Title : When You're Ready…

Author : Jaggie 107

Disclaimer : JAG characters belong to DPB, CBS and Paramount. I hope all parties will allow me to have fun for a little while, and replace them all when I'm done. Thank you.

Rating : G to PG-13 (Just in case!)


To all the readers/reviewers shown – thanks for the support, and please keep reading!

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Apologies for lack of comments with this chapter – wanted to get the chapter out before Friday's episode (regret delay due to travelling/illness) – and will do double duty with next chapter.


What could have happened after the end of The Man On The Bridge…

JAG Headquarters – Next Day

Harm was seated at his desk, head down over the folder in front of him, when he heard the knock at his door. He called out to 'enter' without raising his head.

"Sir, you have a visitor." The Ensign on duty waited for a response, which came immediately.

"Who is…oh, Commander Kohler. Good to see you again. Please, come in."

Adam Kohler entered Harm's office and took a seat at the front of the desk. Harm smiled and thanked the Ensign, who left the office and closed the door behind her.

"Thank you for seeing me without an appointment, Commander Rabb. I…I decided to take you up on your offer of services in court. However, that's not the real reason I'm here today."

"Oh?" Harm took his seat again behind his desk, leaning forward to look at Kohler.

"You mentioned last night that you knew how it felt to have found closure on finding out about my father. I was curious. How do you know?"

"I've gone through the same thing. My father was MIA in Vietnam, when I was five. My mother had him legally declared dead when the official period was over so that she could go on with her life. I couldn't let go so easily though," Harm paused, quirking his lips as he thought of Mac teasing him about his 'obsessive' streak, and then he came back to the conversation. "I went to Vietnam when I was sixteen to try to find him, or what had happened to him, but that wasn't successful. After I joined the Navy I had the opportunity to follow up on a lead and discovered he'd been transferred to Russia."

"That's a hell of a transfer!" Kohler murmured, and Harm nodded, smiling.

Harm saw Jennifer Coates walking towards his office. He waved her in without knocking and she came to attention at the door, in the presence of another senior officer.

"Petty Officer Coates, I'd like you to meet Commander Adam Kohler. Commander, Petty Officer Coates is the JAG's yeoman."

"Pleased to meet you, sir." Jennifer shook hands politely, and then turned to look at Harm.

"The General would like to speak with you and Colonel Mackenzie, sir. At the earliest."

"I'll be right in." Harm turned to face Adam. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go, but if you're free for a beer, we could meet up at MacMurphy's later?"

"Thank you. I'd like to continue this conversation, Commander. It helps to know there is 'someone' who really knows what I've gone through and isn't just offering platitudes."

"Okay. 1900?"

"I'll be there. Thanks again. Petty Officer," Adam shook hands with both Harm and Jennifer, and then turned to leave Harm's office, and the bullpen. As Harm followed Jennifer to the General's office, Mac joined him.

"Was that Adam Kohler?"

"Yes. He dropped by to ask me something."

"About defending him?"

"Yes, but mainly he wanted to talk about the time spent trying to find out about his father."

"So, when are you meeting him?"

Harm paused to look at Mac, and she smiled up at him.

"What? You have something in common with the man, Harm. Maybe you can give him a sense of peace now he has closure on this father's death."

"Maybe."

"Come on, the General's waiting."

MacMurphy's Bar

Harm turned as the door to the bar opened and he waved Adam Kohler over. Adam took off his jacket as he walked across to where Harm was seated at the bar.

"Commander Rabb," Adam grinned as he shook hands.

"Please, it's Harm outside work," Harm smiled as he shook hands in return. "What can I get you to drink?"

Adam took a look at the bottle in Harm's hand and nodded.

"I'll take the same as you, thanks, and it's Adam."

Harm raised his bottle at the bartender and the man bent to retrieve a bottle from the cold chest before sliding it along the bar to Harm. Adam intercepted the bottle and raised it in salute before taking a long drink.

"Even a cold beer tastes better when your life is in order," Adam spoke, looking from the bottle to Harm and back again.

"Has your CO said anything about charges?"

"Not yet. I'm back at work, but for the time being I'm not on full clearance, so I'm dealing with the basic jobs. Still, my mind is back on the job, which is something. Considering I've been working on top projects and I don't remember half of what I've done, I'm surprised nothing was said before now." Adam gave a snort of derision at his recent inattentiveness, and Harm slapped him on the back.

"Well, you're back now, and whatever happens from here on in, you're still in the Navy. Going UA isn't going to hurt your career too much."

"I guess. So, tell me more about your father. You said he'd been moved to Russia?"

"Yeah. There was a lot of cloak and dagger over the issue of MIA's being in Russia, and there's a possibility that some are still there, but I can't fight everyone's battles. I discovered my father had escaped and gone to ground in Russia. He met a Russian woman and her brother, living with them until his death. He was killed trying to defend the woman from soldiers, and her brother killed the last of them. I didn't get to visit a grave, the brother had buried my father away from their home, and the woman didn't know where, but at least it was closure."

"So you were able to go on with your life?"

Harm looked straight at Adam, assessing how much to tell him.

"In one way, yes. In another, no. My working life has mostly been the Navy, but my personal life hasn't been the smoothest. I once presumed I would have a wife and family by the time I got to this stage in my life, but I've been unable to settle down, until now."

"You're married now?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it," Harm laughed, and Adam Kohler smiled. "What about you?" Harm asked in return, and Adam shook his head.

"Haven't been able to commit to anything, or anyone, outside of work. Perhaps now, I'll have a chance. I'd like to think my life can go on now. I'm not sure what my CO has planned for my being UA, but in comparison it's not going to be anything I can't get past."

"Let me know what charges are brought against you, and I'll work something out. If your CO is half as mulish as mine was in the past, it'll be a walk in the park!"

"That sounds like a whole other story," Adam observed, and Harm grinned.

"Well, there was the time I went over to the 'Dark Side' as Mac calls it," Harm spoke up, and Adam laughed. "Would Mac be the man I saw at JAG as I left? He came out of the elevator, an African American?"

Harm shook his head. "No, that was Sturgis Turner. Mac is Colonel Mackenzie, the Marine you met on the bridge."

"Ah," Adam murmured, nodding, and then he grinned at Harm. "So you left the Navy for a while, huh? How was it?"

"Different," Harm replied, and then took a long drink of his beer. When he put the bottle back on the bar he smiled. "I did crop dusting for a while, and ended up being a guardian to a teenaged girl for six months, while her father got back on his feet."

"Interesting, but what happened between leaving the Navy and doing the crop-dusting?" Adam asked, and Harm quirked a brow at him in question.

"I don't exactly see crop dusting as being on the dark side."

"You know, you'd have made a good recruit too," Harm laughed, and Adam joined in but shook his head at the same time.

"Nah, never fancied myself as a James Bond clone. Science was always my favorite subject. I'd have been more comfortable being someone like 'Q'."

"Touche," Harm acknowledged, and finished off his beer. Placing the bottle on the bar he turned to face Adam. "If you'd like another beer sometime, call."

"I will, thanks." Adam shook Harm's outstretched hand and watched as he walked away. Turning back to the bar he signalled for another drink and the tab. The bartender walked over with another bottle, but raised his hand at the offered cash.

"The tab's taken care of, sir. Enjoy your drink."

Adam turned to look at the door but Harm was already out of sight. Smiling to himself he raised the beer in a silent toast to fathers and new friends.

Harm's Apartment

Harm pushed open the door to his apartment and stepped inside. Turning back to secure the lock he leaned his head against the door for a moment, briefly going over his conversation with Adam, and thinking back to the time he had spent trying to find out the truth about his own father. A smile came to his face as he thought that maybe Mac had been right and he had been able to give the other man a sense of peace now that closure to the mystery had been achieved. Mac. With that thought, Harm moved away from the door, turned off the lamp on the coffee table, and made his way to bed.

Undressing without turning on any lights, the room lit from the streetlights that came through the glass slats that divided the bedroom from the rest of the apartment, Harm put his jacket over the back of a chair to remove some of the aroma of the bar before he put it back in the wardrobe. Once he was undressed he drew down the comforter and slid into bed.

Spooning up against the warm body already in bed, Harm dropped a soft kiss on Mac's shoulder and murmured softly as she stirred in her sleep, her eyes struggling to open.

"Shsh, it's okay. Go back to sleep. I'm here."

Mac nodded her head softly, her dark hair rustling against the pillow and Harm smiled as he closed his own eyes, and let sleep claim him too.


To be continued