Title : Where Do We Go From Here… (at last, Part III of the Trilogy!)
Author : Jaggie 107
Disclaimer : JAG characters belong to DPB, CBS and Paramount. 'Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye' belongs to PAX TV – and I hope all parties will allow me to have fun for a little while, and replace them all when I'm done. Thank you.
Rating : G to PG-13 (Just in case!)
Thanks for the reviews to: jtbwriter; Radiorox; DD2; Nikki; froggy0319; anna7; Jbird7986; beegirl; JAGFANWI; Abigaile; Judy; roxy; KJFlygirl87; mayaresi; alicia; starryeyes10; skyefire; jnp; JAGJenni; laura carr; AnniGH4ever; Arian04; aserene; rosan; achaon; martini1988; Brittany
JAGJenni – Thanks for your reviews! I'm not planning on anything too bad happening to Mac, or Harm for that matter, but there's got to be a little angst, hasn't there! I had problems posting for a couple of days, so I got in some typing time in the break, hence the quick chapters. (Well, quicker, anyhow!) I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! skyefire – Thanks for your review. Hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! jtbwriter – Hiya! Thanks as always for your review. I'm not sure what's happening but my writing seems to be leading you all to think something's going to happen to Mac. Boy, you guys are good! :o) Hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! aserene – Hello and welcome to this story! Thanks for your review. I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! rosan – Hello and welcome to this story! Thanks for your review. I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! froggy0319 – Thanks for your review. I'm hoping DPB keeps his promise at least that he was going to leave the ending open for interpretation – of course, all H/M shippers will opt for the obvious! Harm and Mac together! In the meantime, hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! KJFlygirl87 – Thanks for your lovely review, and as for the A/N's, I think it's nice to get some explanation for things, it helps sometimes! With regard to the apartments, I started writing this part and realized that I had Mac spending more time at Harm's apartment, and then they got married, so obviously they'd be together nearer to Mattie. If it helps, we can have Mac renting her apartment for some income, and then once they find a place of their own together (a house) they can pool the money from the sales of both apartments, and voila, problem solved! I haven't decided when that is yet, but obviously it's got to be soon! In the meantime, I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! Radiorox – Thanks for your review. Great minds think alike! I like your 'new' name, so I've changed it wherever I can (or remember to! – my mind is on vacation sometimes!) I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! starryeyes10 – Thanks for your review. I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! achaon - Hello and welcome to this story! Thanks for your review, and the heads up on the bike. I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! martini1988 – Hello and welcome to this story! Thanks for your review. I hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading! Brittany – Hello and welcome to this story! Thanks for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed my other stories, and I hope I can keep you hooked with this story too! Hope you like this next chapter, and please keep reading!
Cafeteria – FBI Headquarters – Tuesday lunchtime"It was nice to see Harm yesterday. He's looking well. Impending fatherhood seems to suit him." Sue's observations on their friend made Jack look closely at her, and she grinned at him.
"What?" she asked, and he grinned back.
"I was just thinking that same thing," he admitted, and Sue cocked her head as she looked closer at him.
"There's something else," she coaxed, and he nodded.
"I was wondering what you and I will be like, when we get to the same stage…that is…"
"When I'm pregnant?"
"We've talked about it before."
"I know. I am looking forward to when we start a family, Jack."
"Actually, I'm looking forward to that too. Especially all the practice we get to indulge in beforehand!" This last sentence was done in sign, and Sue looked wide-eyed at Jack.
"Jack!" Sue blushed, and dropped her head. Jack leaned over and touched her hand to make her look at him. Ordinarily, he would have tipped her chin up with his hand – his usual gesture – but they had agreed that there would be no overt signs of affection between them at work, wherever they might be. When Sue did raise his head, he was grinning unrepentantly.
"You look beautiful when you blush," he signed again, and Sue smiled back.
"Thank you," she said, verbally, and then began to clear up the debris of their lunch. "Have you heard from Harm yet?"
"Yeah. He's put the paperwork to the Admiral, and providing Harm can juggle his caseload, he can follow up on our initial details. I would imagine it will involve meeting with the surviving partners of the women, once Jennifer has their addresses, and then finding any other common link that we can proceed with."
"I thought you had passed the case over completely?"
"Not entirely. Harm's okay with us following up leads for him too, and once NCIS are involved, it will be like old times!"
"If it's okay with you, I'd like to help out where I can."
"That was never in question. You're on the case, Sue, whatever comes of Harm's initial investigations."
"Good."
"Okay, let's get back to work, huh?"
"Slave driver," Sue retorted softly, and while Jack gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement at her words, his eyes said so much more! Sue preceded him out of the cafeteria, and Jack followed with Levi, giving the dog a wink as they followed her.
"I think she's got that the wrong way round, Levi. You and I are the slaves here." Levi gave a bark, and trotted after Sue, while Jack laughed at the dog's reaction. If he didn't know better, Jack could almost believe Levi understood him!
JAG Headquarters – Tuesday afternoonJennifer Coates knocked on Harm's door and entered on his command.
"Hello, Jen. What is it?"
"I have the names and addresses of the surviving partners, sir. Two are back in active service, stationed overseas. I have the names of their commanding officers, if you want to contact them first. The most recent, a Lieutenant is on compassionate leave, here in Virginia. His family are from Rosslyn."
"Thanks, Jen. I appreciate it." Jennifer turned to leave, and looked back as she remembered something.
"Sir? Mattie asked me to remind you, about the Annapolis form?"
"It's in with the Admiral right now. I'll pick it up at the end of the day and get it back to her. I can't believe this is actually going through! Another Rabb at the Academy!"
"Believe it, sir. It's all she talks about!"
Harm laughed, and Jennifer smiled as she left his office.
Jack's Apartment – Washington DC – early Tuesday eveningJack heard the door to his apartment open and he stuck his head out of the kitchen door to see Levi trot around the corner of the hallway and flop down in his usual spot, looking up at Jack.
"Hi, boy!" Jack leaned down to scratch the golden fur, and when he stood up Sue was in front of him too.
"Do I get a greeting like that?" she asked, smiling up at him.
"What? A scratch behind the ear? Okay…" Jack answered, and Sue giggled as he moved to put his right hand behind her ear, but when he did that his other hand came around her to pull her closer and his right hand slid further along to bury in her hair as he leaned down to kiss her. When they surfaced to breathe, they stood with foreheads touching for a moment or two and then Jack pulled back a little so Sue could read his lips. "I'm very happy to see you, but I thought you were at home with Lucy tonight?"
"That was the plan," Sue agreed, stepping back to take her jacket off, and to drop Levi's leash on the couch. "Lucy got a call from an old school friend, and they've gone out to dinner, so I thought I could come round and torment you for a while."
"Torment me, huh?" Jack grinned, pulling Sue back to him as she put her hands up against his chest. "What do you have in mind?"
Sue leaned in and whispered in Jack's ear, and when she pulled back to look at him his eyes had widened. "There is one condition, though," she added.
"And that is?"
"You have to feed Levi and I first. When Lucy said she was going out, I put our proposed dinner on hold, so we are starving!"
"You're in luck," Jack acknowledged, and then turned, pulling Sue after him into the kitchen. On the stove was a pan of pasta simmering, and another pan with Bolognese sauce ready to warm through. Sue bussed his cheek with her lips and then bent down to stroke Levi.
"How about it, Levi? Pasta for you, too?"
Levi appeared to shake his head, and then put his paw over his nose. Jack laughed, and opened another cupboard in his kitchen. Inside was Levi's dish, and a box of dog food. "Here you go, boy. Much more to your liking, huh?"
Levi got to his feet and walked over the cupboard, reaching in and getting the edge of the bowl in his teeth. As he walked back to his spot, Jack followed him and poured some food into the bowl.
With Levi catered for, Jack then turned back to Sue.
"Would you like a glass of wine with your pasta?" he asked, but Sue shook her head.
"I've got the car tonight," Sue began, and continued quickly as Jack was about to entice her to stay the night. Ordinarily, she would have accepted readily, but Lucy was depending on her for a ride into work the next morning, and she had said she would be back in the apartment later. Jack nodded, understanding, and settled for the bonus time of having Sue with him at all that evening. Sue stood, sipping from a glass of soda instead, as Jack stirred the pasta sauce, and checked on the pasta itself. He looked so comfortable in the guise of chef and she was happy to watch him apparently enjoying himself at the task.
"What are you thinking about?" Jack asked, having tipped her chin up with his finger.
"Just how comfortable you are doing this. I know I've watched you cook before, but you just seem so…content."
"I have a lot to be content with," Jack countered, and leaned in to give Sue a soft kiss. "I have you, and Levi, and my life is right where I want it to be right now, with very happy plans for the not-too-distant future to look forward to."
"Then I'm content too, with you and Levi in my life, and very happy plans to look forward to!"
"All that, and food too! I'm spoiling you, Miss Thomas."
"I could get used to it, Mr Hudson."
"That's the idea," Jack murmured, and having turned off the stove, he had time to take Sue in his arms again. Their kisses were interrupted by Levi, who was pushing his empty bowl along the floor with his nose. Jack grinned down at the dog, and then at Sue. "Looks like Levi's finished his dinner. How about we eat ours?"
"I'll set the table." Sue busied herself doing just as she had offered, and when she had finished that she picked up Levi's bowl and rinsed it in the sink while Jack finished putting their dishes on the table.
"Ready?" he asked, and Sue nodded, smiling as Jack seated her before taking his own chair at the table.
They ate the meal, mixed with a lot of humor, and some discussion, and ended with coffees while seated on the couch. Well, seated could be a deemed a relative term, if Sue being sat in Jack's lap could be counted as being seated. The fact that their coffees had turned cold was of little consequence when Sue lifted her head to look down at Jack.
"I really have to go, before I give in…" she murmured, and Jack nodded.
"I know. Come on, I'll walk you down to your car."
"We've got plans for Thursday, right?"
"Absolutely," Jack acknowledged, remembering the official function that he and his team were to attend as representatives of the FBI. Lucy and Sue had been shopping, that much he knew. What he didn't know was what Sue would be wearing to the event, but he hoped that whatever it was, it would outshine the gown she had bought to go out with David, two years before, and that was saying something. He remembered that gown clearly, but what he remembered most was Sue wearing that gown, and how beautiful she had looked. What he also remembered, and what made his mouth quirk in amusement, was the fact that Sue had cut short her dinner date so that she could help her friends and colleagues out in the field on an investigation. Now that had made the gown memorable, as she had turned up still wearing it!
"Okay. Levi, up!" Sue called to her dog, and Jack followed the pair of them out of his apartment and down onto the street where her car was parked. As he opened the back door and let Levi in, Jack turned around to open Sue's door also, but stopped her before she got inside.
"I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early," he murmured, eyes gleaming, and an amused smile on his lips.
"Bright and early? Why?"
"So you can make me a hot coffee, considering you let the coffee I made for you go cold."
"I seem to recall that your coffee went cold at the same time mine did, Mr Hudson. Just what exactly were you doing tonight?"
"You know, I seem to have forgotten…" Jack trailed off, and then closed his eyes as Sue's lips touched his. When they ended the kiss he pulled back and grinned. "Now I remember!" he added.
Sue laughed and climbed into her car, looking up at Jack as he watched her drive off. Waving out of the window, she pulled into the stream of traffic and headed back to her own apartment. Jack sighed, and turned to go back inside his apartment building.
He was stopped at the entrance by the sound of his name being called.
TBC