Thanks for the great reviews, guys. You motivated me (and starved me, as I should be eating lunch), so here's chapter two.
I'm looking through the case files when Harm walks in. He doesn't knock, of course, but he doesn't shut the door either. I don't look up from my files; I'm actually not reading them, since the bigamy case is pretty easy, especially that I'm prosecuting. I'm just trying to pass the time until 0800 hours, and so far I'm succeeding. I only have five minutes left.
"Our interns are waiting," Harm says.
"It's not eight yet," I reply. I'm not looking forward to this whole thing very much, in fact, I'm not heading out into the bullpen until there are twenty seconds left.
"You wouldn't want to be late, would you?"
"I'm not the one who should be concerned about being late," I say, glancing at him.
"I'm fashionably late," he retaliates.
"I'm fashionably on-time."
He snorts with a laugh. "Fashionably on-time translates to irritating."
"Just because-" I'm cut short from my comeback by Harriet, who pops her head in and tells us that our interns are waiting for us. What? I still have three minutes and forty-nine seconds to brood about having a twenty-something year old in my hair for a week. Harm thanks Harriet for us and grins at me.
"Ready, Marine?"
I brush past him and he follows me into the bullpen. I stop near Gunny's desk, put on a smile, then say, "Colonel Sarah MacKenzie." I extend my hand to the tall woman in front of me. A strained smile is placed on her face, and she accepts my hand. I look down and notice that she's extremely fair skinned.
"Amy Whipple," she introduces herself. "Nice to meet you." Her black hair contrasts strangely to her light skin. I hate it that I have to look up to see her face. She steps forward to Harm and extends her hand to him, much more enthusiastically than toward me. I try not to scowl. Although, I notice that Harm smiles only politely, and doesn't give Whipple his full-blown flyboy smile.
Then I notice the man standing behind Whipple, looking around rather nervously. I step up to him and shake his hand. "N-nice to meet you, Colonel. L-louis Rivera," he stutters. I smile at him more sincerely that I did at Whipple. Rivera steps around me and shakes Harm's hand, then we all stand back like we were and look at each other. Now I can see, when Rivera is standing next to Whipple, that he's much shorter than her.
"Well, should we get started?" Whipple asks. She reminds me of someone, but I can't figure out who. Whipple steps toward Harm. Not so fast.
"Good idea, Ms. Whipple. Why don't we go to my office?" I tell her. She turns to me, her smile fading off. I try not to smile smugly; you don't get everything in life. As I pass Harm, I give him a look. If this girl's going to be drooling all over Harm the entire week, it's going to be a lot worse than I thought.
I lead Whipple into my office and shut the door behind us. "Have you been briefed at all on this case, Ms. Whipple?"
"Please, it's Amy. To my understanding, Petty Officer Cloak, having too much money and too much time on her hands, decided to go after Lieutenant Edwards when he proposed to her," Amy says.
"Cloak went after Lieutenant Edwards," I correct, "because he was already married when he proposed to her. Since we're prosecuting, it should be pretty easy to convict Edwards."
"Are you always this confident?"
I look up at Amy from the file I was reading. "Bigamy is the crime of marrying another individual while already married."
"But Edwards tried to marry her, and he never succeeded," Amy says.
"And if he would have succeeded?"
"He would have been a criminal. But he didn't succeed...."
"Are you trying to get on the defense?"
"I'm just pointing out the facts," she says. Despite what my better judgment is telling me, I glare at Amy for a moment before flipping through the file again. This will be one hell of a week.
****
I love lunchtime. Usually, I don't care one way or the other, but today it's a nice break. Not that there's much to break from. Rivera's a damn good lawyer, or he will be. And here I was thinking that he'd be quiet, nervous, and would break everything he touched. That's what I get for judging on first impressions. I mix my salad and dressing together, and wonder how I'm ever going to prove that Lieutenant Edwards is innocent.
Rivera seems certain that there's a way, which is good, because I'm not going to lose to Mac and Whipple. Speaking of Whipple....
"How's your day going, Commander?" Whipple asks, sitting across from me. I'm snapped from my reverie. I glance over her long, pale face. She's watching me with really brown eyes, almost black. There not nearly as nice as Mac's. Hmm, wonder where that came from. "Commander?"
"Ms. Whipple. Enjoying yourself so far?" I ask. I look to see what she has for lunch. All I see is a zip lock bag of saltines. "Quite a lunch you have there."
"Oh, please call me Amy," she says, smiling. "I'm on a diet." Some diet. And I thought I was a health-freak. Wait till Mac gets a load of this.
"To be honest? I love the people here. Charming group of people," she tells me. Charming? I had never heard the people of JAG headquarters be described as charming. "The work, however, is another story. I suppose the Colonel puts me up to all this paperwork because she doesn't want to do it herself. I'm not getting any experience here yet. How to look for evidence in records? I learned that two years ago."
"Whoever said that being a JAG here would be interesting? Before you get to go to court, you've got to have evidence. Something to back you up," I tell her."Minor details. The Colonel seems to be power hungry," Whipple says. I try not to gape at her. Who's being power hungry?
"I thought you said we were charming people," I shoot back. She flashes me a very flirtatious smile. I try not to roll my eyes.
"Some of you are," she says, eyeing me. I'm torn between amazement and disgust. She's ten years younger than me, if not more, and trying to get my interest.
I'm not sure what to say. I look around the courtyard for help and spot Mac sitting a few tables away, writing something on her legal pad. I give Whipple a half-smile. "Excuse me," I say, standing up. I walk over to Mac, throwing my salad away as I go. I sit down across from Mac and pull her legal pad away. She looks up, disgruntled, and is about to say something before I interrupt.
"Save me from Singer's daughter," I whisper. Mac looks confused, then glances over my shoulder.
"Whipple?" Mac asks, almost laughing. "What did she do to you?"
"Called me charming," I say bluntly. Mac's eyebrows shoot up.
"You, charming?"
"Mac, I'm serious. How are you dealing with her?"
"Exactly how I handle Singer. Pretend she's not there, and if she insists on being noticed, I give her loads of paperwork."
"She thinks you're power hungry," I inform her.
"I'm power hungry? How come hell froze over and no one told me?" Mac says.