status."
"Jen…" Catherine waited until Jen looked at her before continuing. "Harm said that getting your father to sign a document wouldn't be a big problem. I don't know anything else about you but what about your mother and other blood kin?"
"Kat, Jen's mom passed away when she was twelve and she doesn't have any other blood kin. Her mom was an orphan and never was adopted, so there will be no records of her maternal grandparents. Her paternal grandparents has already passed on and her father was only child."
"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Trish got out of her chair and went over to Jen. "I would love to have you as my daughter…can you accept me as a stand-in for your natural mother?"
Jen still couldn't talk and she just moved her head indicating yes to everyone in the room.
"Now, Jen. I will need a copy of your birth certificate, social security card, driver's license, vehicle registration, and passports if you have more than one, and a copy of your bank statement if you have more than one type of bank account. I'll also need all your credit card numbers as well as the name and address of your father."
"Kat, if you can hang here in my apartment for another hour. I believe that we can provide everything you will need for the adoption tonight if Jen is as organize at home as she is at the office. We can get what papers she has here and run to JAG to copy them as well as to make copies of her passports stored there."
"I sure can since I'm not finished eating anyway and we still have a few things to talk about."
"Let's rumble sis."
"Ok bro."
"We're be back as soon as well can…don't get any match making ideas in your head mom…Kat and I have already seriously talked about that issue and decided that we were better off staying as very good friends."
"Ok darling…I will let Catherine and you off the hook about that."
Harm and Jen went to her apartment. Jen went into her room and got out the fireproof storage box. She unlocked the box and pulled out the documents Catherine needed copies off. Then they both headed for JAG to make copies of them. It would be easier for her to get into JAG after hours since Harm was with her. The guards were use to attorneys turning up at Headquarters at odd hours since their jobs sometimes required them to do so.
Meanwhile at the Apartment
"Catherine, do you have everything you need to the baby?"
"No Ma'am."
"Harm has been great in helping me get the things that are too heavy and bulky for me to carry in my vehicle. I'm going to go looking this week for a better vehicle for us to ride around in even though my BMW is a very safe vehicle to have in case of an accident. But it is too small to carry everything a baby needs to have. I've been waiting for my house closure before picking out the furniture for the babies' room."
"Well, we can help you with that as well. Frank here is one of Chrysler's Vice Presidents…so we can get you a real good deal on a brand new Chrysler vehicle. Do you know what you want furniture wise for the babies room?"
"Not really…I have everything that I want written down on paper but have had little time between work and my mother's illness to be able to look around for best price."
"My I be bold and ask about the father?"
"I don't want the person who I made the greatest mistake in my life to have anything to do with my child. Since the great state of Virginia requires a name of a real person on every birth certificate, I was going to ask Harm if he would allow me to use his name for that purpose."
"I don't see a problem with that as long as you will allow the Barnett/Rabb family to consider your child and you as part of our family and allow us to spoil it like he/she our own flesh and bones."
"I've already asked Harm to be her godfather and he told me that he planned on spoiling her anyway…so if she has other member's of Harm's family to spoil her, I have no problem as long as nobody spoils her too rotten."
"Kat, can I baby sit her sometimes?" Mattie asked.
"Sure, since you will be living next door to us anyway."
"Huh?"
"Oops! I guess I let the cat out of the bag. You know that beautiful five bedroom three full and two half bathroom house that all three of you like…"
"Yes."
"Well, I got it on good authority that Harm's bid on the house will be accepted by the homeowners."
Mattie got up and danced around the room.
"Kat, can we meet you at your new house so you can tell us how and what you want done with it?"
"You don't have to do that."
"Sure we do since you probably want to paint the house and make a few modifications. Everyone knows that paint fumes isn't good for the baby. This way, the fumes will be gone by Friday and you can start moving in next weekend if not beforehand. There is nothing isn't too good for that child that you're carrying. Are you going to have anyone in the delivery room with you?"
"IF Harm is out of town, then no I don't. My mother still isn't well enough to help and my brother is seldom here. He's a traveling salesman and his bosses hasn't been too happy with him having to take off as much as he has had lately due to our mother's health. She has made remarkable changes since this time last year. It corresponded about the time where Harm and I traded favors the last time. I'm hoping that getting this new house that Andy, who is my brother, and I will be able to locate someone capable to take care of my mother and the baby after I finish my maternity leave from the agency."
"When are you due?"
"Three weeks."
"Frank! We got to get her house ready and get her move in like yesterday."
"No problem dear…we will be here for the entire week. I'm promise you by this time next week that Kat will be sitting in her new home." Frank pulled out his PDA and looked up a number.
"Hi George, this is Frank Barnett. Can you meet me at 1608 Rosemont Circle tomorrow around 10…thanks George…bye." Frank closed his phone.
"I got my contractor showing up at your house at 10…can you be there then Kat?"
"Sure."
"Start thinking about paint…carpet…and any changes you want done with the house."
"I got it all written down…I was going to do a little bit at a time since I will have six weeks of maternity leave to kill."
"Now you will be able to enjoy that time with your mother and daughter instead of worrying about getting things done in the house."
"Mattie?"
"Yes, Kat."
"Can you get me a glass of milk please?"
"Sure no problem."
"I've been lucky that my only pregnancy cravings has been anything chocolate and plain milk since I live alone."
"Do you have a spare bedroom where two old folks can spend the week in?" Trish asked not liking the idea that Kat was all alone this close to her due date.
"Yes…"
"Good, we will follow you home after Harm and Jen return home and you two finish up your talk. Frank and I will visit our granddaughter and 'new' daughter until your ready to go home. It would make me feel better knowing that there was someone home with you in case of an emergency."
"Ok…"
"I'm not trying to boss you around but I know how scary it can be getting this close to delivering a baby. I was all-alone except the last two weeks when I was pregnant with Harm. I would just lay awake most nights and praying that nothing would happen to us until I did finally drift off to sleep. I'll bet everything the Frank and I own that you haven't been sleeping very well lately."
"No, I haven't been. The only nights that I do rest really well were the ones when Harm spends the nights with me. I would have stayed here more often since Mattie moved to Washington but we never know if the court people will make another surprise visit like they have done with him since they granted him temporary guardianship."
"Surprise visits…Mattie?"
"We have had four that I know of… two of them really late at night, which were close to midnight and two really early in the morning. They show up here at Harm's apartment to check to see that I wasn't here or that there was a woman hiding…then they would want to see where I slept, so he had to come over to our apartment and wake us up to allow them to check to see if we had boy friends hidden there. The two late night visits were women and Harm hadn't gone to bed yet since he was still bringing work home from JAG. Jen just about had kittens the first time it happened and both of them almost did the first time it happened in the morning.
"It's the main reason why we want to get a house so badly and solve the problem with Jen living with us if we couldn't find a house that had an au pair suite in it. We saw some houses listed that had au pair suites or apartments built in but they all were out of Harm's credit limit. Neither Harm nor I knew or seen that Jen was hurting very badly with the thoughts that she would be loosing us. Jen has always had a crush on Harm since he was the first person since her mother died that ever gave a hoot about what happened to her or what she done. Jen and I have grown very close to each other. I'm almost ashamed to admit it but until I moved in with Jen that I have never owned a bra.
"I might as well tell you everything about me and how Harm came into my life. I was a late bloomer and a tomboy I guess since I rather work on our airplanes versus playing with dolls. Shortly after my thirteenth birthday, my mother was killed in an accident where my father was drinking and driving. The local cops didn't do anything to him because it would have left me without anyone to take care of me. Anyway about six months later, my father dumped me off at his sisters and disappeared to parts unknown."
Trish got up and cleaned the table off. She put the extra Chinese food away in the refrigerator and started a pot of decaffeinated coffee since she knew that caffeine was a no-no for pregnant women. "Don't mind me Mattie, continue the story."
"I stayed there for about two months before my uncle came into my room drunk off his ass and tried to do things with me. Luckily he was drunk and I was able to push him off me. When he fell, he must have hit something and knocked him out. I packed up my bag and walked home to the house mom's will gave me. Anyhow that's how I spent my time until a couple months before my fifteenth birthday. That was the day that Harm was fired from the agency, he rode into my life on his Indian motorcycle and turned my world completely upside down. He was going to take 'Sarah' up to clear his head but she hadn't been flown in awhile. So we spent the rest of the day making sure she was fine and ready to go the next day. I guess he came home here to DC and returned the next morning. After he emptied her fuel tanks flying that morning, we got to talking some more and I offered him a job dusting crops for my business
"He accepted the job. After watching him dust a couple of field, I could see that he was the best pilot that has ever worked for Grace Aviation. I didn't know that he was a three time decorated military pilot that hadn't been out of the seat too long. Everything was going great until two goons showed up at the hanger demanding to see my father. He had taken illegal loans against the business and the house for some god only known reasons. Both the business and the house were given to me in my mother's will since both of them were my grandfather's.
"Well Harm happened to drive up just before these goons started asking about my father. I was so upset after they had left that I spilled my life's story to him. I don't know where Harm came up with the money but he paid off the debts that my father had placed against the house and business. He promised me that I would never spend another day alone without someone checking on me. Anyway, an old bald guy showed up about a week later offering Harm the ability to return to the Navy. Harm took a week of hard thinking about what to do and he decided to return to the Navy. He was torn about what to do with me and got my next-door neighbor to keep an eye on me during the week. He would leave JAG, Friday evening and drive down to Blacksburg to spend the weekend with me and leave at four Monday morning in order to be at work on time.
"I could see that it was wearing him real thin since he wasn't getting any rest. We talked and we came up with a temporary solution that we would temporary close the business until early this spring and hire someone to run the business until school was out. But I have started to enjoy my new life here and hope that we can find a permanent person to run the business. Harm has a couple people in mind if he can ever get ahold of them to talk about it.
"On top of all that, after Harm had searched and hired people to search for my wayward father. The day before our court hearing about custody, my father showed up on the doorstep at the house in Blacksburg. It upset me so much that I broke a promise to Harm that I wouldn't drive the company truck anymore. I showed up here on his doorstep at four o'clock in the morning.
"To say the least, my so-called father showed up in court and because of that, the judge decided to place me into a foster home. Harm had asked a few people to stand up in court for us and the one person he thought that wouldn't help him did show, Colonel MacKenzie. Well, she didn't help our case out that much during court. The court allowed me to go to the annual Christmas Eve service and say goodbye to Harm. Saying goodbye to Harm that evening was as hard as it was saying good-bye to my mom when she was buried. My father was supposed to drive me to my new foster home until Colonel MacKenzie talked him. For some reason, he agreed to step aside for the six months while he cleaned his act up and they talked to the judge. She allowed me to stay with Harm and Colonel MacKenzie took me to the 'wall' where she somehow knew he would be at.
"Harm and I drove home to Blacksburg that night since he only has this single bedroom apartment. We stayed there until the morning of the 27th and he dropped me off here while he went to work at JAG. He would get off work at JAG and would come in to get a fresh clean uniform to the next day. We would drive back home to Blacksburg and start the process off the next morning he had to go to work. The evening of the 9th of January, Harm shows up at the door with Jen. I had showed Harm a flyer I found the evening before about a two-bedroom apartment that had just opened up in this building. Jen and I looked at the apartment and agreed that we would try to see how things worked out.
"It got her out of a bad living situation since she was sharing a three-bedroom apartment with five others and they wasn't respecting her. They would mess up her uniforms so she would have to fix them before going to work, which sometimes made her late and 'baldy' would yell at her for it. They ran up the phone bill to where she would have to use the money she put aside to eat on in order to come up with enough to pay it. They would borrow some of her nice clothes and jewelry without asking first, so she started keeping her most prized things at work, which got 'baldy' on the warpath again. There were other things that I know that I have forgotten about or don't even know about.
"It allowed Harm and I to stop driving back and forth to Blacksburg five days a week. It stopped me from missing school if he was out of town since there wasn't anybody he could count on to watch me here. We were lucky that Harm didn't pull a TAD out of town until after we got the second apartment set-up. We, also, were lucky in February that Harm had left a credit card with Jen in case of emergencies since he forgot to pay the gas bill for the apartments.
"Harm almost tells either Jen or me a dozen times a week that he wouldn't know what he would do if she wasn't around to help him with me. That's why he had a very hard time finding a suitable house for us to live in. None of us want to lose the other and we were going to keep looking until we found the perfect house for us until we three talked this morning. We found the perfect house this afternoon. You were lucky that you came this evening when you came, as upset and crying this morning…Jen was furious with herself this evening before we sat down to eat supper."
Everyone was so intently listening to Mattie talk that they didn't notice the front door open to admit Harm and Jen into the apartment.
"What was Jen furious this evening?"
"She was mad at Harm, Kat, the Navy, and herself about something…I couldn't get her to talk about it with me but I'm going to ask Harm about it the first chance I get when they get home from JAG."
"I was upset at Kat for saying 'no' to Harm's marriage proposal even though neither of them loved each other like a person should when people get married. I was mad at Harm for not returning any of my phone calls when he wasn't in the Navy but I have learnt since then that the evening he was fired was the first day that he had been back to his apartment since the day he walked out of JAG. I was made at the Navy for it's stupid rules that prevent us from getting married and I would marry this wonderful man evening knowing that he doesn't love me as much as I love him. I was mad at myself for not locating him when he finally explained to me why he hadn't returned my calls before then and that he was back in the area for awhile."
"Harm…Jen…you're home. How much of what I said did you hear?"
"We only heard mom ask why Jen furious this evening. What else did you tell them…we really don't mind since it's our parents and a very close friend of ours?"
"Nothing much dad…just a basic overview about my life since my mother died."
"Mattie, you spent about fourteen months taking care of yourself without any adult around?" Kat asked.
"About that. I can give you the exact number of days if I sat down and go through my dairy. It is one of the things my mother insisted that I do each day."
"Harm, I'm so sorry that I wasn't available to speak up in court for you."
"I truly understand Kat that your job was the reason why you couldn't make it. But it wasn't the case for the other people who I asked to speak up for me…for that I'm still having a very hard time forgiving them for."
"I would have spoke up for you but you never asked me bro."
"I know…I wished that I could have but I was scared what the Admiral would do to us if he had heard about it. Mattie and he don't get along very well without going into too many details."
"Oh, you mean that she considers him to be the 'mean old bald guy that fired you from the Navy in the first place' and 'that he must have some huge brass balls walking into Grace Aviation asking you to return to the Navy.'"
"Sis…"
"Dad, don't get onto her about say what everyone else just heard about how I feel about 'baldy'. I've heard her call his worse things than that."
"Mats…" Jen looked at Mattie like she wanted to strangle her, which got Mattie cackling.
"Harm, who else did you ask to speak up for us but they never showed?"
"It isn't important anymore Mattie."
"Dad…please tell me. You promised me if I asked a direct question that you wouldn't keep the truth away from me if you knew the answers."
—TBC—