JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
Friday Morning
A brown-haired lieutenant made his way up the stairs saluting a LN1 on the way into the office. Generally known as a suave, persuasive – the term 'slimy' had been bandied about – lawyer, Lieutenant Gregory Vukovic was a charmer and that was his modus operandi. In his hand he held a sheaf of papers, his orders, cut to a post in the Judge Advocate General Headquarters and telling him to report to a Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden. Well he could do that easily enough.
Five minutes later walking through the double-doors he saw the prettiest vision on two legs. As his eyes travelled further up the torso, he noticed that torso was wearing Marine Service Charlies. Then he noticed the silver oak leaves on her collars. 'oh shit' was his only thought before the stunningly gorgeous vision turned his world to hellfire and brimstone.
"Exactly what is it that you're looking at, Lieutenant?" an icily prim voice informed him of his gross misconduct.
"Ma'am…" Lieutenant Gregory Vukovic tried to remedy his mistake by asking. "I'm looking for RADM AJ Chegwidden."
"And that would mean ogling my legs?!" the Marine female officer snapped. "It looked as though you were trying to visually strip me, Lieutenant!"
"No, ma'am." Vukovic back-pedaled. "I was just checking to see if my shoes were properly shined to military spec, ma'am."
"Well, keep it in your pants next time, Lieutenant or I will write you up on Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Mac growled ominously. "I wasn't born yesterday."
"Yes, ma'am." Lieutenant Vukovic said, looking for the nearest exit. Spying the admiral's door, he said a hasty "by-your-leave, ma'am" and headed for the admiral's office.
Meg's office
For a soon-to-be married officer, Meg Austin was still busy as heck. She wanted to get the case files down to a manageable level before the Imes trial got underway, but she was starting to regret her decision to stick around to prove a point to the erstwhile Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie. She grumbled to herself that she would have been wiser, after clearing off the files on her desk to opt to ask, as she had planned, the admiral to secure early – but she hadn't Evidently, that wasn't the best possible choice now, as she was realising. Right now the reviews of the cases that Imes was a part of were stymied by the number of incoming cases from other locales.
As one of the most efficient lawyers in the office, Meg was constantly swamped with those cases. But today she was taking the time to go through Commander Carolyn Imes caseload and made it a point to notify the LNs and other officers that she would be reducing her pile of Imes review cases to negligible before her wedding and honeymoon and that she wouldn't be taking any outside cases until her Imes review caseload was empty. That was approved by the admiral wholeheartedly though Mac had snorted about ability to prioritize whereas the admiral had turned around and asked her just how far she was through her Imes cases. That shut the Marine up quickly.
"I guess I'll get through this next case file and see if I can talk to the admiral to see if I can secure." Meg said to herself as she bored her way through another rather thick case file to see if there was anything that she could work with in terms of negotiating an deal and get the case off her plate.
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Patuxent River, Maryland.
"Pitbull, punch out!" yelled his wingman as the F/A-18C Hornet went into a irrecoverable spin – one flap down, one flap up.
"My flaps are jammed. Massive hydraulic failure!" Lieutenant Commander Matthew "Pitbull" Duplessis yelled out. "I'm trying, but the g-forces…have my hands pinned to the sides, can't move them..." The massive G-forces (almost 9Gs) were making it difficult to move his forearm from where they were located pinned to the contour of the seat. Even trying to put his fingers around the alternate ejection handle mounted to the armrest was damned near impossible.
"Grab the handle"" His wingman shouted referring to the handle between legs of the aviator on the NACES ejection seat.
It was a futile gesture as the Hornet impacted in a fiery blossom on the southwest corner of the airfield. Pitbull didn't get out.
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
"Lieutenant Vukovic, Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, Commander Meg Austin, my office!" The admiral ordered across the bullpen. All three officers headed to the admiral's office. When they had entered Admiral Chegwidden's office, the door closed. "There has been an incident at NAS Pax River – RADM Nakamura has been so kind as to fax the particulars over as soon as the incident happened. A F/A-18 Hornet's hydraulic system had a massive failure, the aircraft went into what was referred to as a terminal spin and impacted the ground, the aviator did not get out. We're looking into everything with regards to the maintenance of the aircraft involved. Navy crash investigators are combing the wreckage as we speak trying to find any clues. I want you three to go down and find out what happened. Commander Austin, you're prosecuting, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, Lieutenant Vukovic, you're on defense of any persons indictable in this case. Am I clear on this matter? Hopefully this matter won't take much longer than a week to wrap up."
"Aye aye, sir." Meg said, her eyes looking dismayed – considering all the work needing to be done on the cases as well as preparations for the wedding, this case was an imposition, but such was the Navy on conjugal life. She however was determined not to let this case spoil the wedding and aimed to have the case wrapped up in three days. Harm was not going to be happy about this, but he was going to have to shoulder the bulk of the wedding preparations.
As they exited the admiral's office, Mac looked at her as if she was looking at something on her shoe that she had stepped in deigning to ask: "Shall we take a single car?"
Like hell! Meg didn't feel like being stuck with the stuck-up lieutenant colonel for any more time that she could stomach. If she managed to get her side of the investigation finished, she didn't want to stick around any longer than she needed. And knowing LCOL Sarah Mackenzie, she would do everything possible to disrupt the wedding plans. "I'll take my own." Meg replied. "I need to be back as soon as possible as soon as I finish my side of the investigation."
"Hopefully your haste to come back quickly won't factor into the quality of your investigating." Mac sniped.
"I doubt it, I keep my personal and professional life separate as much as possible." Meg replied with a snarky tone implying that Mac had a tendency to behave like a female dog in heat then walked off to get her gear together.
Mac stalked off to her own office seething under her collar.
Meg's Apartment
Reston, VA
Harm sat in his fiancée's apartment reading his NATOPS manual when the phone rang. "Hello, Meg Austin's residence? May I help you?"
"Sweetheart?" Meg's voice, her twang evident "I need to give you some bad news. The Admiral has put me on an investigation, it may take up to about a week to investigate, but I'm taking a separate car. I'll be back as soon as I finish up. I'm on prosecution for this case so I can ask for a recess for three weeks before it goes to trial. It'll give us enough time to get things sorted out, I hope."
Harm was disappointed but he knew what working at JAG HQ entailed. And he knew that his fiancée was highly professional. Work came before personal life and this was an investigation. Harm knew what investigations were like.
"OK…my love," Harm could barely believe the stuff coming out of his mouth. It sounded like a B-grade romance, but he couldn't resist the endearments especially with his Meg and the simple fact that she was going to be his wife soon added to the desire that he felt especially when it came to her.
"Love you too, Harm. I'll see you when I get back." The phone went to dial-tone as Meg hung up.
The phone rang again and Harm picked it up. Surprisingly it was Animal. "How'd you know where I was?"
"Simple deduction, kemosabe." Animal retorted. "You were with Meg on the night I came over to Blacksburg. I have her file and contact information. And I figured correctly that if your phone didn't answer – to try you over at Meg's. Elementary, my dear Watson."
"No shit, Sherlock…" Harm groused.
"Well anyways, I need you back at Pax River, Harm. Got three JAGs coming down from Falls Church and I need you there to translate their legal-weenie talk into plain English. Maybe that'll help get the investigation done quicker and get your woman back to you so you two can get some wedding plans done." Harm knew that Animal was referring to Meg, one of the investigators.
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Patuxent River, Maryland
4 hrs later
Harm walked through the door of the main office at Pax River, showing his base ID to the sergeant at the desk. Heading for his office, he greeted Coates. "Can you tell RADM Nakamura that I'm here?" he asked pleasantly as possible to his legalman.
"Yes, sir. Captain Rabb." Coates replied smiling.
About ten minutes passed before Animal appeared at his office door. "The JAGs are currently in with Vice Admiral Hadfield. We're both expected to be present." Harm nodded and followed him to the Vice-Admiral's office. Knocking on the door, Harm and Animal stepped into the office.
"It amounts to a massive hydraulic failure insofar as we know right now." Vice-Admiral Hadfield was saying at the moment the two other officers stepped into the office. Looking up, the admiral grinned and said. "Captain Rabb, Rear Admiral Nakamura, glad you could join us." Locking eyes with Meg, Harm grinned at Meg's questioning look gesturing with his thumb at Animal. Meg rolled her eyes. It had to be Animal coaxing Harm back to NAS Pax River.
The meeting went for about an hour and when they were finished, Meg stepped outside with Harm, "Where's Mattie?"
"She's at the BOQ. I brought her with me." Harm stated quietly. "I wouldn't leave her anywhere."
"OK…" Meg said relieved.
"Who's the new guy?" Harm asked.
"A Lieutenant working with Mac. A Lieutenant Gregory Vukovic." Meg answered with a sense of relief that her fiancé was there. "Thank goodness I took my car with me, since I felt like he was sizing me up. Almost thought I'd have to shower to feel clean again."
Harm's response was instant macho male. "I'll put a stop to that." A fist in the pie-hole of the slimy lieutenant would correct that situation very quick…
"Harm…behave." Meg arched an eyebrow. At that admonition, Harm's fury fled. No slimy lieutenant would have him sacrifice his Meg just for some instant gratification in pounding Vukovic into mulch.
Since they were on a military base, PDAs would be severely frowned upon so the two officers kept to strict military protocol, but Harm did notice that Meg did wear her engagement ring on her left hand ring finger. That gave him a definite sense of satisfaction.
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Patuxent River, Maryland
Briefing Room 7
Mac looked over at Lieutenant Vukovic. "Lieutenant. What did you think of the interview?"
"I don't know. All we got was that he did nothing wrong, that he saw his flight leader have a massive in-flight hydraulic failure and lose control of his aircraft, has a liking for ham sandwiches and has a beer and an apple pie at the O'Club every Friday afternoon. Ma'am. I don't think we're going to get much out of him." LT Vukovic responded.
"What do you say that we start interviewing the ground crew. There's something fishy about an in-flight hydraulic failure" Mac's look brooked no objection. "That points to ground-crew negligence causing death and whoever gets nailed for this is going to need a defense as to why they weren't responsible because I have a feeling that it's more than one person. It won't be fair to let one person take the fall if multiple people were involved in careless negligence." …and the opportunity to stick it to Meg was more than ample, as she was the Judge Advocate General prosecutor.
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Patuxent River, Maryland
Briefing Room 3
In the mean time, Meg was coming to the same conclusion that there was more than one person involved in the negligence case and that it didn't rest on the wingman. And she knew that this case wasn't going to be solved in one day. Reading her notes after her interview with Lieutenant Kenny "Mao" Tong, USN, she determined that she seriously needed to talk to the ground crew for the F/A-18C Hornet that crashed. Navy crash investigators had gone over the wreckage with a fine tooth comb and a three ring binder with crash investigation report had been handed over to her for her perusal – some of this investigation she was going to have to run through Harm and Animal for their input, due to some of the terminology in the report. A secondary copy had been given to the defense counsel – Mac in this case.
She looked up, rolled her eyes and sighed. This was going to put a major crimp into Mattie's adoption case.
"When the other shoe falls, it really does fall hard, doesn't it?" Harm's voice said right next to her. She turned around to see Harm. Nodding quietly, she sighed frustrated in response.
"Let's see what they came up with" Harm said quietly as he looked over at the crash report binder.
"I still have a few more interviews to do. The ground crew…needs to be interviewed."
"I'd presume so." Harm replied glancing at Meg briefly while reading the crash investigation report. "Yeah…it needs to be looked into. Lieutenant Tong is a good aviator, one of the best. There wouldn't be any reason why he'd be involved. He's the innocent bystander in this one. He had no way to prevent what happened considering he was in another aircraft."
Meg nodded. "That's why I didn't call him to the witness list. I've got his deposition recorded and on paper, it's good enough to stand up in court." She paused and gave him a winsome smile? "Care to be second chair?"
"Oh, really?" Harm raised an eyebrow then said smugly "The thing is: a) would the admiral let me and b) how would you ask VADM Hadfield to let me do it?"
Meg gave a melodramatic sigh. "Well…there goes that idea…" knowing just how much of an explosion would result from that request.
"…but if I were able to…" Harm replied quietly and wistfully. "I would do it in a heartbeat."
" I know you would." Meg said winking at him. "So let's go grab a bite to eat at the mess. I'm famished."
"Do I need to tell the mess to stock up on extra food while you and Mac are here?" Harm asked, eliciting a glare from Meg. "I don't know much about Vukovic's eating habits. He'll just have to starve if the mess-hall runs out."
"You are so lucky that we're on a military base…or you'd have a majorly sore arm." Meg gave him a look that would freeze ethylene glycol. "Are you intimating that I eat too much."
"Heaven forbid." Harm drew back with a frightened expression.
"Lucky for you, or you'll be spending your honeymoon on the couch." Meg snarked at Harm shooting him a self-satisfied expression.
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