Disclaimer: They're still not mine.
A/N: This is a sequel to Something True, and I would suggest reading that beforehand.
I did not plan this fic. It exists because - and only because - it wanted to. When I think about it, it makes more sense that there would be doubts and awkwardness before our two favourite lawyers really decided to make a go of it. I hope all of you had a really lovely Christmas, and please enjoy :)
A part of him had wanted to leave right then, to take her home and…he wasn't exactly sure what he meant to do, but he had plenty of ideas. But Mac - his conscience and his judgement, her face half-lit by the Christmas lights - had reminded him that all their friends were here, these parties were always good, and what they had wasn't going anywhere. He'd blinked slowly at that, knowing she made good points but loath to admit it. She'd followed up with "I love you," whispered softly to the air between them, and he'd made a mistake of looking up into those eyes - the eyes that had always done to him what dress whites and gold wings did to so many girls.
"Okay," he said quietly, the side of his mouth tipping up in submission.
She started to move away, the fabric of her dress twisting into shimmery patterns, but turned back to catch him by the arm that held his drink. It was only his fighter-pilot reflexes that stopped him spilling gin and tonic on his shoes. "You've got me, flyboy, don't worry," she said seriously, the love in her eyes unmistakeable. "But for heaven's sake, please go mingle."
"Yes, Mum." He raised one eyebrow.
"I mean it," she challenged, her voice stern.
"Now you really do remind me of my mum."
"Oh, sod off."
Bud was the first of his colleagues he approached, partially because he suspected the round-faced lieutenant wouldn't ask him too many questions. They sipped their drinks in comfortable silence for a while before he turned to Harm and asked conversationally "So what's your New Year's Resolution, sir?"
Harm wasn't really concentrating, his eyes on Mac's dark bob and blue dress across the room. So he was as shocked as Bud by the single word that came out of his mouth. "Mac."
Bud squinted slightly, his brow furrowing in confusion. His gaze connected with Harm's and followed it to his partner's figure, whereupon some of the confusion dissipated - but Bud was too well-trained to air his thoughts aloud. Thus a shade of studious ignorance remained in his voice as he responded "With all due respect, sir, your new year's resolution can't just be a person's name. It has to be something you want to do."
"Exactly. Mac."
Later, Harm would be rampantly unsure whether anything in his considered his response to that question. It certainly came out of his mouth entirely too quickly for a joke with such an enormous hint wrapped inside it, but there it was. His mouth fell open almost as he said it, and it took a tremendous force of will to close it again.
Bud didn't bother to hide his gape, not that he had any obligation to. "I'm sorry sir, but I must have misunderstood. I thought you just implied…"
"Bud," Harm said with a defeatist air, "please don't call me Sir."
"Sorry, sir, I…" he trailed off hopelessly.
Harm exhaled at length and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, trying to find enough strength somewhere in him to respond. Whatever it was that told him to "go for it" set another part fervently praying for his soul.
"You heard right, Bud," he said with what he had hoped to be a conspiratorial smile but which came out more like a pained grimace.
There was a pause as he considered how to go on, but a now tentatively smiling Bud came to the rescue. "That doesn't mean…the colonel and you, sir?"
"Yes, Bud."
"You're…together?" Harm caught the glance Bud shot at his wife, light flicking off her gold hair and encircling her pregnant belly as she laughed with Jen in the corner.
Harm put one hand behind his back and crossed his fingers. "Well, nothing's really happened yet," he said with a quiet - and slightly less pained - laugh, "but hopefully it will."
"Let me get this right," Bud said slowly, in much the same way as high-school Harm would have tried to grasp a maths concept. "Something happened tonight which made you believe that you and Mac could be a possibility?"
Harm nodded his assent, conscious how out-of-character it was for him to truly believe in their relationship.
Bud absent-mindedly slipped a thumb up the frosty surface of his glass, tracing patterns in the icy condensation. It seemed to Harm that he was thinking over the situation, and the former rather anxiously awaited his response.
Finally he looked up, a smile bending his round face in all the right places. "Congratulations," he said steadily, and all at once Harm was grateful for the influence Bud had in his life. "And you know, sir, I'm not sure I understood much of what you just said." He gestured to a couple of camp chairs on the cozy porch, which was strung with lights and dotted with burning mosquito coils. "I think you might have to tell me the whole story."
As soon as he'd reluctantly agreed, unsure if it was the alcohol or the elation loosening his tongue, Harm knew the secret was out. Once Bud knew the story, Harriet would - and Harriet was the well-intentioned secret-keeper known by every one of us who just can't keep their mouth shut.
It might, of course, pose a danger to the relationship he prayed would stem from the long-awaited admission - but a part of Harm wondered if everything couldn't get in the way if they let it. It was time that he and Mac started making their own way, and they couldn't do that if they made excuses out of every little obstacle that landed in their path.
His unintentional slip of the tongue when Bud asked for his New Year's Resolution had been bad enough, creating a mess that would no doubt have confused Bud and been reported to his wife. Knowing Harriet, she would have seen the kiss that was just on the wrong side of chaste and put two and two together to make twelve.
He told himself that what he was doing was merely harm minimisation, and they'd have to get used to these sorts of obstacles besides. He told himself he owed it to Bud anyway, for how long he'd dealt with the tension between him and Mac and how much he'd confused him just then. He managed to convince himself for just long enough to tell Bud the whole story.
"Bud," he muttered slowly at the end, "I know it's somewhat…futile, but for Mac's sake can we keep the telling of this story to a minimum?"
Bud gave a smile that was simultaneously hopeful and sympathetic. "I promise I'll try my best, sir."
Harm clapped him on the shoulder and got up, staid strength clear in the lines of his body. "Good man," he said, heading towards Jen and Sturgis.
The party was winding down, the clan ever-conscious that while the Roberts might have agreed to host this celebration, they still had kids to deal with the next day. Jen was the first to leave, saying she'd promised to meet her boyfriend before New Year was completely over. If anybody noticed Tiner departing suspiciously shortly after, they didn't say anything about it.
The remaining guests petered away until only Mac and Harm remained, Harm chatting to Bud at one end of the room and Mac embroiled in a discussion with Harriet at the other. The latter - or more specifically, her finely honed matchmaker capabilities - noticed both shot glances across the room when they thought the other wasn't looking. "So," she dropped idly into her conversation with Mac, "has he asked you out, ma'am?"
Mac managed to muster a throaty chuckle despite her surprise. "No, Harriet," she answered with an air of finality.
Harriet smiled slightly, and for a moment Mac held out hope she might drop the subject. Then she tipped her head sideways and queried appraisingly, "when do you think he will?"
"No idea," Mac shot back with a slightly forced version of her usual seductive smirk.
Harriet hummed between her teeth, clearly not convinced, but let it go.
Harm's glances at Mac were getting increasingly desperate. He needed for them not to go their separate ways tonight. Every nightmarish vision he'd had since she'd pushed him away with that direction to "mingle" had suggested if they didn't speak again soon, they'd fall uncomfortably back into their old holding pattern. But with her at the other end of the room, seemingly entirely concentrated on a cheery conversation with Harriet, he didn't know what he was meant to do. He could, of course, go over there and force her to come home with him, hoping he didn't expose whatever was between them in the process - but somehow he thought that might anger his partner rather beyond repair. He resolved to wait for her to come up with an idea, hoping against hope that she wasn't as stuck as he was.
Unfortunately Mac wasn't having an easy time of it either. The longer she stood there with Harriet, trying to participate in a stilted conversation about her godchildren, the more she doubted that a relationship with Harm could ever work out. If one of them had a gift for believing in what tied two people together, it was certainly her partner. While she sometimes had trouble thinking of him with a wife, per se, she had never struggled to imagine him in a committed relationship once the right person came along.
It was herself that she struggled with. The uncomfortable thought that she'd never been in a functional relationship soured her mental picture of Harm's lips as he said "I love you" with the thought of what she could do to him. Together, she thought - both of them career people and patently terrible at sharing their feelings - they were a recipe for disaster. So as much as she wanted this, maybe it wasn't a good idea to pursue it any further. She might have to wait for a break in the conversation and leave before Harm could follow her.
Having waited ten minutes for one of her superiors to make a move, Harriet decided to take matters into her own hands. "Harm?" she called innocently from the other side of the room.
"Yes, Harriet?"
"Could you come over here, please?"
His surprise at her use of his first name was enough to get him walking towards them before he reconsidered and stopped his feet. "Um, Harriet, I…"
"With all due respect, sir, get over here."
Harm felt like he was being told off by his mother as he quietly replied "OK."
Harriet caught the gaze that flashed between Harm and Mac as he shuffled in beside them. There was a good dose of love there, as well as doubt, confusion and a fair amount of longing. It was enough to get her started.
"I think you guys need to talk."
"We do, Harriet," Harm offered hesitantly, avoiding eye contact and with a sideways tip of the head, "but I, umm, was waiting for Mac."
Mac looked over to him with a flash of barely-veiled surprise. A part of her had thought he was reconsidering their relationship too - but now that she thought about it, this sounded a lot more like him.
"I would have spoken first," he continued, "but I didn't think she wanted people to know."
Harriet nodded slowly. "Bud told me."
Under different circumstances, the look Mac gave Harriet just then would have suggested someone had opened all the cages in the zoo, or turned up at her door with a homemade bomb. "What do you know?" she asked quickly, eyes wide.
"Most of the story." Harriet looked at Harm significantly, and he duly turned to Mac.
"Mac, I suspected you wanted to keep this secret, but I accidentally said you were my New Year's Resolution."
Mac furrowed her brows and shook her head. "But your New Year's Resolution has to be something you want to do."
"That's exactly what Bud said. And all I said was "exactly. Mac.""
"Oh dear." He thought he saw a trace of a smile flit across her face at the innuendo, but it equally might have been veiled concern.
"It wasn't intentional, I promise, but once I'd said that…"
"You sort of had to tell him the whole story." He looked relieved at her conciliatory tone. "I get it."
"So now that we've accidentally-deliberately been told," Harriet said, looking from one to the other, "what are you going to do about it?"
"I don't think I can really undo it," Harm replied with a slight smile.
"Not about that." Harriet batted a hand in front of her impatiently. "What are you doing about your relationship?"
"Well, I was hoping I could talk to her tonight," Harm started at the same time Mac said "well I was thinking…"
She looked at him in relief. "I need to talk to him. Tonight."
"Here or at home?" Harriet prompted.
Harm shot a glance at Mac, the question in his eyes. She suddenly felt panicked. "Um…here would be good," she offered quickly, "if we can go out on the porch or something?"
Harriet nodded calmly. "It's all yours. Bud and I are going in there," she pointed briskly at the door to their bedroom, "and we won't bother you."
Mac thanked her friend with her eyes for that promise not to eavesdrop. She seemed stuck to the spot, so Harm grabbed her by her (unusually clammy) hand and pulled her out onto the porch.
For a moment they stood there in silence, each taking the other in. Harm's eyes traced from Mac's silky brown hair to the pout of those perfect lips, remembering how beautiful she was all over again. Mac's, a little more jittery, found comfort in his familiar figure and the strength that hid such a gentle soul underneath.
"D'you want me to start?" Harm offered after a pause.
"Yes please."
"Mac," he forced through the walls around his heart, "I said I loved you and I meant it. You are everything I want and I just…can't have us lose this again, revert to our holding pattern. Obviously we need to talk about our careers and everything else but honestly, I have never wanted 2.5 kids and a white picket fence more than I do right now, and I could only ever imagine that with one person."
"Wait," she said slowly, "you really want to settle down?"
"Didn't we have a baby deal, Marine?" His eyes were puppy-dog hopeful. "I want kids with your looks and my brains…"
"Your looks and my brains…" she corrected, smiling slightly.
"Hell, your looks and your brains, Mac, I just want you."
She caught his eyes with hers, and for a moment he fancied he could see right into her soul. "Harm," she said slowly, her voice deep and throaty in the dark early morning, "I was going to come out here and tell you that I didn't think we could work."
His face morphed into an expression of shocked hurt. "Mac, I…"
She traced her thumb down his cheek in an odd echo of the movement he made every time he wiped her tears away. "Don't say anything," she instructed firmly, "you don't need to." He obliged. "I was going to come out here and tell you that we'd mess each other up, that we're too career-driven and too bad at talking about feelings for this to ever work. I was going to pretend that I didn't want you that much, that I'd be okay without you…" She trailed off.
"And what about now?" He asked, hopeful with a hint of impatience.
"Harmon Rabb," he could see her stand up straighter in the half-light, her body clicking neatly into military position. "You came out here and blindsided me with more words and more commitment than I thought I would ever get from you. I know," her voice softened, "I know I've been unfair to you by expecting so much more than the actions you were comfortable giving - but God, Harm! Everything I wanted just came out of your mouth!"
"So that's a yes, then?"
"It's a hell yes, flyboy." She paused for a beat. "I'm pretty sure," she added in a whisper, "that for the first time in forever, we want the exact same thing."
He shook his head slightly, the side of his mouth tilting upwards and his hands either side of her face. "I think we're on the same page and I'm reading it backwards. I was just wondering if maybe we've always wanted the same thing…"
"And just haven't had the words to say it?"
"You took the words right out of my mouth."
"You're probably right, flyboy." Her chin dipped in acknowledgement. "I know I've wanted you more than anything for a terribly long time."
"That's an accurate description of my feelings." He grinned. "Mac, I need…"
"To kiss me. I know. Come on then." Her smile was so seductive the air between them seemed to rise fifteen degrees in that moment. Harm's field of vision narrowed to a pinprick as he leant in.
Her eyes were closed, but just as their lips were about to meet he whispered "thank god we're back to finishing each other's sentences. It doesn't feel right when we don't."
Mac just giggled, a bubbly sound which seemed to rise from her stomach and float through her body, and put a hand behind his head to pull him in. The kiss was ease mixed with urgency, her tongue slipping past his teeth as she gasped into his mouth. If someone had joined them on the porch in that moment, they probably wouldn't have noticed.
They pulled back after what felt like hours and seconds at the same time. "One minute and fifty four seconds" Mac said when she'd caught her breath, answering the question in Harm's eyes. "You know, for two people who have never dated…"
"We're awfully good at this, aren't we? I don't know though, I could do with a bit more practice."
Mac smiled and rolled her eyes. To the casual observer she might have seemed less emotionally invested than her partner. But her gasping breath and flushed cheeks belied her true feelings, as did the speed with which she pulled his lips to hers.
Having come out to check on their wayward guests, Harriet chanced a glance out to the porch through the tall french windows and watched her superiors' lips lock with an ease many couples would envy. There was no urgency to the kiss, she thought idly, but at the same time no hesitation.
A smile touched her face as she wandered back into the bedroom and slipped into bed, leaning back against her husband's body. "They good?" he asked, looking down at her with a fond smile.
"They will be," she responded with a yawn. "There have been a few kisses out there."
"Wouldn't expect any less," Bud quipped, easing out from underneath her so she could lie down. "Now go to sleep. All this excitement…" He looked over to his wife to find her sound asleep, dropped a kiss on her forehead, and quietly left the room. After all, someone would need to let the Commander and the Colonel out of the house, now Harriet's matchmaking had paid off.