TITLE: Flip Of A Coin

AUTHOR: Clairisant

CLASSIFICATION: AJ/Mac

FEEDBACK: Would love to hear both good and bad feedback but please try to be kind and constructive. Clairisant

CREDITS: A special thank you to my beta readers Qupeydoll and Julie.

Chapter 1

Saturday, July 29, 2005

1400 EST

Mac's apartment

Georgetown, Virginia

Sarah Mackenzie was in front of her apartment washing her car. She sighed, sadly thinking that she would need to sell it when she moved to London with Harm and Mattie. She was going to miss the cherry-red Vette, but not half as much as she would miss the Corps. It was still hard to believe that after many long discussions about who would give up their career so they could be together, that they had finally left it up to a flip of a coin.

Anyway, since it was the weekend, she wouldn't have to deliver the news to General Creswell until Monday. So, for now, she would just concentrate on washing the Vette…maybe for the last time…'NO!' she wasn't going to think like that now. Mac was just about to begin rinsing the suds off the car when a familiar looking black Escalade pulled up.

Retired Admiral AJ Chegwidden got out of the vehicle looking fit and tanned in a casual polo shirt and black jeans. As he came towards her she smiled and said, "Good afternoon, Admiral. I didn't know you were back from your ballpark tour yet."

"I got in late last night and got a phone call this morning from Harriett Roberts with all the latest news. What is this nonsense she was telling me about you giving up the Marine Corps on the flip of a coin? The Marines are your life!"

"The Corps has been an important part of my life, but now that Harm and I are getting married, one of us had to give up our careers so we could be together."

"You're sure this is what you want to do?" he questioned finding it very hard to believe.

"Harm and I have been friends for a lot of years, while we're not madly in love with each other I do think we're well suited and should be able to make a marriage work. Plus he needs someone to help take care of Mattie," Mac answered.

"You're marrying him even though you don't love him?" AJ demanded incredulously. "I can't believe you would give up the Marines for a loveless marriage and as much as I like Mattie and respect Harm for his commitment to her, he can hire someone to take care of her!"

"Yes he could, but it wouldn't be someone she knows. It's already going to be tough on her moving to a different country, leaving her friends and school, on top of the accident and the mess with her father."

"Still Sarah, you're giving up a life you love to please a sixteen year old girl?"

"It's not just her, AJ. Harm knows about the endometriosis and even though he wants a son to carry on the family name, he's willing to marry me knowing how slim the chance of that ever happening is."

"My God, Sarah, if that's the only reason, you must know that there have to be dozens men out there willing to do the same without making you give up your career and move out of the country!"

Mac was becoming agitated by this time. Here was the man she'd been in love with for nearly a decade trying to convince her not to marry Harm by telling her there were other men out there for her when she only wanted him! "Well I don't see any of them beating down my door!" she snapped.

AJ stood there, wanting to tell her that there was one standing right in front of her, but her words made it clear that she didn't see him that way. Over the years he felt a pull between them a time or two, the most memorable had been when he'd almost kissed her in his bedroom the night of the party at his home. But nothing had come of it, he'd pulled back in time, before embarrassing himself by doing something rash, although she'd leaned into him not away, but it might have been his imagination. She had kissed him once, but it had been a brief peck in celebration of rescuing a kidnapped child. He knew she couldn't see him the way he would like, after all she'd asked him to give her away the last time she was engaged, casting him in a father's role and more recently she'd introduced him to her friend. Women didn't do that if they had any interest in the man themselves. Finally he realized she was waiting for some comment from him. "Then the men here are fools, but if you took the transfer to San Diego you'd meet a whole new group of…"

"Fools?" she interrupted him.

To be continued….