For Those in Peril on the Sea
CJ/Danny; mentions of Donna/Josh, Sam/OFC, Carol/OMC, Margaret/Hoynes
Rating Adult –
Spoilers through end of series
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
Feedback and criticism always welcomed
6:15 AM; November 5, 2011; Santa Monica, CA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny Concannon flushed the commode, put down the seat, washed his hands, rinsed with mouthwash, and headed back into his bedroom.
Seeing that CJ was not moving, he stole a quick peek into the nursery. Paddy was still asleep. Looking at the toddler, Danny realized that they really needed to get their son a bed; he would be outgrowing the crib within a few months. And, please God, they would soon need the crib for another child. He covered the boy with the quilt that had been kicked to the base of the crib and hurried back to the bedroom. With any luck, there would be time for one more – .
Yesterday afternoon, CJ finished her latest cycle and, as always, they were very enthusiastic about her renewed "availability" – two times last night after they put Paddy to bed. Then, about four hours ago, they both woke at the same time with the same need. It was amazing, he thought, how their emotional and physical needs had come to mesh over the past five years. The first time last night was a balance of need and frivolity and the second was the delicate and gentle "crabbing" position that defined the depth of their feelings for each other. But that last time, in the wee hours of the morning, was something they rarely needed. It was intense pounding lust, very physical, very hard. He drove into her and she rose to meet every stroke. They gripped hands because they knew that they were in danger of marking each other's shoulders with nails and fingers. And other than words of love, neither of them needed to speak to let the other know what was wanted.
As her husband returned to the bedroom, CJ turned over in the bed and watched him approach the bed. She had been half asleep she had felt his body with its morning erection ease away from her back and leave the bed. She woke more when she heard the flush from the bathroom but didn't have the energy to move. Paddy had whimpered in his sleep about an hour ago, and she had awakened in a nanosecond, had gone to check on her son, and had made the same trip to the bathroom, all without managing to wake Danny.
She stretched and caught Danny's eyes, smiling at the sight of him realizing that she was awake. The pre-dawn moonlight hit highlights on his head, in his beard, on the light halo of hair on his body, and especially on the triangle between his legs. The trip to the bathroom had taken care of the stiff erection of a few minutes ago, but she could see his interest returning, could see him lengthen, thicken, and begin again to rise for her. She flung back the sheet and light blanket, opened her arms, and smiled. This time between her period and the "window" was the best part of the month. Of course, the time after the "window" was also spontaneous and not limited to every 36 hours, but it was also a time of waiting to see if they had been successful or if there would once again be the telltale signs of "not just yet". Making love during the window was also special in its own way, as each time they hoped that they would make the longed-for second child, but this week was carefree.
Twenty minutes later, they were in the shower. Ten minutes after that, Paddy awoke and Danny took the child into the kitchen and fed him breakfast.
Hearing CJ approaching the kitchen, Danny said, "Paddy, you need to be an especially good boy for Mama today. You'll be the man of the house while I'm gone. Can you do that for me?"
An emphatic nod of the little boy's head. "Yeth." ("From your lips to God's ear," CJ said in a laughing stage whisper.)
"Okay, I'm gonna hold you to it."
Just as CJ poured herself a cup of coffee, there was a knock on the kitchen door. She opened it to admit Hank, Steve, and seventeen week old Pamela, complete with enough gear to outweigh her ten times over.
"We've got 10 bottles, just in case, two dozen diapers, five outfits, her dolls, and her doggie." Hank set down the gear while Steve put the little girl in her carrier on the table.
"She was a little sniffly last night," Steve said, " I don't know, maybe I shouldn't go."
"Guys, guys," CJ reassured them. "If she continues to sniffle, I'll call Linda. She's on our speed dial, too, you know. And you didn't have to cart over the entire nursery! If she were to run out of bottles, or diapers, you did give us a key."
"Are you sure you can manage, CJ? The two of them, I mean?"
"I manage Paddy and Maggie okay, don't I? And it's just you men that are leaving for the day. I've got plenty of backup." She was interrupted by the honk of a car horn. "There's your ride. Go be bonding males."
Just then, Paddy realized that there was someone else occupying his mother's attention and began to fuss. Danny stared at his son, briefly hugged CJ and followed Hank and Steve out the door. "See ya later," he called out to his family.
Most of the men on the block – Danny, Hank, Steve, Ken, Frank, Billy, Joel, and Wally – were going out for a day of deep-sea fishing. Li Wei was up at MIT for a symposium and had taken Yan and Mei-ling with him. Pete, Sonia, Radak, and Dinara were in Chicago for a wedding. Timmy Jenkins was working a shift in Long Beach; Jimmy was on call and had to stay home. (The other guys felt guilty, but they were glad that there would be a man on the block, just in case. In fact, as a backup, Frank asked his nephew Jesse to come stay with his aunt and his cousins later in the morning.)
8:30 AM; somewhere off the coast of Santa Monica, CA, beyond San Nicholas Island
"Pass the doughnuts," Wally Hammash asked as he handed the coffee pot to Hank.
Ken Robbins complied. "You know, I can't imagine life without Laura, but it's nice, every once in a while, to be doing this without someone coming along with napkins, coasters, and comments about empty sugar calories."
Most of the others nodded in assent. They were on their way to the fishing grounds that the charter company said would provide them with a very good chance of catching some fairly large tuna and perhaps some other varieties of game fish. The captain had told them it would take a good 90 minutes to get there, so they should just sit back, enjoy their breakfast, and relax. His only rules were no smoking and everyone had to wear his life jacket. (" I don't care how many medals you might have won; in my boat, even Neptune and Ariel wear preservers.")
"Well, I wonder how many rosaries Diana has said so far," Frank Muñoz joked.
A couple of weeks ago, when the men first discussed their plans for this trip, the reaction of the women on the block was varied.
"It's hard enough to deal with the thought of Frank up there in the sky, counting on the principles of lift, thrust, drag, and weight to keep him safe until he comes down to earth again, but I've gotten used to it over the last 17 years," Diana commented. "Now he wants me to start relying on buoyancy and water displacement."
Hannah Feldman agreed. "I don't see why you can't just go up to Los Padres, paint your faces blue, sit around a fire, and talk about manly things. You could even stay overnight."
"Go, go, get out of my hair! Now, if I could find someone to take the boys as well, I'd be in paradise," Aviva said. "But don't get too lucky; I don't want to be smelling fish cooking every day for two weeks." The Hammash's were expecting their third child in February and Aviva was having a hard time with food-related symptoms.
"And just because I know how to clean trout, doesn't mean I can handle something huge," CJ told her husband.
Hank explained that the charter company would take whatever fish they caught and give them the equivalent (less a processing percentage) of previously caught fish, either cans in exchange for tuna or coupons redeemable at several stores for fresh fish steaks for the other species.
"Actually, we've about decided to donate anything we get, either the cans or the coupons, to the Food Bank," Billy Rogers told the women. "So all you'll have to deal with is smelly laundry and sunburns."
Sally told her husband that there was a coin laundry five blocks away and that she would set out a roll of quarters and the box of Tide. However, she would stock up on aloe vera. The other wives nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'm glad I don't have to touch one of those fish with the long sword of a nose," Laura Robbins said. Ken whispered something in her ear and she blushed furiously, then swatted at his upper arm.
So here they were, on the ocean, ready to spend the day in each other's company, being "manly men", whatever that entailed.
"By the way, Ken, what did you say to Laura about the swordfish?" Steve asked the lawyer.
"I just reminded her that she was used to longer things than its bill."
Then Billy told the latest version of the joke with the punch line "Your mother's been spoiled" and the other men groaned, then laughed.
"Now that the subject's come up, guys," Danny said, "the other day, when we were in the bathroom, Paddy made some comment about size. I said it would get bigger when he got bigger and that satisfied him, for the time being. But I'm wondering, at what age do we start being less open with him? I mean, neither CJ nor I are walking around the house nude, but he does like being in the shower, so I take him in there with me at times. And sometimes, one or the other of us will bring him into the bedroom while the other is still dressing."
"It depends," Frank said. "Kids vary, but they'll let you know when their sense of privacy kicks in. Steve started wanting to be by himself in the bath when he was about three, but Mike still doesn't have a problem with Diana being in there with him."
"Although I wouldn't overdo it, it's good for him to see that men urinate standing up. When he's ready for toilet-training and masters that art, it will be easier to make the switch," Ken added.
"Speaking of which, CJ's getting conflicted about when to start that. Noah Lyman is already well into it and he's two months younger than Paddy. Of course, Noah was born with kidney control that most of us would envy."
"Hey, Manny's a year older than Paddy and he's just starting to understand the concept. It was the same for Ary," Wally reassured Danny. "Aviva's mom was concerned, but we told her to butt out, though not in those words. We also told her that the boys didn't have wee-wees, they had penises," the man chuckled. "It did manage to keep her out of my hair for a good month."
"I'll have to keep all this in mind," Billy Rogers laughed, "so you guys don't have to do a repeat lecture next year when Will is Paddy's age."
"It'd be no problem if we did. Another thing you want to start early, as soon as he's old enough to be out of the crib and able to manage a door knob, is to instill in him the idea that he just can't walk into your bedroom without permission," Joel Feldman told Danny and Billy.
"What about little girls?" Hank was thinking to the years ahead.
"Yeah, what about them?" After two sons, the Hammash's were expecting a daughter, and Wally was both excited and nervous.
"Well, toilet-training shouldn't be a problem, and if it is, I'm sure that the ladies will be fighting each other over the right to help you and Steve," Frank told the studio fashion designer. "As far as nudity, I was, still am, of course, much more careful around Carmen than with the boys." Joel and Ken nodded in agreement. "But I didn't make a big deal about it. When Carmen was seven, Diana was off visiting with her sister and Carmen developed a severe case of vaginal rash and itching. I had no problem dealing with the cream that the doctor prescribed and neither did my daughter have any problem with my help. However, were the same set of circumstances to arise now, I'd probably call upon one of your wives for help if Carmen needed it."
"The thing you have to remember with daughters is that they will take their cues about how men should treat them by the way you treat the women in your life," Joel opined. "Make sure that you treat those women they way you would want a man to treat your little girl."
"Actually, it's the same for your sons," Ken added. "If you treat your wife with respect, then they will do the same when they start dating, start looking for a wife."
About the same time; Santa Monica, CA
"Well, do you think the guys are talking football, basketball, or hockey?" Sally Rogers dropped off the groceries (peanut butter, a bag of salad greens, and a cut-up chicken) that CJ had asked for when Sally called to ask if CJ needed anything from Ralph's.
About 4:00 PM; Santa Monica, CA
CJ had just finished counting to ten for the fifth time that day. For some reason, Paddy, who had absolutely no problem being with little Maggie, was totally intolerant of this other little being that sometimes demanded his mother's attention. Pamela still slept a lot, but she did need to be fed about every three hours and changed about as often. And there were times when she was neither hungry, wet, nor sleepy and CJ tried to tend to the baby and the toddler at the same time.
CJ asked Paddy to hold open the book while she was reading so she could have one arm around him while she held Pamela. For ten minutes, Paddy was excited about turning the pages, but quickly became at first indifferent and then rebellious when he realized that Mama was talking to someone else as well as to him. And while Paddy would count anything, from the legs on the bug he just "squished" to the "spots on Mama's face", he had no interest in verifying that Pamela had the same number of fingers and toes as did Paddy.
The phone rang. Recognizing the Muñoz' land line, she picked up and answered with a casual "What's happening?"
"CJ, could Paddy come up and play with Maggie? She's feeling a little out ofit. Jesse and the boys are playing football. And, of course, Carmen is off with Cindy and Heather. (Jessica was treating the girls to an afternoon at the spa, followed by dinner and then a movie.) I'll put Maggie and Paddy in the kiddie pool, feed them supper. I'll keep him until the guys get back."
"Are you sure? I mean, I'd love the chance to rest a bit. I think I'm getting an idea of what it will be like if, I mean when, Danny and I have number two."
"I'm sure. It sounds like this is a win-win proposition. Look, I'll send Steve down to fetch him right now. The guys are taking a break."
After Paddy left for Frank and Diana's, holding onto Steve's hand, CJ fed and changed Pamela. The little girl then fell asleep, so CJ put the baby in Paddy's crib, checked on the baby monitor, and then lay down on the bed with one of the paperbacks that Carol had left with her when she, David, and Clarissa were out to visit in early October.
7:00 PM; Santa Monica, CA
She woke to the sounds of crying coming over the baby monitor and was confused at first. They were not Paddy's cries. Then she remembered.
After changing and feeding Pamela, she called Diana to check in on her son. Diana told her that Maggie and Paddy were building something with the blocks. He had enjoyed his afternoon in the kiddie pool and ate all his mashed up hamburger, all his French fries, and most of his carrot sticks. Jesse had made a quick trip up to Malibu and back to get Nancy. As soon as Frank and the others returned, Jesse and Nancy were going to a movie and a late supper.
Checking in on the sleeping little girl, CJ once again admired the cute little outfit into which she had changed Pamela. Hank and Steve certainly doted on their little girl. She was afraid to voice it, but she thought that Danny would be especially pleased if their second child were a daughter. Of course, any child would be welcomed, and, thinking about the twins, the only important thing would be the baby's health. Reflecting again, she wondered about the possibility of another multiple birth. If it were to happen, they could afford it, assuming it was twins or triplets, not septuplets. She bent down and kissed the little head, then opened the door to the hallway that led to the other bedrooms, one of which was her home office. She hadn't been online for five days, having scheduled a week's break "just because".
There were emails piled up, several from friends to whom she owed long "letters". She decided to handle the personal stuff before the things for "Road to a Better World".
She was filtering through the last of her emails, and was about to start reading a report from the Hollis Foundation that evaluated the effectiveness of three different forms of macadam surfacing, when the phone rang. Again, it was Diana.
"CJ, have you heard anything? From the guys, I mean."
CJ looked at her watch. It was 10:00 PM. The men had said they would be back by 8:00.
"No, I haven't. Did you call the boat dock?"
"I tried. There was no answer. Laura, Aviva, and Hannah are going to drive down to the pier, to see if there's an emergency number on the door."
Fifteen minutes later, Diana reported that when the other women reached the dock and called the emergency number, the owner's wife said he was at the Lakers' game and didn't have his cell phone with him. She had called the police station, which had connected her with the harbor police. The response from the latter office was, to be charitable, mild disinterest with a veneer of politeness.
CJ would never pull strings for her own personal comfort or need, but this was Danny, the father of her child, and the fathers of the other children on the block. CJ pulled out her phone book and looked up Carol and David's number. Josh and Donna were in Connecticut, attending services and sitting shiva for Josh's mother. Margaret was home, but she had given birth to Hooper John ("we're calling him 'Hoop' for short") Hoynes on Halloween and she didn't want to disturb the new family. Sam would be a logical choice, but he and Morgan were in Connecticut with the Lyman's.
"Palmer residence."
It was not the voice she expected to hear, but she felt a little better for hearing it.
"Paul?"
"CJ?"
"Carol and David?"
"Are at the wedding of one of David's coworkers. The babysitter fell through and when they called me for a recommendation, I volunteered."
"Oh."
He could hear the disappointment, and, more importantly, the panic in her voice.
"CJ, what's wrong? What do you need?"
She couldn't stop the tears as she explained that the boat was way overdue and that they were getting nowhere with the local authorities. She was hoping that maybe Carol could call someone at the Coast Guard. Now, she didn't know what to do.
"CJ, sweetheart, please try not to panic. I'll take care of it. Just say a couple of those prayers to your St. Christopher."
She couldn't imagine what Paul, of all people, could do, but long buried memories from over thirty years ago kicked in, and she obeyed his directives.
In the meantime, Paul pulled out his cell, looked up a number and keyed in the digits.
"John? Paul Reeves, Listen."
Ten minutes later, CJ's phone rang and she hurried to answer it.
"CJ?"
It was John Hoynes.
"John, I didn't want to bother Margaret."
"You didn't and Paul didn't. I answered the phone. Listen, let me ask you some questions." He tried to ask the questions in a manner that would keep her from panic. Then he hung up and weighed his choices. The first one, the one CJ eventually would have thought of, was Jed Bartlett. However, John realized, the former president would, in all likelihood, make a call to his second choice. Therefore, he might as well be efficient. He called the White House, identified himself, and asked to speak with the President.
Twenty minutes later, the Coast Guard called. They had paged the boat rental owner at the game. Yes, the boat did have a GPS locator, so they were picking up the man and taking him to the pier to get the necessary data.
In the meantime, Diana and Laura came over to the house, followed by Sally with her baby. Laura told CJ that Aviva and Hannah were taking their kids over to the Muñoz house where Jesse and Nancy were trying to keep the children from sensing the growing concern; then they would be coming to join the others.
Soon after the other women had arrived, the Coast Guard called again for CJ. It seemed that the attendant in the charter company's office skipped out from work early, about 5:00PM, because a friend of his had tickets to a concert that night. According to the records, the last report they had on the charter was from 4:30PM. The GPS on the boat was no longer transmitting and they couldn't raise anyone on the radio. The irate charter company owner ("That kid will never work anywhere on the water again, if I have anything to say about it!") and the Coast Guard were assuming mechanical failure; the Coast Guard was going to fly out to the last known location of the boat and start the search from there.
"Thank you very much, Captain, please keep us informed," CJ told the man.
"Of course , ma'am."
Yes indeed, of course, ma'am. The phone call about this particular lost at sea case came from the very top command levels. Apparently, it had been initiated by President Santos himself. The captain did not want to be in the shoes of the harbor patrol official who had earlier responded to the calls for help on this situation with indifference, saying that the men were probably sleeping off the effects of too much sun and too much alcohol and that he was going to wait until morning; if they were still missing, then he would react.
There was a knock at the door. When Jessica had dropped off Carmen at the Muñoz house, Jesse had quietly explained the situation to her. Telling Cindy to stay with Jesse and Nancy, Jessica took Heather over to Jimmy and told the young doctor what was happening.
Jesse called. The kids were nervous, wanted their mothers. CJ told him to bring the lot over to the house. "Grab some pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags."
The women did some quick figuring. Jill Robbins and Becky Feldman were at a high school dance that would be letting out in about 30 minutes. Laura and Hannah called the parents of the young men who were escorting the girls, asked them to contact their sons and to have the girls delivered to the Concannon house. The Feldman twins, sixth-graders Aaron and Audra, were with Hannah's parents in Phoenix, but four-year old Ricky would be arriving with Jesse, along with Aviva and Wally's sons, seven year-old Ary and three year-old Manny. That meant, when the girls came back from the dance, 13 kids, ranging in age from the high school senior girls to little Pamela. Four girls, five boys, and four babies/toddlers.
"We'll put the girls in the living room, the boys in the den, and the little ones in the nursery and my office," CJ said.
The doorbell rang and she opened it, expecting to see Jesse and his troop.
It was Jimmy and Heather. "We felt we should be here."
Okay, one more girl in the living room. Hopefully, they would treat it as a slumber party and not fret too much.
A few minutes later, Jesse and Nancy did arrive with the kids and it took about 15 minutes to get everyone settled. The mothers stayed with the kids who were old enough to understand until they fell asleep. In the meantime, Becky and Jill arrived back from the dance. Although they were frightened, they went to the living room, changed into the T-shirts and shorts that CJ handed them, and lay down with Carmen, Cindy, and Heather.
Laura wondered about calling Drew, up at Berkeley. Jimmy advised against it. "He'd just want to get in his car and start driving down right away. Let's wait until morning. If needed," the young doctor winced, "we'll arrange to fly him down."
CJ went in to check on the babies. In her office, Paddy and Maggie were holding each other in their sleep, snuggled down on the love seat. In the nursery, Will, the Rogers' son, was making fitful noises, so CJ picked up the child and rocked him until he quieted. Pamela slept the sleep of an innocent four-month old baby, blissfully unaware that both her parents were long overdue.
As she walked back toward the family room, she would hear the women talking.
"What about Pamela? Did Hank and Steve make arrangements if -?" Aviva couldn't finish the statement.
"I'm sure Ken thought of everything," Laura said. "He was always extremely thorough."
"Not was, is!" CJ came storming into the room. She sat down next to Laura and grabbed her shoulders, her hands a pale gold against the warm mahogany of Laura's arms. "Our men are going to be fine!"
CJ thought back to the day when Hank and Steve asked her and Danny to be Pamela's guardian "if something happens to both of us" as well as being her godparents when the little baby was baptized in the local Episcopalian church. If the unthinkable did happen, she would have a second baby – just not Danny's baby. Then she mentally slapped herself; she was doing what she had just criticized Laura for doing.
Laura sagged against her friend, then smiled weakly. "This morning, I didn't even bother to get out of bed when he left. I didn't even kiss him back when he said good-bye."
"I'm a military wife," Diana said. "It's always in the back of my mind, so I always make sure, whenever Frank leaves, that he knows what he means to me. I mean you never know – Oh! Jessica, I'm so sorry!"
The war widow smiled and said she understood.
The other women sat in silence, each remembering her last moments (or lack thereof) with her husband this morning
CJ remembered their lovemaking, last night and in the wee hours of the morning as well as the time right before Danny left. They didn't have time to kiss before he left the house, didn't say the words, but both of them knew they were loved.
Aviva said to herself that she would put up with the smell of cooking fish every day for the rest of her life if only - .
Hannah wondered if there could have been some way she could have insisted on the camping trip instead of the fishing excursion.
Sally was glad there were still dirty clothes in the hamper; if the unthinkable did happen, there were still things she could hold, still things she could smell.
Laura started crying again, loud sobs that threatened to wake the children. Jimmy went back to his house, came back with his bag, and gave her a light sedative. CJ and Diana helped Laura to CJ and Danny's bedroom.
Cindy made some tea and toast. The women picked at the food.
John Hoynes called again at 12:30 ("John, it's the middle of the night, your time!" "Let me worry about that, CJ!") A few minutes later, Carol called, having just arrived home and having heard the news from Paul. She would check in with John. She agreed with CJ that they should not disturb Josh and Donna unless it was "necessary".
Paul took the phone from Carol. He was returning to his townhouse, but CJ was to call him when the men were found. In fact, she was to call him anytime she needed him. Unless he was in the middle of services, he was at her beck and call.
At 1:30, the Coast Guard called again. The boat had been found, all power lost but all hands on board, healthy, trying not to show their concern, but grateful for the effort by the service. They were being taken by helicopter to the pier and would be home as soon as possible.
Tired, dirty, smelly, and sunburned, the men stumbled into the Concannon house and the arms of their wives (Cindy did double duty, hugging both Hank and Steve). CJ and Danny suggested that they leave the older children sleeping where they were. Jesse and Nancy said they would stay, one in each room. If any of the kids woke up before daylight, the two of them would let the kids know that their fathers were home and were okay. So Hank and Steve departed with Pamela, Frank, and Diana with Maggie, and Billy and Sally with little Will.
Ken Robbins gently lifted his wife from the Concannons' bed. No, he didn't need any help getting her across the street. Well, yes, if Jimmy wanted to take his key and open the door for him, it would be appreciated.
CJ called Paul, as he had requested, and asked him to thank John for her, to ask John to relay her thanks to the President.
CJ carried Paddy to his crib, then sat in the bathroom while Danny took a shower. She had told him he was dead tired and should just get into bed, that she didn't mind the smell and the dirt. But he replied that he wanted lukewarm water on his sunburn. Afterward, she spread Noxzema on his reddened areas.
She told him of the call she had made, of the effort expended by their friends in Washington. She told him some of the details of her day with Paddy as jealous older child.
She didn't tell Danny of the thoughts and fears expressed by the women as they waited for word, but she did tell him that although, if worst had come to worst, she would have raised Hank and Steve's daughter with all the love in the world, it would not have been the same as having another child with him.
He told her that the power on the boat went out about 5:30 and the radio at the same time. The captain told them that the office manager would be expecting to hear from them in 15 minutes or so, to hear that they were on their way back to the dock. Standard procedure would be for the manager to try to contact the boat, then contact the harbor patrol and the Coast Guard. They shouldn't worry. They had plenty of drinking water, although the refrigerators were no longer keeping it cold. The fish they had caught – three tuna, one swordfish (by Billy, so Laura didn't have any issues to face), one bonito, and one mackerel – would probably spoil, but the company would make good on the cans and the coupons.
Before they left the pier, the captain had earlier told them that their cell phones would be of no use, would only get lost, and that they should leave them in the car. Ditto with their wallets. They were given waterproofed wrist bands with their names, an identification number that corresponded to an entry in the charter company computer that would contain other information, and any urgent medical data they felt should be immediately known.
Frank said that while they shouldn't worry, neither should they assume that everything on shore would happen as it should. They should be frugal with the water and food, and they should eat the perishable food before eating the crackers and chips.
He told her that as the evening lengthened into night, Frank told them to not use the flashlights, in case they needed to signal any search planes or helicopters. In fact, in a few hours, they should start arranging sleep shifts, to make sure that several of them would be awake to listen for any approaching craft. The Air Force officer reviewed the signals to indicate distress.
Then the men became somewhat introspective, reflecting on their families. He didn't tell her that he had reassured Hank and Steve and, "if it happens", Claudia Cregg Concannon would take very good care of Pamela. And he certainly didn't tell her that when the men began wondering if their wives would remarry, he had told them, under deepest oath of secrecy, of the request he had made of Paul Reeves some eighteen months ago.
But he did tell her that he had told the other men that he was in awe of the way she had changed, had adapted over the past five years. He told them that he had told her he expected to be "Mr. CJ Cregg" and that he would be happy in that role. He told them that he watched as CJ Cregg had morphed into Claudia Cregg Concannon. She was still doing great things, important things, but she was no longer sacrificing her personal happiness on the altar of great and important things. She was giving her husband, her son, her family, her friends, and, most important, herself, the same priority as she was giving "Road to a Better World". And as far as he was concerned, she was doing just as good a job with the latter as she did with her White House duties. "So, now, I call myself 'Mr. Claudia Concannon', and I hope I'll be doing that for many years to come," he told the other men.
He did tell her how relieved he was when they heard the helicopters and knew that resuce was at hand. It might not be until the noon service, but church was definitely on their "to-do" list for later in the day.
They heard a whimper from across the courtyard, followed by the soothing male voice of Jesse Muñoz.
CJ could tell that Danny was tired, but too keyed up to sleep, too full of post-traumatic adrenaline. Knowing the best way to relieve that tension, she slid down to the foot of the bed, using her hands to rouse him before lowering her mouth to his groin.
"CJ, you don't have to -"
"But I want to, it will help you calm down, help you relax."
So in warmth and safety of his bed, Danny Concannon lightly stroked the hair of the woman he loved, the woman to whom he had returned from peril on the sea, and thanked God for her, for his son, and for his life.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"The Joke"
A family had just moved into a new subdivision that backed up to a working horse farm. The wife was taking a walk along the fence line with their four year old son when the two of them came across a stallion in heat about to mount a mare. When asked about the horse's erection, she didn't know what to say, and quickly dismissed her son's question, changing the subject.
Later in the week, the husband was taking the child on the same walk and the two of them saw the same scene. When asked, the father explained, in simple terms, the process of procreation.
"Daddy, how come, when I asked Mommy, she said it was nothing?"
"Well, son, to your mother it is nothing; she's been spoiled."