When Admiral Chegwidden told Harm and Mac to meet him at Bud and Harriet's they both got tense, but, because he was their friend as well as their CO, they turned their office phones to voicemail and grabbed their covers before heading down to a Navy fleet sedan. Harm drove the car to Rosslyn while Mac stared out the passenger side window without seeing a thing.

The thousand yard stare was scaring Harm. The last time he had seen her like that was when Dalton had been killed and she had fallen off the wagon.

And Mac loved Harriet more than she could have ever loved Dalton.

"Mac?" Harm said gently when they were a few blocks from the Roberts residence.

The only response Harm got was a distant "Hmm?" from his partner.

"Mac," Harm said more firmly.

"I'm listening," Mac said distantly. "What is it?"

"I know now isn't the right time, but when we get a moment to breathe… I want you to know that you can talk to me," Harm said. "I know how close you and Harriet were."

Mac looked over at Harm, her eyes shining with tears that refused to fall. "She was one of my best friends," Mac said sadly. She reached out and took Harm's hand in hers. "Promise me that you're not going to leave me like everyone else does," she pleaded.

"I'll never leave you, Mac. You know that," Harm promised as he tangled his fingers with hers so that they were as inextricably linked as their lives and hearts had been for years. "Face it, Marine. You're stuck with me."

And, for the first time since getting the news from the detective, Mac smiled a genuine smile that even managed to reach her tearful eyes. She wanted so badly to hug him right then, but, since he was driving and she knew that once she got into his embrace she would finally let go of her emotions and wouldn't be able to come back to herself until she'd cried herself out, she held back. She did, however, promise herself that the first chance they got she would go to Harm and take comfort in the man who had been her rock since day one.

"I'm good with that," Mac replied, tightening her grip on his hand.

A few minutes later they were parked behind the Admiral's SUV out in front of the Roberts residence. Bud and the Admiral were sitting in the living room, and little AJ was curled up against Chegwidden's chest, probably asleep. Harm smiled as he pointed at the pair of AJs.

"Think anyone else could get away with just crawling up on his lap like that?" Harm asked.

"There are so many ways that can be taken…" Mac teased, letting Harm figure that one out for himself.

"That's just wrong, Mac," Harm said as he followed his partner up the walkway.

Mac shrugged and then pressed the doorbell.

All levity was gone the second the Admiral opened the door, armed with a 9mm.

"No offence, sir, but how many murders do you know who ring the doorbell?" Mac asked as they went into the study, the only room in the house without any windows. Little AJ went to his godmother and reached his arms up in the air and she immediately picked him up and cradled him close to her body.

"More than I care to, Mac," Chegwidden said sourly.

"Auntie Mac, why is Uncle Judgy making me go away?" AJ asked sadly.

Harm looked up at Chegwidden sharply but Mac simply chose to soothe the boy. "He's not making you go away, sweetheart. There are some very bad people in the world and one of them took your mommy away. We just want to make sure that they don't try to take you away, too," Mac said gently while stroking the boy's soft hair. "You and your daddy are going to go on little trips for a while and your uncles and I are going to make sure that the bad people won't try to hurt anyone else ever again, okay?"

AJ frowned. "Will they try to hurt you?" he asked, worried.

"No," Mac lied. She didn't know the truth, but she was pretty sure that they weren't completely safe. But AJ didn't need to know that. "You don't have to worry about us."

"Where am I going?"

"I don't know yet, sweetheart, but as soon as I find out I'll let you know, okay?" Mac said softly. AJ nodded and rested his head on her shoulder, needing the comfort of his mother more than ever. Even though Mac wasn't his mother, and there was no substitute for Harriet, AJ had always been comforted by his godmother's embraces.

Mac stroked AJ's fine hair until she was sure he was asleep and then she looked up at the Admiral. "What's the plan?"

An hour later the details were hammered out and Chegwidden left to make some calls to see if he could get Bud's transfer hushed up, just in case. AJ's arrangements were all taken care of, and there would be no way for anyone to track him to where he was going.

Harm felt a little awkward as he moved around the unfamiliar kitchen, but AJ was hungry and Bud needed to eat something, even if he didn't want to, so, while Mac and Bud told AJ what the deal was, he made some spaghetti with his special vegetable sauce. It was AJ's favourite, but it had also been Harriet's, which made him a little hesitant to serve the dish. However, the brilliant smile on his godson's face when he started spinning the pasta around his fork made all Harm's doubts leave him like an F-14 off a catapult on a carrier deck.

After the meal was all cleaned up, Harm said goodbye to Bud and promised to keep him updated on AJ while he was away at sea. Mac was going to stick around to help Bud and AJ get ready for their trips, so Harm drove back to JAG alone.

Knowing he wasn't going to be getting much work done in the next few days, Harm made sure he stayed late to finish up all his paperwork before heading out. He was just heading to the fax machine to send a document to the defence council on a case he was working when he realized that Meg was also still working.

Harm sent his fax and gathered up his things to head out, though, instead of heading to the elevators, he went to Meg's office.

Rapping his knuckles against the doorjamb, Harm peered into the small office that had once been his. The punishment office, where Admiral Chegwidden kept the lawyers he needed but didn't really want to see.

Or, in this case, visiting attorneys who would be moved somewhere more suitable once the space became available.

"Hey," Meg said, looking up from the file she was going over. "You heading out?" she asked, glancing at his briefcase and cover.

"It's almost ten. Anything I need to get done won't happen until the morning anyway," Harm said. "What about you? You should be exhausted by now, with the time change and everything."

"It's only five in the afternoon for me, Harm," Meg said with a gentle smile. Nice try, Rabb, she thought absently. "Besides, I have a ton of files to go over and you know as well as I do that every second we don't have a tangible lead is another second that the killer is either planning out his next hit or is getting the hell out of dodge. And neither is an option I care for."

Unable to argue with that logic, Harm tried another tactic. "How about this. You grab some files and we go to my place. I'll make dinner and help you with the files until I can't see straight."

"Wow, a pilot offering up his eyesight," Meg teased. She looked at the files and then back at Harm, completely serious. "What about Mac?"

"What about her?" Harm asked, confused.

"Won't she be bothered by me coming over?" Meg asked.

Harm let out a bitter chuckle. "Mac and I are just friends," he said. "And even if we were more, I seriously doubt she would be all that bothered by me making dinner and going over case-files with a friend. Come on. You haven't had my meatless meatloaf years."

Meg scrunched up her nose. "I think I would like to maintain that trend," she said as she selected a stack of files and tucked them safely in her briefcase. "I wouldn't say no to some of that fettuccini alfredo you made for my birthday, though."

"Coming right up," Harm said, glad he had gotten her to leave the office. He knew that Meg would have stayed until she had every single detail of every file memorized. Normally her obsessive work ethic would have been a good thing, a point of pride for Meg. But, even with her superior memory and her impressive work ethic and ability to sacrifice her own time and energy in deference to a case, Harm knew Meg would end up collapsing before taking a break.

Harmon Rabb Jr wasn't usually one to tell someone that they were too dedicated to a task or that they were getting obsessed over a case. He knew he had obsessions of his own—flying and his father being the two biggest and most well known—but he felt that his obsessions just helped him spot the signs in others. And he could see that Meg was well on her way to full-blown obsession. It was entirely possible that a few more hours in the tiny office where not even the janitors went regularly would have set Meg off and she wouldn't have come out of her office for anything beyond the case.

"So where is Mac tonight?" Meg asked as she loaded up a box with the files she felt could be pertinent.

"She's helping Bud pack," Harm said. "Chegwidden got him a shipboard JAG position on the USS Sequoia. Transport leaves in two days. Right after Harriet's funeral."

"What's going to happen to his son?" Meg asked as she gathered up her cover and coat.

Harm sighed. "After the funeral I'm flying out to the West Coast with him. Mom and Frank are gonna take care of him for a few weeks, maybe longer if we can't get this all settled."

"Does he know your mom and stepfather?"

"Yeah. AJ calls them Nana and Pop," Harm said with a smile. "I called them earlier and got them up to date. Mom's gallery is closed for a few weeks for some internal facelift thing and Frank basically makes his own hours, so they'll be able to watch him 'round the clock. And an old buddy of mine is convalescing there with a broken leg, so he'll be able to help out, too."

"Your friend's usually hang out at your parent's place?" Meg asked with a small smile.

Harm shrugged. "It happens. Mom loves it and Frank thinks it's cute or something. Apparently I don't visit often enough and when I do I'm not injured enough to warrant being waited on hand and foot," he said as he punched the elevator call button. While waiting he turned and looked around the empty office. They'd finally managed to get Chegwidden to go home after he'd made all the arrangements for Bud, though only because Jen had caught him asleep at his desk in the middle of a violent nightmare that left the former SEAL shaken.

The JAG staff had seen their CO in many different ways. Angry was very common. Fatherly and concerned. Grief-stricken. Happy, sad, even playful on occasion.

But never shaken.

Seeing their stalwart leader so lost and distressed had thrown the entire office into a state of semi-chaos. As long as they had Admiral Chegwidden, Navy SEAL and fearless leader of the JAG corps, there to ground them all everything would be okay, but as soon as he became AJ, a man who had seen too much in his life and had just lost someone he thought of as a daughter, things got messy. Everyone in the office had come to think of Chegwidden as a surrogate father-figure as well as a CO, but, since he was the latter first and foremost, none of them could do anything to help the hurting former. The paradox was positively suffocating.

"You okay?" Meg asked when she noticed Harm's thousand mile stare.

"No," Harm admitted. "But I can fake it," he said as the elevator arrived.

Meg wasn't reassured.