Thanks for the reviews, I hope to get more of them.

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Chapter 2 – Jinx

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Miramar Naval Air Station, San Diego

Freak accident. To hell with it. They could not wrote that to the report but that was it. At least with the Lukes crash there was something that they did to prevent more accidents like his but not this time. Birds killed a lot of pilots over the years and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Even astronauts were dead because of birds.

Harm, Mac and some pilots and RIOs from the squadron were sitting at bar and watched the old ritual of hanging the picture of dead pilot to the wall. There were already a lot of them some dating back to 40's. The planes on the photos changed but the pilots were all the same. Young and indestructible or so they did though. And all of them died while flying their planes. Now was time to drink to honor them and go on.

For Harm it was more personal then for most of the others. His photo nearly hung on that wall as well. The ramp strike could killed him as well as his RIO but he was somehow spared. He was lucky that day. Luke and now Tess were not.

The phone started ringing. "Harm," said Mac to her partner as he was lost in his own world. Not that it proved successful. "HARM," Now she used her best DI like voice.

That got to him."What?"

"Your phone, flyboy," said amused Mac.

Harm responded with his usual flyboy smile. "Yeah, was just daydreaming." With that he looked at his phone and smiled even more when he recognized the number. "Hi, mom."

"Yeah, I'm in town."

"I know I said that I would call you when I'm here."

Mac had hard time to suppress giggling. Harm was really cute now.

"Yes, I would love to have dinner with you and Frank."

"Uhm, would you mind if I brink one guest." Harm did not knew why he said that it was out before his brain could stop his mouth. But he could not took it back now.

"Mooom, she is my partner at JAG."

"OK, we will be there in half an hour. Bye, mom."

Mac now lost her battle with laugh. "Um, Harm. You invited me to have dinner with you parents without asking me first."

"Sorry, Mac. You know that admiral got you transferred permanently to HQ with hope that you could take mine ego down a notch or two." That was smart Rabb. Really smart. "So Marine, are you up to that task? And will you accompany me to dinner with my mom?"

Mac tried hard to look seriously. Not that she did not wanted to take his ego down a little or have good home cooked meal. That was a challenge and Marines and especially the one with name Sarah MacKenzie never backed from a challenge. But Harm was her partner at work not her boyfriend.

Harm got his best puppy look to convince her that it was no big deal.

Mac could not resist this look. "OK. I will go with you." And before Harm could tell her anything she pointed finger to him. "On one condition. Make sure your mom knows we are only friends."

"I think that I could do that." With that Harm paid for their drinks and grabbed his flight jacket.

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Burnetts residence, La Jolla

They arrived to Harm's parents house exactly 29 minutes and 14 seconds after Harm said it will took them half a hour. That alone was proof enough that Harm knew the traffic here well.

Mac could not believed her eyes. The house was huge. From all she knew about prices of real estates in California this one must have cost few hundreds of thousands.

From their still short working relationship Harm knew that Sarah MacKenzie was often thinking too much. And now he could nearly hear her brain working. "Come on, Mac. Mom is probably thinking what took us so long to get here."

"If you insist, sailor."

Of course Patricia 'Trish' Burnett Rabb was expecting her son. As soon as he got out of his car she opened front door. It was long time since Harm's last visit. From what she saw he looked more and more like his father. The only difference was her son's lacking mustache. And the woman he had brought with him was nervous and confident at the same time. Probably because they were only friends and she was afraid that Harm's mom would want them to be more. 'Oh my god, she looks just like Diane,' Trish hoped that he did not jumped her just for her looking like his dead academy sweetheart.

"Harm, Its been too long since I saw you last time," said Trish and hugged her son before he had chance to say anything. "And who is this beautiful Marine you brought with you?"

Harm hugged his mom back and had to smile. "Mom, I know I should visit you more often but I had a lot of work last year. And this is my partner at work and friend Sarah MacKenzie. But she wants to be called Mac."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Rabb."

"Sarah, it's nice to meet you. And its Trish."

"Thank you, Trish." Mac already liked that woman. Not that she knew why. It was the same thing as her friendship with Harm, it just felt right.

All three of them went inside and Mac jaw nearly dropped. The house was even nicer from the inside that from outside. All the decoration and the paintings that hung on the walls. Who the hell were Harm's parents. She knew that all this cost a lot of money so Harm's apartment in D.C. was the way it was only because he wanted it that way. He probably could afford a lot bigger and nicer one.

Trish observed the silent interaction between her son and this Marine. They had formed connection and from what she knew they had known each other for only few weeks. Before she could made more observation the oven signaled that the meal was finished. "Dinner is almost ready. I only need to finish salad."

"I will help you with that, mom."

"No, you get Frank from his office so I could have nice chat with Sarah."

Harm got bad feeling about this. 'Great, mom is up to something' "So we should return fast before you could tell her some embarrassing stories about me."

"Nah, I will save those for dinner so you could hear them as well."

Now Harm felt really embarrassed. Maybe it was not so good idea to bring Mac for dinner after all. He and Mac were friends and since their adventure in Arizona they were on good way to be really close ones. But some of the stories from his past were at least strange. Outside his friends from navy academy and family no one knew about what he did as teenager. So there was risk that Mac could start hate him and working with her if they were not on good terms would turn their work into hell.

"So Sarah, tell me how you met my son? I know there must be some story behind the two of you."

Mac had to think about what she could say. The truth or the official version. She did not told the truth to her uncle so she should stick to that version for everyone. So before she realized it she began to tell the shortened story about The Rose Garden, Arizona and her uncle Matt.

Frank and Harm got back to the kitchen just in time when Mac described their dangerous fight with her uncle rough militia men on board the helicopter.

After the story was over Trish had to fight tears. "Ah that is so romantic."

The dinner proved to be nice one and as more stories about Harm youth were told Mac was stunned. She of course knew that he was once a fighter pilot but now she began to understand why he was so devastated by this crash.

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Miramar Naval Air Station, San Diego

Harm never believed in jinx or bad karma or anything like it. Investigation was nearly complete and all left to do was fill the papers. The mess with mosque incident was in the hands of politicians as Mac pointed out. Harm wanted to finish the job himself. Some of the pilots were his friends and he owned them this much. Media somehow got the info about the night emergency landing on USS America. If there was ever bad time for a leak of information it was now. First the crash then the jinx bullshit and now this. And they somehow figured out that he was leading the investigation.

Mac knew that this investigation was not good for Harm and wanted to give him time. "You still can take few days. I can manage the press easier than you. They will not get to me with the "you were pilot" thing."

"No, I will see this to the end."

"OK, just let me handle the media next time."

Harm did not liked it. As lead investigator it was his job to talk to media but Mac was right. They were using his pilot past to get to him. "You are right. It will be better if you handle them next time."

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Marine Corps Air Station El Toro

Harm was released by base surgeon and encouraged not to flight again for next few weeks. The cut got him four stitches. It was not too deep but it was big enough. And the plane was in no flight condition too with the broken canopy.

Harm was waiting for the helicopter with Mac and Bud to land. They was to land here only to pick him up to get all three of them to Miramar.

As soon as the helo landed Mac got out and punched Harm to his right arm. "Harm, I was worried about you." She had to yell as the engines and rotors made a lot of noise but she still sounded like a teenage girl.

It was not that hard punch so Harm was still smiling at Mac. "And so you had to hit me?"

"Hey, I'm Marine and I could not help myself. Next time you do not try to kill yourself!"

"You know, I will do nearly any thing to find the truth."

Now Mac was grinning. "I know that already. That's what scares me most." Even with all Harm did to her since they knew each other she was glad they were friends and that scared her most.

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Next chapter – Christmas Surprise (not based on any episode, just x-mas in 1996 with one surprise visitor ;) )