ABOUT US 3: The Good And The Bad 7/14
Author: LeE
e-mail: lee_81881@yahoo.com
Classification: Romance H/M, Clay/Annika
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimers: If they belonged to me... no comment. :) JAG is property of DPB and CBS. I'm just having some fun while procrastinating on homework...
Author's Note: This story takes place two months after the events of About Us 2. The rest of the information related to LLNL and the different laboratories mentioned, as well as the current research on Nitrogen bond-dissociation is real, although not nearly as advanced as I make it in the story. Believe me, the world would be a whole lot different. Even though chemistry is a passion of mine, Nitrogen compounds is not my area of expertise; but if anyone is interested in further information about anything mentioned on this story, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks to my betas, who always do such a great job keeping me motivated... you're the best, guys!...
AN2: Half way there guys! :)
FROM PART 6
"Uh, yes. That would be me. I assume this is regarding the death of Dr. Jones" she finished with a sad smile. Undercover or not, she was truly moved and appalled by what had happened to the poor man.
"Yes, it is. We're sorry. We know it may not be the best time, but we'd appreciate it if you could spare a few minutes of your time to speak with us," this time Mac spoke, shooting a quick glance towards the man standing with an unreadable _expression next to Annika.
"Well, a lab meeting has been called for ten o'clock, which is four minutes away. Is it possible you could come back in about an hour? The meeting shouldn't take more than that" she explained and Harm and Mac read in her _expression she meant just that. It was a change of plans, but they could handle it. They couldn't do much else without speaking to her first, after all.
"Of course. We understand. That would be no problem at all. We'll see you in an hour then" Harm spoke and Annika simply nodded with a smile.
"That would be great. Oh, where are my manners" she said with an embarrassed smile and turned towards the man next to her. "Commander, Colonel, this is Dr. Michael Ashton."
PART 7
"A pleasure to meet you, Commander, Colonel. Not to imply we're strangers to military personnel, but there aren't many female Marines sporting oak leaves around these days. I'm impressed," Michael commented with a smile and Mac returned it, immediately recognizing the man's attempt at conversation. Turning slightly, she caught Harm's hard stare and at once he relaxed.
"Well, people usually are, Dr. Ashton" Harm said nonchalantly, but the fire in his eyes was not lost on Michael and he nodded with a smile.
"I figured as much," he returned, averting his eyes and motioning towards the empty hallway he turned to Annika. "You coming, Nicole?"
"Of course. Well, nice meeting you. See you later, then" she finished and turned to walk away after Michael, but not before shooting a lopsided grin their way, which Harm saw more as a smirk.
Mac said nothing as they watched the pair walk away. Harm was simply standing there, hands at his side, his cover dangling dangerously from one of them. Mac simply held her hands behind her back, twirling her cover between her fingers, a grin barely suppressed.
"I don't like him" he said calmly a few seconds later and Mac erupted in laughter at once. Harm's eyes widened as he looked sideways at her.
"I'm serious, Mac. I really don't like him. He just..."
"What, Harm? You don't even know the man" she managed to say in between chuckles. "Just because he hit on me doesn't mean he's a bad person or that he killed Dr. Jones. You're just jealous" she spoke, trying her hardest not to laugh at his disbelief. Harm was so oblivious to things sometimes it just tickled her all over.
"I am not jealous. It has nothing to do with him hitting on you or...He was not hitting on you. I would've broken his...his...something if he had hit on you. It's just the way he...oh I don't know. I just got a weird vibe from him, that's all" he finished matter-of-factly, staring down the hall and nodding his head as if agreeing with his own statement. Mac laid a hand over his arm and nodded indulgently.
"Okay" was all she said as she turned away to walk back towards the exit.
"Mac!" He turned as well and sighed as Mac simply nodded her head without looking back at him.
"Great" he muttered under his breath as he followed her out.
AFGHANISTAN
SAME TIME
"It can't be" Clay muttered after a hard day at work. Interviews and more interviews and nothing had turned up. Absolutely nothing. Everything they had was already published. No breach of protocol had been found; all collaboration had been proven legitimate. Where had they gone wrong? Sighing once more he turned to the agent next to him.
"Okay. I guess we're done. Good work. Get your team ready. We'll go back in the morning." Clay finished with a nod at the agent and turned away towards his vehicle. How could they have been so wrong about this? Another decoy. Hadn't they learned their lesson after the mess with Callahan?
"Damn it" Clay muttered under his breath as he sat down noisily on a chair inside his quarters. The long drive from FFChem had given him some time to think. They'd been monitoring this company for almost a month now, and all for nothing. Once again, he attempted to straighten all the pieces of information out in his head.
A few years before, there had been an Afghani scientist at LLNL, Dr. Rasdja, who had been head of the lab team that designed the computer model for the nitrogen fullerene. He had died in a car explosion in 1998, two years after the research had begun, but CIA had been monitoring the situation since then. In the past few months, and especially now after Kabir and his attempt at blowing up Americans with nuclear weapons, the CIA had been even more alarmed by intercepted communication between FFChem and LLNL. Nothing could be proved, of course, but after the deaths of Dr. Fleming and Dr. Jones this past year, it had seemed obvious something was wrong at Livermore.
After Dr. Rasdja's death, information had been obtained that suggested he'd been killed because apparently someone had discovered he'd been involved in selling important information from LLNL's research to a chemical company in Afghanistan, namely FFChem. Of course, back then, Afghanistan was linked to terrorism as much as any other Middle Eastern country, therefore not much attention had been paid to the incident at CIA. But now, after 9-11 the world was a different place, and CIA had dug out this information once again after Dr. Fleming had been killed in an accident similar to Dr. Rasdja's. Now, Dr. Jones was added to the list, and that made three prominent LLNL scientists killed in the past four and a half years. It didn't add up.
Clay had been assigned the case, and he'd studied the details carefully, considering all the pieces of information, looking at it from every angle, and the best he'd been able to come up with was that someone at LLNL had to be involved with all that was going on. Because of this, the most logical deduction had been that someone at LLNL was either directly involved with the swapping of research data or was aware of it and covering up for it. Sure, Clay had never been completely convinced of his own theory, but it made sense somehow. It gave him somewhere to start from.
Now, the monitoring of FFChem had turned out to be a dead end street, and he was at a loss as to where to go next. Could Dr. Jones and Dr. Fleming's deaths be unrelated? That was highly unlikely. He'd been an agent long enough to recognize this. But now, with no apparent link to Afghanistan other than Dr. Rasdja's involvement at LLNL before his death, he was forced to go back to the beginning and map it all out once again. How frustrating.
"Oh, Nik. Wait 'til you hear about this" he whispered to himself and winced as he imagined the 'I told you so' speech he'd get from his partner. She had very clearly stated her disagreement with Clay's theory, but neither him nor Don had listened to her. Oh, they were gonna hear it all right.
"Please tell me you got something for me, Clay" was Don's greeting as he answered the phone. Clay sighed on the other end.
"Sorry. I called to tell you just the opposite" he stated, and Don could see the grim _expression on his face.
"What happened?"
"We interviewed everyone, Don. Our people inspected everything. It was all in order. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Damn it" Don sighed and paused for a moment. "All right, well. I want you in California yesterday, Clay. No stunts."
"Got it. I'll talk to you when I get there then" Clay answered and at Don's agreement hung up. Well, at least Annika would be glad to see him. Wouldn't she?
HARM AND MAC'S HOTEL
MONDAY JUNE 10, 2002
2145 PT
Harm and Mac sat across each other on the table as Annika devoured her meal. The partners simply looked on in awe as she gulped down three pieces of chicken, a sandwich, a side of salad, some mashed potatoes and a 32 oz. drink. Oblivious to their stares, Annika simply enjoyed her meal, even to the point of licking her fingers on occasion.
"This chicken is delicious, guys" she spoke in between bites and Mac smiled.
"I thought you'd like it. I certainly did" she said and they both laughed at Harm's disgusted _expression. Realizing there wasn't much he could do until Annika finished eating, he stood up and walked over to the TV muttering something about female Marines, spies, and carnivores. Mac and Annika simply laughed some more as he turned on ESPN and occupied himself with figuring out batting averages and ERA's in his head.
"Clay call?" Mac asked as she noticed Annika nearing the end of her meal.
Annika shook her head. "Not yet. God knows what he got himself into this time" she stated with a smile, more for her benefit than Mac's. It was inevitable worrying about Clay. She'd always done it, but lately it was becoming increasingly difficult to mask.
"He's fine. He just got tied up, I'm sure" Mac answered sympathetically and Annika huffed in sudden anger catching both Harm and Mac by surprise with her sudden outburst as the piece of chicken breast landed on the plate. Hands outstretched in sign of frustration, she rose from the floor and paced.
"See! That's the problem right there! I'm not supposed to be waiting for his call! I'm not supposed to be worrying about him, or even talking about him at all! This is not the way it's supposed to be. I can't... we can't afford to do this. This is not a damn soap opera, for God's sakes. Our jobs are hard and dangerous, and one day I'll wake up and he'll be gone on his way to heaven...or wherever, or I'll be gone and there won't be a damn thing either of us can do about it. This is the life we chose. We live with it. Why would it have to change now? I just don't get it..." she trailed off, aware of the fact she'd caught both officers off guard and also aware of the fact that she'd have some major explaining to do in a few seconds once they digested everything she'd blurted out. She had major damage control to do.
"Do you want things to change?" Harm asked cautiously, ESPN and batting averages forgotten for the time being.
"No! Yes. I don't know! I can't work like this, Harm. It's too stressful as it is to work undercover without the added burden of worrying about my partner. It's useless. Worrying doesn't help either of us."
"Maybe it doesn't help you do your job, but it may help you understand some other things about your life" Mac said, knowing all too well how close to home the conversation was getting.
"But doing my job IS my life. And so is Clay's" Annika almost whined as she turned towards Harm. "What happened to him over there, Harm? I know he lost his brother, but his brother was in a different situation than I am. He cannot possibly be scared of me dying on the job. We've worked together for seven years. He knows the risks just as I do, and we've never had problems with this before. I don't get it" her frustration was clearly visible now and Mac smiled sympathetically.
She knew all too well that feeling of hopelessness when you come to that cross roads in your life. It had been her turn a few months before, when she'd realized she didn't know if she could live if she lost Harm. Annika was about to go through the same, and Mac knew from experience, it was something only she could figure out. No one could do it for her.
"Nik, I think you have an idea of what's going on. You just need some time to come to terms with it" Mac spoke cautiously, realizing Harm had no good advice to offer in this area.
Annika's head wanted to explode. This was not going the way she intended it to. She had to remedy that, immediately.
"Mac, don't start. Clay is not in love with me, nor has he ever been. He's used to me. He loves me because I'm his best friend, and that's all. We're not like you and Harm. There's just nothing between us but friendship. Don't make it into something it's not. That's not what's bothering him, believe me. I know from experience,"Annika whispered the last few words with a sad smile.
"From experience?" Harm asked at once. Even he was drawn into it.
Annika's eyes widened as she realized what she'd said. She'd sworn she'd never talk about that again. She'd sworn she'd never relive it. Damn it all to hell. "Well..."
The ringing of the phone interrupted her and with a silent prayer she reached for it.
"Vranch"
"Nik!"
"Clay? Where are you? It's awful loud wherever it is" she spoke once relief coursed through her at hearing his voice.
"In a plane. Listen. I'm coming over there. I'll be there in a few hours" he rushed through the words and Annika had a hard time understanding him.
"You're coming? In a few hours? Why? What happened over there?"
"I'll tell you later...no time now...Nik...bye" the connection ended and she was left standing there staring at the phone in her hand.
"Don't even ask," she said soon as she noticed Harm and Mac's questioning stares. Holding up their hands simultaneously, they looked at each other and shook their heads as Annika turned back to finish her meal.
TBC
Author: LeE
e-mail: lee_81881@yahoo.com
Classification: Romance H/M, Clay/Annika
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimers: If they belonged to me... no comment. :) JAG is property of DPB and CBS. I'm just having some fun while procrastinating on homework...
Author's Note: This story takes place two months after the events of About Us 2. The rest of the information related to LLNL and the different laboratories mentioned, as well as the current research on Nitrogen bond-dissociation is real, although not nearly as advanced as I make it in the story. Believe me, the world would be a whole lot different. Even though chemistry is a passion of mine, Nitrogen compounds is not my area of expertise; but if anyone is interested in further information about anything mentioned on this story, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks to my betas, who always do such a great job keeping me motivated... you're the best, guys!...
AN2: Half way there guys! :)
FROM PART 6
"Uh, yes. That would be me. I assume this is regarding the death of Dr. Jones" she finished with a sad smile. Undercover or not, she was truly moved and appalled by what had happened to the poor man.
"Yes, it is. We're sorry. We know it may not be the best time, but we'd appreciate it if you could spare a few minutes of your time to speak with us," this time Mac spoke, shooting a quick glance towards the man standing with an unreadable _expression next to Annika.
"Well, a lab meeting has been called for ten o'clock, which is four minutes away. Is it possible you could come back in about an hour? The meeting shouldn't take more than that" she explained and Harm and Mac read in her _expression she meant just that. It was a change of plans, but they could handle it. They couldn't do much else without speaking to her first, after all.
"Of course. We understand. That would be no problem at all. We'll see you in an hour then" Harm spoke and Annika simply nodded with a smile.
"That would be great. Oh, where are my manners" she said with an embarrassed smile and turned towards the man next to her. "Commander, Colonel, this is Dr. Michael Ashton."
PART 7
"A pleasure to meet you, Commander, Colonel. Not to imply we're strangers to military personnel, but there aren't many female Marines sporting oak leaves around these days. I'm impressed," Michael commented with a smile and Mac returned it, immediately recognizing the man's attempt at conversation. Turning slightly, she caught Harm's hard stare and at once he relaxed.
"Well, people usually are, Dr. Ashton" Harm said nonchalantly, but the fire in his eyes was not lost on Michael and he nodded with a smile.
"I figured as much," he returned, averting his eyes and motioning towards the empty hallway he turned to Annika. "You coming, Nicole?"
"Of course. Well, nice meeting you. See you later, then" she finished and turned to walk away after Michael, but not before shooting a lopsided grin their way, which Harm saw more as a smirk.
Mac said nothing as they watched the pair walk away. Harm was simply standing there, hands at his side, his cover dangling dangerously from one of them. Mac simply held her hands behind her back, twirling her cover between her fingers, a grin barely suppressed.
"I don't like him" he said calmly a few seconds later and Mac erupted in laughter at once. Harm's eyes widened as he looked sideways at her.
"I'm serious, Mac. I really don't like him. He just..."
"What, Harm? You don't even know the man" she managed to say in between chuckles. "Just because he hit on me doesn't mean he's a bad person or that he killed Dr. Jones. You're just jealous" she spoke, trying her hardest not to laugh at his disbelief. Harm was so oblivious to things sometimes it just tickled her all over.
"I am not jealous. It has nothing to do with him hitting on you or...He was not hitting on you. I would've broken his...his...something if he had hit on you. It's just the way he...oh I don't know. I just got a weird vibe from him, that's all" he finished matter-of-factly, staring down the hall and nodding his head as if agreeing with his own statement. Mac laid a hand over his arm and nodded indulgently.
"Okay" was all she said as she turned away to walk back towards the exit.
"Mac!" He turned as well and sighed as Mac simply nodded her head without looking back at him.
"Great" he muttered under his breath as he followed her out.
AFGHANISTAN
SAME TIME
"It can't be" Clay muttered after a hard day at work. Interviews and more interviews and nothing had turned up. Absolutely nothing. Everything they had was already published. No breach of protocol had been found; all collaboration had been proven legitimate. Where had they gone wrong? Sighing once more he turned to the agent next to him.
"Okay. I guess we're done. Good work. Get your team ready. We'll go back in the morning." Clay finished with a nod at the agent and turned away towards his vehicle. How could they have been so wrong about this? Another decoy. Hadn't they learned their lesson after the mess with Callahan?
"Damn it" Clay muttered under his breath as he sat down noisily on a chair inside his quarters. The long drive from FFChem had given him some time to think. They'd been monitoring this company for almost a month now, and all for nothing. Once again, he attempted to straighten all the pieces of information out in his head.
A few years before, there had been an Afghani scientist at LLNL, Dr. Rasdja, who had been head of the lab team that designed the computer model for the nitrogen fullerene. He had died in a car explosion in 1998, two years after the research had begun, but CIA had been monitoring the situation since then. In the past few months, and especially now after Kabir and his attempt at blowing up Americans with nuclear weapons, the CIA had been even more alarmed by intercepted communication between FFChem and LLNL. Nothing could be proved, of course, but after the deaths of Dr. Fleming and Dr. Jones this past year, it had seemed obvious something was wrong at Livermore.
After Dr. Rasdja's death, information had been obtained that suggested he'd been killed because apparently someone had discovered he'd been involved in selling important information from LLNL's research to a chemical company in Afghanistan, namely FFChem. Of course, back then, Afghanistan was linked to terrorism as much as any other Middle Eastern country, therefore not much attention had been paid to the incident at CIA. But now, after 9-11 the world was a different place, and CIA had dug out this information once again after Dr. Fleming had been killed in an accident similar to Dr. Rasdja's. Now, Dr. Jones was added to the list, and that made three prominent LLNL scientists killed in the past four and a half years. It didn't add up.
Clay had been assigned the case, and he'd studied the details carefully, considering all the pieces of information, looking at it from every angle, and the best he'd been able to come up with was that someone at LLNL had to be involved with all that was going on. Because of this, the most logical deduction had been that someone at LLNL was either directly involved with the swapping of research data or was aware of it and covering up for it. Sure, Clay had never been completely convinced of his own theory, but it made sense somehow. It gave him somewhere to start from.
Now, the monitoring of FFChem had turned out to be a dead end street, and he was at a loss as to where to go next. Could Dr. Jones and Dr. Fleming's deaths be unrelated? That was highly unlikely. He'd been an agent long enough to recognize this. But now, with no apparent link to Afghanistan other than Dr. Rasdja's involvement at LLNL before his death, he was forced to go back to the beginning and map it all out once again. How frustrating.
"Oh, Nik. Wait 'til you hear about this" he whispered to himself and winced as he imagined the 'I told you so' speech he'd get from his partner. She had very clearly stated her disagreement with Clay's theory, but neither him nor Don had listened to her. Oh, they were gonna hear it all right.
"Please tell me you got something for me, Clay" was Don's greeting as he answered the phone. Clay sighed on the other end.
"Sorry. I called to tell you just the opposite" he stated, and Don could see the grim _expression on his face.
"What happened?"
"We interviewed everyone, Don. Our people inspected everything. It was all in order. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Damn it" Don sighed and paused for a moment. "All right, well. I want you in California yesterday, Clay. No stunts."
"Got it. I'll talk to you when I get there then" Clay answered and at Don's agreement hung up. Well, at least Annika would be glad to see him. Wouldn't she?
HARM AND MAC'S HOTEL
MONDAY JUNE 10, 2002
2145 PT
Harm and Mac sat across each other on the table as Annika devoured her meal. The partners simply looked on in awe as she gulped down three pieces of chicken, a sandwich, a side of salad, some mashed potatoes and a 32 oz. drink. Oblivious to their stares, Annika simply enjoyed her meal, even to the point of licking her fingers on occasion.
"This chicken is delicious, guys" she spoke in between bites and Mac smiled.
"I thought you'd like it. I certainly did" she said and they both laughed at Harm's disgusted _expression. Realizing there wasn't much he could do until Annika finished eating, he stood up and walked over to the TV muttering something about female Marines, spies, and carnivores. Mac and Annika simply laughed some more as he turned on ESPN and occupied himself with figuring out batting averages and ERA's in his head.
"Clay call?" Mac asked as she noticed Annika nearing the end of her meal.
Annika shook her head. "Not yet. God knows what he got himself into this time" she stated with a smile, more for her benefit than Mac's. It was inevitable worrying about Clay. She'd always done it, but lately it was becoming increasingly difficult to mask.
"He's fine. He just got tied up, I'm sure" Mac answered sympathetically and Annika huffed in sudden anger catching both Harm and Mac by surprise with her sudden outburst as the piece of chicken breast landed on the plate. Hands outstretched in sign of frustration, she rose from the floor and paced.
"See! That's the problem right there! I'm not supposed to be waiting for his call! I'm not supposed to be worrying about him, or even talking about him at all! This is not the way it's supposed to be. I can't... we can't afford to do this. This is not a damn soap opera, for God's sakes. Our jobs are hard and dangerous, and one day I'll wake up and he'll be gone on his way to heaven...or wherever, or I'll be gone and there won't be a damn thing either of us can do about it. This is the life we chose. We live with it. Why would it have to change now? I just don't get it..." she trailed off, aware of the fact she'd caught both officers off guard and also aware of the fact that she'd have some major explaining to do in a few seconds once they digested everything she'd blurted out. She had major damage control to do.
"Do you want things to change?" Harm asked cautiously, ESPN and batting averages forgotten for the time being.
"No! Yes. I don't know! I can't work like this, Harm. It's too stressful as it is to work undercover without the added burden of worrying about my partner. It's useless. Worrying doesn't help either of us."
"Maybe it doesn't help you do your job, but it may help you understand some other things about your life" Mac said, knowing all too well how close to home the conversation was getting.
"But doing my job IS my life. And so is Clay's" Annika almost whined as she turned towards Harm. "What happened to him over there, Harm? I know he lost his brother, but his brother was in a different situation than I am. He cannot possibly be scared of me dying on the job. We've worked together for seven years. He knows the risks just as I do, and we've never had problems with this before. I don't get it" her frustration was clearly visible now and Mac smiled sympathetically.
She knew all too well that feeling of hopelessness when you come to that cross roads in your life. It had been her turn a few months before, when she'd realized she didn't know if she could live if she lost Harm. Annika was about to go through the same, and Mac knew from experience, it was something only she could figure out. No one could do it for her.
"Nik, I think you have an idea of what's going on. You just need some time to come to terms with it" Mac spoke cautiously, realizing Harm had no good advice to offer in this area.
Annika's head wanted to explode. This was not going the way she intended it to. She had to remedy that, immediately.
"Mac, don't start. Clay is not in love with me, nor has he ever been. He's used to me. He loves me because I'm his best friend, and that's all. We're not like you and Harm. There's just nothing between us but friendship. Don't make it into something it's not. That's not what's bothering him, believe me. I know from experience,"Annika whispered the last few words with a sad smile.
"From experience?" Harm asked at once. Even he was drawn into it.
Annika's eyes widened as she realized what she'd said. She'd sworn she'd never talk about that again. She'd sworn she'd never relive it. Damn it all to hell. "Well..."
The ringing of the phone interrupted her and with a silent prayer she reached for it.
"Vranch"
"Nik!"
"Clay? Where are you? It's awful loud wherever it is" she spoke once relief coursed through her at hearing his voice.
"In a plane. Listen. I'm coming over there. I'll be there in a few hours" he rushed through the words and Annika had a hard time understanding him.
"You're coming? In a few hours? Why? What happened over there?"
"I'll tell you later...no time now...Nik...bye" the connection ended and she was left standing there staring at the phone in her hand.
"Don't even ask," she said soon as she noticed Harm and Mac's questioning stares. Holding up their hands simultaneously, they looked at each other and shook their heads as Annika turned back to finish her meal.
TBC