Chapter 15: Preparations

Harm arrived home to an empty house. He went into panicked, over-worried mode for a minutes until he remembered Mac saying something the night before about taking Mattie shopping for the day. He pondered briefly the idea of getting drunk to drown his sorrows but quickly dismissed when he thought of what Mac's reaction would be. Or Mattie's for that matter. He dumped his stuff down and fell on the couch in a tired, stressed out heap.

Over the next ten minutes his thought process went like this:

Krennick. Charges. Sexual Harassment. Possible Ruined Career.

Mattie. Tom Johnson. Drunk and Abusive. Possible Adoption of Mattie.

Mac. Wedding. Wedding Plans. Possible Postponement (AN: because of investigation and thing with Mattie, he doesn't want to back out, I promise.)

The sudden sound of the door to their apartment opening interrupted his deep thoughts. Mac and Mattie walked in, searching for Harm. After the meeting, Sturgis had called Mac on her cell and told her everything; about the charges from Krennick, Harm's reaction, or lack thereof, and how he (Turner) was worried that Harm might not be fully in control of his emotions. They both knew the danger of Harm's actions being run by his emotions. When Mac had heard the news, she had immediately turned the car around and headed back home.

Mattie, too, was worried. She knew that she would not be living with her biological father anymore and she secretly wanted, well, hoped, that Harm and Mac might adopt her. But if he was being charged with all those things, the civil judge might not let them. They had barely let him become her guardian last time because he was a single, 40 year-old NAVY man.

Mac watched as Mattie shrugged off her coat and hung it up; then as the maturing teen headed to the leather couch. Harm had sat up when the door opened. Mattie silently came over to stand in front of him and moved in to hug him.

Harm was slightly caught off guard by this open display of love and emotion coming from the girl who had once slammed a door in his face. He held her tightly, grateful for the opportunity he had had to take her in and become her guardian and even more thankful for the influence she had been in his life.

"I'm sorry, Harm," she whispered.

"Thanks, honey," he whispered back. Looking over the top of Mattie's head, he looked at Mac. Her brown eyes were full of emotion: love, devotion, tenderness, apprehension for the weeks to come, so many things. And yet there was hope, hope for the future and the general desire that everything would work out for the best.

She came to join the duo on the couch, sitting next to Harm, who was still holding Mattie. "We'll get through this," she promised him. "All of this."

They spent the day planning the wedding details. It was Mattie and Mac's intent to take Harm's mind off of work for a day and they managed to do it. They picked up Chinese take-out and had a fun family dinner. But that night, Harm lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. Mac lay asleep next to him, her arm thrown over his stomach, her head resting on his chest. He rubbed his eyes wearily and then looked down at the sleeping angel in bed with him. She was beautiful. She was strong, determined, independent, loving, caring, and best of all, she was his wife. She had been through so much but you couldn't tell by looking at her. Her sickness was gone for the time being, something they were both grateful for. She had been his strength over the last several weeks, hell, she been his strength over the past 10 or so years. Every time he thought about giving up, there she was in his mind, encouraging him to go on.

He had to be strong for her. She already had so much to deal with. Harm was determined to go through this whole ordeal with his head held high, to do any less would be unacceptable. He would prove himself innocent. There was no way that he would let Krennick ruin his career for things he did not do.

With this decision made, Harm fell asleep minutes later.

JAG HQ

0854

THE NEXT MORNING

Harm trudged into the office, feeling only slightly more uplifted and encouraged than he had when he left the day before. He had barely settled down inn his office when there was a knock at the door.

"Enter," he called out.

"Captain Rabb?" a strong, male voice asked.

Harm looked up to find a tall, dark-haired, hazel-eyed Lieutenant Commander standing in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"Lt. Commander Nick Parkinson, sir. I'm here to investigate the charges from Alli-Admiral Krennick," explained Nick.

Harm caught the near slip of Krennick's first name but dismissed it.

"Do you have time to answer a few question, sir?"

"Of course, sit down, Commander," Harm said, setting down his pen and gesturing to the empty set of chairs placed in front of his desk.

For the next few hours, Parkinson asked a variety of questions, not all necessarily related to the charges. He never really gave Harm a chance to fully answer, and if he did, then he acted like he didn't really understand. His questions came off as biased and as if he had already made his decision in the matter.

"Sir, is it true that a Petty Officer Coates lives just down the hall from you?"

"Yes, she stayed with my ward."

"Your ward?"

"Yes, I am, or was, guardian for a 15 year-old girl," Harm said proudly, yet warily.

"Hmm...but you are no longer guardian for that girl?"

"No, she returned to live with her father." He didn't feel the need to explain the whole situation about what had occurred over the past several days.

"You pay half the rent for Petty Officer Coates' apartment, still?"

Harm was growing tired of these questions. They had nothing to do with what had happened between him and Krennick. "Commander, just what are you trying to get at?"

"Nothing, sir. Just trying to examine all the facts."

"Then I suggest, Commander, that you stick to the facts of the charges, not to those of my personal life."

"Yes, sir. I believe that I am finished now, sir." Parkinson's tone was borderline insolent.

"Dismissed, Commander," Harm said.

Parkinson stood up from his chair and left Harm's office, heading straight towards Krennicks'.

Days later, Harm hadn't heard anything about what was happening with the investigation. Parkinson had interviewed several people in the office and was generally annoying the hell out of them with his biased questions. Much of the information that he asked for had little to no relevance to the charges, it seemed like Parkinson was trying to find out all about Harm's personal life and the women in it more so than of what had actually taken place in the office. Yes, he was supposed to find out the characteristics and behavior, but only to an extent. Many thought that Parkinson was digging way too deep into the personal matters of Captain Rabb.

Finally at one staff meeting, it all came together.

"Commander Turner, how is your current case load?" Admiral Krennick asked.

"Clear and open, Admiral," he promptly answered, glancing across the table at Harm. Krennick had distributed many cases this morning, many to Bud, some to Sturgis, but none to Harm. Harm had been sitting there, near the end of the table, sullen yet slightly confident.

"Good, because I have one last important case that I need you to take." She handed him a somewhat thin file.

He took it and opened it, nearly dropping it on the table when he saw the title.

Krennick, US NAVY v. Harmon Rabb, Jr.

The listed charges were sexual harassment, fraternization, disrespect toward a superior officer, dereliction of duty, and finally, conduct unbecoming.

Turner looked at Harm, then up at Krennick. She was really heaping it all on him.

"Is something wrong, Commander?" she asked innocently.

"Will I be defending, ma'am?"

"No, you will be prosecuting."

Turner's face was impassive as he received this bit of news. "Then I respectfully request that I be removed from the case."

"On what grounds?"

"That Captain Rabb is one of my closest friends and –"he tried to continue but she cut him off. It was her intent to make Harm's life a living hell and one way to do that was by having a close friend be the one to prosecute him.

"Request denied, Commander. You will be prosecuting. Captain Rabb has chosen to find his own lawyer." This was one tiny little detail upon which Allison was scared about. When he had officially been charged, she had assigned him a defense lawyer, but he had refused. She had chosen some mediocre lawyer out of California to defend him and he had said that he had already found his own lawyer. He hadn't told her who, though. But he had already found one.

And indeed, he had. In fact, he had found two lawyers. They were, the best of the best that he could ever hope to get.

Mac had already agreed to it and despite Harm's many protests, she wouldn't take no for an answer.

When Harm had found out all that he was being charged with, only the afternoon before, it had taken him only a few minutes to decide who his lawyer would be. On the way home, he had stopped by AJ Chegwidden's house in McLean, VA and they had talked over drinks. When Harm told AJ what was happening and what he was being charged with, AJ had immediately volunteered his services. Harm told him that that was what he was hoping for and that he would be eternally grateful if the former Admiral could help him. They decided to meet the next day for lunch and then head to Harm's office to work on his defense. Mac would help when she could. She was also busy planning the wedding and dealing with the issues between Mattie and Tom.

AJ had readily agreed to defend the man who had become like a son to him. If he had known that a person like Allison Krennick would be following in his shoes, he never would have retired, he told Harm.

So between his former commanding officer and his wife, Harm had one of the best defense teams that he could ever hope to have.

Turner knew that AJ and Mac would be defending Harm and he knew that with the lack of evidence on the part of the prosecution and with going up against the former Judge Advocate General, he would lose, something he didn't mind in this case. He was just worried that one, he was too close to Harm and that may be misconstrued as biased and that he would not be fulfilling his job to the best of his duties, and two, that whatever may happen during the trial would strain things between him and the rest of the office.

"Ma'am," he began.

"Commander Turner! Is there a problem?" she snapped.

"No, ma'am."

"Good, then this meeting is over. You are all dismissed except for the captain."

Sturgis and Bud both shot Harm warning looks at her statement but both reluctantly left with the others.

"Yes, ma'am?" Harm asked, standing at the end of the table, as far away from Krennick as he dared stand.

"I've decided to give you one last chance, Harm. I'll drop the charges and we can settle this, non-judicially, if you like," she sweetly told him.

"Admiral, I have warned you time and time again. I have refused to do anything of the sort with you, and I will continue to refuse. You told me that I would get what was coming to me, and you know what, Allison? I'm going to win this, we're going to prove that I'm innocent and we're going to expose you for the witch that you really are," Harm told her, his tone of voice nearly threatening and powerful. Without waiting for her permission, he left the room, almost slamming the large, heavy door behind him.

He headed to his office, his pace brisk and purposeful, and shut himself in there to work steadily until lunchtime.

AJ Chegwidden stood outside the building that housed the central JAG operations. It had been a few months since he had entered in and truth be told, he missed it. He missed the hustle and bustle that was JAG, he missed the courtroom, he missed the antics of his staff. The staff who had become like family to him. He was grateful to have at least one last battle in the courtroom. The guards had recognized him almost immediately, his civilian clothes throwing them off just a tad. He had been allowed to pass through the gate and it felt strange to be branded with a visitor's badge.

He stepped inside nostalgically remembering other days and headed for the elevator. He rode alone and in silence up the few floors and when the elevator doors opened, he was greeted with the sight of busy JAG ops. Officers were hard at work, working to uphold the military law. It was very picturesque. Luckily, he was able to sneak unnoticed over to Harm's office. The last thing he wanted to do was to make scene and disrupt everyone.

"Harm?" he called out, shutting the office door shut behind him.

"Sir," Harm started, beginning to rise to attention. Old habits certainly died hard.

"Harm, sit. It's AJ, remember?"

"Sorry, AJ," apologized Harm, settling back down in his chair.

"I brought lunch for us," AJ informed him, holding out a large bag of take-out food from a nearby Italian restaurant. "Since we don't have much time before court starts, I thought we'd just jump right in."

They spent the next five and a half hours going over the facts. Harm told AJ everything; from when Allison had first approached him so many years ago up until the incident at the staff meeting that morning. AJ was furious when he found out that Allison's behavior had started so many years ago and he was even more infuriated when he found out some of the things she had done.

"Why didn't you come to me and report her years ago?" AJ asked.

"Because I ... I guess, I thought I could handle it," Harm tried to explain. Back then, it hadn't seemed like such a big deal. He had felt a little flattered by her attention and he thought that he could handle it all. There was never really any hard evidence, just innuendos and little signs of flirtation here and there. It was nothing like now where she was touching him and blatantly propositioning him.

"If we bring all this up, they're going to go after you for not reporting it. They'll try to make it look like it was you instead and that you tried to do something. She was the one transferred out and they'll try to connect the two and say that she transferred because of you."

"I know."

Finally, they decided that it was time to stop for the day. AJ was once again, going to attempt to leave before anyone noticed him but someone came into Harm's office just as he was about to leave.

"Captain, Sir," Jen greeted warmly. "It's good to see you, Admiral."

"You too, Jen. But it's AJ now."

"Sorry, sir. Old habits die hard. Um...I had heard that you were going to be Harm's counsel and I was wondering if ...if you two had a minute," she said, feeling slightly flustered.

"Jen, is something wrong?" Harm asked, slipping into a protective, fatherly mode.

"I saw what Admiral Krennick did to you, sir. In your office, when you both thought everyone was gone. I saw her touching you and following you around. I heard everything she said to you," Jen told them.

"But how? The office was empty that night." Harm was confused.

"I had left but forgotten something here. When I came to get it, I saw her going into your office and heard her ask you why you were still working. I saw her touch you, sir."

AJ's plans of leaving at that moment were forgotten. He sat back down and gestured for Jen to sit in the other chair and they spent the next half hour going over her story and version of what had happened. Krennick had not been seen all afternoon and neither had Commander Parkinson. Rumor had it that he was going to be assisting Turner on the prosecution.

Finally, at 0700 LOCAL, they sent Jen home for the day and spent a few minutes finishing up.

"Who's the prosecutor going to be?" AJ asked.

Harm was slow to answer. "Sturgis."

"Are you serious?" exclaimed AJ.

"Yeah, he tried to get out of it but Krennick wouldn't let him. I don't know what she's trying to do by pulling this one."

Over the next several days, AJ, with the help of Mac, pulled Harm's defense strategy together. When they had interviewed Bud as a potential witness, he had told them about the rumors of others under Allison's command also being sexually harassed by her, and in some cases, they had actually succumbed to her. Rumors of Harm's case were flying all over the NAVY and many were willing to step up and help him. AJ managed to track down Meg Austin to see if she could provide any help or evidence in their defense. She was more than willing to help them out and they managed to get a flight for her from her home in Texas out to Washington D.C. AJ and Bud also managed to find a few more witnesses that had once been under Allison's command.

It was all coming together rather quickly and AJ felt good about his case. Things were only a little tense between Sturgis and everyone else. They all recognized that he was doing his duty and it wasn't out of what he really wanted. In actuality, Sturgis was even more frustrated because of his co-counsel. They were just not getting along at all, clashing horribly in what decisions to make, what ways to go about presenting their facts, and so much more. Sturgis' patience was being tried, like it never had been before. He just wished for the case to be over and done with so that none of them would have to deal with this mess anymore.

AN: I missed the last episode (10/15), if someone could please give me a quick summary of what happened, that would be greatly appreciated. (Email it to my personal email, not in the review) Thanks so much!

Also, there has been some confusion about the issue of locations and commutes. Harm is still working at JAG HQ, and is not commuting from Norfolk to D.C. Sorry about that.