Canon? What canon? And the characters, naturally, aren't mine. All hail Mr. Bellisario!
WARNING: Contains non-consensual spanking of adults. Reader beware.
The Admiral looked around the table at his gathered staff. He decided that he had gathered a pretty good group, if he didn't say so himself. There was Bud, the young, green, but very promising Lieutenant. Bud had a knack for finding the little details that others often overlooked. Eager to please, clumsy and gullible, but yes, very promising.
There was Major MacKenzie. That was one squared-away Marine if he'd ever seen one. Smart, quick-witted, beautiful in a simple, classic way. She also was usually eager to please. But boy does that girl have a temper on her! The Admiral held back a chuckle as his gaze drifted to the man seated next to him.
Lieutenant Commander Rabb. What a piece of work! In the courtroom, he was usually careful, logical and he knew how to charm a jury. Outside the courtroom, he was an impulsive risk-taker, but still very charming.
It had occurred to AJ that all three of his team members had something in common: None of them had healthy relationships with their fathers. Sarah's father had been an abusive alcoholic. Harm's father had died before Harm had really gotten a chance to know him. And Bud's father, while still alive, was also an abusive alcoholic. Three young adults. Three damaged relationships. Three different coping mechanisms: Bud, working so hard to please everyone around him, especially the people he cared the most about. Sarah, stifling her feelings and constantly putting up walls, allowing only a very select group of people into her inner sanctum – and then only usually as far as the front porch.
And then there was Harm. Constantly pushing the boundaries. Constantly testing the limits. Constantly in trouble for something. AJ had known what he was getting himself into when he'd agreed to hire Harm. He'd seen the man's Annapolis file. He'd read the report from Harm's previous CO's. Oh, he knew what he was getting. And some days, he really regretted taking on such a challenge…Yesterday had been one of those days.
* * * * *
By 08:15, the Admiral was already ready to bang his head against one of the oak-paneled walls of his office. And all he'd done so far was read Harm's report on the Michaelson case. After the first paragraph, he put it aside and reached for Mac's report instead. As expected, it was orderly, well thought out and, most importantly, unbiased. When he had no choice, he again picked up Harm's report. Harm was a bad loser, especially when he was pitted against Mac, and his report reflected that character flaw very clearly. This report too was orderly and well thought out, but it was anything but unbiased. He attacked jury for being "old and stodgy". He attacked the judge for being "moldy". And he attacked Mac's work on the prosecution for being "emotionally-charged, short-sighted" and – the word that made AJ slam the file shut and grab the phone – "stupid".
After ordering Harm to his office ASAP, AJ slammed the phone into the cradle and started to pace the room in an effort to cool down. Five minutes later, his cool-down walk was heating up. He walked forcefully back to his desk and grabbed the phone. The other end went unanswered. Amazingly, the phone did not break with the force with which it was again returned to its cradle. Also amazingly, the door did not pop off its hinges with the force with which it was yanked open.
"Lieutenant!" he barked at Bud. "Where is Commander Rabb?"
"Uh, I don't know Sir," Bud responded hesitantly as he jumped to his feet. "He was here a minute ago," he continued, twisting around trying to look in every direction at once.
"Well when he shows up again, tell him I want his ass in my office yesterday!" And with that, he returned to his office and slammed the door with impressive forcefulness. He then resumed his furious pacing.
Two minutes later, the door was again nearly ripped off its hinges in response to a quick knock. "Get in here, Rabb!" the Admiral shouted. Every head in the front office turned to look toward the deafening order and then almost immediately returned to things their owners were finding oh-so-interesting. The reverberating slam of the door signaled the all-clear and ten heads again popped up and looked warily in the direction of the JAG's office.
Inside the office, the Admiral was beyond fuming, but before he could stop sputtering enough to get a word out, Harm held up a file. "Sir, I believe this is what you're looking for." The trademark grin met the trademark scowl and bulging vein.
"What the hell is that, Commander?" the Admiral spit out.
"This, Sir, is my report on the Michaelson case," Rabb said, still grinning, but slightly less confidently.
The Admiral spun around and whipped the file off his desk. "Then what, may I ask, is this?" he shouted, holding up the folder very close to Harm's face.
The grin disappeared. "Uh, that? Sir?" Harm stammered a bit. "I don't know." The Admiral practically hurled the folder at Harm who took it and opened it. As he read the first paragraph, all of the color drained from his face. "Sir, I uh…" he stopped and swallowed hard. "You weren't supposed to see this," he finally said, quickly dropping his gaze to the floor.
"What?" the Admiral said, still clearly angry. "Then what the hell was it doing on my desk?"
"I'm not sure, Sir. It must have gotten mixed up in my other files." Harm was momentarily at a loss for words. Then he realized what had happened. "I must have given that to Mac by accident last night when she was pestering me for my report. I forgot that I gave her a file to get her off my back. Sir, I swear, I never meant for anyone to see that. It was just a joke."
The Admiral took a step back and studied Harm's face. He didn't appear to be lying and the shock on his face as he'd realized the file had made it this far had been genuine. After a long minute and a final glare, he grabbed the correct folder from him and dismissed the young Commander. "I have no idea what you thought you were doing even writing something like this. But don't you ever do it again. Dismissed!"
Harm made a hasty retreat. "Phew," he thought. "That was way too close!" He headed back to his office and shut the door. It wasn't until he was back at his desk that he realized the Admiral had been so focused on the bogus report that he'd failed to remember that Harm had kept him waiting. With any luck, he would never remember. And never find out why.
But luck was not on Harm's side today.
The intercom buzzed in the Admiral's office. "Sir, SecNav is on Line 1 for you."
"Thank you, Tiner." AJ picked up the phone. "Good morning, Sir. What can I do for you?" He listened for a minute. "He what?" he asked, incredulously. "I'll take care of it, Sir…no Sir, I don't know, but I promise you, it won't happen again." The poor phone found its way violently back into its cradle for the third time in less than half an hour. And the poor door was stressed once again. It was a rough day for the fixtures in the Admiral's office.
The angry Admiral pounded his way to Harm's office. The Commander wasn't in it. The angrier Admiral stomped over to Mac's office. Mac sat at her desk looking over a file. She jumped up when the Admiral popped his head in the door. "Where is he?" he demanded.
"I don't know, Sir." It struck neither of them as odd that Mac knew exactly who the Admiral was talking about. "He just said he had to go out for a few minutes, but he wouldn't tell me where."
The Admiral stormed out of Mac's office and back to his own. He picked up the phone and punched in the number for Harm's mobile phone. He hardly expected the Commander to pick up and was not surprised when the phone clicked into voicemail. "Commander, I got a call from SecNav and I know you know why. Consider yourself suspended for the rest of the day. I'll deal with you later. 19:00 at your apartment."
* * * * *
Harm pulled his car up to the curb, kissed the beautiful woman in the passenger seat just one more time and pulled back into traffic after watching her walk away. She had such a nice walk. He smiled to himself, then reached under his seat to retrieve his phone. He was pretty sure he'd heard it vibrating against the bottom of the driver's seat. Sure enough, he had one missed call and one new voicemail. He flipped open the phone and punched in his code. He listened for a moment, and cringed as he snapped the phone shut. Damn! He'd been caught.