JAG
Headquarters
Monday 1415
Jennifer Coates had been studiously watching Harm and Mac. She heard the elevator rumble when Harm and Mac left for dinner at 19:30. By the time she’d gone to bed at 0015, Harm still hadn’t come home and she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he was finally doing something about his feelings for Mac.
The problem was they were such damn fine officers they probably could have had wild sex all night and neither one would show it in the office. Their faces and behavior were the epitome of professional at every moment.
What Jen had failed to see was the slow caress of a thumb against her hand, or her fingers dancing along his shoulder when they were alone in one of their offices. It was nothing obvious to the passerbys in the bullpen, but they were blatant declarations for the two souls buried under the uniforms.
“Excuse me, ma’am.” Jen tapped on Mac’s door.
“Commander Turner is asking to see you and the Commander in his office. He seems to be in a hurry.” Jen rolled her eyes. Harm had been standing behind Mac looking over her shoulder at the computer. She wasn’t sure but she thought she saw his hand resting on Mac’s shoulder. By the time she got close enough to see, Harm’s hand was carefully placed on the back of Mac’s chair, still the corners of her mouth couldn’t resist curling up just a little. Her instincts told her something was starting, something good.
As soon as Jen had left the office, Harm leaned closer to Mac.
“You don’t suppose Sturgis knows something do you?”
“What could he know?” Mac asked a little startled.
She was right. There was no reason for Sturgis to have any idea Harm had slept with Jen or declared himself to Mac. Although the first one was most certainly grounds for a court martial, the latter could in no way involve Sturgis, yet.
“I’m fairly sure Sturgis could care less if we have dinner together tonight any more than he’s cared where we’ve eaten over the last few years.” Mac turned off her screen.
“Then we’re having dinner tonight?” The nervousness in his voice was replaced with his flyboy grin.
“You tell me.” Mac grinned back.
“1900, my place.” That would give him just enough time to stop at the store and set up something special.
“Make it my place.” Mac announced, stepping past him and out the door.
Thirty minutes later they were standing in front of Jen’s desk with new orders. A marine pilot out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar had flown his f model super hornet into the runway killing his RIO. The pilot was claiming faulty equipment and the RIO’s widow was claiming the pilot had a drinking habit that wasn’t always social. Harm was ordered to investigate because of his expertise with airplanes, even if this wasn’t a tomcat. Mac was going because the CO wanted a marine.
“Sir, ma’am.” Jen handed them their flight itineraries.
“There isn’t enough time to catch the last transport out so you’re booked commercial. Here are your hotel reservations, the VOQ is undergoing renovations to remove mold. Since you’ll be staying off base you’re also authorized for a rental vehicle from the airport.” Jen had taken the liberty of at least insisting on adjoining rooms.
One of the advantages of an air base in San Diego is the amount of hotels near the beach. Jen was pretty sure they would be spending considerably more time together than the investigation might require so she chose rooms with a balcony and an ocean view. Anything to help encourage them.
“At least there’s a bright side to all this. Flying commercial and staying off base means even though you’ll be traveling late, you can at least travel more comfortably in civies, sir, ma’am.” Jen nodded to each of them knowing if they wore civies instead of their uniforms, they wouldn’t have to worry about the appearance of impropriety if they chose to get a little ‘friendly’.
“We’d better get moving if we want to clear off our desks.” Mac started for her office.
“That is another bright side to this investigation, if we’re in San Diego we can’t work on the mountain of files Sturgis keeps supplying us with.” A sly grin spread across Harm’s face.
“You mean there’s a bright side other than hanging around pilots and planes?” Mac chuckled at Harm’s shameless grin. “You’d better just hope those files don’t propagate while we’re gone. Do you want to drive or do you want me to pick you up?” Mac asked over her shoulder.
“The Lexus is always better with luggage. What do you say I pick you up at 1800 and we grab a bite to eat on the way to the airport?” Harm replied, two steps behind her.
“Sounds like a plan. See you then, sailor.” Mac nodded.
Expecting to be gone for the majority of the week, the two had cleared their desks of the most urgent cases and handed off some of the tedious paperwork Sturgis was currently so fond of assigning them to a handful of junior attorneys.
Flight to San Diego
Mac had just buckled herself into her seat and settled back for the long flight. Her hands were still on the seat belt when she felt Harm’s hand snake across her lap and firmly take hold of her left hand.
Lying back with his eyes closed, Harm waited to feel Mac’s reaction hoping she wouldn’t pull away. After a few seconds, he glanced over to see Mac resting, her eyes closed, a small smile tugging at her lips. He needed to remember to thank Jen for not so subtly suggesting they travel in civies.
As the plane backed away slowly from the gate, Harm could feel the tension building in Mac’s grip. By the time the wheels had left the runway, she held his hand in a death grip. He tried not to laugh, after all these years you would think she would be more comfortable flying.
Feeling Harm wiggling his fingers, Mac was mortified to realize she had pretty much cut off all circulation to his hand.
“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I won’t be much better at landing either.” Loosening her grip, Mac shrugged apologetically but wasn’t willing to completely let go.
“Loss of circulation is a small price to pay.” Harm’s steady gaze said so much more than the words he had just conveyed.
Feeling totally flustered by his intensity, Mac decided a change of subject was in order.
“Did you tell your mom you’re coming to San Diego?”
“No, I thought I’d wait and surprise her. With Captain Sturgis Bligh at the helm, who knows if we’ll be able to make the time to go see her and I wouldn’t want to disappoint her if it turns out we can’t drive up.”
“We? You’ve got a mouse in your pocket?” Mac couldn’t resist using the old gag.
“Well, I thought, I mean I just assumed, that is unless you have something else to do, I thought it might be nice to go…together.” Harm couldn’t believe how lame that came out. She was right, he had no right to assume anything. Just because he’d told her his intentions didn’t mean he could take for granted she’d want to go visit his family.
“Sounds nice. Thank you.” As tempting as it was to tease him some more, Mac was enjoying this sudden closeness too much to risk jeopardizing it.
Miramar
Air Station
Next day
After brief introductions with the base CO, Harm and Mac began questioning the parties involved. Harm spent the afternoon interviewing the ground crew. All swore up and down that the plane was in tip top shape. If their fit reps were any consideration, they were all top notch mechanics without a single question mark among them.
Mac’s interview with the widow hadn’t taken very long. She went over the miscellaneous reports while she waited for Harm to come back with news from his interviews. Everything she looked at refuted what the widow had told her. The blood tox screens all came back normal. Mac even checked over the autopsy reports on the RIO searching for some hint as to what may have really happened.
She was going over the eye witness accounts when a very tired Harmon Rabb walked into the office. They’d been given sole use of a small conference room from which to base their investigation.
“How’d it go?” Mac asked over the top of a file.
“About what I expected.” Harm stepped over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup.
“Same with Mrs. Beardsley.” Mac sighed.
“What have you got there.”
“I’m going over the witnesses statements again. I didn’t see anything in the tox screens or autopsy that would indicate the pilot or RIO had ingested anything that would hinder their ability to fly, or land.”
Harm sat down heavily next to Mac.
“Petty Officer Jenkins came by a little while ago. You know that group of kids touring the base from the local elementary school that supposedly were nowhere nearby when the crash occurred?”
“Yeah.” Harm grimaced expecting the worst.
“It seems one of the moms along for the ride was busy with her video camera. Something about her first date with her husband was to see the movie Top Gun. She had turned the camera off just before spotting the Hornet coming in. When the rest of the group went inside, she lingered behind lost in her own memories.”
“Tell me that’s good news.” Harm straightened up in his chair a bit more hopeful.
“When she finally got around to playing the tape for her husband last night, she realized she hadn’t turned the camera off. Her arm was moving around quite a bit so it’s not a steady shot – but she did capture some of the descent and a portion of the crash. They’re bringing us the tape now.” Mac shrugged. She knew it wasn’t much but if anyone could make something out of the short footage, it would be Harm.
By the time PO Jenkins arrived with the tape it was well past dinnertime. Harm hurriedly popped the tape into the VHS player that had been set up. The reports were correct, the tape was choppy and short. The plane appeared to come in a little wobbly but there could have been any number of reasons for that, not the least of which would be the swaying arm of the filmmaker.
“We need to really go over this carefully. What do you say we head over to the O club for dinner? We can take all this back to the hotel and look over the tape and files again later, see if we can find any connections somewhere.” Harm suggested through a forced smile.
“This marine is definitely ready for some fuel.” Mac smiled back, a bit more heartily.