A/N: We get it, we get it! You guys hate Meg. On some small levels, we're disappointed because to us it means we deviated too far from the character. Luckily for you, this is the last chapter in which Meg plays any real significant role.

Guest Starring:

Tom Skerritt as General Jack Ross

Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Detective Sergeant Stephen Ross

1923 ZULU

DONNY'S ICE CREAM

PENTAGON CITY, VIRGINIA

"No way, Mac, Catwoman was by far a better role model for women then Wonder Woman was." Nate argued as they walked back toward his apartment.

"State your case." Mac replied as she took a lick from her ice cream cone. Being a man, Nate paused for a second and watched as drops of the vanilla soft serve ran stray from her lips and his mind raced with innuendo and imagery.

"Think, Wonder Woman dealt in BS, the lasso of truth? Come on, Catwoman was by far the more feminist icon. She was a modern woman who was very much in control of her sexuality. Besides, her costume left much more to the imagination then Wonder Woman's." Nate argued as he took a spoonful of his sundae.

"A tight leather cat-suit leaves more to the imagination?" Mac replied disbelievingly.

"Of course." Nate replied emphatically.

"I have a little wager in mind then smart guy." Mac toyed lightly.

"You're on, MacKenzie." Nate replied in his best John Wayne impersonation.

"Here's the score. A race back to your apartment, I win and you wear anything I want to Sturgis and Bobbi's costume party next week. You win and you get to pick my costume." Mac looked Nate square in the eye, conveying the utmost seriousness.

"You're on Marine, you're so going down." Nate replied. Mac started walking a little faster.

"Go!" She yelled and she took off with a pretty fair head start. Mac went sprinting around the corner toward the apartment at a pretty frantic pace, with Nate catching fast on her heels once he found his stride. Mac was a little less that a block from the apartment when Nate passed her and she tried frantically to up her pace. She wasn't paying attention to where she was running and she wrenched her ankle in a crack in the cement of the sidewalk. She hit the pavement with a thud and within seconds, Nate was at her side.

"Mac!" Nate knelt down and found one pissed off Marine in pain.

"You're getting too fast." Mac replied with a sardonic laugh.

"Alright, Marine, no way you're walking the rest of the way and the stairs in my building." Nate hoisted Mac on to his back in the piggy-back position.

"Oh great, I now have my own personal horse." Mac replied and Nate imitated the sound of a horse whinnying. "Complete with sound effects." Mac added. Nate carried her the rest of the way to his apartment and up the stairs in his building, cracking jokes the whole way in an attempt to lighten Mac's mood. They rounded the corner to the hallway in front of Nate's apartment to find a woman in her late fifties standing in front of Nate's door.

"Nathan!" The woman sounded elated as she walked toward Nate.

"Mom." Nate sounded annoyed as he reached for the keys in his pocket. "Please come in, tell me who died this time that Dad sent you in to talk to me." Nate flung the door open wide and let his mother in, still carrying Mac on his back. He gently lowered Mac to the couch before running to the kitchen to get an ice pack in an effort to keep the swelling down. Nate propped Mac's ankle up on a pillow and Mac held the ice against the swollen foot. "What's going on, Mom?"

"Well dear, as you know, you haven't exactly kept in contact in the last ten years or so." Mrs. Ross started.

"Yeah, well you guys weren't exactly running up the phone bill with calls either, mom." Nate replied as he walked toward the bathroom to get the ankle brace. He came walking back in a few seconds later.

"Yes, well, there's a family barbecue this weekend out at the shore and your father has suggested that —" Mrs. Ross stopped there. "Nathan, are you sure we should be talking in front of her."

"First off, Mom, this is Mac, she's a friend of mine, now that you've been introduced, you don't have to talk about her in the third person like she isn't here. Mac this is my mom, Eileen." Nate handed the brace to Mac who gingerly slid it on over her foot.

"Nice to meet you. Mrs. Ross." Mac grimaced as the brace came up over the bruised and swelling area.

"You too, dear." Eileen Ross replied with a sincerity that bordered on genuine.

"Second, Mom, she's injured so I'm not asking her to move and third, she probably can stomach what you're about to say better then I can." Nate finished and dropped himself into his favourite chair, which had since become Mac's favourite chair normally when she was over.

"As I was saying, there's the barbecue this weekend out at the shore and your father had suggested that you be invited. It would be nice of you to come out and see everyone again." Mrs. Ross sounded reserved.

"Mom, you know that if dad and I get within ten feet of one another, it will develop into a shouting match. For a psychiatrist, mom, you certainly seem to carry a fair set of your own delusions." Nate commented sarcastically.

"Nathan, I certainly didn't raise you to talk that way. Now, you know where the cottage is out at Chincoteague, I figured that I would at least be courteous enough to extend the invitation." Eileen Ross got up off the couch and walked over to the door. "It was lovely meeting you, Mac, dear; if Nathan decides to drag himself out to the shore this weekend I do hope you join him." With that, Eileen Ross left the apartment.

"Welcome to my nightmare." Nate deadpanned as he threw himself down on the couch next to Mac.

SAME TIME

HARM'S APARTMENT

NORTH OF UNION STATION

Harm had to stay late at the Pentagon, well it wasn't that he had to stay late, it was more that he hadn't been afforded the ability to secure early as had Nate and Mike. He was working out of the CNO's office today, trying to formalize legal positions and gathering a few missing AWACS photographs that were noticeably absent from today's intelligence briefings.

He'd had plans to just rent something from Blockbuster and have dinner with Meg at his apartment tonight, but he was going to have to push the plans back a little. Sergei had a meeting with the Captain of the guard for the Russian embassy so he was out for the night. Meg decided to go over to Harm's a surprise him with dinner. A little Texas style vegetarian chilli. Meg found the spare key that Harm had hidden outside his apartment and unlocked the door. She walked in, set the ingredients on the counter and went to work on dinner.

What she was making, was in truth, a deviation on an old family Texas chilli recipe. Normally there was beef in the chilli but Meg just substituted that with a few different veggies and no one was the wiser. She was just adding the Tabasco sauce (a traditional Texas ingredient) when a knock came at the door. Meg stopped what she was doing and ran over to the door. She looked through the peephole before opening the door.

An older woman was on the other side of the door. She looked rather surprised to see Meg there. "This is Harmon Rabb's apartment, isn't it?" The woman asked.

"Oh yes, of course, I was just here making supper, he isn't home from work yet." Meg answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear, Patricia Burnett." Trish extended her hand toward Meg.

"You're Harm's mother!" Meg threw her head back slightly as a wash of understanding came over her. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't expecting you. Please, come in." Meg stepped aside and opened the door wider to let Trish into the apartment.

"Who would you be, dear?" Trish questioned turning toward Meg.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Burnett, I know this must be odd to come to your son's apartment and find some strange woman making dinner for him. My name's Meg, I'm a……friend of Harm's." Meg concluded. She wasn't sure exactly what she was to Harm, she had expressed interest earlier in returning to the way things were while she was first stationed at JAG, but their current friendship had far exceeded that. Harm was……well, affectionate is the wrong word, she reasoned, flirtatiously compassionate with her more often now.

"It would seem odd, but I've become less surprised by Harm's antics in recent years." Trish replied with a wise smile.

"I've heard the stories." Meg laughed nervously. "I was just making some chilli but I think it could use a mother's touch, what do you say?"

"Chilli for Harm? How could I turn down a chance to help with a dinner like that?" Trish laughed light-heartedly

SAME TIME

NATE ROSS' APARTMENT

PENTAGON CITY, VIRGINIA

The room went dead silent after Mrs. Ross left. Nate was busy wearing a hole in the floor because of his pacing and Mac was very amused watching her normally composed friend, drive himself insane.

"Are you going to go?" Mac asked as she continued to ice down her ankle.

"I don't really have a choice, if I don't go, Mom and Dad will pull off this 'our son doesn't love us' routine for the rest of my relatives and I won't be able to talk to them for the remainder of the year. If I go, my dad and I will either fight, or spend the whole day acting like Arafat and Sharon on vacation together." Nate dragged one eyelid in annoyance.

"Talk about playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun." Mac joked and patted the sofa next to her.

"Don't tempt me." Nate retorted as he moved away from the couch. He looked out the window and saw a torrential thunderstorm hitting DC. "I'll go make up the guest room."

"Why?" Mac inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Look outside, you think I'd let you go home in that?" Nate pointed toward the window.

"Nate, I'm a Marine –" Mac started but Nate cut her off.

"So am I, and if I had a messed up ankle and it was raining like that, there'd be no way I'd be going home." Nate headed down the hallway and Mac hobbled after him.

"That's very sweet, but I have no pyjamas. I didn't exactly plan to face-plant into the pavement today." Mac was standing out in the hallway and a pair of sweats flew out of Nate's bedroom an hit her in the face. "Subtle." Mac commented.

"They're from my freshman year at Penn State, I outgrew them and haven't been able to wear them since then." Nate came walking back out of the room.

"Penn State? I thought you went to Princeton?" Mac questioned.

"Penn State undergrad, Princeton for my Masters." Nate leaned up against the wall in the hallway.

"If my Minnesota friends could see me now." Mac commented as she looked down at the sweats. "We used to laugh at the Penn State kids."

"Don't make me show you what we used to do with willing, pretentious Minnesota girls." Nate replied as he turned back toward his bedroom.

"You haven't got it in you, Nittany Lion!" Mac challenged. Nate turned on heel, picked Mac up and threw her over his shoulder. "You would think I would know better then to challenge a Marine." Nate threw her down on the bed. And pounced, bracing his arms and holding himself up in a sort of push up position over her. Mere inches physically separated their bodies, then Nate laughed, smiled and rolled away.

"Night, Golden Gopher." Nate replied as he walked across the floor of the room and out the door.

"He's got to be the only man that's ever had me in that position and not just gone for it." Mac whispered to herself. "A girl could get a complex." She laughed light-heartedly. There was something to be said for that bilge-switch that good men seemed to have. Nate seemed to know how far he could and should carry the joking, even if he pushed the lines farther then Harm ever would have, she thought.

Harm. There was the walking six foot four conundrum that seemed to have her every thought connected with his very being. She'd come to realize a lot of things in the last few weeks, one of which was that Harm and Meg had gotten really close. Harm always took lunch breaks away from the Pentagon at JAG and he always took them with Meg. It was hard not to be jealous, hell it was hard for her not to toss Meg looks that would melt her on the spot, but she was making an effort. She'd realized that she wasn't working with Meg, on anything, it was always Sturgis which was nice or Singer, where she would have preferred Meg.

That was one good thing about having Commander Austin around the office. Singer had to realize that there were more women in her way to the top and learn to deal with it. That was enough to make work entertaining. She would talk to Harm if he had to wait for Meg to get back from court but it was never anything heavy, small talk about current events or what was going on at their respective jobs. The irony was not lost on her about how she was able to read into all the little gazes and touches that Harm and Meg shared as being reflexive of something deeper when only a few months ago, she had been on the receiving end of the same touches and glances and refused to read into them at all.

She realized that she felt guilty and often times, she condemned herself for it. She felt guilty about spending time with Nate like she was when what she thought she ought to be doing was working on herself, being just Mac for a while because if she was honest, she missed that part of her that Harm too missed. She felt guilty every time that she noticed that Nate was attractive because her mind told her that those were observations that were supposed to be meant only for Harm. She lectured herself, because part of her saw Harm with Meg and thought it wrong to sit here and pine when he obviously wasn't doing the same thing.

SAME TIME

HARM'S APARTMENT

NORTH OF UNION STATION

Harm had a grocery bag in one arm and the handle of his briefcase in his teeth as he fumbled through his pocket for his keys. When he heard giggles coming from inside the apartment, he opened the door to find Meg and his mom in the kitchen, making dinner. After walking in on a similar scene transpiring between his mom and Renee, quite a few months earlier, he was given a stern lecture by his mother on choosing the wrong women.

Harm knew that his mom was a damn fine actor. She had Renee completely fooled into believing that she was well-liked but Trish had some very reserved and pointed opinions on that young woman that she was all too willing to share. Even Trish Burnett couldn't fake the amount of fun that she was having right now. Harm could swear that he saw his mother playfully throw a piece of mushroom at Meg who returned fire with a piece of green pepper.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Harm questioned as he let his briefcase fall to the floor.

"No, of course not. Meg and I were just making dinner and having girl talk." Trish walked over and gave her son a big hug. "This one's a keeper, son." She whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, come on, your mother and I were just making some good old Texas vegetarian chilli and you're late." Meg lectured as she finished stirring the pot on the stove.

"Dinner with two beautiful women; who am I to refuse?" Harm smiled as he walked over into the kitchen.

"Harmon, did I tell you that we heard about that performance you put on at the United Nations young man? Frank went into work the next day, with a copy of USA Today, telling everyone that he came across how proud of you he was. He had that newspaper framed, it's hanging in the den, over the fireplace at home." Trish was beaming and Harm repressed a chuckle at his stepfather's enthusiasm.

"Does this mean he's going to stop offering me jobs at Daimler-Chrysler?" Harm inquired.

"Not a chance, he said that it does mean that your potential salary just doubled, though." Trish returned as she took the bag of groceries from her son and started putting them away.

"So, mom, what are you doing in town anyway?" Harm questioned as he stood over the stove with Meg, taking the pot of the burner.

"Do I have to have an excuse to visit my son?" Trish retorted and he got peculiar looks from both his mom and Meg.

"I think it's very nice that your mother came to see you." Meg commented in passing.

"Hey, if you two are going to team up on me, I at least deserve some help." Harm protested.

"Well Sergei should be home any minute shouldn't he?" Meg asked innocently and Harm's eyes went wide as he saw his mother stop in her tracks.

"Ixnay on the Ergei Say." Harm whispered and watched as his mother turned slowly toward him.

"You mean to tell me that he's living with you? Harmon, how could you not tell me about that! I realize that I wasn't exactly the most supportive of you when I found out that he existed but have we grown so far apart that you won't tell me that you're Russian half-brother is living with you in Washington?" His mother started to rant.

"Mom, it just slipped my mind, honestly. Things have been kind of hectic at work, I've spent a few weeks globetrotting recently and in all the excitement, I guess I just kind of forgot to tell you." Harm winced and reeled protectively back near Meg.

"He really has been, Mrs. Burnett, I don't think I've seen Harm use a phone, except for work in weeks and since he's always on call it's kind of tough for him even then." Meg explained and watched as Trish came down off her motherly pulpit.

"I know dear, it's just sometimes this boy can be so stubborn that he thinks he has to take on the world single-handedly. He doesn't realize that the good Lord gave him family and friends to help in that little endeavour." Trish gave her son a pat on the back.

"Why do I get the innate feeling that I'm being trained?" Harm questioned looking from one woman to the other.

"Because you're catching on." Meg replied with a cute smile and every one headed over to the dinner table to eat. The night was basically spent with Trish and Meg exchanging stories and tossing Harm gazes that said 'oh really', every few seconds. Harm was beginning to feel like a teenager whose mommy was chaperoning his date. Is that what this was supposed to be with Meg? A date? The mere prospect dredged the last few months up in a grim comparison. All the personal turmoil had to be shoved aside because this was probably the most fun he'd had in a little while, despite finding the whole thing just a little awkward.

A little while later, his mom decided to head back to her hotel after making lunch plans with Meg for the next day, something which made Harm more than a little nervous. He couldn't have lunch with her because Sturgis and Admiral Chegwidden were coming over to help him with the apartment renovations he was making so that Sergei would have his own room and wouldn't have to bunk on the couch any more. The three of them had developed a most interesting renovating style, they would work for a few hours but it always seemed to turn into them watching TV and drinking beer.

Sergei had insisted Harm get a TV and Harm, having felt guilty about his brother sleeping on the couch, obliged this particular request. Saturday would normally end with Meg or Harriet playing the designated driver and taking them home. So, the prospect of Meg having some fun at lunch with his mother was making him self-conscious but he was happy that his mom finally had someone in DC that she liked to talk to.

So, after his mom left, Harm and Meg settled down on the couch to watch the movie that he had rented. About halfway through, she fell asleep on his chest and a few minutes later, he too was coasting through the dreamscape. Sergei got in from his meeting a little later that evening to find Meg asleep on his brother's chest, wrapped in his brother's arms and sitting where he normally slept. "Way to go, brother!" Sergei whispered happily before heading off to Harm's room to sleep.

1724 ZULU

ROSS COTTAGE

CHINCOTEAGUE, VIRGINIA

"Mac, you really didn't have to come. Seriously, like do you have any idea how many questions that my family is going to ask you? I'm begging you, when I get out of the car, take it and drive back to DC." Nate pleaded as they pulled up to the large turn of the century cottage.

"Come on, it could be fun and since they're never going to be seeing me again, I could lie to your family for you." Mac smiled maniacally as Nate threw the car into park. "I could tell them we're having hot passionate sex for instance." Mac joked and she watched as Nate's features turned to annoyance rather quickly.

"Great, something like that will only lead to more questions. You know, they're already going to make the afternoon hell for me, I don't need you helping them." Nate commented dryly as the two of them climbed out of the car. "I'm begging you, Mac. Drive back to DC, I'll even give you a few bucks to get a few pints of Ben & Jerry's for yourself today." Nate was now going so low as to resort to bribery, something Mac knew he only did when he was really desperate.

"No, your mother invited me and I intend on staying." Mac protested in a no nonsense tone.

"Fine, but you're going to be bored out of your skull." Nate commented as they started walking across the front lawn. A little rugrat kid of about four or five came running across the lawn toward Nate. "Simon Ross, come give your uncle a hug!" Nate demanded as the young man launched himself into his uncle's arms.

"I missed you, Uncle Nate." The young man admitted as Nate lifted him up off the ground. "Who's that?" He questioned looking over at Mac.

"That's my friend Mac." Nate responded.

"She's pretty." Simon giggled and Mac smiled at the young man.

"Well, little boys who call me pretty get to call me 'Sarah'." Mac replied.

"There's a girl named Sarah in my kindeegarten class. She has cooties, do you have cooties?" Simon questioned innocently as Nate lowered him back to the ground.

"Nope, your uncle gave me a cootie shot." Mac replied, playing into little Simon's game.

"I'll just bet he did." A new voice said and Mac looked up from the young man who had been talking to her.

"Nice to see you too, Steve." Nate commented. "Mac, this is my little brother, detective sergeant Stephen Ross. Steve this is Mac."

"No, no, this woman is too pretty to share a name with a transport truck. What's her name, Nate?" Steve protested.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie." Mac extended her hand, her use of rank caught Nate's brother off guard.

"Marines, Grunts or Zoomies?" Steve questioned as he shook Mac's hand. Mac laughed, this guy was obviously a Marine brat.

"Marines." Mac replied with a smile.

"Oh, you're in trouble. There's more Marine brass in this backyard then you can shake a stick at and Nate, if dad finds out that she's a Marine, you'll never hear the end of it. Why in God's name did you let her come, knowing all this." Steve questioned, amidst a few condescending laughs.

"Let me come? I'll have you know that I practically had to drag his sorry Marine six out here today." Mac retorted, leaving Nate looking slightly embarrassed but nodding in the affirmative to back up Mac's story.

"Oh God, my day just got infinitely more entertaining. Have fun, come on, Simon, let's go find your mother." Steve led his son away from Nate and Mac.

"You know, he thinks we're sleeping together now." Nate questioned.

"I didn't tell him that, I just worded the truth so as to make him believe that. I told you I could lie without lying." Mac had a happy little condescending smile stuck between her cheeks.

"If I need ever need a lawyer, I'm calling you." Nate replied dully. Eventually, Mac was introduced to Nate's sisters, both of whom seemed to be judging her like a female predator who was hunting their brother.

"So, the Marine is finally here." A gruff older voice chimed in from behind them. Nate and Mac turned around slowly. "And who's this young lady, Nathan?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie, USMC, sir." Mac supplied, sensing Nate's tension.

"Nice to meet you, Colonel, but you don't have to 'sir' me any more. I'm not in the Corps, they took my uniform the second after I decided to give it up." Jack Ross replied. "You picked a Marine this time, at least your loyalty to the Corps didn't completely dissipate, son."

"Gee, Dad, it took you thirty seconds to bring that up, you're right mom, he has changed, he wouldn't have made ten seconds, last time we talked." Nate shot back sarcastically.

"Nathan, you'll not talk to your mother that way." Jack Ross returned verbal fire at his son. Mac slipped away from the situation. Nate's brother Steve motioned for her to come sit with his family while Nate and Jack had it out.

"So why do your dad and Nate hate each other so much?" Mac questioned as she took a seat at the picnic table.

"Both my brothers were attached to the 1st MEF in Desert Storm. My older brother Preston was an infantry officer and Nate was, as you probably know, attached to the Special Ops sniper corps. One day, Nate was set up in a minaret in Kuwait city as the MEF moved toward the airport. He could see Preston a little ways off in the distance below. Two guerrillas came out of nowhere towards Preston's boys and Nate caught one of them in his crosshairs and dropped him before he could do any damage. The other guerrilla got a shot off and hit Preston below the ribs before Nate dropped him with his next shot. The bullet missed Preston's vital organs but it nicked his spine and he was paralyzed from the waist down after that. Preston was a paraplegic and he couldn't serve anymore so, after he got out of the hospital, he put his old service sidearm in his mouth." Steve imitated the sound of a gun. "Nate's always blamed himself and I think, dad's always blamed him."

"It wasn't Nate's fault, thought. He shot the most imminent threat, he did his duty." Mac retorted, her understanding of Nate Ross, deepening slightly after hearing the story.

"I know that, hell even the Marine Corps recognized that. That shot was the longest recorded distance from sniper to kill in Corps history but none of that matters Nate or my dad because Nate was nanoseconds too slow on the draw. You have to understand, Nate and Preston were put in competition with everything growing up. My dad wanted his boys to follow in his footsteps, in the Corps, more specifically in the infantry, at Annapolis, pretty much everything." Steve continued and Mac listened intently.

"Talk about living vicariously through your kids." Mac commented dryly.

"Dad forgave Nate for doing NROTC instead of Annapolis, he forgave him for going sniper instead of infantry because my dad couldn't deny that Nate had talent with a scope but my pop never got over Preston and in my dad's mind, he's had to forgive Nate for too much already." Steve concluded as he picked up Simon and put him on his knee.

Piece by piece, for Sarah MacKenzie, the puzzle that was Nate Ross, fell into place.

1647 ZULU

GARDINIA'S

WASHINGTON, DC

Meg and Trish sat at their table talking over a plate of pasta and some water. Lunch had been enjoyable for the large part. Their conversation had been kept light and to topics in which they were both versed; mostly Harm. Trish noticed the little gleam that crept into Meg's eye and the lilt in her voice when they talked about Harm. Meg practically thumped her chest when she talked about how adept Harm was at his new job and how proud she was that he was expanding that need of his to save the world to a more global scale.

Trish Burnett was content. She knew that there was a good woman in her son's life that seemed more then willing to both take care of and put up with him. That's why she was merely content rather then ecstatic or overjoyed at the prospect. Harmon had a young woman in Meg who seemed to dote on him and she was such a nice girl that Trish would hate to see her get hurt but she knew her son, more importantly, she knew the way that her son talked about one Sarah MacKenzie.

She had never met Mac but it didn't take an Einstein or Edison to acknowledge that Harm had rather deep feelings for her. The main concern for Trish was to keep any and all parties involved from getting hurt. Hence her dilemma. Mac and Harm had hurt each other……a lot. So she wasn't sure that they were the best match to keep people from getting hurt, in fact that scenario could feasibly end up hurting everyone involved. Meanwhile, Harm and Meg wasn't that much better. Mac would be hurt and Harm might be committing himself to a woman who would never wholly occupy his heart, which would, over time make him miserable.

It all led up to the one question that Trish Burnett needed to ask. She reached across the table and took Meg's hands in her own. She paused a moment before looking up at the younger woman. "Meg, dear, I have a rather serious question to ask you. I realize that it may be awkward, but as a mother this has been nagging at my mind. I hope you understand."

"What is it, Mrs. Burnett?" Meg asked, slightly worried.

"Are you in love with my son?" Trish asked, locking on Meg's eyes.

"I……I…don't know, I think maybe, yeah, I think I might be." Meg sounded unsure enough that Trish's worried subsided slightly.

"Thank you for being honest, dear and don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." Trish smiled wisely as she lightly patted the young woman's knuckles.