Chapter 114

She and AJ had been undercover when she had the accident. They were POSING as a married couple BUYING a baby! Sarah looked down at her sleeping Angel…No, not hers! Not theirs! She had not given birth to this beautiful baby…but she touched the scar she knew was on her belly…then, what had happened, if not a C-section? Surely AJ wouldn't have let them cut her open just to make it look like she had given birth?

Distantly, she registered someone calling her name, realizing it was coming from the phone lying on the couch next to her, she picked it up to listen, "Mac, Mac, are you there?"

"Yes, Chloe, I'm sorry, I dropped the phone."

"Can I still come to visit, Mac? It sounds like you need me there!"

"I do, Chloe, I do!" When can you come?"

"Gran says she can bring me tomorrow."

"Fine, but have her bring you to the apartment, not here."

"I don't know where 'here' is, Mac, so that won't be a problem. We'll be there about two, okay?"

"Sure, hun, see you then." Mac hung up and after putting Angela back on her blanket, buried her head in her hands. Everything came flooding back. The whole lousy year…Sadik…Clay's drinking…AJ's break-up with Meredith…the embarrassing Christmas party… the mission…all the fun they had had waiting on the call about the baby. All the bets and the prizes. Then the call and the storm. Waking up with amnesia…oh god, what a mess…Her assumption that they were really married had caused AJ…NO! the ADMIRAL to go along with it. The doctor must have made him, but how could he have arranged everything? Keeping the baby…Oh GOD…Angela wasn't hers! Theirs! Pain hit her and she gasped as if from a physical blow.

Then she remembered signing the birth certificate as Sarah Mackenzie-Chegwidden! It was all her fault! He had to pretend they were married because of what she had done! And these last six weeks…everyone at JAG…they must have all been told to play along…and they had…and so well…well, except for Harm. She remembered him telling her to ask the Admiral for the truth. Mac wondered if she had, if he would have confessed…confessed…she had CONFESSED her love for him, thinking that they were happily married…

What a fool she had been! And poor AJ…NO! The Admiral…he had been forced to go along with it…the pretence…the LIES! He had played along so well that she had had no clue, telling her he loved her…making love to her!

But he was so honorable, how could he have done that? And then she remembered! Mac saw herself dropping that towel, calling his name, offering to relieve him. He had told her it had been a long time…she had assumed it was because of the pregnancy and birth, but it must have been since his break up with Meredith.

Meredith! Her friend, who had betrayed the man that Mac herself loved. No wonder she had been so weird on the phone. How could Meredith have done that to a man like AJ? Meredith's engagement ring fiasco came back to her and she looked down at the rings on her own hand. The fake marriage…the fake everything. She slid the rings from her finger, then looked at her other hand where her new mother's ring rested. Tears flowing down her cheeks, she took that off too…It wasn't real! Nothing was real anymore!

What a horrible mess this all was! How could they ever go back to the way things were? She could never return to JAG now. How had he explained to the SECNAV? Then her internal clock told her that AJ would be home from the office soon…the office! They had made love…no, had sex, in his office! How…oh yeah! She had told him of having fantasies about it…how could she ever face him again!

She had to get out of there! Thanking god that she still had a place to go, AJ had told her they kept her apartment as their town place, Mac went into their…NO, HIS bedroom and packed her clothes. Laying the rings she carried in her hand on the dresser where he would be sure to see them, she tried to stem the tears that wouldn't stop falling.

Then grabbing another suitcase she went into the nursery and packed Angela's things. She would not keep the baby from him once she found out if there was a way of adopting Angel herself. That was one explanation she had to have from him before she left…otherwise she would have just left him a note…

To be continued….