(AN: And now…back to your scheduled programming)
Animal's Apartment, 503-4141 Henderson Road, Arlington, VA
Animal looked shell-shocked. "Together?" He looked at Maegyn who was gazing at him, gauging his reaction to her statement. And before she could think that he was against the idea, she felt herself pulled towards him in an embrace. "I'd like that…a lot…" he whispered, his lips against hers.
Maegyn whispered back. "So…you'd…consider…it?" she said between kisses, their arms around each other, their hands tangled in each other's hair. How many years had it been since they had met each other. First as she was a Lieutenant JG in the Black Aces just fresh from Fleet RAG when he was a full double-bar lieutenant, then her turn as double-bar and he as a freshly minted hinge gold oak leaf. He then went on to become a silver oak-leaf'd commander while she had her turn with the gold oak leaf, then the Pentagon had gotten smart and yanked his flight status and put four gold rings on his jacket. They had come through a lot. Maybe this was the next logical step and he would put a gold ring on her finger. Maegyn allowed herself to revel in that thought for a brief moment, before she felt herself being pulled to her feet.
Animal remembered how they had managed to rendezvous again the second time, this time their relationship became much more intense than the by-the-regs relationship they had when she was a Lieutenant JG. It was just after he had come back from the Howlers.
/Flashback: Navy/Marine Corps Ball, Washington DC:
"Commander Toshio Nakamura, I presume." Animal turned around at the sound of the voice. "You're a long way away from East Coast RAG, sir." Animal had just been promoted about two months prior to the Navy/Marine Corps Ball and he was in his Dinner Dress Whites with the requisite three-striper boards adorning his shoulders. Turning around he saw an exquisite vision in a green evening gown that set off her red hair.
"Lieutenant Commander O'Bannon, nice to see you." Animal had responded after a long moment. "You transferred out about six months after I arrived. I believe you were posted to VF-126 on the West Coast. So what brings you back to Washington DC?"
"I'm serving under COMAIRNAVSYSCOM as a staffer." LCDR O'Bannon replied, "The Ball Invitation came up so I decided to go, I'm by myself, by the way. Never really found anyone that I wanted to go with to the ball."
Animal smiled at her, "So, how's your dance card looking?" He looked at her, surely someone as gorgeous as her wouldn't have a single empty spot left on her dance card.
"Absolutely empty…" She extended a hand out to him. "Care to fill in a few spots?" She asked tilting her head alluringly, her green eyes gazing at him for a response.
"I'd be happy to." Animal responded by taking her hand. Her hand was warm and inviting as he caressed her hand with his. Her response to his caress was an attractive smile that sent a warm feeling from his head to his toes. He had finally bucked up the courage to ask her out on a date about a week and a half after the ball. In actual fact, the trepidation leading up to the event was unfounded as she enthusiastically said "yes" by flinging herself into his arms and wrapping him in an embrace as she admitted that she had hoped that he would ask her out. And they had been inseparable. Spending as many weekends as they could together after their weekday jobs (Maegyn's at Pax River and Animal's at NAS Oceana) They racked up a lot of driving hours on their vehicles alternating who drove on every other weekend. It was a 4 hour drive one way. So to make the most of the weekend, Animal would fly out the door the second 1700 hrs rounded the clock aiming to get on the I-64 as soon as possible so he could make the I-295 interchange by 1745 hrs./
"I do consider it and have considered it…enough times in my head that I don't need to think about it any longer…" Animal said as he watched her reaction. "I do want to do this together…"
Maegyn's thoughts whirled as she realized what he said. There was no need for any more words as they embraced, lost in their own little world for a long while. When they separated more for the need of oxygen than anything else, Maegyn whispered softly as she looked at Animal. "Wow…" she breathed.
"Yeah, um…wow…" Animal agreed, equally speechless as his eyes fixed on her every feature, taking in the silken strands of her auburn hair, the jade green of her eyes…and affixing them in his memory. For all too soon she'd be gone to Lemoore working up with her squadron – his former squadron.
"Is it too soon to say…I love you." Whispered Maegyn as she reached up to caress his cheek.
Animal's eyes glimmered in amusement. "I think we've gone past the too soon part a long time ago…" he left the implication silent. "Two words, Dominican Republic?" he hinted as Maegyn burst out in laughter.
/Flashback: Dominican Republic 1995
Animal looked at Maegyn laying on her stomach the beach towel spread out on the white sands. She was clad in a white bikini and she looked up at him with a languorous expression and asked with a husky tone in her voice. "Any chance I could convince you to put some suntan lotion on my back?" That was an invitation that no red-blooded male could resist. Maegyn was fair-skinned and in the intense sun that was this tropical island where they were dropped off by a small 6HP Mercury engined boat, she would be prone to burning. He grabbed the suntan lotion and put a generous dollop on the palms of his hand rubbing them so that it wouldn't slop. Maegyn sat up to untie her bikini top, letting her assets fall free of restraint. Animal's reaction elicited a knowing grin from Maegyn as she looked down at his swim trunks.
She turned around and stretched out lying on her front again. Animal groaned softly as he ran his hands along her back, wondering just how he was going to get rid of the tent in his trunks. Straddling her butt, he used the back of his hand to move her hair out of the way and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Oh…that feels good." Maegyn purred softly feeling his welcome weight on top of her as well as his massaging hands. "Mmmmm, I could have you do this all day."
"Uh huh…" Animal grunted. He was going to have to take a dip in the water after this. Bloody hell, he was starting to get sore and not his hands. This was downright cruel. "Would you like the other bikini line taken care of too?" He asked…if she said 'yes', it was going to be absolute torture.
Maegyn looked up at him with a sadistically delighted expression on her face. "Oh…would you?" She knew damned well what she was doing. And this was a deserted beach too; no tourists in sight. The only way to get back was with that boat that wouldn't be back for six hours. And this beach was long enough to escape high-tide. The minx knew what she was doing to Animal and she wanted to make him sweat.
Animal groaned softly eliciting a delighted deep-throated chuckle from Maegyn. As he untied her bikini bottom, she suddenly turned around, stood up…pulling him to his feet. Her bikini bottom fluttered to the sand leaving her completely and utterly exposed. She sank to her knees pulling Animal's trunks down freeing him, letting him stand before her naked; then pulled him down on top of her, sighing as he poised himself at her entrance as she wrapped her legs around him and guided him in. "oh, yes…" she moaned softly. "please?" /
Maegyn laughed, the sound bright and cheerful. "I guess we have…" she said softly. "Care to make it another round?"
"Oh, I love you, woman." Animal growled, the sound deep in his throat, as they both retreated to the bedroom.
Liandra's Apartment, 614-2475 Virginia Avenue, Georgetown, Washington DC, 2221hrs
Harm walked Lia up to her apartment suite door. Lia turned to Harm. "Thanks for the dinner…and the walk this evening." West End was known for its burglaries and thefts, but it wasn't as bad as some of the areas in DC where there were shootings every day. Thank goodness she researched the neighborhood and found a place in Georgetown where she could feel somewhat safe, though this part of the neighborhood was more prone to property crimes than other places in Georgetown. It was still better than nothing.
"Well, I had to make sure that you got home safely." Harm grinned widely. "Can't let a pretty lady walk home by herself in a neighborhood like this." He had parked here in Lia's spare parking space downstairs and he had to head home by car.
"Well, this lady appreciates your gesture." Lia smiled up at him. At five foot five, she was small compared to him, standing in her heels, she could see up to his clavicle at eye-height.
"Would you be open to another date?" Harm asked.
"Would you classify this as a date?" Lia answered the question with one of her own.
"I'd like to think so…" Harm replied. Neither of them spoke for a long moment as they looked into each other's eyes.
"Harm…" She ventured tentatively…
"Lia…" then Harm leaned in to give her a tentative kiss…which was returned.
Without thinking, Lia's arms had of their own accord gone around Harm's neck. When they separated, Lia looked flushed and stammered. "I…I…Harm…you'd better go…" and practically fled into her apartment. Unbeknownst to Harm behind the door Lia collapsed moaning, her eyes flooding with tears… "What am I doing? What have I done?" She had been resolute in her career path, but her heart had other ideas. But every time her heart wanted to open up her mind ran back to the years that she'd been victimized; a target of bullies as a teenager - the hurt welling back up from places where she had locked it away. Deep inside was a girl that was picked on, told that she was an ugly four-eyes, because she had to wear large glasses. Back then glass-technology was not very advanced, the lenses were thick and unfashionable and she hated every second that she'd had to wear those glasses.
When faced with a stressful situation like dating like tonight her first inclination was to run because the little gremlin of self-doubt materialized and told her that she wasn't worth dating, that she was flawed and nobody would consider her relationship material. And the fact that Harm was such a prized catch to any girl that had the eyes to realize it, Lia thought that it was unfair. The little gremlin voiced an opinion that Harm was just toying with her emotions and the kiss had meant nothing.
A knock on the door. "Lia…are you alright?" Harm's voice sounded concerned. When she didn't answer immediately, he said. "Please…Lia…open the door…what did I do?"
Lia got up slowly from the floor and opened the door, her tear-stained face turned up to him. "Why are you still here?" she asked, her tone a bit frosty.
"Lia…let me in. I need to talk to you." Harm insisted. Uttering a sigh of resignation, Lia stepped aside to let Harm in the door. Harm stepped in three paces and shut the door. "Lia…what's wrong. I just…well…we kissed and then you bolted like a frightened hare."
"It's just…I don't want to have my emotions toyed with…" Lia stated, stamping her right foot on the ground.
"Why do you say that? I thought that I was kissing you honestly." Harm asked – he looked stricken, his tone confused. "I'm not one to play with another's emotions." He stated firmly. "If I express interest in you, if I tell you that I care for you, I'm saying so honestly, not because I'm sure that's what you want to hear. I don't do snow-jobs." He said vehemently.
"Well, Harm, I'm sorry. I'm broken…I'm not good enough for you." She said.
"And who told you that pile of shit? Was it Animal…cause if he was the one…" Harm growled low and ominously.
"No…it's from a long time ago…back when I was a kid." Lia said as she sat down on her couch like a puppet that had its strings cut. Tears spilled out of her eyes. "I had a condition called hyperopia."
Hyperopia; the optician had said and fixed her up with a pair of granny glasses that looked like they were right from the 40s complete with quarter- inch thick lenses. Constantly stalked by the bullies in her class, who took sadistic pleasure in taking away her glasses, and watching her blindly walk around, hands out bumping into walls, because of her blurred vision; she was called everything from geek to four-eyes and it scarred her emotionally. Finding out from her doctor as she grew into an adult, that mild hyperopia, which she had, could be corrected by radial keratotomy surgery by an excellent ophthalmologist, she opted to do that, notifying her mother that she no longer wanted to wear glasses and that the surgery would help to correct her vision problems. The pain from the surgery was bearable compared to the pain from the verbal abuse heaped upon her by her classmates. And with professional follow-up, a favorable result was achieved in that she had no need of her glasses any longer. But the hurt that came from the abuse that she had sustained throughout school lingered, leaving her with a diminished sense of self which she countered by being prickly to a certain extent to people that she didn't really know. As far as relationships were concerned she preferred a good book to dating, however, her mother was persistent in telling her that she was getting older and should look at settling down. That was another reason why she didn't go home very often.
"The kids in my school made my life a living hell…" she wept as Harm stepped forward to the couch to sit down beside her. "They seemed to enjoy yanking my glasses off my face, watch me wander around blindly trying to recover my glasses. They played keep away with the glasses, they pushed me on the ground and ran away with my glasses. Hell they even broke my glasses several times costing my parents a thousand dollars in total glass replacements. I can still recall to this day them calling me ugly four-eyes and taunting me when I tried to get my glasses back."
Harm's anger at those selfish, brutal kids rose and he growled, "Those kids didn't have eyes in their heads, because all I see is a beautiful woman who is one of the most accomplished JAG attorneys I have ever seen."
"So you see…" Lia said, her eyes still wet with tears. "You deserve to be with someone who is worth something…not with someone who is emotionally broken."
"No…I deserve to be with you…" Harm replied firmly… All the times that she had turned him down flat were not because of she didn't want to go out with him, it was because she saw herself as not being worthy of his attention…"You are worth it…" he swore to himself that he would make Lia see what he saw in her even if it took him the rest of his life to do so.
"Really, you should go, we have work tomorrow…" Lia tried to insist that he go so that he could at least get some sleep for work.
"Look, Lia, I have a seabag in my car; let me go get it and I'll stay here tonight. I really don't think you should be alone." He said, unsaid was you retreat into yourself, Lia, and you won't have the bravery to come back out again like you did tonight.
"Harm, you don't have to…I'll be fine…"
"Please? Just to reassure me that you're OK?" Harm gave her his sad puppy look.
"Damn you, Harm…when you do that…" Lia sputtered. "All right…here's my key…top one is the one to the downstairs parkade coming back in…and then each one in order after that…on the route back in." she said handing him the keys to her apartment suite. "If I give you my keys, then I won't be able to lock your persistent ass out." She muttered acerbically, even though deep down she was overjoyed that he would care enough to stay over to see that she was OK emotionally.
Harm flashed her that flyboy grin of his, clasped his hand around the proffered keys accepting them and headed out to go get his seabag from his car. Lia sat just staring out the window at the dark, her thoughts swirling with unspent emotion. When Harm got back upstairs, toting a seabag with his spare service blues uniform in it, Lia looked up at him and said. "Are you sure? I only have one bedroom and I'm using the spare as an home/office. I rarely get visitors and…" Harm looked at her intently. "…I'm starting to babble aren't I?" Lia muttered.
"Lia…" Harm stated as he dropped his seabag on the floor and embraced her. "You're a wonderful person, don't let anyone tell you different. Now, I'll just curl up on the couch, if you have a spare pillow and blanket and you do what you have to do to get ready for tomorrow." He leaned in and gave her a brief kiss which made Lia's legs nearly crumple.
JAG HQ, Falls Church, VA.
"Good job, Lieutenant Commander Rabb." RDML Morris stated as he looked over at the proffered file. "I see you have a resolution with the Emmond's case. Good thinking on your part for taking the file over to the Pentagon and having a sit-down with Lieutenant Commander Gracen."
"Well, sir, it was all her doing, she was open to a plea-bargain and she managed to negotiate a suitable settlement, sir." Harm replied, giving credit where credit was due.
"…and I am to note that Lieutenant Commander Gracen is to be returning to JAG from her TDY and you are taking over the position PCS this Monday?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, good luck, Lieutenant Commander Rabb. I hate to lose you as an attorney but you need a staff position to bolster your promotion chances. You have two years till you are in the zone for promotion and probably a chance to get promoted by your fourth year in grade." RDML Morris paused for a long moment. "…with the exception of the one instance where you discharged an MP-5K PDW in my courtroom; you have been an exemplary officer." Harm groaned silently, he knew he was never going to live that down at all. That had not been one of his finer moments. RDML Stiles Morris extended his hand to shake Harm's and he nodded at the younger man. "I'll send your personnel file to Captain Nakamura. RADM Chegwidden's copy of your FITREP is in there."
"Thank you sir." Harm said. "It was a pleasure to serve with you."
"Likewise, Lieutenant Commander." RDML Morris dismissed Harm and returned to his files.
As he exited the office, he nearly bumped into LCDR Meg Austin who gave him a rather frosty glance, "Meg…I need to talk with you." Harm said earnestly. "I need to apologize for my behavior yesterday."
"Well, I hope you can make it quick…because I'm going to be in court from 1300 hrs to 1500 hrs or thereabouts." Meg shot back. "…and right now you're not on my favorite people list at the moment."
"Can I talk to you now?" Harm asked. "In my office?" he pleaded. Meg acquiesced, although a bit grumpy with Harm. Shutting the door he offered Meg a seat.
"I prefer to stand…" Meg said shortly.
"I'm sorry for being an asshole, it just came out…I don't know where it came from, Meg and I'm truly sorry that I hurt you." Harm whispered in a low voice. The glass in the windows carried sound across muffled, but it still carried. "It just struck me hard when I realized that you had left and didn't leave a single word for me as to where you went. I don't want to leave to NAVINSGEN on bad terms with you. I've worried and cared about you for too long to leave us where it is right now. Will you accept my apology?"
"Harm, you said some pretty hateful things yesterday, but I guess your apologizing takes care of some of that hurt. The rest will just take time." Meg said, a little less unfriendly, but still sounding hurt. "I'm not going to say that this will gloss everything over, but your apologizing makes you less of an asshole."
"I know…Meg…and I'm truly sorry I hurt you." Harm breathed a heavy sigh.
"So what brought out all that bitterness?" Meg asked.
"Being treated like an emotional yoyo." He flicked his thumb over at the next door office.
"Oh…" said Meg shortly, she hadn't really liked the Marine Major very much when she first came back to the office. Of all the people in the office, the Major hadn't greeted her when she first greeted the rest of the attorneys at the staff-call and it struck her that Maj. Sarah Mackenzie was a bit cold. Not to mention that she hovered around Harm like a satellite armed with nuclear weapons ready to aim at anyone who approached Harm to closely. She could sense Mac's curiosity and anger on her as Meg stood inside the door of Harm's office. Meg ignored her. "Do you know who's coming in to replace you?"
"Well, she's a friend. A Lieutenant Commander Liandra Gracen: she was with JAG before two weeks ago, but last week she got temporarily TDY'd to NAVINSGEN to be a liaison staff JAG. Of course, now I'm taking over and that has become a permanent PCS and I'm going to be a permanent staff JAG with the Naval Inspector General's office.
"Ah…cavorting with the dark side, huh?" Meg snickered.
"My former flight leader, now a Captain, Toshio Nakamura, is there. He's the Pentagon NAVINSGEN detachment office CO. You remember him. We did the report that got him the blue button."
"Oh, yeah, I remember now." Meg replied as she searched her memories for a face to match along with the name. "Oh…the handsome Japanese-American naval aviator…the one I said filled out his peanut butters really well…" she grinned evilly watching Harm's expression carefully. Harm was just taking a sip of his coffee and just about spat it out. Point one for Austin, Meg thought. Payback was a bitch and he'd be paying back quite often…or at least whenever she had need to go to the Pentagon.
Author's Note: The author thanks byrhthelm for the incredible help that he's been in helping this author of a potential writer's block situation. The last Emergency Character Meeting was an idea he came up with and I ran with it… Thanks again, byrhthelm.
Tomorrow is a tournament hockey game for my son, so I won't be getting any Chapter 11 (counts as 12) done. Maybe if my plot-bunny cooperates there will be another chapter on Monday or Tuesday.
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