A New Life Part 25: Ch06 – "We the People"

A retrospective story looking back to start with the original 1995 pilot episode, from the prism of 25 years in the future (2020). AU: what if the premise of Harmon Rabb Jr's life was completely different before he landed on the carrier with Caitlin Pike?

A/N-1: See Chapter One for all the notes, scene-setting and disclaimers. Published 20MAR2021.

A/N-2: Having set the scene in the first five chapters, we come to the "meeting in a Rose Garden" - S02Ep01 from canon TV. The follow-on conversations are then imagined.

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Ch06 – "We the People"

Friday January 3rd 1997, 12:25hrs EST

White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington DC, 20500 USA

"Lt-Commander Rabb, you may single-handedly give lawyers a good name."

"Thank you, Mr President."

As the band struck up. Harm hugged Diane and patted his children on the head, posing for a couple of family photographs before heading across to where the Admiral, with one subtly-raised eyebrow, summoned him back to work.

With Bud Roberts now on the JAG staff after his transfer from the PAO role on the PH, Chegwidden was still busy plugging holes in his staffing roster at Falls Church. Meg Austin had vanished into her "Secret Squirrel" posting. With Alison Krennick now away on her maternity leave (and having vouchsafed to him that the girl-child would be going to a good adoptive home through her church organisation), Chegwidden was planning Alison's next step on her route to her fourth ring. Another Italian posting opportunity had cropped up that morning in the New Year catch-up of mail. The timing would suit Alison's return date from her mat leave and Chegwidden was certain that she deserved a second crack at Italy. He was certain that she would not want to hang around Falls Church, with its reminders of 1996. She was too good an officer to leave in her rank, without challenging her for senior roles (and Flag rank) as her smooth career progression resumed, beyond her self-confessed "timing mistake".

Chegwidden was proud that she had decided to entrust him, back in August, with the details of her situation (although the evidence, beneath her summer whites, had been impossible to ignore that day in the galley at JAG HQ). Her brave decision on adoption had also made sense; Chegwidden wished both Alison and her daughter well.

Even so, he was still short-handed around the JAG HQ – at all experience levels. The case which he was about to brief Harm and Bud about could be big and messy and "Political" (with a capital "P").

Bud was complimenting Harm as Chegwidden's thoughts returned to the "here and now".

"Don't overdo it, Mr Roberts – he's a naval aviator. With his wings, comes an ego as big as an Admiral's."

He turned to Harm as the three men continued walking.

"Rabb, I'm assigning him to your section. Lt Austin recommended him as a legal aide before she transferred out last year. Would you disagree?"

"No sir; Mr Roberts would make a fine aide, Admiral."

"You not staying for the reception sir?"

"No – and neither are you."

Harm had been concentrating on the Admiral as the three men strolled across towards the parking area, where a female Marine officer turned, greeting them with a confident smile. As the introductions were made, Harm turned to face her – then froze.

"Good Afternoon."

"Good afternoon major." The Admiral turned to Harm. "Lt Commander Harmon Rabb – meet Major Sarah Mackenzie."

"Mac" extended her hand in greeting. Harm was completely frozen – the expression "freaked out" would perfectly describe what was galloping around in his head, whilst his external visage remained that of the placid, calm in-control naval aviator.

Over and over, the only phrase inside his head was: "W._T._F._?"

Eventually, he extended his hand. "Harm".

The Admiral was puzzled by Harm's pause. "You two know each other?"

"No".

"Yes".

At Mac's quizzical glance, harm apologised. "Oh, I'm sorry Major – of course I don't know you. It was just a moment of déjà vu."

"Déjà vu?" suggested Sarah helpfully. "It must be the uniform."

"No, actually she's in the Navy."

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At that precise moment, from behind the group, came a woman's voice raised in gentle rebuke.

"Harm – you've gone off with the car keys. Oh hi Bud - why didn't you remind him? Harm, how can I get home with the little ones when you fly away…"

Several worlds – along with the odd parallel universe – collided in that moment, short-circuiting the space-time continuum.

Mac looked beyond Harm's shoulder, to see an attractive brunette, wrapped up against the winter chill in a tan coloured coat, scarf and long winter boots, wrangling a four-year-old daughter in one hand and pushing a year-old in a stroller with the other. She watched as the woman came to stand close alongside Harm and applied the brakes on the stroller, waiting respectfully to be introduced to the Admiral.

Then the new arrival saw Mac, still holding Harm's hand yet staring, dumb-founded, back at her. Suddenly, Sarah Mackenzie now understood Harm's reticence when he had first caught sight of her a few moments earlier.

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Mac also had a glimpse into her future – if she could ever sort out her tangled and troubled personal life and find "a good man", to go with the "good career and plenty of comfortable shoes" which she believed every military woman wanted. Pickings were fairly slim in Arizona, she admitted ruefully as she looked at the family scene before her.

"Lovely kids – like their father" was the only cogent thought which passed through Mac's brain, before…

"Shit, this is going to be awkward! I know everyone is meant to have a twin somewhere, but holy crap Batman!"

On the other side of Harm, looking at the Marine uniform and thinking "hmm, nice figure – but what the heck is she doing with my face?" Diane Rabb was equally nonplussed.

Bud's body eventually caught up with his racing brain and he raised both hands, fingers pointing at the two women, opening his mouth when:

"Don't go there, Bud – we've all made the same connection."

"Daddy, why is Mommy in that green uniform?"

Just then Sarah looked up at the hand that was holding her and:

"Mommy!"

Then Sarah Rabb burst into tears, confused (as the "grown-ups" were) by the apparent "attack of the clones".

"Excuse me commander." Mac released Harm's hand and stepped closer to her clone, looking at Diane and pointing at the tearful girl who was clutching her mom's hand while grizzling mournfully.

"May I – and I presume from the wedding ring that you are Mrs Rabb?"

Di nodded dumbly.

Mac knelt down, bringing herself to Sarah's eye level. "Hello, sweetie: this must be very confusing?" Sarah nodded, as Diane handed down a small tissue. Mac thanked Di and gently took the tissue, then dabbed the little girl's eyes before handing her the tissue.

"That's better, sweetie. Well, your mommy and I will evidently always need to dress differently whenever we meet up. What's your name, little one?"

"Sarah Patricia Rabb, Major." Even before her fourth birthday, Sarah Rabb had worked out the rank badges for all the major branches of the US armed forces.

Mac extended her hand once more to a member of the Rabb family. "Well, Sarah Patricia Rabb, my name is also Sarah:" she heard Di's gasp of surprise from above, but continued looking into little Sarah's eyes: "and I am going to be working with your Daddy on a case over the next few days. But after that, I would very much like to come and visit with the Rabb family." She looked up at Di. "I suspect that we have many things in common."

Quietly, to herself, Mac was thinking "but how the f*** I'm going to unravel this will be interesting."

"Indeed Major, but I suspect you are about to head off on a mission with my husband." Di gave a very subtle emphasis to the final two words of the sentence, then turned to Harm with her free hand outstretched. She wasn't letting go of little Sarah just now, as she issued her Chief of Household instruction:

"Rabb, car keys, now!"

"Aye-aye, ma'am!" Harm was smiling as he pulled the car keys from his jacket and handed them across. He then reached down to gently take little Sarah's hand. The four-year-old's crying ceased instantly. Diane smiled at Harm: "OK, Rabb, how do you get her to stop crying just like that?"

Harm winked at Mac, then turned back to Diane: "Err - it's a gift?"

Everyone laughed, eliminating any residual tension in the group.

Mac turned to "little Sarah" and crouched down once more to speak with the little girl – the daughter of her new (if only temporary and interim) partner with his wife who was her spitting image.

"Well, Sarah, I shall hope to meet you again, but for now, would you mind if I spoke to your mommy and your daddy, please?"

Sarah nodded quietly, then moved to stand behind Diane's leg, peeking out from behind her mother's coat.

Sarah stood up, smoothed down her skirt and, ignoring the three men, extended her hand to Di.

"OK, formally: hello Mrs Rabb I presume? I'm Major Sarah Mackenzie, US Marine Corps."

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Typically, it was Bud Roberts who came up with the Star Wars analogy. If the space-time continuum was going to implode, it was now or never. He watched at the two women extended their arms and prepared to shake hands.

"Hello Major, a pleasure (if rather weird) to meet you. I'm Lt Diane Rabb, US Navy – and Harm's wife."

"Shall we?"

Di nodded and the two women shook hands.

Bud found himself relaxing. The world had not ended. Matter and Anti-matter were comfortably co-existing.

"Well, I always believed the story that 'you have a twin out there' but I was always suspicious of the principle" said Mac, smiling. "This is one heck of a way to prove that theory. I had always doubted the 'you have a twin' theory until just now." She looked at Diane, with one eyebrow raised.

"Not any more" replied Di, smiling.

In unison and seemingly unprompted, the two women turned towards the three men. Harm's jaw was still sagging and Bud still looked confused, but little Sarah's tears had stopped as Harm hefted her up onto his shoulder.

The Admiral leaned in. "Don't get too comfortable – you're going to be working together."

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In the car for the journey back to JAG HQ at Falls Church, the team got down to details.

"So what were FBI agents doing in a mail truck?" Harm's eyes were sparkling with laughter – until he glimpsed the coldness in Mac's eyes as she responded.

"Guarding the Declaration of Independence."

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Friday January 3rd 1997, 14:07hrs EST

Office of RAdm "AJ" Chegwidden

JAG HQ, Falls Church, VA

On arrival at JAG HQ, "Mac" took an instant dislike to Clayton Webb from the "State Department". Looking across at her new temporary partner, she could see that Harm had formed the same idea.

Then the broadcast by "the Defenders" cut into the CNN feed. When Webb announced the name of the former Recon Colonel, Mac suddenly began to realise why she had been pulled off a double homicide, but she kept a straight face as she summarised O'Hara's career: "He was one of the few Marines to come out of Vietnam with the Medal of Honour around his neck – instead of his widow's".

Whilst Webb was distracted on his cellphone, Chegwidden quietly briefed his team of three. "The only way we're going to salvage any credibility is to bring him in ourselves."

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In the elevator, "Mac" impressed Harm by being able to tell the time without apparently looking at her watch. This was – finally – one definitely difference from his wife. Diane made a point of checking her watch regularly – she explained it by needing to keep track of rotating codes in the Crypto cabin.

But Harm's new Marine partner was "first to go" and he needed to grab his go-bag ahead of boarding Webb's flight.

Swinging back via the Rabb home (Di had taken their children to the Ice Cream parlour as a treat to keep them out of the way of "Daddy and the Clone" - as she had briefly termed the incidence of her apparent twin) Harm chatted with "Mac" as he loaded up his go-bag, including a stash of cigars.

Harm had grown more certain that "Mac" knew more about O'Hara than she was letting on.

She simply batted his observation away, reminding him that "We only have 33 minutes".

"How do you do that?"

"I have great timing."

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Saturday January 4th 1997, 14:49hrs MST

The cross-country adventure through the wild landscape of Arizona had bonded Harm and Sarah. A night-time drive across the rain-strewn, unlit landscape had revealed information from both of the working partners.

Harm had forgiven Sarah ("Mac", as she insisted on being addressed – what the heck was that all about?) for keeping secret the relationship to "Uncle" Matt O'Hara. Mac had forgiven Harm for her presumption that he already knew about her background.

Slowly, Harm and Mac were beginning to trust each other. This would turn out to be vital as they tracked down, met up with and then dealt with "the Patriots". The two JAG lawyers had continued to exchange information, revealing a little more about themselves.

She had disclosed the torment of her early years and Harm had realised the enormity of the confidence which she divulged to him when she revealed how Uncle Matt had helped her to dry out in the cave up on Red Rock Mesa. Clearly, Sarah Mackenzie was a tough cookie by virtue of an upbringing, a presumably-troubled childhood and a massively-successful rebuild by the USMC to produce the confident, assured woman who drove the beaten-up old pickup truck alongside Harm.

Meeting up with the "Patriots", brokering the deal, setting up the flight back down from the top of Red Rock Mesa, Harm had nothing but admiration for his new Marine partner. With the gaps in Falls Church since Meg Austin, Kate Pike and even Alison Krennick had left, Harm found himself hoping that the TAD from Yuma might be made into an offer of a PCS to Falls Church. Every time he trusted "Mac", she came through and delivered.

He would just have to work out how to distinguish her from his wife!

The two junior ranks in the "Patriots" finally went "off-script" and shot O'Hara's number two.

As the helo spooled up, Sarah Mackenzie stared straight into Harm's eyes. The unspoken message in her eyes was clear: "help me".

Harm sprang into action, leaping heroically for the landing skid as the helo headed off the plateau. A series of terrifying lurches later – plus the departure of the Declaration and a live human being into space, to meet with Isaac Newton's immovable rules – saw everyone safely landing on the desert floor.

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Retired Col Matthew O'Hara looked at Harm, then turned to his niece.

"Where did you find this sailor, Sarah?"

"In a rose garden, Uncle Matt."

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Friday January 17th 1997, 10:13hrs EST

Main courtroom, JAG HQ, Falls Church, VA

The trial was quickly convened; Harm and Mac proved that they worked together inside the courtroom as they had – in that terrifying helicopter ride above Arizona – out in the field.

And thus a new partnership was born.

In the intervening weekend, "Mac" had visited the Rabb home for Sunday lunch; she and Diane discovered that they shared a birth date and a city of birth, but beyond that there was no linkage. That gap in knowledge would start to be plugged after the trial of "Uncle Matt".

As Matt O'Hara was being led out of court, he stopped by the defence table to thank Harm and Mac. Diane had brought the two children in, in preparation for taking Harm to lunch – his apology for "ditching" them at the Rose Garden two weeks earlier.

"Uncle Matt, I'd like to introduce you to Harm's wife, Diane."

Matt turned around, reaching out his handcuffed wrists, then he gasped as he looked into Diane's face.

"Forgive me Mrs Rabb. Sarah just said your name was Diane – am I correct?"

Diane nodded. "Yes Colonel – we share a birth date but we cannot account for the similarities."

Matthew O'Hara smiled. "Well then, Mrs Rabb, apart from being born in the same year, I would hazard a guess that you were born in a maternity ward in Yuma Arizona?"

She nodded – this was getting weird again!

Uncle Matt (a man whom Diane had neither met nor ever heard of) continued with a knowing smile: "Then, Mrs Rabb, I would also guess that your maiden name was Diane Schonke?"

Harm and Diane both gasped in surprise. Even Mac's normal inscrutable lawyer game-face was perturbed.

"How the hell did he know that?"

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End of Ch06 – "We the People".

Mike, United Kingdom, 20-03-2021

A/N Ch06: After writing the storyboard for this entire story and detailing the first eight chapters, I discovered – quite by chance – the intriguing 2003 AU story "What's past is prologue" by the writing team of Valerie J and Aerogirl. I reached out to Valerie and was pleased to receive a prompt response from her. I acknowledge the coincidence of elements of the storyline in this chapter of my story – and recommend readers to their early body of FFN work.