I Remember

Chapter 6 - Our Life Moves Along

The day for the wedding came quick. Sonja had a few days early on and came out to help me pack and to say good bye to Tammy and Loretta and the rest of the team face to face. Regardless of what they said there was still some distance between her and King.

We decided to stay in her condo until I found a new job as some jurisdictions require you to live within a certain distance of your duty station. As with most jobs, who you know came into play when I was looking. In the end I had a choice between a position with another NCIS team and one with the U.S. Marshalls which I ended up taking. Working in the Admiralty Division allowed me to stay in contact with the 'water' which I loved. Having the personal recommendation of the NCIS Director was a 'shoe in'.

Once the new position was secured, the house hunting effort began in earnest. We found a beautiful home within a short distance of the metro allowing Sonja to take the train into the city every day. It came with a 'mother in law suite' which would be able to accommodate a live in nanny which we would no doubt need later on down the line.

The wedding had been an endeavor that I had not looked forward to. We decided on a destination wedding and went to The Palms at Pelican Cove in St. Croix. With the back ground of the Caribbean Sea among the surf and turf we were married surrounded by our dearest friends and family.

I could never say out loud that the conception of our first child was an accident around Sonja but it was. I was able to catch a 'military hop' to Brussels on an unscheduled Air Force flight. I was supposed to bring some pharmaceutical items for Sonja but left them on the counter at the house. The reduced protection rate of 85% that we substituted for our birth control resulted in a pregnancy. Christopher Michael was born on a snowy December morning on the last day of the year.

Momma came up to help me with our son. We had planned to wait four years for the first child but then decided to go ahead and have a second child sooner than later. Elizabeth Ann was born just three years after Chris. Lizzie did not take the separation away from her mother as well as her brother did. There was no doubt to her who Sonja was and when she was in the house, they were joined at the hip.

I did put my foot down, however, at having a family bed. The lock on our door functioned every night except when we had a sick little one. Unlike Sonja, I had read all of the parenting books. I knew the rules and I knew if I slipped on one I might never recover from the situation.

More than once I found Lizzie asleep on the floor outside of our bedroom when she apparently could not get the door opened. I never told Sonja because I had figured out that she would be the one to give in. I just made sure that momma or I were the first ones up and carried the sleeping child back to his or her bed. I knew I had done the right thing keeping it to myself when Sonja got pissed when I told the story to subordinate of mine when he brought his first child home. She had no idea and to this day will tell you that I was wrong.

I still can't tell you where those first five years went but I found myself thunderstruck at the fact that it was time for Chris Junior to go to kindergarten. Fiercely independent, he stopped at the front door of the school the first day, turned and shook my hand, and walked erectly down the hallway to his class. Sniveling me noticed that he didn't even turn around for reassurance.

Chris was an excellent student. The principal wanted to skip him right to second grade but momma protested. "He needs to firm up his social skills" she stated. "They can just give him extra work to do to challenge his mind". I went with momma's advice. The situation 'played out when Chris went to middle school. Since neither Sonja nor myself were large in stature, even at 13 he was smaller than most of classmates. Quick as a whip like his mother, he started basketball and played point guard all the way through his senior year in high school. He was named all-Conference and the team's MVP his senior year.