A/N: Another chapter this fine day!

An Unlikely Angel

Chapter 14: Some Easier Way

"No…"

Sarah stumbles back a bit as she utters that one simple word. I reach out to steady her, but I don't think she even knows I'm here. Her breath comes in ragged gasps, and I worry yet again that she's going to pass out again. I don't blame her; hearing your uncle was put to death for treason has got to be a shock of the highest magnitude. Finally, she lets me lead her over to a bench in front of her former apartment building and I push her down into it.

"Wh—What—why…treason was never part of the charges…" She's rocking back and forth a bit, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. I put my hand on her back and I can feel the tremor in her body. "H-Harm and I…we…he got twenty years…up for parole in ten…"

"I'm sorry, Sarah. You weren't there, so Harm wasn't there. You never found him out in the desert, you never convinced him to turn himself in, and you and Harm weren't there to defend him." I don't plan to tell her that her death hit Matthew O'Hara hard; he was never the same and he grew increasingly reckless, and that also contributed to his conviction and execution.

We sit together without talking for long moments, her breathing the only sound that mars the quiet, and I'm almost startled when she finally speaks.

"I want you to take me to him."

Oh, dear…seriously, there really must be some easier way to earn my wings. "I can't, Sarah. He's dead," I say patiently. Or at least I'm trying to sound patient. I was really hoping that once she heard how her existence saved her uncle, she'd beg me to return her to her life.

"No…take me to him. His grave…or whatever."

"Sarah…"

"Loren, take me to him now." She's clearly adamant about this, and I suppose I can do this for her. I take her hand in mine and close my eyes.

"Okay, Sarah."

When I open my eyes again, we're standing outside a cemetery, and though we're in Arizona and the weather doesn't affect me, I know it is unseasonably cold here. Sarah shivers beside me despite the fact that she shouldn't be feeling the cold either.

"He's here?" Sarah asks, and I can only nod. Uncle Matt's body is buried toward the back of this small area, and with a tug on her sleeve, I lead her to it.

The only reason Matthew O'Hara has a headstone is because his wife, Susan, died before him. He and Susan had taken the practical if a bit macabre step of purchasing a headstone and preplanning their funerals, and now they lay side by side under a simple marble marker. Matt didn't have the funeral he'd originally planned, however; there was no family to speak of and when one is executed for treason, people tend not to want to be associated with that.

I stand back as Sarah kneels down by the headstone, her finger reaching out to trace Matt's name and his date of birth and death: Matthew James O'Hara, January 4th, 1946—October 8th, 2001. Sarah sits there stoically for a moment, but then her shoulders start to shake and she leans forward to rest her forehead against the cool marble. I let her cry for a moment, let her have that release, before I finally take her by the arm and pull her up. We find a bench near the front of the cemetery to sit on and she sobs against my shoulder.

After a few minutes, her tears are spent and she sits up, brushing away the last bit of wetness on her face. "Who knew, Loren," she says, shakily, "that one day I'd actually be crying on your shoulder."

My lips curve up into a smirk. "Well, I won't tell if you won't." She chuckles lightly.

"There'd be no point. No one would ever believe me."

I sit up straighter. "Hey! I wasn't so bad…" Sarah just eyes me with one brow raised, and then I have to laugh a little too. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"So…" Sarah starts.

"Yes, Sarah?"

"Who, ah, who defended my uncle?"

"Commander Mattoni." She nods, and I know what she's going to ask me next.

"And, um…who handled the prosecution?"

There's no point in hiding it from her. "Lt. Commander Rabb."

"Oh," she gulps. "Uncle Matt would have been up against a lot."

"Yeah, Sarah. He was. Harm did his job exceedingly well." Again, no point in sugarcoating anything.

"I-I'm sure. He did when he defended him. I was…rather blown away by him."

"Were you?" I ask, warily. We're getting very close to the subject I've wanted to avoid from the beginning. Finding out what happened to the Boy Scout will hit her worse than anything I've shown her today, really, anything she's experienced up until now. Yes, I'm fully prepared to disclose Rabb's fate if that's what it takes to save her, but I pray I don't have to.

"Yeah," Sarah continues. "The way he looked at me when we first met…like he'd seen a ghost…it made my hair stand on end. But he was so—so larger than life, so passionate…I started to fall for him almost immediately. It wasn't until later than I found out he practically had seen a ghost when we met."

"Really?" I say, although I am utterly and completely familiar with the story of Diane Schonke and her murder.

"Diane Schonke…she was his academy sweetheart. She was murdered by the XO of her ship a few months before I came on board at JAG. She could have been my twin…or I could have been hers, I guess." She leans forward to rest her elbow on her knee, her chin in her hand. "That really threw me. I kept wondering if he saw her every time he looked at me. By the time I figured out that he'd stopped seeing her long before …it was too late. He'd left to fly, and I hadn't been able to tell him how I felt about him. I used Diane as an excuse, Jordan…and then I took it out on him when he came back. Hell, we should be married by now…and none of this crap would have ever happened."

I nod, keeping silent, not wanting to give anything away. But she asks anyway…

"Loren, where is Harm? Is he still at JAG?"

"No…"

"Did he…is he, um, back on a carrier?"

"No."

"Then what is he doing, Loren? He's still in the navy, isn't he?" She senses something, I know it, and I know I'm just delaying the inevitable, but still, I'm unable to bring myself to tell her the whole truth.

"No, he's not, Sarah."

"Then where is he, Loren?"

"It's complicated."

"What kind of answer is that?" She's irritated and scared at the same time. "Loren, tell me where he is!"

"Is that an order?" I'm shamelessly stalling now, and I know it's stupid, but I almost can't bear to see what this will do to her. "Because you can't order me."

"Really? Because you outrank me now? Dammit, Loren! Where. Is. Harm?!"

"You don't want to know, Sarah," I sigh.

Suddenly Sarah has hold of the lapels of my uniform. "Loren, goddammit, where is he?!" She gives me a violent shake. "Where is he?!" She shakes me some more, and finally, I crack.

"He's in Leavenworth, Sarah!" I shout, and she abruptly stops shaking me. "He's in Leavenworth," I say again, in a much softer tone. Her hands drop away and her eyes are begging me to tell her it was all a lie. But I can't. Because it's not a lie.

Harmon Rabb, Jr is in prison for murder.

End Chapter 14