Chapter 2

Sean Rabb was rarely in any situations where he felt that many things were outside of his control. He was not used to sitting and waiting. Sean was the man who made others sit and wait. Following a quiet childhood where he'd grown up idolizing his older brother and being taken to various martial arts lessons from his step-father, Sean had entered the Naval Academy to begin his career as an officer – hopefully using his skills to become a SEAL.

He'd been a bookish kid, the sort that had he not the huge body to prove it, no one would have ever believed him to be a champion in sparring and mixed martial artist. In fact, when he hadn't been training in his youth, he'd been reading existentialist philosophy, often in the original German.

The youngest Rabb boy had been very unlike his cocky brother growing up. Instead of daring and ego, Sean was quiet, calculating, and very intelligent.

His combination of hand to hand training and sponge-like intelligence, had led to quite the decision in his career plan at the Naval Academy. He'd always wanted to be a SEAL, to put his training to use on a real foe, but there was quite a movement of advisors courting him for Naval Intelligence.

Now here he was, sitting and waiting, charged with murder. The hazel eyed man was puzzled by this on some level, because he was trained to kill. Trained to kill in close quarters, not like some sniper hundreds of yards away. And Sean had killed. Sean was good at it. The irony had not escaped him, but apparently this was not a killing than the U.S. Navy wanted. Hence the charges.

And those pesky battery charges against the MPs who had tried to apprehend him, if it could be called apprehending considering there aren't many places to go to get away when you are on a carrier. Apparently the Navy hadn't taken kindly to him putting a serious hurting on four of them either.

A thought which made the man smile just a little bit and huff with a hint of a chuckle as he leaned back in his chair. What was taking them so long! No, he wasn't one with a lot of patience for sitting and waiting – it was never asked of him.

Finally, the door opened, and he was about to make some comment to the effect of how LONG it took when instead he stood up suddenly, coming to attention.

While he didn't move, his eyes certainly trained on who had just entered the room. An Admiral. Seriously? Huh, perhaps this was turning a bit more interesting than he'd expected.

And….Harmony. Big Brother coming to save Little Brother and bringing the big guns with too. How like his cowboy brother.

The way he was being eyeballed was surprisingly not unsettling. What did draw his immediate attention was what was above the Admiral's ribbons. A fellow SEAL. He could eyeball Sean all he wanted then.

"At ease."

Sean relaxed, as much as he ever relaxed during an op, which was what he still considered this. He turned his eyes to his brother briefly, who was looking at him as if he definitely thought he was guilty. Well, there wasn't much Sean could do about that, there were witnesses, and he was sure the files said such.

"I believe you two know each other," the Admiral cut in to his personal thoughts, as if giving them permission to do whatever it was two brothers did.

"Yes, sir," he said, going to reach his hand out to Harm just as Harm did the same. Like robots they clasped hands and then clapped each other on the shoulder. It wasn't a warm greeting, nor was it particularly cold. More hesitant than anything, especially on Harm's part.

"How are you doing, Sean-o."

"Fine you?" At least this was one of those crossing points in their life where they held the same rank, because being two years in longer than him, Harm usually held that position of glory that dictated protocols Sean thought should not be between two brothers. As they'd found out when they were at the Academy together. "Nice of you to come to keep me company."

Sean could see that almost unseated Harm, his strange sense of calm despite his charges. Sean had absolutely nothing to worry about, but Harm didn't know that and neither did his Admiral.

Speaking of.

"We are not here to keep you company, Mr. Rabb!"

"No, sir, of course not." Little did they know. And now would likely be the time where he should lapse into two word answers, or just pull out his mental ritual for interrogations. Though, he didn't think either would take kindly to him whipping out name, rank, social security number.

Sean had made one phone call and one phone call only and it had NOT been to his lawyer big brother, which would have made sense for one facing murder charges, and this was why he had not been expecting his legal representation to be the ones who were stepping through the door earlier.

"We don't have time to fool around here, Commander, so we'll need your side of the story."

Without any hint of sarcasm, he said, "What story, sir," in a completely even tone.

Harm made a growl-like noise just under his breath, and gave Sean both a pleading and annoyed look at the same time.

"Is that a joke?" Admiral - Sean looked at his name - Chegwidden, asked him.

"No, sir."

"You DO know why you're here?"

Sean nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Then you'd best start talking, Mister."

Maybe while name, rank, and social was not going to get him in anybody's graces, it might have made the man less pissed off at him.

Eying the tape recorder, Sean looked forward and kept his mouth plastered shut. He wasn't going to say anything anyway, but he definitely wasn't saying it with a tape recorder on.

Before Chegwidden could give him another verbal slap in the face or get in his face and yell, drowning him in sprays of saliva, Harm interjected. It was a good tactic, trying to work the trusting, understanding brother angle.

"Sean, we can't help you if you don't tell us the truth. This is a murder charge…"

Sean turned and looked at Harm, raising an eyebrow, "What murder?"

Harm's lips pursed so fast, barely holding in a long trail of brotherly exasperation that would have come out if Chegwidden wasn't there, Sean was sure. And, then he had a very agitated Admiral leaning across the table into his face.

"You are pissing on the wrong tree, Commander. The murder you committed with two eye witnesses."

"Sir, I don't know what you are talking about."

Sean though Chegwidden's head was just going to burst open. Harm frowned and was the first to come up with a valid theory for his evasiveness. At least his brother still knew thing or two about him.

"Were you under orders?"

Sean blinked. Did he REALLY think Sean was going to answer that question? You didn't just sell out where you got your orders from and that's exactly where that line of questioning would take them. It was all need to know and there wasn't one small little piece of it that they needed to know, despite their best intentions of being there to save him from a 'murder' he obviously committed. There was no defense here, he'd done it. It was the circumstances which just were not privy to anyone, even a very angry two-star.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Harm."

"YOU'D BETTER START KNOWING SOMETHING, SON, BECAUSE IF YOU WERE UNDER ORDERS-."

And the man was obviously to angry to even finish his sentence, instead he just kept his beady eyes four inches from Sean's, glaring and huffing in his face.

Setting his jaw and speaking in a very even tone, he answered, "You were a SEAL too, sir?"

Answer the question with a question, but his question had been an answer. Any SEAL would know. There were definite vows of silence and even as an Admiral, Chegwidden should respect that.

If looks could have killed, Sean would have dropped dead, that he was certain of. Chegwidden was growling, making that dangerous rumbling noise that showed his comprehension of what Sean had said but also the fact that he didn't like it one bit.

Things were going downhill fast and he was going to have to start just sitting here getting yelled and glared at spouting nothing but name, rank, and social. If he said anything more he'd be saying too much or toeing that insubordination line a bit too much. Really, he likely already had, but he really wasn't concerned about that. There were bigger things going on.

They were saved by the door opening again, which turned the angry Admiral to yell at whomever dared to interrupt. It also had Sean up and out of his seat again, but this time with no trace of coming to attention. Finally.

Scoffing, the hazel eyed Rabb said, "What took you so long, the lawyers got here before you did."

He looked at his watch and then at the man who'd entered, "Do you have my things, we're low on time?"

With that, the first thing that went flying at Sean was a cell phone.

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