AN of 2019. This story was written between seasons 9 and 10 when we were waiting to see what was up with Mac and Webb was dead.
I haven't really looked it over but, it was one of my favs. The concept for this story came straight from watching way too much La Femme Nikita on USA in the 90s. Specifically the episodes "Love" and "Charity"

"Love" is my fave Nikita episode where she and Michael pretend to be married to stop someone from usuing nerve gas.

I always felt that Harm and Mac should have played hubby and wifey in one of the episodes. Waaaay before Mac and Webb decided to do just that. Although, Paraguay could have been better with Harm and Mac playing husband and wife (Find my story: Love Is An Antidote To Instincts on here, its about that. ;))

So here are my AN's from back then:
Details: Mac is NOT sick, Mattie is in the picture but will not be appearing much in this story. Webb is alive, but Mac sensibly broke up with him, the way it should have been on TV. I don't like Webb, but him dying was an easy way out for her. :P AJ is still around. This story takes place sometime around Feb 2004. We're going to assume Mac battled Sadik earlier than on the actual show.

Disclaimer: Yea, like if they were mine I'd have let Mac date Webb?! What kinda crack you smokin?!

Strangelove
Strange highs and strange lows

Strangelove
That's how our love goes. . .

"Strangelove" By: Depeche Mode.

Chapter 1 - Master and Servant

"There's a new game

We like to play, you see

A game with added reality."

"Master and Servant" By: Depeche Mode.

It wasn't her idea to get married in a huge church and having, what he called "the full Navy thing." But, she had to admit that it felt incredible for them to profess their love for each other in front of so many people. Everything was right out of a fairy tale. He was dressed impeccably sharp with dress whites and gold wings that always did something to her. Smiling at the memory, Mac turned over to find her husband watching her. Sighing happily, she snuggled up against him and leaned forward for a kiss. . .

. . ."Mac! Mac!" Harm was trying to get her attention, and the moment she opened her eyes, she was looking into one brown and one aquamarine. "Hey there." He said, smiling when she woke up.

Instantly, Mac was shot out of her dream. She blinked a few times and looked at Harm again. Immediately, she started chuckling. "Uh, you lost a contact Harm."

"I know!" He said, frustrated, getting out of the bed and looking around. Groaning, he bumped his big toe on the edge of the night table. "Oww! Shit!" A second later, he was sitting on the bed nursing his big toe.

Sitting up in bed, Mac chuckled harder. She never would have thought that he would be such a klutz. "Get the package of contacts, Harm. I'll help you put them on." Mac chuckled once again as she reached over to the night table to take the contact lens water. Day one and there were already some minor technical issues. Weren't missions grand?

Neither of them could believe that they were on, yet another, CIA appointed mission. So much for Chegwidden promising that he would never allow them to toy with his people again. Kershaw said go, SECNAV liked the idea and the rest was said and done. It was a Monday morning when they first heard the news. Harm and Mac were having breakfast together in her office while discussing a case they were working on. Neither of them aware that the CIA was using JAG again.

Harm was enjoying the twist in their relationship: no more Clayton Webb. It had happened sometime after Mac's dealings with Sadik Fahd. The way she put it, made Harm realize they weren't as close as he had led himself to believe and all he could think was: 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' Ever since the revelation, they were on full talking terms. In fact, they were even spending time outside of the office together. . . As friends, of course. The possibilities of it becoming something more, was moving along slowly, and that was a good thing.

"Colonel, Commander, the Admiral will like to see you in his office, yesterday." Petty Office Jen Coates said, standing under the door frame of Mac's office. Both officers offered their good morning and smiles. "Uh, I wouldn't be so happy if I were the two of you, he's on the war path again."

"What did you do now?" Mac shot Harm a look that should have been of sympathy, but was pure banter. She chuckled when he raised his arms up in his defense and shook his head. "Ok so it's not Harm, you know why he is ticked this morning , Petty Officer?"

Jen nodded and made a face. "Two words: SEC-NAV."

Harm groaned and stood. "Petty Officer, could you possibly put another pot of coffee on? We're probably going to need it to get through the day."

"Already did, sir." Jen stepped aside and followed Harm and Mac through the bullpen and slid back behind her desk. "Go right in."

Harm and Mac walked in and stood at attention. After listening to the Admiral arguing over the phone with someone and then being asked to sit down, the bomb was dropped. "Commander. . . Colonel, you two have gone under cover together a few times, am I correct?"

Harm looked over at Mac and then back at the Admiral. "Yes, sir. . . we make a good team."

AJ snorted. "When the two of you aren't going for the jugular."

"What is this about, sir?" Mac asked, hoping to move things along, deciding the Admiral was just trying to make them squirm.

AJ sighed and looked at the both of them. "The war on terror keeps colliding with our war on drugs. Apparently, money generated from selling narcotics is being used to fund terrorists within the US."

"Where do we come in, sir?" Harm asked.

"I am getting there Commander." AJ snapped at the younger man and then settled back comfortably in his chair. "There's a high roller in Miami who we are after. He's ex-Marine and the CIA wants the two of you to find out what he is up to. But, there is a small catch." Standing, he moved around the desk and sat on the edge. "You are going to infiltrate his group and play the part of weapons specialists . . newly wed weapons specialists." AJ nearly chuckled at the frazzled look on his officer's faces.

Harm and Mac's jaws went slack. "Sir?" They said in unison and the Admiral just chuckled. The looks on their faces were priceless.

"You heard me and I DO hope that the two of you can handle any of the differences you had earlier this year and make this work." AJ stood and moved back into his chair. "The SECNAV trusts you two will do a good job." With that said, they were both cleared from JAG business and sent home to change into civvies. Harm picked Mac up and they drove to Langley.

1509 Zulu

CIA Headquarters

Langley, Virginia

Harm and Mac sat in the plush office that belonged to another CIA resident hotshot, Maxwell Wolfe. He grinned at the pair and made it blatantly clear he was interested in Mac. "Your record is nice and all that Commander, but you only flew for the agency, the Colonel here actually did some field work." He turned his attention away from Harm to Mac, flashing her his pearly whites. "Some of our man's goons might speak Farsi, so you'll be greatly needed."

Mac resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the agent. After becoming involved with Clay, the last thing she was interested in was another CIA operative. "I'll try my best, now what are the details Mr. Wolfe?" She tried to quickly dismiss the way he was eyeing her, apparently it did nothing more than amuse the guy. 'Jeez, can't he take a hint?' She thought, glancing over at Harm who seemed entertained with the whole discussion. Or, mainly the part where Mac was doing anything but regarding Max's not so subtle wooing methods.

He was all smiles when it came to Mac, even her hard tone didn't sway him a bit. "Please, call me Max."

Mac took a calming breath, which Harm did not miss. He figured that at any moment, she would jump across the desk and smack Mr. Wolfe upside the head. That was something he would pay top dollar to watch. He nearly chuckled at the mental picture. "Mr. Wolfe." Mac's tone was icy, and if the look on Max's face was any indication, he finally realized he'd lost the battle and the war. "Details please." She glared over at Harm who was biting his lower lip, trying so hard not to break down laughing. The glare cleared his amusement instantly.

Max handed two manila folders over. "That's everything that you need to know about your alias' and Mr. Alec Alvarez." Standing, he moved over to a small glass table and pointed to the alcohol which both Harm and Mac refused. "Intel on him has it that he buys weapons then turns around and trades them for heroin which he sells or vice versa." He sipped some of the bourbon, letting the liquid settle in his stomach and then returning to his seat with a loud sigh. "Our Intel is sketchy at best, but, rumor mill has it that something BIG is being planned this year. And from our man on the inside, there was a fifteen million dollar deficit in Alvarez's account." Max slid across the table a set of pictures and frowned. "Unfortunately, Michael, our agent, was found floating in Biscayne Bay nearly a week ago, but he did manage to sneak out some valuable information and that is where you two come in."

Mac nodded slowly and took a quick gander at Michael's picture. She frowned and then turned away. That was one thing she couldn't truly stomach when it came to investigations, the deaths. Michael's body literally looked like something out of a horror flick. "We're all ears."

"Michael found out that Alvarez is looking for a new team to help out with whatever he is planning." Max lifted up two pictures, one of a man and one of a woman. "These are the two people that you two will be playing. . ." He slid the male picture over to Harm and the female picture over to Mac. "Zachary and Mackenzie Taylor . . aka: Zack and Mac." (Complete authors privilege here. I know that is one HELL of a coincidence and BS, but I like the nickname Mac and chose to stick with it.)

Harm looked over at Mac and started chuckling. "How cute."

"Her name is Mac?" Mac said, looking at the woman that she was to be and sighing deeply. "Talk about coincidences."

Harm looked at both pictures and then up to Max with a confused look. "We look NOTHING like them."

"You don't have to." Max pointed out, standing up and motioning for Harm and Mac to follow. They walked through a small hall way and then into a room where there were several racks of clothing and accessories. Mac remembered the room from when she was being fitted with her pregnancy suit for the mission to Paraguay. "Alvarez knows the pair only by reputation and, from what Michael was able to gather, he has an idea of their appearance, but not exact pictures." Max leaned up against a table and smirked. "In fact, there are NO pictures of them."

"How'd you get those?" Harm asked with a raised brow and got the answer he figured he would.

"Classified." Was Max's smug response. From the way he said it, it was clear that Zack and Mac were probably no longer of this world.

Mac rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. "You figure you guys would find another word. . . that one is starting to irritate me." The word always reminded her of Clay and the smug way he would say it when she had asked where he'd been. Yep, her break from him was the best for all involved even if it came with a price of feeling like less of a woman.

Max cleared his throat. "Anyway. . .There are a 'few' change's we'll have to make."

"How few is a few?" Harm asked, staring at the black and white picture. He wasn't too sure, but it seemed like the real Zack had dark eyes.

It was almost as if Max picked up on Harm's thoughts. "For instance, Mr. Taylor has brown eyes, you don't."

Harm stared, wide eyed at any drastic implication. "And what are you going to do about that?"

"Contact lenses." Max chuckled at Harm's look of shock. "You didn't think this would be easy, did you?"

Mac stood between the too, hoping to move things along. "Next. . ."

"Colonel, we'll have to put extensions in your hair, Mackenzie has long hair. . . and the two of you will have to go through a little training." Max offered with a silly grin. He figured that two legal weenies couldn't possibly survive the training phases, but it was going to be fun to watch them try. Even the toughest of agents failed the training, that was condensed due to lack of time.

"Training?" Mac and Harm asked simultaneously. Mac envisioned boot camp all over again, cringing at having her CO yelling at her all of the time. Sure, it came with the job, but it wasn't a place she really wanted to be.

Max nodded. "We have a SEAL that works for us full time . . . we need to do the training in a short period of time."

"How short?" Mac was a bit apprehensive of the whole thing. Sure, they'd gone on missions before, but nothing quite this elaborate.

Max shrugged. "Two weeks."

"And what does it entail?" Harm stepped in, equally as apprehensive.

Max smirked. "Weapons training, underwater demolition and bugging, all sorts of goodies. . ." He headed over to a chair and sat down. "Stand in front of me, both of you." Harm and Mac did as instructed and he watched them for a bit. They were standing a regulation distance apart from each other, both staring at Max. "If you two are going to be newlyweds, I suggest you lighten up and get closer together." Harm brought his hand around Mac's waist and smiled at Max. "Okay, that needs work. . ." He said sarcastically. Smirking, he requested the next part. "Now. . . kiss."

Mac pulled away from Harm. "What?"

"Kiss. . . You know? People in love usually do that. . . and though I am not married, I know newlyweds really LIKE to do that." Max insisted and to appease him, Mac turned her head and gave Harm a pop kiss.

Max chuckled. "That isn't a kiss Colonel. . . you two are a newlywed couple, deeply involved. . . I suggest you work on it." He sneered.

Harm groaned and stared Max down. How they hell did they always wind up in something crazy like this? "Anything else?"

Max nodded. "Yes, Alvarez might hit on the Colonel. . ." He paused for effect and then smiled innocently at Harm. "He might hit on you too Commander." He seemed amused by that revelation and Harm was anything but.

"Oh, hell no! No way, I am not doing anything like that!" Harm protested, putting his hands up in defense.

"Stop whining commander. . ." Max said with a smile and then managed to thoroughly inform them of what lay ahead.