JAG Continues Book II: Volatile Matters
Ch. 2 - Needs
Part A
Harm paused for a moment, took a deep breath to calm himself, and walked down the hall toward the source of the noise.
“Jennifer, it’s Harm,” he announced as he knocked on her door.
The petty officer had temporarily been living in her old place next to his again. After Mattie had moved out and then the fiasco with Jen’s old ‘friend,’ Pia, happened, Coates spent some time staying with a Navy friend who she trusted. Jen was having trouble finding a new place that would be reasonable to live. After nearly a month on her friend’s couch, Jen didn’t want to impose anymore, so she decided to brave the old place until she could find something without the horrid memories.
Jen opened the door a crack. “Sir?”
“Hey, … I heard your door close. Sorry if we woke you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” the petty officer explained, opening the door fully.
“Hah,” he chuckled at the obvious. “… No, I imagine you haven’t been. I’m surprised you didn’t call the police.” He suddenly became alarmed at that thought. “You didn’t, did you?”
“I thought about it,” Jen admitted, with concern. “Is everything okay? I heard … fighting.”
“Everything is fine. But you know,” he put his hands on his hips, “ - I’m finally convinced being in this building really does ask for a lot of trouble. It’s a good thing we’re all moving to a different city.” Harm mustered a small smile.
“Is there anything I can do?” Jennifer asked.
“Actually, it’s what I need to do. I think I should probably clarify what you just witnessed.” As he spoke, he pointed, without looking, to the area where he had pinned Webb up to the wall a moment earlier.
Jen wasn’t sure that she should have witnessed what she did, and she certainly didn’t want to pry, even though she was curious. “If it’s none of my business …”
“I’ve already learned the hard way how things can be taken out of context.” Harm’s gaze was insistent, and Jen knew he was referring to the interaction she had seen between him and Loren Singer before her murder. “And if there is any fallout to this,” he said, “I’d rather you know some things as soon as possible.”
Glancing at his own door, he made a decision. “… I hate to do this, since you’re in your nightclothes and all, but could you come next door so we can talk? I’d ask to come into your apartment, but Mac might get worried if she finds I’ve disappeared.”
“Of course.” Jen grabbed her keys and, dressed in her pajamas and slippers, followed Harm into his apartment.
------
“Mac,” Harm called out as he shut the door behind him. “Coates is here with me.”
Mac stood over the bathroom sink. Her first thought was why Harm would bring anyone over right now? She wasn’t ready to face anybody. ‘Damn!’ she thought suddenly. Jennifer must have heard what was going on! ‘Just great, MacKenzie! As soon as you’re named C.O. you lose it in front of someone who will be under your command!’
At least Harm had warned her that Jen was in his apartment now, so Mac wouldn’t come out ranting and making a bigger fool of herself. She braced herself and walked out of the bathroom.
“Hey,” said Harm. “It seems we attracted some attention to ourselves tonight. I thought we owe Jen some explanations.”
Mac looked at Harm with an expression making it clear that she did not want to be giving any explanations at the moment.
Jen picked up on the look. “Maybe we should just wait until tomorrow?”
“Yes,” said Mac. / “No,” said Harm at the same time.
Jen looked between them, as they glared at each other. “Is this something personal?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes,” said Mac. / “No,” said Harm.
Harm and Mac both sighed, and looked at each other, each seeing the other’s point.
“No,” said Mac. / “Yes,” said Harm.
Mac rolled her eyes and gave out a small frustrated laugh. “At least some things never change.” She sat down at the table. “I’m sorry, Jen. Have a seat.”
“Are you sure, ma’am?”
“Please, I’m not an officer right now. But yes, have a seat.” Mac covered her face with her hands.
Jen immediately noticed the ring glistening on Mac’s finger. Despite everything else, Jen’s mouth dropped in admiration. “Ma’am … Mac, that’s a beautiful engagement ring!”
Mac lifted her head up and couldn’t help but smile a little. “It is,” she said and put her hand out so that Jen could take a closer look.
Jen sat down on Mac’s left and studied the ring closely. “Wow!” she remarked. Harm came over to stand behind Mac. He put his hands on her shoulders and started massaging them a little. Mac leaned her head back against him, closed her eyes, and tried to take herself back a few hours to when everything had been so wonderful.
As Mac put her head back, the necklace she wore also began to sparkle, bringing it to Jennifer’s attention as well. “Is that a matching necklace?” Jen looked at Harm, since he was the one who still had his eyes open.
He softly smiled for a moment and nodded.
“It’s gorgeous!” Jen added.
Mac opened her eyes. Not realizing the prior question had been answered, she said, “Yeah, I’m being spoiled.” She looked up and, grabbing a hold of Harm’s hands over her shoulders, met his eyes. Jen could see the two having a whole conversation at that moment without any words. But she would have needed a translator if she wanted to know what was communicated.
Finally, Mac spoke to Harm. “Do we have to do this tonight?”
“Yes.” Harm sat down at the table on Mac’s right side. “We have no idea what could happen in the next few hours, and I want the record straight. God forbid, if someone ends up dead tonight, - other than me, I don’t want Coates testifying against me in another trial.” He tried to make that last part a joke.
Mac didn’t think it was funny. “Harm! Do not even joke about dying.” The look in her eyes made it very clear that she had never been more serious. She gripped his hand tightly.
At Mac’s reaction, Jen instantly became panicked. Mac sensed this and tried to move things along. “So, what do we need to tell Jennifer?” she asked Harm.
“The unclassified, abridged version of our unwanted visitor’s appearance,” he answered.
“It was Mr. Webb, wasn’t it?” asked Jen.
Harm nodded. “He was at Colonel Mackenzie’s apartment when I went to drop her off this evening.”
No one spoke for a few seconds. Finally Jen asked Mac, “Was he upset over your engagement?”
Mac evaded the question. “He said he wanted to talk to Harm about some classified information.”
Harm picked up the story. “I told Webb that if he wanted to talk, to meet me here at my place. He agreed, but not before making some inappropriate comments about Mac …” Suddenly, Harm wasn’t sure he should have mentioned that.
But Mac, taking a very deep breath, added, “I hope you don’t think less of me as your future commanding officer, Jen, but I slapped him.”
Without even blinking, Jennifer said, “Then I’m sure he deserved it.”
“He did,” insisted Harm. “And I don’t think assaulting Webb should be something to be held against any commanding officer. Even the Admiral once broke Webb’s nose out of anger.”
Mac smiled slightly, remembering when the Admiral had hit Webb in Russia. Jennifer looked surprised, but it did help put some things into perspective for her about Agent Webb.
Harm continued, “So anyway, I’m sure I woke up all of Mac’s neighbors by slamming her door shut after Webb, and then we came over here …”
“- so that I could wake up all of Harm’s neighbors,” Mac finished. “Sorry about that,” she said to Jennifer.
“What happened here?” Jen inquired. “… If I may ask?” She looked between the both of them.
Harm answered. “Webb warned me that there is good reason to believe that someone is going to try to kill me.”
“What?!” cried Jennifer with wide eyes.
“I really can’t explain,” Harm answered, “except that it’s tied to my time with the Company. So what he told me is classified.”
“Not that he told you much of anything anyhow,” complained Mac.
“So what are you going to do, sir?” asked Jennifer, very worried.
“Well, I need to verify the information Webb gave us and see if I can learn anything else.”
“Is Mr. Webb going to help you?”
“I don’t know,” replied Harm, with an anxious expression on his face.
“But he came to warn you?” said Jennifer, trying to sound hopeful. She wanted to confirm that Webb’s help was likely, because she thought they would need his resources.
Staring at the table, Mac said, matter-of-factly, “Webb came so that Harm would keep his distance from me.”
“You don’t know that,” said Harm.
“I do.” She raised her eyes to Harm. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not in any danger.” Mac paused, as Harm gave her a questioning look. “We’ll talk about this later,” she told him, touching his arm. Mac turned to Jen, “… If you don’t mind?” she asked politely.
“Of course not.” Jennifer knew this was getting into very personal water. “Umm, but what was all the commotion I heard, and why are you … um …?” She was looking at Harm.
“Covered in sweat?” Harm filled in the blank.
“Yes, sir.”
“Because I went for a run,” Harm explained. “And doing so, I made the mistake of leaving Webb alone to talk with the Colonel here.”
Jennifer’s eyebrows shot up.
“Don’t look like that Coates,” Mac begged. “I know you are aware of my past relationship with Webb. … I had to straighten out a few things with him. And I honestly believed that if I could give him some kind of closure and make peace, he might be more willing to help us, or at least leave some better clues about Harm’s situation.”
Harm gave Mac a look indicating that he had not known that it was her concern for his own safety that had motivated her to talk to Clay.
“Well, it didn’t work,” Mac commented in answer to Harm’s look. “I mean, I got more closure than I ever bargained for, but I didn’t get any more information, … and I probably made things worse,” she sighed and leaned her forehead against her hands, supported by her elbows on the table.
Without moving, she continued to speak. “Things backfired. Webb made an advance on me, and I took him down. Then he provoked me about Harm getting killed, and that’s what my little display in the hallway was about,” she moved her hands and lifted her eyes to Jennifer, “… if you saw or heard any of that.”
Before Jennifer could respond, Harm added, “And that brings us to what I know you saw in the hallway -- me giving Webb a few words of warning about what he could expect if his future treatment of Colonel Mackenzie was anything like it was tonight.”
Alarmed, Mac looked up at Harm. She hadn’t thought about the consequences of leaving the two men out there together.
“Don’t worry, Mac. I didn’t hit him.”
“How did you manage not to?” she sharply asked with disbelief. Admiration for him was quickly added to her astonishment, and, in a softer tone, she rephrased, “How did you keep your cool tonight?”
“One of us had to,” Harm responded lightly. He smiled, albeit weakly.
“I deserve that,” Mac admitted. “I’m sorry for losing it. And I’m sorry for all the noise and worry, Jen.”
“Not at all. I think you had every right to be angry,” the young woman declared. “It sounds like everything Mr. Webb got - he had coming.”
None of them spoke for a minute. Finally Jennifer decided that she had heard everything they were going to tell her and that they had a lot to talk about between themselves. “Well, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go to bed now.” She stood up. “If there is anything I can do, please let me know.”
“Thanks,” said Mac.
As Jen opened the door to let herself out, Harm called after her. “Jennifer. Do you have plans for tomorrow?”
She turned back. “Nothing important. Why?”
Harm looked at Mac for a second and realized that he had better run his idea through her before asking Jen. “There might be something you can do tomorrow, but we’ll let you know. In the meantime, get a good night’s sleep.”
“You too,” said Jennifer, and she left.
-------------
To be continued in Needs, Pt B