DISCLAIMER ~ Well, I definitely don't own J.A.G.... wish I did...anyways, you catch the drift...

A/N ~ Okay, due to constant whining from a friend of mine *coughsancticough*, I've decided to write this fanfic. Let me know whatcha think, or I won't continue, lol. Oh, and any ideas/suggestions are welcome. Umm, and one other thing, some slight discrepancies might be present, but chances are, I did it on purpose. R & R!

Chapter 1: Welcome Surprises

1630 ZULU

J.A.G. Headquarters

Harm's Office

Harm stood in his office cleaning up the mess of files that laid on his desk, when someone knocked on the frame of his door.

"Commander?"

Harm's head immediately snapped up. "Hey Bud! Come in. Can I, uh, help you with anything?" he said as he continued shuffling through the files.

"Yeah. Harriet wanted me to make sure you're still coming to the Valentine's Day party."

"Wouldn't miss it. What time's it at again?" As Harm asked this, someone else strode through his door.

"What time's what at?" questioned a young, blonde man who had a smile on his face that very much resembled Harm's.

"Sergei! What're you doing here?" Harm asked, quite astonished.

"I'm in Washington for a couple weeks, and I thought..." Sergei stated as he began playing with a paperweight that was sitting on his brother's desk. "That maybe I could stay with you."

"Of course!" Harm was still somewhat shocked, but pleased.

Bud, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. "Well, I better get back to work, and let you two catch up. The party's at 1900. Oh, and you're more than welcome too, Sergei."

"See ya there Bud." Harm said as his friend re-entered the bullpen.

"So what party?"

"Valentine's..." Harm gave his younger brother a look of disbelief. "So why exactly are you in Washington?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"Well, it's not as if it's just a casual drive into the big city. You live half a world away, Sergei."

Sergei let out a defeated sigh. "You're right. I came here so I could get away...after Galina and I broke up, Russia has become empty to me. I thought that perhaps I could escape for a time here."

"Well, you know you're always welcome." Harm said, a smile on his face.

..............................

Petty Officer Jen Coates' job at J.A.G. was as the admiral's yeoman. As such, on some days the job went extremely slow. Today was one of those days. So as she was sitting there waiting for a new task to be given, she was thinking of all the people that she'd met since she first arrived there. There was Commander Rabb, of course, who she had met during that last messy season of her life. Then there was Colonel Mackenzie, who she didn't know terribly well, but she knew would end up marrying the Commander. Lieutenant Roberts and Sims were always there for her when she needed them...the list went on and on...but one person that she couldn't stop thinking about was Petty Officer Tiner. He had been the yeoman before her, but had left to pursue law himself. She knew he was rather...well, ditzy, is the only word to describe his behavior at times, but she also knew that she liked him. He had this innocence about him, and was one of the sweetest people she knew.

As she was thinking on all of this, someone walked up to her desk. Half paying attention to the form in front of her, but still very deep in thought she said, "The Admiral's busy right now. If you like I can ask him when a more convenient time would be." She jumped when she realized that the person was laughing at her.

"Tiner! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I didn't have anything better to do, so I thought I'd come and visit." he said, one of his classic goofy grins spilling across his face. Just as he said this, the Admiral's voice boomed from within his office.

"Coates! I thought I told you to stay out of my personal business!" Admiral Chegwidden more hollered than said as he emerged from his office.

"I-I am, sir." Coates looked directly at Tiner as she said this, and Tiner responded with a knowing look.

"Then would you care to explain this?" The Admiral held in his hands a set of rings. Weddings bands, to be exact.

"Um, well, uh, sir...they were delivered to the office this morning, and I didn't know what to do with them, so I put them in your office."

The Admiral sighed heavily then glanced at Tiner. "Tiner. What are you standing around for? If you're going to be here, then do something other than gawk at my yeoman, damn it!" With that, he walked back into his office, leaving the two Petty Officers quite flustered. As soon as his door was shut, a smirk emerged on his face.

..............................

1200 ZULU

Roberts' Home

Rosslyn, Virginia

The sun was just beginning to peak as Mike Roberts crawled out of bed. *It's only 0700 on a Saturday! What the hell is that scraping noise?* He thought this to himself rather grumpily, as he pulled on his civies to go investigate the cause of his disrupted slumber. As he looked out the front window, he saw someone scooping the driveway.

*Who IS that?*

Grumbling as he went, the young man stomped out of the room, grabbing his coat from the closet and roughly pulling on his boots and gloves. Opening the front door, a frigid wind greeted him, but his anger from being so rudely awaked boiled inside as he watched the stranger continue to shovel the driveway. Mike quickly walked towards the unfamiliar person who was heavily covered in snow gear.

"Hey you! What're you doin'?" He fiercely hollered. The person didn't respond, so he walked over and tapped them on the shoulder. "HEY! I'm talkin' to you!" With a jump, the stranger turned around, and screamed in fright.

"Mikey! Oh my gosh. You scared me!" A ghost white Coates said to the Midshipmen.

"Ma'am! Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to know who was scooping the drive. Speaking of, why ARE you scooping the drive?"

"Well, what with the Lieutenants not being able to...I've just been helping them out by scooping when it snows, mowing the yard...things like that."

"Oh, well...that's awfully nice of you, Ma'am."

To this statement, Coates simply smiled. "Hey, it seems to be in the job description. And stop calling me Ma'am. We're off duty."

"Sorry, Ma'am...oops." The pair burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm just so used to 'Yes, Ma'am. Yes Sir!'"

"Oh it's alright Mikey."

"Hey, I'll make you a deal. No more Ma'am when we're off-duty, if you promise no more Mikey.... ever."

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you didn't like being called that, Mikey...Mike." Coates corrected herself.

"It's okay. So, you coming to the party tonight?"

"Yeah, in fact, I was going to ask Lieutenant Sims if she needed any help with it. But, uh, I've got to finish this driveway first."

"Let me go grab another shovel, I'll help you."

..............................

"I'll be right back." Coates said as she walked out the door.

"Where's she going?" Mike questioned of his sister-in-law.

"Out to get more crepe paper." A long silence passed between the two busy decorators before Harriet finally broke it. "So, um...I saw you two out there this morning. You seemed to be getting along pretty well."

"Yeah, Jen's nice."

"Jen?"

"Yeah, that's what she told me to call her."

"Oh." Another long silence passed. "Too bad it'd be fraternization."

"WHAT? Fraternization? How'd we make that jump?"

"Oh never mind." Harriet said, a huge grin on her face. "You two would just make a cute couple, that's all."

..............................

2340 ZULU

North of Union Station

Washington, D.C.

"Jen? Maddie? Are you two ready YET?" A very distressed Harm hollered through the Petty Officer's front door for about the sixth time. He nervously glanced down at his watch. "C'mon you two. I had Sergei go start the car ten minutes ago, when you said you'd be ready in a minute."

"Geez, Harm. Lighten up will ya? We're ready!" Maddie said as she and Coates walked into the hall. The conversation dimmed as they walked out to the car, where Sergei sat waiting.

"Well it's about time! Had I been sitting in a garage, I would have died of carbon monoxide poisoning!" Sergei said with a smirk on his face.

"You men just don't understand what we have to go through to look like this. All you have to do is slap on your clothes, maybe put on some cologne, and out the door you go!" A thoroughly exasperated Coates stated.

Sergei laughed, and then suddenly realized that he'd never met the beautiful woman he was talking to. "And you are?"

"Jen Coates. Nice to finally meet the infamous brother of the Commander."

"Likewise."

A tense silence followed as they got situated in the car, and Harm and Maddie exchanged looks.

..............................

Well, I hope you like the story so far...Please let me know if I should continue or not. Sorry the actual party probably won't be out before Valentine's Day. Oh yeah, and definite props to me bud Sancti for beta reading and such. Hehe, the chicken's all gone.

~Nada Zimri~