Chapter Five - "An Offer You Can't Refuse"

To: (Guest) – Reviewer – Thank you for the "catch". :D Had to adjust Harm's age to fit the 1963 birthday too.

"An Offer You Can't Refuse"

"You have a what?" Harm looked at Meg in shock.

"That's right." Meg admitted softly holding his hands. "After all that Mac did to you…" she said angrily at the depth of the hurt that Mac had inflicted on Harm. "I'm surprised you still have any bit of feeling for her."

"I don't know…" Harm said sighing. "I didn't know. But when you look at it the way you've been presenting it. It doesn't make sense that I should keep pursuing her, does it?"

"Not from where I'm sitting." Meg replied. "But that's not up to me; is it." Meg stood up…taking the empty plate from which she had finished the vegetarian lasagna to the sink. After placing the plate in the sink, she turned around. "The question is…Harm, are you going to keep having her use you like this emotionally beating you or are you going to call it off." She walked over to Harm, taking his hands again, pulling him up to her. "Because I never left you…but I did leave something of mine behind." She said softly. "Harm."

"What." Harm asked, not really understanding where this was going.

Meg pulled him to her encircling her arms around him…and giving him a kiss; feeling a slight resistance at first, then he yielded to her desire returning the kiss with equal passion, his broken heart seeming to mend and become whole. "My heart, Harm." She whispered as they separated for breath. "That's why I'm willing to fight for you." And she said "And Colonel Mackenzie had better be prepared for battle, because I am ready."

"You love me?" Harm sounded absolutely surprised. Where had this come from? This came out of left field from somewhere he hadn't been expecting. The simple fact that his former partner loved him left him buffeted in the storm. Through the year that Meg and he had been partners, she had been a strait-laced by the book partner, not giving in to displays of affection, other than when he had gotten promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Oh, they had flirted and given off the impression of being best friends, but still, she wouldn't go beyond their assigned ranks and decorum expected of said rank structure.

"Would I have played tonsil hockey with you just now, if I didn't? you dolt!" Meg growled. "Oh…you men! Dense as usual!"

How he had missed Meg. When she had left him during the incident with Diane's murder and being falsely charged for her murder; the NSA had approached her with a new billet to get her out from under their hair. She related to him how she had admitted to Commander Krennick about loving him while he was imprisoned in China. And that's where he saw the absolute depth of the love in Meg's eyes.

"…and that's why…I took the opportunity to take the Weapons position, because ultimately they swore to do things to you…" she paused for a moment, a hitch in her voice, struggling to not betray her emotions. "…to make you disappear. Somebody wanted you gone. I couldn't sacrifice you to stay at JAG. Harm and that's why I left so suddenly."

Harm opened his mouth. Somebody had been willing to kill him. He knew that he had enemies, but he didn't know that they had the connections to make him disappear. "Then how were you able to come back."

"They were eliminated. Swept." Meg said implying that they were hunted down and killed. "Somebody above looked into things; saw that a rogue section tried to eliminate you and they decided to eliminate those responsible. So it was safe to come back to JAG…and I came back only to find out that you're gone." She paused as he held her in his arms. "along with an opportunity that I couldn't resist."

Harm looked at her with pain in his eyes as his brain digested all of what Meg was telling him. "Meg. You've been through so much pain."

Meg nodded. "And a lot of it was psychological, Harm. Not knowing where you were, not knowing if I was ever going to be able to return. I put off having a life period because I didn't know what was going to happen." She shuddered. "And the thought of putting someone through the torture that I was going through, that anything could potentially happen to them. It just wasn't going to be a part of the relationship equation. So I stayed away from relationships altogether."

"I can't truly comprehend what you went through, Meg." Harm said. "But you have someone who is willing to listen here." He held her hands as she looked at him; a fearful look in her eyes that she was about to be rejected. "I'm still healing from what Mac put me through…" he said, his eyes full of pain. "I resign my commission, I go down to Paraguay, get shot at, and she turns around and she kisses Webb, right in front of my face, as if to rip my heart out and put salt in the open wound." What was it that made Harm just open up to his former partner. She just had that ability to be able to get him to talk.

Meg got up and walked around the loft looking at the various pictures. When her eyes happened on the photo of "father and son in the F-4", she picked it up and looked at it.

"One of the reasons why I'm so faithful to Mac is that she was the one who went with me to Russia where I found my father." He paused a moment as he struggled to regain control over his emotions. "Too late, however. He was killed by Russian soldiers in Siberia and was buried somewhere out on the tundra, place unknown. He also had another son, my step-brother. Sergei. He was a sergeant in the Russian military." He picked up a photo of a Russia military man.

As Harm put down both photos, Meg turned around to take him in her arms. She whispered. "If it was me, I'd have gone too." And Harm could see the truth in her eyes. "I would have been beside you all the way."

"I know, Meg…" He said softly. "I know."

They knew that it would take time for them to both heal from the scars of what they'd been through. But Harm knew the depth of the love that Meg had for him and this time, he wouldn't let go. As Meg and Harm said their goodbyes at the car, Harm grinned, happy for the first time since Chaco Boreal.

MAC'S APARTMENT

GEORGETOWN

WASHINGTON, DC

Mac did not look the slightest bit happy that evening as she sat on the couch and looked over case files of the court cases between her and Imes. The court cases would have to be reviewed for any hint of improper handling or the decisions could all end up being reversed and retried. For any cases to have to be retried would put an even larger load on the current court docket with witnesses and defendants having to be resubpoenaed. Suffice it to say, the admiral was not pleased nor was the SECNAV. To top off the fact that Harriet had responded to Commander Austin's chew-out by running to her and warning her of Meg's interest in Harm, the SECNAV had come in to AJ's office which resulted in a thorough chewing out of her and Sturgis by the admiral stating quote "WELL GET YOUR GODDAMNED ASSES ON IT!" unquote.

And what really made Mac stew was that Meg was showing unabashed incentive in going after Harm and Harm was showing real interest in his ex-partner from long-ago. That was going to make life really interesting because despite Mac's apparent showing of affection for Clayton Webb, which in reality, was to make Harm extremely jealous and make him pay for the apparent snubbing of her advances in Sydney. Oh, Sarah Mackenzie was a woman who didn't forget being snubbed and she was not about to give up on Harm until she really truly knew that the situation was lost or was in her advantage.

And the fact that both Sturgis and she were overloaded with regards to the over three hundred cases that the Commander Carolyn Imes had tried, it was insanely restricting on the time that she could spend with Clayton Webb.

And lately, Webb was starting to be a liability with his PTSD, because he started to turn to drink to quell his nerves and he'd usually bring over a bottle despite knowing that Mac was a recovering alcoholic and drink it right in front of her, the fumes being an irresistible draw back to the brink. What made it worse was that sometimes he would leave the bottle when he left and the siren call of the bottle was irresistible. Frankly, it took a Herculean effort to keep from taking a drink and falling back into the abyss because she had the shakes too. The ordeal at Chaco Boreal had left her life shattered; the remnants pieced back together in a parody of a psyche.

She knew that she was living a lie, trying to make it seem as though she was intact when all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. She showed false bravado and tried to laugh things off. She was inappropriately dismissive when Bud had asked her whether she missed the Commander stating that at least there was nobody firing automatic weapons in the courtroom. That had come out because she was resentful that after the cutting statements that she had made at Harm, that he hadn't come chasing after her. He had sat in a seat on the airplane from Ciudad del Este as far away from her as he could get. When they had reached Andrews, he was the first to get off the plane, despite her asking him to wait, hopping into a cab and departing before she could say anymore. He did not answer his phone all that weekend. His retreat was about as far as he could get from her, and he wasn't that friendly towards her when he went with her to see Admiral Chegwidden. After that meeting it was a defeated Harm that had gone into his office to clear out his things and when he had called out to Tiner as he tossed his Commander/Captain's officer's cap to him and said "For when you make Commander, Tiner, Hope that it brings you better luck than it did me." Mac had wanted to cry for him, but that would have been improper in uniform.

REAR ADMIRAL CHEGWIDDEN'S OFFICE

JAG HEADQUARTERS

FALLS CHURCH, VA

WEDNESDAY 0830 HRS

"Sir, if I may." Commander Sturgis Turner ventured. "We are extremely overloaded with these cases and it would be extremely helpful if we could get…"

If RADM Chegwidden's eyes were lasers they would have bored a hole through Commander Sturgis Turner. AJ knew exactly what Turner was implying and he didn't like it one bit. Sturgis knew that he was going to get a serious verbal blasting. "Commander." The rear admiral growled ominously. "If I had wanted Mr. Rabb back in my command, would he not be in his office right now? Would you not be back in your storage closet of an office?"

"Yes, sir." Sturgis locked up tight standing at attention. RADM Chegwidden stood up, slamming his chair back.

"Mr. Turner!" AJ growled. "Since none of these things have taken place, wouldn't it be evident that he is no longer welcome back in this office?" He looked like a shark circling his prey as he slowly walked around Turner. "There are things that you have no business inquiring about. And whether I had brought back Mr. Rabb or kicked his ass out into the Arctic Circle is one of them. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." Turner said. He knew he was treading the line of insubordination and had no intention of crossing over it.

"And just how many of Commander Imes' files have you managed to get through?" AJ asked, his question cold and calculating.

"Sir…twenty-seven, sir."

"And that's between your court appearances." AJ's eyebrows had raised up to about halfway to his crown and his eyes looked about as friendly as a raptor hunting a rabbit.

"Yes, sir." Turner braced himself waiting for the verbal eruption.

"WELL THEN GET YOUR ASS BACK TO WORK!" was the bellowed admonition. "DISMISSED!"

"YES, SIR!" Turner said as he retreated from Chegwidden's lair and quickly closed the door to be met by YN2 Jennifer Coates and a worried look that spoke volumes.

"I wouldn't disturb him right now. Yeoman Coates." Turner said as he removed himself quickly from RADM Chegwidden's outer sanctum.

"Understood, sir." Coates retreated back to her desk.

PENTAGON

WASHINGTON DC

0900 HRS

"Mr. Secretary of the Navy, sir." Animal nodded as he looked at SECNAV Sheffield. "You requested my presence, sir."

"I've been looking over your military record, Admiral Nakamura." SECNAV Edward Sheffield smiled. "We have a billet that needs filling. Deputy Commander NAVAIRSYSCOM. This will entail that you go up in grade by one star."

"Sir, if I may." Animal asked, his brows furrowed. "I don't have an engineering degree, sir."

"But you are a decorated naval aviator who knows what his squadron needs in terms of real life weapons systems and you've loosed weapons in anger with devastating effect, meaning that you have tactical combat experience and that's what we need in NAVAIRSYSCOM. Not just the slide-rule and calculator types. We need real-world experience to draw upon." SECNAV Sheffield insisted.

"Sir…if that's what you feel the billet needs, I would be more than happy to take the position."

"Your RADM position is effective immediately. You can pick up your new uniform accroutements at the PX."

"Thank you. Sir."

"You will also need a JAG at NAVAIRSYSCOM to assist your command and I've notified the commanding officer, VADM Mitch Hadfield and I know just the officer, I've taken the opportunity to talk with BUPERS and with the Chief of Naval Operations, who has made effective the date of his reinstatement into the United States Navy, as soon as you indicate that he would be willing. And if he doesn't, then you can enlist this other officer as a Command JAG…" he handed a second officer's file folder" of course the secondary option would create a slight problem as this billet has a O-6 ranking requirement and she was just recently promoted to O-5. Now, you need to get to that first officer before Chegwidden does."

"Oh, I'm sure I will be able to talk him into it." Animal grinned as he looked at the name on the file. He had another visit to make to Blacksburg.

An elated RADM (two star) left SECNAV Sheffield's office and headed for the Pentagon PX.

JAG HEADQUARTERS

FALLS CHURCH, VA

WEDNESDAY

0900 HRS

"A word with you, Commander." Mac said, her exotic brown eyes not betraying a hint of emotion. "Since you've been familiarized with the systems in place here at JAG Headquarters, I believe that you could be of some use with regards to the backlog of files here. I was wondering if you might be able to assist us on the backlog of Imes' cases that we have to review." Inside though Mac was saying to herself with some smugness 'That ought to keep her at home and busy.'

Meg grinned at her. "I'd be happy to." she smiled frostily at Mac knowing exactly what Mac had planned. 'Not on your life.' She thought. 'if Mac thinks that'll keep me away from Harm, she's got another thing coming.' She'd just review the Imes' cases with Harm. "Is that all, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie?"

"My office, please." Mac said ushering Meg forward into her office, following her then shutting the door.

"So, what did you wish to speak with me about?" Meg asked.

"I'll fight you for him." Mac said simply.

"Excuse me." Meg said. "You'll fight me for who?"

"Harm." Mac stated. "You have one year of experiences with him, I have seven, so where does that leave you."

"I don't think that this is the place that we need to be discussing this." Meg said coldly staring down at Mac, her blue eyes flashing. "This is a military installation and this is closely drawing the line for an Article 133, Lieutenant Colonel! I suggest that you back off…and regain your composure. Is that all?" Mac didn't say anything in reply. "I believe then that I will leave you to your work." She exited the door closing it without a sound.

Mac just fumed. 'That bitch' was the only phrase that ran through her mind.

GRACE AVIATION

BLACKSBURG, VA

Harm looked at Mattie as he grinned while wrestling a piston back into the engine of his Stearman. "Dang, you've been running this place for that long?"

"Ever since my dad decided to bail on me." Mattie replied, then looked up to see a Navy Sedan pull up in front of the Grace Aviation hangar and a very familiar admiral dressed in RADM blues. "Who's he?"

"My old Navy flight school instructor." Harm said. "I wonder why he's here."

"I hope he isn't coming to take you in chains, is he?"

"No he doesn't have any connection with the legal system." He walked towards the admiral's car and the admiral. "So, what can I do for you? Animal?" They both sized each other up.

"Well…Harm." Animal said. "I've got a proposition for you."

"I've got a job." Harm said. "One that I like very much."

"It involves getting you back in uniform and on top of that you don't have to go back to JAG. You'll be working for me and my new boss Vice-Admiral Hadfield." Animal stated. "Had a brief talk with SECNAV. He'd be willing to reinstate you at O-6, Captain. The six months you were with the spooks would be classified as TDY."

"There's been a new complication." Harm said. "Meg's back…and Mattie here has been running the business by herself. If I leave her, then Mattie's got nothing."

Animal was confused. "Who's Meg…" Then a flash of memory came back. That was the other folder that SECNAV Nelson had given him. "Hate to say this. If you refuse. I have to take Meg."

Harm's face turned hard. "You're what?"

"SECNAV gave me her folder too. If you don't agree, then I end up putting Meg in that position…not only has she not gotten enough time in rank to be promoted to O-6 as she's just been a Commander for maybe all of two days. But SECNAV needs that COMJAG position filled fast enough that he's willing to overlook that."

"Shit, Animal…" Harm said. "That's fucking blackmail!"

"Call it what you want. Look, I'll give you until Monday to think it over. Talk to AJ...He may want to take you back, but you can be damned sure that I'll get one of you two." Animal said as he opened the door to the car. "Think that you two won't be in the same chain of command."

"What?"

"You got feelings for Commander Austin." Animal said. "I'm not blind." He said pointing at his wings. "Think about it." He closed the door and motioned for his driver to head off.

When Harm came back to the hangar, Mattie looked at him. "You're going back to the Navy, aren't you?"

"I don't know that, yet, Mattie."

"He didn't seem to give you much of a choice." Mattie said turning away, then she whirled back. "Are all admirals assholes so much?"

"Not him. He stands by his men. He's a good commander who sticks up for his men and doesn't leave them behind." Harm said as he looked into the sky at the setting sun.