Introspection
Title: Introspection
Author: Sass Chikamori
E-mail: [email protected]
Classification: Introspection (Lia/Animal); Romance (Harm/Mac)
Rating: G
Summary: Liandra and Animal discuss Harm & Mac's stupidity amongst themselves and consider thoroughly chewing them out.
Spoilers: I haven't yet seen Boomerang. I am going by the premise that I have heard about: Mac prepares to marry Mic Brumby and Harm, like an idiot, apparently lets her. I think there might be a spoiler in here for "Goodbyes", too, but I'm not sure. A line is also somewhat borrowed from Star Wars and George Lucas.
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CHIKAMORI RESIDENCE
RANDOLPH STREET N
ARLINGTON VA
1930 EST/030 ZULU
I hung up the phone, shaking my head as I walked over to the refrigerator. Pulling out a cold can of Pepsi, I walked out to the living room slowly and flopped down onto the couch with a sigh. Dumbfounded, I could do nothing but sit there in shock.
The sound of my husband's car in the driveway didn't even phase me. Normally, upon hearing him arrive home from a long deployment, I would find someplace to hide then pounce on him as he came into the house, covering his face with kisses, my arms wrapped tightly around his neck. This last deployment wasn't that long, just four months, but I'd still missed him terribly.
We've only been married two and a half years. I don't know about Hugo, but I still think of us as newlyweds. I'm still at the point where I can't stand to be away from him for long, but the United States Navy doesn't really care what I don't like. My husband is a line officer, which is rather self-explanatory. His job is to be out there on the front line, in the middle of the fight. Besides which, he wants to hit flag rank one of these days, and he's pretty close to it now. Once he gets a couple of stars on his shoulderboards, he won't have to leave me as much.
Until I felt his arms close around my shoulders and pull me into their strength, I hadn't realized how much Sarah's announcement had bothered me. I leaned my head down onto the starched white shoulder of his dress uniform and began to cry. I'd had this silly romanticized little fantasy of all of mine and Animal's pilot buddies all getting married and settling down and the lot of us being one great big, happy extended family. Not to mention the huge family I had only recently found out I had thanks to Mom's adoption records getting opened.
So far, my little fantasy was working out nicely. Animal & I were together; his wingman and best friend, Phil, was madly in love with my former wingman, Kimber; my mom's adopted kid brother Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, was married to the love of his life, Charlie; Animal's former RIO, Mick "Scooter" Doerksen's longtime girlfriend Jennifer had just called the other day to tell me that she and Scooter were talking about getting married. My cousins Rorie and Jess were also married, or very nearly married, to two other members of the Black Aces. Scott Summerall was making Rorie very happy and Jessica was in seventh heaven thanks to Jack Keeter. Then there was my former RIO, Midori O'Malley, who was head over heels in love with my husband's cousin, Kazuo. The only ones missing from my 'happily ever after' mental picture, were Harm and Mac.
So, of course, they had to go and spoil my little fairy tale. No, actually, if I want to place blame, I should place it on the shoulders that it belongs on, namely CMDR Mic Brumby of the Royal Australian Navy. What was the matter with that arrogant imbecile anyway? How many times had Sarah told him no? How many times had she told him she was not interested? Not just in him, but in a relationship with any man. Although that also raised the question of what had gotten into my strong-willed, stubborn Marine of a cousin. Any idiot, particularly one who knew Sarah at all, could see why she had never been interested in Mic Brumby. It was as plain as the nose on her face. She was in love with Harm.
I will never forget the sound of her voice when she had called me from her office the day Harm left JAG to return to his love of flying F-14s. She told me in a teary voice, "He's gone, Lia. And I don't know what I'm going to do around here without him." Jessica McCaye, another of my newfound cousins, and I had been away on an investigation�on a carrier in the middle of the Indian Ocean. At least it was my Uncle AJ's daughter's ship. Captain Harmonie Chegwidden, the CAG of the USS EXCALIBUR, had the call from Mac put through to me immediately.
My other Chegwidden cousin, Lieutenant Regan Eleyne Chegwidden, Harmonie's sister and XO, handed me the phone. "It's for you, it's Mac, and she doesn't sound very happy."
Part of me was so mad at Mac for not telling Harm how she felt about him. "Sarah, he's gone, and you don't know how long it will be until you see him again. You owe it to yourself, and to Harm, to tell him�now, before the Patrick Henry gets underway. Get your sorry six down to Pensacola and tell him you love him, Major, and that's an order." She had laughed at that, claiming I couldn't give her orders because my promotion to full commander wasn't scheduled to take place for three more weeks.
I wasn't in any mood for laughter at the moment and told her so. "It's not funny, Mac. I know you love Harm, and I also know that he loves you, too, and you're both too stupid and stubborn to admit it to yourselves, much less to each other." I'd suddenly become furious and took it out on Mac, although, to be fair, she deserved some of it. "Take it from someone who knows, Sarah," I said in a frosty tone, using her given name on purpose. "I love Animal more than I ever thought I could love someone. I fell in love with him almost the moment we met, and from that time, I honestly cannot remember what my life was like without him. And you know what else? I don't really want to know, although I think I'd have ended up a lot like you are now, Mac. Watching the man I love from across the room, watching as he walks away with someone else on his arm, wishing to God it was me. No way, Jose. I went through enough of that kind of misery, and I'd have thought you'd have had enough by now. How many times have you watched Harm walk off with another woman? And, the more important one, how many times are you going to keep watching Harm walk away�with everyone but you?"
I was startled out of my contemplative state by my husband's hands touching my face. Blinking, I looked into his sable eyes, and leaned into his gentle, soothing embrace. "What's wrong, Lia?" he asked, his voice full of concern.
Still crying , I sat up fully and looked at my beloved husband, tightening my arms around his neck. "She's such a fool," I whispered brokenly. "And so is he."
"Who are?" Animal asked softly, still running his hand along my cheek. His other hand was stroking my back in an attempt to calm me, but I didn't feel like it was working.
"Harm and Mac," I said, sniffling. "Mac called a few minutes ago. Brumby asked her to marry him. She said yes."
"WHAT?" Animal yelled, jumping up off the couch, accidentally dropping me to the floor. I fell directly onto his sock-covered feet. Sheepishly, he smiled down at me. "Sorry, honey," he said as he took my hands and pulled me to my feet and back into his arms.
Settling us once more onto the couch, Animal took my chin in one hand, looked me straight in the eye, his sable gaze piercing my cerulean one. "You had better start talking, Liandra, and I mean right now." I smiled at his tone of voice. He still sometimes forgets that this is our home and not his precious aircraft carrier, that I am his wife and not that annoying wingman of his, and that he does not need to use that "Captain" tone of voice with me. I'll tell him what he wants to know, all he has to do is ask me. I sighed heavily.
"There isn't really that much to tell. I think she was calling from the plane, 'cause I heard Harriet's voice in the background. That was all she told me�that Mic proposed to her, diamond ring and all, and she said she would marry him." I tried to smile, but really didn't feel up to it. "She sounded happy, though."
"What about Harm?" my husband asked me, his hands tenderly kneading my shoulders.
"What about him?" I asked my husband, sinking back against him gratefully as he gently tried to ease the tension beneath his hands. "Apparently, he has done nothing to try and stop her, because if he had, she would have mentioned it. Even if she still decided to marry Mic, if Harm had really tried to tell her he loves her, Sarah would have said so, but she didn�t. And that, of course, just tells me Harm sat there like an idiot and let her walk away. I can't believe him," I said, jumping up off Animal's lap and pacing around the living room, throwing my arms into the air for emphasis.
"What do you mean?" Animal asked, regarding me thoughtfully from his perch on the edge of the couch.
"Look at how long I've known Harm. Twenty years, and I thought I knew him better. Or maybe he just isn't the Harm I thought I knew. The Harm I used to know, the Harm I once loved, would have never let this happen."
My husband raised an eyebrow at me questioningly so I continued. "When Harmon Rabb falls in love, I mean really falls in love, he doesn't let anything or anyone stop him from being with the woman he loves. Trust me, I know." I grinned as I remembered. "He first asked me out when I was a junior in high school. I had just turned sixteen. And as you know, Harm's nine and a half years older than me, so that made him almost twenty-five at the time."
Animal grinned at me, knowing all too well what my mother's reaction to that must have been. "Your mom threw a fit, didn't she?"
"Yep. And it didn't matter that Harm and I had grown up together, more or less. It didn't matter that she had also known him for as long as I had, or that she and Trish had been best friends for years. Nothing mattered, not even my own feelings for Harm, except that "he was too old for me". I don't think I need to tell you how many fights Mom and I got into before she let me go out with him."
He chuckled. "Had him sign a contract in blood, eh?"
I snickered. "Nope, she only wants blood out of the men that say they want to marry me," I grinned wickedly at him and he stuck his tongue out at me.
"So, where does that leave Mac?" my husband asked.
"All I'm trying to say is he quite obviously didn't try hard enough with Mac, because she's marrying Mic Brumby, not Harmon Rabb, Jr." I groaned aloud. "Honey, do you know what this means?"
Animal stood, stripped off his dress whites jacket, and walked over to stand behind me, his hands on my waist. "What?"
"This means we'll be related to Mic now," I couldn't help giggling.
His hands suddenly fell from where they had been comfortably settled against my waist and I heard the front door open. Turning around I asked, "Where are you going?"
"To the airport. I'm going to give the good Commander a piece of my mind. Everybody that knows Harm knows he loves Mac, and he is making the biggest mistake of his life by letting her go."
"Hold on a minute." I ran down the hall to our bedroom and snatched my purse from off of the dresser. "I'll come with you. Maybe I can talk some sense into Sarah. Perhaps between the two of us we can convince them to meet halfway."
I walked out the door and Animal shut it behind me. He grabbed my arm and I looked up into his face. "What?"
"Do you think they'll listen to us?" he asked quietly.
Grinning, I pulled my cellular phone from my purse. "If not us, then they'll listen to the others."
"What others?" he asked as he held the door open to his BMW and I climbed inside. As soon as he'd scrambled into the driver's seat and started the engine, I answered him. "Rorie, Jess, Dana, Uncle Matt, Aunt Trish, heck, I'll even drag Uncle AJ and Clay Webb into it if necessary."
"Stubborn brat, aren't you?" Animal reached over to caress my cheek affectionately.
"Oh, yeah? Who are you calling stubborn? Which one of us was ready to walk out the door and punch Harm's lights out? Hmmm?" I cocked a knowing eyebrow at my husband. He flushed guiltily.
I smirked over at my husband. "However, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Just do me a favor, hon?"
"What?" he asked as we pulled into the airport parking lot.
"Let me hit him, too, okay?"
My husband got out of the car, walked around and opened my door. I stepped out of the car and headed inside the airport, but Hugo's hand on my arm stopped me. "What is it?"
He leaned over and kissed me warmly. "Remind me never to make you angry, Lia."
I laughed and kissed him back softly. "Oh, you could never make me this angry, sweetheart."
"Why's that?" he questioned, a curious glint to his eyes.
"Because you married me, silly." I poked him in the ribs. "Oh, look there's the gate. Let's get this overwith. I really don't want to fight with Sarah. Or Harm. They've been my friends too long."
"But they do need some sense knocked into them, honey," Animal reminded me gently.
"Yes, I know. Although Mac should've realized something already that would solve this whole mess and we wouldn't even need to be here."
"What, might I ask, is that?"
"Her name. Sarah Rabb sounds so much better than Sarah Brumby, don't you agree?" I grinned up at my husband, who swatted me playfully on my rear end.
"Jack certainly gave you the right callsign, Sass," he snickered as my Uncle AJ came into view.
"Hey, hey, Captain, watch the PDA. Here comes a two-star," I snickered back.
"Hey, yourself, Commander, you and I can have all the PDAs we want. We're not in the same chain of command, thank God."
Uncle AJ walked up and both my husband and I nodded respectfully at him. "Sir," Animal said. I just gave him a hug. "How was your flight, Uncle AJ?" I asked him.
"Long," he muttered. "Have you two come to talk to Colonel MacKenzie?"
I nodded. Uncle AJ shook his head. "Well, you're too late. Brumby ushered her into a cab practically before the plane even hit the ground."
Frowning, I glanced at Animal, who spoke to Uncle AJ. "What about Commander Rabb, sir? Has he managed to leave yet?"
"Yes, Captain. I believe he had someone waiting for him here. A LCDR Coulter, I believe he said her name was."
Defeated, I sank into my husband's arms. I barely heard him thank my uncle for the information as Animal half-carried me to the car. Tucking me inside, he hurried around and got in. The drive back to Arlington was quiet, except for my occasional sniffle.
When we got back to the house, my husband parked the car and pulled me out of the car, lifting me effortlessly into his arms and carrying me into the house.
Once inside, he threw his keys in the direction of the coffee table and set me gently on the couch. "Be back in a minute," he whispered, kissing my forehead lightly.
I curled up on my side as I listened to Hugo puttering around in the kitchen. "He's making us a drink of some sort," I thought with a halfhearted grin. "And I'm gonna kill him for it�later."
"Hey," I hollered at him. "Whatever you're making in there, make me a double!"
He walked out a few minutes later bearing a tray laden with bowls and cups. He set it down on the coffee table then reached for me. "Come on, time to eat." Sliding an arm around my ribcage, he pulled me into a sitting position. "What is all this stuff?" I asked, gesturing toward the tray.
"Chocolate," he grinned, handing me a warm coffee mug.
I took a deep drink of the hot chocolate, glancing at Hugo over the rim of the cup as I sipped. "You asked for a double, didn't you? I stirred in some chocolate sauce for you," he smiled as he sipped his own hot chocolate.
Over the next hour, my sweet, charming, devoted spouse tried his best to distract me with chocolate on a grand scale the likes of which I have never before seen in my home, even before I was married. He'd made a whole pot of hot chocolate. There was chocolate mousse, a whole French Silk pie, chocolate ice cream and sauce to go with it, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos and milk, even an entire package of Snickers bars, and when I lifted the lid on the last dish�"Chocolate cookie dough ice cream!" I squealed, smiling like a child. "My favorite! Where did you find it?"
He grinned. "I'm not telling. Husband's privilege," he smirked. I just hit him. "My foot. Didn't you know when you put that ring on your finger," I said, pointing to his left hand and the wedding band he wore, "you lost things like that?" He just gave me this look that said he didn't agree. Not wanting to fight on his first night home, I let the matter drop.
We curled up companionably on the couch and watched TV until we'd managed to eat everything on the tray. As we took the dirty dishes into the kitchen, Hugo teased me about getting fat from all the chocolate I'd just eaten. "You know, I might just have to divorce you," he grinned as he rinsed off the bowls in the sink.
I snorted. "Oh, no, you don't flyboy. Take it from the lawyer in the family. No judge or even a jury would grant you a divorce if I got fat from that chocolate." I smirked insolently at him from several feet away where I was loading the dishwasher.
"And why is that, Counselor?" he asked, raising a jet-black eyebrow over at me.
"Because," I said as I walked away from him, "you gave me the chocolate. Your exact words were 'Come on, time to eat.' Anybody on a jury panel that heard that would automatically rule against you."
"Not if I had you for my lawyer," he grinned as he began to walk towards me, a mischievously predatory look on his face.
"Wh-what are you doing?" I stammered, unconsciously backing away from him.
"Now, honey," he said, assuming a guileless expression that would have made me laugh if not for my suspicions of what he was up to, "what do you mean by that?"
He continued walking towards me. Actually, stalking would be a better word, especially given his callsign. I squealed and took off running down the hallway. There were three options open to me. The bathroom, which I vetoed almost immediately, the guest room, which also got vetoed almost as quickly as the bathroom. Neither room offered much in the way of hiding space. 'Our bedroom it is, then', I thought as I dashed inside, Hugo undoubtedly hot on my heels.
Quickly I glanced around for a place to hide. Under the bed, in the closet, or�'hey, now there's an idea, and one he probably won't expect,' I thought as I scampered into the bed and crawled under the covers, pulling them up to my chin.
The door flew open to admit my out-of-breath husband, a look of mock-outrage on his face as he saw where I was. I attempted a convincing yawn. "Oh, honey, I'm glad you're here. I'm exhausted. Could you be a dear and tuck me in?"
The look of utter shock on his face was priceless. I wished I'd had a camera stashed under my pillow. I had a very hard time keeping myself from laughing hysterically. Somehow I managed to keep a straight face.
Surprisingly, he did as I asked. Hugo walked over to the bed and leaned over, his hands reaching for the sheets I'd tucked beneath my chin. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I sputtered with laughter, snatching him by the shoulders and yanking him onto the bed. "You are so gullible," I shouted gleefully. His body trapped me beneath the covers, but, I thought with a small smile, we could fix that later, if he wasn�t angry with me for my little prank.
"What are you laughing at, Liandra?" he asked, scowling at me.
"You, you blockhead," I said, smacking his shoulder playfully. "I can't believe you actually bought that. Will you look at what time it is!" I leaned up on one elbow, gazing down at my husband. "Tell me, Captain Chikamori, what time is it anyway?"
He glanced at his watch. "It is now twenty one hundred, Commander. So, what's your point?"
"Didn't you get home from a four month deployment just this evening?" I asked him pointedly.
"Yeah," he replied. "Still, what's your point?"
I took great pleasure in smacking him hard on the arm. "Have you ever known me to fall asleep at nine o'clock p.m. on the nights you come home after being gone for months at a time?" I asked him, pouting testily.
"Aw, honey, come here," he said, pulling me into his arms. "I didn't mean it like that."
I glared at him. "Do you plan on making it up to me?"
"Oh, yeah," he grinned at me, sliding his hands under the covers to reach for me. "Come here, honey, and let me show you how I'm gonna make it up to you."
"Animal�" I growled impishly at him, reveling in his kisses.
"You know I am, baby, and you love me for it," he grinned ridiculously at me.
"I sure do, honey. I sure do."
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I awoke several hours later, squirming to get out from underneath my husband's arm, which he'd thrown over me in his sleep. Pulling on my comfy old blue robe, I padded barefoot out to the kitchen.
Opening the fridge, I rummaged around till I found a piece of leftover steak from the night before when I'd had Rorie and Jess over for dinner. I tossed it and a small baked potato onto a plate and into the microwave. I jumped out of my skin when I felt my husband's hand brush my hair off my shoulders and place his lips on the back of my neck. "Sorry," he murmured softly, sliding his arms around me. "What are you doing up?"
"I'm starved," I told him. "Ten tons of chocolate only goes so far," I laughed. "Poke around in the fridge, there should be another piece of steak in there somewhere. Gimme a potato and I'll wash it off so you can bake it in the microwave."
Puttering around, we quickly put together a small meal of leftover steak, baked potatoes, and Animal had even taken the time to throw together a salad. While I put everything on two plates, unbeknownst to me, my sweetheart of a spouse was lighting candles, spreading a tablecloth across the coffee table and trying to make the living room suitable for a romantic meal.
I carried out our plates, set them on the table and Animal and I headed into the kitchen for something to drink. A few minutes later, having brought glasses full of ice and two soda cans to the table, we sat down together and ate our dinner.
In between bites of steak, I said, "You know, dear, this isn't going to work."
"What isn't going to work?" Animal asked around a mouthful of potato.
"The chocolate, the 'undivided attention'. Now, don't get me wrong," I said, glancing at him over my glass of Pepsi, "you know how much I like chocolate�"
He cut me off by reaching over and putting a finger softly to my lips. I bit his finger gently, shaking my head at him. "And you know how much I love you, but�none of it's going to distract me from the situation with Sarah and Harm."
Animal groaned. "I wasn't trying to distract you, but, since you brought it up�Liandra, really, you should leave it alone," he said as we carried the dirty dishes once more back to the kitchen.
"Like blazes I will," I snarled, throwing my napkin into the trashcan with a flourish. "I am not going to repay what Sarah and Harm did for me by letting them make what could be the biggest mistake of their lives."
"Huh? What do you mean, 'repay'?" Animal's expression had changed from exasperated to astonished.
"Remember when we first 'officially' met?" I asked him, referring to the time he'd come by the office looking for Harm and Mac and I'd literally walked right into him, then, fatefully, later that same morning, gone to the offices of VF-41 looking for Kimber.
"Yeah, how could I forget? You looked so cute when you blushed after you ran into me." He grinned slyly at me and I swatted him with a kitchen towel I'd forgotten I'd brought out to the living room with me.
"Stop changing the subject. For a minute there, I actually thought about turning you down when you asked me out. But first Harm, and later on, Mac, convinced me to give you a chance." I got up and walked over to where my husband sat, and curled up in his lap. "Wonder where we'd be now if they hadn't?" I tapped his chin with my finger.
"Right where we are now," he replied, giving me a smug look.
"How do you figure that?"
"Because I wouldn't have taken no for an answer," he said, laughing as I punched him on the shoulder.
"YOU wouldn't have taken no for an answer? Ohhh, you flyboys and your egos! Funny, I thought I was rid of that when Harm and I dumped each other," I said, grinning saucily at him.
Animal walked across the room, slowly and purposefully, backing me against the wall until I had no where else to go. He stood not even six inches from me, pinning me to the wall with nothing more than his mesmerizing, burning gaze. My mouth instantly went dry. He leaned down and placed his lips on mine, softly at first, then gradually increasing the pressure of his kiss until my knees turned to slush and I had to wrap my arms around his neck in order to stand upright.
Looking into my eyes, he whispered, "You'll never be rid of me�or my ego," as he swept me into his arms and walked back to our room.
Laying me gently on the bed, he smiled down at me. "Whose apartment do you want to hit first tomorrow, Mac's or Harm's?"
I beamed up at him, tears beginning to fall down my cheeks. "Harm's. He'll be the hardest to get through to," I sniffled. Grabbing his arm, I hauled him down onto the bed with me. I slid my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. "I never want to be rid of you�or your ego. I love you, Hugo."
He chuckled, and tightened his arms around me. "I know, Lia. I know."