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AN: Okay, I wasn't going to include any other JAG characters in my fic, but Bud and Harriet were so great in the series, so I thought they deserved to be included! Enjoy!
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Part 4
Harm and James were now seated away from Major MacKenzie, preferring to sit at the edge of the seating area, giving the best seats to the new officers. Mac was now talking to Ensign Bud Roberts, whom she'd been seated next to on the plane over. He'd bought a travel guide back in the States, so was telling Mac all about the dances they were about to see. He was a friendly, intelligent young man, if a little bit enthusiastic, but Mac preferred this to 'slightly guarded, standoff-ish.' It was going to be a bit more difficult settling in here, when she already had a reputation!
Ensign Roberts piped down, as the full Balinese orchestra started up, comprising of four sets of different instruments; gamelans (like a metalic xylophone with fewer notes,) flutes, cymbals and drums. The dancers swept out, graceful on light feet and none of them more than about twelve years old. Mac was surprised to see one of the main dancers was clearly not Indonesian or even Asian, though she was very tanned.
"This dance is usually performed by young girls who haven't yet reached puberty," Bud Roberts had told her, earlier, but Mac hadn't quite grasped how skilled these children would be.
Their hand and leg movements were precise, their poses always graceful, the picture of femininity. Their facial expressions changed often and their eye movements were rapid, depending on the pace of the music, yet they managed to make it all seem effortless. The audience was silent, until the music began to slow, and then stopped altogether, the dancers striking a final pose.
The applause was loud, but the dancers didn't pause long, before they swept out of the arena and were replaced by some older performers. The next dance portrayed the fight between good and evil, the characters dressed in bulky, ornate costumes and detailed, carved masks.
The final dance was actually one that was not so traditional like those previous, but invented for and popular with the tourists to the region. The Kecak consisted of the dancers themselves, as well as an all-male choir. Mac noticed many of the young dancers from the first dance were now sitting alongside the arena, too, obviously wanting to watch and study this performance. She was sure this was what these young children were aspiring to be, when they got older.
With help from Ensign Roberts, she managed to decipher exactly what was happening in this dance and how the music complemented to dance and the story itself.
By the time that the final performance had come to an end, Mac found herself to be disappointed, even though it had run for quite some time. The applause was once again loud and enthusiastic, particularly when the other dancers, both young and old returned to the arena for a final bow.
Once they swept back out of the arena, the officer began to stand up and make their way out. Once in they reached the temple entryway, they all stopped to talk then admired the costumes and make-up of some of the dancers who had joined them. Mac caught sight of Lt. Commanders Greene and Rabb, talking to a woman who appeared to be an instructor at the temple.
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Harm and James were talking to one of the temple's dance instructors, when Harm's daughter Kim came to see her Dad and his work colleague.
"Your daughter did very well, tonight."
"This has to be her best performance, yet!"
"She excelled!"
Yan's Mother, and Kim's teacher were both gushing to the officers.
"She earned this opportunity to perform by working very hard, these past few weeks."
"The other teachers and I have been very impressed with her, these past months!"
Harm smoothed a hand across his daughter's shoulders and looked at all of the paint on her face. He wasn't used to seeing her looking like a painted doll, but bit back any comment.
Instead, he complimented, "Yes, she did very well, indeed!"
It was true. She seemed to have advanced a lot, since the last time he'd had the opportunity to see her dance. He had at one time brought Kim to classes himself, but his work had begun to demand more and more of his time, until he rarely ever saw her, apart from first thing in the morning, before he ran her to school and last thing at night, when she had already gone to bed…Well, he had to admit that he had chosen to devote much more time to his work…Being served with divorce papers had taken him by surprise and had hit him hard. The state of his working reputation had been a useful distraction, but at the cost of his daughter. Kim had essentially become a latch-key kid, at the tender age of seven. She was a good kid and never complained.
"Sweetie, I've got to accompany the new officers back to the BOQ…Can you make your own way home?" Harm asked his daughter, once her teacher, Yan's mother and James had moved on.
"Yep, I'm going to go home with Yan…Mrs Patterson needs to stay behind to help clear up, but we'll be careful on the way."
"Don't forget to get all that muck, uh…paint off your face…I don't want to see it all over your bed sheets, come morning!" Harm joked.
Kim just smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Dad!"
Harm walked with her, as Kim made her way back to the dressing area, to remove her costume and take off her make-up. Watching his daughter, internally musing how grown-up she seemed to be getting, Harm didn't watch where they were going. As Kim concerned herself with removing the jewelry on her fingers and up her arms, Harm steered them accidentally into Major MacKenzie.
"Oops, I'm sorr…"
Kim froze when her gaze locked upon the officer she'd knocked into. Harm turned his gaze to Mac, then back to his daughter, registering the shock on her face.
Before things got out of hand, he took his daughter's arm and commanded her attention.
"Kim, say hello to Major MacKenzie…She'll be working alongside Lt. Commander Greene and myself, at JAG. Major, this is my daughter, Kim."
Kim's questioning gaze stayed for just a few seconds more on the uncomfortable-looking Marine Major, then snapped back to her father.
"M…Major MacKen…zie?"
"Yes," he Father confirmed with a meaningful expression, "She's joining us from the JAG offices in San Diego."
"H…hello, Major…Welcome to Bali."
"Thank you, Kim," Mac smiled, still not understanding exactly what had occurred, but rolling with the punches, so to speak.
"I'll see you at home, okay, Kim?" Harm's tone was gentle, yet firm, "Go and get dressed, now…"
Once the child was gone, Harm and James turned back to their new officers. Eventually, they steered the rest of the crowd back to the buses that had brought them here. No doubt the scuttlebutt would be working overtime, the next morning!
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