Two weeks later

Harm let out a sigh and threw the file on his desk with force. It was the fourth murder and they had no idea who the killer was. He noticed that the male enlisted in his office were starting to get paranoid. The office hadn't been the same since they buried Petty Officer Larry Porter, he had been popular among his staff, always a good worker and always eager to help no matter what. His girlfriend had been by again earlier in the day asking about the progress of the case. She looked skinny and worn, just as Porter's Mom had when she stopped by again the week before.

"I know the feeling, sir," Graves said.

"We need a new angle, Catherine," Harm said and hesitated. "Did we get those files from the local station?"

"Not yet, sir. The colonel's idea about checking out local cases is brilliant, but it won't work unless we have the files we requested. Let me go down there and beg my way into their file room," Graves said.

Harm smiled. "I can just picture Detective Muller if you go there."

"Well, I won't talk to him. I'll talk to his partner, he seems to think I'm cute, sir," Graves said with a teasing smile. "I'm sure if I say yes to have that drink with him, I'll be allowed to spend some time in their filing system."

"Let me make an official request before you go. If they are too busy to send us the files, I don't see why we can't go there," Harm picked up the phone. "I'll let you know."

Graves stood. "Yes, sir," then left the office. She was in her own thoughts and almost walked straight into Mac in the bullpen. "Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am."

"No problem. How's it going?" Mac wondered.

"We're waiting on the files from the local police," Graves said hesitantly. "The Admiral seems tense, ma'am."

"He's been that way for a long time now. The case is turning into an obsession," Mac explained.

Graves nodded. "He's not the only one obsessing," she admitted.

"Is he busy?" Mac wondered.

"He's talking to the local police, but it's almost the end of business hours so I hope you'll drag him out of here. He's been here an awful lot lately," Graves hesitated. "I'm actually a little worried about him."

"I'll talk to him," Mac assured. She walked to Harm's office and his yeoman told her to go through. She knocked and the door opened.

"Mac?" he walked past her. "Petty Officer, tell Graves that she can go to the police station tomorrow morning."

"Yes, sir," Petty Officer Pittman stood and rounded her desk. "You know sir, it's a nice day, maybe you should leave early."

Harm hesitated and looked at his wife's amused face. "I think you might be right, Pittman. It is a nice day."

"We can leave right now," Mac said.

"Why do I feel like I have my wife, my Petty Officer and pretty much the rest of the office gang up on me?" Harm questioned as he walked into his office.

Mac followed him. "We all see the same thing, and we all care about you."

Harm gathered his things. "I'm not obsessing."

"Of course not," Mac said.

"I'm not," Harm argued.

"Not at all," Mac reached out and straightened his shoulder board. "You are so handsome in this uniform."

Harm smiled and leaned in and kissed her. "Let's go home, Colonel."

It was past ten in the night when Harm looked up and found his wife studying him from her place in the doorway of their home office. He smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"Coming to bed?" she wondered.

He hesitated. "In a minute."

"Harm," she stepped into the office and walked over to him. "You've been at it nonstop, you're exhausted and you're not helping the investigation by being too tired to notice details," she rolled him away from his desk and took the pen he'd been holding. "You need a good night's sleep," she whispered as she leaned in closely, her hands on his chest, her mouth kissing his lips softly before trailing kisses down his throat and neck. She started unbuttoning his shirt. "You need to focus on something else for a while."

He closed his eyes and let her touch take away the tension he felt. It had been too many days since they made love. Suddenly she stopped and moved away from him. His eyes opened and he watched her walk away, in the doorway she turned and moved her sweater over her head, leaving only her bright red bra. "Are you coming, sailor?"

He swallowed hard and stood. "Oh yeah," he mumbled as he headed in her direction.

She laughed and moved out the door. He caught up to her halfway towards their bedroom and moved his arms around her from behind, letting his mouth find her neck as they moved into their bedroom. He let her go long enough to close and lock the door before he moved close to her again. She was right, he did need to focus on something else for a while.

One week later

Harm's office

Harm opened the file handed to him, hurried to read through it and signed before handing it back to his yeoman. He finished returning a few mails, then leaned back in his chair wondering again where Lieutenant Commander Graves was. She had checked in before he left the office the previous day, letting him know that she had a hunch and needed to check something out. Today he hadn't seen her, but his yeoman mentioned that she had seen her briefly as she got him coffee a little earlier. The case hadn't progressed at all despite Graves hard work, along with NCIS.

A knock on the door made him look up. "Graves?"

"Sir, we have the killer," she said as she hurried into the office.

Harm noticed the intense look on her face, along with her tired eyes. She must have been up all night, he thought. "Who?"

"Well, sir, I got this idea after having lunch with Agent Brennan. He's been asking me out for weeks now and I finally caves," Graves hesitated. "Never mind that, sir. Anyway, we talked about the case, different theories, and he started talking about other serial killers, then serial rapists. Then I remember the Colonel's suggestion that we look into old cases, and I remembered reading about a case last year. I ran out of there and went straight back to the police station to find the right casefile. Last year the local police were struggling to catch a serial rapist. We ended up prosecuting the guy, because he was a Petty Officer stationed on one of our supply ships. The reason they caught him was because he messed up and was seen walking out of one of his victim's apartment after the rape. Anyway, he was convicted for raping ten women, and this were brutal attacks, sir. I mean, really brutal. NCIS went around to the witnesses from the bars where the victims were last seen before they got killed with pictures of the women who was assaulted, and ten people remember seeing the same woman. We got a warrant and we found a possible murder weapon, the woman confessed, we're just waiting for DNA results to match the blood on the second victim. Remember how the coroner found a second person's blood on the victim's clothing and we assumed the killer had cut herself during the attack. There was no match for DNA in any databases, but we knew it was a woman's blood. There was also hair from a blonde on two of the victims, and this woman, she's a blonde. I think we got the right person, sir."

"Great work, Graves," Harm said with relief. "You did it."

"I had a lot of help, sir. Thank you for trusting me with this case, sir," Graves said.

"I put my best investigator on it, and I'm glad I did," Harm said honestly.

"I appreciate that, sir," Graves said and snapped too. "You'll have my report by lunch, sir."

"After that you're going home, and I don't want to see you tomorrow. Rest up, you've earned it," Harm said.

"Thank you, sir," Graves said and turned to leave.

Harm leaned back in his chair and felt relief. He could finally tell Petty Officer Porter's family that they had found his killer.

That night after saying good night to the kids, Harm found his wife outside on the porch swing. He smiled and sat down beside her.

"The kids were really happy that you came home early tonight," she said and took his hand. "I'm glad you guys found the killer."

"Me too," he squeezed her hand. "According to Graves the woman is so troubled it's unlikely she can be tried as a sane person. That rape sure had messed her up," he hesitated. "I went back and saw the casefile, and I can in a way understand that she couldn't get over the attack. The Petty Officer who was convicted for raping those women, he was one sick puppy."

"It's a shame it had to come so far that she killed four innocent men," Mac said thoughtfully.

Harm nodded and put his arm around her. "I talked to Porter's Mom and girlfriend. They were relieved of course, but they lost someone special in their life."

"I can't even imagine losing a child, or the man of your dreams," she looked up and met his eyes.

"They were truly hurting," he let out a sigh. "I don't know that I could survive going through something like that. One of the kids, or you… I think it would kill me."

"You don't know the strength you find in a situation like that before you're in it I think," she put her face close to his. "I don't want to think about it," she kissed him softly and pulled him in for a hug.

He held her close. "Me neither."

They were quiet for a long time, just sitting close and enjoying the quiet of the night. "I think Graves decided that she likes that Detective Brennan after all."

"He was just acting cocky to impress her. I think he's soft at the bottom," Mac said teasingly and nudged him in the side. "Like you."

Harm chuckled. "I'm not cocky."

"No, not at all," she said with irony. "You are very soft at the bottom though," she sobered up and kissed him softly. "I love that about you."

"Yeah, so you're saying that the hubby/daddy thing is working for you more than cocky pilot?" he asked.

She smiled brightly. "Absolutely, although I do love the cocky side too. Especially when you have women swoon over your charm, then focus all your attention on me, making me feel like the only one that matters."

"You are the only one that matters," he leaned in and kissed her softly, letting the kiss linger. "I love you."

"I love you too," she smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "This, right here, this is perfect."

"So perfect," he agreed.