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Date Posted: 17:14:07 01/16/13 Wed
Author: Cammy
Subject: The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 15 (Part I)

The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 15 (Part I)
By: Cammy
Disclaimer: Not mine
Rated: R (for language and sexual situations)

Author’s Notes: See Chapter 1.

New note: Unfortunately, I’ve tried to post this chapter more than a dozen times and it keeps getting flagged as spam. I’m going to give a go at chopping it up and posting in pieces. Sorry to all for the inconvenience.

2005 EDT (Local)
Wednesday evening
December 24, 2003
Roberts’ Residence
Rosslyn, Virginia

“Where are you Christmas? Do you remember, the one you used to know? I'm not the same one. See what the time's done. Is that why you have let me go?” – Faith Hill, Where Are You Christmas

Mac took in the shiny, tasteful white lights covering the handsome Victorian-style white wood home as she walked along the sidewalk and onto the front porch. She smoothed her hands down the sides of her dress as she waited for someone to answer her knock.

She heard a muffled voice from inside the house. “Coming. Just a minute.” A moment later the door swung open to reveal a surprised hostess.

“Colonel!” Harriet shouted, breaking into a wide grin and moving away from the door to let her friend inside. “What on earth are you doing here?”

Mac smiled brightly and warmly returned the woman’s hug and handed her the large Christmas bouquet of red and white roses and holly she picked up earlier following her run. “Hey, Harriet, may I crash your party?”

“Of course! Come on in, let me take your coat, ma’am.”

Harriet helped Mac off with her winter white thick wool coat and disappeared from sight. Mac took her first look around the interior of the house; no one else had noticed her yet.

The rooms radiated holiday merriment, with candles lit all around and groups of partygoers clustered around the piano, the Christmas tree and a table of appetizers. It felt a lot like home – or at least what home should feel like.

Her anonymity was short-lived. “Aunt Mac, Aunt Mac!” shouted a blond toddler that was charging toward her at full speed.

“AJ!” Mac greeted as she swooped up her godson in her arms. “Hey, kiddo, how are you?”

The towheaded, blue-eyed tornado squealed happily and gave her a long, wet kiss on the cheek before hopping down out of her arms and running back to the living room to play with what looked to be a new train set under the Christmas tree.

Mac realized everyone was looking at her. She smiled and stepped all the way into the foyer. She self-consciously smoothed down the sides of her black Armani dress, a simple silk piece that hit mid calf and hugged her shapely body modestly. Jennifer Coates was the first to approach her. “Colonel, it’s so good to see you.”

“You too, Jen.” The younger woman grasped Mac in a surprise hug, and then took her by the elbow. “Let’s go see what Lt. Sims is cooking up in the kitchen, ma’am.”

The evening was pleasant and continued – mostly – without incident. Despite the traces of awkwardness she felt, it was a good choice to come here. It had been too long and she’d badly missed her friends.

The group gathered for dinner around the same long dining room table they had the year before, giving her an eerie, but liquid warm, feeling of déjà vu. She vividly remembered the range of emotions that ran through her when Harm had walked through the front door last year.

And, not consciously bidden, her mind recalled the picture of the two of them taken a year before that was still stowed in the nightstand drawer of her apartment in Naples.

Focusing again on the present, she realized the clinking of silverware against plates was slowing in frequency. When Meredith got up a few minutes later and started to clear plates, Mac joined her and headed into the kitchen with a stack full of dirty dishes.

Back by the sink, Meredith relieved Mac of her armful and they both worked to rinse the plates and load them into the dishwasher.

Fifteen minutes later, with the immediate chores cared for, Meredith broke the pleasant silence, drying her hands off on a nearby dish red and green plaid towel, “It is such a pleasant surprise that you were able to join us tonight, Mac. I know it’s only been a few months, but it seems like forever since I saw you last.”

Mac nodded slowly, reaching for the matching Christmas dishcloth from Harriet’s now glistening clean counter. “I hadn’t planned to come home yet, but your fiancé was very generous with my holiday leave. I had the days, and thought it would be nice to be back in the country for Christmas.”

Changing the subject quickly, Mac continued, “So, have you and the Admiral settled on a date yet?”

The two announced their engagement in May, and while they had begun preliminary planning, they didn’t seem in any real hurry to nail down final details.

Meredith smiled brightly. “We finally, finally have, I’m glad to announce. Invitations will go out sometime early next year. We’re getting married in April, in Annapolis, at the Academy’s Chapel.”

“That’s incredible, Meredith. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, dear. At first, we both thought it was too ostentatious. But, we figured this was the last wedding for both of us, so why not do anything and everything we want?”

Mac nodded and smiled. “I couldn’t agree more. You couldn’t have picked a more gorgeous church.”

“Have you spent much time up in Annapolis, Mac?”

She shrugged, leaning back against the countertop. “Some conferences, some cases. I’ve guest lectured there twice. Been dragged to my fair share of home football games at Jack Stephens Field.”

“You’re practically an alumna,” Meredith joked.

Mac grinned conspiratorially. “Don’t let any of the ringknockers hear you say that.”

“Well, you missed out a couple months ago. A bunch of the JAG staff treated Commander Rabb to a fantastic 40th birthday surprise party with a skybox for Navy’s homecoming game. It was quite the bash.”

Mac had almost forgot the party had been her idea in the first place. Reserving the skybox had taken significant planning earlier in the year. Before Naples and Asmar Rasul’s appeal and everything else that had gone wrong in the last four months, Mac had been excited to surprise Harm with the skybox for his birthday. It was a personal gift, and she wanted to have been the one to give it to him.

She shook her head. “I have no doubt it was.”

Meredith must have sensed the change in her mood. “So, are you happy to be back, Mac, even if just for a little while?”

“I think so, but it’s been a long year. It doesn’t feel like I’m really back yet.”

“Oh, is that why you seem like your mind is still a few thousand miles away?”

Mac laughed softly, “Am I that obvious?”

The older woman threw her head back in genuine laughter, before picking up her glass of chardonnay from the counter. “Never play strip poker.”

She had a sudden flashback to another friend that gave her that same warning a year earlier. “So, I’ve been told.”

Meredith took a final sip of her wine before grabbing Mac by the arm. “Let’s grab some of the delicious smelling coffee Harriett is serving in the living room. Shall we?”

Mac smiled in return. “It does smell great.”

They walked into the Roberts’ living room, where Harriet had a full buffet of coffee, tea, cookies and other desserts arranged – a typical Martha Stewart channeling. In the corner of the room, she spied her godson, still focused on his new red motorized train set.

In between sips of hazelnut flavored coffee near the buffet table, Meredith’s impishness returned, “So, Mac, meet any interesting Italian men?”

It was at that moment Sturgis Turner walked up to the two women.

Mac shook her head, “All work and no play, I’m afraid.”

Sturgis spoke up, a glint in his eyes, “Come on, Mac, dating a spy hardly makes you a dull girl.”

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Replies:

[> lol trust sturgis another great chapter -- Bev uk, 14:59:00 01/17/13 Thu [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> `Nice Sturgiss -- marye904, 20:38:29 01/19/13 Sat [1]


[ Edit | View ]



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