Hello my fellow readers! Moving right along here's the part you guys wanted - Mac meets Diane.
Enjoy!
Jackie
CHAPTER 4 – I Never Wanted A Twin
1002 Local
USS Patrick Henry
NAS Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Bud gawked at the sight of the carrier. The charred sections of the stern were a clear indicator of just how bad the mishap had been. He cringed at the thought of the chaos that must have ensued after the fireball engulfed the area. "Have you ever seen a ramp strike, Major?" He asked, curious if she'd witnessed the horror of it all.
Mac glanced up at the ship, for all of its might, the vessel wasn't indestructible and mishaps like Harm's often left the ship crippled and its inhabitants as well. "Only on video. This is the second one I've investigated."
"What happened in the first?" They saluted the sailor standing at the gangplank and made their way up to the waiting public affairs officer.
Her first ramp strike investigation was pretty cut and dry. The pilot, as good as everyone believed him to be, had a huge amount of narcotics in his system. It was later discovered that his RIO tried to kill him over an affair with his wife. An affair that was more a figment of the man's imagination than anything else. "The RIO killed his pilot and damned nearly killed himself. All over a girl. Ensign, Major MacKenzie and Lieutenant j.g. Roberts, JAG Corps." Mac returned the salute of the young woman.
"Ensign Maria Thompson. . .Right this way ma'am. Just stick to my six, that's pilot talk for your backside." She exclaimed cheerfully in a manner that reminded Mac of her first encounter with Ensign Harriet Sims. She briefly wondered if Bud acted the same way as PA officer.
They went through the corridors of the ship finally ending up inside the Island at the Captain's helm where Kohanek sat in a fashion that reminded Mac of King Henry VIII. "Skipper, Major MacKenzie and Lieutenant Roberts, JAG Corps, are here."
Kohanek's grunt was the only indication that he'd acknowledged her presence and with that, the Ensign turned on her heel and headed quickly out of the area. The tension was thick and uncomfortable and Mac immediately deduced that the working conditions for the men and women of the Seahawk were none too good if Kohanek was as much of an ass as scuttlebutt had noted. "Lieutenant Roberts, huh? You were a pretty good PA officer. Now you're a legal weenie. Can't say I'm surprised, you weren't cut out for real combat."
Bud decided to let the comment slide, not that he could do much about it but take it like a man. He glanced at Mac through the corner of his eye noting her jaw clenching and unclenching. She was obviously as pissed about the comment as he was.
Mac despised that 'legal weenie' title that JAG officers usually received from those who served in 'real combat.' No job in the military should be ridiculed considering that they were all trained and required to pick up a weapon and kill for their country. In her case, she found it especially annoying. She'd seen combat in Bosnia, taken fire and returned it. It was a memory that she'd wanted to forget and yet one that had toughened her greatly. She'd seen the eyes of her first kill, a young man, possibly in his early twenties with a hatred that didn't extinguish, not even in death. At first she'd been quite pleased at herself and all of the training that she'd suddenly remembered. Afterwards the reality of the situation dawned on her. She'd taken a life, a human life. The man would have likely raped and kill her but it was a life just the same. It would be nearly half a year before the nightmares would stop.
Yes, Mac was a legal weenie, but she was a Marine first and would do anything necessary to protect her country and her fellow service men and women. "Sir, with your permission the Lieutenant and I would like to start holding inquiries at the officers' mess."
"I've already cleared it for you, Chegwidden called about an hour ago. Everyone who had something to do with the incident is still onboard. Shall I have them line up in front of the mess, Major?" Kohanek wanted the JAGs off of his ship as quick as possible. He would be cordial, at least his version of cordial, until Commander Rabb was tarred and feathered and then life in his little world would go back to normal.
Mac wanted to argue that she'd be the one calling the necessary personnel but decided against it. "Yes, sir. Thank you. Permission to carry on?" Once granted, Bud and Mac made a hasty retreat and wound through the bowels of the ship.
When Mac and Bud arrived it was just as she'd expected. The line had around fifty men and women. She greeted them all with a nod and stepped into the mess, Bud closing the hatch behind them. "The skipper has lost his mind." Bud said with a huff, then tossed his cover onto a nearby table.
"He can line up the whole damned ship out there, I really don't give a rat's ass." She stated and then opened up her briefcase to retrieve a small stack of folders. "These are the people we need. Dismiss the rest."
The first person to be questioned was the LSO in charge that evening, Lieutenant Commander Brian "Stag" Cuyler. "This was a horrible accident. It's the second ramp strike I've seen first hand."
Mac was suddenly very interested in Cuyler. She made a note in her writing pad. It wouldn't be the first or the last time, she feared, that an LSO had something to do with a pilot's mishap. She'd once investigated a case on a carrier where the LSO had purposely waved off a female pilot just to get her washed out. "Tell me about it."
"Well, Hammer was coming in fine at first. . .As fine as you could with the storm he was flying through. The decks were pitching something awful, worst I've ever seen it. On his approach I radioed him to call the ball and I faintly heard him say that he couldn't see. . .With the heavy sheets of rain I really didn't think much of it until he started to get closer and I realized that the plane was all over the place. Harm called the ball and he was fine for all of ten seconds. And then the plane went low and off the glide slope. I yelled at him to give the plane more power, but by that time he was seconds away from landing. . ." Cuyler stopped for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd preferred to never speak of the incident again. Not only had they all lost a friend, but a damned good pilot to boot. "Myself and the others on the LSO platform jumped into the net upon impact. . .I lost sight of the plane but the fireball that it created was huge."
She could imagine and thanked God that there hadn't been many planes on deck or the whole ship would have turned into a raging inferno. "You mentioned overhearing that Commander Rabb couldn't see, had you ever heard him state anything of the sort before?"
Cuyler shook his head. "No, Major. Harm's a really healthy guy. He's a tri-athlete and even kick boxes. To be honest, I don't know what the hell happened to him."
"Healthy men aren't infallible. High blood pressure. High glucose. Even healthy persons have problems and they can be accelerated with the amount of stress pilots and RIOs put on their bodies." Mac paged through Kohanek's lengthy interview with Cuyler and sought the highlighted portions. "You'd told the skipper about Rabb seeming a bit stressed before the flight."
"Yes and I wish I never mentioned it." The man sighed shakily. He'd hated the comment that he'd made but, at the time, he was still confused over the whole ordeal and didn't take the mishap well. No one did. "Look, we're stressed all of the time on this ship. If it isn't Kohanek with a bug up his six then it's either the Airboss or the CAG. That kind of stress can't be good on the crew and even less on pilots that already have a riskier job than anyone else onboard. Unless there's a major attack to the ship, everyone here is safe. We hurl a 72,000 pound hunk of metal with wings into the air and then catch it in what can be called a 'controlled crash. . ."
Raising a hand to stop the man's onslaught Mac then leaned forward. "I am not here to pick apart Commander Rabb. I want to help him but I need information to do that. . . I know that your jobs are difficult and I know that having an overbearing skipper can not help, but I am trying to find the truth here." She really did want to help Harm and that meant having to go through the nitty gritty of the case in hopes that nothing could sink her case and no surprises came up. "Could his recent bolter have attributed to the 'stress'?"
Cuyler made a face. "Highly unlikely. We train for stuff like that and it's automatic to just get in the plane again. Past some good natured ribbing, we are fine with it. We learn from it. Of course, Reaper was a bit of an ass after it occurred."
Now that was something that she hadn't seen anywhere in Kohanek's so-called 'thorough' reports. "Come again?"
"Not to disrespect the dead, Major, but Reap wasn't cut out to be inside of a jet. He claimed to love the job and the danger but the moment he got a real taste of it he'd lose the edge. Rabb was the only one who could ever stomach him as a RIO. On this cruise, Reaper had gone through three other pilots before Harm and that's saying a lot considering some of the yahoos that get through flight school."
"So Lieutenant Mace had been upset over the bolter?"
"Not just 'upset', he fucking freaked and he and Hammer had a major fight in the ready room. It came down to fists and Me and Lobo had to separate them. . . I'm surprised you didn't hear about it ma'am. Reaper received a Captain's Mast."
Mac paged through Lieutenant Mace's records certain that she hadn't missed anything. A Captain's mast, though not fatal to your career, was still a major piece of document and it was always one of the first things that sprung at you when looking through the service records. "I'm sorry but I can't seem to find anything that states that Lieutenant Mace had a Captain's Mast."
"Surprise. Surprise." Cuyler snorted in disgust. "Considering who his mother is. . .Shit, it's almost like being back in high school where the little rich boy gets away with anything."
"The Navy doesn't work that way." She defended knowing too well that no branch of the military nor government agency was that squeaky clean.
"I wish that were true, Major."
Mac stared up and gave him a sad smile. Lately, it seemed like no one was above the law.
One Day Later.
1230 Local
Bethesda Naval Hospital
Bethesda, Maryland
Harm yawned loudly in a vain attempt to send Diane packing. True to her promise, she had returned and driven him to the brink of insanity. Not to say that he didn't enjoy all of her company. Making out with Diane had been enjoyable, but the silence was awkward and always had been though he couldn't quite understand why. If you care for someone and you wanted to be with them shouldn't even the silence be pleasant?
What he couldn't quite understand was how a woman that had wanted them to separate be so keen on spending time with him. She'd suggested on the carrier for them to be friends with benefits but even that wouldn't be possible until he healed properly. Glancing over, he found Diane sprawled half on the chair, half on his bed pretending to sleep. "Di, go home. I really don't need someone to take care of me."
She popped an eye open and grinned. "Sure you do. Besides, you like my company." She threw her legs off of his bed and stood with a groan. "They should be a little more considerate about people that visit. I can't possibly stay the night on that thing."
Yup, that was the same Diane that he'd met at Annapolis. She'd always been the kind to bull people into what she wanted them to do. Harm was no exception, though he'd always believed that she was different around him. Ever since that argument on the Henry, Harm was seeing her in a different light. "Di, please go." He never was able to get the rest out as her lips met his in a searing kiss.
Harm reacted out of instinct, holding her steady to deepen the kiss whilst his ribs protested her weight on him. It was the doctor who'd stepped in with two unexpected visitors that stopped the make out session. "Commander?"
Hearing his rank, Harm resisted the urge to sit up straight. He peered behind Diane and immediately froze, feeling like a kid who'd been caught doing something wrong. "You have a couple of visitors."
"Major MacKenzie." He smiled at Mac, all the while trying to get Diane off of his bed with a light shove. She remained seated in place, by his side – overprotective (read: possessive) mode was on.
An eerie sensation blanketed the room and all of those within felt the weight of it all. The two women stared at each other, neither able to accept that their likeness was, indeed, a reality.
Bud glanced between the two women, though he'd served with both, he'd chosen to remain silent about their existence, not wanting to put Mac in an awkward place. His mentor was merely standing there, forgetting anything that she was about to say. Everything seemed to be suspended in time save for the doctor who said something unintelligible before walking away.
Mac took a few steps forward and glanced at a version of herself dressed in a pair of black jeans and a grey top that she'd never wear due to how tight it seemed on her mirrored self. The hair on her clone was much different than her own, curling up in certain places and with a darker hue than the red highlights she sported. She noted that the other woman was clutching Harm's hand, anchoring him to her something that made her sick to her stomach.
Diane too was dumbfounded by the discovery. Absentmindedly, she'd taken Harm's hand and held on for dear life, seeking for a safety net to catch her when this crisis was over. Taking a good look she'd found a few differences, one of them being the hue of Mac's skin which gave the other woman a more exotic look than herself. "When you said she could be my twin, you weren't lying." She turned to Harm, pinning him with an angry look as though their likeness was his fault.
Opening and closing her mouth it took Mac a few seconds to formulate something intelligent to say, and even then it sounded utterly formal. "I'm Major Sarah MacKenzie." Mac stuck her hand out and held it there, waiting for the other woman to take it.
Diane hesitated, wondering if the nightmare would end or intensify if her double touched her. "I'm Lieutenant Diane Schonke." She shook Mac's hand awkwardly and released it with a quickness.
Bud cleared his throat. "Lieutenant j.g. Bud Roberts. . .I've served with both of you, sir, ma'am." He nodded towards Harm and then Diane but didn't move. He merely stood next to Mac almost like a body guard. In the two years that he'd worked with the Major, she'd become almost like an older sister. She'd helped him catch the woman of his dreams and, even at the beginning, helped mold him into a true officer. Had it not been for Mac's pushing, he wouldn't have tried as hard as he did to succeed in law school.
"I remember you, Bud. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that you served on the Henry. How's it going for you at JAG?" Harm asked with interest. The younger man was always a bit quirky but exceptional at his job. So was the woman who took over for him, an Ensign Harriet Simms.
"It's going well, thank you for asking, sir." He turned to Mac and nodded slightly, almost as if encouraging her to continue. When she didn't react, he opted to help out and damn the consequences for speaking over a senior officer. "Sir, we have a few questions for you. The Major and I just returned from the Patrick Henry."
The news made Harm frown. It wasn't that he didn't want to cooperate with the case, but he just wanted to be the one person with the least participation. "Alright. . .I guess Kohanek didn't have much to say? Major?"
Snapping out of her trance, Mac's eyes focused on Harm, barely managing to pin her twin with another glare. "Actually neither the CAG nor the Skipper were around much during the interviews. . .I'm going to have to catch them when they least expect me there." Mac motioned to a couple of empty chairs at the far end of the room, away from her twin. "May we?" She and Bud each took a seat. With a deep breath, she opted to ignore the other woman who seemed to be doing much the same to her.
Fine. It was better that way, easier, especially after the little show she walked in on and the little bit of information that she had to share. "I found out that Mace's Captain's Mast was not filed with his service record. In fact, it doesn't exist."
"Then you know about the fight."
Mac nodded, "Yes. . .A witness reported the two of you had to be pulled apart."
Harm sighed. Even with his lack of knowledge into all things legal, he knew that fights were seen as motives. "Reap started to talk a lot of shit about me. . .He said that I was a bad pilot who wouldn't let him do his job. . .I was fine with that, but when he brought up my father, I went ballistic." He hated talking about that aspect of his life, the one detail that was the source of his greatest weaknesses. "Dad was shot down in Vietnam and went missing. . Reaper said something along the lines of Dad being a bad pilot and me turning out like him. . .I lost it and Reaper got the Captain's Mast for instigating the fight."
"Were you charged?"
"Nope. I never understood why, but I wasn't about to question the powers that be."
"Mmmm." Though it was curious as to why neither of the men's records reflected the fight, Mac chose to pull out another argument. This one came at the most inopportune of times. "There was another altercation. . .One of the junior officers we interviewed stated that you and Lieutenant Shonke had an argument before the flight. She said it was pretty heated in fact."
Ensign Maria Thompson, the PA officer had been sitting a little under ten feet away when that particular argument ensued. She'd caught a great deal of Harm and Diane's conversation, but, being the junior officer, wisely ignored it all. The only reason why she'd brought it up under questioning was because she liked Harm and he never seemed to be interested in that fashion.
Diane's grip on Harm's hand tightened painfully. She suddenly felt like a lesser species in the food chain of life. And when Mac's eyes pinned her down, she felt like the accused. "What does that have to do with Harm's accident?"
"Well, that clears up my doubts." Mac said.. She looked up to find Harm with a perplexed expression on his face. She didn't like it, but the questioning was a necessary evil. "What kind of argument was it?" Though she really didn't need to ask, the way that Diane was cajoled next to Harm screamed 'lover's spat.'
"It's personal." He stated flatly refusing to dive into that information and open the wound again. Diane had hurt him. Then again, how many women had he hurt? Maybe it was karma coming to bite him in the ass. "Why does anyone care?"
Sighing, Mac edged forward. "Anyone could take it out of context and make the argument a reason for the crash. It's happened before."
"I'm not an emotional flyer." Insulted, he turned away from Mac and released Diane at once. She had been in his mind before the flight, but during. . .he wasn't too sure. "I never have been."
Mac didn't need anything more than his tone of voice to realize just how 'personal' things between the two officers got. "Where were the two of you during the argument?" She addressed the question to Diane hoping to ease some of the brunt off of Harm.
The woman swallowed to moisten her dry throat. She'd hated lawyers, especially JAGs who seemed only to have it in for good sailors who just wanted a chance to serve. The Major would be difficult to size up considering she was a rank higher than her own. Still, in civilian attire, it was easier to let some things pass. "This is a ridiculous line of questioning. It has nothing to do with his crash."
"Answer the question, Lieutenant." Mac said sternly, the tone of voice saying that she meant business.
Diane shifted off of Harm's bed and stood, crossing her arms defiantly. "It was at the officers' mess and, because I know you were going to ask, there were several people around."
"This has nothing to do with the mishap." Harm interjected, "I was pissed off but not enough for it to impact how I fly."
Mac raised a hand in defense of herself. "I'm just raising questions that the prosecution can use if this goes to trial."
Understanding that it wasn't personal, Harm relaxed slightly. "I'm sorry, Major. . .Flying is everything to me. It's the most important thing in my life. I thought I was damned good at it until this."
"I'll do anything in my power to get you back in the cockpit, alright?" After that promise, Mac continued to question Harm on some of the things that Cuyler had brought up. His details on landing a plane on a carrier were methodic and helped her understand just how much pilots really go through. Diane had been silent during the whole description. The woman looked positively annoyed. She excused herself half way into their conversation and didn't return.
Mac packed away her suitcase and smiled at Harm. "I am not saying it's going to be easy, but I'll find a way to help you out."
"Did Kohanek say anything at all about me?" He asked, mildly cringing at the thought that the man had anything to do with commanding others in the Navy.
"I haven't had a chance to interview him or the CAG." She stated with a frown. Kohanek had done a number on her and Bud, making himself completely unavailable to her. The CAG, too, had been unavailable, supposedly taking a one day liberty off of the ship despite orders from JAG that certain personnel needed to stay onboard until the interviews were conducted. "I'm going to show up unannounced tomorrow."
Harm grinned, "Figuring to sneak up on them?"
"The element of surprise, Commander. It works damned well when you are a lawyer."
"When you're a pilot, too." She extended a hand to his, which Harm took eagerly. The touch was warm and welcomed.
Mac felt a quick zing of electricity that made her blush, though she didn't know why. He too felt it and held her hand for a second too long. It was only when Diane stepped inside of the room that he let Mac go. Without another word, for fear that she may say something stupid, Mac smiled and turned towards the door with Bud on her heals. It was when she reached the hallway that a certain person called to her. "Yes, Lieutenant?"
Diane was at their heals, halting Mac before they had a chance to slip inside the safety of the elevators. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I didn't mean to follow you. I just wanted to make something clear." She took a breath and let it out in a rush. "I care for Harm, a lot, and I hope you aren't planning on pinning this accident on me or some stupid argument that we had."
The defensive method was one that she'd seen before when a person felt guilty about something. "It's obvious that you do care for him, Lieutenant. And I am not that petty to pin an accident on someone who wasn't at fault. I am concerned, however, how a woman could pick a fight with a man knowing that he's about to fly." Her timing was perfect and a second later, the elevator chimed on their floor. "Good day, Lieutenant."
Diane shot daggers at the other woman, noting with disdain that she seemed pleased with the barb that had been shot. "I never wanted a twin." She said under her breath and proceeded to calm herself before reentering Harm's room. He was asleep and thanked God that it would cause a lack of conversation between them.
He really wasn't a bad guy, most women would consider him quite the catch, however she didn't want a future with him. But the present, well, that looked mighty damned good.
Feigning sleep, Harm lay still once the door to his room opened. By the scent of her perfume, Harm knew it was Diane and nearly sighed in regret. Her kisses were potent, her looks were killer and yet, besides anything physical, he was running out of reasons why he wanted to be with her.
At first, it had been the thrill of having someone you couldn't have. If he really thought about it, maybe he was never attracted to Diane in the ways that would make it possible for a real relationship to flourish. No, thinking back, it was always about the physical and never really about the heart. He realized then, with great certainty, that he never really loved her as anything more than a friend. And he never would.
The notion allowed his mind to drift towards the Marine. It was the first time in a long time since a woman had held his curiosity as much as Mac had. The last time he'd been smitten was upon meeting one Diane Schonke at Annapolis. "Smitten?" He thought to himself with a hint of discomfort. He wasn't really smitten was he?
Dear God, he didn't even know the woman. Then again, if in her personal life Mac was anything like the woman with such a passion for the law, she was worthy of his attention.
Come to think of it, being smitten really wasn't that bad after all.
