Author's note: This is set this year, more than sixteen years since the character Skates left the TV series JAG. It mentions today's US politics though no political figures are mentioned. Yes, I use some TV Facts from NCIS and NCIS: Los Angles though I detest the latter.

Tryst Café

Adams Morgan, Washington DC

Autumn 2018

If Harmon Rabb Junior had a gift voucher, he wouldn't have spent so much time lining up in the queue and wouldn't have met up with the old friend. As he turned to find a seat in the crowded outlet, he heard, "you don't Whataspp, you don't skype, you sent your emails and postal mail to the wrong Carrier Air Group and aircraft carrier more than three times, and now here you are."

"Who..ah...Skates?!" Harm gasp, nearly spilling his cup of freshly-brewed Soy Latte on the floor.

"Yes, well, people don't really call me that anymore; it's just plain Elizabeth, Liz or Beth," Elizabeth Hawkes, better known Skates, laughed as she clicked her cup of regular coffee against his. "Harm, it's been like what? Sixteen years?" She then noticed a couple of patrons staring them and they wordlessly moved and found a table at the back.

"Yeah, I guess many apologies are first in order," Harm started, still dazed by not just his former Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) and one-time client's appearance, but by her looks. Skates was still looking youthful as every despite the more than a decade since they last met. Her auburn hair was no longer bundled up in the US Navy regulations but a little shorter, with only two hairpins keeping them in shape. She was in a light brown coat which was now hanging over her chair, in a blue jumper over a light-blue long sleeved dress with nylon hosiery.

"You were always the technological dinosaur," she laughed again. "So, still stuck here? I last recalled you were posted across the pond."

"Uh yeah, I was the Force Judge Advocate at US Naval Forces for a while, then they posted me to EUCOM then AFRICOM then after a few moves, I just returned here at the end of 2016 and started my own legal consultancy, focusing on naturally maritime law. Are you still flying now?"

"Me? Hell no, I said I'm plain ol' Elizabeth now, but I guess you can still call me Skates," she replied. "I reserved my rank once I reached Commander…"

"You made Commander? Congrats."

"Well thank you, sir. Yeah, I made it, they gave me command of a squadron, VFA-160 Stokers. But personal reasons and the fact that I don't really like flying the Super Hornet made me reserve my rank after a while, then I officially resigned my commission. I'm still connected to defense; I occasionally teach on leadership at the National War College."

Harm smiled, remembering how passionate Skates was about the wonderful F-14 Tomcat and how he himself hated it when the powers that be retired that interceptor in favour of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. Just as he was about to ask another question, a buzzing sound interrupted and Skates grimaced at the message on her phone. "No, no," she typed furiously on her cellphone. "You better return for dinner and not stay out! I told you before!" Skates cried out her reply.

"Sorry, my daughter Cathy wanted to go out with her friends. I don't approve of her social circle but just can't control my teenager," she explained.

"Maybe your husband could reign her in," Harm blurted out which caused his former RIO to stare in the distance. "I'm sorry, did I touch a wrong button?"

"No…uh it's ok Harm. It's just that…I lost my husband," Skates replied, staring down at hr coffee mug.

There was a silence for a minute before Skates told her story. Yes, she married Rob, a publicaffairs official just after they survived the crash of their F-14 in late September 2001. It wasn't much of a wedding, especially given her father's disagreement over her 'war-mongering man.' A few months later she discovered the truth: he was far from a public affairs officer; he was a DIA officer soon transferred to the CIA. "We fought and nearly separated," Skates added. They managed to work things out and came their daughter. Then a couple of years later, she failed to hear from him, left messages at all the posts she thought he was at and was on the verge of publicly announcing a divorce on national television. "Then in the first year as Squadron CO, I received an unannounced visit from literally two men in black. They announced the dreaded truth: Rob was blown up by and IED on the border between Afghanistan and Iran. But because we aren't at war with Iran," Skates continued, taking another sip of her drink. "I literal was in shock the first few days so much that I was kept out of flying duties by the flight surgeon. What's more, because of where he was killed and it was an unsanctioned operation, they couldn't even retrieve the body. I got an ample financial compensation and a stern warning not to tell this to anyone. Oh oops," she pointed at Harm.

"You're story stays secret with me," Harm returned the smile briefly then commented that her tale was a bit like how it was with Mac and Clayton Webb, their constant CIA contact. "How's her anyway? I heard scuttlebutt that you married your partner." Skates clearly was clearly still 'in the US Navy', using such slang.

"Mac and I…are divorced," Harm answered and now told his disappointing story. It was Sarah Mackenzie who resigned her commission and joined him at his posts in London, UK and Naples, Italy. But as soon as they settle in their new residence, they started quarrelling. "She argued with me over everything, even how we would sleeping and uhm, you know doing what." Skates got it, but found it peculiar that such grown man like Harm wouldn't say the word sex.

"Then we argued much about politics. You know I've been a life-long Republican and Mac has always been waxing lyrical about liberal stuff and pretending to be moralistic. We just couldn't each other, we literally ran to each other's lawyers and finalised a divorce. Divorce done, she started spreading rumours about me which I squashed with legal threats but affected my life and of further of advancement. She's off the radar now thankfully, probably back drunk or hooking up with that Brumby. Hey, what's so funny?"

To Be Continued