A New Start
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Disclaimer: the characters used in this story (with the exception of Cathy) are
property of Belisarius Production. 0000 ZULU (1900 EST) Harm’s apartment Georgetown “Rabb,”
he answered the phone. “Harm, what the heck where you thinking?!
On the news they said that two JAG officers had risked their lives to save
the Russian president from a kamikaze!” said the woman on the other side of
the line. “Hi Cathy, I’m fine thanks and how are you
doing?” replied Harm teasingly. “Very funny Harm. You could at least have
given me a call to tell me that you had come back all in one piece”. “Why? Where you going to miss me?” “No, not really,” she answered a little
bit more relaxed by now. “Although you are the only lawyer I know that makes
it a habit of crashing planes and disarming bombs,” she teased back. “And
frankly I’m quite surprised they’d let you into Russia again,” she added
referring to Harm’s last trip to Russia. He and Mac had “borrowed” a Russian
tomcat and crashed it into a lake in the middle of nowhere. “Ha ha, very funny Cathy”. “Anyway, what were you doing in Russia?”
asked Cathy. “That’s a long story...,” replied Harm. Just then Harm’s girlfriend Renée arrived.
“I bought pizza on my way home...,” she stopped when she realised he was on
the phone. “Sorry,” she whispered. “Hey Harm, am I interrupting something?”
asked Cathy. “Renée just arrived,“ replied Harm. “Listen, I’m coming down to Washington on
Friday to see my editor. What do you think of a dinner so you can tell me all
about your Russian trip?” “Ok, just give me a call when you’re in
town. See you on Friday then,” he said. “Try to keep yourself out of trouble
flyboy....Have a nice evening,” she replied and cut the line. Renée was setting the table when Harm hang
up. “Who was it?” she asked as he
kissed her on the cheek. “Cathy. She’s coming to Washington next
week,” he replied. “So you’re going to out together…to talk
about the good old times?” she asked not exactly enthusiast about Harm’s
friend popping by. “Well, yes…I mean, we don’t see each other
very often and we always have a lot to talk about,” he replied. “Why don’t we
all have dinner together?” “No thanks, I’d feel like the third wheel
and…,” she went before Harm could say anything,” I’ll be in Philadelphia the
whole week for that ad shooting and you know how important it is: if the
producers like my work they might offer me a job in their company.” He perfectly knew how important it was for
her; they’d be talking about it, actually no…discussing about it for weeks
now. “In Philadelphia, of course,” he replied
grimly. “We are not going to fight over it again?”
she asked. “No, you’re right,” he answered taking a
slice of pizza. They didn’t talk much that evening and
Renée didn’t stay for the night. The next day she flew to Philadelphia. 2330 ZULU (1830 EST) JAG Headquarters Falls Church, Virginia “That’s all I can offer Harm.” “I don’t think my client will be very
pleased,” he replied following Lt. Col. Sarah Mackenzie to her office. “Well, he should have thought about the
consequences before stealing military property and crashing it into a tree,”
she replied as he gave her a resigned look. “I’ll get back to you after
talking to my client”. “Hey, isn’t that Cathy?” asked Mac
pointing to the entrance of the bullpen. Cathy was talking with Lt. Lauren
Singer. “You’d better hurry up and save her form Singer,” she added before
she answered the phone that had started ringing. Harm walked over to Cathy. “Oh, here he
comes,” said Cathy relieved to see her friend coming to her rescue. “Commander, “ said Singer turning around
to see Harm walking over to greet Cathy. “Thank you for taking care of Ms. Parker
lieutenant,” he said. “It was my pleasure. Ms. Parker,
Commander,” she replied and left the two. “Let’s go to my office,” he said leading
the way. “I only need to jot down a couple of things before they skip my
mind.” “We have plenty of time. I’ve reserved the
table for 8 o’clock,” she replied. 0130 ZULU (2030
EST) Marcello’s
Restaurant Georgetown They had stopped by at Harm’s place so
that he could change into civvies and they were now sitting at a nice side
table at Marcello’s, a little cosy Italian restaurant in Georgetown. The
waiter had taken their orders and they were now sipping some good red wine. “Grandma said you should give her a call,
she wants to know what her favourite grandson of hers is doing,” she said
smiling. “Did you see her?” he asked. “I was in La Jolla two weeks ago. She’s
doing pretty good, always keeping herself busy and everything. And how is
Renée doing?” she asked while the waiter arrived with their lasagne. “She’s fine, always busy working...” “The perfect match for you...although, she
probably thought that with your job you wouldn’t risk your life that often,”
she replied. “You bet, she was not very pleased when I
left for Russia, again.” “Well I can’t blame her. Anyway what
happened over there?” she asked eager to know what seemed to trouble her
friend. He told her all about how he had been
assigned to go to Russia to help them improving the justice system and had
ended up investigating a crooked Russian General who supposedly was selling
weapons on the side. Then, with the help of Mac and two russian officers,
they had managed to catch the man who wanted to assassin president Putin with
a delivery van laden with explosive. Along the way he had found out that he
had a brother, Sergiei, the son of Harm Sr. and the woman that had taken him
long time before. “Did you tell any of this to Trish?” she
asked. “No, and I don’t want her to know. Mom has
a new family and it would be useless to stir up things now,” he answered
playing with the food in his plate. “How are you coming to terms with it?” she
asked concerned. “I don’t know. I was happy to have found
some kind of closure about my dad last time I went to Russia…” he started.
Last time he learned that after his father had been deported from Vietnam to
Russia, he had managed to escape. He had settled down with a woman he had met
and died trying to save her when a group of rebels attacked them. “...and now you are disappointed that he
had started a new family,” she continued for him. “That someone else had with him the childhood
I never had, yeah…” he replied, somewhat relieved to have said that out loud.
”But then... my dad probably thought he would never be coming back and see us
again, so I really can’t be angry at him.” “Did you ask Sergiei to come to the
States?” asked Cathy. “Yes. Webb even had first class tickets
for us. But he decided to stay and fight in Chechnya,” he replied sadly. “Like your father and you would have
done,” she added. “There’s no doubt: he’s a Rabb”. 0430 ZULU (2330 EST) In front of Cathy’s Hotel “Thank you for the ride Harm, and for the
nice dinner, “ said Cathy as she stepped out of Harm’s car. “Thank you for listening to my rambling,”
he replied. “Anytime flyboy,” she answered. “By the
way, when did you buy an SUV? Planning to enlarge the family?” she said
smiling at him, to which he flashed her a dirty look. “How long are you going to stay in
Chicago?” he said walking her to the front door of the hotel. “Two weeks. But if things go the way I
want I might be back in Washington for good,” she answered, “I hope you won’t
mind...” “And you tell me this only now?” he
replied. “It’s not 100% sure yet, so...I’ll let you
know how it goes, don’t worry.” “I count on it. It was good to see you
again,” he said and hugged her on the steps of the hotel. “You too. Make sure you behave until I’m
back, ok? I know who to ask if you don’t...” she replied smiling and let him
wondering who she might be referring to. 1530 ZULU (1030 EST) Skylight Editions Falls Church, Virginia Two weeks later “Are you sure it’s a good idea Cathy?”
asked the man standing up from his chair and stopping in front of the window
of the meeting room. “Mike, you know how long I’ve waited for
this opportunity,” replied Cathy, “and anyway I’m not letting you down: I’ll
still be writing, you know I love to write for kids... but I need to do
this.” “Well, I guess the only thing I can do is
to wish you good luck,” replied the man walking to Cathy and stretching his
hand out. “Thanks,” said Cathy shaking his hand. 2330 ZULU (1830 EST) JAG Headquarters Falls Church, Virginia “I want that report on my desk by Friday
morning,” said the Admiral walking out of the bullpen. “You will, Sir,” replied Harm following
him to the elevator. “The SecNav is going to have your head
Commander if he doesn’t get that document on time,” said the Admiral just
before the elevator’s doors closed. “Yes, Sir,” replied Harm grimly. “Problems Commander?” asked Harriet seeing
the look on Harm’s face. “The SecNav wants my head,” replied Harm. “With all due respect sir, it’s not the
first time,” said Harriet making him smile. “By the way, I need your advice on something.” “My advice?” he asked as he held the door
to the bullpen open for Harriet. “I wanted to get something for Cathy’s
apartment...” she started. “Cathy’s apartment?” asked Harm puzzled. “Yes sir, the one she’s going to move in,
in Georgetown…” replied Harriet before she realised that Harm might actually
not know about Cathy settling down in Washington yet. “Mmm...I’m sorry, I
thought you knew about it.” “I’m going to have a long talk with
Cathy,” replied Harm heading towards his office. “Maybe you should get the SecNav off your
back first Sir,” offered Harriet but he was already in his office.* Oh my...
I have to get in touch with Cathy to warn her* she thought and walked to her
desk. 0125 ZULU (2025 EST) Harm’s apartment Georgetown Harm had worked until late at his office
to finish the report for the SecNav. He was fixing himself something to eat
while listening to an oldies radio station; Renée was not home. “Now it’s your turn Cathy,” he said
dialling her cell phone number. “Parker,” she answered. “Hey,
Miss-I’ll-tell-you-as-soon-as-I-know-something, is there anything you want to
tell me?” he replied. “I can explain,” she said. “Why don’t you come over so we can talk?”
he said making it sound more like an order. “Ok, see you later,” she replied and hung
up. “You’re in trouble girl,” she said to herself as she walked to her car. Later that evening Harm’s apartment Georgetown Harm was cleaning the table when the
doorbell rang. He opened the door and found Cathy waving a white
handkerchief. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked
amused. “I thought you wouldn’t shoot someone with
a white… flag?” she replied making him smile. “Come on in,” he said stepping aside to
let her in. “I hope I didn’t ruin your evening with
Renée?” asked Cathy. “No, she’s not even in town,” replied Harm
flatly. Both Renée and Harm’s job took up a lot of their time and Harm felt
it was slowly drawing them apart. And the worst was that he didn’t even mind
that much, and he had reasons to suppose Renée did not either. “But you’re
changing the subject here,” he went on walking to the kitchen to get two
sodas. “So you’re moving to Georgetown and you’re
not telling me anything,” he said joining her on the couch. He wasn’t going
to make it any easier. “I swear I was going to call you,” she
told him. “I had just signed the contract for the apartment when I met
Harriet. I had to tell her. I didn’t think she would ask your advice for a
present,” she said teasingly. “Ok, I’m going to pretend you didn’t think
all of this up after Harriet called you to warn you,” he replied flashing her
a dirty look. “When am I going to see this apartment of yours?” he asked. “Are you free on Saturday?” she asked. 1330 ZULU (0930 EST) Georgetown Cathy had picked up Harm that morning and
she was now parking in front of a nice apartment building, at about ten
minutes from Harm’s place. “I hope it’s not too close for you?” she
asked as they entered the building. “I can live with it,” he replied following
her into the elevator. Cathy’s apartment was on the fourth floor, right under
the roof. While Cathy was looking for the keys, Harm
noticed that Cathy’s was the only apartment on that floor. “No noisy,
neighbours eh?” he said just as she opened the door. “Welcome to my humble apartment” she said
showing him the way in. “Wow, this is great,” he said. “You just need to imagine it without all
of these boxes on the floor and with a little more furniture,” she replied
shoving a couple of boxes aside so that she could give Harm a small tour of
the apartment. “The woman that owns this place has moved
to Maine and decided to rent it to me,” she told him. “You’ve been pretty lucky, you know. It’s not
easy to find a nice flat this time around. Can I ask you something?” “Shoot,” replied Cathy. “Why did you need to move to Washington?”
he asked. “I mean…I’m happy that you are here…” he added. “Are you in for a walk?” she asked smiling
at him. Ten minutes later they stopped in front of
a small book shop. Harm looked to Cathy for some clues: he was definitely
missing something. She took a key out of her jeans’ pocket and let themselves
in. “You know that nice lady who left me the
beautiful apartment, she owns this shop and when I was doing my promo tour
last year she told me she would have to give it up because she was going to
move to Maine. Then one month ago she called me and asked me if I’d be
interested in running the shop for her, she would even give me her apartment.
I just couldn’t resist. So I called my editor and I told him I wouldn’t be
writing full-time anymore.” “I guess he wasn’t thrilled about it,” he
replied. “No, not exactly. But in the end he
accepted.” “So I’m not the only one who wants to
follow their parents’ footsteps,” said Harm who had suddenly remembered that
Cathy’s mom had ran a little book shop like that one when they were kids. She
used to have fairy-tales afternoons, where she would have readings of the
children’s favourite stories. “So what do you think of my new career?”
she asked. “It’s great and your mom would be proud of
you,” he answered giving her a big bear hug. They stayed at the shop a while longer and
afterwards Harm volunteered to help Cathy out with the furniture at her
place. They stopped only for a quick lunch, and by the end of the day all the
furniture was at its place and Harm sat down exhausted on the sofa, still
surrounded by boxes. “Thank you Harm,” said Cathy handing him a
bottle of water. “Anytime…, well you’re not planning to
move within the next three months, are you?” he replied grinning at her.
Before she could snap back at him, Harm’s cell-phone started ringing. “Rabb,” he answered. “…Hi Renée…what…but
wait a sec…can’t we talk about it?…You have already taken your decision, I
don’t know what you want me to tell you,…Good luck then,” he said and flipped
his cell phone closed. “Is everything ok?” asked Cathy concerned. “I don’t know…Renée said she needs some
time to think about us. And she’s going to accept a job offer in
Philadelphia,” he replied flatly. “I’m sorry,” she said. *Is that all you
could come up with?* she thought. But she really didn’t know what she should
say, Harm’s reaction had surprised her. “Do you want to talk about it?” she
offered. “Not really …,” he said and could not hold
back a yawn. “I think you need some rest Harm,” she
said. “You’ve worked hard today, you must be exhausted, we should call it a
night. What if tomorrow we have lunch together?” “Here?” asked Harm suspicious. “Sure, I think I can find the forks and
glasses by tomorrow,” she replied flashing him a dirty look. He picked up his
jacket and kissed her goodnight. “I’ll find my way out. Good night.” “Good night.” 1700 ZULU (1200 EST) Cathy’s apartment Georgetown When Harm entered Cathy’s apartment the
next day he was pretty surprised. “What?” asked Cathy seeing him blocked,
leaning to the doorframe. “How did you do this?” he asked. The boxes
had disappeared, there were books on the shelves, TV and hi-fi were at their
place, together with Cathy’s collection of tapes and cd’s. There were even
fresh flowers on the table. “I’m an early starter you know. Though I
didn’t have time to put the curtains up yet,” she replied coolly as Harm
stepped inside. “I hope you’re hungry, I’ve made a ton of cannelloni. You
still like them, don’t you?” “Didn’t get to eat them very often lately,
but I love them.” Just as they were going to sit down Harm’s cell phone rang.
“Rabb,” he answered while Cathy rolled her eyes at him. “Admiral,…I didn’t
expect you to call me on a Sunday, Sir…oh my God…I’ll be over in 30 minutes,”
he said and stayed there with the cell-phone in his hands. “Harm, what’s wrong?” asked Cathy seeing
the worried expression on her friend’s face. “Harriet…she lost the baby…,” he replied
with watering eyes. The only thing Cathy could do was to be
strong and held him tight in her arms. She could not believe that the
feelings she had thought to be buried long time ago would resurface that
quickly. 2245 ZULU (1745 EST) Robert’s Apartment Rosslyn, Virginia Harriet had been in hospital two weeks
now. It was time for her to go back home, to that empty room. She and Bud had
already prepared everything: the little bed with pink linings, plenty of
toys, the photo album... But baby Sarah would not come home. While she was putting away some of baby
Sarah’s clothes the doorbell rang. She walked to the door to open it and
found Cathy. “Harm told me you might need someone to talk to,” said the woman
standing outside. Harriet stepped aside and let her in. The night before
Harriet had showed up at Harm’s place in tears because she couldn’t talk with
Bud about the baby. When Cathy stepped inside she noticed
several boxes on the living-room floor. “I’ve just made some tea. Do you want
some?” asked Harriet walking to the kitchen. “Yes, thanks,” replied Cathy
following her and sitting down at the table. “What did the Commander...I mean, Harm
tell you?” “Only that you were at his place last
night and he felt he hadn’t helped you enough.” “He listened to me and I could cry on his
shoulder,” replied Harriet handing Cathy a cup of tea and sitting down in
front of her, “which is more than what my husband is doing lately,” she added
with a slightly angry tone. “How are you living all this?” “It would help if Bud was more...I don’t
know...less focused on making the doctor pay for his mistakes and more on us,
on coming to terms with...,” replied Harriet, tears starting to run down her
cheeks. “I’m sorry…” she managed to say in between sobs. “You don’t have to apologise Harriet,”
said Cathy handing her a tissue. “I know how it feels... you think you’ve
lost everything worth living for and you keep asking yourself what you did to
deserve that...,” said Cathy concerned. “That’s exactly how I feel…How do you know?”
asked Harriet. Cathy closed her eyes for a moment as she
seemed to be gathering up the courage to tell Harriet something. “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone
about this, not even Harm,” she started to which Harriet nodded in response. “When...when
I was 18 I had a miscarriage.” Once she’d said that it looked like a stone
had fell from her heart. “I know it’s not exactly the same, because I
didn’t...I wasn’t planning on having a baby. It scared the hell out of me
just to think about having to face my family and my friends. Anyway, I didn’t
know what to do and probably someone up there thought that it wasn’t really a
good idea to make me a mother: in the second month of pregnancy there were
some complications and they couldn’t save the baby,” said Cathy, eyes fixed
on her hands. It took Harriet some time to process what
she had just heard. “Would you have kept the baby?” asked Harriet. “I’ve asked myself the same question over
and over...and I still don’t know the answer. They say you don’t know how
much you love someone until you loose them...I know that when I lost the baby
I felt an immense sadness for not being able to have that little creature in
my life,” she answered with watering eyes. “Does it ever stop hurting?” asked Harriet
putting some of baby Sarah’s clothes in a box on the table. “You always have an empty space in your
heart... but you have Bud, little AJ and your friends there to help you get
through it,” replied Cathy, “and if you ever feel you need to talk with
someone about how you feel, you know where to find me. Just don’t keep it
inside or it’s going to eat you up from within. I only had Harm’s grandma to
talk with, but it helped me a lot.” “How come you never told Harm?” asked
Harriet surprised. There was a long pause before Cathy spoke again. “When he called home from his pilot
training I steered the conversation away from me and I couldn’t just tell him
‘Hey, you know what? I’m going to have a baby.’. “He didn’t notice?” “He was at sea for a long time and
stepping in his father’s footsteps kept him pretty busy,” she replied sadly.
“Sure, he noticed I had something on my mind but I always told him that I was
a bit worried about my studies, which was partly true, and that he should
keep his mind on what he was doing or I would have had to worry about him
too. I asked his grandma not to tell him and she kept her promise even if she
didn’t understand why I wouldn’t want him to know.” “What about the father of the baby? Did
you tell him?” asked Harriet. There was another long pause. “He doesn’t
know. He left before I found out I was pregnant and when he came back it was
all over,” replied Cathy leaving Harriet wonder what she intended by it was
all over: her pregnancy or their relationship. “Are you still in touch with him?” asked
Harriet, but before Cathy could reply Bud walked in. “Hi darling,” he said and kissed his wife.
“Hi Cathy, I didn’t know you were coming to visit. Are you staying for
dinner?” asked Bud. He was visibly tired. “No, I was just leaving,” she lied, “I
just popped by to see if you needed anything,” she said and headed for the
door. “Thank you for the talk,” said Harriet. “Good night,” replied Cathy and left. The week that followed was pretty hard for
the Roberts. Although the doctor had been negligent with Harriet’s delivery,
his attorney scored an important point when he made Harriet admit that it
wasn’t her first miscarriage and that if the doctor had known about it he
could have saved the baby. The doctor got away with an admonishment, Harriet
and Bud could finally find some closure about baby Sarah, together. 0030 ZULU (1930 EST) Harm’s apartment Georgetown “I still can’t believe Harriet hadn’t told
Bud anything about her first miscarriage,” said Harm taking the veggi-lasagna
out of the oven. He had invited Cathy over for dinner, like many times after
Renée had left. “She probably had her reasons,” replied
Cathy who was sitting at the table. “Yeah, but I thought that she and Bud of
all people had no secrets with one another,” he replied taking their plates
to the table. “There’s no such thing Harm,” said Cathy
while she filled their glasses with wine. “What about us?” replied Harm surprised. “Us? You’re kidding right?” she said, but Harm
seemed serious. “Maybe now, but our past record is a whole different thing. I
didn’t tell you about my problems with Jack and I don’t think you ever told
me about you being made prisoners by the Chinese.” “How do you know about the Chinese?” asked
Harm startled. He hadn’t told her anything about it back then, for a lot of
reasons…most of which he couldn’t even remember anymore. “Meg told me some time ago,” answered
Cathy referring to Harm’s former partner, Lt. j.g. Meg Austin. “Harm, people
keep things to themselves for many different reasons: to protect the people
they care for, because they feel ashamed for something or because it might
not be the best time to talk about it…” “You’re not telling me everything,”
replied Harm. Ever since Harriet’s miscarriage and after he had asked her to
talk with Harriet, she had been…different. Cathy felt trapped now. She had to tell
her best friend that she’d been lying to him for many years about something
so important. But it was time, no more secrets. And she did tell him
everything: how she had felt about the baby, the miscarriage…and lying to
him. By the time she had finished Harm was at
loss of words; he didn’t event think about asking her who the father of the
baby was. Cathy had lied to him for so long. He felt betrayed…but at the same
time he could understand her not telling him back then: at that time all he
had on his mind was flying and nothing was more important. He had been silent for a while and Cathy
had become increasingly worried: did she just destroy their friendship? “Harm
say something, please?” she said. “What about we start all over again?” he
replied looking at Cathy. “No more secrets. Whenever you need to talk about
anything, no matter how busy I might be…come to me.” “Only if you do the same” she replied
somewhat relieved by Harm’s words. “Deal?” said Harm stretching his hand out. “Deal,” replied Cathy taking his hand. “I
suppose now might be a good moment to tell you that I was the one who broke
your mom’s lamp…” she started to say, but was interrupted by Harm. “You what?
She gave me house arrest for two weeks!” exclaimed Harm flashing her a dirty
look. “Is there anything else you would like to confess?” he asked. “No, not really…but I might come up with
something, the evening is long…,” she replied grinning at him. ~*~*~*~*~* |
|