Trinkets – Part 2

"It's Harm," Mac breathed, barely finding her voice. "He's got Harm."

"Lieutenant Nichols?" asked Harriet, confused.

Mac nodded. "Shut the door."

Harriet quickly complied. "Why would …"

"He wants me," Mac interrupted. "I don't know why. He wants me to come to him, away from the building. … I guess he wasn't happy that I ignored his gifts."

"So, he's using the Commander as bait?" asked Harriet.

Mac nodded. "It looks that way, … but … there must be more to it."

"We should call the police."

"NO!" Mac responded. "No," she amended more gently. "He says no police, no NCIS, no authorities, or Harm dies, and I can't risk that."

"What are we going to do?" asked Harriet.

"We aren't going to do anything. I have to take care of this," Mac firmly declared. "And you can't say anything to anyone. Nichols is practically in charge of security in this building, and if it gets back to him that I've told anyone …"

"Respectfully, ma'am, you shouldn't deal with this on your own."

Mac was already out of her chair and gathering her things to leave. "I have to try," she said, picking up the box and taking a step towards the door.

Harriet defiantly stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "No, you need to think this through."

"There isn't time. Now step aside, Lieutenant. That's an order."

The Lieutenant did not budge. "Ma'am, I care about the Commander. And I care about you. … And you need to think about this rationally. I don't know what's inside that box, but it shook you up. And with something this important, you can't let your emotions cloud your judgment. You need a plan, and you need help … or you could both end up dead."

Mac was flooded by a flashback to the warning speech that she, herself, had given to Harm when they had been in Russia searching for his father. You're being driven by emotions, and those emotions are going to get us killed.

The Colonel deflated, took a step backwards, and leaned against her desk. Harriet was right. Running off to Nichols by herself, without a plan and without some form of backup, was stupid. She could barely think of anything at the moment except for wanting to rush to help Harm. She wished Nichols had just come after her. Why did he have to involve Harm?

Harriet's voice drew her back to the present. "Let me at least get Bud and Commander Turner in here. They'll both be discrete. … We'll figure something out."

Mac nodded weakly, and Harriet rushed off. The Colonel walked around her desk and sat back in her chair. She took a deep breath to strengthen herself and then opened the box again. Before her was a picture of Harm, bloodied and beaten, unconscious, and sprawled across a floor. She might not have even been sure he was alive except for a second photo, showing him with his eyes halfway open, his wrists handcuffed over a bar so that his arms were suspended above him. She knew that picture was taken after the other photo, because in this picture, there were fresh wounds on Harm's face that hadn't been there in the first.

His hand, twisted in the cuffs, showed his naked finger, his Academy ring gone. Gone, but not missing. The ring, itself, was in the box that Mac held. Sent like a memento of a lost loved one.

Her eyes drifted back to the picture of Harm's raw face, and she had to fight the urge to vomit. 'Think like a marine,' she scolded herself. 'Not a helpless woman looking at the most important man in her world being so hurt and looking so close to death.'

Sturgis appeared in her doorway. "Lieutenant Simms said you had something you need urgent help with?" One look at Mac's face when she lifted her head to him told Sturgis that something big was going on with the Colonel and that it had nothing to do with working her caseload.

"What's going …" he started to ask, but Mac put her finger to her lips, in a gesture to quiet him.

She then indicated one of her guest chairs for Sturgis to sit in, and Bud appeared with Harriet a moment later. Harriet closed the door, while Bud, though somewhat confused, used a small device to sweep for surveillance equipment, starting with the loosely closed box in front of the Colonel.

After a minute, Bud declared it to be all clear. Harriet breathed a sigh of relief and explained, "I thought about what you said about Nichols maybe monitoring things here, and I remembered that Bud has been tinkering with this device."

"It's a CIA throwaway, but it still works," Bud added.

"What's all this about?" asked Sturgis, eager for some answers.

Mac paused and then handed him the box.

"Oh, God, … Harm," was Turner's exclamation.

"What's happened to the Commander?" asked Bud.

"These aren't pretty," Sturgis warned, handing the photos over, while he looked over the note.

Bud did not hand the photos to his wife, but he described their essence, which was enough to drain the color from Harriet's face, as she brought a hand over her mouth in shock.

"There's a restaurant named in the note," said Mac. "I'm supposed to go there in two hours and ask for a message at the bar, so I guess I'll get further directions there."

Just then, there was a knock at the door and it swung open, despite the Colonel not having given permission to enter. "Does someone want to tell me what all of my senior staff is doing in here when there are …" The Admiral stopped short when he caught view of something that had dropped to the floor while Lieutenant Roberts, along with all the other officers, had rushed to stand up.

"Not all of your senior staff, sir," said Mac, knowing that the Admiral had just caught sight of one of the pictures of Harm. "If you could shut the door behind you, sir?" she implored.

TBC …

A/N: Thanks for the feedback! I forgot to mention earlier that this story was inspired by the Feb 2010 HBX Challenge lines: "He's got my attention now." "He's always had your attention."