Chapter 94

Flashback – Masha – Another day with Tina

Tina finally calms down in Jack’s workroom and stops banging on the door while I have finally gotten Linda calmed down. I go to the workroom, check on Tina and find she’s sitting quietly on the floor. She sees me, smiles and reaches for me. I pick her up and realize immediately that she has a very full diaper. Because she’s still getting fruit, changing the diaper was an execrable job; the odor in the room was so bad it made my eyes hurt. I finished, put her on the floor, she walked to her highchair and began to shake it. I put her in the highchair, brought out the yogurt and this time she ate it without problems.

The phone rang so I answered it and heard, “Hello my love! I miss you!”

I sweetly said, “Jack, my Jack! How are you feeling?”

Jack replied, “Masha I’m doing better all the time and I have good news for you. I completed the paperwork today for our bank. It will take a couple days to be processed then you should be able to access our accounts.”

I smiled and said, “Thank you my love for doing that, even though I still have some of Ben’s money left it will help.”

Jack asked, “So what are you doing today?”

I replied, “Well Jack, I’m taking care of two girls today: Linda who’s the sweetest baby you could ever imagine and Tina who’s addicted to sugar and behaves terribly.”

Jack suggested, “Masha, make sure you take some time for yourself.”

I replied, “Don’t worry Jack, Louise figured out the TV stereo system and we watch movies at night.”

Jack chuckled and confessed, “Geez Masha, I might need her to teach me how to run the thing when I get back. Banzai never did teach me how to run it.”

I asked, “Jack, do you know when you will be back?”

He replied, “Sorry Masha I don’t know the exact date, it will probably be the last day of this deployment.”

I cried a little and said, “Jack, I really miss you!”

Jack replied, “And I really miss you too Masha, be patient and I will be home soon. Look I have to get going and you probably need to get to the bank soon to sign some documents.”

He hung up the phone. I cried until I looked over at Tina and found she had dumped the yogurt on her head and was smearing it everywhere.

I angrily ran over and said, “Bad girl Tina!”

I covered her with a dishtowel so I didn’t make more of a mess with the yogurt, took her out of the highchair and into the bathroom. I ran the water for her bath, set her in the tub and roughly scrubbed her with soap. She began to cry again and I said, “Well, bad girls get treated badly.”

I finished her bath, took her out of the tub, dried her with a clean towel and realized I didn’t have any more clothes for her. I took some of Linda’s clothes and put them on Tina even though they were too small.

Then I realized I hadn’t heard anything from Linda so I went into the room that Louise and Linda were going to share and Linda was busy playing on the floor with the toys. Tina ran in and took the toy Linda was playing with out of her hand, Linda began to cry and I swore, “Tina, I have had enough of you.”

I picked her up, gave the toy back to Linda which caused Tina to cry, took Tina back to Jack’s workroom and shut her in again. Once again Tina cried and banged on the door. I ran back to Linda, who was now happy again with the toys and said, “I don’t think I can take care of you and Tina anymore.”

Linda said, “Tina very bad girl.”

I checked my watch and realized it was already time for lunch and I hadn’t made anything. I dashed into the kitchen and had no idea what to make for lunch...

Flashback – Jack – After the call to Masha

Well Masha sure seemed like she was in a better mood today, However I was worried about her taking care of all of these babies – worried that she was going to want one of her own when I got back. Masha and I had never talked about having babies because we were too busy doing other things, but now we would need to address the issue. I was getting old and wasn’t sure I wanted a baby, but was pretty damn sure that Masha wanted them.

I decided to eat lunch in the mess hall, I walked into the mess hall and it was totally different than before, Hell it was full of Marines, talking eating and generally having a good time. Now this was a mess hall. I grabbed a tray, stood in the line, the Marine in front of me turned saw me and loudly announced, “Sgt. Reynolds is here.”

The entire mess hall stood up and began to cheer and clap, I wasn’t sure what was going on until John came out and told me, “Jack, I made sure everyone knew that it was you that got the better food for us. Now come on, you’re not going to stand in the line.”

John took me up to the front of the line, then he loaded up my plate with more food than I could possibly eat. I walked toward a table and everyone waved me toward them I finally saw a couple old guys that I knew. I walked up to the table and gave them some shit, “What are old farts like you still doing in the Corps?”

One of them laughed and said, “Look who’s calling us old, Hell you must have Methuselah beat for age by now.”

They made room, I sat down looked at my plate and offered, “If any of you want part of my food you’re welcome to it.”

They laughed and Rich said, “Hell, John’s been overloading all the plates today, but this sure beats the hell out of the way things used to be. Thanks for taking the bull by the horns and fixing the food situation.”

Fernando held up his coffee mug and praised, “And double thanks for this great coffee.”

I laughed and said, “That coffee that you’re drinking is the General’s private stash of coffee, so enjoy it while it lasts.”

Fernando asked, “I wonder if John can make good coffee with the ‘normal’ coffee?”

Rich said, “I bet he can! Now that he has some good food to work with I’ve never eaten better. So how did you pull this off Jack?”

I told them the whole story about our midnight requisition at HQ. Fernando remarked, “Damn Jack, you were lucky the fucking towelheads didn’t blow the fuck out of the semi. Every trip I have taken they’ve gotten at least one of the semis.”

I asked Fernando, “So they have you riding shotgun on the convoys?”

He swore, “Fuck yeah and I hate it.”

Rich added, “Fernando’s about bought the farm a couple of times.” Then he grinned at me and said, “I heard you had a cushy job.”

Now it was my time to swear, “Like hell! I’m filing paperwork all day long and then next week I start training the new recruits.”

Rich teased, “Damn Jack, you doing office work, what a life.”

I glared at him and challenged, “I would be happy to trade with you any day of the week.”

Rich quickly backed off, “No fucking way! Spending that much time around Colonel Maggie is enough to drive a person crazy.”

I honestly answered, “It’s really not that bad - for a fucking officer she’s a good one and doesn’t walk around thinking that her shit doesn’t stink.”

Fernando asked, “I heard you had a real SOB Captain in the field.”

I grinned and said, “Hell yes we did, but he’s gone now. Colonel Maggie pulled a General Donaldson on him.”

They guys looked perplexed so I said, “She shipped his ass to Thule.”

Rich and Fernando about busted a gut laughing, then Rich said, “Speak of the devil, here she comes.”

I grinned at them and said, “Let’s have some fucking fun - follow my lead.”

I jumped up from the table, stood at attention and announced in my command voice, “Officer in the mess.”

All the Marines jumped up from their tables and stood at attention. Colonel Maggie walked up to our table and loudly announced, “Everyone except these three, as you were.”

Colonel Maggie teased, “I knew it was a mistake to let the three of you interact.”

Since I was sort of on her good side I replied, “Yes Sir! You are always correct Sir! In fact you are the most correct officer in the Marines and we consider it an honor to serve under your command.”

Colonel Maggie laughed and said, “Jack Reynolds you old bull shitter. I came in here to see how John’s food is and it’s good to see this mess hall full of happy Marines.”

I offered, “Sir John gave me too much food, you are welcome to some of mine.” I was too late as John came over with a plate for Colonel Maggie and said, “Sir, it’s an honor to have you eat with the men today. This is a small sample of the food I made for them.”

Colonel Maggie, took the plate, looked at it and said, “John, there’s enough food on this plate for two of me. We might need to work on your portion control since the last thing I want is my Marines getting fat.”

John apologized, “Sorry Sir! It’s just such a pleasure to see Marines eating my food and enjoying it!”

I suggested, “Colonel Maggie, if you’re eating with the troops perhaps next week you would like to join us for PT.”

Colonel Maggie chuckled and replied, “Don’t worry Jack, I’m going to check out your training methods for the replacement troops. And when I do, I don’t want you to pull any punches.”

Rich stated, “Now that I would almost pay to watch.”

She smiled at Rich and said, “Sgt. Richard Hays, I should make you attend Jack’s classes. From what I’ve heard you’re beginning to slack off.”

Rich backpedaled, “Sir! You must be mistaken, I would never slack off.”

Maggie asked, “So am I going to stand here all day or are you boys going to invite me to join you.”

We made room for her at the table, sat down and Colonel Maggie said, “Jack, I dropped by to tell you your aide is here.” We heard a hell of a noise, I spun around and saw that someone had knocked over all the trays and in a panic tried to pick them up - which added to the noise. Colonel Maggie continued, “Unless I’m mistaken that’s Pvt. Tom now.”

Fernando asked, “How does he rank getting an aide?”

I watched the ‘Marine’ trying to fix his mess and offered, “Fernando, I will gladly let you take him.”

Colonel Maggie shot down my idea, “Jack, there’s no way in hell you’re going to palm off Tom on Sgt. Lopez. Jack, you’re the only hope this Marine has of surviving this deployment. To give him to anyone else would be signing his death certificate.”

Son of a bitch, I felt like Colonel Maggie dumped the weight of the world on my shoulders! I replied, “Sir, I don’t understand how Tom made it here, but I will do my best to train him.”

Colonel Maggie confessed, “Jack he shouldn’t be here at all because it took him three times to make it through basic. The only reason he’s here is because his father was a Marine and pulled some strings.”

Then Colonel Maggie continued, “By the way Sgt. Blaine should now be a happy camper, he got a full pallet of coffee.”

Rich and Fernando asked, “What was going on with Sgt. Blaine.”

I laughed and regaled them with the story of Banzai and the CIA agents. Especially how the stupid fuckers left his coffee on the chopper and how he was going to throw them off the roof until Colonel Maggie shipped him a whole pallet of coffee that was charged to the CIA. They laughed so hard they practically fell off their seats. Colonel Maggie said, “Not only that Jack, but Sgt. Blaine is well on his way to setting some sort of sniper record. Jack, having him as first sergeant at the hospital has made a huge difference. He’s really taken the Lieutenant under his wing and has turned him into a hell of an officer. Now you understand why I want you to train the new recruits.”

Rich suggested, “Colonel, it sounds like Sgt. Reynolds should be a DI.”

I angrily swore, “No way - I would have to wear one of those fucking campaign hats.”

Colonel Maggie dropped a bombshell on me when she said, “But Jack if you were a DI you could be stateside with your new wife.”