Note: Need I really really say it again?

A/N Serendipity112233: I'm not sure if I should apologize for posting so fast or not! ;-) The story just keeps coming out of my head as I go, and its gotten to the point where I'll write instead of sleep…or at least write long into the night. Glad you're enjoying it.

A/N 2: This chapter contains a little colourful language. Please consider yourself warned. (Its not alot, but it is there.)

Chapter 12

USS Patrick Henry
Wednesday June 8, 2004
1502 Zulu

From where he was sitting next to the door of the helo Harm could see the Master at Arms standing just outside the hatch that led into the tower. The Marines had taken Skates and him back to their camp and got them some food and water and then patched them up the best they could before they were whisked away in a helo from the Henry. And now they were coming back home, to face whatever the fates had in store for them. Harm felt the helo touch down on the pitching deck and then the crew chief slid the door open. "Sir, Ma'am. The Master at Arms will escort you to the bridge."

Nodding Harm jumped down to the deck and then helped Skates down. Ducking their heads they both limped towards the Master At Arms. "Commander, Lieutenant Commander, if you'll please follow me the Captain would like to see you on the bridge." Once more Harm just nodded and then followed the large sailor into the bowels of the ship. Minutes later they were standing at attention in front of the Captain.

"Damn it Commander, what could you have been thinking? No don't answer that…I don't really want to know. An unarmed aircraft, Commander? Do you have any idea what kind of shitstorm we're going to be in now? I've already spoken with JAG, I let them know as soon as you were recovered. The Admiral assures me he is going to have a team here ASAP to do the investigation. Until then you are both confined to quarters. You are to speak to no one until the team from JAG arrives. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." Harm and Skates said at the same time. Harm knew there was no point in protesting his innocence to the Captain at this point. His best course of action was to wait for whoever came from JAG and make his case then.

"Master at Arms…escort the Commander and Lieutenant Commander to their quarters."

"Aye aye sir." The burly Master at Arms answered. As he led Harm and Skates off the deck Harm caught sight of Meg looking at him sadly from her duty station.

For the next two days Harm only saw the outside of his quarters when he needed to use the head. His meals were brought to him in his quarters, and he didn't even speak to the guards beyond letting them know when he needed to take care of business. He was laying in his rack reading the Art of War when he heard the low buzz of conversation outside his hatch. Probably just the guards being changed he figured. He didn't even notice the hatch being undogged until it started to swing open. Immediately it was followed by a familiar head of stylishly short chestnut brown hair. Closing his eyes Harm took a deep breath. This was not going to go well, he could already tell. Why the hell did the Admiral send Mac to do the investigation?

Mac didn't say a word as she entered his quarters, she didn't speak as she closed and dogged the hatch. She was silent as she placed her briefcase on his small table and started to pull out the files she would need.

"Commander." She said finally when she had everything arranged on the table. Closing his eyes once more Harm felt his heart skip a beat at how hollow her voice sounded.

"Mac." He said quietly as he got up from his rack. "I suppose I should have known the Admiral would have sent you or Sturgis."

"Sturgis had just returned from the Thomas Lyons…he wasn't available." Mac said quietly. "Would you like to give me your statement first?"

Sitting down at the table Harm reached out to take her hand only to see her snatch it away. "Please keep to the task at hand Commander." She said with a frown.

"The 'task at hand' Mac? Fine. You'd like my statement? Fine. Last week Webb came to me with some new missions…" Harm stopped speaking as he noticed the look Mac was giving him. "What?"

"Fuck you Harmon Rabb." Mac said savagely and then she stood up and banged on the hatch. When the guards had undogged it she left, leaving her briefcase and papers.

Half an hour later she returned and Harm hadn't moved from where he was when she left. "I apologize for my outburst Commander. If you would like Lieutenant Commander Roberts will take your statement." Mac said starting to put her files and pads back in her briefcase.

"No I don't want Bud to….wait. Lieutenant Commander Roberts?"

Nodding slightly Mac smiled just the barest smile. "The Admiral wrote a letter to the LC review board outlining everything Bud had done. It was amazing…he was accepted for promotion with a unanimous vote."

Harm couldn't help but smile at the news. "Good for Bud, but I still don't want him to take the statement, I want you to take it Mac."

"I'm not sure I should Harm…"

"Why not?"

"Clay's dead." She said simply.

Harm rocked back in shock. Webb dead? "How…when? Are you sure? I mean he's…" Harm thought back to the time that Webb had fakes his own death.

"I thought of that Harm…not this time." Mac said sadly as she sat down opposite of Harm. This time when he reached for hand she didn't pull it away.

"How did you find out?"

"I squeezed it out of his aide." Mac said and then she took a deep shuddering breath. "Damn it Harm…why didn't you tell me he was here? You knew I thought he was in Germany."

"Mac...you know I couldn't. It was need to know." Harm said gently.

"Now you're starting to sound like him." Mac said softly.

"Mac…you know if I could have told you I would have." Harm said and then stopped, suddenly made aware of how similar his words were to Meg's when she avoided his questions.

Standing up suddenly Mac snatched her hand back and started to pace. It wasn't long before Harm noticed her shoulders shaking as she sobbed quietly. "Why the hell is this place so small?" she asked viciously, banging her hand against the bulkhead. Standing up Harm walked over to her and grabbed her hand to stop her from hitting the steel bulkhead again. Holding her shoulders Harm gently turned her to face him, looking down into her glistening brown eyes. God, he could get lost in those eyes so easily.

"Hey." He said softly. "You're going to hurt the bulkhead."

Mac snorted as she tried not to laugh and cry at the same time. Suddenly she threw her arms around him and squeezed him hard. Wrapping his arms around her Harm felt her shoulders start to shake again as her sobbing renewed. Slowly he moved a hand up to stroke her hair softly. "Hey there…its ok Sarah." He whispered softly. "It'll be ok." After what seemed like hours she lifted her tear stained face to lookup at him.

"My heart stopped when the Admiral told me you'd gone down again Harm; I thought I was going die. I knew something was going to happen to you…I could feel it." She said softly.

Not knowing what to say Harm held his silence for once. Slowly Mac took her arms from around him. She took a step back to break his embrace of her and then before he could say anything she brought her right hand across his face in a full armed slap.

"DAMN IT HARM! When are you going to stop doing this to me? I can't take it anymore. I…just can't take it anymore. You're not superman you know? One of these times you're not going to come back."

She struggled against him for a minute when he tried to pull her back into his embrace. "I'm sorry Sarah…I'm so sorry I scared you again." He whispered when she finally gave in and let him hold her. Without thinking he placed a soft kiss on top of her head as he continued to whisper how sorry he was.

No matter how many times he took her in his arms to comfort her he would never get over how it felt to hold her against him. How good her hair smelled, how soft it was, how her skin smelled. He would hold her for hours if he could; unfortunately after ten minutes she slowly pushed herself back out of his embrace.

"Harm…I need to get your statement. I need to know what happened." Mac said as she sat down again. She pulled a tape recorder out of her briefcase and turned it on. "Wednesday June 9, 2004. 1456 Zulu. The following is the sworn statement of Commander Harmon Rabb Jr, United States Navy. Please state your current duty posting."

"Commander of the Air Group aboard the USS Patrick Henry, deployed to the Persian Gulf." Harm said. Sitting down across from her Harm nodded once. Now was the time to make his case. "I'll tell you everything Mac…CIA be damned. Yes, it was a CIA mission. My CIA contact has had me flying missions for the last three weeks." Harm said, careful not to stir up her pain by mentioning Webb's name. "Six days ago he gave me another mission, and a set of orders for my next mission after that one. He said he had to see to something else and would be there when I returned to debrief me. That mission was to provide air cover for an extraction mission…when I got back he wasn't there but another agent was. He reminded me of the next mission and when I read my orders I saw they were for a combat air patrol over contested territory. The mission was slated for June 6, 2004. We took off just after 1800. An hour an a half into the mission we linked up with our refueling plane. Shortly after that the Hawkeye radioed that they had a contact with three unknowns. They also reported mechanical problems and I ordered them to turn back and have the standby launched to provide the radar cover. A couple minutes later we were outside the radar coverage and we engaged the unknowns. There were four of them not three, and Mac I swear to you they were all fighters…Floggers. They fired first, three of them getting missiles off the rails, and at that time I returned fire with the cannon, taking out two of them in the first pass." Harm said and then paused as he thought back to the dogfight. "The next one was a bit trickier but I came up behind him and smoked him with a sidewinder. I'd lost the fourth one by this time and Skates was searching for him. He was tight on our six and nothing I did could shake him. At the last minute though, he switched from missile to guns. I don't know where he hit or what he hit, but everything went crazy after he hit us…Skates called in the mayday and I punched us out."

Harm waited while Mac made notes about everything he'd said. "How long were you out of radar coverage?"

"We left the umbrella about four minutes before we engaged. I'd guess…ten to fifteen minutes between leaving the umbrella until we went down."

"And once you'd punched out?"

"I tracked Skates' chute as long as I could but I'd been knocked around pretty hard. Once I was down I did my best to find Skates…she was about a half mile from where I came down. We then holed up in a wadi I'd found while looking for her. The next morning we moved away form what we thought were enemy forces and took shelter during the afternoon. We remained in the same spot throughout the night and the next morning we saw enemy forces advancing on our position. Before they could reach us however three Apaches struck the column destroying most of the vehicles. At the same time a Marine patrol led by Captain Winters located us. It was then that I was informed of what was being said and the Captain took us into custody." Harm said leaving out the fact that the Captain had not wanted to carry out his order. There was no way he was going to damage the young man's career.

"Why didn't you stay with your ejector seats? Surely the beacons were functioning."

"As far as I know they were…however everyone in the area, friendly and unfriendly saw the lightshow we put on. I didn't want to wait around for an unwelcoming committee. I decided it was best to make sure that Skates and I were safe."

"When you refer to Skates you are referring to…." Mac said and then waited for him to provide the name.

"Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Hawkes…my RIO."

"Is there anything else you would like to add at this time Commander?" Mac asked.

"Not at this time Lieutenant Colonel."

"Thank you for your cooperation." Mac said and then shut off the tape recorder. It was then that he noticed how much her hand was shaking. Reaching out he took her hand into his once more and gave it a gentle squeeze, followed by a smile.

"Its ok Mac." He said softly.

"It is this time, but Harm, what if the Marines hadn't found you, or the Apaches hadn't been there?"

"But they did, and they were. There's no point in dwelling on what ifs Mac." Harm said.

Putting everything in her briefcase Mac latched it shut and then stood up. "I'll be back later Harm…Bud and I will have more questions I'm sure."

Nodding Harm watched her walk slowly out of his quarters.

Two hours later Harm looked up from where he was reclining on his rack to see a familiar figure step through the hatch with the barest hint of a limp.

"Bud! Congratulations on your promotion." Harm said as he jumped out of his rack to shake Bud's hand.

"Thank you sir…I'm really touched that the Admiral went to such lengths to get me a promotion when he's retiring." Bud said with a sad smile.

"Well that's the Admiral for…say that again Bud?" Harm said in shock.

"Colonel MacKenzie didn't tell you sir? The Admiral has announced his retirement…I'm sorry sir…I'm sure this isn't the way you wanted to hear about it. Probably why the Colonel didn't tell you when you spoke with her earlier."

"Not your fault Bud…when did he make the decision?" Harm said as he sat down heavily on the edge of his rack. He knew it wasn't rational, but some part of him always expected the Admiral to be in the big office at JAG. Admittedly he'd served twice as long as his predecessor, but still. He was the Admiral, AJ Chegwidden, SEAL, JAG…father to all his wayward children at JAG. "Wow." Harm said softly.

"We're still saying that sir. He announced it last week when he asked Coates to book the Academy dining hall. I think he was trying to find some way for you to be there sir…I know it'd mean a lot to him. But with you flying around the clock and…well…your punching out sir, and now this…" Bud shrugged helplessly.

"Sit down Bud, sit down." Harm said shaking his head one more time and gesturing to one of the two chairs at his little table.

"Thank you sir."

"What can I do for you Lieutenant Commander?" Harm asked putting on a false smile. He needed time to process the Admiral's retirement announcement…but he knew Bud had a duty and hadn't just come for a social call. "I take it you're not just here to flaunt your new bar?"

"Unfortunately not sir. Commander, the Colonel and I are investigating the claims that you downed an unarmed civilian aircraft as you know. I spent a good part of the last hour interviewing the flight crews and well sir, something doesn't seem right to me. I wanted to ask you about the Hawkeye…" Bud looked down at a file on the table in front of him. "Raven Sierra-6. You said in your statement to the Colonel that they reported mechanical problems and you ordered them back. Is that correct sir?"

"It is Bud."

"See sir, the thing is…I spoke to the plane captain in charge of the Hawkeye and he said there was nothing wrong with it when they landed and that the pilot only said that you'd ordered them to return to base."

"Well that's not the way it happened Bud. I'm telling you, they said they'd lost power on their number 2 engine and couldn't complete the mission…instead of risking their safety I ordered them back."

"That's not what the pilot…a Lieutenant Commander…Riley said sir."

"I don't give a damn what Riley said Bud, I know what happened! Check the damn comm. logs, it'll be there." Harm said vehemently starting to pace his small quarters. Why the hell would Riley lie? What the hell did he have to gain?

"We're going to do that next sir." Bud said calmly. He'd seen his friend storming and blustering before, and he'd seen him in a deadly rage.

Stopping in his pacing Harm's mind was working overtime. He needed to approach this like it was someone else who was being investigated and he was doing the investigating…"Bud…have you looked into Riley's service jacket?" he asked suddenly.

Coughing slightly Bud nodded slowly. "I've requested it sir."

"Good good. Next I want you to…"

Coughing softly again Bud stood up and put a hand on Harm's shoulder. "Commander? Harm, I know this is hard on you sir, but let us do our investigation. Please sir, if you're going to do this you will ruin any chance we have at a fair hearing before the World Court."

"What? Oh…damn. I'm sorry Bud. I know you and Mac are going to do your best…I just hate sitting here and doing nothing. The walls are starting to close in Bud."

"Harm? You're not a lawyer right now sir; let us handle things." Bud said softly and then stopped when he saw the look in Harm's eyes. "I'm sorry sir, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you're right Bud. I shall leave myself in the very capable hands of yourself and the lovely Lieutenant Colonel." Harm said as he sat down on his rack once more.

"Thank you sir. I'll be back with more questions after we've had a chance to review the logs." Bud said as he stood and replaced his files in his briefcase. When he got to the hatch he stopped and looked back at Harm sitting on his rack. "Harm?"

"Yeah Bud?"

"Sir…I know its not appropriate for me to say…but…I know you couldn't do something like this sir, its just not in you no matter how long they had you in their claws."

"Thank you Bud, that means a lot to me. You're going to need to keep your objectivity though if you're going to prove one way or the other. If it looks like I'm guilty Bud, you're going to need to say that." Harm said quietly. Looking up he saw the warring emotions in his friend's eyes.

"Harriet would kill me sir."

"Harriet would understand Bud. She would know that if I did do it that I would need to be brought to justice, just like she would understand if I didn't do it I should be exonerated."

"I know sir…its just that…well Harriet and I have something we want to tell you, and we don't want to do it in the visitor's room in Leavenworth."

"Well Bud, it's a good thing I have faith in you to find all the answers then. You and Mac…I know you'll find all the answers." Harm said with a sad little smile.

"We won't let you down sir." Bud said quietly and then he banged on the hatch to have it opened. Stepping through he looked back over his shoulder once to see his friend sitting on his rack with his head in his hands.

On his rack Harm just sat there as the hatch was closed behind Bud trying to ignore how much the closing hatch now sounded like a closing jail cell. Bud and Mac would find out everything…they would prove he was innocent. They had to.