Disclaimer: The Characters aren't mine. They belong to Mr. Bellasario
This story doesn't really fit in anywhere in the series, so don't wear yourself out trying to make it fit. Just sit back and enjoy!
WARNING: Contains non-sexual spanking of an adult. Don't like? Don't read.
Never Lie to an Admiral
Mac woke with a start and looked at the clock. Damn! She was late. She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep. She had been sitting outside the Lance Corporal's apartment waiting for him to leave. But she had fallen asleep, and now his car was gone. Her heart pounding, she started her car and was about to pull out when she noticed a piece of paper under the wiper blade. She put the car back in park, got out and retrieved the note. "I warned you, Major," was all it said, but she knew exactly what it meant. She could only hope it was still an empty threat. She got back in the car and headed for the office. Naturally, traffic was a nightmare getting out of the city, and by the time she had cleared security, she was officially an hour and forty-five minutes late, and had officially missed the morning staff meeting.
As expected, Harm was hovering around their offices waiting for her when she stepped (more like flew) off of the elevator. "Hey, you ok?" he asked, a look of pure concern on his face. "I'm fine," Mac answered tersely. Harm gave her a good looking-over before he continued. "Well, you're fine now, but the Admiral is expecting you in his office." "When?" Mac asked, already knowing the answer. Harm glanced at his watch, more for show than anything, of course. "About twenty seconds ago." Mac wrinkled her lips, turned and dropped her briefcase just inside the doorway of her office, and whisked herself off across the office. "Wish me luck," she called back to Harm. "You'll need it," Harm responded under his breath as he turned into his own office. He could relax a little – Mac was safe. Well, relatively speaking.
"Enter!" the Admiral's voice barked through the door. Mac took a quick breath then pushed open the door. "Major," Admiral Chegwidden said, leaning back in his chair and leveling a hard look at his subordinate. "You decided to show up today after all?" "Sir, I can explain," Mac answered quickly. "Can you," the Admiral responded dryly. "Yes, sir," Mac answered, her shell cracking slightly. "Traffic was really bad." It wasn't exactly a lie. Then again, it wasn't anywhere near the truth. "Do you not own a radio? Or a map, for that matter?" the Admiral asked. Mac swallowed hard, "No sir. I mean, yes sir." She took a breath. "I mean, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." The Admiral jutted out his chin a bit, but said nothing for a long moment. Finally, just when Mac thought she would be standing there forever, he spoke. "Get caught up with Commander Rabb. That will be all." With a quick "Aye sir," Mac made a hasty retreat and breathed a sigh of relief as she escaped unscathed.
"So," Harm said, a slight grin on his face, "what happened?" Mac didn't look up from the paper she was pretending to read. "Nothing," she replied. Harm closed her office door, and crossed his arms across his chest. "Mac, what's going on?" "Nothing!" she snapped. "I don't believe you. Your internal clock is just scary so there's no way you just overslept. And traffic wasn't any worse than any other morning. Where were you?" Mac glared at her partner. "Don't worry about it. Just tell me what I missed at the meeting this morning and let me get back to work. I'm sure you have more important things to do today than stand there and interrogate me." "I do," Harm admitted, "but right now, I need to know what's going on with you. You look terrible. Did you even sleep last night?" Mac knew that Harm was just a hair more stubborn than she was, and when she was honest with herself, she decided that it would be good to tell someone what had happened. With a resigned sigh, she launched into her story.
After the Master Sergeant had been convicted, everyone thought the case was closed. Everyone, except Mac. She was still sure the Master Sergeant had had an accomplice. She tried to argue her case to Admiral Chegwidden, but he had ordered her to drop it and move on. When she continued to argue, she had been summarily dismissed with a refrain of the order. Last night, she had followed Lance Corporal Adams to the bar where the murder had occurred. She had waited outside for three hours before he came out again. When he did, she had confronted him. He reminded her, rudely, that he had already been interrogated, his alibi checked out and that he'd been cleared, and then threatened to report her for harassment. Her gut was still telling her that he was lying, so she carefully followed him home and set up a stakeout outside his apartment.
"Mac!" Harm said in disbelief. "You didn't! There's no way! You're not that dumb!" Harm was in shock. Mac was always the one who did everything by the book, much to his annoyance. She was the Marine who always followed orders. This was huge! "What did the Admiral say when you told him?" Mac suddenly found her mystery paper very interesting. "Mac? What did he say?" Harm asked again, a bit more firmly this time. Mac looked up slowly. "I told him traffic was bad. Nothing more." Harm shook his head slowly, and whistled through his teeth. "This is bad. Really, really bad. You know he's going to find out eventually," he said. "Not helping," Mac answered. "I disobeyed the Admiral. And I lied to him." Mac paused, reality crashing in on her. "Harm, what was I thinking?" Before she could answer, her phone rang. Harm didn't have to ask who was on the other end – he could hear the Admiral yelling at the other end, "Major, my office." Harm also heard the click of the phone on the other end being slammed down. He opened his mouth to say something encouraging, but was quickly interrupted. "Save it. Nothing you can say is going to make this any better," Mac said quietly, then headed to meet her fate.
She didn't even have to knock – the Admiral swung the door open, stood aside for her to enter, then slammed it shut again. Mac briefly wondered if the Admiral had turned psychic, but didn't really have the time or energy to explore that thought much further before said Admiral moved directly in front of her and erupted into a tirade unlike any she had ever experienced before.
"Major MacKenzie, do you have a death wish?" A rhetorical question. "I specifically told you to drop your case against Lance Corporal Adams. In fact, I specifically told you twice to drop your case against Lance Corporal Adams. So tell me, Major. Why did I just get a phone call from Lance Corporal Adams' CO telling me that the Lance Corporal was asking to file an official complaint against you for following him to a bar and then to his home last night?" The usually unshakable Major was shaken. She stammered a bit, but was unable to form a sentence. It turned out, it didn't matter. The Admiral was apparently still asking rhetorical questions. Or engaging in an irate monologue. Either one. Neither was good, though. "And why do I suspect that it wasn't traffic that made you late this morning? Oh, I know. It's because the Lance Corporal told his CO that you were asleep in your car outside his apartment at 0800 this morning when he left for work. You lied to me Major. You disobeyed me, you harassed an innocent man, and then you lied to me. Do you realize I could have you court-marshaled for this?" Mac suddenly realized that he'd just asked a question to which he was actually expecting an answer. She came up with a safe one: "Yes sir." "Is that what you want?" he demanded. "No sir," she answered, very quietly. "Major, the Lance Corporal was cleared. He wasn't even in the state when the murder occurred. I had confirmed that with three different people, so when I told you to drop it, I meant to drop it. And I expected you to obey my order."
Mac's heart was pounding out of fear, but even more out of anger. She couldn't believe she had allowed herself to end up in this position. Something in her had snapped. She was so sure she'd been right. But she had only been stupid. "Sir, there's no excuse for what I did. I really thought I was right, but I should have obeyed you anyway. And I certainly shouldn't have lied to you. I'm sorry, Admiral." "So, we're in agreement," Admiral Chegwidden answered, not softening even a little. Mac dropped her head momentarily, then snapped back to attention. "Yes sir." The Admiral nodded slowly, then took a few steps back.
"Good. Now, let's talk about your future." Mac looked sideways at her CO. "May I ask Harm to defend me?" she asked meekly. "Defend you, Major? Why would you need the Commander to defend you?" Admiral Chegwidden asked. "At my court-marshal," Mac answered, still meekly. "Oh, there won't be a court-marshal, Major. No, I can't afford to lose you from my team. And since a court-marshal would most certainly mean the end of your career, as you are quite clearly guilty of all charges that would be brought against you, I can't allow that." Mac turned to look at the Admiral. "So you're just going to let this go?" she asked in disbelief. "Not a chance, Major. Just because there won't be a court-marshal, doesn't mean there won't be punishment." Mac looked forward again. "What kind of punishment, sir?" The Admiral jutted out his chin a bit again and looked at her for a moment. Then, making up his mind he ordered, "Bend over."
Mac's mouth fell open. "Sir, you can't be serious!" she said. She remembered what had happened when Harm had done something stupid, but she never imagined the Admiral would ever do the same thing to her. "You have a better idea, Major?" When she didn't answer, he continued. "We've already ruled out the court-marshal you deserve. Any official reprimand would have to be put in your record, someone would see it and start asking why a court-marshal wasn't convened, and then we'd be back to that again. So I'll ask again: Do you have a better idea?" Mac had to admit that she didn't. She hadn't been spanked since she was fifteen, just after she'd gone to live with her Uncle Matt, but she didn't think it would kill her. Without another word, she slowly bent over and put her hands on the edge of the desk.
The Admiral retrieved a paddle from his desk then moved beside her. "I'm sorry I have to do this Sarah, but I can't let you get away with disobeying a direct order. And there's no way I can tolerate you lying to me. I have to be able to trust you. Do you understand?" "Yes sir," Mac said, choking back tears. She was crying, and he hadn't even started yet. It was the tenderness of his words that were making her cry…at the moment. The Admiral hesitated, questioning the wisdom of what he was about to do. But he was determined to get through to her – he really couldn't let her get away with disobeying and lying. He'd never be able to respect her again. With a sigh, he raised the paddle and brought it down against her backside. He didn't hit her very hard, just hard enough to sting a bit and get his message across. He brought the paddle down ten times before he put it back on his desk, and gently put his hand on Mac's shoulder, guiding her up to standing again. Tears were streaming down her face, but he suspected they didn't have very much to do with any pain she was feeling. She was a Marine – she could handle the pain.
He gave her a moment to compose herself before speaking again. When he did, the tenderness was still in his voice. "Sarah, is there anything you want to talk about?" Mac looked up, then down at her shoes. "I just really thought I was right, Admiral. I don't know why, I just did. I shouldn't have disobeyed you. And I don't know why I lied to you. I should have just told you where I was this morning, but I was afraid you'd be mad. To be honest, I was betting on you not finding out," she said then quickly added, "but that's not the point. Admiral, I'm so sorry. I really am. You have every right not to trust me again. I'm sorry." Admiral Chegwidden gathered her into a hug and whispered, "You trusted me enough to let me punish you. The slate's clean. Just promise me you'll never do anything like this again. I can't protect you otherwise." Mac rested her head against the Admiral's chest for a moment, then pulled away, wiping her eyes. "I can't promise that it will never happen again, but I promise to try." The Admiral laughed lightly. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing. But let me make a promise to you: If you ever do anything like that again, I promise, I won't be so easy on you." Mac grinned toward the floor. "Yes, sir."
A few minutes later, Mac heard a predictable knock on her door, and without looking up, knew it was about to open. It did then closed again. She looked up into Harm's concerned face. "I'm fine, Harm. Really." Harm examined her face for a moment. "You joined the club today, didn't you?" he asked knowingly. Mac blushed. "It's ok. I have a feeling the club's not as small as we once thought," Harm laughed. "Come on," he said, "let me buy the newest initiate some lunch." With a grin, Mac walked to her partner's side and let him put his arm around her. It felt good to know that there were two men in her life who cared enough to protect her. At the moment, though, she wished the Admiral cared a little less. Just a little bit.