January 6, 2004

Force Judge Advocate's Office – London, England

0734 Greenwich/ 1234 Eastern

Harm had gotten to the office before Alison and after settling behind the desk, started reading through the reports than had come in overnight. On top of the pile had been a more complete report on the assault on Lieutenant Stone, along with the medical report on her injuries. Unfortunately, there wasn't a suspect listed in the report and the NCIS agent was still trying to find witnesses. Harm made a note to have the Deputy FJA down in Naples offer NCIS whatever assistance they might need. The last thing he wanted was for someone to get away with this kind of crime.

Moving on, he made quick work of the rest of the stack, adding various notes to the sheet he had already begun. Most of the reports were completed case summaries that he was required to sign off on before they could be filed. A very few were new incident reports, cases that either Harm or the Naples staff would be assigning today. The sound of the door opening revealed Harm's yeoman bringing in a coffee mug.

"Thank you, Petty Officer." Harm said with a smile, one that quickly vanished once he'd taken a sip from the mug. His eyes almost bugged out of his head, stunned by how bad the brew was. Fortunately, the Petty Office had already turned to the door before Harm had taken his sip and missed the reaction. When the door closed, Harm turned to the planter in the corner of the office and dumped the coffee into it, vowing to either bring his own before coming to work or personally supervising the making of the pot from now on.

He was just getting back into his seat when Alison came into the office, holding two cups of coffee. Harm just looked at her warily as she deposited on in front of him. It was only after she had taken a drink that he decided to test it.

"I take it Petty Officer Simpkins brought you a cup today?" Alison asked with a grin.

"Has anyone explained how the machine works to him?" was what Harm asked in reply.

"Several times, but nothing has worked. Give him files to organize, something to type or a schedule to keep, he's your man. Coffee and such, not so much."

Harm laughed at that. Simpkins sounded like Tiner in many ways, which in turn made him wonder what Admiral Chegwidden's former yeoman was doing now. By this point, he should have finished both OCS and NJS and be reporting for his first assignment as a JAG, wherever that might be. Making a mental note to check and see, Harm came back to the here and now.

"Well, I guess I'll just need to keep him focused on those things he does well."

"Couldn't hurt, Harm," Alison told him with a smile, drawing a laugh from Harm. "It's nice to finally hear a real laugh from you."

"As opposed to…?"

"That kind of strained 'I'm laughing to cover my discomfort' thing I used to hear, usually right after I propositioned you."

Harm laughed again, but this time it did sound strained, even to him.

"See, that's what I meant," Alison said with a smile. "What was it about the idea of my wanting you that always made you so uncomfortable?"

"You mean aside from the whole fraternization issue?"

"Yes. I mean, I know you found me attractive. I saw you looking a few times, so I know that wasn't the problem."

"Alison, you were a very attractive woman. But I wasn't going to get involved with you at the risk of my career, nor was I willing to give you that type of control over me."

"Too bad, I think you would have liked my being in control," Alison said with a flirtatious grin. "Although from what Kate Pike mentioned, maybe having you in control would have been more fun."

Alison laughed out loud at the stunned look that crossed Harm's face at that revelation.

Unfortunately for Harm's sanity, a knock at the door prevented him from asking Alison what exactly Kate had told her. For Alison's part, that look was all the confirmation she needed that the rumors about Kate and Harm being involved were true. This served to make her both jealous and curious, jealous of the fact that Kate had gotten what Alison had always wanted and curious as to whether Harm had also been sleeping with Lieutenant Austin. She had always suspected the possibility, given the fact that Lieutenant Austin had clearly had feelings for Harm. Then there was the fact that Austin had simply vanished one day, right after the Schonke investigation as a matter of fact.

Harm had dealt with the yeoman announcing it was time for staff call and now was looking at Alison with questioning eyes. Clearly the woman's thoughts were far away and he was left to wonder what they were. After calling her name three times, she finally broke free of her thoughts and stood, so that they could both make their way to the small conference room and the morning staff call.

Force Judge Advocate's Office – London, England

1328 Greenwich/ 1828 Local

The morning staff call had been surprisingly quick, with just a pair of new assignments. Most of the time had been taken up with getting updates on current investigations and cases. So Harm and Alison had been able to spend a few more hours getting Harm up to speed on where the office stood. When lunch time came, Alison had suggested going out for something. However, there was just something in her tone that Harm hadn't necessarily liked and so, he begged off by claiming other plans.

Instead, he'd walked over to the embassy and managed to catch Beth leaving for her lunch. The pair had eaten in the embassy's cafeteria and been joined by a couple of other officers in her department. The lunchtime chatter had steered well clear of business, instead focusing on the more mundane. Knowing that Harm and Beth were new to town, the other officers had provided them with a number of interesting possibilities for some evening entertainment.

After finishing their lunch, Harm had walked Beth back to her office before heading across the street to his. Going inside, he was slightly relieved to see that Alison wasn't back yet. So, turning to his computer, Harm decided to do a quick check on Mr. Parkhurst. He had the family's telephone number and address courtesy of Mattie, which helped narrow his search. The first thing Harm found was that Mr. Parkhurst was actually Dr. James Parkhurst, chief of thoracic surgery at Guy's Hospital. There were several articles online, along with pictures which confirmed that this was the gentleman in question. His wife's name was Hanna and she was an instructor at the school that Mattie attended, he found. The information provided a measure of peace of mind for him, although he would reserve a more final judgment until her knew the family a little better.

Finished looking for the moment, Harm exited out of his search and turned his attention to the various files he still needed to go through. He was also beginning to wonder where Alison was at, surprised at how long of a lunch hour she was taking. What Harm didn't know was that Alison was actually closeted in the small law library that the office had, working off of her laptop. She was doing some research of her own, digging into the mysterious disappearance of Lieutenant Meg Austin, along with getting more information on Harm's career.

Alison began her search with Meg's service record. An eyebrow rose as she got to 1997, causing Alison to save the document to her hard drive before moving on with her research. Time flew by without her stopping. When she was finished with Meg, she went back to Harm's service record and then started looking into the next partner he had had at JAG, a Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie. She found it interesting that Harm had always been partnered with a female. The interesting thing with the Marine was how long they'd worked together, as opposed to the short time Harm had worked with either Meg or Kate. Not finding anything in the service record that she could use, Alison still copied it before closing out.

At this point, she finally happened to look at the clock on the computer and gasped. It was almost 1800 hours and Harm definitely had to be curious by now about where she had been all afternoon. She would have to think of a good excuse for him, to keep his suspicious mind at rest while she continued digging. Tomorrow, she would go back through his service record as well as do some more research on all of the people that she saw as involved. Access to the Navy's systems had to be done from the office, meaning she'd only be able to access public records from home tonight. Harmon Rabb was going to regret his rejection of her, Alison told herself before logging off the system and saving everything before shutting down her laptop.

January 7, 2004

Force Judge Advocate's Office – London, England

0732 Greenwich/ 1232 Eastern

Harm arrived at the office with a smile on his face. Last night, he had taken the family to a little jazz café one of Beth's co-workers had mentioned. He had been pleasantly surprised by the experience and thought that he and Beth would go back this weekend while Mattie was gone. This morning, he'd stopped on the way to work and picked up some coffee for himself and bagels for the office. Stopping in the little snack area, he left the box after taking a blueberry one from it and made his way to his office.

Alison had arrived a few minutes before him and was waiting in the office. Harm settled into the big chair and grabbed the few folders he'd read yesterday but had had questions about, so that he could go over them with her. He also logged onto the computer and began checking e-mails. About halfway down was a curious one, not routed from a navy or armed forces address but rather a generic commercial e-mail service. There was no subject line for the message, nor was there an attachment. So, Harm clicked on the open icon and waited.

"Harm, watch your back," was all the message said.

Harm was puzzled by the cryptic nature of the message. What was he supposed to be watching his back for or from, not to mention who had sent the message? Was it a friend or enemy? Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the files. Yet, that nagging voice in the back of his head would not leave him alone, as much as he tried to ignore it. It kept saying he was missing something, something that should be obvious but that just wouldn't come to him.

Staff call served as something of a respite, in that he could relax his mind and simply listen to his officers today. No new cases needed to be handed out, so it was simply a time for them to provide him with any updates or questions they might have. Harm let the other officers give their suggestions as well, as much to see what they knew as to pass on what he did. Still, the meeting was over rather quickly and Harm walked back to his office, his mind now returning more fully to the message.

As he opened the door, that missing something came to him. The e-mail account he'd accessed this morning was the account for the FJA, not his personal account. So, whoever had sent that message knew that he was the FJA but was worried that someone else might see the message and didn't want that person to learn who the sender was. Seeing that Alison hadn't followed him into the office, Harm got back on the computer and quickly logged into his personal e-mail. Immediately, he found what he was looking for, as the messages were organized by the importance the sender had set.

"Captain Rabb,

Since the incident with Admiral Chegwidden, a special security flag has been placed on your personnel records requiring the Secretary's office be notified whenever your records were being accessed. That flag was triggered yesterday by a request originating within NAVFOREUR Headquarters. NSA and NCIS are launching an investigation as to the source of those requests, but at this time no names can be provided. SECNAV asked me to keep you informed and promises to get to the bottom of this incident.

Commander Tracy Manetti"

Harm felt his jaw clinch as his anger increased. Taking several deep breaths, he reread the short letter from Traci and shook his head. The questions of who and why were the first to come to him, followed shortly by the question of what. However, seeing Alison in the doorway quickly forced those questions from his mind as he rapidly switched from that e-mail to one that had come in from General Creswell, regarding the need for end of year numbers. Turning to his desk calendar, Harm made a note of the date those were due.

"Simpkins," Harm called out, seeing the Petty Officer behind Alison's approaching form. "Schedule me to meet with Lieutenant Haldane after lunch. Let her know we need to go over the office's fiscal numbers, so she should bring her laptop or files."

"Aye, aye, Sir," Simpkins responded.

"What was that all about, Harm?" Alison asked after the door was closed.

"Well, this being a new year, we're now on 2004's budget and the new JAG wants all of the offices to get to work closing out 2003's numbers," Harm replied. "So, since Haldane is the office manager, I thought I would let her know to start compiling those for my review."

"That makes sense. Just be prepared, the Lieutenant loves talking about her numbers and the budget and financial reports are her chance to share her love with anyone else she can force to listen."

Harm stifled a laugh as his mind thought about a young Bud Roberts, who had been a fountain of information about a number of things Harm would have been entirely happy never to have known about. He had a feeling he was going to be treated to a female version of Bud this afternoon. Looking back, he had to wonder if he had ever been that way. Maybe when he was talking about flying, the grin now coming out.

"Do you want me here for that meeting, Harm?" Alison asked.

"No, I should be good with that one. If I need you to explain anything, I can always ask you later," Harm told her, thankful that the forms and formats were standard across the Navy. Having done the budget at JAG, he knew what he would be looking at in a general sense.

Harm was looking at the computer as he replied and so missed the secret little smile that crossed Alison's face. The Lieutenant would certainly keep Harm occupied from after lunch until secure, which meant that she would have plenty of time to do more research. So far, it was fascinating the things that she had discovered and she hoped to find more today. With any luck, she'd have an excellent going away present for herself all wrapped up by Friday.