Chapter One

"There Is No Spark Of Interest"

Author: Haruo Chikamori

E-mail: hhchikamori

Rating: M

Classification: Romance, Harm/Lia; Animal/Maegyn (from the looks of it... ~sigh~)

Spoilers: N/A

Summary: Harm/Lia; Animal/Maegyn - "You can't follow your heart when it is more confused than your head." - Lia, Harm, Maegyn and Animal work their way through the maze that is relationships: confusion, twists and turns reign.

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA

"The Emmonds case is going to be a time-intensive case as AT2 Curtis Emmonds is charged with Article 87, Missing Movement. AT2 Emmonds is currently in the brig at Naval Station Norfolk. Lieutenant Commander Gracen, you have the defense, Lieutenant Commander Rabb, you have the prosecution."

Lieutenant Commander Liandra Gracen looked up at Rear Admiral AJ Chegwidden, who grinned back at her with an I'm waiting posture. "Yes, sir?"

"Isn't this where you usually say I'm going to mop the floor with you, Rabb?" AJ continued to hold her gaze with that grin.

Lia inwardly cringed. "No, sir; not after the last case we had where he proceeded to thoroughly demolish what defense I had left. This time, I'm not giving him any ammunition." She proceeded to demurely fold her hands and look up innocently at Harm who appeared to be preening. Major Sarah Mackenzie was quietly trying not to laugh. The rest of the morning briefing went without further amusement as the new cases were handed out.

As they exited the board-room and were returning to their respective offices, Harm turned to Lia. "Hey, Lia, did you have anything planned tonight because if you did, I could delay the interviews until tomorrow." His eyes searched out hers as he questioned her. She looked at him with one raised eyebrow as if in query.

"Harm, you know my plans tonight are a good book, a warm tub and a warm bed."

"With someone else in it?" Harm winked at her then said "OW!" …as Mac jabbed an elbow into Harm's ribs.

"No, sorrowfully." Lia said with no amount of snark. "It's nice and quiet in my humble abode. And unfortunately, I have no personal plans of that nature…unfortunately." She stated the last again. Harm's jaw dropped as Lia winked at him and appeared to sashay into her office and closed the door in his face.

Pentagon, CNO's Office, Washington, DC

Captain Toshio "Animal" Nakamura, dressed in US Navy blues all four new stripes on his sleeves, sat restlessly in a chair waiting for the appointment to see the Chief of Naval Operations. Other navy officers passed him by with cursory glance at his ribbon rack. He could feel their gazes on him as their eyes took in the topmost ribbon and the customary look of shock. Not very many officers at the fumble fortress wore that ribbon and the fact that one of them did was a source of no amount of respect and envy. They also tried to stay the hell out of his way. It almost felt as if he was deified or was some sort of contagion.

He personally was getting sick and disgusted with the hero treatment. He wanted to be treated like a normal human being. Not only had the CNO, the last time they met, taken away his squadron, the CNO had pointed out that Animal was a live hero and that he should be out doing the talk show circuit to publicize his Medal of Honor. Animal, however, had heard from other recipients that the Medal of Honor turned into a dog and pony show if the tabloids and talk show circuit got their teeth into it and for the sanctity of the Medal, he refused. In his heart he felt that this wasn't right. Heroes were supposed to lead from the front, not be relegated to the rear into safe and cushy media roles. It was exactly that kind of treatment that fostered resentment from those who put their lives on the line.

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA

"Harm, do you have to keep teasing her like that?" Mac said with a rather annoyed look on her face.

Suddenly the door opened and Lia came out, Navy combo cap in hand. "So…flyboy, are we going?" Her demeanor was naughty.

"What?" Harm looked at her with a confused expression.

"To interview the witness? Commander? Time's a wastin'." Liandra tossed back. "If I'm not going to miss my warm bath and a nice book to curl up with tonight, I'm going down to start my defense interviews now. Whether you come along is up to you." She curled a finger suggestively, stood in a way that made her hip stick out and gave him a come-hither look. Mac nearly choked on her inhale resisting the urge to laugh her head off. And Harm looked like he got beaned in the head by a bag of cement.

"She got you there…Harm." Mac pointed out with no small amount of amusement.

Harm shot a look of annoyance at Mac. "Oh, laugh it up, Jarhead."

"So?" Lia gave him some more snark. "Flyboy… You comin'?" That did it for Mac, she burst out laughing.

Pentagon, CNO's Office, Washington, DC

The CNO's yeoman gave Animal a look. "Captain Nakamura?" she queried.

"Yes?" Animal replied returning the look.

"The CNO will see you now."

Animal got up, practically freaking out a few O-3s sitting near by who had their eyes locked on his ribbon rack. They had been looking nervously at him for the past ten minutes and each time he shifted position in his chair, they had looked like they were about ready to jump out of their skins. It was tempting to shift position to glare at them and go 'BOO!' just to see if they would jump out of their seats, try to go in opposite directions and collide with one another much like comedic characters on cartoons he had watched when he was an innocent kid, such a long, long time ago. But he resisted the urge to do so and simply got up brushed his uniform off and strode to the CNO's office door; coming to a stop in front of the closed door, pounded the pine twice.

"Enter!" the CNO's voice sounded from the inside.

"Captain Toshio Nakamura, reporting as ordered, sir." Animal said as he strode in, stopping three paces from the desk and snapping to attention.

"Morning, Animal." The CNO said. Admiral Stephen Kasczanowski grinned at him. He was a surface warfare officer, three decades of service, serving first under tin cans (destroyers) then moving up the warfare line to guided missile cruisers. Two warriors recognized each other.

"Morning, Admiral." A well known but dangerous wit in uniform once said that the CNO and him knew each other by first names – that the CNO called him Dick and he called the CNO "Admiral". That was truly the case. Animal wouldn't dare to call Admiral Kascanowski by the name Steve. He was Admiral and that was all that Animal was going to call him.

"Thanks for coming in today." The CNO stated as he turned around to grab a folder from the mound that inhabited his desk. "One of the things that I need since you are working for the Navy Inspector General's office is a liaison with the Judge Advocate General's office. Animal raised an eyebrow at that. "What we need to do is find out how the JAG office is running, how efficiently and whether or not we have to make changes there or not. It is almost budget reading time for the Navy Department and the SecNav will require information from them. It is your job being as now you're under COMNAVINSGEN. I want you to get a complete report out of them. They're routinely late."

"Aye, sir." Animal's displeasure was palpable. He wanted back on the front lines.

The CNO sighed. "Sit down. Animal…" He looked Animal in the eye and stated firmly. "You're aware that we can't lose Medal of Honor recipients in combat. Nor can we assign them to dangerous roles that could potentially get them killed. That's why you're not flying. So in order to keep you in for your full twenty-five that would give you your pension let alone thirty years, we had to find someplace to put you. Now look, the promotion boards are coming up. You've had no dings against your service record, you've got a blue-button that puts major points on your file towards the next grade and there's a good possibility that you will skip commodore-rear admiral lower half and go to two-stars inside of the next promotion cycle. So the choice is up to you, Animal, whether you sit for those two years until the next promotion cycle disgruntled as hell or working at a posting that will benefit the Navy." He lifted his hands palms out, fingers aimed at Animal. "It's all up to you."

Animal nodded. "You really think I'm going to hit rear admiral upper half?" his voice was rather disbelieving.

"Steak dinner at The Capital Grille says you do." CNO grinned back at him.

"You're on!" Animal replied.

"Well…be prepared to lose that bet in two years, Captain." ADM Kascanowski grinned back at him. "Ah…nothing like a 24 oz. Porterhouse Steak." He gloated.

"Well, we'll see who wins that bet, sir." Animal shot back.

ADM Kascanowski grinned back at him and laughingly said. "Dismissed."

"Aye, sir!"

Brig, Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA 1500hrs

"Harm, he said he missed movement because his wife was giving birth." Lia said as she walked out with him back to the car.

"If that's the case, that'd be the 4th baby she's had in three years. I think we need to check this out with the BuPERS and see if his spouse has had any hospitalizations relating to pregnancy."

"So you're going for prosecution based on implied fallacy?" Lia asked.

"Not so quickly." Harm grinned back at a fuming Liandra. "I'm not giving away my strategy. You gotta work for it in court."

"Oh…ha ha… very funny." Liandra said

"I'm a really funny guy." Harm gave her his best grin.

"If that's the case, I wouldn't quit your day job…" Lia shot back as they returned to their Navy Crown Victoria.

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA 1745hrs

Walking back through the double doors of the JAG office, Harm and Liandra both tossed their briefcases in their respective offices. Mac was still there diligently going over her own case.

"Hey, Mac…busy?" Harm grinned.

"Yeah…" Mac looked up at him. "So what's new…on the case I mean. Did you two go interview your witness?"

"Yeah. But more problems are popping up. Other than that I can't say." Harm shrugged his shoulders. "You hungry?"

"Yeah…my stomach told me that it wanted food twenty minutes and fifteen seconds ago." Mac said lightly. "So, I think I'm going to wrap this up and take this case home."

"Care for some company?" Harm asked.

"Harm…" Mac laughed. "You've got a case going on. I've got a hell of one too so I think we'd better both take a rain-check on it."

"All right…" Harm sounded disappointed. "I guess it's me…AND…a BOOK!" he said loud enough so Liandra could hear. He muttered audibly. "I guess I'm going home too…to an empty abode and a book…and maybe a pizza. Vegetarian. Either one of you is welcome to visit though."

"Nope…too busy." Mac said snidely exploding Harm's hopes for a tete a tete of bouncing case ideas off each other.

"Sorry, Harm. But I'm not skipping my bath…and I'm washing my hair tonight." Lia replied with no small amount of playful snark. The age-old excuse of "I'm washing my hair" to get out of any sort of dating.

Harm just shook his head. That implied visual would keep him planted to his seat for the next hour and a half as both visions of Mac and Lia doing exactly that would run laps through his brain. As both beautiful women packed up their case files and exited the JAG office. "damn!" he muttered to himself. Maybe he could get out of the office without everyone calling him Lieutenant Commander Log tomorrow.

How did RADM Chegwidden find these JAG lawyers he wondered? When he was told he was pairing up with a Marine as a legal partner, he pictured – big mean He-Marine with huge muscles, spoke in grunts, a tattoo, high and tight and a mean disposition who would turn other defendants into a pretzel if they didn't admit that they had committed the crime. What he got was a curvaceous vision; a brunette with large brown eyes, a tattoo she wouldn't disclose the location of, and a mean disposition when she was riled up. That was quite a comforting thought compared to his original vision. And Liandra, she was a redhead with blue eyes, a striking heart shaped face and a smart-ass personality. Considering his last partner was a blonde with blue eyes and a great attitude, he was batting four for four, if one counted Kate Pike. And if he didn't stop thinking about them in that way, he'd end up being Article 133'd.

Finally, he just shook his head, grabbed his briefcase, gathered up his files into the briefcase and went home…to his lonely abode.

JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, 0700hrs

"Good morning". A grim-faced Rear Admiral AJ Chegwidden announced in the morning briefing. All eyes focused on him. "The shit has just hit the fan." He paused for a long moment as he looked at each one of the JAG lawyers. Everyone from Mattoni all the way down to Rabb looked up. "An emissary from the Naval Inspector General's office is here to do a one on one with each and every one of you. And unfortunately there is no way to beg off."

"Sir?" Lieutenant JG Bud Roberts asked. "The Inspector General's office…why that's only when something is seriously wrong…they're called in…what could be wrong in the JAG office, sir?" his voice rose to something kin to panic.

"I don't know, but I certainly intend to find out." The door opened and a harsh voice was heard. All eyes turned towards the emissary from NAVINSGEN who gazed back at them impassively. Their eyes turned towards his ribbon rack as AJ rose from his seat

"Captain…" AJ acknowledged gazing at the lower-ranking officer. As they were indoors, it was impolite to salute. Harm followed the eyes to meet up with someone from his past. His eyes then followed down to see a blue ribbon festooned with white stars in an M shape. This was no pencil-pushing rear echelon type. That was why AJ had risen. Everyone else rose to their feet.

"Admiral. The rest of you; as you were." The Naval Inspector General's inspecting officer stated as he looked over at the rest of the group. "I'm going to make this as painless as possible. But I am going to have to speak with each and every one of you individually. So…be that as it may. I intend to make this quick and be out of your hair in a short amount of time."

The lawyers all looked at each other. AJ was right. The shit was going to hit the fan.