To Hell and Back
Chapter 17
Harm gave himself a vigorous towelling as he emerged from the shower and once he had dried himself off, he carefully draped the now-damp towel over the airing rail in the bathroom and slipped into the clean tank top and boxers he had brought in from the bedroom.
Once in the bedroom he slipped under the comforter on the bed, and with a yawn, he rolled over onto his side, and reaching out a long arm, switched off the bedside lamp and closed his eyes. His last smiling thoughts before he slipped into the depths of sleep were of the note of reluctance in Beth's voice as she stepped back from his arms and turned towards her own bedroom.
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Although she had no inkling of what was happening in the old loft on the 800 block of Fourth NE, Jen Coates' evening had been just as successful. Danny had spent half the day in driving up from Camp LeJeune, fortuitously surprising Jen with a call on her cell phone on a day when she had no other plans, and so happily agreed to spending time with Danny and arranged to meet him at the Lincoln Memorial. That time had included a well-wrapped up walk through The Mall and along by the reflecting pool. A walk broken by the purchase and consumption of spicy goat meat in tortilla wraps – bought on a whim from a smiling dread-locked Jamaican – and despite Jen's suspicion of the dish they both agreed that it was exceptional, and as Danny remarked, they saved him buying lunch, so that he would have more cash to spare for dinner.
"Taking a lot for granted, there, aren't we?" Jen light-heartedly scolded him.
"Well… taking a lot on in hope, I guess," Danny grinned at her, his eyes alight with something else.
"Damned Jarheads!" Jen grumbled, unable, in the light of the nature of the look in Danny's eyes to come up with anything more constructive as her breath caught in her throat.
"Yeah, you want to make anything of it, Squid?" Danny smilingly challenged her as at the same time he relieved her of the paper her snack had been wrapped in, and dropping it, together with his own wrapping into a trash can beside one of the benches that lined, at intervals, the length of the walk alongside the reflecting pool, and his hands now free, offered one to Jen, who smilingly slipped her hand into his.
Jen looked at him quizzically, "So… what made your mind up to drive… what… six hours? Up from Lejeune."
"What made me drive up from LeJeune? Oh, the idea of the sight of your smile, your sense of humour, your appetite for life and … your honesty and… hell, the plain fact that I like spending time with you."
"That's very flattering," Jen chuckled with a sideways glance at the Marine, "But, Danny, it's a hell of a drive, gas costs money, and you can't keep buying me meals!"
"What meals? That sandwich and coffees we had at the Aero Space Museum and now a goat kebab? Pennies, Jen, that's all, pennies – although I do intend to feed you properly tonight! As for gas? Well, I normally spend more on gas running around the local area than I do making a steady sixty up the I-95! That old Beemer of mine is pretty frugal on a long run!"
"Now that could be an expensive mistake," Jen grinned.
Thrown off balance by Jen's comment, Danny looked at her, "What could be an expensive mistake?" he asked.
"Buying me dinner!" Jen returned, "I've got a pretty good appetite!"
"Well, if that's the case, then you must have a pretty good metabolism!" Danny fired back at her, eyeing Jen's trim figure appreciatively.
"Oh, far from it!" Jen demurred with a further delightful gurgle of laughter, "If I didn't run every working day, I'd look like the Goodyear Blimp!"
"Self discipline too!" Danny said, with a hint of admiration in his voice, "Now, as a Marine, that is something I can most definitely understand!"
"H'mm..." Jen cast a glance upwards and sideways from under her lashes, "So… you intend to feed me this evening..."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Again, taking a lot for granted, aren't you?"
"Waaal…" Danny exaggerated his drawl for comedic effect, "It jest might happen to look thataways, but iffen you-all recall jest whut you said, no more'n a coupla minutes ago, you-all do hev a healthy appetite!"
"Ouch! I hate it when people use my own words against me!" Jen complained, but with a smile on her face and the merest hint of a giggle in her voice. "So… Where did you have in mind?"
"Uh… I heard there's a pretty good Italian place just off the bottom of Fourth North East… so that's not too far from your place is it?"
"Oh… that new place – Delmonico's I think they call it. I haven't eaten there before…"
"Well it will be a treat for us both then, won't it?" Danny grinned.
"Both of us? You haven't been there either?" Jen queried.
"No, I haven't, but the treat I had in mind for myself was spending more time in your company…"
"Yeah… about that…" Jen began uncomfortably.
"Ah… the big question… where is all this going to lead us?" Danny asked, tilting his head to look down at the petite brunette.
Jen coloured faintly, "Yeah… I guess that's what I as trying to ask."
"Well, it's early days yet," Danny said seriously, "And we don't really know if we'll suit each other in the long term… but I'm sure hoping so."
"Really?" Jen asked, feeling her heart give a little jump, despite her long standing doubts and reservations about getting involved with a fellow service member. But those doubts wouldn't go away just yet, so it was with a hint of suspicion in her voice that she said, "Well, if we're going to have dinner tonight…"
"And some time together tomorrow," Danny smiled.
Jen's answering smile was a little strained, but she tried to keep the tension out of her voice when she asked, "Oh… so you want to see me again tomorrow… And what are you going to do about tonight?"
"Sleep," Danny answered shortly and then his brain catching up with his inner ear, it heard and understood Jen's meaning, "And don't worry, I wasn't going to ask you to find me a bed. I've already arranged to crash with my buddy at 8th and I!"
Jen relaxed, she had been so afraid of Danny pushing for something she wasn't yet ready for. Which reminded her and a frown spread across her face, "So how did you know that this Italian place is near where I live? I never told you my address! Have you been snooping on me?"
Danny looked startled, "Good lord, no! It's just that when I picked you up to go to the Air and Space Museum, it was a filthy day and I picked you up at Sixth NE, so I figured you couldn't live too far away from there!"
"Ah… yeah… L…look, I… I'm sorry I jumped at you like that…" a now red-faced Jen stuttered an apology.
"Don't apologise! I think you're right playing things safe. I hope my sister would have as much sense!"
"You have a sister?" Jen said gratefully snatching at the olive branch Danny had just held out.
"Oh, Lord, yes! She's twenty four, but sometimes she leaves me feeling that she's only fourteen!"
"What does she do? Is she in the service?" Jen asked.
"God! No…! she's a couple of years out of college and just finished her post-grad teacher training. She started as a kindergarten teacher back in September!"
"So, what does she do that makes you think of her as being so young?" Jen asked.
Danny threw his head back and laughed, "Telling you the sort of things she gets up to could take all afternoon – and evening!"
"That's okay, we've got all that time… and then there's tomorrow, before you have to head back to LeJeune…" Jen said encouragingly.
"Now… that's true!" Danny said and took a deep breath before continuing, "Well, there was this one time…"
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At just about the same time that Harm was slipping into his bed, Jen allowed Danny to drive her home after an excellent dinner, and unbuckling her seat belt, she leaned across the central console of his BMW and dropped a light kiss on his cheek. "See you in the morning, Jarhead."
"Yeah, about ten hundred?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, and now you know where I live, come up for breakfast."
"I'll do that!" Danny affirmed with a smile. "Goodnight, Squid!"
The memory of that smile lasted Jen through her pre-bed ritual and gave rise to a soft answering smile on her own face as her head sank onto the pillow.
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Sarah MacKenzie had spent the afternoon and evening in thinking through what she had read of the fictional heroine of the novel and how it so seemed to fit into her own life, coming to realise that while other people had contributed to the mess that was her life, she needed to face the truth like a Marine, and acknowledge that she too bore responsibility for her current situation. Gradually, by mid evening, becoming aware that her stomach was growling she, more or less on auto pilot, opened one of the kitchen cabinets and took down a canned meal almost at random, and emptied the contents into a saucepan, realising only after the aroma stole though the apartment that she had selected a can of chili con carne. With a shrug she emptied the saucepan into a bowl and grabbing a packet of saltines and a spoon, settled down cross-legged on the couch to eat her scanty dinner.
So it was with an exclamation of annoyance that after two bare mouthfuls she was disturbed by a rapid knocking on the apartment door.
Placing the bowl on the occasional table she uncoiled herself from the couch and peered through the Judas hole in the door to see Clayton Webb apparently leaning one handed against the doorframe while he kept up his knocking at the door with his other hand.
Mac opened the door and gave him a cool stare, "So… you're back are you…"
Webb blinked owlishly, "Yep! 'M back." He slurred his words and Mac realised that once again the spook was drunk. He'd been hitting the Caña pretty hard ever since his return from Paraguay, and at first Mac hadn't begrudged him that crutch as he slowly and painfully recovered from the ordeal that Sadik had inflicted on him. But the drink was becoming more than just a crutch; it was becoming the mainstay of his existence. Mac knew that only Webb could decide to sober up and hadn't even attempted to waste her breath on persuading him that he was on the path to ruin. Webb was an intelligent man with a good degree from an Ivy League college, and if he hadn't figured that his salvation lay only in his own hands then he was a hopeless case.
But even so, Mac had her own demons to deal with and the presence of alcohol or a drunk were crosses that were just too much to bear, so just prior to this last absence she had had enough and had told him to not bring any more alcohol to the apartment and that when he came to the apartment, then he was to arrive sober.
"You're drunk!" she accused him.
"Jus' had a li'l drink to keep the cold out," he mumbled.
"Go home, Clay," she told him.
"Aw, don' be like tha' Sarah, c'mon, lemme in…" he whined.
Mac did not move, staying exactly where she was, blocking the doorway. "Go home, Clay," she repeated slowly and clearly, "Go home and come back when you're sober!"
Webb made an uncoordinated lunge for her, "Aw, Sarah, I've missed you… and now I'm home for a while, I figured that maybe we could… well…" he gave a drunken giggle, "Well, you know…"
"It's not going to happen, Clay! Not when you're like this!" Mac had then to make a quick side step as Webb's arms spread to catch her in an embrace.
"No!" Mac said fiercely. "Clay! It's not going to happen, not tonight, not when you're like this! Now. Go. Home!"
"Ah… don' play har' t'get… you know how you like it…" Webb screwed his eyes closed in an effort to focus on Mac and then his hands shot out, grabbing her by the shoulders, "C'mon… let me show you how good we are!" he breathed alcohol fumes into her face as he attempted to kiss her. But Mac eas too quick, too strong and sober and she twisted her head to one side as at the same time she brought her knee up in a vicious manoeuvre, impacting Webb's groin. He let out a strangled croak and collapsed to his knees, his hands cupped protectively around the stricken area.
Mac looked at him in contempt and shook her head. "Stay there!" she commanded him, "While I call a cab for you! Oh… and Webb…"
He looked up at her through watering eyes.
"Don't come back – ever!"
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Sunday morning at the loft saw a sleepy-eyed Mattie brew a percolator full of coffee and mix a bowl of eggs and milk for scrambling while Harm and Beth returned pink-faced and still panting slightly from their run and the cool down walk up the three flights of stairs.
"Hi, Squirt," Harm greeted Mattie, "Made a start on breakfast, I see!"
"Yeah, but it's just eggs an' toast this morning – oh together with coffee and OJ. We're out of mushrooms – and bacon!" she added in aggrieved tomes.
"Okay, you make a list of what's needed and I'll get it filled for tomorrow. But right now, I'm headed for the shower."
"M'mm… Me too," Beth replied, "but if that coffee is ready now… I guess the shower can wait for five minutes!"
"No way!" a horrified Mattie responded "Shower first – breakfast and coffee afterward!"
Beth gurgled in delight at the success of her tease, "Yes, ma'am!" she snapped out in her best plebe voice, bringing Mattie to a dawning suspicion
"Gonna get you for that!" she growled at Beth.
"Yeah? Any time, baby!" Beth chortled over her shoulder as she headed for the bathroom she shared with Mattie.
Harm stuck his head around the edge of the opening in the wall that closed off his bedroom and bathroom complex, "Hey, play nice, ladies!"
"Oh, I am playing nice!" Beth defended herself as the bathroom door closed behind her.
Harm and Mattie just looked at each other for about five seconds before their faces split in identical grins, "Yeah… right!" they chorused.
Despite the joshing between them, all was peaceful as they sat down to breakfast. Harm and Beth now wore sweats and jogging pants in one case and jeans in the other and while Harm's hair was spiky from the brisk drying he had given it after his shower, Beth's hair, lying on her shoulders was still slightly damp.
"Good eggs, Squirt!" Harm complimented Mattie, as he wiped up the last of them with a corner of toast.
"Heck, 'tweren't nuthin'" Mattie objected, her glass of OJ halfway to her lips.
"Yeah, well, let me tell you that I know of at least one person who couldn't manage them!" Harm came back with a sly glance at Beth.
"Are you ever going to forget that darned microwave?" Beth exclaimed in some exasperation.
Harm leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes, apparently giving the question some serious thought, and coincidentally leaving Beth – and Mattie – wondering what his answer was going to be. He stretched out his performance to the extent that Mattie giggled, and said, "Oh, come on Harm. It wasn't that difficult a question!"
"Nooo…" he replied judiciously, "But it's coming up with a tactful answer that's taking the time…" he paused and opened his eyes taking in the expectant look on Mattie's face and the scowl on Beth's. Grinning ecstatically he added, "But I have come to a conclusion, and no, I don't reckon I'll ever forget that exploding micro-wave!"
Mattie's shout of laughter almost, but not quite, drowned out Beth's howl of frustration, but her not quite pretence at indignation was swiftly suborned by the amusement of the other two members of the odd little family and she contented herself with shaking her head, and then confided in a stage whisper to Mattie, "At least it's gotten me out of cooking for him all these years!"
"Yep, but, according to house rules, it's landed you with a lot of 'squaring away'!" Mattie quipped with a meaningful look at the breakfast wreckage.
"She's right, you know," Harm sighed as he slid off of his stool, "So as Mattie cooked the breakfast, let's get started – and you, young lady," he added to Mattie, "Have some chemistry homework to get through?"
Mattie nodded glumly, "Yeah, writing up an experiment from notes…dead boring."
"What the experiment was boring?" asked Beth.
"No… It was pretty interesting… but every write up is the same, aim, concept, equipment used, method, result, conclusion and a diagram of the experiment in action… all to a formula…"
"That's not a bad thing, not necessarily," Harm interjected, "After all, getting into a routine can be a good thing, like doing a pre-flight walkk around before flying…"
"Yeah, but I don't see copper sulphate pulling any high-G turns!" Mattie replied.
"Maybe not, but I can see your Chemistry Teacher handing out detentions if you don't get it done," Beth warned the teenager.
"Yeah, Okay, you got me," Mattie grumbled with a half-smile. "I'll be good and go get it written up… but you will check it for me later, right Skates?"
"Of course I will!" Beth smiled and reaching out, ruffled Mattie's hair.
Harm, in the meantime, had gathered up the breakfast dishes and having turned on the hot faucet, added a splash of washing up liquid to the water. Now he looked over his shoulder as Mattie headed towards the archway that separated the old from the new half of the apartment and said, "She'll get it done. She's too determined not to, even if she does find it boring!"
"M'mm…" Beth said as she stepped up alongside Harm, ready to receive the first of the washed plates, "You know, if she does go the academy route, she'll have to put up with much more boring stuff than writing up chemistry notes!"
Harm chuckled, "Yeah, I wonder how boring she'll find it walking punishment tours!"
"Not as boring as you're going to find it in about twenty minutes or so!" Beth replied.
Harm cocked a quizzical eye at her, "Oh, how come?"
"Have you seen just how much is that laundry hamper in the bathroom?" Beth giggled.
Harm slapped a hand to his forehead, "Oh, God, yeah! So that's my morning taken care of, I suppose!"
"Yep, you suppose, right!" Beth grinned.
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"Good morning, you!" Jen greeted Danny as she opened the apartment, "Come on in… but excuse the mess. I did try to tell the others that we'd be having company this morning but…" she sighed, "Some fell on stony ground…"
"Hi, Jen," Danny took a quick look around, okay the room wasn't perfect, but it wasn't so bad as to offend his Marine Corps sensibilities, just the normal amount of domestic clutter, and he reflected with a hidden shudder, it wasn't half as bad as the apartment his sister shared with one of her college friends.
"Hell, this is nothing," Danny replied with a grin, "I've seen much, much worse!"
"Yeah?" Jen challenged him.
"Hell, yeah! I haven't told you half of what my sister's like!"
Jen chuckled, "No, I don't suppose you have, oh…" Jen broke off whatever she was about to say as a door to the living room opened and a bathrobe clad, long-haired blonde girl stumbled frowstily towards what Danny assumed was the kitchen.
"'Mornin' Jen," the apparition mumbled.
"'Morning, Fran," Jen replied, rolling her eyes at the blonde.
"M'mm… say! Who's this?" she suddenly seemed to wake up, and smiled, albeit through bleary eyes at Danny.
"Danny this is Fran, YN2 Neumann. Fran this is Danny, a friend…he's come for breakfast. So why don't you go and get yourself into a fit state for company?"
"Uh… yeah… good idea. Uh… you did realise that Tim stayed overnight…?"
Jen cast a surprised eye on the door handle to Fran's room, "There's no sock there!" she said accusingly.
"Well… no… but there's a good reason for that. See, it's like…"
Jen threw her hands up in mock horror, "No! I don't want to know! I suppose that Tim's here for the day, too?"
"Well until he has to head back to Eighth and I…" Fran temporised.
"He's a Marine?" Danny queried.
Fran looked properly at Danny for the first time, taking into account his buzz cut, "Yeah, he is, he's based at Eighth and I, you a Marine too?"
"Yeah, I'm down at LeJeune – well during the week anyway," he finished with a sly smiled at Jen, who for some reason found the blood rushing to her cheeks and she hastily cut into the conversation.
"Well if there are four of us for breakfast… or are the others around?"
Fran smiled, "Nope, just the four of us! Sally's gone up to Sharpsburg to see her folks and Helen blew out of here on Friday evening with some guy on a cycle!"
"Okay…" Jen sighed, "G'wan, get yourself and your Marine fit for decent company while I make a start on breakfast! Danny, it's going to be a little later than I had planned, but…" Jen shrugged helplessly.
"Hey, I'm a pretty good hand in the galley, can I help?" Danny offered.
"Oh, you don't have to…" Jen began to object.
"Maybe not, but I figure with two of us pitching in, then we might just get breakfast done before it's lunchtime!"
Jen surrendered with a weak laugh, "The galley's this way – and you – get showered, dressed and your Marine out of bed and into a fit state to be seen!" she added to a now broadly grinning Fran.
"Okay… but coffee first!" the blonde insisted.
"Hopeless!" Jen exclaimed.
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Mattie emerged from the seclusion of her bedroom sniffing appreciatively at the aroma of fresh coffee, "Hey, is that a cup of Joe I can smell?"
Harm looked up from where he was running an iron over a pillow case, "Of course it is! What else has the power to drag you out of your refuge?"
"Uh… the fact that I think I've finished my homework, and I just wanted to get Skates to give it the once over!" Mattie proffered the three-ring binder she held as proof of her intentions.
Beth looked up from where she knelt on the floor, sorting out the pile of laundry that Harm had just retrieved from the utility room in the building's basement, "Okay, pour yourself a coffee – and one for Harm and me, and I'll be with you in five minutes!"
"You got it!" Mattie enthused
Twenty minutes or so later, Harm unplugged the iron and stood it on the end plate of the ironing board to cool down before he returned it to its proper stowage, "Well?" he cocked an inquiring eye at Beth.
Beth nodded her satisfaction, "Yep, the girl done good! I'd give this a high 'B' if it was up to me!"
"Not an 'A'?" Harm demanded sternly.
"Well, no… but that's purely because I wouldn't want to be accused of favouritism!"
Harm dropped into one of the armchairs and picked up his by now almost cold coffee, "Oh, that's okay then! But it's good work?"
"Yeah, very good!" Beth remarked.
"Ah… does this mean that this is a good time to maybe discuss some of those rules we were talking about?" Mattie asked, somewhat diffidently for her.
"What sort of rules did you want to discuss?" Harm asked.
"Well…" Mattie looked from Beth to Harm and back… "There's the one about not going out on school nights… Oh, I don't mean till way late. It's just that sometimes, some of the kids like to meet up for a pizza and soda…" Mattie's face suddenly fell as she realised, perhaps a little too late, that Harm certainly wouldn't approve of her scarfing down unlimited quantities of pizza – or any other 'junk' food as he termed some of Mattie's favourite dishes
"Pizza parties, Mattie? I don't think so!" Harm forcibly interjected, bearing out the teenager's worst fears.
"No… that was a bad example," Mattie agreed, "But it wouldn't always be pizza… and I promise I'd be back home in plenty time to my homework…"
"H'mm… I'd rather you did your homework first… Beth, what do you think?"
"Well… Mattie is a teenager, and she does need to be able to socialise. We can't keep her a prisoner for ever, and from what I've seen of her, she's got a pretty shrewd head on her shoulders. And she did just promise to get her homework done, even on the evenings she might be an hour or so late getting home."
"Yeah, and you've taught me that a promise is a promise and is to be kept – at all costs!" Mattie urged her case.
"That's true," Beth added in a fair minded manner.
"Well…" Harm thought about the matter for a few moments, with Mattie's eyes fixed anxiously on his face. But this time, rather than the tease he had pulled on Beth earlier in the day, he really did consider the matter. His protective instincts battling with the recognition that he needed to let Mattie spread her wings – a little. Eventually he blew his breath out and nodded, "Okay… we'll try it, on a trial basis only, for a month. If everything is good after that, we'll take another look at the situation with a view to making a permanent arrangement. But! No more than twice a week and you're to be home no later than nineteen hundred, and you're to phone in ahead and let us know that you're going to be late, and where you are going to be. And…" he laid heavy emphasis on his next few words, "You'll keep your cell phone switched on at all times! I don't want not to be able to get hold of you if we need to!"
Mattie's face split into a grin, "Wow! Thanks Harm, thanks a whole bunch! I never expected you to say yes, so thanks, heaps, really!"
Harm writhed inwardly, Mattie's profuse gratitude made him feel a little uncomfortable, "Uh… did you really think I was such a hard case?" he asked.
The teenager shook her head, "No, not really, it's just that you've got this overprotective streak about five miles wide…"
"I have not!" Harm started to deny the claim but the wind was taken right out of his sails by Beth.
"Uh… yeah, Hammer, you do! Look how you warned Hawkeye to look after me properly when you left the PH!"
"Oh… uh… yeah… okay, but I've grown up a bit since then!" Harm protested.
Beth crowed with laughter, "Oh, not grown up, Harm, just grown older – a little!"
Harm clapped a theatrical hand to his chest, "Ouch!" he groaned in protest.
Beth shook her head sadly, "Wrong hand, wrong side!" she said with mock sympathy, even as Mattie dissolved into giggles.
Harm shook his head in feigned sorrow and returned to his ironing duties.
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It wasn't long before Mattie, eying askance the pile of ironing still awaiting Harm's attention gave a sigh and shuffled off to the ridge to prepare a round of sandwiches for lunch. Harm shook his head in silent sorrow as he realised that Mattie had made them each a PBJ sandwich and had poured them all a glass of milk, but with a resigned smile, he accepted the offering in the spirit in which it was meant, but as an act of pay-back, he waited until they had finished eating and Beth had washed up the few items before he summoned Mattie to his side.
"Okay, squirt… Apart from anything else, if you really want to attend the academy…"
"No question!" Mattie interjected.
"That's fine then – but you've been told before – don't interrupt! Now, as I was about to say, if you're set on going to Annapolis, there's more than just the academic side to look after – there's the military side too. And…"
Mattie looked at the uniform shirt Harm was draping over the ironing board and once again interrupted him, but this time with a sinking feeling, "And that includes ironing, huh?"
"Not just ironing, but every aspect of kit maintenance! One gig line out of place could see you walking two hours of punishment!"
"Ouch!"
"Yeah, and interrupting instructors is going to get you much, much more than that! So pay attention!"
Mattie nodded glumly, "Got it," she grumped.
"Okay, now watch this way, and I'll show you how a midshipman's shirt – or an officer's shirt should be pressed!"
Half an hour passed, and four shirts later Harm passed the iron to Mattie and said, "Okay, your turn, Squirt!"
Harm stood back and with a gleam in his eye and a quick grin shared with Beth, who had remained an interested spectator, watched with a careful eye the copper-haired teen's first attempt at ironing a shirt Navy style. The result he had to admit was pretty darned good, even if it took her over twice the time that he had to achieve the desired effect.
Satisfied at last that the ironing was completed and neatly stowed away, Harm allowed himself to relax, and joined Beth and Mattie on the couch where they were half-heartedly watching one of Harm's classic black and white DVDs – Bogart's 'The Maltese Falcon'. Not enjoying this?" he quizzed Beth and Mattie, as he squeezed in between them.
"It's a bit slow…" Mattie commented, "And it's not in colour!"
"Well, no… colour movies were pretty much in their infancy back then and pretty expensive to make, so studios weren't about to risk a whole bunch of money on novice directors, and this was John Huston's first movie as a director!"
"Did he make any more movies, after this one? And were they any better?"
"John Huston? More movies? Yeah sure he did… but we can talk about that later, let's just watch what we've got, huh?" He put his arm around Mattie's shoulder and gave her a hug.
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Jen shoved her hands deeper into her jacket pockets. Sure the sun was shining brightly in a blue, blue sky, but this was still winter in Washington and the wind, its effect, magnified by the tall buildings had a thin, cutting edge to it. Danny grinned at her as she stood, barely able to prevent herself from dancing on her toes to keep warm as he unlocked his car. "Jen, thanks for a great weekend, can we do it again sometime? Sometime soon?"
Jen stopped frowning at the cold and stood still for a few seconds, mentally rehearsing all that they had said and done this weekend. Danny had been the perfect gentlemen. He had barely touched her, just once taking her elbow as they scurried across the road, and then the hand holding as they walked by the reflecting pool, and the only kiss they had had been initiated by herself. Yeah, he seemed like one of the good guy, and yeah, she did like him, and yeah, it was flattering that he should subject himself to a twelve hour round tip jut to come and see her. Jen took a breath, her mind made up.
"Yeah, I'd like that… but don't go bankrupting yourself!" she added a warning.
"I won't," Danny promised, and there was something in his voice that made Jen look up at him.
Very slowly, Danny raised her chin with his finger, and then his eyes searching her face, silently asking for the permission that she just as silently gave, he leaned forward and very gently brushed her lips with his.
"I'll see you next weekend, then," he said softly.
"I'll be here!" Jen promised.
Danny smiled once more and slid behind the wheel of his car, and with a final smile at Jen, he turned on the ignition and putting the car into gear, drew smoothly away from the kerb.
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Monday morning dawned peacefully, if still a little chilly outside, but Mattie's comments about feeling cold in the evenings had persuaded Harm to turn the furnace up a couple of degrees, so that it was now comfortable for the two women of the house to pad around in bare feet and not worry about cold toes. Not that there was much padding about this morning, as Beth rapped sharply on Harm's bedroom wall. "C'mon, get the lead out, we're wasting daylight here!"
Harm stumbled into the opening, already dressed in her running gear, but with a sour expression on his face and gritted out, "Wasting daylight? Beth it's still pitch black out there!"
"Ha! So you say! C'mon, I feel the need to run this morning! "So… let's see if we can get a couple of laps in before the birds wake up, huh?" Beth grinned.
Harm just glared at her. Something was definitely up. Elizabeth Hawkes was usually brighter than he was first thing in the morning, but she was never, never this cheerful so early in the day!
"You're up to something!" he complained as he allowed her to bustle him out of the apartment and into the stairwell.
"Could be, could be!" Beth agreed still in an aggravatingly good mood – well as far as Harm was concerned. It was obvious, he thought, that there was no sense digging into her reasons when she was in this sort of temper, so he contented himself with a mutinous glare and once outside set to his stretching and setting up exercises with a will.
Harm just nodded when Beth shot a glance at him and asked, "Ready?"
"Okay, let's go!" she shouted and took off at a steady jog, heading north to Florida Avenue.
Harm easily kept pace with Beth as they ran, she seemingly no having her full concentration on the task in hand, judging by the secret smile on her face. Truth to tell, it was beginning to niggle Ham so about half way through their second lap of the Gallaudet campus, he opened his stride and steadily dew away from her, Beth disdaining to match his acceleration, only breaking back into a jog as he approached Florida Avenue on the return leg and waited the couple of minutes necessary for Beth to catch up to him.
"Feel better for that?" she asked, gently mocking him as they waited for a gap in the traffic.
"And it's still dark!" he grunted as he set off slowly down the length of Fourth NE.
Reaching the alley way outside the warehouse, he stopped and gave Beth a penetrating look, "Okay… do you want to tell me what got you so pumped up this morning?"
Beth grinned and shook her head, "No… I don't believe I will!" she retorted, and with a chuckle opened the building door and headed for the stairwell.
"Damned women!" Harm snorted and resigned himself to following her up the stairs.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
The whirl of showering, breakfasting and loading Mattie into the Lexus and then driving her to school helped divert Harm's attention away from Beth's, to him, inexplicable behaviour, and by the time he arrived at JAG he had pushed it to the back of his mind and had mentally prepared himself for the day's duty.
Beth's behaviour was pushed even further from his mind as he and the other team leaders – including Louise Arnold, still deputising for Mac – assembled in the JAG's office, where Chegwidden was, as usual, all business.
"Be seated," he instructed them gruffly and peered over the top of his reading glasses while they did so. "Right, first things first… Commander Rabb…Your team to prosecute EOD One, Boban Pantic, Arson, Article 126, Attempted Murder Article 80; Commander Turner you can defend this one…"
Harm wasn't quite sure about the expression on the Admiral's face, but a quick glance, which met Sturgis Turner's own, amply demonstrated by his expression and body language, showed that the former submariner would have been happier prosecuting this case.
But his attention was taken up as the Admiral spoke again, "Again, Commander Rabb, your team can prosecute Lieutenant Ewan Daniels, Neglect occasioning destruction of US Government property – he totalled a HMVV, Commander Mattoni your team to defend. Also for Commander Mattoni's team. The prosecution of BM Two Delosrios, Article 95, Desertion – Commander Rabb, just for a change you get to defend a case for once this week!"
Chegwidden drew a breath, "Now throwing the ball back in your court, Commander Rabb… Staff Sergeant Amanda Tyler, Article 92, Disobeying an Order or Regulation which she knew, or could reasonably be expected to know, in that she failed to report to her CO that she is pregnant, Commander Imes, your people catch the defence on this one."
Chegwidden glanced around the room and with a wry smile added, "A final one for you to prosecute Commander Rabb, PR Two Susan McAllister, Dereliction of Duty, Article 92, pre-sortie, failed to check that the safety pins were removed the ejector seat of an F/A-18E…"
Harm's forehead creased in a frown, "That's normally the aircrew's responsibility, sir… why…?"
"Why, what? Mister Rabb? The Captain of the Frank Fletcher has preferred charges – And that, Mister Rabb is all I intend to say on the matter. Commander Arnold, your team catch the defence on this one!"
Harm subsided back into his seat, just catching out of the corner of his eye a sardonic smile from Sturgis Turner, which seemed to say, 'Yeah, you'd be happier defending this one!'
The by-play didn't escape the admiral' keen eye, but he contented himself with a wintry smile and turned his attention to Louise Arnold, "Commander Arnold, you get to prosecute MU3 George Stephens… Disobeying a Lawful Order, Article 90. Commander Imes, you catch the defence…" the Admiral's voice tailed off slightly as he read the specifics of the charge and even his iron self-control couldn't prevent the slight shake of his head and the wry grin that teased the corners of his mouth. Neither did the puzzled looks at his actions escape his notice, "Alright, people, settle down!" he rasped, and fixed each of his subordinates in turn with a piercing stare until he was satisfied that proper decorum was restored.
"Now… Commander Turner, again you get to prosecute NC One Amanda Watson, Sexual Harassment, Article 134, Commander Arnold, this one is yours to defend."
Again Chegwidden looked up from the diminishing stack of files in front of him, "Back to you, Commander Turner your team to prosecute QM One Mark Russell, charged with Improperly Hazarding a Vessel, Article 110… Commander Mattoni the defence of this one is yours."
Chegwidden opened the next file and his face creased in a moue of disgust. "One of our own, I'm afraid, Lieutenant Keith Harding from NLSO Mayport – charged with Dereliction of Dirty – mounting an inadequate defence – I'm sure you've all heard the scuttlebutt on this one. So… Commander Imes, try and keep a clear mind when you prosecute, and Commander Turner, you get to defend this one!"
Chegwidden passed his hand backwards over his nearly bald scalp, "And Commander Arnold, you get the last one for today… Corporal Martin Peters, Assault, Article 128(a), Commander Mattoni, you get to pick up the pieces."
With what sounded almost like a sigh of relief, Chegwidden pushed the last of the files towards Alan Mattoni and Louise Arnold and said, "That is all, people, dismissed!"
Harm filed out of the Admiral's office, the five new case filed cradled in his arms and he pondered how the heck, his team with less than the other team members had managed to capture a higher number of cases than any other team – coupled with the fact that he and George Webster would be out of the office on Friday for the funeral of the late Lieutenant Ellis. He knew he would have to think very carefully – but very quickly as to the disposition of these new additions to an already too heavy workload!
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
An hour's reading and note taking solidified into a scrawl of handwritten instructions filling five pages of legal pad before Harm put his pen down and shook his wrist, freeing it of the constrictions imposed by a concentrated period of writing, and then reached for his telephone and tapped in the number he wanted. The phone was, to his gratification, answered on the third ring, "Lieutenant Commander Fairchild…"
"Liz, it's Harm, can you collect George and then both of you come and see me, please?"
Elizabeth Fairchild had been waiting for the summons, as indeed as George Webster who was now sitting in her office, and like her, anticipating Harm's call.
The Lieutenant Commander smiled, "We're already on our way, sir!" she quipped and then as Harm rang off at the other end, she grinned across at George Webster, "Let's go – our Master wants us now!"
"I'm gone!" George grinned in return.
A tap on Harm's office door alerted him to the prompt arrival of his two subordinates and he looked up with a wry grin, "Come on in and sit down! I guess we're not exactly the flavour of the month with the Admiral – and that's not to go beyond the walls of this office…" Harm thought for a moment more and then his grin widened, "Well, it's either that or he's pretty damned confident about this team's ability to cope with more cases than any of the other teams!"
He broke off and looked up in irritation as a further tap on the door interrupted his stream of thought, "Yes?"
"I figured you could do with this, sir…" Yeoman 3 Porter nudged the door open with her hip as she carried a tray with three mugs of coffee into the office.
"Oh… yeah… yeah, thank you YN Three!" Harm replied, torn between annoyance at the interruption and pleasure that once again his Yeoman was being proactive, "But please make sure we're not disturbed again, okay?"
"Got it, sir!" Amanda Porter blushed faintly under the mild rebuke and beat a silent retreat, carefully closing the office door behind her.
Harm waited until the door closed behind her and took an appreciative sip of his coffee, "M'mm… that Yeoman certainly knows how to brew coffee! Now… let's get down to brass tacks! Elisabeth I want you to take case of Lieutenant Daniels – he wrecked a Humvee – let's see if we can get a sentence at an Article Thirty Two hearing. There doesn't seem to be much sense in going for a court martial – it was a simple MVA!"
Harm slid the file across the desk to Elizabeth, who merely nodded, "Got it, sir!"
"Good, then you can also prosecute Staff Sergeant Tyler – Disobedience to a regulation – she failed to notify her command of her pregnancy until it became noticeable!"
This time Liz Fairchild's face fell, "Damn! I hate it when the Navy – or the Corps in this case – interfere in private lives!"
"That may be so, Commander," Harm interposed with just a hint of ice in his voice, "But what would be the consequences if a servicewoman's pregnancy interfered with her duties in the field?"
"Sir…" Liz Fairchild quickly scanned the file, "She's an Admin Clerk at 8th and I, how on earth could any pregnancy affect…"
"It doesn't matter, what her billet is. A regulation is a regulation and is to be obeyed! What would happen, if for example, she was PCS'd to say an embarked logistics battalion in one of the MEFs?"
"Can I try for an NJP on this one, sir?" Liz asked, acknowledging Harm's point with a half-smile and an inclination of her head.
"If you can get the convening authority to agree, by all means do so! I don't have to remind you that George and I are going to be off station on Friday?"
"No sir. And I suppose that puts me in the firing line for Friday's Admiral's briefing, sir?"
Harm's glance was much more sympathetic this time around, "I should say that's almost a guaranteed certainty. But don't despair too much. I have it on good authority that the Admiral has given up his habit of eating Lieutenant Commanders for breakfast!"
Liz managed a weak smile at the joke and George managed a sympathetic grin as well, but that was quickly wiped off his face as Harm turned to the most junior member of the team, "Right George! A nice one for you to get your teeth into. You can defend BM Two Delosrios charged with desertion. He went UA in 1995 and was recently picked up by Norfolk PD on a careless driving charging with a fake ID and driver's licence. When his fingerprints were matched through AFIS he won a coconut!"
"Yes, sir!" George replied.
"But… I have saved the best to last!" Harm grinned in triumph, "Liz, you can second chair me on the Pantic case, Aron and Attempted Murder. EOD One Pantic decided on burning down his ex-wife's house with her and her boyfriend inside it! And finally, George, you can second chair me on the case of PR Two McAllister – It's an aviation related case, she's charged with failing to remove the safety pins from an ejection eat before an F/A18 sortie "
Harm sat back in his chair and relaxed slightly, "You don't have to tell me that we won't get any of these cases resolved this week… except maybe an NJP for the pregnant Marine. But you can tell me that we've made some progress on last week's case load?"
Liz Fairchild took a breath, "HM One Phillips is as guilty as hell, but is set on going to trial."
"If I remember, he was caught red-handed during a drugs buy, with the pharmacy drugs still in their original packaging?" Harm queried.
"That's the one, sir," Liz conformed.
"Is he mad? If he goes to trial he will almost certainly be found guilty and then he's looking at ten years in Leavenworth. For God's sake talk to him, Liz. Get him to accept a plea bargain. Hell, even five years is better than ten!"
"I've tried, sir, and I will give it another go, but Commander Arnold's all juiced up on this one. She reckons it's a slam dunk and she's ready to go to trial. I don't think I can delay much longer…"
"Okay… get over to the brig today and try and change the man's mind. If you can't, then go to Commander Arnold and tell her to have the Judges' Legalman put it on the calendar!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Having finally been able to dismiss Liz and George Harm took a deep breath and was about to grab the McAllister file when his eye fell on the wall mounted clock in his office, and he groaned. It was nearly thirteen hundred hours already and he was due in court at fourteen hundred to begin the UA case against MN2 Thompsett… 'Damn' he'd just about have enough time to grab a mineral water and a sandwich from the vending machines!'
Lunging to his feet, he grabbed his cover and his briefcase and stuck his head out of his office door into the bull pen, "Yeoman Three!" he yelled.
Amanda Porter nearly dropped the file – the Thompsett file – as she spun to face her team leader, "Sir?" she queried.
"Get the Thompsett file and hand it to LN Two Graham, and tell him to meet me in Courtroom Two in twenty minutes!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Sarah 'Mac'MacKenzie drew a deep breath and hesitated a fraction of a second before she turned the handle to Commander Elgin's waiting room, and then steeling herself she opened the door and directed a cool glance towards HM Two Lee, "Good afternoon Corpsman Two…"
Lee stood up from her desk, her face impassive, but her mind reeling. This was the first time that the permanently angry Marine Lieutenant Colonel had even seemed to recognise her presence. "Good afternoon, ma'am. Take a seat, please. I'll let Commander Elgin know you've arrived, and then, perhaps some coffee?"
Mac blinked, "Uh… yeah, yes, thank you…"
"Strong, black and sweet, Colonel?"
Mac nodded and despite her reluctance to even be there, she managed a half-smile, "Exactly! Thank you."
Surprisingly, once Lee had let Commander Elgin know that Mac had arrived at the office, she reappeared, leaving Mac sitting on one of the armless easy chairs and disinterestedly flicking through an old copy of the Navy Times. Mac was, to her surprise still waiting when Lee returned with the promised coffee.
"I'm sorry for the delay, Colonel. But Commander Elgin will be able to explain it all… well… I think she will."
Mac nodded as she took an appreciative sip of her coffee, "Thank you, Corpsman."
Once again Lee was forced to hide her surprise, but fortunately for her composure Inez Elgin opened her office door and said, "Colonel MacKenzie, I am so sorry to have kept you waiting. Won't you please come in?"
Mac stood, and making sure that her purse was slung over her left shoulder, she crossed the waiting room and as Inez stood back out of the doorway, Mac entered the office.
Inez Elgin took in Mac's appearance as the Marine officer crossed the floor toward her. Today she was wearing a camel coloured coat that had a tie belt and which showed that she wore a pair of dark dress pants and a crimson sweater beneath it. She looked fresh, although there was, Inez reckoned, still a troubled look about her eyes.
"Sit, down, Colonel, take her weight off your feet, and tell me how you're feeling today?" she smiled as she closed the door, and then propped herself against the front edge of her desk.
Mac settled in her chair and bit her lip, "Truthfully?" she asked.
Inez nodded, "Of course."
"Well… I'm a bit… just a little bit pissed that you kept me waiting for seven minutes and thirty eight seconds…"
"You were counting?" Inez asked in surprise.
Mac shook her head, "No… it's just something I've always been able to do… tell the time without looking at a clock or a watch…"
"Yet, you still wear a watch?" Inez observed, the lift in her voice turning the statement into a question.
Ma nodded, "Yeah, it saves having to make explanations…"
"Ah yes, explanations… Yes… I do owe you one for making you wait, but I hope I can explain it. You see, I was going back through my notes of our talks ever since you started coming to see me… and I wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed anything."
"And have you... or had you?" Mac challenged her.
"No… I don't think so… You see, Colonel, it is apparent that not only are you a very angry woman – and I'm not saying that given your history, you don't have a right to be angry – but you are also in denial about that anger, and moreover, you seem to be directing that anger against the wrong targets…"
"You mean I shouldn't be angry at other people, but angry at myself?" Mac retorted coolly.
Inez blinked. That was certainly an insight she hadn't expected from the Marine. "What makes you say that?" she asked.
Mac shifted uncomfortably in her chair… "Well… over the weekend I had to go to the stores… and… ell… I saw a book that I thought might appeal to me…"
"A novel?"
"Yeah… it wasn't by an author I'd ever heard of before, but the title appealed to me, and then when I read the blurb on the jacket… well… it was a courtroom thriller… a bit like a John Gresham novel, in a way. The details on the jacket said that the author was an attorney, and that the case in the novel was based on one of her real life cases. I read it part way through…" Mac's voice tailed off and it seemed to Inez that the Marine was having difficulty in meeting her gaze.
"But you didn't finish it?"
Mac shook her head. "No… The central character – a female attorney – made… well… if she had been working for me, I'd have fired her. And I got too impatient to with her stupidity to struggle on with the story… She made a mess of her life, got her personal life and her professional life entangled and made some really bad choices. And then I realised, some of the choices this fictional character had made were kinda like the same sort of choices I had made. Well… I could see her mistakes and so I had a good hard look at myself and saw that I had done pretty much the same, and I've got to admit that I didn't much like what I saw…"