Oooooooookay, seeing as I just got the wonderful news (gets up and dances around her desk chair) that I have to work 12 hr days for the next three days, I am putting another part out tonight, expect the next one on Monday/Tuesday depending on how much time I have on my hands. We're implementing some new system where I can actually hear what my operators say and interject when they screw up. Love it!! It's like big brother is listening. :) Or rather, big bad, Jackie. I admit, I like the power trip, and considering I am younger than all of them, it's interesting. Ok, done rambling. Now, if I could only get my best friend to STOP sending me 12 chain e-mails a day, life would be grand. :P
Jackie.
(Note: Timeframes might be slightly screwed up. Live with it, was a headache just to put them as they are. And even after that, they had about 4 changes. :P)
PART 9 – Fighting The Waves
0235 Zulu
Somewhere in the Atlantic.
'Twenty five minutes,' Mac thought with a shiver of fear as she held onto her raft for dear life. 'I've been in the ocean for twenty five minutes.' Her landing wasn't a bad one, luckily, punching out once over Russia had prepared her somewhat for all that it entailed. Mac conceded that her best friend had been right those years back when punching out wasn't just a 'magic handle.' But, landing in Russia had been a breeze compared to the hell she was experiencing now. Back then, her biggest worry was breaking an ankle. Now, her biggest worry was not drowning or freezing to death.
Mac tried to remain aware of her surroundings, each time she saw a wall of rolling gray headed towards her, she would close her eyes and hang on tight, bracing for the force. The ocean water stung her eyes and she angrily choked back a few sobs. She was Marine, trained to deal with crisis and wasn't supposed to fall apart. But, damnit, she was scared and to add to the situation, Harm was no where to be found. For the fifteenth time, she took a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs, "HAAAAAAARM!!" Mac held her breath, trying to decipher something through the wind, rain and waves, she again heard nothing. The lump at her throat began making itself known again, though she tried to swallow it down. 'He can't be dead!' She thought in panic. 'Harm doesn't quit. . . please don't let him stop fighting.'
The motion of the raft was slowly starting to take it's toll and though she tried all of the techniques possible, a wave of nausea that was threatening her. Overwhelmed by the sick feeling, Mac carefully inched to the side of the raft and retched. Taking a deep breath from her stomach spasm's, she turned her head upward towards the skies, swearing she could hear some sort of plane or maybe a helo pass by. Then again, it was probably her imagination.
A lightening bolt lit up the night sky and at the one brief moment of clarity she remembered how, because of a vision, she found Chloe. If Mac really admitted it to herself, she did have a slight belief in supernatural forces. But, would it work on Harm? And if she did locate him, how would she get to him given the conditions? It didn't matter, she had to try, at least, if a SAR crew picked her up first, she might be able to assist them in rescuing him.
Taking a deep and shaky breath, she held on to the raft as tight as possible, leaned back and closed her eyes. Mac let her mind leave her, traveling elsewhere as she concentrated only on Harm. He was out there, close by, she could feel it, but she couldn't see him. The only thing visible was darkness. Frustrated, Mac opened her eyes and slammed her fist into the side of the raft. "This has to work. . . I need to know he is okay." But, it was difficult to try and summon up a gift that she never understood or learned to use. Chloe was the first and last time. Biting her lower lip in concentration, she decided to try again. She had to find him, she had to. It was then, in the darkness of her mind that she saw another lightening bolt illuminating the waves and a life raft with it's owner treading water. He was alive, but somehow, she knew he was in trouble. Flipping to her stomach and edging herself closer to the end of the raft, Mac took a deep breath and let her legs slide into the water. Bracing herself against the cold she felt as she kicked through the waves. There were warning bells going off, but she ignored them and just concentrated on fighting the waves and finding Harm. (Not sure if it's as easy as I wrote for anyone to do this given the supposed bad weather in Adrift, but it's what people call "JAG MAGIC" I am calling it "Jackie Magic" LOL!! Hey, at least I don't suddenly have Mac whipping out some 170hp Mercury engine and zipping her way through the waves in a Zodiac. . . Hmmm. . .)
--
His body felt weak, he knew the exertion, from trying to reach the raft, was starting to take its toll. To top it all off, he was freezing, his teeth chattering as his brain told him to 'think warm thoughts.' Hah! Like that ever worked?
To add to his dilemma, his partner, the woman he was fruitlessly in love with, was in the ocean somewhere. If it had been Skates in the backseat, he would have been more at ease, as they were all trained in water survival, but Mac, at the moment, he didn't even remember if she knew how to swim. And then there were other thoughts of her having the same problems as him with the parachute. Would she know how to release it? Did her life raft and life vests open up? Did she know how to fully blow up the life raft? Sighing, he couldn't help but think that, somehow, this was all his fault. Maybe he'd missed something when the first warning lights went off on the plane. Maybe he could have kept it up in the air? It would have been a rough ride, yes, but they wouldn't be two unsure's. "MAAA... ACC!" He'd swallowed so much water, that he could barely scream any more. He promised her they would be okay, and he always kept his promises.
At that given time, he felt God to be some sort of cynic. Who else would have put them both in this situation? Sure, he didn't want to attend the wedding, but Mac had a right to be happy and the whole ordeal was just insane. "I'm sorry, Mac." He said in a low voice, choking on tears that he rarely shed. And he really was sorry, he should have stepped up to the Admiral and made him have someone else go to the Henry for the investigation. 'I could have taken it myself.' He though bitterly, remembering their chat in the Admiral's office and how glad he felt that there was some sort of window of opportunity that Mac would miss her own wedding. Well, now he got what he wanted . . . in spades.
0430 Zulu
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
Chloe sat in one of the large leather chairs in the Admiral's office. She was tired of being in the bullpen, hearing news report after news report that the SAR teams still had found nothing. There were few times in her life when she'd been so scared and the closest comparison was when she was lost in the woods when Scout, her horse, threw her. Mac had found her then and she had a strong feeling that Mac would get them out of it now. Heaving a quick breath, she frowned at the possibilities of them never being found. It was romantic somehow; the star-crossed lovers dying together, something ala-Romeo and Juliet. Startled, she jumped when she felt a hand at her shoulder, then relaxed when she smelled the soothing aroma of hot chocolate.
"Thought you could use some." AJ said with a smile as he took to the chair next to her with his mug of coffee. At her hopeful gaze, he shook his head and frowned. "Nothing yet."
Sighing, she took a sip of the chocolate and turned to AJ. "Thank you, sir. . .Uh, AJ."
"They'll be alright, both are stubborn as hell." But, he was saying that more for himself than anything. He knew the chances were very slim that his people would be found. Luckily, Captain Ingles was known for being a tenacious man, they wouldn't give up yet.
Placing her mug on the Admiral's desk, Chloe turned to AJ and frowned. "This wouldn't have happened if Harm never left JAG."
Whatever the Admiral was expecting to hear from the young lady, it wasn't that. "Oh?"
"I was at Mac's when Harm came to tell her he was leaving to return to flight duty." At AJ's look she decided to clarify. "Mac loved him and Harm loved her. . . and if he didn't leave then. . . well they would have been together."
AJ sighed, the thought had occurred to him as well. Back then they were so close, now, a lot of their friendship had been stripped away, he could see it in the tension he felt when the Prodigal son (Harm) had returned. Unfortunately, the tension never left. "Sometimes things aren't meant to be."
Chloe wanted to argue that this current situation wouldn't have been happening if Mic and Mac or Renee and Harm were meant to be, but before she had a chance, Mic walked into the office.
"Admiral, Captain Ingles is on line two." Smiling slightly at Chloe, Mic took the now vacated seat next to her and watched AJ's face turn somber.
("Weather has gotten better, sir. . . but, we still have yet to find either Colonel MacKenzie nor Commander Rabb. . . the water is cold out there." Ingles told the Admiral over the ship to shore call.)
Sighing deeply, AJ turned away from Chloe and Mic's waiting eyes and ran a hand through what was left of his hair. "What's the survival time?"
(Checking with Loftness, they calculated to the time to be, "No more than 3 hours and they've been in the water for nearly two." Sighing, Ingles brought a hand over the receiver, "I am sorry, sir. . . but prepare for the worst.")
AJ didn't like things sugar coated and he was glad that Ingles didn't either. If the news was bad, then he wanted to hear it and prepare. "Thank you, Skipper, keep me apprised."
"Well?" Standing, Mic came around, standing just a few feet away from the Admiral with an expectant look in his eyes. "Did they find her?"
AJ shook his head. "They haven't found either of them."
Chloe closed her eyes tightly, trying to prevent herself from crying. 'This isn't happening.' She thought to herself.
Mic watched the young girl and then faced AJ again, his face red with rage. "Why did you let her go on some damned investigation? . . . If something happens, I am holding you personally accountable, sir." With that, Mic turned and left the office, angrily slamming the door behind him.
Chloe stood and headed towards AJ. "It wasn't your fault."
"I sent her out there."
"You didn't put her on that plane. . . you didn't put Harm on that plane either. . . it wasn't your fault." She said, again, telling him something that she truly believed.
But as a SEAL he knew when it was time to put blame on something, and right now, the blame was all on him. All he could do now was hold his people together and pray that two of their own would come home safely.