Chapter 36
Mattie was holding onto her father for dear life during the war of words Bud had with the representative with Children's Services. When that was finally over, Harm said, "Mattie, you're coming with us, we'll take care of everything in the morning." Mac led the sobbing teen out of the hospital. Bud had slipped her his keys and whispered that he'd be by to get the van. She gave him her keys so he could drive the Corvette. Harm could get his car from the hospital parking lot later. Harriet wasn't surprised when he arrived home in Mac's car.
The next morning Mac hated the fact she had to go to in to work, but she had no choice, the admiral had reluctantly stated to her that as soon as the trial was over, the trial scheduled to go to the jury the next day.
Then Mac could take time off until after the funeral. Even in her grief, Mattie saw how torn her stepmother was between being there for her and the responsibilities of work. Mattie had been forced to grow up too quickly because of the events of the past year, and appreciated Mac wanting to be there for her. "Mom made most of the arrangements months ago, so it won't take long, I just want to go to the house and get some clothes."
"Do you want anything for lunch Mac? We'll meet you at work." Harm asked.
"Beltway Burger number three combo meal," Mac and Mattie said in unison. They looked at each other and grinned, they'd already found something they had in common.
"That's my favorite, minus the mayo," Mattie said and Harm just groaned. He'd hoped his daughter had better eating habits. He'd had enough trouble persuading Mac to eat healthier before their marriage. He could see it would be an uphill battle to be the food police in this family.
"Okay, two number three's, one with no mayo. Mattie I think you and I need to have a discussion about your eating habits." Harm said.
"But, Mac..." Mattie tried to stave off the lecture.
"No, but Mac, I know for a fact she burns more calories than she eats, which is why she looks as good as she does."
"Hey," Mac said knew what he was saying, even if it was coming out cock-eyed and not the way he meant it.
"I happen to enjoy vegetables, and other healthy things, I just like meat." With that, she gave her husband a kiss and left for work.
Chapter 37
While Mattie was showering, Harm called his mother to update them. When the DNA results come in on Friday, he'd called her with the news she was a grandmother and the grandchild was fifteen. He hadn't relished making that phone call knowing though he was a grown man he was going to get a lecture of sorts from his mother. Harm started the call by thanking her again for all they'd done to clear his name and free Mac from her captors. He told her of the money the government had given him as recompense for the way his case had been handled. He was going to give it to them, but Trish told him, "Harm, Frank and I didn't have to pay for your schooling because of the Academy, and I was already planning to go to Asunción this summer. We wanted to do this for you. If you don't want to keep the money, give it away, pick a charity, start a foundation. If it were up to me it would be arts education, but you have your own choices."
Trish had been understandably stunned to hear she had a grandchild, one that was already fifteen years old. She'd despaired she was ever going to be a grandmother and now she'd missed her granddaughter's formative years. Harm could tell his mother was disappointed in him, knew that he'd been too self-absorbed in his career to check in with Kellie after their encounter. If he had, maybe his life would have been different.
"Mom, I know this isn't the best time for you to meet, but if you can come for the funeral I'd appreciate it."
He went on to explain Mattie had pretty much been disowned by the Johnson family when Tom found out he wasn't her biological father. He'd presumed for years she was his even knowing the timing wasn't right. Kellie had not told Tom of the results of the blood test when the baby was born. Trish said "I will, if I can reschedule some appointments, Frank's schedule next week is full, I doubt he'll be able to make it."
When they got to the Johnson house Mattie was hesitant to enter. Harm didn't push, letting her summon the courage to go inside "I'm just going to get what I need for right now, I'm not ready to deal with the rest of it." She told him right before going inside.
The next stop was the funeral home that Kellie had requested in her will, because she'd taken care of things in advance, Harm only needed to sign papers. By the time that was finished it was lunchtime. After a trip through drive-thru, Harm surprised his daughter by ordering a chicken breast sandwich with a side salad. "I eat meat, just not much, and I try to avoid red-meat all together. Chicken is my meat of choice."
Even though he had military ID, because he was on emergency leave Harm signed in as a visitor. While they were in the building, Mattie would get her dependent ID, knowing this she'd put makeup on to disguise the fact she'd been crying most of the morning. That they could do after lunch.
Harm noticed that Mac was waiting for them in the lobby. She led them out to the courtyard where several of the flowers were in full blossom. Harm unintentionally gave Mattie the burger with the mayo, but she checked it before starting to eat, and switched the burgers. When Harm slightly rolled his eyes at this, his wife and daughter just laughed and it was music to his ears. "I really don't like mayo on my burger, Dad. In fact I don't like mayo period." The teen shuddered.
Bud and Harriet walked by and asked if they could join them. Harriet was in the process of training her replacement, as she was to go on maternity leave at the end of the month. Mattie had already met Bud at the hospital. When she found that Harm and Mac were godparents to AJ she said, "I would like for your family to come." Harriet and Bud agreed.
"The only thing, we don't know when this baby will come;" Harriet commiserated, the only thing keeping them from attending would be the arrival of the baby.
"Dad's told me about just how fast AJ came, so I understand if you aren't there." Mattie said. If lightning struck twice and the baby came during the funeral, her mother would have seen the humor in the situation. In fact, she'd have led in the laughter
Other people came up to Harm and gave him their condolences, somehow it was spread that his grandmother had passed away, the staff at JAG figured Mattie was related to Harm, they just didn't realize how close the tie was.
Mattie deduced Harm wanted to tell people in his own time, and for the time being he let them think it was his grandmother. If they assumed the wrong thing, then it was egg on their face.
The funeral for Kellie Johnson was to be Friday evening. "Mom knew several people I want to attend can't come during the day, and as far as I'm concerned, Aunt Esther is the only family I have left other than dad."
Esther Sullivan was Mattie's great-aunt, Kellie's only surviving maternal relative was her aunt and Mattie shared a middle name with her, Grace. She was a high-powered attorney in Philadelphia, grateful the grieving teen scheduling the funeral when she did. She might have taken the time off to help her great-niece, she was just three weeks from her retirement and it wasn't feasible to be gone for a few days.
Later that afternoon, Mattie finally reached her best friend Betsy, who'd been camping in Florida with her father, and arranged to spend the next morning with her while Harm dealt with Kellie Johnson's estate.
Harm spent the time with Kellie's attorney. "Kellie talked with me just last week; she told me you are looking for a place in Leesburg. As you know, Kellie's father, James G. Sullivan died a year ago, she inherited her father's house, along with Grace Aviation. As they already had a place to live, Kellie rented out her father's place but at the beginning of the month the renters informed her they are leaving by the end of August." Harm liked that the attorney was aware about the status of the rental
"She wanted you to have the house. Of course it's up to you whether you want to live there or sell it." Harm knew it was going to be awkward see the house with people living in it, but the attorney was on the ball. "I called the tenants, to let them know of Mrs. Johnson's death, they told me they will be away this evening, so we can take a quick tour.
The attorney proceeded to given Harm several pictures Kellie took of the house, before the renters moved in. From what he'd seen, he figured they'd both love it. He then headed over to JAG to watch Mac plead her case. When this case wrapped up, she'd end this phase of her career. She'd be on the bench when she returned to JAG.
Chapter 38
He picked Mattie up from her friend Betsy's house. On the drive home, he asked a question he needed to ask before approaching Mac with an idea. "I know your mom grew up in Leesburg, she told me years ago she'd lived in the same town until she went away to college, what I'm trying to say is, the house your grandfather lived in, did your mother grow up there?" For a man who made his life using words, sometimes that skill was absent.
"No, when Gamma Grace died, he decided to sell the house, Mom was not a 'happy camper' Grandpop told me. It was her freshman year at college, and Grandpop said it took her until I was born for her to forgive him for that." She laughed, and Harm was glad to hear the sound.
"Tonight we are going to look at the house, the renters will be gone, and have given us the okay to see it. If we like it, do you want to live there. Your mom left the house to me. As a place for all of us to live."
"Yes" she stated emphatically, barely letting him finish his sentence. The Johnson home held bad memories for her. If Tom hadn't died, she knew the couple would have soon divorced. Mattie didn't yet feel free to tell Harm but she was relieved when Tom Johnson died; he hadn't crossed the line to physical abuse, but he'd been emotionally abusive to both she and her mother for years. It was something she hadn't ever confessed to anyone, except for Betsy. "Can I have my bedroom in the basement?"
"I haven't really seen more than pictures, but I don't see why not." Harm knew from his own youth that privacy was relished.
After meeting her friend's biological father, Betsy asked where he lived; Mattie had not been clear where she'd stayed the night before. "I'm living in my wife's apartment." The confusion on Betsy's face prodded him to continue. "I used to have a loft, near Union Station. I was wrongly convicted of murder and because it looked like I'd be gone for several years, I arranged for it to be sold, it sold in a nanosecond. The only problem with that was, about two weeks later, it was proved that I was innocent. My wife, and I, avoided fraternization rules by marrying while I was out of the military. I'd been discharged when it looked like I was guilty." The teen thought that part very romantic.
During a break in the proceedings, Mac phoned Harm, and she found out about the house. Hearing they were already the owners of a house was astounding. "Mattie told me that Kellie never lived there, her dad moved there after she started at George Mason." Mac was as relieved as Harm to know that Kellie had only visited that home, and never resided there. Harm was just a few blocks from JAG at that point, and found out which courtroom Mac was in.
Chapter 39
That evening he called Sergei, who was enjoying some time with his own bride. Sergei was ecstatic to hear of the proof he was indeed Harmon Rabb Senior's son. There was more to the call.. "I have a job offer for you. Galina still the Moscow to DC and Moscow to New York run right? "Sergei answered affirmatively "My daughter just inherited the airfield I have Sarah at, she needs someone to run it. We want you to."
"Older brother, what did you do?" This was a lot to deal with over the phone and he wasn't entirely sure he'd heard right. If someone had overheard the conversation, they would have thought Harm was the younger brother being rebuked by the older.
Harm explained how he'd located his daughter; due to the death of her mother, she needed someone to run the company. "With the job is a house for you to live in, the only thing you will need to pay for is utilities, I'll email you the list of what you will pay, if you are interested." From the reaction Harm was receiving, it sounded to him that his brother wanted to.
"The citizenship process will be much shorter for you, because you had a parent that was an American citizen. (call it author's privilege) However, Galina has to wait the full amount of time to become a citizen."
"I can get qualified in helicopters?" Sergei hadn't gone about that while living in the States earlier. His citizenship troubles had precluded that.
"If you really want to," Harm laughed. The brothers had given each other a lot of grief over their preferred choice of aircraft and that would never change. "I'll get working with INS and they'll let you know what you need on your end."
Before calling Sergei, due to the hour, Harm called Jack Keeter. They hadn't talked for several months, Harm didn't go into what had happened, and hearing of Jack's recent troubles, he asked his academy friend to pinch-hit. As he'd be able to come help them immediately, a motorbike accident prohibited him from flying. He'd agreed to run the company until Sergei arrived. If that would not pan out, he'd stay until someone else was hired. Jack told Harm. "You fill me in later, when I get there."
After supper, they went to see the house he'd inherited. It was perfect, or would be. It needed some remodeling. The kitchen decor had been new when Harm was in fourth grade. Myron Grace had never bothered to update when he'd moved in twenty years earlier.
They decided to move after the tenants left, and renovate the kitchen prior to moving in.
Other remodeling could wait. As they didn't have to buy a house, James G. Sullivan had owned it free and clear. Harm and Mac could use the money they'd have used for a down payment on the remodeling instead. Harm needed to get another car, the Corvette wasn't exactly a cold weather vehicle, and with three in the family, it wasn't conducive to family trips.
It turned out that both Trish and Frank we unable to get to DC until the day of the funeral, the unexpected trip to South America pushed some commitments to that week. Mac's trial finished Thursday morning and the admiral told her to secure for the rest of the week. Bud was able to secure early Friday afternoon.
The admiral planned to attend the service, to be there for the man he thought of as a son. Harm was greatly honored his that his C.O. took the time especially after all Harm had put him through in the past few months.
Chapter 40
Because of the treatment Mattie had received from the Johnson's she it was understandable of her apprehension in meeting her new grandparents. She'd quickly twigged to the fact Frank wasn't her biological grandfather. (The difference in the last names was a major clue for the teen.)
Harm had confessed that he'd been a real handful to the man, if it weren't for Frank arranging for the Stetson Group to look into his case, it was highly likely he'd still be in prison.
Mattie needn't have worried about them because, within minutes of meeting, she felt as if she'd known them all her life. Knowing now that her mother had known where Harm was stationed, she was resentful her mother kept her unaware of her biological father's identity, as Kellie knew very well, just how badly Mattie had been treated at family gatherings.
Bud offered Harm the use of the van for the funeral and Harm took him up on it. Mac gave him the keys to the corvette for the time being. Bud didn't mind the temporary switch.
Friday morning, near noon, they went to Dulles to pick up Harm's parents.
Chapter 41
As it was a very public place, the introductions were subdued, yet emotional. After giving Harm and Mac a quick hug and a kiss, Trish turned to the teen. "It is nice to meet you, over the years, I've pictured what my granddaughter would be like, I just didn't expect her to look so much like my grandmother, you have her face." Mattie was glad to hear she resembled someone, finally. The two hugged and managed to not break down in tears. Frank followed, with a hug for Mattie as well. As they drove from Dulles to Leesburg, the older couple told Mattie a few stories about Harm, Trish told one that Harm could have lived the rest of his life without hearing again.
"My first husband, Harm's father, was home on leave and if I remember right Harmon had just received orders to go to Vietnam. We'd fed Harm an early supper, as we were having special guests that night. Harmon's CO, his wife, and a couple of the other officer and their wives. At the time, we were living just off base, in Bremerton, Washington. It was a normal, dreary, Pacific Northwest winter day, in other words, rainy. That night we learned Harmon's C.O. flew with his father, Harm's grandfather, during World War Two. The captain had a few stories to tell, stories fit for mixed company that is."
Harm just wanted his mother to get the story over with, as he knew what was ahead. "The captain was a great guy, he could've run for office and won, in my opinion. His wife, well I'll be charitable and just say she was an ice queen. It seemed that night that nothing I said or did was good enough for her. I could've handled it if they'd been the only guests, but this was a group of officers and wives. The other wives were too afraid of her to rock the boat; they took their cues from her. They all had been treating me like dirt for weeks. I'd begun to look for neighbors that weren't Navy, just for my sanity."
Harm hadn't heard this part before; this gave him new insight into his mother.
Trish had started down memory lane, yet everyone was interested. "I just wanted for the evening to be over with, I thought I might be pregnant, of course we didn't have home pregnancy tests available, I'd felt miserable all day, in fact, it was all I could do to fix the meal, much less eat it. If it was morning sickness, I'd been having afternoon and early evening sickness as well. We finally finished dinner and went to sit in our small living room."
Harm actually hoped his cell phone would ring; he didn't want to hear what came next. Of course, there were no phone calls, no sudden distractions for his mother not to continue.
"Harry Houdini here made his entrance." Harm turned red as a ripe tomato, he actually remembered bits of this incident.
"Harm had just graduated from his crib to a real bed. As queasy as I was that day, I'd forgotten that little fact, and apparently so had Harmon. Neither of us went to check on him, as he was quiet, we thought he was asleep for the night. Big mistake!"
"We'd been in the process of toilet training, Harm got up to go to the bathroom. He didn't quite make it in time, so he took his diaper and pajama bottoms off. I can't blame him he wanted to have dry clothes on."
Mattie started to laugh. "He was naked!?"
Trish nodded. "Not quite, since he still had on his pajama top" Mac could just picture Harm about two years old, bottomless in the middle of the living room.
"Here he came into the living room, at full speed. 'Mommy I go wee-wee'." Mattie and Mac couldn't contain their laughter any longer. "Here was my slightly older than two year old son, with his airplane pajamas on. In one hand, he had his pajama bottoms and they weren't even wet. You have to remember this was back before Velcro was around, before disposable diapers. He might have got the pajamas on by himself, but not the diaper."
Harm knew his mother was trying to take her granddaughters mind off what was about to take place, but he'd have rather not been the central character of that story.
"I could see the captain and the other men were trying not to laugh. However, his wife, the ice queen, looked at me like I was an unfit mother. Harmon, thankfully took control of the situation, and scooped up Harry Houdini and took him upstairs. I just wanted the earth to cave in."
Everyone was laughing, except Harm who was overly concentrating on the traffic around him. He just wanted his mother to get to the end of this incident. "Harmon's C.O. of all people came to my rescue. He was from the Deep South, Gulfport, Mississippi area I believe, I can still hear him." Trish parroted the accent from years earlier. "Hildegarde, I remember when Ross did just that one Christmas, at your parents. Well, the pink tint on the face of the old biddy said she did remember. That broke the ice, and we all swapped stories about our children. After that night, I wasn't so intimidated by the other officer wives, but I never felt close to her, or that group of women. We transferred a few months later down to Miramar, and Harmon went on his first tour in Vietnam."
The story had ended by the time they got to Georgetown, and had a quick lunch.
Chapter 42
That evening was the funeral. Harm and Mac, Trish and Frank, the Roberts' and Admiral Chegwidden were there for Mattie. They understandably knew very few people there. Mattie knew most of the people. Kellie had arranged her memorial service with Mattie in mind, the few Mattie didn't know, her Aunt Esther did.
She was thankful Esther was there, as Tom Johnson's mother, Tillie made a scene at the funeral disparaging her daughter-in-law, saying that she'd killed her son and it was a good thing she was now dead. Esther Sullivan calmly shut the woman up by reminding her "one; your son, Tom was emotionally abusive Kellie and Mattie for years, yet Kellie stayed with him. Also, Tom was an alcoholic, and most of you and your family just enabled his addiction. As far as Mattie is concerned, you remember that Kellie and Tom were legally separated when she met Mattie's father, and at the time she and Tom reconciled she told Tom there was a chance she might be pregnant. You know good and well it was doubtful Tom could father a child, and he grabbed at the chance to be a parent finally. Tillie, this is not the time to bring it up, but you are the one trying to start something," her voice was gentle, "Tom was on meth when he crashed into that guardrail, be thankful that there were no other people killed that night."
Suitably deflated Matilda Louisa Johnson finally realized this was neither the time nor the place to trash talk the newly deceased Kellie. Mattie vowed under her breath "I'm never going to talk to the Johnson's again, after tonight, if I can help it."
Saturday Mattie played tour guide to the Burnett's who needed to fly to New York City on Monday. With her granddaughter at her side, Trish finally gathered the courage to visit the Vietnam Memorial even though it had been open for twenty years; she'd managed not to go during all that time. Harm had told her exactly where on which specific panel his father was located. They gave her time to deal with everything that occurred because of Vietnam while they walked around the area.
Harm had already taken Mattie to the Wall to introduce his daughter to the place he honored his father but going again with her grandmother helped her realize why her father was the way he was.
They went back to Mac and Harm's apartment for supper. Mac had put a pot roast on, and if Harm's olfactory senses were working correctly, his mother had divulged her secret recipe to her Mac. He'd put aside his vegetarian ways for this particular meal. He realized he'd been craving the meal while he'd been incarcerated but they didn't want to be eating pot roast for a week so he'd waited until they had a larger group before preparing the meal. Harm was stunned to find out she'd told Mac what the secret was several years ago, Mac just had made sure she hadn't had any around Harm.
As Mac and Harm were both back at work on Monday, Mattie took her grandparents around the town of Leesburg before their flight. She worked that afternoon, helping Jack Keeter with the operational aspect of the company as Harm had told her to enjoy the summer, after training Keeter; she was only to work the legal amount of hours for someone her age.
