A/N: This kind of popped into my head when I was attending a Change of Command/Retirement ceremony for a Navy Captain myself this past week. You work with people for several years, and never really know the depth of their career, until it is laid out in front of you in black and white. It's truly amazing what some of our men and women in uniform have accomplished!

Chapter 1: A Cruel Twist of Fate

They say that a single drop of water can create a ripple effect that drastically alters the course of your life. Growing up in the desert, it is rare that you see much rain, so she never fully grasped that concept. She couldn't have fathomed how one simple decision changed everything. She knows better…now.

She stood in the back, surrounded by a sea of dress whites and dress blues, with an occasional civilian suit or fancy dress thrown in. It had been ten years since she had last seen him. They had not parted ways on friendly terms. After the Paraguay debacle, she returned to JAG long enough to simply ask the Admiral for a transfer. To anywhere away from Headquarters, away from him. She couldn't face him every day anymore, couldn't go back to being his working partner. She didn't realize that the Admiral had already processed Harm's resignation, and that he wasn't in the Navy anymore. She had no clue that the only reason Harm had been reinstated at JAG was because she had left.

She hasn't ventured east in several years. She hasn't seen her godchildren, which she is ashamed of, although she still sends presents every year, and puts regular donations into their trust funds. She didn't return for the Admiral's retirement ceremony. It has been just in this past year, that she has finally found the strength within herself to face those from the past that used to be her best friends.

She has since retired from the Marine Corps, and works as part time civilian counsel at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California. In her spare time, she puts her amateur paleontologist knowledge to use by giving tours in the Mojave Desert, taking kids along where dinosaurs used to roam. It makes her all warm inside when she watches the kids' faces light up in awe. It's times like these that she misses him the most, picturing one of those children with his eyes and smile, before the image fades into darkness. She actually has a great life most of the time, albeit a lonely one.

The ceremony she is attending is the Change of Command for the Judge Advocate General, where Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Harmon Rabb, Jr., is being sworn in to relieve a retiring Major General Cresswell. She can't count her lucky stars enough that she left headquarters before Creswell took command. Lord knows he would have given her hell as payback for what happened in Okinawa. He probably blames her for the downfall of John's career. Ah, just chalk it up to another man whose life was ruined just by the simple fact that she crossed their path. Eddie, Chris, Dalton, Mic, Webb, John, and Harm. All of them would have been better off not knowing her, she was cursed. Harm was right when he had said that "every man who has been involved with her is either dead, or feels like they are." It's a miracle that he is still here standing, alive and well. It also seems kind of ironic that this celebration is taking place in the White House Rose Garden, where they first met. Gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago.

Harm is frocked with his new shoulder boards, and the new orders are read aloud, as he tells the departing Jag, "You stand relieved, I have the watch."

A beautiful woman steps up to him on the stage to give him the customary congratulatory kiss on the cheek, with a little boy, around three, who is the spitting image of Harm, on her hip. This woman has stepped into her role in more ways than one. She used to be the one giving him that kiss. She fondly remembers her lips tingling as they touched his cheek, when he told her, "Gently, Marine."

The child on the woman's hip is the one she was meant to have with him, but she lost that chance at a taxi stand when she told him "Never." Her regrets over the years are many, but that one ranks highest on the list. She feels the back of her eyes begin to burn with unshed tears, and a large lump form in the back of her throat. She wants to flee, but for some reason, she feels compelled to stand here and prolong her anguish. Maybe this was fate after all. She was the one who made the wrong decisions, and now karma was coming back to bite her in the ass.

He feels the hairs rise on the back of his neck, the minute he stands up on the stage. It can't be! But it has to be…no other person on earth has ever made him feel this way. Her mere presence sends out a beacon, calling to him on every level. Why does it have to be now? It takes all of his strength to get through this ceremony, and finally, the pomp and circumstance is over. The woman on stage with him instantly forgotten. His eyes scan the crowd, searching, but he doesn't see her. There are too many people in the way. He finally catches a glimpse of her, as he sees her stepping into a cab. As she slips away, he feels his heart break all over again.

It doesn't matter how many years have passed. It doesn't matter that she told him that there would never be a chance for them. It doesn't matter that she fled, because at the time he hadn't felt the urge to go after her. He was too busy picking up the pieces of his broken heart off of the cold concrete in a faraway country. There had been others throughout the intervening years, but it was never anything more than a casual fling. He never let another woman get past his walls. His heart had been locked up a long time ago, and only Sarah MacKenzie held the key.

He turns to his left, his face full of anguish, to his best friend, the one man he had insisted be part of this ceremony. He manages to hoarsely stammer, "Keeter?"

Keeter had witnessed the whole event unfold, from her standing in the back while Harm was sworn in, to her fleeing. "I'm on it."