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Date Posted: 12:54:48 11/10/13 Sun
Author: keru
Subject: Awakenings (2/4)

Disclaimer: don't own any of it.

A/N: Thanks, everyone, for all the warmth! I had planned on posting way sooner since the story was pretty much fully written out, but instead I found myself adding quite a bit to improve the flow of this chapter, and the development of Jules' and Mac's relationship. Also, a certain someone makes their reappearance in this chapter...

I do hope you enjoy.

--
Awakenings (2/4)

Mac stared at the phone in her hands. Since she and Jay had left the diner and gone to gather the girl’s belongings from her hideout, Mac had asked herself many times what the hell she was doing. The call she was about to make, one she dreaded to make, had her asking herself the question again.

Seeking temporary custody of a homeless teen, she reminded herself. That’s what you’re doing. Just until the police can locate her father.

She’d called in quite a few favours to set the wheels in motion. Her connections through the DC courts, previous encounters with Child Services through pro bono work, and her own network of contacts through her participation in DC’s mentorship and domestic abuse support programs had given her a solid list of folks willing to go to bat for her. It was the only reason she had been allowed to take Jay to her place until the police and Child Services took the girl’s statement.

The girl whose full name was Juliette Spencer and who was indeed fourteen years old.

It had taken Mac most of the night to work out the logistics, while a clearly exhausted fourteen year-old had gone to sleep on the bed in the guest room. The first real bed she’d slept in in months.

While Mac was supremely thankful for all she had been able to accomplish, she knew she still had one major hurdle to cross. She’d put off this call until a more seemly hour of the morning, but now with the sun firmly hanging in the morning sky, she had no more excuses to make. Mac rallied her courage and dialled the dreaded number. He answered after three short rings.

“Chegwidden.”

“Good morning, Sir.”

“Colonel MacKenzie,” the Admiral replied, his tone guarded.

“Sir, I am calling to request permission for a week’s leave.”

“We’re short-staffed as it is, Colonel.” The Admiral’s reply was a loud, angry thing. “I don’t need to remind you of the SNAFU Imes left in her wake.”

Mac felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. “Sir,” she tried again. “It’s a family emergency. I wouldn’t ask if I had any other recourse.”

There was silence on the other end.

“Permission granted, Colonel,” he finally said. His tone could’ve turned the sun to ice. “I’ll find a way to have the office pick up your slack.” With that, he hung up on her.

As frustrating as that was, Mac knew she had bigger things to worry about. She glanced towards Juliette’s room, wondering at how long a nap she could catch before the teenager woke up and the day truly had to begin. A couple of hours at least, she told herself. She abandoned the idea of going to her room and lay down on the couch instead. A couple of hours, at least.

----

“So I have to stay with you?” Jay peered at Mac over her bowl of cereal. Mac was thankful she had fresh milk in her fridge. She suspected the cereal might be a bit stale, but Juliette hadn’t commented on it.

“I would like to petition the court for temporary custody,” Mac answered. “If you agree.”

“What choice do I have?” Juliette asked, she stared at the cereal in her bowl. The soggy flakes floated listlessly.

“Well, you can’t stay by yourself. The city would probably put you in a group home, given your age.” Mac studied the girl, trying to figure out if Jay didn’t want to stay with her, or if she didn’t trust Mac to follow through on her promise.

“You’re okay with me staying here?” Jay asked quietly. She didn’t look up from her milk.

“More than okay.”

No response.

“Juliette,” she said. “If you’re not comfortable here, you don’t have to stay. Child Services will be coming by soon, and you can tell them the full truth. I can even leave the room while you do. Okay?”

“I don’t want to go to a group home,” Jules mumbled. Mac could see tears in her eyes. “I was fine by myself.”

“This is just temporary,” Mac tried to assure her. She tried to reassure herself, too. What else could she have done. No fourteen year-old should be by herself, mending a broken heart. “Until the police figure out what happened to your father.”

“He left,” Jay replied sullenly. “What else is there to figure out.”

“Hey,” Mac said. She waited for Juliette to look up so she could maintain eye contact with the girl. “What your dad or did not do; that’s not your fault. None of it.”

Jay looked away. “I was fine by myself,” she repeated.

“I know this is a difficult adjustment,” Mac told her. “I know you’d rather be by yourself, but staying here means you get warm meals and a bed. You’ll have your own room. In exchange, there are house rules.”

“What kinds of rules?”

“Some chores. The school year starts in a week, and we have to enroll you. No going out at 11PM by yourself,” she added that last one mostly to try and get a smile out of the girl. It sort of worked.

“I guess those aren’t so bad.”

They sat in silence, eating stale cereal. Mac planned a grocery list in her head, wondering what kinds of foods the girl liked. She was about to ask, when she realized that Jay was staring at her intently.

“What is it?” she asked.

Jay shook her head. She looked away.

“Jay,” Mac encouraged gently. “You can ask me anything.”

“What happens after?” she asked, afraid and courageous all at once. Mac watched as Jay slipped her armour back on; a metal shield over a soft target.

“I don’t know,” Mac said honestly. “I won’t make you promises or give you assurances I can’t keep. We’ll have to figure that out once we get there.”

“Do you think they’ll find him?” She was looking down at her lap now, her voice tiny.

“I know the police are going to try their very best.”

She retreated back into her shell, and Mac wanted so badly to draw her out.

“I answered your question,” Mac finally said. “Can I ask one of my own?”

“Okay,” Jay agreed uncertainly.

“What do your friends really call you?”

“What?” Jay replied, startled. Her eyes went wide.

“No one’s ever really called you Jay before, have they.” Mac said.

“How did you know I made that up?” she stared at Mac, incredulous.

“I have a built-in lie detector.”

The girl frowned, unsure whether to take her seriously.

Mac grinned. “And your eyebrow does this upturn thing when you lie.”

Jay deflated. Anxiety filled her gaze. “Are you mad I lied?”

“Of course not,” Mac assured. “That’s hardly a reason to get mad.”

“I didn’t want to give a stranger my real name,” Jay told her. When she realized that Mac was genuinely not upset, she relaxed. Her tone turned teasing. “Even in exchange for candy.”

“Smart girl.” Mac smiled. “So: shall I call you Juliette? How about Jules? We can stick with Jay, if you like.”

“I like Jules,” she replied shyly. “No one’s called me that before.” Mac found herself charmed. Her heart shifted, slow and lumbering in her chest. Stretching after a deep sleep.

“Then Jules it is.”

---

Mac watched Jules, who was sitting anxiously on the sofa next to her.

Maureen O’Conner, from Child Services was asking the tough, necessary questions while a Det. Jameson was jotting down notes in his pad.

“Why were you living in a basement the Colonel found you in, Juliette?” Maureen, a middle-aged lady with soft eyes and a straight back, paid little attention to Mac as she spoke. She was focussed on Jules.

“I saw an eviction notice on our apartment door four months ago,” Jules replied. She shrugged. She looked so little and lost. “I took my things and left before anyone found out I was living alone in there.”

“And that’s when you moved to the basement?”

Jules nodded.

“Did you go back to your apartment?”

Jules nodded again. She looked at her hands. “I go once a month. To check if dad has maybe come back.”

Mac watched Det. Jameson’s jaw clenched in sympathy for the girl, anger at her father.

“He left you money for groceries before he left?” Maureen asked.

“Yeah. Fifty dollars,” she replied. “It ran out a month after I left the apartment. I went to subway stations and pretended I didn’t have enough money to make the fare. It worked pretty well. I made enough to eat. And the store I went to for food, the owner had some old items he was selling cheap. That helped.”

“The Colonel is petitioning the court for custody while the police search for your father,” Maureen watched the girl carefully. “How do you feel about staying here?”

Jules inched closer to Mac on the sofa. She shrugged.

Maureen waited. Mac studied Jules, wondering what the girl was thinking.

“If you like,” Maureen said, “the Colonel can leave the room so we can talk, just the two of us.”

A look of alarm overtook Jules’ face. She slid even closer to Mac on the couch.

“No,” she said.

“That’s fine, Juliette,” Maureen soothed. “Mac can stay in the room. Would you like to live with Mac until your father is found?”

Juliette was silent for a long time.

“Since my mom died, no one paid any attention to me,” she said. “Except Mac.” Her eyes filled with tears that hung stubbornly to her lashes. She looked at Det. Jameson. “You’re not going to find my dad,” she told him. “He doesn’t want me.”

“Juliette,” Det. Jameson began, looking stricken. “Your fath--”

“It’s true,” she cut him off. She wiped away the tears from her eyes, and the fight left her. She sniffed. “I want to stay here,” she said it quietly, haltingly, as if afraid to voice the wish aloud.

---

“There are a lot of vegetables in there,” Jules eyed their grocery cart dubiously.

“We’re making up for lost time,” Mac said, perusing the selection of broccoli in front of her. She should’ve written down Harm’s recipe for vegetarian lasagne when she had the chance, she thought. It had been really tasty, if she remembered correctly, and would be even tastier with some ground beef thrown in. “This is as big a sacrifice for me as it is for you.”

Jules wasn’t convinced.

“Why don’t you pick out some fruit?” Mac suggested.

“Can I get bananas and oranges?”

“Get whatever you want,” Mac replied as she tried to figure out what good broccoli was supposed to look like. “Whatever you want from the fruit aisle,” she thought to add when she spotted the way Jay’s eyes lit up.

The girl frowned. Mac could only grin. “Tell you what, once we’re done getting the healthy stuff that’s good for the both of us, we can hit the dessert aisle.” A much deserved reward, Mac thought, after the difficult session with Child Services and the police.

“Really? I could get chocolate cake?”

“And ice cream.”

“You have a deal.”

--

“That was amazing,” Jules said, as they walked out of the planetarium’s theatre. She was practically skipping. “The night sky is so pretty.”

“It really is,” Mac agreed.

“I’ve never seen so many stars before.”

“We could go camping one day,” Mac said, drawn in by Jules’ enthusiasm.

“Really?”

“Sure. I used to go with my uncle all the time, in Arizona. We used to go looking for ichnites.”

“For what?”

“Dinosaur footprints.”

Jules stopped walking and stared at Mac, jaw dropped and eyes wide.

Mac laughed. She used a finger to close Jules’ jaw. “It’s true,” she said. “We can go. We have to wait for the sites to open, though, maybe around Memorial weekend?”

“We can go look for dinosaur footprints?”

“It can be a lot of fun.”

Jules suddenly shook herself out of her stupor. She shrugged, and tried to look indifferent but Mac could tell the idea really captured her imagination. She wanted to go.

“Maybe,” she said. She started to walk away, when Mac stopped her.

“Jules,” Mac said. She tried to cup Jules’ chin, but the girl moved away, sullen and quiet. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. If the police will find your dad, if you’ll have to go back and live with him or not. I don’t want to make you promises I can’t keep. But,” she continued. “I can promise you that I will take you camping in Arizona next summer. The night sky is gorgeous down there, and I’d like to share it with you.”

Jules looked up at Mac, searching her face for the truth. There was so much distrust in there.

“Hey,” Mac changed the topic, figuring the girl needed time to process. “What’s your opinion on insects?”

“Insects?”

“You can’t be afraid of them if you want to camp in the Arizona desert.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said defiantly, all teenaged pride.

Mac hid her smile.

“Perfect,” she said instead. “Because the Natural History Museum has an insect zoo, and they’re going to be feeding the tarantulas soon.”

Jules’ eyes lit up.

“Want to go?”

“Yes,” the teen nodded enthusiastically, with a flash of a grin that she was then quick to hide. She schooled her features and shrugged indifferently, looking a bit embarrassed. “I mean, sure.”

---

“What is it?” Jules asked, looking at the plate in front of her.

“It’s supposed to be macaroni casserole,” Mac replied. According to the recipe she’d followed, at least. She frowned, staring at her own plate. “I’ll admit it looks a bit…”

“Disgusting?” Jules suggested.

Mac couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that’s one word for it. Maybe it tastes better than it looks.”

“You first,” Jules said, eyeing her food dubiously.

The marine stared hard at their supposed dinner. “You know what?” she looked at Jules. “I think we can call tonight’s dinner a failed experiment. Let’s go get some pizza. Grab your coat.”

Jules didn’t have to be told twice. A half hour later, they were seated at a cozy Italian place with checkered tablecloths and flickering candle light.

Mac thought of all the half-veggie, half-meat pizzas she used to order from here when she and Harm worked from her place. She and Jules had ordered a meat-only pizza, and a salad that Mac had insisted Jules eat. Harm would’ve been proud of her, she thought.

“Did you mean what you said?”

Mac looked up at Jules’ question. The girl was playing with her napkin, twisting it over and over with her fingers.

“What I said?” Mac asked.

“About going camping. Seeing the stars and hunting for dinosaur tracks.”

“I did,” Mac said. Jules didn’t reply, and Mac bit back a sigh. “Jules,” she said, “I know it’s hard for you to believe me. All I ask is that you give this, give us a chance.”

Jules was silent for a few moments.

“What happened to your dad?” she asked Mac. She kept winding and unwinding her napkin between her fingers.

“He died a few years ago,” Mac replied. She looked down at her hands. So many years, and still the scene was raw. “I didn’t see him once I left home and joined the Marines. I was too mad at him for all he’d done.”

“You never saw him again?” she asked in surprise. She was observing Mac intently now, her napkin forgotten.

“I went to visit him when he was dying, at his hospice. I didn’t want to, but,” Mac shrugged. “I went. I think a part of me wanted to confront him, to tell him how much hurt he’d caused me, to prove how far I’d come without him.”

“Did you?” Jules asked, her voice barely a whisper.

“By the time I got there,” Mac said, “it was too late.”

There were tears in Jules’ eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Hey,” Mac reassured her. “It’s okay. I learned a lot when I went to visit him; about myself and about him. I blamed him for all the things he’d done and I spent so much time being angry, but the truth was that he tried his best. His best just wasn’t enough.”

“So you forgave him?”

“Forgiveness is such a big word,” Mac answered. She stared into the flickering candle. “I’d say I reached an understanding. It helped to know where he was coming from, why he did what he did, why he couldn’t give me what I wanted; what I needed.”

Jules let out a long, slow breath. Mac wondered if what she’d said was helping the girl in any way.

“You said your mom left,” Jules said. “Did she ever come back?”

“She went to see my dad at the hospice, too,” Mac answered. “I saw here there.”

“What happened?” Jules asked.

This was the part Mac still had so much difficulty talking about. The part she hadn’t really spoken with anyone else about, before. She took a long, slow breath.

“I realized that my mom, well, she tried her best, too. And like with my dad, it wasn’t enough. Maybe I had spent so much time being angry at my dad, I didn’t let myself admit that my mom had made a choice when she left us. When she left me.”

Tears came to Jules’ eyes. “It hurts,” she whispered. “Sometimes, it hurts a lot.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Mac replied. She felt herself tear up at the girl’s pain. “I know it does.”

“Where’s your mom now?” Jules asked, wiping away the tear stains on her cheeks.

“I don’t know,” Mac replied honestly. “She didn’t keep in touch.”

This brought fresh tears to Jules’ eyes.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Jules said. She sobbed. Mac stood up from her chair and drew Jules into a tight hug, ignoring the curious and concerned stares she was receiving from other patrons.

“I’m right here,” Mac told the girl. “I promise.” She put her hands on Jules’ shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Even though I couldn’t cook us dinner to save my life,” she teased, trying for some humour.

Jules gave her a watery smile for her efforts. The tips of her ears were quick to turn red, though, as she realized the attention she was getting from the people in the restaurant.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m embarrassing you.”

“Not at all,” Mac grinned. “Wait until the pizza comes, the pepperoni here is so good, it’ll have you crying again.”

Jules smiled genuinely at that. She searched Mac’s face for a moment, and then looked down at her shoes. She bit her lip.

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

Mac slid her fingers through Jules’ hair. “Anytime,” she said. “Anytime.”

--

“The school looked nice,” Jules said, watching Mac as she rifled through a rack of shirts at the clothing store they were in. All of the teen’s clothes were too worn to be considered acceptable by Mac’s standards. By most standards, really.

“It did, didn’t it?” Mac agreed.

“It was big.”

Mac glanced over at Jules. The girl was too busy to notice Mac’s appraising glance.

“It’ll be your first year in high school,” Mac said. They still had to buy school supplies, before the academic year officially launched. Mac made yet another mental list.

“Yeah,” the girl nodded. “I think it’s a good thing.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because.” Jules shrugged. She then changed the topic. “The principal we met this morning said I have to take the test before they let me into the high school.”

“Only because you missed a lot of your last year of school.” Mac assured the girl. It hung unsaid between them that Jules had missed a lot of school due to her mother’s illness and death.

“You’re smart,” Mac continued. “The test isn’t for another week, and we’re going to work hard on preparing it.”

“You think I’ll pass it?”

“With flying colours, kid.” Mac noted that Jules still looked thoughtful. “What are you thinking, Jules?”

“Everyone at my old school knew about my mom and my dad,” she said after a long silence.

Mac put away the shirt she was holding and focused her attention on the girl.

“They sort of felt bad for me. Some made fun.” she picked at a loose thread on one of the sweaters hanging on the rack in front of her. She shrugged. “Here, no one will know who I am. Maybe it’ll be better?” She looked up hopefully at Mac.

For all she’d been through, Mac sometimes forgot Jules was just a child with everyday insecurities. Everyday insecurities made worse by her father’s behaviour.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Jules,” Mac said, meaning every word. “You’re remarkable.”

Jules flushed, from the tips of ears to her neck. But she shrugged, as though the words didn’t mean much of anything. Mac slid her fingers through the soft strands of Jules’ hair.

“It’s okay to be a bit nervous,” Mac said. “I still get butterflies in my stomach before I walk into court, and I’ve been doing that for years.”

“Did you have friends in high school?” she asked.

“Not the good kind,” Mac replied truthfully.

“That doesn’t sound very promising.”

“You’re way smarter than I ever was,” Mac assured her.

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Is it working?”

Jules was quiet for a moment. “Maybe a little, actually.”

“Good.”

Jules went back to rifling through the sweaters in front of her. A very purple one caught the girl’s eye.

“Oh,” she said. “That’s pretty.”

“Let’s get it in your size, then,” Mac said. “You can try it on for fit.”

“No,” Jules hedged, closing up once again. Retreating. “It’s okay.”

Mac hid a frown, worried and to be perfectly honest a bit whiplashed by the abrupt shifts in Jules’ moods today.

“How about we take a break?” Mac offered. “Let’s get some hot chocolate. It’s been a long morning. We can finish shopping later.”

“If you want,” Jules agreed, but Mac didn’t miss the gratitude in her expression.

---

“Colonel MacKenzie?”

“Speaking,” Mac said into the telephone receiver.

“This is Detective Jameson from the 2nd Police District, returning your call.”

“Det. Jameson,” Mac greeted. “I was just calling for an update. Have you located David Spencer?”

“Not yet, Colonel,” the detective replied. “The case is still a top-priority at the precinct, and we have a team of four working the case.”

“Any leads?”

“Afraid not. We thought we had a sighting in Virginia, but it was a false ID. Our M.E. is comparing Spencer’s medical records with the John Does in the morgue, but five months is a long time to cover and we don’t have any dental records to go on.”

“Thanks for returning my call, Det. Jameson. I appreciate it.”

“I’ll keep you in the loop, Colonel. You have my word.” He paused. “How’s Juliette doing?”

“Adjusting,” Mac replied. “She’s doing well given all she’s been through.”

“If we find that guy alive,” Jameson said, “I don’t know how I’ll keep from slugging him for all the pain he’s caused.”

You and me both, Mac thought. She didn’t say it aloud though.

“Take care, Colonel.”

“Thank you, Detective.”

Mac hung up the phone and wandered into the kitchen, where Jules was hard at work preparing for her high school qualifying test.

“Hey, Jules,” she said.

“Hm?”

“Have you ever been to the dentist’s?”

The teen looked up. She shook her head.

“I’ll make an appointment,” Mac said.

Jules dropped her head heavily onto the table. She groaned. “You’re on a power trip with this guardian thing.”

“And enjoying every minute of it,” Mac threw over her shoulder as she headed into the living room, already dialing the dentist’s phone number.

------

“So,” Jules said, as they sat on Mac’s couch. She picked at the tassels on one of the plush cushions. “You go back to work tomorrow.”

“And you start high school.”

Jules grinned, but it was a restrained version of her usual.

“Excited, huh?”

“It’ll be nice to go where no one knows me,” she said, and then sighed heavily.

“What is it?”

Jules searched Mac’s face. “This is all going to end one day, isn’t? I’ll have to go back to my old school and my old life and…”

“Hey, come here,” Mac tugged Jules into her side. “No matter what happens,” she said, “I promise I will always be a part of your life. However you want, any time you need.”

Jules slowly wrapped her arms around Mac’s waist. It was the first time the girl had reciprocated any affection.

“I like it here,” she mumbled. “It’s like a dream.”

“I like having you here,” Mac said. Jules made her feel like she’d regained some footing in reality after being dissociated from it for so long.

“I don’t want it to go back to before,” Jules said.

Mac didn’t know what to say, so she just held on to Jules more tightly.

-----

“You’ll love it,” Mac assured the anxious teen sitting next to her, in the passenger seat of her Corvette.

Jules looked around at the expansive high school grounds, at the shrieking teens, and the overwhelming whirl of activity.

“It’s quite different from my quiet basement,” she finally said.

Mac found herself laughing. “Kid, wait until you hit study hall. It’ll be like being right back in that basement.”

Jules grinned at her temporary guardian. “Wish me luck?”

“You don’t need luck,” Mac replied. “But just in case, I have may have snuck a piece of chocolate cake in your lunch.”

“Really?” Jules’ expression lit up.

“Yep.” Mac grinned. “I’ve gotten pretty good at this guardian thing, haven’t I?”

“The cooking still needs work,” Jules teased.

“Alright, smart alec,” Mac said, shaking her head in amusement. “Go on. Get out there.”

“Bye, Mac,” Jules said as she stepped out of the car.

“Have fun, Jules. I’ll be here to pick you up when school lets out.”

Mac watched as Jules shut the door behind her. A gaggle of boys and girls stopped and stared at the Corvette. One stepped up to Jules.

“Awesome ride,” he said.

“Thanks,” Jules replied. Mac could hear her nerves. She hesitated, her hand on the gearshift. Maybe it was too soon…

“My name’s Jake. This is Lucy,” he pointed to one of the girls in the group. He went around introducing her to each of the kids standing around him. Liz. Aaron. Suzy. Jules looked overwhelmed, but the grin she was wearing threatened to split her face in two.

Mac found herself grinning too and, just for good measure, let her engine rumble deliciously before she drove off.

-----

Mac walked into JAG after a week away, and wondered at the change in her disposition. She felt … happier.

The thought caught her by surprise. There was a definite spring in her step. There was more sunlight than usual in the JAG offices, spilling through the windows in bright streaks. She grinned at anyone she crossed in the hallway and in the bullpen.

“Colonel,” Bud said as she entered the break room. “Morning, Ma’am.”

“Morning, Bud,” she greeted cheerily. She poured herself a steaming cup of coffee. She had no doubt that after a week of leave, the paperwork on her desk had reached Everest-like proportions. The thought didn’t even faze her.

Bud stared gape-jawed at her wide grin and general air of happiness, before catching himself. “The Admiral said you had a family emergency. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s great, Bud.” She turned to head out of the break room and conquer that pile of paperwork. She had no doubt the Admiral had probably added whatever he could find to it, just to make a point.

“So, uh, you heard?” Bud said.

“Heard what?” Mac paused in her exit.

“Well, um, I assumed you were smiling because you knew…”

“Spit it out, Bud,” she said, her tone holding only curiosity.

“The Commander’s back.”

At Mac’s blank stare, he elaborated: “Commander Rabb.”

Mac suddenly felt the keen need to sit down. “The Commander is back?” She glanced towards his old office.

“Oh, he’s not in his old office, Ma’am. He’s down the hall. The old supply closet.”

“Supply closet?” Mac repeated. Was this a joke.

“The Admiral couldn’t handle the backlog, what with Imes not really being a lawyer, and us already being short a senior attorney, and then you took leave…”

So the Admiral went hat in hand to Harm? The sheer idea of it seemed so preposterous to Mac, she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

Bud cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I thought you knew. I’d assumed that’s why you were so...happy this morning.”

Mac cleared her throat. “I’ll be in my office if I’m needed,” she told him. “I have a lot to catch up on.”

She thought of facing off against him in court again. The prospect of it brought many feelings to the surface, too many to untangle. She wondered how long she would last before the inevitable run-in with him.

She didn’t last very long at all, as it turned out. She walked out of the break room, and right into Harm’s tall form. Solid reflexes and the grace of God were all that kept her from spilling her coffee all over his pressed whites.

“Colonel,” he said, his tone cool and collected. He looked … good. Slightly tanned. He’d bulked up a bit, solid and muscular. He was just as tall, she thought inanely. The blue of his eyes held no warmth.

“Commander,” she replied, anything but cool and collected.

“Sir, Ma’am.”

They both turned at the sound of Coates’ voice.

“The Admiral would like to see you in his office.”

“Thank you, Petty Officer,” Mac replied, relieved at the interruption. The anger in him was so close to the surface that any respite, some distance, was welcome. “I’ll just set this cup down in my office.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Coates replied. Harm remained silent, but she felt his chilly stare as she walked to her office.

--------

“At ease,” the Admiral told them from across his desk. “Have a seat.”

They both sat down, as ordered.

Mac worked very hard not to look at Harm. She hadn’t seen him in ... well, she knew exactly how much time it had been, right down to the seconds, but that didn’t mean she would admit it to herself.

“I trust your family emergency was resolved satisfactorily?” the Admiral asked her.

In her peripheral vision, she watched Harm perk up at hearing this information.

“More or less, Sir,” she replied. “If I could have a minute of your time after this meeting.”

“Granted,” he said, but not very happily, before he turned his attention to the business of the day. “Colonel, Commander, I’m teaming you two up to review all of Imes’ cases. Commanders Turner and Roberts will be taking lead on all new cases until you finish your assignment.”

So they were both in the doghouse, Mac thought. On the one hand, reviewing old cases meant she wouldn’t be travelling much of anywhere in the near future. She could focus her attention on Jules. On the other hand...she didn’t dare look in Harm’s direction.

“You can set up in the conference room. Rabb, you can brief the Colonel on what she’s missed out on so far.” He turned to Mac. “Colonel, I am sure you can find time to catch up on your Chief of Staff duties?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Admiral’s already stern gaze turned even more stern. He looked from her to the Commander.

“I trust you two can behave like professionals.” It was not a question.

“Yes, Sir,” they answered in unison.

“Commander, you’re dismissed.”

“Aye, Sir.” Rabb stood up. He left the office without a backward glance.

The Admiral focused his full attention on her. In another world, in another time, his assessing gaze would not have been so hard and unyielding.

“You wanted to speak with me, Colonel?”

“Sir. I’ve been granted temporary custody of a teenaged girl--”

“She’s family?” the Admiral interrupted, his interest piqued.

“She is family now, Sir.”

The Admiral frowned, clearly not sure what to do with that answer.

“The police are currently searching for her father,” Mac continued. “Her mother passed away last year.”

“What happened to her father?”

“Unknown, Sir. He could be dead, he could … have left.”

The Admiral cocked his head to the side, watching her with the penetrating stare he’d mastered somewhere along the way.

“How long will you have custody of the child?”

“Until they find her father.”

“And if they don’t?”

Mac didn’t know the answer to that.

The Admiral leaned forward in his chair. “Mac,” he said, “what’s happening here?”

“She has no one, Admiral.”

“Is this about her, or is this about you?”

“It’s about second chances, Sir.”

He raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“For both us,” she acknowledged. She held his gaze sure and steady. It took two beats, but he softened. Or he gave up. She couldn’t tell.

“I don’t expect you’ll be traveling much in the next little while,” he said. “Imes left quite the mess behind. You’ll have your hands full cleaning it up.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Dismissed.”

Mac stood up.

“Colonel.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Rescuing another isn’t the same as rescuing ourselves.” At her silence, he gave her a pointed look. “Someone else in this office learned that lesson recently.” He didn’t wait for her reply. “You’re dismissed,” he said.

She turned sharply on her heel and left.

------

Mac sat across from Harm in the conference room. A large expanse of polished oak separated them. Its gleaming wood littered with files and legal pads and open volumes. Case boxes were stacked neatly on the floor around them; a makeshift fortress of cardboard containers that held the weight of the law and precedent and the hallowed search for justice. Cardboard containers that also held the work of a woman who’d lied about passing the bar.

They’d been working in silence since morning. He’d stepped out for lunch with Bud and Sturgis, while she’d worked through with a ham sandwich and a cold cup of coffee. She wanted to make sure she was able to leave work with ample time to pick up Jules. Mac wanted to be there for the girl, at least for the first week of school, even if the high school was within walking distance of their apartment.

It was about making a point to the girl; proving herself.

Her pen scratched lightly against paper as she took notes. Harm flipped a page, the sound a sharp break in the otherwise oppressive silence.

She shifted uneasily in her chair. His brow tightened at the rustle of her uniform fabric against the upholstery.

Anger came off him in waves. Anger, disappointment, stubborn righteousness. They rolled onto the table, over the files and legal pads between them, and pushed against her feigned wall of impassivity. Searched for any crack in her armour. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure of finding one.

Finally, her internal clock told her it was time to go. Strange thing about that clock of hers: she could mark each passing second, knew exactly how long she had been sitting here. The exact, objective, quantifiable measure of time that had slipped by. And yet this felt like the longest day of her life.

She capped her pen. Made a neat pile of her notes. Closed the volumes she would no longer need; marked the pages in the books she would have to return to. Mac cleared her throat. She stood.

“Well. Bye,” she told him, mostly out of courtesy.

He stopped reading the file in front of him. His eyes flicked up to hers. One eyebrow quirked. It too early for quitting time, by her usual standards. They both knew that.

She didn’t need to give him an explanation. She pushed her chair back and headed for the exit.

“Hot date with the spook.” The snark in his tone could be heard from space.

She didn’t bother answering.

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Replies:

[> Excellant...I am hooked. -- FJN, 13:42:53 11/10/13 Sun [1]

Post again soon, please.


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[> Glad it's going to be longer. This was a great chapter. Can't wait for more. -- Beth, 14:14:58 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> Beautifully written, intriguing, lots of depth - I'm loving this. Loved Chegwidden's line about rescuing others not being the same as rescuing ourselves. Looking forward to more. -- Dee, 16:34:17 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> I also am hooked. Too bad it nearly is bedtime for me. -- Laurence, 16:56:19 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> I am so glad that you gave Mac another Chloe who needs her. I am interested in seeing how you thaw the ice between Mac and Harm. I am hooked as wel - anxiously awaiting the next chapter. -- Debbi, 17:25:42 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> Ooh this is good, I'm hooked too -- Alexa, 17:26:04 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> I'm so hooked, can't wait to read more! -- Ciara, 20:23:11 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> You've got me, too. With only one part left, there is going to be quite a lot to cover -- hopefully, soon........ -- carramor, 21:00:42 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> [> Just realized this was part 2 of 4, vs 3 -- looking forward to what's coming next........ -- carramor, 21:04:15 11/10/13 Sun [1]


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[> Excited to see the update. You are crafting such a beautiful story - well done! -- Nettie, 04:42:18 11/11/13 Mon [1]


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[> ooh so looking forward to the next chapter Keru -- Bev uk, 06:10:01 11/11/13 Mon [1]


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[> You've come back with a smashing success, loving it! -- JoyZ, 10:10:35 11/11/13 Mon [1]


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[> Loving this story! I am looking forward to the next installments. Thanks. -- Kelsey, 11:48:47 11/12/13 Tue [1]


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