Chapter 17

Mac came out of her office in time to hear Ensign Yancy's tirade, but appeared to be ignoring it as she approached the Ensign's desk. Announcing in a soft voice that she just needed to borrow a pen for a moment, Mac opened the top left drawer of the desk and appeared to search for one. Before Eloise could stop her, Mac pulled out an 8x10 picture of the Admiral. She looked directly at Eloise and said, "If you don't want him, why do you have a picture of him in your desk?"

Bud, Sturgis, and Eloise stood there in open-mouthed amazement. Eloise reacted first and grabbed the picture out of Mac's hands, but it was too late, it had been seen and there could only be one explanation for it.

"I…I…I…" she couldn't seem to find any words.

Turning to her, Bud asked, "So how much of the rest of what you told us has been a lie, Ensign?" At the stern look on his face, she broke down and started crying. Before long she had confessed the entire story. Sturgis called a guard and had her taken into custody until charges could be filed against her. Mac went into her office to call AJ and give him the good news.

"Chegwidden," AJ said as he answered the phone.

"Sir, it's Mac, and I have some really good news. We worked out a plan to get Ensign Yancy to admit that the charges she filed were a lie. She just did so, and you should be getting official word soon that the charges are going to be dropped. I just couldn't wait to tell you though," she told him excitedly.

"Thank you Mac, that is good news. You guys did a fine job," she could hear the relief in his voice as he talked.

"It was really Bud and Sturgis that did all the work. I just came in at the end when I got another tip from our anonymous emailer. Whoever it is, sent me a message that Eloise was keeping a picture of you in her desk and that pretty much cinched the deal."

"A picture of me?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, it was the one of you that appears on the website. She must have downloaded it and printed it out," Mac informed him.

"Why in the world would she do that?"

"Because she's infatuated with you and she believed that you had rejected her. She had filed the charges because she wanted to humiliate you as she felt you had her."

"That's crazy!" he gasped.

"I believe that she might be Sir, but not because she had feelings for you, just because of how she went about expressing them," Mac offered.

"Well, thank you Mac, but I still can't fathom how she could have been that misguided!" After a few more minutes of conversation, AJ said that he needed to go because there was another call coming through. Mac wished him well and added that she hoped he was back in the office soon.

The next phone call that came through was Sturgis letting him know that the charges had been dropped and that once the paperwork was finished he would be back in the office. They were expecting Monday. AJ hung up with a sigh, he was a bit disappointed that he would still be out of the office the next day, but he did know that it took time for things to file through the system.

Most of Friday was spent on what was going to happen to Ensign Yancy- when the group at JAG wasn't busy with their other cases. It looked like she would be facing some serious charges and could even lose her commission over it.

Because of Mac's involvement in the case she doubted that she would be allowed to either prosecute or defend Eloise, for which she was glad of, because she still had an uncontrollable urge to tear the woman's hair out every time she thought about what she had done.

Everyone was relieved to hear that the Admiral would be back at his desk on Monday. The only one that was not truly happy about it was Harm; he had always enjoyed his time behind the big desk, and hated to give it up when that time came around. The only time he felt differently about that was when it was budget time!

To Be Continued….