It's rainy and gray today. I have a friend who's a Naval helo pilot and she got her masters about 15 years ago at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey. For about eight months she complained about how gray and damp it was there and then all of a sudden she was sent to Guam, so I guess she was done with cold and gray. Anyhow, that has no bearing on anything except Guam has some problems with snakes so I might prefer cold and gray. Don't worry, our young lovers will be back soon. I just got a little diverted by Frankie Benz.

**I Feel For You, Chaka Khan **

"Hey Benz you got a minute?" Commander Slattery called out as Frankie passed his office door. Damn, he thought to himself, hoping Slattery wasn't going to give him hell for assigning Miller, O'Connor, and Cossetti 1000 pushups the other afternoon. Danny had given him a hard time already, telling him the idea was to toughen them up just enough that they wanted to push themselves further, not to totally demoralize them. So Frankie had done the workout with them which he thought should be enough encouragement for them. Admittedly, he was having a hard time not complaining about his shoulders today.

"Yes Sir, what do you need?" He stood in front of Slattery's desk not quite at attention, not quite relaxed either. He hadn't figured Slattery out yet. Usually the XO was an enforcer, the one who dealt with all the officer's interactions and Slattery definitely had the personality for it. But so far, he hadn't seen or heard of him giving anyone much of a hard time.

"Have a seat lieutenant." Slattery folded his hands on his desk and something about the set of his jaw told Frankie that he didn't really want to have to talk about whatever it was he was about to say. "You know Lieutenant Green pretty well, right?" Oh Shit. He'd figured it was going to be trouble eventually but he'd really hoped to stay out of it.

"Well yeah, we've been all over the world together. I joined red team right outta training and we've been in the same group for close to 10 years now, why?" He hoped it was something else, anything else.

"Are there any unwritten discipline problems, you know, the kinds of things that another command might let slide if an officer is doing a good job otherwise. Anything I should know?" Slattery raised his eyes and Frankie wasn't sure if he already knew something or was just looking.

Shit. Shit. Shit. When he was six Frankie had lied to his Mama about throwing the wrapper from his after school candy bar on the ground as he walked home from the neighborhood store. She'd made him sweep the sidewalk between their house and the store after school for a week, and told everyone in the neighborhood why he was doing it. He'd promised to never ever lie again and up until now he'd kept that promise.

Choosing his words carefully he said "No, No sir. No past infractions, written or otherwise, that I know about." He made sure to meet Slattery's eyes in the hopes that would make it more convincing. Not that it wasn't true, but he didn't want to give the other man reason to look more closely at Danny.

Slattery gripped one forearm where it slashed across his desk and leaned forward. "Good good. I'm in the middle of writing up a report for the brass when we get home. Best we can figure, your team got put here to help Green flesh out the leadership skills section on his resume so he can move up."

Frankie sat deeper in his chair, relieved he wasn't being asked to tattle. "Well, you know moving O-3 to O-4 is a bottleneck for us. It takes a bit longer than for the line officers. I'll be eligible next year too but with only five or so Lieutenant Commander positions opening a year I imagine I'll have to wait a while too."

Slattery nodded with a wry smile. "Yeah, I hear you. I've got all the chops but I keep getting passed over for a command of my own too. And you know that's when Chandler left the SEALs, to get his oak leaf. That's why we want to make sure we get some good notes on record."

"Yeah well I can tell you that working with Green is great. He's a little obsessive about preparation but that's probably why we've never lost anyone in the field. The guy he replaced almost cost both of us our lives once being too aggressive. The only negative I see is that he's pretty willing to take all the responsibility, particularly if we had to bend the rules a little to get a job done." He could see that struck a chord with Slattery from the light of recognition in his eyes.

"Yeah, about that…" Slattery templed his finders and watched Frankie closely. Crap, maybe he'd just opened the door to examining Danny's character a little too wide. "So what's the deal with Lieutenant Foster then? Chandler wants me to make sure there's no serious harassment going on." Harassment? Frankie wracked his brain for any incidents that would have made Chandler think Danny was harassing Kara and came up blank. Slattery continued. "He heard she was interfering with Halsey in the mess the other day. Apparently Green left quite angry."

Frankie's eyes just about bugged out of his head. He rubbed a hand over his face, partly to hide his relief and partly out of amazement. Kara harassing Danny? That was rich. "Uh, I don't think she's really giving him too much of a hard time directly sir. She's just, well, she's in love.."Gah he was making a mess of this. If the XO got suspicious based on what he said, Danny would never forgive him. Besides, as far as he knew she was still fuming about the surprise of finding Danny here. "In love with the dog, I mean. They're just having a tiff because she thinks he doesn't reward Halsey enough. Thinks growing up on a farm makes her an expert on everything animal and unlike most people, she's not intimidated by us."

Slattery gave a bark of laughter. "Yeah, Foster doesn't let anyone make up her mind for her." If you only knew thought Frankie. "So as far as you know, there's no need for me to get involved? It wouldn't be the first time she's bruised another officer's ego."

Frankie gave a single negative nod. "Nah, they're adults. They can work it out between themselves. Besides, I'm dating one of her best friends. You know her, Georgina, she used to be a pilot on the Nathan James. Foster is kind of pissed about that too because she and her friends have this rule about not dating military. Danny stuck up for Georgina's right to know her own mind which made Kara really angry but you know she and Georgina are good friends so it will blow over eventually."

He knew he was babbling, but he realized he'd hit paydirt when Slattery smiled so wide that the deep creases beside his mouth showed. "Georgina? Really? With you? That must be something else. Is that why she got moved? Not that Kelty isn't good, but Georgie's one of the best and it would have been good to have her on this trip."

Frankie couldn't help but grin at hearing Slattery's assessment of his girlfriend's skills. "No, she got sent to some fancy schmancy class out at Naval post graduate school. Good thing or else this cruise would have been epic!"

"Hmmmmm. There are rules about that kind of thing, as you well know. And if there was even a hint of suspicion we would have been having a very different conversation than we are right now." Slattery gave him a pointed stare. "Lucky for you, the situation saved you from yourself." Slattery's gaze lost some of it's intensity and he leaned back in his chair, changing the subject. "How are things otherwise then? I imagine this has been a little less strenuous than your usual assignments."

Triumphing that he'd successfully diverted Slattery from picking apart Danny and Kara's interactions, Frankie mirrored the XO and relaxed in his chair. "Yeah, can't say I don't mind not being on guard all the time. I haven't been this rested in a long time."

"Well good. I was a little worried that we would overwork the teams. I know this scientist woman is driving you hard." Slattery looked genuinely concerned. Frankie was beginning to form his opinion of him and it was all good. They rarely stayed on a ship long enough to judge but he could tell, Slattery and Chandler were men who could get things done. "You let me know if anything changes, especially if it affects the ability of the team to do their job."

"Yes sir." Frankie left the office intent on finding Danny ASAP. He should probably know what Slattery had said and have a heads up that command was paying attention to him and Kara, even if it was for the wrong reason.

He found Danny in his room. Frankie took in the mussed hair, sock feet, and Halsey stretched out on the top bunk. "Were you sleeping in the middle of the day?" He didn't see a book or computer or anything around for entertainment.

"Just resting a bit. Gotta go out with Trophet in about.." He glanced at his watch. "..forty minutes. What's up?"

"I just had a little talk with the XO that I thought you should know about." Frankie pulled out the desk chair, noting with curiosity that Danny's flannel shirt was hanging folded over the back. Interesting, he'd lived and worked with Danny for 10 years and he'd never seen him fold a shirt and hang it that way. He always hung it as if the chair was wearing it. He looked around to see if there were other signs. The blanket and pillow from the top bunk were on the bottom instead. There were two bottles of water on the shelf under the bunk and a hair tie and bobby pins on the little counter in the wardrobe. Holy shit he thought. Things between Danny and Kara had progressed far more than even he'd expected. He motioned to the shirt. "I see you've found your shirt."

Danny sighed and sat back down on the edge of the bed, grabbing a boot. "It's complicated…and I better not say much more than that."

Frankie's shoulders shook with mirth. "Isn't it always? But that's sort of what I need to talk to you about."

Danny gave a meaningful glance toward the open door an Frankie interpreted properly, toeing it closed before continuing. "Basically, Slattery asked me why Foster was giving you a hard time in the mess the other day. He wanted to make sure she wasn't harassing you."

Danny stared back at him, not comprehending at first. "He asked you if she was harassing me?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I told him no, that you were just peeved at her for spoiling the Fuzz and I think he bought it. But I would bet he'll have an eye on you two to make sure everything is ok. I thought I'd better pass it on, in case there was something I didn't know about. And it looks like I was right." Frankie motioned around the room. "You better clean this room up before there's an inspection."

"You seriously had no idea?" Danny's eyes were wide and Frankie realized he'd assumed Frankie knew. The conversation they'd had the other day about why Danny was in such a good mood took on new meaning. He'd said he was tired out in the best way possible. Frankie had thought he meant from exercise and the physical labor of loading and unloading equipment each time they went out but now he was pretty sure he'd been referring something else. Frankie was amused to see Danny's cheeks redden. "Uh, I owe you like thirty dollars for um, supplies that I got from your bottom drawer, too."

Frankie held up a hand. "That's it, I know too much already. I'm going. Just don't be an idiot and don't get caught." He waved toward the counter. "And get rid of those bobby pins, they're a total giveaway."