SHAME ON THE BUNNY 7

 Part 1 of The Lies We Told Each Other

Fandoms:
Top Gun (Movies), Thunderheart (1992)

Relationships:
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Sarah Kazansky/Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Sarah Kazansky/Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Walter Crow Horse/Ray Levoi

Characters:
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Carole Bradshaw, Sarah Kazansky, Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, Ron "Slider" Kerner, Ray Levoi, Walter Crow Horse, Grandpa Samuel Reaches, Original Child Character(s)

Additional Tags:
Trans Male Character, Unplanned Pregnancy, Secret Relationship, Polyamory, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky Lives

Summary:
He opens the envelope carefully. It contains the usual letters from Carole and Brad and two photos from Sean Peter Kazansky's first birthday.
Pete traces his finger across the profile of his son Sean, whom he hasn't met in person yet, and feels his heart stop.
How could Ice bear this when Jake was born?
This horrible emptiness, this feeling that every day he is missing something momentous from Sean and Jake's lives while he's here, a pawn in the political game into which the Yugoslav Wars had degenerated.

NOTES:

    Vocabulary
    Lakota = English
    iná = mother
    sunkaku = younger brother
    cekpápi = twins

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Chapter 7: 1996

Monday, February 5

When he enters the office, Viper looks out the window towards the runways.

"Sit down, Kazansky," he says without turning.

The captain obeys. He knows that Viper likes to keep people waiting, to test their nerves. With no idea why he called him, Ice resorts to his favorite technique for avoiding squirming in the halls of power: he mentally goes over his assignments for the rest of the week. Brad is growing up very fast, so he promised to go shopping for a new baseball uniform tomorrow, Tuesday, since he doesn't have practice. Wednesday will be the only adult home: it's one of the rare nights Carole's on-call at the Kaiser Permanente San Diego emergency room, and Sarah's at the UC Maternal and Fetal Medicine Clinic come together. Of course, they will make pasta, for Tom is a man of many talents, but cooking is not one of them.

On Thursday, there is a meeting at the school of their cekpápi: Jake and Sam are co-dependent, the kindergarten teacher has told them, and they must address the problem. Personally, he's happy with their dynamic. It's much better than this time last year when Sean's birth caused Jake to withdraw to worrying levels. February 1995 was hard. After that, the recovery was slow. Since they entered kindergarten, Sam and Jake have been their energetic and mischievous duo again. It reminds him of his relationship with Ray at that age —something he can't say to the teacher— and he's glad that Carole and Sarah feel the same way. They are sure that what bothers the teacher is that they do not have the same last name and should not behave like twins. But the fact is that they have been educated as if they were. They will have to spin it carefully.

Pete has to make a phone call on Friday. Officially he's still aboard the USS Eisenhower as part of the blockade of Yugoslavia in the Adriatic, but... After all, Mav is the best fighter pilot of his generation - Tom can admit it to himself - and surely the bosses think having him chasing down coal smugglers is a waste of talent. If Pete is doing covert operations, he's probably part of the investigations into ethnic massacres and rape camps set up by the Serbs. The rumors surpassed the most disgusting anecdotes of World War II and Vietnam.

When Pete met Sarah in Pine Ridges in March 1991, it took him one day to realize how her pregnancy had started. That his partner knew how to read clues and behave, plus the fact that he grew up stumbling between foster homes, makes him suspect that Mav has some experience with sexual violence, as a companion at least, perhaps as a victim. Of course, Mav has never said anything to him, but being around those investigations must have brought the trauma back.

One of the projects he is working on is improving care for active personnel's mental health problems. Can he convince Pete to get help when he gets back?

His musings are cut short when Viper finally leaves the window and sits on his bureau.

"Everything okay with loop 31?"

Ice nods, grateful that the commander acknowledges how nervous this exercise makes him.

"There were no significant changes. In this course, the competition for the plate is not very close. Robin and Falcon are five points ahead of Loky and Bagel."

"Well, I like that, occasionally, things come out as expected. But I didn't call you for that, but to talk about your future."

"Sir?"

"The high command has decided that our Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program will be merged with the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center. There are budgetary reasons and legitimate reasons for this, but the fact remains that this summer, Top Gun is moving to Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada."

Viper is silent and looks into his eyes. True to his nickname, Iceman remains unmoved.

"I understand that you have a big family."

"Two children are not..."

The commander makes him shut up with a hand movement.

"I know that Jester left you his house, Kazansky."

Tom closes his mouth. Viper's eyes go to the window and get lost in the sky.

"Captain Heatherly is an excellent pilot, as are you ," he pauses, "and as is Mitchell," he finally adds.

His next words have a brooding, reflective tone.

"I know that Top Gun will no longer be so attractive with this change. Fallon is over an hour from Reno. It's impossible to live off base. Regarding you, two years as an instructor is the right amount of time to improve your CV. If you stay any longer, it'll look like you've lost your edge, and you won't be able to rise up in the ranks. Vice Admiral Steils needs a new chief of operations at San Diego Naval Base. Captain Chester "Hammer" Cain has done a good job and will be a Rear Admiral Lower Half in the summer. They'll give him a ship -Viper grimaces, the fact doesn't make him happy-at least it's not an aircraft carrier. Are you interested in that position?"

Tom doesn't have to think about it.

"Of course, Commander."

 

Friday, February 23

"Mitchell."

The postal officer blurts out the name, and Pete picks up his package, head down. He does not want to attract attention since he is already in bad shape with a half the base due to his "extreme sensitivity." The envelope was dated February 19 by the USS Eisenhower Post Office. It took it almost a week to reach this secret surveillance base.

He walks briskly to his room, which he finds empty. It seems his roommate is still in the dining room. Pete gets into bed and closes the curtain. It's all the privacy he will have, and he must take advantage of it.

He opens the envelope carefully. It contains the usual letters from Carole and Brad and two photos from Sean Peter Kazansky's first birthday. In one, Sarah and Tom are sitting casually. She is holding Sean, and Jake is talking to his father. Tom has a hand on his eldest son's shoulder, and they both look at the camera in surprise as Sarah smiles mischievously. He imagines Carole saying, "Hey, you three, smile" or something like that. The second is more conventional: the birthday boy about to blow out the candle on his cake. Of course, since Sean is still a baby, Sarah has him on her lap. Jake and Brad are on the right, and on the left are Sam and Tom. The cekpápi have swollen cheeks. They must have been tasked with blowing out the candle instead of the baby. Brad is grinning from ear to ear, and Tom looks somewhere between exhausted and happy.

Pete traces his finger across the profile of his son Sean, whom he hasn't met in person yet, and feels his heart stop.

How could Goose bear this when Brad was born?

How could Ice, when Jake was born?

This horrible emptiness, this feeling that every day he is missing something momentous from Sean and Jake's lives while he's here, surrounded by people who don't understand him -who may not even know about his real family- as a pawn in the political game into which the Yugoslav Wars had degenerated.

But it's not long now. The Dayton Agreement has led to a radical reduction in surveillance operations. This base will be gone in two weeks, and he will return to the USS Eisenhower to pursue smugglers. He won't forget what he learned while collecting information for reports on the Bosnian genocide and the "Rape camps," but at least he'll be away. He'll be so exhausted flying over the Adriatic that he'll fall into bed utterly exhausted and unable to dream, keeping the nightmares at bay until Tom and Sarah make love to him again.

The door opens, and Pete hears his roommate's footsteps. He rushes to return all back in the envelope and put it under the pillow. He stays still and silent. His roommate believes, or pretends to believe, that he is asleep, turns off the light, and gets into bed.

 

Monday, April 8

Bradley exits the school and looks around for Ice's car. He has yet to arrive. Strange.

Usually, Ice waits for him with the engine running, and they go to the Miramar naval base, where he does the homework, while Ice finishes his duties, and then they go to University City. He likes to study in Ice's office, with the noise of the planes around him. Everyone in Top Gun knows about Dad Goose and his new dad, Maverick, but they don't act like the death of his first dad is something they should still be sad about after ten years.

Bradley clenches his fists and thinks about the note to his mom in the backpack. He feels like tearing it up, but Ice explained that destroying official documents is a crime. He's unsure if the social worker's notes are classified as official documents, so it better not take chances.

He also doesn't understand why they took him to the social worker's office after he told the class that he is not an orphan. He doesn't understand why his teachers insist he is an orphan and asks if he misses his first dad. Brad doesn't miss Nick Bradshaw because he doesn't remember him.

He understands that his mom does miss him. You can see it in some moments and when they visit Goose's grave on his birthday and the anniversary of his death.

But he doesn't need Nick Bradshaw. He has his dad Maverick, who has been with him all his life, doing the same thing other dads do: teaching him how to dress, helping with homework, explaining how to wash dishes, playing in the yard, and reading him stories before sleep. He even brought Jake home so that he could be a big brother. When Maverick had to go off to fight terrorists on the other side of the world, he left him another dad, Ice. Now he has two dads and two moms who get along well, and he didn't need a divorce to get them. In his opinion, he is the luckiest kid in the whole school and not the arrogant Nathan Trent.

Being the luckiest and the prettiest are different things. But Brad won't tell Nathan that.

He tried to explain it to the social worker, but he must not have done it right because she got very serious. Then she made him draw with colors that were all worn out, and at the end, she gave him that sealed note for his mom.

Maybe he can give the note to Ice?

Bradley kicks over a rock and ponders the matter.

Ice is his dad too, and the note says "To the parent or guardian of Bradley Bradshaw." He can at least ask him if he's interested in seeing it. If Ice decides he can read the note, they could end that unpleasantness business before dinner.

Yes, it's a good idea.

Decision made, Brad goes back to look for Ice's car in the parking lot. But sees something else.

Brad runs.

Maverick steps away from the Kawasaki and greets him with a tight hug.

"Brad, my little one," he sighs.

"Mavdad," the boy moans as he hides his face in his neck, which smells of gasoline and leather.

"I missed you so much, Brad."

"I also missed you a lot Mavdad."

"Well, I'm back."

"Did you kill all the terrorists?"

"I did what I was told," Mav replies. It's not a concrete answer, but it satisfies Brad. His dad points to the motorcycle. "Shall we go?"

Brad nods, Mav hands him the helmet, and they fly off through the streets of Miramar toward University City. They enter the house through the garage and up the internal staircase. The cekpápi are in the living room, and the noise makes them look toward the gallery. They get up as soon as they make up Brad and Mav.

"Iná, Mavdad arrived," Jake yells.

Samantha hugs Mav's leg.

"Wow! Sam, how pretty you are, my girl.” -Pete moves her away, takes her hand, and makes her turn around. "Every day you look more like your iná."

"And me?" Jake asks, stopping a few steps away. "Do I look like my mom too?"

Pete doesn't answer immediately, surprised by the question. Jake had never asked him about his birth mother before. The front door opens, and Ice enters the house with two shopping bags. Pete looks at his partner briefly and then at Jake.

"Yes," he finally says, "you look a lot like your mom. Now will you give me a hug?"

Jake seems satisfied with the answer and is glued to his father for the rest of the day. He even asks Pete to help him bathe -he had told him very proudly in one of the calls from Yugoslavia that he already did it alone- and to tuck him in to sleep. It's not strange. After all, he spent almost two years without seeing him. Logically, Jake feels a little anxious. The question about his mother, that does worry him.

Already in bed, Pete discusses the matter with Sarah and Tom.

"He asked me about his mother. He had never asked before. When I left, Carole was his mom, and he wasn't very interested in physical resemblances. Is this something new he learned in kindergarten?"

Sarah exchanges an awkward look with Tom, who sighs.

"Well?" Pete insists.

"It started with Sean's birth," Ice finally says. "We explained to them that the new little brother would arrive in the winter after growing in Sarah's tummy. Of course, they asked how it got there, and we told them the story of the seed of love."

"Which isn't such a bad metaphor after all," Sarah says.

Ice snorts. They disagree on that, but… he continues his story.

"We decided it was better to have the delivery in the clinic where Sarah works, and we spent the night there. Since there were no complications, we returned the next day while the kids were at school. When they arrived in the afternoon, we were already here, Brad and Sam understood it as something magical, but Jake reacted differently. He said Sean was too small and that his arrival was a mistake."

Sarah looked at him tenderly and raised a hand inviting Jake to come closer.

"Of course, it's not a mistake, honey. Sean was born just when it was due. Not all babies are born the same size."

But Jake remained standing near the door, his expression suspicious. The way he narrowed his eyes made Sarah uncomfortable: it's the face Ice makes when something bothers him, and he doesn't understand why.

"No." The boy repeated stubbornly. “I am much bigger in my first photo.”

Carole, Sarah, and Tom exchange worried glances. Ice went to say something, but Brad beat him to it and made things worse.

"That's because you didn't come home immediately." He said distractedly from the other side of the bed, where he was caressing the baby's shoulder with the tip of his finger. “You were almost a month old when Mavdad brought you home."

"The what?" Sam was leaning over, studying the dark lanugo covering the baby, but Brad's statement made her look up, confused. "Was Jake born sick and had to stay in the hospital?"

Jake looked at his older brother with evident outrage.

"How come Mavdad brought me? I am your brother. I came out of Mom's tummy after Mavdad planted love in her. Right?" and looked directly at Carole for confirmation.

Carole swallowed, surprised. They never discussed when or how to tell Jake he was not her biological son. After all, the boy is blond like her and Brad -like Tom- and they have been raised as brothers. He looked at Ice, who had a complicated expression, a mixture of pain and resignation.

"Mom?" Jake insisted.

But Tom intervened. He approached the boy and dropped to one knee to face him.

"Jake, you came to this family in a different way. I'll explain it to you later, but now you're scaring Sam, and you don't want that, right?" the boy shook his head, embarrassed. "Okay, then I'm going to carry you, and you're going to meet your sunkaku, Sean."

Ice picked up her son and carried him to bed. Sam stepped back so that Jake could see the wrinkled, pink face square on. Sarah readjusted her grip, and the baby moved a little. He fluttered his eyelids slowly and opened and closed his mouth quickly as if looking for something to chew. Before his mom latched on to feed him, Jake caught a glimpse of Sean's eyes: green, like his own.

Pete's fists are clenched, and his breathing is ragged. The story unsettles him, but he forces himself to remain calm.

"And what did you tell him afterward?"

Ice makes an awkward face.

"As much as we could: that he didn't grow in Carole's tummy, but someone else's, but that this person couldn't stay to take care of him, so they trusted you to do it. And that when you arrived in Miramar, Carole realized he was a wonderful baby and decided to be his mother. That moms and dads are not always the ones who sow the seed, but other people who love us. Just like Nick was Bradley's dad until he went to heaven, and now you're his dad."

Mav nods. Yes, that's as much of the truth as they could tell, at least to a four years old.

"And was it enough?"

Sarah is about to say something when Sean's intercom goes off. She gets up quickly, but before leaving, she turns to the bed with a severe expression.

"Ice, tell him the whole truth" -and she leaves.

Pete raises an eyebrow, questioning.

"Can you tell me how Jake took your explanation?"

"He cried a lot the first few days. I had asked for a week to take care of Sarah, but Carole had to ask for a vacation because he didn't want to be separated from her. He refused to go to daycare with Sam. He followed her everywhere like a puppy, and the little he slept was in her bed. He had Brad mark the Adriatic Sea on a map for him and posted it on his bedroom wall. He hardly spoke, except to ask when you'd be back, if Carole loved him as much as Brad, and —he stops, sighs— if she could tell him something about his other mom.

"That makes sense," Pete says softly.

Ice nods.

"Yes, it's logical," he repeats through clenched teeth. "The tension was taking its toll on everyone. Brad… Brad took offense at the questions about this unknown person. I don't think he had ever thought about where you brought Jake from, and it threw him off balance. One afternoon he burst out and told him he was a crying and ungrateful baby, that at least his first mother hadn't died."

"Ouch! That's hard. How did you solve it in the end?"

"Sarah told me something about the power of rituals, and it occurred to me to organize a ceremony: we signed a contract."

"A contract?"

"Yes. I told him that Carole and Bradley would sign a contract to be his mother and brother, irrevocably. I had to explain the word's meaning to him. He was very flattered. I told him that we had not done it before because he was very young and could not understand the importance of the matter but that he was mature enough to make things official. We went to Miramar in formal clothes. Viper received us in his office dressed in his whites."

"You recruited Metcalf for that?!" Mav interrupts.

"He wanted me back in Top Gun! I told him he had to help me. So Viper seriously asked Carole and Bradley if they wanted Jake irrevocably, I insisted he use the word. He then asked Jake if he wanted them as mom and brother too. Jake said yes. They signed a contract printed on official Navy stationery, and Viper put three stamps on it. Then he held out his hand to Jake, assuring him that he had made an excellent decision."

"Did it work?"

"The contract is on his nightstand, next to your photo, didn't you see it?"

"I saw that he had a new frame on the nightstand, but I did not stop to read it. Is that the whole truth?"

Ice looks embarrassed.

"The most important thing is Jake," -but the phrase is clearly defensive.

"Yes, -Pete says softly and adds- "but not the only important thing."

Sarah's warning made Mav pay special attention to his partner's body language as he spoke. Ice is slightly hunched over, his gaze is evasive, his hands clenching and unclenching around the sheets constantly. Most of all - and Pete can't believe he didn't notice sooner - he's put on a T-shirt and a pajama shirt to bed. An unpleasant suspicion takes shape in his mind.

"Ice, you don't think that… You know it's not your fault, right?"

Tom lets out a snort between annoyed and incredulous.

"And whose is it, Mitchell? If I had accepted my fate..."

"Your fate is to be an admiral!" Mav interrupts. "Admiral Thomas Kazansky will do more for the navy and the armed forces than Chester Nimitz himself."

"Well, I was born with the wrong body for that great plan, and when I got pregnant with Jake, I should have understood it! He thinks he doesn't have a mother because I'm a coward. He spent a month crying himself to sleep from exhaustion while asking about his mother, and I was there, paralyzed, making excuses in my head when I only had to step forward and say, "It's me. I'm your mother."

"Hey!" -Mav takes his face in his hands and forces him to look into his eyes. "Don't talk about yourself like that. You are his father. Jake doesn't have a mother because he has two fathers. That's the only truth. You are not a coward, Ice. You are a man who made the best of an impossible situation. You could have ended it, right?"

Ice instinctively backed away, but Mav grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Answer to me."

Ice bites his lip but nods.

"Yes, I could have ended it."

"And no one would have held it against you," Mav assures him, “but you didn't. You gave Jake the chance to be born and me the chance to be a father. That's not cowardice. It's courage. One day, Jake will be old enough to understand all you sacrificed for him, but not yet. Okay?" -the other growls. "Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, look me in the eye and tell me you understand what I'm saying."

Ice takes a deep breath and raises his eyes.

"I understand that we must wait until our son is an adult to explain how he came into this world."

"Good." -Mav gives him a short kiss on the lips and begins to open his shirt- "And if you want to blame someone or something, blame the bunny."

"Shame on the bunny?" -Ice looks at him incredulously.

He lets Mav take off his shirt, but he grabs the bottom of the T-shirt, and Mav understands that this is the limit for tonight.

"Yes," -Mav repeats as he settles down, hugging Ice- "it was the bunny's fault."

Sarah arrives a while later and climbs into the bed on the other side so Ice is in the middle.

The next morning, Mav plays chauffeur. He drops Sam and Jake at the elementary school, Sean at daycare, and Sarah at the clinic. He leaves the car in the clinic's parking lot and walks back home. Pete knows it's almost a two-hour walk across the University of San Diego campus, but he needs to meditate.

Not anticipating that Jake would ask about his birth mother was a mistake. They were so rushed to establish Ice's manhood that they didn't consider the side effects. But, hey! There are no articles in "Sports Illustrated" on handling filial information within your secretive, incestuous, polyamorous family, so he thinks they're doing pretty well for now. The proof is that neither has been the subject of a DADT investigation.

Ice made the best of an impossible situation for the second time, and Mav feels like crap because, again, he was flying and not with his partner. He loves to fly, and he loves Ice, but he can't have his two passions simultaneously. He's known since they started flirting in 1988. It would have been the same in a heterosexual relationship: Being a Navy aviator means long months of separation, sometimes even without communication for secret missions. Goose and Carole accepted those rules. He knows other couples in a similar situation. Sure, their fundamental difference is Jake.

Mav understands her son's anxiety after realizing he is not exactly like his siblings. He remembers how his world fell apart after learning that Duke Mitchell wasn't coming back. Remembers his desire to recover a semblance of order, to -he now understands- feel equal to his peers again. His mother couldn't give him any of that. Added to the pain of losing her husband was the economic stress in which they were left due to the alleged betrayal. Mary Mitchell invested all her energy in protecting Pete from hunger and eviction, so she couldn't attend to his sentimental needs. Then she died. As a child, Pete was very upset by everything his mother did not give him. As an adult, he can understand her priorities: she's just been dealt bad cards in the game of life.

But Jake's family isn't struggling to keep a roof over their heads. They have four steady wages. This allowed them to put Colonel Levoi's inheritance into a trust to pay for Jake, Sam, and Sean's higher education. Nick and Carole got Brad's college fund the day he was born.

He smiles at the memory. Tom didn't want his stepfather's money, but Ray convinced him that using it for his unconventional family would be the best revenge against the man who forced him to wear below-the-knee skirts and makeup since he was twelve.

He stops dead. Could it be that…? Mav looks at both sides of the street and miracle!

"Taxi!" He yells at the top of his lungs. "To the San Diego Amtrak station," he orders as soon as he's gets inside.

Mav goes to the pay phone row at the station and calls the Oglala Tribal Council headquarters in Allen, South Dakota. The conversation is brief but fruitful. In just ten minutes, Walter assures him that what he needs will be waiting for Sarah next Saturday when she makes her weekly visit to the Barona Reservation Health Center.

Now he just has to convince Ice.

"Wow!" -says his partner with genuine surprise when he exposes his plan that night.

"I think that's a good idea," Carole says. "Jake needs concrete objects to build memories, so we can draw limits."

Sarah nods.

"Yeah. We just have to explain to him that it is very private to ensure he keeps it in his room."

They look at Ice, waiting. As the person potentially most affected, he's the one who has the last word.

"Jake is the most important thing right now. Let's do it."

For the rest of the week, Mav reintegrates into family life. Among other things, he deals with Brad's school's social worker. He explains to the annoying woman that they're a military family, so Goose's death was perfectly normal, and no, their son doesn't need psychological help to process the loss. Thank you very much.

On Saturday night, they meet again in the dining room. Sarah passes the package to Ice.

"You'd better look at it now, so you'll be ready when Jake gets it tomorrow."

He nods but doesn't touch it. Mav puts a hand on his shoulder.

"You can do it," he encourages.

Ice swallows hard and finally opens the package with shaking hands. It contains an item and a note in his brother Ray's stylized handwriting. He pushes the paper to Mav.

"It must be for you."

Ice forces himself to take the object in his hands and study it for a full minute. He puts it very slowly on the table and runs off.

That night, Mav gently makes love to him, pretending not to notice his tears.

 

Sunday, April 14

"Jake, I have a birthday present for you," Mav announces mid-morning after they've finished breakfast and are sitting on one of the couches in the living room.

"My birthday has already passed," the boy says, surprised.

"Yes, but I wasn't here, so I want to give you a belated birthday present. Are you going to say no to a gift?"

Jake's eyes widen. Of course not! He extends his arms.

"Give me, give me, give me, Mavdad."

"And don't I get a present?" Sam demands, but her iná stops her.

"This is a special present for Jake, honey. Wait."

Sam pouts but stays put.

Mav hands Jake a rectangular object wrapped in blue wrapping paper. Jake rips open the wrapper with nervous fingers and finds a portrait of a woman with slightly wavy dark blonde hair that falls to the middle of her back. The child looks at the photo blankly.

 "Who is she, Mavdad?"

"This is your first mom, Jake, the one who had you in her tummy, Rachel."

"Wow! Look Sam!"

The girl runs towards them. Bradley stops pretending to be studying at the dining room table and joins them on the couch too.

In the photo, Rachel is wearing a light blue linen shirt, a red sweater on her shoulders, sleeves tucked across the chest, and white elephant foot pants. The young woman looks at the camera with hands in her pants pockets and a serious, somewhat challenging expression. Her eyes are blue like the winter sea.

"How old was she in that photo?" asks Bradley. He can tell the difference between teenagers and adults at eleven years old.

"Seventeen," Mav says, "this picture is from her high school prom, summer of 1987. They did a seventies-themed dance, that's why the baggy pants."

According to Ray, the photo was taken on June 1977, and their parents forced Tom to dress in the most fashionable style of the moment. The only concession was to let her wear trousers and not the flared skirt the colonel would have preferred. It's probably the last photo Rachel Seresin took before she disappeared and was reborn as Tom Kazansky, Navy recruit. But they've agreed that changing the age of Jake's birth mother will better serve the story they want to tell.

"My first mom was very pretty," Jake says as he runs his finger along the glass.

"Yes, she was."

Pete can say it without fear. He is sure he would have fallen in love with Rachel Levoi, or Seresin, as deeply and irrevocably as he fell in love with Tom "Iceman” Kazansky.

Jake looks at his father in fear.

"Is she… is she in heaven with Brad's first dad?"

"No, Jake, she's not dead," the boy heaves a sigh of relief, "but she can't come to see you. It is very important that you understand no one can know who was your birth mother. That photo has to stay in your room. That goes for you too." says looking to Sam and Brad. "Can you keep the secret?"

Three solemn faces agree.

"Well, it will be our secret."

 

Saturday, June 1

The last four F-14 Tomcats and twelve F/A-18 Hornets took off from Miramar for Fallon. Crowds of Navy officers and San Diego civilians gather to watch the end of an era.