Chapter 39
Johnny had intended to take a walk in the park after lunch but a sudden cloudburst had sent him and Julia, along with most other park goers, scurrying for shelter. So now although not dripping wet but considerably damper than was comfortable, they were huddled together on one of the uncomfortable cast iron benches on the covered porch to the cricket pavilion.
"The trouble is," Johnny said gloomily, "There's not a lot for a visitor to do in Aylesbury on a wet Saturday afternoon." He indicated the expanse of grass in front of them, "We can't even watch the cricket!"
Julia couldn't have cared less what they did, as long as they did it together. After her melt-down this morning she had made a promise to herself that it was going to be the last time Johnny saw her upset over his upcoming deployment, over their impending separation. Despite his words about only having been given a warning order, Julia was savvy enough to know that the military didn't often cancel those orders, if for no other reason than it would be detrimental to the families' morale, and unhappy families meant unhappy soldiers who would leave the army at their next option point.
So Julia Martinez was going to bite the bullet, not let Johnny see how upset and scared for him she was, and she was going to extract every moment of happiness she could in the time remaining between now and whenever Johnny deployed, but still…"I thought you didn't like cricket?" Julia frowned.
"I don't like cricket – I love it!" Johnny answered, and then chuckled as he saw the confusion on Julia's face, "It's a line from an old Reggae song, from years back. Don't worry about it. But where did you get the idea that I didn't like cricket?"
"Uh… it might have been something you said once about it being a waste of time, and then you suggested that the players were all guilty of unspeakable offences against nature!"
Johnny's forehead furrowed as he fought to recall just when he had maligned his favourite sport, and then his memory banks supplied the answer, "Oh… that was only when Australia won the Lord's Test by two hundred and thirty odd runs. But England went on to win the series, so it all turned out okay in the end."
The Lord's Test?" Julia asked in surprise.
"Yeah. A Test Series is usually five matches, each played at a different ground. Lords is the name of the MCC ground in London, and…"
"No, don't try to explain it, please!" Julia begged, her eyes filled with mischief, "You tried to explain rugby to me once before, and I ended up more confused than when you had started. So I guess if I'm going to spend much more time with you, I'll just have to learn to accept your aberrations!"
"Aberrations, is it?" Johnny growled, "This from a woman from a country where they think rounders is a national sport!"
"Yep!" Julia agreed happily, closing her eyes as she snuggled in closer to Johnny, willing on this occasion to give him a pass for the slur on her beloved baseball.
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"Well?" Victor grinned as Jen eased into the Peugeot's passenger seat with a sigh.
"My feet hurt!" Jen replied as she kicked her low-heeled pumps off and wriggled her toes.
"Yeah? Well, I'm not kissing them better until you've showered!" Victor said firmly, "But what I meant was, how did you like the place?" he jerked his head backwards indicating the huge palace behind them.
"It certainly was something special," Jen admitted. "Yeah, I'd heard of stately homes before, but that place… too many miles of hallways, which is why my feet hurt", she added parenthetically before continuing, "it kinda makes the White House look like a back country out-house!"
"Hey, ease up there!" Victor grinned, "I'm not sure that doesn't count as contemptuous words!"
Jen chuckled and close her eyes for a moment, then re-opening them said seriously, "It's a fantastic building… but all those fancy dados and mouldings on the walls and ceilings, and even where the rooms are panelled, those wood carvings, not to mention all the ledges between the panels where dust collects, it must be a non-stop job just keeping the place clean normally, never mind all the crap that all the visitors drag in! And can you imagine the army of servants they must have needed back in the day, especially with open fires to be tended and cleaned up!"
"Huh… I never even thought of that!" Victor shook his head at his own obtuseness.
"Of course you didn't!" Jen smiled indulgently, "You were too busy gawping at the battle paintings and the armour and weapons everywhere!"
"Yeah… about those battle scenes… wow! I mean those guys just stood shoulder to shoulder in long ranks and just marched straight down each other's throats!"
"Makes you glad you weren't a Marine back then, huh?" Jen grinned.
"Damn straight!" Victor grinned, and then leaning forward he turned the key ion the ignition, "So… are we going to your place for dinner, or would you like to dine out tonight?"
"I've got some ground beef, some chilies and a can of kidney beans in the kitchen," Jen suggested, "It won't take long to make up some chili… and there's a six-pack of beer cooling in the fridge…"
"Home it is then!" Victor agreed with a smile that turned Jen's insides to mush.
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"Knew it… was a… mistake… letting you… into the shower…with me…" Gill gasped as she clung onto Harm's neck, her legs totally incapable for the moment of supporting her weight.
"But, its' such a big… shower, and it would have been… a waste of hot water to… run it twice," Harm panted, "Think of the… planet for once… woman."
"I was… thinking of… the planet…I'm sure I felt… the earth move…" Gill whispered into the hollow of Harm's neck, between drawing in great lungs full of air.
"Ah… then that was… payback…"
"Payback?" queried Gill, leaning back against the support of Harm's strong arms, his hands on her hips, as her breathing steadied.
"M'mm… Harm grinned, "You made the earth move for me that first couple of days I met you… especially in the Bombard shelter…" he leered suggestively.
"The Bombard shelter?" Gull repeated blankly, and then as she made the connection she giggled, "And we were both fully clothed at the time, too!"
"Yeah… shame about that, wasn't it?" Harm grinned.
Gill blushed at the image Harm's words had just conjured up for her and shook her head, "Where the hell did I get the idea that you were a prude?" she demanded.
"Umm… not following the evidence?" Harm suggested blandly.
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Harm was still smiling as he took his usual place in the Navy sedan's front passenger seat. Turning his head to look at Corporal Morrison, on her first day back on duty as his driver, "It's no good scowling at me, Corporal," he remarked mildly, "I've gotten too used now to sitting up front, even if it does upset your idea of what's right and proper!"
Stiff with outraged disapproval of his unseemly behaviour she might be, Corporal Morrison, no matter what her personal opinion was, was ever the Marine, and limited her answer to "Sir, yessir!"
Harm subsided back into his seat and gave his own mental shrug. Morrison would either re-adapt to his ways, or he would ask to be assigned a different driver. But that was a matter for another day, at the moment he was content to sit back and bathe in the memories of the weekend, a weekend that had finally ended a scant ten minutes before Corporal Morrison's arrival when Gill had kissed him a last time before ducking into her Ford Focus.
"It's going to be a long, long week until Friday," Gill said mournfully.
"I know," Harm agreed softly, "but, you know what they say, 'suck it up, soldier!'"
"Oh, well, if we're into clichés, remember that if you can't take a joke…"
"You shouldn't have joined. Yeah, I've heard that one!" Harm said, "But the thing is, I'm not laughing."
Gill shook her head, "Neither am I. Harm, I've got to get going otherwise I'm going to absent from duty. I'll call this evening. Okay?"
"Okay." Harm straightened up from he'd been leaning on the Focus' roof and stepped back as Gill fire up the engine and pulled away from the kerbside. He stood watching until she'd turned right at the T-junction at the end of the street, and then with a soft smile on his face he'd gone back indoors to collect his jacket, cover and briefcase.
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There was a definite bounce in Jen's step as she crossed the bull pen, exchanging greetings with the other enlisted on the way and unwittingly giving them cause for speculation as to the reason behind the spring in her step and the sparkle in her eye. Not that Jen was usually dour, or unsmiling, but there was a noticeable lift in her demeanour this morning that set eyebrows raising, lips to twitching and minds to racing.
To her surprise when she entered the outer office Julia Martinez was already sat at her desk, opening the first batch of official mail addressed to FJAG, USNAVEUR, those envelopes addressed to Captain Harmon Rabb, USN, or any variation thereof were already sorted and waiting in her out-tray to be taken in to their CO.
"You're early!" Jen commented, "Is the Captain already in?"
Julia didn't look up, and her voice sounded slightly subdued, "No."
"Umm… aren't you driving him this morning?" Jen asked her forehead puckering in a frown, "Oh… please don't tell me I was supposed to pick him up this morning!"
"No, don't worry. Corporal Morrison's been returned to driving duties." Julia said.
Jen slid into her chair and started the process of booting up her computer and logging in to the Navy Intranet, but at the same time she threw a concerned look at Julia. The other girl, unusually for her, was silent and subdued, not her usual Monday morning self, when under normal circumstances she couldn't stop chatting about what a fantastic weekend she'd just had with her soldier boyfriend. Maybe that was it, Jen thought with a hidden smile. Julia had had too successful a weekend with her soldier, and was only now coming down off a romance high.
Jen could sympathise with that to a degree, after all, she was still on her high, even if certain unused for too long muscles were setting off a delicious ache, reminding her very vividly of some of the highs of her weekend. Shaking her head in an effort to clear it, Jen put the lingering thoughts of the weekend, Julia's Monday morning mood behind her and with a grimace turned her attention to her least favourite task, compiling the quarterly statistical report, which listed by case each attorney's hours in court and in consultation with clients and witnesses. As a senior Legalman had explained during her time at C School, it was the Navy's equivalent to a civilian law firm's billable hours.
With a sigh of resignation Jen opened the spread sheet and with the guide lines for completion of the report already open in a different window she opened yet another tab to keep track of the various cases. But before she could start both women had to scramble to their feet as Harm arrived to start the day.
Raising an eyebrow at the sight of so much early morning activity, he waved them both back to their seats with a casual, "Good morning, ladies. No, don't get up!"
Julia and Jen's return "Good morning. Sir" was its usual chorus, but even with Jen's voice in the mix, Harm caught the flatness in Julia's reply, and paused his hand on the door knob to his inner office while he gave her a measuring look, "Is that the incoming mail already sorted?" He asked in some surprise. "Well, as soon as you've done that, bring it in, and then I really could go a mug of coffee, if there's one going!"
Julia's "Aye, aye, sir," was ready enough but the lack of crispness in her voice was all too easy to hear. Harm gave Jen an interrogatory look but all she could do was smile apologetically and spread her hands in a gesture signifying her ignorance of the reason behind the usually bubbly Latina's atypical mood.
Harm looked thoughtful as he opened his office door and withdrew into the inner sanctum, and for a few seconds debated whether to take Julia to task over her sudden and noticeable lack of enthusiasm, but came to the conclusion that this might well be one of those occasions when the best thing an officer could do was to let things work themselves out. Of course, if whatever was bugging Martinez started to affect her work, then he would have to take action. But as he hung his cover on the peg on the back of the door he really hoped he wouldn't have to.
Ten minutes later, Julia having brought him the morning's mail in the 'first sight' folder, he frowned even more once she had left the office. Again she had been perfectly respectful, a glance through the folder had satisfied him that everything was marked up with the appropriate file numbers, date stamp and folio stamp, but it was obvious that whatever was bothering his Yeoman hadn't disappeared in the shirt interval between his arrival at the office and the arrival of the mail on his desk.
"Thank you, Yeoman Two," he acknowledged her efforts in his customary style. "Now… is there any chance if that coffee I mentioned?"
"Yes, sir!" Julia replied in a monotone. Harm gave a mental shake of his head, that was so un-Martinez like, normally her answer would have been a cheerful "Coming right up, sir!" or an "On its way, sir!" or something along those lines.
Giving her a couple of minutes to cross the bull pen, Harm crossed to his wall-safe and took out the folder containing the CDs that held the result of Coates' SOFA investigation, and regarding them in much the same manner as he would an annoyed diamond back rattlesnake, he carried them across to his desk, sat down and punched the call button on the intercom, "Can you come in, please, Legalman One?"
"Aye, aye, sir!" Jen's voice, rendered tinny by the vagaries of the slightly outdated technology, drifted from the speaker, to be followed almost instantly by a tap-tapping at his door.
"Enter!"
Jen opened the door and closed it behind her before crossing the expanse of carpet in front of the desk, "You wanted me, sir?" she asked.
"Yes. Have you completed that digest I wanted as the annex to the SOFA cases?"
"Yes, sir. Just waiting for Martinez to come up with the covering letter, sir!"
"H'mm…" Harm reached for his in-tray, "Aha! I thought so. Yes, I've got it here. So as soon as you can print me off a copy of the Annexe we can get it in the post to Falls Church."
He hesitated for so long that Jen felt impelled to ask, "Was there something else, sir?"
Harm ran a hand through his hair, "Yes, Jen there was. I was hoping to be able to follow the Admiral's lead and keep from interfering in my people's private lives…"
'Oh God, thought Jen, 'He's going to ask about Victor! Is it that damned obvious?' Jen gave a start as she realised that her CO was still talking.
"… but something seems off with Martinez this morning. She was all right at secure on Friday, so I can only assume that whatever has upset her happened over the weekend. Has she said anything to you about it?"
"Not a thing, sir. But yes, she does seem a little… distracted this morning…"
"H'mm…"
"Did you want me to find out what's wrong, sir?"
"Uh… no… well, yes… but unless it's directly related to work, I really don't want to know any details. I just want to make sure that she's all right, but if she wants help or advice, then I will do what I can. She's too good a sailor to let something in her private life cause a blip in her career!"
"Yes, sir, she is a good kid. But sir, I don't like the idea of being a management spy. Will you take my word for it if there's nothing, if it's nothing to do with work?"
"God, yes, Jennifer! That's all I want. Like I just said, I don't need the details and I do not want you, Martinez, or anyone to think I'm snooping around their private lives – a long as they keep them private!"
Jen nodded, "I'll give it a try sir, but she may not want to confide, and I can hardly order her to discuss whatever it is, unless it is a work matter."
"Understood, Jennifer. And thank you. Now, how about printing off that digest for me?"
"Right, away, sir, by your leave?"
"Yes, go on, dismissed!"
Harm watched Jen walk back across his office and out of the door, and finally released the grin that he had kept secured from the second she had walked through his office door. What he'd said to her was true. He really would prefer not to know too much about his subordinates' private lives, but Jennifer… well… Jennifer was an exception. She was a friend, a good friend, and almost like a sister to Mattie, as well as his Legalman, and during the months they had spent as a de-facto family in the converted loft, he learned to read pretty well all of her moods. Today was something totally new however, and the only new factor in Jennifer Coates' life was Victor Galindez. Harm nodded in satisfaction, if his suspicions were true he was glad for the young woman. She had spent too many of her years worrying about other people, it was time she made a priority of her own happiness.
Casting a look at the first sight folder, he pushed it to one side and picked up the half-dozen envelopes from his in-tray that were addressed to him by name. One, in a pale-blue envelope caught his eye. The handwriting was familiar, and the return address brought a smile to his face, as he caught the faintest whiff of perfume. Wondering what Harriet could write to him about, he slit the envelope open and pulled out the two sheets of pale blue paper it contained, opened them out and with a smile of anticipation he began to read.
"Dear Harm,
I do hope you don't think it presumptuous of me to write you like this, but I can't discuss this with Bud, and Mac is so busy in San Diego, and I won't talk about something like this with Commander Turner… I know that there's nothing you can do to help, and I know it's not fair to dump on you when you have so many concerns of your own, but I just have to get this off my chest…
As he read on the smile faded from Harm's face, and a scowl slowly replaced it. If Harriet's suspicions were right it certainly looked like Cresswell was out to punish Bud for something, and Harm could only hope that the Marine's vindictiveness hadn't prompted him to take out his dislike of Harm on his entirely innocent friends.
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Jen waited until just short of lunchtime before she looked up from her desk, "Hey, Julia, do you fancy stepping out for lunch today? It's a beautiful day, and I thought we could maybe grab a sandwich and a coffee from that café on Audley Street, and maybe go eat in the square garden."
Julia looked at Jen suspiciously. True they had lunch together on frequent but irregular intervals, but those occasions were usually the culmination of a lively morning, where despite a copious amount if work being done, the two women had also exchanged news, views and talked on a whole variety of topics.
Julia had just decided to turn down the invitation on the grounds that she wasn't hungry, when her stomach, having missed breakfast and maybe sparked into life by hearing the word 'lunch' growled so loudly that it was distinctly audible to Jen, sat some ten feet away.
Julia looked mortified, while Jen just threw her head back and laughed.
Somewhat shamefaced, Julia dipped, her head, "Okay… but only because my stomach thinks my throat's been cut!"
Twenty minutes went by before the two women, now in the civilian clothes they wore to and from duty, made it to the fenced in 'park' which occupied the centre of the square, and found a bench where they could enjoy their sandwiches and coffee. Jen was wondering how best to approach her inquiries, while Julia seemed content to remain silent, not exactly morose, her natural cheerfulness militated against that, but she was still much quieter than usual.
Jen took a bite of her egg salad sandwich, chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, becoming aware that as she did so, Julia was staring at the half-baguette in Jen's hands. "Something wrong?" Jen asked.
Julia shrugged, "Just seems strange seeing you with a vegetarian sandwich…"
"Oh… I got used to veggie food on DC when I was living with Mattie, and I quite like it, besides I had too much meat over the weekend," Jen said thinking of the steaks, the chili con can carne and the southern fried chicken, as well as the roast beef sandwiches in the pub.
"Ah… Victor stayed over, did he?" Julia asked.
"Yeah, he…" then the sense of what Julia was getting at dawned in Jen's realisation and her cheeks suddenly flamed red, "Julia Martinez!" she exclaimed, wishing that the ground would suddenly just open up and swallow her, "Nothing like that! Well, all right, yes, it was, but that wasn't what I meant… and anyway," Jen made a massive effort to bring herself under control as she realised that not only was she babbling but that she had also probably given Julia far too much information, "I didn't suggest we come out here to talk about my love life - or lack of it!" Jen tried for a hasty cover-up.
"No?" Julia said doubtfully, "Why did you bring me out here?"
"I brought you out here, as you so incorrectly put it, because the walls in the office have ears, and I wanted to ask you what was wrong. You and your soldier haven't had a fight have you?"
Julia sighed, "That obvious? I was trying to keep it covered up."
"You're not that good an actress!" Jen told her firmly. "So, you did have a fight?"
"No… not a fight…" Julia answered unwillingly.
"So, it is something to do with your soldier!" Jen declared triumphantly.
"Yeah… his regiment's been warned for a deployment to Afghanistan…" Julia said miserably, and for the first time that morning looking Jen in the eyes so the older woman could see the pain and the fear there.
"That sucks!" Jen said sympathetically, "But look on the bright side, sure, he's going to be gone for what? Six months?"
"A year." Julia amended glumly "But that's not the problem…"
"Look, I understand it can be worrying, I worried when the Comm… uh… Captain was sent to Afghanistan or Iraq…"
"That's not the same! You weren't in love with him!"
Jen blanched but made a swift recovery. "I'll let you into a little secret, I was. Well, at least I had a major crush on him! And if you ever let out a single word of what I just told you, I will hunt you down and kill you! The Captain doesn't need to be embarrassed just because I was acting like a love-sick teenager!"
"God, no… I won't… I swear," Julia said as she gazed in horrified fascination at her co-worker, "but it's not the same thing though, is it?"
"No, not quite the same," Jen admitted quietly, "But why so gloomy, your Johnny's been down-range before, and he came back safe and sound, and he even got a medal for it didn't he? A high status medal at that, if I understand things properly!"
"Yeah, he did, and he nearly got killed winning that medal. And a fancy medal didn't do Tomás any good when he went back there!"
"Tomás?" Jen queried.
"Yeah, my older brother, Corporal Tomás Enrique Martinez, USMC! His Goddamned medal didn't do him no good at all!" Julia said vehemently, her eyes filling with tears.
"Go on…" Jen encouraged her softly. She had a feeling that Julia had never talked about her family's loss before and maybe that the younger woman need to release some of that emotion.
Julia fished a Kleenex out of the depths of her purse and blotted her eyes, "Tomás was my second brother, older than me. He joined the Marines straight out of high school. He loved the Corps. He was so proud when he finished boot camp, La Mamacita and Papa could barely persuade him to change into civilian clothes when he came home on leave. He was assigned to first battalion, ninth Marines, and they went into Afghanistan on the first day. He did something incredibly stupid, but the Marines said it was incredibly brave, and gave him the Silver Star. You should have heard La Mamacita tear into him for being so stupid when he came on leave next time. Oh, she was proud of him, but scared for him too. And she was right to be scared. His battalion was redeployed the next year, I was in C School at the time," she added in an aside, and then paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself as she reached the most painful part of her story, before saying bitterly, "And his stupid medal was no use at all, no protection, no nothing; Tomás was killed when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb…"
Jen's eyes prickled in sympathy with the other girl's distress, "Oh Julia…" she breathed and put a tentative hand on her shoulder, only to have Julia shrug it off.
"What makes it worse is that Johnny's father was killed by an IRA roadside bomb when Johnny was very young, and now he's going to that awful place, where the enemy use roadside bombs everywhere. These things come in threes, Tomás, Johnny's father, and now Johnny himself… Jen… I'm so scared…"
For a long moment Jen had no idea of what to say, how to offer comfort to Julia, but then a spark of memory glowed, "Julia, do you remember me telling you about the family I stayed with in DC, the Captain's friends, while we were waiting for his ward to be released from hospital?"
Julia nodded, "Yeah, Commander Roberts and his family, right?"
"Yeah… Commander Roberts. Did I ever tell you though, that he lost a leg in Afghanistan? Had it blown off just below the knee when he stepped on a mine. Well, Lieutenant Roberts, as he was then, was one of the kindest, gentlest men I've ever known. He was totally in love with his wife, and they had a gorgeous son, and none of that was any protection to him. Anyway, later when I was assigned to Falls Church, I met the wife, Harriet Sims, and the Lieutenant was sent back out to Afghanistan on an investigation. I asked her if she wasn't afraid. She told me that yes, of course she was. I was too, and I asked her how she dealt with it. She said that fear was a weapon that the terrorists used, and if she let it run her life, then she had let the terrorists win, so she prayed to God and hoped that Bud – her husband – would come back to her safe and sound. I don't know whether God heard her, hell, I'm not even sure I believe in God anymore, but her husband came home safe and sound. So if you must be afraid, then be afraid, but don't let it run your life, or like Harriet said, the terrorists will have won!"
Julia nodded, what Jen had just said made a whole wold of sense to her, "Okay… so cry inside, but put a brave face on?"
Jen nodded, "Just don't cry too loudly… but, if you ever need a sympathetic ear, before or during his deployment, I'm here. I'm pretty sure you'll be too busy to talk with me after he gets back from his tour," she finished with a sly look at Julia, who to Jen's delight turned beet red as she belatedly took in the thrust of Jen's last comment.
"Oh… you…" she gasped.
"Yeah, payback's a bitch, ain't it?" Jen chuckled.
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After his solitary dinner, a cheese and potato pie with green vegetables on the side, Harm settled down to wait for Gill's promised evening call. A call that was settling onto a regular pattern, with ach taking it in turn to make and receive calls. Gill's timing was immaculate, he hadn't been sat, cradling his coffee in both hands, for more than five minutes when the phone rang.
"Rabb!"
"Hey sailor, this is Shephard," Gill's soft, smiling voice travelled clearly down the lines from St John's Wood.
"Hello, soldier," Harm grinned, almost instantly comforted by the sound of her voice. "How was your day?"
"Oh, same old, same old," Gill said dismissively, "Just another day of herding paper from one file cabinet to another, sending unsuspecting Gunner officers off to the ends of the earth…"
"Benbecula?" Harm asked dredging the name from the depths of his memory.
"Oh… nothing quite so exotic," Gill gurgled, "Although I have just issued orders for a Lieutenant Colonel to be posted to the MA's office in Washington! Now, if only I were a half-colonel, wouldn't it make life a lot easier! But enough about my boring mundane existence. Through what realms of high adventure have you strode today?"
"No high adventure this day," Harm said somewhat grimly. "I seemed to spend most of my day trying to sort out personnel and personal conundrums.
"Do tell?" Gill said invitingly.
"Well first off I got a letter from Harriet Sims today…" Harm paused waiting to see if Gill made any connection.
"Yes, I remember the name, that's the Roberts family isn't it, where Mattie's staying?"
"Yes, that's the one. Apparently Bud is being overloaded with work that ought to go to junior attorneys, in other words he's being under employed while being overworked, and he's just been warned for a six month TAD on board a Marine Landing Ship. But that's not all. Get this: his reporting date is December twentieth."
"That's unfortunate," Gill said.
"No it's not unfortunate, it's malicious!" Harm said. "I think I told you that the Admiral warned me that Cresswell doesn't like me – you know he's refused to authorise me an XO or even an AO to help with the admin load here in London, both of which slots are on the TOE but have been gapped for, and I quote, a fall short in finances for the current year. Which is so much BS. The financial year has only just started, how can there be a short fall already? No, I can't help but feel that Bud is being targeted purely and simply because he's my friend!"
"Easy, sailor, for God's sake don't let anyone else hear you make those sort of claims!" Gill's voice now plainly conveyed her concern.
"No, no, I'll be careful but that… that… Jarhead makes me so mad at times!"
"Okay… but what does Harriet expect you to do?"
"Oh, nothing, it's just that with the diaspora from Falls Church – Cresswell has brought in his own people – most of them Marines, so that there's no-one else she can really vent to, not without risking word getting back to Cresswell, and that could have even more dire consequences for Bud!"
"Okay… I can accept that," Gill said although a niggling thought at the back her mind kept voicing the suspicion that Harriet had written to Harm in order to lay a guilt trip on him! "So what else have you been up to?" Gill asked in an effort to change the subject, "You did say personnel as well as personal matters!"
"Oh… yeah, that's no better than the Bud Roberts situation. You remember Julia Martinez?"
"Of course I do; sleeping beauty!" Gill chuckled.
"Yeah, well, I had to sort of interfere in her personal life today… well maybe interfere is too strong a word… let's just say take an unusual degree of interest in her personal life."
"Go on…" Gill encouraged him.
"She turned to today in an absolutely gloomy mood. I know I've been in post for less than six months, but I've never seen her like that. And I'll confess I was concerned for her."
"As any officer would be!" Gill agreed, trying to reconcile Harm's mention of a gloomy Martinez with her memories of a cheerful and mostly smiling young petty officer.
"So… although I don't like the idea of prying into my people's lives, or of using one to spy on the other, in this case, I'm glad I did!" Harm said.
"Oh… why is that?" Gill asked her voice full of gentle curiosity.
"Um… did you know that your old regiment has been warned for a deployment to the sandbox?" Harm asked cautiously.
Unseen by him, Gill nodded at the other end of the line, "Yes, Sue Marshall tried to call me several times over the weekend, but I'd left my mobile in my bunk, so she called me at work this morning…"
"Yeah, well, anyway, Martinez is apparently quite serious about your Bombardier Walker…"
"For the last time, he is not my Bombardier!" Gill protested.
"Yeah, right," Harm grinned, "You know full well if there was any way you could get him assigned to your new posting, you'd have him there in a flash!"
"Well… yes… but that would have nothing to do with him being deployed," Gill objected.
"No, no of course not, that goes without saying… but you're deflecting the conversation here. It seems that Bombardier Walker's father was killed by an IED in Northern Ireland, years ago, and Yeoman Two Martinez' older brother was killed by an IED in Afghanistan, and now she's terrified that that the same thing is going to happen to Bombardier Walker – to her Bombardier."
"Oh that poor girl… how's she coping?"
"Not too well, although once Jen Coates had pried the story out of her at lunchtime, she seemed slightly happier. That's what I meant about using one member of staff to spy on another," Harm added by way of explanation.
"Oh, I think that makes sense," Gill replied.
"Good, because quite frankly, I'm fed up with the gloom and despondency of today, so thankfully Tim Davenport came to the rescue."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, he came over to help me with that second ramp this evening, and it's now finished, except for coating it in that treatment we got at the weekend, but that wasn't what I wanted to say,"
"And that was?" Gill chuckled, happy to hear the lift in Harm's voice.
"Oh, just that you'll need to bring a smart dress with you next weekend, not a ball gown, a cocktail dress, I think you'd call it."
"Oh… why's that?"
"Because Tim and his wife have invited us for dinner to meet some more of the neighbours on Saturday!"