FWWATT Chapter 8 Section Two -- JAG Safe Haven Fan Fiction

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Date Posted: 10:21:19 03/07/06 Tue
Author: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett
Subject: FWWATT Chapter 8 Section Two
In reply to: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett 's message, "FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Chapter 8" on 10:01:54 03/07/06 Tue

FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL

Chapter 8 : Don't Let It Slip Away

Section Two A Mother's Heart Hurts

By Sylvia Bartlett Mohr

In their home in La Jolla, California, Harm's mother was speaking to her husband. "I don't understand why we haven't heard any more about Harm. No one's keeping us updated. I have a terrible feeling about all of this. Something is very wrong. If it was only a wound to the arm, why hasn't anyone called us?"

"Trish, he's out on the Seahawk still. Perhaps with all this furor in the press about what he had to do, they just want to let him get some recovery time in on the ship away from reporters and such. Look at all the nonsense on ZNN, FOX and all the other news channels. This is the first time a plane has had to take out a ship in international waters since 9/11. I'm glad he doesn't have to see all the nonsense they are airing."

"Don't expect me to trust the military establishment to look out for his best interests." Trish snapped. "We both know how much they cared about the POW's. They sold men like Harm Sr. away for political expedience and they will destroy my son's career just as easily."

"Admiral Boone and Admiral Chegwidden will not let that happen. Right now, there is tremendous support for what Harm did. The press has been mostly positive. Of course, there were a few, at first, who spouted nonsense about the right to defend themselves of those on that ship, but that stopped once the recon footage was released. Since the first forensic reports began being leaked there has been nothing but support for his actions. That ship was going to mine Baltimore harbor and the explosives aboard would probably have been used against targets on land. Our son did his job and did it well out there, Trish. I'm proud of him and I'll say it again. I'm glad he doesn't have to listen to all these armchair pundits second guess everything he did."

"Well," Harm's mother conceded, "you are right about that. Frank, when he is released from the hospital, I want to bring him home. He needs time to recover and it would be so nice to have him here."

"That would be nice, darling. However, we both know Harm has a mind of his own. He's a grown man. He isn't likely to agree to being brought all the way out here, now is he? He'll say it's only a bum wing and want to get right back to work more than likely."

"Quiet, dear. They're talking about Harm." Trish Burnett turned up the volume on the TV which was tuned to ZNN.

"We have an update on the condition of Commander Harmon Rabb Jr. Our latest information indicates the Naval lawyer and aviator is battling life-threatening complications after his encounter with a terrorist vessel a few nights ago. Details are very sketchy, but we have been able to confirm that his condition is much more serious was previously indicated."

"We have verified that Admiral Chegwidden, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy himself flew out to the ship two days ago along with a retired Navy Chaplain. Naval Criminal Investigation Services has also been sent to the ship. While that may merely be to collect forensic evidence from the plane to support the necessity of the action taken; it is interesting that there has been such a complete news blackout. The Navy is refusing our requests for more information."

"From reliable sources, we have learned the commander is suffering from pneumonia and other unspecified, but extremely serious complications. We will give you more information as soon as we can obtain further details."

Trish clutched Frank's hand tightly. "Oh, God, see? I knew there was more then we were being told."

Her husband frowned. "Trish, I'm going to call some friends. See if I can call in some favors and get us more information. I should have trusted a mother's intuition." He was angry now. "Bill Lewis knows the current Secretary of the Navy. He should be able to arrange a phone call. We'll get to the bottom of this. I promise you that."

In Washington, Admiral Morris saw the report and immediately had Tiner place a shore to sea call to Chegwidden.

AJ Chegwidden was speaking with John Johns, the young Lt. j.g. who had been Harm's RIO on the flight when the call came in. "Hold on a moment, Doogie." He picked up the phone. "Chegwidden? What? Oh, hell. I'd better call Harm's mother and Frank. They are not going to be happy with me for not having contacted them sooner. What exactly did the report say? Wonderful. I want to know who leaked that information, damn it. This is the last thing we need. Make sure no one from our office confirms or denies anything. I don't want any details leaking out, do you hear me?" He paused to listen to what Morris had to say. "I'll be talking to SecNav shortly. Thanks for the heads up. I'll talk to you soon." He hung up.

"Trouble, sir?" The RIO said.

"There has been just enough of a leak on Rabb's condition to scare his mother out of her mind. I was hoping to get the Commander back to Bethesda before his mom and stepfather had to be informed of the details of what has happened. I should have known better. I'm sorry we are keeping you aboard so long, Lt. Johns, but the media frenzy if you were stateside would not be pleasant."

"Sir, don't worry about me. However, I would like to see Commander Rabb, Admiral."

"I understand, Lieutenant. I'll make that happen as soon as I can. Right now, he's not really up to visitors."

"I don't know him well, sir, but I like the Commander. He's a darn good stick and a swell guy. The things that you have told me about what has happened. It's like some sick horror movie. I-I can't believe he's had to go through all of that."

Chegwidden placed a reassuring hand on the young man's shoulder. "Harm will appreciate your concern. Don't worry. He's a survivor. We'll get him through this. Dismissed." The young aviation officer stood, came to attention and left.

Admiral Boone came in to the room as the young Rio left. "I sure am glad you thought to keep him aboard, Boone. I have got a bit of a mess on my hands." Chegwidden remarked thoughtfully.

"What now?"

"I have to call Harm's mom and stepfather. The press has leaked a report that his condition is more serious then originally thought and that I am aboard ship."

"I'd better back you up. Trish must be going ballistic if she's seen it." Tom pulled a card out of his shirt pocket. "Here's the number."

AJ accepted it like he was being handed a live hand grenade with no pin. "Tom, I am not certain a standard ship to shore communication is a very good idea right now. The media might be able to intercept it. How long would it take to get a secure line to Harm's folks or get them to a secure line?"

Tom frowned thoughtfully. "Either way, Trish is liable to have heart failure if a Navy sedan pulls up at their house unannounced. I would say get a secure portable out to the Burnett's ASAP, but warn them it's coming first."

"That is precisely what I was thinking." Chegwidden called the ship's communication department and arranged for the initial call to be placed to the Burnett's. Once that was being worked on, he called Admiral Morris to arrange for the secure line to be taken to their home as quickly as possible.

The phone rang almost as soon as he hung it up. "Hello, Mrs. Burnett? This is Admiral Chegwidden." He drew himself up to his full height.

"Admiral Chegwidden, what is going on out there? I understood my son was only suffering from a wound to his arm and, frankly, I was led to believe it was not that serious. Now I hear on ZNN that his condition is extremely serious and he is battling life-threatening complications. Which is more close to being an accurate estimation of his condition?"

The Admiral held back the briefest of instants before he responded. "The latter I am afraid, Mrs. Burnett."

In California, a mother's heart felt the iron clutch of fear at the somberness in the man's tone. She had met Admiral Chegwidden several times in the past. She had to admit, if she had met him before she met Frank, she would have set her cap on him. He was a magnificent specimen of manhood and every inch the officer and a gentleman her husband and her son were. In other words, as a younger woman might say, he was a dish, but he had never sound so worried and � afraid. Dear God, yes. There was an undercurrent of fear in his voice.

Frank grabbed her as she nearly collapsed. When the phone had rung and he had answered it and learned the call was the communications department of the ship their son was on, he had gently advised her of that and handed her the phone. This was as it had always been since they had met and begun to date. In matters of their son, he would always defer to her. He supported her until she was safely seated.

"Mrs. Burnett, are you still there? Are you all right?"

There was less steel and livid outrage in her voice when she spoke next. "Yes, Admiral. I am still here. Harm is alive, isn't he?" She dared voice her greatest fear.

AJ hurried on. "Yes. Of course, Mrs. Burnett. This would be handled quite differently if he was,�if he had died. He is in very serious condition, but he is definitely alive and he has given the Colonel and myself his word he would�'work his way back to' us." Chegwidden closed his eyes, remembering the scene, Harm begging his unseen, but no doubt present Father. "Don't go yet, Dad, please. I'm not ready for you to leave. Please can't we rest here, a little longer?"

"Harm, your father doesn't need you. We do." The Admiral had spoken gently, but firmly. "Time to come back to us. It won't be easy. You have to work at it."

"That figures." Harm had muttered. "Is anything in my life ever easy?"

"Aren't I worth it?" Sarah asked, bending over and kissing him gently on the cheek.

"You are definitely worth it. Life is worth it. I have to work my way back to you, though. Give me some time."

The Marine smiled. "All the time you need, sailor. But get it in gear, Navy."

"Yes, ma'am." Harm raised the hand strapped to his chest and Mac slid her fingers into his grip.

Mrs. Burnett spoke again. "What in the hell is going on, Admiral Chegwidden? Oh, enough of that. You can call me 'Trish' you know, you have before. I know this isn't a social call, but we have met and your name and rank is a bit of a mouthful to manage all the time."

AJ allowed himself a slight smile. It was easy to see where Harm got some of his iron character and down to earth quality from. "Yes, ma'am. If I'm going to be calling you Trish, you can call me AJ."

"I think for the time being I'll settle on Albert." Trish retorted.

Chegwidden winced. He hated being called his given first name. "I don't suppose I can persuade you to change your mind and go with AJ?"

"Not a chance in hell. I'll go back to Admiral, if you prefer."

"Al?" He wasn't quite sure why he was toying with her this way, during such a serious conversation.

"Albert Jethro?" She said, in tone that sounded just like his mom when he'd pissed her off as a kid.

"I'll settle for Albert." He sighed as he said it, and kicked Boone hard in the shin when he snorted and chuckled.

In California, Patricia Grace Burnett stiffened interrupting to ask, in suddenly icy tones. "I would know that snort and chuckle anywhere. Are you afraid to talk to a mother on your own, Albert? Surely it doesn't take two Admirals to convey whatever you wish to say to one little lady? Would you happen to have the capacity to put me on speaker phone?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Please, make it so. I'm liable to have a word or two to say to my son's godfather before we are finished with this conversation."

"Yes, Ma'am." The admiral agreed and moved towards the desk to accomplish the task. Boone winced when he realized what his fellow officer was up to and looked like he might make good an escape, but Chegwidden grabbed his wrist with an iron grasp as he pushed the button. "Can you hear me, Ma'am?"

"Albert Jethro Chegwidden, if you call me 'ma'am' one more time, I'll slap you silly the next time we meet. I am Trish or Mrs. Burnett. I am not, nor have I ever been a madam which is what ma'am is short for."

AJ had the grace to turn scarlet red and stutter. "Of course not, no such implication was intended."

"Relax, AJ. Trish is perfectly familiar with calling a female 'ma'am' as a term of respect. Both Harm's have always done it."

"Well, we hear from Dan'l's kin at last." Trish mocked, as if from an old habit. "And that was a habit learned from Sarah Rabb, not me. I never cared for it." There was imperiousness in the tone.

"Hello to you too, Trish." Boone retorted. "You know darn well I've never established I was actually descended from Daniel Boone."

"You old reprobate, do you have anything to do with why it has taken so long to inform me of the facts of Harm's true condition?" Trish thundered.

AJ answered that one for him, quickly. "No, Mrs. Burnett. You have only me to blame for that. I'll explain in more detail when the secure line arrives at your home. That is the main purpose of this call. A Navy sedan should be pulling in your driveway any time. They are bringing a scrambled phone so we can discuss details on what has been happening to your son since he was injured."

"Why should you need a secure line for that?" Trish sounded confused and looked worriedly at Frank, who was only hearing her end of the conversation at the moment.

"Trish, trust me. You don't want the details of this picked up by some ham operator or enterprising newshound and flashed around the world on ZNN. That would not be the wish of you, Frank, or your son." Tom Boone offered gently.

"Than it is more than just pneumonia?"

"It is much more complicated than that." Chegwidden admitted reluctant to even give this much information on this unsecured line.

"How much longer will it be until they arrive?" Trish asked. "And please tell me there isn't a Navy chaplain with them." Her voice sounded very anguished now.

"Trish, settle down. I can't give you an exact ETA, but it should be soon. There is no Navy Chaplain, just an officer from the nearest NCIS office because that was the easiest way to set this up quick." Boone hastened to explain.

"But the news said that a retired Navy Chaplain flew out to the ship with Admiral Chegwidden?"

"That would be Chaplain Turner, Trish." AJ replied.

"Oh, good. Matthew is with Harm?"

"Even as we speak. Both Matthew and Sturgis are with him."

"The Colonel is aboard as well? I assume, Albert, when you mentioned a Colonel and yourself receiving a promise from my son, you were referring to Sarah MacKenzie."

"You assume correctly, ma'am�er, Trish." AJ responded.

"I feel a bit better knowing it is Matthew who is with him. He and his wife were always so fond of my son from when he first arrived at Annapolis." Trish's voice was regaining some of its vigor. It had faded a bit as her evident anguish grew. "Can you at least assure me my son will recover completely?"

"Things look much better now than they did a few hours ago." Admiral Chegwidden responded cautiously, "but he has quite a ways to go before I can offer any guarantees, or give you any kind of time table for when he can be moved to Bethesda."

"Any chance you could just put him on a COD and ship him out here to the Naval Hospital in San Diego when he is ready to be moved."

"He's being attended by Dr. Studevant from Bethesda, Mrs. Burnett. You met him after Harm's time in the Atlantic? He's been his flight surgeon ever since."

Impatient and irritated, Patricia Burnett responded icily. "I recall quite well when I met him. 'Time in the Atlantic' indeed! You are referring to the last time my son almost died while in your service, Admiral. I want him home." The last sentence came out sounding petulant and Frank risked a slight frown at his wife. There were ways and there were ways to handle a request for a change of scenery for their son. He didn't think the current method had a snowball's chance in hell.

"Trish, be reasonable. Even if Harm weren't in the shape he's in, this is no time for a flight on a COD all the way from the Atlantic to California. He has quite a bit of healing to do before the doctors would even consider sending him THAT far." Boone was running out of patience with the woman. AJ winced at the attitude from the man. He was talking about this woman's son. Where the hell was his sensitivity?

"Hmph." Trish retorted. "You say that without even asking the doctors! If he has pneumonia, the dry air out here would be beneficial to his lungs while he recovers."

"Tricia�" Boone replied, in a patient sounding tone.

"Damn it, Tom. Don't call me that. He wouldn't even be flying for the Navy any more if you hadn't have needed rescuing on that flight 8 years ago! He'd still just be a JAG lawyer. That was a lot easier on my nerves"

"Trish, I never had him do a HALO jump and participate in a SEAL mission untrained." Boone came back without thinking.

"HALO jump?" The woman squeaked.

"Yes." Boone spelled it out laboriously, ignoring venomous looks from Chegwidden. "High Altitude Low Oxygen."

"I know what HALO means, Thomas Eugene Boone, and you damn well know it. We can see the SEALs train in it from the house here as you know perfectly well. Why would Harm have done something like that? Naval aviators don't Halo jump in their training."

"You'd have to ask Chegwidden why." Tom looked over at the man, finally allowing a little guilt into his expression. He hadn't been intended to engage in a game of who endangered Harm more over the years � him or AJ.

"Albert?"

"It wasn't that long after I took over JAG, ma'..Trish. Harm was investigating a case where a Naval aviator assigned to a SEAL team died in a training exercise."

"I remember that case. He was a congresswoman's son, I believe."

"Yes. In order to gather the conclusive evidence on the case, Harm completed the mission the young aviator was training for when he drowned."

"Harm didn't participate in the training, though."

"No, ma'am. He was given instruction in the technique just before he left with the team on the assignment."

"That was an extremely hazardous thing for him to do."

"I believed he could handle it." AJ admitted stonily. "I was obviously correct."

"That was when he was technically diagnosed as suffering from night blindness. Tell me the mission wasn't at night, at least."

"I would tell you that if it was true. Unfortunately, I can't. The jump portion and the take off of the plane with the evidence he needed occurred at night." AJ admitted.

"How dare you risk my son's safety that way?"

"Trish, it was a long time ago. I would never ask that of him now." Mentally AJ kicked himself for saying the last. It was beyond her need to know.

"What was it, some kind of sick loyalty test, Admiral? He would fly and land a Tomcat while night blind to save CAG Boone; would he jump a HALO jump for you?"

"Trish, that is out of line." Boone tried to defend the Admiral, though privately he thought he'd always wondered about why Chegwidden had asked that of Harm himself. "AJ just said it was needed to gather evidence for the case. You know Harm will do whatever it takes to get the job done. It's how you raised him."

"More like it's the Rabb genetics." The woman sounded a trace angry at the trait. "I wouldn't be surprised to learn Sergei was the same way."

"That would be a safe bet, Mrs. Burnett." AJ tried to steer the ship of this conversation away from the rocky shoals.

"My husband and I will fly to DC tomorrow." Trish said. "He'll be making arrangements as soon as these calls are finished."

"Trish, I really can't say how long it will be before Harm can be moved to Bethesda."

"We will be there already when he does get stateside." Trish said, in an inflexible tone.
"This is not open to discussion, Admiral. Either, Admiral." She added, imperiously

"Obviously I can't deny you the right to come to DC any time you want. However, I would recommend you keep the details of your arrival very quiet. The media is in a real feeding frenzy out here about Harm's flight. I'd prefer you not get caught up in that."

"I appreciate your concern, Albert, but I assure you, if needed, Frank can handle the media quite well." Harm's mother allowed a hint of threat into her words. The veiled implication was that if she felt they were trifling with her or Frank in any way where their son was concerned, she would use the media to their advantage. "Most of the media has been very supportive of my son's actions the other night. Public support is also very high for what he did. The questions have been more about the need for this investigation that is being conducted."

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FWWATT Chapter 8 Section Three -- Sylvia Mohr Bartlett, 10:55:53 03/07/06 Tue

I can't wait to see what happens next! So I will be waiting as patiently as possible. -- SLT, 13:36:59 03/07/06 Tue