To all my readers: Thanks for reading and reviewing…and to the readers like "williams keeper" and "byrhthelm" for keeping me on track. It's great to know that people are reading and enjoying this. So thanks and please keep reviewing – it helps my muse stay active.
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1300 HRS Same Day
Mac opened the door of her office as Meg hurried the bullpen past loaded down with a briefcase and files. "Commander, may I have a moment with you." She hailed Meg.
"Not now, Colonel, I have to get to court. RDML Morris is going to have my six if I'm late for his courtroom." Meg said irritably as she blew past Mac enroute to the courtrooms.
"Two court cases in one day?" Mac turned around to look at Commander Sturgis Turner as Meg flew through the swinging twin doors.
"Evidently, Commander Austin is extremely busy. The Admiral is leaning on her to carry the load that Commander, excuse me, Captain Rabb formerly accomplished while he was here." Sturgis raised his eyebrows. "And if I surmise correctly, she's very efficient."
"Efficient…" Mac snorted derisively. "Sounds like she's in over her head considering that she's running late for her court case." That fact that it only took two and a half hours for Commander Austin to pick apart her case that morning still was eating at her. And she did it so easily too; that really stung.
"Is there a reason why you two are chattering like a group of old hens, Commander Turner, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie?" The two turned to see crossed arms sporting gold braid…eyes following further up the torso saw a raised eyebrow and a stone-like glare emanating from a very pissed off Rear Admiral upper half Albert Jethro Chegwidden. "I believe the two of you have work to accomplish? Namely some cases of Imes?! Because if you feel you don't have enough to do, I can certainly hook you up with a few more trial cases."
"No, sir." The two properly chastened snapped to.
"Then get back to work!" Admiral Chegwidden had to just put a little snarl into his growl and both Marine Lieutenant Colonel and former Navy bubblehead three-striper made themselves very scarce. Disappeared into the ether would have been a good term for it as to how quickly they vanished into their respective offices. As he heard the doors click, Admiral Chegwidden smiled a tight grin. There was something to be said about keeping his subordinates on their toes. If there was one thing that Admiral Chegwidden noticed, it was the animosity between Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie and Commander Meg Austin. And since Commander Austin had Captain Rabb now and was openly dating him, the animosity had flared up into open condescension. If Admiral Chegwidden heard any more disparagement coming from Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, he would put a stop to it. Commander Austin was a capable officer and could hold her own in pitched verbal battles; however it was his duty as commanding officer of the Judge Advocate General's office to ensure that it didn't get to that point.
About 2 and a half hours later, Meg came striding back into the office. Lieutenant Bud Roberts looked up inquisitively. Meg shot him a big grin and gave him a 'thumbs up'.
"Congratulations, Commander. You beat Commander Mattoni?"
Meg nodded as she headed back towards her office just as Mac came out of the office again. "So…Commander, are you busy still?" the condescension in her voice was palpable to any onlooker. Meg turned around abruptly after dropping her files on the desk and putting her briefcase on the floor beside it, then stepped three quick steps to place her nose to nose with the Lieutenant Colonel.
"As a matter of fact, I am…" Commander Austin said. "Lieutenant Colonel. Inside. Shut the door!" She snapped as Mac bristled, but shut the door as ordered. "Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, I have no idea what your problem with me is, nor do I really care. Yes you have seniority over me by a couple of years, but I have no doubt that I can make an Article 133 charge stick. Would you care to test those waters?"
"No, Commander." Mac said, raging inside as Meg stalked around Mac in a circle like a predator circling prey. Normally this was Mac's domain and she was uncomfortable with the sudden about-face of circumstance.
"I choose to not acknowledge your pointed barbs because I know that you can't resist throwing them." Meg snarled eyeball to eyeball with Mac and Mac knew uncomfortably that Meg was taller than her by several inches. "However I tire of the constant barb flinging and will charge you with a violation of Article 133 if you keep this up. And rest assured, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, that I can and will make sure that you never, ever get another promotion again. There are people in higher positions than I that can make your career path very uncomfortable. Am I making myself clear?" Mac looked eyeball to eyeball with Meg and saw a pair of very cold ice-like eyeballs staring back at her. "I'm warning you, Colonel, test my patience one more time and things will become very uncomfortable." Considering one of Meg's contacts had the ear of Marine generals and Navy admirals, Meg was definitely telling the truth when she said this though Mac didn't know this.
"You can't threaten me…" Mac stuttered. "I can level an Article 89 against you."
"That's where you're wrong, Lieutenant Colonel." Meg stated coldly emphasizing the lieutenant part of the rank. "You have seniority by virtue of time in rank. You, however, are not my superior officer. Be aware of that. Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie."
The look on Mac's face was priceless, her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.
"Dismissed, Lieutenant Colonel." Meg said dismissively. "Shut the door on your way out." Mac abruptly turned around left the door, barely resisting the urge to slam the door shut on her way out. Meg smiled to herself – she thought she saw a nuclear mushroom cloud going up over Sarah Mackenzie's head.
'That bitch' Mac thought to herself as she stomped back to her office. 'That bitch was right' Mac knew for a fact that she was treading on thin ice by continuing to be malicious towards Commander Austin, however the fact that Commander Austin had taken her Harm away from Mac ate like steadily dripping battery acid in her craw.
That Afternoon
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1730 HRS
Meg was sitting at her desk working on another case when the phone rang. "Commander Austin" she said as she picked up the phone putting it to her ear. "What can I do for you?"
"Hey, Meg…sweetheart." She smiled to herself upon hearing a certain 6'4" tall aviator's voice.
"Hey, yourself. Sweetie." She replied as she made a few more notations on the case file. "So what's happening in your neck of the woods?"
"I got to play with an airplane – a Super Hornet." Harm's voice was teasing.
"Oh…" Meg said. "…and…"
"Animal took me up for a familiarization flight. So while he and I relocated dust bunnies from one end of the airfield to the other…according to Vice-Admiral Hadfield, I was missing you tremendously."
"Oh…is that so?" Meg teased him back. "Even while you were occupied by flying…"
"Yes…missed those blonde locks of yours, your beautiful blue eyes and your luscious lips…y'know…" Harm's voice had a very bantering tone to it but nestled in there was something very wistful too which Meg thought was endearing as he suddenly said. "I miss you…"
"So…sailor…care to come over and show me just how much you miss me?" Meg shot back cheerily.
"Think you could handle it?"
"I've handled bucking broncos…flyboy…" Meg retorted and knowing that this would potentially lead to a lot more, said. "I'm getting off around 1930hrs… care to meet me at home?" A knock on the door caused Meg to say "Hold on a minute, Harm."
Commander Liandra Nakamura leaned her head in. "Hey, I'm on my way out, Meg. See you tomorrow. Gotta go home and feed Rear Admiral Hungry." Noticing Meg had a receiver in her hand. "Say hi to Harm for me…" Lia winked knowingly acknowledging Meg's 'oh stop!' smile, quickly shutting the door with an outrageous thumbsup…and a "go get'im tiger."
"Oooh…Lia's incorrigible." Meg muttered barely holding back a laugh.
"Animal and Lia are great for each other…" Harm replied, a laugh apparent in his voice.
Lia and Meg were friends outside the courtroom but in the courtroom, it was strictly business as usual. Lia ruled by letter of the law and it didn't matter who was in the courtroom. She wouldn't hesitate to rule against Meg if Meg's argument did not stand up in court on its own merits and Meg would have to deal with that ruling without complaint. And that was the reason why RADM Chegwidden had no problems with one of his judiciary staff mingling with his attorneys. If there was any inkling of favoritism or skewed rulings, there would be definite problems to address, but as it stood, Commander Nakamura did not let "friendships" get in the way of dealing out justice. She was a friend of Harm's as well, but Harm had lost track of the number of times that when he was in the courtroom, that he had gotten strips taken off his hide for doing something stupid in the courtroom when Commander Nakamura was on the bench. No nonsense meant exactly that and that was Commander Nakamura to a tee when she was judging a case and Harm had to thank his lucky stars that Lia wasn't on the bench when he did that stupid think with the Heckler & Koch or he'd have had his stripes yanked, busted down to 0-1 and be the first ensign in the history of the Navy to get permanent latrine duty rather than the punishment he had gotten from RADM AJ Chegwidden and RDML (then Captain) Stiles Morris. And Chegwidden would have backed Lia up too on the punishment.
There had been one complaint, Harm recalled, by the late Lieutenant Loren Singer based on how Commander Nakamura had ruled on a case between Harm and Singer. The opportunistic Lieutenant Singer had seen Harm talking to Commander Nakamura outside the courtroom and had promptly proceeded to accuse Commander Nakamura of impropriety and bias based on her decision based on her familiarity with Harm despite the fact that Harm was just asking about a court decision and clarification on a ruling. All things considered, the whole case was examined by RADM Chegwidden, and Lieutenant Singer was hauled on the carpet in RADM Chegwidden's office. Needless to say, Lieutenant Singer came out of that office pasty white. Commander Rabb and Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie had sworn the walls had vibrated outside Chegwidden's office. There was nothing wrong with the ruling, it was determined to be found and Commander Nakamura had been found to be a little on the lenient side in regards to her ruling which was for the defendant whom Singer was actually defense counsel. She could have thrown the book at the defendant and chose not to do so based on extenuating circumstances; so considering the nature of her accusation, Lieutenant Singer had to consider herself lucky that she sidestepped a potential landmine to her own career. False accusation against a superior officer carried a charge of a potential court-martial and Article 107 which was thoroughly drummed into Lieutenant Singer's mind by an absolutely enraged Rear Admiral Chegwidden and she was told in no uncertain terms in a stentorian volume to "be absolutely goddamned sure that your case doesn't have such gaping holes in it that you could drive a truck through before you start accusing superior officers of wrongdoing. Or By God, Lieutenant Singer, I will sink your goddamned career! DISMISSED!"
Mac's Office
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1930 HRS
Mac again was sitting at her desk when she saw a tall person go by in civilian clothes wearing a "visitor" badge. It was Harm. It was all that she could do to not get up, go out and greet him, when she saw him enfold his arms around Commander Austin and give her a passionate kiss. It was only when she realized she was bending her pen to the shape of an L by sheer force in aggravation did she stop, just before the breaking point of the pen. Losing a case to the erstwhile blonde Commander, being dressed down by the same Commander Austin and called out on her behaviour was not doing her anything for her mood and if her day hadn't gone into the crapper by noon-time, it had thoroughly been flushed down the sewer pipes by now as she saw Harm through the blinds of Commander Austin's office running his hands through Meg's hair.
Mac nearly put her fist through the wall when she heard Meg's throaty voice go "Let's get out of here…Harm…I need you." If Mac's head could have exploded, her brain matter would have created a Rorschach decoration of her office. That fat orange and black striped cartoon cat was right: Mondays did truly suck! Footsteps past her office indicated the outbound direction of both Commander Austin and Harm.
Mac had found out, back when Lieutenant Singer had levelled a baseless charge of impropriety against Commander Nakamura, from the testy and enraged admiral himself that any fallacious and vindictive baseless accusations from now on, would automatically result in an Article 107 UCMJ charge and then would proceed to an Article 32 separation from the service, in essence a dishonorable discharge. So she was warned that she could not potentially do anything to that blonde tart and get away with it. And the admiral was watching. And that frustrated Mac to no end. Commander Austin was running circles around her and she had no recourse against her at all.
She wanted to scream and throw a tantrum in outrage; however that would just bring Marine security over and then the men in the white coats to take her away to a padded cell where she could drool and gibber unintelligibly. How could her life have gone so wrong? She had Harm in the palm of her hand and somehow…that…that thing (in Navy blues)…had managed to take Harm from her. What had she done wrong? She looked back at her past year and she could still find nothing wrong with her own behaviour. She reflected that she had truly lost Harm but what could she do to win him back?
From what she could see, she was absolutely screwed with regards to winning Harm back due to Commander Austin's interference and it made her absolutely livid to see Harm running his hands through that blonde bimbo's hair. It made thoughts of revenge delicious.
Meg's Apartment
#5 522 Seagull Crescent
Reston VA
"Well, we're here…" Meg said as she got out of her car, as Harm parked his car in the second parking space allocated to her apartment suite. Harm grinned as he locked the car door with his remote key fob and proceeded to smother Meg in another passionate embrace and lip lock.
"Hey…" Meg protested, "Can we wait until we get upstairs?"
Harm pondered the location…and the hood of the car for a long moment then turned and grinned at Meg as she turned red with embarrassment at the implication.
"No…Harm!" Meg said archly. "Now let's get upstairs." She ordered.
"Your wish is my command…Aye aye, ma'am." Harm grinned back at her sending heated pools of warmth running through her belly. The elevator didn't seem to move quickly enough.
Grace Aviation
Blacksburg, VA
Mattie Grace poured over the bills. The amounts just didn't seem to add up with the contracts that she was taking in. Maintenance costs on the aircraft, the accounts receivable that hadn't been collected yet. The fact that some of the gas bills for av gas were on the 90 end of the 30/60/90 demand letters didn't help her stress level any. She was late on some of the mechanic's pay and had to ask them to take a little less to enable her to keep the doors open.
The last envelope on the desk sat like a poison pen letter. Addressed from Richmond Virginia, Mattie looked at it with the same trepidation that a mouse looks at a rattlesnake.
Department of Child Protective Services, Richmond, Virginia.
She didn't even realize that her hands had picked up the phone and was dialing Harm's cell-phone number.
Meg's Apartment
#5 522 Seagull Crescent
Reston VA
Harm's cell phone rang…just as Meg and Harm were getting comfortable on Meg's couch intertwined with one another. Harm swore to himself – it had better not be NAS Pax River. Picking up the phone, he heard a tremulous yet familiar voice... "HARM?!"
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