To Hell and Back
Chapter 11
Harm parked the Navy sedan outside the female officers' wing of the restricted barracks at Anacostia and shivered as he stepped out of the car. Even wrapped snugly in his overcoat, and with his gloves on his hands, the air seemed to carry a damp chill coming off the adjacent Anacostia River.
As he had requested on the phone, the Officer in Command of the barracks was there to meet him. A Lieutenant Commander, who appeared to Harm to be pretty old for his rank, a Mustang in all probability he decided, was waiting for him.
"Good morning, sir!" he snapped, bringing his hand up to his cover's peak in a regulation salute, "Lieutenant Commander Bainbridge!"
Harm returned the salute and flashed his easy grin, "Relax, Commander, you're not in trouble. As I said on the 'phone, all I'm here for is to speak with an Ensign Judith Wainwright…"
"You're her defence attorney?" Bainbridge queried.
"I am," Harm agreed and was slightly surprised when the other man relaxed his stance slightly and a degree of warmth came into his eyes.
"I'm pleased to meet you then, sir."
"Oh why?"
"Ensign Wainwright is nothing more than a kid. Hell, two of my daughters are older than her. All she's done is to be dumb enough to fall for an older guy, who should have known better than to encourage her."
"You sound pretty protective of her?" Harm said, making his comment into a question.
"Commander, I've been OIC these barracks for the past three years and when you've been in a billet like this for that length of time, you soon learn who are the bad apples and who are the ones who are just, well, dumb enough to breach regulations. Wainwright isn't bad… she's young and dumb, yeah, but she's got her whole life ahead of her, she doesn't need a federal conviction hanging over her."
"You break the rules, Commander, you got to take the hard knocks that come with that."
"Agreed, but their CO could have done something else than just prefer charges the minute he heard…"
"Whoa! Wait up! I might even agree with you, but I can't let you criticise a superior officer! Or haven't you ever heard of 'disrespectful words'?" Harm grinned to show that he wasn't threatening the other man.
Fortunately Bainbridge took Harm's words in the manner in which they were meant and managed a slightly sheepish grin in return, "Yeah, of course I have, sir. But in this case… well, I guess I let my feelings get away from me!"
"Well, we'll say no more about it, but can we get inside? I'm like to freeze my ears off out here!"
Bainbridge smiled, his tour of duty at Anacostia had inured him to the winter's damp chill, "Of course, sir! And he rapped sharply on the door frame, calling out in a voice that Harm considered could have been heard from the quarterdeck to the main top of an old wooden line of battle ship, "Man on deck!" and then added on a normal speaking voice, "They should all be in uniform, but we'll give 'em the thirty seconds just in case one of them isn't!"
All four of the current residents, two Navy officers and two Marines, were in the uniform of the day, Blue Service Dress and Alpha Service Dress respectively, and all four came to attention as Harm and Bainbridge entered the large room at the end of the hall.
"As you were, ladies!" Bainbridge snapped, and the four women dropped back into their seats.
"What happens here?" Harm asked.
"The residents here aren't on vacation, Commander, and there's always plenty of paperwork to keep them occupied. Mostly mind bending drudgery, like amendments to Navy regs and OPINSTs from various branches, and there are plenty of Admin Officers on base who are glad to pass that sort of drudgery on, so the ladies here are kept in pretty much full time employment."
Harm winced and said sotto voce, "Damn, that's near as bad as being at hard labour!"
"I try to keep it in bounds, and the hours of work are from zero nine to sixteen, with an hour off for lunch, and in that time they are expected to work conscientiously and keep their accommodation up to white gloves standard, and their selves and their uniforms, of course."
"What happens the rest of the day?"
"They are free to leave the barracks, provided they sign out and let us know where they're headed. They are confined to base, and they are prohibited the use of alcohol, otherwise they are free to use the base facilities. Ensign Wainwright, for example, usually books out after secure until just before curfew – that's at twenty two hundred – and spends most of that time at the base swimming pool."
"Seems a pretty soft routine, Commander?"
"Well, none of them have been found guilty of an offence. Sir."
"But isn't it pretty open to abuse?"
"It is, but they are briefed on processing in that breaching the regulations for the restricted barracks will see them in pre-trial confinement. Most realise that life could be a lot worse for them and fly straight and level. We do get some who think they can outflank us, but they usually get tripped up sooner or later."
Harm nodded, he was going to the conclusion that he liked Lieutenant Commander Bainbridge. It didn't seem as if he would allow the inhabitants of the restricted barracks to play fast and loose with the rules, but at the same time there was a hint of compassion about the man.
"Is there somewhere I can speak with Ensign Wainwright in private?"
"Of course, Sir, we have an interview room in the Admin barrack block. Miss Wainwright! Front and centre!"
"Sir!" Ensign Wainwright snapped as she leapt to her feet and marched towards Harm and Bainbridge, halting at attention in front of them. The young woman proved to be the taller of the two Navy officers currently living in restricted barracks. To Harm's eye she appeared absurdly young, slim and with unremarkable mid-brown hair which he strongly suspected that Mattie would dismiss as being mousy.
Harm allowed himself a friendly smile in the direction of the young woman, "Ensign Wainwright, my name is Commander Rabb, JAG Corps. I have been assigned as your defence attorney, and we going to try to get you out of the mess you have landed yourself in. We're going to take a walk over to the Admin barrack block and then while you and I have a nice little talk, I'm absolutely certain that Commander Bainbridge will be able to find someone to provide us with a coffee so we don't talk our throats dry."
"Yes, sir…"
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm sat in the driver's seat of the Navy sedan, eating his lunch, a sandwich and drinking from a bottle of water bought in the base commissary, while he ran this last interview through his mind. Judith Wainwright had struck him as a pleasant young woman who freely took responsibility for her actions.
"I fell in love with Alan. I never meant to, but I did… I knew it was contrary to regulations, so, I guess I'll just have to take my lumps. Sir, you can't choose how you feel about someone…"
"No, Ensign, you can't. But you can choose whether or not to act on those feelings." Harm said, much more severely than he felt.
"Yes, sir," she had agreed docilely, "But sir, the adultery charge… That won't stand up in court sir, so it's either an Article Ninety Two for disobeying a regulation, or an Article One Three Four, Conduct Unbecoming."
"How do you work that out, Ensign?"
"Alan and I – oh, I suppose I should say Chief Slocombe and I – we didn't start our affair until after his divorce was finalised."
"Are you sure, of that Ensign?"
"Yes, sir! Alan – uh Chief Slocombe, I mean – showed me the papers when he got them from the court. That was on the Wednesday, two days after the judge signed them. And we had our first… uh… date on the Friday of that same week."
Harm was still thinking over the situation when he turned the key in the ignition and headed towards Master Chief Slocombe's apartment on K Street South East.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Mac took a deep breath and opened the door to Commander Elgin's outer office, "Good afternoon, Petty Officer," she said with as calm a smile as she could manage. She knew that her presentation was top line, a pair of tailored fawn slacks and a mid-green cotton blouse, open at the throat, and her grey hound's-tooth check Ike Jacket, complemented by a pair of well-polished, black loafers. Calm and poised she might be, but she was acutely aware of the file folder tucked under her arm and her heart was pounding as she wondered what Commander Elgin might have to say about its contents.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," the young corpsman replied, "I'll let Commander Elgin know that you've arrived."
Mac nodded her head at the young woman, "Thank you, Petty Officer."
The Corpsman tapped gently on the door to the inner office and disappeared inside, leaving Mac standing in the middle of the outer office. For a moment she considered taking a seat while she waited, but then realised that she was too tense to sit still, and it was only by exerting an effort of Marine stoicism that she prevented herself marching up and down the length of the office. Thankfully, from her point of view, and for her nerves' sake she wasn't kept waiting for more than one minute and thirty seven seconds, before the Corpsman returned and leaving the door to the inner office open she said with a smile, "Commander Elgin says to go straight on in."
Mac stepped through the doorway and heard a soft click as the Corpsman closed the door behind her. Inez Elgin stood to greet her, a professional smile on her face, "Good afternoon Colonel, sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said as she walked round from behind her desk to perch on one of the corners.
"How are you feeling today?" Inez asked.
"Why do you ask that?" Mac demanded truculently.
"Well, I see you have a fairly substantial file with you. I believe you wouldn't have brought that with you unless it was the homework I assigned you yesterday. So, I was wondering if having written down the pros and cons over the course of your friendship with Commander Rabb, you had perhaps gained an insight into your feelings."
Mac's chin lifted and she glared at her therapist, "There is nothing wrong, and I am quite comfortable, with the way I feel about Mister Harmon Rabb!"
"I see, but if that file is your homework may I have it, please?"
Mac felt distinctly unwilling to hand over the file. Although she had read her first scribblings and then edited them when she typed them up, she still had unsettling sensation that she may have given away more than she intended.
Inez easily read Mac's resistance, but kept her hand held out and for a moment there was a silent battle of wills but the realisation crept over Mac that if she ever wanted to return to duty she was going to have to cooperate with the infuriating blonde, and with a mental shrug she held out a file for Inez to take.
"Thank you, Colonel. It will, of course, take me some time to read through this, so we probably won't be able to discuss it in full for a day or two. So let's just pick one item at random…" Inez turned over a couple of pages and then one in particular caught her eye.
"Now, this entry… In red… May ninety-nine, 'Rabb got his eyes fixed, without telling me.' That seems a curious comment to make. What was wrong with his eyes? And why shouldn't he get them fixed without telling you?"
"Uh… Because we were supposed to be best friends at the time, and he didn't just get them fixed, he got them fixed so he could go back to flying!"
"Flying?" Inez asked with a faint note of surprise in her voice, although she knew from her previous acquaintance with Jordy Parker that Harm had returned to flight duties.
"Yeah… he started out as a pilot, but then he crashed his plane and his back seater was killed. He was found not guilty of pilot error because he was then diagnosed with night blindness. And then when he got his eyes fixed he got his designator changed…" Mac drew a breath and then said with evident satisfaction, "Not that it did him any good… sure, he went back to flying, but his girlfriend left him over it. He's never been able to keep a girlfriend for long… Neurotic Annie made the best choice in her life when she dumped him, then his next girlfriend left when he went flying, then the Video Princess not only left him, she went way down market when she married a mortician! Ha! That must have been a slap in the face for Mister high and mighty Rabb!"!
"Some cruel names you've come up with for his former girlfriends, Colonel, why is that?"
"Because he seems to have some sort of radar… some sort of inbuilt sensor that guides him to clinging and needy women. Neurotic Annie was the widow of one of his former flying buddies. Jordan the shr… uh… his next girlfriend just wanted him as her arm ornament… she liked dating an attorney – probably had an eye on his future income when he left the service – but didn't want to be dating a pilot; the Video Princess just wanted him as arm-candy and kept pressing him to quit the Navy, but he wouldn't, so she left… In fact all them seem to have fled shrieking!" Mac finished smugly.
Inez didn't so much as raise an eyebrow at the slur on her dead friend's character, but reached a conclusion that the bitterness shown to all of Rabb's former girlfriends revealed a strong streak of jealousy in the Marine Lieutenant Colonel, "But you were never one of his girlfriends, I think I remember you telling me?"
"No! Thank God!"
"H'mm… I see…. Okay, now turning over a page… oh, these notes don't seem to be in chronological order…"
"No I just wrote them down as I remembered each set of circumstances." Mac shrugged, "You know… I'd write something, then that would connect to something else that I had almost forgotten… So some of the dates might not be one hundred per cent. They're all in the ball park, but could be a month out either way… I wasn't keeping records. You see."
"M'mm… Okay… let's see…" Inez looked at the page in front of her, and noted that this entry was printed in black. A quick leaf through the pages showed that there were many more entries in red than in black. Another sign, Inez thought if Mac being in denial, only this time, she was showing that she couldn't find much positive to say about her former partner. An odd circumstance, considering that she claimed that she and Commander Rabb had been best friends.
"Ah, here's a positive, 'November ninety-eight, Harm defended me at my court-martial.' That's a very brief note. For what were you court-martialled, Colonel?"
"For killing my husband, my ex-husband that is, but well, he wasn't really. It's complicated," Mac shrugged.
"Well I assume from the fact that we're having this conversation in my office that you were acquitted, otherwise we'd be in the women's consolidated brig at Miramar."
"Yeah, I guess."
"H'mm, is there any reason you didn't write about him being successful in your defence?"
"No, why should I? He was doing his job, what the Navy pay him for… And he always seems to want thanks just for doing what he should."
"And when you help him out… You have helped him out in the past when things weren't so tense between you… did he say thank you?"
"Uh…" Mac dearly wanted to say 'no', but if she was going to be honest she had to say, "Yes, he usually said something acknowledging my help, but so often it was just a throwaway line, a 'thanks, Mac', or 'you're a pal', or something along those lines.
"H'mm… Okay, let's leave that for a moment. A few minutes ago you mentioned your husband, who was an ex-husband, but wasn't really. Now that sounds fascinating, how did such a situation come about?"
"I was a drunk in high school," Mac said flatly, "Chris, my husband, seemed to give me some direction. I was drunk when we got married, and I was drunk at home when he got arrested for stealing cars. He went to prison, I carried on drinking. Then one night, two of us, Eddie, a friend, and I got into his car. We were both drunk…There was a wreck. I made it, Eddie didn't. My uncle returned from overseas, took charge of me dried me out, cold turkey. I enlisted, got through college, applied for OCS and took a commission, then law school and clean forgot all about my so-called marriage. Then Chris turned up in DC, tried to blackmail me. Myself and another friend confronted him, Chris drew a gun, there was a struggle and the gun went off."
Inez blinked and tried to hide her surprise, "You said your uncle dried you out. If you were still at high school, I assume you were still under eighteen, so what were your parents doing while you were drinking yourself unconscious?"
Mac snorted mirthlessly, "Dad was a drunk too; he was an abusive drunk and finally my mother wouldn't take any more, so she up and left. On her own except for my dog, which she abandoned later when life became too difficult for her – again."
Inez hid a smile of satisfaction, at last here was the glimmer of a break through, but all she said was, "That must have been tough."
"I managed," Mac said shortly.
"By drowning yourself? I'm sure you realise now hiding in a bottle is a pretty poor coping mechanism."
"Yeah, my uncle made me see that. I've been sober ever since
"So… you're thirty-six now, coming up to thirty-seven, and you've been sober for eighteen years? You never once fell off the wagon, or felt tempted?"
"Yeah, eighteen years, and I never even stumbled," Mac replied with a fair degree of satisfaction, but Inez had caught the tell-tale sign of a lie, the quick, involuntary movement of the eyes to look down and to the left.
Inez narrowed her eyes slightly and gave a gimlet-like look at Mac, "Are you totally sure about that, Colonel?" she asked
Mac fired up, "Hell, yeah, I'm sure! I know whether or not…" and then her voice tailed off into silence. "Oh… no, wait… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to lie. I just kinda didn't remember about that…"
Inez nodded, completely unsurprised by that revelation. Mac's responses, verbal and physical, certainly fitted with her clinical opinion that Mac was in denial. "Go on, she said, quietly and encouragingly.
Mac squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, "Well… uh… I was being stalked, and the stalker shot and killed a man who was my… friend, I suppose. Dalton wanted to be more than friends, but I just wouldn't, couldn't take that relationship any further. But when he was shot… well… with the stress of being stalked, I went to a bar, and well… I got drunk. But that was the one and only time."
This time there had been no shifty sideways glance and Inez believed that Mac was, in this case, telling the truth. "And the outcome?"
"Not one of my finest hours," Mac replied with a grimace of disgust. "I went back to JAG and was pretty abusive to a client and to Rabb…"
"And what did your CO have to say about that?" Inez kept her voice even. She was no longer surprised at anybody's actions arising from a state of inebriation.
"He never found out… Rabb bundled me out of the building and into his car… he took me home and told me to sleep it off and that he'd be back to take me to the Admiral's house for a social event that evening."
"Now that sounds like something a friend would do, despite the fact that you had just been 'pretty abusive' to him. Have you recorded that in this file?" She tapped the file cover with an immaculately manicured finger.
Mac's cheeks warmed as the blood rose in them, "Uh, no… I don't think so…"
"And why didn't you?" Inez asked.
"Uh… well... it was like… oh, I don't know, but it was typical Rabb, rushing to the rescue, as if I was some poor helpless maiden, and he was a knight on a damned white horse!" Mac said furiously.
"And you don't think that in this situation you needed his help?"
"Hell no! I'm a Marine! If I screw the pooch, then I take responsibility for my own actions! Just like I tell the guilty clients I defend!"
'Take responsibility for your actions? Sweetheart, from where I'm sitting that is something that you have never done!' Inez thought but contented herself with saying, "That's an interesting take on the situation. But if you and Rabb were partners, then you were part of a team. Doesn't the Corps teach that the best results are obtained through team-work? No, don't answer that." Inez said smoothly. "Now, it's obvious from what we've covered today, that we still have a lot of ground to cover, but for now, I'd like you to think about what you said about not wanting to be a damsel in distress, think about those times when you've decided to tackle a problem alone, and what the outcomes were. Then I want you to think about similar situations where Commander Rabb helped you out, whether you wanted him to or not, and what the results of those situations were."
Mac nodded glumly, she hated even to think of herself as ever needing help, but she had a feeling that if she didn't come up with something, then the intensely annoying shrink perched on the edge of her desk would keep her here for an eternity.
"Okay, then Colonel. Our time's up for today. Tomorrow at the same time, please."
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
1314 K Street SE proved to be a three storey purpose built apartment block. Constructed of red brick it looked slightly out of place amongst the older homes that flanked it and faced it across the street, Harm judged that the block could only be about twenty years old He sat for a few minutes in the car after finding a parking space abut three hundred feet down the street and looked around. The neighbourhood would have looked to be almost suburban if it hadn't been for the row houses on either side of the street. There were no real front yards, but the occasional patch of grass or a flower bed between the houses' frontage and the sidewalk looked to be well tended, there was an absence of graffiti on building walls, and the few cars in sight looked well maintained and a cursory glance as Harm strode up the sidewalk showed that the tags were in date, and the lack of a large number of vehicles, if not evidence, at least hinted that most of the street's residents were at work
Arriving at the front door of 1314, Harm buzzed apartment 2b on the building access panel and waited for an answer. "Hello?"
"Master Chief Slocombe, this is Commander Rabb JAG Corps, I've come to speak with you about Ensign Wainwright."
"JAG Corps?" Harm thought the Master Chief sounded a little suspicious.
"Yes. JAG Corps. I have been appointed defence attorney for you and the Ensign."
"Oh… you'd best come on up then, sir!"
Master Chief Slocombe, when he answered the door to his apartment was a surprise to Harm in that he seemed young for his rate. "Master Chief Slocombe?" Harm asked for confirmation.
"Yes, sir, that's me. Won't you come in, please? I'll take your coat, if you're staying for a while…"
"Thank you, Master Chief," Harm replied as he shrugged out of his heavy overcoat.
Slocombe moved to an L-shaped couch on one corner of the room and invited Harm to sit. Harm chose to sit at right angles to him, rather than across the coffee table, removing a physical barrier between them and as well as trying to seem non-confrontational.
Slocombe looked at Harm with what he was surprised to see seemed to be cynical amusement, "So… you want to talk with me about Judith?" he asked, quite unselfconsciously using the Ensign's first name.
"Well, I do, but… let me see how I can put this tactfully. With a court-martial coming up, it might be best to try thinking of her as an Ensign and not the woman with whom you had an illicit affair."
"That makes it sound sordid, sir!" Slocombe objected, "Like it was just a roll in the hay, and it wasn't like that at all!"
Harm nodded, "So, why don't you tell me what is was like, Mater Chief?"
"Well… it's kinda hard to explain… Jud… uh… Ensign Wainwright was assigned to our department about a year ago. She hadn't been with us very long when I caught my wife in bed with a guy I thought was my friend. So… I followed Kipling's advice and made him take her and keep her. I was pretty down about the whole thing, and especially so when the truth of the matter came out, I found out that this was the third affair she'd had in the fourteen years we'd been married."
Harm winced. "That's tough, Master Chief."
"Yeah…" Slocombe looked at Harm as if he suspected the officer of patronising him, but then took a breath, "Well, I guess I let my anger… resentment… grief… sense of betrayal… whatever… Well, I let it show at work, and I had gotten short-tempered with everyone. I guess… no, I know I should have handed the situation better, but I failed. Then one day, after I had given a couple of younger sailors a real ass-chewing, Ensign Wainwright marched into my office, closed the door behind her and read me the riot act…" Slocombe grinned in remembered appreciation of just how thorough a reaming out Wainwright had given him.
"A bit of the usual role-reversal there, sir. But she kept on pressuring me about my black moods and filthy temper, as she called it, and eventually I told her what was happening with me. Then, as we got to know each other we got to like each other as people… we started grabbing a coffee at the same time, exchanging a few passing words at lunch time… nothing earth shattering… on the lines of 'how are you feeling, Chief?' or 'you're looking especially happy this morning, Ensign," nothing that could really be construed as fraternisation… and at that point we weren't…"
"So… when, by your reckoning did the fraternisation start?"
"Uh… that would be Labour Day. Both Ensign Wainwright and myself were on our own, her folks live clear across the country in Oregon, so I said something like instead of spending the holiday on our own, why didn't she drop by, and I would cook the dinner…"
"A bit unwise, Master Chief," Harm commented gravely.
"Yeah, I know that, sir. And I guess I knew it then. Thinking back, I don't think I meant the offer as anything other than a friendly invitation… But…"
"And that's when the relationship crossed the line?"
"Uh, yeah… but there was no more than a goodnight kiss at the end of the evening. I wasn't ready for anything more and Judith made it clear she wasn't going to be the other woman. So we kept things as they were. Every once in a while we'd both go out of town, find a Bed and Breakfast somewhere – separate rooms – and just spend the weekend relaxing, talking, walking, cycling… she even took me horseback riding once…"
"So when did the relationship progress?" Harm asked uncomfortably.
"That was the weekend after my divorce was finalised, jusy before Thanksgiving… We realised that we were in love, and that it was just being dumb in denying what we felt."
"Maybe so, but you know you shouldn't have acted on those feelings."
"No, sir," Slocombe replied shamefacedly.
Harm drew a deep breath, "And Master Chief, where did you think all this was heading?"
"We were trying to keep the lid on things until May…"
"What happen in May?"
"My hitch is up, and I would have done my twenty…"
"Your twenty? How old are you, Master Chief?"
"I'll be thirty eight in May, sir. The day after I finish with the Navy."
Harm shook his head in disbelief, "And Ensign Wainwright how old is she?"
"She'll be twenty five in March, sir."
Harm shook his head in mild disbelief. Wainwright hadn't looked to be that old, but he was prepared to believe that appearances could be deceptive.
"So what was your plan for after you swallowed the anchor?"
"I've got a job lined up with Ocean Link Logistics in Baltimore… They're handling a lot of the heavy military equipment headed to the Middle East, and they said that someone with my Navy experience would be able to help them do things the way the Navy wanted. Then we were going to wait until Thanksgiving and then get married…"
Harm shook his head again, "Damn it, Master Chief! Twenty years' unblemished service and then you go and pull a dumb stunt like this! Couldn't you have cooled it off and kept your distance after you'd been counselled and ordered to break off the relationship?"
"There wasn't any counselling, or even a reaming out from the skipper, just wham! He told us he'd filed charges against us, relieved us of duty and sent the Ensign to restricted barracks."
"No counselling? No letter of warning? No order to desist?"
"No, sir. Just like I said, no nothing until the charges were filed."
"H'mm…" a glimmer of an idea came to Harm's mind and he asked, "At what stage did you and Ensign Wainwright start living together?"
Once again Slocombe's answer surprised Harm, "We've never lived together. Sure she's spent some nights here, but never two in a row and never more than twice a week. Hell, she didn't even have a toothbrush or a spare pair of panties here!"
"So where did the wrongful cohabitation charge come from?"
"My ex-wife, the poisonous bitch. She wrote the skipper and told him that Judith and I were having an affair and openly living together, and that's all the evidence he had until he spoke to us, he asked us flat out whether we were in a relationship, we said yes… what else could we say? Then he told us he was filing charges."
Harm winced as he reflected on Congreve's famous line, 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.'
And while Harm despaired of the stupidity Slocombe and Wainwright had shown, he felt that given the circumstances there was a faint glimmer of hope for them. He opened his briefcase and from one of the pockets in the lid, he extracted one of his cards. "Here, Master Chief, these are my contact details. If you think of anything else about the chain of events that brought us here, give me a call, But in any case you'll be hearing from me in a couple of days, I expect!"
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm sent a sour look at the dashboard clock and then confirmed the time by means of a quick glance of his watch. When he quit Master Chief Slocombe's apartment he had placed another call to Sea Systems Command at the Navy Yard only to be told that Captain Armbruster, who was next on his list to visit, was still not at his desk. Now he was cursing the thought that had made him take a motor pool car instead of his own vehicle. Sure, he had saved a couple of dollars, maybe, of gas, but he now had to drive clear across Washington to Falls Church to swap out the sedan for his own Lexus before turning around and heading on back into Georgetown. He had figured that the quickest route would be the I-695 to where it merged into the I-395, across the Potomac on the 14th Street bridge and then onto Virginia State Route 27 before picking up the Arlington Boulevard and on into Falls Church. Well, that had been the plan, but the length of time the interviews had taken had ensured that he as now caught up in the late afternoon traffic chaos and was crawling along at an average speed of about twelve miles an hour.
His frustration increased because he was pretty certain that by the time he exchanged the sedan for the Lexus and got back to central DC, the home improvement store he frequented would have closed and he wouldn't now be able to pick up the timber and other essential bits and pieces to make a start on Beth's closet, which was something he very much wanted to make a start on this evening. If he was right about the store being closed, he consoled himself, he could still mark out where the various tracks, shelves and rail would be placed – that is if he ever got to the damned store!
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm was right in his prognosis, by the time he got back into DC, after having fought his way through the traffic in both directions, the store had just closed. And it was no consolation that as he drove the couple of miles from the store back to the loft the traffic dissipated as if by magic as the last of the commuters left the city for their homes in the suburbs.
Beth, naturally made it home before Harm and she and Mattie were fussing in the kitchen when Harm let himself in to the apartment. He hooked his cover onto one of the pegs that were fixed to the back of the door, and managed a weary smile, "Hi, girls…" he greeted them.
"Girls?" Beth started to retort indignantly and then saw the tiredness in Harm's face, "Oh, never mind… Bad day?"
"Not the best," Harm admitted wryly and nodding to where Mattie was still hovering, protectively almost, behind the kitchen bar he asked, "What are you two up to?"
"Um… We got busy after we got home, and we didn't realise how late it was getting, and how late you were going to be, so I got a lasagne out of the freezer, and I was showing Beth how to defrost it in the micro wave…" Mattie offered somewhat lamely, and with a sidelong glance at Beth. A glance that Harm didn't miss.
"Really?" he asked sceptically, "Have you managed to defrost it?" he asked.
"Uh… yeah, just about ready to go in the oven… It should take about twenty minutes, right?"
"At three fifty degrees," Harm confirmed.
"So you'll have time to shower and change before dinner," Beth suggested.
"Now that sounds about the best thing anybody has said to me all day!" Harm replied, with enthusiasm.
Beth chuckled, "G'wan, get! And while you're gone, I'll start the salad and Mattie can put a French stick in the oven to cook off."
"Sounds like a plan!" Harm agreed making a huge effort to sound cheerful.
The ten minutes he spent under the hot needles of the shower and the fresh, clean and sharply t-shirt did much to improve Harm's mood, so it was with a pretty good semblance of equanimity that he was able to join Beth and Mattie at the breakfast bar, where a large pitcher of iced tea sat between the three place settings and an empty glass sat next to each plate for everyone to help themselves. Waiting until his girls had served themselves he loaded a fair size portion of the lasagne onto his plate, and tore off a chunk of the warm, garlic and herb buttered French stick, and with a smile took his first mouthful.
"How is it?" Mattie asked somewhat anxiously.
Harm gave her a comically jaundiced look, "Mattie, if you're expecting compliments, then you are SOL; the lasagne is one I made and seasoned, so I know just how good it is!"
"But it is expertly cook… ah… warmed up," Beth joined in the tease.
Mattie pretended to glower, "H'mph! See if that ain't the last dinner I cook for you!"
"'Isn't', Mattie, not 'ain't'," Beth corrected her in tones of honeyed sweetness.
"Oh, yeah… you just go on right ahead and pick on me all evening, I don't care, I've got broad shoulders!" the grinning teenager claimed.
"Uh… just a minute… If you and Beth were so busy that you didn't realise how late it was until it was late, what were you doing? And what about your homework, young lady?" Harm asked.
Beth and Mattie exchanged looks that by Harm's standards were definitely guilty, and his face took on a resigned expression, "Come on, what were you up to? Give!"
"Ah… well, you mustn't blame Mattie for not finishing her homework yet, it was mostly my fault," Beth replied, earning herself a grateful look from a slightly worried looking teenager.
"Quit stalling!" Harm interjected.
"Well… Mattie did start her homework, but she got hung up on some geometry proofs and asked me to help… and somehow, we sort of drifted off the subject, and just started talking."!
"Talking? For how long, for God… uh… for lands sakes?"
"Um… about two and one half hours," Mattie admitted.
"Two and a half hours? What the heck could you find to talk about for that length of time?" Harm, asked in amused exasperation.
"Our favourite subject – you!" Mattie declared.
"Uh…" Harm's ear tips turned pink and his mouth dropped open before he could say anything, and then with a visible effort, he croaked, "Me?"
"Yeah! You!" Mattie declared, her eyes shining with excitement and enthusiasm. "How come you never told me you were a hero?"
Harm looked at Beth in consternation, "what the he… heck have you been telling her?"
Beth grinned unrepentantly, enjoying Harm's momentary discomfiture, "Oh, just the truth… Like the time you saved me from going through the screws."
Harm groaned, "Oh I am so going to get you for this!"
Beth grinned and Mattie giggled, and that was the total result of Harm's threat. It would have been all, except that once Mattie had stopped giggling, she said, "If you're going to get Beth for that then it wouldn't matter if she'd told me about you using your Tomcat's canopy to push another Tomcat to safety, would it?"
Harm cast a look at Beth which combined equal parts of disgust, malevolence, embarrassment and resignation, "You didn't, did you?"
Beth nodded happily, "Yep!" She replied, deliberately popping the 'p'.
Harm turned his gaze towards Mattie, "And I don't suppose she ever told you that if it hadn't been for my RIO doing the math – on the fly – keeping an eye on the altimeter the closure rate and the sink rate, and generally giving me encouragement, that I could never have done it?"
"No… she didn't," Mattie agreed and then looked quizzically at Beth, "So how come you never told me that? Oh…" a belated light started to glow in Mattie' brain, "You were the RIO, weren't you?"
It was Beth's turn to blush, "Well, yeah, but I just did the normal back seat stuff… It was Harm that did the flying!"
"Compared to what you did in the back seat, the flying was the easy bit!" Harm said earnestly to Beth.
"It can't have been that easy," Mattie objected, "They gave you a medal for it!"
Harm turned back to Mattie, and said seriously, "I recommended Beth for an award for that too, but the most they would give her was a commendation."
"You never said anything!" Beth exclaimed in surprise.
Harm shrugged, "There was no point. If you would have got the award, then nothing more needed to be said. As it was, they decided not make an award, and if I would have told you then you would have been disappointed. But believe me, both of you, I consider the award they gave me as one that belongs to both of us!" he indicated Beth with his hand, and looked intently at Beth and Mattie in turn.
"Yeah, but that's not true for the first award, is it?" Mattie demanded. "You know, the one you got for landing a damaged airplane with an unconscious pilot up front!"
Harm grinned cheerfully, "There was nothing heroic about that, Mats. With Tom Boone out of action, the only hope of either of us walking away from that 'Cat was for me to put her down on the deck in one piece. Nope, I was only saving my own hide!"
"Couldn't you have ejected?" Mattie asked curiously.
"Well, I could, but I wasn't sure how badly Admiral Boone was injured, and I couldn't take the chance that he would get tangled up in his shroud lines when he hit the wat…" Harm's voice faded into silence as he remembered his own desperate struggle to free himself from his parachute's lines when he hit the water after he and Beth had been forced to eject over the ocean.
"Harm?" Mattie said, a little anxiously.
But Beth shook her head, "Leave him, Mattie. I'm pretty sure I know what he's thinking about…"
Harm gave his head a little shake, as if to physically cast off the dark memories, and then with an innocent smile he asked Mattie, "And did little Miss Big Mouth here tell you how she jumped my bones?"
Beth spluttered as she fought to find a reply and her cheeks flamed red, her embarrassment easy to see despite her dark colouring.
"Beth? I thought that sort of thing wasn't allowed when you were serving together?" Mattie asked, her forehead wrinkled in a confused frown.
"That… that was scuttlebutt! Pure and simple scuttlebutt, it was no such thing!" Beth almost howled in outrage.
"Beth?" Mattie queried, but was cut short by Harm.
"Told you before about payback!" Harm chortled. "Now, do you want to play some more?"
"You bet your… six!" Beth retorted defiantly.
"Anytime, baby!" Harm grinned and then began crooning, "Drooling… just drooling… in the dark of the ready room…"*
"Beth gasped, "You wouldn't – no, wait – you damn well would! Okay!" Beth flung her hands up in surrender, "Uncle!"
"Aw, heck… just when it was getting really interesting!" Mattie protested with a groan and a grin.
Harm and Beth both favoured her with a flat stare. "What needs to be interesting you, young lady, is your homework!" Harm said severely. "And if you are having difficulty then come to me. I may not be as good at math as Beth, but I'm still pretty good. And I won't let you side-track me!" he added with a meaningful look at Beth who assumed an air of total innocence which didn't fool Harm for a second.
Mattie knew that with a little cajoling she could usually get Harm to allow her to do what she wanted, but she was swiftly coming to the conclusion that one area where he was inflexible was homework, so she decided to surrender with as good a grace as she could muster and made only a token protest, "What about all this…?" she indicated the wreckage of their meal.
"Never mind about that. Harm and I will see to it. You just do as he says and get on and finish those proofs," Beth replied.
"Are the proofs all you have left to finish?" Harm asked.
Mattie nodded, "I was half-good," she pleaded in mitigation, "I finished my history homework."
"And that was?"
"An essay, "The Different Philosophies of Luther and Calvin Concerning the Role of Religion in the State'," Mattie grimaced.
Harm blinked, "I'm not sure I even understand that!" he commented, "And you say you've finished it?" he asked in approbation.
Mattie grinned, "Yeah it sounds more difficult than it was. Basically Luther was for a separate church and state, while Calvin wanted a state governed by the church. It's a little more complicated than that, but…"
Harm shook his head in wonder, "What course is this, squirt?"
"European history from the fifteenth century until the end of the Napoleonic Wars – which ties in with the Undeclared War with France and the War of 1812. We're studying those in American History."
"I don't recall seeing European History on your schedule," Harm objected.
"No, you didn't. It's an elective and I figured if I wanted to be a naval officer then I'd need to understand what's happened in the world before, so I could understand what's going on now. Besides, I like history," the teenager shrugged.
"H'mm… just don't get so tied down in the humanities. If you're going to the academy you'll need a good, a very good, grade average in math and the science."
"Got it, Harm. I'm taking physics and chemistry as well a math and calculus. I skipped the foreign languages… I figure Beth could teach me Spanish, and I think that's about the only other language I need for now."
"Okay… I can live with that," Harm smiled, "but what you-all done need to live with is those goldarned geometry proofs, so g'wan, git!" Harm deliberately lapsed into a parody of a southern drawl for his last sentence to let Mattie know that although he meant what he said, he wasn't displeased with her.
"Then you and I, Mister had best make a start on the kitchen!" Beth added.
"Yes'm," Harm drawled.
"Clown!" Beth giggled
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
The twenty minutes it took for the washing up to be finished and the cleaning of the kitchen are to be accomplished, Harm looked at his watch, "No rest for the wicked…" he sighed.
"What are you planning on doing?" Beth asked.
"Well… the plan was to hit the home improvement store and get the necessary bits and pieces for your closet, but I was too late finishing for that, so I guess I'll just re-check the measurements to make sure I get the right stuff tomorrow…"
"Harm, no. You're tired. And I'm not surprised, between JAG and this place, you haven't stopped since Christmas. Look, you've already measured – twice – and you've even marked up where you're going to put the shelves and stuff. Take an evening off, come and sit down, and relax. Look, with Mattie in her room, busy with her homework, we've got a chance to talk on our own, and maybe have a beer – you still look as if as a beer would do you good?"
"Um… Yeah, okay… Just the one though."
"Good, because we've only got two left! Go and sit down while I get them."
Harm dropped onto the couch and waited for Beth to bring the beers in from the kitchen. She handed one of the moisture beaded bottles to him and waited until he had flipped the cap off.
"Cheers!" she exclaimed lifting her bottle in a salute.
"And to you." Harm agreed, pausing with the bottle half way to his lips. A moment later he felt the chilled liquid running down his throat, "Oh… yeah…" he breathed once he had swallowed. "You were right, this is good!"
"I know, I always am – except for when I'm wrong!" Beth smiled and wormed her way into the circle of his free arm, resting her head against the hollow of his shoulder. "H'mm… don't move now but in future you're going to have to sit at the other end of the couch."
"Okay, why's that?" Harm asked lazily
Beth answered quietly, "Well… If I sit the other side of you and rest my head like this, then I can feel your heart beating… And that's kinda… Comforting? Soothing? Whatever it is," Beth gave a small shrug, "I like it."
"M'mm…" Harm agreed gave Beth a slight one armed hug.
For a few minutes they sat in companionable silence just enjoying the chance to sit, relax, do nothing and unwind until Beth stirred to put her beer bottle on the coaster on the coffee table.
"You okay?" Harm asked gently.
This time it was Beth who murmured, "M'mm…" Which Harm took to mean that all was well in Beth's world, and he relaxed even more, if that were possible as he considered just how lucky he'd been when Mac had turned down his request that she stand up for him as a character witness in court. If she hadn't refused and been so bloody minded, he wouldn't have gone to the Wall, and he wouldn't have bumped into Beth. Amused at his own train of thought he gave vent to a quiet chuckle.
"M'mm?" Beth murmured.
"Oh… Just thinking how lucky I am that Mac turned me down when I wanted her help with Mattie, and that I found you instead."
"I'm glad you did," Beth smiled, but then her face grew serious, "Harm?"
"Yeah?"
"Um… during dinner… you got a bit quiet just after you repeated that old scuttlebutt about me jumping your bones…"
"Yeah?" Harm replied, a little cautiously.
"You seemed to go off somewhere in your head… and I noticed it, and I'm pretty sure that Mattie did too."
"Yeah… I was thinking about that cold bath I took…"
Even in the warmth of the apartment Beth gave a little shiver, "Oh, God… I shall never forget that night…"
"No… Neither will I."
"From the moment we ejected until I saw you getting some colour back in your skin… I have never been so terrified in all my life."
"But they found you pretty quickly, thank God!" Harm said fervently.
"But they didn't find you… at first when my chute opened, I tried looking for yours and when I couldn't see it, I was so scared you'd gone down with the bird. When they got me back on board, I was freezing I could only imagine how cold you were. The Skipper ordered me to Sick Bay but as soon as they left me on my own I got out of bed and into some scrubs and then hung around the CIC trying to hear what was going on. Ricky Woodward, the CIC watch officer ordered me back to my cabin, but there was no way I was leaving without knowing you were safe." Beth sighed and then smiled slightly at the memory, "The next thing I knew as that the Skipper sent a pair of Marines to escort me back to Sick Bay and then the doctor told me that unless I gave him my word that I would stay put, then he would give me something to knock me out."
Harm said nothing but momentarily tightened his one armed hug.
"So… I stayed in Sick Bay, worrying myself sick… and then they said that you had been found and were on the way back to the ship but you were in pretty bad shape. Then when they brought you into Sick Bay I just couldn't stay away so I stormed into the treatment compartment, and… Oh God, Harm…" Beth gave a shiver. "I've never seen anybody look so blue, grey and exhausted as you did just then."
Beth gave a weak smile and it seemed to Harm that she almost had to gather herself physically before she could continue, "Anyway, the doctor must have given me up as bad job, or he had more important things to worry about because he just looked at me, pointed to a chair in the corner and said 'sit!' and then went back to you. The doctor, nurses and corpsmen were all working on you so hard, they cut your flight suit off you and wrapped you in a thermal blanket, but it looked like you weren't responding. Then I heard one of the nurses say, "We're losing him'… I couldn't help myself… I stood up and blurted out, 'let me try!' Well, I figure the doc reckoned he'd done all he could, so he said something like 'why not', so I crawled up onto the table, I held your face in my hands and I have never felt anyone so cold… and I just kept whispering to you, calling you, calling you back… I just said your name, over and over, and I reminded you that you had promised that you'd be there for me when we punched out… I know that I told you to remember that I didn't swim well, and that I needed you to come back. You promised, and I told you I was keeping you to that promise."
Beth's voice became clogged as she remembered the details of that awful night and she had to clear her throat and give a little sniffle before she continued, "I didn't know if I was doing any good, but I just kept calling, begging you to come back to me…"
"You did good, Skates," Harm replied his voice roughened by emotion. "I was so very, very cold, and so very, very tired; all I wanted to do was go to sleep… But you kept calling me, telling me that I'd made a promise… I couldn't remember the promise, but if I'd made it then I had to keep it… so I got my eyes open and saw your face and you were crying, but there was a heavy weight on my chest, and I couldn't catch my breath to ask you what was wrong… everything was so confusing…"
"I don't know if what I did made any difference, I was just so glad that you came back. It would have killed me if you'd died…"
"Back then? Why?" Harm cleared his throat.
Beth sat up, freeing herself of his arm and turned her face towards him so that Harm could see her smile, even though her eyes were brimming with unshed tears, "Idiot!" she scolded him fondly. "It would have killed me because even then I was in love with you!"
"Wow! You never said anything, never gave any sign… If you had, then maybe we could have gotten to where we are now back then."
"How could I?" Beth asked simply, "You were my driver, we were serving aboard the same ship and then there was…Well… I had my reasons…" suddenly Beth gave a little chuckle, "Do you know what you said when you finally spoke?"
Harm shook his head, "No… I told you, everything was confused…"
"Yeah… well, the first thing you said was 'I can't breathe', as if I was crushing you, and then you looked at me very seriously and asked, 'are we dating?'"
"I did? Well, we…uh… so what would be your answer now?"
"Oh, yes, so very yes!"
"Now that I am glad of!" Harm said emphatically, as he looped his arm around Beth's shoulder again and used his other index finger under her chin to raise her mouth for his kiss.
"We… uh… maybe ought to stop this for a while," Harm suggested after the gentle kiss they had exchanged had grown into something stronger, deeper, more passionate.
"M'mm… Beth agreed, albeit reluctantly, as they slipped back into their previous, comfortable silence. But if she were to be honest with herself, she would have to admit that as immensely satisfying making out with Harmon Rabb might be, she knew she wasn't ready for the next big step in their relationship – not just yet, anyhow.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
"Beth win again this morning?" Mattie asked brightly from where she presided over the brewing coffee while beating some eggs in a basin.
"No challenge this morning!" Harm pointed out as he wiped the last of the sweat from his forehead.
"No," Beth agreed, pausing to regain complete control of her breathing, "But that doesn't mean that we didn't push each other to run just that little bit faster and a little bit further."
"O…kay… Breakfast today is scrambled eggs, toast, with a side of mushrooms. Fifteen minutes enough for you two to get ready?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Harm replied smartly.
"She gets worse!" Beth commented to Harm in a not quite quiet enough voice.
"Hey! I heard that!" Mattie protested.
Beth laughed as Harm threw over his shoulder, "You were meant to!"
"Yeah, right. Well, if you aren't ready when breakfast is, it's going straight into the dumpster!" Mattie threatened.
Harm paused at the foot of the two steps that led up to his bedroom and called after Beth, "Hey, I think she means that!"
"We'd better get a wiggle on then!" Beth retorted as she disappeared into the second bathroom.
Neither Harm nor Beth were adrift, returning to the kitchen breakfast bar just as Mattie started to divide the eggs into three portions, and as usual with a working morning, especially when Harm and Beth's appetites had been sharpened by exercise, breakfast was no sooner served than it was eaten and the debris quickly cleared away.
Breakfast finished, Beth turned to Harm, "If you want to do the washing up, I'll drop Mattie off at school… from what you carefully didn't say last night, I suspect you've got another busy day ahead of you?"
"Yeah, unfinished business from yesterday, so thanks! And I'll try to get home on time tonight!"
"Gonna see if you can beat me back from work?" Beth teased.
"Hell, that's a no-no, you desk jockeys can finish just about any old time you want to!
"Gonna get you for that!" Beth grinned, "But in the meantime…" she closed the gap between them and snaked a hand around the back of his neck, drawing him down for a kiss.
"M'mm… it's a good job we stopped when we did!" Harm smiled, his hands resting on the top of the swell of Beth's hips.
Mattie stood to one side, her jacket already on and her book-bag slung over one shoulder shaking her head, but with a sappy smile on hr face.
Beth smiled back up at Harm, "That was just to keep you thinking about me during the day. If it had been meant to be serious, then I would have really kissed you!"
Harm smiled, and through his smile threw out the challenge, "Anytime, baby!"
Mattie chuckled but the interrupted, "Uh… Beth, can we get a move on, please? I need to go over these proofs with Andre before I hand in my homework, and Mister Taylor won't accept work if it's late!"
Harm nodded, "Yeah, go on you two. I'll get the dishes squared away!"
So with a cheerful "'bye" from Mattie and a smile from Beth the two women closed the door of the apartment behind them leaving Harm to don his bib apron and roll up his sleeves.
"So… you and Harm are really going to try at having a proper relationship?" Mattie asked innocently, a bit too innocently, Beth thought as they settled themselves in her new car.
"What makes you say that?" Berth challenged the teenager.
"Well… I finished my homework pretty early last night, but then when I came out of my room, I could see that you and Harm were kinda… involved, but you both looked… oh… I don't know, serious, maybe, and it was like the two of you were giving off this kinda 'don't interrupt' vibe. That's why I went back into my room and didn't come out again until you called me for hot chocolate."
Beth nodded, "Yeah, we had something talk over… there are some things that happened to us that are still pretty raw, so last evening we sat down, and we talked one of the problems away… at least, I hope we did."
"Problems like Harm's having with that Mac the Marine?" Mattie asked anxiously.
"No… nothing like that, thank God. No, this as more of a shared experience that gave us both some serious emotional responses, and we weren't mad at each other, but neither of us had ever come completely clean about what had happened and how it affected us. Well… not until last night!" Beth grinned.
"So a relationship is on?" Mattie asked, "'Cause it certainly looked that way this morning… I don't think I've ever seen either of you so quietly happy before!"
"Well… we decided that we would like the relationship to be 'on' as you so charmingly put it, but we both will need to work on some other things we share. Nothing as big as last night… But yeah, I'm quietly confident…"
"Good for you! You two are really good for each other!" Mattie declared with all the worldly knowledge of a sixteen year old.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
*Harm is parodying a song, 'Strolling', by Flanagan and Allen ©1932
"Strolling, just strolling,
By the light of the silvery moon"