I leave Rabb standing in the parking lot. He's pissed at me, but how does that matter? He's not part of my life. I was only here tonight because I owe him, and now that debt is paid. I'll never need to have anything to do with him again.

That's not as welcome a thought as I wish it were.

I really do have to get out of there. A hostage situtation at JAG is not my problem, really, no matter what Rabb says. It's his problem, and Osbourne and his team will handle it. Their handling will end up with Magida dead, but that's how it goes. So Magida was set up in the first place and convicted. It happens all the time. One man gets sacrificed so that a part of the game can go on.

Rabb doesn't get it, of course. He doesn't understand DC politics or DC games. Maybe I should be grateful for that. He certainly doesn't understand how easy it would be for me to do what he wants and not give a damn about the consequences, just for a smile from him, a few words, a touch...

I am not going to indulge myself in that thought. The man is a commander in the United States Navy, and he's an arrogant asshole.

The last words I said to him echo in my head.

"It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me!"

Of course it wasn't. He defended me only because it helped his defense of Colonel O'Hara. And that's the problem.

I bring up the address in my head and plan the quickest way to Malka Dayan's. I'd like to think that I'm doing this so that Rabb will owe me into two or three millenniums, but I know better.

I'm doing this because he wants me to. I'm doing this so that he'll see me.

This is as insane as anything I've ever done. All I can hope for now is that he won't deduce my motive. And that bringing Malka Dayan, the Israeli woman Magida loved and might still love, into the mix will get Magida to surrender and thus save Chegwidden, MacKenzie, and even the annoying Mr. Roberts.

I speed through the red light and hope she's home.

Rabb, you do owe me. And I will find a way to get over these idiotic *feelings* I have about you.

This is the last favor I'll ever do you.

But there's a laugh in my head, and I wish it would shut up.