7 MONTHS LATER
CATHEDRAL OF THE NAVY
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
"Bax! You're as jittery as a hen, what is wrong with you?" Harm lectured as Bax paced the rectory at the back of the church.
"Alright, you're happily married with a wife who's six months pregnant; you don't get to lecture me." Bax replied, evidently nervous.
"Sturgis, go get the Gunny!" Harm commanded and Sturgis went sprinting out into the church to find Gunny. "Alright Bax, I don't like doing this, but you know I have to. You've got cold feet and this is the only way I know to snap you out of it." A few seconds later, Sturgis and the Gunny appeared in the rectory. "Gunnery Sergeant, Captain Baxter has cold feet, you have permission to snap him out of it using whatever means necessary."
Gunny backhanded Bax and took on his best DI voice. "Sir, how can you go out there and face your pilots if you act like such a pansy back here? You're an officer in the United States Navy, the skipper on an aircraft carrier and a line officer for Christ sake, grow a back bone! Now, you're going to march down that aisle, stand at that alter and get married, do you understand me?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Bax responded mostly out of fright.
"You've saved another engagement, Gunny." Harm encouraged as Gunny walked back into the main chapel and took his seat. Bax went and stood up at the front and Keeter, Harm and Sturgis stood at the back waiting for the procession. Mac came out of the bridal suite to see Harm.
"How's Bax?" She inquired quietly.
"Nervous enough to throw up." Harm replied he turned to look at her. "You're going to make it very difficult for anyone to concentrate on the bride's beauty."
"Harm, I'm six months pregnant and bigger than a damn house!" Mac protested.
"You're glowing and your growing large with my child, you couldn't be sexier if you tried." Harm explained.
"You know I suffer from heightened sex drive thanks to this pregnancy but you still insist on saying arousing things in public when we can't do anything about it. Why must you torture me?" Mac pouted mockingly.
"How are you doing today?" Harm inquired with evident worry.
"Your son won't move his stubborn Navy caboose off my bladder." Mac looked bemused.
"My son? Yesterday he was Mommy's little Marine. Now he's my Navy son?" Harm chuckled lightly.
"You know the rules. When he sits on my bladder he's your Squid Son, when he gives me unique food cravings that I get to watch you scramble to accommodate, he's Mommy's Marine." Mac smiled smugly.
"You're lucky I'm crazy in love with you, otherwise I'd be offended." Harm returned.
"I know, now get ready, the procession is about to start." Mac dragged Harm back to his place. Bax stood at the front and watched the procession move. First Harm and Mac, then Sturgis and Harriet and finally Jack Keeter and Meg Austin. When everyone was in place, Chaplain Turner started the service.
The service was amusing. There was a point at which Chaplain Turner got so annoyed at Bax for rolling his eyes at some of the lines, he actually stopped the service and said "Am I boring you, Captain?" After everyone stopped laughing, the Chaplain continued with the service. Harm could tell that Bax was getting antsy, by the time Chaplain Turner finally got to the vows, Bax's right leg was noticeably twitching.
"Do you, Ethan Isaac Baxter, take Kaitlin Elizabeth Pike to be your lawful wedded wife. To love, honour and cherish for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?" Chaplain Turner turned to Bax.
"You bet your sweet bippy." Bax replied and Kate laughed at his boyish enthusiasm.
"Ethan, 'I do' tends to work just fine." The Chaplain advised.
"I do." Bax replied with a wide smile.
"Do you, Kaitlin Elizabeth Pike, take Ethan Isaac Baxter to be your lawful wedded husband. To love, honour and cherish, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and in Ethan's case, perpetual immaturity, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?" Chaplain Turner turned toward Kate.
"You bet your sweet bippy, I do." Kate was beaming under the veil.
"Good, now, the rings please." Chaplain Turner looked at Harm who produced the rings. "Repeat after me, with this ring, I thee wed."
"With this ring, I thee wed." Bax stated as he slid the ring on to Kate's finger.
"With this ring, I thee wed." Kate repeated as she slid the ring on to Bax's finger.
"What God hath put together, for whatever reason in this case, let no man put asunder. By the power vested in me by God and the Department of the Navy, I now pronounce you man and wife. Ethan, kiss the girl." Chaplain Turner almost looked mildly annoyed.
"Aye, aye, sir." Bax said as he lifted Kate's veil and dipped her backward for a kiss that was straight out of a Hollywood movie.
"Ethan never does anything traditionally does he?" Chaplain Turner asked his son.
"Dad, let's just consider it an act of divine intervention that Kate isn't pregnant." Sturgis joked. Slowly the church started to empty out so that everyone could make it to the reception. Harm, as best man, was going to the lead the arch so he had to get the seven other officers in line, they were; Keeter, Sturgis, Bud, Tuna, Boomer, The Admiral and the CAG from the Henry along with Harm himself. The wedding party and the procession for the arch stood at the front of the cathedral waiting for everyone to get outside before they could initiate the proud Naval tradition.
"Well, two down, two to go." Chaplain Turner commented, casting a sarcastic glance at his son and Jack Keeter.
"Hey, I told you, I'm working on it. In fact, if all goes to plan, I should be engaged by next Friday." Sturgis protested.
"Alright, so that only leaves Keeter." Harm turned his look up at his buddy.
"What?" Keeter looked around at everyone.
"You're officially hopeless, Keeter." Mac joked.
"Listen, if this one can get married," Chaplain Turner ruffle Bax's hair, "than there's hope for just about anyone."
"Chaplain, just wait until Bax and Kate start having kids." Harm commented.
"Oh no, a bunch of little Baxes, that's like a sign of the apocalypse." Mac joked.
"Hey, our kids could be like Kate." Bax protested, his new wife still locked in his embrace.
"Yeah, that's what the world needs, a SEAL raising future lawyers." Keeter joked and laughed until he heard the Admiral clear his throat. "Right, sorry sir."
"I think the church has sufficiently cleared out. Time for the arch." Harm led the procession of eight down aisle of the church with the Admiral to his right. The formation got to the door and the procession broke into two files of four. All the officers marched down the steps and the procession halted. Kate and Bax appeared at the door of the cathedral.
"Officers, draw swords!" Harm announced and eight hands went down to their respective waists to grab the swords dangling there. "Officers, arch swords!" Harm called and eight swords were raised into the air, meeting another to form the arch. "Swords into the wind!" The eight officers turned their wrists accordingly. "Presenting for the first time, Captain and Mrs. Ethan Baxter!" Harm shouted and Bax and Kate walked through the arch. As Kate neared the exit to the arch she prepared to be whacked by Harm's sword. Harm brought his sword down across her backside. "Go Navy!"
Then the Admiral brought his sword down as well. "Oohrah!"
"Welcome to the SEALs." Bax whispered to Kate. "Alright! Everyone over to the O Club!" Bax shouted before he and Kate piled into the limo.
1 HOUR LATER
OFFICER'S CLUB
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
"Where the hell is he?" Harm stated impatiently.
"Boinking the bride in the limo." Keeter replied.
"That was real articulate, Keeter. Only you could chalk marital sex up to the phrase 'boinking the bride in the limo'." Sturgis tossed Keeter an annoyed glare.
"That's what he's doing and you both know it. Instead of writing 'Just Married' we should have written 'If this limo's rockin' our boots are knockin'." Keeter laughed boisterously.
"Look, here they come now." Harm motioned to the door where Bax and Kate were making their entrance.
"Sorry, folks, traffic coming across campus was a wreck." Bax joked as he and Kate made their way to the head table.
"Yeah, and I'm a monkey's uncle." Keeter muttered.
"Well, the evolutionary theory's not perfect, Jack." Bax countered as he took his seat with Kate firmly seated in his lap. Harm walked up and stood at the podium in the centre of the table.
"You'd think after twenty years, nothing Bax could say would surprise me. Then he and Kate told me that they wanted to turn their reception into a roast and I was proved wrong yet again. But what the hell, I live with a pregnant woman, I'm wrong all the time anyway." Harm joked as he did the introduction. "I was told to inform the guests that if they had anything to say, this would be the time. That 'speak now or forever hold your peace' line that Chaplain Turner gave us earlier, total bullshit; this is the time." There were more laughs. Harm turned his head to face Bax and Kate. "I can't believe that they gave you control over a carrier. How many pictures of the CNO caught in some inexplicable sexual act do you have that you were actual able to blackmail him? I guess we should be more impressed that he didn't run the ship aground in the Mediterranean somewhere. On a more serious note, did you know that Bax is the first Midshipman in fifty years to show up for role call in an athletic supporter? What did he get for doing that Keeter?"
"I think it was five bucks and a meatball sub." Keeter replied.
"Hey, I have standards….." Bax replied. "It was ten bucks and a meatball sub."
"Anyway. None of us could believe that he did it; that was the day we learned that a SEAL never backs down from a challenge." Harm commented.
"Damn right!" Came from Admiral Chegwidden's table.
"I'd like to get serious for a moment. You know for the four of us, we were the only brothers we could count on for a long time. We all had the dream of passing through Annapolis to bigger and better things and when we finally did it, we knew that it was because we had leaned on each other. Part of the man and part of the officer that I am today is because of Ethan Baxter and it's good to know that he now has Kate, who can ensure that his negative influence doesn't rub off on anyone else." Harm joked and raised his glass. "To you and your new bride, buddy."
"Thanks Harm." Bax moved Kate off his lap and wrapped Harm in a big bear hug.
"Now; Keeter, Sturgis and I went to a lot of trouble to organize a little surprise for this roast. So, I'd like to call Retired Captain Richard Holmes to the podium." Harm stated and he watched as Bax rolled his eyes and returned to his seat. The tall, noble form of the older man, who was presumably Captain Holmes, came up to stand at the podium.
"When Mr. Rabb first called me and said Ethan Baxter was getting married I believe my initial response was 'good God he hasn't gotten himself killed.' Ethan was the brightest literary mind I had ever come across in my tenure at Annapolis even though I was convinced most of the time that he had most of Shakespeare's sonnets written somewhere on his anatomy. Ethan, do you remember what I told you the day you got commissioned?" Holmes asked.
"I believe you said, 'Oh good Lord, Nimitz must be rolling in his grave." Bax replied.
"Quite right. And now I see they've made you a Captain. Hopefully by the time the decision to flag you comes around, Nimitz will have risen from his grave to talk some sense into the brass at the Pentagon. In all fairness to Ethan, if he hadn't hat Rabb and Keeter at his disposal, his effect on Annapolis would have been minimal. By the time that Mr. Turner caught up with their antics in second year, well let us just say that the Academy had its own version of the Four Horsemen. Without further ado, I shall hand over the microphone to two men who can lend their own unique perspectives to this day. Isaac Baxter and Chaplain Matthew Turner."
Bax's dad and Chaplain Turner took over the microphone. "Hey Matt, been along time since we talked." Isaac Baxter started.
"I believe the first time was after I delivered a sermon at the cathedral during which my son stumbled in wearing only his underwear." Chaplain Turner supplied as Sturgis comically banged his head off the table.
"Yeah, as I recall, you were breathing fire and brimstone when you called me that day." Isaac goaded.
"Oh it was a day. I found out that Harmon, Ethan and Jack had put Sturgis up to it. When I asked them how they did that, they replied 'The wonders of Newfie Screech' which I took to mean that my son was drunk." Chaplain Turner concluded.
"And how!" Keeter called from his end of the table.
"Isaac, I'm sure that you've got stories for the crowd." It was now Chaplain Turner's turn to goad.
"Oh, trust me I do. Kate, Baxter children tend to be a handful. Keep this in mind the next time that you and my son are caught in the back of a limo during a 'traffic jam'. There was the one time that Ethan's prep school friends had gotten him so drunk that we found him out in the middle of the vineyard, stark naked, howling at the moon at 0230 in the morning." Isaac Baxter was struggling to contain his laughter. "Or the time that he went out for Halloween wearing The Emperor's New Clothes. Come to think of it son we had a hell of a time making sure you were always wearing clothes from the ages of 13-17."
"He has a lot of to be proud of." Kate remarked openly which cause more laughter.
"Daddy, hungry, food!" Little AJ yelled from the Roberts' table.
"Hell of an idea, give that young man an Annapolis recommendation." Keeter replied.
"Hell, if they can give one to you, Keeter, they can give one to anybody." Harm joked as everyone looked around.
"Now seems like a good time to eat." Bax shouted.
87 MINUTES LATER
OFFICER'S CLUB
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
"Alright, the time has come for the first dance as husband and wife!" The DJ announced as Bax and Kate took to the dance floor as the strains of Dean Martin's You Belong to Me began to waft through the O Club. After a few minutes alone in the spotlight, other couples began to take to the floor. Harm and Mac were first, followed by Bobbi and Sturgis and in something of a surprise, Jack and Meg. After a few songs, where all the couples on the floor seemed to trade off partners with some regularity, most of the wedding party decided to sit out a dance. That is, except for Jack and Meg who seemed to be getting closer by the second.
Mac and Kate sat in chairs on the edge of the dance floor. "I must bow to your matchmaking ability, Mrs. Baxter, fixing up Jack and Meg was a stroke of genius." Mac commented.
"Hey, I had your help in thinking up ways to make sure that everything that they had to do for the preparations, they did together." Kate returned.
"We do make a good team. It's a good thing that the Admiral finagled that transfer to get you back to JAG, I'm going to have to have someone in there I can trust in a few months while I'm bringing another Squid into the world." Mac joked as she squirmed on her chair.
"Mac, I can't tell you what it means to me to have you stand as my matron of honour." Kate gave Mac a soft pat on the hand.
"Are you kidding, girl? It was all worth it to see that dress designer of yours go alterations crazy trying to accommodate a rapidly expanding belly." Mac raised her hand to her baby belly.
"Mac, can you keep a secret?" Kate inquired.
"I think so, is it national security related?" Mac replied.
"No, but by OB/GYN says that in about seven months, there's going to be a new addition to the Baxter clan." Kate was beaming.
"Oh my God!" Mac tried very hard to stifle a giddy squeal. "Does Bax know?"
"I was thinking of making it my wedding present." Kate said with a wink.
"He'll be thrilled! This of course means that my son is going to grow up knowing another Baxter teenager. I'm not sure I could handle that." Mac joked.
"Hey, it could be a girl." Kate suggested.
"With Bax's personality? All the boys will be panting in their sleep thinking of her." Mac returned. "My Lucas among them."
"So you and Harm have decided on a name?" Kate settled.
"Yes, we figured we couldn't saddle another kid with the name Harmon so we decided on naming him after two important people in our lives. Luke was Harm's roommate at flight school and Matthew as the middle name in honour of my uncle." Mac was smiling fondly.
"You're going to make a great mom and I think Harm was born to be a dad." Kate remarked.
"Thanks, Kate." Mac tapped her friend's hand.
Across the room, Harm and Bax were leaning up against a wall, partaking of the champagne and looking at their wives, seated across the room.
"You know, sometimes it's hard to believe that all of this started with a crazy reunion weekend seven months ago." Bax joked as he raised his glass to his lips.
"Tell me about it, every morning I wake up and expect to be back in my cold bed back at my old apartment, ready to punch the wall because it was all a dream. I never feel better all day then I do when I look over and see Mac in bed next to me." Harm smiled fondly.
"Harmon Rabb, you've become a sentimentalist in your old age." Bax joked.
"No, let's just say that for the first time in my life, I'm an optimist." Harm commented.
"Hey, I'll drink to that." Bax and Harm clinked their glasses together. After a quick drink, they turned to see Sturgis and Bobbi standing together. "Looks like we'll be back here in the near future."
"Yeah, I'm happy for him. This seems to be the year for weddings." Harm retorted.
"Nothing wrong with that. It was about time that we all settled down." Bax exhaled heavily.
"It Kate's case, it's more like tied you down." Harm joked.
"Did you put a surveillance camera in the limo?" Bax was bluffing but he seemed to have caught Harm by surprise.
"What do you think Mac and Kate are talking about?" Harm questioned, motioning over to the table across the room.
"Babies." Bax replied.
"Why?" Harm inquired.
"What else would they talk about?" Bax returned.
"It's been a good year." Harm smiled wisely.
"It promises to get better, Mister Expectant Father." Bax commented.
"That it does." Harm muttered. At that moment Keeter came rushing over, Meg Austin securely gripped to his arm.
"Hey, Harm buddy, you wouldn't by chance have a condom?" Keeter questioned which cause Bax and Harm to laugh.
THE END
Since we got such rave reviews about our casting choice for Bax, we decided to give you another JAG story with our new character. "JAG: The Yard" takes place after "Death Watch"; Mac tells Harm to focus not on how Diane died but on the good times that he had with her at the Academy. As a result, she and Harm stay up late one night as he regales her with tales of his Academy days. One story really speaks to Mac and she calls the one man who she thinks can help Harm deal with the whole situation. When he shows up at JAG, he turns the scene upside down with his antics.
This won't be our next group effort, but it will be in the imminent future