The Bugme Manoeuvre Chapter 1, a jag fanfic

TITLE: The Bugme Manoeuvre

AUTHOR: Vid Z.

PAIRING: Harm/Jen

WARNINGS: fluff, fluff and more fluff. Watch out for sugar shock!

TIMELINE: end of 2004, before Four Percent Solution

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc of the TV show JAG are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fic. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: this sucker is the reason why I haven't updated other fics these last few days. I've been busy writing it and busy with College, but this one really is finished and I won't be changing anything, so you can expect daily updates. Unless something happens to me, like a bear eating me in the middle of my city. This is another one of those fics that came out longer than planned. It was only supposed to be about 500 words long, but you know what they say about the plans of men and mice...

SUMMARY: it happened again.

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"I'll wait in the car." said Jen as she grabbed the bottles of mineral water off the counter.

"Okay." replied Harm as the gas station cashier handed him the credit card receipt to sign.

With one last look Jen walked out of the building, towards the SUV, and Harm bent over to sign the receipt.

"You have a beautiful wife there, mister." said the cashier, startling Harm.

"Thank you." said Harm absetmindedly, then froze.

The guy shifted uncomfortably, not sure if he was about to be punched or not. Making observations about the physical attractiveness of other men's wives can sometimes lead to bring wraith of said husbands upon the observer.

Harm decided not to make a scene, since he didn't want to end up on TV, in the show dumb criminals or something, because of the camera mounted on the ceiling, pointing at the counter.

So, he forced himself to relax, finished signing the receipt, handed it over, smiled at the cashier and left the building.

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He got into the car, slammed the door, started the engine and drove off.

"It happened again." he said quietly to Jen while he drove.

Her face was a mask of confusion. "What happened again?"

He shot her a pointed, meaningful look and it dawned on her. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Again?" she continued exasperated and baffled.

"Yeah."

"How many times does that make?"

"I don't know. I stopped counting at 10."

"Why does this keep happening to us?" asked Jen rhetorically. "I mean, we don't wear wedding rings, we are not of the same age, we don't call each other by pet names or kiss each other,... Why do people keep assuming that we're either a couple or outright married?"

"I don't know." shrugged Harm helplessly.

"Do you think we give off that vibe, or what? I mean, we ARE close, maybe that's why they just assume. Do we act like we're together?"

"Uh..." Harm wasn't sure if it was a smart move discussing this topic, because it was definitely not something any regs-aware person would do. But Jen obviously didn't feel like she cared that much about regs this time.

"Okay, I understand how they could think that when we went somewhere with Mattie. Though she doesn't look anything like either of us." Jen was on a roll and ignored Harm's slightly panicky expression. "We are best friends, we are very close, and were practically parents to Mattie. That brings people together and perhaps that joint parenthood transcended also into our behaviour towards each other and interactions between us. Perhaps that's the reason why so many people had been assuming that we're married, because we've been acting that way! Hell, according to Common Law and laws of nature, because we were parents to an offspring, we are married for real!"

"Jen, do you really think we should be discussing this topic?" tried Harm.

"Yes! Don't you see, Harm, we care about each other deeply, we're better together than most married couples I know, we were fantastic as parents together. Maybe we SHOULD be married!"

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