Chapter 64
On that morning, Harm took Valerie to the daycare provider; Mac went to the suburban hotel where she was going to meet Cara. Mac knew, via Cara, that a former classmate of theirs was one of the parents chaperoning. "I intentionally gave her this morning to be the 'wrangler', so that we'd have a chance to talk." Cara, a fellow educator had been placed in charge when the teacher/sponsor, had badly wrenched his knee, and was on crutches for the duration of the trip.
"Wrangler?" Mac asked even though she had an idea what Cara meant.
"They need to be up and at the bus by eight, and not surprisingly, some of them a little slow in getting going in the morning, hence the need for a wrangler." There were a few students eating breakfast, but the other chaperones were doing their job and this gave the two friends a chance to talk. "You're looking good Sarah."
"Thanks, I'll warn you, I'm not that hungry this morning, so I'll just have toast and coffee."
Cara recognized the signs, "You're pregnant?"
"Yes, just two months, so other than family and the admiral, no one knows."
"The admiral?"
"Admiral Sebring is my supervisor, so I had to let him know, with various appointments, because of the problems I had with Valerie so my doctor wants me to go on maternity leave at seven months."
"Makes sense, I guess I'm lucky, I was able to work up to my due date, but I also timed my pregnancies right, and had all three during vacation times, one advantage to being an educator" Cara smiled. And speaking of my kids, I have pictures of the two youngest with me, the red-head three tables away is my eldest."
"Harm took Valerie to the baby sitter; she's only a block away so that makes things easy for me and my husband." They ordered their breakfast. "I happen to have a picture taken at Christmas time with the whole gang." Mac dug out the requisite pictures.
"Nice looking group, I recognize the guy, wasn't he in a recruitment ad several years ago?" The family group looked relaxed.
"He was he's holding Valerie, our oldest. Standing nest to him is my stepdaughter Mattie. We found out about her after we were married. The younger couple is my brother-in-law, his wife and son. The older couple is my in-laws; they live in San Diego, Sergei and Galina close to us in Leesburg."
"Ваш муж русский" "Your husband's Russian?" Cara asked. They both took the language in high school; it had been the only school in the state of Arizona to teach the language while they were in high school.
"Нет, его брат родился и вырос там, длинные истории, некоторые из них все еще классифицируется" Mac explained ("No, his brother was born and raised there, long story, some of it's still classified.") Mac wanted to say more but this wasn't the time or the place. Switching back to English Mac whispered, "I think your wrangler must have gotten all her dogies up and at 'em, because if I'm not mistaken, Chelsey just walked in. Is she still..." Mac wanted to phrase it nicely, knowing the two others were friends. The waiter brought their coffee and Mac's toast.
"Cara and Sarah, I see you didn't waste any time in getting together," seeing the light breakfast of toast and coffee Chelsey snarked, "tie another on MacKenzie?"
"Nice to see you too Chelsey Kennedy, or is still Rogers?" Mac said sweetly. She'd learned a long time ago to ignore Chelsey.
"I was telling Cara a little about my family. So where all are you going while here in DC?" Mac changed the subject.
"After the competition the kids are going to see the Supreme Court, but today they're going to see a military court in action. The Navy Judge Advocate General, we're going to sit it on a trial." Chelsey said pedantically.
"That ought to be interesting; I hear things are different in a military court." Mac said, knowing a group of students was coming to JAG today, she didn't know whether or not it would be her courtroom. "If you will excuse me, I have a dentist appointment to get to, and then off to work. See you later. You'll be here for most of the week Cara?"
"Yes, have a good day; I'll talk to you later." Cara said to Mac. Mac left for the dentist, changed into her uniform before her appointment.
"I didn't know call girls worked during the day," Chelsey sneered to Cara with a self-satisfied smile after Mac left the room.
Cara counted to ten silently, "Chelsey, you haven't changed one bit since high school, back home got away with stuff just because your dad was the district attorney, and then a county judge for most of your life. If you add in the well-known fact that your family owns half the town, you've had a free ride all your life. Now, because we're supposed to be an example for these kids I'm not going to call you what I really want to." Cara hissed, as there were too many kids around for it to denigrate into a full-blown argument.
Because they were going to a government installation the teens and their chaperones had to be at JAG early enough to get everyone through security. This meant that everyone in the group had to be ready to go in fifteen minutes.
Chapter 65
Mac had an only had a moment to talk with her husband after her appointment that had been cancelled, the dentist she was to see had a death in the family the night before so her appointment was rescheduled. The General had asked she see him as soon as she arrived and told her the students would be in her courtroom for obvious reasons.
"You know about that high school group coming here today," Harm nodded he did, "it's my alma mater, so the general assigned the group to me" Mac was looking forward to this and she filled in her husband with a couple ideas to deal with a certain chaperone in the group.
"Creswell told me I get tour guide duty today, because my client pled guilty yesterday afternoon." Harm said, "So I need to get down to the first floor and go meet the 'monsters.'" He liked her idea and was glad that they taped the courtroom proceedings.
"Our mascot was the Gila monster, Arizona remember, but it really applies to one of the chaperones, remember me talking about a certain headache from my high school years"
Harm nodded he did, "And you found out she's is one of the chaperones."
"Don't let me know which one, I'll be able to figure it out, now I'm glad the general 'asked' me to do the tour."See you soon, your honor." He headed for the stairs.
Mac went to her office, the trial had started two days before and was already wrapping up, and the plan had been that she'd explain the differences between civilian court and military court to the students and their chaperones but she knew this would go better this way. She was looking forward to seeing the look on Chelsey Rogers face. She waited in her office while Harm herded the group of eight teens and four adults to the courtroom.
Cara was surprised to see the same man that had been in Mac's family picture, thankfully no one but Harm noticed the surprised look on her face when she saw him.
"I'm Commander Harmon Rabb, your guide today. "
Several in the group said "hi" as he directed them to the elevators. One of the women looked at him like she was on the last day of a diet and he was dessert. Somehow, he knew this was Mac's nemesis. He was quite glad that Cara, the one he had a name for already, stood between him and the barracuda in the elevator.
I'll take you to the courtroom in a few minutes; it's much like civilian court, except we don't call them trials. They are court-martials. One difference is that our judges don't wear robes like most judges do, they wear their uniforms. The judge you'll see today is a Marine Lt. Colonel, which one rank below Colonel. A Commander in the Navy, which is my rank, has the equivalent rank. I don't think I need to remind you that you are observers, and like any courtroom, you must be quiet in court. Because this trial will go to the panel today, which is what we in the military call the jury, the judge has agreed to answer your questions during the time we are waiting for them to decide the fate of the defendant. Speaking of questions do you have any before we begin?"
"Yes" Courtney Rogers, "I see that you wear a class ring from the Naval Academy, are all the attorneys here Naval Academy graduates?" The tanned blonde was observant.
"That's a good question Ms Rogers, right now there are only two here that attended school there, but we attended different law schools. We have people who went to Duke, Georgetown, Yale, and Stanford, and several other law schools." They were at the entrance to the courtroom. "We'll now go into the courtroom, and then the judge will give you a few instructions before the trial resumes."
Jen then gave Harm a piece of paper, I won't have a chance to talk to them before court starts. Mac
Courtney Rogers was glad that they were headed into the courtroom because she recognized the look her mother was giving the tall, handsome commander giving them the tour. She could also see the wedding band on his finger and she decided to sit as far away from her mother as she could in the few seats available for them in the courtroom. However, she wasn't able to do this as she ended up sitting just across the aisle from Chelsey.
When the group sat down Harm explained, "I told you the judge would talk to you before the trial resumes, but I was just given a note by the judge. The court-martial will resume, so the judge will talk with you later, after summations by the counsels. Here are the ground rules, during the trial you cannot talk to each other or anyone else in the courtroom. Please save your questions for later. I see you all have paper and pen which is good, as I have to inform you electronic items need to be turned off now. This includes cell phones and camera phones people." This elicited several groans. "Remember, as in civilian court you will all need to rise when the judge comes in."
Harm nodded to the bailiff to begin. The bailiff announced, "All rise. The court-martial of Lance Corporal Eleanor Olson will resume, Lt. Colonel Sarah McKenzie-Rabb presiding." Mac had decided hyphenate her name, and go by McKenzie-Rabb at work, after a civilian attorney tried to change judges so as to not try his case against Harm, and Mac had been the only other judge available. Mac entered the courtroom. All the spectators stood up, although Shannon Weston, sitting next to Chelsey, and the other female chaperone, had to prompt Chelsey Rogers to stand. Chelsey was dumbfounded when she saw who the judge was.
