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Date Posted: 11:25:37 02/27/06 Mon
Author: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett
Subject: FWWATT Chapter 5 Section 3 Concluding this Chap
In reply to: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett 's message, "FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Chapter 5" on 10:31:42 02/27/06 Mon

FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Chapter 5 Section Three

by Sylvia Bartlett Mohr

Still with me? Good readers. Okay...if you post a comment or two before one pm today, I may reward you with one whole more chapter today. So, now that all sections of Chapter 5 are posted...comments, please. I do apologize that it takes so long to post this, but try and imagine what it was like writing and rewriting this...knowing just how much further you have to keep at it to complete even novel one? It's a challenge when other shows have captured some of the original fire


Section 3: Shock and Dismay


"God in heaven, have mercy on us." Chaplain Turner stood in the door, with a completely distraught expression on his face. AJ was holding his elbow to be sure the older man did not fall.

"He's – he's a witness." Chegwidden felt absolutely nauseated.

"No." The cry was wrung from Sarah Mackenzie's lips. "We can't do that to him. Admiral, they'd tear him apart on cross examination." She felt she was pleading for his sanity.

"He never had counseling after the Watertown, did he? They'll say it was post damn traumatic stress or something like that." Boone wasn't even sure why he bothered asking. "This will end his career, if he survives this damn fever."

"Admiral Boone," Chaplain Turner recovered from his initial shock and reproved the aviator strongly, "you do your godson a grave disservice if you underestimate what a Rabb can withstand, rise above or overcome. You really should know better by now." He crossed the room, gave his son a quick, warm hug and laid a hand on Harm's forehead. His eyes went quickly to Tom Boone. "Are they using ice packs?"

Boone shook his head. "Just this cool water." He took the wash rag, dipped it in the water, wrung it out and returned to trying to break his godson's fever.

AJ frowned, swore softly and immediately apologized. "Sorry, Chaplain. I'll get ice packs." He went out the door and could be heard bellowing at personnel out there as he went into action.

"Sturgis – you are granting the Colonel a most undignified view of your nether-regions. Take your IV and go back to your bed. I'll be in to see you in a few moments." His father spoke, in very dry, measured tones.

The submariner flushed a dark crimson beneath his color and pulled his gown closed over his posterior, taking his shredded dignity with him.

"I never even peeked." Mac assured him, handing him the IV bag.

The Chaplain shrugged out of his coat, took a small tin from his dress blue uniform pocket and began anointing Harm's forehead with oil in the sign of the cross and praying softly.
Sarah lingered a moment, uncomfortable and yet drawing some comfort from the sight of the elderly preacher praying for the man who held all her love. She turned and followed the younger Turner in to his room.


"Mac, please…I'd like to be alone."

"No." She said simply. "I'm not going to let you wallow in either embarrassment or undeserved guilt over what MIGHT have happened. Sturgis, I am certain what you fear would have happened; would not have happened. I would have sensed he was still in there."

"I wouldn't have listened to you, Mac. It was part of our pact. I would spare you and his family from having to make that choice; he would spare my dad the same; and, others would benefit from our passage. How long would he have lingered there – trapped, hearing you sob goodbyes, hearing me sign his life away? Oh, God." His voice caught in a sob. "I can't do this. I don't want this responsibility."

"When did you make this pact?" Mac asked. She only knew she had to keep the Commander talking.

"We've had an understanding for years. He insisted on formalizing it after I came to JAG HQ…we put it on paper, in legally binding documents."

"Does your father know? I certainly didn't."

The former submariner had the grace to look uncomfortable. "It is in both of our personnel folders. I prayed I'd never have to actually follow through. I – " he hesitated a long moment. "I think both he and I knew I was the one most likely to have to act on it, on his behalf. I've never shot any one at close range. Never had to see life drain from the eyes of someone I put a bullet in. Look at what Harm's gone through just in the time he's known you."

Mac grew very still.

"Wait. That came out wrong. I didn't mean. I meant that time period, Colonel, not because – "

"Of me. I know, Sturgis. It is all too true. He seems to attract danger. It's not that he courts it. It just follows him like a shadow. He had fired a gun in action before he even came to the Academy, in Viet Nam, at sixteen. That girl, his age – Jem? She died in his arms and he blamed himself.

Turner nodded. "This though – he was laying there. Hearing the things he heard and helpless to do anything. It's – it's what I feared when I read that paragraph in Brake's report. The drugs he was given combined would paralyze and give outward evidence indicative of coma, chronic vegetative state; but, he might very well regain consciousness, be aware during that time, hearing everything around him… Even just being in that state would be a terrible nightmare, but to hear what he did? To be being sold off, piece by piece."

"You knew?"

"I feared. After what you told Admiral Boone, myself and the doctor about the incident on the Watertown the other day, just the possibility in the report was enough to make me black out." The man's eyes welled with tears. "Imagine how much worse it was for him – in the cold reality we now kna- kna- know…oh, God, what really happened, it's so much worse than what I feared." His shoulders shook as the tears finally spilled.

Colonel Sarah MacKenzie put her arms around Harm's friend and they gave way to their tears, as the Chaplain prayed, a SEAL acted and a wing man kept watch over Commander Rabb in the next room.

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