**Admiral Chegwidden's House,. Arlington, VA. December 20, 2002**
Harm and Mac were already in the neighborhood. It only took them seven minutes to get to the Admiral's quiet street and park. The walk had been shoveled already, but Harm also took note that Mc. Cavanaugh's car was still covered with last night's snow. He motioned to it when they stepped on the porch. Mac grinned about it.
"Meredith," the Admiral growled from somewhere inside. "It's not my jurisdiction!" He was loud and getting angry, but his voice was pleading at the same time. He clearly wanted the woman to just drop it.
Meredith, however, was as strong as she needed to be to pull off being the Admiral's girlfriend, "That never stopped you before!"
Harm winced dramatically at Mac. Mac didn't want to, but she forced herself to ring the doorbell.
In two stomps, Meredith flicked the door open and smiled at them, already throwing the debate their way. "If a Navy officer commits a crime off base, you would get in the middle of the investigation, wouldn't you?"
Harm stepped in cautiously and glanced at the Admiral as he cleared the door. "It depends on the situation, ma'am."
Mac stepped in and let Meredith lock the cold out again. She shoved her hands into her coat pockets and listened to the woman's concerns.
"A friend of mine was violently raped on campus Thursday night. She identifies the man as wearing a Naval officer's uniform." She flapped her hands at them, "Now why can't you investigate and nab him!?"
Harm pretended he hadn't heard the Admiral's shout. "It's not our jurisdiction, ma'am. The civilian police will lead the investigation, and NCIS will assist as long as the suspect looks to be a Naval Officer."
Mac spoke soft but clear. "Traditionally, the case doesn't come to us until someone has been arrested."
Meredith took in a long breath to argue that, but the smoke alarm went off in the kitchen.
Harm turned in that direction. Meredith huffed and stormed passed AJ, and Mac bit her lower lip at the Admiral's smoldering reaction.
At the other end of the living room, Admiral Chegwidden folded his arms at his chest and dropped his head.
Harm and Mac glanced at each other.
The smoke alarm silenced.
"She invited Tiner and Jodi to brunch this morning," the Admiral explained in a low voice as he sat down on his couch, clearly not very pleased about that either. "We got the call about her colleague just as she started cooking breakfast."
Mac glanced around, "Where's Tiner and Jodi, sir?"
"I sent them to the store for milk," AJ nearly laughed. "Tiner lit out of here like his ass was on fire."
Harm sat down on the love seat and set his elbows on his knees. "What would you like us to do, sir?"
The Admiral dropped his hand and looked up. "I just needed back up. Meredith said that if you two would back me up, she would drop it. You know I don't like airing my laundry. And with enlisted here on a 'social call'." he shook his head and flapped a hand on the armrest.
Mac got up again. "I'll go talk to her, sir."
Harm glanced up as she went and leaned his elbows on his knees. His voice was back to business. "What are the details of the case, sir?"
"We only know third hand information from Meredith's phone call. Professor Brady was finishing up a night class on campus and was attacked in the parking lot by a man who was wearing a Naval officer's uniform." The Admiral lifted his brows as he continued, not looking at Harm as he explained. "The man beat her and raped her and left her unconscious by her car. That's all we know."
"You didn't call the police to find out more, sir?"
*Ding Dongggggg*
AJ shook his head and smiled as he started to get up. "I *will*," he said like that should have been obvious, and went to the let the enlisted couple into his house, "just not *yet*."
Harm lifts his face with a long, suddenly understanding nod.
"Everything alright, Admiral?" Tiner said with concern as he stepped in with a large, full, grocery bag in his hand. Jodi stepped in behind him with a second bag that was just as full. They'd killed almost forty-five minutes buying anything they could think of just to give the Admiral the time he needed.
The Admiral closed the door behind them. In silent understanding, Jodi took the grocery bag from her boyfriend and hurried to make herself scarce in the kitchen. She saw Harm, but gave him only an uncomfortable grin as she passed.
Tiner saw Commander Rabb also, licked his lips nervously, and shifted his eyes to his boss. AJ was standing by the door still and rubbing his mouth as he flipped through ideas about what to do. Tiner winced a careful offer, "We can do this another time, sir."
AJ flicked his eyes over, lifted his head to glance at Rabb, and shook his head. "Naw, don't worry about it." He waved a hand away from the offer and strolled back to his chair, "She's only gonna be here a couple of days."
Tiner took a few more seconds before following the man over. He glanced at the Commander and tried to smile, "Good morning, sir."
Harm just waved a little.
Tiner stepped cautiously over to the nearest chair, glanced at the two of them again, fumbled his thumb between his fingers, and sat down. He looked like he was trying to sit at attention.
Harm snuck a smile at him.
"Get out," Jodi said, yanking their attention. She sounded like she was shooing a cat with a broom. "Go on. Get out."
Meredith and Mac reluctantly stepped out of the kitchen. Meredith sighed and fretted about her lack of convincing arguments and Mac gave Harm a glance about this socially insane situation. Jodi stopped at the kitchen door and called between their shoulders. "Jason?"
Tiner snapped to a stand, eager like a pup. "Yes?"
She waved him over, "You wanted me to show you how to make biscuits?"
His brows twitched, "I did?" Then his eyes went wide with a smile. "Yes, I did!" He stepped around the Commander's legs. "I mean, I do. I mean-" he stepped between the women, "excuse me." He moved through the kitchen door, muttering in a new voice to Jodi before it had a chance to swing closed. "*Thank you.*"
Meredith plopped down on the end of the couch, not far from Harm, but not far enough for Mac to want to sit between them. Mac carefully sat down on the loveseat instead.
"Thank you for coming," Meredith told the two and clearly hoped that the pair of opinions would outrank the Admiral's decision. "Evelyn Brady is a friend of mine," she told them, then faced AJ. "And for friends and relatives, you have poked your noses into cases that weren't in your jurisdiction. Why doesn't my friend rank too, hm?" She looked at each of them in the eye until each of them diverted their eyes.
Meredith didn't get what she was looking for. The Commander and Colonel gently gave her the same string of legalese to explain why they had no right to stick their noses in it. The most AJ would promise her is to personally look over the shoulders of NCIS to ensure no stone lie unturned. But the rapist was still at large, and hundreds of professors, Meredith included, still had night classes to teach. She wasn't going to feel comfortable until the man was caught, and she clearly didn't understand why AJ would. The conversation went in circles for nearly twenty minutes. It only managed to exasperate the Admiral and upset Meredith even more.
Tiner made sure he accidentally kicked the kitchen door before he opened it again. He innocently brought out a platter filled with glasses of orange juice and started setting up the dining table without even glancing at the living room, but he knew damned well that they were far from reaching a settlement about it.
Meredith pulled herself off the couch and hurried over. "Oh, Tiner, I'm sorry. You're supposed to be *our* guests," she tried to smile.
Jodi came out with two full plates of breakfast and set them down on the table. "S'all right. Special circumstances. We understand."
Meredith pushed into the kitchen with a warming voice, "I can at least set the table."
"Would you like to stay for breakfast?" The Admiral offered to Harm and Mac, noisily trying to lighten the mood a little.
Mac glanced at Harm. They still had to talk.
The Admiral stood, picked up an old cup of coffee from earlier, and growled as he stepped away, "That was an order."
Harm rolled his eyes at Mac, grinned a little, and got up.
The first plate went to the head of the table just before the Admiral sat down in it. It was clear Meredith was still upset because she lost her argument with them. Tiner ushered the woman to the table and pulled out a chair for her. He teased lightly that he didn't get to do this sort of thing very often and begged her to give him the chance. But, as soon as the petty officer finished putting napkins and silverware out, he too was ushered to sit down. Jodi was practically buzzing around like a waitress and it was clearly in everyone's best interest just to stay out of the way.
The Admiral waved for the aide to sit down at his left side. "Sit down and relax, Tiner."
Tiner's eyes flicked a bit, but he sat down and put his napkin in his lap. Jodi disappeared back into the kitchen for more servings.
Mac slid into a chair next to Meredith and touched the woman's arm to quietly express her apologies. In concert, Harm sat down at the opposite head of the table and loudly forced the conversation onto something else. "So, Tiner, how's the campaign coming?"
Jodi emerged with two full plates and slid them carefully in front of Harm and Mac.
Tiner's brows lifted, "Campaign, sir?"
"The campaign in getting me to move to DC, Jas," she grinned and patted his shoulder before disappearing again.
"Oh, ah." Tiner smiled and reached for his glass of orange juice. "She's worried about moving her kids, sir."
The Admiral nodded wisely at that. "Have you met her children yet?"
Tiner pressed his mouth and shook his head, then shrugged. "Well, over the phone."
Jodi came back out with two more plates, but her feet slowed when she saw Meredith's fretting expression. "Ms. Cavanaugh?" She asked as she slid the last plate of food in front of Tiner. "May I ask you something?" Her voice sounded innocent and curious.
Meredith nodded. "Please do."
"Ms. Brady, is she's going to take some leave to recover?"
The Admiral sighed stiffly. Jason tried to nudge her to shut up.
Ms. Cavanaugh nodded again, "More than likely."
"Are you going to take over her classes when spring semester starts up?"
Meredith blinked at the sudden left turn and shook her head. "No. Ms Brady is a history professor. I teach Shakespeare."
Jodi leaned her elbows against the back of her empty chair and shifted her weight on one foot. "Yeah, but, you took history. You could pull it off, right?"
Meredith's eyes shifted at the strange question. "Yes, I could, but-"
Jodi winced nearly to an innocent whine, "She was your friend. Why can't you take over her classes?"
Meredith settled in to explain the way colleges work to the budding teacher. "They'll get a substitute or another professor from the same department to take over her classes, but it won't be *me*. I'm in a different depart-" she stopped herself "..ment."
Meredith's eyes shined to Jodi like it was a prank.
"So. in other words, " Jodi grinned low and careful. "It's not you're jurisdiction?"
The Admiral glanced over. Mac tucked a smile. Harm gave Jodi some silent kudos and Tiner's eyes widened a little to fear everyone's reaction.
Meredith's brow lifted as she nodded respectfully at the young woman, "You really are going to be a teacher, aren't you?"
Jodi only shined proudly and moved back to the kitchen to fetch the rest of breakfast.
Meredith sighed, glanced at AJ, and waved a hand at him. "All right. I'll back off."
Tiner sat across from her, but looked like he was trying to disappear into the chair.
AJ sat back in his head chair, folded his arms at his chest, and shifted his eyes to his quivering aide. "Tiner," he said loudly and sounded like he was mad.
Tiner swallowed and blinked over. "Yes, sir?"
The Admiral barely nodded. "Keep her."
Tiner's fear collapsed in a full breath that looked like he'd been holding it for days. He smiled wide and sparkly. "Yes, sir."
Jodi came back out with a large plate of hot, buttermilk biscuits and put them directly into the easy reach of the boss before sitting down herself. Breakfast turned out to be French-fry-cuts of home-style potatoes, fluffy scrambled eggs, and perfectly crispy, long strips of bacon.
Meredith sat up curiously, "What happened to the strawberry crepes?"
Jodi put her napkin on her lap and grinned out a phony, valley-girl accent. "Okay, like- I don't even know what a crepe *is*."
The Admiral took a biscuit and passed the plate along with a humored grin.
Mac fiddled with her fork for a moment, trying not to giggle at the menu. She glanced at Harm. He was still sitting back in his chair, looking at the dead animal on his plate, and lifting his eyebrows for an idea how to pull this off politely without resorting to something that would feel like cannibalism.
Mac actually did snicker a little at that. She hid her grin behind a fork full of eggs.
Jodi passed Harm the plate of biscuits, but her brows furrowed. "What's the matter?"
Harm sighed a little, but the Admiral spoke before he had the chance. "The Commander is a vegetarian."
Jodi's chin wrinkled at her goof. "Ack, I'm sorry." She started to get up.
Harm waved a hand at her as he sat forward, "No, no. It's alright." He picked up his fork and looked down at the food. "I can handle it."
Mac dabbed her mouth with her napkin and lifted her brows at him.
He glanced to Mac and shrugged a shoulder.
Trying to make up for it, Jodi started placing giant biscuits on his plate too, just so he could non-chalantly *not* eat the bacon and eggs.
"Thank you," he said, as she put another one on. "Wait-" she put on two more. "Stop." He grabbed her wrist.
Jodi stopped and passed the plate of biscuits to Mac.
Mac passed them up with humored eyes. "No, thank you."
"My God, these biscuits are perfect!" the Admiral exclaimed, looking at the biscuit in his hand like it was a genuine find.
Tiner grinned from ear to ear. "Half her uncles are from Texas, sir," he boasted to his Texan boss. "Her grandmother taught her how to cook in Austin."
The Admiral took another bite and raised the biscuit in the air as a toast to Jodi.
Harm tried a small bite of eggs. His face tightened.
Mac covered her reddening face with her free hand.
Jodi reached over and yanked the plate away from him. "Okay, *you* stop."
Harm swallowed it down like it was a fly and blinked when he realized what she was doing. The woman scraped the bacon and eggs off Harm's plate and onto Tiner's. Meredith dropped her fork and laughed. Tiner winced and pleaded through tight teeth, "What are you doing?"
"I'm a civilian, I don't hafta follow anybody's orders." She said easily and put the plate back in front of Harm with nothing but country potatoes and biscuits. She added more biscuits and then passed over the butter, honey and jam so Harm could fill up on starches instead. Harm muttered at her continually through the procedure. "Thank you. That's enough. Um, Jodi-- thank you."
"There. Eat." She ordered the man without looking at him.
"So, Jodi," the Admiral announced as he buttered up a brand new biscuit. "How are the moving plans coming along?"
Most of the meal was spent probing Jodi for valid reasons behind her hesitation. She produced two: Gary and Skyler. Moving around had already been difficult on them, and she forced everyone at the table to admit that being a Navy brat was rough.
The idea that her children would instantly become Navy brats rose eyebrows, but her left hand was in her lap at the time.
"Are congratulations in order?" The Admiral asked.
Tiner's eyes flicked over to him, shocked and terrified.
Jodi glanced easily over, dabbing her mouth with her napkin and grinning at the nervous man at her side. "Sir, I'm not sure Jason has realized." she paused to word it carefully, "all that would be required of him if my children and I uprooted to move here."
The admiral looked down at his plate to study for his next bite. "I see," he said wisely, and grinned a little.
Tiner winced a little, "You can't just. try it out for six months?"
Jodi lifted her brows, "With children? No."
Jason Tiner sighed at the air in front of him. His mouth pressed a little and his chin lifted. He reached for his glass and slurped down the last of his orange juice. When he put it down again, the man's eyes suddenly looked his age.
Meredith easily diverted the topic by clearing the table. Mac and Harm got up and started making noises to leave. Jodi thanked Meredith and the Admiral for their hospitality. Tiner eventually did also, looking a little unnerved by the entire morning, but Jodi urged them to get moving because there was so much of The Mall she wanted to see.
She counted them on her fingers as she moved out the door. "The Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial. I've seen the Wall but I wanna see it again. Oh! Can we go to the Smithsonian? And how far is Boston.?"
Tiner's brow creased and grinned at the same time as he followed her out. It was like the man just now realized what relationships like this were all about. She hooked her arm in his elbow and bumped into them as they trudged to his big pickup truck, and Tiner was chuckling again by the time they climbed inside.
Mac turned away from the window and nodded at the Admiral's quiet thank you. Harm muttered an offer to check up on the case in his off-time if it would help, but the Admiral turned him down for now and then loudly ordered them to, "leave before I notice you came in the same car!"
Harm and Mac winced and lit out of there like their tails were on fire.
Five minutes later, Mac finally spoke, "That wasn't a neutral environment."
Harm smiled a little, sighed at the red light, and propped his elbow on the windowsill to rub his forehead.
"Just take me home," she said to her lap.
Harm rubbed his lips hard.
"I'm not ending this," she assured. "I just need some time to think." She lifted her chin at him certain that this wasn't too much to ask.
Harm didn't glance back at her. He barely nodded and put both hands on the wheel when the light turned green again. He took her to her apartment without a word, let her get out of her car by herself and made no motions to come up.
Mac paused to say, 'See you tomorrow' or 'Have a good day', but he stared out his windshield looking like he didn't want to hear any of it. So, Mac just closed the door and listened to him drive away before she even made it into her building.
Harm knew exactly what needed to happen and he approached it with all the well-oiled, cold control he'd grown comfortable with. His face was prone as he worked alone through his errands the rest of that day, and he made up a few more just to kill the rest of the afternoon. He didn't call her that night, or the next day, but his eyes looked up from his book, or the dishes, or the stereo. just to glance at the silent telephone. It was fairly easy to will himself not to call her first, but he wondered, more than once, when she was going to make it ring for him.
*Don't do this to me again.*
This was the same treatment he'd gotten in California. She initiated it and then she pushed him away the next day. She was giving him the silent treatment for something that she had started. Harm worked hard not to be angry with her for it. He knew it was probably a defense mechanism she had to keep from getting too close. but Christ was it insulting..
No wonder Mic left her.
Harm and Mac were already in the neighborhood. It only took them seven minutes to get to the Admiral's quiet street and park. The walk had been shoveled already, but Harm also took note that Mc. Cavanaugh's car was still covered with last night's snow. He motioned to it when they stepped on the porch. Mac grinned about it.
"Meredith," the Admiral growled from somewhere inside. "It's not my jurisdiction!" He was loud and getting angry, but his voice was pleading at the same time. He clearly wanted the woman to just drop it.
Meredith, however, was as strong as she needed to be to pull off being the Admiral's girlfriend, "That never stopped you before!"
Harm winced dramatically at Mac. Mac didn't want to, but she forced herself to ring the doorbell.
In two stomps, Meredith flicked the door open and smiled at them, already throwing the debate their way. "If a Navy officer commits a crime off base, you would get in the middle of the investigation, wouldn't you?"
Harm stepped in cautiously and glanced at the Admiral as he cleared the door. "It depends on the situation, ma'am."
Mac stepped in and let Meredith lock the cold out again. She shoved her hands into her coat pockets and listened to the woman's concerns.
"A friend of mine was violently raped on campus Thursday night. She identifies the man as wearing a Naval officer's uniform." She flapped her hands at them, "Now why can't you investigate and nab him!?"
Harm pretended he hadn't heard the Admiral's shout. "It's not our jurisdiction, ma'am. The civilian police will lead the investigation, and NCIS will assist as long as the suspect looks to be a Naval Officer."
Mac spoke soft but clear. "Traditionally, the case doesn't come to us until someone has been arrested."
Meredith took in a long breath to argue that, but the smoke alarm went off in the kitchen.
Harm turned in that direction. Meredith huffed and stormed passed AJ, and Mac bit her lower lip at the Admiral's smoldering reaction.
At the other end of the living room, Admiral Chegwidden folded his arms at his chest and dropped his head.
Harm and Mac glanced at each other.
The smoke alarm silenced.
"She invited Tiner and Jodi to brunch this morning," the Admiral explained in a low voice as he sat down on his couch, clearly not very pleased about that either. "We got the call about her colleague just as she started cooking breakfast."
Mac glanced around, "Where's Tiner and Jodi, sir?"
"I sent them to the store for milk," AJ nearly laughed. "Tiner lit out of here like his ass was on fire."
Harm sat down on the love seat and set his elbows on his knees. "What would you like us to do, sir?"
The Admiral dropped his hand and looked up. "I just needed back up. Meredith said that if you two would back me up, she would drop it. You know I don't like airing my laundry. And with enlisted here on a 'social call'." he shook his head and flapped a hand on the armrest.
Mac got up again. "I'll go talk to her, sir."
Harm glanced up as she went and leaned his elbows on his knees. His voice was back to business. "What are the details of the case, sir?"
"We only know third hand information from Meredith's phone call. Professor Brady was finishing up a night class on campus and was attacked in the parking lot by a man who was wearing a Naval officer's uniform." The Admiral lifted his brows as he continued, not looking at Harm as he explained. "The man beat her and raped her and left her unconscious by her car. That's all we know."
"You didn't call the police to find out more, sir?"
*Ding Dongggggg*
AJ shook his head and smiled as he started to get up. "I *will*," he said like that should have been obvious, and went to the let the enlisted couple into his house, "just not *yet*."
Harm lifts his face with a long, suddenly understanding nod.
"Everything alright, Admiral?" Tiner said with concern as he stepped in with a large, full, grocery bag in his hand. Jodi stepped in behind him with a second bag that was just as full. They'd killed almost forty-five minutes buying anything they could think of just to give the Admiral the time he needed.
The Admiral closed the door behind them. In silent understanding, Jodi took the grocery bag from her boyfriend and hurried to make herself scarce in the kitchen. She saw Harm, but gave him only an uncomfortable grin as she passed.
Tiner saw Commander Rabb also, licked his lips nervously, and shifted his eyes to his boss. AJ was standing by the door still and rubbing his mouth as he flipped through ideas about what to do. Tiner winced a careful offer, "We can do this another time, sir."
AJ flicked his eyes over, lifted his head to glance at Rabb, and shook his head. "Naw, don't worry about it." He waved a hand away from the offer and strolled back to his chair, "She's only gonna be here a couple of days."
Tiner took a few more seconds before following the man over. He glanced at the Commander and tried to smile, "Good morning, sir."
Harm just waved a little.
Tiner stepped cautiously over to the nearest chair, glanced at the two of them again, fumbled his thumb between his fingers, and sat down. He looked like he was trying to sit at attention.
Harm snuck a smile at him.
"Get out," Jodi said, yanking their attention. She sounded like she was shooing a cat with a broom. "Go on. Get out."
Meredith and Mac reluctantly stepped out of the kitchen. Meredith sighed and fretted about her lack of convincing arguments and Mac gave Harm a glance about this socially insane situation. Jodi stopped at the kitchen door and called between their shoulders. "Jason?"
Tiner snapped to a stand, eager like a pup. "Yes?"
She waved him over, "You wanted me to show you how to make biscuits?"
His brows twitched, "I did?" Then his eyes went wide with a smile. "Yes, I did!" He stepped around the Commander's legs. "I mean, I do. I mean-" he stepped between the women, "excuse me." He moved through the kitchen door, muttering in a new voice to Jodi before it had a chance to swing closed. "*Thank you.*"
Meredith plopped down on the end of the couch, not far from Harm, but not far enough for Mac to want to sit between them. Mac carefully sat down on the loveseat instead.
"Thank you for coming," Meredith told the two and clearly hoped that the pair of opinions would outrank the Admiral's decision. "Evelyn Brady is a friend of mine," she told them, then faced AJ. "And for friends and relatives, you have poked your noses into cases that weren't in your jurisdiction. Why doesn't my friend rank too, hm?" She looked at each of them in the eye until each of them diverted their eyes.
Meredith didn't get what she was looking for. The Commander and Colonel gently gave her the same string of legalese to explain why they had no right to stick their noses in it. The most AJ would promise her is to personally look over the shoulders of NCIS to ensure no stone lie unturned. But the rapist was still at large, and hundreds of professors, Meredith included, still had night classes to teach. She wasn't going to feel comfortable until the man was caught, and she clearly didn't understand why AJ would. The conversation went in circles for nearly twenty minutes. It only managed to exasperate the Admiral and upset Meredith even more.
Tiner made sure he accidentally kicked the kitchen door before he opened it again. He innocently brought out a platter filled with glasses of orange juice and started setting up the dining table without even glancing at the living room, but he knew damned well that they were far from reaching a settlement about it.
Meredith pulled herself off the couch and hurried over. "Oh, Tiner, I'm sorry. You're supposed to be *our* guests," she tried to smile.
Jodi came out with two full plates of breakfast and set them down on the table. "S'all right. Special circumstances. We understand."
Meredith pushed into the kitchen with a warming voice, "I can at least set the table."
"Would you like to stay for breakfast?" The Admiral offered to Harm and Mac, noisily trying to lighten the mood a little.
Mac glanced at Harm. They still had to talk.
The Admiral stood, picked up an old cup of coffee from earlier, and growled as he stepped away, "That was an order."
Harm rolled his eyes at Mac, grinned a little, and got up.
The first plate went to the head of the table just before the Admiral sat down in it. It was clear Meredith was still upset because she lost her argument with them. Tiner ushered the woman to the table and pulled out a chair for her. He teased lightly that he didn't get to do this sort of thing very often and begged her to give him the chance. But, as soon as the petty officer finished putting napkins and silverware out, he too was ushered to sit down. Jodi was practically buzzing around like a waitress and it was clearly in everyone's best interest just to stay out of the way.
The Admiral waved for the aide to sit down at his left side. "Sit down and relax, Tiner."
Tiner's eyes flicked a bit, but he sat down and put his napkin in his lap. Jodi disappeared back into the kitchen for more servings.
Mac slid into a chair next to Meredith and touched the woman's arm to quietly express her apologies. In concert, Harm sat down at the opposite head of the table and loudly forced the conversation onto something else. "So, Tiner, how's the campaign coming?"
Jodi emerged with two full plates and slid them carefully in front of Harm and Mac.
Tiner's brows lifted, "Campaign, sir?"
"The campaign in getting me to move to DC, Jas," she grinned and patted his shoulder before disappearing again.
"Oh, ah." Tiner smiled and reached for his glass of orange juice. "She's worried about moving her kids, sir."
The Admiral nodded wisely at that. "Have you met her children yet?"
Tiner pressed his mouth and shook his head, then shrugged. "Well, over the phone."
Jodi came back out with two more plates, but her feet slowed when she saw Meredith's fretting expression. "Ms. Cavanaugh?" She asked as she slid the last plate of food in front of Tiner. "May I ask you something?" Her voice sounded innocent and curious.
Meredith nodded. "Please do."
"Ms. Brady, is she's going to take some leave to recover?"
The Admiral sighed stiffly. Jason tried to nudge her to shut up.
Ms. Cavanaugh nodded again, "More than likely."
"Are you going to take over her classes when spring semester starts up?"
Meredith blinked at the sudden left turn and shook her head. "No. Ms Brady is a history professor. I teach Shakespeare."
Jodi leaned her elbows against the back of her empty chair and shifted her weight on one foot. "Yeah, but, you took history. You could pull it off, right?"
Meredith's eyes shifted at the strange question. "Yes, I could, but-"
Jodi winced nearly to an innocent whine, "She was your friend. Why can't you take over her classes?"
Meredith settled in to explain the way colleges work to the budding teacher. "They'll get a substitute or another professor from the same department to take over her classes, but it won't be *me*. I'm in a different depart-" she stopped herself "..ment."
Meredith's eyes shined to Jodi like it was a prank.
"So. in other words, " Jodi grinned low and careful. "It's not you're jurisdiction?"
The Admiral glanced over. Mac tucked a smile. Harm gave Jodi some silent kudos and Tiner's eyes widened a little to fear everyone's reaction.
Meredith's brow lifted as she nodded respectfully at the young woman, "You really are going to be a teacher, aren't you?"
Jodi only shined proudly and moved back to the kitchen to fetch the rest of breakfast.
Meredith sighed, glanced at AJ, and waved a hand at him. "All right. I'll back off."
Tiner sat across from her, but looked like he was trying to disappear into the chair.
AJ sat back in his head chair, folded his arms at his chest, and shifted his eyes to his quivering aide. "Tiner," he said loudly and sounded like he was mad.
Tiner swallowed and blinked over. "Yes, sir?"
The Admiral barely nodded. "Keep her."
Tiner's fear collapsed in a full breath that looked like he'd been holding it for days. He smiled wide and sparkly. "Yes, sir."
Jodi came back out with a large plate of hot, buttermilk biscuits and put them directly into the easy reach of the boss before sitting down herself. Breakfast turned out to be French-fry-cuts of home-style potatoes, fluffy scrambled eggs, and perfectly crispy, long strips of bacon.
Meredith sat up curiously, "What happened to the strawberry crepes?"
Jodi put her napkin on her lap and grinned out a phony, valley-girl accent. "Okay, like- I don't even know what a crepe *is*."
The Admiral took a biscuit and passed the plate along with a humored grin.
Mac fiddled with her fork for a moment, trying not to giggle at the menu. She glanced at Harm. He was still sitting back in his chair, looking at the dead animal on his plate, and lifting his eyebrows for an idea how to pull this off politely without resorting to something that would feel like cannibalism.
Mac actually did snicker a little at that. She hid her grin behind a fork full of eggs.
Jodi passed Harm the plate of biscuits, but her brows furrowed. "What's the matter?"
Harm sighed a little, but the Admiral spoke before he had the chance. "The Commander is a vegetarian."
Jodi's chin wrinkled at her goof. "Ack, I'm sorry." She started to get up.
Harm waved a hand at her as he sat forward, "No, no. It's alright." He picked up his fork and looked down at the food. "I can handle it."
Mac dabbed her mouth with her napkin and lifted her brows at him.
He glanced to Mac and shrugged a shoulder.
Trying to make up for it, Jodi started placing giant biscuits on his plate too, just so he could non-chalantly *not* eat the bacon and eggs.
"Thank you," he said, as she put another one on. "Wait-" she put on two more. "Stop." He grabbed her wrist.
Jodi stopped and passed the plate of biscuits to Mac.
Mac passed them up with humored eyes. "No, thank you."
"My God, these biscuits are perfect!" the Admiral exclaimed, looking at the biscuit in his hand like it was a genuine find.
Tiner grinned from ear to ear. "Half her uncles are from Texas, sir," he boasted to his Texan boss. "Her grandmother taught her how to cook in Austin."
The Admiral took another bite and raised the biscuit in the air as a toast to Jodi.
Harm tried a small bite of eggs. His face tightened.
Mac covered her reddening face with her free hand.
Jodi reached over and yanked the plate away from him. "Okay, *you* stop."
Harm swallowed it down like it was a fly and blinked when he realized what she was doing. The woman scraped the bacon and eggs off Harm's plate and onto Tiner's. Meredith dropped her fork and laughed. Tiner winced and pleaded through tight teeth, "What are you doing?"
"I'm a civilian, I don't hafta follow anybody's orders." She said easily and put the plate back in front of Harm with nothing but country potatoes and biscuits. She added more biscuits and then passed over the butter, honey and jam so Harm could fill up on starches instead. Harm muttered at her continually through the procedure. "Thank you. That's enough. Um, Jodi-- thank you."
"There. Eat." She ordered the man without looking at him.
"So, Jodi," the Admiral announced as he buttered up a brand new biscuit. "How are the moving plans coming along?"
Most of the meal was spent probing Jodi for valid reasons behind her hesitation. She produced two: Gary and Skyler. Moving around had already been difficult on them, and she forced everyone at the table to admit that being a Navy brat was rough.
The idea that her children would instantly become Navy brats rose eyebrows, but her left hand was in her lap at the time.
"Are congratulations in order?" The Admiral asked.
Tiner's eyes flicked over to him, shocked and terrified.
Jodi glanced easily over, dabbing her mouth with her napkin and grinning at the nervous man at her side. "Sir, I'm not sure Jason has realized." she paused to word it carefully, "all that would be required of him if my children and I uprooted to move here."
The admiral looked down at his plate to study for his next bite. "I see," he said wisely, and grinned a little.
Tiner winced a little, "You can't just. try it out for six months?"
Jodi lifted her brows, "With children? No."
Jason Tiner sighed at the air in front of him. His mouth pressed a little and his chin lifted. He reached for his glass and slurped down the last of his orange juice. When he put it down again, the man's eyes suddenly looked his age.
Meredith easily diverted the topic by clearing the table. Mac and Harm got up and started making noises to leave. Jodi thanked Meredith and the Admiral for their hospitality. Tiner eventually did also, looking a little unnerved by the entire morning, but Jodi urged them to get moving because there was so much of The Mall she wanted to see.
She counted them on her fingers as she moved out the door. "The Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial. I've seen the Wall but I wanna see it again. Oh! Can we go to the Smithsonian? And how far is Boston.?"
Tiner's brow creased and grinned at the same time as he followed her out. It was like the man just now realized what relationships like this were all about. She hooked her arm in his elbow and bumped into them as they trudged to his big pickup truck, and Tiner was chuckling again by the time they climbed inside.
Mac turned away from the window and nodded at the Admiral's quiet thank you. Harm muttered an offer to check up on the case in his off-time if it would help, but the Admiral turned him down for now and then loudly ordered them to, "leave before I notice you came in the same car!"
Harm and Mac winced and lit out of there like their tails were on fire.
Five minutes later, Mac finally spoke, "That wasn't a neutral environment."
Harm smiled a little, sighed at the red light, and propped his elbow on the windowsill to rub his forehead.
"Just take me home," she said to her lap.
Harm rubbed his lips hard.
"I'm not ending this," she assured. "I just need some time to think." She lifted her chin at him certain that this wasn't too much to ask.
Harm didn't glance back at her. He barely nodded and put both hands on the wheel when the light turned green again. He took her to her apartment without a word, let her get out of her car by herself and made no motions to come up.
Mac paused to say, 'See you tomorrow' or 'Have a good day', but he stared out his windshield looking like he didn't want to hear any of it. So, Mac just closed the door and listened to him drive away before she even made it into her building.
Harm knew exactly what needed to happen and he approached it with all the well-oiled, cold control he'd grown comfortable with. His face was prone as he worked alone through his errands the rest of that day, and he made up a few more just to kill the rest of the afternoon. He didn't call her that night, or the next day, but his eyes looked up from his book, or the dishes, or the stereo. just to glance at the silent telephone. It was fairly easy to will himself not to call her first, but he wondered, more than once, when she was going to make it ring for him.
*Don't do this to me again.*
This was the same treatment he'd gotten in California. She initiated it and then she pushed him away the next day. She was giving him the silent treatment for something that she had started. Harm worked hard not to be angry with her for it. He knew it was probably a defense mechanism she had to keep from getting too close. but Christ was it insulting..
No wonder Mic left her.