I wanted to post this last week when I came back from my vacation, but the chapter for some reason didn't want to come together. Finally it's done and here you have it.
Heh, if anyone thinks the age gap between Harm and Jen is huge then they should've seen the German couple from the camp I was in. They guy was already completely white, I'd estimate him in his 60's if not 70's. The woman was in her 20's, I'd say early 20's, simply put, drop dead gorgeous, fantastic body and lovely face. And they had a small child... younger than a year.
With that kind of age gap, whatever Harm/Jen or Hameron (from House MD) have is really miniscule. But it works for them, they're in love, were looking happy and isn't that the only thing important?
Well, hopefully they're in love and she's not just with him because of the money she'll get when he dies... And, yeah, I know I'm a huge cynic sometimes.
Anyway, huge thanks again to Lynnp, Leigh, Captain J 737, carolfd, michelle UK, Rittanicus, Sarai, Starman800 and rightsideofwrong. You guys rock.
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"Sir, your 0900 appointment is here." reported Tiner.
"Send them in."
He put down his pen and observed as for the first time in more than 3 years LT Meg Austin came before him, stood to attention and declared. "LT Austin reporting for duty, sir!"
"At ease, LT." he smiled and rose, extending a hand which Meg shook. "Welcome back! It's been a hell of a long time and I'm damn proud and glad to have you with us again."
"As am I, sir. I never thought my transfer request would go through so quickly." she commented, sitting down at Chegwidden's prompt.
"We were both lucky on this count, LT. With Rabb leaving a huge hole was left behind and we're slowly drowning in the caseload." he was observing her intently and the lack of any reaction to his news puzzled him "You're not surprised to have not seen Rabb here, you haven't even asked about him. How come?"
"The Commander and I ran into each other in Naples a couple months back, sir." Meg smiled a cryptic smile. The memory of just how they'd run into each other, with her literally jumping into his arms, almost made her blush.
Chegwidden nodded and took up his words "Anyway, because of that we are desperately short of qualified, trained lawyers. Plainly put, we're awfully under-staffed and the ones we have aren't worth much with the exception of young LT Roberts, who isn't fully trained yet. Good choice, btw." Meg smiled, pleased that the young officer she'd recommended for this post was making a good name for himself, for her as she was the one to have recommended him and justifying her belief in him "Major MacKenzie and LCDR Brumby could do a much better job if they'd just concentrate on their jobs for a few minutes at least and not spend all day mentally undressing each other." the disapproval was clear in his voice.
Looking at her he detected a small smile of recognition "Rabb warned you about that as well, huh?"
"Yes, sir, he did."
"Can I ask what exactly he told you?"
' To be careful around that 'slimy Aussie bastard with the attitude of a dog in heat' and to be careful around Mac with what I say, because she might find out just how close Harm and I are. And then I'd probably be either scorched by her glare or frozen by her ice, either way it wouldn't be pretty. But it's not something Chegwidden should find out. ' she mused.
"I'm sorry, Admiral, but I'm not at liberty to discuss." shrugging she smiled sheepishly "It was private."
He nodded his head, having already expected that answer. "Anyway, you'll get Rabb's former office, Brumby will just have to move out." his lips curled into a feral grin "The smug bastard was way too full of himself for getting it in the first place, he deserves to be taken down a notch. Or twenty or thirty... Well, it's staff call time, let's get moving."
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"At ease." he said when he entered the conference room and the present staff rose. He started talking while still standing in front of the door.
"First order of business, let me welcome a new member of the staff. Some of you already know her, she worked here a few years ago. LT Meg Austin, our newest lawyer."
Meg stepped out from behind him where she'd been closing the door, noticing a few friends among the staff, people who had been there during her year as Harm's partner. She sent them a smile, since it would not be proper to wave, and watched Bud's eyes grow to a comical size. Barely keeping her amused grin to herself she took the last free seat at the end of the table, next to the pudgy Lieutenant.
"Hi, Bud." she whispered her greeting.
"Lieutenant!" Bud exclaimed in delight, barely keeping his voice down "Great to have you back."
Meg nodded gratefully "We'll talk more later, okay?"
Bud quickly agreed and turned back to his CO who was still speaking.
"With the other half of the Dream Team off to his primary job we need more lawyers to keep up with the work. Lieutenant Austin is an excellent lawyer, with years of experience, having been trained personally by LCDR Rabb and I'm confident she'll fit right in. She served with us a while back and was a credit to this command all through her assignment until she was requested..." he gave the last word a sarcastic flavor "... by Weapons. It's completely our luck she is now back with us, at this crucial time and I know with her help we'll do better to keep up with the caseload, that LCDR Rabb had always handled by himself, than we have until now."
Meg sent a questioning look at her neighbor, who shrugged helplessly "Without the LCDR we're swamped." he whispered "I think neither of us knew before just what a large percentage of the cases he handled by himself. Or from how much flak he shielded us. And now that he's gone we're struggling to keep up, but the water is quickly rising over our heads. We had to divert many of the cases the last 4 months to other offices, something we never had to do before. With you back we stand a much better chance."
Looking at him Meg could see the young man had grown up some since they'd last met. Not much, he was still that bumbling young Lieutenant, even from what Harm had told her, but Bud had matured. Marriage and parenthood tends to do that to a person.
Looking around Meg saw people she'd heard of from Harm, but never met before.
On Bud's right sat a friendly-looking young blonde who was positively jiggling in her seat with the barely-repressed urge to interrogate Meg on her relationship and history with Harm. Harm had warned Meg about Harriet, according to him she could be worse than the Chinese who'd kidnapped and tortured him for information years ago.
Next to Harriet sat a man she recognized as LCDR Mattoni.
Looking across the table she saw LCDR Carolyn Imes, smiling friendily at her.
Next to Imes sat another officer she didn't know and then a woman she immediately recognized as Mac, who first looked at Meg's golden hair, barely hiding a look of disdain. Even had Harm not described her it would've been easy since she was the only Marine there and stuck out like a sore thumb. Even though she'd worked with Marines before, having a Marine in the HQ among the senior staff just felt wrong to Meg, who's been there while the office had still been Navy-only, and she was sure it was like that for others too.
Admittedly, Major MacKenzie was a classically beautiful woman, tall, thin, large-breasted with huge brown eyes and thick hair of the same color, her Persian background very apparent, but her beauty was drastically reduced by the ego-centric soul staring at the world from behing cold, hard eyes.
' So, this is the woman who has hurt Harm so many times.' thought Meg, unimpressed, sensing the Major disliked her already, even though Mac didn't know her yet, because of the simple fact that Meg was a blonde. It wasn't unexpected as Harm had already warned her that Mac for some reason hated blondes.
She could see why Harm could be sexually attracted to Mac, the Major having the kind of figure that had male tongues touching the ground, drooling. Well, until they saw the person behind the great body.
Shaking her head Meg moved on. Mac wasn't important, she no longer played any role in Harm's life and even if she would play a role again in his life in the future, it would be as nothing more than that of a coworker. Meg trusted Harm, implicitly, and knew she could trust in his commitment to her and their marriage. She knew he'd never stray on her and knew he really did love her, and only her, Meg Rabb, his wife.
LCDR Brumby looked like the regular playboy, his lecherous gaze roaming down her body, making her feel dirty. She figured he was handsome to women who liked that rugged, preening type. In all he looked very self-involved and probably spent a lot of time on his looks. Yet to Meg he came across as a wife-beater. She didn't trust guys who liked fighting, especially not the ones who liked one-on-one fights and LCDR Brumby was, from what Harm had told her, an ex-boxer.
Women love bad boys, the kind of men to give off a sense of danger, but many times those men end up hitting the women who were attracted to them because of just that capacity for violence. Too many women are guided by their hormones in the search for a partner, paying too much attention to that aura of danger, big muscles and good looks, instead of going for the good guys, even if they aren't as exciting and as physically fit.
These men, the good guys, even though they're many times nothing special physically, know how to treat a woman right and are faithful in relationships. Yet, most of the time they are overlooked in favor of the bad boys by women who years later either curse all men, believing they are all bastards, since that was the kind of men they were always attracted to and had gone after; or, if they realize their mistake of overlooking the average looking, safe good guys in favor of the bad boys, are many times too late, because the good guys had by then been all taken by the smarter women who'd rather had them than the bad boys.
While Harm was a good looking man and physically fit, he wasn't arrogant. He knew he looked good, but it wasn't something he took advantage of. While he could stand his own in a fight, fighting wasn't something he liked, it was something that was forced on him with his job as a pilot and lawyer. He wasn't violent by any definition and, even with all his training and ability to kill a man with his bare hands, Harm didn't give off the feeling of danger. Instead he made every woman near him feel safe and protected. Harm was the epitome of a good guy and Meg knew she was extremely lucky to have him. She was a smart woman and there was no way she'd ever let him go again or screw up what they had. Nothing would make her stop loving him, much less leave him.
Making a quick decision to avoid LCDR Brumby as much as possible, Meg leaned back in her chair, wondering what the next few months would bring.
If nothing else they would surely be interesting.
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