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Date Posted: 13:29:20 03/04/06 Sat
Author: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett
Subject: Re: FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Ch 7
In reply to: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett 's message, "FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Ch 7" on 13:01:08 03/04/06 Sat

FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL

By Sylvia Bartlett Mohr

Chapter 7: Workin' My Way Back to You


Section Two: NCIS Investigates



The ship's XO lead the NCIS Agent into Dr. Reyes office, where Admiral Chegwidden sat behind the desk reviewing a fax of PO Tiner's handwritten statement of the call from Doctor Mahlberg. It had been terribly hard on Bud Roberts reviewing and witnessing the document and unfortunately it had fallen on him to take the statement out of the Admiral's safe and fax it to AJ on the Seahawk. He looked up and returned the XO's salute. The man seemed to be showing extra deference to make up for the fact the NCIS agent did not have to show military respect to rank, even to either Admiral. It was one of the things that made NCIS about as popular with the military as IA was with the average cop.

This particular Special Agent was already setting AJ's teeth on edge even before he opened his mouth. He just had that look of somebody who was going to challenge everyone and everything. The man simply only gave a nod, his blue eyes cold and calculating. "Admiral Chegwidden, my forensic specialist is already gathering evidence of the alleged damage from unfriendly fire on the Tomcat flown by Commander Rabb."

"Alleged? What you think he shot up his own plane or something?" Boone stood up, his fists at his side, but ready to take on all comers.

"Stand down, Tom." AJ snapped. "Special Agent, you may not have to abide by military courtesy, but there is no reason you can't introduce yourself to us, unless you just want to be rude."

"Agent Leroy Gibb, Admiral Chegwidden, and you must be Admiral Thomas Boone. You must admit your personal relationship with Commander Rabb does not make you an unbiased observer." Gibbs challenged the older man. "His father's wing man in Viet Nam and Rabb has saved your life and your career on more than one occasion."

"Too damn right he has."

AJ interrupted before a pissing match could ensue. "Look, the JAGman into the interdiction is only yours for collection of forensic evidence."

"Yes. On the other matter, what initially caused Doctor Reyes to question what was keeping Commander Rabb unconscious and unresponsive?"

"I suggest you ask that question of the Doctor." Chegwidden retorted. "This is a fax of a statement from my Petty Officer regarding the call he received from Doctor Mahlberg."

Gibbs accepted the paper and reviewed it. He looked up. "Surely your PO should have turned the call over to you or your Chief of Staff when the nature of it became apparent."

"I had been called to the Secretary of the Navy's office and my Chief of Staff happens to have been sent out here to investigate the interdiction. Colonel MacKenzie will be available to give you her statement on what occurred shortly, but she is resting right now."

"And, what about this Commander Turner? Why would you send the man's former partner and his former Academy roommate to investigate his blowing the hell out of a ship of foreign registry on international waters? Surely you have some idea of how that might play in the press."

"Look, Gibbs, I don't have to justify my assignments to you or any one else. It is a damn good thing I did send Commander Turner. He is part of the reason Commander Rabb is still with us and not on a slab sans a few organs right now."

"Allegedly."

"Allegedly hell! The communications department intercepted and recorded several of the doctor's bidding calls even though he placed them on a satellite cellular." Now AJ was pissed. This was beyond toleration limits. "Rabb heard the man offering his organs up to bid. He was helpless to do anything but he heard."

Gibbs looked a little shocked at that information. "What? If he was unconscious, how could he have?"

Doctor Studevant had just walked in. "The commander was not unconscious at the time; he was paralyzed by curare and given other drugs which suppressed his appearance of CNS signs, but he was quite conscious when Mahlberg called Tiner and when he opened his cell phone up for bids. He remembers it."

"I'll need to get his statement as soon as possible." The agent said quickly.

"No way in hell…" Boone said.

The doctor cut in. "I will decide when my patient can give any statements and he is a long way from being up to that. You can get statements from Doctor Reyes, his lab results that show the drug combination that was used, statements from the corpsman who initially alerted Reyes to concerns, Admiral Chegwidden and Admiral Boone both heard Rabb recite what had happened, but you will have to wait to get statements from Commander Turner and his father, the Chaplain, as they are needed by my patient right now."

"You are not Doctor Reyes?"

"No. I'm Doctor Louis Studevant. I practice out of Bethesda, but I am an expert on curare and toxic and/or adverse reactions to it which unfortunately the commander is now experiencing. I also happen to be Commander Harmon Rabb Jr.'s flight surgeon stateside, so I am very familiar with his medical history."

"A doctor from Bethesda making house calls to a carrier at sea. Why does this man get such special treatment?"

"I just told you the reason. I'm the leading expert on reactions to curare. Ask Ducky, if you won't take my word for it. He knows me quite well."

"Doctor, I wasn't questioning your expertise. I just didn't think someone of your level made 'house calls' to a carrier."

"This emergency warranted special attention in light of the Commander's evident sensitivity to curare. It's a dangerous situation medically speaking. I'll be staying with the Commander until we can safely move him stateside." Studevant said, in a tone that would allow no further discussion of his point. "Now if you could wait outside a moment, Agent, I need to update the Admirals here and this does NOT need to be done in front of YOU."

"I think I need to hear anything relevant to this case." Gibbs said stubbornly.

"Like hell." The doctor snapped. "I decide things related to medical issues with complete autonomy and you do not need to be here for this. Now, I can call the Marines to escort you from the area if that is needed."

"I'll go check on my forensic specialist." Gibbs surrendered, but there was no grace in the withdrawal, only a seething belligerence.



After the NCIS agent had left the room, Boone ground out between clenched teeth. "I do not LIKE that man. Why in the hell did we have to draw him?"

"I asked for the best." AJ remarked chewing on his lip.

"If that's their 'best', I'd hate to make the acquaintance of their worst." Boone retorted.

"We aren't supposed to like them." Chegwidden came back.

"Good, because I don't." Boone finally subsided. "Now what's going on with Harm?"

"He came to and was violently ill. I had to give him something to control the nausea, so he's out again, but the problem is he seems to have misplaced quite a bit of time and memories. He thinks he and Sturgis are still roomies at the Academy."

"What?" Both AJ and Boone exclaimed at the same time.

"Are you saying he has amnesia or something worse?" Boone went on.

"Damn it, Tom. Why are you so paranoid he has some kind of brain damage?" The two star admiral was getting sick of that particular line of reasoning.

"Something Mahlberg said." The aviator admitted. "He said that the brain could be damaged by blood loss long before the other organs would give out. It just keeps coming to mind and it's gnawing at my gut."

"I wouldn't believe ANYTHING Mahlberg said." Chegwidden advised. "The man is a real bastard, as far as I am concerned."

"Well, duh? He tried to murder my godson, but that doesn't mean everything he said was a total lie either.

Both Admirals looked at the doctor, inquiringly.

"I see no reason to think Harm has brain damage, Admiral Boone. Chegwidden is right on that one. Mahlberg was trying to convince you to sign an authorization for organ removal."

The fax machine began to spit out sheets. Doctor Studevant went and began taking them up. "Damn. This is from Ducky at NCIS. There are at least 3 other cases since Mahlberg was activated from the reserves where he obtained organ donations after he determined the young men were legally brain dead. They are reviewing those cases now, but it looks like we have a serial killer on our hand. We need to get these to that NCIS Agent ASAP."

AJ held his hand out. "I want to see them, first. No, Tom. Let me. I don't think you need to read this." He reviewed the paperwork and sighed heavily. "Damn. Harm would have been at least the fourth. This Doctor is going to look further into the man's background, see how far back this has been going on. He has sent investigators to seize Mahlberg's financial records and get a complete history on his medical performance prior to this. Two Navy, one Marine – all male, all healthy until they were injured, all relatively alone in the world when it comes to relations."

"Wait a minute. Harm is not alone. He has a mother and grandmother who care a great deal, not to mention Frank would move heaven and earth for him."

"Not to put too fine a point on this, but Harm's mother hasn't been to one of his promotion or medal ceremonies since I've known him. It may be that he keeps her at arm's length, but the fact is she is kept pretty much on the periphery of his day to day life." Chegwidden stated emphatically. "I'm not saying he doesn't love her and the other way around. I mean relatives who would be consulted before certain decisions were made. Sturgis holds Harm's power of attorney on legal issues. Before that, he didn't even have any one listed that I know of. To be specific, when he has been injured in the past, the doctors have consulted with me or Mac, not his mother or Frank."

"He's trying to protect his Mom and Frank from knowing some of the risks he takes." Boone admitted. "He never wanted her, in particular, to hear the citations read on his medals. She'd know some of the crazy stunts he's pulled even more than what coverage reaches her out there in California. He doesn't like to worry her."

"I talked to her on the phone when we learned he'd been hurt. She seems pretty aware of the risks he runs to me; resigned to them, but aware." AJ responded. "Frankly I think she worries more because he keeps so much from her."

"Yeah, well, try and convince Harm Jr. of that. He's thought it was his job to protect his mom and not the other way around, ever since his daddy went down. He was only five, but he sure ran interference for her. He'd try and keep the information officers away from her. Get them to talk to him. Not that he succeeded, but he tried." Tom's eyes were sad, remembering a childhood cut short in so many ways. "He grew up way too fast."

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