A ‘Notorious’ JAG

Chapter 3

Disclaimers: I don’t own any of the JAG characters. I don’t own any product or label mentioned for the purposes of telling this story. I don’t own the rights to the story or movie ‘Notorious.’ Any similarities to situations or persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

Spoilers: Any JAG episode through Season 9. The story is loosely based on the story in the movie ‘Notorious.’ It will not follow plot line exactly but most people who have seen the movie will know where I’m going.

Rating T for adult situations and language.

2140

Thursday

October 23, 2003

Unknown location

Rio de Janeiro

Paul Prescott stood in his apartment looking out onto the city of Rio de Janeiro. He was an older man, in his late fifties, with graying hair, but youthful features. His 20 years in Naval Intelligence had kept him fit and had served him well, so far, in his tenure with the Company. He closed his cell phone after leaving a message for Rabb. He was surprised he had gotten Rabb’s voice mail.

He had finally heard from his contact in the Brazilian Highlands. Edward Hardy was in Rio and they needed to get this mission underway, as soon as possible. It had long been suspected, that Hardy’s business might be moving more than cana across the border from Paraguay. Clayton Webb had communicated his suspicions to his superiors at Langley upon his return to Washington. Given the result of his operation, Prescott and his superiors now agreed with his suspicions. Webb and his team had been betrayed.

Al Qaeda operations might have slowed for a time, but they were now up and running again. Prescott believed Hardy may have been a small time player in those operations, though up until now they had no proof. Rabb and Mackenzie were to be tasked with finding out just what was being moved across the border, between Paraguay and Brazil and by whom.

Prescott had been told they were an excellent team; between the two of them and another member of their team, they had taken out nearly all of Sadiq Fahd’s associates in Paraguay. Countless lives had been saved when the Stingers in Fahd’s possession were destroyed. Now it remained to be seen who was left and who assisted Fahd out of the country.

At that same moment….

Harm sat upright on his knees in the center of Mac’s bed, as the breeze from the window cooled the sweat on his back. Mac felt a shiver travel down his spine and she tightened her embrace, warming him, as she sat astride him, holding on with everything she had. She couldn’t bear to let him go, not even to allow him to move more than a few inches from her.

He had awakened a need in her she didn’t know existed; he was the one, the only one who could have done so. They had been crazy with desire when they began and as the passion they felt took them even higher, Mac could have sworn she saw love in his eyes, as well.

She could not keep from asking, as she tried to catch her breath, “How can I… be loved so well…by someone who doesn’t love me?” She kissed him deeply again, almost afraid to hear his answer.

Mac knew she was baiting him, desperate for a word, spoken aloud, that he loved her as she loved him.

Harm came up for air, momentarily. “When I don’t love you…I’ll let you know.” Didn’t she know, he wondered, didn’t she understand, that she had him in the palm of her hand? He would have done anything for her.

Mac answered him, “But you didn’t say anything.” She continued to hold him tightly, kissing him along his jaw line.

“Actions speak louder than words.” Harm still couldn’t stop, the ‘dance’, it still drove him, as he thrust himself deeper inside of her, challenging her in his lovemaking, to match him, and her reaction nearly did sending him over the edge. Could she possibly love him more, than he loved her? He didn’t believe it was likely. So tonight, with his actions, he would love her in a way she would never be able to forget.

Mac loved him, she fought him, and she pushed him away, and then drew him in. She was going to have to say it. It was rising up in her every time he touched her. She loved him – she would always love him.

When she had feared she would die in Paraguay, one of the things she couldn’t accept was that she had never said it. The words she had never said aloud to any man. They would be said tonight, to Harm, the man she loved most in the world. Though she fought it with every fiber in her being, he was the only man she had ever truly loved. In his ear she breathlessly said, “I….I love you.”

Harm stopped for a moment, his breath coming in short bursts, and holding her tightly to him, he looked into her eyes. “Mac…”

He began to kiss her deeply and then pulled back to kiss her cheeks and her neck. He could taste the salty tears and sweat intermingled. If he could only express it…she was everything, he loved her with everything he was. “Baby….there’s no one….”

“No one…like you…not for me.”

0815

Friday

October 24

Mac’s suite

Ipanema Towers

Harm stood on Mac’s balcony, looking out at the mountains, as he had when all this had begun last night. He wore one of his old Seahawk t-shirts with his jeans that Mac had stolen, years ago. It made his heart light to think she had kept it all this time and that she traveled with it. He still couldn’t quite believe she loved him, as she said she did, his old defense mechanisms were still firmly in place. He’d thought the chances of this happening any time soon, or ever, were pretty slim. Even now he still couldn’t believe it.

He heard Mac walk out onto the balcony and she slipped her arms around his waist from behind him. She rested her cheek on his back, and he tipped his head back and closed his eyes, content. Being this close to her, felt so natural and so right, he never wanted this moment to end.

Mac loved the feel of him in her arms, the solid feel of his slim waist and broad back. Hearing his heartbeat, she kissed him between his shoulder blades. “Good morning.” She peeked around him, her smile was luminous and it struck Harm to his heart..

“Mmm, good morning.” Taking one of her arms, he pulled her around in front of him and closed his arms around her. “What’s for breakfast?”

“What do you want?” She looked up at him as she folded her arms around him.

“I don’t care…I’m starved.” They hadn’t even eaten dinner last night, and loving her had made him ravenous.

“You want me to cook?” Mac raised her brows.

“You can cook…breakfast anyway.” He gave her a sly grin, pulling her in close.

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah…you forget, Mac…I know you.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek.

Mac smiled; yes he did, and if it were dinner, she would have to concede that he was the better cook. She slipped out of his arms and started back into the apartment.

“Come on then, you can help…if you behave yourself.” Mac gave him a saucy smile over her shoulder, as she walked away from him.

“I’m not making any promises.” He gave her a devilish grin as he followed her back inside.

An hour later…

As they both finished cleaning up after breakfast, Harm decided he had better check his voice mail. He hadn’t wanted to let anyone or anything else in this world they had made since last night, but it was time to remember the mission. He tried to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about. For all he knew, he wouldn’t have any messages.

He punched the code onto the keypad and held the phone to his ear. Slipping into his arms on his other side; Mac began to plant small kisses up his neck and then nipped at his earlobe. He turned his head toward her, unable to keep from kissing her as he listened to the voice of Paul Prescott. He was to meet him at the Castelo office towers alone. Mac was not to accompany him. They were to meet with him separately. That seemed odd to him, and he frowned as he closed his phone.

“What is it?”

“That was Prescott; I have to meet him downtown, in an hour. He wants to see you at noon. Castelo office towers.” As he looked at her, the feeling of foreboding that he had been battling for the last two days, came to the front of his consciousness.

Mac raised her eyebrows. “Hmm, guess this is it, then.”

“Yeah.” Harm knew he needed to leave, shower and change and get downtown, but he didn’t want to go. He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her again.

“Okay, let’s get this over with, Harm, so you and I can get on with our lives.” Mac spoke as she always had, dispassionately, though she wanted nothing more than to remain here, forever. What she had experienced last night and this morning, made her only want more of him, but she still wondered, if she would ever be completely hers, would any woman ever be able to get that close?

He smiled; he liked the thought of that. “Okay.”

She walked him to her door, tucked securely under his arm, and when he took hold of the door knob, she leaned up to kiss him. Harm let go of the door and pulled her further into his arms. She tasted so good, and so familiar. He didn’t want to break the spell they were both under; he didn’t want to lose this sweetness.

Mac wrapped her arms around him and skimmed his back with both of her hands. “You’d better go now, or I might not let you leave at all.”

He looked down and smiled at her. Then, releasing her, he slipped out of the door.

1000

Castelo office towers

Rio de Janeiro

Harm stood up from his seat directly across from Prescott. “I don’t think she’ll do it.”

Prescott was surprised at Rabb’s reaction.

The Chief of Station had just explained the details of their mission, and to Harm’s mind, Mac would be taking the greatest risk. She would also have to allow herself to appear very interested, in one Edward Hardy.

“Why not?” Prescott believed knew but he wanted to see just how committed Rabb was to this mission.

“She hasn’t had any training in this sort of thing.” He walked over to the window overlooking the busy avenues afternoon traffic, with his back to Prescott.. He wanted to say ‘because we’re finally together, I don’t want to lose her, I can’t stand the thought of anyone else in her life…even on this mission.’

“I think Colonel Mackenzie can handle it, if her ability to keep her head during the situation in Paraguay is any indication.”

Harm realized his actions could be misinterpreted and he reined himself in.

“Is there some reason not to trust the colonel? Is there something I should know?”

“No.”

Harm received his instructions without comment, keeping his expression unreadable. He left in less than 15 minutes. He walked out of Castelo office towers onto the Avende Presidente Antonio Cardo. He had no idea where he was going, there was a vision, or a nightmare, in his mind, playing over and over. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself standing on the sidelines, again, as Mac walked away with someone else.

He knew this was unreasonable – they had a mission, a vital mission, but just now he couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching her, at all. How far would Mac have to go?

How in the hell was he going to handle it?

1200

Castelo office towers

Room 111

Rio de Janeiro

Mac entered the room and Prescott stood and greeted her, “Colonel Mackenzie.”

“Mr. Prescott.” She approached and offered him her hand to shake.

“Call me Paul. Please, have a seat.” He gestured toward the chair across the table.

“Colonel, we have a rather complicated mission that involves another CIA agent. I’m sure you remember Edward Hardy?”

“Yes I do. Clayton Webb had concerns about him when we were here in Paraguay last spring.”

“As do we…may I call you Sarah?”

“My friends call me Mac.”

“Very good then, Mac. I’ve been speaking with your former partner about the mission; I’ve already filled him in on most of the details about how I’d like to proceed. I want to make it clear that you have the option not to agree to this. It could prove to be difficult, but I assure you it is vital.”

“Does this involve Sadiq Fahd?” Mac clasped her hands together tightly in her lap.

“It may, indirectly.”

“Indirectly?”

“We believe that Mr. Hardy is smuggling more than cana over the border from Paraguay to Rio. We need proof and we need to find out who his associates are, as well. We could take him into custody now, but what would we learn?”

Mac listened quietly. She remembered Maria Elena, Hardy’s former secretary, saying that she would have no trouble getting the necessary papers to go to Rio.

“We have put out the word that you are here, that you and Mr. Rabb are here together, but not necessarily as a couple.”

“Not necessarily?”

“I’ll be blunt…Mac. Many people, who are familiar with both of you, believe you are involved; you did spend a night together in Ciudad del Este. At least Hardy is under that impression, and he seems very interested in that status of your relationship with Rabb.

I’ll get to the point; we need someone inside Hardy’s inner circle, someone who can get close to him. Your language skills, your knowledge of the events in Paraguay and Hardy’s fascination with you, make a good combination. We could learn a great deal if you are willing to take this risk.”

“In taking advantage of Mr. Hardy’s fascination, you mean I am to make him believe I’m interested in him?” Mac looked down at her hands and wondered what Harm had to say about this part of the mission.

“I realize this is asking a lot, but we believe that Sadiq Fahd had help getting out of Paraguay, and possibly out of South America. We need to know who is helping him and how they have been able to conceal it. If they were able to get Fahd out of the country without detection, it’s a pretty safe bet that he is not the only terrorist who has been able to do so.”

“I see.” Mac was conflicted; she had come all this way to try to put her demons to rest, demons who looked a lot like Sadiq Fahd. Demons who screamed in her nightmares, as Clayton Webb had when he was trying to keep Sadiq’s thugs away from her as long as he could. She could still see his bloodied face before her; she closed her eyes tight involuntarily.

“Colonel Mackenzie?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do it. I agreed to this mission before I left the States, and I intend to carry it out. If I may ask, how will Harm… Mr. Rabb… be involved in the operation?”

“Very good, thank you…Mac. And to answer your question, Rabb will be your contact, though for now you will communicate by cell phone only.” He handed her a cell phone. “If we need more than contact by phone Rabb will find you.”

Mac frowned.

“We’ve put out a story that you have resigned from the Marine Corps and decided to follow Rabb down here, though your relationship is anything but permanent.”

Mac continued to listen, as a knot formed in the pit of her stomach.

“I must say your behavior since you arrived have helped back up our cover story completely.” The Chief of Station sat back and flattened his palms on his desk.

“What do you mean?” She wondered if they knew where Harm had spent the night last night.

“The first night you went out together but appeared to argue, not a lot of public displays of affection. The second day you went sightseeing separately. It should work out perfectly. If Hardy’s having you watched, it will play right in to our cover story.”

Mac nodded, wondering how all of this would affect their tentative and fragile relationship. “I see. What about my appointment here today?”

“There are a number of businesses with offices in this building, including law offices. Rabb is to say he was following up on an investigation. As far as Hardy knows, he is freelancing; you are looking into what is required to practice law, here in Rio.

We have set up a chance for a meeting between you and Hardy at Spazio, tonight, near your hotel in Ipanema. It’s a dance club he frequents, when he comes to Rio. I’ll leave it to you to begin and count on hearing from you, as soon as possible afterward.”

Mac stood. “Will do, sir.”

“Call me Paul, please. And I don’t have to remind you, Mac, the people we are dealing with are ruthless. They have very little to lose. Good luck.” He shook her hand and they parted.

TBC

A/N: I have spelled the word cana without the squiggle over the n. I can’t get my keyboard to do it. Thanks to all who helped me with the spelling and its proper use.

I just did the best I could and got on with the story, that is the point, is it not?