A/N Man, you guys are a bunch of slave drivers! More more more! That's ok though, because my mind is running in overdrive on this one….I was planning on leaving the rest of my weekend writing until tomorrow, but I just couldn't stop thinking about the next couple chapters, and now I just have to get them out. (sigh) Can't wait to see if this tendency to become addicted to my chapters holds me in good stead once I can convince someone to let me write for money. Enjoy!

A/N 2: Just out of curiosity are there any Krennick fans out there? From what I can tell the Mac and Meg fans are somewhat proportionate to their times on the show (Way more Mac than Meg, but more than a few Meg) which is about how I personally feel about them. Like Meg, love Mac, hate Krennick (I wouldn't blame anyone if they liked Krennick, but honestly I can't see how)

A/N 3: Oh yeah, while pacing about my apartment figuring out the next couple chapters it hit me…it wasn't Maria Elena Carman Gutierrez. I believe its supposed to be Maria Elena Carmelita Gutierrez

Chapter 23

Harm's Apartment
2330 Zulu

"Chegwidden." The familiar voice said on the other end of the line.

"Admiral. I hope I'm not disturbing you." Harm said respectfully.

"Damn it Rabb, I retired. If you don't call me AJ, we're not going to have this conversation."

"I'm sorry sir, it's a hard habit to break." Harm said with a smile.

"Understandable. And don't sir me anymore either. I'm going to tell you something I couldn't tell you before because of our working relationship Harm. I've always looked on you and Bud as the sons I've never had, but you don't need to go spreading that around. Now what's on your mind son?"

"I'm not interrupting anything am I AJ?"

"Just about to have dinner with my daughter Harm."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you two…I can call back another time."

"Out with it Harm. You wouldn't have called me while I'm in Chicago if it wasn't important."

Taking a deep breath Harm just let it all out. "Its Krennick sir."

"She's still treating you like a piece of meat isn't she." The way AJ said it didn't make it question.

"You could say that. To be honest I'm shocked at that kind of behaviour in someone who is for all intents and purposes the JAG."

"As you should be son. How bad is it?"

"Bad enough that people around the office are noticing."

"Anything that can be substantiated?" AJ asked intently.

"Not really. Coates overheard something when Krennick got flustered and left her intercom on, but it was a very ambiguous statement. Nothing that she couldn't brush off if needed."

"Are you going to be alright Harm?" AJ asked, the concern noticeable in his voice.

"I don't think I'm in any danger AJ…not the kind you're worried about anyway."

"How's Mac taking it?"

"She's shocked…and appalled."

"I'm guessing she hasn't killed Krennick yet, I haven't seen anything on ZNN."

"Not yet. She…doesn't know everything yet."

"You never slept with Krennick when she was in the office before, did you Harm?"

"No sir! I've never slept with her period, nor will I ever." Harm said sharply. "Its not that. I just haven't given Mac all the information about how Krennick acted before."

"Don't you think you should son? I mean you two are working on getting things right between you aren't you?"

It was weird having the Admiral express open curiosity about him and Mac. He knew the Admiral was fully aware of the feelings the two have shared for years, but he'd never really came out and said anything because of the regulations. "We are sir. Its going to take time…I don't want to force her into anything."

"Don't take too long Harm. One time you'll let her get away once too often. I know they say if you love something set it free, if it loves you it will come back. But damn it Harm, don't keep forcing her away."

"I'm not the only one who's done the forcing AJ."

"I know son, and if she was there I'd tell her the same thing. Anyway, back to Krennick. What do you want me to do?"

"I'm not sure AJ. I guess I was just hoping for some advice?"

"Well I guess it won't hurt to let you know something. One of the reasons I had her reassigned eight years ago was because of the way she was treating you. I thought she would get the message, but I guess now that she's the one on top she figures she can play her games. Just watch your six son. I'm going to call a few old friends and make some quiet enquiries. I'll be in touch."

"Thank you sir." Harm said with his voice full of relief. It was good to know he could still go to the Admiral if really needed. "Do I want to know what kind of enquiries AJ?"

"Just about Krennick and her deportment at past postings. Usually there's a pattern to this sort of behaviour…if she saw you as a sort of conquest, chances are she acted on this sort of thing at other stations."

Thinking back to his conversation with Mac and Bud Harm unconsciously nodded even though he knew AJ couldn't see him. "That's what I was thinking too. I was going to talk to a friend and have them check up on it…but if you're going to sir, I won't bother."

"Have your friend check as well. You know as well as I that you can never have too many people looking at something."

"Can do AJ. Listen I should really let you get back to your dinner." Harm said and then smiled. He really couldn't resist. "Give Francesca a big hug and kiss for me."

"Rabb! Just because I said I thought of you as a son, doesn't mean I won't come review my SEAL training with you."

"Just kidding sir. Seriously, give her my best and apologize for me please."

"I will son. Take care of yourself…and watch your six with Krennick."

"Aye aye Admiral." Harm said with a smile. Even though he was retired AJ was still tossing out orders.

"Goodbye Rabb."

"Goodnight AJ." Harm said and then pushed the button to hang up his phone. As he was putting it back down on the table he heard a knock at the door. Looking at the clock he smiled. That would be Mac to talk about the investigation. He went over to the door and opened it to reveal Mac in his flight jacket and a pair of jeans. "Hey gorgeous. Come on in." he said with a smile.

"I bet you say that to all the girls." Mac said with a return smile.

"You seem to be wearing that quite a bit. Mattie mentioned that when I first got back." Harm said looking at his flight jacket. Mac just blushed and smiled without saying anything.

"Got the files?" she asked after he'd taken the jacket and hung it up for her.

"On the table. Want something to drink?"

"Water's fine."

"Coming right up. So what's your take on this Riley murder?"

"Other than what I know from the shipboard JAG and NCIS' investigations, not much. Signs of struggle, but not much in the way of clues. No prints, no sign of a murder weapon. A pretty dead end investigation." Mac said as she sat at the table and started opening case files to look over reports. "Defensive wounds on his hands, so he fought whoever killed him. Autopsy results point to blunt force trauma as cause of death. Thanks."

Harm handed her a bottle of water and sat beside her. Unconsciously he started rubbing her back when she opened the file with the pictures of Lieutenant Commander Riley after he'd been found in the supply locker. He felt her put a hand on his knee and squeeze softly in thanks before she started flipping through the photos.

"I just don't understand why he was murdered. There's no apparent motive. He was new on board ship, there's no report of anyone having previous contact with him…no grudges that we're aware of."

Delicately Harm coughed and Mac looked at him curiously. "I can add two points to that Mac. Don't get mad…this is the first time we've talked about the case. One, someone on board knew him previously. His partner."

"His partner?" Mac asked confused.

"Meg. Riley and Meg are Naval Intelligence…they'd been partners for four years." Harm said in a rush.

"Wow." Was all she said.

"Meg told me when she was on board…that's why she was there. Her and Riley were doing some kind of investigation…she wouldn't tell me what. She just said they were NI."

"Well that changes things. Did NCIS know?"

"I would assume so." Harm said with a shrug.

"So now we have a possible motive. Someone found out he was NI…maybe the person they were looking for." Mac said making notes on a legal pad Harm had put out with the files.

Giving Mac's back one final rub Harm stood up and started to pace, trying to think his way through the murder. He was so absorbed in his pacing that he didn't notice the first time Mac asked him a question.

"Harm?"

"Hmm? Oh sorry…was trying to get a grip on this thing." He said with an apologetic smile.

"Its ok flyboy. I asked when the last time you saw Riley was before he was found dead."

Stopping his pacing, Harm thought about that. "The sixth, just before the mission." He said, mentioning the infamous day. He noticed Mac tense up at his mentioning the date. Without a word he reached over and squeezed her shoulder and felt her squeeze his hand with her own. "You know I don't blame you for that, right Mac?"

"I know…but I blame myself. I think I should have asked to be removed from the case because of bias. I was so worried you'd hate me."

"I could never hate you Mac. I may get mad at you…actually I get furious at you sometimes. But after all we've been through? I could never hate you." He said gently.

"Good." She whispered in reply. "So…you saw him on the sixth. Any time after that?"

"No. I didn't really have a chance. Once we were rescued we were brought on board, sent to the bridge, then to our quarters. Once we were confined, it was pretty much quarters or head until the trial." He said with another squeeze of her shoulder. She was now gently rubbing his hand with hers, and he didn't want her to stop.

"Meg said something to me once about how she had a hunch that what she was investigating was linked to my difficulties."

Mac stopped writing notes at Harm's mention of Meg. Looking up at him she bit her lip and then said "Harm, can I tell you something?"

"You know you can Mac. I don't want us to not talk, not anymore." He said with a smile but inside he remembered that he needed to tell her about Krennick. Just not right now.

"Its about Meg."

"OK." He said warily.

"I'm…or rather I was jealous of her. That night we all had dinner here." She said in a big rush.

"Whatever for?"

"Its silly…you'll laugh." Mac said self consciously.

"I promise, I won't." Harm said earnestly. "Tell me Mac, whatever it is will be ok."

"I was jealous because you two talked to each other so easily…you were finishing each other's sentences, laughing at each other's jokes, telling all these old stories about each other. The way you and I…used to. I was so mad at her because she had that with you and I didn't anymore. It hurt me so much to see you sharing something that we had had with someone else."

Harm didn't laugh; in fact he didn't say anything at first. All he did was step closer behind Mac and wrap his arms around her. "Mac…it hurt me that we'd seemed to have lost that too. You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell you something that Mattie had said or done, or even just talk to you about your day, but I couldn't because…well just because." He finally said careful not to bring up her relationship with Webb.

Swallowing a lump in her throat Mac reached up and gripped Harm's arms where they wrapped around her. "Its ok Harm…you can say it. Because I was with Clay." She said softly. "I know you don't mention him because you don't want to cause me pain, and I appreciate that, really. But if I'm going to accept it, I need to acknowledge the fact that it was a part of me. I can't ignore it, and neither can you."

They stayed like that for a few minutes, neither one wanting to say anything, just wanting to be next to the other. Finally Mac asked "Do you think we should interview Meg?"

"That's a good idea…if we can find her. She left the Henry before me, and I don't know where she went from there." Harm said feeling guilty because he was glad they could get off the topic of Mac and Webb's relationship.

"Well, someone has to know where to find her." Mac said.

"Wish we had Gunny here. I bet he'd be able to track her down in a morning." Harm said with a smile.

"Yeah, but if he was here, he wouldn't have found you in Iraq." Mac said pointedly.

"True. Maybe Bud can dig something up. He's almost as uncanny as Gunny at getting information together."

"Good idea, if his case load leaves him any time."

Sighing Harm looked over Mac's shoulder at her notes and the case files. "We'll need to talk to the agent who did the investigation for NCIS…and contact the JAG onboard the Henry. Do you think it would do us any good to go back out there?"

"I'm not sure…the crime is over two month's old. There's nothing there in the way of evidence…NCIS didn't find any when the scene was fresh. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to speak to the crew about it. Someone might remember something, especially if the mighty CAG was there to scare it out of them." Mac said with a smile up at him.

Reaching up Harm gently mussed her hair and laughed. "Just the mighty JAG lawyer now. Keeter's back in the driver's seat."

"Do you miss it?" Mac asked softly. That was the question she hadn't asked him since he returned.

"A little. But I did some thinking while I was there. I don't think the deck of a carrier's where I belong anymore. It just didn't seem right."

"What seems right to you?" Mac asked.

"This." He said softly as he gave her a gentle squeeze again. "Mac…Captain Ingles offered to help me get a CAG billet on another carrier if I wanted it. I turned him down because I needed to come back."

"To JAG?" she asked quietly.

"To you. We need to work things out Mac, and I can't do that out at sea."

With a little smile Mac reached up and stroked his cheek. Catching her hand in his Harm turned her hand over and placed a soft kiss on the inside of her palm.

"I'm glad you came back." She whispered.

"So am I. Like I said, we need to talk about the anniversary we shared this year as well." Harm said with a wicked smile.

"You never did tell me what you were referring to."

"Its not time for us to talk about it yet...but soon. I promise."

Mac didn't look happy at his evasion, but she nodded. "And you keep your promises. Fine." She said as she pouted.

Softly Harm ran the tip of his finger over her bottom lip as it stuck out in her pout. She looked so sexy when she pouted like that…and he longed to kiss the pout away. Before he could however she giggled and the pouting lips were gone.

"So we should go out to the Henry?" she asked nervously.

"Looks like it. I'll talk to Dragon Lady in the morning…get her to clear us to fly out." Harm said and then stopped as he saw her frown. "What's up?"

"Krennick. God I'd love to knock her on her ass." Mac said fiercely. Something had riled her marine anger.

"What did she do?" Harm asked with a sinking feeling.

"She asked me if we'd ever slept together today. The nerve!"

"What did you say?"

"That we hadn't of course." Mac said as she stood up and disentangled herself from his arms. Now she was the one pacing about his small dining area, with her arms crossed over her chest. "The nerve of that woman is mind boggling. First she all but undresses you in the office, and then she's going around asking every woman in the office if they'd ever slept with you."

"What did you say?" Harm asked sharply.

"You didn't know?" Mac asked incredulously.

"That's she's hunting for someone who's slept with me? No." Harm said still shocked.

Suddenly Mac stopped and smiled. "I thought Harriet was going to grab her by the hair and drag her outside for a knock em down drag em out beating."

"What happened?" Harm asked in alarm. For Harriet to get physical something big had to have gone down.

"Krennick was interrogating Jen about why she's helping you with Mattie, and why she lives down the hall and a bunch of other crap, trying to find out if Jen was trying to…ahem. 'Get in your pants' I believe is the term she used. Harriet happened to be close by and just about went off the deep end at the way Krennick was drilling Jen. Don't get me wrong, Jen was doing a good job of expressing her own indignation, but you know what Harriet gets like when someone she cares about is threatened."

Harm stood there silently with his arms crossed chewing on his bottom lip. The nerve of that woman, to launch a witch hunt in the office, and attack Jen for being his friend…for being someone he cared about. The more he thought about it, the angrier he was becoming. He didn't care about her throwing herself at him…it disgusted him, but if she wanted to make an ass of herself, that's her choice. But to go after the people he cared about, to look for someone who'd slept with him…why she would….

"She woulnd't." he whispered.

"She wouldn't what?" Mac asked.

"Nothing…just thinking. AJ was right…I need to watch my six with her."

"You spoke to the Admiral about this?"

Nodding Harm motioned vaguely towards the phone. "Tonight before you got here. I needed his advice…she was his aide after all."

"What did he say?" Mac asked curiously.

"To watch my six, and that he'd get some old friends looking into if there was a pattern of behaviour."

"Are you going to make a complaint?" Mac asked.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Mac asked incredulously.

"I don't know. It's complicated Mac."

"No Harm, its not. She's harassing you, make a complaint."

"Mac…it's not that easy. Can you imagine the bad press this would bring? I can just see the headlines now 'JAGGate – Interim JAG a man eater.'" Harm said with a snort. "The Navy doesn't need that right now…the military doesn't need it right now. Those prisoner abuse allegations are too fresh in people's minds. The last thing we need is a scandal of this magnitude."

Harm was so wrapped up in what he was saying that he didn't notice the way Mac was staring at him shock. "I don't believe you Harmon Rabb. This is just like you…you and your damn nobility." Mac said furiously.

"What are you talking about?"

"You can't see it, can you? You are so in love with the Navy that you would offer yourself up as a sacrifice so that the Navy doesn't suffer. Do you think anyone would thank you? Do you think anyone would care that you didn't make a complaint so that a scandal could be avoided?" Mac asked working herself up into a frenzy.

Harm looked at her with his confusion written on his face. "Mac…slow down." He said as he stepped up to wrap his arms around her.

"You would let that…that….harpy get away with this just because you don't want the Navy to suffer? I don't believe you Harm." She said as she shrugged off his attempt to hug her. Going over to his closet she pulled out his flight jacket and put it on. "You just don't see, do you Harm?"

And with that she was gone again as the door slammed behind her.