Disclaimer: I own a blue car named Diego, a graphing calculator, and a mattress pad for my bunk bed in the dorm. If I owned JAG, I'd own a silver Corvette named Cal, I wouldn't have bothered to learn calculus, and I wouldn't need to finish college. Oh, yeah. DPB owns JAG.

Spoilers: Everything up to but NOT including Hail and Farewell. Yeah. All that cliffhanger stuff in the season finale never happened.

A/N: Just to make reading this easier, spoken dialogue is in double quotes, and character thoughts are in single quotes. Flashbacks are in brackets. Also, I took a lot of creative liberty with this story, so just hang on to that suspension of disbelief…Hey…I did say it was kind of ridiculous didn't I?

1302 Zulu

JAG Headquaters

Falls Church, Virginia

May, 2004

Harm screeched into the parking lot. He was running late. The Admiral was not going to be happy if he didn't make it to the meeting on time. He practically ran into the building and decided to take the stairs instead of the slow, ancient elevator. Taking them two at a time, he quickly reached the Bullpen, ran down the hall to his office, threw his coat over his chair, grabbed the files he needed off his desk, and took off at a jog toward the conference room. He stopped short of bursting into the room and casually opened the door. He walked in and strode to his seat on the other end of the table. Everyone else, besides the Admiral, was already seated. He smiled at Mac as he sat down. She smiled back, but in a smirking way.

"Sleep in?" she asked.

Harm grinned and nodded. "Actually, Mat—," He stopped short and snapped to attention as the Admiral walked into the room.

"As you were!"

They all sat down. Harm almost missed the chair on his way down; he was exhausted. Mattie hadn't been feeling well the night before, and Harm had stayed up with her to keep her company. The Admiral started handing out cases beginning with Lieutenant Roberts. He suddenly got a bad feeling that this meeting was not going to go well. Between him not getting virtually any sleep, and the Admiral having been in a bad mood for…He had to think for a moment about how long…He was thinking about the Admiral's bad mood at Christmas and how it hadn't really changed since then, when he thought he heard his name.

"Commander Rabb!"

Harm found himself opening his eyes. He couldn't have fallen asleep…Oh, damn it…"Sir?"

"Am I boring you Commander?"

"No, sir. I—." Harm stopped as Coates came into the room.

"Sir, the SecNav's on the phone. He said it's urgent, sir."

The Admiral stood up and everyone snapped to attention. "Commander, if you're awake, you will be in my office in exactly 30 minutes."

"Aye aye, sir."

The Admiral left and everyone relaxed…and looked at Harm, who didn't feel like dealing with anybody. He picked up his papers and files and started walking toward the door. You could have heard a pin drop the room got so quiet. Mac moved first, gathering her papers and taking off after him. Harm was already halfway down the stairs and rounding the corner when he heard her calling.

"Harm wait up!"

Harm turned and peaked his head around the corner just in time to see her lose her footing on the second step, her knee hit the deck, and watch her fall head over heals down to the landing. "Mac!" He turned all the way around, moved back onto the landing, and knelt down beside her just as she finished falling. "Mac?" Her eyes were closed. She wasn't moving. Blood was streaming down her cheek from a deep cut on her forehead. Harm gasped: it was bleeding so much it had already started forming a puddle "Get a corpsman!" he screamed, "Get a corpsman!" He leaned over to make sure she was still breathing. She was. "Mac? Mac? Come on Marine…" He took off his jacket and stuffed it gently under her head to act like a cushion.

By this time, Bud, Sturgis, and Coates had reached the top of the stairs. Harriet and the Admiral were rushing to the bottom. Harm had ripped off one of his sleeves and was holding it over the cut on Mac's forehead.

"What the hell happened?" Admiral Chegwidden demanded.

"She…she…she just fell, sir," Harm managed to stammer out as he glanced up to see the Admiral bending down. He glanced back down at Mac to see that the shirtsleeve had already filled up with blood. He let go and ripped off his other sleeve. He wrapped it around his hand and applied more pressure to the wound.

Five minutes later the paramedics arrived. They were wheeling Mac towards the elevator. Harm reached down and picked up his jacket and realized he was covered in blood. 'Damn it,' he thought. 'If I would have just explained things in the conference room…' He saw the Admiral turning away. "Sir?" he called.

"Go, Commander. Keep us posted."

"Aye aye, sir." Harm bolted for the stairs to catch up with the paramedics.