Chapter Two - "...And In This Corner"

"And In This Corner"

JAG HEADQUARTERS

FALLS CHURCH, VA

0945 HRS

"Lieutenant Bud Roberts!" LCDR Meg Austin smiled as she strolled through the office. "Well, how are ya?" Bud looked up to see a pretty and familiar blonde Lieutenant Commander come striding over. "So, Rear Admiral Chegwidden mentioned that you were going to give me the grand tour."

"Uh…um…oh, yes, ma'am." Bud stammered helplessly. "Well…I guess he did, ma'am."

"So how are things here. Bud." Meg asked. "The atmosphere doesn't feel the same as it did when I left here ages ago. It's like there's tension everywhere." Meg felt a rather hostile stare from a blonde Lieutenant and turned around. "Lieutenant…is there something wrong?"

"Ma'am?" the Lieutenant turned around sounding prim and proper. "I don't believe so." She said.

"Well…I just noticed that you seem to be of the opinion that I do not need to be here." Meg stated, then stepped directly over to the woman while Bud tried to make himself scarce. "It just so happens that I have been assigned here; the whys and wherefores not being your business."

"Well, ma'am, with all due respect, when you are talking to my husband…" the Lieutenant started to say before Meg cut her off.

"Lieutenant, I was just remarking on the atmosphere of this office. It was a professional discussion between two officers." Meg said firmly and decisively tiring of the sniping. "First of all, if you are his wife, then you will understand the difference between discussion and flirting. Secondly, I am a Lieutenant Commander with a half-stripe more than you. Now lock it up! Lieutenant Sims!" she snapped her eyes going to the Lieutenant's nametag. "Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Meg's pretty blue eyes turned to ice as she bit out clearly enunciated words that cracked like gunshots. "Lieutenant Sims, my personal love interests do not lie in the direction of your husband. They happen to lie…" she whispered harshly just audible enough that only the lieutenant being chewed out could hear "in a certain 6'4" ex-fighter pilot. So you can rest assured that your 'Bud' is perfectly safe while around me."

"Yes, ma'am." Harriet maintained the position of attention, her thoughts churning figure eights in her brains while Meg circled her like a shark sensing blood in the water.

"Now, as the Public Affairs Officer for the Judge Advocate General's office, do you not have tasks to do?! Files to file, press releases to type up?"

"Yes, ma'am." Harriet said wincing at the Lieutenant Commander's harsh glare.

"Then I would suggest that you get to it, Lieutenant Sims! In the interim, Admiral Chegwidden has indicated that he would like Lieutenant Roberts to give me the grand tour of the JAG office. That is the only reason why I was discussing matters with your husband."

"Aye, ma'am. My apologies, ma'am."

"No offense taken, Lieutenant." Meg said. "Dismissed!" Harriet made herself scarce.

"What is going on!? There is so much noise out here that I can't even concentrate on my caseload! Is there a problem, Lieutenant Commander?" Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, all 5'10" of her height wearing barely regulation black pumps to give her height, stepped into the bullpen. The Lieutenant Commander towered over her by about three inches. Mac looked at her. "Lieutenant Commander? I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, United States Marine Corps. People call me 'Mac' for short." Mac didn't notice Meg's eyes narrow remembering the phrase that Harm had mentioned to her about Mac. "She's a Marine…that's dedicated her life to driving me absolutely batshit insane…"

"Hello, Colonel." Meg extended her right hand. "How do you do." If this was a match of sizing each other up to assess each other's strengths, the other party didn't recognize it. But Meg was playing to win.

"I was kind of wondering why you were chewing out Lieutenant Sims." Mac asked.

"Aside from the insinuation that I was hitting on her husband, which kind of annoyed me, ma'am." Meg stated that rank deferral diminutive so that it wouldn't appear that she was being disrespectful.

"OK…" Mac said. "Well…nice to meet you. I'm sure we'll probably talk again." She said dismissively. After all Meg was only a Lieutenant Commander; the rough squid equivalent to a Marine major.

Meg smiled. "Ma'am, it appears that we both know a mutual friend." Mac looked up questioningly at Meg's statement of fact.

"Oh, we do?" Mac was curious.

"Yes, a certain Harmon Rabb Jr. As you see, I was his former partner in this JAG office." she stated. "I left because there was a billet open for an officer with my set of skills and it was a great career opportunity and a stepladder to higher rank."

"Is that so." Mac was wary. "And you are aware that Harm resigned his commission and left."

"I became aware of that, quite recently as a matter of fact." Meg stated, her smile becoming wider. "Admiral Chegwidden asked for me to come onboard to lighten the load so to speak."

"oh." Mac's internal warning lights came on. There was danger in this area, landmines, like the actual ones that Harm and Mac had to deal with in Afghanistan a few years back. But this particular landmine was a lot more subtle than and just as dangerous as the real ones. This Lieutenant Commander was a go-getter, the Admiral asked for her to come to JAG, and on top of that; the most dangerous part of it was that she knew Harm. This was not a good sign, everything was warning her to go to battle-ready.

"Ma'am, now I need to get the grand tour of the office with Lieutenant Roberts. By your leave, ma'am." Meg smiled with a subtly wolfish smile, touching the upturned corners of her lips, but not going as far as her eyes.

"Alright Lieutenant Commander, I'll see you around the office."

GRACE AVIATION

BLACKSBURG, VA

"Hey, Hammer!" An asian man, his posture showing military bearing, dressed in civilian clothes, wandered over to the hangar. "I figured I'd find you here at some airfield puttering around the planes."

"Animal, what you doing here?" Harm looked up in surprise as he saw his old flight school instructor wandering over.

"Heard from Sturgis that you dumped your commission and headed for Paraguay, came back and dropped off the face of the earth. Puttered around with the Company for awhile or at least that's what the scuttlebutt in the squadron was." He kicked a clod of dirt that bounced about 15 feet away, then looked up at Harm "So what the hell's going on? Wanna go for a drink and a burger, maybe and you can tell me about it? Yeah, I know. Veggie burger. You vegetarians make me wonder how you can survive on rabbit food."

"I presume you're not here to make assessments on my diet, are you?" Harm raised his eyebrow as he weighed a measuring look at his old friend.

"Well…naw. I can insult you about your eating habits any time. You don't have to tell me the stuff you're not cleared to say anything about." Animal said. "Now you gettin' into the car or what? I'm damned hungry!"

"Clearing it with my fourteen year old boss." Harm retorted as he turned back towards the hangar "I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later, Harm came back, "Yeah, sure…let's go grab a bite."

"Lenient boss." Animal snickered.

"Hey, I don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Harm retorted.

"Gillie's, OK?" Animal said. "Cheap but good food."

"yeah, fine, if you're buying." Harm replied as he looked out the window of the car. Animal drove a Chevy Impala, cheap for a rear admiral's car. But Animal was frugal. His wife was the same way. The battle group commander was a top-notch naval aviator and loved flying.

"Don't tempt me to go dutch, Rabb…" Animal said with an evil grin.

When they got to Gillies, parked and went in and grabbed a table, Animal looked over at his friend and said. "What the hell's going on, Harm? You drop your commission, you take off to Paraguay, then you come back, go into the Company, get fired from the Company and then take up crop-dusting. What's going on?"

"Boss that I like, I get to set my own hours…" Harm replied. "Works out perfectly. Pays three hundred a day."

"You really know what you want to do with your life, Harm?" Animal asked him pointedly. "You had a great law career, making more money as a JAG lawyer and able to put some money away for savings and retirement once you hit your thirty years."

"Right now, I don't know. Mac's come over once hassling me about Ime's cases with regards to her Article 32 hearing and court-martial. I'm at the point where I don't care, Animal. I don't really want to go back. I'm sure AJ's gonna come out at some point and beg me to come back, but I'm not sure if I want to."

"Yeah?" Animal said, disbelief coloring the tone of his voice. "Responsibility, Harm. You gotta start taking some responsibility for your actions, Harm. When your face was plastered all over that TV you knew your career with the Company was done. You know how they operated, you knew that when you signed on."

"So…Animal, how do you reconcile your career flying aircraft off carriers, the adrenaline rush and all that that comes with being the battlegroup commander? How do you say that you're being responsible when you hang your life out on the edge like that?" Harm said.

"The line is there, Harm, you just have to see it. I don't take un-necessary risks. I don't cross that line. People can call you a coward all they want, but I know that I can outfly the majority of them. But I also know my own limits. I'm not a daredevil looking for the next adrenaline rush." Animal replied, looking at Harm. "Lia…and our life together is the future that I work towards; who means everything to me. You need to find that line and learn to stay on the right side of it." Animal grinned, reached out a hand and patted Harm on the shoulder, then laughed shortly and retorted. "And you need to learn to quit pissing your superiors off."

"I'll take that under advisement." Harm said raising the glass of water to his lips. Putting it down, he grinned.

They drove back to the airport in relative silence.

After the day was over, Harm got back on his motorbike and headed back out on the road back to his home north of Union Station. He had a lot to think about. First the meeting with Catherine Gale's mother, then the dinner with Catherine Gale herself all telling him that he needed to take responsibility; now his old flight school instructor telling him that he was a hotshot that needed to find the right side of the line to stay on. All of that weighed on his mind as he made his way inside the apartment, as he sat down. Then on top of that, Meg was now back in his life. Things were getting very complicated. Mac, Catherine, Meg. What could he do? Was his place honestly back at JAG? And if that was the case, then where would his relationships be. He couldn't very well have a relationship with any of his co-workers. Shaking his head; he muttered to himself. "I'm just giving myself a headache."