1820 ZULU
QUANTICO MARINES .VS. JAG TOMCATS BASEBALL GAME
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
"Alright, the Admiral's batting cleanup this time around and Harm, you'll be in the third position." Jim supplied as the team gathered in the dugout before the game.
"Why don't I get to bat cleanup?" Harm was a little annoyed that they were playing in the championship game and he hadn't been in the cleanup spot all season.
"Because you got to pick the team name, this is retribution for you calling us the 'Tomcats'." Mac smacked him across the arm.
"It was either Tomcats, Squids, SEALs or Devil-dogs, what would you have picked?" Harm tried to look innocent.
"Devil-dogs!" Mac smacked him across the back of the head playfully with her baseball glove.
"Alright, we'll beat Harm up after the game. For now, let's go out there and bring the championship back to JAG." The Admiral led the charge out on to the baseball diamond. Jim walked over to the bleachers where Angie was watching David. After the journey through the Albanian backwoods, Angie had been transferred to Marine counter-intelligence at the Pentagon and she and Jim had started dating since they'd gotten back to the States.
"You okay to look after him until the end of the game, Angie?" Jim asked as he walked backward on to the field.
"He's playing his Game Boy, I've got his snacks and I won't let him out of my sight. Now, go out and win a trophy, soldier-boy." Angie blew him a kiss as Jim turned and ran back on to the field.
The JAG team was the away team so they went do bat at the top of the inning with Mac, Mattoni and Harm leading off. Mac lined a double down the right field line and Mattoni struck out before Harm came up to the plate. The first pitch from the Quantico pitcher was a fastball that Harm drove over the centrefield fence and consequently putting JAG up by two. Both the Admiral and Jim managed to get on base but Carolyn Imes struck out and Harriet's line drive was caught by the Quantico shortstop, ending their first at-bat.
When the JAG team took to the field on defence, it was their ability to work the ball around the bases that ended Quantico's offensive hopes so quickly. Harm, Bud and Jim teamed up for a 4-6-3 double-play. The Admiral was a the top of his pitching game as he retired the next batter to send Quantico back on defence without having earned a single point.
By the bottom of the ninth, JAG was ahead 11-3 and the Quantico Marines, the seven-year defending champions in the league were about to go down hard. The last Quantico batter was to be the base CO, Brigadier General Warren. "No batter! Everyone move in!" Jim called humorously and it got some laughs from his team-mates.
"You might want to watch your tone, Colonel, remember I was once your CO." Warren called from the plate.
"All I remember about those five months was how your gas used to stink up the mess hall, General." Jim shouted back as he smacked the palm of his glove.
"You've got it coming, to you." The General replied.
"Yeah, but you ain't got it in you, sir." Harm called from shortstop. The Admiral laughed at the audacity of his two officers in taunting a flag officer. Tiner called for a curveball and the Admiral delivered, beaming a curveball past the General on the inside. "Stee-rike One!" Harm taunted with a smile.
"I'm going to put both of you on a report, if you keep this up!" The General was growing red-faced in his annoyance.
"Will that be before or after we take your trophy?" Mac called from third base with a maniacal smile. The General huffed before resuming his stance in the batter's box. Tiner called for a slider and the Admiral obliged once again making the General look like a flailing fool as he missed the pitch.
"Stee-rike Two!" Came Harm's taunting call from his place at shortstop.
"Admiral, can we just sit through the last pitch was already know what the end result will be?" Mac pleaded with sarcasm playing heavily upon her voice. The Admiral allowed himself another smile before looking for the sign for his next pitch. Tiner called for a fastball and the Admiral delivered the pitch.
This time the General connected and sent a drive out toward shortstop, the ball hit the ground and Harm dove for it, catching the ball with his bare palm. He scrambled to his feet and rifled the ball of to Bud who caught it and stepped on the bag at first base. The General was out and the JAG team were the champions of the Virginia/DC military baseball league. The pitcher's mound was swarmed by the nine members of the team and the Quantico team – rather graciously – brought the trophy out to the mound and presented it to the Admiral who hoisted it high above his head.
"Alright, you're all welcomed back to my house for a celebratory cook-out! The Colonel and I even spent all of yesterday afternoon setting up a bonfire pit in my backyard!" The Admiral announced to cheers from the entire JAG gang. The carpooling to the games was always interesting. Harm, Mac, Jim, Angie and David had all come in the jeep to every game. Bud, Harriet and Jason Tiner carpooled with the Admiral while Carolyn Imes carpooled with the Mattonis. The JAG gang broke up into the carpooling arrangement out in the parking lot.
Jim and Harm sat in the front while the ladies sat in the back on either side of David. What made this particular arrangement funny was that if the car just fell silent, for any reason, the ladies would tickle the little guy and the sound of his laughing would automatically jump-start the conversation. Jim tapped Harm's shoulder as they drove to McLean. "You want to know, how much those two women have in common? Put your hand over the clock in the console." Harm placed his hand over the green digital numbers and Jim smiled. "Hey Angie, what time is it?"
"1647 and thirteen seconds." Angie replied with a smile.
"You've got to be kidding me." Harm replied. "What is it with female Marines and the ability to do that?" Harm looked into the backseat to see Mac looking equally as surprised. "Well, was she right, sweet thing?"
"I had fourteen seconds, but I'd say it was close enough." Mac, despite a very maternal reluctance to like any of the women her friend dated, was starting to warm up to Angie; especially after seeing how good she was with David.
"We even got chocolate for smores for the campfire tonight because heaven forefend that any man should come between female Marines and chocolate." Jim added and he could hear the girls give each other a high-five in the backseat. The rest of the drive to McLean was occupied by trying desperately to sing along with the radio. This act lead to a rather badly butchered version of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's Cover of the Rolling Stone.
"How did you guys get a regular gig at a bar, if you sing like that along with the radio?" Angie had heard of the Duke Boys' gigs but she'd yet to sit in the audience for one.
"Well, in a bar, almost everyone is too drunk to care how good you are at singing, they're just happy to have some entertainment." Harm supplied as the window was rolled down and the breeze caught everyone's hair. The next song the DJ played was Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road.
They were last ones to pull into the Admiral's driveway and they found everyone already in the backyard, the radio at a full blare and the Admiral standing over the grill. The five of them walked around back and as they came into the backyard Mac decided to announce their arrival. "The Marines have landed! And we have one aviator hostage!" Angie set David down on the ground and he ran right over to the Admiral who was mastering the grill.
"That kid always did like the smell of barbeque." Jim walked over to the picnic tables which had been placed end to end to create one long table.
"It's that Marine stomach; I swear they're like bottomless holes." Harm's comment earned him a smack on the arms from both Mac and Angie.
"Harriet, Carolyn and Jackie Mattoni are in the kitchen making the salad and punch and the other stuff why don't you gals go help them?" The Admiral suggested and Mac went with Angie up to the kitchen in the house.
"You sure it's a good idea to let all the women congregate, sir?" Alan Mattoni was hesitant about the idea as were Harm and Jim who both knew what congregating women meant.
"They were bound to do it anyway, right?" The Admiral replied while flipping a burger.
"Why are you guys so worried about all the women being together?" Bud questioned as he handed the Admiral the barbeque sauce.
"Bud, you're married, so I can tell you this. Three or more women in one area means one thing." Jim started and Mattoni, Harm and the Admiral joined him to inform Bud what that one thing was. "Gossip."
"Bud, they are in there gossiping and there's only one thing that they all have in common that they're going to gossip about." Harm explained and Bud looked confused.
"Sir, I'm sure they have better things to talk about than us." Bud replied and got a rather stern 'oh you are so naïve' kind of look from his superior officers.
"I bet you're wrong, Bud and I have a way to prove it." Harm challenged.
"I'm interested in how you're going to pull this one off, Harm." Jim laughed, it was getting so that he could sense another Rabb stunt.
"Here's how, we send in a spy." Harm started.
"Who are you, Webb? None of us can get close enough to that kitchen without disrupting that little bull session they're having." Mattoni inquired.
"None of us can, you're right, Mattoni. But David can." Harm smiled widely. "David, we've got your first Recon mission for you, think you can handle it, Marine?"
"Sure can, Uncle Harm." David was enthusiastic and smiling widely.
"You're going to use my son? I hope Webb doesn't hear about this, he'll want to use him next time he needs info on Castro's daycare program." Jim crossed his arms across his chest.
"Alright buddy, we need you to go into the kitchen and find out what the ladies are talking about. But you can't ask them what they're talking about and you can't tell them that we sent you in there okay, buddy?" Harm crouched down to the child's height.
"Alright, Uncle Harm." David was still smiling widely.
"Okay, now you can't say anything to any of the ladies and you remember how I told you to tell ladies apart from guys, right?" Harm finished his little explanation.
"Bazooms!" David pulled out the front of his shirt to indicate breasts. The young man's action caused laughter from the other men in the backyard.
"That's right, now go get them, buddy." Harm gave him a pat on the head and pointed him toward the kitchen. Jim and Mattoni walked up on either side of Harm.
"Bazooms, Harm?" Mattoni questioned.
"One day, he asked the difference between me and Mac and that was the simplest explanation I could think of." Harm replied trying to explain himself.
"I'm sure Mac will be pleased to hear that the first thing that comes to mind when you think of her, are her breasts." Jim gave Harm a pat on the back and stifled some laughter.
David Grant wandered into the hallway near the kitchen to see all the ladies standing around and they were doing exactly what Uncle Harm had told him they would be doing, they were talking. The women were, for their part, completely unaware of the child's presence on the other side of the door to the kitchen. "So Mac, what's Harm like, in the…well you know?" Carolyn Imes was the first voice that David heard.
"Well, let me put it this way, Harm is very, very thorough. One of the reasons that quickies don't work is that he insists that it's all about me so he well…did I mention he's thorough." Mac's shyness and description were enough for the women to understand and enough to confuse the child.
"Come on, Harriet, you look like you want to dish about something, what's on your mind?" Carolyn Imes once again was the one to initiate the questioning.
"Well it's just; Bud is capable of things in bed that you wouldn't know by looking at him." This comment drew more inquiry from the women and confusion in the mind of the young David Grant, as far as he knew the only thing you did in your bed, was sleep.
"Okay ladies, most surprising place you've ever done the deed and with who?" Jackie Mattoni brought the big bowl of salad over to the kitchen table.
"Harm's car, the parking lot at Beltway Burger, with Harm." Mac replied.
"Elevator at JAG, with Bud." Was Harriet's response. Her response caused more than just a few surprised looks. "It was after hours and we were the only two there."
"Alright, the haystack of an Albanian barn, with Jim." Angie replied with a wide smile as she saw all the other ladies anticipating the story. "I'll tell you later."
"The equipment locker of my high school gym with my high school sweetheart." Carolyn Imes replied with a smile.
"My kitchen table, with Alan." Jackie finished off the questioning as David dropped the cup that Uncle AJ had given him earlier in the evening. The sound attracted attention from the kitchen and Mac went to investigate. Upon exiting the kitchen, she found David standing over his cup with a guilty look on his face.
"David, were you spying?" She asked with a very matronly tone.
"No, I was Recon." The young man responded, his chin firmly fixed to his chest as his eyes gazed at the floor at his feet.
"And who was High Command?" Mac questioned.
"I can't tell you." David responded in a sad tone.
"Why can't you tell me?" Mac crouched down and smiled at David as she lifted his chin to look at her.
"Because you've got bazooms." David answered and Mac tried in vain to stifle the smile and giggles that threatened her composure.
"Well if you can't tell me, than I'll just have to introduce you to the four-handed tickle monster." Mac mock-threatened as the young man's eyes took on a look of fresh terror. "Angie, could you come here for a second? We have trapped ourselves a Recon Marine and he needs the special tickle torture."
Angie came jogging out of the kitchen to where Mac was crouched down in front of David. "Don't tickle monster me, pretty please? I'll tell you who told me." The young man protested.
"Okay, young man, who sent you on your Recon mission?" Angie questioned as she crouched down next to Mac.
"Uncle Harm." David sounded defeated as he lowered his chin again. Mac's face grew into a 'what is my boyfriend, twelve?' kind of look.
"Did your father have anything to do with this?" Angie asked as she put a finger under his chin to lift it again. David nodded his head. "Good boy, you did the right thing. Go back outside, we'll be out in a minute." Angie gave him a pat on the head and a big hug before pointing him toward the door.
David went running outside and saw the guys sitting on the picnic table waiting for him. He ran over and crawled up on to his father's knee. Before Jim or Harm could even ask questions about what he'd found out, David started talking. "Daddy, what's the deed?" David's expression was so innocent which made it even harder for Jim to try and formulate a neutral but truthful answer.
"It's a special thing, that only certain people do together. Why do you ask, son?" Jim was threatening to break out into laughter at the thought of what his son must have heard.
"Because Aunt Harriet said that she and Uncle Bud did it in the elevator at your work." This time the laughter at the information the young man revealed could not be contained. Jim, Harm, Mattoni and Tiner all bust a gut. Bud looked absolutely mortified and the Admiral looked shocked as hell.
"Slugger, did she really say that?" The Admiral bent over and looked the young man in the eye. David nodded and the Admiral stood back up. "Mr. Roberts, you are perhaps aware that there is a security camera in the elevator." Once again, Bud's face blanched.
"Nice going, Bud." Harm gave Bud a pat on the shoulder and the Admiral's face twisted into a small smile.
"From now on, Lieutenant, try and control yourself at the office and I'll pretend this never happened." The Admiral returned to his grilling duties.
"Auntie Mac said that she and Uncle Harm did it in his car at Beltway Burger." David supplied with the intent of making everyone laugh just like he had with the last piece of information he spilled.
"Really?" Mattoni encouraged the child and David nodded in the affirmative.
"Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'Big and Juicy', Commander." The Admiral added as he took the hot dogs off the grill and put them in a tray.
"David, tomorrow we're taking you out to Toys'R'us, you did really good, you understand, champ?" Jim gave his son a big hug. "See, Harm, I told you it wasn't a good idea to spy but you just had to push it."
"Well, I didn't think this was going to happen." Harm protested.
"Harm, lesson one about children is, never think things will go as planned, they're a living, breathing contingency." Jim leaned back against the picnic table.
The ladies came walking out of the house with the salads and the drinks and they set them down on the picnic table. "Harm, did you really teach our godson the word 'bazooms'?" Mac successfully hid the smile that threatened her features.
"I…didn't think I'd get caught." Harm smiled hoping it would melt her stern attitude.
"Are you twelve? You just couldn't sit out here and have intelligent conversation, you had to find out what we were talking about?" Mac stood over him as he sat on the bench attached to the picnic table.
"Lay off the boy, Mac. Bud didn't believe that you girls were in there talking about us and Harm was able to prove him wrong." Jim supplied as he reached for a pop.
"Hey, I know that you're not completely innocent either, soldier-boy. I know that you…" Jim grabbed Angie by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss to silence her. Soon all her annoyance was forgotten.
"Baby?" Jim asked as they parted.
"Yeah?" She practically whispered.
"This isn't important." Jim added as the two of them shared a laugh as Angie nodded with a big smile on her face.
"Yeah, besides, Mac you should have seen the look on Bud's face when David repeated that last bit about the elevator at JAG." Harm offered and that comment cracked Mac's false indignation and caused her to raise her hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
"Sir, I…." Harriet offered but the Admiral silenced her.
"I understand, when my ex-wife and I were newlyweds we were caught in the Ready Room of an aircraft carrier. Like I told your husband, just control yourselves from now on." The Admiral reassured her as he brought over the barbequed goods from the barbeque and set them down on the table.
The group sat around the table and ate what was prepared. Harm was limited to potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw and just regular garden salad while the carnivores dined on all that plus hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages. A few stories were shared. Harm and Mac filled everyone in on what went on during their trip to Russia. Jim and Angie filled everyone in on their trip through the Albanian countryside and the Bud and Harriet shared stories from their honeymoon.
After dinner, everyone helped the cleanup, including the child who had provided so much of the night's entertainment with his little 'Recon' assignment. Jim sat outside and got everything ready for that night's little campfire. He piled the kindling, he set up the seating around the fire pit, and he stretched out the coat hangers so that they had the instruments for roasting whatever they wanted to cook. He brought out the marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate in case the female Marines –who would be sure to want them- wanted smores.
"Alright, everyone, the campfire's lit. You can hustle on out to it whenever you're ready." Jim poked his head in the door and called. Night had fallen on McLean, Virginia and a blanket of stars covered over their head. As everyone filed out of the house, Jim went and retrieved the little extra something that he'd brought over for tonight's campfire. He walked out of the house carrying an acoustic guitar and his grandfather's fiddle. "What's a good old American campfire without a sing along, right?"
"Do you have to incorporate music into everything?" Mattoni asked, he'd become a regular at McMurphy's for Duke Boys gigs.
"Well, when I used to go hiking as a kid, I used to bring along a harmonica for something to do before I feel asleep at night out in the woods. But this, this fiddle was brought over by my great-great-grandpa O'Grady when he emigrated after the potato famine. He came over with only his pride and this fiddle and the men in my family have been taught how to play it ever since." Jim smiled and chuckled to himself.
"So, what do you want to play?" Harm gave the body of the guitar a pat.
"Well, how about one for the youngster?" Angie suggested, indicating David who was seated firmly in her lap.
"Alright, Liberty Valance?" Harm questioned.
"Sounds good." Jim brought the bow up and began to draw it across the strings of the fiddle for the introduction to song and then Harm began to strum the guitar.
When Liberty Valance rode to town, the women folk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around, the men would step aside
Because the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast – he was mighty good
Harm looked around the campfire to see everyone start smiling and he saw David particularly enjoying the song.
From out of the east, a stranger came, a law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the west would need, to tame this troubled land
Because the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last, a law book was no good
Jim chuckled as he proceeded to use the fiddle to add to the western feel of the song. The Admiral observed Mac and Angie closely as the two women watched the little performance, their expressions were those of two women very much in love.
Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd return, that fateful night, oh that night
When nothing she said, could keep her man from going out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full-grown, the very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other, only one returns
Bud's arms wrapped around Harriet to pull her into him and Mattoni's arms did the same around his wife as everyone began to sway ever so slightly to the music
Everyone heard two shots ring out, a shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all
When the song ended, there was clapping around the campfire. "Daddy, you and Uncle Harm are really good!" David exclaimed from Angela's lap.
"Thanks, buddy, did you know that your daddy, me, Uncle Bud and Uncle Jay were asked to do a track on this year's USO Christmas CD?" Harm informed everyone else at the campfire along with the young man.
"Is that right?" The Admiral looked genuinely intrigued.
"Yeah, well, a USO rep came to one of our gigs at McMurphy's and thought we were really good. That, combined with our military background made us ideal for a group to record this year's CD." Jim explained and watched as smiled grown on the faces of Bud and Tiner especially but everyone else as well.
"That's great, you guys." Harriet added jubilantly.
"Well, we have to record the track next month, so we should probably decide what song we want to do." Harm admonished.
"Ah, we can decide that later, this is supposed to be a fun night, right?" Bud encouraged as everyone smiled.
"That's right!" Tiner smacked his open palm down on the picnic table.
"Well, then, let's have some fun. How about another story song; Devil Went Down to Georgia?" Harm asked his friend with the fiddle.
"Why don't you sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done." Jim chuckled as he began to draw the bow across the strings again.
They did a few more songs around the campfire as their friends roasted marshmallows and smores and sang along if the occasion called for it. After an hour or so, David fell asleep in Angie's lap and everyone took that as an indication to pack it in for the night. Angie lifted David up in her arms and took him out to the jeep and strapped him in. Jim brought the instruments to the car and put them in the back with the baseball stuff.
Eventually, Harm and Mac were the only two people left in the backyard, together they silently reflected on the night's events and Mac looked up at Harm, she had her arms around his waist. She was cautious about saying what was on her mind, wanting it to come out right. "Almost makes you want one of your own, doesn't it?"
He knew what she meant and if he was being honest with himself, he was thinking the same thing. There were times when he thought of being a father more than he'd thought of actually proposing to Mac. It didn't matter which happened first in his life as long as it happened with her. "Only with you." He whispered as he held her close.
In that one moment, the world seemed to stop around them. This was the most they'd talked about their future in a long time but with his one three word sentiment, he'd managed to calm her fears that maybe she wasn't a part of his American dream. In truth, she was his dream. The only woman he could see himself with well into his future and the only woman he could see mothering his children.
"Let's go home and get you into bed, sailor." Mac smiled as she guided him out of the backyard.
"Best idea I've heard today." The two of them walked hand in hand out of the Admiral's backyard.