Disclaimer: Don't own either "Law and Order" (Original Series) or "JAG"
A/N: First FanFict ever. Crossover between "Law and Order" series and "JAG". Three cheers to the writers on JAG for FINALLY bringing back the wit and humor that made JAG so unique in the first place. CAN'T wait until Friday's show--and did every other "Shipper" swoon over the previews?
"All's Fair in Love and War"
0800 Military Time
Mariott Hotel/Downtown New York City
Jack McCoy and his assistant, Abby, had just come into the room and were looking over their registration materials when she glanced up and gave McCoy an elbow.
"Well, would you look at that?" she said in a low voice.
Jack's head jerked up in confusion and she hissed, "Look just what came in the door!"
There were two military figures—one Navy, to Jack's uninformed eyes—and there was no mistaking that marine green. The tall Navy guy could have been a poster boy for the Navy. Abby's breath was sucked in: "Classic handsome." She turned her head to Jack and her eyes twinkled just a bit: "Is that what you would call 'Rock-Hudson handsome'"?
Jack shook his head and took another look. "Yeah. Those looks are pretty classic—but that Marine, Wow!"
Abby turned serious. "What—or who—are they?—and what are they doing here?"
Jack leafed through the conference program. "Ah—they must be JAG—look what's on the schedule." He pointed to a seminar scheduled for the next morning.
"Military Law and Civilian Courts—Jusidictional Boundaries." He flipped the leaflet over. "And look! Sessions on the Patriot Act."
Abby's eyebrows arched. "They're lawyers!."
"Yeah." He folded up the program, put it with the other registration materials, and tucked the whole package in his briefcase. He jerked his head and said,
"Let's go meet them."
"Ah, Mac! You're just jealous you can't wear one of those $1,000 suits." The Marine's eyebrows shot up and she tossed a mischeivious grin at the tall Navy man,
"unt-unt. I was just thinking about how nice I don't have all those dry cleaning bills."
Abby bit her lip from grinning. Jack was charging forth to introduce himself and she was trailing in his rear.
"Jack McCoy, EADA for the New York County District Court. This is my assistant, ADA Abby Carmichael." He said, putting forth his hand forward for a handshake. The uniformed man returned the handshake.
"Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr., Navy Judge Advocate General Corps" He gestured to his colleague, "Colonel Sarah McKenzie, United State Marine, also of JAG Corp." The four shook hands in greeting. "We're both with Headquarters, Washington D.C."
"You come up from Washington for this conference?" Jack's eyebrows went up in a questioning manner.
"Yeah.. There's a couple of interesting sessions going on where the military judicial system and the civilian system seem to be meeting more and more these days and it was thought it would be a good idea to see what the consensus seems to be on several issues."
"Makes sense. There seems to be a great deal of confluence at times." He was thinking of the clashes between the government/military and civilian attorneys over the treatment of "unlawful combatants", specifically the prisoners in Cuba, among other clashes occurring in the civilian court system. On impulse, Jack waved his hand towards the tables in the room, set up for both breakfast and introduction of the beginning of the conference. "Why don't you join us for breakfast?"
There was a glance shared between the two military attorneys and a little noticed shrug of the shoulders. Jack and Abbey led the way.
Abby's jaw dropped when she saw Col. McKenzie's plate.
"Are you going to eat ALL that!"
The Marine office was shaking out her napkin to put it on her lap. The response came from the Navy commander, accompanied by a chuckle.
"Yeah. She's a bottomless pit when it comes to food—even dead cow stuff."
Col. MacKenzie just shook her head at her companion.
"Marines have to eat to keep up their strength, you know."
This was said in all seriousness although Abby thought she detected a note of amusement underneath the statement.
The last night of the conference was devoted to a dance, and everyone was in their finest. Abby wore an off-the-shoulder black shin-length chiffon and lace dress with stilleto heels. Jack, of course, had his tuxedo and, with his gray hair, looked like the distinguished attorney he was. Abby looked around for the two military officers and was surprised to see only one military uniform. Next to Commander Rabb, Mac was absolutely stunning in a bright apple-red slinky gown with a fair amount of cleavage. Jack's eyes were absolutely wide. But Abby's eyes were drawn to the Commander—in his dress whites. He was breathtaking.
They joined the two.
"Mac, I thought you would have worn a uniform?" Abby was truly puzzled.
"It's not necessarily required for females in the service unless indicated on the invitation to a social function."
"Well, you are absolutely stunning." Jack gave her a small bow from the waist in tribute to her beauty. But trust Mac to bring things back to earth. She nudged Abby in the ribs a little and commented,
"Don't you think Commander Rabb makes excellent 'eye candy' for the fairer sex? Dress whites and gold wings go a long, long way towards being a 'chick magnet'."
Commander Rabb was embarrassed to judge from the slight blush coming into his face. "Ah, Mac. I thought you were the one who said dress whites were 'overrated'!" There was a twinkle in Mac's eyes when she responded,
"On most men, yes. On you, well. . ."
All of this was making Abby's head spinning.
"Colonel, you're a contradiction in terms." Jack was having a thoroughly good time holding the attractive brunette in his arms as they twirled their way around the dance floor. A raised eyebrow and a puzzled look was her response.
"How so?"
"A very attractive woman in the military—the Marine Corps, of all things! This just does not compute. . ."
She laughed. "Oh, you mean the stereotypical macho muscular tattooed male. . ."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean."
"Don't kid yourself." She chuckled. "I'm a good kick boxer, plus an excellent marksman on the rifle range—among other things!."
Jack's eyebrows rose. "You just made my case. A drop-dead gorgeous woman in a spetacular evening gown. . ."
The music ended and he found himself yielding his place to her tall colleage.
"Mac, you did promise at least one dance with me. . ." Jack gave way graciously and made his way over the his own colleagues where he refreshed his own drink. He leaned against the bar, watching the two military officers dance with each other.
"Jack, that's got to be the most glamorous pair on the dance floor tonight." Abby's voice held a little envy in her voice and cause Jack's own eyebrows to rise in response.
"Abby, you're just as attractive as she is."
"Yeah, but which male on the floor can compete with the dress whites and gold wings and 'tall, dark, and handsome'. . ."
Jack grudgingly admitted the military couple clearly out classed everyone else there, including himself.
KABAM!
There was flying debris everywhere and shouts of fear and panic throughout the large ballroom. Jack thought he saw the orange and red of fire across the room, but after regaining his startled wits, his first thought after the explosion was for his assistant.
"Abby!" he shouted but with everyone else yelling, he wasn't sure his voice could be hear. Just then, he saw Abby shake her head. She was face down on the ground, as was he, and she let out a moan. He crawled over to her and shook her a little.
"Are you okay?" His voice was full of concern and, yes, fear.
She lifted her upper body up on her elbows and looked around her and let out a moan. "Yeah, I think so—although my back and legs hurt like hell!"
Jack turned to look down at his assistant's legs—and gasped. "You're bleeding."
Just then he heard a low growl from behind him.
"Looks like shrapnel wounds." It was the commander and the look on his face was grim. He glanced at his partner, who, although covered with the white drywall dust just settling down on everyone and everything, looked like she was also okay. "What do you think, Mac?"
Mac made her way over to Abby's prone body and made a quick survey. "Minor, I think. She will need to be checked out, but it doesn't really look worse than skinned knees, I think."
Jack heaved a sigh of relief. Then he noticed both officers' gaze on him.
"How 'bout you, McCoy? How are you feeling?" There was genuine concern in both voices.
"I don't know", he stammered. He started to get up and discovered his legs, too, were a bit shakey. He looked down and was horrified to discover a lot of blood coming from both legs. The officers' eyes went down. It was Harm who was first to speak.
"I don't think you should move, Jack. In fact, sit back down. We'll get a doctor or medic over here to look at both of you as soon as possible." For the first time, he looked around him.
People were moaning, yelling, screaming. There were some who were trying to get up and others who were crowding the exits, creating an even more dangerous situation. Jack saw the glance exchanged between the two military officers and a corner of Mac's mouth turned down in a frown.
"I think you're going to have to do your 'DI' thing, Mac." Jack heard the commander's low voice mutter
"I suppose so." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. Then she looked at Harm. "You're going to have to back me up on this—you've got the uniform." Jack just saw the shrug of agreement. Then he found himself staring into blue/green intense eyes.
"Listen. Mac and I are going to try to bring some order to this. You guys need to stay right where you are until the emergency guys get here, okay?"
Jack just nodded and then reached for Abby to pull her into his arms. He set back against the lower back of the bar to watch what was going to happen, cuddling Abby to comfort and reassure both himself and her that they would be okay.
15 minutes later. . .
Jack moved Abby out of his arms and scrambled to stand up as he spotted a couple of familiar figures making their way through the chaos to him. He looked around to make sure the military officers weren't anywhere within close range and spotted them across the room, assisting in setting up the medical triage and helping to keep the crowds away from what was obviously a crime scene.
"Are you okay, Jack?" Lennie Brisco and his shadow, Ed Greene, approached with a worried look on their faces.
"It looks as though the injuries are relatively minor." Jack leaned against the bar to support his body and put forth his hand for a handshake. "Thank God you're here. Have you found out anything yet?"
The two detectives looked around. It was Lennie who responded first.
"Bomb—that's all we know at the moment. The medical people are taking everybody to hospitals—we'll check with them later for admittance/treatment lists to take statements."
Ed's comment was, "It looks as though it could have been 'messier'. Not as chaotic as I expected when I first heard the news." Just then the military officers came towards them Jack offered introductions as the pair got closer.
"Lennie, meet Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr., US Navy, and Colonel Sara MacKenzie, US Marine Corp. " He paused and took a close look at the colonel. Her dress was in schreds and she was wincing with each step. "Are you okay, colonel?"
She grimaced as she approached. "My back's going to have bruise on bruise, I think—but yeah," and she flashed a small grin at her partner, "My bank account's in ruins thoughs, and the reason it's in ruins is also ruined." She looked down at her spoiled dress. She then reached her hand for Lennie's.
"And you are?"
"Detective Lennie Brisco, NYPD, and Detective Ed Green, also NYPD."
Both detectives shook hands with both officers.
"We'll need statements from both of you."
Both nodded. "Same goes for you and Abby, Jack."
Just then, the commander interrupted.
"Why don't you take their statements first, detective? They're injured while Mac and I are more-or-less okay."
There was a questioning look on Lennie's face. He glanced at Jack. Jack shrugged. A thought occurred to him and he turned to face the Commander:
"Where were you when the bomb went off?"
"The Colonel and I were on the elevator." There was a small pause and then a hint of that wide grin. "We had stepped outside for a breath of 'fresh air.'"
"Oh." There was a pause. Then, "Okay. Lennie, why don't you take Abby's statement first—I think she's got the more serious wounds."
Lennie nodded to his colleague. "Ed. . ."
"Sure." Ed leaned down to Abby, who hadn't bothered to make the effort to stand up. He started talking to her. In the meantime, Lennie had turned to Jack and raised an eyebrow. Jack took a very deep breath.
"Abby and I were standing here at the bar just chatting when the whole room just sort of exploded. Commander Rabb and Col. MacKenzie appeared out of nowhere and basically took charge setting up a very rough—what do you call it, Commander?—triage for the medical people. They also helped clear away the crowd from where it looks like the most damage occurred. That's it. I'm sorry—I can't really tell you anything else."