Meg's Apartment, Reston, VA 1435 hrs
Animal unlocked the door to her apartment, ushering her in while he stepped back out into the hallway and picked up his own luggage. When he stepped back into the apartment suite, Meg was standing there, still in her bathrobe. He asked her, "Did you want me to draw you a hot bath?" as he shut the door to her apartment and locked it.
"What I want..." Meg said as she looked at Animal, "...is for you to make me warm again..." Animal's lower jaw practically impacted the floor as Meg had stepped out of her shoes; her bare toes on the carpeted floor. Her hands untied the sash that had kept the terrycloth bathrobe from flying open and she shrugged her shoulders letting the robe fall off her shoulders to stand there naked and shivering before his eyes. Her eyes filled, flooded and overflowed, "Take away the memories of that kidnapping and make me feel safe again..." She pleaded as she clutched his body with a hint of desperation. Animal looked into her eyes realizing that she had just been showing a mere facade of inner strength earlier when she had really been traumatized by the whole experience. He knew he had made the right decision to stay with her, a string of right decisions that had started with his deciding to transfer his rehab therapy to Bethesda.
He let her lead him into her bedroom, had her strip him naked and allowed her to take what she needed to feel safe again. It wasn't about the sex, he thought as Meg writhed in pleasure underneath him. It was about making her feel loved, safe and no longer objectified as she had been in Skeletor's clutches. Even for that short amount of captivity, it had messed with her sense of being. She had been turned into an object suitable for titillation and for Skeletor's men to get their jollies. It had made her feel less than human. As she peaked in a shuddering climax, she curled up in his arms, sobbing. Animal tightened his embrace to enfold her in a cocoon of comfort. When she'd finished crying out her fear and frustrations, she turned to Animal and whispered "I felt so helpless. My life could have ended on his whim...and there was nothing I could do about it."
Animal gave her a reassuring embrace that tried to convey how much he needed her; that she was safe and that Skeletor would not be able to touch her ever again.
"He...he put a Makarov, the same Makarov he shot Burev w-with today...to my forehead yesterday...and pulled the trigger..." She whispered desolately. "If it was loaded, I'd b-be d-dead and I would have never been able to hold you or make love to you again. I didn't know you were there and searching for me. Everything I doubted because he made me doubt." She paused, "but you were the one who came through for me. You contacted him and were crucial in putting the deal together even though we were all used in the end."
"Yeah..." Animal replied. "We were pawns in a game the chess master was playing..." He grinned at Meg who sniffled but tried to smile at him, "...but this pawn is happy because he has his queen back."
"Oh no..."
"What?"
"Bad chess puns..." She murmured softly, finally relaxing and curling up with him under the covers, their bare skin contacting each other sending more pleasant electric signals through their bodies. She seemed to be relaxing and feeling more secure. "I love you..." Meg whispered as she pulled Animal close, one leg over his thighs. The feeling of her warm core against his hip as she clung to him, her arms over his chest, enveloped Animal in a feeling of rightness. She was back with him safe and secure; everything was now right with the world.
"Want to take a shower together, O my queen?" He inquired with an eager smile on his face.
"You just want to see me wet and naked." Meg smirked at him, her eyes, though, showing gratitude that he was there. If he wasn't she would have had to deal with the nightmares at night by herself. Being used as an object had really turned her world upside down. Her personal space had been brutally violated in captivity. And the open display of her intimate space by savagely violent hands while unconscious had been traumatic. She had not been raped but if there hadn't been haste put on her recovery by her JAG CO, Harm and Tosh, she could not deny that the situation could have gone in that direction considering that her captors would go to any length to extract information. Meg shivered again and decided that she would replace those disturbing memories of forced ablutions by firehose or getting dunk-tanked along with floating ice-cubesin the bathtub with much more pleasant memories and yanked Tosh out of bed, dragging him to the bathroom; Tosh grinning all the way there.
In an unmarked car heading back to the Russian Consulate 1626hrs
Mikhail Parlovsky grinned to himself as he sat in the vehicle heading back from the warehouse back to the consulate. Lieutenant Austin had nearly leapt into the arms of her lover as she was released. And the tall dark-haired man in US military battle dress, standing to the side of the reunited couple, had a look of stricken loss. Parlovsky smirked as he stared out the window of his moving car: Apparently he was correct in his intuition that there was a lover's triangle. But Parlovsky was a good judge of character. Honor would keep the tall man from meddling in his legal partner's love-life. And something in the back of Parlovsky's mind told him that he would see the tall dark-haired naval officer again on another matter of national security.
Lieutenant Austin's lover was a dangerous man. Almost as quick on the draw as he was. Parlovsky had examined Karpov's body. He thought to himself. Karpov's heart was completely ripped apart from the fragmentation of the bullet that had entered Karpov's heart which sent fragments tumbling through ripping valves and chambers apart instantly causing massive internal blood loss and instantaneous death. Nakamura had just changed direction of the muzzle of his weapon in a millisecond and fired as Karpov had shifted his weight. Parlovsky made a mental note to tell intelligence agents to keep an eye on Commander Nakamura. Even if half of what was in Commander Nakamura's dossier was true, he was a formidable enemy. Parlovsky smirked as he remembered the curses coming from the men who had to change the flattened tire after Commander Nakamura had flattened it with a single shot from his Beretta. That was a very good shot on the Commander's behalf, Parlovsky conceded thoughtfully, a rather expensive tire to replace…he thought.
And he had been able to fire within a millisecond of Burev's twitch towards Lieutenant Austin. A fine shot, that. Parlovsky mused as he reflected on the moment. After all, he had made certain that Burev would not reach Lieutenant Austin. And he remembered the look of surprise on Burev's face as the bullet made its initial impact on his forehead then in a flash, changed to a blank look as Burev dropped to the ground like a wet sack of rotten vegetables. It was a good shot. Byt' po semu (So be it). Burev was an animal and the fact that he went after Lieutenant Austin was unforgiveable.
There was no need to worry about the Americans, they would be too busy trying to undo the damage that Commander Constantin had caused to military secrets to be concerned with one Russian diplomat. And the fact that he had diplomatic immunity helped matters immensely. And he had managed to pocket a sizeable amount of money with the task accomplished that would benefit his own finances. Not a bad start to lining his own pockets and all done in a manner in which the Politburo couldn't determine as fraudulent. Parlovsky smiled to himself, as the car drew nearer to the gate. It was a good afternoon as afternoons went. A few calls and the money would disappear as quickly into an unmarked drawing account to which no-one would know where or how to withdraw it except for Parlovsky himself.
Harm's Apartment, Somewhere in Washington DC 1930 hrs
Harm stood by the island in his kitchen, drinking a beer as he contemplated the events of that day and the fact that they had recovered Meg from that Russian's clutches, but he had lost Meg for good. As in the photo, when Animal was around, Meg's eyes only watched Animal. And nowhere was it more apparent in the seconds after Burev and Karpov were shot in quick succession. Meg had searched for Animal, seeking reassurance and safety; she hadn't even noticed Harm in the background frozen in shock at the sudden, deadly violence that had broken out under the midday sun in the span of seconds.
It had almost seemed in slow motion. That Burev had made a motion to grab Meg to hold her as hostage or kill her. The SVR colonel had put an unerring shot right into Burev's forehead in a splatter of blood. And Animal, who'd had his Beretta trained on Webb, had, in a split-second, aimed and fired at Karpov hitting him center-mass right through the heart. It was only later that it was determined that Animal's round was a Black Talon 9mm which had made complete hamburger of Karpov's heart preventing him from possibly helping Burev; whether he would have, one would never know: the round had dropped Karpov like a sack of rotten potatoes. One shot, swift, deadly and accurate. Of the two shots fired, the colonel's was more impressive; to hit a man's head within a milli-second; to react in answer to a blur of movement, was beyond astounding. But Animal's was meant to protect someone more precious to him than his own life; his shot was vengeance unleashed; a righteous shot as snipers would have termed it.
Harm didn't know what to feel. Towards the end of his captivity with the Chinese in Hong Kong he had found his thoughts turning to Meg rather than to Diane. The pretty blonde JAG Lieutenant JG had somehow stolen his heart and that was why he had found it so hard to let go when she had started showing interest in Animal. But had she stolen his heart or did he just think she had? All he knew was the simple sentence that kept reverberating in his mind "I can't be anything more than professional partners when my heart is given to another man" had shattered both his hopes and his heart. Meg was more than just enamored of Animal, she was truly in love; that her world revolved around Animal and his world, hers. And even worse for Harm, it seemed as though neither could live without the other. That much was evident from Meg's despondency when Animal wasn't around or Animal's sheer desperation when Meg was abducted. In short, Harm had witnessed in brutal fashion, that when it came to a contest for Meg Austin's love, since he was put up against Commander Toshio Nakamura, Harm didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding. He took another swig of his beer casting a dour reflection on the sorry state of his love life. Sometimes the game of love really sucked!
AJ Chegwidden's Home, MacLean, VA, Wednesday, 2030 hrs.
AJ looked at his book, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare; the Annotated Version. How fitting that the various machinations of the intelligence world coincided so cleverly with that which Shakespeare had so cleverly in his tales. The intrigues of the Montagues and Capulets or the machinations of revenge and the heart in MacBeth still drew parallels in the modern world.
Today had been a day of extremes that tested his resolve in the schemes of higher politics and intrigue. To find that they were thoroughly played by a master manipulator and his young JAG officer coming out traumatized from the experience. Thank God that Commander Nakamura was there to help Lieutenant Austin regain her emotional equilibrium. She would be needed to help sort out this mess as the SECNAV and the CIA would be looking for answers as to why and how they had been thoroughly out-maneuvered. AJ also needed more information on this SVR colonel to whom they hadn't even managed to pin a name onto, because his intuition was screaming that this individual would pop up again like a chronic hemorrhoid.
This damned game of spy versus spy had nearly gotten us all killed. AJ fumed silently and it was satisfying that Commander Nakamura had made good on his promise to exact a measure of revenge on one hapless UnderSecretary of State whose operations had a predictable pattern of going south. Of course breaking Webb's femur may have been overdoing it a little, but no matter; Webb would heal and doubtless go back to botching more missions. On the other hand, Commander Nakamura had shown remarkable restraint in not killing Webb outright for putting his lover in danger like that. He smirked at the mental image of the dedicated and driven young JAG LTJG showing her passionate side to the dedicated and driven Japanese-American naval aviator and Black Aces XO. The two of them would be a force unrivaled if the two of them became matrimonially tied.
The only fly in the ointment would be Lieutenant Commander Rabb's reaction and from what he could see, the lieutenant commander was subdued and torn. Perhaps, he should assign him a different case when he got to the office tomorrow morning, perhaps send him out of town for a few weeks so that he could get his head back on straight. AJ mused. I don't need him mulling over his love-life like a lovesick puppy. Especially when Meg has made her choice. He glanced out the window at the summer sun starting to lower in the sky in its inexorable journey towards the horizon. Well, I'll take a look at the cases on the docket and assign Lieutenant Commander Rabb one where he has to investigate matters out of town and hopefully he'll fly straight after he gets back.
Meg's Apartment, Reston, VA 2200 hrs
Meg sat on her couch, grinning up at Animal. Both of them were clothed again after the intimacy of their coupling. "Hungry." She said simply, a smirk on her face.
"Oh?" Animal smirked right back at her. "Hungry?"
"Yeah…so what you going to feed me?" She had a smug look on her face.
Animal smacked his forehead. "Oh…shit…right." His mind went back to the park. She didn't have a purse with her. "Did Skeletor keep the purse?"
Meg nodded, her demeanor somber. "I think so, I didn't see it nor did he proffer it back." This meant that she was going to have to replace every bit of identification that she had left. Also…what really sucked was that she was going to have to move from where she lived to someplace else. This place of hers didn't offer any sort of comfort any longer. The violation had extended that far and she informed Animal of that fact. He nodded silently understanding the fact that this place no longer was a refuge or safe haven any longer for Meg. Skeletor knew where she lived and the sooner that she got rid of the place the better. "I'm also going to have to close my bank account and open another one at a different bank. That's going to throw major monkey wrenches into my pay because all that has to clear through BuPERS." She huffed. Getting kidnapped was a pain-in-the-ass, she thought
A knock on the door caused Animal to reach for his Beretta. "Who is it?" Animal barked, the muzzle pointed towards the door.
"Harm!" was the muffled reply from behind the front door.
Animal walked towards the door, slowly, the muzzle not wavering from the door. "OK…just warning you, I'm armed." He opened the door to a wryly grinning Harmon Rabb Jr.
"Jesus Christ…Animal, a little paranoid, are you?"
Animal lowered his Beretta, "I wish I were. Skeletor's got her purse."
Harm looked worried. "You're sure." He looked at Meg as she nodded an affirmative.
"Harm, he sent me back naked with just my shoes and a bathrobe covering me. I wasn't carrying a purse, was I?" Meg sounded irritable. Harm had to agree with her. After all, he had seen that she had barely enough coverage of her body to keep her from getting arrested for indecency. And considering that now she was home and clothed, Harm felt he didn't have to worry about what she and Animal were doing in between the time he dropped them off initially and when he dropped by now, with some steaming hot food.
Meg was the first to notice the food and gave her long-time partner a hug which he eagerly returned. Animal just watched the two of them with raised eyebrow and a wry grin then gave Harm a pat on the shoulder. "Thanks, bud. I was thinking I'd have to order in some food. So thanks for saving me the trip."
Harm sarcastically grunted. "It was to help Meg. Not you, Animal." Meg burst out laughing as Animal couldn't say anything to that. Animal could see that he was joking as he had brought enough food to last for a few days. When Meg offered to have him join Animal and her, he agreed. It would be safer with two men in the apartment for the duration of time that Harm was there.
Dinner was eaten mostly in silence with casual chatter about things that had gone on at the office. It seemed as though Meg was trying to put what had happened behind her. It seemed forced to Animal. Captivity did a number on the psychological stability of a person, but he didn't know how to broach the fact that perhaps Meg should see a psychiatrist to deal with the emotional aftereffects of the kidnapping. And coincidentally, in parallel with the psychiatric help, they should consider a change in home-location. But were he and Meg prepared to take that next step of moving in together?
