Mac breathed heavily as her weary feet pounded against the hard road. Her Ipod blasted "I'm Not Ready to Make Nice" in her ears and fueled her to continue.

Mac was so frustrated and angry about the way her case was going. She was defending a Marine accused of killing her husband who had allegedly been abusing her. Harm was prosecuting and refused to even discuss cutting her client a deal.

It didn't help that Renee showed up unexpectedly to take Harm to lunch just as Mac was getting somewhere. She almost had him, and then that woman waltzed in and demanded all of his attention.

Coupled with Mic constant pressuring her at home to get married, Mac needed some alone time. So here she found herself at ten o'clock at night on a Tuesday running to try to clear her mind.

It wasn't working. This case was personal for the Colonel. The Marine had two young children who needed their mother now more than ever. Harm was not being reasonable and then that blonde princess had to get involved and put in her comments.

FLASHBACK (in Harm's office)

"Mac, there is no evidence to support the abuse."

"Harm, there is no way that woman is making this up. Have you seen her? She jumps every time a man enters the room."

"That doesn't mean anything, Mac. And besides, what happened to your 'all Marines are tough' theory?"

"Corporal Wilkes is tough. She just hid her injuries a little too well and now that is being used against her."

"Listen, you bring me something and we can talk, but as it stands now, she didn't tell a soul what was going on, if there was anything going on."

"She was too scared!"

"She's a Marine, Mac. Her husband was an accountant-"

"Oh, please-"

"All I'm saying is that she could have physically taken the guy!"

"Oh, like you would know!"

"And now we're back to all men are evil! Stop making these cases personal, Mac!"

"How can I not when this woman is obviously a victim of-"

"Knock, knock!" Renee cleared her throat uncomfortably.

The two officers finally realized that their argument had turned into a slight shouting match. Looking beyond the petite woman at the door, they discovered that most of the office was staring at them.

Renee broke the momentary silence by jealously half-joking, "Well, I didn't realize how passionate your arguments got. Why don't you two just get a room next time?"

Harm crossed the room to embrace her, "What are you doing here, Renee? We didn't have anything scheduled did we?"

"No, I just thought I would surprise you and take you to lunch, handsome. I didn't expect to enter a war zone, though."

Mac shifted awkwardly and abruptly announced, "We'll talk about this later, Harm," and just to be polite on her way out, "Nice seeing you again Renee."

Mac ignored the false smile plastered across the blonde's face as she left.

END FLASHBACK

Mac's skin crawled at the recollection. She missed the days when life was simple before she was transferred to JAG, back when it was just her and her dog.

'Oh no! I forgot to give Jingo his medicine. I hope Mic remembered.'

She knew he wouldn't, though. Deciding that this run had lasted long enough, she turned to start heading back.

A bright light blinded Mac's eyes and she suddenly felt like a deer in headlights. Before she could process the situation, something slammed into her abdomen. She felt as though she was flying through the night sky until the harsh reality of rough pavement was under her.

She couldn't feel anything, nothing at all. This briefly scared her until she realized what had happened. Now, the car had come to a screeching halt and the driver was exiting the vehicle. Mac looked down at her tangled body and swore as she saw her mangled leg.

It was all she could do to focus on staying conscious. The adrenaline hadn't worn off thankfully, so she was still numb. Mac recognized the diver as male as he approached her. Her vision was blurring, but she thought that maybe he was thirty or so.

He asked her something, but she couldn't piece the sounds into words in her head. She tried to talk, but her mouth wouldn't cooperate.

The man started to touch her and Mac panicked. 'What is he saying? What does he think he's doing?'

"I'm a doctor, ma'am. Please remain still. It'll be alright."

Mac barely registered the words as black edged her vision.