A/N: Thank you for reviewing, Ciara and alix33! A very special thank you to my beta AvaniHeath for her invaluable input.

This chapter was inspired by "Fall away" by the Fray.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: JAG is property of Donald P. Bellisario. I'm only borrowing.

7 Fall away

Captain Andrew Pierce, the base CO, was in a foul mood when they reported in, but Mac got the impression that it had less to do with them—though in her experience, people didn't tend to be particularly fond of lawyers—and more with the media chaos at the front gates, which he couldn't do anything about. Mac wondered what they hoped to achieve since nobody would grant them access to the base, but she supposed they had to at least try. They were drawn to news such as this like sharks to blood.

"I already have my men looking into it," he told them tersely, "but I suppose two more sets of eyes won't hurt. And if you being here helps cleaning up this mess, by all means, do what you need to do. Just try not to get into Agent Rhys's way. I already had him in twice today, complaining about a general lack of cooperation."

Rhys, Mac surmised, was the NCIS agent leading the murder investigation.

"On second thought," Pierce continued, "I don't mind him getting knocked down a peg and based on what Admiral Chegwidden told me when he called me this morning, I gather the two of you are used to dealing with the NCIS."

That was a bit of an overstatement, considering that their paths didn't cross all that often, but Mac didn't think it was necessary to point that out.

"I know that he's probably a good man and under a lot of stress at the moment—as are we all—but I don't particularly care for his attitude." Pierce sat back, hands folded on the blotter on his desk. "Keep me informed. Dismissed."

"He wasn't happy to see us," Harm murmured as they walked down the corridor side by side.

"No," she agreed. "But considering what day he's probably been having, that's no surprise. Someone was abducted from and then murdered on his base. That's kind of a career killer."

Harm snorted. "You think?"

She shrugged. "At least he's cooperating. So…" This time she didn't let him hold open the door for her as they went outside into the afternoon sunlight; quickening her pace, she stepped in front of him, pushing the door open herself. She thought he hesitated before following her outside, but her back was to him and she couldn't be sure.

The flag on the pole by the main building snapped madly in the wind and although it was a bright day in August and there were only a handful of hazy white clouds in the sky, it was chilly. Mac rubbed her palms over her bare arms. "So," she repeated, "where do you want to start?"

They turned left towards a smaller building, where they'd been assigned an office. Lieutenant Acker had worked in the same building and it was where they'd been told her roommate Lieutenant Hannah Wright would be. She had insisted on going to work today.

"We should probably talk to Wright first, find out if she knows anything and what. Maybe she can give us an idea as to why someone would murder Lieutenant Acker."

"You thinking crazy boyfriend?" Mac asked, lifting an eyebrow at him.

"I'm just not ruling anything out," he replied, grinning at her doubtful expression, which made her lips curve into a smile.

For a moment Mac forgot that she was supposed to keep her distance from him. Being here with him, tossing ideas back and forth, making plans felt natural and normal and easy. Familiar, and she craved this familiarity. Then she remembered why she shouldn't and her face fell. She quickly looked away so that she wouldn't have to see Harm's reaction.

"Mind if I talk to her?" she asked. Anything to get away from him. After lunch, they had passed the rest of the drive in silence and Mac had a feeling that if she had to spend another hour with him in an enclosed space, she'd go insane. He hadn't tried to make her talk about what was bothering her, but his eyes had been on her the whole time as he tried to figure out what was going on inside her head. The intensity of his gaze had made her skin prickle.

Why did he have to keep looking at her like that?

Do you want him to stop? a voice whispered at the back of her mind.

No, she had to admit bitterly. No, I don't.

But she couldn't continue this way either.

"Of course not," Harm said quietly. "Meantime, I'll have a word with the head of base security, see what he's come up with. Maybe they've already found the breach. Finding out how he got her off base might help us narrow down the list of suspects. Which," he added with a sigh, "right now includes about any male stationed here."

"I don't suppose the NCIS will share what they've got so far," Mac replied, "but it can't hurt to ask. I'll see if I can track down this Agent Rhys after I talked to Lieutenant Wright."

oOo

"Lieutenant Wright, there's someone from JAG here to see you," Commander Paxton said, poking his head into the office Hannah shared with two other analysts. One of the desks was empty, the computer turned off. Although she'd wanted to work today in order to distract herself from the gruesome image of her friend lying dead on her bed, she couldn't stop looking at Flo's abandoned workstation.

"Thank you, Sir," she replied. She saved what she'd been working on—which wasn't much—and got up, stepping out into the hallway.

"You must be Lieutenant Wright," the female colonel waiting there for her said kindly.

"Yes, Ma'am," she replied, somehow managing the ghost of a smile. She wondered why someone from JAG would want to speak to her. She'd already told everything she knew to Agent Rhys and the thought of being interviewed again filled her with dread. Rhys's aggressive way of questioning had reduced her to tears. It had been humiliating and Hannah didn't want to cry in front of another stranger again. Once a day was enough.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie. Let's go outside to talk?"

She must have seen Hannah's discomfort in her face and it was to her credit that she was trying to ease it. Which couldn't be said for Rhys, who'd kept bombarding her with questions she had no answers for. If you were at home, then why didn't you hear anything? He'd asked that more than once and gotten the same answer each time—that Hannah had been fast asleep. However, for some reason he refused to believe her and this had made her feel like a criminal. That she'd still been hung-over when he'd interviewed her hadn't helped matters. Still, it was the truth and no matter how much she would have liked to tell him that she'd heard or seen something that would help them find Flo's killer, she couldn't.

That was exactly what she had told Flo's dad when he had called her at work only a few short hours before, questioning her with the same aggressiveness that Agent Rhys had displayed. Only he'd apologised to her afterwards and Hannah, knowing how close he and Flo had been, was inclined to feel sympathetic towards him and cut him some slack. She couldn't say the same for Rhys.

"Thank you, Colonel," Hannah said gratefully.

The wind had picked up since this morning and she was grateful for the chill in the air. Her stomach was still a little upset, her head throbbing viciously. She knew nobody would think any less of her if she went home before her shift was over—in fact, Paxton had repeatedly offered her to have someone accompany her home—but right now she had nowhere to go. Her apartment was still sealed off, though she'd been told that she could return there tonight as long as she didn't enter Flo's bedroom, which would be off-limits until NCIS was satisfied they hadn't missed anything.

"How long did you know Lieutenant Acker?" the colonel asked as they walked down the street towards the housing area. People passed them on their way, and Hannah thought they were staring at her. That's just my imagination going wild, she told herself. Only a handful of people knew that she'd found the body, most of them her direct neighbours and the people she worked with. Norfolk was the largest US naval station in the world and much like a small town. You knew the people you saw every day, and some in passing, but that was it.

"Sixteen months," she said. "We shared quarters for twelve. We got along well most of the time, aside from the occasional fight. Flo—Lieutenant Acker—always left her stuff lying around. It drove me nuts." Her throat closed up. The thought of never kicking Flo's shoes out of the way when she got home from work made her want to cry. "She was a good person." Her voice cracked and Hannah swallowed before she continued, "She was nice to everyone. She was responsible. She had a great sense of humour. Why would anybody want to hurt her, Ma'am?"

"Did she have a boyfriend?"

"NCIS asked me that too, Ma'am. No, she didn't and if there'd been someone, she would have told me." Again, Rhys hadn't believed her. "I'm sure of that. She wasn't one to keep secrets. I don't think she knew how, what with four brothers." A sad smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she recalled how Flo had told her to what great lengths said brothers had gone to unearth their baby sister's precious secrets. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced them back. Enough crying for one day. She really didn't want to embarrass herself in front of a senior officer.

"Do you remember anything about the day she went missing?" the colonel asked next. Her voice was quiet and full of sympathy. That brought the tears right back.

"I was," Hannah choked. She swallowed hard and started again. "I was out with my boyfriend that night. We went off-base to catch a movie. When I got back, it was past midnight and I thought Flo was already asleep. I didn't check on her." She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes. "I had no reason to. She wasn't there when I got up the next morning, but that wasn't unusual either. She always went for a run before she had to report for duty. I didn't realise something was wrong until later. We share an office and she didn't show up on time. I tried to call her and when she didn't answer, I told Commander Paxton, our CO. Everyone assumed she'd gone UA, but Flo would never do that. She loved her job." She drew a deep, shaky breath. "I don't understand why I didn't wake up when he brought her back. I'm a light sleeper. I even wake up when Flo's cat scratches at the backdoor. I guess the wine I had was off." The last sentence was muttered under her breath and not intended for the colonel, but she'd heard and grew still for a moment, pausing mid-step before she resumed walking.

"What makes you think that, Lieutenant?" she asked, frowning slightly.

Why was that important? "The fact that I only drank one glass and it knocked me out cold, Ma'am. Not that my tolerance for alcohol is particularly high, but it's definitely higher than that and it was on a full stomach."

"Are you still feeling hung-over?" There was something in the colonel's voice that Hannah couldn't quite identify. Suspicion perhaps?

"Well," she said slowly, not sure how to answer without admitting that she'd reported for duty with a hang-over. She decided that if it helped finding Flo's murderer—though she failed to see how it possibly could or why this seemed to important—it didn't matter. "A little, I guess. More than I should."

"Did you rinse the glass?"

Hannah stared at her. The sudden urgency in her voice puzzled her. "Um, I don't think so, Ma'am. I did put it in the sink though, I think."

"Anything else you remember? Anything suspicious, anything that you think could have to do with Lieutenant Acker's murder?"

"Not at the moment, Ma'am." She'd been racking her brain for hours, but the pain in her temple made it hard to focus."

"Please call me if you remember anything else." She handed Hannah a card. "We're set up in your building, so you can probably find me there in case you can't reach me in my cell."

"Thank you, Ma'am," Hannah replied sincerely. Finally, someone was taking what she had to say seriously. Even if she doubted it would be of much help.

A/N: Review! Pretty, pretty please. You know I love hearing what you think.