Title: If you leave, I will follow

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "JAG", I'm just borrowing them for the story.

Mac closed the door behind her and waited until she heard Chloe lock it until she started looking around for the kids. It was dark outside so she didn't think they could have gone into the woods, most kids even teenagers were afraid to go in there in the dark. She decided to check the stables, maybe they had gone in there to look at the two horses, but it was a long shot.

The lights were on in there, but then again, they were always on. Slowly she opened the door, trying not to make any noise. There were two soaking wet jackets, thrown on the floor in front of Chloe's horse Spout in the hay on the floor. Now she knew they were in there, even though she couldn't spot them. She looked up at the loft with the ladder leading to it and saw traces of mud on the ladder.

"Lizzie! Henry! I know you're up there, come on down." She called to them prepared to use her "Marine voice" in a minute if they didn't. "NOW!" she yelled. She saw two heads peeking down at her from the edge, then Henry stood up.

"Maybe we don't feel like it, lady." He said defiantly, showing off for Lizzie.

"It's dangerous up there, come down." She tried but felt it wasn't working with him so she turned to Lizzie who was after all Chloe's best friend. "Lizzie, Chloe wants you in the house with her, it's her birthday party remember."

When she didn't answer Mac gave up the nice tactics since they were obviously wasted on these two tonight. "You come down right now, or I'm coming up to get you and then I'm going to call your parents and tell them to come get you!"

Henry frowned and pointed at her from up there. "Nobody tells me what to do! Especially YOU!" he screamed at her. He saw a pitchfork leaning against the wall five steps away from him and reached for it, then in rage lifted it up in the air and made an attempt to throw it at her from where he stood right at the edge of the loft. Mac got ready to move but it proved to be a little too heavy for him and in horror she watched the boy loose his balance, drop the pitch- fork in the soft hay and with a screech fall down from the loft and hit the ground where she stood.

"Oh my god!" Mac exclaimed as she hurried to get to his side. "Henry! Are you alright?!!"

"Oow, my arm, my arm! It hurts!" he cried, tears streaming down his face. Mac tried to check if everything else was alright but the boy immediately did his best to push her away from him and even tried to punch her in the face once.

"Stop it, stay still or you'll make it worse, Henry!" Mac tried telling him. Finally she got tired of waiting for him to come to his senses and pushed his good arm away and scooped him up in her arms and carried him out of the stables. On her way out she called to Lizzie, "Can you get down from there by yourself?!" the girl shook her head, she was obviously chocked and afraid to climb down on her own now. "Alright I'll be right back for you, just don't move!" She hurried into the house; Chloe opened the door for her and immediately they were surrounded by worried and curious kids who wanted to know what had happened.

"Everybody go sit down in the living-room." Mac said "Give us some room okay? Chloe stay with him while I call for an ambulance, I think his arm is broken." Chloe nodded and sat down next to Henry on the floor while Mac grabbed the phone and made the call.

Then she ran outside again and entered the stables to help Lizzie. She climbed up to the loft and reached out a hand for the girl to take but she wouldn't move.

"Here, take my hand and I'll help you down." She offered but Lizzie just stared at her with an empty look in her blue eyes. Mac managed to lock eyes with her and then took her hand. "Hey, I promise I won't let you fall, I'll even carry you if you want me to, alright?"

Lizzie nodded. "I'm afraid of heights you know, it was Henry's idea to come up here, he said it would be alright. I'm so sorry, I never should have listened" She said and let the tears come. Mac lifted her up and felt how she clung to her and how her shoulder got wet with tears as the girl cried on it, but she didn't care, she had to get back to the house.

Mac did her best to keep the boy comfortable, but he refused to let her move him to the couch or any other place that would be more convenient than the floor, so she just got some pillows and a blanket instead. It took twenty minutes before the ambulance arrived at the drive way. And when it did the paramedics put him in the ambulance and advised Mac to call the boy's parents and let them know where they were taking him so they could be there.

Just as they were about to leave one of them rolled down the window and asked her. "Excuse me Ma'am, are you alone here with all those kids?"

"Yes, I am. Why?"

"Then you really should keep your door locked because of that crazy Petty Officer that escaped tonight. You know about that?"

"Yes, I just heard. Don't worry about it, I'm going to call all the parents and have them come get their kids. Everyone is pretty shaken up so I've got the feeling the party is pretty much over any way." She saw he still looked worried so she added "And don't worry about me and my little sister either, I'm a Marine and hopefully he won't come all the way out here." The man looked both surprised and relieved as he nodded and they drove off in the pouring rain.

Half an hour later Mac had called Henry's parents, and talked to his mother who totally freaked on the phone when she heard what had happened to her little angel. At first she started crying and Mac spent a couple of minutes trying to calm her down and when she had managed to do that the woman started yelling at her instead. Blaming her for not taking proper care of her son while he was at their house. Mac said little, since she also blamed herself for the accident. She should never have left them alone, she should have been more careful. All she felt she could do was ask the woman to please calm down and when that didn't work either she apologized the best she could and hung up on her.

Chloe had just said goodbye to her last guest and closed the door and locked it like she was told. Mac was sitting in the kitchen by the table, drinking some coffee. All the parents had come for their kids and Lizzie's mom had been the last to leave. Mac had explained to her what had happened with her daughter and Henry and expected her to be as angry as his mom, but she took it very well and instead thanked Mac for what she had done. She said that the only person she was angry with was her daughter for leaving like that, and she didn't think Mac had anything to feel guilty about regarding Henry either, especially not after Mac told her about the pitchfork incident.

"Mac? Are you okay?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Lets go to bed."

To be continued soon