This story takes place in Season 4 after 'Silent Service' and takes an AU turn from there. For the sake of this tale, Harm helped Jordan Parker with her case after 'Jaggle Bells' and then they went their separate ways, so they are not a couple. Assume if it's not in the story, it probably didn't happen.

15:35 EST

JAG Headquarters

Falls Church, VA

Major Sarah 'Mac' Mackenzie nearly collided with her partner and colleague, Lt. Cmdr. Harmon 'Harm' Rabb, Jr., as she made her way to the copy machine. She glared coldly at him and gave an icy 'excuse me' as she quickly moved away from him.

Harm watched her go with a sour expression before he continued on with whatever he had set out from his office to do, not even sparing a backwards glance at her.

Adm. AJ Chegwidden watched the scene from his outer office with a thoughtful, pensive expression for a moment, and then he sighed and told his yeoman to hold his calls unless it was urgent before he went back into his inner office and closed the door. Taking a seat behind his desk he contemplated what to do about the situation between Rabb and Mackenzie. He had hoped that they had resolved their differences after their case on the submarine 'The Watertown', since they had saved one another's lives while onboard. When they had returned from that case, they had seemed to have some of their former camaraderie back. They were working well together again and had even seemed to have regained some of the friendly banter and good humor towards one another.

But that all ended two days ago when the Commander had pulled one of his infamous 'rabbit tricks' and sandbagged the Major in court, blindsiding her with expert witness testimony that had made her look foolish in front of the judge and the members presiding over the article 32 hearing. Mac had been furious and Harm had been arrogant and aloof, as usual when he won a case in such a manner. The result had been a loud, messy, and embarrassing fight in the middle of the bullpen. While he hadn't been in the office during the argument, he'd heard the scuttlebutt and had called a few key witnesses in to tell him what they'd seen; he couldn't just let this one slide this time.

The admiral sighed as he considered his options. He could transfer one or both of them, but they were probably the two best lawyers in the entire JAG Corps and he didn't want to lose either of their talents. He could assign them different partners and possibly even move their offices further away from each other, but knowing the two of them, they'd find a way to butt heads in any event. As he considered his options, he pulled up both of their personnel files on his computer~ he still loathed the damned things~ and noticed something that he hadn't before on both of their records. Making a note on the legal pad on his desk, he closed their files and considered what to do once again, when inspiration struck and he got a satisfied grin.

"Tiner, get me Rabb and Mackenzie in here, now," he barked into his intercom.

"Aye, aye, sir," Tiner replied.

Less than five minutes later, Lt. Cmdr. Rabb and Major Mackenzie stood at attention in front of his desk, looking for all the world like children who had been sent to the principal's office.

"Cmdr. Rabb and Major Mackenzie reporting as ordered sir," Harm said for the two of them.

AJ stood and moved around his desk, glaring at the both of them. "Would the two of you care to explain about the scene that you made in my bullpen two days ago?" he asked tightly.

Harm swallowed and Mac straightened further, but neither said anything.

"Well?" AJ bellowed. "Cmdr. Rabb, you begin."

"Sir, I uh…" he swallowed again. "I surprised Major Mackenzie with a witness and as a result, she lost her case. It made her angry and she wasn't speaking to me so I tried to talk to her in the bullpen and we ended up getting into a… um… we had a disagreement, sir."

"Major?" AJ said, looking at Mac. "Would you agree that is what happened?"

Mac did not agree with the way Harm had phrased it, but she knew that if she spoke in anger right now she would only make the situation worse, so she ground her teeth together and then nodded once. "That would about sum it up, sir," she said and ground her teeth once more to keep from adding anything.

AJ pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "I see," he said softly. "Well let me tell you the story I got from the witnesses to the event that I interviewed yesterday and today," he said tersely. "Cmdr. Rabb, you sandbagged Major Mackenzie in court in an unprofessional manner and after the hearing was over you blew off her anger and acted in a way that was juvenile and conceited. Later in the afternoon as the two of you were waiting to use the fax machine, you, Cmdr. Rabb, made an inappropriate comment about the Major's skills as a lawyer and the way in which she obtained her law degree. Instead of walking away Major, you insulted his manhood and made some other derogatory comments about his choices in girlfriends and from there it escalated until the two of you were shouting in the middle of my bullpen like a couple of preadolescent school children in need of a good spanking! Does that about cover it?" Admiral Chegwidden bellowed, his voice having risen slowly as he spoke to his errant officers.

"Sir, I~" Harm began.

"Lock it up, Commander!" AJ bellowed, getting right in his face.

Harm snapped to again and looked straight ahead, not daring to move.

Mac's eyes had grown suspiciously moist, but she gave no other outward sign of emotion as she, too, stood rigidly at attention.

"I ought to transfer both of you out of here to the worst, most career-ending assignments I can find," AJ said angrily as he moved behind his desk and took a seat in his chair. "However, I happen to believe that if the two of you could just get over yourselves, you might actually be of use to the United States and this office." He looked at a couple of papers in front of him and then back up at his two officers who hadn't moved a muscle. "Have a seat," he ordered.

They did as he instructed, but both sat tensely and continued to look straight ahead.

"I happened to be looking at your personnel files as I was trying to determine whether or not to charge you this afternoon and I noticed that you Cmdr. Rabb have nearly 60 days of leave on the books, and you Major Mackenzie are not far behind. I don't know how that happened, nor do I care. Effective immediately you are both on leave for the next 45 days with a direct order to seek out some sort of professional counseling. I expect you to attend individual sessions and to have at least one session per week together. I don't want any of the details, but I will expect a letter from your counselor on whether or not they feel you have made progress in that time. In 45 days I will reevaluate this situation and if I feel that the two of you are making satisfactory progress, I will allow you to return to duty with nothing on your records to indicate that you were seeing said counselors." Admiral AJ Chegwidden studied the stunned faces of his two officers before he continued. "You have only one real choice in this matter. If you fail to do as instructed, you will be formally brought up on charges and if your careers are still intact afterwards, you will be transferred out of this office immediately," AJ said, his expression telling them he was deadly serious about this. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Harm and Mac said in unison.

"Good," AJ said, glaring at the two of them. "Get out of my office and I will see you both in 45 days."

Harm and Mac stood to attention once more before making their way out of the Admiral's office and heading to their own offices.

Being as it was now well after 1700 hours, they collected their things and headed out of JAG Headquarters~ perhaps for the last time.