At 18:58, Harm walked slowly to the door, letting out a long breath. He pulled it open and admitted a still-fuming Admiral to his apartment. It was rare to see the Admiral out of uniform, but even in civies, he was intimidating with that look on his face.
"Come on in, Sir. Can I get you anything?" Harm asked innocently.
The Admiral stared at his subordinate, trying to decide where to start. It didn't take long for him to decide. "The SecNav's daughter? You were kissing the SecNav's daughter?"
"Sir," Harm said, taking a step back. "I didn't know who she was at the time! I just thought she was…" he stopped.
"You thought she was whom?"
Harm grimaced. "I thought she was just a woman."
"What were you doing kissing her in the elevator? Right behind Secretary Nelson? Did you think he couldn't see your reflection in the door?"
"I, uh…" Harm started to defend himself, but found that he had nothing to say.
"And what the hell were you thinking giving her that so-called report?" the Admiral demanded.
Harm's mouth fell open. "Sir, I didn't!"
"Then how did she get it?" he asked pointedly.
"I don't know, Sir. I swear…oh, except, I think I do." The Admiral's chin jutted out. Harm turned and walked to the kitchen. He leaned on the counter for a moment, then turned to face his boss. "I wrote my number on the outside of the folder it was in. I was in a hurry and forgot what was in there. I thought it was just…I thought it was trash." Realization dawned on Harm's face. "She gave it to her father, didn't she?"
"Oh, I don't know if she gave it to him, but he's seen it. And he's pissed as hell. And frankly, Rabb, so am I."
"Sir, I'm sorry. I didn't think…"
"No, you didn't. And that's your problem. You didn't think before you wrote that report. Or maybe you did – doesn't matter. You certainly didn't think before you started kissing a strange woman in the elevator. I really don't understand how you didn't know she was SecNav's daughter…" the Admiral trailed off, stumbling over a thought. "They didn't acknowledge each other?"
Harm blushed. "Sir, I don't think they knew each other were there. In fact, I didn't know SecNav was there until after we got off the elevator. He was walking in front of us and I recognized him. Samantha must have been so busy looking at me that she didn't notice him either. He left the building while she and I were standing in the lobby. I left her down there while I…" He really needed to learn when to stop.
"While you what, Commander?"
Harm sighed. "While I went back upstairs to hand in my report. The real report." The Admiral was instantly furious. But Harm decided to come clean and spare the Admiral the trouble of asking questions. "I didn't want to leave Samantha hanging. So I took her down to the lobby to wait for me after you called, then I went back upstairs. Bud told me that you were still looking for me when I came out of the head"
"You kept me waiting while you made out with a woman and hit the head?"
Harm hung his head. "Yes Sir."
"So, Mr. Rabb," he said dangerously, "you disobeyed me so you could hook up with a woman. Then you gave that woman a report that you had no business writing in the first place. And that woman gave that report to her father, who happens to be the Secretary of the Navy. Her father, the Secretary of the Navy, then called me to tell me that I should keelhaul you for even thinking to write a report like that. Does that about sum up the events of the day?"
"Yes Sir," Harm answered, barely loud enough to be heard. He again dropped his head and stared at his shoes. It was at that moment that he became extremely grateful that the Admiral's paddle was tucked safely inside a desk ten miles away. But the clink of metal brought his head up sharply.
"Get over here, Rabb," the Admiral ordered, while slipping his belt out of the loops of his jeans and folding it in half menicingly. Harm moved slowly toward his boss, never taking his eyes off the belt. The Admiral motioned Harm over to the couch. Just as he was about to bend over, the Admiral stopped him. "Loose the jeans." Harm looked up and opened his mouth in protest, but the look on the Admiral's face made him close it, unbuckle his own belt and push his jeans down to his knees. "Shorts too," came the not-completely-unexpected order. Harm hesitated for just a moment before pushing his boxers down to meet his jeans, then slowly bent over the back of the couch.
"Do you understand why I'm doing this, Harm?" the Admiral asked quietly.
"Yes Sir," Harm answered, lifting his face out of the couch cushion.
"Tell me."
Harm thought hard. He fought away the thought that he just wanted the spanking to start so that he could concentrate on coming up with an acceptable answer. "I let my ego get the better of me when I wrote that bogus report, I carelessly gave it to someone I barely knew…and I disobeyed you."
"Good, I'm glad we're on the same page," the Admiral said matter-of-factly, then raised the belt and brought it down hard on Harm's backside. The sound of leather hitting skin reverberated around the room as the belt fell over and over. Harm was really pretty sure he was going to die, he just wasn't sure if it would be from the pain or from the embarrassment of having his bare ass whipped by his boss.
The strapping lasted longer than Harm wanted, but not as long as he'd expected. The Admiral was being careful with the belt and stopped spanking Harm as soon as he saw some of the welts start to change to a deeper red. He slowly put his belt back on as he let Harm catch his breath. He then leaned over and helped the younger man stand up. Harm quickly pulled his pants up before turning around to face the man who had just taken out a day's worth of frustration on him.
When he finally felt secure enough in his ability to speak, Harm looked up. "I'm sorry Sir. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. And I'm sorry you had to take a belt to me. I'm sure that was almost as hard on you as it was on me." He grinned as the Admiral gently touched his chin, then gathered him into a fatherly hug.
"I know son, I know," the Admiral said quietly. He gently pushed Harm away and held him at an arm's length. "I know there's just no sense in telling you that I never want to have to do that again." Harm laughed through his choked back tears. "I just hope I don't have to do it again any time soon." Harm nodded, then looked down at the floor. The Admiral looked at him for a moment longer, then let go of Harm's shoulder and turned to leave. "I'll patch things over with SecNav."
"Thank you Sir. I appreciate that." He looked up. "And Admiral? I appreciate you not letting me get away with anything. Even if I don't necessarily appreciate how you do it."
The Admiral laughed. "I'll see you in the morning, Commander."
Less than a minute after the Admiral left, Harm heard a knock on the door. He'd retreated to the bathroom to check the damage, but quickly pulled his pants back up and went to answer the door. He shook his head as he looked through the peep hole, then pulled the door open.
"So," Mac said with an evil grin on her face, "what did you do?"
Harm stepped back and let Mac into the apartment. "How do you always know when I least want to see you?" he said, returning the grin.
Mac pulled him around to face her. She studied his face for a moment. "I was waiting up the street until the Admiral left. What happened?"
Harm pulled away, walked across to the kitchen and brought back two bottles of juice from the refrigerator. He handed a bottle to Mac, the returned to the other side of the room to lean against the kitchen island. "You tell me," he said slyly.
Mac took a long sip. "Ok, so I slipped the bad report in with mine. But I thought you gave him the right one later. He was really that mad?"
Harm almost dropped his juice. "You did that on purpose?" he said in disbelief.
Mac shrugged and flashed her best smile. "I didn't think you'd get in that much trouble! But I told you it was a dumb thing to do, didn't I?" The look on Harm's face was dangerous. "Harm, I'm sorry. I really didn't think he'd take it that seriously."
Harm allowed her to go on apologizing for a few minutes, but eventually, Mac's voice reached a new level of desperation and decided he'd better stop her before she blew a blood vessel. "Mac, stop!" he said, still leaning nonchalantly on the counter. "That report was the least of my transgressions. Trust me – I'm pretty sure it was making out with SecNav's daughter and then accidently giving her that report that was my downfall."
Now it was Mac's turn to be shocked. "Wow! You really are an idiot!"
"Thanks Mac. That really helps," Harm said trying to act hurt.
Mac recovered quickly, stood up and walked over to Harm. "So," she said, circling him slowly. "What did he do to you?"
Harm put his hands on Mac's shoulders, turned her around and steered her toward the door. "Thanks for stopping by, Mac. I'll see you tomorrow."
"What did he do?" Mac asked, trying to turn around. But Harm was stronger than she was and she soon found herself in the hall.
"Maybe if you're really nice to me and let me win the next case, I'll tell you someday," Harm said with a smile, then closed the door. He shook his head again, then headed to his bedroom and flopped down onto his bed. On his stomach.
