And feeling the need to be nice (it's the drugs, I swear!!) Here's also
Part 5. :)

Enjoy

Jackie

PART 5 – I Rule The Ruins

1810 Zulu
Aceh, Indonesia

There was an eerie silence, or maybe it was just that her head felt like it was filled with cotton. "Lilyana?" Mac said, her ribs aching, her lungs begging for clean air, not the dust they were filled with. "Lilyana?" Wincing, Mac managed to sit up only to feel a sharp pain on her left forearm. It was broken, she knew it was. Holding that arm tightly to her side, she tried to recall what had happened. . .

Lilyana was the name of the little girl that Mac had met the day she arrived to the consulate. The girl had, literally, run into Mac as she was setting up tables for her mother, the 'best cook' around. "You can't be a Marine!" She said, excitedly, looking Mac up and down. "Women cannot be Marines!"

"Well, you've seen one now. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie." Mac had told her brightly, pointing to her oak leaf as reference to her rank. They had exchanged an odd conversation, Mac thought. One that defined the non-existent role that women played in Indonesia and other parts of the world.

Smiling, Lilyana looked up at Mac. "I like your uniform. Maybe someday I will be Marine and order men about. Do you order them about?"

Mac shook her head softly and smiled. "No, these Marines are here to protect the consulate."

Disappointed at the answer, Lilyana sighed. "I understand, it's because you are a woman." And before Mac could interject, the little girl continued on her way.

Smiling at the memory, Mac started to remember. It was that same little girl that had returned to the consulate when it had been attacked. She knew a way out, a passage that she'd used to come into the building when she wanted to run away from home.

As Mac and Gunnery Sergeant Wakefield worked on an exit plan through the passage, Lilyana handed Mac a picture she had drawn with Crayons. "You see, I give you gun too."

"Lilyana, I love it." Mac said, turning her attention away from the people that where evacuating in order to give the little girl the Marine Corps insignia from the Garrison cap. "Now, let's go, we don't have much time." Nearly everyone had evacuated and Mac had given the new coordinates to the Helo. The pickup point would be at the yard of Lilyana's school, just a block away from the consulate. "Hurry."

The passage had been a godsend, leaving them right at the edge of the school yard, with a building they could seek shelter in. As they sat there, Lilyana signed the picture she had drawn for Mac and smiled happily at the Marine. "You are my friend, right?"

"Yes. . .which is why I want you to listen to me. . .Wait in here until we leave and when things calm down, go home to mommy, okay?" Mac tried somewhat of a stern approach, hopefully leaving no room for the girl to argue. Hearing the sounds of the helo overhead, Mac stood and pointed towards the door. "Okay, I want everybody in single file, move quickly, please." Looking down at Lilyana she smiled and gave the girl a hug. "Take care."

"You too, Colonel." The girl watched in awe as her new hero worked on getting the Marines and the staff of the consulate out of the school building and to safety.

For all of the planning and hopes that a new position would help to secure a safe evac, they were still taking on fire, and a lot of it. The staff ran across the yard, with the Marines behind them, giving cover fire to make sure the civilians got out of there safely. Mac and Gunny brought up the rear. "Ma'am give me cover!" He yelled when he saw a young woman go down with a shot in the leg.

Mac was shooting into the darkness, barely seeing anything as she squeezed off two shots. There wasn't any time to think anymore, only to act and protect the group that she somehow became the leader of. "Colonel!" Spinning around, Mac caught sight of Lilyana waving some sort of paper in her hand. "You forgot your picture!"

Mac ran towards the girl, hoping to secure her in the building before they lifted off. "Get in the building!" She yelled, but before she had a chance to reach Lilyana, there was an explosion. The little girl was no where in site.

"Colonel!" Gunny yelled out as he lost site of Mac. Turning to the helo crew he gave instructions. "Get out of here, have the other helo standing by, we aren't leaving the Colonel behind."

Mac moved quickly, jumping over a piece of flaming rubble and entered the building. "Lilyana?" She said, coughing as her lungs filled with smoke. "Lilyana." It was always surprising to her how quickly your voice changed upon inhaling something that wasn't clean air. Erupting in a coughing fit, Mac brought the lapel of her shirt over her mouth, using it as a filter for the air. From outside, she heard the helo take off and a rounds being fired, some closer than others. The Marines, including Gunny, had stayed to take care of one of their own. Another helo would be waiting in the wings for an extraction.

Walking carefully among the rubble, Mac lifted one of the desks attempting to see if, somehow, Lilyana had landed there after the blast. The smoke was burning her eyes, making them tear up and that much harder to see. Outside there was another explosion and then another much too close for her comfort. Before Mac knew it, the roof came down on her.

--

1820 Zulu
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia

"I haven't heard anything about the Colonel." Apparently, things were going to get worse before they got any better, AJ figured as he saw the look of defeat on Harm's face. And maybe, a look of guilt? "Have a seat, Harm."

Reluctantly, he did so, sliding into the large leather chair in front of the Admiral's desk. "If it's about the case, sir. . . I did my best. My concern for Mac. . Uh, Colonel MacKenzie did not cause an inefficient defense and I would. . ."

"Harm." With just that word, AJ managed to silence whatever tangent his senior attorney was going on. Smirking, AJ sat next to the other man and sighed. "Do you believe he was guilty?"

Harm looked at his commanding officer in confusion, isn't that normally something lawyers didn't ask? "Sir?"

"He was a SEAL, Commander. . .he paid the price for his duty and he saved 139 lives."

"He seems to be affected on how he had to deal with Mr. Summer. . . it shouldn't have happened that way." Harm too was conflicted, not just because of the loss, but because he felt angered at Keegan choosing to not divulge the information that he had been drinking before getting on the plane.

AJ nodded. "Saving lives sometimes can leave you scarred. No matter how 'right' it is supposed to be, taking a life is taking a life."

"I know, sir. . . it sometimes bothers me the amount of people I may have killed when I flew." With a sigh, Harm moved forward and scrubbed his hand over his face, an action normally not done in front of commanding officers, but he was too mentally exhausted to care. "If I may be dismissed, sir. . . I need to apologize to Lieutenant's Roberts and Simms over Lt. Singer's poor courtroom behavior."

"Dismissed." AJ watched the younger man walk away and sighed. Though Harm could have sworn that his head was in the game during the trial, AJ was sure that part of it was with Mac, as was his and every one else in the office who was close to her.

Striding towards his office, Harm was surprised to find Harriet and Bud sitting in his guest chairs, waiting for him. "Hey you two, look. . . I am really sorry. . . it shouldn't have happened, Singer was way out of line."

Harriet smiled and placed a hand on his forearm, hoping to stop him from babbling. "There's no need to apologize, we all had a job to do."

Confused, Harm looked at the two of them. "Then, umm . . . well, why are you here?"

"Because we wanted to stay with you until you found out about Colonel MacKenzie." Harriet said, concealing the tears that she had cried earlier upon hearing of the situation in Aceh. In her mind, she kept remembering how horrible it was to know that Harm and Mac had gone down at sea, now this. . . it was too much for her.

"That is, if you don't mind, sir." Bud said with a soft smile.

"Absolutely." Closing the door of his office, Harm came around his desk and sat in his own chair. "She'll be alright."

Looking at Harriet and receiving a nudge of approval, Bud decided to test one of her 'theories' and slid to the edge of his seat. "Permission to speak freely?" At Harm's nod, he took a breath and let the words fly out. "You love Colonel MacKenzie, don't you sir?"

Harm looked at the two and resisted the urge to laugh. Was he so transparent? "Yes." It was an admission that seemed to remove the load off of his shoulders. He'd always been curious of his friends would approve of something between he and Mac. Bud, after all, was going to be the bestman to Mac and Mic's wedding.

Sighing, Harm clenched his jaw, hoping to stop the tears from forming as the overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong presented herself. "I. . .l-love her s-so much that I can't live without her." He laughed despite himself, all of that sounded so much like a cliché, but it was the truth and it was something that he couldn't deny anymore. "I just can't believe we survived the ocean only to have this. . . whatever it is happen."

"It'll be alright, she'll be fine. . . she'll come home." Harriet said, truly believing that.

But, it was difficult to agree when so much of their time together had been stripped away and wasted. It was mostly his fault for not clarifying things to Mac that needed clarifying. For him staying away like a good boy and not pushing her when he noticed the hesitation in accepting Mic's engagement. Now, he sat in wait for news that the woman he loved was either alive, dead, or worse of all, missing.

That was the part that worried him the most. The lack of information that they had about the situation in Aceh, was making his head spin. What if the people attacking the consulate had caught her? If it was a group of rebels or a mob of sorts, Mac wouldn't last. They would hurt her, physically because she was a woman, and even worse, an American Military woman. Closing his eyes tightly, he couldn't bare the thoughts of what wicked men did during war. The horror stories were etched in his mind from the things he had witnessed being a teen in Vietnam.

No, Mac couldn't be missing or captured, nor could she be dead, he would not accept that. She was alive and well and she was coming home to HIM. "I just wish we had news." He said with a frown. "I need to know something."

As if on cue, the door to his office opened and the Admiral walked in. "As you were." He said, waiving off his officer's attempt at coming to attention. "She's alive. . . but hurt. . . being heloed back to the Guadalcanal as we speak."

Harm was partially relived, but the other half of him was starting to panic. "How badly was she hurt?"

AJ frowned. "When Gunny and the Marines found her, they said she was pinned under some of the roofing. . .she's unconscious and has a few broken bones and some burns. . . I don't know anything else about her condition, but the skipper on the LHA has strict orders to keep me informed." With that, AJ turned and headed back to his office, where he could hopefully massage more information about Mac's condition.

Standing, Harm headed to his window and looked out, rain had started to fall. 'Rain is good luck, Harmon.' He remembered hearing his grandmother say as a pre-teen Harmon Rabb Jr., complained about his adventure around the farm had been rained out. 'It falls from heaven and cleanses things. That's why it smells so nice and fresh after the downpour.' He believed that once and would have continued to had he not crashed into the ramp so many years ago as the ship was tossed by the storms at sea. After their near-fatal ride, he was giving up any hopes that rain and him were good for each other.