The Best Laid Plans o'Mice n' Men: Chapter Four - Seeking Permission from the CNO

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Four - "Seeking Permission from the CNO"

The Chief of Naval Operations certainly did his share of overtime, because when Tosh made the tele-call connection to the Pentagon, he was still there and wanted to speak to him.

"So, Admiral, have you found anything out about what's going on out there?" the CNO asked Tosh, "I know two days isn't much time and I'm sure that we have to give you more time, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff are antsy and the President has been harassing me for an update every few hours."

Tosh sighed, "Sir, We're going to have to dig in to this deeper. I'm sure that the problem is wide-spread in this town. I can feel it in my bones. There's something suspicious about this town. The weather is completely out of the ordinary. In fact the whole pallor of this town's atmosphere is completely not of the norm."

"Do we have to send in the National Guard or SpecOps?" was the next question out of the CNO's mouth.

"Not yet, sir, but I'd have them on Alert Fifteen." The CNO was a former aviator, so he knew exactly what Animal was talking about.

"Very well, keep me advised of the situation, Admiral..." The CNO was rather intuitive...because he looked at Tosh and said, "You got something on your mind, Animal?" as hadn't cut the connection. That familiarity of using the callsign let Tosh know that the admiral wanted to speak with him off the record.

"Sir, three women and three men in the same house...well..." It seemed like the four-star had a smirk on his face as he heard this. "Things have a tendency to manifest in high-stress situations."

"I see..." the CNO said wryly looking over at the vice-admiral. "...so you're asking me to tell the JAG to look the other way? Is it with that pretty blonde JAG lawyer?" The CNO hadn't been a recipient of the Medal of Honor over Nam for nothing. He was sharp as a tack and honed in the problem. "I noticed she was eyeing you in that briefing."

Tosh felt a heat of embarrassment crawl up his spine. "Sir, I'm just saying that things happen and..."

"Dammit, Animal, don't pussyfoot around it. You like the Captain and you want to get to know her better. Don't worry, I'll have a talk with Lieutenant General Cresswell and make sure that he understands that under my auspices, he is to look the other way should relationships develop between you and the young JAG Captain or between any of your subordinates. We've stuck you all in a nasty situation and I'm sure that the stress can drive you to seek solace in different ways. It's the least the Navy can do, having put you in this untenable position."

Thank God for having friends in high places. Tosh thought to himself. One of the nice things about serving together was that the CNO was able to deal with situations that arose. He was the Battle Group Commander when Animal was a squadron CO. "Thank you, sir..." Tosh said quietly. He knew that it was a big favor that the CNO was granting him. It nullified the ramifications of fraternization, should a relationship develop between him and Meg or for that matter, if Harm decided to make the move on Mac or if Kimber managed to lose her mind and take up a relationship with Phil "Metalman" Burrows.

"good..."the CNO stated, a tone of dismissal in his voice, "If that's all..."

"Yes, sir..."

"Well, then you six have a good night."

"Aye-aye, sir. Good-night, sir."

Tosh's mind spun for a while...before settling down long enough for him to head upstairs and hit the rack.

After all, morning would come quickly enough and Tosh needed to have his wits around him especially in a potentially dangerous situation like this.

Kimber and Harm were the first ones up the next morning and each had their morning repast. Harm had cooked a fresh batch of pancakes - as a vegetarian, Harm didn't like meat, but tolerated seeing it and smelling it, because he wasn't a militant vegetarian and about to insist that everyone end up eating vegetarian food. Different strokes for different folks. But he certainly didn't mind playfully teasing certain people, namely Mac and Animal for their propensity to love a thick, juicy, oily, dripping burger, namely from Beltway Burgers. And they in-turn roasted him about his Harm's Meatless Meatloaf. It was the one thing that he wasn't able to perfect yet. Animal called it a good substitute for a doorstop while Mac stated that it should come with an MSDS warning classification as a Category B, UN 3373 biohazard. The latter one stung: "You could have just said 'I don't like your meatloaf, Harm.' You didn't have to be insulting!" But stinging insult aside, he smiled as he remembered that repartee with Mac.

...and that kept him smiling as he headed out to the grocery store to get rid of his toads and then headed to the elixir shop to annoy the bees, where he promptly got stung and had to deal with the stinging pain for the rest of the day.

Meg spent the day at the science station honing her science skill. After all, she had a scientific bent as well as her computer skills. And it would help them if they needed to find out what was causing the outbreak of supernatural occult in the town. And her computer skills would help in breaking into the main government office computers to see if there were any files and information on the occults that they could use to their advantage.

...and of course, the CNO wanted to speak to the both of them about what their current status was, after all he had to do his due diligence if he was going to shield them from any fall-out. Meg looked over at Tosh in question as Tosh looked back at her, and nodded. "Yes, sir..." she stated to the CNO. "We will keep you advised of any change in our status."

...and it certainly appeared that things had changed between the two of them, since they both stepped out of the house...to get some privacy.

"...so we have a green-light, from the Chief of Naval Operations." Tosh said while Meg breathed a sigh of relief. "Just so long as our relationship doesn't constitute a detriment to the chain-of-command." The two of them just got a chance to have a few quiet moments together...and despite the fact that it was cloudy and dark, they just sat on the ground watching the sky, sitting very close together.