30

"Well, it's a different start," Victor said as he leaned back in his chair, "how about a clue as to why I should blame him?"

"It goes back a couple of years, just before Christmas two thousand and one, I was an ET Three, being brought up on charges of UA and resisting apprehension. Captain Rabb, Commander as he was then, was appointed to me as my defence counsel." Jen gave a sort of bitter-sweet smile, "Lieutenant Singer, do you remember her?"

"Oh yeah I remember her. She is not an easy person to forget," Victor said grimly.

Jen nodded, "She did seem to go out of her way to make people dislike her. But, that's not the point for the moment; she was the prosecutor in my case. Anyway my case came up at Christmas, and when the Captain found out I was given a choice to serve in the Navy or serve six months in the Washington County jail, he argued that my enlistment was false and that I should be released from the Navy. Lieutenant Singer, of course argued that there had been a constructive enlistment, but nothing could be settled until the transcripts of my civilian trial received at JAG.

"The Captain was supposed consign me to the secure barracks at Anacostia, but they were closed for the Christmas break. My dad, dearest daddy, was his normal lovable and loving self…" Jen's voice became markedly bitter and her self-deprecating grin completely disappeared she mentioned her father. "The logical thing, the correct thing, for the Captain to have done would have been to hand me over to the MPs and leave me in the brig over the break. But he didn't. After running around northern Virginia and Maryland all afternoon and evening, somehow or other he persuaded Colonel Mackenzie to let me sleep on her couch. And then when something else went wrong, instead of leaving it to the MPs to bring me back when I ran away, he came after me himself. I'd already asked Colonel Mackenzie why he bothered so much with me, and she said that was because he cared and I guess when he came after me that proved it. He gave me a sort of mini lecture too, and made me see that I could be so much more, so I ended up pleading guilty, doing my thirty days in the brig, then when I served my time, I applied for Legalman school, probably the best decision I ever made. In fact," Jen said thoughtfully, "up to that time it was probably the only good decision I'd ever made. So I changed rates, was assigned to the Seahawk, where I was Lieutenant Roberts' Legalman until he was injured, and I continued in that slot until the Seahawk returned to Norfolk at the end of the cruise.

"And don't ever tell me that the gods haven't got a twisted sense of humour, because after Lieutenant Roberts was sent home, his replacement was Lieutenant Singer. No, Victor, don't pull a face like that, she seemed much happier while she was on board ship. Maybe because it was only the two of us together, and I wasn't any threat to her ambitions, but whatever the reason, we got on okay. Right, she was never going to be Miss Congeniality, but she was a nicer person on the Seahawk than her reputation said she might have been."

Victor was puzzled, and the expression on his face said as much as he shook his head, "This has got to sound wrong, but from what you just said, you liked Lieutenant Singer better nor you did your dad?"

"Ha! Dearest daddy!" Jen said bitterly, "Damn straight I liked the lieutenant better than him." She looked at Victor, "You're not going to let this one alone are you?"

Victor took a sip from his coffee and looked gravely at Jen before he answered, "I don't reckon I am."

"I can sum up my dad with one example. When the Commander took me all the way up to Hagerstown, to see if dad would accept responsibility for me over the Christmas break, he opened the door he looked us up and down - we were both in service dress blue – and bear in mind he hadn't seen me since before I enlisted, never even came up to Boot Camp to see me graduate, the first words out of his mouth were to Captain Rabb, 'What did Jennifer do now?' Not a single word of welcome to his only child."

Victor thought of his own large family. Sure, there had been squabbles growing up, and he was the only boy among five children, but it would never have crossed any of his family's mind for the first words after separation from a family member to be ones of accusation. Again he shook his head, "You don't mention your mom...?"

Jen shook her head, and swallowed to clear the sudden lump in her throat, "Okay, daddy was a Minister of the church. He loved his God, he loved his church, and he loved his congregation. Seems all that loving didn't leave none left over for mom or me. At times, it seemed that instead of loving us he hated us. Man, he used to get so mad at us. I don't think he ever hit mom, but I can't be sure of it, he sure was angry enough to, seems he was that way most the time. Then mom got sick, the doctors said it was cancer, but I always reckoned it was heartbreak from being neglected and ignored. I was twelve when she died. And all the anger and the neglect, well, it all came to me. But most the time he just ignored me. Oh, he did his 'Christian Duty', I had clothes on my back, there was food on the table – if I prepared and cooked it. Then when I got to about fourteen I started filling out, and boys started noticing me. Well I didn't get no appreciation at home, I guess I was starved of affection, so when the boys started noticing me, I started into noticing them right back. Of course, that made me a scarlet woman, worse than the whore of Babylon. So, I left, and there wasn't much of anything that I didn't try, drinking, under-age sex, hanging around with bikers, about the only things I didn't do were drugs and tobacco. I was getting a real rep, and dear daddy used to preach about me on Sunday's. Did you ever hear the parable about the farmers who carelessly scattered their seed? Well I was the seed that fell on stony ground. Daddy never seem to see the irony in that parable, in that he was the farmer. Every so often, I'd get rounded up by the police and brought home in a patrol car, right in front of the neighbours, and that was a shame on daddy he said and again he'd preach about me next Sunday how I was a disgrace and a failure, but at least he was noticing me, and I'd stick around for a few days until he stopped noticing me, then I was off again.

"Somehow, I finished high school, but then I got picked up for kiting a couple of checks and a bit of shoplifting. The judge gave me the choice. I chose the Navy. And the rest you know."

Victor pursed his lips, his admittedly short experience as a sheriff's deputy in New Mexico had brought him into contact with kids who were running a bit wild. Some of them, like Jen, got a wake-up call and turned their lives around, others went to the bad. So he knew, probably better than Jen, how close she had come to slipping all the way into the life of a professional criminal. But the important thing was, in his eyes, that she hadn't.

"So, you credit Commander Rabb, sorry, Captain Rabb, with saving your six?"

Jen nodded, "Without him I'd have been out of the Navy, gone back to Hagerstown and gotten back with my old gang…" She gave a snort of self disgust, "The last time I checked more than half of them were dead or serving long jail terms. And there, to paraphrase an old saying, but for the faith that the then Commander Rabb had in me go I."

"Jen, you'll probably think that this is none of my never-mind, but when you talk about the Captain, your face kinda goes soft, you smile a bit, and your voice takes on this… extra quality. And I need to ask, how exactly do you feel about Captain Rabb.?"

Jen stared at Victor for a long moment, "I love him," she said simply, "but I am not in love with him. He is the only man I ever met, from the age I was fourteen, who did something for me without expecting anything in return. And it didn't stop there, when I needed to find somewhere to live, he needed someone to help him look after his ward, to be there for her when we was away. He didn't hesitate, he asked me for help, and I moved in with his ward, into the apartment next door to the commanders, and again, he didn't ask and he didn't expect anything from me, except that I be a role model for his ward. You can't imagine how it felt to be trusted to that extent, how it felt to someone to have that much faith in me, that I would come good, and I wouldn't screw the pooch, especially after my testimony at his court martial came damn near to convicting him. Captain Rabb isn't quite a father figure, and he is not really a big brother, but we spent ten months living next door to each other, and I guess as much as an officer and enlisted can be, we are friends. And I'm possibly a little closer than that to Mattie."

Victor looked at her in wonder and once again shook his head, "Okay."

"Okay?" Jen queried, "Is that it? No comments? No questions?"

"No, I asked a question; you answered it, what more needs to be said?"

It was Jen's turn to look at Victor in wonder for a long moment, before she smiled gently and said, "Thank you."

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Johnny paused, red-faced with effort at the top of the long slope and waited for Julia to catch up, not that he had to wait very long, no more than a minute, he reckoned, and truth to tell he was grateful for the chance to wait and cool off a bit. It was warm, very warm down in the valley, and it had taken a fair effort to ride the bike up here, but now he was here, he could feel the slight breeze cooling his face and had a shrewd suspicion that Julia would welcome a rest too,

"Let's just sit here for ten," he suggested as she drew to a halt alongside him, "I could do with bit of breather. Reckon I pushed a little too hard on that hill!" he confessed with a grin .

Julia, equally red-faced and damply glowing. gave him a hard look, 'This had not better be for my benefit, I can keep going just as long as he does! Mind, he does look that hot and bothered.'

"Okay, it's certainly cooler up here than in the valley." Julia's eyes crinkled in amusement, as a vagrant thought struck her, "We are still in England, right?"

Johnny looked at her guardedly, "Uh... yeah, why?"

"Well, look at the sky, not even one cloud in sight."

Johnny grinned slightly, "And your point is? I mean, you're not complaining, surely?"

"No, not complaining, well not really, but this is England, in the summer isn't it supposed to rain?"

Johnny shook his head, "No, it's not supposed to rain but it usually does, so people – naming no names – have come away with a totally wrong idea."

Julia laughed and fluffed out her hair let the breeze cool the back of her head, "I guess we have a lot of ideas about England, about Britain, and the British. But… uh... I'm one of the lucky ones, I found me a teacher to knock all those wrong ideas out of my head."

"Oh, yeah?" Johnny grinned, "and who might he be, then?"

"Just some guy I met hanging around an army base… But he turned out to be pretty sweet in the end…"

"Just goes to show he is smarter than you." Johnny said as he brought one of the bike pedals round ready for his foot.

"And just how do you figure that?"

"'Cause he had you pegged as totally sweet for the first day he clapped eyes on you."

"He did?" Was all Julia could manage as Johnny's words and the smile that accompanied them turned her insides to liquid and her knees to Jello.

"Yep, he did." Johnny looked at Julia for a few seconds and figured he had hit her with enough for the moment, and his face relaxed into a grin. He made a show out of digging the trail map out of his pocket and leaning on the handlebars while he traced the route with his finger for Julia's benefit." The next section of the trail, about three miles, is pretty much level along this ridge-line, and here…" his finger circled an area about halfway along the section he'd indicated, "the guy at the hire centre reckons we stand a good chance of seeing some of those ponies I was telling you about."

Julia had regained her breath and enough of her composure to nod appreciatively, smile, and say, "Well, if you've got your breath back, why are we waiting?"

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Harm checked his watch, twelve forty hours; he was enjoying this ride, down a succession of two-lane, turning and twisting roads, passing through idyllic-looking villages, this was what England was supposed to be about, at least in the popular American imagination, although he did feel slightly uneasy at the tall hedges, trees almost, that bordered the roads for a good part of their length.

Gill had evidently recovered, at least somewhat, from the impact of all the crap he had dumped on her; as she'd indicated to leave the M40, she had taken a quick glance across at Harm and with a smile that was pure mischief had said, "Y'know, if we carried on up to the next junction and turned North instead of South, we could be at Mummy and Daddy's in less than hour..."

Harm wasn't about to bite this time, and in fact for most of the morning he had been contemplating making a visit to Gill's parents. Gill's granny had definitely reminded him of his own grandmother, and the Reverend Shephard reminded him of his stepfather, Frank. It was probably too much to hope for that Gill's mother would turn out to be another Trish, but he hadn't had much of a chance to speak with her and form an opinion. So he turned his head, and with a lazy smile said, "I don't think so, but what I was going to suggest was that you call them sometime this week, and we can go down to visit the them the weekend after next. Remember, I'm flying back to the States on Thursday for the appeal, and won't be back until Wednesday at the earliest."

Gill turned a surprised face to him, "if it's just the one day hearing, why such a long stay?"

"The following Monday is labour day, and that's a federal holiday. I'm cautiously optimistic about the appeal, and if we win, then I have to start making arrangements to get Mattie over here, and I won't be able to do that on the Monday. I doubt I'll be able to get on the same flight as myself to come back, so I'll need to get back, and then for her to follow on, but because she's in a wheelchair, there's extra preparations to be made."

"You're doing it again," Gill smiled having risked another quick glance across the width of the car, "you're lighting up, and it's wonderful to see! If just talking about your Mattie does that for you, I can't wait to see the effect she has when she gets here!"

"Well, I just hope the two of you hit it off, Mattie's got red hair, a mass of it, almost totally untameable, and a temper to match, and she doesn't forgive very easily. Even after we found out that her dad hadn't been driving the night her mom was killed, it still took a couple of months before she was ready to talk to him."

"And she's got to be your priority, Harm; so if she and I don't hit it off?"

"My opinion on that hasn't changed. We're both adult, we're both free of other entanglements, we're not in the same chain of command, and… and… and you're very… important to me. Yes, you are right, Mattie is important too, but she's a teenager, and while I will do my utmost for her, she does not get a say in my personal life. She doesn't get to decide who I will and will not date. She doesn't get to decide with whom I have a relationship. So if you and she don't get on, then she and I will just have to butt heads for a while until she finally accepts that the status is going to remain approximately quo."

Gill fell silent for a few moments, "Okay, that sounds if you're putting your foot down with a firm hand, but what happens the weekend after next if she's with us?"

"Well, then," Harm grinned, "I have a rather strong feeling that I'm going to be calling you, and asking your mom if she's willing to accept another guest."

"Oh, there's no doubt of that, but from your point of view, with Mattie, would it be wise?"

"Do you have any doubt that your mom and your granny couldn't tame Mattie within minutes?"

"Mummy, well, maybe. Granny? No doubts whatsoever!"

Both broke into laughter at the thought of Mattie in a head-to-head with Granny Shephard.

Ever since checking his watch Harm had been on the lookout, and at last he saw what he wanted, "Pull in up ahead, it's lunchtime."

Almost instinctively Gill complied with the unconsciously uttered tone of command in Harm's voice, but as she braked to a gentle halt in the car park of The Old Crown on the corner of Faringdon High Street. But then asked, "Are you sure about this, because after that breakfast I could quite easily go without lunch."

"Not a good idea," Harm grinned as he unbuckled his seat belt, "I thought even a soldier should know you always eat when you have the opportunity."

Gill shook her head, "on exercise, or ops, absolutely. And what's more you sleep any chance you get as well. But as we're just tooling along country roads, the chances of us not getting back for dinner are pretty damn remote, wouldn't you say?"

"You do have a point, but my Yeoman, Martinez, has been enthusing about Ploughman's lunches, ever since your Bombardier treated her to one. And as that there sign says, 'traditional pub grub'…"

Gill gave him a resigned grin, and reached for her own seat belt buckle, "He's not my Bombardier any more! But okay, okay you've convinced me, a ploughman's and a half of shandy would be pretty good right now. But I am definitely going to have to hit the gym on Monday – with a vengeance!"

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

"Seems that some things are the same on both sides of the ocean," Victor observed with an ironic grin as he surveyed the row of checkout. Of the twelve in the store, only five were operating, and the line for each of them was becoming longer by the minute.

"You didn't have to come with me, I know just how much men hate grocery shopping." Jen said with an answering grin.

"Hey, I wasn't exactly unenthusiastic when it came to loading the cart," Victor defended himself, "I was just remarking that the lines here just about the same as they are back home."

Jen looked at him thoughtfully, "Okay… I'll admit, you were pretty useful in finding things and throwing them into the cart, but you can't tell me that you didn't have an ulterior motive."

"And what would that be?" Victor asked innocently.

"Well, I get the feeling that you wouldn't have been half so helpful, if you weren't angling for an invitation to dinner this evening."

"And your evidence for that supposition would be?"

"Um… Let's see now, there was the matching pair of rib-eye steaks, two large potatoes, ideal for baking, that family-sized bag of shredded salad leaves… Oh, and let's not forget the two bottles of Californian Zinfandel…"

"So… I guess I'm busted?" Victor asked mournfully.

"Oh, you are so busted!" Jen smiled back.

"But, do you mind?, If you've got any doubts, or you're not sure, just say so, and I will understand."

"No…" I don't mind, Jen said slowly, "as long as you know, right from the get go that it is dinner, and only dinner."

"I hadn't expected anything else," Victor said, fixing Jen with an earnest look from his dark eyes.

Jen smiled again, this time with a touch of relief, "Good, now that's out of the way, we're not going argue about who is paying for what are we?"

"I shouldn't think so," Victor said as he placed the steaks, potatoes, salad and wine on the belt, and then slapped a 'Next Customer' sign down behind them before Jen could start unloading the rest of the cart.

"Victor!" she objected.

"I thought we weren't going to argue about this," he replied blandly.

"But you paid for lunch too," Jen argued.

"And as you don't have outdoor cooking facilities, it's you will be cooking this evening, so I buy, you cook, we both eat, and then we can share the KP duties!"

Jen gave him a fulminating glance, "Do you know what your trouble is?" she demanded.

"And what would that be?" Victor asked innocently, as he winked at the checkout operator, and held out his credit card.

"You've been spending far too much time hanging out with lawyers!" Jen said emphatically through her grin.

"And you haven't?" he retorted with a lift of an eyebrow.

Jen adopted a superior expression, and lifted her chin defiantly, "I will confess to having spent some time in the company of attorneys, but through the exercise of willpower, I have refrained from letting them corrupt me." she said loftily, and then spoiled the effect by giggling.

Victor looked at her consideringly, "I can see that not only will getting to know you be an education, but also it looks like I'm going to have my hands full!"

Jen pays the cashier before she allowed her full-blown smile to break out, revealing her usually hidden deep dimple in her right cheek, "Hands full? You should be so lucky!"

"I have had a couple of wins on the state lottery," Victor warned her.

Jen raised an eyebrow, but with her smile still in place, murmured, "Interesting."

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

"There she is, Mister Rabb, with a half tank of diesel, and six months road tax. We've sent the log book off to DVLA, and you should get it back within a couple of weeks. She's not due her first MOT until the first of September next year. The satnav has been fitted and set up for you as per your instructions, and the keys are in the ignition. Happy motoring!"

With a final smile the salesman stepped back, leaving Harm and Gill to admire his latest purchase. She wasn't new, but it just under two years old she looked it, and came with a three-year warranty, good at any Subaru franchise in the UK.

The distinctive Subaru blue paintwork had been polished to a deep gloss shine, as had the metal fittings, and windscreens front and rear, as well as the side windows had all been carefully cleaned, and although he knew it was absurd, and the Subaru had none of the eye-catching power of his beloved 'vette, Harm still felt a glow of pride in ownership.

Gill had seen that same smile on her brother's face each time he had acquired new vehicle, and smiled indulgently. "What's your plan for heading back to Northolt?"

Harm looked blank for a second, and then slightly embarrassed, "Uh… I… um… wasn't really paying that much attention to the route on the way here, so I figure, I can either follow you, or go where the satnav takes me, and then you can follow me…"

Gill nodded, "if you follow the satnav, I reckon it'll take you down to the M4, then the M25 and then the A 40, and given it's your first driving a new car probably better than trying to push it around the narrow roads around here. Just don't get carried away with your new toy and remember that if there are no speed limit signs, that the speed limit on dual carriageway is is seventy miles per hour, and if you're on a road that has no central reservation…" Gill thought furiously for a second or two as she tried to remember the American term, "that is, Meridian strip, then the speed limit is fifty!"

Harm grinned, "Aye aye, ma'am! I'll surely try to remember!"

Gill shook her head, "Just make sure you do!" she said severely as she turned back to her own car, and then muttered something under her breath, and paused to glare at Harm before she slid behind the wheel.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Johnny held on to both bikes as Julia knelt on one knee, elbows braced against her rib cage as she adjusted focal length and focus on her camera's zoom lens. Satisfied at last focus, focal length and exposure she set about taking photographs of the twenty or so New Forest ponies, who obviously used to human presence seemed to raise no objection to Julia's approach to within about forty feet of them, and continued grazing on the tough local grass.

Julia has taken about twenty shots, when a yell of, "Mum! Look, horses!" alarmed the herd stallion and with a whistling whinny he sounded his alarm call and racing in a semicircle between his mares and the incomers he pointed them away from the possible danger.

Johnny wasn't quite sure, but he thought he heard a muffled obscenity coming from Julia, as she held the shutter release button down and blasted off multiple exposures as the feral ponies disappeared from view.

In the meantime Johnny turned his head towards the source of the disturbance to see a bicycle-mounted family of mother, father, and two pre-teenage girls, the older of whom complained scornfully to her sister, "Well done moron, you just scared them all away!"

"Caitlin!" her mother reprimanded her, "how many times do you have to be told not to talk to your sister like that!"

"While she shouldn't act like that." The older girl pouted, "we've been cycling all afternoon, and those are the first ponies we've seen, and she had to open her big mouth and scare them all off!"

Julia and walked back to Johnny side by now, and although she too was annoyed at losing her subjects, she managed a wry grin and whispered, "And now it's the other one's big mouth scaring me off! Let's get out of here!" She threw a leg over her bike and fumbled her feet onto the pedals.

"I couldn't have put it better myself," Johnny agreed as he set off after her.

Fifty yards down the track Johnny pulled alongside her,"What was that bit at the end there, it sounded like you put a whole belt through it," he quipped.

"What?" Julia asked, turning a puzzled face towards him until after a second or so she realised what he had meant, "Oh, this is my digital camera, the one I'm still learning, if you hold the shutter release down, it just keeps taking exposures, at a rate of six per second…"

Johnny's face expressed his surprise, "Six per second? That's three hundred and sixty per minute, not bad!"

"Not bad?" Julia queried indignantly, "that's pretty damn good if you ask me!"

"That's what I said," Johnny protested with an exaggeratedly innocent expression on his face, "I said it wasn't bad, and if something's not bad, then it must be good!"

Julia glowered at him, "You've been hanging around with attorneys!" she accused him.

"Not guilty," Johnny defended himself, but then added with a grin, "I have profited though, from my experience of having four sisters!"

Julia pedalled for a moment or two in silence, and then with a sly grin said, "By saying that, you do realise just how much blackmail material you've given me."

"Damn! Never thought of that! Oh well, I'll just have to rely on your sweet, good nature."

"Are you absolutely sure I've got one?"

"Well, I thought I was… I guess I'll just have to wait and see about that won't I?"

"Indeed you will!" Julia grinned in triumph.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Gill blotted her streaming eyes and sniffled, "The next time I offer to help you with prepping dinner, I am not going to be relegated to peeling and chopping the onions!" she said mutinously, pointing a ridiculously sharp (in her opinion) knife in Harm's general direction.

Harm paused in the action of turning the pasta maker's handle, "Do you want to change jobs?" He asked mildly.

Gill sighed theatrically, "No, not now, there's no point in two of us suffering!"

"Remember, you did volunteer, you could have stayed in the lounge reading your glossy magazine"

'Yeah, I could, but then I'd have missed watching you at work in the kitchen.' Gill thought, but said, "Next time I will!"

Harm spared her another glance "Yeah, riiight..." he drawled before he turned his attention back to making the pasta for this evening's dinner, and so missed the glare that Gill turned on him.

He didn't miss the impact though, of the slice of onion on the back of his neck, and neither did he miss with the ball of pasta dough that he sent back across the kitchen in reply.

The next few minutes were spent in laughter and rapid dodging movements as both Gill and Harm tried to maximise the number of hits they inflicted and minimise the number of hits they received. Harm eventually backed Gill away from her source of ammunition and into a corner of the kitchen, where she threw her hands up and laughingly called out, "I surrender! I surrender!"

"Unconditionally?" Harm demanded, hefting another ball of pasta dough.

"On terms?" Gill hopefully offered the alternative.

"What terms?" Harm asked.

"Would a kiss or two be acceptable? Gill gurgled with laughter.

"Or three, or four, or more…" Harm made a counter offer.

Gill was having a hard time holding back her laughter, but nodded her head, as she stepped forward into Harm's embrace, "I think we have a basis for negotiation."

"I think we do," Harm agreed as he tipped her chin up with a gentle finger.