A/N: This author is definitely not an engineer, or a lawyer although I did intern for a judge during undergrad. I did some research, polled the audience, and phoned a friend who offered some advice. Hopefully the mishap portion of the case is plausible. If not, chalk up any and all mistakes to Author's stupidity. I scrapped this chapter three times before I came up with what I am posting. Kind of filler, hope it isn't too boring.


Mac is pleased when she walks into her courtroom to find everything as it should be. She really isn't in the mood for any more surprises this morning. It was bad enough that she took a Sharpie marker out of her desk trying to color her gray hair. She found out rather quickly that it is nearly impossible to color just one strand of extremely fine hair. Unfortunately, the color didn't blend in with her highlights, so she just ended up yanking it out. Hopefully the old wives' tale is wrong and seven more won't grow back in its place. She'll just have to consult her stylist to make sure there aren't any more that she hasn't caught yet. Mac enjoys getting her hair colored every once in a while, but she has always previously done it to try different things, not to hide anything. Getting older rather sucks sometimes. However, with as many years as she has dealt with Harm's antics, she is actually shocked that this is the first one that has shown up. That man could give anyone gray hair!

Her yeoman, Petty Officer Mattingly, had knocked on her chamber door just as Mac realized that she had twenty-two seconds to be on time for court. Damn gray hairs, and husbands, and General's! She is never late! Determined to put her conversation with the General out of her mind until at least lunchtime, she shuffles her feet with a curt, "I'm coming. God forbid I give Lieutenant England anything more to complain about!"

The case she is presiding over has LCDR Daughtery, aka "Free Willy" as the pilot of the first plane, where one of the fairings from his AIM-54 missile rail had fallen off upon landing, causing a foul deck. His wingman behind him, LCDR Allister, aka "Chappy", had bingo fuel and ended up having to eject because of the foul deck, costing the Navy millions of dollars for the loss of the airplane. Daughtery's plane captain, Petty Officer Miller was being charged with destruction of government property and dereliction of duty for failure to perform a proper safety inspection resulting in the mishap.

Mac gazes over at the prosecuting attorney, "Lt. Tiner, are you ready to call your next witness?"

Tiner replies, "I'd like to call Free Willy to the stand."

Mac has to stifle her giggle; it would not be appropriate at all as a judge for her to show her humor. She needs to remain unemotional. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who overheard the conversation regarding the call sign of the pilot yesterday.

Lt. England immediately interjects, "Objection your honor! I hardly doubt the prosecution can call a whale to the stand. I doubt that any were breaching in view of the ship at the time of the incident. Even if they could witness it, I doubt anyone here speaks whale fluently enough to understand. Unless of course a fish named Dory is the Lieutenant's next witness."

Mac chides, "Tiner" in a tone very reminiscent of the one the Admiral used to employ with him when he was irritated. Even though she found his faux pas quite amusing, she does have to maintain decorum in her courtroom. She also shoots Lt. England an icy glare as she announces, "Perhaps counsel would like to modify the name of his next witness."

Tiner stammers, reminding Mac of the naïve Petty Officer he used to be, "My apologies Ma'am, "I would like to call LCDR Daughtery to the stand."

Mac replies, "Very Well."

While Tiner is swearing the witness in, Mac glances over at the members of the panel. Several are trying as desperately as she is to keep the laughter in, a few of the others are sitting with a perplexed look, likely wondering how this witness ended up with that call sign. Mac knows full well that members of the jury are not always given all of the evidence pertaining to a trial for various reasons. However, the story behind the call sign isn't relevant to this case at all so she doesn't feel any need to elaborate. She instructs, "The members will disregard the use of the witness' call sign."

Tiner does a good job for the most part, and Mac finds herself comparing the witness to a much younger version of her husband when she hears his statement, "I don't go looking for trouble, it just seems to find me."

Mac realizes at the end of Tiner's direct examination that Tiner forgot the first rule of lawyering; never ask a question that you don't know the answer to. He just handed the defense a golden opportunity. Mac would really like to slap the smirk off Lt. England's face that she has as she begins her cross-examination of Lt. Daughtery. Mac thinks to herself, 'Oh please let this little witch make a mistake' before chiding herself for her own error. As a judge, she is supposed to remain unbiased and unemotional. She rationalizes that she is both in terms of the clients, just not in terms of the lawyers. They get through the first three witnesses before Mac calls a recess for lunch. Both her bladder and her head need a break!