Chapter 6:
Damned if you do...

"Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an intelligible stone: and that is where we start."
T. S. Eliot, from "Four Quartets: Little Gidding"

1435 ZULU
17 NOVEMBER 2004
GENERAL CRESSWELL'S OFFICE
JAG HEADQUARTERS
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

Mattie knocked timidly on the General's door. She didn't know Harm's new boss at all, but if he were like the Admiral, she wasn't sure that she wanted to. "Come," she heard Cresswell's voice say.

Mattie pushed open the door, walked in, and stood quietly beside the chairs, waiting for him to notice her. She wasn't in the military, but she knew better than to just sit down without being invited. She'd learned enough from living with Harm and Jen for that.

Cresswell looked up from the file he'd been reading and smiled. "Mathilda, right?"

"I go by Mattie, sir," she said nervously.

"Please, sit," he said, motioning to a chair. "You look to be around my daughter, Katie's age."

Mattie sat down and bit her lip. She'd come to support Harm, and without him there, she wasn't sure how exactly to proceed. She felt braver with him with her. "I'm fifteen, sir."

"So is she," he said meditatively. "Perhaps I should arrange for the two of you to meet."

"I-I think I'd like that, sir," she said. "It might be nice to have somebody to talk to besides Susan who understands what it's like for your Dad to be gone all the time." Mattie hesitated for a few minutes. "Especially when he's almost all I've got."

Cresswell's eyebrow lifted at the last remark, but he didn't say anything about it. "So how did you end up in his care, Mattie?"

Mattie looked down at the carpet for a few minutes before answering. She'd barely told Harm how she'd ended up alonemaybe telling his boss how he'd rescued her might make it easier for him. "My father abandoned me after my mom was killed in an accident," she began softly. "He left me with relatives who wanted a free babysitter. When I refused, they dumped me on my aunt and uncleUncle Greg kept looking at me like I was a Big Mac and he was starving, so I ran away." She stopped for a few minutes, fighting not to cry.

"I went back home and started running my Mom's businessGrace Aviation. Harm found me there when he came down to fly his plane, and it didn't take him long to figure out that I was alone." Mattie looked at him for a minute before continuing. "He offered to become my guardian and took me inhe's been a better dad than my biological father."

Cresswell regarded the teenager for a few minutes. "And you're now living with your biological father?" he asked gently.

Mattie bristled. She felt as if she were being cross-examined. "I thought he needed me more, but that was before this mess came up. The Colonel was barely speaking to him the entire time I was living with Harm, and I know he needs me." She shot the General a fierce look. "I love him, and anybody who hurts him is gonna have to answer to me. I want to be just like him when I grow uphe's my hero."

Cresswell's mouth quirked into a slight smile. "I thought you wanted to be a Marine aviator?"

"I want to go to the Academy, sir," Mattie said slowly. "I can decide which branch of service later. Most people would've turned me in to Social Services. Harm didn't. He saved me, sir. And I know where I stand with him; that's more than I can say with my real father."

"So will you be staying with the Commander?" Cresswell asked.

"I'm not sure," Mattie admitted. "I haven't given my father much of a chance. He didn't want me to come here, but I had to. Harm taught me that you don't leave people behind. That's how he ended up at Grace Aviation in the first place; he refused to abandon Colonel Mackenzie and her boyfriend and let them die. I thought my father needed me, but now I'm not so sure I made the right choice."

Mattie bit her lip. "How do you choose between two dads? Both of them love me, but my father abandoned me. I chose, but I don't know if I did the right thing."

"Well, young lady," he said with a ghost of a smile. "I wish I could tell you what to do, but I try not to meddle in the lives of my people. I will, however, tell you what I'd tell my Katiespend some time thinking about it and do what your heart tells you to do."

Mattie looked at him and smiled. Harm's new boss was better than that mean old Admiral. "Thank you, sir," she said quietly.

"Now, if you'd like to know anything about military life, and having a career in the Marines, I'll be happy to help. Why do you want to go to the Academy, Mattie?" Cresswell asked.

"Because, sir, all I've ever wanted to do was to fly," Mattie said, lighting up. "And I want to be one of the best pilots there are, and everybody knows that those are Navy and Marine pilots. Harm says that he wants me to have a better life than he does," she said. "He wants me to have a family of my own by the time I'm his age." She smiled mischievously. "I want to be CAG on a carrier by then."

Cresswell smiled. "Good to know that you know what you want. I'll talk to the Commander about letting you and Katie meet. I have a feeling that the meeting will beprofitablefor the both of you. And when you need a recommendation for the Academy, I'll be happy to give you one."

Mattie grinned. "Thank you, sir," she said.

"Now, don't you have people waiting for you?" he asked gently.

"Yes, sir, I do." Mattie stood up and held out her hand for him to shake. "Thank you, sir." Solemnly, she shook his hand, then turned and left his office. It hadn't been as bad as she'd feared. Harm's new boss was a softy under the gruff exterior. She was certain that with her there to support her dad, everything would work out okay.

1822 ZULU
17 NOVEMBER 2004
NS NORFOLK BRIG
INTERVIEW ROOM
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

Harm looked at Lieutenant Meecham and grimaced. Something about this whole situation didn't sit right; the Lieutenant didn't have anything in his record that indicated that he might do something like that. In fact, from what he could see, Meecham was a stand-up guy, much like Benjamin Neeley, his roommate during his first semester at the Academy, had been.

Harm jerked his attention back to Mac. "Lieutenant, did you strike Commander Jacobs?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," Lieutenant Meecham answered. "I shouldn't have hit him, Colonel, Commander, but in my own defense, he deserved it."

Harm raised an eyebrow at that. "Can you tell us what happened, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Sir, Ma'am, I don't make a habit of hitting people that annoy me, but Commander Jacobs went too far," Meecham began.

"Could have fooled me," Mac remarked softly.

"Ma'am, I'm used to a certain amount of ribbing because of my religion," he explained, leaning forward. "It comes with the territoryI mean, I don't drink or smoke or cuss, and that kind of makes a guy stand out. I learned to laugh at it a long time ago." He twisted his CTR ring around a finger and gave them a slight smile. "I even collect Mormon jokes. Commander Jacobs started with the usual stuff, like: 'How many wives you have back on shore?' but he didn't stop with that." Meecham shot Harm and Mac a pleading look.

"I couldn't let it go by when he said he was gonna reenact the Haun's Mill Massacre at my house with my wife and daughter!"

"Haun's Mill Massacre?" Mac questioned.

Before Meecham could say anything, Harm answered. "In 1838, a group of Missouri Militia attacked the small Mormon community of Haun's Millthey killed sixteen men, a ten-year-old boy, and injured thirteen women and children."

"Not many people know that, Sir," Meecham said.

Harm smiled slightly. "My roommate plebe year at the Academy was LDS and he was studying church history in Institute."

"So after he said that, you hit him?" Mac asked.

"No, Ma'am," Meecham said slowly. "I wanted to. I told him to stop, or I'd have to report that he was handing out death threats."

"So when, exactly, did you deck him, Lieutenant?" Harm asked.

"After he said that instead of just killing them, he'd reenact the actions of the Militia after the Extermination Order was issued," Meecham said softly. "My ancestors were theredriven out of Missouri by the government while the Militia raped and killed the women and children who were unlucky enough to get in the way." He gave them a pleading look. "What else could I do, Sir, Ma'am? My little girl is only two years old!"

"Extermination Order?"

Harm could tell that Mac was getting frustrated by this whole thing, so he took pity on her and answered. "In 1838, the governor of MissouriI forget what his name wasissued an Extermination Order. Basically, it made it legal to kill a Mormon," he said.

Meecham nodded. "It remained on the books until 1976," he added.

"So that's when you struck him?" Mac asked.

"Yes, Ma'am." Meecham looked a bit distressed. "I know there are better ways to deal with something like that, but, Sir, when he threatened to rape and kill my family, I just lost it."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Harm said quietly.

"Ma'am," he began, giving Mac a pleading look. "Is there a chance that I could get out of here? I haven't seen my wife and daughter in six months."

Mac exchanged a glance with Harm. "We'll see, Lieutenant," she said.

They stood up, and Harm offered his hand to Meecham. "We'll do our best, Lieutenant," he promised.

"Thank you, Sir, Ma'am," the Lieutenant said with a respectful nod.

Harm and Mac made their way out of the interrogation room. "Do you think he's telling the truth?" Mac asked.

Harm took a deep breath. "Probably. Most LDS guys I've known are real straight arrows."

"You never told me that one of your Academy roommates was LDS," Mac remarked quietly.

Harm shrugged. "There's a lot of stuff that you don't know about me; it's never come up. Ben was a nice guy." He paused for a few minutes, trying to choose his words carefully. "He and his friends taught me how to have fun again; remember, I hadn't been back from Vietnam for very long…" he trailed off.

Mac reached over, grabbed his hand, and gave it a short, comforting squeeze. "I'm glad he was there for you, then," she said softly, releasing his hand. "What happened to him?"

Harm gave her a half smile. "Last I heard, he was married with three kids and serving on a carrier somewhere."

Mac consulted her notes. "I guess we should go talk to Commander Saunders."

"Yeah," Harm agreed. "If Meecham was telling the truth, I think we can recommend that he get a reprimandand Saunders should be facing disciplinary action."

"The last thing we need is for a story like this to get out," Mac said. "It'd be a huge black eye for the Navy."

"Definitely. There's no room for that kind of behavior," he said.

They waited patiently until the Marine guard unlocked the door and let them out of the brig, then walked outside. "According to the file, Saunders should still be aboard the Patrick Henry."

"Let's get going," Harm said.

Together, the two of them climbed into the waiting car and drove down to the docks in silence. They parked, got out, and walked up the gangplank. "Permission to come aboard?" Mac asked.

"Granted," was the response. A young man wearing Lt. Commander's stripes appeared. "How can I help JAG today?" he asked.

"I'm Commander Rabb, and this is my partner, Colonel Mackenzie," Harm began.

"We're here to interview Commander Saunders," Mac said. "You wouldn't happen to know where we could find him, would you?"

The Lt. Commander checked a list. "He's confined to quarters, Ma'am," he answered. "I know him, so if you'll give me a few minutes, I'll take you to him."

Harm regarded as he turned over the watch, and exchanged a look with Mac before turning to follow him. Hopefully, the interview wouldn't take long, so that they could make their recommendations and go home. While it was nice that he and Mac had worked out some of their problems, Mattie was waiting for him at home, and he didn't want to leave her alone.

After a few minutes of walking and stepping over kneeknockers, they stopped in front of a hatch. "Here we are, Sir, Ma'am."

"Thank you, Commander," Harm said with a nod.

Mac knocked on the door. "Commander Saunders?" she called. When nobody answered, she tried again. "Commander Saunders?" she said, more forcefully this time.

"Just a minute," came an answer in a sleepy voice.

Harm and Mac exchanged a look and settled down to wait.