Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine and belong to Donald P.
Bellisario. I am not making any money off of my story and don't intend to.
Rating: PG - Just about the same type of stuff you would see in a normal episode of JAG. There's no swearing, no sexual situations or anything. Just some romance, a little action.
This is my first fanfiction story and I hope all of you enjoy it. Feedback is definitely welcome.
Chapter 7: Lies of Comfort
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
0900 EST - December 4th, 2003
Sturgis was on his second cup of coffee already this morning. He felt terrible about how he had treated Mac the night before, and he found himself in the office early trying to work more on the case. Granted, he knew he had a point. Nothing more could have been done last night. However, Harm would do all that he could for any one of them if they were in his situation. Knowing this brought him to the office early this morning. Sitting down at his desk, Petty Officer Coates came striding in.
"Here is the family history of Commander Murphy, sir."
Sturgis looked up at her. "Thank you, Petty Officer. I didn't think you would get it this quickly."
Coates smiled. "I want to find the . person who did this to Commander Rabb, sir." She had to fight to not call that person something more inappropriate in front of an officer.
"I understand your frustration, Coates. Dismissed."
"Aye, aye, sir!" Coates quickly left.
Murphy's Residence
Washington, D.C.
1100 EST
The residence looked normal from the outside. Just like any other house on the street. What was on the inside was most important. Commander Murphy was hiding something, and Commander Turner was determined to find out what it was. However, he knew he had to keep an open mind. He didn't want to show his hand too early to Murphy, and he had to be make sure Mac would hold off, too. "Colonel, I trust you will keep your feelings at bay?"
"What makes you think I won't?" Mac asked as they walked down the sidewalk towards the front door.
Both had forgotten that Bud was also with them. "Well, because ." Bud began to answer, but held back when Mac shot him an angry look. "Ma'am, I don't know why Commander Turner would think that."
Sturgis rolled his eyes, looking to see a wry smile on Mac's face. "It's 2 to 1, Sturgis," Mac commented with a grin.
Stopping in front of the door, Sturgis rang the doorbell. "That's fine, as long as you understand that I'm right."
"We'll see."
The door then opened, breaking up their conversation.
"Yes? May I help you?" a man on the other end asked.
Mac immediately noticed his clean-shaven look. He was slightly older, portrayed a proud look, but seemed worse for the wear. "Yes, we're looking for a Commander Murphy."
The man grimaced. "Can I ask who's looking for him?"
Sturgis nodded. "I'm Commander Turner, this is Lt. Colonel Mackenzie, and this is Lt. Roberts. We're from the JAG corp."
"Navy lawyers?"
Mac smiled. "Not all of us. I'm a Marine."
The man looked them over quickly, and then opened the door widely. "I'm Commander Nathan Murphy. Come in," came his short response.
The three lawyers walked in looking around at the very noticeable mess lingering throughout the house. "Sorry for the mess," came Murphy's response, seeming to know their first impression. "My son's been sick. My wife is out of town."
Bud smiled, "I understand that, sir."
Murphy shot him a look. "You married, Lt.?"
"Yes, sir."
Murphy smiled. "Good for you. Hold onto it." He then walked into the adjacent living room, the three of them following closely. "Sit down." He motioned to the couch and chair across from him as he sat down in a comfortable chair, a coffee table separating them. Sturgis and Mac sat on the couch, and Bud moved to the other chair. "I thought I was done with Navy lawyers for the rest of my life."
Mac nodded, "Well, not quite. So you did have a JAG lawyer represent you?"
"Yup, yup. A Commander .. Rad? . Rob? . Rabb?" Murphy struggled, trying to remember.
Bud looked to him. "It wasn't that long ago, sir."
"No, not long enough."
"Can you tell us about your case?" Sturgis asked.
Murphy smiled. "Don't you guys have that stuff on file?"
"We'd like to hear from you, Commander," Mac replied sternly.
"Fine." Murphy looked right at them. "I went UA . my family was having some problems, and I didn't know what else to do ."
But Mac promptly interrupted. "Are you sure that's the reason?"
"Yes, Colonel," Murphy shot back angrily. "I admit, I should've used better judgment. I've gone through this all before. Now please tell me why you are so interested?"
Sturgis looked to Mac, his eyes showing his frustration at her inability to hold her emotions. "Commander, what kind of family problems?"
"Check the file," Murphy replied, showing his irritation.
Bud chimed it, hoping to be calm. "We don't have the files, sir. They're missing."
Murphy looked to the junior officer. His angry seemed to subside slightly. "I thought you guys ran a tight ship. At least from what I saw when I was there."
Sturgis looked briefly to Bud, frustration invading his face over Bud's openness to Murphy. "What Lt. Roberts means is that the case files are unavailable to us at the moment. We're hoping to get jump start on the case. Any information you may have would be quite helpful."
During this conversation Mac looked carefully around the room. Again she tuned her eyes for any outward clues. The fireplace had not been decorated for Christmas yet, but that wasn't the issue to Mac. The issue was that there were no pictures of any of his children. There weren't any pictures of his wife, either. She looked around at the mess surrounding her, and there were no toys to support the story that a child lived here.
Bud suddenly asked a question that interested both Sturgis and Mac. "Commander, when did you buy this house?"
Murphy looked at him strangely. "What kind of business is that of yours?"
"Well, it says here that you bought this house a few weeks ago. In fact, it was right after your trial," Bud supplied innocently.
"So what? People buy houses all the time."
Bud shook his head. "But I don't understand, sir. This is an expensive neighborhood. In fact, I have a friend under the same rank who doesn't make nearly enough money with the Navy to try and buy a house like this."
"You ever hear of saving, Lt.?"
Bud nodded, "Of course, sir." Bud then backed off, but there was a contentment in his face.
Sturgis then asked, "You have a good record, Commander. Why just up and leave like that?"
"I told you, my family. It's that simple."
"Is it? How about your trial? It didn't last very long, from the transcripts."
Murphy nodded. "No, it didn't. Your Commander Rambo got me a deal pretty quick."
Mac then stood up and walked around the area a little. "Commander," Mac began, "where did you say your wife was again?"
Murphy looked to her. "Out of town."
Sturgis then eyed Mac quickly, and decided it was time. "We're done for now, Commander."
Commander Murphy stood up. "Good luck with whatever you're doing there," he said, referring to their case.
Mac smiled openly and moved closer to him. Only now did she realize that he was not as tall as she had thought. In fact, she could look into his eyes. "I hope, for your sake, we are." Mac's smile quickly turned to an angry glare that she saved just for him as Sturgis and Bud were leaving the room. She followed on their heels.
2 days later
JAG Headquarters
Mac's office
1900 EST - December 6th, 2003
Bud looked quickly to Mac, who had begun to pace a bit throughout her office. "Ma'am, I talked to Murphy's neighbors, and they don't recall him even having a wife. I talked to some of his fellow officers at Norfolk, and all they could tell me was that he kept a lot of things to himself."
Sturgis walked into Mac's office. "I have the phone records finally of Commander Murphy. He knew a lot of people at the top." He handed the list of Mac.
She had been unusually quiet today, but Sturgis just figured it was their exhaustion. Each had been running around like crazy through Washington, interviewing witnesses, gathering information, and learning just a bit more about their man Murphy. First off, he wasn't married. They had checked a dozen records for that. Secondly, Murphy had a tendency to leave work a lot. He had used all of his vacation time, and each reason was different. However, all involved a family of some sort, which he didn't have.
Bud chimed in. "Ma'am, I also talked to his CO, who didn't say much. He's still angry that Murphy isn't in Leavenworth."
"What are we missing?" Mac finally asked.
"What do you mean?" Sturgis countered.
Mac paced some more. "Murphy is placed in Harm's apartment. We have the fingerprints to prove it. That means that whatever happened to Harm, Murphy knew about it, if he wasn't directly involved."
"So what was Murphy doing?"
Bud stood up and walked over to Mac. "Look, Colonel, he might've been out of the country. Look at all of the calls to the airlines."
Sturgis nodded. "The interesting part is that he isn't just gone for a couple of days, he's gone for weeks at a time."
Mac looked quickly to Sturgis. "He wouldn't be doing ."
" . secret missions?" Bud asked jokingly.
But both Sturgis and Mac looked to him. "CIA," Mac added.
"That would explain why he got off," Sturgis commented.
"And why the case isn't in JAG records."
Bud shook his head. "You two aren't serious, are you? Commander? Colonel?"
Mac shrugged. "Maybe not, but it fits."
Suddenly Bud looked quickly at his watch. "Are we looking at another late night, sir?" Bud looked to Commander Sturgis.
Sturgis shook his head. "No, I think we'll call it quits tonight. We've worked non-stop the past few days."
Mac acted as if she didn't even hear him as she sat down at her desk again. She began looking through papers and studying the readouts and reports they had gone over a million times.
Bud looked to Mac. "Ma'am, you should go home. You look tired. We're all tired."
"I don't want to go home, Bud. But you two go, I'll be fine."
Bud left the office, unsure of what to say or do. He just knew he couldn't help much right now, and he had to give Mac her space. However, Sturgis didn't follow him, and started talking to her. Bud couldn't hear much, but he also knew it may not be any of his business, either.
Sturgis walked a little closer to Mac's desk. "When was the last time you went and saw Harm?"
"A few days. Why?"
Sturgis shrugged. "I don't know, it might make you feel better if you do go and see him."
Mac stood up. "It's none of your business, Sturgis," she said sternly.
"Mac, you can't ignore what happened. You have to face it."
"I am facing it," Mac said, much more sternly than the first time.
Sturgis started walking away. "Fine, maybe. But when you do, everything will go much smoother. Go and see him, Mac." With that, Sturgis left.
Mac sat back down at her desk, watching both Bud and Sturgis leave, neither saying another word. They had been so good in dealing with her the past few days. She knew she had been hard. Harm was still a big part of her life, despite Paraguay and the state of their friendship. As Harm once said, "When you save someone's life, you feel responsible for them." Both had saved each other's lives at least a dozen times, and each time brought a certain sense of devotion and love for one another. So why didn't that happen in Paraguay? Clayton Webb. He wasn't the whole reason, but a lot of it. In all honestly, Harm and Mac's relationship in it's original state had gone as far as it could go. Since then a need for change was imminent.
Bethesda Naval Hospital
2100 EST
Mac had stayed just an hour more at the office before she gave it up. The next hour she just drove, thinking about everything that had happened the past few days. The case was beginning to settle in for her, and she was getting a sense of what Murphy was like. However, her mind was not on that Commander. Her mind was on Harm and the fact that somehow her driving ended at this hospital, on this floor, in front of this room. She hadn't seen Harm since the accident, so when she opened the door she was surprised to see him looking a bit better. Not very many tubes were sticking out of him. In fact, he looked almost normal, except a bit weak and very white. He had been placed in a different room, a floor below, because he was somewhat stable.
She walked to the left side of his bed and sat down in the chair that was conveniently in the right place. Mac couldn't see anything walking by her, or any of the outside world. Her back was turned to all of it as she concentrated solely on Harm. She reached out and grabbed his hand. "Hey flyboy."
Silence hovered throughout the room, and the only sound was Harm's even breathing. Mac stayed there all night.
Rating: PG - Just about the same type of stuff you would see in a normal episode of JAG. There's no swearing, no sexual situations or anything. Just some romance, a little action.
This is my first fanfiction story and I hope all of you enjoy it. Feedback is definitely welcome.
Chapter 7: Lies of Comfort
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
0900 EST - December 4th, 2003
Sturgis was on his second cup of coffee already this morning. He felt terrible about how he had treated Mac the night before, and he found himself in the office early trying to work more on the case. Granted, he knew he had a point. Nothing more could have been done last night. However, Harm would do all that he could for any one of them if they were in his situation. Knowing this brought him to the office early this morning. Sitting down at his desk, Petty Officer Coates came striding in.
"Here is the family history of Commander Murphy, sir."
Sturgis looked up at her. "Thank you, Petty Officer. I didn't think you would get it this quickly."
Coates smiled. "I want to find the . person who did this to Commander Rabb, sir." She had to fight to not call that person something more inappropriate in front of an officer.
"I understand your frustration, Coates. Dismissed."
"Aye, aye, sir!" Coates quickly left.
Murphy's Residence
Washington, D.C.
1100 EST
The residence looked normal from the outside. Just like any other house on the street. What was on the inside was most important. Commander Murphy was hiding something, and Commander Turner was determined to find out what it was. However, he knew he had to keep an open mind. He didn't want to show his hand too early to Murphy, and he had to be make sure Mac would hold off, too. "Colonel, I trust you will keep your feelings at bay?"
"What makes you think I won't?" Mac asked as they walked down the sidewalk towards the front door.
Both had forgotten that Bud was also with them. "Well, because ." Bud began to answer, but held back when Mac shot him an angry look. "Ma'am, I don't know why Commander Turner would think that."
Sturgis rolled his eyes, looking to see a wry smile on Mac's face. "It's 2 to 1, Sturgis," Mac commented with a grin.
Stopping in front of the door, Sturgis rang the doorbell. "That's fine, as long as you understand that I'm right."
"We'll see."
The door then opened, breaking up their conversation.
"Yes? May I help you?" a man on the other end asked.
Mac immediately noticed his clean-shaven look. He was slightly older, portrayed a proud look, but seemed worse for the wear. "Yes, we're looking for a Commander Murphy."
The man grimaced. "Can I ask who's looking for him?"
Sturgis nodded. "I'm Commander Turner, this is Lt. Colonel Mackenzie, and this is Lt. Roberts. We're from the JAG corp."
"Navy lawyers?"
Mac smiled. "Not all of us. I'm a Marine."
The man looked them over quickly, and then opened the door widely. "I'm Commander Nathan Murphy. Come in," came his short response.
The three lawyers walked in looking around at the very noticeable mess lingering throughout the house. "Sorry for the mess," came Murphy's response, seeming to know their first impression. "My son's been sick. My wife is out of town."
Bud smiled, "I understand that, sir."
Murphy shot him a look. "You married, Lt.?"
"Yes, sir."
Murphy smiled. "Good for you. Hold onto it." He then walked into the adjacent living room, the three of them following closely. "Sit down." He motioned to the couch and chair across from him as he sat down in a comfortable chair, a coffee table separating them. Sturgis and Mac sat on the couch, and Bud moved to the other chair. "I thought I was done with Navy lawyers for the rest of my life."
Mac nodded, "Well, not quite. So you did have a JAG lawyer represent you?"
"Yup, yup. A Commander .. Rad? . Rob? . Rabb?" Murphy struggled, trying to remember.
Bud looked to him. "It wasn't that long ago, sir."
"No, not long enough."
"Can you tell us about your case?" Sturgis asked.
Murphy smiled. "Don't you guys have that stuff on file?"
"We'd like to hear from you, Commander," Mac replied sternly.
"Fine." Murphy looked right at them. "I went UA . my family was having some problems, and I didn't know what else to do ."
But Mac promptly interrupted. "Are you sure that's the reason?"
"Yes, Colonel," Murphy shot back angrily. "I admit, I should've used better judgment. I've gone through this all before. Now please tell me why you are so interested?"
Sturgis looked to Mac, his eyes showing his frustration at her inability to hold her emotions. "Commander, what kind of family problems?"
"Check the file," Murphy replied, showing his irritation.
Bud chimed it, hoping to be calm. "We don't have the files, sir. They're missing."
Murphy looked to the junior officer. His angry seemed to subside slightly. "I thought you guys ran a tight ship. At least from what I saw when I was there."
Sturgis looked briefly to Bud, frustration invading his face over Bud's openness to Murphy. "What Lt. Roberts means is that the case files are unavailable to us at the moment. We're hoping to get jump start on the case. Any information you may have would be quite helpful."
During this conversation Mac looked carefully around the room. Again she tuned her eyes for any outward clues. The fireplace had not been decorated for Christmas yet, but that wasn't the issue to Mac. The issue was that there were no pictures of any of his children. There weren't any pictures of his wife, either. She looked around at the mess surrounding her, and there were no toys to support the story that a child lived here.
Bud suddenly asked a question that interested both Sturgis and Mac. "Commander, when did you buy this house?"
Murphy looked at him strangely. "What kind of business is that of yours?"
"Well, it says here that you bought this house a few weeks ago. In fact, it was right after your trial," Bud supplied innocently.
"So what? People buy houses all the time."
Bud shook his head. "But I don't understand, sir. This is an expensive neighborhood. In fact, I have a friend under the same rank who doesn't make nearly enough money with the Navy to try and buy a house like this."
"You ever hear of saving, Lt.?"
Bud nodded, "Of course, sir." Bud then backed off, but there was a contentment in his face.
Sturgis then asked, "You have a good record, Commander. Why just up and leave like that?"
"I told you, my family. It's that simple."
"Is it? How about your trial? It didn't last very long, from the transcripts."
Murphy nodded. "No, it didn't. Your Commander Rambo got me a deal pretty quick."
Mac then stood up and walked around the area a little. "Commander," Mac began, "where did you say your wife was again?"
Murphy looked to her. "Out of town."
Sturgis then eyed Mac quickly, and decided it was time. "We're done for now, Commander."
Commander Murphy stood up. "Good luck with whatever you're doing there," he said, referring to their case.
Mac smiled openly and moved closer to him. Only now did she realize that he was not as tall as she had thought. In fact, she could look into his eyes. "I hope, for your sake, we are." Mac's smile quickly turned to an angry glare that she saved just for him as Sturgis and Bud were leaving the room. She followed on their heels.
2 days later
JAG Headquarters
Mac's office
1900 EST - December 6th, 2003
Bud looked quickly to Mac, who had begun to pace a bit throughout her office. "Ma'am, I talked to Murphy's neighbors, and they don't recall him even having a wife. I talked to some of his fellow officers at Norfolk, and all they could tell me was that he kept a lot of things to himself."
Sturgis walked into Mac's office. "I have the phone records finally of Commander Murphy. He knew a lot of people at the top." He handed the list of Mac.
She had been unusually quiet today, but Sturgis just figured it was their exhaustion. Each had been running around like crazy through Washington, interviewing witnesses, gathering information, and learning just a bit more about their man Murphy. First off, he wasn't married. They had checked a dozen records for that. Secondly, Murphy had a tendency to leave work a lot. He had used all of his vacation time, and each reason was different. However, all involved a family of some sort, which he didn't have.
Bud chimed in. "Ma'am, I also talked to his CO, who didn't say much. He's still angry that Murphy isn't in Leavenworth."
"What are we missing?" Mac finally asked.
"What do you mean?" Sturgis countered.
Mac paced some more. "Murphy is placed in Harm's apartment. We have the fingerprints to prove it. That means that whatever happened to Harm, Murphy knew about it, if he wasn't directly involved."
"So what was Murphy doing?"
Bud stood up and walked over to Mac. "Look, Colonel, he might've been out of the country. Look at all of the calls to the airlines."
Sturgis nodded. "The interesting part is that he isn't just gone for a couple of days, he's gone for weeks at a time."
Mac looked quickly to Sturgis. "He wouldn't be doing ."
" . secret missions?" Bud asked jokingly.
But both Sturgis and Mac looked to him. "CIA," Mac added.
"That would explain why he got off," Sturgis commented.
"And why the case isn't in JAG records."
Bud shook his head. "You two aren't serious, are you? Commander? Colonel?"
Mac shrugged. "Maybe not, but it fits."
Suddenly Bud looked quickly at his watch. "Are we looking at another late night, sir?" Bud looked to Commander Sturgis.
Sturgis shook his head. "No, I think we'll call it quits tonight. We've worked non-stop the past few days."
Mac acted as if she didn't even hear him as she sat down at her desk again. She began looking through papers and studying the readouts and reports they had gone over a million times.
Bud looked to Mac. "Ma'am, you should go home. You look tired. We're all tired."
"I don't want to go home, Bud. But you two go, I'll be fine."
Bud left the office, unsure of what to say or do. He just knew he couldn't help much right now, and he had to give Mac her space. However, Sturgis didn't follow him, and started talking to her. Bud couldn't hear much, but he also knew it may not be any of his business, either.
Sturgis walked a little closer to Mac's desk. "When was the last time you went and saw Harm?"
"A few days. Why?"
Sturgis shrugged. "I don't know, it might make you feel better if you do go and see him."
Mac stood up. "It's none of your business, Sturgis," she said sternly.
"Mac, you can't ignore what happened. You have to face it."
"I am facing it," Mac said, much more sternly than the first time.
Sturgis started walking away. "Fine, maybe. But when you do, everything will go much smoother. Go and see him, Mac." With that, Sturgis left.
Mac sat back down at her desk, watching both Bud and Sturgis leave, neither saying another word. They had been so good in dealing with her the past few days. She knew she had been hard. Harm was still a big part of her life, despite Paraguay and the state of their friendship. As Harm once said, "When you save someone's life, you feel responsible for them." Both had saved each other's lives at least a dozen times, and each time brought a certain sense of devotion and love for one another. So why didn't that happen in Paraguay? Clayton Webb. He wasn't the whole reason, but a lot of it. In all honestly, Harm and Mac's relationship in it's original state had gone as far as it could go. Since then a need for change was imminent.
Bethesda Naval Hospital
2100 EST
Mac had stayed just an hour more at the office before she gave it up. The next hour she just drove, thinking about everything that had happened the past few days. The case was beginning to settle in for her, and she was getting a sense of what Murphy was like. However, her mind was not on that Commander. Her mind was on Harm and the fact that somehow her driving ended at this hospital, on this floor, in front of this room. She hadn't seen Harm since the accident, so when she opened the door she was surprised to see him looking a bit better. Not very many tubes were sticking out of him. In fact, he looked almost normal, except a bit weak and very white. He had been placed in a different room, a floor below, because he was somewhat stable.
She walked to the left side of his bed and sat down in the chair that was conveniently in the right place. Mac couldn't see anything walking by her, or any of the outside world. Her back was turned to all of it as she concentrated solely on Harm. She reached out and grabbed his hand. "Hey flyboy."
Silence hovered throughout the room, and the only sound was Harm's even breathing. Mac stayed there all night.
