| Subject: Re: Little Details - epilogue |
Author:
fananicfan
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Date Posted: 20:39:08 07/14/07 Sat
In reply to:
fananicfan
's message, "Little Details" on 11:25:09 07/08/07 Sun
Here is the conclusion of Little Details and the last story I plan to post here. The series will continue after I take some time off for visiting family and other such things. This was story number seven and I hope you've enjoyed the series to this point.
Now for the conclusion of Little Details....
Epilogue - Little Details
Friday, January 20, 2006
Harm woke with a smile that would quickly fade when he realized that it had been only a dream. It was amazing how a few days with her had invoked such a desire in him, not only to be with her, but to have a family and live a life together. He muttered as he got out of bed, "I cut it close, but thank God, I didn't let her get away."
By the time he met Bud for breakfast, Harm had shaken off or at least buried the lonely feelings of earlier this morning and was focused on wrapping up the case.
It felt more like a briefing than a trial as Harm filled in Judge Sebring and the prosecution on the confession and supporting evidence in the case.
By mid morning, Harm and Bud were on their way back to Washington to meet with General Cresswell. During that meeting, General Cresswell asked Harm if he had any objections to letting Commander Roberts finish up the paperwork on the Stanton case so that he could get back to London to be sure that the relocation plan was on schedule. Of course, Harm had no objections, and so it was done. Bud would take over from here, and Harm would be leaving Washington. Bud was dismissed from the meeting when Senator Proxmeyer arrived.
Once Bud was out of the room, the Senator spoke. "You did an outstanding job, and I wanted to offer my thanks in person, Captain. Very seldom does a man's press match the reality of the man, but in your case, I'm not sure that it does you justice."
"Thank you, ma'am, but are you aware that not all of the charges were dismissed?"
"Yes, Captain, I am. I believe that my nephew said that he'd be getting a letter of reprimand."
"Yes, ma'am, the convening authority felt that the use of his uniform for the expressed purpose of picking up a woman wasn't conduct becoming an officer, that it showed the military in a bad light and deserved some type of punishment." Harm didn't want to discuss the matter of her nephew having sex in the back seat of a car, so he skipped that part of the convening authority's statement.
"For him, I hope that the reprimand and this experience will drive home the need to make one's choices carefully and that even some of what we think are simple choices can have disastrous consequesnces. Thinking things through before making a decision is always wise." She looked to General Cresswell and then back to Harm. "If you ever think that the Navy doesn't appreciate you, give me a call. You have my number. My husband would love to have you at his firm." She paused for a moment. "Your SecNav told me that my nephew's problems came at a bad time, that I was taking you away from an important project in London. Good luck with your move to Naples, and thank you again." She extended her hand to shake his.
Harm shook her hand. "It was my job, ma’am, so no thanks are needed, but your welcome, ma'am."
Harm wasn't going to ask, but then again, he had to know. "Ma'am, I have to ask. Why didn't your husband or one of the associates in his firm defend your nephew?"
"My husband wanted to take the case, but just as a doctor shouldn't operate on a family member, neither should a lawyer act as defense counsel for a family member who's sentence could include the death penalty.
"When I called our dear old friend for advice, he said that he'd be in a better position to keep an eye on the case if it were being handled by the JAG office, and I agreed to let him make the change if he could. My husband had reviewed the case and he didn't think that it should go to trial in any court. After the Article 32 hearing resulted in calling for a court martial, my husband wished that he'd taken the case in the first place, but now that the case was in a military court, he said that Eric needed someone who was a 'top gun' in the field of military courtroom procedure. I polled a few people whom I know in the military and a few people in congress, and your name kept coming up, Captain, and when I got Mr. Sheffield to give me a copy of your service record, I knew that you were the lawyer that my nephew needed, and now we know that I was right."
After she'd finished her explanation, she turned to General Cresswell, offering him her hand. "I've taken enough of your time. I appreciate your cooperation in this matter as well, General, so thanks to you, too.”
Cresswell shook her hand and replied, "We were glad to assist, Senator."
After Senator Proxmeyer left, the general's yeoman entered with confirmed travel arrangements for Captain Rabb. Harm was glad to see that his flight to London wasn't leaving until Saturday evening. After being dismissed from Cresswell's office, Harm called Ms. LeMoine to see if he could come by to pay Tyler a visit in the morning. After getting off the phone with Ms. LeMoine, Harm made his way to Bud's office to assist him in any way possible before he left. While finishing up for the day, Bud volunteered to drive Harm from the storage facility where he stored his car to the airport.
On the way to the apartment after leaving JAG, the thought of spending the night in the apartment and sleeping in the bed that he'd so recently shared with Mac wasn’t an appealing idea. Most people worked in DC, but lived in Virginia so, when he traveled, he was usually on the lesser traveled path, but not tonight. Traffic was very heavy on his way towards Union Station. By the time he reached the apartment, he’d decided that he’d eat dinner in town, leave for Blacksburg after dinner and spend the night in a hotel there. The traffic should've died down by the time he'd had dinner, and he’d have a less congested drive to Blacksburg to take a certain little boy for a ride in his car tomorrow. Before leaving the apartment, Harm made sure that the refrigerator was cleaned out and that he remembered to take out the trash, per the reminder list from Mac that he'd found on the breakfast bar .
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Harm woke up feeling surprisingly rested for all he felt that he’d been through in the last few days. A hotel room for the night had been a good choice.
Harm found that he was excited to see Tyler as he neared the Potter home. The excitement changed to a feeling of panic when he pulled onto the street where the Potter home was located. They were going to have only a couple of hours together, but he hadn’t thought of anything to do with him except to go for a ride in his car.
Meanwhile, in the Potter home...
Miss Nancy had said that Miss Donna had called yesterday and that Harm was coming to see him. Tyler had gotten up early, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, brushed his teeth, and Harm wasn’t there yet. He was asking Miss Nancy about every twenty seconds what time it was, and Miss Nancy was trying not to lose her patience, but he was grating on her nerves. She may not have been as happy as Tyler, but she was pretty happy when Tyler turned for what she thought was going to be the dreaded question again, but saw a grin on his face instead. “He’s here. Harm’s here.” Tyler looked back out the window to see the tall man get out of his car and make his way up the walk. Tyler flew to the door to greet him.
Harm asked if there was something that Tyler wanted to do, and it didn’t take Tyler long to decide that he wanted to go to the park and play catch, swing in the swings, and slide on the slide and…Miss Nancy cut Tyler off saying that he wasn’t going to have time to do any of it if they didn’t get moving. Tyler got a ball and glove from the garage, and they left for the park. Harm made one stop at a drug store along the way. He told Tyler that it was for a present for Mac.
Harm had Tyler back in time for lunch at the Potter house. Tyler gave Harm a big hug goodbye before he left. When Harm was about to pull away from the curb, he looked towards the house to see Tyler at the window with his bears in front of him, one arm wrapped around them and the other waving franticly. Harm stopped, rolled down his car window, extended his arm above the top of the car and waved back before he pulled away from the curb.
Harm returned to the drugstore where he'd stopped a few hours before to buy a disposible camera and dropped it off at the one-hour developing counter. He left the store, went to lunch and returned for his pictures a little more than an hour later. Harm was full of pride and joy when the young lady, with whom he'd left the camera, handed him his packet of pictures and told him, "You're son is very cute." Harm didn't take the time to look at the pictures in the store. He knew that at least some of them had come out by the clerk's comment, and Harm's priority now was to catch his plane.
After leaving the drug store, it was off to Bud and Harriet's as quickly as possible. Bud hadn't been sure that he could find the storage place without Harm since he'd been there only once, so Bud was going to follow Harm. They took time outside Bud's home to move Harm's things over to Bud's car.
Once the car was safely back in storage, it was off to the airport. Harm told Bud that just dropping him off at the airport would be fine and, as they neared the airport, the car was filled with an awkward silence. Bud finally spoke. "Sir, I want you to know that it was a pleasure to work with you again."
"I was going to say the same thing...and, no matter what anyone else says, you and I just proved that we were and still are the "dream team" at JAG HQ."
Bud's chest inflated with pride. "Yes, sir." And then his silly grin appeared. "We did, didn't we?"
"Yes, Bud, we did."
Bud's smile faded as they neared the drop off point. Harm got out of the car and extended his hand back inside the car to shake Bud's hand. "Good job, Commander. Maybe we'll have a chance to do this again someday, but next time, it'll be my turn to sit second chair."
"Thank you, sir." Bud knew his mentor well enough to know that that was Harm's way of telling him that he thought that Bud could've handled the case without him. Harm then closed the car door and disappeared into the terminal.
Harm checked in for his flight before settling into a chair and, while waiting to board, he made his weekly Saturday call to Mattie and Mac. When he got off the phone, he shook his head. He'd called to talk to them, but both of them had wanted to talk about Tyler. Mac had said that she and Mattie hadn't hung up from speaking with Tyler more than ten minutes before Harm had called. Mac said that Tyler had filled her in on his and Harm's morning outing and then she reviewed the visit with Harm. Harm guessed that it was to make sure that she'd gotten all the details. When Mattie got on the phone, she talked about how great it was that they were going to adopt Tyler and how happy she was for him.
Harm boarded the plane and, once the plane had reached cruising altitude, he pulled out the packet of pictures that he'd taken of Tyler and looked through them. By the time his plane had landed, he'd admitted to himself that the pictures weren't just for Mac, but they were for him, too.
When Harm got to his London apartment, he was tired since he hadn't been able to sleep on the plane. Every time he'd put away the pictures and tried to sleep, a few minutes later, he'd be looking at the pictures again.
Harm decided that he'd unpack after he'd gotten some sleep, but he pulled out the pictures once more. This time, he picked his favorite one of Tyler and leaned it against two framed pictures that were already on his bedside table: one a wedding photo of Mac and him, and one of Mattie.
After having had that dream on Thursday night, Harm got into bed, closed his eyes and said a little prayer. He'd just have to keep saying this prayer that they wouldn't have to do this for another year...and hope that someone was listening.
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