Wednesday, August 9*13:00 Zulu*JAG Headquarters
"Tiner, send in Colonel MacKenzie and Commander Rabb ASAP."
"Yes, sir." The two officers came in silently, too silently in his opinion. He had noticed the change when Harm had resigned from flight status and returned to JAG, only five months after leaving, supposedly for good. The Admiral was not sure if the female officer had not forgiven her partner or simply had a hard time trusting him again. All the Admiral knew for certain is that the spark was gone and he wanted it back.
"Colonel, Commander, I have received a call today requesting JAG assistance on a case. They asked especially for you two. Apparantly there's been two homicides of naval commanders."
Understandable, Mac thought. "Where is it, sir?"
"Dallas."
"Alex Cahill-Walker?"
"Yes. You have fifteen minutes to get packed and on the plane. Dismissed!"
"Aye, aye, sir." Then they turned and left. On the plane, Mac turned to Harm and said, "Harm, Alex and Walker are two of our best friends. Let's try not to fight so much down there."
"Okay. I'll be good. If we have a fight, it'll be all my fault anyway. It always is."
"See, Harm. That's exactly what I meant. I never said it was all your fault. You always twist my words around!"
"Whatever. Hey, how's Alyssa?"
"She's fine, she's staying with Mic."
"Does she like him?"
"Yeah. He takes time to play with her and brings her little presents. He's also the closest thing to a father she's ever had."
"Is that why she's not staying with Bud and Harriet?"
"That and I didn't figure Harriet would feel like taking care of two rambuctious babies, expecially since Bud's away on a case." With that, Harm stared out the window while Mac took a short nap. Mac awoke when the plane landed and unboarded with Harm tailing her, both searching the crowd for Alex or Walker. They spotted two young rangers, one male, one female. The male was muscular with blonde hair, blue eyes, standing slightly behind the female, as to give her all the support she might ever need. The female was tiny with long, black hair and deep brown eyes. She was the one who recognized and greeted them first.
"Hi, you must be the JAG officers, Mac and Harm. Walker sent us to pick you up. I'm Sydney Cooke and this is my partner, Gage." Mac smiled at the younger woman.
"Pleased to meet you, Sydney, Gage. I'm Mac, this is Harm. We've got to pick up our luggage, then we can go."
Wednesday, August 9*17:00 Zulu*Ranger Headquarters
Walker filled Harm and Mac in on the case. "There are three suspects: Commander Hargrove, Colonel Seville, and a civilian named Alastair McCain. Tomorrow, Trivette and I will tail McCain. Harm, you and Gage will tail Seville. Mac, you're with Sydney tailing Hargrove. For tonight, Sydney and Alex have agreed to cook for us at Sydney's apartment. Harm, you'll need to get to know Gage, so you two will stay at his apartment. Mac, you'll stay with Sydney. Let's go."
Wednesday, August 9*20:00 Zulu*Sydney's apartment
All seven friends were crowded into the living room. Walker and Alex were sitting on the couch, Gage and Trivette in the two huge rockers with Sydney sitting on the floor next to Gage. Harm was against the wall opposite Walker and Alex with Mac next to him, sitting about a foot apart.
It was silent so Harm commented, "This is great!"
Sydney answered, "Thanks! Alex made the green salad and the tea. I made the enchiladas and salsa. I'm afraid the store made the cookies."
Mac smiled at the way Sydney looked at her partner when she said salsa and the way she made a face when she admitted the cookies were store bought. Then she commented, "Everything is so great. Have you guys heard from CD?"
Walker answered, "He decided to stay in Japan for awhile."
"What does he think of it? I was stationed at Okinawa for awhile. It is so beautiful there."
"He seems to be enjoying himself."
"Guys, we need to be leaving."
Trivette stood with Walker and Alex. "I've got to be going too. I promised Josie I'd call her tonight."
Gage stood as well. "Bye, guys. Syd, I know I owe you one, so I'll do the dishes."
Sydney looked down at the paper plates, rolled her eyes, and laughed, "I'll bet. Just toss them in the trash." Harm and Mac miraculously contained their laughter until the two partners were in the kitchen.
When the rangers entered the den, Mac started telling stories about Harm and Bud's escapades, which started Sydney telling stories about stupid stuff Gage had done, which finally prompted Harm to tell stories about Mac. They finally ended up in hysterics about nine thirty.
Gage noticed the time and said, "Hey, I hate to break this up, but if we're going to be at the station at six tomorrow, we need to be headed home now. Especially since you guys probably have jet lag and Syd just has to get up at five to get ready."
"Hey, at least I'm never late!" All four stood up and walked to the door. At the door, Syd and Gage gave each other one of their long looks and then Sydney told Harm, "When he's driving, it helps if you don't look. A quick prayer usually helps too." Harm gave her a quick flyboy grin and Gage chuckled and shook her head at his partner.
"Night, Mac. Night, Sydney."
"Night, Mac. Night, Syd."
When the guys left, Mac turned to Syd. "Gage's hilarious. Sometimes I wish Harm…"
"I'm going to be really presumptious right now, but I've heard about you two for two years. What I've seen today, doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just Gage and I are so close."
"Harm and I used to be like you two. Some things happened and it's not good… Where do you want me?"
"In Grace's room, the one with the blue canopy."
"Who's Grace?"
"My daughter. She's on a church trip this week."
"Well, thanks. Good night, Sydney." Mac retreated into the room.
"Good night." As the female ranger set her alarm and called to make sure her partner had gotten home without a wreck, the female jarhead curled into a fetal position and cried for herself, her partner, and the way they could have been.
The next morning, they all reported to the station, Gage and Harm late as usual. "Okay, you all know your teams and your assignments. Call in when you see anything. We'll meet when we find something or back here at eight tonight. Good luck."
It had been an uneventful morning for all three teams. Since they were parked in a parking lot, Sydney and Mac didn't notice a black Suburban pull to a park in a spot diagonally from them. They also did not notice when a figure clad in black leaned out the passenger window with a gun. As Sydney slumped over the steering wheel, Mac grabbed her cell phone and called Harm.
"Harm, get here quick. Sydney's…" Everything went black as their connection was lost.
Harm spun to face Gage. "I don't know how to say this. We've got to get to the girls. Sydney's hurt."
"WHAT?"
"Just drive. I'll explain on the way. Right now, I'm calling Walker and telling him to meet us there."
The older rangers met Harm and Gage in the parking lot next to Sydney's car. "What happened?"
"We don't know. They haven't called back."
"We're pulling in Commander Hargrove for questioning."
Gage nodded and began searching the jeep for clues. "No blood, no…no bodies."
"Thank God," Harm whispered.
The girls woke up in a bare, filthy hunter's cabin. Mac began laughing softly.
"Mac, you okay?"
"Yeah. It just reminds me of a vacation Harm and I took once. Harm's a pilot, so we went flying and we almost crashed. Before we were hunted by crazed poachers, we found an abandoned cabin like this one."
Sydney laughed and said, "I've got a better one. On Walker's bachelor party, the guys went to Lake Ebby to fish. Gage was attacked by a bear and taken to a nearby cabin. This cabin."
"Are you sure?"
"I had nightmares for a month. I'll never forget it. I know where we are."
Back at the headquarters, Rangers Garcia and McKinney and Alex were questioning Commander Hargrove. The three came out, thoroughly frustrated. Alex told Walker, "All he'll give us is name, rank, and serial number."
"Let me talk to him."
"Walker, no. Walker, what are you going to do? Walker…" The door slammed behind him. Five minutes later, Walker strolled back out, motioning for Rangers Garcia and McKinney to return into the room and Gage and Harm to follow him.
Inside the cabin, the girls were silent, missing their partners. It was Mac who finally broke the silence. "Sydney, what would you say to Gage if he left you for five months to do something he loved, he got tired of that and came back, and expected everything to be exactly the same, for you to drop everything and be at his disposal? Yet, at the same time, you were pregnant and he thought the baby's father was someone he hated." "Why do I have this strange feeling you're talking about you and Harm?" "Probably because I am." "I think I'd be really hurt about the baby, I'm used to him supporting me in whatever I do. Gage and I were seperated for seven months and we were still best friends. We talked whenever we could, spent as much time together as possible, since I was in Houston, he had already moved to Dallas. I still would drop anything and everything if he needed me. I saw you two last night, I think everything will be fine."
"I hope so. Thanks, Sydney. I feel funny talking to Alex, she's never even had a partner, much less been as close to them as Harm and I and you and Gage." "Does Walker know you two date?" "WHAT?" "I kinda picked up on that. You two are too close to not be dating. Don't worry, I'm real sensitive to these things." "Walker found out before Gage and I did. The two weeks right before the wedding were big indicators. First Alex and I got kidnapped, and then, as I said before, Gage was attacked by a bear and nearly died. If we didn't already love each other, that didn't hurt." "You two date and the head honchos let you stay partners? Admrial Chegwidden would never agree to that." "The only people that know are our families, Walker, Alex, and Trivette. CD doesn't even know, of course, he hasn't been back since we started dating. You said something about having a child? Where are they?" "Alyssa's staying with my boyfriend, Mic." The girls then heard Walker's voice on the bullhorn, "You're surrounded. Turn them loose or we'll come in after them!" The two guards released them and shoved the girls out the door. Sydney had to laugh as she saw the rangers outside. The cabin was surrounded all right. Walker was in front, Gage and Harm flanked the cabin, and she turned to see both Trivette behind the cabin and the biggest guard throw a grenade at the women.
Sydney looked at Mac, said, "Run!", kicked the grenade back toward the cabin, and ran to a hole covered with leaves between Walker and Harm. After the explosion, Sydney and Mac raised up, dusted themselves off, ran to their partners, and watched the cabin complete with guard erupt in flames. Sydney started shaking her head and laughing. Gage and Walker looked at her puzzled.
"That cabin! Someone always gets hurt in or around that cabin!" Then she looked in Gage's blue eyes and added softly, "I'm just glad it was the bad guys this time, instead of the heroes." She leaned into his side as he put his arm around her shoulders. Mac and Harm followed, holding hands in new found friendship and strength as Walker and Trivette brought up the rear, smiling like Cheshire cats.