Timing Is Everything
Chapter 34
Tuesday, October 27, 2008
To
Friday, November 6, 1998
Harm, Meg and Bud went out on a case to 29 palms. Back at JAG Harriet's pregnancy hormones were raging. She would burst into tears at the drop of the hat. AJ found her crying about Bud not having called from his assignment in 29 Palms.
"It's your HORMONES Harriet," he said gently. Then he and showed her two scars on his balding head.
"The first one was given me by the Viet Cong and resulted in 39 stitches. I hardly felt it as I walked out of the jungle a day after this wound occurred. This next one was when my ex-wife knocked me unconscious for six hours with an electric can opener in her 2nd trimester."
"Come on Harriet it's late I'll treat you to dinner, but do not make me regret it."
Apparently his pep talk didn't hold as the next day she nauseated him with a sardine Dagwood sandwich then threw out his risotto lunch when she cleaned out the fridge.
AJ couldn't wait for Sarah to get back. He had plans for her workload that would keep him from dealing with this sort of drama.
Also as he promised AJ, assigned Harm & Meg as a team till Sarah came back from her honeymoon. They had three interesting cases.
The first one involved a trial against Sarah's Law School Professor, Juanita Ressler.
It began with an Arab named Nassen who was hired, with others, to blow up the USS Wake Island. The attempt was discovered and Nassen was captured Nassen was airlifted, under guard, back to Washington; and, on television a guard, Corporal Barry, shot him. Harm was assigned to defend and Meg was assigned to prosecute.
While investigating his case Harm encountered FBI Agent Novak. Novak was obstructive to Harm's investigations telling him don't think because we worked together that I'm going to be accommodating.
On the stand Harm asked Novak what Nassen had said before he died. Novak claimed, "nothing."
Harm got a psychiatrist to admit that Barry didn't believe he committed murder because "killing a terrorist is not wrong."
Barry then surprised everyone when he fired Harm and got a civilian attorney, Juanita Ressler who had never lost a murder case.
On the day Harm and Ressler were in his office exchanging case information, Diane came down the street from NCIS to have lunch with him. The Rabbs loved that their two offices were close to each other, as they spent many lunch hours together at either headquarters' commissary.
Diane was wearing a civilian business suit. Ressler thought she recognized her and immediately pounced. "The last I heard of you Sarah was that you were assigned to JAG, why did you leave, the law get too tough on you?" Ressler asked Diane derisively.
Diane just smiled back shaking Ressler's hand, "Hello, I'm Diane Rabb. You obviously have me confused with my sister. Sarah is still assigned to this office and she is one of the finest attorneys I have ever met, even better than my husband here."
Harm smiled sarcastically at his wife but he knew why Diane said it.
"Right now she is on her honeymoon. She married a former JAG lawyer named John Marshall, who himself is no slouch of an attorney. You may have heard of him. He won the Legion of Merit along with Sarah for retrieving the Declaration of Independence. Right now he is the Assistant Director of NCIS." Diane finished triumphantly.
Ressler looked correctly chagrined. She got up and said, "Thank you Commander. I have what I need to win this case. It was nice to meet you Mrs. Rabb."
"For one of us anyway," Diane replied still smiling.
Then Ressler walked out.
Harm got up and kissed his wife. "Remind me again not to ever get between you and Sarah. I don't think I can survive the trauma."
Diane smiled at that and said to Harm, "Sarah told me about her. For 14 weeks Ressler humiliated her in class and told her that she should "drop out of law and take up lap dancing. I wish Sarah was here and I hope Meg takes her down."
Harm went to lunch but he was still upset about being fired, Meg told him to stay away. She didn't want a mistrial.
During the trial Meg shot down Ressler's witnesses but told Harm, "She's good, I'll give her that."
Harm replied, "Yeah but you're better. I'm going to do some digging. Barry doesn't make enough money to afford Ressler. Someone else is footing his legal bills."
He then set out to tail Ressler to one Percival Bertram, a loud-mouthed, "super-patriot", tycoon at Vectrocomp.
Harm barged into the meeting between Bertram and Ressler.
Bertram asked, "Can I call you Harm my friends call me "Bert."
Harm replied "Really, not Percy."
Bertram was not happy, as he retorted, "Not to my face."
Ressler excused herself and left to let them see "who's was bigger."
Harm asked him why he was replaced. Bertram replied, "As a civilian, Ressler would do anything for an acquittal including blame the military, a line that you won't cross. We're the most powerful nation on earth, and by God we're going hunting."
Harm shot back, "It's because were the most powerful, that we can't. We are a nation of laws, which is what makes us great. Vigilantes like yourself are as dangerous to this country as the terrorists!"
The trial continued. Ressler began blaming the "brainwashing" of the military for Barry not knowing "right from wrong." Meg shot her arguments down again.
Harm continued to distrust Novak and reviewed videotapes. Contrary to the autopsy revealing hemorrhage, there was no blood or wounds on the tape. He demanded that Novak produce the body and threatened to tell the SECNAV and the Attorney General. Novak showed him Nassen who they were keeping hidden so that the "real" bomber a Syrian named Kasi didn't go underground. He already led them to money that was paid them and wanted Harm to keep quiet until they could trace serial numbers and capture the middleman. Meg, of course was incensed. Chegwidden had Harm set up a meeting with Barry and Ressler.
When confronted with the evidence that there was no murder, Ressler blew up and quit. Before she walked out she said to Harm, "Let me know the verdict."
Barry decided to "play it through" so they could capture Kasi. He told them that "he had done wrong to shoot Nassan, that's what they do, and I don't want to be like them."
Novak was able to trace the money. It was sent from a Washington bank to Amsterdam where it was sent to Riyadh then to Syria. Harm and Novak confronted Bertram and showed him some of the money they retrieved from a Syrian apartment. Bertram said he had met with Fazal Kasi about an agreement to finance factories. Another transfer was due and he was told to go through with it. In Riyadh Novak watched as Kasi left the bank with the money and was gunned down by a drive-by shooter.
After Harm was notified that Kasi was dead, Harm revealed that the victim was indeed alive. The charges were changed to attempted murder. Barry was found guilty of that charge. A deal was made that because he assisted in the operation, he would not face prison time. He was instead given a dishonorable discharge.
The next case took Meg & Harm out to the Persian Gulf to investigate the loss of a Tomcat aboard the Coral Sea.
Lt Cdr Rice (Karma) and his RIO Anne "go-go" Bender ejected after "popping up" between attacking Iraqis and his wingmen, Lt "Slider" Morrison and Lt Brian "Bear" Hass in the "no-fly" zone. The Iraqis drew them in with one aircraft then came up behind with another. The Iraqi was on Slider's tail with a lock. Karma got a lock on the enemy craft but didn't fire. Instead, he "charged" the craft shearing his wing and ejected before it exploded it's fuel into a fireball. PO Moses said the plane was OK when it left. Go-Go said that Karma acted like he didn't hear her telling him to take the shot and kept saying "what?"
Karma finally admitted that he "heard a voice" ordering him NOT to fire. The doctor said Karma was in good health then the CAG climbed on Harm for "saying something that made Karma resign." Harm and Meg found Karma and Slider in a fight and had to break them up. Harm asked Meg which one she wanted to take and she said "I'll take the cute single one." "Just kidding," she said.
Harm found Karma in the chapel where he claimed that it was God who ordered him not to fire. The radio tapes revealed Karma saying "what?" but no other voices or transmissions. They even asked a contact with the CIA if there was a new "radio-jamming device" that they didn't know about. Harm told Meg they needed "advice from a higher source," and Meg asked Chegwidden. The chaplain said that he believed Karma was honest and heard something. "Whether it was God or not was between Karma and the Man upstairs." Meg retorted, "unless the Man is a Woman."
Harm tried to talk Karma out of resigning. Karma asked him, "did you think your his night blindness was for a purpose so he could help people as a lawyer?"
Harm said, "I don't believe so."
Upset Karma replied, "There may be a grand scheme that we are only privy to now and then. The laws of physics: gravitational force, centripetal acceleration and Bernoulli's principle are my ten commandments. There is not room for God, or angels, or anything like that- I didn't talk to God, why is he talking to me? I don't want to stop flying, but I don't ever want to hear that voice in my cockpit again."
Harm asked the CAG to let them re-fly the mission and was given 1 hour in the air with Slider as his RIO.
Karma told Harm he got his call sign by surviving a couple of close calls.
Harm told him, "Flying a combat jet was the most dangerous job on earth. Who needs a higher power more than the men who drive them? And even if the voice was God he told you not to fire. He didn't tell you not to fly."
Before they went up together, Meg advised Harm, "Be home before the streetlights come on or Mrs. Rabb will have my ass."
"Aye,aye ma'am." Harm replied with a smile.
Karma asked Harm, "Are you ready?"
"I'm always ready!" Harm said.
At altitude on autopilot, Karma and Bear began hallucinating and went unconscious from bad oxygen. They were heading toward Iraqi airspace. Meg was in CIC observing the flight. She asked, "Is there a way to disengage the autopilot?"
The CAG blew up at her for her naiveté and she was sent to check the source of the bad oxygen. Meg and the maintenance officer found a bad O ring which contaminated the oxygen.
While there the CAG was thinking of what Meg said about disengaging the autopilot. When Meg came to report of the bad O-ring he apologized. He ordered her to get a technician from Grumman on the phone. The technician said that if the planes sensors got sent out of parameters by tilting greater than 45 degrees the autopilot would automatically disengage.
Harm was ordered to fly his wing tip under Karma's and use Bernoulli's principle to lift it over 45 degrees.
"Whose brilliant idea was this?" Harm asked.
Meg had to admit it was hers. The dubiously designed plan was to disengage the autopilot then have Karma, who was unconscious to the point of seizures, wake up in time to pull out of the power-dive in time to not hit the ground. Fortunately it worked.
When they landed Karma was told, "You heard the voice while you were flying on clean oxygen.
Karma was mystified and asked, "Then why did I hear the voice?"
Harm said, "I guess it wasn't your enemies day to die, like today wasn't yours."
On their way back from the Gulf, AJ ordered Harm & Meg to meet him in Italy to investigate the theft of Stingers missiles while he was there on an inspection. AJ would get involved in the Stinger theft in ways he never imagined
Monday, November 9, 1998
0800 Local Time
JAG Headquarters
Washington Navy Yard, DC
It was Sarah's first day back after her honeymoon. She had a spring in her step that wasn't there before. This was also the first time she was wearing her new rank. When they had arrived home from Hawaii Friday morning, John carried her across their home threshold. The previous night John had Sarah put on her uniform coat and he ceremoniously pinned the new silver oak leaves on. Then she properly removed it and they had made passionate love. Sarah got up early this morning to properly pin them on her coat and blouse. She leaned back to look at how the new rank symbols looked. As she stood there in just her bra and skirt, she was overwhelmed with a wave of emotion.
John saw this and came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. 'What's up honey?" John asked tenderly.
She turned and kissed his cheek, grateful for the comforting touch. She said, "Growing up all I ever heard was that I wouldn't amount to anything. The other girls called me a slut, a drunk and all sorts of other nasty names. My father never expressed any faith in me and my mother was too abused to care about anyone but herself before she left. I started to believe that I would never ever get far from all that. Now look where I am, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines, a lawyer and married to the most wonderful man ever."
She turned and looked him in the eye. He kissed her gently as he saw her well up with tears of happiness and said, "Don't start crying now or you'll have to redo your eye makeup not that you need it cause your still very beautiful without it."
Sarah kissed him back tenderly and went to dab at her eyes and put on the rest of her make-up.
Now she was walking through the double doors of the bullpen to her office.
Harriet saw her first. "Welcome back, Colonel Marshall." Harriet gushed. Sarah had to smile at the sound of her new rank and name.
"How's married life treating you ma'am?" Harriet asked.
"It's wonderful Harriet. John was so cute this morning. He sent me off with a brown bag lunch of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches." Sarah said as she held up the brown paper bag.
"That's so funny ma'am. Bud did something like that to. How was the honeymoon ma'am?" Harriet asked..
"It was also wonderful Harriet. We lounged at the pool all day except for a couple of days of shopping, horseback riding and scuba diving. The nights in the room were wonderful to," Sarah said. She motioned Harriet closer. "Only Ann Marie and Diane know this. John and I want to have a honeymoon baby. I stopped taking the pill on Labor Day. I may join you and Diane when you have your babies."
"Diane is pregnant also? Commander Rabb didn't mention anything," Harriet said.
"She only told Harm after the wedding. Harm's so thrilled. He says if it's a boy, he'll name him Harm III or Trey. If it's a girl they'll name her Samantha Patricia," Sarah said.
With that Harm walked into the bullpen. He saw his sister in law and greeted her warmly. Good morning colonel," he said as he walked her to her office.
Sarah was delighted to see her nameplate had her new rank and married name imprinted on it. She sighed contently as she went in and put her briefcase and cover away. She sighed again, but this time in exasperation as she saw the pile of messages and work on her desk. She decided to call her husband before she even attempted to sort anything out. She picked up her phone and hit the speed dial for his office. It was answered on the 2nd ring.
"Hello my love. Miss me already?" John joked.
"Yes I did. I also want to know if you had as much work waiting for you today as I did." she asked.
John answered, "Well I have the advantage of having a yeoman assigned to me. Carolyn did a great job of keeping me from getting swamped. Also Admiral Magnum assigned Diane to be acting Assistant Director. So a lot got done when I was gone. Admiral Magnum ordered me not to call at all during our honeymoon so I have a lot of catching up to do. How are you going to handle the first day back?"
"Well I'll let you know when I come up from under this pile." Sarah answered. With that Tiner came to her door.
"Colonel, the admiral wants to see you and Commander Rabb ASAP ma'am," he said.
I'm on my way Tiner. Gotta go my love," Sarah said. "I'll see you tonight. I love you."
"Love you too sweetheart," John answered. Sarah loved being called sweetheart.
When she arrived at AJ's office, she saw Harm was already there. She also saw that AJ had his arm in a sling.
"Have a seat Colonel Marshall, nice to have you back." AJ said pleasantly.
"Good to be back sir." Sarah answered. What happened to your arm sir?"
"I'll tell you after this briefing, as the commander already knows the story. I wanted to get to you before staff call. I know you have a lot on your desk because I put it there. You'll have ample opportunity to get to it. You'll have to do it without Commander Rabb though. We're sending him to Capitol Hill to work with Congresswoman Latham. You remember her from the Sara Gilbert case and the Sigonella Crash case last year, right Colonel?"
"Yes sir. What does she need to stir up now?" Sarah asked with chagrin.
AJ answered, "She is part of a committee formed to judge the validity of a television report that U.S. forces used Sarin gas on fellow Americans during the Gulf War. Norman Delaporte made the report on ZNN. The Commander is being sent to advise her on military legalities, etc. So that's why your desk is flooded with cases Colonel. They're all Commander Rabb's."
"Great sir I'll dive right in after staff call." Sarah said.
"If there is nothing else Commander, you are dismissed. Good luck on the hill," AJ said
Harm got up with the usual, "Thank you sir" and walked out of the office.
Sarah and AJ waited till Harm was out of the room before he told her about his shoulder.
"Last week while you and John were basking in the Hawaiian Sun, Francesca was kidnapped."
He saw the look of horror on her face and said. "Don't worry she's fine."
Pointing to this shoulder he continued. "This happened when Harm and I went after her. The mafia was holding her. A Warrant Officer named Dillard was caught stealing Stinger Missiles to sell to terrorists in Afghanistan through the Italian Mafia. Harm and Commander Austen were investigating and I was there on an inspection tour and visiting Francesca. I happened right in front of me. They used a sailor being disrespectful to distract me. They took her and then slugged me.
We found out that Francesca was kidnapped as a way to hold the Navy at bay until the missile transaction was completed. Unfortunately, her stepfather Vittorio Paretti was also involved. He was killed when he tried to deliver the missiles in exchange for Francesca's safe return. Harm and I found out that she was being held in a remote cabin. We went in guns blazing. I took a hit. While the last gunman was trying to keep Harm and I at bay, Francesca shot him. We were able to walk away from the whole thing thankfully. She's doing fine since I last spoke with her this morning.
Sarah asked, "Well I'm glad it's over sir. Is there anything I can do to make life easier here for you sir?"
"Yes Colonel there is. You need to change your phone greeting to match your new rank and name. I saw by the nameplate at your office that you are you going to use your married name at work" AJ said.
"Yes sir. Before the wedding I started the name change process with BUPERS. Since John isn't working here there won't be any confusion." Sarah said.
"Also include in your greeting the words 'JAG Chief of Staff' please," AJ added.
"Chief of Staff sir?" Sarah asked.
AJ handed her a copy of the orders that he prepared and signed designating her new position.
He saw the questioning look on her face. "Don't worry I'm not pulling you from trying and investigating cases. You'll still do that. I know you can do Administration and Legal Assistance seeing the good job you did last year when I assigned you there. Now I am combining the three sections under you. I will need you to coordinate all the case assignments and the office operations. You will have assignment authority over the whole JAG staff including Administration, Legal Assistance and Investigation & Trial as well as the office budget. You will also coordinate with of the Navy Yard Building Services commander on the physical plant environment. You may assign whoever you deem fit to cases and to assist you on all matters affecting the running of this office and building. I know I can count on you to do a good job," AJ finished.
"Thank you sir, I'll do my best to live up to your faith in me sir," Sarah said barely holding her excitement in check.
"I know you will Colonel, if there's nothing else, carry on." AJ said pleasantly.
"Aye, aye sir," Sarah said as she stood to leave.
Sarah returned to her office and sat down at her desk. She was very excited about her new duties. She couldn't wait to tell John. She decided to go through her messages first. She was sorting them out in order of priority she came upon several that made her pale in horror. She recovered quickly though and reached for her phone and called John's office.