Chapter 13

AJ watched as Sarah's eyes filled with tears and for just a moment he wondered if his declaration had come too late, but then a smile lit her face like it was the Fourth of July rather than Christmas.

"Oh AJ! This IS the best Christmas ever!" she cried.

He got up from the chair and approached her bed, "I know you only had one wish, Sarah, so I am wondering if you would consider me very greedy if I had three?"

With an exaggerated sigh she said, "Well, rank does have its privileges."

"In the interest of getting my wishes granted, I won't remind you that my rank is no longer an issue since I retired."

"Good," she teased. "Then I'll pretend I didn't just hear that. What are your wishes?"

"Well, first, I would like another kiss, now that we both know how we feel."

"Ooooh, I'd like that too!" she assured him.

"Second, I would like us to start dating as soon as we can get you out of here."

"Granted!" she promised.

"And third, I would like us to find a way to make young Ms. Madison pay for all the trouble her letter caused."

Mac was already nodding her approval of his wish even before he could finish it. She gleefully suggested, "To start with, you could call her and thank her…"

"How is that going to make her pay?" he interrupted her to question.

Grinning, Mac told him, "You didn't let me finish. Tell her you are calling from my hospital room and that you got here just in time."

A smile spread across his face as AJ told her "You are a very evil person, Sarah Mackenzie, and that is most certainly one of the reasons I love you! I also wholeheartedly concur that Chloe deserves something that diabolical!"

"How long do you think we should allow her to suffer!" Mac asked with a grin.

"Oh at least until our wedding," he answered cheerfully.

"Wedding? You were just talking about us starting to date when I got out of the hospital!"

"Make no mistake, Sarah, I fully intend to marry you just as soon as you get used to the idea."

With a happy sigh she replied, "Well if that is the case we could leave right from here and head to a Justice of the Peace, because although I never imagined it would ever come true, I have been dreaming about being your wife for years."

"Sarah! Is that true?"

"Yes," she answered simply.

"I do want you to be my wife as soon as possible, but I would like to share our joy with our friends as well as Francesca, if she can make it. Plus it wouldn't be long at all to keep Chloe in suspense if we were to be married tonight. What would you think, if we can get everything arranged in time, about being married in one week on New Year's day?"

"What a wonderful way to start the new year! AJ that's perfect!" she agreed. Then the wicked gleam came back into her eyes, "Now why don't you call Chloe?"

He smiled and agreed that it was time. Pulling out his cell phone he asked what her number was. Mac looked back at him blankly for a moment and then admitted that she didn't have it memorized. "However, I do have it in my auto dialer. Why don't you just make the call with my phone? That way you only need to hit her name on the touch screen," she offered.

Putting his phone away he did as Mac suggested.

When Chloe saw Mac's name on her caller ID she started speaking at once, foregoing the traditional 'hello' in favor of, "Hey Mac! What's up?"

"Chloe, it's not Mac, it's Admiral Chegwidden. I'm using her phone because I didn't know any other way to reach you."

"Oh no! What's going on?" the teen demanded.

"All I can say is thank god your letter got to me in time. I will be forever grateful for that!"

"What do you mean? Where is Mac? Let me talk to her right now!"

"Chloe, she can't talk just now, but I'm here with her in the hospital and…"

To be continued…..