Chapter 4

A/N: I do not know what it is like in a military prison. I know that conditions are harsh. I did my best to research and take information from prison documentaries. Any inaccuracies can be deemed as author's privilege.

Restrictive Barracks, Anacostia, December 11, 1999, 03:10 EST

Premeditated murder?! Skates thought. What am I getting myself into?

"That's about the look I was expecting," Regi said. "If we're gonna be homies for a while, I figure we may as well be honest with each other. So yeah, I planned to kill a person and then I did it."

"What were the circumstances?" Skates finally asked when words came to her.

"It was my husband. He was cheating. I figured something was up. I followed him to a bar and saw him take some blonde woman maybe 18 or 19 into the bathroom. Dirty whore," Regi said under her breath. "Anyways, I tried to hide the fact that I knew from my husband. I pretended like we were gonna have a steamy night of lovin'. I got a little too 'carried away' with the choking session, I guess you could say. But in his final moments, I told him off."

Skates held her breath. She knew this was not a woman to mess around with. She felt sorry for her, knowing the pain of someone you thought you could trust turning out to be a completely different person. However, Skates could never imagine herself taking any of her anger out on him in a physical way. This was just another indication of her not belonging here.

" Chow's up! Bus is here!" The women in the mess hall heard Lt. McGill shout.

"Yes, ma'am," the hall echoed back.

The woman stood up at the signal of Lt. McGill and in a single file line, threw away their trash. They piled their trays in the dirty tray section, and waited by the door. One by one, they were shackled. Skates felt humiliated but didn't let her emotions show. She knew just from her short conversation with Regi that any sign of weakness would be enough to get her killed in a place like this. Once all the prisoners were restrained, they were loaded onto the bus. Due to their place in line, Skates was seated next to Regi for their long ride across the country.

The trip took a few days. During the day, the prisoners weren't allowed to speak. However, due to the roar of the bus's engine, they were able to get away with whispering. During this time, Skates and Regi got to know each other a little better, exchanging stories about their careers and what brought them to be in confinement. When it was time to eat, the guards pulled out prepackaged food from a bag. It wasn't good, but it was the only thing they had to eat so they ate it without complaint. At night, they didn't stop driving. The women were expected to sleep sitting upright in their seats. The women sitting closest to the window were at an advantage as they had a place to rest their heads. The women with aisle seats tried their best to rest their head forward on the seat in front of them, for they know if they drifted off to the side and touched their seatmate, they would likely be called homophobic slurs. Skates was unlucky enough to have an aisle seat. She didn't sleep a wink, but she was used to schedules like that from night ops.

Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar, December 13, 1999, 06:13 PST

The bus pulled into the Naval Consolidated Brig at Miramar just shortly after 0600 hours. The women and guards were exhausted after the trip. No one had been able to get much sleep and many of them were quite sore after being seated for so long. To Skates, it felt like heaven just to be able to stand and stretch her legs. The prisoners were escorted off of the bus and into the prison. Their first stop was the triage area. Once secured in triage, the women guards removed the shackles from the prisoners.

"Welcome to your new home, ladies. I know where you come from they don't put up with any bullshit. Keep acting the way you did back at Anacostia and you shouldn't have any trouble from us. Let's start by getting you in your new uniforms," one of the guards said. Skates could see the name engraved in her uniform was Lieutenant Lane. "Oh, and don't think you'll get any privacy here," she added, indicating that the women were to change right then and there with no regards to anyone standing around them. Skates, along with some of the other women, was confused. They had been told to change but hadn't actually been handed their new uniform.

"What's the matter?" Lt. Lane asked one of the prisoners.

"Ma'am, you haven't given us our new uniforms yet, ma'am."

"You get it once you've been searched," Lt. Lane replied.

Once by one the women removed their clothing and were searched. No one looked at each other. They kept their eyes forward, waiting for their nightmare to be over. Skates felt the same way all the women did - humiliated and devastated that she even had to be there. The longer that she found herself there, the more she began to believe that she did do something wrong and that she did deserve to be there. Once they had been searched, they were handed their new uniform to wear. Skates put it on quickly and stood at attention. She realized she was the first one to do this.

"I'm impressed," Lt. Lane said.

"Ma'am, thank you, ma'am." Skates replied.

"Show off," one of the other women mumbled under her breath.

"Do you care to repeat that?" Lt. Lane said in a stern voice to the young woman.

"Ma'am, no, ma'am," she responded.

"That's what I thought!" Lt. Lane shouted back.

After their time in triage, they were taken to temporary barracks. According to one of the women Skates shared a temp room with who had been to Miramar before, the temp room was where they stayed until the guards figured out where to put you. Then, you were placed in the general population prison. While in temp, you could still take part in most of the things that went on in the prison like the rec room and eating in the mess hall with the others, you just slept in a large bunk room with seven other people rather than a half-wall cubicle with one other person.

While in temp barracks, Skates tried to keep mostly to herself. Some of the other women would get on each other's nerves and they'd start fighting. Skates tried to distance herself from all of that. It was a little hard to do when she shared a bunk with Regi. Regi seemed to always find a way to bring Skates into the conversation. In some ways, Skates was thankful she had someone to share her time with, but on the other hand, this was not the kind of person she ever imagined herself being associated with.

Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar, December 16, 1999, 10:00 PST

After their third day in temp barracks, they were finally given their gen bunk assignments. Skates was going to be bunking with Regi. During the three days, Regi managed to get into a physical altercation with all of the other women in their temp room other than Skates. The guards figured they would have a better chance keeping peace by having Regi bunk with Skates. After spending three days with her, Skates was getting used to Regi. She knew what she could get away with and what she should steer clear from when it came to Regi.

"I guess you just can't get rid of me," Regi said to Skates as they were setting up their gen bunk area. At this point, they all had toiletries and some small recreational items like books and journals to store away.

"No complaints from me," Skates replied.

"Really? I got the impression you didn't like me at first." Regi told her.

"Not gonna lie," Skates began, "when you said premeditated murder, it shook me. Now, I'm over it." It was true, at this point, Skates knew the person, Regi - not just the criminal, Regi. She knew that if she were ever in trouble, she could count on Regi to be there for her. In fact, that was one of the fights that took place in temp barracks. One of the women was trying to mess with Skates and Regi wouldn't have it. Skates felt embarrassed that Regi had to fight her battles, but she was thankful to have someone to watch her back.

"Makes sense," Regi said, nodding. "I'll be honest with ya, too. I thought you were a wuss. Turns out you've got thicker skin than I thought."

"Thanks," Skates said, "but I have a hard time believing that."

"I can fix that," Regi told her.

JAG Headquarters, Harm's Office, December 16, 1999, 11:00 EST

Harm sat at his desk, once again thumbing through the documents related to the Hawkes case. He couldn't help but wonder what his former RIO was dealing with. According to the transport records, Skates hadn't been at Anacostia long before being transferred to Miramar. Harm wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He knew Miramar would be rough, but Anacostia seemed horrible. According to his calculations, Skates had likely been at Miramar for about three days. He wasn't sure when she would have phone privileges or if she would choose to call him or her family first, but he hoped he would hear from her soon.

"You still can't let it go," Harm heard a voice as the door to his office opened. She looked up and saw Mac standing there.

"If you had an appeal, you wouldn't let it go either," Harm replied.

"You're too emotionally involved in this case. You want to save her because she's your friend, I get it Harm. The fact is, she's guilty and she deserves to be there."

Harm didn't respond. He could feel his temper begin to rise and didn't want to say anything he would regret. Instead, he took a deep breath in and sighed. He picked up his stack on files and organized them to how they had been before he thumbed through them.

"What I came to tell you is that Lieutenant Jonas is here. I'm still his attorney so I'm sitting in on this. Any questions we don't like, we won't answer," Mac told him. She motioned for Boomer to enter the office. He was still on his crutches but seemed like he was having a much easier time than he did in court. Part of it, Harm thought, was because he didn't have an audience to feel sorry for him.

"You seem to be doing better, Boomer," Harm said as his former squad mate took a seat in the chair opposite him.

"I'm managing," Boomer replied.

"So Boomer, let's be honest here. We flew together. We know each other's flying habits, wouldn't you say so?"

"Maybe?" Boomer questioned. "I mean, we didn't really fly together that long."

"Still, we logged a lot of hours together, wouldn't you say?" Harm asked.

"I guess," Boomer replied.

"Your score on the Greenie Board was pretty inconsistent," Harm said.

"We can't all be X-Men," Boomer said back, sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to be."

"Your point?" Boomer asked impatiently.

"I know your flying. The Greenie Board doesn't lie. You're a deck spotter. That's what happened the night of the ramp strike."

"Skates screwed up!" Boomer said in a raised tone. "She wasn't even supposed to bring me in."

"You didn't know that," Harm said.

"No, not at the time. If I had, I would've gone around," Boomer said.

"How many times has she successfully landed you?" Harm asked.

"I don't know," Boomer said without giving the question any thought.

"I think plenty. I know because quite a few of those landings took place while I was on board."

"So?" Boomer asked. "She can land a plane a few times. When it actually mattered, she screwed up."

"I don't think so -"

"Of course you don't! I know you two knew each other before you flew together on the Patrick Henry. I know there's history and friendship there. Your opinion doesn't count," Boomer told him.

"How much time do you need to adjust for a wave off?" Harm asked.

"When you're flying screwy hydraulics and no radio, you need a lot more time than the average," Boomer said.

"I know. It looks like you were given that," Harm replied.

"You can't tell from any tapes. You have to be there."

"The same as how you had to be there to hear your engines unwind?" Harm asked. Boomer's face squinted in anger and his hand clenched.

"I don't see this questioning leading to anywhere productive," Mac said, standing up. "Lieutenant, would you follow me to my office?" Mac said to Boomer.

"Yes, ma'am," Boomer said, rising from the seat and getting his crutches situated. He and Harm exchanged one last look of disgust before he exited the office.