Chapter Five -

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0700hrs (next morning)

"Good morning…" RADM AJ Chegwidden growled as he walked into the office. "The report that has been handed down from the Naval Inspector General is pretty damning evidence…" he paused for a long moment to let that ominous phrase sink into all those who were sitting there, then continued. "You all are aware that getting comfortable here was probably not the best thing for your naval careers and as such, there is going to be a major upheaval, all stemming from the inspection. Your personnel jackets will all be looked into and there will be changes made. Those of you who are in the zone for promotion will be considered for posts that will help those promotion chances. Those of you who are not and who have been posted here for longer than three years will be reassigned to other RLSOs in need of personnel. And those who have less that exemplary FITREPS in the past three years will be phased out under the up or out rule."

"What happens to the command staff?" Mac asked.

AJ was silent for a long moment, looking at each one of the legal staff in the room. "I screwed the pooch on this one." His face was drawn, tired and looked every year of his age and then some. "I received a call from the SECNAV. He has asked for my retirement."

"But sir…" objected CDR Carolyn Imes. "You've only been in the position for slightly more than two years."

"Imes." Chegwidden didn't look happy with her objection. "I screwed up. When I came on board, I should have looked over the files and sent those staffers that were assigned to the command to positions where they could have advanced." Pausing for a moment as he contemplated what he was going to say next.

"Instead I allowed myself to get too comfortable and failed to determine what was right for the staff for their careers. I failed the command and that is why the Secretary of the Navy was right to ask for my retirement. Admiral Morris is being considered for the position and will meet with a Senate committee to determine his eligibility; he will be considered as interim Judge Advocate General until he is confirmed. You will all follow his orders…"

"Yes sir."

The admiral looked over the staff for a long moment then continued. "I will be meeting with the SENAV today to discuss the matter of the handover to RDML Morris. You will all continue on with the cases that you have been assigned. Admiral Morris will hand out the new cases as he takes over the position. It has been an experience working with all of you." There wasn't much that the staff could say. Chegwidden had been a good commanding officer to work for, but the mark of a good commanding officer was also to determine their subordinates' upward mobility as far as their career went and in that regards, he had fallen short and the boom had been lowered. Changes would be made and those changes would be painful.

As the staff meeting broke up and RADM Chegwidden departed for what would appear to be the last time as Judge Advocate General, the senior officers broke into little groups pondering their future and what would happen to them as they were shuffled off to different RLSO positions.

Harm wondered how things would go. It had been a tumultuous year so far. First of all he had managed to find and then lose information that could have led to finding his father. Then the Admiral had appointed him and his partner as first and second chair to prosecute a Marine Lieutenant Colonel. Of course, then he'd had to clip the wings off a mentor from flight-school after evidence showed that his mentor was cheating on an eye-exam. A breakup with his former Academy classmate's widow had sent him into a tailspin after being forbidden to see Josh. Mac had left JAG then come back. Her boyfriend got shot and killed. As a matter of fact, he didn't figure that the year could potentially get any worse than it had. He sure as hell wasn't going to voice that, as he didn't want to give fate any more temptation to make life more hell that it was. Then as it turned out, his Reserve Air Group mentor just lowered the boom on JAG costing the admiral his career – Harm knew that Animal hadn't wanted to do that, but such was the unfortunate fall-out and the unsettling sense that everybody at JAG from Morris on downwards blamed him for that owing to his friendship with Animal. He sighed, shook his head and made a bee-line for his office door hoping that he could get to it before…

"Hey…" Mac called out as she fell into step beside him. It was quiet as Lia was out for the week doing her alternating weeks of service with the Office of the Naval Inspector General. "Care to talk?"

"Not really, Mac…" Harm let out a deep breath, full of frustration as he walked into his office, Mac following close behind him. "It just seems like NAVINSGEN was looking for an excuse to blow up JAG and my friend's report was the catalyst. I'm just waiting to be castigated as the Trojan Horse that caused the fall of Troy" he muttered caustically. "So…maybe it's not such a good idea to hang around me…or the stench of betrayal may rub off on you."

Mac raised an eyebrow, gave him a wry grin and said. "Harm. He was doing what he had to do – what he was ordered to do."

"Yeah, look how well that worked in WWII…" he muttered then growled in a German accent. "I vass jusst following ordass…ja?"

Mac laughed cheerily as she turned to go out the door. "Well…I gotta go work on some files. Hopefully you'll feel up to eating something…closer to lunch time." Then she was gone.

Harm groaned. Why couldn't he just indulge himself in a nice deep funk for once.

CNO's Office, Pentagon, Washington DC 0800hrs

Animal stepped into the CNO's office, his eyes scanning the room and looked startled to see the SECNAV was there as well.

"Captain Nakamura. Good to see you." Secretary of the Navy Alexander Nelson smiled. It was a smile that was calculating and that put Animal on his guard. "You did a good solid job as far as taking care of the stagnation that was brewing in the Judge Advocate General. You gave a dispassionate review of the department and made certain that the situation did not continue. Your recommendations were sound and came from an understanding of just was needed to advance the careers of others…"

Animal waited until the SECNAV was done and then looked at both CNO Kasczanowski and SECNAV Nelson. "Permission to speak freely, Admiral, Mr. Secretary?"

"Why yes…"

"Sirs…" Animal's eyes flashed. "I felt like I was going in there to do a hatchet job. And why do I feel like doing my job cost someone else theirs?"

CNO Kasczanowski stated firmly. "Captain, you understand that this is a difficult job. The office of the Naval Inspector General has to keep the other departments in line and as such, we are not the most popular department of the Navy. But in order to keep our people running at peak efficiency, there must be a group wielding the cattle-prod and the Naval Inspector General's office is that cattle-prod."

There was a knock on the door. "Enter…" Animal paled when the door opened and RADM AJ Chegwidden stepped through the door. There was no friendliness in the admiral's face when he noticed Animal standing there. Animal had seen icebergs much warmer than the admiral's face when his eyes landed on Animal standing there, trying to be unobtrusive.

"Sir, you called me in…" RADM AJ Chegwidden stated as he looked over at the Chief of Naval Operations standing stock-still at attention.

"Sit down, AJ." Admiral Kasczanowski ordered, the former Judge Advocate General sat.

"You do realize why we have asked for your retirement?" The CNO cut to the chase; no beating around the bush, just straight for the jugular.

"Sir, I was aware of the particulars. The fact that I failed to assign Judge Advocates to different RLSOs, failed to take into account the length of service and kept Judge Advocate staff to take care of matters within my command." AJ replied.

"Which in turn, created a logjam within the Judge Advocate General…AJ…" the SECNAV proceeded to take over the exit interview. " This meant that prospective Judge Advocates were stalled within their positions, that there was no career path for them to take as the HQ had stagnated their positions. When you take over a position such as JAG you have 12 months at the outset of taking over the position to clear out the people who are taking up space and replacing them so that there is turnover within the position." SECNAV Nelson looked at AJ who sat stiffly in his chair. "You failed to do that. At most, you would have had LCDR Rabb for another year as he would have to go to a JAG RLSO to gain XO experience so that he could continue to move upwards. And Major Mackenzie would be able to sit for maybe at best another two years. How long were you planning on keeping them within your immediate command structure? AJ?"

"JAG, unlike the fleet, has a very limited number of positions available for XO and command slots. So they must be continually circulated within the staff so that there is upward mobility and that everyone gains experience. As it was, none of the RLSO staff were getting headquarters experience because there was nobody moving out of headquarters and it has been that way for the past six years since Rear Admiral Brovo was in command. And your failure to ameliorate that problem is why we are asking for your resignation. AJ…" CNO Kasczanowski let him know that he wasn't too happy about the situation. AJ was a good officer, it was just that he had fallen into the problem of not letting his staff go when it was time.

"Yes, sir, I understand, sir." AJ replied, his voice a bit shaky. "I've temporarily designated RDML Stiles Morris as my JAG pro tem. I hope that his appointment is suitable for the short-term?"

"Acceptable." The Secretary of the Navy stated. "You have your letter with you?" he asked.

AJ reached into his jacket pocket withdrawing an envelope – his resignation letter. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Dismissed…" said the CNO as the two watched him dispassionately as AJ rose from his chair, came to a brace, and about-faced, though not without shooting Animal another cold stare as he exited the office.

"Shit…" Animal muttered then blanched remembering whose office he was standing in. "My apologies, Admiral, that was hard to stand here and listen to…"

"I understand, Captain, but it was necessary." The CNO stated. "There is no room for failure and the upward mobility of the ranks has to be maintained. You did your job commendably well. How about you use today as an office day and we'll see tomorrow who I have the Inspector General sending you off to see next."

"Aye, sir." Animal responded, about-facing and leaving the office only to be met by a cold-visaged Navy SEAL Admiral standing there waiting in the CNO's waiting room.

"You son-of-a-bitch, you set me up!" the Admiral leaned in growling.

"It was not my intention; sir!" Animal kept a straight face. The last person who tried to get in his face, had been roundly knocked on his ass. He hadn't a black belt in three different martial arts – one of them being MCMAP, for nothing. "I was given a job to do and I did it to the best of my abilities." His eyes were emotionless – a danger signal for anyone who had ever fought him and lived to tell the tale. But he wasn't about to escalate on the admiral without cause as the UCMJ would have him come out the loser and Mama Nakamura hadn't raised him to be stupid… "Sir!" he added the sir in to just keep on the edge of civility.

The admiral's eyes flashed and he spat. "I oughta…"

"With all due respect, sir. Don't go there…" Animal spat back. Oh, god, he didn't want to have to do this, but his body tensed up, fight or flight reflex and adrenaline kicking in.

"Or else…what?!" roared AJ…his body also tensed up for battle. He was angry and spoiling for a fight.

"AJ!" a stentorian roar from the now-open door of the office caused both officers to look up. "Captain Nakamura! Stand down! I do not need you two acting like fighting roosters looking for a cock-fighting ring and scaring the hell out of my yeoman! AJ, I would highly suggest you out-process yourself now before I have you escorted to BUPERS under armed guard. Captain Nakamura, you head for your NAVINSGEN office. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Animal said and amscrayed not bothering to see if AJ would comply, his body still shaking from the after-effects of the adrenaline. It had just been like it was back in North Korea – his fight or flight reflex. It had come slamming back into his adrenal system and it had been just a hair-trigger away from putting AJ on the ground and seeing what his brains were made out of. Taking a deep breath, he thought that perhaps maybe he should check with Bethesda and see if he should go see someone about his hair-trigger temper.

When he had reached his office, he saw Lieutenant Commander Tracy Manetti and Lieutenant Commander Liandra Gracen talking over matters. They both looked up, Tracy with a smile on her face and Lia looking rather non-committal. Animal doubted that there would be anything but tolerance on her part as far as working for him; her answers being limited to yes, sir or no, sir, depending on the question asked of her.

He walked past his yeoman and said. "Hold all calls for the next two hours."

YN1 Morna Carran looked up at him and said. "Aye, sir. Will do." Morna enjoyed working for the captain, who was relatively congenial, and she was able to note his mood changes rather well so that they were never caught off guard. She looked over to see his back heading through the doorway of his office and the office door closing behind him. She sighed and said softly. "Must have been a bad meeting."

Waiting Room, NAVINSGEN, The Pentagon, 1100hrs.

Morna looked up to see a statuesque redhead with striking green eyes smiling in front of her desk? Her face was Celtic looking and she looked like she was descended of those from the Emerald Isle. But she found that contrasted markedly with the United States Navy commander's uniform, three full gold stripes, with gold wings over her ribbons; a Navy Cross the top-most ribbon earned. "Hello… I'm Commander Maegyn O'Bannon. I was just wonderin' if Captain Nakamura was here. I heard through the grapevine that he was now posted to the Office of the Naval Inspector General." The redhead stated in a smooth voice.

Morna was startled. "Yes…he is…uh…ma'am…may I tell him you're here?"

"Just tell him there's an old friend waiting for him." Maegyn's eyes flashed with amusement. "…from flying days. That'll get him all hot and bothered." She grinned, showing a set of perfect white teeth as she laughed. "How long do you think that'll take him to get curious? Yeoman One?"

"I don't know…" Morna looked curiously towards the door. "Ma'am…maybe about three minutes. He's always curious if there's someone that he knows." That caused a burst of laughter from the both of them causing Lieutenant Commanders Tracy Manetti and Liandra Gracen to poke their heads out of the office to see what was causing the commotion.

"Who's that?" Lia asked, a bit intrigued as to the statuesque redhead standing in front of Morna's desk.

"I've never seen her around the Pentagon before…" Tracy admitted. "The Captain is remarkably tight-lipped about his flying days. He hardly says anything about them or the people he used to know."

"Sir, it's Yeoman Carran, sir. I have a Commander O'Bannon out here to see you…"

Tracy stage-whispered to Lia. "Wonder how long that will take…it didn't seem like he had a good meeting with the CNO. The captain held his calls for two hours. I checked with Morna."

"Tell her I'll be right out…" came Captain Nakamura's voice over the intercom. Inside of half a minute, the door swung open.

"IRISH! GODDAMN! HOW THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

---

AN: Thought I'd bring back Irish…in this timeline, she doesn't get murdered.