When the Winds Change Part I

Disclaimer: All I own is an empty water bottle. So sue me. I dare you.

A/N #1: Picks up right – literally – where FWAFS left off.

A/N #2: This is basically all the background needed for the action-y stuff later on in parts 2 and 3, so please, just bear with it.

Time seemed to slow down to a near standstill as the Admiral's JAG coin flipped over and over again through the air.

Harm gave Mac a squeeze where he had his arm around her waist. "No regrets," he said confidently with a smile so only she could hear.

Mac grinned back. "No regrets," she whispered back. The coin landed with a soft jingle onto the floor.

Bud had the goofiest grin on his face as he bent down and said, "The coin has landed heads. Captain Rabb wins the toss."

Mac leaned up to kiss Harm on the cheek then turned to find everyone still standing there speechless. "General, you'll have my request for resignation on your desk first thing in the morning."

"After lunch would be better, Colonel. I'll need time to make some arrangements."

Mac was instantly suspicious, but simply nodded and acknowledged his order with a "Yes, sir." The song on the jukebox ended and a new one switched on.

Harm gently turned Mac back toward him and said, "May I have this dance?"

"You may." Harm held his hand out, and the couple moved out onto the dance floor beginning to slowly sway to Frank Sinatra's 'Nice 'n' Easy.'

The rest of the gang took their seats at the bar. It was several seconds before anyone spoke. The General finally broke the silence, "Did anyone know about this?"

"I wouldn't have thought they'd get together in a million years, let alone ten, sir," Coates offered.

"Commander Turner?"

"Honestly, sir, I was wondering if hell just froze over." The group chuckled and glanced over their shoulders to catch a glimpse at the new couple, obviously enjoying each other's company if the way they were looking at each other was any indication.

"They're so cute," Harriet gushed and Jennifer nodded in agreement, eliciting another chuckle from the group.

"Cute, Petty Officer?" The General asked sarcastically.

"Yes, sir, cute. I've never seen them look at each other that way before. And just look at the way they're holding each other. You'd think they'd never touched before."

"They haven't," Bud interjected.

"I beg your pardon?" the General asked, twisting sharply in his chair. "You mean to tell me that after all this time they never once…"

"Not once, sir. I'm certain of it."

A new song started and the couple continued dancing. Harm and Mac hadn't said much during the first song, instead simply enjoying each other's company.

"Mac?"

"Hmm?" she replied, lifting her cheek off of his chest. The almost nervous look on his face got her instantly worried. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong I just…" He trailed off and Mac realized this was not a good time to interrupt with some snarky remark. This was obviously important. "I was serious. I don't want you to regret this."

She gave him a soft smile, touched that he was so concerned about her feelings. This would definitely be easy to get used to. "Harm, the only thing I would regret is not taking a chance on us." She paused. "Why? Trying to talk me out of my decis-"

Harm cut off her last sentence with a light, but intimate kiss to her lips. "Of course not. I am positive I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to be sure that's all." He put a finger to her lips as she started to respond. "There's no pressure here, Mac. If you need time to think, just tell me. I'll understand."

Mac cocked her head and grinned. "How long have you been rehearsing that?"

Harm laughed out loud, causing the others at the bar to glance over and smile. "Since the minute you left my apartment, so you tell me."

"One hour, thirty-seven minutes, and forty-one seconds."

"How do you do that?"

"If you're good I might tell you."

"If I'm good huh?" He kissed her again. "How good?"

"What was it you were saying about being sure?"

Harm kissed her again. "Are you?" Harm stopped, their lips inches apart.

"I'm positive," Mac echoed his words back to him.

"In that case," he grinned widely, leaned in, and finished the kiss. The song ended and a faster one took its place, so the couple headed back to join their friends at the bar.

An hour later, the group had eaten and enjoyed each other's company, including two new arrivals, the General's wife Dora, and Varese. Joanna put some tables together for them so they could all sit together, and the group was now chatting happily in the corner of the restaurant.

As everyone laughed at a joke Bud had just finished telling, Mac glanced over at Harm and noticed him checking his watch for the third time in twenty minutes. As her luck would have it, another slow song started playing.

"Dance with me," she whispered as she stood up and took his hand in hers, leading him on to the dance floor. "Okay sailor," she started once they were swaying to the music, "It's five minutes and forty-three seconds since the last time you checked your watch. Am I boring you?" she teased.

Harm gave her a light kiss on the forehead. "Absolutely not." He flashed her a crooked smile. "I hope you know by now that you do anything but bore me."

"What's up?"

"I haven't talked to Mattie since early this morning. I was expecting her to call." He paused. "You know, Mac, we haven't really talked about Mattie and…us." He smiled. " I know you want kids, but we never talked about adopting a teenager."

"Mattie and I got a lot closer when you went to do your field quals. She's a great kid Harm."

Harm was silent for a moment, not wanting to speak yet in case Mac had something else to add. "Is there a 'but' in there?"

Mac chuckled. "No. She's obviously going to have a tough time for a while. I think it's good that now we can both be there for her."

"A female role model would be great for her, especially right now. I mean, Jen's great but…I don't know, I guess I think it's good she'll have a more mature role model." Harm gave himself a mental pat on the back for not saying the word older. "What do you mean you two got closer?"

"She came to JAG while you were out doing your F-18 quals."

"Mattie. Came to JAG."

Mac smiled. "Yup."

"Was everything okay?"

"She was fine. She was worried about you actually."

Harm immediately stopped dancing. "Me?"

Mac got them moving again. "Yes, you. She was a little concerned about how…seemingly easily you handled the custody hearing before you left."

"Oh."

"We chatted for a little while, she realized everything was fine, and it was. Jen and I took her to the mall a few times after that."

"She never said anything."

"Girls have secrets, Harm."

Harm smirked. "So I've discovered," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Are Mattie's doctor's optimistic?"

"Her specialist said she's got a 90 recovery rate or higher." He smirked again. "That's higher than my doctor gave me after my ramp strike, and I managed to make a complete recovery. I think she'll be just fine."

"You were hurt that badly?"

Harm nodded. "Yeah. I was in rehab for a little over a year."

"That long?"

"We punched out twenty feet above the deck. Neither of our chutes deployed fully. Both of my legs were broken and I had a compression injury to my spine. I woke up in traction. I didn't spend the whole time in the hospital though. Once I was able to walk again I went back to school and did a lot of my therapy in between classes on an outpatient basis." Harm paused. "I never told you that did I?"

"No, but then again I never asked. I could tell it wasn't something you wanted to talk about."

"I don't mind so much anymore. The, uh, the nightmares about the crash are a lot less frequent now…and I have better memories of flying to replace the more ugly ones with."

All the pieces instantly fell together in Mac's mind. That certainly explained a lot. "Is that why you went back to flying? To get rid of the nightmares?"

"That was a huge part of the reason. Now I really like that I can just enjoy flying because I can." Harm paused. "I am a little worried about how Mattie's going to handle this…psychologically, I mean. She was pretty upset at me for trying to cover up her dad's drinking again when she first woke up…I don't know…"

"Don't doubt yourself. You're right. She'll get through this. We'll help her together. You and me."

The song was about to end, so Harm pushed Mac away from him in a spinning twist, and then pulled her back in close, smiling. "Say that again."

"You and me," Mac said, slightly breathless.

Harm reached down and grabbed Mac's leg behind the knee and leaned forward, dipping her and pulling her leg through the long slit in her dress. After a kiss to which half the bar whooped, whistled, and hollered at, he said, "I like the sound of that."

A/N: Okay, so I realize not a lot happened in this chapter. Unfortunately, the only way this story would work as a whole was to give a metric ton of details of how Harm and Mac got to London and their situation once they were there. Just bear with it for a bit.