Duty of Care
AN: This the first part (I don't know of how many) of a sequel to 'London', as Harm, Catherine (and Mattie) take on the challenge of adopting Susan and Simon.
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Yeoman Petty Officer First Class Amanda Porter looked at the closed door of Captain Rabb's office with a slight frown wrinkling her forehead. There was something... something... adrift, maybe... with her Chief. He had come into work on Monday morning cheerful enough, but with a slight air of abstraction, as if he was deep in thought, and that air of abstraction had only grown over the last forty-eight hours, until today she had felt compelled to remind him that it was lunch-time.
"Huh? Oh... yes... I s'pose it is..." he had replied to her prompt, but had shown little more interest and she had been about to remind him again when he had emerged from behind the shelter of his closed door with a vague murmur of, "Lunch," and had headed for the break room.
That had been just about forty-five minutes ago, and now he had returned to his office, with no more than a cursory nod on Amanda's direction before retreating once more into the sanctuary of his closed office.
"Something wrong, Yeoman One?"
Lieutenant Tali Mayfield's voice broke in on Amanda's concentration, making the Yeoman jump, failing as she had to detect the young officer's approach. "I... I'm not sure, ma'am," she confessed after she'd recovered from her start, "It's the Captain... he's... he... Oh, like I said, I'm not sure... but he's been pretty distant these last couple of days, and it seems to be getting worse... It's not like him..."
Tali Mayfield half-smiled; without even trying Captain Rabb had practically every female member of his staff wrapped around his little finger, herself being no exception, and this despite the fact that it was common knowledge that the Captain was absolutely devoted to his beautiful wife and family.
"Do you think it's something you've done?" she asked Yeoman Porter.
Amanda shook her head, "No ma'am, if I'd screwed the pooch, he'd have come right out and said it... I just hope that everything's alright..."
Tali smiled sympathetically, "I'm sure it is... but I'm also equally sure that if he finds you goofing off, then it won't be!" she said in mild rebuke.
Amanda flushed, "No, ma'am, of course, but..." she began, but was interrupted by the buzz of the intercom unit on her desk. With an apologetic glance at Tali, she leaned forward and toggled the 'Speak' button, "Sir?"
"Yeoman One, get me a line to JAG HQ at the Navy Yard, please," and even through the voice distorting speaker Amanda could hear the firmness and decisiveness back in Captain Rabb's voice.
"Aye, aye, sir!" she said emphatically, and turned a broad smile toward Lieutenant Mayfield, "That sounds better, ma'am, but if you'll excuse me...?"
"Of course, Yeoman One," Tali chuckled, "It wouldn't do to have any delays and send the Captain back into his...?" she hesitated, the word on the tip of her tongue had been 'funk' and although Amanda Porter and the young Lieutenant were as close as it was possible for officer and enlisted to being friends, it wasn't the sort of word that a junior officer could bandy about when referring to a senior officer, particularly not when that senior officer was her CO.
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Harmon Rabb sat back in his padded leather swivel chair, and for the first time in seventy two hours felt almost at peace with the world. He had wrestled with a problem for the last three days and after a three way discussion with Catherine and Mattie their adopted teenage daughter he had finally reached a decision. He had, in principle, willingly accepted Catherine's suggestion that they should apply for adoption of the two youngsters and he should have realised without asking that Mattie, who had taken to the two children like a duck to water, would be completely in favour of the idea, but all three needed to be aware of the extent of the extra responsibility and the extra work that would fall on them, especially considering Catherine's own little bit of news, to which Mattie was, as yet, not privy..
It had been after dinner and Susan, Simon and Beth Harm and Catherine's eighteen month old toddler had all been bathed and put to bed, and Harm had called his two girls, as he referred to Catherine and Mattie into the lounge. For a 'family conference'.
Catherine had plumped down on the sofa and squirmed, as was her habit, into her usual position, with Harm's arm looped around her and her head nestled into the hollow of his shoulder, while Mattie had taken a seat in one of the armchairs, her feet tucked up sideways under her butt.
Catherine had a pretty shrewd idea of what Harm was going to say, but Mattie, for once had failed to read the signals, and with a half-guilty conscience wondered what misdeeds she had committed to cause such a grave expression on Harm's face.
Slightly unnerved in his turn by the suspicious glower Mattie was sending him, and for which he could find no reason, Harm cleared his throat, "Mats, Catherine and I need to talk with you, to explain a couple of things and make sure that you're on board with our plans before we start to make them happen..."
"Like what?" the still suspicious teenager asked, almost, but not quite truculently.
"Well, first off, we both want to tell you again how impressed we have been the way you've stepped up to the plate and helped us with Susan and Simon…" Harm paused to see what Mattie's reaction to his praise might be. It was pretty much as he expected, Mattie blushed crimson and mumbled something indistinct.
"In fact the way you've been with them has been a major factor in our planning. Catherine and I have given this a lot of thought over the last few days, and we've decided we want to adopt the Liddlies, as you call them."
Mattie shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. "That's it?" she asked incredulously, "Duh! That's so obvious! You've made a huge song and dance number over something that I knew you were going to do a week ago!"
Harm and Catherine shared a somewhat shamefaced grin, but then Catherine turned her face back towards Mattie, "it's not quite that simple, Kiddo. You'll remember all the hoops we had to jump through in order to get you, but at least then we knew what the score was; here in Britain we don't know how to even set about this, if Susan and Simon were British, we would just apply through the British courts, but they're US citizens, and more than that, they're US military dependants. At this stage we don't even know if the British courts exercise jurisdiction over them. If they do, then that makes things legally complicated. If they don't, then it makes life logistically complicated, as we all have to get back to those States and file for adoption there."
Mattie shrugged her shoulder, "So if that's what's got to happen, then I guess that's this summer vacation plans taken care of."
Harm and Catherine exchanged another loaded look, prompting another suspicious, "What?" from Mattie.
"Well..." Harm began cautiously, "Like we said, you've been fantastic in helping with Susan and Simon... but it's all been voluntary... well... mostly..." he managed a half grin, "but there's something else we need to tell you, and it probably means that we'll be asking you to do a lot more around the place, not just with Susan and Simon..." Harm floundered to a halt and look despairingly at Catherine.
"It's another complicating factor, Mats," Catherine said far more calmly than she felt, "It's just that Harm and I have just discovered that I'm pregnant, and..."
"Yess!" Mattie almost howled, bringing two pairs of horrified eyes to bear on her and bringing about ten seconds silence whilst all three waited with baited breath for the sound of disturbed sleep coming from upstairs.
Mattie ginned in embarrassment and mumbled, "Oops, sorry," as Harm and Catherine continued to glare at her accusingly, but the excited teenager was too happy to remain abashed and uncoiling herself from the chair she almost flew across the room to throw herself onto the couch alongside Catherine and pull her into a crushing embrace.
"Mats!" Catherine squeaked in protest, causing the teenager to release her hurriedly.
"Oh, Catherine, I'm sorry... did I hurt you... the baby...?"
"No, not all," Catherine smiled as she reached out to ruffle Mattie's already unruly mane of hair, "But you will have to be a little more careful further down the road!"
"Oh, I will, I will!" Mattie assured both Catherine and Harm her eyes flitting from one face to the other.
"And as the pregnancy progresses you're going to have to help out around the house – more than you do already." Harm said, but then quickly added as he the scowl forming on Mattie's face, "Not that you're not already pulling your weight, but if this adoption goes through, there are going to be three small children that will need looking after, and if you remember how slow Catherine had to be about everything just before Beth was born..."
"Point taken... and yeah, I'm happy to help out... I'm not ready to say goodbye to the Liddlies, so I'll do anything and everything I can to make life easier for you both – for all of us!"
"Good girl!" Harm said approvingly.
Then another thought crossed Mattie's mind, "Uh... you're not going to play the pregnancy card for the whole nine months, are you?" she asked Catherine, her voice a mixture of teasing and resignation.
"Oh, no, not the whole nine months," Catherine assured her, just the last six!" and then with a mischief filled glance at Harm the blonde continued, "Now... where did I pack my swim-suit?".
Harm and Mattie had exchanged a look in which amusement and weary resignation were commingled and Harm said, "I suppose I should have seen that one coming... but no swimming after the thirty-sixth week, right? Remember just how close you came to having Beth in the swimming pool!"
"Oh don't exaggerate!" Catherine giggled, "There were a whole twelve hours between me getting out of the pool and Beth making her appearance!" But then as she saw Harm's forehead crease in concern, she added, "Alright, I'll be good – as long as you promise not to hover! You know how mad that makes me!"
"I do not hover!" Harm declared indignantly.
"Uh... yes... you do," Mattie contradicted him, as she was swamped with vivid memories of the way Harm had reacted when she had contracted a flu bug over the last winter, while Catherine nodded her head vigorously in agreement with the teenager's verdict.
Harm had thrown up his hands in defeat and leaving his girls on the couch and giggling over his discomfiture he had retreated to the kitchen to make three large mugs of chocolate.
This morning he and Catherine had woken Susan and Simon fifteen minutes earlier than normal and after a giggle-filled bath-time and maple-syrup coated pancake breakfast, Harm, Catherine and Mattie, the latter, never at her best early in the morning, trying hard to put on a sunny face, had sat herded the children into the lounge.
Harm took up position on the couch and held out his arm to Susan, who happily scrambled up into his lap and rested her head against his chest, while Mattie, scooped up Simon and play-wrestled him into submission until he sat with his back to her chest, his legs astride her jeans-clad thighs.
"You comfortable there, sunshine?" Harm asked Susan with a smile.
"Not sunshine! Susan!" the little girl protested with a giggle as Harm initiated what had rapidly become a standing joke between the six year old and the tall Navy Captain.
"Alright then, Miss Susan, are you comfortable there?"
"Yes, thank you for asking," Susan said primly.
"And are you happy with us?" Catherine shot a glance at harm before asking the question.
"Uh-huh," Susan said, but her tone betrayed a degree of unease.
"It's alright, Susan, there's nothing to worry about," Harm soothed her, while Simon's eyes grew round.
"Susan worry?" he asked.
"No, nothing to worry about, tiger," Mattie whispered in his ear, while she smoothed his riot of dark curls.
"Well, Catherine – and Mattie – and I were wondering if you and Simon would like to stay with us, and be our little boy and girl. Catherine and I would be like a new mommy and daddy, and you'd have Beth and Mattie as sisters . Mattie could teach you how to be a big sister for Beth, and then you could teach her how to be a big sister if there were any more babies..."
"Not boys!" Susan declared firmly.
"No, of course not, if there were baby boys, then Simon would have to learn to be a big brother."
Susan digested this information for a few moments, and then with a tremor in her voice asked, "But what about mommy and daddy?"
"Do you remember how I told you that they had gone to be angels, and even though they wanted to stay, because they love you very much, they had to go when God wanted them?"
Susan nodded, her eyes full of unshed tears, "Well, Catherine and I would be like an extra mommy and daddy, so you'd have two mommies and daddies. Your own mommy and daddy in heaven still love you, and are looking out for you, and me and Catherine looking after you here. Would you like that?"
Susan had looked up at him once, nodded and simply said "Uh-huh."
Mattie looked down at the four-year-old on her lap and asked, "What about you, Simon, are you happy here, would you like to stay with us?"
"Stay with Susan!" Simon declared.
"Of course," Mattie assured him, "But if Susan wants to stay with us, is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, okay," Simon agreed. And the two adults and the teenager heaved silent sighs of relief. The decision had been made. All that was left now, Harm mused were the details, but as always the devil was likely to be in those details.
But that had been last night and this morning and the time for indecision was over; now his hands were literally itching as he waited for the call to DC to be put though. Not that he had long to wait.
"Yes?" he almost snapped as he snatched the 'phone from its cradle after only its first ring.
"Your call to the Navy Yard, sir," Yeoman Porter said.
"Thank you. Hallo?"
"Headquarters JAG Corps, Legalman One Barker, sir, how may I help you?"
"Barker, good morning, this is Captain Rabb, calling from London, England, can you put me through to Admiral Tucker, please?"
"Admiral Tucker, aye, sir!"
Harm waited for the series of clicks and buzzes that betrayed some sort of activity on the other side of the Atlantic until finally Admiral Tucker's voice sounded in his ear, "Captain Rabb, good morning – or to you, good afternoon. I've been expecting your call."
"Good morning, ma'am... I'm calling about the two Grant children, Susan and Simon. Assuming ma'am, that you have had nothing from the grandparents indicating that they are willing to change their mind, Catherine and I have decided that we want to adopt them."
Ham held his breath as he waited for Admiral Tucker's response, not knowing how she might react, but what he heard wasn't anything he had considered as an alternative.
"Damn!" Admiral Tucker swore mildly, "You have just cost me a hundred bucks, Captain!"
"Ma'am?" a startled Harm replied.
"Yes. When the news of the shooting got out here, and that the Grants had left two young children behind, I heard Commander Roberts tell Admiral Morris that you would want to take them into your family! I invoked Admiral's privilege and butted in to the conversation, and said that with a toddler of your own and your teenager, you had all the children you could handle. The debate got a little heated and I ended up challenging Commander Roberts to put his money where his mouth was!" The Admiral chuckled again.
"Commander Roberts slapped a fifty down on the table and told me to match it. So I offered him odds of two to one... and dammit, Captain, it looks like I owe Commander Roberts a hundred bucks!"
Harm held the receiver away from his ear for a second and looked at it in disbelief... A three-star Admiral had just admitted that she'd made a bet with one of her subordinate officers! It was unheard of! Okay, Harm had suspected Admiral Chegwidden of having a stake in the various office pools, but he had always done so using Tiner as an intermediary. A squawk from the receiver brought his attention back to the here and now and he hurriedly replaced it against his ear. "Ma'am?"
"Did you hear what I said, Captain?"
"About the bet, ma'am? Yes, ma'am!"
"No! What I said after that!"
"Uh, no, ma'am... sorry ma'am... I was... kinda distracted for a moment there..."
"I see..." there was more than just a trace of dry humour in Amanda Tucker's voice and she silently thanked A J Chegwidden for the letter he had written advising her that the best way to deal with Harmon Rabb was to keep him off balance.
"No, I asked how you were going to go about it? You are in the UK with the children..."
"Ah, we're going to need your help, and a fair degree of your indulgence, ma'am. Our address of record is still in Virginia, we've kept ownership of our place in Vienna, so we have decided that probably the easiest route to take would be to bring the children back to the states on vacation – I have my sixty days on the books, ma'am – and because Catherine and I are already – through Mattie's adoption – known to Virginia CPS, hopefully we can achieve a speedy resolution. But we'll need help with affidavits concerning both sets of grandparents, and as you set those investigations in train, ma'am..."
"You want me to compile and sign off on them, hey? It won't hurt to have the Navy JAG in your legal corner, is that it, Captain?"
"Well, yes, partly, ma'am..."
"And you're sure you can take leave? That your office won't fall apart if you're gone for a couple of weeks?"
"No, ma'am, I have every confidence in Commander Austin's ability to step up ma'am."
"I should hope so, Captain!" Admiral Tucker chuckled again, "After all you trained her! But, what's your first step?"
"Uh... as far as the USA is concerned, getting hold of the adoption papers from Fairfax County court and setting that ball rolling, while persuading the British Social Services that the Grants are American Citizens and none of their never mind! I've already spoken to them and it took a bit of persuasion but they have provisionally agreed to let us foster the children until the outcome of an application for adoption is known.
Amanda Tucker had had fairly recent experience, thanks to her last posting at NATO HQ in Brussels, of how bloody minded the British bureaucrat could be, and merely answered, "Good luck with that, Captain."
Harm could resist the grin as he heard the warning tone in his Admiral's voice, "Thank you ma'am!"
"Very well, Rabb. I'll let you get on with your work. You've got an office to run too, don't forget!"
"No ma'am!"
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Amanda Tucker, the Navy's JAG put the 'phone down, a thoughtful frown on her forehead; she hadn't had time to get to know Rabb, he had been posted at the Pentagon for the few months between her taking up her billet and his departure for London. Rear Admiral Morris, one of the Assistant JAGs and Chief Judge had spoken of Rabb in mixed terms. Rabb was, he said, a crack litigator with an almost obsessive compulsion to seek out the truth. A fine and ethical lawyer by anybody's standards, but somewhat erratic at times. Of course, the story told about Rabb letting off half a magazine of live ammunition from a Heckler Koch into a court-room ceiling was obviously just an urban myth, but the Captain's SRB showed firmer evidence of other, just as outrageous acts – but always, Admiral Tucker noted, on the side of the Angels.
But that side of his character seemed to have been overlooked, or just plain ignored by Chegwidden. The crusty two-star had said considerably more than how to keep Rabb in line, and not all of it had been very complimentary. But Amanda Tucker was no fool, she had recognised the signs of a disintegrating command when she took over, and from reading reports – some classified – and from hearing odd snippets of conversation she had soon come to the conclusion that Chegwidden had dropped the ball on more than one occasion starting with the rush to court martial Rabb for the attempted murder of a fellow officer before all the facts of the case were known and then what seemed to be an incredible chain of events starting with the loan of MacKenzie to the CIA, and then Chegwidden's refusal to allow Rabb to go to her rescue when the operation went belly up. At least that source of friction was ended. She had read in horrified fascination reports of past JAG involvement in CIA schemes and as a result had told the Secretary of the Navy, in no uncertain terms, that she was turning off the faucet. JAG would no longer provide TADs to the CIA, and if the CIA attempted an end run around her and inveigled the SecNav into agreeing to lend them any of her staff, she would resign on the spot. Sheffield hadn't been too pleased but recognised the danger in her threat. Two Navy JAGs resigning in quick succession would bring unwanted and close political scrutiny to bear on his office and his stewardship of the Navy, and that was not a prospect he relished.
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The change in Harm's mood was more than just apparent when after his call to DC he sauntered out into the bullpen, waving off an attempt at attention by all hands as he disappeared into the break room to reappear five minutes later carrying a mug of coffee in one hand and what looked suspiciously like a doughnut in the other, both of which trophies he bore in triumph back to his office pausing only by Yeoman One Porter's desk to warn her, "If my wife calls, you never saw this, right?"
"Saw what, Sir?" she answered his grin with one of her own.
"Good girl!" he encouraged her.
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"Pass the word for Commander Austin, please Yeoman One!" Harm said into the intercom unit on his desk and listened for Amanda Porter's response from the other end, and then sat back to wait for Meg Austin to appear in his doorway.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" the tall blonde Texan officer asked him.
"Yes, come on in Meg and have a seat!" Harm invited her genially and then waited until his XO had crossed the room and sat primly in one of the two green leather wing chairs in front of his desk. Meg smoothed her skirt across her thighs and looked at Harm with an inquiring expression.
"Meg, have you made any plans for summer leave for this year?"
Meg's eyebrows rose slightly in a delicate arch, "No, not yet... but may I ask why you want to know, sir?"
"Patience, Meg, patience," Harm grinned, "I'm getting to that. I ask because I need to know that you'll be available to step up as acting FJA at very short notice. I may be required to return to the States for an indefinite, but hopefully not too long, period at short notice. Catherine and I have decided to apply for the adoption of Susan and Simon Grant."
Meg smiled, "Of course you have!"
"Et tu Brute?" Harm asked in pained astonishment, "That's almost word for word what Mattie said when we told her, only she wasn't respectful enough to leave off the 'duh'!"
"That's only because she's not subject to the UCMJ, sir," Meg grinned.
"And you are... That's a sad come-down, you know, realising that my XO is only respectful because she's afraid of the consequences if she isn't!" Harm shook his head in mock dismay, "But am I really that transparent?"
"Only in some cases, sir," Meg assured him, the bantering tone disappearing from her voice, "It's who you are... you could no more not try to look after those kids than you could fly..." a belated realisation of what she had just said came over Meg and she blushed slightly, "That is without strapping on a jet, sir!" she added hastily.
"H'mm... I see that I shall have to try and be a little less predictable," Harm mused.
Meg grinned again, "Good luck with that!" and both chuckled, and then when their amusement had died down, Meg asked, "Is this to be kept a secret? You know how difficult that's going to be?"
Harm considered for a moment, "No, there's no point in trying to keep a secret, scuttlebutt being what it is... but I don't intend to make a public announcement either. I guess we'll just let things take their natural course."
"Aye, Aye, sir!"
Satisfied, Harm nodded Meg's dismissal and waited until she had left the office before stabbing the call button on the intercom, "Yeoman One?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Get me a line to Social Services at Wimbledon Council Offices, please."
"Aye, aye,sir."
Once again Harm waited through the series of clicks and electronic buzzes and whines that told him that Porter was working her magic with telephone system, until a voice in his era said, "Wimbledon Social Services, how may I help you?"
"Good afternoon, could you connect me with a Ms Laura Woodhouse, please?"
"One moment, sir..."
"Laura Woodhouse," a new voice announced itself.
"Ms Woodhouse, good afternoon, this Captain Rabb of the US Navy. We spoke a couple of days ago about Susan and Simon Grant, the children of one of my officers who was killed in the course of a robbery."
"Grant... Rabb... Ah, yes, so we did. How may I help you, Captain?"
"I think we are going to need some help from Social services on this side of the pond. My wife and I have decided to file for adoption of the children. We understand that normally we would have to go through yourselves and the British Courts, but there is a problem there in that we don't, either of us, have a permanent address in the UK, which we understand is one of the criteria for adoption."
"Yes, that's a pretty inflexible rule."
"Yes, that's what we understood. However, we do have a permanent address in the States, and as the children are US citizens, we have decided to file for adoption in Virginia."
Laura Woodhouse gave a brief chuckle, "Well, that certainly sounds like a complicated way of doing the business, how...?"
"Fortunately, my wife and I are known to Family Services in Virginia, our elder daughter is adopted and we went through all the vetting processes just about two years ago. I hope to be able to enlist the help of her Guardian ad Litem, as far as that is concerned, but I'm pretty sure that the court will want proof that we can offer the children adequate housing, and that, I hope is where you'll come in, and liaise with Family Services in Virginia..." Harm let his voice trail off on a hopeful note.
Laura Woodhouse was silent for a long, long moment and when she spoke next her voice was loaded with doubt, "This is an unusual case, Captain, and I'm pretty sure that our rules don't cover it. By rights we should have taken the children into care as soon as we became aware of their situation..."
"Ah... I not quite sure whether or not you understood what my job is, Ms Woodhouse, both my wife and I are attorneys, and I am head of our Navy's legal services in Europe, and I can assure you that we would challenge any such move and apply for a restraining order. We wouldn't want to take that course of action... and of course, if we could make any sort of meaningful contact with family back home, we would have already repatriated the children."
"I'm sorry, Captain, I didn't mean to imply that we were considering taking the children from you; no, that's the last thing on my mind. I was more musing out loud... as I said this case doesn't fit the normal parameters of what we usually deal with, but I am very happy to work with you on this. As I understand, the children are quite young, and I'm sure you are aware how these things work, and so, quite frankly our case-load is already heavy enough and our budget is under constant pressure, so that the removal of the need to care for another two children is very welcome. I'm just trying to figure out how we can do this without falling foul of the law..."
"How about granting us rights as foster parents, until I can get things moving back in the US?" Harm suggested.
"That could work... but officially, we ought to take the children into care until you're approved, not that I have any doubts on the matter, but..."
"And as I said, we would resist having the children removed from our care. They have suffered enough trauma in losing both parents on the same day, and they are just beginning to settle with us." Harm reinforced his earlier objections.
"Leaving the children where they are would be in their best interests, wouldn't it?" Laura Woodhouse agreed.
Harm picked up on the allusion to the governing principle of child services both in the UK and back home, and with an unseen grin he replied, "It would certainly be in the best interests of the children."
"Good. Then that's the way we'll play it. Now, we will still have to carry out a home visit, to assure ourselves that the accommodation is suitable,and that you and your family are suitable fosterers – you mentioned an older daughter, do I take it you have more than one child?"
"Yes, Mattie is our adopted daughter, she's in her teens and will be returning to the States next year to attend college, and then there's Beth, she's mine and my wife's child, and is nineteen months old..."
"Well, that seems to be a conventional family unit, so if you'll just confirm your address, Captain, I'll get on with arranging that home visit!"
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"Thank you, Corporal, zero seven thirty hours tomorrow, please," Harm dismissed his driver, and lifted the latch on the front gate that opened onto the path leading to the front door.
"Hey, everyone, I'm home!" he called out as he closed the front door behind him and listened for the thunder of feet that told him he was about to be met by a curly-haired little tornado that slammed full tilt into his legs, grabbed him for support for an instant and then held up its arms in a mute plea.
"Hey, Tiger!" Harm grinned as he bent and swooped Simon up into his arms, settling the youngster on his hip, "How are you today?"
Simon grinned, but then nodded gravely, "I'm good, how 'bout you, skipper?"
"Skipper?" Harm asked in surprise, "Where did that come from?"
"Um... That would be my fault... sort of..." Mattie confessed with a grin. "We were watching an old John Wayne movie about the Navy, and somebody called him 'skipper'. Simon asked what a skipper was, and told him it was another name for Captain, and he said, 'like Harm?' and I said yes, so..."
"Oh, okay, I get the picture... So I'm 'Skipper' now am I?" he asked Simon and the little boy nodded solemnly, his eyes fixed on Harm's face.
"Okay then, if I'm the skipper, then you're Sailor, and sailors have to do what skippers tell them... so... if you don't do what I say, then I'll have to... I'll have to... I'll have to... tickle you!" he told the youngster, and suiting his actions to words.
Simon's squeals and shrieks of laughter brought Catherine hurrying from the kitchen, a look of alarm on her face as she dried her hands on a towel, "What the heck is..." she started, only to chuckle at the sight in front of her of Simon, his legs wrapped around Harm's waist, hanging upside down so that his head nearly touched the floor while Harm supported his body weight with one hand while using the other to tickle the boy's ribs.
"Harm! For heaven's sake, stop that nonsense and put him down, before you drop him!" she protested through her chuckles.
Harm dropped to one knee and carefully disengaged himself from the still giggling youngster before standing up straight and replying smartly, "Aye, aye, ma'am!" and then in an aside to Simon, "But even skippers have to do what moms tell them!" which provoked more laughter from the boy.
Harm crossed the hall in two swift steps to scoop Catherine into his arms and give her a lingering kiss which left her slightly breathless and her eyes a smoky grey, "You'd better make good on that promise, 'skipper'," she warned him.
"I will, I will," he smiled into her eyes, "but first I have to say 'hi' to two more of my favourite people..." he wandered on into the living room where Mattie sat cross-legged on her bean bag, apparently absorbed in the game that Susan was playing with her formidable collection of Barbie dolls.
"Hey squirt," he ruffled Mattie's hair on his way past and was rewarded with a scowl as he hunkered down next to Susan, "Hey there, Susan, do I get a hug from a very special girl tonight?"
"You just had one from Cath'rine," she pointed out with a frown.
Harm shot Mattie a startled look but received only a shrug and a blank look in return. Harm looked back at Susan who was watching him almost warily. "Well yes, I get a hug from Catherine every evening when I come home, and every morning before I go to work. Didn't your mommy and daddy hug each other, and maybe kiss each other?"
"Yeah, they did!" Susan screwed her face up in an expression of disgust, "I'm never going to kiss a boy!" she declared.
"But you kiss me," Harm objected, "Does that mean you're never going to kiss me again?"
"You're different! You're not a boy!" Susan said with an air of decision.
"Oh what am I then?" Harm asked as seriously as he could, while fighting to keep a grin off his face.
"A Captain!" Susan said triumphantly.
"Oh... so how about giving the Captain a hug... and maybe even a kiss?" Harm said in hopeful tones.
Susan studied him for a long few seconds, and then shrugged and sighed, "'Kay," she said and standing up, threw her arms around Harm's neck and planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek.
"That's better!" Harm said as he slipped his arm around her and gave a slight squeeze, "I feel much happier now!"
He then sent a quizzical look at Mattie, who he was sure had just mumbled something about damn manipulative shysters, "Did you say something, squirt?"
Mattie stared back at him in wide-eyed innocence, "Me? Say anything? Of course not – Captain!"
Harm continued to look at Mattie, but now with an appraising quality to his look, "H'mm... That was just a little too innocent," he remarked.
"Why, whatever do you mean, Captain?" Mattie grinned, much to Susan's enjoyment as she continued to lean against Harm's shoulder and giggled.
"That's it!" Harm pretended to huff, "I'm going to say hello to my other daughter – at least she isn't insubordinate!"
Mattie giggled as she looked at Susan, "The Captain's being silly – again!" she told the six-year-old who looked from Harm to Mattie and back again and then solemnly nodded her head.
Harm grinned and climbed back to his feet, "Where is our little angel?" he asked Catherine who was having a hard time restraining her laughter.
"Our little monster," Catherine placed a slight emphasis on the noun, "is presently tucked up and napping. She had a bit of a spell earlier, maybe we were too optimistic about her teething problems being over!"
Simon looked up from where he was poring over his Winnie the Pooh book, "She cried," he confirmed, thought for a moment and then qualified his statement, "A lot." and returned his attention to Eeyore, who seemed to have lost his tail.
Catherine chuckled, "That's about it, in a nutshell! So, please for the love of God, don't disturb her just yet, let her sleep, and let her mommy have a little bit of peace; well as much as she can with three other children in the house!" she added this last comment with a wink at Harm and a pointed look at Mattie, who caught the reference, and looked up with a grin.
"Nope, not going to work, I ain't biting!"
"Good for you, squirt!" Harm approved, "Well if there's nothing else for the master of the house to fix before dinner, I'm going to get changed!" and with a grin he disappeared through the door to the hall and stairs, leaving Mattie and Catherine gaping at each other in disbelief.
"Master of the house?" Mattie gasped.
"H'mph! We'll see about that!" Catherine said.
Mattie eyed her narrowly, "Yeah, riiight," she said sarcastically, "When you're putty in his hands? We all know how that's gonna work!"
Susan put down her Princess Barbie and leaning over towards the couch, she tapped Simon on the knee, "Cath'rine and Mattie are being silly." she told him in a matter of fact voice.
Simon looked up from his book and gazed round-eyed at the two women, "Uh-huh," he nodded his agreement and returned his attention to the story.
With dinner time looming and then with the ritual of bathing Beth, Susan and Simon and putting them to bed by Harm and Catherine and the clearing up of the kitchen by Mattie to be gotten through it was mid-evening by the time the trio managed to sit down together with mugs of hot chocolate so that Harm could bring Catherine and Mattie up to speed with the provisional (so far) plans.
"I've spoken to Wimbledon Social services and explained our intentions. There are a couple of legal hoops we are all going to have to jump through, but I get the feeling that provided we pass a home visit and interview that they are not going to oppose us fostering Susan and Simon until we adopt them."
"How are we going to set about that?" Catherine asked.
"We'll do it at home. It means a three cornered liaison between us, Social Services here, and CPS back in Virginia. I shall have to write to Donna Le Moyne..." he grinned at the expression on both Catherine and Mattie's face, "yes... I knew her real name all along... and ask her to submit a report on us and our suitability to Wimbledon, then Social Services will; carry out a home visit to make sure that we can provide adequate shelter..."
"That's ridiculous!" Mattie fumed , "You're a Captain in the US Navy for God's sake! Do they think that you live in some sort of tar-paper shack?"
"No, of course not," Catherine interposed quickly, pouring oil on what could turn out to be extremely troubled waters, "It's just that these sort of organisations have got their protocols that individual workers are bound to follow..." she looked to Harm for confirmation.
Harm nodded in agreement, "Exactly... and they'll probably have to keep on monitoring us until the adoption goes through..."
"So what do we have to do?" Mattie asked, still with a touch of truculence in her voice.
"Fortunately, not that much. I, as Grant's CO, have to convene a Committee of Adjustment to go through all their effects and sort out what was professional and what was personal in their lives. Hopefully, that will include their passports with the children on them or at least their copy of the marriage license and the children's certificates of birth. With those we can get the embassy to issue travel documents in Susan and Simon's name and get them back to the States and hopefully make a proforma appearance in court and have the adoption go through."
"What about legal representation back home?" Catherine asked.
"Bud Roberts?" Harm suggested, "Or if he can't do it, one of the top guns from the RLSO, we do have Admiral Tucker in our corner, so that's a plus. So, I have to write to Bud and Ms Le Moyne tomorrow and get the ball rolling!"
Catherine eyed him dubiously, "You're making it all sound so simple, but I get the feeling that it's going to be a lot more complicated than you're letting on."
Harm shook his head, "You may be right, and I am preparing myself for the worst, but I have a feeling that the biggest bugbear we'll have to deal with is delay. I'm told that adoption in the UK usually takes about eight months, I have a feeling we could well be looking at a longer time frame given the need to communicate back and forth across the ocean."
"Well, that's a comforting thought – not!" Mattie humphed as she stood and collected the now empty mugs. "I'll give these a rinse and then I'm headed for bed."
"Don't be too long in the bathroom – and don't use all the hot water!" Catherine called after her, "Harm and I won't be far behind you!"
Mattie stopped in the doorway and grinned back over her shoulder, "After that disgusting PDA earlier, that's way too much information!"
Catherine turned red and, temporarily taken aback, spluttered furiously while the teenager disappeared into the refuge of the kitchen, but Harm merely grinned and asked, "Well, was that too much information?"
"Oh..." Catherine fought down her blushes and then grinned in her turn, "You'd better believe it! I am definitely going to hold you to that promise... Skipper!"