Thanks for the reviews!
ghettonerd: thank you so much for the support! I'm glad you find it interesting!
Lisa: Eeek! Cruel? Yikes! Lol, I usually can't stand leaving cliffhangers because, I dunno, it just makes me nervous...8^o...anywho, thank you for reviewing!!!
Laurie: Yay! A new reviewer!! Thank you so much for reading!!
linz: Thank you for your nice comment! I'm glad you're enjoying this, cause I'm havin' as much fun writing it! Did you read chapter six? When you reviewed last it was on chapter 5.
flyboyfan: Lol, wow, okay, thank you...heh, I love reading your reviews, they are always full of zeal and excitement. I'm glad my story triggers it! Thank you for coming back! Oh, and *blushes*, to tell the truth, I completely forgot about Mac's "cold" when I was writing the harm/mac scene. Lol, that would have been great comical relief to the scene, but it didn't even register in my head. I may repost that chapter with this one with that joke added and I'll give the credit to you! And please, I always appreciate suggestions! I could use all the help I can get!
jagchick105: Thank you so much! I haven't really experimented with suspense before, but I'm glad it's working! Thank you for coming back for more!!!
kstorm: Thank you for reviewing! Well, it is going, lol, and I know what the ending is going to be, so hang on for the ride and I hope you enjoy it!!!
~sancti
Chapter 7: Before & After
"She was in the office?! How the hell did that happen?!" Chegwidden bellowed, his voice getting louder with each word.
Harm searched for the right words. "Technically, she's still in the Marines, sir, but I'm not sure how she obtained a uniform or an ID—"
"Well, just what do you know, Commander?!" The Admiral ordered.
Harm had been standing perfectly at attention, her gaze focused straight ahead, but he now looked the Admiral right in the eye. "She's playing with me, sir. Showing me she can do anything she wants and get away with it. And it's working."
Chegwidden scoffed, throwing a disgusted look to Webb, who sat comfortably in one of the chairs opposite the desk. The Admiral sat down in his own leather chair, staring disapprovingly at Harm.
"Webb, what do have?" He said, a tad bit calmer.
Webb perked up at the sound of his name, straightening in the seat. "We've contacted Thomas's parents. But they don't share any interest in the matter. Apparently, they haven't even seen their daughter since she was twelve and don't have any concern to see her now. They said she was a, and I quote, 'monstrous atrocity and embarrassment to our family.' "
Harm let out a low whistle. "Affectionate. Who had custody of her when she was a minor?" Harm asked.
"Thomas's aunt. Mrs. Pearl Bennett. But she died shortly after Thomas joined the Corps."
Chegwidden sighed, curling his lip. "What about her friends, did she have any outside the Corps?"
"We were going to contact her high school next." Webb replied.
"Where is it?" Harm asked.
"Long Island, New York. West Islip."
"I'll go," Harm offered, "She's still my client and I'd like to have her information first hand."
The Admiral scrutinized over the thought, and concurred, reluctantly. "Permission granted. Leave immediately. And go with him, Webb."
***
1730 ZULU
West Islip High
Islip, New York
The students regarded Harm with confused glances and whispers as he and Webb made their way through the crowd in the hallway. The lunch bell had just sounded and the corridor was packed with students. Harm cringed remembering his high school years. After his little sojourn in Vietnam and when he was admitted back into school, he kept to himself for a while, finding it hard to explain the cuts on his face and arms and other abrasions. And part of him must have thought he was still in the jungle: He'd hear a locker door slam and his instincts would kick in, making him ready for a few Viet Cong to suddenly burst through the crowds with AK-47's, which earned him some teasing. There were also the few scuffles he'd get into, all of them he'd win, which eventually gave the students a good reason to respect him. But when he finally reached his senior year, he gratefully fell back into the normal high school life. Dating, hanging out with friends. But that junior year had to have been the worst of his life. And he'd never forget it.
After asking for directions, the sailor and CIA agent found the principle's office. The secretary eyed the two with drawn in brows.
"So let me get this straight, you're from...JAG, and you're...with the government?" She confirmed cynically, a strong Brooklyn accent accompanying it.
"Correct. We'd here to obtain records of a past student." Harm informed her.
The secretary laughed, her tone mirthless. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, student records are sealed."
"We can come back with a court order, ma'am," Harm said seriously, all the while hiding a smile, "But I'd like this to be the last time I have to deal with Long Island traffic."
The secretary stiffened in her chair, sighing. "Fine. Student's name?"
"Thomas, Arial."
She looked up the information. "Uh, uh. No such name."
Harm gave a sidelong glance to Webb. "Try Bennet, Arial.
The secretary stopped typing and shifted her gaze from Harm to Webb. "Bennet, huh? What's she done now?"
"You remember her?" Webb inquired.
She scoffed. "Remember her? That kid was like a bad cough. I don't even need to pull up her records to tell ya what she was like."
"We'd like to have the printed version anyway." Harm insisted.
"Well, all right." She said with a sigh. She typed away, bringing up the information on the monitor. "Okay, we got grades, suspensions, injuries."
Harm took off his cover, putting it under his arm. "Suspensions and injuries?"
She eyed him credulously. "Oh, yeah, she turned into a regular urchin, after her sophomore year. Gettin' into fights...and finishing them."
The secretary started to print the information out.
"What about her grades?" Webb asked.
She quickly reached the information. "Uhh, here we go. A's and B's."
Harm took the pages already printed out, scanning them quickly. "Any extra curricular classes? Sports?"
"Hmmm...nope. Nothin'. Well, that is if you count the frequent visits to detention."
Harm made a half smile, gathering the rest of the information into a folder. "Last question. Did she have any friends, boyfriends?"
The secretary leaned back in her chair, thinking for a moment. "She was, um, pretty anti-social, but she had one or two friends she made in detention. She was fairly close to one, what was her name..." She snapped her fingers trying to remember, "ah, yeah, Gracie...Miles, I believe. She's in her senior year."
Harm put his cover back on. "You know where we can find her?"
She looked up her schedule, now trusting these two men much more than she did three minutes ago. "Okay, she should be on her lunch break. Um, a lot of the kids hang out at the fountain, by the basketball court. Ask around there, and you'll find her."
***
"Gracie Miles?"
The girl sitting at the edge of the fountain whipped her head up from the thick book in her hands. She was pretty, with long dark, almost black hair that fell to her elbows. Large, icy blue orbs stared at the two men behind small, thin-rimmed glasses. She wore a maroon button down shirt with rolled up sleeves, over faded blue jeans. Noticing Harm's uniform, she became rigid and fiddled with a medallion that hung from her neck.
"Yeah. W—who are you?"
"This is Clayton Webb and I'm Commander Rabb, with the Judge Advocate General."
She cocked a thin, dark eyebrow. "The who from what?"
Harm cracked a smile, easing some of the tension in the girl's face. "An office of Naval attorneys."
"Oh." She said unenthusiastically, "sorry, I'm not in the Navy and don't know anyone in it." Gracie grumbled as she jammed the book in her backpack.
"What about the Marine Corps?" Webb asked.
She froze after swinging the book bag strap over her shoulder. "Marine Corps?" She said barely above a whisper, her voice with a shake.
"You were friends with Arial Bennet, right?" Harm tried to sound as friendly as he could, seeing that the girl had gone completely pale at the sound of Thomas's name.
Gracie repositioned her glasses and proceeded to fidget with the medallion again. "Yeah, we were friends."
Harm sat down a comfortable distance from her on the fountain ledge. "For how long, Gracie?"
She swallowed and tucked a hair behind her ear. "Since our sophomore year. We met in detention. I was the only friend she had. Then when our junior year ended, she...she just left."
Harm expected that. "Did she say why?"
Gracie bit her lip, hesitating.
"It's all right, Gracie. You can tell us." He said softly.
The girl put her backpack in her lap against her chest, wrapping her arms around it. "She said she was going to look for someone," She said shaking her head, "Our entire junior year she spent studying the Marine Corps. Arial said she thought it would give her a good chance at finding him since he was in the military."
"Who?"
Gracie rested her chin on the backpack. "Her brother." She said casually.
Harm could almost feel his heart momentarily stop. Brother? Does Thomas think that I'm... Harm wasn't sure if he could say it. He shot a look to Webb who shook his head in disbelief.
"Gracie, did she say anything else about her...brother?"
She shrugged. "Not really. Just that she really wanted to find him."
Trying to put the thought out of his head, he decided to approach another angle. "Gracie, were you aware of Arial's condition?"
She nodded, her gaze fluttering to the other students, then back to Harm. "She told me about it. No one else knew she was a schizoid. It freaked me out at first. Arial said she heard voices," Gracie bit back tears, remembering an incident, "sometimes she'd scream, you know, during a test or something. She'd just totally crack. Screaming over and over again for 'them' to leave her alone. It made her a major target for teasers. Once, a cheerleader was ragging on her bad, and Arial broke her arm. It almost got her expelled. But her aunt fought it."
"Mrs. Bennet?"
"Yeah. She had a heart attack though. Happened right after Arial ran away to enlist. I'm not even sure if Arial knows she dead."
Harm stared at the manila folder in his hand, carrying Thomas's entire high school life. "Gracie, has she contacted you since she ran away?"
"She sent a few letters while she was in boot camp. They stopped though about eight months ago. Um, why you're asking me all this?"
Harm carefully explained as much as he could while staying within the legal guidelines (and making sure to keep his involvement out of it). Gracie nervously bit a nail as she listened to the eerie story unfold.
"We're trying our best to find her. But she's smart. It won't be easy." Harm finished, his thoughts temporarily returning to the message Arial had left him. "Gracie," she let her gaze match Harm's, "do you have any idea where Arial might be? Did she have a place she liked to go to? Some place that comforted her?"
She thought it over for a minute. "Arial was a survivor. She could adapt to almost anyplace. But her one weakness was D.C. We took a class trip there once. She'd been there before, because of her parents, but that was a long time ago. She loved the monuments."
"Anyplace in particular?"
She thought again, her blue eyes narrowing, but then they brightened up. "The Wall. Her grandfather's name is on it. She only goes there when she's upset, though. It comforts her, so she told me in the letters."
Harm studied Arial's photograph from her file. "Do you still have the letters?"
Gracie dug through the papers in her locker, rummaging through folders and books. "I left them in here somewhere," She handed Webb a few books to get them out of the way.
He reluctantly took them, his expression smug. He studied the covers nonchalantly. " 'History of the Marine Corps'...'Semper Fidelis: What It Means To Be a Marine.' " Webb stated, reading off the covers.
Gracie momentarily stopped, her head popping out from the locker. "Oh, those were Arial's. She gave them to me before she left."
"Anything else she gave you? Any personal possessions?" Harm asked, his curiosity heightening.
She stacked a couple more books into Webb's arms. "Um, a few things. Some jewelry. Photographs, stuff like that—here they are. Sorry, they're a little bent."
Gracie handed Harm four letters, all stuffed in a single, battered envelope. The shrill bell sounded and the girl scowled, hurriedly relieving Webb of the books, all but throwing them back into the locker. "Sorry, I gotta go or I'll be late for trig. You can keep the letters."
Harm gave her a reassuring smile. "Thank you, Gracie. You've been a big help."
She returned the smile, but sorrow was still visible in her eyes. "Please find her, Commander. With her past, and what's happened to her, I can't even imagine what kind of state she's in. And whoever she's after...well," She massaged her hands nervously, "let's just hope she never finds him."
***
1845 ZULU
Delta Airline
22,000 Feet Above Sea Level
Harm skimmed through the pages from Arial's school file, realizing that even before she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she was anything but a model citizen.
Webb grunted, reading a few papers Harm had given him. "Incredible. She's had multiple violations since she was ten. Started out with petty theft from convenience stores. When she turned twelve, she made her first assault. Threw a stapler at a teacher. Gave him seven stitches. Junior High, same stuff, theft, assault. Then high school of course, she even spent two months in the juvie. Eleventh grade sparked even more violence, but she got creative."
"Tear gas." Harm finished for Webb, "she released some in the gymnasium during cheerleader practice."
Webb scoffed and asked a passing stewardess for a bottle of water. "She certainly had a grudge against them, didn't she?"
"So," Harm continued, "she changed her name, probably faked a résumé, possibly even stole her dead aunt's social security number and joined the Corps. Charming."
"And now she's after you." Webb pointed out, slightly amused.
Harm gave the operative a look that would've made Rambo shake in his boots. Changing the subject, Harm read through the letters Arial sent to Gracie.
"Anything interesting?" Webb asked while taking the bottle of water from the stewardess.
Harm handed two of the four letters to Webb. "Nothing that jumps out. Her last letter's dated February 18th. A few days before her platoon shipped out to Russia for the special training. No wonder Gracie didn't get anymore letters." Harm added morbidly.
"Hm, listen to this, in her first letter, she expresses her, 'intense attraction to the leader of her platoon, Lieutenant—" Webb stopped reading, his expression dropping a few degrees.
As soon as Webb stated "leader," Harm felt a knot sharply tighten in his stomach. "Lieutenant Stephens." He said faintly, "When she screamed his name, she wasn't accusing him...she was calling for him."
***
Interrogation Room 3
Stephens wasn't sure what to say. He just continued to stare at the letters that were shoved into his face. Grabaldi saw this as a break. It was illogical to think Thomas's lover would purposely have her kidnapped and hauled to a Chechen prison. All right, so legally, he was pretty much off the hook, but his pride and honor was not something to be proud of. He, a twenty-six year old First Lieutenant, had relations with a recruit, who was even a minor for a few months. That would earn him some fraternization charges. But his lawyer wasn't concerned.
Grabaldi read through the letters, his expression one of complete apathy. "I believe thanks are in order, Commander. This proves my client would've never endangered Private Thomas. Of course we can't do much about the fraternization charges. We'll make a deal."
"Don't be so sure, Grabaldi," Harm muttered, "we know Thomas thinks she's in love with the Lieutenant."
"Commander, perhaps if you read those first two letters over again, you'll see the...intimate details Thomas provided of her relationship with my client and how he reciprocated those feelings."
Harm sat down directly across from Stephens, his eyes filled with a fire. "I believe this matter can be resolved with a simple question. Lieutenant, were you or were you not having intimate relations with Private Arial Thomas?"
He loved her. How could he deny it? It would be a permanent blemish on his record though. "I was, sir." Rabb took in a breath, leaning forward with his hands crossed on the cold, metal table. "And I still am." Rabb's eyes widened.
"Has she contacted you?" He asked, his voice rigid.
Stephens nodded. "Yesterday afternoon, sir. She visited me."
***
2330 ZULU
Harm's Apartment
North of Union Station
Washington D.C.
Harm fumbled with the keys, searching for the new one since he changed his locks. Finally finding it, he unlocked the door, but didn't open it. Something told him not to go in. There was suddenly that familiar cold streak up and down his spine. He'd been getting a lot of those lately. Harm glared at the gray metal of his door, spotted with rust.
Damn it, Harm, she's scaring you out of your own home. The sailor scowled and pushed open the door, flipping the switch. His eyes traced over everything and his heartbeat returned to a normal rate. That is until he noticed the figure sitting in his chair, feet on the desk, and book in hands. Harm didn't move. She sighed, putting down the book, while a cocky smile flashed over her features when she saw him.
"Hello, Harm. Nice to see you again." Arial pulled a 9 millimeter, training it on Harm.
***
wow, my first cliffhanger. I usually have trouble writing cliffhangers cause *I* get nervous leaving them like that...I'll have the next chappy up soon!
~sancti