A Night at the Movies

Summary: What happens when Harm and Mac get together to watch a few movies for the weekend and neither of them have been sleeping?

Disclaimer: I don't own JAG or any of the movies that I will be mentioning in the course of this series.

Mac's apartment

Georgetown, DC

1930 hrs local

Friday

Harm was dead tired. It had been a long day at JAG. Oh, who the hell was he kidding? It had been a long week at JAG. There had been a recent backlog of cases at the office, since Monday. Since that time, Harm had been hard at work. Since the backlog affected everyone at the office, he had no one to pass the excess cases to. Even the Admiral had started to handle a few personally to take the pressure off of his staff. Since the week had started, Harm had almost constantly been in court. When he wasn't in court, he was usually in his office, preparing for the next case. He had put in more of time than he had in months. In fact, he hadn't been to his apartment since Thursday morning.

Finally, at the end of the week, the Admiral declared that the system was back to normal working order. This announcement was met with a chorus of cheers, from every member of the staff, which could be heard echoing through the corridors connecting to the bullpen. After waving his hands to get a semblance of order back to the office, Chegwidden announced that everybody had the weekend off and he didn't want to see a single member of staff until Monday. Light-hearted chuckling erupted in the office, even though everyone in the office knew the Admiral well enough to know that he had meant the comment seriously.

Harm had breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to his office, intent on going home and sleeping clear till Monday. That was until Mac showed up at his door.

"Hey Sailor." She greeted him.

Harm looked up from his open briefcase. "Oh, hey Mac. What can I do for you?"

Mac stepped through the open door. "Well I was thinking, since this whole craziness has started, we haven't had chance to see each other much outside of the courtroom, and even less outside the office.

Harm nodded in mute agreement. "So what did you have in mind?" He asked.

Mac shrugged, "Well I was thinking that we could do with some relaxing, maybe you could come around to my apartment around 2000 and we could watch a few movies. You know, just relax."

Harm sighed. Honestly there was nothing he would rather do than spend some time with her, but at the moment his body was screaming at him that if he didn't rest soon, he would simply collapse right there on the office floor.

"Gee, Mac, I'd like to, but the thing is…"

Mac's shoulders dropped slightly. "No, I understand if you've got something planned." She started.

Harm looked at her and saw the hint of loneliness, which emanated from the depths of her brown eyes. She seemed to change right before his eyes. Her shoulders went from being square and upright to slumped and loose in disappointment. Her usually bright smile faded and she began to clasp at her hands in front of her like she did when she was in a slightly uncomfortable situation.

'She must be just as tired as me.' He thought, 'Otherwise, she'd never let that much of herself show."

Damn it. There was no way he could resist her when she looked like that. When the tough-as-nails façade came completely down. When LT COL. 'Mac' Mackenzie, Marine disappeared and all that remained was Sarah Mackenzie, woman, in all her fragile and beautiful glory.

"No, Mac, I don't have any plans. I'd love to stop by."

Mac smiled, "Great, I'll see you at 2000."

So here he was standing outside her apartment, getting ready to knock at the door, when all he really wanted to was collapse against it and slip into unconsciousness. Wearily, Harm raised his fist and rapped lightly against the door.

"Just a minute." Mac called from the other side. After what seemed like an eternity to Harm's fatigued mind, but in reality had only been a few seconds, Mac opened the door, wearing a robe, with a towel wrapped around her head.

Harm chuckled, self-consciously at his partner's state of dress.

'Or undress!' Something deep in the back of Harm's mind remarked gleefully.

He allowed himself one unobtrusive glance. At least he hoped it was unobtrusive, he was really to too tired to know what was and what wasn't obtrusive any more.

"I guess I'm early for a change." He remarked.

Mac, slightly embarrassed herself, laughed and let him in.

"Go ahead and sit down. I'll just be minute." She told him as she headed for her bedroom.

Harm obeyed, heading for the couch, which was beckoning for him to sit down, lie down…sleep on.

Harm sat down and shut his eyes. The peaceful waves of sleep began to pass over him, but he shook himself awake. It wouldn't be very polite to fall asleep in his friend's apartment two minutes after their night in began.

In a few minutes Mac was back, wearing a pair of sweats with a marine t-shirt, and carrying a stack of DVDs.

Harm looked at the rather large pile in her hand.

"I didn't think this would be an all-nighter." He said.

Mac shrugged, "I figured that a long session of vegging out was in order after this week." She replied, setting the DVDs down on the coffee table.

Harm sat up.

'I hope I have the energy to make it through even one movie.' He thought.

He scanned the titles. Oh great. Most of them were chick flicks. It figured. Now he knew he wouldn't make it through even one.

"Uh…Mac?" He asked.

She looked at him.

"Why is Meg Ryan in most of these?"

Mac frowned

"You mocking my taste in movies, flyboy?" She asked, with a teasing tone.

Harm laughed, "No, just noticing a pattern."

He changed the subject, "Which one first?" He asked.

Mac picked up the stack and looked it over, "Hmm…How about Casablanca? It's got romance, singing and even a little suspense for you." She joked.

Harm shrugged. He didn't really care, which movie they watched, he just hoped that he could sit through it without falling asleep, or failing that without snoring too loudly.

Mac put the disc in the machine and sat next to Harm, on the couch. The opening credits began to roll and that was all that Harm saw before his body finally gave up and he fell asleep.

To be continued...