by Geeta Kakade
CHAPTER TWO
Ma knew this case was her most challenging. Poor Laurel. Agnes wanted to help her great, great, great, great granddaughter and she also wanted to make a point for all women in the military who were assaulted, bullied or intimidated in any way. It was time their problems came out into the open.
As for the other romance…Moira’s…the woman deserved some happiness in her life. Holt was her Mr. Right.
Pa glared at the lake. Not only was Agnes out till all hours, she wasn’t helping him. Well he would just show her. He’d seen Jacob in May when he had come to one of the pre-wedding meetings and realized the boy looked like his own son Jacob. Agnes had told him her mission was to see Jacob fell in love with Laurel.
Unknown to her, Phillip had orchestrated the accident on base in Afghanistan just to get things moving. It was really good he knew all about guns.
Stephen looked around the farm in Queensland. He would never have thought Brian would have made such a success of his life and the dancer he’d married would have started the successful wine business his son had now. Brian was as stubborn as he, Stephen, had once been. His son wouldn’t go back to find his daughter Bridget, unless he had a powerful incentive. He wanted those two to find each other. Coming up with a way to do that was the challenge.
He’d better ask great, great grandfather Phillip for advice.
Thanks to Uncle Paul she wouldn’t have to fly back in handcuffs. Laurel would have a military escort that would hand her over to the General. He had made it his personal responsibility to vouch for the fact she would report to Walter Reed in Bethesda and also that after evaluation she would be at all the hearings she had to attend.
Laurel didn’t like the fact she was putting her godfather in the position of having to do so much for her. She’d overheard a couple of doctors discussing her case when they thought she was asleep. “No one can touch her as she’s connected to some top brass.” Frustration had laced his voice. “She’ll get off scot free, you’ll see.”
That had irked and Laurel had known, memory loss or not, she wasn’t accustomed to asking for or receiving any favors. Till she got on her own two feet though, she had no choice at present but to accept Uncle Paul’s support. She didn’t want to be locked up.
She saw the tall man beside Uncle Paul the minute she got to the doorway of the medevac aircraft. They were the only two people at the foot of the air stairs…another privilege due to rank. At LRMC she had realized all over again how important Uncle Paul was and how lucky she was to be his goddaughter. Senior officers had stopped by her room to ask how she was feeling and stayed to chat. They’d had good things to say about her godfather and a couple of them had even remembered Dad.
At the bottom of the steps she saluted both of them and then Uncle Paul put aside protocol and hugged her tight.
“Laurel. It’s so good to see you.”
With a nod he dismissed the men on either side of her.
She turned and looked at the tall stranger beside her Uncle.
“Welcome home Laurel.” He removed his hat and bent to kiss her but his lips barely touched the corner of her mouth for a second. If she hadn’t felt it she would have thought she’d imagined it. A fleeting hand on her shoulder, the sense of him close to her made her go rigid. Everything came into sharp relief. The row of medals on her husband’s chest, the sound of voices as injured soldiers were helped off the aircraft, the heat of the sun on her face; the smell of diesel from the fuel tank that was already refueling the aircraft, the taste of worn out gum in her mouth.
She didn’t know this man.
Uncle Paul had the official car with flags flying waiting close to the aircraft. It whisked them to the apartment he’d told her Jacob and she were to be at for the next few weeks till she completed all the legal formalities required.
She would have her tests repeated at Walter Reed on an outpatient basis if the sanity board decided they were necessary. There were some it was advisable she re-do anyway as a second opinion might help shed new light on the amnesia.
Jacob sat in the front so she and Uncle Paul had the back seat all to themselves.
Laurel stole a look at her husband from behind her sunglasses. All she could see was the strong column of his neck above his uniform and dark brown hair closely cut. Uncle Paul had told her Jacob had just returned from his deployment in Afghanistan. As a Navy doctor, he’d been attached to a Marine battalion there.
How on earth had she met him? Lt’s and Naval Lt. Commanders were not on the same social scale.
Uncle Paul asked about the flight and she turned to him.
The luxury apartment on the banks of the Potomac surprised her with its elegance. Everything about the flat; location and furnishings, attested to the fact it belonged to someone high up and rich.
“It belongs to a friend of mine who is stationed in Los Angeles at present,” Uncle Paul said. “Make yourself at home. I’m five minutes away, if you need me for anything. We’ll have dinner at my place after you’ve had a chance to rest. Your clothes are in the first bedroom Lau. You might like a shower and rest.”
Laurel walked in and shut the door. What clothes? All she had in the duffle bag she’d brought with her was her kit, a first aid box, her personal camera equipment, and a photograph of her parents. Her laptop and cell phone had been returned to her after she’d been at LRMC two weeks.
Her closet revealed a couple of pairs of jeans, six tee shirts. Besides the older clothes were two new silk shirts. There was one pair of formal shoes and a pair of aerobic shoes. There were two sets of the Navy uniform she would have to wear at her hearings and a pair of shoes under them.
Had her flat mate Carol brought these over? Carol Jenkins had called her once at LRMC and told her they had known each since boot camp. They’d shared an apartment in Washington when Laurel’s second deployment had ended and she couldn’t wait to have her back.
The chest of drawers yielded underwear and pajamas. All new.
She wondered if Jacob had gone shopping for the new things.
Ten minutes later she was back in the living room, freshly showered and in jeans and a tee shirt.
Her husband was opening up some cartons and there were a couple of really nice plates and crystal glassware on the table. After the dry dusty village in Afghanistan they had been based close to, she was ready to try lifestyles of the rich and famous.
“Uncle Paul got a call and had to leave in a hurry.”
He looked up. The green top hugged curves that had been hidden in her combat fatigues. The jeans wrapped her long legs. His gaze traced a path up to her face and stopped. Her wet hair was breast length, dark brown verging on auburn. Her features were delicate but it was her eyes that transfixed him; green pools of anxiety that wrenched at his heart. She reminded him of a gazelle caught in the high beam of a huge truck.
“You must be hungry.” Emphasizing the mundane always reduced stress.
“Chinese?” she asked unnecessarily.
Idiot! What else would it be in cartons with Happy Wok emblazoned in gold letters on the red background? French?
“Gourmet Chinese,” he elaborated. “Uncle Paul ordered it. He said it was your favorite.”
Uncle Paul said it was her favorite? What about her husband? Didn’t he know?
“Are you tired Laurel?” Jacob asked a few minutes later. She’d eaten a few bites and stopped.
Laurel nodded. She was very tired and frightened and confused. She’d been that way ever since she’d woken up in the hospital tent in Camp Herat in Afghanistan.
A part of her was tense wondering what Jacob expected next. She wasn’t capable of a happy reunion with someone she had no feelings for.
“I think I’ll take a nap.” A good soldier always knows when to retreat.
“Good idea. I’ll be in the study if you need me.”
She looked up and her gaze met his. He understood the question in her eyes.
“We’ll take things really slow okay Laurel?
The important thing is you feel better first. We have all the time in the world for us.”
The questions she wanted to ask him about their relationship died on her lips.
“I’ll see you later,” she said.
Jacob’s words set a pattern to their relationship. Being with him was like having a friend around; one who expected nothing and took you at face value. Over the weekend she gradually began to relax. Lt. Carol Jenkins came over and met her Saturday morning and Laurel liked her right away. She was easy going and friendly. As she helped Laurel check if her uniform was ready and correct for the hearing on Monday, she told her they had always helped each other with the important things since boot camp.
Carol also said she looked forward to doing their favorite things together whenever Laurel could spare the time. Watching old movies on AMC with large tubs of buttered popcorn, shopping till they couldn’t carry one more bag, and playing a Scrabble marathon that lasted days. She seemed ill at ease around Jacob and called him sir once or twice but Laurel could relate to that. She’d almost called him sir herself when she’d seen him that morning.
Uncle Paul met them all three nights for dinner and that reassured her too. Saturday evening he invited the young lawyer who would be representing her; Lt. Sara Hunt, to meet them. Laura and she had a chat and the JAG lawyer repeated what Uncle Paul had already told her…there was nothing to worry about.
Lt. Hunt briefed her on what the next few weeks held. The General wanted her tests repeated at Walter Reed before anything else and no one was going to oppose him. Two opinions he said were stronger than one. Jacob would be with her for the time it took for the battery of tests to be run again.
After two weeks at Walter Reed there would be an article 32 hearing where she would be charged and referred for court martial. Because of the amnesia there would be a sanity board hearing to determine if she was mentally responsible to tell right from wrong and if she could assist in her own defense. Under the circumstances she would be found incapable of standing trial at present and what would normally result in pre-trial confinement would be waived because the General had already vouched she wasn’t a flight risk and he would be personally responsible for her.
Despite her youth, Sara Hunt knew exactly what she was talking about and after the Lt. had left, Uncle Paul told Laurel there was no risk of anything going down any other way. If there was the slightest risk of that, he would have employed a civilian lawyer as well on her behalf.
Jacob seconded all that. He had talked to a senior JAG officer he had known for years and been told exactly the same thing. He knew two of the top psychiatrists at Walter Reed personally and a neurologist too so he would get daily reports on her tests and everything would go as quickly as possible.
Laurel thanked them both. She hated being the cause of the look of worry in Uncle Paul’s eyes, the air of watchful concern in Jacob’s.
She couldn’t remember her past but she knew that the Laurel she was now hated being a cause for concern. She had an independent streak a mile wide and it was surfacing. By Sunday night she was determined to pull her weight and put on a brave front no matter how much turmoil her mind was undergoing. A cheerful front would convince the two men in her life she was a five star amnesiac who was dealing with her problems very well. She owed them that.
Uncle Paul and Jacob were as good as their word. Jacob took her to Walter Reed every day. He waited while she underwent the tests each day. He drove her back to the apartment and then ordered dinner in or fixed her something light. He said cooking helped him relax at the end of the day. That was a good thing because she apparently had no skills in that area and had looked up ‘frying the perfect egg’ on her laptop so she could get their breakfast in the mornings. After dinner he disappeared for a workout and she called Aunt Grace, Uncle Paul and Carol to update them on the day’s tests. From Carol she got information about herself that she stored carefully for future use.
The doctors at Walter Reed confirmed the diagnosis of the doctors at LRMC. There were no permanent brain injuries. The retrograde amnesia was caused by psychological trauma and nobody could tell when she would regain her memory. Laurel knew the words by heart now.
How long more did she have to hear the same words?
By the end of the two weeks Laurel knew Jacob was someone she might not be in love with right now but she certainly looked up to. Where did he get his endless patience?
She couldn’t remember being around anyone else she was so much at ease with. He never talked about their marriage or made any comments about their lack of a normal love life. He talked about his career and told her stories about the places he’d visited. If she was tired he kept quiet. He didn’t fuss over her not eating. He seemed to have noticed that she liked fresh juice and he always made a point of ordering those with each meal for her if they were out. A new juicer had appeared in their kitchen and there was a glass of fresh orange juice waiting for her each morning when she came out to start breakfast.
Her IOU’s were piling up fast and she didn’t know how to repay Jacob.
She was getting good at frying eggs. She cleaned the apartment and did their laundry but other than that she didn’t do much.
One evening a week Carol came over for a movie night and Jacob went out. Laurel didn’t ask him where he was going as she knew he deserved a break from being with her.
By the time all her tests were done, Uncle Paul made sure all the hearings were lined up like ducks in a row.
The night before her first hearing a sound woke Laurel. Getting up she cat footed it to the living room where there was a light on and froze in the doorway.
Jacob sat there in a long sleeved white t shirt and sweats, newspaper spread out at his feet and two pairs of black shoes and shoe shine paraphernalia around them. Laurel’s eyes narrowed as her eyes lit on the second pair. Her shoes.
“What on earth are you doing?” she asked.
Jacob looked up, startled. “Couldn’t sleep so thought I’d give these one more going over for the morning.”
She knelt down on the carpet and picked up a brush. “I can help.”
He nodded applying the polish with a damp cloth and passing the first shoe to her. She brushed and then he took it back and applied another coat of polish with a damp cloth and she repeated the procedure. By the time they’d completed three coats Laurel had to say, “We could enter these in a competition.”
“They used to call me Shoeshine in boot camp,” Jacob smiled. “I always had the best shined shoes.”
His words dissolved the lump in her throat. She was deeply touched.
She had to wear her Navy Service uniform of khaki blouse, black trousers or skirt, black jacket, black cap and the shoes Jacob had taken out of her closet.
After his shoes were done, she picked up her shoes. Getting to her knees from her sitting position she looked at him. “Thank you for everything, Jacob.”
She meant to kiss him on the cheek but her lips found his mouth and she lingered there trying to remember how his kisses had felt. The warm scent of coffee coaxed no memories and she withdrew and stood up.
“Goodnight Jacob.”
He sat where he was for a while after she’d gone thinking the next few weeks weren’t going to be easy if Laurel’s gratitude followed the present path she was on.
Three weeks to the day she’d returned Laurel was out of the last courtroom on her own recognizance. Uncle Paul had vouched she wasn’t a flight risk. In the Navy yard she thanked Lt. Hunt and then hugged Uncle Paul and Jacob. On the way back to the apartment she called Aunt Grace and Carol.
Uncle Paul had returned to work but Jacob was taking her out to lunch to celebrate. They stopped at the apartment to change and then he took her to a Greek Restaurant. It must have been the relief of having the last court appearance for the present behind her that had Laurel eating her entire gyro.
“I’ve never tasted lamb this good,” she told Jacob.
“They make the pita here too. This is
the best place I know in D.C. for Greek food,” Jacob looked pleased at the sight of her empty plate. “The place isn’t grand but the food is top quality. Would you like some bakalava?”
“Yes, please.” She’d seen the phyllo layered dessert, packed with walnuts and raisins and dripping with honey in the glass case by the counter when Jacob had ordered their meals.
“So, where do we go from here?” Laurel asked Jacob.
After she’d kissed him Laurel had lain awake knowing she would have to offer him his freedom soon. It wasn’t fair to tie Jacob to her side when she couldn’t love him the way he deserved to be loved.
“We could spend another week in D.C and then I really have to go to Silver Lake and start helping at the tribal clinic. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to…your aunt would like you to visit her in Maine and I will be back in a month.”
She knew by now that Jacob’s no pressure attitude worked so well with her. She couldn’t remember much but Laurel did know she couldn’t be pushed around by anyone, only led.
Gently.
They’d been together for three weeks now and she could give herself another month, no more. If her memory didn’t return by then she would offer Jacob his freedom. Staying in Washington meant Uncle Paul would fell responsible for her. Aunt Grace had her hands full with Uncle Theo’s declining health. Laurel wanted to be with people who wouldn’t worry about her as much as they did. Jacob seemed to think they ought to be together and he’d proved he was the best person to deal with her problem without too much stress.
“If you really don’t mind having me along I’d like to go with you.” Laurel said.
He smiled and that told her she had made the right decision.
“You’ll like where we’re going,” he said. “Silver Lake is beautiful and the friends who have invited us to stay, Mark and Christy, are some of the nicest folk I know.”
“Silver Lake?”
“It’s one of the alpine lakes near South Lake Tahoe. Christy and Bridget’s ancestors were the first settlers there in the 1850’s and Silver Lake City eventually sprung up around them. They have journals that will fascinate you.”