Summary: Just an idea of mine. What if Harm was the one to walk away after Paraguay?
Spoilers: Anything up to 'Tangled Webb.'
Author: JulieM
Disclaimer: I don't own JAG or any of its characters, but just borrow them for a while to exercise my overactive imagination!
Rating: T. A few graphic ideas, rather than actual images.
Category: H/M shipper.
Feedback is always very welcome! (Hint, hint!)
OOOO
Part 1
1352 Local
Accident and Emergency Department,
Glasgow Royal Infirmary,
Scotland, UK.
The young woman strode into the accident and emergency waiting room and took a seat on the far side of the room. In the stroller she pushed in front of her slept her six-week-old daughter. To say that the mother was overdressed was an understatement. What the woman watching the pair from a nearby seat didn't know was that the mother had a friend waiting outside the front of the hospital for her. Shelley O'Connor, an unwitting witness to the tragic events that were about to unfold, turned back to her magazine. Looking up again, she smiled as she saw the baby girl in the pram smile in her sleep.
"Aren't babies just little darlings when they're at this age?" she thought to herself. She remembered it well with her own children.
She would soon be experiencing it again with her own grandchild. Any day now, her oldest daughter would give birth. All of a sudden, the woman in high-heeled boots, stylish-looking clothes and a faux-fur jacket approached her.
"Could I bother you to watch her for just a moment," the young lady requested, "I just need to pop to the loo."
Underneath all of the glitz and make-up, Shelley could see that the young woman was actually younger than she had first appeared to be. If she had to approximate an age, Shelley wouldn't have thought that the young girl was out of her teens. Poor girl, she was still a child herself.
"O'course, love. It wouldnae' be a problem," Shelley told her, good-naturedly, "What a wee flower she is! What a gorgeous wean!"
The young lady just thanked her. Shelley had always been one to attract all of the bairns, even when she was still quite young. She used to earn extra money for her Mammy, watching the children of various neighbours on the estate where she had grown up.
Leaning over into the pram to get a better view of 'this gorgeous wee bairn', Shelley didn't see the baby's Mother lean down to check through the contents of the bag in the tray beneath the stroller. After checking to make sure everything necessary was there, Kim Anderson walked away and out into the hall then continued onwards, without a glance back. Once out at the front of the hospital, she climbed into the car waiting for her and it sped off, without so much as a thought for the baby girl she had just left behind with a total stranger.
OOOO
22 years later…
Stepping out of the airport the tall, attractive westerner took a deep breath, letting the heavy, humid air penetrate his lungs deeply. Most of the locals in the crowd milling around him stopped to glance at him. He seemed to be quite out of place here, his tanned but comparatively pale skin contrasting with that of those around him. A second more of scrutiny revealed a pair of deep, blue/green eyes. Yep, he was out of place here that was for certain. But what none of these observers realised was that this man was not just out of place in this country, but also in himself. A closer look at his eyes would show that they were empty and devoid of emotion. Over the past 72 hours, many emotions had reflected themselves through these beautiful eyes. Hurt, fear, anger, despair and finally emptiness. Just like he felt inside, ever since he had woken aboard the Boeing 747, at 1400 Zulu, this morning. No, not 1400 Zulu. 4am, local time. He was really going to have to get used to this, now. He was no longer a Commander in the US Navy. He was no longer in the US. Here he was, so many hundreds of thousands of miles away from home, in Kuala Lumpur. DC was just a distant memory now and he would have to learn to live without it and all of the people whom he had left there; so many people whom he had loved dearly. Especially one particular person…With that train of thought, Harm quickly cut himself off, before he started to dredge up the painful memories. But it was too late and, unbidden, a visual image flashed itself seemingly across the inside of his eyelids. It was her, kissing the man whom had long been a friend to both himself and to her. God, would there ever be a time when he wouldn't think of her without hurting this much? No, his internal voice told him. He quickly repressed it and set about doing something to distract himself.
Reaching into his carry-on-bag, he fished out his cellphone. Before he had left, Harm had called up the cellphone company and subscribed to something called 'autoroam.' According to the person at the company, it allowed him to make calls home from any country in the world, at the same international call rates of that particular country. He turned his cellphone back on to find that indeed, this seemed to be true. In fact, he was now with a local network whose name he didn't think he could even pronounce. For a second, his internal voice spoke up again. What on earth was he doing here, it told him, in a country whose language he didn't know a word of? He quickly beat it down again. Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by a beaten up little car, a Vauxhall Corsa, which pulled up right next to where he was standing. A small, thin man quickly skipped out of the driver's side and around to where he stood. Seeing that Harm was the only westerner standing in the area, the airport exit that had been designated as the meeting point, he approached Harm, timidly.
"Mister Rabb?"
"Yes, that's right…Are you from Delany, Chung and Bell?"
"Yes, Mister Rabb, my name is Sudi. Sorry I'm so late, but the traffic has been very bad, this afternoon. I'm sure that will be the first thing that you'll notice about KL."
Harm just smiled as Sudi pushed the trolley carrying Harm's suitcase over to trunk of his car.
OOOO
It had been an extremely long week. AJ rubbed his eyes, irritably. They were grainy and tired and it seemed like such a long time since he had gotten some proper sleep. Just then, the buzzer on his office intercom went off and AJ pushed the button, asking his PO, "Yes, Tiner?"
"Sir, I just got a call from the hospital. They told me that Clayton Webb has been moved out of the high-dependency unit in Paraguay. He's still in a serious condition, but it looks like he's going to be okay."
"That's good, Tiner," AJ approved, "Let me know when the Colonel arrives, will you? I want to have plenty of time talking with her, so clear my schedule, for an hour afterwards, okay?"
"Aye, Sir."
This was Colonel Sarah 'Mac' MacKenzie's first day back at work. She had been kept overnight in a hospital in Paraguay after her and Webb's ordeal and released the next day. After arriving home, a few days later, AJ had ordered her to stay at home and rest for a few days. He had been surprised when she had complied with his instructions, but he had reasoned that she had been through a lot over the past few weeks and was probably so exhausted that her body had forced her to do so. Goodness knows what she would say when he told her that Harm had resigned his commission. He dreaded to think about it, even hoped that she might arrive to work late, so he would have some extra time to figure out how he was going to tell her this. Sadly, that was not to be for poor AJ for, barely ten minutes later, the buzzer on the intercom went again.
"Sir, I've got the Colonel here to see you and I'm afraid she's very upset…"
AJ quickly went to the door to his inner office and opened it, to find an emotionally distraught Colonel on the other side, being comforted by Tiner and both of the Roberts Lieutenants.
"Sir," she gasped, trying to come to attention, "Commander Rabb's office is empty, Sir…"
AJ gave her a signal to put her at ease, then told her, "Come into my office, Colonel, we've got some things to talk about. And I need to explain…"
He helped her in with a hand supporting her under the elbow, while Tiner, Bud and Harriet watched on, in concern. Once they were settled in his office, AJ spoke up.
"Mac," he told her, comforting her with his informal manner, "There's no easy way to tell you this, so I'm just going to plunge straight in…Mac, Harm resigned his commission to go to Paraguay and find you and Webb."
Mac gasped in shock and took a deep breath, assimilating her thoughts.
"And now, Sir?"
"Well, Harm called me just after I heard that you three had been hospitalised. He said that he was fine, that he had discharged himself as soon as possible and was about to journey back here to apprise me of the situation. He was in DC by the next day and came into my office to see me…"
"Was he okay, Sir? I didn't see him after the plane crashed. I only heard from Bud that he'd left the hospital and was on his way home."
"Yes, he was scratched up a bit, but you know him…It was nothing that could slow him down…Anyway, while he was here, he cleaned out his office. I told him that I hadn't processed his resignation, but he told me that his mind was made up…"
"But why, Sir? Why did he leave? It doesn't make sense. The Navy is his whole life."
"He told me that he needed to get away, that there were too many memories here, memories that hurt too much…"
AJ paused as he saw the pain that flashed across Mac's face.
"Sorry, Mac," he apologised, then broached, gently, "What happened in Paraguay?"
"After he was hurt, Webb started talking like…like he was dying…and started saying some things, in his delirious state…I kinda took pity on him and…kissed him. But I didn't know that Harm was watching behind me…"
She paused for a long minute, her teary eyes fixed on the ground in front of her.
AJ gently cleared his throat, after thinking about what would be the best thing to say at that moment. He decided to go with pure honesty.
"You understand, now?" he asked Mac, "You understand exactly what it is that Harm feels for you? When I ordered him to stand down and refused to let him go and find you and Webb, he did anyway. He even resigned his commission to do so. You said yourself…"
"The Navy is his whole life," Mac finished for him, "Yeah, I know…Where is he now, Sir?"
"I don't know, Mac. I've tried calling everyone I can think of. His apartment has been cleaned out, all of his things are gone. The forwarding address that has been given is his Mother's."
"What about his Mother, Sir?" Mac questioned, eagerly.
"Yes, I thought about that, too," AJ told her, "I haven't been able to get hold of his Mother, though. I was thinking that she might know where he is."
"Sir," Mac interrupted him, for a second, "Would it be okay if I tried to get in touch with her? I think that this is probably something that I should be doing…I feel like I owe it to Harm."
"Okay," AJ authorised her and she snapped to attention, their meeting over.
"Dismissed," AJ snapped off a salute in reply and watched Mac leave his office.
"Good grief," he thought to himself, "When are these two ever going to get it together?"
OOOO
