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Part 2
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Mac
There is no sight of Carol-Anne as I leave JAG Headquarters, so I plan to call her in a while, to make sure that she got home okay.
I stop by the court building to drop off the evidence for the defense and silently congratulate myself on building such an iron-clad case. There's no way that this guy is ever going to be free again to repeat his sick crimes, once I'm through with the case.
Harm and I settle for a working lunch in the office, so we call in some take-out, while putting some ideas together on our next joint case.
"I found Carol-Anne, after you left," Harm mentions as we munch on shrimp rolls.
"Oh, where was she?" I ask, seeing as I didn't see hide nor hair of her before I left.
"Jen found her in the ladies toilets on the first floor," Harm tells me, "Jen was just returning an errand for the General and found Carol-Anne in there, getting herself all upset…She brought her back up here, to find you, but you'd already left at that point."
"Was she okay?" I ask, my face serious.
"She was just upset, she'd had been having a bad day and I think she needed somebody to talk to," Harm shrugs, but doesn't mean anything by the comment, I can tell.
But still, it feels a little painful as the unintended barb hits and I'm now regretting being so closed off with the poor girl.
"Sorry," Harm notices the flinch, "I didn't mean it that way. She's just a kid and I guess that all of this has just been too much for her. The timing of it all was just too bad, that's all."
"Yeah," I nod, "Poor thing. I'll give her a call this evening, once I've secured for the day. Did she tell you anything in particular?"
"She was actually pretty forthcoming," Harm nods and smiles and I know there must be something behind that veiled amusement.
At first he says nothing, but at my further prodding, he elaborates.
"Well, I asked Jen to come into the office with us, because I though she might feel more at ease with another female there and…Well, turns out she was perfectly at ease talking to me, regardless. First-off, she told me about her Mom and the situation with the doctors, then she said that her foster- Mom has been really busy and her case-worker is out of town. She said that the only kids around her age in the foster-home are apparently either 'just children,' 'just bitchy' or 'just clueless boys' so she didn't have anyone to talk to about her troubles who was mature and…well, it seems that the little girl I saw come into headquarters has actually become a little woman…"
As realization hits, I lift my hand to my mouth and I comprehend what should really have been more apparent to me at the time. I went through this with Chloë, I should have seen the signs. Instead, the poor girl was so desperate for somebody to talk to that she turned to my six-foot-four-inch, very-male, testosterone-secreting navy-commander partner and a female petty-officer, both of whom she doesn't know from Adam.
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Harm
"Oh, I'm sorry, Harm," Mac goes to apologize to me, "I really should have seen this…Damn why didn't I pay more attention…"
"It's okay, Mac," I wave off her apology and it really is okay, it is nothing that an adult man should be embarrassed about; it is a fact of life. Okay, I'm not a father, but I did have this talk, or something similar, with Mattie just in case before she moved back in with her Dad. She knew that she could come to me to talk about anything, so I had sort-of had the dialogue planned in my head. It took only a second of deliberation to dredge it up and refine it a bit, because Carol-Anne is quite a bit younger than Mattie, at least in terms of maturity.
"Besides," I add, "Jen did take care of the most of it. She was only too happy to help, knowing that Carol-Anne is the new 'little-sister' you were telling us about. She helped Carol-Anne get all sorted out," (thanks to the vending machines downstairs,) "then she dropped her home."
"Thank you so much for taking care of her, Harm," Mac squeezes my hand in appreciation, "I'm going to call her tonight, just to make sure she's okay. Everything's going to be so much better once I've pinned Petty Officer Molinez's six to the wall; hopefully I will be able to concentrate on other tasks as well."
"Not to worry, Mac," I assure her, before she leaves, to go back to her own office.
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Mac
"Yeah…" came the voice, above the noise of loud music.
"Hi, this is Colonel MacKenzie," I speak up, over the phone, "Is Paula there, please?"
"Paula's out of town," the voice told her, seemingly that of a teenage boy.
"Oh, okay. Well, is Rafael there, then?" I ask
Rafael is Paula's husband.
"He's out grocery shopping at the moment," the voice tells me again, "He should be a while…you Carol-Anne's big sister?"
"Yeah, that's me…I don't suppose she's around just now, is she?"
"Yeah, I think she's out back, doing her homework. Hang on a sec, I'll get her for you…"
I give a sigh of relief as I hear the phone being put down. The sounds of Metalica serenades me as I wait. No wonder Carol-Anne has chosen to do her homework out-back. Life in the house must be like living on a construction site.
"Mac?" Carol-Anne eventually picks up the phone.
"Hey, sweetie," I greet her, "How are you doing? You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," Carol-Anne began, then cut off, "Give me a second, will ya?"
"Sure," I reply, hearing Carol-Anne bellow at somebody in the background to turn the music down.
Once it has been turned down a few notches, we can talk without having to shout at one another.
"Sounds chaotic," I note.
"Yeah," Carol-Anne confirms, "With Paula at her Mom's and Raffie out, Kev is monopolizing the stereo. And it's always something heavy metal. I even couldn't hear myself think."
"I just wanted to apologize about how distracted I was today," I tell the young girl, "My workload has been sort of crazy, but I should have realized there was more wrong. I'm sorry."
"Could you tell your partner that I'm sorry I cried all over him?" Carol-Anne sounds a little embarrassed, "And the petty officer in your office, too. Jen?"
"Yep, well I spoke to them both," I reassure her, "and they both said that there was no problem at all. They were glad to help you. Besides, you know that Harm has a sort-of-teenage-daughter, himself. He's used to girl-talk going on around him."
"Is he still in touch with her?" Carol-Anne asks, "He did mention that she had gone back to living with her Father."
"He doesn't speak to her as much as he'd like," I shake my head, "But she's pretty busy with school and getting back into her old life."
"That's a shame," the girl notes.
"Maybe once she has settled back in at home, she'll start staying in better touch," I sigh, hopefully.
"Yeah, probably…" Carol-Anne agrees, then asks, "So, did you find what you were looking for?"
"This afternoon? Yeah," I nod, "As usual, it was mistakenly tucked in with something else…the usual. So, what are you up to?"
"Math homework," Carol-Anne sighs, "Definitely difficult enough without the distraction of heavy metal music blaring."
"Just you try and keep up with your school-work," I encourage her, "I know it seems hard, but just do the best you can. Your Mom will be proud when she sees your good report card."
"Yeah," the girl notes, quietly, "She will be…It's been months since she's been able to look at my report cards and go to parent-teacher meetings."
"As soon as she's stable," I tell her, "she'll be able to start getting back to all of those things."
"But what about moving home?" the girl asks, "When will I be able to go home?"
"I don't know," I tell her, honestly, "Your case worker will have a part in deciding that, but it all depends on how your Mom gets on, once her medication is stabilized."
"Hmm," Carol-Anne muses, slightly distractedly.
"So, have you got plans for next month?" I ask, about the girl's upcoming twelfth birthday.
"No, not really," she replies, "I kinda want to do something with my Mom, but her doctors won't tell me if she's going to be able to leave the hospital by then."
"If you wanted to go out somewhere," I offer, "I could take you out. Of course, you'll want to spend the day with your Mom, but if you wanted to do anything else, later on. Maybe go shopping or something."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Carol-Anne agrees, but notes, "Maybe Mom will be home by then and she can come too."
"Yeah, well," I tell her, "we'll see what happens, okay? But if you have any more problems, don't hesitate to call me."
"Yeah, okay," I can tell that she is trying not to think about more going wrong in her life, at this point.
"Or even if there's nothing wrong, but you just want to talk," I add, trying to give her the support she doubtless needs, but knowing I can't push it on her.
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