This is installment 5 in the Shattered Promises series.

1. Things Fall Apart.

2. Picking Up The Pieces.

3. (a & b.) Starting Over.

4. Getting It Right.

5. Getting To Know You.

6. Happy Endings.

7. Sleepless Nights.

8. See You In My Dreams.

9. Scattered Photographs.

10. Dreams Really Do Come True.

11. Celebrations.

12. Turning Full Circle.

Rating: This one is pretty much a G.

Disclaimer: JAG and its main characters belong to the genius who is DPB and to CBS. I don't make any profit from writing any of these fics, but simply get to exercise my overactive imagination every now and then. Please don't sue me, as I'm just a student with no money and way too much time on my hands:0)

Summary: Just a lighthearted piece, which considers the two young females in Harm and Mac's life (Cathy &Chloë.)

Spoilers: None. This isn't set at any particular point in the JAG timeline and there are no specific references to any episodes.

Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated. Please don't hesitate to press the 'review' button!



Shattered promises 5: Getting To Know You

Harm and Mac walked out of the weekly staff meeting, triumphantly, after reporting to the Admiral that they had successfully diffused a high stakes case involving international relations. However, Harm noticed, Mac did not seem to be her usual, carefree self.

Sarcastically, he joked to her, "Gee Mac, try to contain your enthusiasm!"

"Sorry," she apologized to him, "I've just had a couple of things on my mind, lately."

Entering Mac's office, Harm closed the door so that they could have a confidential, heart to heart talk. Ever since Mic had left the scene, Harm and Mac had become a lot closer, even more so than they had been before things had gone tragically wrong. Before Jordan, before Dalton, before Renee, before Mic, before Australia.

However, Harm and Mac had both agreed that they would work to get back their friendship before they took a further step, to see if there could be anything more between them. With the friendship now salvaged and made even stronger than before, they both had yet to test the waters of a romantic relationship. This was a fact that Cathy had often pointed out to them, at any available opportunity, in fact.

Seating himself in the chair on the other side of Mac's desk, he indicated for Mac to spill whatever it was that was bothering her. She hesitated at first, so Harm took her hand in his and told her, in an assuring voice, "C'mon Mac, you know that you can tell me anything."

Mac relented, telling him, "I know this may seem silly…well, Chloë's coming to visit in a couple of weeks time and I worry about how she and Cathy are going to get along. As much as I love Chloë, she can be a difficult person to get along with. I mean, what if they have a bad first meeting and end up not getting along...?"

Here, Harm interrupted her. "Mac, I really don't think you need to worry about anything. If worst comes to worst, we at least know that they have one thing in common."

Mac deciphered the meaning of the look he shot her, chuckling as she remembered Chloës last attempts to get the two of them closer together.

"Yeah, she'll at least respect Cathy for doing that," Mac replied.

OOOO

The day before Chloë's arrival, Mac sorted out some space in the bedroom closet, Cathy helping her to pack away some clothes that never seemed to move out of the back of it.

"Are you sure you don't mind letting Chloë take the bedroom?" Mac asked her.

"Of course not," Cathy insisted, emphatically, "if there was one thing that I was ever taught, it was that visitors are not relegated to the couch."

"But I could take the couch and you could sleep in here with Chloë…"

"Really Mac, I don't mind taking the couch. I've got early mornings next week and you're in court, so you'll need all the sleep you can get. I don't want to be disturbing you two in the mornings."

"Well," conceded Mac, "it's only going to be for a week."

"Besides," Cathy added, "I don't expect that you'll be here every night, so one night, Chloë and I will have a girl's night in on our own."

"What do you mean?" Mac asked, not quite understanding.

"Well," Catriona explained, "you'll be wanting to go and spend the odd night of passion with Harm, won't you?"

She promptly burst into hysterics and dodged a pillow thrown at her by Mac, who was by this time laughing herself, while blushing furiously.

OOOO

The next day, while Mac and Harm drove to the airport to collect Chloë, Cathy insisted on staying at JAG headquarters with the Admiral.

"It'll be better if the two of you give Chloë some time to catch up with the two of you, before you introduce me into the equation. Besides, AJ and I will be okay here, won't we AJ? We've got important business to get down to."

The Admiral readily agreed with her, so Harm and Mac then arranged to meet back at headquarters in a couple of hours, once they had collected Chloë. JAG had remained very quiet, with most of the staff either away on cases or in court for the remainder of the day. That morning, the Admiral had announced that the rest of the staff would only have to work a half-day, because of the light flow of paperwork. Now, the last of the staff were packing up to go home, where they could finish off any remaining paperwork. Before Harriet and Bud Roberts left to pick little AJ up from daycare, Cathy bid them farewell, after arranging all of the details for a babysitting session the next weekend. AJ approached Cathy from the direction of the kitchen and handed Cathy a mug of coffee.

"You're becoming quite an enterprising young thing, aren't you?" he told her.

"AJ," she replied, "I'm nothing, if not resourceful."

The Admiral chuckled as he and Cathy retired to his office, where she was helping him compose a letter to his ex-wife, Marcella.

OOOO

Harm and Mac stood outside the flight gate, watching to try and spot Chloë in the crowd that was streaming out.

"Can you see her?" Mac asked Harm, worriedly, "I hope she's not missed her flight."

"It's alright Mac," Harm assured her, "she won't have missed her flight. Her Grandma said that she would put Chloë on the plane herself."

As the crowd exiting the plane began to thin, Chloë suddenly emerged from behind a group of fellow travelers.

"Maaaaac!" she exclaimed, loudly and ran to hug her.

"Hey, kiddo! Wow, you've really grown since I last saw you! You're becoming quite the young lady!"

"How has school been going?" Harm asked her, "Are you still doing well?"

"I'm doing great!" Chloë told them both, "On my last report card, I got all As and Bs."

"That's wonderful," Harm exclaimed, "I always knew you were one smart kid."

He affectionately ruffled her hair, then the three of them went to collect Chloë's suitcase from the baggage claim.

"So, the two of you haven't got together yet?" Chloë enquired.

Harm groaned as Mac turned beetroot red.

"Nice to see that some things never change."

OOOO

At AJ's desk, Cathy was proof reading AJ's letter to Marcella.

"I'm surprised you're getting me to correct your Italian grammar for you. You must really want to impress her, to go to so much effort!"

"Well, the last time we spoke on the phone, I told her you were helping me brush up on it. She said that she expected to see an improvement."

"Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I really can't understand what context you mean some of this in. I can't be sure of how you mean some of this without seeing some of the letter that she wrote you."

The Admiral quickly disregarded this idea and set about explaining to Cathy exactly how he meant each section of his letter.

OOOO

In the car, on the way to JAG headquarters, Harm and Mac were trying to dodge the bombardment of question as to the exact nature of their relationship.

"Chloë, I've already told you, Harm and I are just friends."

"No two people are simply such good friend as the two of you are! I mean you guys have real chemistry. The two of you can't deny it."

"If you mean that Mac and I work well together, you've got to realize that this is when we are working together. Stress on the working," Harm pointed out.

"But the two of you are like that all the time, even when you aren't working. I mean, Mac if you ever had a problem that you needed help with, who is the first person you'd call?"

Everyone present in the car knew the answer to that one, straightaway. There was no denying it, because the only person whom Mac felt that she could trust, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would be Harm. Harm also knew this, so rather than waste his breath denying it, he tried to distract Chloë from the subject.

"Now you're really starting to sound like Catriona," he told her.

His plan worked.

"This Catriona thinks so too? What's she like? Is she the same age as me?"

"No, she's quite a bit older than you, but she looks quite like you," Mac told her, "she's got long, blond hair like you, but it's quite curly."

"Does she still go to school?"

"No," Mac replied, "She finished high school about a year ago and started attending the Washington Language Center, as a student."

"That big place with all of the ties to the government? What does she do there?"

"She works as an interpreter and a translator. She's fluent in seven languages and is learning another three, so she translates government documents and interprets at important government meetings."

"Cool!" Chloë exclaimed, "How old is she? And when do I get to meet her?"

"She's just turned nineteen," Mac supplied, "We're on our way to JAG headquarters to meet her, now."

OOOO

At the Admiral's desk, Catriona put the finishing touches to AJ's letter.

"There you go AJ, I think that should just about do it. I think that's what you wanted to put across."

As she handed the letter to him, she spotted a page of cursive handwriting poking out from a partially closed drawer. Cathy recognized the handwriting as Marcella's and picked it up, taking a quick look.

"Oh, this is Marcella's letter is it?" AJ quickly moved to take the letter from her, but Cathy dodged him.

"No, no. Hang on, I want to read this!" she told him and eyed him with a suspicious grin, "What is it that you don't want me finding out?"

AJ started to stutter as he made another swipe for the letter, but Cathy kept in at arms length. Just as he managed to grab Cathy's arm, she wriggled free, running out into the bullpen, laughing.

"Oh," she told him, "there's no way you're getting this from me now!"

The Admiral just laughed as he chased Cathy around the desks.

"You just wait 'til I get a hold of you, you little minx!" he told her.

Cathy had meanwhile dodged him and clamored on top of a large desk. Both Catriona and AJ didn't notice Ham, Mac and Chloë as they walked into the bullpen. They all burst out laughing as Cathy dodged the Admiral's swipes, while trying to read what Marcella had written. She obviously saw something she thought was very amusing, because she let out a raucous laugh and exclaimed, "Admirale! Oo la la!"

She let her guard down for a moment and the Admiral managed to grab her and haul her under one arm into his office. She just continued to laugh and babble away, switching between French and Italian, AJ blushing at some of what she was saying.

As the door to AJ's office shut, Chloë exclaimed, "Wow, she's really cool!"

Mac let out a sigh of relief.

"It looks like we won't have to worry about the two of them getting on, after all," she told Harm.

OOOO Continued in SP 6: Happy Endings OOOO