Title: Peace
Author: Pixie
Email: CF
Category: Vignette
Disclaimer: JAG and its characters belong to CBS and Bellisario productions.
Summary:A single scene that popped into my head in response to my own challenge on the Fic Recon board at Voy. Harm and Mac have someplace to go – or do they?
A/N: I seem to remember another author using a snow globe to great advantage in a story. If it's you, please accept my apologies. I would never deliberately plagiarize a fellow author's work.
A/N: I've not posted here in along time, but a conversation on a message board convinced me to try it again. If you enjoy my work, my other stories can be foundonmy website.
Sometimes peace sneaks up on silent feet, gives you a hug, and moves on before you even realize it was there.
Mac looked up from her work, realizing for the first time that it had grown dark. She'd been so deeply immersed in the file she was working on that she'd completely lost track of the time. She reached over to turn on her desk lamp, its yellow light flooding the accumulation of paper on her desktop. She rubbed her eyes. Electronic databases were great because they meant she didn't have to carry around all those books all the time, but computer monitors were hell on her eyes.
The knock at her door brought her head up in surprise. She would have thought that everybody would have gone home hours ago.
"Come in," she called. Evidently, her PO had already left for the night.
When the door opened, and Harm came in, resplendent in tux and tie, she remembered.
"Damnit!"
Harm stopped mid-step, cocking his head to one side. "That bad?" he asked in some amusement.
"No!" She smiled back tiredly, "That's not what I meant and you know it."
He grinned. "Well, I certainly hoped."
She sighed. "I'm mad at myself, actually. I got so wrapped up in this case that I forgot all about tonight."
Harm came over to her desk, peering over her shoulder at the monitor. "Case law, huh? I thought you had lackeys to do this stuff for you, now."
She sighed. "I do, but this is a complicated case and I wanted to check some things out for myself."
He kneaded the muscles at the back of her neck while he scanned the text on her monitor. "Anything I can help with?"
"You can keep doing that," she dropped her chin to her chest with a purr of pleasure.
"I would, but we'd be late for the reception."
Without answering, Mac picked up her snow globe, a memento Harm had given her years ago when they'd been in Italy on assignment. She turned it over in her hands, idly watching the tiny flecks of snow that glittered merrily as they swirled around the tiny village. How she wished she and Harm were going back there instead of to a stuffy military reception. Reluctantly, she forced her attention back to the carrier schematic spread across her desk. With a sigh, she began cleaning up.
"Thank God I brought my dress with me this morning," she said.
"Need any help changing?" Harm asked hopefully.
She laughed. "I think I can manage."
"Damn."
Finished putting things away, she locked her desk, powered down her computer, and pushed her chair back, smiling when Harm took her hand to help her up. She kissed him lightly on the cheek before moving across to the coat rack at the other end of the room. Her dress was there, safely zippered into a leather garment bag, and she collected it, laying it gently across her arm and reaching for the bag that held her shoes.
"Be right back," she said.
"I'll be here." Harm sat down at her desk, leaning back so he could put his feet up on the desk.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Harm. You wouldn't want to tip over." Mac's grin was impish, but she was quick to duck the pencil he sent flying her way. "You missed."
"Darn," said Harm. "Guess I'll have to kiss you." He put his feet down, starting to get up, and Mac backed away, convinced that if he kissed her now, with that look in his eyes, they'd never make it to the reception.
"That's okay," she said quickly. "I'll take a rain check."
The sound of his laughter followed her all the way to the lady's room.
She returned several minutes later to find Harm standing with his back to the door, looking out the window. He turned and smiled when he heard her come in, giving her snow globe a shake and setting it back in its place.
"You look beautiful," he said quietly.
Mac dipped her head slightly, acknowledging the compliment. "You're not so bad yourself," she said, coming up beside him.
He slipped his arm around her and they stood in companionable silence, looking out at the city.
"Traffic's bad tonight," he said finally, as he watched the slowly moving string of lights on the highway. "It's going to take us forever to get over there."
"Maybe there's an accident."
"Maybe."
"And maybe it'll be cleared by the time we get over there."
"Possibly."
"Funny," Mac said. "Traffic doesn't look too bad going the other way."
"Nope. It doesn't."
They were quiet again. Mac slipped her hand under the jacket of his tuxedo and around his waist, coming to rest on his hip. Histightened around her in response. She felt rather than heard his sigh.
"You know, Harm," she said softly.
"Hmm?"
"I'm a little sleepy tonight. Think anybody'd notice if we didn't show?"
He was quiet for a long time. "I'm not sure I care."
She thought about that.
"Me neither."
He turned to her then, pulling her into his arms and dropping his head to give her a gentle kiss. "So, Mrs. Rabb… All dressed up and no place to go. What are we going to do about that?"
Mac smiled. "Oh, I bet we can think of something."
She took his hand, turned off the desk lamp, and led him across the darkened room. For a brief moment the handsome couple was silhouetted in light from the outer office. Then the door closed with a soft click of metal on metal, and the room settled into silence. On the desk, the last snowflake settled gently into place.
The End
