JAG Continues Book II: Volatile Matters
Ch. 4 - Visions of the Dynamic Duo
Part C
A/N: ‘mens rea’ (guilty mind) is the legal term for the state of mind/intent that the prosecution must prove was behind a criminal defendant's commission of a wrongful act (like killing someone).
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As had become their habit since the night before, they did a quick visual check of the car for signs of bombs or tampering, Harm under the body of the car and Mac under the hood.
As Mac then unlocked the passenger door, she addressed Harm. “So, I’m in charge of this operation? You just told me I would have to let you out of my sight. I don’t have control of anything right now. I don’t even know what’s going on.”
“But you will. And you were in charge of that little episode in the woods,” he argued.
“I was not. We worked together.”
“Oh, come on, the second you got there you took control and were telling me what to do. … And you were ‘riding my six’ …” He smiled slyly. “… literally.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Are you complaining?”
“Not at all.” He stood by the car door, looking at her with a glint in his eye.
Mac got a sparkle in her eye as well. “… Alright, Commander. In that case, … get this cute butt of yours -” She grabbed his rear. “- in the car.” She then smacked it lightly as she walked around him.
“Mac!” Harm was genuinely shocked. “I can’t believe you just did that!”
“What?” She smiled mischievously, continuing around to the driver’s side.
“We’re in public,” he declared with wide eyes.
“We’re not in uniform,” stated Mac, with her brows raised for emphasis. She stopped and looked up and down the street. “…And there’s no one around, Harm.”
“Just because we can’t see them, doesn’t mean people can’t see us.”
Mac rolled her eyes. As she got into the car, she laughed, “I think you really are a prude.”
Harm got into her corvette and pointed his finger at her. “I heard that.”
“Yeah? So what are you gonna do about it?” Mac challenged as she started the car and pulled out of the driveway.
Harm shook his head. “Just you wait ‘til we’re married.”
“Promises, promises,” she said in sing-song fashion.
Harm was about to say that he always kept his promises, but realized that it might remind Mac of their baby deal, which now may never be fulfilled through no fault of their own. So he kept quiet.
As soon as Mac had said the words, however, she had the same memory of making that promise to have a child together. Her face suddenly became very solemn.
As her mood shifted, so did her choice of subject. She cleared her throat. “So, are you going to tell me why we’re headed back to your apartment, when there might be a killer waiting for you?”
“I doubt there is. From what I’ve gathered so far, I don’t really think I’m in danger.”
“Tell me what you know.”
“Beth called while she was waiting for some equipment to be ready for a mission she was about to fly. She was just about to take off, and it’s a long mission, so there was no way we could meet her today. I was really lucky to get a hold of her at all.”
“So, she knows something.”
“Well, she does not know anything about a hit out on me, her, or Spinnaker.”
“She didn’t know Spinnaker is already dead?”
“That’s the thing. … She’s pretty sure he’s not.”
“But Webb said …” Mac stopped, and spared a glance from the road to read Harm’s expression. “We can’t believe anything Webb said?”
“I don’t know. But for starters, Beth actually knows Spinnaker. Small world. He was, … let me get this right, … back in college, … her junior year roommate’s - boyfriend’s - older brother.”
“Oh, - close then?” Mac remarked with light sarcasm.
“Close enough,” he said. “Beth recognized him when we extracted him. Obviously, with the personal tie, she remembers that mission a lot better than I do.”
“Anything helpful?”
“Yeah. When we landed in Beirut we were having a little trouble with some of our communication equipment. I stayed in the cockpit to try to fix it, while she met Spinnaker. He had been shot, but not badly. Anyway, once we took off again she stayed in the back, tending to him, and … I guess catching up a little.
“I flew solo to the airport outside of Frankfurt. When we landed, she escorted him out to get medical attention, but I stayed behind to take another look at the communication devices. … I do remember the equipment problems on that mission, now that she reminded me.”
“So you didn’t have any interaction with Spinnaker?”
“None. I maybe got a quick look at him if I glanced out or back at some point, but Mac, I was never close enough to him for anyone to have gotten a photo of the two of us together during that mission. Beth was the one with him the entire time.”
“So that’s why Webb didn’t bring a copy of the photo – there isn’t one.”
“At least not one with me and Spinnaker from that extraction.”
“… Why does Beth think Spinnaker is still alive?”
Harm smiled. “Bear with me a moment on this explanation. … It turns out that back in the day, Spinnaker actually had a thing for his younger brother’s girl.”
Mac processed that. “… Beth’s former roommate?”
“Right. And she actually had feelings for him too, but she wouldn’t admit it at the time. Anyhow, talking to Beth during the flight brought back some memories for Spinnaker. Apparently that, … and having a near death experience, seemed to have made him reevaluate some things in his life. Beth got him the contact information for her divorced former roommate, and … he followed up on his lost dreams with her.”
Mac stopped the car at a red light and looked at Harm. “So, he’s going out with Beth’s friend now?”
“Well, … after all these years they couldn’t deny their feelings anymore. … They’re married now.”
“Ha, … the time it takes some people to figure out they’re in love!” Mac joked, with a meaningful look at her fiancé.
“Yeah,” laughed Harm.
“That’s great, but how do we know Spinnaker is still alive now?” asked Mac.
“Because after I talked to her, Beth called her friend and then called me back to let me know that, as of 0930 this morning, Joseph Spinnaker was feeling quite well and was off to play golf with some of his buddies.”
“That is pretty impressive for a dead guy.”
“I’d say so.”
The light changed, and Mac began driving again. “Anything else?”
“Not from Beth. She doesn’t know anything about Howrani either.”
“Can we trust what Beth told you?”
“I don’t see why not. Beth has no motive to lie to me.”
“What if Webb got to her and asked her to give us false info? What if it’s part of some scheme?”
“To tell us the opposite of what he said?” he asked skeptically.
“I don’t know, maybe.” Mac was uneasy for some reason and just wanted to consider all the possibilities. “Or maybe someone else got her to feed us bad info.”
“Mac, I think we can trust her. I know you don’t know Beth very well, but …”
Something about Harm’s tone triggered a reaction from Mac. “And exactly how well do you know her? … You never did tell me. I believe you skirted around the issue with one of your rhetorical question responses.”
Mac knew she shouldn’t let Beth bother her. But even though Harm said he hadn’t slept with anyone during his time away, it didn’t mean that nothing at all had happened between him and his CIA co-pilot. Mac couldn’t forget a few years ago when Beth was still in the Navy and had been so forward with men that she was accused of sexual harassment. A sexually aggressive female pilot and a post-Paraguay, vulnerable Harm was not a combination Mac liked the sounds of.
Harm was surprised at Mac’s accusatory tone. He immediately got defensive. “Oh, come on. We’re not getting into this.” Didn’t she know him better than that? He’d already said he hadn’t slept with Beth.
“Typical,” Mac retorted. “Don’t talk to me.”
Harm caught onto her use of the word ‘typical.’ He realized that it was standard for them to avoid clearing up issues. They needed to break the cycle of what had been typical in causing problems for them in the past.
“ … I’m sorry,” he said earnestly. “I should answer.” He looked out the window for a moment. “… Guess it’s hard to break old habits.”
Harm’s unexpected cooperation made Mac suddenly feel bad. She had no right to accuse Harm of anything. Especially given her behavior with Webb. And it really didn’t matter.
Genuinely, she said, “No, … I’m sorry. Your past relationships with Beth and anyone else are none of my business.”
Harm looked over at Mac. There was no cause for him to torture her with possibilities of non-existent romances, and even less reason to contribute to her insecurities. “No, I think they are your business,” he said slowly. “Anything that pertains to me is now your business.”
“Really?” Mac was not expecting that from Harm. She did not take the openness that this signaled from him for granted.
“Yeah. So, let me clarify the stages of my relationship with Beth. First it was attorney-client, then co-pilots with the Agency, and now, … friends. End of story.”
“Okay.” Mac agreed, but there was something uncertain in her voice.
“You don’t sound okay about it.”
“I am. I believe you,” she said sincerely. “I’m just trying to figure out if I believe her - … about Spinnaker.”
“You don’t trust her.”
“Harm, you’re right that I don’t know her - except from prosecuting her. It’s just … that I didn’t get the feeling she was being forthcoming on the stand. She was hiding something.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t trust her about this,” he pointed out.
“She was hiding something,” she confirmed from his comment. “What was it, Harm?”
“You know I can’t tell you if she was hiding something. Attorney-client privilege.”
Mac sighed. “Protected by attorney-client privilege,” she repeated. “We’re probably trusting a perjurer,” she thought out loud.
Harm’s eyebrows rose at that. “To the best of my knowledge, Beth did not perjure herself. And may I remind you that an otherwise honest and extremely trustworthy person may have a secret that she may desperately want to keep for personal reasons, even to the point of being willing to lie … or at least omit certain facts on the stand.”
Mac clenched her jaw - and the steering wheel. After a moment, she said, “Well, that’s a direct hit.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re right,” Mac agreed, although she was obviously agitated. “Maybe I just have a bad feeling about Beth because … it seems that discussing her just makes you remind me of all my mistakes with John Farrow.”
“Mac, I was just trying to make a point. I’m sorry … I didn’t mean to –“
“Stop apologizing!” Mac was just pulling her corvette into a spot by Harm’s apartment.
“Because it’s a sign of weakness?”
“What?”
“You once told me never to apologize, because it’s a sign of weakness. But, … I don’t mind you seeing me weak in that way, Mac.”
Mac, no longer restricted by driving, stared at Harm for a few seconds, before looking away. “Well, I guess I’ve said a lot of things to you over the years that I didn’t really mean. … After all, how can apologizing, - something I know you do on occasion, be a sign of weakness, when … I believe I also told you once that you’d never had a moment of weakness in your life? With the exception of …”
He shook his head. “You weren’t yourself when you said that.”
“I was drunk, Harm. But it was still me,” she said resignedly. “And I wasn’t drunk all those other times … when I’ve said hurtful things or other stupid comments to you. Things I didn’t really mean.”
“I’ve said my share of hurtful comments to you over the years that I didn’t mean either, Mac. I’m quite sure I’ve been guilty of doing that on many more occasions than you have. But, we’ve both pushed each other’s buttons.” He gently smiled at her. “… I think its all that ‘mutually unrequited love’ that left us each a little bitter. And in the heat of the moment, when pressure was built up, … things came out.”
“… And here I was thinking it was all that unresolved sexual tension,” Mac half-joked. Harm gave her an appreciative look in response.
They sat in silence for a few seconds. Suddenly, Mac broke the quiet with a very serious question. “With my track record, … why do you trust me, Harm?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
Harm undid his seatbelt and turned to Mac. “You want the logical reasons, where I point out to you all the times you’ve shown just how much I can depend on you? Do you want evidence of how, underneath the scars left by your past, you have one of the purest, best-intentioned hearts ever? The way you put the needs of others before your own? Shall I highlight your continued commitment to truth and justice every day at work? The way you give of yourself to make sure those ends are served? Maybe list your acts of heroism? … Or do you just want the simple answer?”
Mac was taken aback by Harm’s response. “What’s the simple answer?”
“I trust you, because my heart tells me I can. And I trust you now more than ever because I know, for sure, that you love me.”
Mac looked at him with a sad smile. “So how come even though we know we love each other now, we’re still fighting?”
“Well, … there’s still that unresolved sexual tension,” Harm joked.
Mac smiled a little broader. “I wouldn’t call it entirely ‘unresolved’ anymore. I mean, … at least we’re both finally willing to admit that we want each other that way. So that part is resolved. It’s more like, we’re left with … ‘as yet unfulfilled relief’ of our desires for each other.”
“… I think that’s the first time you’ve verbally admitted that you are sexually attracted to me.”
Mac coyly gave him a look that questioned, ‘Did you really have any doubt?’
Harm suddenly remembered her display in the driveway earlier. “By the way, did you mean what you said about me having a cute six?”
Mac tightened her lips. “Maybe. … But don’t let it go to your head,” she teased.
Harm grinned at her, expressing ‘who me?’ Getting back to her question, he answered, “Seriously Mac, as far as us fighting, … I think the earth would spin out of orbit if we didn’t ever argue, … at least a little. And right now, we still have a lot of issues we need to address.” He took her hand in his.
“But every day we deal with more issues from our past, we’ll have less to deal with in the future. In the meantime, we’ll get through it … together.” He lifted up her hand and kissed it.
“I love you, Harm.”
He smiled. “I love you too, Mac.” After looking into her eyes for a moment, he let go of her hand and opened the car door.
“Wait a minute,” said Mac. “We’re not going up until you finish telling me everything.”
Harm closed the door again. “Okay. The second call was from Rita Barkley – my contact at the Lebanese Embassy.”
“‘Barkley’ doesn’t really sound Lebanese.”
“Probably her married name,” he dismissed. “… Uh, … I’ve arranged to see her this afternoon. I still want to find out whatever we can about Howrani, and she might have some valuable information on that front.”
“I agree. So when do we meet her?”
Harm tensed his mouth for a moment. “Um … This is the part where you’re going to have to let me out of your sight for a little bit.”
“Why?”
“Because Rita is very busy today, and … the only way I can see her is to accompany her to a late luncheon event that she needs to attend.”
“You’re going as her date?”
“Her husband’s out of town,” explained Harm, “and she has an invitation to bring a guest. It’s one of those annoying political social events she’s obligated to attend. … It’s by invite only, Mac, or else I would suggest we both go and meet her there.”
Mac repressed the urge to make any comments that might suggest she was being jealous or possessive. “There’s no other time to see her?”
“She said she’s busy the rest of the day.”
Mac took a reluctant breath. “Then I guess I’ll have to let you go. What time is this event?”
“I’m supposed to pick her up at 1330.”
Mac nodded, but didn’t speak.
Harm added, “I’ll try not to be gone long. I get the feeling Rita would love to duck out as early as possible.”
“Where’s the event taking place?”
“A club downtown – the one where the Rider party was last year.”
“Let me borrow your car, since it’s less conspicuous. I’ll follow you down and find a place nearby to hang out.”
“Mac, come on. I’ll be fine. You don’t have to be my bodyguard. It doesn’t even look like I’m in danger.”
“I’m not so sure, Harm.”
“Webb is playing us, Mac. He probably didn’t count on my being able to get a hold of Beth, much less her ability to debunk his story. I lucked out that she could talk today, not to mention finding out about her connection to Spinnaker and ability to verify that he’s still alive.”
“I know. But if Webb was lying to us outright, then I’m concerned that you may still be in some kind of danger. He could be planning anything where you might get hurt or killed and use this other stuff as a cover. Or there may still be a hit out on you, but he gave misinformation as to the details for some reason.”
“Or he may just be trying to rattle us,” countered Harm. “To keep us apart, like you said before. Think about it. When we asked how Spinnaker died, he faltered for a second before saying it was a bomb. Why would he decide to say a bomb?”
“… Maybe, because it’s the most likely way that someone who was with you would also be in severe danger.”
“Right. I’d want to keep you farther away if there was a larger, indeterminable zone of danger like that around me than if, say, a sniper was after me.”
“I hope that’s all this is, Harm. A stupid trick by Webb, instead of an actual hit out on you. … Although, I think either way, I may kill Clay the next time I see him.”
“Hey, don’t do that,” Harm said gently. “It would be a real challenge for me to have to plan a wedding ceremony to take place inside the brig.”
Mac was actually touched by that, even if it was a joke. She smiled slightly and raised her eyebrows. “You’d still want to marry me if I was in for twenty to life?”
“I want to marry you no matter what.” He leaned over and kissed her. “But I’d rather our time together not be limited to the occasional conjugal visit – assuming they even gave us that. So please, don’t murder anybody.”
“Well, when you put it like that …” Mac unbelted herself. “… I’ll have to restrain myself from causing anyone death or bodily harm, if it might be construed that I have any requisite ‘mens rea.’ And I’ll definitely have to restrain myself from acting with premeditation.” She leaned over and gave Harm a kiss in return.
“Mmm, … speaking of restraints,” said Harm, “I’m feeling a bit restricted in here. What do you say we go up to my apartment now? Permission to exit the car?”
Mac laughed. “Permission granted.” She reached over and once again pulled out her handgun, which had been returned to her glove compartment. She put it in her purse and stepped out of her corvette.
“Expecting trouble?” Harm asked.
“Just being cautious.”
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To be continued in Visions of the Dynamic Duo, Pt D