This is installment 11 in the Shattered Promises series.

Things Fall Apart. Picking Up The Pieces. (a & b.) Starting Over. Getting It Right. Getting To Know You. Happy Endings. Sleepless Nights. See You In My Dreams. Scattered Photographs. Dreams Really Do Come True. Celebrations. Turning Full Circle.

Rating: T just to be on the safe side.

Disclaimer: JAG and its main characters belong to the genius who is DPB and to CBS. I don't make any profit from writing any of these fics, but simply get to exercise my overactive imagination every now and then. Please don't sue me, as I'm just a student with no money and way too much time on my hands:0)

Summary: Cathy and Mikey face a big hurdle in their pursuit of happiness and the JAG crew is there to try and help them out.

Spoilers: None. This isn't set at any particular point in the JAG timeline and there are no specific references to any episodes.

Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated. Please don't hesitate to press the 'review' button!

OOOO

Dreams Really Do Come True

Ch.1

All was quiet at JAG Headquarters as Mac sat working at the desk in her office. She was just finishing writing up a case file, when Harriet knocked on the door.

"Come on in Harriet," Mac told her, gesturing to the seat in front of the desk. Harriet gratefully took the seat offered, as she had been on her feet all morning, spending her time looking through great stacks of old case files in the filing cabinets downstairs.

"Here's that information you wanted, Mac," she told Mac, handing it to her over the desk.

"Thank you so much, Harriet. I don't know what I'd do without you! You're a lifesaver!"

"You'd probably ask that bewitched husband of yours. You know he couldn't deny you anything!" Harriet replied.

After their wedding up at Gram's farm in Belleville, several months before, Harm and Mac had settled well into married life and had now just completed the step of moving into a larger house in Richmond, near to the Roberts.

"So how are you settling in?" Harriet enquired.

"Fine, apart from the fact that Harm keeps trying DIY electrical rewiring. He keeps nearly electrocuting himself! But yesterday, he finally gave in and let me call a professional electrician."

"And Cathy?" Harriet asked, "How's she settling in?"

"Oh, Cathy's fine," Mac told her, "apart from missing Mikey like crazy. If she makes it through the next couple of weeks, 'til he gets home, she'll be fine."

"Yeah," Harriet agreed, "It's got to be hard for the both of them, when Mikey spends so much time away."

"The fact that she's in the Marine Corps and he's in the Navy won't help things either," Mac added, "The last time he was home, I caught a couple of his friends teasing him about how he had to resort to picking up jarheads, in order to find a girlfriend!"

"Really?" exclaimed Harriet, laughing, "Well, he's very down-to-earth and easy going. I'm sure he'll have no problem dealing with that sort of thing."

"Yeah," Mac agreed, "but I'm a bit more worried about what will happen once Cathy finishes at the Language Center and gets a job. Mikey's hoping for that promotion to the naval base in Pensacola. I don't think it will be easy for them, being so far apart."

Just then, Harm appeared at Mac's office door.

"Good afternoon, ladies," he greeted them with a smile.

"So I take it that your good mood means that you won the Balliston case?"

"Yep," Harm replied, "and I was thinking about lunch at that new Italian restaurant in town to celebrate. Would you and Bud like to join us, Harriet?"

"I'm afraid that Bud and I have already got plans," Harriet told him, "but thank you for the invitation. I'd better go and find him."

"Another time then," Harm suggested, as he helped Mac with her coat.

OOOO

"Is there something wrong, Mikey?" Cathy asked him over the phone.

"No," Mikey assured her, "I'm just a little distracted, that's all. Yesterday, I got letter from my Dad. He said that he'll be coming down to visit, when I get home next week."

"It'll be okay," Cathy told him, "This visit surely won't be as bad as the last one."

"You're forgetting one thing," Mikey reminded her, "The last time he was here, you hadn't joined the Marine Corps. When he finds out, he's unlikely to let me forget it."

"Yeah, well," Cathy conceded, "That's fine, as long as you yourself don't have a problem with having a jarhead for a girlfriend."

"No, of course I don't," Mikey quickly told her, "but you know what my Dad is like. I just don't want him upsetting you."

"I'll be fine," Cathy assured him, "just as long as I have you."

"In that case," Mikey concluded, "I predict a trouble free week, while Dad's around."

"And afterwards, it'll be just the two of us," Cathy added.

Suddenly, Mikeys attitude seemed to change and he broached the subject of their uncertain future together. Cathy had been trying not to think about it.

"About afterwards," he continued, "Have you given any more thought to that?"

"Not really," Cathy told him, "I mean, I graduate in a week, then I'll be offered a place in a military establishment, but I have no idea where that will be, right now."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If I get this job in Pensacola, there's no telling how far apart we'll be…"

"When do you find out if you've got the job?" Cathy asked him.

"There's no telling, maybe as long as three weeks."

"Well, let's just deal with that when it happens," Cathy suggested.

"Cath," Mikey interrupted, "there's really no dealing with it if I do get offered the job. I'm just going to take it."

"But what if they don't?" Cathy asked him.

"Well, I'd really not like to think about it, but I guess I'd have to accept one of the other job offers, even if it wasn't what I had been hoping for."

"Don't worry," Catriona told him, "I'm sure they'll offer you the job. If they've got any common sense, they will."

"Thanks babe," Mikey told her, "Listen, I'd better get going. I'll phone you next week, when I'm on my way home, okay? I'm not sure what time I'll get in, I might be quite late."

"I'm still going to wait up for you," Cathy insisted, "There's no way I'll be able to sleep, anyway."

Mikey had his own apartment in D.C. where Catriona usually stayed with him, when he was on shore leave. The previous year, Mikey's Father, Bud Roberts Sr. had come to stay with them, which had proved to be an impossible situation, so this time, he was going to stay at a motel.

"Don't stay up too late," Mikey told Cathy, "you'll have work the next day."

"I'll be fine," Cathy replied and then bid him farewell, adding her usual, "I love you" on the end.

"Me too," Mikey replied, his mind obviously somewhere else.

Cathy worriedly put the phone down, trying not to think about the implications of the coming weeks.

OOOO