TITLE: Duty Calls

AUTHOR: Clairisant

CLASSIFICATION: Mac/Other

FEEDBACK: Would love to hear both good and bad feedback but please try to be kind and constructive. Clairisant

CREDITS: A special thank you to my beta readers Qupeydoll and Pricilla.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is a sequel to Night Calls, and the idea came from our beta reader Pricilla.

Chapter 1

Thursday, July 6, 2003

1800 EST

Mac's Apartment

Georgetown, Virginia

When the Admiral had told her that there would be a Marine taking his place, Mac had been excited and eagerly looked forward to working with a fellow Corp member. It wasn't as if she hadn't liked working under Admiral Chegwidden, because she had. Oh sure, they'd had their occasional differences, but then who didn't? It was just when he'd told her his replacement would be a Marine; Mac had felt an esprit de corps.

Now however, it was two months later and she had to face facts. She and General Creswell were not getting along. It seemed no matter what she did, she couldn't please him. Try as she might, she always ended up on his bad side. Today was no exception. The newest lawyer to join their team had taken a fancy to her and no matter what she said to discourage him, it only seemed to have the opposite effect.

Vukovic took every chance he could find to 'chat her up' and invariably every time he did, General Creswell would come through the bullpen and see them. Today, Vukovic had trapped her in the break room and was trying to back her up against the counter when Creswell came in for a cup of coffee. He had ordered Mac to his office and given her a dressing down for allowing such behavior.

When Mac protested that she'd done everything short of kneeing him to discourage Vukovic, Creswell informed her he was disappointed in her. A Marine should be able to handle situations like that he told her. She agreed to try harder and left his office fuming. Luckily or wisely, Vukovic had avoided her the rest of the afternoon.

Mac, however, was still furious by the time she got home and was sorry at times like this that she was on the wagon. If it wouldn't be such an act of defeat to indulge, she would have loved to have a drink right then. But in the end, she knew that Vukovic wasn't worth it and she wouldn't give up years of sobriety for the likes of him.

Throwing down her cover and briefcase as she entered the apartment, Mac saw that her answering machine was blinking. Not sure she was really in the mood to deal with any new problems she was still too contentious not to see if it was work related. Hearing her Uncle Joe's voice caused her to smile. She hadn't heard from him in quite some time. Not that he was a real uncle, but because of his close friendship with her Uncle Matt, he had earned the honorary title. The message he had left simply said that he wanted to meet her for dinner some time very soon. He had something important to talk to her about.

She placed a call to Joseph Leland, the head of the secret service. When he came on the line they chatted for a short time before Joe got down to the business at hand. "Mac, I would really like to see you soon, could we meet for dinner tonight?"

"Your message said it was important Uncle Joe, what is it?"

"I don't want to say over the phone, if you're busy tonight could we make it tomorrow?"

"I'm never to busy to see my second favorite Uncle! Tonight is fine, where would you like to go?" she asked.

"Somewhere quiet so we can talk. How about the Willard? They have some private tables," Joe suggested.

"That sounds fine, what time should I meet you?"

"Let me pick you up. How does 1930 sound?"

"Fine, I'll see you then," Mac replied curiosity eating away at her. She never liked unsolved mysteries, and often couldn't resist reading the end of a mystery novel first. This was going to drive her crazy 'til Uncle Joe got there.

To be continued…..