0615 hours
San Antonio, Texas
Meg took a slow breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly. She knew she could trust Harm and she did want to talk about what was bothering her.
"Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt me or that's it," Meg said sternly. Harm nodded and shut his mouth, too happy that Meg was going to open up to him to risk saying something to shut her down.
"It's like this…" Meg said. "When I left JAG… I was… kinda pregnant."
"Kinda?" Harm asked sceptically. "How were you kinda pregnant?"
"I was pregnant. Three months, give or take a week," Meg said. "I didn't even know until after I woke up after I was shot… I almost lost her before I even knew about her… and then mom got sick and, well, coming here seemed like the best thing to do for everyone."
Harm, though happy for his friend, was angry and hurt. "You have a daughter and you never told me?" he asked, making no effort to hide how much her secret hurt him.
"I… didn't know how I could," Meg said lamely. "I found out and everything was so weird at work with Krennik and the shooting and all the investigations we were getting and… and then you went on your little sailing expedition with whatever her name is and you ended up being tortured… and then there was that whole ordeal with Dianne… and there just didn't seem to be a right time."
"And since then? I've been to see you at least twenty times; we've talked on the phone at least once a week since you left DC," Harm said.
Meg nodded and then looked down at her hands. "I can't count the number of times I picked up the phone… even dialled your number," she said honestly. "A few times I got your machine and… I couldn't tell your answering machine what I wasn't even sure I could tell you in person. A few other times women would answer or you would but there would be a female voice in the background and… I lost my nerve."
"Who… I mean, I didn't… I didn't know you were… seeing anyone… before," Harm said somewhat awkwardly. He could ask total strangers about their sex lives in a court of law but one of his best friends left him tongue-tied when it came to who was the father of her baby.
"I wasn't seeing anyone," Meg said. "An old boyfriend from college came for a visit… we had some wine… and things got carried away… and nine months later I'm screaming bloody murder and using language that would make the hardcorest of sailors blush."
She opened a drawer and pulled out a framed photograph. "This is Lily Aurora Kayla Austin," Meg said.
"Why Lily?" Harm asked as he looked at the picture. It looked just like Meg did in the few baby pictures he'd caught glimpses of over the years.
"It's kinda corny, but every time her father would pick me up for a date he would bring me a lily. It was a thing between us… and I wanted her to have something of her daddy's," Meg said.
"That's not corny. That's incredibly sweet," Harm said. "I'm assuming that her father isn't involved with her life."
"Not in the strictest of senses," Meg nodded. "He pays for her schooling and I send him her school picture every year at Christmas. They've never met, though. When I told him that I was pregnant he wanted proof that the baby was his—like I was sleeping with the entire male population of the Navy and I'd decided that he was the easiest mark for child support payments or something. Completely ruined our friendship. We haven't spoken since I handed him the paternity test results."
"I'm sorry," Harm said softly. He knew what it was like to grow up without a father—they both did—but he couldn't imagine never even getting to meet your father.
Meg shrugged. "It's better this way. He's not the 'daddy' type, and he's the type of guy who, if he did settle down and have kids, he would have his wife stay home and do the whole 'wife in the fifties' deal. Not really my scene."
"Though the idea of you in an apron and pearls is intriguing," Harm smirked. Meg threw a balled up piece of paper at his head, hitting him in the forehead. "That was mature," he said, picking up the paper and tossing it in the trash.
"I try," Meg smiled, albeit briefly. "Mom and I didn't want her to be around to watch her grandmother die, so Lily goes to a boarding school in Huston. I hate being away from her all the time, especially since she's so young, but I remember when my dad was sick… watching him slowly fade away was torture. I never want my daughter to feel that way."
"She won't," Harm promised, putting the frame on Meg's desk. "Is Lily the reason you had me set up that trust fund clause in your mother's will?" Meg nodded. "You could have told me about Lily when you had me do that," Harm pointed out.
"Please, I can't deal with a guilt trip on top of everything else right now," Meg said plaintively.
Harm sobered up immediately. Something was rotten in the state of Texas, and Harm as determined to find out what. "Meg, did something happen to your daughter?"
"I've been getting… notes… threats, I guess, for a few months now," Meg said. She couldn't see any reason to keep it a secret any longer. "I got this with my messages this morning," she added, handing Harm the note she had clutched in her hand since reading it almost two hours before.
JAG Headquarters
0751 hours
San Antonio, Texas"Damn it, Harm, where the hell are you?" Mac muttered after taking another lap of the conference table that she had already circled a dozen times. Without Harm there to bounce ideas off of the droning hum of the fluorescent lights was her only companion. To take her mind off of Harm she spent several minutes seriously wondering about how stable the mental state and how high the intelligence levels were of the people who had decided it would be a good idea to put annoying fluorescent lights in office buildings, hospitals, schools, and pretty much every public building in seventy percent of the populated world.
Even accounting for her partner's tendency to be late, Mac couldn't see why it was taking so long for Harm to leave Meg's office. He had promised half an hour, tops. But, then again, Mac didn't think that whatever was bothering Meg Austin would be easily extracted from the unassuming woman. Meg looked like the girl next door, yet, since arriving in Texas, Mac had learned that the slim blonde was anything but an innocent little girl.
Mac was about two seconds from paging him when she realized that, had the night before not happened, she wouldn't have been so worried. It would have just been Harm being Harm. And one of the things that Mac had promised herself before entering into a relationship with Harmon Rabb Jr was that their new status would not change their working relationship.
Armed with that thought Mac stopped acting like the worried girlfriend and started acting like a lawyer and a logical woman.
"They probably just went out for coffee," Mac said aloud, the conference room eerily quiet.
Deciding that Harm had taken Meg out for coffee so they could talk away from the prying eyes and ears at JAG—she of all people knew how quickly rumours and scuttlebutt flew through a JAG office—Mac settled in for some heavy-duty reading.
The school had sent Ryan Wade's files to the office and Mac had picked them up that morning. The file was fairly thick, which intrigued Mac because Ryan had only started there in September.
Ten pages into the file Mac hit paydirt.
Like I said before, Meg will not be evil and she will not try to tear Harm and Mac apart.
Sorry for the cliffhanger chapterfollowing a cliffhanger chapter, especially since this chpater was a double cliffie.
What did you think?
M