Sleeping With The Telephone

Disclaimer: I still don't own `em or the song. This song isn't in this part.
Rating: K+

Summary: Mark, now a Navy doctor, gets new orders, and Tina, an American History teacher at Annapolis, struggles to deal with them. As always, Harm and Mac are there to help her and Emily through it.

This idea has been swimming around since my cousin left for overseas and I've been putting it off.

Oldies that I forgot to post….I'll get caught up!

"Commander Rabb," someone called. "You have a phone call on line two; it's Commander Tate."

Tina looked up from the paperwork on her desk. "Thank you, Ensign. You're dismissed."

"Aye, aye, ma'am."

Tina picked up the phone with a smile on her face. After all, who wouldn't be happy when they got a surprise call from their husband? "This is Commander Rabb."

"It's me, honey," Mark started.

Right away, she knew something was wrong. Their work calls were kept strictly work related. "Mark, what's wrong?"

"We need to talk."

"Can't this wait until we get home?"

"Tina," his voice held and unfamiliar edge. "Now."

She put her pen down, and began twirling the phone cord in her hand. "O…kay."

"I've received new orders."

"We're moving?" She knew it could happen, but it was something she thought would never happen to them. She pictured herself and Mark being like her parents – they never received new orders, and they even retired together. That was what she wanted.

"Not us…me."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm going overseas."

Tina could've sworn her heart skipped a beat..or two…or three. "What?" her voice barely above a whisper. "W-why? Where? H-how long?"

"Iraq," he answered; his voice was equally as soft. "I don't know how long, and I'm going because there is a shortage of military doctors and they need me."

Tina's world seemed to have stopped. This was the call that every military officer and their spouse hated to get. She swallowed – trying to find her voice. "When?"

"In six hours." She looked at the time on her computer – at 9pm her husband would be on a plane flying to God knows what kind of danger. Mark continued, "Can you pick Emily up? I need to see you guys."

"Yeah, of course. We'll be home in a half hour. I love you."

"I love you, too." Code three in ICU came over the PA. "I gotta run. I'll be home ASAP." (click) The line went dead and Tina put her head in her hands.

- - -

Forty-five minutes later, Tina entered the house with four year-old Emily on her hip. "Well, Em, what do you want to do while we wait for Daddy?"

"Elmo!" she exclaimed as she pointed to the books on t he coffee table.

Tina sat on the couch and put Emily on her lap. "Elmo it is."

Halfway through, Emily looked up when she noticed that her mother had stopped reading. "Momma?"

Tina wiped her eyes with a rolled up tissue, "Yes, baby?"

"Mommy sad?" Emily reached up and touched Tina's face.

"Yes…yes. Mommy is very sad."

"Why?"

Whoa, Christina thought. She knew this would happen sooner or later, but she still wasn't prepared to explain what was happening to a child. So she did the only thing she could think of – change the subject. "Why don't we go upstairs and take a nap?"

- - -

Tina's emotions were getting the best of her, and she ended up falling asleep shortly after her head touched the pillow. Emily, however, wasn't tired and silently slipped out of her mother's embrace so that she could got maker her mommy a snack in the hopes that after giving it to her, she wouldn't be sad anymore.

Once in the kitchen, Emily pushed a chair to the pantry and carefully pulled out a box of Cheerios. Then she pulled the chair over to the countertop and climbed up to get the bowl out of the cupboard. She continued by dumping as much cereal as she could into the bowl before she remembered that she needed some milk. So, she carefully climbed down from the counter and dragged the chair back over to the refrigerator. She frowned when she opened the door and realized that the milk was out of her reach. So she got something else that she could reach – orange juice. Emily returned to the counter and poured the juice over the dry cereal. Pleased with her task, Emily smiled and left it on the counter while she went to the other room and waited for Tina to come downstairs.

Ten minutes later, Mark entered the house and saw Emily sitting alone on the couch. "Hi, baby. Where's Mommy?" he asked.

At the sound of her father's voice, Emily's head snapped up. "Ssh. Mommy's sleeeeping."

"She's sleeping?"

Emily nodded. "She cried-ed, too." Her eyes began to water. "I promise I was a good girl, Daddy. I didn't do anything bad." She extended her arms signaling that she wanted to be held.

Mark picked her up. "It's okay. I know why Mommy is sad, and I also know that you were a very good girl."

"Then why Mommy sad?" Emily wiped her eyes. "Did you make her sad?"

Ever since he found out about his TAD, Mark mentally prepared what he would say to Emily, but now that the time came, everything he had practiced flew out the window. "Um, well, Mommy is sad because Daddy has to go away for awhile."

"Where?"

"On the other side of the ocean."

"That's far," Emily began playing with a ribbon on Mark's uniform. "Why?"

"To help make sick soldiers better so that they can come home."

"I don't want you to go, Daddy."

"I don't want to leave either, precious."

There was a pause. "I know! Papa can tell them you don't want to go and then you can stay with me and Mommy!"

Mark chuckled, for only being four years-old, Emily fully understood that her grandparents outranked her parents. "It's not that easy, Em. I have to go."

"I'm gonna miss you…lots."

"I'll think about you and Mommy everyday and I'll call as often as I can. But I want you to be a very good girl for Mommy, Nana and Papa while I'm away. Understand?"

"Yes, I do," she nodded her head.

"That's my girl."

"Oh, I gotta show you what I made for Mommy!" Emily exclaimed as she squirmed out of Mark's hold. Mark followed as his daughter ran to the kitchen. "Look!" she exclaimed. "I made Mommy a snack."

Wide-eyed, Mark looked at the now soggy Cheerios covered with orange juice. "What did you put on the Cheerios?"

"Orange juice, silly!"

"Why did you put orange juice on the cereal?"

"Because I couldn't reach the milk."

- - -

TBC