The Next Conflicting Phase
Part Three
"Yeah, well, traffic was murder." Harm responded lightly, glossing
over the fact that he wouldn't have been caught in the worst of the
traffic if he hadn't gotten distracted in the shower this morning by
an amorous Marine.
Mattie glared at him, clearing not buying his excuse. "I didn't even
know if you were gonna show up," she declared sullenly.
"Oh, hey, a deal's a deal," Harm said, trying to keep things upbeat.
He could see that she was upset with him, and he was pretty sure it
was because he left yesterday to talk with the Admiral. Still, he
wanted to get through this last day before he told her he was
leaving. "So what's up for today, boss?"
She was standing on the other side of the room, and she turned around
to look him in the eye. "You're going to quit," she stated quietly,
a hint of resentment creeping its way into her voice.
He hesitated a second before replying honestly. "Yeah," he said. He
was upsetting her, and he hated it; in the few days that he had known
Mattie, she had come to mean a great deal to him. He wasn't sure if
it was because they had bonded over the planes and their lost
parents, or if it was because he could sense that there was a deeper
hurt that she wasn't sharing with him, but her happiness had become
important to him.
"To go back to the Navy with that mean old man," she continued, her
tone clearly conveying that she thought he was crazy to even consider
it.
"Yeah." Harm suppressed a grin at Mattie's characterization of the
Admiral; a characterization he had agreed with until yesterday.
Mattie shook her head in disgust. "That sucks."
Harm shrugged. "Well, that remains to be seen."
"You know," she offered hesitantly, "I could talk my dad into giving
you a raise."
Harm sighed. "Mattie, it...it isn't about the money," he said, and
cursed as he watched the hopeful look in her eyes vanish as she threw
up all of her walls. She glared at him.
"Then what?" she asked. After everything he had told her about going
to find Mac and what the Admiral had said to him when they got back,
Mattie honestly didn't understand why he would want to go back there.
"It's what I'm good at," he explained gently. "It's who I am."
Mattie folded her arms across her chest and stared at him in
disbelief. "So it isn't about being able to work with your
girlfriend again?" she asked archly.
Harm grinned. "That is definitely an added bonus."
"I'll bet," Mattie snorted. One of the first things she'd noticed
about him was that he couldn't go more than five minutes without
bringing Mac into the conversation. Mattie hadn't decided if that
was endearing or annoying. She frowned as something else occurred to
her. "I thought you couldn't do that, though. Work together when
you're dating or whatever."
"It's complicated. Technically we're not doing anything wrong as long
as we're not married," Harm explained. "And once we move in
together, the Admiral's going to keep our working on the same cases
to a minimum so we're not giving the appearance of impropriety. But
other than that, we can work together."
"Well that's good," she said grudgingly, knowing how much Harm had
missed working with Mac. Mattie had only met her once, but she
seemed really nice and she was easy to talk to. She had actually
been hoping that Mac would come around and visit more often; she
missed having a woman to talk to. And from the little Mattie had been
told, it sounded like Mac would understand if she knew about what
happened with her dad. But now that Harm was leaving, she doubted
she'd ever see either one of them again. It really did suck.
Harm's next question startled her out of her musings. "Mattie, how
come I haven't met your dad?"
Mattie stared at him in shock. She wasn't expecting him to ask about
her dad. When he said he was quitting, she figured he wouldn't want
to get any more involved with her life than he already was. She
hesitated; the safest thing to do would be to tell him another lie.
If she told him the truth he would probably just report her. But
didn't he tell her that he ran away to look for his dad when he was
just a little older than her? Maybe he would understand what she was
going through, and that she could take care of herself. And she'd
been alone for so long.
"He was driving the car when he got into an accident and killed my
mom," she answered finally, her voice monotone. "He was drunk.
After he killed her, he kept right on drinking."
And with that, the whole story spilled out of her. Her mother's
death, her father's abandonment and her subsequent efforts to take
care of herself; she told him everything. It felt good to let it go,
to let someone in. She hadn't thought she'd ever trust anyone enough
to do that again.
Harm was stunned by what he heard. He'd known there was more to her
story than what she'd told him, but he never would have guessed it
was something like this. He couldn't decide whether to be alarmed
that she had been living and taking care of the business by herself
for so long, or impressed that she was doing such a good job at it.
He settled for being cautious.
"What happens when he comes back?" he asked when she had finished her
story. Mattie glared at him from her perch on the plane she was
checking out.
"He's not coming back," she said bitterly, "Not after what he did.
Besides I wouldn't let him in the house."
"It's his house," Harm pointed out. He wasn't sure why he felt the
need to play devil's advocate in this conversation. From what Mattie
was saying, it sounded like she was better off without her father.
Still, she was too young to be taking care of herself. Even as he
listened to Mattie, his mind was trying to work out a way that he
could help her.
Mattie shook her head. "It's mine," she countered matter-of-
factly. "My mom left me the airplanes and the house in her will."
Harm hesitated. He didn't want to give voice to his next question,
but he knew that it had to be done. He just hoped she wouldn't close
down on him.
"What happens when they find out, Mattie?" he asked finally. "I mean
Child Protective Services, the F.A.A. Cause they will."
Mattie's heart sunk. She should have known.
"You gonna tell?" she asked belligerently, silently berating herself
for telling him the truth.
"No, I'm not gonna tell," he answered calmly.
Mattie looked up at Harm with a shocked expression. He couldn't
blame her; he was almost as surprised by the words as she was. But
he couldn't betray her trust, and he couldn't just abandon her to
strangers. As hard as it was for her to open up to him, he knew that
if he walked away now, she would never take the risk of opening up to
anyone else. A plan formed in his mind, and was out of his mouth
before he could stop to consider the consequences.
"What I will do, though," he told her, ignoring the shrieking voice
in his head telling him to slow things down, "is I'll call you every
day, and I'll come out here at least once a week, until I can file a
petition with the court to become your guardian."
Mattie was stunned. She couldn't believe that he would do that for
her. He hardly even knew her, and here he was offering to take her
in, to take care of her for who knew how long. She felt her hopes
rising, and tried to ruthlessly shove them back down. There had to
be a catch in there somewhere, something that would ruin this before
it ever got started. That's what happened in her life; things always
got ruined.
"What about Mac?" she asked skeptically, latching onto the first
argument she could find. "I don't think your girlfriend's gonna be
too thrilled with this whole idea."
"Mac will be just fine with this, Mattie," Harm reassured her,
shoving aside the growing feeling of dread at the thought of what he
was doing, and how Mac would react when he told her. "I know you
guys haven't gotten a chance to really get to know each other, but
she was really impressed with you when she met you."
"But if she's not?" Mattie pressed him. She didn't think Mac would
be jumping for joy when Harm told her, whatever he might say.
Harm sighed. "Then we'll have to come up with something else," he
told her honestly. He felt bad as he watched her face fall, but he
couldn't lie to her. He really did think that Mac would agree once
he explained the situation to her, but if she didn't, he couldn't
risk their relationship by doing this without her. Not even to help
Mattie. Still, he couldn't just abandon her.
"It'll be fine, Mattie," he reassured her, "trust me. We'll work it
all out."
Mattie bit her lip nervously. It still sounded too good to be
true. "Are you sure about this?" she asked hesitantly. She tried
one last time to give him an out. "Because you could back out now
and I wouldn't hold it against you."
"No backing out. For either of us," he said firmly. He flashed her
his best flyboy grin. "Now, how about you and I take the day off and
I'll give you your first flying lesson?"
"Sounds great," Mattie grinned at him. Her eyes twinkled
mischievously. "That way if Mac kills you when she finds out what
you've done, you'll have at least enjoyed one last flight."
"Funny," he said with a roll of his eyes. He reached out and ruffled
her hair. "How many times do I have to say this? Mac is going to be
fine with this."
"You did what?!"
The evening had started out pleasantly enough. Harm had come home to
find dinner waiting, complete with soft music and candlelight. He
had thought about telling her his news over dinner, but she was so
thrilled with his return to JAG that he didn't want to put a damper
on her happiness. So he waited until they were sitting curled up
together on the sofa in front of the fireplace, and when she asked
him how his last day as a crop duster had gone, he told her what had
happened. It started out okay; Mac reacted to Mattie's story just
like he'd thought she would. And when she mentioned wanting to
help Mattie out, he became even more confident that he had made the
right decision. That is, until he told her and she looked at him
like he'd lost his mind.
"I don't believe you, Harm!" she yelled, exploding up off of the
couch. She turned and glared down at him. "How could you do
something like this?"
"Come on, Mac," he said in what he hoped was a soothing tone. He
needed to calm her down before she completely took his head
off. "You're making it sound like I murdered somebody or something.
I'm trying to help out someone in need."
"You're doing a little more than helping out, Harm!" she countered
angrily, arms flailing. "You're making a huge, life-altering
decision on the spur of the moment-"
"Would you stop being so dramatic?" he interrupted her in
irritation. He knew he should have talked to her before he said
anything to Mattie, but she wasn't even giving him a chance to
explain before going off on him.
"You think I'm being dramatic?" Mac shot back. "Do you have any idea
what it takes to raise a teenager?"
He stiffened at the condescension he heard in her tone, but kept a
hold on his temper. "I have an idea," was his only response.
"No, I don't think you do," she countered. "I don't think you have
any idea at all. If you did, you wouldn't have arbitrarily decided
to take her in."
"God, Mac, you're making it sound like Mattie's a stray cat I found
on the street!" Harm's grip on his temper was slipping. He sighed,
running his hands through his hair. Looking up at her, he said
softly, "I know this is a big deal, okay? I know that it's going to
take work, and some adjustment to our lives. But I also know that we
can handle-"
"We? What we?" she asked incredulously. She shook her head. "There
is no we in this. There's you, Harm. There's you making a decision
without even considering what I might think or how I might feel about
it. There's you making promises to a young girl without having any
idea if you can back them up. There's you thinking that you can just
swoop in and play the hero, just like always, and I'll be your
dutiful sidekick, following your lead and backing you up. There's
you, acting without thinking and expecting me to deal with all of
those pesky details that you can never be bothered with-"
"Now wait a minute," he angrily interrupted her tirade. He glared at
her from his seat on the sofa. "That is not fair. I never expected
you to deal with the details all by yourself. I never expected to
play the hero here, Mac."
Mac took a deep breath and tried to get control of her anger. She
knew she wasn't dealing with this very well, but she just couldn't
believe that he would make such a big decision without her. Forcing
herself to speak calmly, she asked, "What exactly did you expect,
Harm?"
Unlike Mac, Harm made no attempt to disguise the anger in his
voice. "I expected you to understand that there's a girl out there
who's all alone and needs our help," he shot back at her. "I
expected you to see that I couldn't just walk away and ignore that,
or pass her off to Child Services because I couldn't be bothered to
help. I expected that you would want to help her as much as I do."
Mac sighed in frustration. He was completely missing the point.
"I never said I didn't want to help, Harm," she told him, moving to
sit at the other end of the sofa, "That's the whole point. I never
got a chance to say anything. You didn't give me a chance. You just
assumed that I would go along with whatever you wanted."
"I did not!" he responded forcefully. "I never said I expected you
to just follow along. I never said you didn't have any input. And I
told Mattie that I would be her guardian, not you, because I
didn't want to force you into being legally responsible for her.
And I told her that if you didn't agree with it, we would have
to think of something else."
"Oh, that's just great, Harm!" she exclaimed, her anger flaring
again. "And if I don't agree then I'm the bad guy, and you still get
to be the hero. That's just great."
"For God's sakes, Mac, what do you want me to do?" Harm stood up and
began to pace. "You want me to go back and tell her no? You want me
to be the bad guy? Fine. I'll be the bad guy. I'll tell her I
changed my mind and I won't even mention your name." He stopped
pacing and fixed his eyes on hers. "Will that satisfy you?"
"No!" she said, standing up and moving to stand in front of him. "I
never said no, Harm! This isn't about Mattie!"
"Really?" he responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Then what
the hell are we fighting about, if it's not about Mattie?"
"God, Harm, are you really that dense?" she asked, shaking her head
wonderingly. "Can you really not understand why I'm upset?" She
reached out and grabbed hold of his wrist. "We're a couple, Harm,
and couple's are supposed to make decisions together!"
Harm stilled at her words, and at her touch. Locking his gaze on
her, he said quietly, "Like this summer, when we decided that
I should get kicked out of your life with no explanation?"
Mac heard the hurt that wove its way through his words and flinched.
She had explained that to him, and she thought he had
understood. "That was different."
"How?" he questioned disbelievingly.
"It just is!" she answered in frustration, knowing that it wouldn't
be enough. She started to point out that her decision had been wrong
as well, but she didn't get the chance.
"Oh, well that's a helpful answer. You know what, Mac?" Harm said,
pulling his arm out of her grasp, "You're right. You're absolutely
right. I did assume. I assumed that you would want to help her the
same way you've helped Chloe over the years." He gestured at the
picture of Mac and her little sister above the mantle. "That you
would see that Mattie needs your help, even more than Chloe did, and
you would jump in like you've done a hundred times since I've known
you. I thought you would be the same kind, compassionate woman that
agreed to be godmother to little AJ and Jimmy; who would take them
in, or take Chloe in, without a second thought."
"Obviously, I assumed wrong," he finished softly. For the first time
since he'd stepped away from her, he met her gaze. The pain in those
beloved chocolate eyes was too much for him; he had hurt her again,
and he hated himself for it. But he was still caught up in the
swirling tempest their argument had swept him up in, and rather than
stay and wreak more havoc, he decided the best thing to do would be
to step back. To take the time to get himself under control, to
digest and process everything that had been said, and to figure out
where to go from there. With that in mind, he slowly turned and
grabbed his jacket before heading to the door.
The moment Mac saw him moving away, she felt a stab of fear in her
gut. "Where are you going?" she asked, unable to mask the panic in
her voice. How had things gotten so out of hand? How had they gone
from sharing a romantic dinner to him walking out the door? How
could he leave, when he had promised never to walk away from her?
Harm didn't turn around, just scooped up his keys as he replied, "I
need some air, Mac. And I think we both need a little space to
breathe."
"Harm-" she started, and he turned around to face her, one hand on
the doorknob. At the sight of his face, at eyes swirling with hurt
and guilt and confusion, her intended protest died on her lips. As
much as she didn't want him to leave now, she could see how much he
needed to go. And she had promised herself that she would always try
to give him the time he needed. Pushing down her hurt, she asked
softly, "When will you be back?"
"Actually, I was thinking I'd spend the night at my place," he
answered. She dropped her gaze to the floor, not wanting him to see
her expression. But she wasn't quick enough, and Harm caught the
fear in her eyes. It was the same fear he had seen in the hospital
after she'd been shot, when she'd confessed that she was afraid that
she wouldn't be enough for him and he would abandon her. He sighed,
trying to figure out a way to reassure her and still take the time he
needed. He glanced down and saw the answer to his problem sitting on
the coffee table.
"Mac," he called out softly, taking a step away from the door. She
hesitated a moment, and then looked up at him. When she did, Harm
walked over to the coffee table and set down his keys. Before she
had a chance to ask him if he'd changed his mind about leaving, he
had reached down and picked up the single key sitting in a bowl on
the table. It was the key to her apartment, the one she took with
her when she went jogging. He held it up for her to see, and then
placed it in his pocket. Stepping back, he said, "I'm not sure how
long I'll be gone, so you don't have to wait up. But don't bolt the
door, okay?"
"I won't," she promised softly, understanding the deeper meaning in
his words and offering her own reassurances. She managed a little
smile, one that she kept on her face until he shut the door behind
him. Then she walked up and turned the lock before sinking to the
floor and giving in to the tears she could no longer keep at bay.
"I screwed up pretty spectacularly this time, dad," Harm sighed as he
ran his fingers over his father's name. It hadn't taken him long to
realize just how stupid he had been to make promises to Mattie
without talking to Mac. It had taken him a little while to
figure out why he had done it, but when he did it made perfect
sense. Now he just had to figure out a way to explain it all to
Mac.
"I shouldn't have said anything to Mattie before I had talked things
over with Mac," he told the name on the wall, wishing as he still did
sometimes that he could talk to the man instead of the ghost. "I
know that. I knew that when I said it. But I couldn't just leave
her there, dad, thinking that I was going to be another person in her
life who was going to walk out and leave her to deal with things on
her own."
"We connected, dad," Harm said. "At first I thought it was just
because we both lost parents we loved when we were kids. Well, that
and flying, of course." He smiled, knowing that was one thing his
father would have definitely understood. He grew serious as he
continued, "It wasn't until she told me the whole story today that I
realized why she's gotten to me the way that she has, and so
quickly. It's not because she's like me. I mean she kind of is.
But mostly, she's like Mac."
Tilting his head back to gaze thoughtfully at the stars, he went
on. "I looked at Mattie today, and for the first time I think I
understood a little of what Mac went through after her mother left.
How alone she must have felt; why she stopped trusting people, and
why she started drinking. She was on her own, with no one to turn
to. No one to care about what she did, or how she felt, except that
bastard father of hers, and he only made things worse for her." His
hands clenched tightly into fists as he remembered some of Mac's
tearful midnight confessions about the way Joseph Mackenzie had
treated his only child. He shook his head, trying to clear away the
anger and refocus on what he was saying.
"Until Colonel O'Hara came and got her, no one ever tried to help her
or make things better for her, and by the time he did, she'd already
been through so much. And I just couldn't stand the thought of
Mattie having to go through that, dad. I wanted so much to help her,
and I just assumed that once I told Mac, she would feel the same
way. I was so wrong."
"No you weren't." Mac's voice was soft, but it might as well have
been a cannon blast in the silence surrounding him. He spun around,
and there she was behind him, close enough to touch. Focusing on her
face, he could see that her cheeks were as red as her eyes, and he
wondered how long she'd been standing in the cold.
"How long have you been here?" he asked when he finally found his
voice. And how much did you hear? he added silently.
"Twenty-three minutes and seventeen seconds," she responded,
answering both of his questions. She'd seen him walk up and had
followed him without his noticing. She gave him a little shrug and
explained quietly, "Once I calmed down and thought things over, I
realized that I needed to explain some things to you. After a while
when you didn't come back, I took a chance that you would come here."
He shook his head ruefully at his own predictability. "I guess you
know me pretty well," he said with a small smile.
"Yeah, I do. And you know me pretty well, too," she added. When he
stared disbelievingly at her, she sighed. "I heard what you said,
Harm. About how Mattie reminds you of me; how you don't want her to
end up like I did."
"Mac, I didn't mean it like that-" Harm rushed to explain, fearing
that she'd misunderstood what he had been saying. It seemed to be
the night for it, but her next words reassured him.
"I know. I do, Harm," she told him firmly. "And you're right. She
shouldn't have to go through all of this alone." She gave him a
small smile. "Hell, if I had been there, it would have been a toss-
up who came up with the idea first."
Harm shook his head, unwilling to let her absolve him of guilt. "I
still shouldn't have said anything until I talked to you."
"No, you shouldn't," she agreed calmly, "But I shouldn't have freaked
out like that. And I'm sorry that I did; that I didn't give you a
chance to explain where you were coming from."
She sighed deeply and leaned her back against the railing facing the
Wall, turning her face to his father's name. It would be easier to
start this if she didn't have to look at him.
"Harm, in the midst of all that yelling that we were doing, did you
hear me say that couples are supposed to make decisions together?"
She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye. "I said that once
before," she admitted quietly. "To Mic, the night he left me."
Harm couldn't help but tense at the mention of the man who had almost
stolen Mac away from him, but he didn't say anything. He could sense
that this was difficult for her to talk about, so he leaned back
until they were side by side, and wordlessly took her hand. She gave
him a small, grateful smile before returning her gaze to the Wall.
"Sometimes I look back on that time, from the moment he proposed to
the moment he left, and I wonder where the real me was," she admitted
ruefully. She sighed. "That night, when I said that to Mic about
being a couple, he called me on it. He said that I'd been making all
of the decisions from the moment we found out you went down, and he
just went along with them to make me happy. He made me feel so
guilty, mostly because he was right."
"It wasn't until I took the TAD assignment and had some time to think
about everything that I realized that he had done the exact same
thing our entire relationship." Her voice betrayed the anger she
still felt at that little revelation; anger at Mic for manipulating
her, and at herself for putting up with it. "I was so shocked when
he proposed. My instinct was to say no, but I didn't do that. I
thought that you had rejected me," she explained. She squeezed his
hand tightly, silently reassuring him that she understood now what
she hadn't then. "I thought that I had lost my chance at a
relationship with you, and I was so afraid that I was going to end up
all alone that I couldn't bring myself to completely reject what I
thought might be my only chance at a family."
"So I didn't say no. I told him I needed to think about it." She
shook her head in disgust at what she now recognized as the first of
many mistakes she made in that relationship.
"That's when he told me to where the ring on my right hand. I tried
to say no, but before I knew it he was sliding it on my finger. And
I let him." She admitted, pushing the words past a throat that had
suddenly become tight with unshed tears. She hated talking about
that time in her life. She took a moment to force them away before
continuing.
"And then he showed up at the Surface Warfare Ball and he told me
he'd resigned his commission and given up everything to be near me,"
she went on, and the anger began making its way back into her
voice. "And while a part of me was flattered, mostly I just felt
obligated. And resentful that he had made this huge decision without
consulting me. He was always doing that; assuming that whatever he
wanted was automatically I wanted. And I let him. I might have
gotten mad at him, and fought with him, but in the end I always went
along. And the more it happened, the more trapped and resentful I
felt." She turned to face him for the first time since she'd started
her explanation. Her voice was clear and strong when she said, "I
don't want to ever feel that, to be that, again."
"And that's why you were so angry with me." Harm finished for her,
sensing that now was the time to enter the conversation. She nodded;
her eyes full of regret, a regret mirrored in his own eyes. He
reached up and cupped her cheek with his free hand. "I'm sorry," he
said sincerely. "I don't ever want to make you feel trapped, Mac."
"I know that, Harm. I do," she hastened to assure him; she needed
him to understand. "I realized after you left that I was projecting
all of my problems with Mic onto our relationship, and I'm sorry for
that."
"I would never assume you would just do what I wanted. I would never
want you to do that," he told her earnestly, before admitting, "But I
did assume that I knew what you wanted, and I shouldn't have."
"That's the thing, Harm," she said with a rueful shake of her
head. "You did know what I wanted. You know me better than
anyone else, and you knew what I would want in this situation." Her
voice dropped to a whisper as she confessed, "And that scares me a
little; that you know me so well."
"It goes both ways, you know," he answered her confession with one of
his own. "The knowing, and the fear." She nodded silently, reaching
up to cover his hand with hers. For a moment they just stood there,
relishing in that simple touch. Stroking her cheek tenderly, he
asked her, "So what do we do now?"
She smiled and pressed a kiss to his palm. She recognized that by
asking the question, he was putting the control back in her
hands. "We keep working at our relationship," she said firmly. "I
try not to project my past relationships on you-"
"And I'll remember to ask you before I make any decisions, even if I
think I know what you're answer will be," Harm finished, a hint of
that cocky flyboy smile making its way across his face, but it
quickly disappeared as he brought up what had started their
fight. "So what do we do about Mattie?"
"We apply for guardianship," Mac replied without hesitation. "Together."
"Mac, are you sure?" he questioned earnestly, searching her eyes for
any hint that this wasn't what she wanted. "I meant it, I don't want
to pressure you-"
"You're not. I promise," she swore, pulling her hand away and
raising it as if she were testifying in court. When he still didn't
look convinced, she said honestly, "Look, Harm, I'll admit that the
circumstances aren't exactly ideal. And I'd be lying if I didn't say
I wasn't a little worried that we might be taking on too much at
once. But you were right," she told him, her voice strong and
sure. "We can't just abandon her. She needs someone to take care of
her, and give her the chance to just be a kid. And I think we're the
best ones to do that. So that's what we'll do."
Harm shook his head. This woman never ceased to amaze him. He
smiled softly at her. "What did I do to deserve you?"
"You loved me," she answered simply, "like I love you."
"Always," he vowed. He pulled her into his arms, and poured all of
his love her into the most passionate kiss he could muster.
After they had come up for air, he said, "I do love you, Mac. More
than anything. And if at any point it looks like this is too much
for us to handle, then we'll stop and find some other way." His
voice was firm and unyielding. "Because as much as I want to help
Mattie; I'm not going to risk what we have to do it."
She nodded her head in agreement, then smiled reassuringly. "We'll
figure it out, Harm. We always do, even if it takes us awhile."
Harm snorted. His marine certainly had a gift for understatement.
She grinned up at him. "Although if we stay out here any longer,
we're going to freeze before we figure out anything. Let's go home."
With that, she turned and started up the path towards her car. When
he didn't immediately follow, she looked over her shoulder and saw
that he was still standing where she had left him, a bemused look on
his face. Deciding he could use a little more incentive, she called
back to him in her most sultry voice, "Harm, if you don't hurry up,
you're going to miss the best part about our fight."
"What part is that?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at the wicked grin
on her face. He could feel his desire stir as she took a couple of
steps back to him, her hips swaying provocatively. When she got
close enough, she leaned up and whispered in his ear.
"The making up part," she purred before turning and rushing off to
the car, with a now very aroused flyboy hot on her heels.
Grace Aviation
November 6, 2003
0940 EST
"You're late." Mattie's voice was cold as she watched her newest
employee slide off his motorcycle and head towards the hangar.
Mac's Apartment
1920 EST
Mac stared at Harm incredulously.
Vietnam Veteran's Memorial
2110 EST
Although Harm had no particular destination in mind when he left
Mac's, it didn't surprise him in the least when he found himself
walking down the familiar path to the Wall. In spite of all the
turmoil that his father's disappearance had caused, or perhaps even because of it, this was one of the few places where he could find some comfort from the messes in his life. Especially the messes that he was responsible for creating.