Chapter 4 (Pt 2)
"I was hoping I'd catch you at work, Marine."
"Harm!" she squealed happily into the phone, her business tone forgotten. "How've you been? Are you coming home? Is everything all right?"
"Whoa, easy there," he admonished laughingly, feeling pleasantly moved by her barrage of questions. His mind
pictured Sarah Mackenzie standing at her desk, phone pressed to her ear, her large brown eyes glistening with excitement. And then his heart ached with a sudden desire to be there in the room with her, to see a warm smile light up her beautiful face, to close his arms around her and feel her body press against his... He jerked himself back from his reverie, realizing that Mac was calling his name.
"Harm... Harm! Are you there? Are you all right?"
He cursed himself upon hearing a frantic note in her voice and hurried to respond. "I'm sorry, Mac. I'm fine. I ... just needed to ... hear your voice." The words were out before he consciously stop them, and the fearless Navy Commander held his breath dreading her reaction.
There was silence on the other end for what seemed to him like hours, as Mac tried to recover from such an uncharacteristic candor on his part. 'Where did that come from?' she wondered silently, feeling ecstatic, apprehensive, and confused at the same time. "Wow," she managed finally, collecting her thoughts. "You took me by surprise there, Sailor."
"Sorry," he mumbled, getting suddenly very uncomfortable with the conversation and deciding to switch it to a less dangerous ground. "How's Bud?"
"Better," she sighed, unable to mask disappointment in her voice. Harmon Rabb, Jr. has once again effectively backed away as soon as the subject of the conversation involved feelings. "He's still pretty weak from the blood loss, but he's improved significantly." Sarah lowered herself into the chair, releasing her frustration on a pen that lay on the desk in front of her. Squeezing it tightly between her fingers, she added, "The doctors expect to start him on physical therapy in a couple of weeks."
"That's great news." Harm shifted uncomfortably, earning a strange look from a passing crewmember. He felt her disappointment and knew that he has ruined the moment yet again. Angry with himself, he slammed a fist against his forehead, cursing himself for being a fool. "Listen, Mac, I'm sorry," he ventured in an attempt to mend the situation. "I'm not sure this is a good place to be discussing things. People are already giving me weird looks here. Plus I have to get going soon. We'll talk when I get back to Washington, I promise."
He could almost see her shaking her head on the other end.
"I'll hold you to that, Flyboy," she consented, heaving a small sigh of exasperation. "When are you coming back?" she added after a short pause.
"Soon," he promised, ignoring an icy-cold sense of foreboding that gnawed at him ever since he woke up. "Very soon," he added with deliberate emphasis, trying to push the feeling away. But the feeling remained.
"I miss you, Sarah," he whispered before hanging up the phone, sensing somehow, despite his attempts to drive out the unwelcome thoughts, that he may otherwise not get a chance to say this to her again.
On the other end, Sarah Mackenzie smiled softly upon hearing his words, but her smile faded away as she felt a sharp stab of worry, the origin of which she could not ascertain. Something heavy tugged at her heart, and her hand trembled slightly when she placed the phone back in its cradle.
"I miss you too, Harm," she whispered into the emptiness of her office. "Just come back safe..."