To all those who reviewed, Thank You! It's interesting (and inspiring) to read your reactions to the story.
Part 5
Pizza ShackWashington, D.C.
2310 LocalMac sat in the parking lot and waited for Harm and his crew to appear. If she hadn't thought he was counting on her, she might have begged off tonight. The discussion with Emma had been draining and now she felt exhausted. Emma Fine could have easily been a professional counselor... or top-level interrogator. She'd managed to drag out things Mac wouldn't have dreamed of mentioning to anyone else. The only misdirection she managed to hang on to had been that surreal trip in the Blue Ridge mountains almost a year ago. Only four people outside herself knew the truth of what had happened and while it would have been a relief to talk to Emma about it, she knew it was impossible. That was doubly frustrating because she was sure that some of her problems with Harm stemmed from that episode.Mac pressed her hands over her eyes for a moment before surveying the parking lot once again. 2320 and counting... She knew that if Harm was late this time, it wouldn't be his fault. Getting four teenage girls moving in one direction would have required the skills of a Marine DI... or a border collie. Mac smiled thinking of the visual and then closed her eyes with a sigh. She was getting punchy if this was all it took to amuse herself. Her cellphone went off, making her jump. She checked the ID, yep - it was Harm, and flipped it open, "Hello?"" Mac, hi. Are you there?"" Sitting in the parking lot." She could hear laughing and disjointed bits of singing in the background, "Sounds like the concert was a success."His sigh was audible, "Oh yeah... I'm surprised they can even pass this stuff off as music. I don't understand half of what they're saying."" Spoken like a parent, Rabb. You're getting old." Mac couldn't help chuckling at his expense." Age has nothing to do with it." She could hear the smile in his voice despite the indignant tone. "At least the stuff I listen to has a melody. What's wrong with the Rolling Stones or the Eagles?"" Or Elvis and Buddy Holly?" Mac asked innocently." Very funny. Listen, we're not far away. I'll see you in a bit."" Okay." Mac hung up, smiling. Maybe they were getting back on track.A few minutes later, Harm's SUV drove onto the lot and into a space. As soon as he stopped, four teenagers spilled out of the doors and hustled to the restaurant. Harm got out a little more slowly and walked back towards Mac as she locked her car. "Hey Mac, thanks for coming out here."Mac smiled up at him, "No problem."As they walked to the restaurant, Harm's hand moved automatically to the small of her back. It was a natural action for him and he felt a small sense of satisfaction when she leaned into him slightly. Maybe they were getting back on track.They walked in and were greeted by Mattie waving to them from a large table. From the disappointed looks he was getting from the junior barracudas, Harm was willing to bet that his ward's little friends hadn't counted on someone like Mac showing up.
" Hey Colonel," Mattie smiled at Mac as Harm seated her at the table. She hadn't missed the looks and nudges that Bethany, Holly and Julie exchanged whenever Harm was around. These three were still more acquaintances than friends and it was likely to remain that way if all they wanted from Mattie was a chance to flirt with her guardian. She wasn't naive enough to think that old guys didn't occasionally take advantage of girls her age but it creeped her out to think of Harm that way. Consequently, she hadn't corrected their assumption that 'Mac, the Marine Colonel' was a guy. It'd been worth it to see the expressions on their faces when the beautiful brunette walked into the restaurant." Hi Mattie, how was the concert?" Mac smiled back at the young woman before directing a nod at her three friends. If first impressions were any indication, Harm had been right to call for reinforcements - the trio had 'Jailbait' written all over them.
" It was awesome, I can't wait for their next CD to come out." Mattie grinned at the other girls who were still gaping at Mac. School on Monday was going to be interesting, to say the least." Mattie, aren't you going to introduce your friends?" Harm interjected.She rolled her eyes before turning back towards Mac, "Sorry about that. Colonel, this is Bethany, Julie and Holly." She pointed to each one in turn. "Guys, this is Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie. She works with Harm and she's the Chief of Staff for the Navy Judge Advocate General."Greetings were exchanged and then Holly spoke up, "My dad was a Marine during the first Gulf War. Were you there, too?"" Don't be stupid, Hol," Bethany was the obvious leader of the bunch, "Women aren't allowed to fight and besides, she's just a lawyer."Harm started to say something but Mac beat him to it. Raising an amused eyebrow at Bethany, she smiled, "You'd be surprised how many women have found themselves in combat situations. Our adversaries keep forgetting to check the rulebook."" Have you ever been in a battle?" Julie was wide-eyed. Mattie looked just as interested while Bethany subsided into a pout.Mac eyed the teenagers while she considered her answer. "If you're talking about a firefight, then yes, while I was in Bosnia."Harm raised his eyebrows, "You never mentioned that before. What happened?"She shrugged a little, "I was part of the team documenting war crimes. We were coming back from a site when our unit was attacked by a group of Serb irregulars. No one was expecting anything - we were well within the borders of the peacekeeper territory. They took out the lead truck with a shoulder-fired missile and then everything went to hell. It took 33 minutes for a rescue column to get to us and by then, 60% of the unit were casualties. The Serbs never did manage to break our line though. Afterwards, we heard from intel that they had been trying for hostages."" Wow." Mattie's mouth was round with surprise, "Weren't you scared?"" Terrified," Mac said dryly. She looked back at Holly, "Anyway, to answer your original question, I was finishing up my tour in Bosnia during the Gulf War. What unit was your dad with?" Mac kept her attention on Holly, Julie and Mattie, ignoring the sullen Bethany." The 7th."" With the 1st Marine Division," Mac nodded. "Tough group of guys. He make it through okay?"" Oh sure, he's a vice-president with IndigiTel Technologies now. He still talks about being a Marine, though... and yells at the TV a lot when anyone badmouths the military." Holly couldn't help preening a little at being the focus of attention. She rarely stood out with Bethany around, it was kind of nice." Once a Marine, always a Marine," Mac grinned and then arched an eyebrow when Harm snorted. "Jealous, Squid?"" Of a bunch of jarheads? Please." Harm took on a pained expression while the girls tittered. It'd been a while since he and Mac had put on their dog and pony show for anyone but the timing was still there.Mac turned towards the girls with a conspiratorial smile, "He's jealous of the Marines' esprit de corps. Do you know what NAVY stands for?" As one, the teenagers shook their heads. Mac glanced over Harm, her grin becoming wider, "It stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself."Harm drew himself up, "Hey... " The waitress came by just then to take their order interrupting the byplay. The rest of the evening went pleasantly enough. The pizzas arrived quickly and Mattie kept the conversation turned towards Harm and Mac's various exploits; apparently she'd picked up enough tidbits from Jen to keep the ball rolling. The other girls were fascinated when it became obvious that these two were not your run-of-the-mill lawyer types. Even Bethany climbed off her high horse to ask questions about the places they'd been.Finally, Mac turned towards Harm, "It's 00:30, Harm, when were you supposed to get everyone home?" As much as she was enjoying herself, it had been a long and tiring day. It would be nice to end the evening on an up-note. Neither one of them had said anything stupid to the other (not that that was incredibly likely considering they had an audience, but you never knew). Mac was fast running out of energy. She figured it was time for a graceful withdrawal... before she wound up facedown and snoring in the pizza crusts.Harm automatically looked at his watch even though he knew Mac would be right on the money, "Yeah, I guess we do need to break this up." He ignored the obligatory whining from the teenagers and picked up the check. "Let me pay this and we'll get going." He moved over to the cashier with a bit of a spring to his step. The evening had gone incredibly well. Mac had been happy and relaxed although he had noted that she seemed tired. Still, they'd had a good time together even with the junior league in attendance. Hopefully, he could get her to do this again - without the teenagers.Coming back to the table, he offered her a hand up which Mac gratefully accepted. She definitely looked tired now and he slid a hand under her elbow without thinking twice. "All right, we're outta here," he directed the still-chattering gang of four towards the door.Unlocking his SUV, he let the girls pile in and then walked Mac to her car. Harm waited while she pulled out her car keys. "Are you going to be all right driving home? You look beat."Mac leaned against her car and looked up at him with a slight smile, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."" I do worry," Harm frowned, "Call me when you get in." They stared at each other for a long moment and then he leaned in slowly and kissed her. Loud 'oooohs' from the direction of Harm's SUV broke them apart. Mac leaned her hands against Harm's chest and laughed quietly while he cast a jaundiced eye upwards. "Did you have to park under a street light?"Mattie turned back around in the front passenger seat frowning a little. She didn't mind the Colonel as a friend but what was with this kissing stuff? Wasn't she seeing some other guy? And what was Harm thinking? This was the woman that had dumped him!Nine Days Later
Arlington, Virginia
0820 LocalKate Todd irritably tapped a foot as she surveyed the scene. Another Marine sergeant had been found shot to death, this time outside one of those rent-by-the-hour motels. She purposefully kept away from Gibbs and Tony, opting to stay near Ducky. She was still off-balance from having misread Suzanne McNeill so completely. It had damn near gotten them all killed when the woman had detonated that explosive. It had been so pointless. Three people dead because of a jilted lover. She didn't want to endure any more of Tony's awkward sympathy or Gibbs' silent I-told-you-so." Kate? Kate, are you listening to me?" Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard looked at Kate with concern. If he'd had his way, she'd be taking at least one more day of leave. The physical damage was superficial and already healing but the mental shock of watching someone deliberately blow herself to bits, as well as murder another soul could be overwhelming. Jethro was a hard taskmaster and pushed his people as much as he pushed himself but it wasn't always the right tactic for everyone. Mallard liked the ex-Secret Service agent. He'd always found strong, competent women attractive. If he'd been twenty years younger, he'd might have had a go at sweeping her off her feet. He'd been rather dashing in his youth, if he did say so himself. Tony was a nice enough young man but he had absolutely no finesse and Jethro... well, after three wives, Jethro was infinitely preferable as single.Kate blinked and focused on the doctor, "What? I'm sorry, Ducky. Were you talking to me?"Mallard nodded, "I was saying that it looks like our sergeant was also killed by a .38 at fairly close range. I'll know for sure when we get him back to the lab. ... Are you all right?"" You think it's the same shooter?" Gibbs' voice sounded behind them, causing Kate to visibly flinch and then tense." Well, it's a little early to tell, Jethro, although I'm inclined to lean that way. Interesting that they're both non-commissioned officers in the Marines, reminds me of a series of cases early in my career. Three Naval lieutenants were hit by cars - not at the same time, of course... " Ducky rambled on, hoping to give Kate a chance to recover herself. He doubted that his tactic had fooled Gibbs one bit but it was worth a shot." Ducky... " Gibbs sighed. He knew what the doctor was trying to do, he wasn't blind. He also believed what he'd told Tony earlier - nothing he could say was going to make Kate feel better about her screw-up, so why say anything at all? Either she'd get over it and move on with a tad more wisdom under her belt or she'd quit. He didn't think of Todd as a quitter. The only question Gibbs truly had was why she was avoiding him. He assumed it was embarrassment but that didn't make it so. Did she think he was going to fire her over the incident? He turned to Kate, "This could be a coincidence but I'm beginning to doubt it. Why don't you head back to the office and check into Sergeant Hilliard's background? See if there's any connection with Mallory or anything they might have in common. Tony and I will finish processing the scene."Kate kept a tight rein on herself, telling herself firmly that Gibbs wasn't just trying to get rid of her. Her faith in her judgment had been badly shaken and it was undoubtedly coloring all her perceptions at the moment. Gibbs was never shy about voicing his opinions - if he had found her wanting, he'd have kicked her out the door by now. Unfortunately, that small rational part of her mind was having a hard time convincing the rest. She gave Gibbs an abrupt nod and retreated to the car.The two men watched her leave with identical troubled expressions. Mallard turned to Gibbs, "You probably should have made her take a few more days off. I don't think she's ready to get back into this."Gibbs shrugged, "Kate's a big girl. Besides, if I make her take any time off now, she'll just think I'm punishing her. Let her do her job, Ducky." He turned back to the scene, the sooner they got this finished, the better.JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1310 LocalMac put the finishing touches on her report and leaned back. The last week and a half had been... interesting. Admiral Chegwidden had called her into his office on the previous Monday to ask her about Meredith's engagement ring. Somehow the diamond had popped loose from its setting and someone Meredith knew (the Admiral was rather vague about exactly who) suggested that its lack of identification marks could mean it was stolen or worse, one of the 'conflict' diamonds. After that, apparently, it was off to the races. Meredith had worked herself into a tizzy about the stone's origins and the Admiral was trying to put her mind at ease. Privately, Mac thought Meredith was being silly and a bit insulting. Did she think the Admiral had bought her engagement ring from some guy in a back alley? At any rate, citing her lack of experience, she had taken the diamond to Agent Van Dyne over at Langley.What she thought would be a rather routine conversation took a decidedly odd turn, leaving Mac with an uneasy feeling that somehow she'd gone swimming with sharks. Dismissing it as a paranoid moment, she'd returned to headquarters and reported her findings to Chegwidden, letting him handle it from there. His 'handling' had led to a case of theft of man-made diamonds from the Naval Research Lab by one Lt. Marvalis. She and Harm had wound up on opposite sides for the Article 32 but, for once, things didn't get out of hand between the two of them. Some of Van Dyne's odd behavior was explained when he stopped Mac on the street and handed over files that nailed her case for her. Apparently, the CIA had picked up on Marvalis as part of its own investigation into diamonds for terrorism. When Harm saw the documents he knew she had his client dead to rights. He saved his eloquence for the plea-bargaining and Mac had been willing to work with him.She was willing to do more than that. She'd had dinner with Harm twice since the pizza outing. Both were taking it slowly, trying to ease their way back to each other. Mac sighed a little. They skirted around any sort of serious discussion of the difficulties that lay between them, neither wanting to sink this tenuous reconciliation before it got too far along. Eventually, though, things needed to be brought out into the light of day. She wasn't looking forward to it at all. Emma kept in touch, acting as a sounding board whenever Mac started feeling the strain. One complication had been Mattie. The young woman was running hot and cold towards her. Mac figured it was teenage hormones. It didn't make Mattie's behavior any easier to bear at times but it helped Mac hang on to her patience. Temper tantrums were a damn sight better than drinking binges.Mac spun around in her chair and stared out the window for a few moments. There had been two jarring notes that ruined this last near-perfect week and there was nothing she could do about either. One was Admiral Chegwidden. Something had occurred between him and Meredith and judging from his transformation into a bear with a sore tooth, it wasn't anything good. Unfortunately, no one had a clue and although she had briefly considered an end run to Meredith to find out what the hell was going on, her survival instincts had kicked in in time to quash that idea. The second note was far more ominous to her mind. Agent Van Dyne had disappeared. From that and her prior conversation with him when he handed over the files, she had jumped immediately to Sadik Fahd. When she broached the idea with Harm, he'd dismissed it out of hand, pointing out that diamond smuggling didn't automatically mean terrorism. He also noted that, strange but true, CIA operatives dropped out of sight all the time. It was a measure of how unsettled she was that she had no idea if Harm's comment about CIA agents disappearing was a backhanded slam at Clay. Feeling somewhat sheepish about letting her anxieties show themselves, Mac had forcibly shoved the worry to the back of her mind." Anything interesting out there?" Harm's eyebrows rose when Mac practically leapt out of her chair and spun towards him. He held up his hands in a placating gesture, "Take it easy, Mac. It's just me." Inwardly, he frowned a bit. He hadn't seen her this jumpy since that sleaze, Coster, had been stalking her. When she began to blush, Harm hurried to put a smile on. "I was thinking we might get together for dinner tonight... if you haven't got any plans," he added quickly. She was still having dinner with Clay on a regular basis - something he was trying his damnedest not to resent.Mac stared at him while she tried to get her breathing under control again. Someone was going to haul her off to a little white room if she didn't get hold of herself. Belatedly, she realized Harm had asked her something - what the hell was it? Clearing her throat and hoping her voice wouldn't come out in a squeak, she said, "Excuse me?""I just asking if you'd like to come over for dinner but if you'd rather not... " She was looking at him like he had nine heads. What was going on with her? Harm swallowed a sigh, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when he would have known what her problem was. He felt a brief flash of annoyance, it wasn't his fault things had gotten the way they were. He did his best to ignore the irritating little voice that told him he was partially responsible." Yes, I'd like that."Harm blinked in surprise, his internal conversation forgotten, "What?" He felt his face grow warm, now Mac was looking at him like he had nine hysterically funny heads.She smiled at him and spoke slowly, sometimes he was the biggest goof, "I said, yes, I would like to have dinner with you, too. What time?"" Um, around 1930? I thought I'd make eggplant parmesan." He couldn't help the grin that plastered itself across his face." Sounds great, can I bring anything?" Mac relaxed a bit more.Harm's reply was cut off by Mac's intercom going off. She gave him an apologetic look before answering. "Yes?"Jennifer Coates' voice sounded over the speaker, "Colonel MacKenzie, Admiral Chegwidden would like to see you in his office right now."" On my way," Mac couldn't help the faint grimace that crossed her face. Dealing with the Admiral the last few days had been less than enjoyable. She looked over at the tall Commander as she stood up, "I'm sorry, Harm... "Harm waved a hand, "Don't worry about it. Just bring yourself tonight." He turned sideways in the doorway to let her get by and gave a wry grin, "Good luck, Colonel."Mac shook her head, "Thanks. I think I'm going to need it." With a sigh, she strode towards the Admiral's office.
