Stealing Thunder--CSIM/JAG

[suzmicsoc]

You've got me on the edge of my seat just waiting to see what's in store for Rick with this flight...looking forward to the next update. ;D

[jaglady]

Coming soon.... DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!

This is the upside to being a writer. We get to exact a little justice. That's all I'm gonna say at this point. ;D

[jaglady]

A/N: I borrowed heavily from comedian Bill Engvall's "15 Degrees Off Cool" in this chapter. Now to exact a little justice (smiles). Enjoy!


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Earning His Wings

Rick’s proud resolve shattered in a split second as the thrust of the jet slammed him back against the comfortable seat. The force of the takeoff pinned him down and rendered him barely able to breathe. The world flew past him in a blur and then disappeared in an instant as Widowmaker executed a steep combat takeoff.

No sooner did he see nothing but blue sky and Widowmaker’s swaying helmet than did Rick feel his whole world bank to the left and then into a shrill barrel roll over the Atlantic Ocean. He couldn’t hear himself scream. He was sure his insides were probably still on the runway of Homestead Air Force Base. It felt as though his brown eyes were in the back of his skull by now.

Worse than that, Widowmaker seemed to have a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality and, once that fighter jet had gone airborne, he went from nonchalant, weathered pilot to homicidal lunatic, Rick thought. The battle-hardened pilot seemed obsessed with pushing that aircraft to its absolute limits, determined to suffocate him, strangle him, squash him like a bug in the name of personal amusement.

“How you doing back there, Sergeant?” Widowmaker asked matter-of-factly over the speaker.

The IAB agent had completely forgotten all his glory and, now that he caught his breath, unleashed a torrent of profanity into the radio about Widowmaker, his intelligence level, and flying in general.

“Great. Sounds like you’re okay back there” he answered when his passenger finally stopped cursing. “We’re over the Atlantic right now. I’m gonna do an inverted dive so you can get a good look.”

Immediately Rick felt his insides flattened yet again as the jet flipped and plummeted, screaming louder than he did as all he could see was water that seemed to come ever closer by the second. At the last possible moment he saw nothing but blue ocean for what seemed mere feet above his head outside of the cockpit before Widowmaker rolled the jet over again.

“Beautiful, ain’t it? I’m gonna take us back up again. Hey, we’re getting a little too close to Cuban air space. The Brass doesn’t like that too much. Hang on.”

Yet again Rick felt his face compressed against the seat as the jet shrieked upward again while Widowmaker eased back on the accelerator. He could see nothing but blue sky ahead of him.

“Just like a rollercoaster, huh Seargeant? Hang on while I show you some combat maneuvers. You up to this?”

“Uh, that’s okay….” Rick said in a trembling voice. He could feel his stomach tighten. “I feel sick.”

“Oh hey, grab one of those bags by your leg. Don’t worry, almost everybody pukes their first time. Your body’s just not used to this. Hey, I once had this Senator in the back, a real Momma’s Boy. Got him in a couple of negative-G dives, and he was puking like a maniac! God, I love this job! Hang on!”

Widowmaker then let out an adrenaline-induced howl over the radio as he executed a Split-S maneuver and banked around into a corkscrew. At that point it was hard to tell what screamed louder—the jet engine, the pilot, or its weak, quaking, terrified passenger. He then laughed. “Used that one to dodge a couple of Stingray missles in the Gulf a few years ago. Works great!”

Rick caught his breath and began to regain his orientation. He finally had to admit that, on a deeper level, he really enjoyed the adrenaline rush and the power of the screaming jets every time Widowmaker took him on a steep climb.

“Hang on Sergeant. I’m gonna buzz that cruise ship down there!” Widowmaker said with a smile in his voice.

“Is that legal?” Rick said weakly.

“I don’t know, but it’s sure as hell fun!” Before Rick could render an objection, he found himself once more plastered head to toe to the seat, plummeting toward a cruise ship, yanked up again, joining in a chorus of screams.

“Okay Sergeant, now I’m gonna take you in a 5G climb for thirty seconds. You ready?”

“Do I have a choice?” he said with a trembling voice.

“You can do it. You’re gonna feel really heavy. I need you to breathe. “Here we go.”

Rick thought he had been flattened against the seat before, but now the pressure of the climb paralyzed him all the more. Breathing had never been such a chore. Widowmaker now strangely took on the role of concerned, coaching leader as he told his passenger to breathe in and breathe out every second over the screaming jets. Widowmaker called off times and told him to keep breathing. Rick tightly closed his eyes and had no choice but to push breath in and out against the force of gravity.

I wonder if this qualifies as being killed in the line of duty. I’m sorry for what I did to Yelina. If I get out of this alive, I swear I’ll be nice to Horatio. The last minutes of my life are stuck with this nut who keeps talking about puking.

After what seemed a lifetime, he felt himself breathe more easily as the jet leveled off.

“That’s it, Sergeant. You did it! That was a 5G climb for thirty seconds! Only a handful of fighter pilots have ever done that. Surprise you how many of them chicken out.”

The IAB agent could only breathe a sigh of relief as the fighter jet slowed and came in for final approach to the Homestead Air Base runway. Those landing lights were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He took breaths as deep as he could hold and let them out. He was weak, trembling, sweating. His head pounded angrily.

Out on the broiling tarmac, Erica Sykes rushed forward to the stopped F14, repeatedly nudging Tyler out of the way. Tyler was sweating, tired, and growing more frustrated by the minute. “Excuse me” she said to him curtly. “I'm a broadcast affiliate. Will you just stay out of my way?”

As the cockpit hatch opened, two flight crew attendants unstrapped Rick and picked him up by each arm. He was not ashamed to admit that he had trouble standing on his own by this time as they brought him down the ladder and pried his helmet off.

Erica positioned herself right by the wrung-out, quaking IAB agent. “This is Erica Sykes for CVS here in Miami, and Sergeant Rick Stetler has gone on a historic flight with one of the Navy’s best fighter pilots. You’re gonna hear it first right here!” She then rushed up to the shaky, glazed-over sergeant, thrusting her microphone into his face. “Sergeant Stetler. All of Miami is watching. Tell us about the flight in your own words!”

He opened his mouth and hunched over slightly. Instead of words, his lunch immediately flew out of his mouth and sprayed the reporter’s jacket and microphone. Dripping, she shrieked and backed up, trying to shake herself off.

Rick could barely stand up on his own strength and was not quite coherent enough to realize what he had done. The flight crew quickly took him by each arm and hustled him back to the hangar.

In a split second, Tyler, who had captured the entire event, dropped to his knees in fits of laughter. Erica whipped her head around and put up her hand to the camera man. “Turn that damned camera off!” she nearly screamed. He knew from experience to obey her or suffer the consequences. She hunched her shoulders to conceal the mess and hurried out of view.

“I think this was even better” a jubilant Horatio said to Ryan over the noise.

Back in the hangar, Mac made no effort to keep her military bearing. “Tell me he didn’t just throw up on that reporter!”

Emmie covered her mouth, fell against the wall and sunk to the concrete floor. After a few minutes she caught her breath. “He finally did something right!”

[jaglady]

The Accidental Hero

The day after Memorial Day was dreary and overcast in South Florida. Rick Stetler’s mood matched the skies as he dragged himself onto the elevator, still tired, sore, bruised and nauseous from the near-death experience he’d had over the Miami skyline only a few days ago.

That moment in the limelight seemed but a distant memory now. It hadn’t escaped his attention that the respect and glory he had so hoped for was largely absent. In fact, it seemed like the Miami-Dade Police Department remembered him not for taking the legendary flight in the F14 Tomcat, but for throwing up on Erica Sykes. He also suspected that the cockpit recording had to have made its rounds because he had overheard Frank Tripp laughing to Delko about how he “hadn’t heard Stetler scream like that since the time he ran into the ladies’ room and scared the hell out of Valera.”

Frustrated and disillusioned, the IAB agent buried himself in his stack of cases, ready to snap his pen in two with one hand, when he heard a firm knock on his open door. He looked up rather sullenly.

Tyler stood behind Harm and Mac, motioning into Rick’s office. The two distinguished Navy lawyers were smartly in uniform and looked like they were ready to present a case. Rick immediately softened his expression. “Come on in” he said dryly.

Harm and Mac approached his desk. “Sergeant Stetler. Colonel MacKenzie and I were just about to head back to Washington, but we wanted to say goodbye and to leave you something” Harm said.

Rick huffed. “Thanks.”

Mac smiled as she handed Harm a brown package from which he produced a handsome oak plaque with a picture. He placed it proudly in Rick’s hands. Rick looked at it curiously.

“Sergeant, by doing that 5G climb in the F14, I bet you didn’t know, but you became an honorary member of the 5G Society. That’s a special club for fighter pilots who complete the climb successfully.” Harm pointed to the picture on one side. “And if you look here, Tyler got your picture as you were giving the thumbs-up to the flight crew just before taking off. We’re having another one made for Dover Air Force Base. This one is yours to keep. Emmie Stockburne enhanced the picture, and we were able to put this together for you over the weekend. I bet you’re the only police officer in Miami that has this award.”

Rick lost all expression as he studied his picture next to the plaque. He then looked reproachfully at the officers. “I threw up all over a reporter on network TV.”

Harm suppressed laughter. “That was another thing we wanted to talk to you about. Emmie saved a copy of Tyler’s footage—“

“I distinctly told her to turn all of that over to me” he insisted emphatically.

Harm leaned toward him, looking straight into his eyes. “She did. After she kept a copy on the video camera’s memory. Anyway, the video somehow made it onto YouTube over the weekend.”

His eyes widened in horror. “WHAT?”

Harm put up his hand. “Let me finish. She emailed a link to one of her old Quantico friends, who sent it on to some deployed sailors. They loved it! You see Sergeant, we hate reporters. In fact, we have a colleague stationed on the USS Nassau out in the Persian Gulf, and he says your video was the most watched video on the ship’s cybercafe since Sunday. I guess you didn’t know it, but you’ve become a folk hero with our troops. Oh, and then there’s the emails.”

“What emails?”

“Mac? Would you like to read the one we received from the Admiral stationed at the Baghdad headquarters?”

Mac produced a page from her briefcase. “His words, not mine. ‘Kudos to Sergeant Stetler for giving that tart what she deserved. I’d like to fly him out to Baghdad personally if he promises to puke all over every one of these prissy, spineless news correspondents I have to deal with.’ I cleaned up the language a little. And then there’s this one. It’s from a female ensign stationed in Italy who wants to know if you’re single.”

Rick never changed his expression. “The chief, the mayor, and everybody else saw what happened out there. Now I’m known as ‘that guy who puked all over a reporter.’”

“Admiral Chegwidden made a few phone calls to the mayor’s office and the county commissioner. You have nothing to worry about” Mac assured him. “Enjoy your hero status while it lasts, because everybody will forget after a while. And Sergeant? Widowmaker’s a little crazy, but he’s one of the best pilots in the Navy. If he didn’t think you could handle the 5G climb, he wouldn’t have taken you there. He knew you had it in you.”

Rick sniffed. “He didn’t give me much choice.”

Harm shrugged. “You’re a sergeant. You should know that sometimes you can’t give people a choice.”

Rick looked at the plaque and admired his picture. “Thanks.”

“They’ll eventually forget, but they’ll see that picture. I hope that’s the part you remember, too. And just one more thing.”

Rick looked up at Harm and Mac as they turned to leave.

Harm raised his eyebrows at him. “Next time, let Lieutenant Caine take the flight. I understand it was his in the first place. That way you could have watched him throw up on Erica Sykes instead. Well, Colonel MacKenzie and I have to catch our ride back, so you take care.”

Tyler was just about to leave when Rick’s eyes blazed at him. “Tyler, get in here!” he barked.

Tyler breathed deeply. “Something wrong, Rick?”

“What was on that video that got sent out?”

The AV expert leaned toward his computer. “I’ll bring it up for you. Want to see it?”

“No! Just tell me!”

He shrugged. “Just you barfing on Erica Sykes. That’s it. Emmie handed you everything else.”

Resuming his loftiness, Rick lowered his head at him and glared. “You and Miss Stockburne are not off the hook. Both of you wait for me in the computer lab downstairs. Tell her I want to see every piece of equipment and every email file.”

“Horatio gave Emmie the day off so she could see off the flight crew. It’s just me today.” He looked at the steamed IAB agent cautiously. “You’re not gonna drop the video camera again, are you?”

“I'll be down there in a few minutes. Now get the hell out of my office!”

[suzmicsoc]

I love it JL...I didn't realize you had put a chapter up yesterday, or I would have commented on that one too. ;D

I wish stuff like this would really happen on the show...would love to see Rick's face while all of this was going on.

Excellent

[ladytaz29]

Love this just as much as the first time I read it... ;D

For someone who loves Stetler, you sure do give him the devil...

[jaglady]

Thanks, everybody.

Of course we know old Rickypoo deserves it just a little bit, right?

Of course you should see what I do to people I DON'T like. That's why I had him throw up on Erica Sykes. ;D

[cutecollege1]

Awesome job jaglady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CC

P.S.: If you're trying to break my ribs, you're succeeding!!!!! I can't stop laughing!!!

[jaglady]

A/N: This is the last chapter. I would like to thank everyone for their kind reviews. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Incidentally, some reviewers asked me to right this wrong. This will happen in "A Monster's Ball", which I'll post somewhere down the road. Don't worry, Horatio will get his big chance.
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A Meeting of Warriors

“Yep, he’s in his office” Emmie nearly whispered. Just a second, Sir.” She put up one finger to the Lieutenant as she tapped on her boss’s open door.

Horatio looked up from his latest case file. “Miss Stockburne. I thought you were at Homestead Air Base seeing off the flight crew. What are you doing here?”

“Actually, Sir, one of them wanted to speak with you.”

He nodded. “Have them come in.”

Emmie walked in, escorting Lieutenant Marshall. The huge pilot was wearing his dark blue Navy flight suit, also ready to travel. “Sir, I’d like you to meet Lieutenant Gill Marshall. Call sign Widowmaker. He flew the jet that you were supposed to have taken on Saturday.”

Horatio stood up behind his desk. “Widowmaker. Nice to finally put a face to the name. I understand you gave Rick the ride of his life.”

Widowmaker walked forward and grasped Horatio’s hand in his vise-like grip. He raised one eyebrow. “Lieutenant Caine. Likewise. Emmie told me all about you. And hey, the sergeant handled it better than some of the guys I took up.”

Horatio held his fingers together thoughtfully. “So what brings you to the Miami-Dade Police Department?”

Widowmaker raised one eyebrow thoughtfully. “Well, Harm and Mac told me what happened. You were the one I was supposed to take up Saturday. Emmie couldn’t say enough about you, so I asked her to bring me here to meet you.”

The two Lieutenants stood on opposite sides of the desk and looked at one another. The seasoned police officer studied the seasoned fighter pilot. Both were battle-hardened warriors who cared about the ones under their charge. Neither one of them said a word. Emmie just stood back and averted her eyes. She understood what was going on between them.

Widowmaker nodded approvingly and reached into the chest pocket of his blue flight suit. “Well, it’s too late to take you up, but I hope this works. Emmie says you like sunglasses.” He pulled out a pair of silver aviator sunglasses and handed them to Horatio. “Regulation. All the best pilots have a pair of these. You won’t find these in a Sunglass Hut anywhere.”

Horatio looked at Widowmaker as he took the silver sunglasses. “Thank you, Lieutenant. It just so happens I broke my last pair of sunglasses at the air show Saturday. I stood up with the rest of the department when Rick had his little incident with Miss Sykes.”

The pilot chuckled. “Oh yeah. The reporter. Hey, I wouldn’t be too hard on the sergeant. He really didn’t do that badly. I never took anyone up who didn’t lose it when they found out what it was really like to travel at Mach 1 straight up in the air. As long as he was cursing and screaming, I knew he was alive back there. That’s kind of how it is when you’re a fighter pilot.”

“Not that different from being a police officer, is it?”

“No, I suppose not. Well, I gotta go fly my jet back to DC. I just had to stop in and say hi. And if I make it back this way, I’ll have Emmie talk to you. I’ll see what I can do about taking you up. I mean that. Take care of yourself, Lieutenant Caine.” Widowmaker leaned forward and shook Horatio’s hand with another vise-like grip.

“I look forward to it” Horatio said with a smile. “Have a safe trip back, Widowmaker.”

Emmie stepped forward. “Widowmaker, I’ll be right there. Could you wait outside the door while I talk to my boss?”

He raised an eyebrow at her as he strode out. “Yes Ma’am.”

Emmie shrugged as she laughed. “We had some chaos in the lab a few minutes ago when I brought him around to meet everybody. All the females noticed him right away. He flirted with Calleigh, and I really thought for a second he and Eric were gonna go head to head. Not sure who would have won that one.”

Horatio smiled as he leaned toward the computer tech. “Miss Stockburne, you’re not thinking about running back to the Navy with Widowmaker, are you?”

She laughed. “No Sir!” Her voice sank to a whisper. “He mentioned having girlfriends in other states, and I don’t share.”

“Understood.”

Her eyes now grew a little distant. “Besides, I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to love a man in uniform. No Sir, I’m just giving him the fifty-cent tour of Miami, lunch, taking him back to the base, and I’m out of there. Don’t worry; I’m not going anywhere.” She looked toward the door where the pilot was waiting dutifully. “Well, I better get going before some of the female techs come looking for him. Guess I’ll see you in the morning, Sir?”

“Will do. See you later, Emmie.”

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The noonday sun finally peeked out as Rick Stetler stood out in front of the Miami-Dade Police Department headquarters. He had resumed his high-and-mightiness by now as Horatio also stepped outside.

“Rick” he said cordially.

The sergeant smirked at him. “Horatio. You didn’t hear the news, did you?”

“What news?”

“I’m an honorary member of the 5G Society. Already have the plaque up on my wall.”

Horatio simply turned toward him and donned his shiny new aviator sunglasses. Rick’s jaw dropped. “Where did you get those?”

Horatio’s glasses nearly blinded him. “Just remember this, Rick. You’re not the only one who has friends in high places.”

END

[suzmicsoc]

I absolutely loved it JL...and Horatio got the last laugh...poor little Rick with his plaque and H got some cool sunglasses...