TITLE: The Road Now Traveled

AUTHOR: Vid Z.

PAIRING: Harm/Diane Schonke

CATEGORY: AU

TIMELINE: starts during Skeleton Crew seconds before Diane was murdured

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 #1: have had this idea in my head for quite a while now, perhaps even two years, but only now got myself to write it. Hope it doesn't suck...

AUTHOR'S NOTES #2: Writing this fic was a completely new and different experience from anything I've ever written before. Here is a canon pairing, that was deliberately ignored by fans and writers for over a decade and not a single fic was written for it until now (that I know of, all my searches came up empty).

Terribly ironic since it's also a relationship that had gone on for so many years, was so important, had so much influence on Harm, his personality and later life; a relationship that was more canon and public and official than Harm and Mac's ever was (until FWAFS) and the only relationship of Harm's that had proggressed further than any other relationship of his until FWAFS. Yet, it was completely ignored.

Not just ignored, but sometimes even hated and resented, as was hated and resented Diane for what she was to Harm and what her unfortunate and unfair death did to Harm and how it had changed his life and his personality, thus also influencing his later wannabe relationship with Mac.

Wonder what JAG would be like had Diane survived and how Harm and Mac would've related had Harm gone through with his plans for him and Diane...

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SUMMARY: what if Diane hadn't been stalled at the sign out? What if she'd survived?

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For once feeling happy that she'd evaded losing time at the sign out checkpoint by not letting the guard lure her into a chat, Diane walked swiftly towards the long term parking lot of the anchorage at Naval Station Norfolk. She had somewhere important to be and didn't want to lose precious time.

Diane slammed the door of the car shut, turned the key, backed out of the parking spot and disappeared down the street. A plink was heard as a bullet from a silenced Berretta hit a trash can that had been standing behind the car just a second after the car had moved from it's parking spot. Had Diane not moved the car then she would've been killed by it.

The figure with crazed eyes lurking in the shadows stared over the sights of the weapon cursing his luck. Had he been just a second faster he would've gotten her, as it was he'd hit the trash can.

He growled and quickly hid the weapon, looking around, then turned, disappearing down the dock.

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Diane stopped the car in front of the brick building and shut it off.

Nerves raging, she took a deep breath and leaned her forehead on the steering wheel. The following hours would decide her future.

Then she released her breath, squared her shoulders and opened the door.

The second she rose out of the vehicle strong arms wound around her and passionate lips claimed her own.

She stiffened for a moment, but then recognized her "assailant". Moaning, she put her arms around his neck, fingers tangling into the short hair, nails lightly scratching the back of his neck, as she gave herself over to the kiss.

It'd been a long time since they'd last kissed, too long. 6 long, lonely months on high seas, with only mail and phone calls to sooth their hearts.

There wasn't a place on Earth she'd rather be than here.

Finally they broke apart, both breathing heavily. Her eyes were black, partly from the darkness of the night and partly from the power of the kiss.

She gazed into his eyes "Hey there." was whispered against his lips, her sweet breath teasing them and being inhaled into his body.

"Hey back." he murmured huskily. "Welcome home."

"If I am to receive such a greeting everytime I get home, I'm gonna have to leave more often." she smiled impishly.

"You can forget that, there's no way in hell I'm ever letting you go again." he growled seductively with a deep timber that never failed to send powerful shivers through her body. Then he changed the topic. "You have your luggage in there?"

"Yes." she looked at him curious.

"Good. Now get your cute little behind in the passenger seat, we have somewhere to be." normally she wouldn't have followed an order not connected to work so easily, but she was intrigued. What did he have in mind?

"So you think I have a 'cute' and 'little' behind, don't you, LCDR?" she flirted back. It'd been a long time since she was last able to do it and this new freedom was too tempting to resist. Then she suggestively dropped her gaze to his hips. "You don't have a bad one either."

He shook his head, laughing. "Oh no, you don't. Stop looking at me with those eyes cause otherwise we're not gonna be going anywhere but to my bedroom and I have important plans. Now, give me the keys and let's get going."

She canted her head and observed him, trying to read him. But he was purposely not meeting her eyes. Finally she gave in and handed him the keys, walking around the car to the passenger side, climbing in as she hadn't had a chance to lock the vehicle before Harm had accosted her.

Harm let out a grin and grabbed his duffel, from where it was sitting on the ground nearby, threw it into the trunk and got in.

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