Chapter 3: A Surprise Visitor
Disclaimer: All characters from the television show JAG and the show itself are the property of CBS and Donald P. Belisario. The characters Ron Allen, Matthew and Samantha Rabb, story, and storyline contained herein is the intellectual property of J.S. Levin copyright June 1, 2004 and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the author's consent. Inquiries may be directed to the email address contained in the author's profile.
Spoilers: Through Season 10
A/N: Yes, I am quite sure that I have messed up the visitor's hair color...if I have, let's attribute it to hair dye, shall we? In addition, I've never seen an episode where the judiciary offices have been shown, if they have, consider it remodeled. If they haven't, then this is what I think it could look like.
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JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
1400 Zulu (0900 local time)
Harm walked from the break room through the bullpen and into the reception area outside his office. There he found Lieutenant (j.g.) AJ Roberts and Petty Officer (1st class) Ron Allen talking. "Good Morning, Lieutenant, Petty Officer."
"Morning, sir," they replied, turning around and standing at attention.
"Um, Admiral, there is a Lieutenant Commander in your office. She claims you know her quite well, but she asked me not to tell you who she was. She arrived at about 0745 hours, sir," Allen told Harm.
"At ease, guys. AJ I'll get to you as soon as I'm finished with my mystery guest. In the meantime, I know you have other cases to work on, so hop to it, Lieutenant," as he handed his hat to Allen.
"Aye, aye, sir," AJ said, snapping to attention.
Harm opened the door to his office to find the lieutenant commander standing at attention. The only things that he could tell from his point of view were her hair, which was in a bun, was a dirty blonde/brown of sorts, and that the star above the lieutenant commander's stripes on her uniforms sleeves indicated that she was a line officer.
Harm proceeded to walk behind the desk, looking down at the new stack of papers that appeared to make his desk even messier than it had been. Luckily, all that these papers needed were his signature, before he left today.
Suddenly, after sitting down, he became aware that he had ignored the lieutenant commander in front of him. "What can I help you with, Commander?" he proceeded to ask; only now looking up from his papers. The two stripes of ribbons on her chest were not too special, even though Harm noticed that one of them was a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), it didn't make sense to him until he saw the gold naval aviator's wings above it. His eyes switched for a moment to her face, which seemed vaguely familiar, and then to her nametag. Looking back at her face with shock on his, he asked, "Mattie?"
She smiled a large grin at the mention of recognition of her name, "Yes sir. Sir, permission to hug the Admiral?"
"I'd bust you back to Ensign if you didn't! Get over here squirt!" he laughed.
She moved behind the desk and gave him a large hug. "How're you doing Mattie? Excuse me, I meant Lieutenant Commander Grace."
"Mattie's just fine, sir. I'm doing really well, sir. Things out on the Patrick Henry got interesting at times. I'm to be transferred out to the GB at the beginning of their next cruise," she remarked, referring to the USS George H.W. Bush, the last Nimitz-class carrier built for the Navy.
"Mattie, deep six the 'sirs' while we're in private, I was basically your dad for a year, you know. But you're not just here to tell me about the GB, are you Mattie?" Harm probed while sitting down, and motioning for her to do the same. He knew that she must have used leave time to be here, as the Patrick Henry wasn't due back to Norfolk until next week.
She smoothed out the bottom of her skirt as she sat down looked him straight in the eyes and replied softly, "No."
Reacting instinctively, in his old father figure role to her he asked, "Is everything ok?"
"With me, yes, everything is just fine. Andre is scheduled to deploy on the Seahawk and one of the reasons I took leave is because, well, I'm pregnant."
"Congratulations, Mattie. How far along are you?" Harm inquired. He was glad she'd gotten into a relationship with Andre, one of her high school friends. The relationship eventually had become marriage. The best part of that for Harm was she had not waited as long as he and Mac had to get things right.
"About two months," she said. Noticing Harms' questioning glance, she said, "Andre came on board to transfer an 18E, and well, you know..." Mattie shrugged.
"Don't tell me anything I'll have to throw you in the brig for, okay?"
"Actually, I'm really here to talk to you," she admitted. "I- I heard today was your last day as JAG, Harm. I know that that's gotta be hard on you."
"It's hard, without a doubt. But as the saying goes, 'all good things must come to an end.' It makes my life much easier knowing I'm leaving the office in good hands, too. Mac received her promotion in the last cycle and she will take over as JAG. Sturgis is going to remain XO around here. That should keep the office running fairly smoothly over the transition period," Harm told her. "So...what're you doing for the day?"
"Well, I was kinda hoping to spend some of it with you, Harm. After all, you're the reason I took leave," she said, "and I want to hear all about the medal."
"Well, I've got to get through some last minute paperwork this morning, but I'll be free from lunch onwards. The office is shutting down after lunch for a farewell party over at McMurphy's," he responded, knowing exactly which medal she had meant.
"Great. I'll see you at lunch. I'm going to go say hi to the rest of the gang, if that's okay with you Harm," she said, rising to her feet.
"Consider it an order, Mattie. Dismissed," he said, because he knew that she would not leave until he told her to. She was a stickler to military protocol since her days at the Academy.
"Aye, aye, sir," she said, as she snapped to attention, then executed a perfect 180 degree turn and left his office.
Harm went back to work looking at a couple of new case files as he reached down onto the intercom button and said, "Petty Officer, could you send in Commander Tiner and Major Clark for me, oh, and Lieutenant Roberts while you're at it."
Mattie got off the elevator on the judiciary level, and walked into the main bullpen area, which was about half the size of the main level. She stopped a Marine sergeant who was carrying an armful of files and asked the sergeant for directions to Mac's office. The sergeant responded courteously (he had little choice, as she outranked him), and went off on his way.
Mattie made her way to Mac's office using the directions the sergeant had given her. She was about to knock on the door when a master chief petty officer called to her from behind. "Can I help you, ma'am?" the master chief asked. Mattie just stopped in her tracks, knowing that voice so well.
"Jennifer Coates, if you call me ma'am again, I'm going to have to hurt you, and I really don't want to have to do that," she said, turning around as she finished.
"Mattie!" Jen exclaimed, rushing and grabbing Mattie into a reciprocal embrace, "I forgot you were going to be in town! I haven't seen you since the day you came to ask Harm for the academy recommendation! A Lieutenant Commander!"
"And how 'bout you, Master Chief Coates!" she said, noticing the gold insignia on Jen's left arm. "What're you doing hidden back there?" she remarked, commenting on the fact that Jen's desk, while directly across from Mac's, was hidden by what appeared to be an air duct which extended from the side wall of the bullpen. While it had the effect of making Mac's office appear unattended, it also gave Jen a tiny enclosed office of her own, inside of what would probably have been a waiting room if this were any other building.
"This is my so-called office. I'm working for General MacKenzie as her yeoman. The Admiral decided it would be a little odd for me to be his yeoman, so he had me transferred down here, to the General's office."
"I'm glad he kept you around though. Is the General in? I need to talk to her about the day's plans," Mattie asked.
Jen went through the whole routine of asking Mac if she had a moment to see Mattie, which of course she didn't, but that wasn't going to stop the visit. Mattie walked into the office, which was almost exactly like Harm's, except for the fact that it was smaller. However, it made total sense. Harm, as the Navy's JAG, was bound to have the largest office in the building.
"Morning ma'am," Mattie said stopping directly in front of the desk.
"Good morning, Mattie! Grab a chair. How're you doing?" Mac asked eagerly. She hadn't seen Mattie in a good space of time, Harm had kept her relatively up to date with news about Mattie. They bantered on about their careers and Mattie's life for a full fifteen minutes when Mattie finally asked for the details of her "assignment."
"Well, Commander, it comes down to this. I need you to distract Harm for me. I've got some last minute details which have to be worked out regarding his dining out tonight. Harm doesn't know about it, Admiral Turner, Captain Roberts, and myself all decided this would be better left as a surprise. Harm just thinks we're having the farewell party this afternoon over at McMurphy's. Harriet is over at the O-Club setting just about everything up for us."
"I've already made a lunch date with the Admiral, ma'am, I hope that is convenient," Mattie offered.
"That's more than convenient, Mattie, its perfect! I'm going over the general plans with everyone else during lunch here at the office. Maybe you could take him out to Beltway Burgers or something," she offered, reaching into her purse and extracting a twenty. "This oughta be enough for the two of you."
Mattie held up her hand to the twenty waving it off, "First of all, ma'am, I'll never turn down a Beltway Burger. Secondly, you and Harm have given me more than enough over the years. Lunch is on me. Besides," she smiled mock-evilly, "you're taking care of dinner."
TBC. . .