[email protected]
Harm sank down onto the poorly-padded seat that he had been in and out of for too many hours to count�Mac would know, and if he had ever really registered what his watch was saying any of the times that he had checked it to see how long Bud had been in surgery he would have known, too, but it had been too much to take in for his brain.
�Harm?� Mac said softly, her voice wavering, both with relief and concern as she turned and saw the tears glistening on her partner�s cheeks.
Taking the seat next to Harm, Mac snuggled up close to the man she loved, knowing that, as Harm was always telling her, stress had to find a way to release itself. In the back of her mind she knew she should find Coates, call Harriet, inform their unorthodox family back at JAG that Bud�s prognosis was good, and maybe start to worry a little about what the Admiral was going to do when she and Harm got back to Washington�there was a lot to do, and they couldn�t really afford the luxury of their own mixture of grief and relief. But instead of pulling away and getting back to business as she usually did, Mac wrapped her arms around one of Harm�s and nuzzled his neck affectionately.
They sat there, trading comfort back and forth, until Jen came back looking much better than she did when she had run off to empty the meagre contents of her stomach. She had washed her face and re-braided her hair and, though Mac was sure it was just from obviously hearty and possibly overzealous scrubbing of the dirt and whatnot off her face, her cheeks had a healthy rose tint to them.
Before Jen could jump to conclusions, Mac said, �The doctor just came out. She says it�s looking really good.�
�Oh thank god, ma�am,� Jen said, letting out a deep breath that she didn�t even know that she had been holding. �Thank god,� she whispered again, reaching to her throat for the crucifix she had stopped wearing the day that her father told her that it was the will of god that her mother had died and that the lord had a plan. She couldn�t believe in a being that planned to take the mothers of ten year old girls, couldn�t believe in a god that her father set so much stock in when she was finding herself less and less able to believe in her father. But the good Reverend Coates hadn�t cared, believing that his god had given up on Jen anyway, a belief that was only confirmed time and time again when she would come home with the police or, later, with a Navy Commander who was holding her in his custody.
It was only when Jen realized that she wasn�t wearing her cross that she realized that during Bud�s entire surgery she had been praying to the very god that she had forsaken as a little girl.