HARM'S RESIDENCE
LONDON, ENGLAND
"You got the place fixed up real nice, Captain," says Meg as she and Sturgis steps into Harm's London home.
"I'm a captain now," says Harm. "I've guests to entertain."
Sturgis and Meg looks around the living room of the single-level house. A huge, wide screen Toshiba plasma color television is the centerpiece of the home. Velvety couches surround a coffee table on thgree sides. The coffee table itself is composed of a steel frame with a glass top.
"So where is she?" asks Sturgis.
"I had her brought here from the hospital just before you arrived," replies the captain. "The nurse is with her."
Harm walks to a hallway. Seconds later, he is puhsing a wheelchair to the living room. Sitting in the wheelchair is a girl of about sixteen years of age. Brown haor covers her head and reaches her shoulders. She is dressed in a blue bouse and blue skirt reaching to her ankles.
"Harm told me you'd be here," says the girl. "My name is Mattie."
"Hello there, Mattie," says Meg. "Commander Meg Austin. I worked with Harm about ten years ago."
"Pleased to meet you, Commander Austin," says Mattie.
"Call me Meg. Only military people address me as Commander Austin."
"Hi Mattie," says Sturgis. "you remember me."
"Yeah, Sturgis. You worked with Harm when he was stationed in America."
"Did Harm ever say anything about me?" asks Meg.
"He told me this morning," says Mattie.
"So, how's it like?" asks Meg. "How's your day?"
"I spend a lot of time in the hospital attended by nurses," says Mattie. "Harm always makes sure to visit me at the hospital after he gets off duty, and he brings me home whenever he has the day off."
"I'd better check on dinner," says Harm, walking into the kitchen.
oooooooooooo
1811 ZULU
Dinner is chicken breastscooked with garlic and olive oil, served on a bed of screw-shaped pasta. Mattie has an aide helping to feed her.
"So Mattie," says Meg, "tell me about yourself. How did you end up living with Harm."
"A very long story," answers Mattie, as Harm looks at her. "It all started when I decided to live alone. My dad was an alcoholic, and I did not want to live with him. I lived alone, running his crop-dusting business. Harm came to work for me, saying he used to be a naval aviator."
"Why would he work for you if he was at JAG?"
"A long story, Meg," says Harm. "Involving Mac, a CIA agent named Clayton Webb, and a trip to Paraguay."
"Harm wroked for me for a few weeks until he decided to go back into the Navy," says Mattie. "He later sought custody of me, and I became his ward."
"Is there more?" asks Meg.
"My father later sobered up and decided to seek custody of me. At that same timer, I was reconciling with him. I decided to live with my father. I lived with him until the crash. I crashed an airplane, and the instructor was killed. I ended up in the hospital for months. It devestated my father. When Harm got his new assignment here, he sought custidy of me, and my father didn't contest it."
"It was for the best," says Harm. "Mattie is covered under Navy health care since she is my dependent now."
"You still have contact with your father?" asks Meg.
"We send each other postcards. He's doing what he can to put his life back together. I'm going to see him this Christmas."
"That's great," says Sturgis. "How is your therapy?"
"I do what I can," says Mattie, thinking of the long struggle she had for almost a year. "I have some feeling in my fingertips, and who knows what treatments there'll be in ten years."
"How are things between you and Mac?" Sturgis asks Harm.
"We speak to each other at least three times a day," says Harm. "She really enjoys her assignment. She has a lot to do, leading a joint legal services center, preparing for our wedding in June."
"You know what will happen once you get married."
"We made our decision with a coin toss. That won't change."
"Commander Roberts told me about the coin toss," says Meg.
"Thank you for this dinner, Harm," says Sturgis. "Maybe you could become a chef."
"Nice to know I have another useful skill," replies the Navy captain. "You know, my biorthday is later this month. I turn forty-two."
"Oh really? General Cresswell had his forty-eighth birthday just two months ago."
"The general is only forty-eight?" asks Harm.
"You didn't know?" asks Meg. "Well, I sure didn't know about it until he mentioned it."
"He's probably going to be JAG for a long time, just like Admiral Chegwidden," says Sturgis.
oooooooooooo
1901 ZULU
"You got a nice room here, Mattie," says Meg.
"Harm decorated it," replies the girl.
Meg takes another look at the simply furnmished room. Posters of airplanes are pinned to the walls, and a model of a Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a fighter jet that had been used by the Navy when Harm served in Operation Desert Storm. The model jet has standard United States Navy stenciling.
"I know about Harm's engagement."
"I met Sarah," says Mattie. "She's a nice lady. I wonder why it took so long for Harm to get together with her."
"Maybe you'll be there when they have kids."
"I'd like that. What about you? Was there anyone special? I see you're wearing a ring."
Meg looks at the ring worn on her left ring finger. She remembers the events that happened over a year ago. "It's a long story."
"We have time," says Mattie.
Meg looks at the girl, smiling in spite of the difficult, demanding circumstances. "I met Tommy in a Starbucks coffee shop in Corpus Christi. On our first meeting I learned he had lymphoma and was receiving treatment. We spoke to each other more and more, and we started dating. I guess I was in love with him because of his shining attitude despite what he was going through at the time. He recognized that there was not much life left for him to live. He proposed to me, and we get married a year ago. A few months later, in September 7th, he died."
"I'm sorry," says Mattie. She ponders the story silently for well over five minutes. "Why did you marry him if you knew he could very well die?"
Meg looks straight at the teenager. "Because I love him, and there will never be another like him. The brightest stars shine for the shortest period of time."