I have so missed your writing - I just love the realistic complexity of this, how caught John is, by both situations. It's also a really nice contrast, how Herrara's in trouble for something that hasn't impacted his actual job performance in any way, while John and Rory both are being awkward and weird around each other, but well, as long as there's the requisite number of X and Y chromosomes involved in this train wreck, it's nobody's business.

I'm curious, how much research went into the writing of the whole 'don't ask, don't tell' thing? I'm not sure how much that actually does or doesn't get enforced, the only actual conversation I've had on the subject with someone in the military was explaining to a guy I decided not to date that I found his attitude towards gays offensive, and him trying to tell me how he just talked like that because that's what one does in the military (I think he was full of shit, because I'd never heard anyone else in the military talk that way, but that is what he claimed).