JAG Headquarters

0652 hours

San Antonio, Texas

Harm knocked on the door to Meg's office as Mac headed down to the conference room that was their 'office' for the duration of the investigation. He would have gone down with her to get a head start on finding some new leads, but Harm was worried about Meg. He hadn't seen her the night before and she had left for work before he even woke up that morning, leaving a note by the coffee pot saying she was going in early to get some paperwork out of the way.

Normally that wouldn't have been a big deal. Meg had always done paperwork to get other things off her mind—which had always greatly benefited Harm because he hated being a pencil-pusher, even for the briefest amounts of time—but Harm knew that, with all the things that were going on in Meg's life at that moment with the case and her mother and everything, she should talk to someone and not bury her feelings like she had a tendency to do. Not that he could claim to be innocent of burying feelings instead of talking about them.

But Harm trusted his instincts, and Meg's whole attitude was giving him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Enter," Meg said tiredly. Harm opened the door and dropped into a chair in front of her desk, looking at his former partner expectantly. Meg stared him down for a minute before asking, "What's up?"

"That's my question," Harm said.

"Funny, I didn't hear you asking it," Meg said.

"Didn't think I would have to," Harm said with a slight shrug.

Meg narrowed her eyes and frowned. "Harm, what is it? You're scaring me a little here."

"Sorry. That's not my intention," Harm said. He looked at her for a long moment and then he said, "I need you to talk to me, Meg."

"About?"

"Whatever it is that's bothering you," Harm said. "And don't say that it's your mother and don't say that it's the case, because I know you and whatever is going on is bigger than that."

Meg pushed herself away from her desk and stood up, crossing the small room to grab a book from the shelves that lined the opposite wall. "I really don't want to talk about it, Harm. It's not affecting my work and I don't want to burden you with my issues. I've done enough of that already."

"I don't feel burdened," Harm said honestly.

"You should," Meg said softly, finding the reference she was looking for and making a note of it on a Post-It before replacing the book carefully.

Harm studied Meg for a minute before giving up. Whatever was bothering her wasn't physically obvious. He hadn't thought it would be—he would have noticed it before—but he felt that he had to make sure. "Just answer a few questions of the 'yes or no' variety," he said plaintively.

"If that'll get you to drop this, fine," Meg said, sitting back down and sticking the yellow Post-It to the edge of her computer's monitor before turning her attention to the aviator.

Harm relaxed a little. She wasn't blocking him out completely. That was a good sign.

"Is the ranch in trouble?" Harm asked, starting off there because it was easy and he knew how much the ranch meant to her. It was her last link to her father.

"No. The ranch is fine," Meg said. "But you know that. You're the one who got everything moved out of mom's name and into mine."

"I'm just starting off easy here, Meg," Harm said.

"Don't. We have a case to investigate," Meg said. Her tone was uncharacteristically cold.

Harm's bad feeling grew exponentially.

"Was your meeting with your CO really that bad last night?" Harm asked. He knew how important her career in the Navy was to Meg, and hoped that she wasn't catching too much flack over the lack of success to the investigation.

"Not as bad as I thought it would be," Meg admitted. "Probably not as bad as you and Mac are gonna get it from Chegwidden when you check in with him," she added.

Harm cringed. He'd forgotten to check in with the Admiral when he got to San Antonio. And he knew Mac had forgotten to send along an update on the case.

He recovered quickly, though, knowing that Meg was trying to divert his attention from her. He would worry about Admiral Chegwidden later. Meg was more important than saving his six from the SEAL's anger.

"So the ranch is safe and work isn't the problem… you're not sick, are you?" Harm asked, an iron fist grabbing his heart while he waited for her answer. Meg was one of his best friends and he couldn't stand the thought of losing her.

Meg shook her head. "I'm not sick."

Harm breathed a sigh of relief before asking his next question. "Are you having… relationship issues?" Harm asked awkwardly.

"If you mean am I in a relationship, no. If that's considered a relationship issue, then, yes, you could say I'm having relationship issues. But that's not what's bothering me," Meg said.

"Then what is it? Meg, come on. You can tell me what's bothering you," Harm said.

Meg took a slow breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly. She knew she could trust Harm and she did want to talk about what was bothering her.

"Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt me or that's it," Meg said sternly. Harm nodded and shut his mouth, too happy that Meg was going to open up to him to risk saying something to shut her down.

"It's like this…" Meg said.

Not my best chapter, I know, and definitely not the longest, but what is going on with Meg is so huge that I want to up the suspence a little.

Don't worry, Meg isn't going to go insane and evil with jealousy. I couldn't make her act like that if I tried.

And, for those of you who have been wanting a Harm/Meg story, I've posted the first chapter of PALL which is something I've been toying around with for a while now.

Any guesses about what is going on with Meg are welcome. If someone guesses correctly I'll post the chapter right away. If not, well... there will be a delay.

I swear I didn't mean for that to rhyme.

M