Me, too. I bet Captain Carney's kissing goodbye those rear admiral stars he's been dreaming about.
"It's funny," Jen continued. "You always think, if I was accused of something I didn't do, I'd just show everyone I didn't do it and everything'd be fine. But it's not that way. It's a lot harder."
Paul nodded. "I never really thought about it this way before. I guess there's a reason it's been made hard to convict people."
"Not hard enough. And I never thought I'd say that. Maybe I'll change my mind again, some day. But it'll take a while. A long while." They cleared the door of the courtroom, Jen looking around, her expression gradually brightening. "Oh, this feels good. You never know how important it is to be able to walk out a door until you're not allowed to do it. But I'm free again."
Paul nodded, smiling. I can't tell her yet about all the news coverage of the charges against her. She's been through so much and deserves not to have this moment ruined. The media spent weeks going over the awful things she supposedly did. How much time will the news media spend telling everybody she was innocent?
Jen glanced at him, her expression suddenly rueful. "Okay. Say it."
"Say what?"
"I was a horrible bitch. I yelled and screamed at you and told you to shut up and go away while you were literally saving me."
Paul shrugged. "It's not like you weren't under a lot of stress."
"Are you trying to say you weren't bothered by it?"
"Uh, no. It bothered me. Truth to tell, it hurt. A lot."
Jen looked at him, her eyes searching his. "I'll make it up to you. I swear."
"I don't want-"
"That blasted sweet little lawyer of yours is right."
"Commander Carr? About what? And she's not-"
"I need to hang on to you. You deserve your answer by now. You deserved it a long time ago."
"My answer? To what?"
Jen buried her face in her hands. "He's forgotten. Marriage? Remember?"
"Oh, I, uh, Jen, I…"
"Never mind."
"But, Jen!"
She dropped her hands and peered at him. "I must really be crazy. Yes."
"Yes?" Paul hesitated, not entirely certain if he'd heard right, or what question it now applied to.
"I'll spell it phonetically for you, sailor." Jen leaned close, her eyes looking directly into Paul's. "Yankee. Echo. Sierra. Yes. I want to marry you. I've wanted to marry you for a long time."
"Jen, I… I…"
"You're so articulate at times like this." She glanced to either side, then risked a quick kiss. "I don't care if we're in uniform. Technically, I'm not, since I need to get my ribbons and all back. I take it you're happy?"
"Incredibly happy." Paul imagined he had a big, goofy smile on his face, but didn't particularly care.
"Good. That makes two of us. Did you arrange for Herdez to be there on Friday, too?"
"Not really. I did ask her to let you know she supported you."
"So she came as a favor to you. It was still a nice gesture."
"No, Jen, she came because she wanted to show she supported you."
Jen laughed. "Herdez? Uh-huh. Right. She was probably thinking 'that no-load Shen is just one problem after another.'"
"Herdez thinks you're a good officer!"
"She thinks you're a good officer. Not that it matters all that much right now. I'll even invite her to the wedding if you want."
Paul grinned. The wedding. Then something occurred to him. Herdez wants me to go back on ship duty after a year on shore. But now I know I'm going to be married to Jen. Well, I'll just have to explain that to Herdez.
"What're you thinking about?"
"Planning. For the future."
"Oh, yeah. A big family get-together. Did you ever try to tell my father about the charges against me?"
"No. You told me not to."
"Yeah." She sighed and looked outward as if she could somehow see her father's ship. "The Mahan probably heard anyway. Somehow. I'll need to send him an update and tell him he won't have to worry about visiting hours at Leavenworth. And I'm telling him that I'm marrying you whether he likes it or not."
Captain Shen's probably going to have a hard time deciding which is worse, having Jen sent to Leavenworth or having her marry me.
"What about your parents?" Jen continued. "I haven't had much opportunity to get to know them. Are you sure they'll be all that thrilled about this?"
"Positive." Paul stopped at a public phone and punched in a number. His mother's face appeared. "That stuff you didn't give me? It worked. Jen's free."
Julia Sinclair smiled brightly. "That was fast."
"It had to be. SEERS was installed on the Maury even though it hadn't passed its tests. Why would anyone have allowed that, Mom? Have something sent on to ships when they knew it might literally blow up someday?"
She looked down and shook her head. "It does happen. This certainly isn't the first time. No one gets a reward for stopping a program in its tracks, Paul. No one in government gets thanked for killing a program, and no one in industry gets bonuses for finding big problems with something that's already over-budget and behind schedule. They try to bury the evidence and wave the program though and cross their fingers. I'd never do it. Your father wouldn't. But there are sometimes people who will. I'm afraid the sailors on the Maury aren't the first victims of that sort of thing, and they won't be the last. Buyer beware, Paul. It applies to the military, too."
"I won't forget that."
"Is Jen with you?"
"Yes. Uh, you remember that thing you asked me about earlier, Mom?"
"What thing?"
"The are-you-already-engaged thing."
"Oh. That thing."
"Yes, um…"
As Paul hesitated, Jen pushed her way in front of the phone. "I said yes. We're engaged, ma'am. Surprise!"
Paul's mother's smile got a little brighter. "I'm not all that surprised. Welcome to the family." Julia Sinclair paused for just a moment. "And no more ma'am, please. From now on, just call me 'Commander.'" She laughed. "I've waited so long to say that to a daughter-in-law!"
"I'm going to out-rank you someday, Commander."
"Oh, no, you won't! Seniority will stay firmly with me, young lady. In perpetuity. The governing instruction for mothers-in-law lays it out very clearly."
"I've never seen that instruction."
"You won't need it for a while. Paul, I'll let your father know the good news."
Paul looked at Jen after he'd broken the connection. "And they lived happily ever after." He wasn't sure himself how much he was joking.
She laughed. "Oh, yeah. That sounds just like you and me. Right now, all we have to do is find out a time when your and my father's ships are both in port, I'm here as well, your parents can make it up to Franklin again, and anyone else we really want to have at the wedding also can be here."
Paul exhaled. "Maybe if we put that problem to the fleet scheduling mainframes they can come up with a solution. Eventually."
"It'll probably take a while." Jen checked her data unit, biting her lower lip in concentration. "As long as we can find a four-hour long window where everybody's available, I say we go for it."
"Yeah. I guess that'll be the hardest part of setting up the wedding."
Jen stared at him for a moment. "No," she finally stated. "Not even close. Think of it as a military exercise, Paul. A big one. With lots of things to set up and coordinate."
"Oh." Paul grinned. "Maybe we ought to give it a code name, then. How about Operation Wedded Bliss?"
"Gag."
"Operation Hazardous Endeavor?"
"Eh."
"Operation Come Hell or High Water?"
Jen smiled. "Perfect. But there's something else I have to do right now. Is the Maury 's crew still billeted in the barracks near the shipyard?"
He nodded. "Are you going now?"
"I need to report for duty, Paul. Back to my command."