Chapter 52

Mattie and Andy made sure, before their departure for Australia, to keep very busy in the evenings, not that they didn't mind the displays of affection. They'd agreed that it was just a little weird for two people who should be on their honeymoon to spend most of their together time with two teens. Fortunately, the teens had help in this conspiracy with Harriet, who invented a few babysitting jobs, and the now retired Admiral Chegwidden who had a few "lawn jobs" that needed taking care of before his trip with his own daughter. This ruse gave Harm and Mac a chance to be alone, and have privacy and still have some semblance of a family life before the two teens headed halfway across the world. The Saturday before her departure Tom Johnson met Mattie at the Crystal City Shopping mall, spending time with his daughter, knowing she'd have a good recent memory of her father. His doctor told him his disease was progressing faster than expected, but she should return from Australia long before his death---Tom hoped. He'd talked with his doctor and told him if the worst happened, and he went into the hospital while Mattie was in Australia Harm was to be notified, and depending on how he was physically, Mattie be notified as well.

They realized it would be easier to stay up and arrive at the airport ridiculously early than to fight the traffic all the way home after the fireworks, be asleep for a ridiculously short time so they would be at the airport the required two hours early. They checked Andy and Mattie in, and then spent the next few hours chatting and drinking coffee in the restaurant before going through security. Harm realized during the talk that he'd be saying good-bye, again, to Andy as he went off to university in a year, and Mattie in a few years time.

While they headed home to change into uniforms and go to work albeit early, Harm asked if they couldn't take time to make a little brother or sister for Mattie and Andy. "Oh I think that can be arranged, we do have a couple of hours to kill anyway, we might as well have fun." .She had a scheduled appointment with her gynecologist this next week, with marriage she'd stopped her birth control. neither were getting any younger there was no time to waste. She knew one of her friends her age was starting to experience the onset of menopause and Mac realized there wasn't they didn't need any delays in getting pregnant. Well if nothing else, they'd have fun trying.

Chapter 53

Andy called Mac at JAG to tell they'd arrived safely. With security issues, It was easier for them to call her than to try and contact Harm since he was at the White House. Harm decided, after an extra ordinarily high phone bill a couple of months earlier, when he'd received the charges from his time in Tasmania, that during the young peoples visit that other than the we've arrived phone call Andy and Mattie would only use the cell for dire emergency use only. Harm was pleased with email and instant messaging; he'd be able to keep in contact on daily basis with them half a world away. This was to make sure they kept in contact daily; Harm knew he was being over protective, but he hadn't had either teen in his life for that long, and he wanted to know what they were doing. Mac agreed completely with him and Mattie and Andy had reluctantly agreed to the conditions. Because of the time zone differences they needed to email no later than 8:30 in the evening so Mac, or Harm, could get the email the same day. That way if there were any requests Harm and Mac had the day to make a decision and get back to them by morning.

Sturgis announced the confirmation of the new JAG on Thursday morning, Gordon "Biff" Creswell received his promotion and starting Monday, he'd take over as JAG. Mac sighed as she went back to her office after the announcement; she hoped he'd realize she was not at all the same person he'd known in Okinawa. If not, maybe there was another position available, in the greater DC area, for someone with her qualifications.

Her appointment was late in the afternoon. She'd told herself she'd worry about Creswell's reaction after the appointment. If she thought too much about the situation, it would stress her out. Mac had more important things on her mind. She needed to talk to her gynecologist about things closer to her heart, like how likely were their chances in starting their family.

She'd talked it over with Harm and told him, for this appointment at least, she wanted him with her after the exam, when they could ask questions. The doctor told them their chances were a little less than a woman who had no scarring and was in the same age group as Mac. He did suggest that she undergo a procedure that should increase their chances. It would involve them abstaining from relations for a month. It was outpatient and would entail a short rest period, in fact, the doctor could do the procedure the very next morning, and barring any complications she would be home in a couple of hours and by Monday only needing to be on light duty for the coming week. With a minimum of discussion, they decided to have it done. The doctor notated Mac would be restricted to light duty for the coming week, and then had the office assistant fax a copy to JAG. This way it would be noted before the General started.

Mac was in considerable pain, but she had a high pain tolerance and was determined not to take anything stronger than necessary. Harm catered to her as soon as they could go home. The one upside was this would make the official honeymoon all that much more special. The date the doctor would release her to resume relations was the first day of their vacation/honeymoon.

Monday morning came too soon as far as Mac was concerned, she'd wanted to be at the top of her game when she met with Creswell, She was feeling better every day, the pain lessening each day. She knew she'd be uncomfortable at work, but then again she'd be uncomfortable if she'd stayed home.

Chapter 54

JAG Headquarters

0915 local time

Falls Church, VA

General Creswell's office

The remaining officers and staff met the new general and had a staff meeting, in which the newly promoted General shook things up. He told them the status quo was over, if they'd gotten complacent with Chegwidden in charge, he'd soon find out. He was going to spend this week going over each of their records, and there could be transfers in the future for those he didn't feel were headquarter material. "I will meet with each of you, after I have read your file. As she is chief of staff, I will start with Lt. Colonel Sarah Mackenzie; I took the liberty to read your file over this weekend. The rest of you are dismissed."

"Colonel" Creswell started, making Mac quite nervous, she made sure it didn't come across in her body language. "I read your file, it made for very interesting reading. I see you've finally become the officer I knew you could be. Why you didn't divorce, your first husband is beyond me. It would have made the charges against you a few years ago unnecessary. However, Admiral Chegwidden noted in your file you have become an exemplary officer in the past few years I'm glad to hear that. I wouldn't expect any less from a Marine. " He read a little further in her file.

"I see you've recently married, a naval officer who used to be here at JAG. Congratulations. There's a very recent medical flag in your file--- you had day surgery last week, and you're restricted to light duty this week. Let me know if you need to leave early today or tomorrow. My wife has this very same doctor, so I have an idea what the surgery entailed. I'm letting you know I intend to prohibit the use of senior officers on CIA sponsored missions. The caveat is, unless I receive orders for a mission and cannot counterman them. I'm also planning for the younger officers, from the various offices to go to Iraq as necessary. Each month one of the senior officers will be on call, if needed to go. I note that all of you have had the experience in the field, and this will give the junior officers a chance as well. Let me know if your doctor increases your time on restricted duty. Dismissed."

As soon as Mac got back to her office, a relieved Mac called Harm and gave him a brief rundown regarding her session with Creswell. "I know you're busy, so I'll get this really short, yes he remembers me, but he also said he knows I've grown up since then, I think the message got through to the CIA –no more JAG officers to be used on missions. Also got good email from Andy before I left, they asked if they could go with his former neighbors out sailing on the ocean, he said the name was Soriano; I emailed him back saying I'd talk with you and let them know. "You met with the Soriano's Melinda's parents. I'll email them during lunch and give permission. Love you, and I'm feeling a lot better today than I thought I would"

She decided to take a quick break and go out of the intranet system, and quickly signed on to her personal internet account and emailed Andy and Mattie telling them it was okay for them to go sailing the next day. They were to leave the information on the boat and their destination, just in case, in a email.

Chapter 55

The next three weeks sped by quickly, and soon it was time for the two young travelers to return home. Tom Johnson had emailed Harm and Mac, telling them he'd received emails from his daughter, and she was having the time of her life. "I'm glad I let her go on this trip, the letter's I've received have made it worthwhile, She's happy, happier than she's been since I started drinking, to see the happiness in my daughter's life, even if she's not with me, its painful, but she's the happy Mattie I remember as a child. " Little did they know how precious that note would be to all in the coming week.

Andy and Mattie returned on a Sunday morning, that afternoon Tom came by to see his daughter, for his scheduled visit. She showed her father several pictures, it would have been dozens of rolls of film but he'd given her a digital camera to take for the trip, it was to have been a Christmas gift and when the trip came about Tom decided to give it to her early. She'd made copies of several pictures for her father. It was an emotional visit, because it was the first visit, and Mattie was tired from all the traveling. Father and daughter would cherish the time spent for the rest of their lives. Tom could see that both Andy and Mattie were tired from their visit and he stayed as long as he could but left when she yawned several times during one sentence. "Take care Mattie, I'll let you know when I get back to Blacksburg." He called very briefly when he arrived, Mattie was glad her father took those few minutes to say good bye, later that week.

Chapter 56

Some of the following events are taken from real life, where fortunately nobody was hurt. Third time in two years, but worst incident of the three.

Andy and Mattie had been home one week, everyone was getting back into the swing of things, getting use to four people living together, two of them newlyweds..

1248 local time

Blacksburg Virginia

Tom Johnson home

Tom had been watching TV, nodding off for the past two hours and calledl it a night about midnight. He'd done as he had for the past several weeks; he'd gone to an AA meeting early in the evening. He'd told the group that he'd been able to spend time with his daughter, and they hadn't fought. "If I died tonight I'd die happy, because my baby is happy. Maybe one day she'll tell me she's proud of me,"

He had been sound asleep when he heard a deafening crash and his world went black.

Mark McDonnell had been outside smoking his last cigarette for the night when a car came down the road at a fast rate of speed, there weren't many houses in the area, but you could see each of the houses, if you stood at the right location in the McConnell yard. Mark was at that location. He could see that the driver of the expensive looking car was not going to make the slight jog in the road, he only hoped that it wouldn't hit the Johnson house. They'd had way too much tragedy in the past few years. First, the missus dying in a car accident, then Tom had left his daughter when he was on a months long drinking binge. Mark still kicked himself for not noticing that Tom was nowhere to be for several months, and Mattie had been forced to fend for herself. Tom had gotten his daughter back for a short time, but eventually had allowed a city-slicker lawyer to be Mattie's guardian. Mark talked with Tom this week, and was glad to see how content Tom was about the situation with Mattie. Tom had shown him the pictures Mattie had taken with her camera, some of them of her "brother" some taken by others so that Mattie was in the pictures, and the emails describing the various activities.

Mark could see the car had gone into the north end of the house, where the bedrooms were located, Mark still had his cell phone attached to his belt, he whipped it out and had the police dialed before he could get it to his mouth. "I need to report an accident, someone just ran their car into my neighbor's car, there are people in that house, I know for a fact there's someone in the house. He gave the address to the dispatcher and went to see what happened.

The driver of the car was dazed, and didn't move out of the car, the passenger apparently hadn't been wearing his seatbelt and at first glance appeared to be dead. There was enough structural damage to the house Mark was able to go straight into the house and check on Tom who'd been asleep.

Tom's bedroom was in the back of the house, and the bed was on the other side of the room or Tom would have been killed instantly. It was obvious he'd been hit by flying debris and didn't look good to the former navy corpsman. He said a quick prayer of thanks that Mattie was not living at home, she'd have been instantly killed, as it was her room that had been barreled into.

The police cruiser must have been close by because by the time Mark got inside the house the police were arriving. Mark could see the lights and yelled outside, "In here, we have a man seriously injured."

The police officer could see neither the driver nor the passenger for that matter, were in any shape to flee, he called in the incident which resulted in backup arriving shortly, the coroner for the deceased passenger, and paramedic's and an ambulance at the scene. He knew Mark McConnell, he'd been his shop teacher years before, he knew the man didn't rattle easily, you don't teach junior high metal shop if you are faint-hearted. Mark sounded desperate. The young officer grabbed his first aid kit and ran into the house.

He could see a man in his forties who had apparently been in bed when the car crashed into the house as he was still in bed. He'd obviously been injured by the debris. Mark had his hand clamped on one arm, "Danny, he's going to bleed out right here if we can't stop the bleeding." Officer Danny had put protective gloves on and grabbed the sterile bandages in his kit, he could see a piece of wood in the chest, he knew that needed to stay until the professionals could take care of it. So he put the bandages around it, trying to stop the bleeding. To Danny's amazement, the victim was now conscious. "Mark, tell Mattie I love her, do me proud." he gasped the last part out. The victim lost his battle with consciousness.