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Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. Children, while naively brilliant in many aspects, had never been able to get that one quite right.
�We haven�t slept together yet, if that�s what you�re asking.�
Harm had thought of little other than those words all night. He had driven out to Blacksburg on mental autopilot and had spoken with Mattie�s doctors for a while before sitting with her for a few hours. When the nurse in charge of the ward came in to kick him out he didn�t fight her for the first time. Harm just kissed Mattie�s forehead and promised to be back the next day and then he left, driving home without any real thought. He reheated some soup that Harriet had made up and brought by on the weekend but he couldn�t eat more than a few bites.
�We haven�t slept together yet, if that�s what you�re asking.�
After giving up on watching the TV that was only there because Webb had left it there years earlier while trying to covertly help solve a decades old mystery, Harm took a shower and flopped down on his bed, praying that sleep would come to him and give him at least a brief repose from what was turning out to be a gut-churning statement.
�We haven�t slept together yet, if that�s what you�re asking.�
It was almost two in the morning before he got up the nerve to address the issue, and he knew that if he waited around for the morning to come he would lose his nerve again, so he got into his car and drove from his apartment that was near Union Station to her apartment in Georgetown.
His knocks went unheeded so, in deference to her neighbours, Harm used his key and let himself in, locking the door again after he was inside.
�We haven�t slept together yet, if that�s what you�re asking.�
She was asleep on the couch, files stacked up on the table in front of her, the lights on and the TV on quietly in the background. She was wearing fuzzy pink pyjama pants and a tank top that could barely contain her luscious chest and Harm took several long moments to take in the images before he went to her side and gently woke his partner up.
�We haven�t slept together yet, if that�s what you�re asking.�
�Mac, wake up,� Harm said gently. He prayed that she wouldn�t kick his six to La Jolla and back when she found out that he had let himself in at two in the morning.