Author's note: I know a lot of fics I've read build Mic up to be this really bad, abusive, controlling guy that cut into Rabb's and Mac's relationship. I don't see him as a "bad guy", just an ordinary guy who fell head over heels in love with an unattainable, flawed woman who had been hurt many times in the past. And most guys (being a guy myself) will butt heads with another guy, even violently, when it comes to a woman. If he was controlling and abusive he wouldn't have let Mac go so easily the episode of the wedding and the night Harm went down in the Tomcat – all he said was sadly, "I have my answer then…" meaning that Mac went first to Harm. In MY fics, Mic is that nice guy who just doesn't like Harmon Rabb because they butt heads over Mac. The one thing I didn't see Mic Brumby do was ever hit a woman – it's not in him.
Sorry, I've been AWOL for such a long time, but my JAG Muse has vanished into the ether...and I don't know when she's coming back, that stubborn jarhead! But I managed to coax this chapter out of her before she disappeared again.
Somewhere in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains; 3 weeks into captivity
"You're crazy, Palmer."..."I know"… repeated endlessly in the mind of the captive curled up on the concrete floor trying to find some comfort in the spartan room. She knew this was mental torture specifically aimed to break her...into revealing anything that could be used to hunt down Harm and those who relied on him keeping them safe. As much as she didn't like the rest of them, she didn't want any harm to come to them. She wasn't successful in gleaning anything about where they were located, or their exact location; all her attempts had been undermined by Rear Admiral Morris – all Palmer knew was that he was sending operatives and they never came back. And she smiled...her mind teetering on the edge of sanity, that no matter how much Palmer tried to break her, there wasn't a damned bit of information that he would get out of her.
JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA. 1350Hrs
Rear Admiral Morris set the phone receiver down. There had been no sightings of Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie at all. For all intents and purposes, Mackenzie had fallen off the face of the earth. Aside from Colonel Farrow who was in constant contact with JAG Headquarters from his new position within the office of Naval Intelligence, working in his capacity as a GS-9 since he was retired, they were keeping surveillance over the area looking for any signs of habitation in a place that shouldn't have any.
Lieutenant Commander Mic Brumby was nearly beside himself with worry even though he was doing his best not to show any signs of it. As much as he had despised Rabb, he worried for their safety and for the safety of the one he loved, Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie. He hated the fact that he was helpless. He loathed the fact that he couldn't just pinpoint Mac's location and go in with guns blazing and rescue her. He knew that he had come between Rabb and Mackenzie and they had butted heads like two elk going at each other. Mackenzie was the reason why they couldn't be friends and Mic realized with fireworks going off in his head of realization that Mac was the one egging him on with regards to being enemies with Rabb. She was the one playing him off against Rabb. She wanted them fighting with each other so that it built her up as someone who was to be desired and to have two men fighting over her...was the icing on the cake. What a bloody idiot, I've been. Mic's thoughts berated himself. In Rabb he could have had a friend and they would have been right good mates. For all their antipathy towards each other, Rabb was a faithful sort and a good man in a pinch. Me n' Rabb need to mend fences...we're all in this together.
I've got a few favors to call in and I think I know just the right people to do it. I'm sure Chegwidden even though he's retired wouldn't mind if I call in my friend Rolly. Rolly Barnes was an Australian SAS type. Flight Lieutenant Rolly Barnes to be exact. They had the hardware, the know-how and the aptitude to get Sarah out of the way of trouble and they'd probably be able to come up here on the guise of an Alpine search and detain exercise with the Army's Delta Force or the Navy's SEALs. An exercise involving a female captive being held by a psychopath; a live ammo exercise...Mic grinned to himself; Let's see if we can rescue Sarah and get rid of this Palmer character – then I'll go about mending fences with Rabb.
Picking up the telephone, he dialed out and got a long-distance connection. "Rolly, mate. How ya doing?"
"Alright...What are you doing calling me all the way from DC?"
"I need a favour…"
"What is it now. Mic?" Rolly sounded exasperated.
"I was wondering if you'd want to set up a joint exercise with the US Military?" Mic's query intrigued Rolly…
"What about?" Rolly was intrigued and was trying to get more information out of him. And Mic knew that he had to make sure that his friend knew exactly where the location was that he was trying to get Sarah out of. He had a gut feeling that Palmer wouldn't go far with Sarah. There were too many variables to get a fix on her, but with the new toys that he'd heard the SAS were getting, maybe they just might have a chance if the terrain and environment cooperated.
"Three weeks, you joint exercise with the US Navy's SEALs. Exercise would revolve around a captive female subject and her captor male around mid to late 30s and psychopathic...will kill at the drop of a hat. Target area is in the Appalacians and surrounding area. Exercise involves live ammunition."
Rolly got the hint. "So you want to set it up with the Embassy and they'll talk to the US Navy?"
"I heard the SAS has been experimenting with drone surveillance and IR heat trackers. Bring a couple, mate."
"You got it. Give me two weeks to set it up and the third to get there. Can you hang on tight?"
"I guess...but Rolly?" Mic said.
"What, ol friend…"
"Time's ticking…"
"Got it…" He couldn't have his boss over-hear what he was planning, because that would be beyond the scope of his duties here as a legal officer, but he had to do something.
Mic sighed as he cut the line. Bloody hell, that was all I could do. Now the only thing I can do now is wait and see if the SAS find anything.
An unknown location, Williamsburg, VA, 3 weeks later
The tension in the room was so thick that one could cut it with a machete. It had been three weeks since they had heard news that Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie had been captured by Clark Palmer and frankly it was Harm's constant fretting that was getting on everyone's nerves. Once they had come to the decision that they weren't going to break cover even for Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie's life, it meant that life or death for Mac would mean rescue at the hands of others. It wasn't certain as if Harm felt as though he was betraying Mac's friendship...but when he really looked back on it. Did they really have a friendship any more? With the way that Mac had treated Liandra, it certainly didn't seem as though she was Harm's friend any longer. Her toxic traits were showing all the way through; she was manipulative, abusive, and controlling in the same way that her father had been. And the fretting disguised the fact that in Harm's mind, he was going over the course of their so-called friendship with a fine-tooth comb, picking over what he couldn't see beyond the rose-colored glasses he'd had with Sarah Mackenzie as to the barbs that showed her toxic nature. With toxic people, you got them the hell out of your life and you kept them out and that was what Harm was coming to realization that he had to do with one Sarah Mackenzie.
With Liandra, it was a healthy relationship for him...and he could see the beginnings of one with Meg Austin and Captain Nakamura: the two loved each other even if one Texas gal was pissed off with her man at the moment for the height of his stupidity of thinking of going along with Harm's idea. You could still see the care and attention that Meg took with Animal's wounds and in caring for him.
But it still hurt that Mac thought so little of him that he had just become a tool for her own ego – that she was playing two men off each other, each man not aware of what she was doing to them. And Mac knew exactly what she was doing, playing the two like a finely tuned instrument in direct competition with each other feeding her own ego to the brim. Harm realized that he was starting to loathe one Sarah Mackenzie and her machinations.
Lia was still talking to him and loving him the best she could under the circumstances and he had made it clear to her that he was over Sarah Mackenzie, that the marine kept saying that she could take care of herself and well...that was what Mackenzie was going to have to do from now on, meaning that she was going to have to quit relying on Harm to get her out of tough situations.
The door opened as Harm reached for his Beretta tensing up to bring its barrel around to cover the door. Webb stepped in. "I've got some news…Australian SAS is working with Chegwidden's Seal Team to search the Appalachian foothills and see if Palmer is hiding in some hideyhole. For them it's an exercise, albeit with live ammo, but they're hoping to pick up an infra-red trail or a heat-signature to tell if something has been in the area."
Harm raised an eyebrow, "Australian SAS?"
"It appears that JAG's token Australian has called in some favors to try to find the colonel." At Webb's disclosure, Harm was stupefied. He hadn't expected Brumby to use his head and do what he just had. Brumby, instead of charging headlong into a situation that he had no hope in hell of getting the best of, had resorted to calling in favors and getting the Australian Special Air Service in to go after Mac and get her back. He also wanted to pass along this message that he hoped that they were alright and that somehow, he would do his best to rescue Mac and make sure that she was returned...relatively unharmed. And he sent a message directly to Harm: I know you're still gonna worry, mate...but I'll do my best to get Sarah...and get her back home safely. Maybe Brumby was alright – maybe he would be successful, since Harm and Animal were stuck here. Just then an idea came to him. The Appalachians were ripe with rum-runners and moonshiners back in the old days of Prohibition.
"Look underground…" Harm said suddenly. "If there's any heat signatures, Clark Palmer may have a hideaway underground."
"Is that a gut hunch?" Webb asked.
"Call it a feeling. I don't know...but it's worth a shot." Webb nodded as he looked over at Harm who had a look of desperation on his face. No matter how tattered their friendship, if there was anything left of it, it still was a life they were trying to save.
"I'll pass it along to the teams and have them look for any entrances that might lead underground or any topsoil that has been moved. In fact...I'll see if there's any indication of grass being replaced." It gave Harm some comfort to know that the JAG team including their exchange officer were all on the same page and that they were all pulling together to get through this.
Animal and Meg were recuperating after a heavy day of Animal's therapy. Every day it appeared that he was getting stronger than the day before. Outside of x-rays and CT-scans that couldn't be done while in captivity, his therapist was able to administer tests that gave them a rough idea of how he was doing in his recovery neurally. But there was still a long way to go yet.
Rolling his eyes, Animal muttered crossly, "Am I actually getting anywhere...with this?" His pauses were less frequent and he was searching for words less.
Meg sighed as she looked over at him, "You can't constantly be pushing yourself too hard...or you're going to negate what progress you're making." She seemed to understand his frustration level…even as she empathized with him. Her recovery after being shot in the head by Hemlock had been close to miraculous.
"It's the fact that this...damned progress...seems so bloody slow." Complaining seemed to help in terms of getting rid of the frustration, even though it annoyed the hell out of everybody else. He punched the palm of his hand with his other fist – the smack and the resultant minor pain that was inflicted on the palm served to punctuate his displeasure with the situation at hand. Meg understood that he was annoyed and was well aware that he felt like he was being hindered in his progress. But she also knew that setbacks could occur and the less he pushed himself to the very extreme in his physical therapy regimen, the less setbacks would occur, even if it felt as though they were going too slowly for her boyfriend's liking, "All I want is to be able to fly my own personal plane...it's not that much to ask, is it? That's all the recuperation I want. Even if I can't get up in a Tomcat or Hornet any more, all I want is to fly my own Piper Cherokee…for frig sakes!"
Meg wrapped her arms around him as he stiffened in response. "I know...honey…" she said.
"I want Palmer's head on a fucking pitchfork." he growled. "After I lop off his fucking head with a ginsu knife."
"So do I…" she leaned into him.
"...and I want to be the one that jams those tines into his eyeballs!" Well, that was graphic. Meg thought as Animal let out a huff of impatience as he pulled away from her and started pacing the room.
Harm leaned his head into the room, "Uh...Animal, you OK?"
"No, I'm not…" Animal snarled vehemently looking all the more like a caged predator than an invalid...now.
Meg responded, "Yeah, Harm, he's talking about giving Palmer opthalmic surgery utilizing a farming implement." Harm's eyebrows headed for the top of his head.
"Yeah...OK…" As much as Harm wanted to kill Palmer as well…Animal's plot to end Palmer's existence sounded extremely painful and possibly a bit on the excessive side. He did hear the part about lopping off Palmer's head with a ginsu knife. Ouch...
Somewhere in the Appalachian foothills
"Flight..look at this," the Sergeant holding an MP5 spoke to his squad leader. They were an element of seven highly trained special forces operatives from Down Under working in conjunction with the Navy's SEAL teams on the SEAL Teams' home soil. They were Special Air Service and they'd been out there for the past six days combing the area looking for signs that the ground had been disturbed. "Looks like the ground's been trampled under foot."
"Footprints, Sar'nt. Bloody clear one too."
"Any debris, you tip it o'er with a pole. There's rattlesnakes around these parts. I don't need none of ya yobs gettin' bit, aye…stickin' ya fingers in..."
"Aye, sar'nt…"
"Bloody hell, Flight...I've found a ventilation shaft…" another one motioned the flight sergeant over who nodded.
"Start searching for an entrance and ready your weapons, men. We don't know what sort of resistance we're going to find down there.
"Viper...this is Bravo...we have a site...we need backup going in…" the flight sergeant radioed into the SEAL's location. "Transmitting GPS coordinates now." he paused then looked around at his mates. "Now we wait until we have back-up on site then we go in. Remember watch your angles. Cover your partners...and anyone that we find down there, that isn't the subject we are rescuing we shoot. Understand?"
"Aye! Flight!"
Somewhere in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains;
Calls of clear...clear...and automatic weapons fire reverberated through the underground structure. Screams of men dying, none of them SEALs or SAS. They came to a locked door.
"Break the lock…Corporal…we need to make sure all the rooms are clear." Australian voice. Mac thought she was hallucinating; she had not been fed in six days, was weak with hunger and was lapsing in and out of consciousness.
"Harm…Mic…" she moaned weakly.
"Sounds like someone's in there. Flight!"
"Break the bloody lock with an iron bar! Corporal!" Finally the lock snapped under the pressure of the Corporals' prybar and the door was flung open. "Medic…" One of the SEALs rushed in set up an IV line and started running saline and a IV drip, as Mac's clothing was cut away to reveal her bare arm.
"Get her stabilized and tell Base One that we need a medevac helo to get her out of here to Bethesda!" the SEAL team commander snapped. "Tell them all tangos are down."
A man in a suit rushed in "Where's Palmer!"
"Who?"
"The guy that kidnapped her. I don't see him among the bodies." Webb sounded frustrated as hell. "We need to get her into hiding once she's stabilized." Webb was going to get an earful from Harm and Lia when Mac ended up in hiding with them.
"Round the clock surveillance once she's hospitalized, treated and stabilized to the point where she doesn't relapse."
"Marine Security Detail…get them to set up positions in the corridor of the level of the hospital she's in."
Mac was bundled up and carried out of the underground kidnappers' cave and buckled into a gurney that was loaded onto the waiting SH-60B Medevac helo. Webb got onboard with her.
JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA.
Rear Admiral Stiles Morris picked up the phone. "You found her? Well...what's her condition?"
"She's not stable right now. She's in and out of consciousness and she's delirious, she's not coherent at all at this point. The hospital is going to have to stabilize her."
Morris frowned, "Well...you get her stabilized, because she's going to have a hearing on how she tried to suborn the stability of this office and quite possibly end up under federal charges."
"I can't do that…" Webb voice sounded way too smug for Morris' liking. "Right now, she is going into hiding with the Commanders and Captain Nakamura. Equipment is being set up to monitor her condition as well as bring in a team of vetted medics to keep her stable and try to heal her."
"I thought you got the bastards responsible."
"Palmer gave us the slip!" Morris let out a couple of un-officer-like expletives when he heard this and he could sense Webb winced at the volume. He hadn't known Morris knew that kind of language. Morris knew Chegwidden had warned him before he had taken over the post, that Webb was an idiot of the highest order and that cooperating with the Christian-In-Action was a fool's errand. But he hadn't banked on how incompetent Webb was.
"You'd better damned well find him, eliminate him as a threat and get Colonel Mackenzie stabilized so that she can stand trial for her actions."
An unknown location, Williamsburg, VA
Lia looked up, "Why do I hear a helicopter? A military one…" The sound of the rotors carried over the sound of Harm cooking dinner.
The door was flung open and a cavalcade of medics and security personnel maneuvering a stretcher shoving the kitchen table aside and stormed into a vacant room. Harm only could say, "What the hell?" before Webb came through as well, shouting at the medics to set up the equipment so that they could get some nutrients and life-giving IV into…Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie! Harm and Lia's jaws hit the floor. What had Palmer done to Mac?
Animal and Meg stepped into the room, "What is going on. Why is there a cattle stampede going on?" Meg looked confused as she saw people coming in with IV poles, a heart monitor and other intensive care equipment. Harm mouthed… "Mac…she's in critical condition."
AJ and the other kids were crying seeing Auntie Mac getting carried into a room in a stretcher, lying so still. Harriet had her hand to her mouth. Bud ushered his kids back into the room where they were staying.
Animal sighed, "Guess we have another one here." Meg nodded.
The next seven days were tense with medical staff in and out of the building, each being vetted by the US Marines before being able to come in and being watched by the ones under protection armed with M-4A3s. Meg and Animal always had their M9s on their hips and carrying an M-4A3 wherever they went.
It was on the third day of being attached to the IV unit that a screaming fit from the room where Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie was in caused Harm and Meg to rush in with weapons drawn, their faces in alarm.
"I don't need to be hooked up to all these wires!"
"You can't eat solids yet! ONE of those wires is what is keeping you alive!" the nurse in charge yelled right back at her.
"The hell I can't eat solid food! I have to drag this friggin' pole around with me wherever I go. It even accompanies me to the goddamned head!" Needless to say, the colonel was not a patient patient. Harm and Meg looked at each other.
"yeah...she's back…" Harm must have spoken a bit too loud to Meg since Mac's head whipped around and her eyes, obsidian with anger, met his.
"AND WHAT IN THE GODDAMNED HELL ARE YOU TWO LAUGHING ABOUT!" Mac screamed at him at a volume loud enough to make Harm involuntarily step back three paces.
"You'd better damned well tone down that volume, Lieutenant Colonel!" Animal's voice was heard right behind them, having heard Mac screaming at his friends, at least one of them his own girlfriend and he stepped in front of Harm and Meg. "Or they'll put you back under and stick you on a liquid diet, on my orders under medical advisement." his BDUs had his eagles on the collars, his own eyes obsidian and his mouth gritted in a thin, displeased line.
Meg watched him carefully for any signs of pain. God help Mac if his having to come in and ream her out put him under any discomfort Meg thought with a twinge of anger herself.
Feeling her own weakness, Mac subsided grumpily. If there was ever such a thing as a pouting Marine, Mac was doing a very good imitation of one right now. Harm restrained a snicker, it wouldn't bode well for his continued health. There was a benefit to having a friend with eagles that outranked Miss Grumpy-pants.
Fast forward three days and Mac was even more grouchy than she was previously. A liquid diet had caused her to frequently have to make runs to the washroom...and number two was equally messy if there really was anything left over in her gut to go through, which didn't bode well for the nurses helping her. Her irascible nature led to screaming matches with the help. Harm being a Lieutenant Commander couldn't really say anything regarding Mac's attitude towards her medical assistants.
Animal, on the other hand, could and with his nerves taut-string-tight and his temper fraying, after hearing Mac ream out her medical staff one too many times, Animal finally lost it and rounded on her in a stentorian roar that surprisingly was scarier than anything AJ had ever erupted with.
"GODDAMNIT! LIEUTENANT COLONEL!" he snapped with some heat, "Do you think we want to hear you screaming at your nurses day in and day out?!" He placed particular emphasis on the Lieutenant part of her rank. "Either you treat them with some modicum of respect or I will have the medic gag you any time you're undergoing medical procedures of any sort. AM I CLEAR, LIEUTENANT COLONEL!?" He paused while Mac, startled into silence, got up the nerve to open her mouth to say something before Animal cut her off with a vehement knock it off gesture. "I may have sustained some brain damage, but I know damned well that these eagles…" he growled pointing to the eagles on his collars of his BDUs, "...out-rank you...so PUT A SOCK IN IT...can your complaints, suck it up like a Marine and quit abusing your medical staff! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
Harm noted that the stubborn Marine had an impressive pout for the rest of the day and wouldn't say a word to anyone. He also noted that it was very quiet for the rest of that day too. And the medical staff were much happier. Evidently the Marines outside had also heard Animal clear as if he was standing right next to their ears. That was impressive considering that they were inside a house that was deemed to be an impregnable fortress.
Harriet, Tracy, Meg and Lia ended up walking around with smiles on their faces. It helped having a pair of eagles on their side when having to deal with a stubborn, abusive jarhead.
Judge Advocate General's Office, JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA
RADM Morris noted that Webb didn't particularly seem too concerned about having placed a potential leak right in the place where those under protection were sequestered in and it angered him. Webb however had no compunctions about telling him the reasoning as to why.
"As of now, Admiral, LCOL Mackenzie is in as much danger as the rest of them. She was captured by Palmer and brought to near death by starvation. We can't run the risk of her getting recaptured by that maniac. Hence the reason we took her directly to the hideout."
Morris glared at the Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of State Special Assistant my ass, the goddamned Christian-in-Action spook, "Once, you have neutralized the threat that Palmer presents to those being sequestered, you will surrender Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie to the nearest Marine Corps Master-at-Arms who will take her into custody. She has committed acts against the orders of the court sealing the records of where those sequestered for their safety are to be held, trying to ascertain their location...and potentially giving it up to enemies who would potentially harm those in protective custody. She has committed acts against the safety of her fellow co-workers and committed multiple violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. She will be made to answer for those crimes. Am I understood, Mr. Webb?"
"I don't work for you, Admiral." Webb said smugly.
Morris understood now very clearly why AJ hit Webb, breaking his nose in three place. But he admirably restrained himself growling, "Get out of my sight."
Webb still had that infuriating grin on his face as he exited JAG's office.
Mac's Apartment, Georgetown, Washington, DC
Palmer grinned as he opened the apartment. He had Mac's Navy issued phone and all her personal belongings as well as her key to her apartment when he captured her. By now they would probably figure it out and this place would be crawling with federal agents, but he could leave them a special surprise.
Flipping open Mac's personal computer, he removed the hard-drive, replacing it with another and then setting up a small shaped charge behind the start button. Replacing the lid on the computer, he smiled. This would get the colonel in so much trouble that she wouldn't be able to dig herself out.
Sometimes revenge was a dish best served cold.
