Chapter 5

Chloe wrote:

Dear Admiral AJ,

I know Mac will be very upset with me for writing to you like this, but I felt I had to. I really think you have a right to know.

For the last several months things have been going downhill for her and when I visited her over Thanksgiving she was really depressed. I guess it's not surprising with what's going on, she hasn't told anyone, and she won't let anyone help, not even me!

She insists that nothing can be done and when I begged her to let me contact you, she absolutely refused. When I kept protesting, she listed all the ways I wasn't to try and reach you. I realized that 'snail mail' wasn't on her list, but I'm sure she just either forgot it, or thought a modern kid like me wouldn't think of it. Either way, I'm sure she wouldn't be happy if she knew I was writing this to you.

But I should get to the reason that I am writing to you. When I was leaving, I asked her if she could have one last thing, what would her most heartfelt wish be? Her exact words were, "My dying wish would be to have AJ kiss me!"

I don't know what your feelings are for her, but I know from everything Mac has told me about you that you are a kind and compassionate guy. I hope that you care enough to grant her wish. I only hope that it's not already too late…

Chloe

The letter fluttered to the floor as it fell from his suddenly lifeless fingers. As AJ realized what Chloe's words implied, his heart clenched. The woman he'd been in love with since the moment he'd first met her was dying!

"Papa, what is it?" Francesca asked when she saw the reaction to what her father had just been reading.

AJ was too shocked to answer his daughter, so when he didn't reply, she picked up the paper from the floor and read it.

"Oh Papa! I am so sorry!" she exclaimed when she finished. Placing the letter on the table, she put her hand on AJ's shoulder and asked, "What are you going to do?"

That question finally seemed to snap him out of it and he replied, "I have to go to her!"

"But Papa, the letter mentions Thanksgiving and tomorrow is Christmas. How can you be sure she is even still…"

"Don't!" he warned. "She has to be alive!"

"Certainly there is someone you could call to find out," Francesca suggested.

"Chloe said no one knows, and that she wasn't letting anyone help her."

"They would surely know if she was alive or dead!" she protested.

"Yes, they would know that, and if…the worst had happened surely someone would have contacted me! I have to get to the airport and get the first flight back."

"I know you want to believe that she is still alive Papa, but if this letter took this long to get to you…Please at least call someone and find out if you need to make the trip, before you try and fly all the way home on Christmas Eve!"

He thought for a moment and then nodded. "I'll call Bud Roberts, he would know if…one way or the other," AJ said slowly, reaching for his cell phone.

When Bud came on the line AJ apologized for calling him on a holiday and taking him away from his family. Bud protested that there was never a need to apologize for calling and that he was always glad to hear from friends on the holidays.

AJ silently prayed that Bud's happy voice meant that nothing drastic had happened to Sarah yet. But his next thought was that if Bud didn't know about her health, he was going be ruining Bud's good mood.

"Bud, I hate to do this on Christmas, or at anytime for that matter, but I was calling to find out how Sarah…Colonel Mackenzie is?"

"The Colonel, Sir? I don't know about today, I haven't seen her since yesterday at work."

"Thank God," AJ muttered partially under his breath. "How did she seem yesterday, Bud?"

"The same as ever. She might have been a bit on the pale side, but half the office has had this flu that's been going around. Why do you ask, Sir?"

"Bud, it's more than just the flu in her case! I just got a letter from her little sister, Chloe…"

"Oh! I remember her, Sir!" Bud interrupted. "How nice that she sent you a Christmas card! Harriet and I would have too if we had known when you were going to be…"

"BUD!" AJ stopped him.

"Yes, Sir?" You could almost hear the younger man come to attention over the phone.

"Chloe said that Sarah was dying and that she didn't know how much time she had left!"

"Dying, Sir?" It seemed all Bud could do was parrot the shocking words.

"So you didn't know?" AJ questioned, as he heard Harriet's voice in the background asking, 'Whose dying?'

To be continued…..