"The Johnson case, sir?" asked Jen while Harm searched his brain for the name, coming up with nothing.

"The Johnson case was very thoroughly buried a few years ago by the Navy. It's very similar to your situation, with a few exceptions. A Commander and a Petty Officer got married and were tried for fraternization. During the trial they managed to prove that their marriage wouldn't interfere with their work, nor would it create the image of favoritism. The two were under different chains of command and as such there was no chance of disrupting good order and discipline of the office, favoritism, unit cohesion and morale. The couple also managed to prove they had not broken the fraternization regulations prior to their marriage."

Four dark eyebrows travelled northward.

"Excuse me, sir?" and "How is that possible, sir?" was heard from both Harm and Jen.

The Admiral leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his stomach and explained.

"Simple. Though they were attracted to each other and knew they were in love, they had not engaged in a personal relationship. Apparently they were friends before getting married, for 5 years in fact. As that friendship did not damage good order and discipline since the Petty Officer was a yeoman for another officer and not under her future husband's command, nor did it operate to the personal disgrace or dishonor of the officer involved, there were no obstacles in the way of their friendship. This is the loophole of the frat regs.

The regs specify fraternization as: "Fraternization, as defined by the Manual for Courts-Martial, is a personal

relationship between an officer and an enlisted member that violates the customary bounds of

acceptable behavior and prejudices good order and discipline, discredits the

armed services, or operates to the personal disgrace or dishonor of the officer involved."

(AN: this is the actual definition of fraternization, taken from "Air Force Instruction AFI36-2909" from 1 May 1999. These are the Air Force's regulations concerning personal relationships among it's personnel and are also used by the UCMJ.)

The Admiral continued "As you see, since they were always on good behaviour they were thus on acceptable behavior and did not discredit the armed services, were not in the same chain of command, which ruled out it disrupting good order and discipline, and both of them behaved honorably, thus they did not break the frat regs. To prove that they even managed to provide over 50 witnesses, among them even the Petty Officer's CO who had reported them for the fraternization. Even he had to admit in court that they had never brought any disgrace nor disruption to the Navy nor to themselves. And the fact that they were not in a combat unit helped immensely. The frat regs were after all written with combat units in mind and before there were women in the military. This was just another convenient way of preventing homosexual relationships among the ranks. Another reason was that by entering such a relationship while serving in a combat unit, it would lead to favoritism and abuse of power, which can cause a disaster in combat."

Jen and Harm were fascinated by the tale and listened raptly. The Admiral took a sip of water and picked up the story.

"Apparently one day Cmdr. Johnson and PO Bradley couldn't take being in love and not being together anymore and decided to do something about it. As I've heard they both found the loophole at the same time when reading the regs."

Harm and Jen were by now completely caught up in the story and were listening at the edge of their seats. The Admiral saw this and decided to take pity on them and stop stalling.

"In the regs on personal relationships, section "5.1.3.1.:Officer/Enlisted Marriages. When evidence of fraternization exists, the fact that an officer and enlisted member subsequently marry does not preclude appropriate command action based on the prior fraternization. The fact that an officer is married to an enlisted member is not, by itself, evidence of misconduct. For example, some officer-enlisted marriages are created by the commissioning of civilians married to enlisted members, or by the commissioning of enlisted members married to other enlisted members. Other officer-enlisted marriages may result from force reductions and nonselection for promotion of some officers who then reverted to enlisted status. Regardless of how the officer-enlisted marriage came to be, married members are expected to respect all customs and courtesies observed by members of different grades when they are on duty, in uniform in public, or at official social functions.""

"The loophole was, that before they got married they were neither dating, nor were they having a sexual relationship, nor were they living with each other. The frat regs, when regulating officer/enlisted unprofessional relationships specifically forbid: gambling; lending or borrowing of money; sexual relationships and dating, sharing of living accomodations and engaging in business enterprises together. But they do not forbid marriages."

The understanding was seen on both members of the newly married couple's faces. Cheggwidden found himself becoming less grouchy and volatile the more time he spent with his two subordinates. He could already tell from their unspoken communication that this marriage is one that will last forever and he was feeling very honored and humble to be there to see it begin.

"So, sir, Johnson and Bradley managed to prove they were nor in an unprofessional, nor sexual, nor romantic relationship before their marriage and once they were married they still behaved professionally while on-duty as if they had never had a closer relationship. They treated each other not as husband and wife, but as a Cmdr. and a Petty Officer. So, since we didn't have any kind of a romantic relationship prior to our marriage, we didn't break the regs. If we keep being professional while on duty, then there will be no grounds for a fraternization Courts Martial." deduced Jen.

Harm was very proud of his wife, while the Admiral smiled broadly, also very proud of his yeoman.

"Exactly, Mrs. Rabb! But they also did one thing which I would suggest to you two: PO Bradley took her husband's name. While it may look old-fashioned, it also helped them a lot. This is one very visual symbol of unity which they showed to the court. It also protects them if anyone wants to cause them trouble. Anyone would immediately come to the conclusion that they were married after seeing their wedding rings and same last name on the tags on their uniforms. But if they had different last names someone could cause them trouble by reporting them for adultery and fraternization. It would be easily solved, but it is stil better to avoid any chances of such problems starting. As I've said before, officer/enlisted marriages DO exist and every commanding officer, especially above the rank of bird Colonel, is fully aware of that and of the fact that these marriages are completely legal, even according to the UCMJ. Therefore I suggest you go and change your name as soon as possible, Petty Officer. Commader, your job is to buy the rings. Besides, the promotions boards like married personnel, it shows they are settled, mature, responsible and might even provide future recruits."

Harm felt it prudent to cut in before this went any further.

"Sir, you're assuming that we will stay married." out of the corner of his eye he saw Jen's hurt expression and the Admiral's newly awakened scowl. Realizing how that may have sounded he quickly started on the damage control, uncaring that the Admiral could hear him. He didn't want to hurt Jen, even if it meant that the Admiral would hear things he perhaps shouldn't. He turned towards her, took her hands in his and willed her to look at him, which she did.

"Jen, I'm not saying that I don't want you as my wife, that I don't want to be married to you. It's just that I don't want to tie you down to a man 13 years older than yourself, whom you also didn't voluntarily marry. You don't have to stay married if you don't want to, I won't resent you for that."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong." two heads turned towards the Admiral who cut Harm off. "At least partially. Due to the very public interest in this case you are obligated to stay married for at least 1 year, if you don't want to face charges for discrediting the armed services and bringing dishonor to yourselves. You could prove no unprofessional relationship prior to your marriage, but it would be shaky. While not breaking the regs with having the PO as your then-ward's room-mate, it is still pretty much very close to the edge. As the very last resort they could convict you on conduct unbecoming and discrediting the Navy, which is no small matter. The SecNav's order is for you to stay married for at least a year. After that you can file for divorce" 'which I very much doubt you will do' "like any other normal couple, claiming irreconcilable differences. It would not look good for your character nor for the Navy if you got married and then immediately divorced, especially with all the media interest."

"Sir" piped up Jen "you have mentioned media interest several times, but neither I nor the Cmdr. have been contacted by even one reporter."

"And for that you have to thank your husband, Petty Officer" the Admiral was obviously starting to enjoy the fact that the two were married and would refer to the other by either husband or wife, to help them feel less weird. Of course he was also getting a kick out of calling them that and seeing them squirm. "Commander, it seems that when you, together with Col. Mackenzie and Lt. Roberts, defended Mr. Sheffield on the war crime charges, you have made quite an impression on him and gained yourself a powerful friend. As soon as this all started he told the press that you were both on an official assignment and that you would be unreachable for the next few days and he also managed to stop them from going after your colleagues and friends. He also had your JAG cell phone numbers classified.. That way he managed to gain you a few days of peace to prepare yourselves for the onslaught and to get used to being married. I'm sure he'll be quite surprised when he hears that the marriage wasn't intentional."

Harm and Jen blew out breaths of relief "Sir, when you next speak to him, please thank him for me" Harm glanced at Jen, understanding her look and ammended "for us."

'Good, they are already communicating with each other, making decisions together and thinking of themselves as 'us' and not 'me and you'. If these two ever go separate ways, then I'll eat my dog's food for a month.'

"I'll be sure to do it, Commander."

Suddenly Harm thought of something "Sir, if this has been in the newspapers for the last few days, how come none of the staff knows about this? I mean, even if they were too professional not to mention it, I didn't notice not even one look that would suggest that someone knows of it and I'm sure that if they knew that Jen and I are married they would've at least looked at us funny, if not gossip among themselves."

The Admiral smiled a tired smile "The reason for that, Mr. Rabb, is that we have been swamped with work for the past week. Everyone's been working from dawn until dusk and I doubt they even had the energy to go read 3 day old newspapers."

"Of course, sir."

"Now you two have the rest of the day off to discuss these changes and make plans. I will get Petty Officer Grimes to be your replacement for today, Coates...er... Rabb. Not you, Cmdr., I meant the Petty Officer. Argh. Whatever. Just get the hell out of here and go home. "

"Aye, sir" said Harm and Jen in unison, collected their papers and stood up at attention.

"Dismissed" ordered the Admiral, already back at work on his piles of paperwork.

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AN: UP NEXT: Harm and Jen go home to discuss the changes to their relationship and their new marriage and have a few misadventures along the way. Stay tuned and review.