DISCLAIMER: For all intents purposes, no one has died on the show (except Diane). I claim author's privilege on this one and say that many of these characters just mysteriously disappeared from the lives of Harm and Mac, or if you like, I brought them back from the dead.
I own very little…Webster's defines the words, Bellasario owns the characters, I create the plot.
AN: I feel the need to point out that what the characters say may not be how things actually went down, just how they saw things. And, it was Chechnya, not Russia, in the last chapter. Thanks to those who corrected that. Sorry this is late, homework buried me for a couple days and I was finally able to emerge to breathe. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! You'll never know how much they make my day/week!
CHAPTER 4: Renee, Jason, Skates
JUDGE Q. PIDD: (bangs his gavel) Quiet! Quiet! Recess is over. We will now here from the next witness.
PROSECUTOR: (glances down at the long list) Would Ms. Renee Peterson please take the stand?
At the name, Harm slumped down in his seat. He was doomed. The things Renee would surely tell the court. At least she didn't know about what else was happening that night her father died. If she knew that Mac had come to see him, for whatever reasons that were not related to work, she would have no doubt thrown it in his face long ago and bring it up now. Mac rolled her eyes as the blond woman took the stand. Nothing had changed much about Renee, that she could tell. She still had the little smirk. Mac couldn't wait to hear what Renee would say.
PROSECUTOR: Ms. Peterson, I understand you dated Harm for some time?
RENEE: Over a year.
PROSECUTOR: Over a year? Wow. And in that time, you must have seen a lot of him and Mac together.
RENEE: (snorts with laughter) The two of them were never far apart. No matter how hard I tried.
PROSECUTOR: You tried to get them apart?
RENEE: I was so happy when Harm said he would be going to do his quals the same week as her wedding. I had hoped he would miss the wedding completely, but instead he crashed in the ocean and Mac put off the wedding.
PROSECUTOR: Why did you hope that he missed the wedding?
RENEE: Because I was afraid he was going to stop it. It was so obvious that he was in love with her. Sometimes, in bed, he'd say her name instead of mine. He didn't think I could hear it, but I did. He was so in love with her.
At that statement, Harm buried his face in his hands and refused to look up at anyone. How could he face Mac with her knowing something like that?
PROSECUTOR: I take it you were not friends with Mac then?
RENEE: With that woman? Are you kidding me? She toys with men's hearts and minds, leads them about on a string while playing with another. She was supposed to be getting married to Mic!
PROSECUTOR: Ma'am, please, calm yourself.
RENEE: (smoothing her hair down) I am calm. Now what else would you like to know?
PROSECUTOR: Could you talk about some of the events that led up to that weekend where Harm was doing his quals?
RENEE: Harm had never been fully committed to me, not when Mac was around. No matter how hard I pushed things or how many hints I dropped, his actions made it perfectly clear that he would never marry me. Sometimes, I think he was just stringing me along until Mac was available. She followed him everywhere. Every trip, ever little "investigation" that he went on, she was there, right behind him. She just kept toying with him and Brumby.
PROSECUTOR: What happened the night of her and Mic's engagement party?
RENEE: She and Harm spent most of the party out on Chegwidden's porch. I wanted to go out there and break them up, but Mic held me back. He told me to let them have this time to say their good-byes. Mic seemed so sure that all they were doing was just talking out there.
PROSECUTOR: Do you think they were doing other things besides talking?
RENEE: Something happened that night, when they came back in, there was even more tension between them. Harm would hardly look at me for the rest of the night and he certainly didn't want to talk about her engagement or her upcoming wedding!
PROSECUTOR: So what happened the weekend of Mac's wedding?
RENEE: Harm went away for his quals. (her voice changing to a bitter tone) He was in such a hurry to get back that he flew through a storm. Or at least tried to. He ended up crashing in the Atlantic. Somehow Mac got one of her visions and was able to find where he was in the sea. She kept pushing her wedding back, saying that she wanted to wait until Harm was better. Finally Brumby just gave up and went back to Australia. What was so interesting was that when Harm was rescued and moved to that military hospital…Bethesda or whatever it's called, he didn't even remember me! Oh, he remembered her, all right! But no, he couldn't even remember my name or the fact that we had been dating for over a year!
PROSECUTOR: Ms. Peterson.
RENEE: (voice raising) Of course, he would remember her. It's all his fault that Mac cancelled the wedding! If he wasn't so in love with her, he wouldn't have flown through that damn storm! I was supposed to marry Harm! He was supposed to be mine!
PROSECUTOR: Ms. Peterson, please calm down.
RENEE: (yelling) She was supposed to marry Brumby! Brumby was supposed to take her to Australia, away from Harm, so he and I could get married! That little witch ruined all my plans when she cancelled her wedding!
JUDGE Q. PIDD: Ms. Peterson, please, calm down or I will have to remove you from the courtroom.
RENEE: She ruined my life! That mousy little Colonel ruined all my hard work and planning! How dare she come along and steal my man!
Everyone in the courtroom just stared at the blond woman throwing her temper tantrum. It was quite a sight to see her face growing red with anger, to see her shaking her fists at Mac.
Then everyone gasped as Renee launched herself out of the witness stand and towards the defense table, with the obvious intention of aiming for Mac.
JUDGE Q. PIDD: Ms. Peterson! Guards!
Harm just watched as his ex-girlfriend threw herself at Mac. He continued to watch as Mac grabbed Renee's arm and with the combined force of the blonde's momentum and Mac's own strength, flipped her over the table and to the ground.
Renee continued to scream and berate the Marine as she was pinned to the ground. Several guards, dressed rather oddly in toga-like garments and with wings on their backs, entered the room, took hold of Renee and led her, still kicking and screaming, out one of the doors.
Everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at her removal.
"Great job, marine," Harm said, giving her a grateful smile.
"Should've done that a long time ago." She grinned back.
"I wish you would have."
JUDGE Q. PIDD: Now that Ms. Peterson has been properly taken care of, will the prosecution please call their next witness?
PROSECUTOR: Would Petty Officer Jason Tiner please take the stand?
Both Harm and Mac were curious as to why Tiner was taking the stand. Had there been events that he had seen they didn't know about? What was he going to say?
As soon as Tiner took the stand, the prosecutor began her questioning.
PROSECUTOR: Petty Officer, you worked at JAG HQ for a time, did you not?
TINER: I did.
PROSECUTOR: You attended the Colonel's engagement party, correct?
TINER: Yes, ma'am.
PROSECUTOR: Did anything unusual happen at that party between Commander Rabb and Colonel MacKenzie?
TINER: The Commander and the Colonel spent much of the evening out on the Admiral's porch. Towards the end of the party, the Admiral sent me outside to get them so we could bring the cake out.
PROSECUTOR: What happened?
TINER: It was awkward, ma'am, the tension between the two of them. After I told them that it was time to come inside to cut the cake, the Commander subtly dismissed me. I had just shut the door and was about to head towards the kitchen when I looked out the window at them.
PROSECUTOR: What were they doing?
TINER: They were kissing. Rather passionately.
PROSECUTOR: Kissing?
TINER: Yes, ma'am.
Once again, Harm and Mac's faces burned with embarrassment and in remembrance of the heat of that particular kiss. They had thought that no one had seen them and now, to have that secret told in front of all their family, friends, and colleagues…well, the embarrassment just kept piling up for them.
PROSECUTOR: Is there anything else you saw or heard between the Commander and the Colonel that is of particular interest?
(AN: I can't remember and can't find proof of whether Tiner was there when Harriet gave birth to little AJ, so unless someone can prove me wrong, he was there)
TINER: The day that Lieutenant Simms gave birth to little AJ.
PROSECUTOR: What happened that day?
TINER: After the Lieutenant had given birth and was taken away in an ambulance, I was turning to head back up to the office, when I accidentally overheard a conversation between the Commander and the Colonel.
PROSECUTOR: And what was the conversation about?
Both Harm and Mac gasped instantly as it hit them what conversation he was about to reveal. The baby deal!
TINER: Colonel MacKenzie seemed to be sad that she seemed to be "hitting the snooze button" on her biological clock. Commander Rabb suggested that if in five years from that day, if neither of them were in a relationship, that they would "go halves on a kid".
PROSECUTOR: They were making a deal to have a baby together?
TINER: Yes, ma'am. The Colonel seemed a bit surprised at the Commander's idea, but they both agreed on it.
PROSECUTOR: So even though they weren't dating or married or anything, they were agreeing to have a baby together?
TINER: That's what it seemed like.
PROSECUTOR: Interesting promise between two people who are just partners. Thank you, Petty Officer, you may return to your seat.
Harm and Mac couldn't believe it. Not only had Tiner seen them kiss on the Admiral's porch, he had also heard them making the baby deal. How was that possible that two of the best moments in their lives were heard and seen by him?
PROSECUTOR: I'd like to call Lieutenant Elizabeth Hawkes to the stand.
It took Mac a minute to remember how exactly they knew Lieutenant Hawkes. Harm was delighted to see his part-time RIO again and was even happier to see the glint of a wedding ring on her hand and wings on her uniform. She had not given up flying after all.
PROSECUTOR: You are a RIO, correct?
HAWKES: Yes, ma'am. When Hammer flies, I am often his RIO.
PROSECUTOR: Hammer?
HAWKES: That is Commander Rabb's call sign.
PROSECUTOR: Were you his RIO the time when he was trying to make it back to D.C. in time for Mac's wedding?
HAWKES: Yes, I was, ma'am.
PROSECUTOR: Please tell us about that flight, the circumstances surrounding it.
HAWKES: Commander Rabb had come out to complete his quals. Hammer is an excellent, well-skilled pilot; always focused on the task at hand. Only this trip, he seemed to be a bit off. His flying was still top-notch and he was still focused, but he seemed to be a bit anxious.
PROSECUTOR: Anxious? Do you have any idea why?
HAWKES: I can only assume that it had to do with him wanting to make it back for Colonel MacKenzie's wedding. When his quals were finished, he was trying to push to leave immediately. A storm had come up, but Hammer was determined to leave as soon as possible. Finally, the Skipper agreed to let him fly out at the first sign of a break in the storm. I volunteered to be his RIO on the flight back to D.C.
PROSECUTOR: What happened on that flight?
HAWKES: The storm only got worse. We were dodging thunderstorms right and left. Finally, we were forced to fly right through a storm cell. It zapped the bird's power and we were forced to eject. I was rescued only a few hours later and taken back to the Seahawk. It seems that they spent hours searching the seas to try to find Hammer.
PROSECUTOR: What happened when they finally found him?
HAWKES: I was told that Colonel MacKenzie had had a vision and had pinpointed a spot on the map of where Hammer could be found. The rescue crew found him at that exact spot and brought him back to the Seahawk. Hammer almost crashed on us a few times, but he made it.
Mac turned to Harm, her expression worried. "You never told me you almost died several times."
"Mac, Sarah, I don't remember much of what happened then."
"And I'll never understand why you pushed so hard to come back, why you just had to fly through a storm," she continued.
"You were getting married, Sarah. I wanted to be there for that," he told her.
HAWKES: We were both then shipped to Bethesda.
PROSECUTOR: Why do you think that Commander Rabb was in such a hurry to make it back, so much that he would fly through a dangerous storm?
HAWKES: Colonel MacKenzie was getting married. It was obvious he wanted to be there for that. To be present at your best friend's wedding is understandable, but there's always been something more between Hammer and Colonel MacKenzie. More than just partners, more than just best friends.
PROSECUTOR: Lovers maybe? Boyfriend/girlfriend?
HAWKES: Hammer and Colonel MacKenzie are very respectable, highly honored lawyers and military. They would not do anything that would go against the UCMJ. They may be a bit unorthodox at times, but they both love the law.
PROSECUTOR: Do you think that that is why they have never gone past the point of just being partners and best friends? Because of the UCMJ regulations on fraternization?
HAWKES: I can only assume.
PROSECUTOR: Just one more question. Why did you come to be here today?
HAWKES: For any man to fly through a storm like that and fight to live just for a woman's wedding…there have to be deeper feelings than just best friends.
PROSECUTOR: Thank you, you can return to your seat.
JUDGE Q. PIDD: We'll take a short recess now. Thank you.
Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!