A/N: Here's a nice, pleasant, angst free chapter that should wrap up some loose ends from the first half of the story and lead into the second half.
Disclaimer: Never done one of these. You know the deal. No JAG characters are ours. Nate, Peach, Spinner, Morley and Mike however are. But if Don wants to make us an offer to give them a series, we're obviously listening.
"Alright, folks, we have some pretty big staff changes here in the last week. First, as I'm sure you're aware by now; Lieutenant Commander Austin has transferred out and is currently stationed with the NATO office in London. We wish her the best. Of course this has left a void in the senior staff, which is why as of today we're welcoming Lieutenant Commander Tracy Manetti to our office." The Admiral stopped and motioned toward the new face at the table. "Commander Manetti, you'll be partnered with Commander Turner for the time being. Secondly, for the next two weeks, Captain Rabb will be TAD to this office until his assignment at the Pentagon has completed it's staff transition period. Finally, we're welcoming back Gunnery Sergeant Galindez who's fresh off a tour in Afghanistan where the Gunny received a Purple Heart for his actions in combat."
"Sir, where will the Captain and the Commander be given office space during there time here?" Singer asked, obviously concerned with being shifted out of her office.
"Well, since Commander Manetti will be here longer term, she will take Commander Austin's old office and since the Captain is only here for two weeks, I think you could be gracious enough to surrender your office to him for the time being." The Admiral tried to hide his chuckle at the young Lieutenant's defeated expression. "Alright, Captain Rabb you and Colonel MacKenzie are to be assigned this case on the Eisenhower. There have been assault reports filed to the skipper about incidents of sexual assault of three females onboard ship. I trust you two will get to the bottom of it."
"Aye, sir." Mac answered.
"Aye, sir." Harm added for his part. Oh yeah, this was going to be an interesting assignment.
1629 ZULU
HARRY TRUMAN BUILDING
FOGGY BOTTOM, WASHINGTON DC
"Alright, Peach, I'm here to brief you on your new assignment, since you'll be taking over for me on the Three Wise Men project." Nate walked into Peach's office. The benefit of being the Secretary of State was that you could show up anywhere in the offices of the State Department and no one would say boo.
"Yes, Mr. Secretary." Peach replied in an almost mechanical tone.
"Don't 'Mr. Secretary' me, Peach. Just treat me like you always used to, I don't understand why we can't get along." Nate offered, completely deviating from the original business at hand.
"We can't get along because we don't talk like we used to. We haven't been able to for a while because we analyze everything we do to death. There was a time when we just took everything at face value." Peach explained.
"Fine, so no more analyzing. Just Nate and Peach like we used to be?" Nate offered.
"That might be a little tough with you fourth in line to the Presidency." Peach giggled. "SuperNate, able to leap tall diplomats in a single side-step." She joked and the two of them laughed.
"Wasn't this the point where I'd normally make some completely inappropriate comment about how you look that anyone else would slap me for?" Nate asked mockingly.
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Peach smiled slightly.
"That sweater does wonders for your chest." Nate came back with his comment and the two of them laughed again.
"Really? I was worried that it might be a little too slutty with the neckline and all." Peach toyed.
"Nah." Nate smiled as he threw himself down in a chair in Peach's office. "You still keep up on the Farsi and Arabic that I taught you?"
"I've been trying since 9/11. I can't promise that it's going to be perfect but it will be functional. I trust I can still call you if I'm having problems with the Hebrew or Russian?" Peach answered as the two of them got down to official matters.
"Absolutely. This project has been bounced around several times. It was originally under Morton but he got sent back to SOCOM control in Tampa. Then it was suggested that it be run out of the White House but that raised too many command issues. So, the DCI, the CNO and myself will supervise the project. Feel free to call me at any time if you guys need help."
"Always Nathan Ross to the rescue, huh?" Peach giggled again.
"Hey, someone's got to where the red cape and big red 'S' on his chest." Nate joked as the two of them started to work out the details of Peach's new job.
1853 ZULU
ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH
CRYSTAL CITY, VIRGINIA
"Reverend Ross, ma'am?" Bev's secretary poked her head in the door.
"Yes, Mrs. Heaney?" Bev looked up at her receptionist.
"Admiral Chegwidden is here to see you, Reverend." Mrs. Heaney eyed her pastor.
"Thank you, Mrs. Heaney, send him in." Bev was very evidently smiling. A few seconds later, Admiral Chegwidden walked into Beverly's office and took a seat opposite her.
"I figured I should bring this to read while I'm waiting." The Admiral held up his copy of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw.
"I'm sorry, AJ, it's just this sermon. I'm having a little trouble getting through it." Bev explained, idly tapping her pen on the legal pad in front of her.
"It's okay; I've got Tiner covering for me and Turner's in charge until I get back." The Admiral explained. "You know what they say, rank hath its privilege."
"I know, I grew up with top Marine Corps brass, remember?" Bev laughed lightly.
"You're never going to let me forget it. After all these years, I start dating a Marine Corps brat. What would the guys on my old SEAL team say?" AJ played with a smile.
"That you should take this pretty little Marine Corps brat to lunch because there's no way I'm going to be able to concentrate long enough to get this sermon written, not with you sitting there." Bev was being openly flirtatious.
"Good distraction or bad distraction?" The Admiral asked.
"Oh, very good distraction." Bev replied as the Admiral took her by the arm and led her out the door.
2051 ZULU
USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER
SOMEWHERE IN THE ATLANTIC
"So, what did you think of the Lieutenant's story?" Harm came walking out on to Vulture's Row where Mac was already standing.
"I think he was telling the truth. His body language was telling of a man who couldn't lie his way out of a plastic bag." Mac chuckled a little. "It's been and interesting first half of the year hasn't it?"
"Interesting to the point of being damn tragic." Harm shook his head and leaned on the railing next to Mac. "So, what do we do now?"
"About the case or about our friendship?" Mac returned, turning her face toward him.
"Either or both." Harm replied.
"We talk." Mac answered simply.
"Seems to me, like talking is what got us where we are right now." Harm quipped.
"True, we're lawyers, if we can't talk our way out of a situation, we should find new professions." Mac's tone was self-deprecating.
"How about relationship counsellors?" Harm asked and the two of them shared a laugh. "You're right, we should talk."
"Say that again." Mac demanded.
"We should talk?" Harm inquired.
"No, before that." Mac rotated her finger indicating that Harm should rewind.
"You're right." Harm stated remembering what he had earlier said.
"Good, I wasn't hearing things." Mac joked and even Harm had to laugh.
"It's good to joke with you again." Harm admitted. "Mac, I've said a lot of really stupid things this year. So, if I could, I'd like to offer a blanket apology."
"Accepted, apologizing isn't a sign of weakness it's a sign of caring. Our problem is that we think that caring is weakness." Mac pinpointed.
"I think you've been spending too much time with Nate's shrink mother." Harm joked.
"His Minister Sister, actually." Mac stated.
"You mean the one that's dating the Admiral?" Harm raised his eyebrows in suspicion.
"That's the one. I'm happy she's dating him. The Admiral needed someone who could understand him but could also be a modern woman. Bev's a military brat, who holds a job in a predominately male field and she's got the Admiral's flare for literature." Mac was cheery about her little fix up.
"Of course you're rooting for them, you set them up." Harm pointed out.
"That's not true, I think they're good for each other." Mac retorted. She watched as Harm's hand brushed against the front pocket of his summer white pants. His eyebrows took on a weird, flummoxed look. He then dug into his pocket and came out with a rank insignia. "Why do you have a Chief Petty Officer's rank insignia?"
"That's right, I found it on the floor of Lieutenant Norton's quarters." Harm examined the anchor in his hand.
"Wasn't she the one who struggled with the suspected assailant?" Mac asked.
"Yeah, wait, Mac, you think she might have torn this off his collar?" Harm flipped over the anchor and saw that a piece of cloth was caught in the cluster at the back.
"I'd say that's a pretty good guess." Mac commented. "But who would be able to walk around without an insignia and not raise suspicion?" Mac watched as Harm thought for a second before understanding dawned on his eyes.
"A member of the flight crew, especially in summer. Their summer dress was sleeve insignia so they wouldn't need the cluster and when they're on the flight deck they wouldn't need it anyway. Since Lieutenant Norton's assault was before the switch over in seasonal uniform, it's the only logical solution." Harm explained.
"I think we have to revisit Command Master Chief Malone." Mac headed back through the hatch with Harm hot on her heels.
0134 ZULU
HARRY TRUMAN BUILDING
FOGGY BOTTOM, WASHINGTON DC
"Nate, you can tell me about this for another seven hours, but nothing is going to change. You and I don't run the same kind of schedule or manage a staff similarly. So it's all going to go down a little differently under my watch. I should have taught you how to decentralize your authority, I can't believe you didn't burn yourself out with the hours that you must have worked trying to get all this work done." Peach leaned back in the chair. "Can we talk about something else."
"I'm doing Larry King in two weeks." Nate changed the subject.
"Talk about your random topic changes." Peach quipped. "Knowing you, it's got you through a loop."
"Now, just what does that mean?" Nate tried to sound offended.
"Well, come on Nate, you've got control issues and you have no idea at all what Larry's going to ask you. You're probably driving yourself nuts wondering what you're going to be asked." Peach stated with a laugh.
"I am not!" Nate protested.
"You so are. You probably even have little cue cards made up at your apartment so that you can practice what you're going to say." Peach was now on a roll.
"Okay, give me a little credit, even I'm not that compulsive." Nate rolled his eyes.
"Now, what has you so up in knots?" Peach was taking it upon herself to coach Nate out of his shell again.
"Nothing professional. I mean, I can handle questions about my career or our relations with other countries, it's just personal questions that have me a little hogtied." Nate admitted.
"What could Larry possibly say?" Peach was unused to seeing Nate so nervous. Most of the time he was negotiator with a stone face that could match the guys on Easter Island but right now, he looked like he was sweating bullets.
"I'm a thirty-six year-old, single, apartment dwelling guy who's fourth in line of succession to the President of the United States. I'm sure that I'm going to have to answer questions about why I'm still single and stuff like that. You know that I'm a private person." Nate was starting to ramble.
"Just calm down, it's not the end of the world if you have to answer a few questions about your personal life. Just be non-committal, you're a man, that should come naturally to you." Peach joked light-heartedly.
"Oh, you're so funny." Nate dragged out the words in a sarcastic tone. "You're probably one of the few people in America that gets away with ragging on the senior cabinet member."
"You know that your General father, psychiatrist mother and minister sister would all get away with it, too?" Peach giggled again at the end of her sentence.
"Since when do you giggle?" Nate questioned.
"Maybe I always have and you just never paid attention." Peach commented.
"Are you calling me inattentive?" Nate pushed his questioning.
"When it comes to certain things, I believe that you subconsciously turn a blind eye, yes." Peach explained.
"I think with all the psycho-babble you just threw around, you're talking to my mother too much." Nate rebutted.
"Moot point. You may be a body language expert, Nathan Ross, but sometimes you're as blind as a bat, with the attention span of a hummingbird." Peach was smiling slightly.
"Thank you for that foray into the Animal Kingdom. I think the real question here is why you just called me Nathan." Nate pointed out, putting Peach on the defensive.
"I didn't!" Peach was evangelic in her protestation.
"Yes you did, and I want to know why." Nate retorted, not letting her skirt the issue.
"I guess some times you just seem more like a Nathan than a Nate. Like when you're being all Secretary of State or, you know when you need to be lectured or you know, when you're acting all lovery, I'm sure." Peach stuttered over the last half of the sentence.
"Lovery?" Nate questioned her word.
"Yeah, alright, what did Petra call you when you two were……you know?" Peach hesitated with the question.
"Well, she called me 'God' a few times." Nate turned his eyes up as though he was reflecting.
"Just what you need, a bigger ego." Peach joked.
"Actually, you're right, she called me Nathan." Nate informed his friend.
"See, there are times when you're more of a Nathan then a Nate. I'm sure there are times when I'm more Nicole then Peach." Peach cajoled.
"Yeah, like when you wear anything formal." Nate gave as an example. "Then again, there are times when you're 'Nicky' like when all your Stanford gal pals decide to visit you for a weekend."
"I knew, I'd never live that down." Peach hung her head in her hands. "It's good to be back to the status quo."
"Yeah, it really is." Nate affirmed. Unbeknownst to the other, they were both wondering just how long the status quo would last this time before blowing up in their faces.
2211 ZULU
JAG HEADQUARTERS
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA
"Well, you two did it, again. I'd give just about anything to know how you two can fall back into stride with one another so easily. I mean, you caught Chief Creegan using nothing but a CPO's rank insignia as a starting point." Sturgis shook his head.
"Nothing to it, no it if you know what you're doing." Mac jousted with the other senior staffer.
"If you'll recall, I was the one who found the rank insignia, Colonel." Harm defended his place in the investigation.
"Yeah, but you're going back to the Pentagon next week and someone's going to have to be around here to take the credit with you gone." Mac tossed back.
"Always ready with a snappy comeback, aren't you, Colonel?" Harm inquired.
"I'm on the ball, Captain, after all these years, you'd think you would know that." Mac smiled before heading back toward her office.
"Well, looks like you're back in the saddle, buddy." Sturgis gave Harm a pat on the back.
"JAG's a lot like a bicycle, Sturgis. You never really lose the touch." Harm quipped.
"Harm, if you think I was talking about JAG, you really have gotten denser since our Academy days." Sturgis joked before heading back across the bullpen.
"Captain Rabb, my office." The Admiral came walking across the bullpen from the elevator. Harm followed the Admiral into his office. Tiner closed the door behind the two men. "I can't believe that the investigation on the Eisenhower took as long as it did, Captain."
"Well, sir, for the first few days, the Colonel and I couldn't really get any leads. After finding that insignia, the case did kind of open up for us, sir." Harm explained himself.
"At the trial this week, you proved that you were in top form, Captain. You'll be headed back to the Pentagon as scheduled next week. Secretary Ross has found and informed a suitable replacement for his role on the team." The Admiral informed Harm.
"Well, the Secretary will be sorely missed, sir." Harm nodded quickly.
"I'm sure he will. I've been directed by Secretary Ross to inform you that you're working with Nicole DiPiccio starting next week. With the new command structure overseeing the project, the Secretary assures me that he will be constantly aware of the progress being made by your team." The Admiral furthered informed Harm.
"Knowing the Secretary as I do, sir, I wouldn't have expected anything else." Harm couldn't help but chuckle at a few of Nate's tendencies.
"Good, now I suggest that you have a pleasant, carefree weekend, Captain. I've been told that you're going to be thrown back into the thick of it come Monday." The Admiral dismissed Harm. Harm did an about face and headed out of the office just as Tiner buzzed the Admiral.
"Admiral, sir, Reverend Ross is out here, sir." Tiner stated.
"Send her in, Tiner." The Admiral responded through the intercom as her got out from behind his desk. Scant few seconds later, Beverly Ross was walking through the door of AJ Chegwidden's office.
"Hey, honey." Bev said as she hugged AJ and kissed him quickly on the lips.
"Hey, what brings you by?" The Admiral sounded pleasantly surprised.
"Well, one of my parishioners dropped off a few tickets to the Washington Shakespeare Company's performance of Much Ado About Nothing tonight. I also made reservations at that new little French place in Foggy Bottom. I wanted to surprise you." Bev smiled sweetly.
"I didn't know you were going to go to all this trouble." The Admiral took her by the hands.
"Hence the surprise." Bev retorted.
"How did you get reservations at that restaurant anyway? I hear that they're booked up through New Year's." AJ was slightly perplexed by his girlfriend's resourcefulness.
"I got my little brother to make a call." Bev stated with sly grin.
"When in doubt, call in the political big gun." AJ quipped and the two of them laughed. "Is he…okay with us?"
"Nathan? He's fine, a little protective but that's to be expected of a brother. He's even keeping my father at bay for the time being." Bev answered working herself more into AJ's arms.
"Ah yes, the Commandant, I'd forgotten all about that. I'll have to do something nice for your brother if he's going to keep the Commandant away for the time being." AJ joked.
"Don't worry about it. Now, come on, we've got a big night ahead of us." Bev interlocked her fingers with AJ's. The two of them walked out of the Admiral's office and out into the bullpen. They said goodnight to a few of the people that they passed on their way to the elevator.
"I think you really struck gold when you set up those two, ma'am." Harriet said to Mac. "Reverend Ross is really nice. She kind of reminds me of that really cool mom in the neighbourhood who used to make cookies and lemonade for all the kids."
"She does have that wholesome quality doesn't she? And I know, Bev, her traditional values are just the kind of thing that the Admiral would like." Mac and Harriet continued their little gossip session.
"You still want to go hunting for that house with Bud out at sea?" Mac asked.
"Yes, ma'am. I know that our family's only going to grow and we need a house but if I left it up to Bud, we'd never get to it." Harriet smiled widely. The two women walked out of JAG toward the elevators.
"So, what do you say, buddy? One on one tonight and a beer afterward with your little brother?" Sturgis asked as he hung around in Harm's doorway.
"You're on, hasn't Bobbi got you on a tight leash these days?" Harm joked.
"Not really, but she does seem to be checking into me at work more often since I ended up having a female partner." Sturgis remarked curiously.
"How is Manetti anyway?" Harm asked, not having had a chance to work with the young Lieutenant Commander.
"Intelligent, yet curiously humble." Sturgis remarked.
"No wonder you two get along." Harm laughed and flicked off the lights in his office as he and Sturgis headed out of JAG.
NEXT THURSDAY
THREE WISE MEN OFFICES, PENTAGON
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
Peach was hunched over a desk. Her glasses propped up lightly on her nose and one hand in her hair as her gaze drifted from the TV to the papers in front of her. She was watching Nate's appearance on Larry King in between working on a few intelligence sharing agreements with some strategically important Eastern European allies.
"You know, you work almost as hard as he did." Harm commented as he flicked the TV screen.
"Nate always was the hardest working man at the State Department." Peach commented absently.
"Yeah well, that and he thinks that he needs to handle everything personally or it won't get done." Harm walked back over to his desk. "I never thought this work could actually get this tedious." Harm tossed around the papers on his desk.
"You must have had to fill out paperwork as a lawyer, Harm. It can't be that much different." Peach turned in her chair to face Harm.
"The paperwork as a lawyer was tedious too, this is just more tedious because diplomats tend to think that the more words they can cram into a paragraph, the more official their end result is." Harm's tone was challenging.
"As opposed to lawyers who practice the world's oldest smoke and mirrors profession." Peach jousted at him.
"Ouch, you wound me. Not all lawyers are like the ambulance chasing shysters you see doing commercials on TV." Harm defended.
"You're right, the rest of you normally don't start blatantly lying until you become politicians." Peach was smiling as she put Harm on the defensive.
"Nate was right, you do have that certain fire that can be both endearing and infuriating." Harm admitted.
"Speaking of the devil, I think Larry's done with the professional questions. Let's watch the Secretary of State get caught in the crossfire of his personal life." Peach turned up the volume on the TV.
"Nathan Ross, you're thirty-six, the Secretary of State and still single, I'm sure that a lot of Americans just don't understand that equation." Larry began.
"I think it's simple, Larry, I just haven't found the right woman yet." Nate jumped in.
"Well, then that leads into the question that's been burning the Washington gossip rags for months. Two words. Sarah MacKenzie." Larry sure wasn't pulling any punches. Harm and Peach both felt their heart rates quicken at the question, awaiting Nate's answer.
"An amazing and extraordinary woman and friend." Nate replied somewhat cryptically.
"So, there's nothing romantic between the two of you?" Larry pushed the question.
"Never has been, never will be." Nate answered simply.
"You also are known to be rather close to a few other attractive women, including ZNN's own Stacy Anderson." Larry changed targets but pursued the same avenue of thought.
"Stacy and I are very close, we have been for more then a decade. I cherish her friendship very deeply." Nate answered in a typical Potomac two-step.
"Once again, just friends?" Larry questioned.
"Just friends, Larry." Nate affirmed with a smile and nod.
"You're also rumoured to be close to your ex co-worker at the State Department, Nicole DiPiccio. You two worked together for many years and brokered most of your most impressive negotiations jointly. Still, just friends?" Larry was trying to get some personal fodder off of what was otherwise a boy scout resume.
"Nicole and I have been friends, adversaries and everything in between in the years that we've known each other. We're friends, yes." Nate answered.
"You'll have to excuse me, Mr. Secretary but I'm sure that a lot of Americans, myself included, are having trouble believing that you can be 'just friends' with these women." Larry had rested his chin on his palm.
"I can hardly be blamed for what most Americans think. I can only be honest with them about the questions that I'm asked." Nate replied with a secure yet not arrogant smile.
"Nathan Ross, trying to be the last honest man in Washington. We'll be back with your calls, right after this." Larry cut to a commercial and Peach flicked the TV off.
"He sure didn't go easy on him." Harm remarked.
"No, he certainly didn't but Nate was his usual constrained self. I'm not sure how many points it won him with the American people." Peach reflected.
"What do you mean?" Harm asked, sitting on the edge of her desk.
"The American people are looking for their New Camelot. Their royal family, as it were. The Ross Family fits the mould. A Marine Corps Commandant and one of the foremost feminists of the Women's Lib movement have a son who's got the necessary tools to lead the country. All Nate needs is the ideal First Lady and he could be President because no matter how well like he is, he'll never get elected single." Peach explained.
"I don't think his marital status plays that big a role." Harm commented.
"When was the last time America had a bachelor President?" Peach fired the question out. Harm went over the Presidents in his head and after a few minutes, he couldn't name a single one. "Exactly." Peach said in reference to his silence.
0419 ZULU
MAC'S APARTMENT
GEORGETOWN, DC
Nate hesitantly knocked on the door. He knew that he had been a little quick and shallow with his answers on the show earlier and that he might have some explaining to do, especially with Mac. Mac came to the door and opened it only a crack.
"Hi." She said timidly.
"Hey." He started. "Can I come in?"
"Why do you want to?" Mac asked, still a little weary.
"Perchance to explain?" Nate offered.
"What's there to explain. You stated your position pretty simply tonight on the show." Mac replied as she let him into the apartment.
"You told me not to assume, that's exactly what I did." Nate began his explanation.
"So you made a unilateral decision about the status of our relationship because I told you not to assume?" Mac's prosecutorial program was working on overdrive.
"Mac, I just stated a truth that we've both been shying away from. Neither of us wants to admit it, that's all. We both know that there can never be anything romantic between us because I'm not the one you belong with." Nate answered.
"After everything that's happened between me and Harm this year, how can you be so sure that we belong together?" Mac packed a lot of force and emotion into her question.
"Because you can't be sure that you don't. See if you two didn't belong together, there would be no doubt in your mind as to that effect. But that doubt still exists, reasonable doubt, Mac, you're a lawyer, you know what that means." Nate coached, slipping into a legalese metaphor.
"That I can't convict any potential for a relationship between Harm and I." Mac stated plainly. "You would have made a good lawyer."
"I'm a better diplomat. After all, I got you and Harm back to the bargaining table, didn't I?" Nate chuckled slightly.
"That remains to be seen." Mac played into the joke. "What was this between us then?"
"As I so often do in romantic situations, I'll quote Oscar Wilde. 'We were like two doomed ships that pass in a storm, we had crossed each other's way: but we made no sign, we said no word, we had no word to say.'" Nate paused for a second to let the gravity of the words sink in.
"That's all we were to each other? Two ships that crossed paths when life through a storm our way?" Mac asked as she stood by his side.
"We weathered it together, but now the storm is over and our paths must diverge. I hope we'll always be friends, Mac." Nate turned to go face to face with her.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. Believe that." Mac hugged him.
"I do, I really do." He hugged her back.