Wow! Thanks for the reviews guys! I really didn't expect so many people to be interested! Here's chapter 2, Harm and Mac wil meet in Chapter 3. I am going to post 1 chapter per week until I get the story finished completely and then I'll post a bit more.
Thanks again and expect a response from me if you left a way for me to contact you!
enjoy!
Jackie
Chapter 2 – Defending Their Honor.
Two Weeks Later
Courtroom B
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
Major Sarah MacKenzie stood perfectly still, waiting for the verdict that would either make or break her client's career. It was a difficult case, evidence that she'd procured had gone missing and the judge was too much of a hard ass to toss out the case. Then again, it was a rape case and a very high profile one at that. The son of a General who was blamed for the rape and attack of an eighteen year old, enlisted woman.
At first, Mac herself thought that her client was guilty. The guy was a womanizing creep who even leered at her when she'd first walked into the brig to question him. Just because the man was a pig didn't mean he would be responsible for such a vicious attack though. Her professionalism won over her personal feelings and she allowed the evidence to fall where it may. The man had an alibi, but it was in the form of a friend who was too drunk to certainly tell where the man had been.
Once the case was over, whether she won or not, Mac was going to suggest that the friend be investigated, she had a hunch and was seldom wrong about those kind of hunches. "You may read the verdict."
She felt her client take a breath and hold it as the Lieutenant on the panel read through the list of charges. It seemed like forever before two little, glorious words were uttered, "Not guilty.'
"Congratulations Lieutenant." Mac extended her hand to her client and was immediately pulled into a hug.
"Oh ma'am, I don't know how you did it but thank you! Thank you!"
She pushed away gently and patted him on the shoulder. "It's my duty, Lieutenant. Make sure to stay out of trouble and that's an order." The usual congratulatory moment commenced as she discussed moments of the case with her opponent, Lieutenant Commander Alan Mattoni. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed someone standing by the two heavy, courtroom doors.
Lieutenant Bud Roberts was a great asset to JAG, with his knack for digging up anything found in a computer and having JAG's finest lawyer in his corner, he was becoming a force to be reckoned with. He approached his mentor with a serious look on his face. "Ma'am, the Admiral wants to see you ASAP." Bud led the way through the winding corridors and into JAG headquarters. "He's in his office."
"Could you put these away for me, Bud?" Mac handed him her cover and briefcase and then quickly sped through the bullpen and towards Admiral A.J. Chegwidden's office.
Petty Officer Jason Tiner, the Admiral's yeoman, glanced up from his computer. "Congratulations ma'am."
"News got out already?" It never ceased amazed her just how quickly scuttlebutt traveled in the military, often she felt like it was high school all over again.
"Yes, ma'am. . .The Admiral's waiting for you."
"Thank you, Tiner." The young man was a sweetheart, that is if you saw past his often bumbling ways and gasoline-like form of coffee. Mac knocked on the Admiral's door and stepped inside once called to. She walked in front of Chegwidden's desk and stood at attention. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
AJ Chegwidden was a bit of a conundrum when it came to commanding officers. More often than not, he was gruff, with one wicked attitude and a pension for making his subordinates squirm. Mac wasn't immune, but managed to hide her worries much more effectively. And then he'd often become like a father figure, opting to help out in all sorts of situations. She always figured that, inside, AJ was a big, ol' softy. The Admiral ignored her for a moment, finishing up the files that needed his signature. If there was one thing that Mac had zero patience for was the waiting game that AJ often played. She wasn't sure if he did it to piss her off or scare her. "At ease, take a seat, Major."
She breathed a slow breath of relief and then settled into the chair across from his desk. He still didn't speak right away, merely finished with the documents and then slid his reading glasses off, placing them on the table. "How's your knowledge of aircrafts?"
The question came completely out of left field. It was an odd one too, Chegwidden had her service records and knew that she'd never been on a fighter jet before in her life. "I've learned a thing or two during the five or six mishap cases I've investigated in the last. . ."
Chegwidden waved her off and then leaned back into his chair. "Almost a month ago there was a ramp strike on the carrier USS Patrick Henry."
"I saw it on ZNN, sir. . .The RIO was killed and the pilot was severely injured." Neither the names nor any other information was disclosed, only that the Navy would be looking into the mishap.
"The pilot woke up a couple of days ago and the the Navy has chosen to launch a full investigation now."
That wasn't much of a surprise considering they'd been so swamped with cases, half of which had been opened for weeks. "I assume that has to do with the backlog?"
"You are correct on that. I don't know if the delay will help or hurt the investigation, but I want you to be your normal, rational, impartial self. Am I understood?"
"Crystal clear, sir." Like she's ever been anything but impartial? Okay, so there had been a case or two with a client that tended to be abusive towards women. Those kind of clients Mac had a bit of trouble handling, it reminded her too much of the past. She accepted the file which Chegwidden passed to her, a manila folder with the JAG emblem glued to the front. A bright, red text suggested that the information was 'Classified' and Mac suddenly realized that there was something more that the Admiral had failed to mention.
He sat quietly as his officer went through the files. Mac was meticulous, even at the preliminary phases of case work. It was something that he enjoyed, which is why the Admiral tended to be tougher on her than others. If things went his way Mac would be the first woman sitting in his chair.
Skimming through the information, Mac went through all of the normal particulars before turning to Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb Junior's service photo. It was hard not to catch her breath, the man was damned good looking. There was a familiarity to him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. If what she knew about jet jocks was true, he probably had a killer smile to go with the gold wings and an ego the size of the former Soviet Union. Carefully shoving away her thoughts about his appearance, she moved to the incident report filed by the LSO on the night of the accident. "Lieutenant Commander Jason Mace III, sir?"
AJ grinned, that was the one piece of information that he'd hoped Mac would pick up on immediately. "Senator Sofia Mace of California. . .Jason was her only son."
"And her husband was KIA in 'Nam." Though Senator Mace was a fair woman, she despised the military and constantly fought to put government funding into other areas. She'd had a run in with the woman before, as well as one Senator Bobbi Latham who often had an axe to grind. Both women had applauded Mac's efforts in fighting to secure women's rights in the military one year prior. And still, despite their mutual plight, this Marine couldn't stomach what the other two women stood for. Politics was just something that shouldn't meddle in military affairs. Sadly, the two came hand in hand. Politicians often used the armed forces as either their punching bags or their own private militia.
"I forgot that you had a run in with Senator Mace." He slid another file her way, one that was jam packed with statements taken by the Seahawk's skipper, Captain Elis J. Kohanek. "The skipper didn't want to miss a beat on the mishap. He got statements from anyone who saw the accident." He sighed in disapproval. "Kohanek is a hardass, he's trying to work his way up the promotion ladder."
"And ruining a pilot's career is certainly one way to go about it." Oh yes, she spotted that too. Commander Rabb's service record read like somewhat of an action movie. Tom Cruise's Maverick would have been insanely jealous.
"Lieutenant Commander Rabb is the Navy's best. He was the poster boy during the last two recruitment shoots and he's on the fast track to becoming either CAG or an instructor at Fallon. Rumor has it that the CIA has been trying to tap him for a. . . 'classified' mission which Mr. Rabb has been unwilling to participate in, hence the lettering on the front of the document."
Mac rolled her eyes at the thought. If the CIA got wind of the investigation (which was a cinch that they had), they would be all over JAG like white on rice. "Is that a cryptic way of telling me that I should watch out for Clayton Webb?"
"Once they catch wind of it I suspect that Webb may stick his nose into it. . .Undersecretary my ass." AJ snorted shaking his head. Clayton Webb was, for lack of a better word, a jerk. The man had a penchant for sticking his nose into Naval operations when it suited him and, more often than not, that involved the JAG office as well. "Let's just hope that Mr. Webb stays at Langley and away from the investigation."
"Amen to that." Mac had personally been involved with Webb on more than one occasion. She'd been tapped to aid him in a covert mission that nearly got her killed. Not to mention, the man had tried to and succeeded in putting her uncle, Marine Corps Colonel Matthew O'Hara, behind bars when he'd stolen the Declaration of Independence. She was lucky that Chegwidden was in her corner and after a few sharp words, offered to aid her into keeping the sentence at Leavenworth a short one.
Past that, there had been another run in with Webb. A not so pleasant one involving dinner, a bottle of wine (which he drank alone) and a fist connecting with his face and breaking his nose. Subsequently, the man had stopped chasing after her, but often wrote an e-mail or two just to keep his name in the running. Mac snorted at the thought. 'Yeah right, over my dead body.' She'd already been through one too many bad relationships to start one that would be a failure from the get go.
"Keep me abreast of the situation, Major. There are too many factors that I don't like and the last thing I want is for one damned fine pilot to wind up a spook. Dismissed."
Mac stood up and came to attention. "Aye, aye, sir." She stepped out of Chegwidden's office, files clutched tightly as she weaved through the bullpen stopping at Lieutenant j.g. Bud J. Roberts' desk. "Bud, pull up anything you can find about Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb Junior, USN and join me in my office as soon as you have it."
"Aye, ma'am." Bud wasn't anything if not efficient and Mac knew that even before she had a moment to thoroughly read through the information, her protégé would have everything she asked for and more.
Once inside the safety of her office, she sat behind her desk and pulled open the file again which happened to open back at the Commander's picture. "Mmm, you are an attractive one, Lieutenant Commander Rabb." Professionalism aside, she was a woman, a single woman who was allowed to look and pretend that cute guys didn't matter. The black and white service photo didn't hide the gleam in his eyes and if they were as blue as his record stated, she could only imagine the women falling to their knees before him.
True to form, Bud did not walk in without being asked to. It was a habit she'd hoped to break and then again, it was a habit that made Bud who he was. "I heard about the incident over ZNN when it happened. I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone, but I'm sorry that it had to be Commander Rabb."
Mac raised her head from the paperwork and glared at the Lieutenant. "Did you know him?"
"Yes, ma'am. . .He was recently promoted to Lieutenant Commander when I left the Seahawk to join JAG. . .Harriet, uh, Ensign Simms also knew the Commander."
It sometimes helped to have an inside track and Bud she trusted implicitly. "What can you tell me about the Commander, Bud?"
"He wasn't the typical jet jock. Scuttlebutt has it that his father went MIA in 'Nam. According to the files his grandfather was also a pilot, died shooting off of the Horn. ."
"Bud, screw the files, what can you tell me about Commander Rabb." Okay, so Bud was sometimes a little over-efficient.
He cleared his throat and grinned sheepishly. "Of course, Major. . .I talked to him a few times and he seemed to be a good guy. Loved flying and ah. . ." He glanced at her oddly then, much as he'd done the first time they met a good three and a half years prior. "I used to see him hanging out with an academy friend of his. Lieutenant Diane Schonke."
Mac cringed at the thought. There were enough problems with women in the military to have two academy sweethearts on the same cruise together. Not that she hadn't dealt in her own form of fraternization, but she'd learned from that mistake. "Were they lovers?"
"Possibly but. . ." He stopped and bit his lower lip, nervously glancing at his mentor. "She looks like you, ma'am."
Her brow rose in confusion. "Excuse me?"
"She does. . .I can't explain it, but Lieutenant Schonke does look a lot like you." It was a fact that he'd noticed at their introduction and something that Bud had kept under wraps for fear that he would overstep a boundary or two. "Your voice is a little deeper and she was a lot more fun. . ." He cleared his throat and shook his head viciously. Talk about the wrong thing to say! At Mac's harsh glance he smiled slightly. "What I mean is that you. . .you know? The difference between sailors and Marines. . .You're more squared away."
Bud's befuddled expression made her chuckle, in a second he would likely bring up Quantum Leap or Star Trek or some other show she'd never been acquainted with. "So I have a twin out here?"
"Something like that, ma'am. . . . But your personalities, they're as different as night and day." He added finally and then reached over to take a file that Mac handed him. "Wow. . .Captain Kohanek didn't waste any time." He frowned in thought of the skipper with a penchant for being a hard ass with anyone on the cruise.
"The Admiral mentioned he's a bit enthusiastic."
Enthusiastic wasn't quite the word that Bud would use. More like egomaniacal. "He's got a chip on his shoulder, ma'am. . .Great for the ship but not for much else." He shrugged. Bullies were everywhere in life. It just sucked that this particular bully governed over an entire ship. "I would ignore half of these reports, Major. I would bet my life that he scared the crew into talking. It's his M.O."
Mac sighed, she was growing tired of commanders that used their rank to threaten the 'little people.' "I am going to Bethesda to speak to Lieutenant Commander Rabb. In the meantime, go through those interviews and find me something that works. Oh, and find out where the Seahawk is and get me to her. I don't want to waste anytime on this. Rumor has it that the CIA is looking for a few good pilots and Rabb is one of them."
Bud cringed at the thought. "Does this mean that Mr. Webb will be involved?"
She dreaded the thought of Webb's involvement in anything, more so if it involved him using JAG as a recruitment center. "All I can say is, 'Prepare for the worst." With that, she took her purse and cover and headed out of her office and down to the JAG car pool.
Watching her go, Bud couldn't help but think of Harm's reaction to the woman. Would he notice the differences right away or would he believe that Sarah MacKenzie was Diane Shonke? Oh, to watch that interaction.
