Chapter 3

North of Union Station
Harm's apartment
0530 local

The phone ringing at 0530 normally would have awakened Harm. This morning he was already dressed for work and heading out the door. It was Frank saying they'd been able to get away much earlier than planned and would be in DC by nine thirty east coast time. Because there wasn't enough room at the apartment, they would go and check into the hotel before meeting him at 1130.

Frank reminded him that the Navy's family law department could represent him if he and Shannon couldn't come to an agreement amicably. He told Frank that Mac would represent him if needed. Harm had a sinking feeling fighting for custody could easily end up in a nasty court battle. She had unlimited funds at her disposal. He hoped family court was a little more responsive to his chances for custody with a biological child. He knew that because Mattie was a teenaged female, besides not being biologically his, in no way a relative, the judge had not granted him guardianship of Mattie. She'd returned to her father, very reluctantly. His work at JAG had suffered since. He'd done his job but he knew his days of glowing reviews of his job performance were behind him. The spark was no longer there. He decided after Christmas that he would stick it out, until his twenty years were in and then he would leave. He just hadn't decided what he would do but since he still had a year and a half or so and his options were wide open.

JAG HQ
Falls Church VA
0758 local

Harm arrived at JAG before six. He'd given up trying to sleep about 0430 tossing and turning, thinking about the last few days he and Shannon were together. He racked his brain trying to remember if he'd seen any signs of Shannon's unhappiness. What had he ignored or not seen? He realized she had been unhappy, at the time he chalked it up to the fact he was going to be gone for nearly six months and Shannon was going to be with an energetic preschooler all the time.

He tried to reach Mac, to meet him for coffee, but she did not return his phone call until nearly seven, she'd gone for a longer than usual run that morning and was actually running a little behind schedule. She told him she would meet with him for a few minutes before the workday started. Mac was unable to meet with him, a stalled semi, delayed her arrival until the start of the workday. Mac said she would try to meet with him during the morning as she hurried to her office. Just knowing he could talk to her, as intimate close friends, made him be able to face the day.

The court martial scheduled for this morning seemed an open and shut case, his client innocent. Harm had felt sure enough about the case he had not taken the file to study while on the Patrick Henry. He hoped the court-martial would be over quickly, the upcoming meeting with Shannon was worrying him, he did not know why she was coming to him.

Chapter 4

JAG headquarters
Courtroom
1115 local

The grey clouds outside fit Harm's mood. He'd just completed his worst morning as an attorney. A week and a half ago he had to take lead on a case on the Henry. The case had been comparatively easy; however, during the course of his investigation, he'd had several run- ins with the CAG and the skipper over the way he was handling the case. The skipper had only recently been promoted and was, in Harm's opinion, trying too hard to run a tight ship.' The CAG had not helped matters, since he had been a close friend of Mace, Harm's RIO. He'd never forgiven or forgotten Harm was piloting the plane
during the ramp strike over a decade earlier. It did not help both were temporary replacements while the skipper and the CAG got back from to take emergency leave. The skipper of the Henry, had been forced to take emergency family leave when his daughter had been killed by a drunk driver. His CAG, a good friend of Harm's had the misfortune of catching a particularly virulent case of the flu and had been quarantined in sickbay the entire time. Harm had used some of his courtroom tactics to get the case solved. To the acting skipper and CAG, it had seemed that Harm had gone outside the perimeters set forth in the USMJ. The case had taken much longer than anticipated to complete and he hadn't returned until very lateSunday night. Because of the supposedly minor infractions, Harm hadn't taken any notes on his current case, thinking he would be back in two days, therefore this morning he had been woefully unprepared.

He knew the admiral would talk with him about his conduct on board the Henry. The temporary CAG and skipper had informed Harm that the admiral would be advised of his conduct' while on board. The Lewis court-martial shouldn't have progressed passed an article 32 hearing according the facts as Harm saw them. His actions before a break just skirted a contempt citation. It was, easily, the worst performance as an attorney he'd done. Chegwidden stepped into the courtroom to evaluate him, something he did on a regular basis. Sturgis, the opposing counsel, easily found a hole in his prime witnesses' account as large as a football stadium. The comment Harm made to himself when this occurred was louder than it should have been and would have put him in the brig any other day, Admiral Morris, however, gave him a warning. Morris advised Harm his next outburst would result in contempt of court. Admiral Morris' wife had just called with news of a birth of a grandchild, the relaying of that information was reason for the brief recess and the magnanimous mood.

It seemed to Harm ever since Mac had been the judiciary branch was onto his tricks. Admiral Chegwidden quietly re-entered the courtroom to watch. It seemed as if the wheels came off the cart of Harm's defense. His next witness, the defendant's brother was unable to keep his story straight and the testimony discredited by Sturgis.

His client recognized the warning signs, leaned over and whispered to Harm, "I want to change my plea now; before they throw the book at me".

The court-martial over, Chegwidden stood and strode over to the commander. Harm inwardly gulped. "My office Rabb, now" he growled.

Turner gave him a look of sympathy; the admiral had been like a bear for a while, the staff knew he had broken his engagement to the professor and apparently, Rabb had broken the straw on the camels back. The last time the admiral had appeared that livid at someone on staff it was an unfortunate Tiner.

When they reached the office, AJ ordered Coates to hold all calls short of another attack on Washington'. What followed was without a doubt the worst dressing-down Harm ever had. This included the lecture his mother gave after his return from Vietnam at sixteen. Harm swore to himself never to get in a situation so the admiral was that livid at him ever again. While he stood there at attention there were a few times Harm was sure the admiral was going to burst a blood vessel. The admiral told him he was sorry that he'd asked Harm to return because with a few exceptions he had not been the same attorney the admiral had known less than a year ago. Harm was in the woodshed. To summarize the admiral he was informed that any possibility of promotion to captain most likely would not happen when he was eligible for it. For one thing, he had lost nearly six months of eligibility when he was with the CIA. The admiral told him one more major screw-up and he would find himself a very large black mark on his record.