TITLE: Pall
DEFINITION: PALL
Pronunciation: 'pol
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, short for appallen, to become pale
1 to lose strength or effectiveness
2 to lose in interest or attraction his humor began to pall on us>
3 to become tired of something
4 to cause to become insipid
5 to deprive of pleasure in something by satiating
(source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
RATING: PG-13 or R. R to be safe. Mostly for lanugage to begin with, maybe for... other things... later on.
SUMMERY: After an attack on a graduation ceremony at Annapolis the JAG office is thrown into a state of flux.
SPOILERS/TIMELINE/ALTERATIONS I'VE MADE: A little AU, and very messed up, so stay with me here.
-Harm has had his eyes fixed but he's not returning to flying.
-Little AJ is about three months old (I'm assuming he was born in May sometime, and, for the purposes of this story, please just go along with that).
-Chegwidden and Harriet (and Harm, obviously)are Annapolis graduates, Mac and Bud are OCS grads. It's never really been said where Chegwidden, Harriet, and Bud went, so I made an executive decision.
-Mic is on loan from RAN to the JAG office and is still annoying and hitting on Mac at every turn. Beyond the fact that I loathe Mic, I can't get past the idea of having two characters named Mic and Mac get together. It's like whenmy friend Yin Lee married James Yang. Creepy.
DEDICATION: to jaka who encouraged me to keep going with my Harm/Meg ship stories.
DISCLAIMER: If you have to ask...
NOTE 1: The first chapter of this fic ended up being over fifty pages, so I've split it up into two chapters.
NOTE 2: I swear I don't have anything against Harriet or Bud. Honestly.
JAG HEADQUARTERS
0700 (EST)
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA
MONDAY, JULY 17
There was a pall over the entire JAG office, the almost pain and grief that everyone who had ever met Bud Roberts was palpable. Even though the doctors had high hopes for his recovery, one thing was certain. He would not be coming back to JAG.
The morning staff meeting was unusually quiet, even before the arrival of Admiral Chegwidden. Bud's seat was empty. Harm was in his usual seat next to Mac near the head of the table. Mic Brumby, a RAN lawyer who was in Washington for an exchange program, though it seemed that the real reason he was there was to be the thorn in Harm's side, was sitting on the other side of Mac and he was trying to draw her attention away from the spot on the wall she had been staring at for the past ten minutes. Harm felt it was a good sign that the chipped paint won out over the Aussie's quote-unquote charms.
The door opened and everyone stood at attention when the Admiral walked in. He muttered a quick 'as you were' as he sat down at the head of the table, a stack of files dropping onto the dark, polished oak tabletop.
"Before we get started I want to pass along a message from Harriet Simms," Chegwidden said. Everyone sat up a little straighter, hoping that they finally had good news. "Lieutenant Commander Roberts came out of surgery late last night and, as of 0600 this morning, is in stable condition, though he has yet to wake up. Only immediate family will be allowed to see him for the first forty-eight hours, and after that only one person at a time for a few minutes every three hours."
"How are Harriet and little AJ doing, sir?" Mac asked. She had tried calling her friend all night but Harriet had been at the hospital so her cell phone was off. She hadn't tried calling the house because she knew that little AJ would wake up and she didn't want to disturb the infant's peaceful slumber.
"As well as can be expected," Chegwidden said. "I honestly don't know whether it's fortunate that little AJ doesn't know what's going on or not."
"The only fortunate thing about any of this is that Bud is still alive," Harm said, idly rubbing his fingers over his Naval Academy ring, a nervous habit dating back to childhood when he wore his father's Naval Academy ring on his thumb with some yarn wrapped around it to make it stay put.
As usual Harm got to the heart of the matter and reminded them all of the big picture.
There was no argument on Harm's statement.
Even though he hated to do it, the Admiral brought the meeting to order.
"Since Lieutenant Commander Roberts will not be returning to JAG even after his recovery his cases need to be reassigned," Chegwidden said. "Mac, I want you to take over the Selo Article 32 and the Arehan appeal. Brumby, I want you to continue on the Swartzer investigation. Harm, you can handle the paperwork on the Camplain Court Marshall."
"Aye, aye, sir," the three lawyers said, all wondering why Harm had been given nothing more than paperwork when he was the senior lawyer and the best litigator at JAG.
"Dismissed," Chegwidden said. "Commander Rabb, stay a moment," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Mac shot Harm a what did you do now? look as she followed Brumby out of the room. Harm was asking himself the same question. He hadn't been in the field in a week and he hadn't pulled any stunts in the courtroom for almost a month; he couldn't have possibly pissed the Admiral off.
"I realize this is not what you need right now, Commander," the Admiral started, "but I have to go to San Diego for a few weeks and I need you to be acting JAG. I'll be leaving after work today so you need to make sure you are on time tomorrow morning."
Harm nodded, not sure what to say.
"I've left a list of things for you to take care of with Petty Officer Coates. Tiner is supposed to be in tomorrow morning but if Harriet needs him to watch little AJ just get him to call Coates in. Bud's replacement is already on the way; she should be ready to start work by Wednesday," Chegwidden continued. "I want you to make sure things run smoothly here while I'm gone."
"Consider it done, sir," Harm said.
"Good. I also want you to keep my informed on Commander Roberts' condition," Chegwidden said.
"Yes sir," Harm nodded.
"Dismissed," Chegwidden said, remaining seated at the conference room table. Harm stood at attention before leaving the room, closing the door on his way out.
He had barely made it out of the conference room when Mac fell in step beside him. "What did you do to piss him off now?" she asked.
"Nothing," Harm said honestly as he opened the door to his office. "The Admiral has to go to San Diego for a while and he's made me acting JAG."
"Congratulations," Mac said with a soft smile.
"Thank you," Harm said, sinking down into his chair. It felt good to be home. "Um… I was going to go over and see little AJ tonight… wanna come with?"
"Definitely," Mac said. She checked her internal clock and cringed. "I've gotta go. Court in eight minutes. Are we still on for lunch?" she asked. Harm nodded and Mac flashed him a brilliant smile before retreating from his office and heading toward the elevators.
The JAG office was eerily quiet. Even the phones weren't ringing. It was as if the entire world was giving the office a break to regain their footing before burying them under the usual crap.
As Harm looked out through the window that made up the front wall of his office he couldn't help but think that this was just the calm before the storm.
ANNAPOLIS NAVAL ACADEMY
1300 (EST)
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
SATURDAY, JULY 15
It was little AJ's first trip to the Naval Academy, and, though he would probably never remember the outing, it was a big thing for both his parents and his godfather, Harmon Rabb, Jr. His godmother, Sarah MacKenzie, had been whispering stories about the joys of going to Officer's Candidacy School all morning, something that Harm maintained was a plot to seduce the infant away from Annapolis.
As alumni from Annapolis, Harriet and Harm had been invited to the graduation ceremony. Bud and Mac were both OCS graduates, but had agreed to come only because Harriet planned on bringing little AJ and they wanted to be there for his first official navy outing.
AJ was silent through the ceremony, almost as if he knew that it wouldn't be wise to throw a tantrum when everyone else wasn't making a sound, but, once the ceremony part was over and everyone started milling around, looking for old friends or family members, AJ let his feelings on his dirty diaper be known to one and all.
"I'll be back," Harriet said apologetically, taking the diaper bag from Bud and heading off to the nearest washroom.
Harm watched as Harriet and a thoroughly distressed AJ made their way through the crowd and, once they were out of sight, he turned to Mac. "Nervous, Marine?" he teased.
"Why would I be nervous?" Mac asked, standing up a little straighter.
"Because you're surrounded by all things Navy," Harm said with a shit-eating grin.
"There are Marines here," Mac shot back. "Besides, I have no reason to be afraid of the Navy."
Harm laughed. "Okay, truce," he said, holding up his hands to show he wasn't armed with any more comments.
"Truce," Mac nodded firmly. "Okay, Squid, it's time for my tour. If I don't hear some stories directly from the horses mouth about your time here I'll just have to call up Jack Keeter and see what he is willing to share."
Cringing visibly at the thought of what Keeter would be willing to share with Mac, Harm put his hand on the small of her back and led her away from the throngs of people. Bud had wandered off to find some old friends of his from his days on the Seahawk.
They were about half way through the grounds when the first shot was fired.
Harm pushed Mac behind a building, his hand blindly finding hers even as they scanned the area to see if they could spot a shooter.
"What do you think?" Harm asked. He knew weapons well enough, but Mac was better trained in automatic weapons.
"At least three shooters," Mac said, listening hard and trying to spot the perpetrators. It was an impossible task, though, as the shots had sent half the people on campus into a panic and the other half into action, which, without weapons, basically meant trying to keep everyone else calm and out of the line of fire. "All sporting AK-47's. I can't see anyone, though. This isn't just a final test, is it?" she asked hopefully.
"Unless they've changed the grad ceremony since I left, no," Harm said as he looked around, trying to remember the layout of the campus, where the training ground was, where all the nooks and crannies were. "There's one," he said after a minute, pointing to a man, all dressed in green cammies, crouched down behind a row of bushes.
Mac searched the grounds as well, and followed the flying bullets back to the muzzle flashes. "There's another one," Mac said, pointing to a large oak tree where another gunman was shooting down on the crowd from above. Her dark brown eyes scanned the rest of the quad until she found the third shooter inside a shed with the business end of a weapon she herself had used on more than one occasion in the past. "There have to be weapons on campus," Mac said.
"The armoury, though here," Harm said, pointing down the breezeway and to the left. "We can get there without being seen," he added even as they started running down the covered walkway together, their hands still linked, acting as a tether to reality for each other.
Halfway down the hall Mac's left heel broke off. She let go of Harm's hand as she stopped and pulled the uniform shoes off, tossing them to the side of the hallway before racing to catch up with Harm who, after faltering for a moment, had kept running.
They had to get to the armoury.
Harm just prayed that whoever was attacking the campus hadn't already hit it.
ROBERTS RESIDENCE
1849 (EST)
ROSSYLN, VIRGINIA
MONDAY, JULY 17
Harm and Mac had both gone home to change into civilian clothing before going to visit their godson. Harm called the house while he waited for Mac to come over, wanting to make sure that it was still alright that they come visit. Harriet would still be at the hospital, he knew, and he wanted to see her, as well, but his first priority was little AJ.
Even though he hated to admit it, Harm felt that little AJ was probably the closest thing he would ever get to having a son of his own, and, since he had the unfortunate experience of losing his father at a young age, he felt he needed to be there for AJ to help him understand why he was incredibly lucky.
Of course, since AJ was only a few months old, his biggest problem was that he was getting his mommy-milk from a bottle instead of straight from the source because babies weren't exactly welcome in the ICU where Bud was still in what the doctors assured Harriet was not a coma, though was a coma-like state.
Petty Officer Jason Tiner answered the door, looking like he was dead on his feet. "Commander, Colonel," Tiner said, standing at attention even though he looked like he barely had the energy to do that.
"At ease, Tiner," Harm said, fighting the urge to laugh.
"How long have you been here?" Mac asked as they entered the townhouse and hung up their coats.
"Since Lieutenant Simms left for the hospital," Tiner said.
"I'm calling you a cab and you're going home to get some sleep," Harm said. Tiner opened his mouth to protest but Harm beat him to it. "I'll make it an order if I have to, Tiner. Mac and I can take care of little AJ. You're dead on your feet."
"You're sure you don't mind, sir, ma'am?" Tiner asked as Harm picked up the phone from the table in the hall and started dialling the number for a cab company.
"We came over to spend time with our godson," Mac said in a reassuring tone. "Just go get some sleep. And I don't want to see you at work tomorrow, either. Coates can cover for you."
"I don't want to make the Admiral angry…" Tiner said hesitantly.
"The Admiral is leaving for San Diego right about now," Harm said while waiting on hold. "I'm acting JAG and I don't see there being any problems with you taking a day to rest up. Just make sure you ask Jen nicely," he said with a smirk. It was no secret that Jason Tiner and Jennifer Coates were what some people called 'the next Harriet and Bud' of the JAG office.
Twenty minutes later Tiner was on his way home and Harm and Mac were giving AJ his bath, a nightly ritual brought on by necessity because AJ invariably found some way to get some sticky, slimy, gooey, or generally disgusting substance all over his body. Harm knew it was just what babies did, and only complained a little when some of the aforementioned sticky-slimy-gooey-disgusting substance hit the ceiling and he was relegated to kitchen-cleanup because there was no way Mac would be able to reach that high even with a stepladder.
After bath time came the task of getting the wiggle worm into his terry-cloth PJ's. Little AJ was happier without clothing, especially pyjamas because that meant bedtime, but after struggling for a few minutes he gave himself over to exhaustion and fell asleep as Mac tucked his chubby little arms into the sleeves before buttoning up the front of the pale green sleeper.
"You're good at that," Harm said as Mac got AJ settled in his crib. "You're gonna be a great mother."
"If it ever happens," Mac shrugged.
Neither one brought up the offer that Harm had instigated on the day of AJ's birth.
Their eyes met in the room where the only light came from a cartoon-shaped nightlight beside the crib, and a flash of desire hit them both. Harm stepped out of the doorway, moving toward Mac as she started crossing the room toward Harm.
The sound of the front door opening downstairs ruined the moment, though, in the same way so many other moments between them had been ruined before.
I know it doesn't seem like it now, but this is not going to be a Harm/Mac story.
What do you think so far?
M