Timing Interlude

Author Name: JPStar57

Rating: T

Spoilers: The first season

Disclaimer 1: Except for John and his relatives, I do not own any characters from 'JAG', 'NCIS, Magnum P.I. and 'The West Wing' or from author Stephen Coonts. Those characters are the intellectual property of the respective producers and author. Also the idea for John's house came from an actual Washington DC house renovation shown on the PBS program, "This Old House".

Summary: This is set in the "Timing Is Everything" 'AU'. John's cousin Peter, a Senior Chief Petty Officer in the Navy has been accused of a crime. He and his entertainment attorney sister Gail have come to JAG for John's help.

This story is dedicated to my cousin Gail who at my age passed away much too young. Peter's sister's character is based on her.

Chapter 1

Tuesday, September 2, 1997

0830 Local Time

JAG Headquarters,

1322 Paterson Avenue,

Washington Navy Yard, SE,

Washington, DC

Lt. Commander John Marshall was sitting at his usual spot at the conference table next Major Sarah Mackenzie. Even though they were colleagues in the same command, they were having a romantic relationship away from the office, just as they promised their commanding officer, the Navy's Judge Advocate General, Rear Admiral, Upper Half AJ Chegwidden they would when they had informed him of the relationship.

It was Sarah's first day back from her medical leave. Even though she was back, she had been placed on light duty because she was still instructed by her doctor to stay off her injured right leg. She still had to use the crutches that were now propped against the back of her chair. John had driven her into work that morning.

The reason she was on medical leave with an injured right leg was because two weeks ago she had been shot in that thigh while she was hiking in the Virginia woods with her colleague and brother in law Lt. Commander Harmon Rabb who was sitting in his usual place on her other side.

Originally they had been flying Harm's Stearman biplane. They had to hike because the plane developed a fuel malfunction. Unable to get back to the airport Harm did an emergency landing on a meadow. When they went looking for help or transportation back to the airport, they had encountered poachers just after they had murdered the local game warden. The poachers had started shooting at them as they ran away. Sarah and Harm had taken cover behind the warden's truck. As Harm tried to hot wire the truck to get away, Sarah had taken Harm's flare gun from his emergency kit and stood to try to return fire. She had been shot in her thigh as a result. They only managed to get away because of John's timely intervention. He had come looking for them after they ad been overdue to land at the Blacksburg airport. He had shot and killed one poacher and wounded another in the encounter.

Harm and Sarah were telling the other officers of the adventure. Lt. JG Bud Roberts spoke up saying, "It's a good thing that Commander Marshall showed up when he did."

"Yes Bud it was," Sarah acknowledged with a smile. She smiled as she looked at John who ducked his head in embarrassment. John was not comfortable taking praise for the things he had done. He just thought he did what he had to do. Sarah took hold of his hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. John looked at the love of his life with an affectionate smile.

Right at the moment Admiral Chegwidden walked into the conference room.

Harm called, "Attention on Deck." At that all the officers except for Sarah went to stand at attention.

AJ responded with the usual, "As you were. Major Mackenzie how's the leg?"

"It's fine sir. The doctor says the wound healed up nicely but I still have some pain if I put weight on it so I still have to use the crutches. Otherwise my duties will not be affected," Sarah responded.

"That's good to hear. Still I asked Admiral Morris to have the other judges cut you some slack if you're still using the crutches in court. " AJ said.

"Thank you very much sir," Sarah said with a shy smile. She didn't ask AJ to do that so she was touched by his thoughtfulness.

"Since you can't go out on investigations major, Lt. Manetti you will go with Lt. Commander Marshall when the need arises." AJ said turning to Lieutenant Traci Manetti. Traci was Asian, but she spoke with a Southern drawl. The dichotomy always charmed those that knew her.

"No problem sir," Traci acknowledged, smiling at John and Sarah.

"So let's get down to other business," AJ began as he started to assign cases.

As he went through them he called out the names of the defendants and what they were charged with. "This next case involves a Peter Tierney and..."

At the mention of the name John's head shot up. He politely interrupted AJ saying, "Excuse me sir. Is that Senior Chief Petty Officer Peter Tierney?"

AJ looked at the face page of the report again and said, "Why yes it is. Do you know him?"

"Yes sir I do. What is he charged with sir?" John asked.

AJ answered, "He and a Petty Office Jackson Limon have been charged with theft of prescription drugs and narcotics from the Portsmouth Naval Hospital drug storage with intent to sell and grand theft of a Humvee. There are also assault and attempted murder charges. Two Virginia State troopers are in the hospital because PO Limon, who was driving, crashed into their car at a road block on I-264. Senior Chief Tierney was charged as an accessory to the assault and attempted murder charges."

"May I please see the report sir?" John asked in a professional tone as he could.

AJ passed it down to him. As John read the charge sheet and the accompanying incident report his eyebrows went right up into his hairline. Sarah was reading over his shoulder and she had the same reaction.

AJ and the rest of the others waited while John read the report. He didn't make them wait long as he said, "Sir I will need to defend on this case."

AJ said, "I thought you might. Lt. Manetti you will assist the defense and Commander Mattoni you will prosecute. Take Lt. Roberts as your assistant. He needs some courtroom time." He slid the duplicate folder to Alan Mattoni.

Mattoni and Bud both said, "Aye, aye sir."

John asked another question, "Sir when this comes to court, I would like Major Mackenzie to also assist me."

"Why is that commander?" AJ asked.

"Because sir it's like a doctor being prohibited from treating family." John answered.

"Family commander, how is the Senior Chief related to you?" AJ asked.

"Sir Tierney is my mom's maiden name. Peter is my cousin," John explained.

AJ nodded his understanding saying to Sarah, "Will that be a problem major?"

"No sir I will be happy to assist in any way I can," Sarah said.

Mattoni spoke up saying, "That will make it four attorneys against two sir. It says here that a Gail Grayson was his attorney at his bail hearing."

John looked through the report and said something that only Sarah heard. Sarah smiled both in humor and in bewilderment. Shortly after that the next cases were assigned and AJ closed the meeting.

0940 Local Time

Sarah's Office

Sarah, Traci and John trooped into Sarah's office to strategize on the case. After the door was closed Sarah was the first to ask, "So who is Gail Grayson? And why doesn't she just defend the Senior Chief?"

"Gail is Peter's sister. Grayson is her married name. Peter is a year younger than me. He joined the Navy right out of high school. After boot camp he trained as a medical corpsman. He was in Beirut when the barracks blew up and he was in Panama when we went after Noriega. He was actually assigned to my SeAL Team when our regular corpsman became ill. We didn't tell anyone except our team leader, Lt. Comdr. Hutchinson, that we were related until after we did what we did."

Gail is my age. We graduated Fordham Law together. She married Jack Grayson after she met him at a mixer at Fordham. Jack went into Entertainment Law and she followed as his partner. They represent some of the biggest names in show business. You would be surprised what kind of deviant behavior their clients get themselves into."

Sarah said, "First it's your sister as President Bartlett's Press Secretary then it's your cousin as a show biz attorney."

"What can I say?" was all John said in response shrugging and waving his hands in front of him.

He continued, "I tell you if it weren't for her, I would have never passed law school. She was my rock. She saw me through the breakup with my girlfriend at the time. (Sarah and Traci knew the story. John had confided in Traci and John's sister Ann Marie had confided the story to Sarah.) She kept me on the straight and narrow. We made a great debating team. We always won the Moot Court competitions."

Sarah and Traci smiled at his remembrances. John continued, "Traci you go to Portsmouth and interview the principal people in the affair. The file says that Peter is confined in the Navy Yard Brig, so I'll go there and see him."

"Aye, aye sir," Traci said.

"Traci how many times have I told you when it's just us, leave the sirs out? If it weren't for your help, Sarah and I would not be together." John said

Sarah and Traci just smiled at that. Traci was Sarah's confidant on all things John. Traci and John had been partners for over a year before Sarah was assigned to JAG Headquarters.

"Okay John," Traci said in a tone that sounded like that of a chastised child. The three officers shared a laugh at that.

Just then there was a knock on Sarah's door. When she shouted the usual "Enter", the admiral's yeoman PO First Class Jason Tiner came in and handed a message slip to John saying, "Excuse me please sir ma'am but Commander Marshall I left this message on your desk and I saw that you weren't in your office and I wanted to make sure you got it. The woman who called said that it was of the most extreme urgency."

John scanned the slip, smiled and asked, "She actually said this Tiner?"

"Yes sir she said "write it word for word"." Tiner said.

John showed the slip to Traci and Sarah. They both smiled when they saw it. Tiner had written, 'See me or else, your office 10:00AM'. Tiner had also checked the box that had 'No name given' printed next to it.

John said, "It's from Gail. I imagine she'll be here at 1000."

John looked at his watch. Before he could say anything Sarah spoke up and said, "It's 0957." Tiner, Traci and John just looked at her. It was the usual reaction to her uncanny ability to know the time without looking at her watch.

John said, "Thank you Tiner. That will be all." Tiner beat a hasty retreat to his office.

John stood up to go to his office. Just before he could put his hand on his office door to open it, he heard a loud female voice say, "Johnny Marshall if you don't come over here and give me a big kiss I will tell everyone here all the nasty things you did as a kid."

As John crossed the bullpen he said just as loudly, but in Marty Feldman's British accent, "Too late. The Navy requires full disclosure."

When he got to the woman he picked her up in a big bear hug and laid a wet and noisy kiss on her cheek anyway saying, "Hiya Goofy!"

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