Bura
Matthew stops Joy's car in front of a nice suburban house. It is a nice sized one, painted in bright yellow with white doors and window trims, with a very nice tended garden. A wooden horse lays on its side on the grass in the front yard.
They park the car and Matthew goes straight to a huge pot plant beside the front door, and starts digging into it. After some seconds and he finds the extra key, they open the door, and take the bags inside.
"Welcome Chez Johnny's," says Matt in a fake French accent, "the kitchen is down the corridor, we should take the bags upstairs."
McGee carries his and Sarah's bags upstairs, and Matthew carries his and his sister's.
"Here, there are two empty guests rooms, Priscilla's pink room and Jake's, then Lisa's."
"You may take the two guests rooms, I will bunk with Jake."
McGee turns to Matthew, "and Joy?" he asks, and Matthew smiles and drops her duffle bag by his feet, "it's up to you man, but I can bet she doesn't want to share with Priscilla." He smirks at the older McGee, and walks to his nephew's door.
Sarah takes her bag from her brother, goes to her assigned bedroom and sits on the bed, and glides her hand over the soft colored quilt on top of it. It is a nice room, with the window facing the backyard, with delicate white curtains flowing with the breeze.
After a second of hesitation, McGee takes his and Joy's bag to the other room, and drops them on the king sized bed inside. He looks around, and sees that he's in a small but comfortable suite, with an adjacent bathroom, and, if the number of pictures on the dresser is any indication, this is the room both Maggie and Joseph use when they are visiting.
He sits down and sighs tiredly, and falls on his back on the comfortable bed.
"Dad, you really know how to mess up with my life," he mutters as he closes his eyes for a second. He falls asleep without even noticing.
"Wanna grab something to eat?" Matt asks Sarah, popping his head inside the room, and finds her staring through the window with a lost air. "Hey," she looks at him.
He looks down the corridor, towards the door where Timothy entered, but didn't come out yet. Matt enters the bedroom, and sits down besides Sarah.
"Everything will be ok, you will see, my sisters will sort out this mess with your father in no time," Matt says, reassuringly, but Sarah is not buying it.
"But they shouldn't, it is not their problem, it's our problem, our dad, we should never impose such a burden on you."
"But it's not a crime to ask for help when you need it," says Matthew, "especially if it is freely offered."
"Why?" whispers Sarah.
Matthew frowns down at her, and she continues, "why would you freely offer help, after all I've done to you?"
Matthew opens and closes his mouth for a moment, as his mind tries to come up with a convincing explanation, one which would not necessary lead to his confession of his undying love for the beautiful young McGee and his being mortally embarrassed.
"Sarah," he starts, but she's not done yet, "I've hurt you Matthew," she looks him in the eye, and for the first time she acknowledges the pain she caused him, "I was scared, but that's no excuse for the way me and my brother treated you, or your family, because every single one of you have been nothing but helpful to us."
She lowers her head to her chest, deeply ashamed, and her hands are twisting on her lap, nervously.
Matt studies her for a second, and stretches out his hand and takes one of her hands in his, and starts tracing the faint lines and veins in it with his forefinger.
"Have I ever told you how my dad convinced my mom to marry him?"
"No," and she takes he shoes off, and folds one of her legs under herself, and prepares herself to hear a good story.
Matt smiles down at her, and starts his tale:
"Dad had just received his first wings when he was selected to be a test pilot on a secret base, somewhere in Montana. At that time, the war had just finished and the cold war was beginning."
"Mom had just finished her Engineering degree, and had become the one of the very first woman Engineers to work directly in R&D for the Air Force. Of course, the fact that she was the daughter of the General who was in command of the base helped her a lot."
"Maggie's father was a General?" asks Sarah, smiling.
"Yep, and mom already had that spitting nails attitude, as she succeeded in Academics in an area solely dominated by men. She did not hesitate in intimidate the pilots of the test planes, and she told them that if any of them tried to talk to her, or joke about her behind her back, she would program their airplanes to explode in the air."
Sarah laughs wholeheartedly, thoroughly enjoying Maggie's attitude.
"Dad says that, when he reported to duty, he was told not ever to mess with, look at or even think about the General's daughter, because it would be the end of his career and they would never find his body, as probably she would arrange to have it thrown out in the desert for the jackals."
Sarah keeps laughing.
"Anyway, one fine day, she visits the barracks to receive the reports on the last tests, and dad said that meeting her was the equivalent of a speeding train colliding with a parked car, an unmitigated disaster. He started to sweat, his eyesight started to darken, and he couldn't put one word after the other. He almost fainted. And he was sure that she left thinking that he was brain damaged."
Sarah is wiping her eyes, she is laughing so much.
"Anyway, dad knew he had no chance, but that didn't stop him from worshipping her from afar. He would leave a rose on her desk early in the morning, memorize how she took her coffee and arrange to have it delivered to her whenever she was working late at night, or, if he noticed that she stood in high heels the whole day, he would leave a small perfumed salt bag, with instructions on how to use it in hot water to relieve her tired feet."
"He did all that anonymously, as there would be no end of teasing if anyone found out, but he always treated her with respect, not leering at her whenever she walked by, as the other airmen did, and whenever one of the others spoke of her, or gossiped about her, he would defend her. His mates thought him hopeless." Matt smiles, and looks at Sarah, "Dad considered himself hopeful."
"On Valentine's day, he took the plunge and asked her to be his date for the base's Valentine's ball. She politely declined, saying that she already had a date, arranged by her father. She considered him only another airman, like many others in the base. He accepted defeat gracefully, and left, but Mom said that he couldn't completely hide his nervousness and hope, neither his hurt, when she dismissed him."
"She started paying attention him then, and she noticed that he acted differently from the other airmen. She started to talk with him, and found him to be an interesting man, and they became friends."
"Then Mom was kidnapped," Sarah gasps, horrified, and Matt turns to her and nods, "yes she was: apparently someone wanted in on the projects being developed, and knew mom's routine, and took her on her way home from the base to her dad's house. When she didn't arrive home that night, it was a whole nightmare, as the whole base started to look for her desperately. Search teams were dispatched, and of course dad participated in it. They called, saying that they would kill her if they did not give them the specifications of the latest weapon being developed. The General, Maggie's father, despaired but refused to fold to them."
"What happened then?"
"Dad broke into mom's office, stole the specifications, and went himself to deliver it to the kidnappers." Sarah gasps, horrified.
"The General went ballistic, of course, when he found out and ordered him court -martialled, if he got out alive."
"He went to the delivery point, and he ordered to be taken to Maggie first, or the specifications would be destroyed: he had buried the documents and put a timer bomb on top, so only he knew where it was, and if anyone tried to dig it up, they would go to kingdom come. The kidnappers agreed, and took him to Maggie."
"Your father was very brave," says Sarah.
"My father was very desperate," says Matt, shaking his head. "He knew that the chances of Maggie being released were close to zero if they ever got their hands on the papers, so he literally cooked up an escape plan out of nowhere, and tried to escape with her."
"Did he succeed?"
"Well, yes, but barely alive, he was shot in the escape, and Maggie had to drag him the rest of the way. The search and rescue teams found them, Maggie screaming over a bleeding Joseph, barely alive, a couple of hours later, in the desert."
"When the General came to visit him in the hospital a couple of days later, to inform him that he would be dishonorably discharged and that he would be court -martialled, he dismissed that, and simply asked if Maggie was safe, if she was fine. Nothing else mattered to him, his career, his future, all he wanted to know was if she had been injured in any way."
"Finally the General asked why he did that, why did he stake his career on a crazy rescue, that almost cost his life. Dad told him that nothing else mattered. His life would have no meaning without the assurance that Mom was alive, somewhere, breathing. He was completely aware that he had no chance with her, and that the General would never consider him as a son-in-law, but he was desperately in love with her and, if, just to assure that she could live another day, he would have to sacrifice his life, he would do it, in the blink of an eye."
Sarah is not laughing anymore, and her eyes are filled with tears as Maggie and Joseph's story starts to sound painfully familiar to her ears.
Matt turns her hand in his, and fits her fingers between his, "Sarah," his voice was quivering, "that day, the General ordered the court martial cancelled and promoted dad," he looks up, and smiles at her, "later on, Mom and Dad started dating, and after some ups and downs, they got married, and started to have us."
"What I'm trying to say here, is…" he looks totally serious at her, "that day, at Waverly," he shakes his head, "if I had to stand between you and the shooter, I would have. Gladly."
A small tear escapes, and starts running down Sarah's face, and Matt hurries to catch it, but it touches her lip and he dries it with his thumb, wetting her lips with it.
"I know that, for some reason, I might have lost my chance with you, but I just want you to know that, regardless of what you think you need, all I have to offer for you is me. My whole self, my love, my body, my life if necessary. I have nothing else to give, but if you think that's not enough," he sighs, and lets go of her hand, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry for all the pain I've caused you."
He stands up, and turns to leave the room, leaving her to her own doubts and fears. He gets the door open, before she stops him.
"Matt?" He freezes.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry too, for hurting you, for scratching you, and for fighting with you, when you just did what you did to save my life."
Matt doesn't turn around, but says softly, "You're forgiven." He opens the door, and leaves.