WARNING: Contains non-consensual spanking of adults.
"Ok, fine," Harm said. "Here's how we'll settle this. You and me. Obstacle course. Last one to finish has to concede."
Mac glared at Harm for a moment. "Fine. Tomorrow morning. 0700. Be there and be prepared to admit you're wrong." She turned and walked angrily out of his office. A second later, he heard her office door slam.
The next morning, Mac arrived at the obstacle course to find Harm already stretching. She rolled her eyes as he waved cheerfully. "Let's get this over with. We have a meeting in an hour and forty-one minutes."
"You know, Mac, you could just admit that I was right now and we can skip this whole thing," Harm said with a grin as he strode over to her.
Mac narrowed her gaze, studying him carefully. "No," she said suddenly. "We're doing this. Besides, we have to P.T. today anyway. Unless, of course," she said with an evil grin, "you're afraid of losing to a girl. Again."
"Not a chance. Come on." They walked to the starting line. "Ok, usual rules – three-mile run to the course, just the first half, no pushing or tripping. Do you want a head start? What? I'm just trying to be a gentleman," he continued when she shot him a look.
"Why start now?" Mac finally smiled up at Harm. This was going to be fun.
Harm smiled back. "Ready? Go!"
Their runs were relatively equal and at the end of the three miles, they were neck-in-neck as they hit the barbed wire crawl. But Mac cleared it and made it over the low wall first. Harm quickly caught up through the horizontal ladder and was ahead as they rounded the turn toward the direction changes. Mac, who had the inside lane finished first and darted toward the A-Frame. She grabbed the rope and climbed up the front side. Harm followed quickly behind as she got to the logs at the top. When she reached the end of the logs, she grabbed the rope to swing herself to the bottom and off to the finish line – a full ten steps ahead of Harm. But as her feet left the top of the A-frame, the rope slipped out of the ring it was tied to, and she fell into the pond at the bottom of the structure. Harm shimmied down the side of the frame and ran past her to the finish line, laughing all the way.
Once he'd crossed the finish line and declared victory, he jogged back to a very wet and muddy Mac. "I won! I won!" he sang as he gleefully danced around the small pond.
"Quit gloating and help me out," Mac yelled as she struggled to her feet in the slippery mud. Harm stopped dancing long enough to give her a hand. Once she had regained her composure, she turned on him. "That doesn't count. I didn't even get a chance to finish!"
Harm turned and walked away, still laughing. "You'd better hit the showers – we have a meeting in…" he quickly checked his watch, "an hour and six minutes. And that includes commuting time."
"Harm!" she called after him as he jogged to his car.
He waved over his head and called back, "Don't be a sore loser, Mac! See you at the office!"
* * * * *
An hour and two minutes later, Mac stepped off the elevator and ran right into Harm. "You look better," he laughed.
"That wasn't fair, Harm. It doesn't count," Mac continued her earlier argument as she walked to her office with Harm in tow.
Harm shrugged, "Maybe not, but it was funny."
"You two want to tell me what happened at the obstacle course this morning?" Admiral Chegwidden said as he walked into Mac's office.
"Good morning, Sir," Harm said with a smile.
"Skip it, Commander. What happened? And start with why you were there in the first place."
Mac and Harm exchanged nervous glances before Mac spoke hesitantly. "We were doing P.T., Sir." The raised eyebrow told her he wasn't satisfied with her answer. "Harm and I were having some trouble seeing eye-to-eye on something. So we agreed to let the course decide who was right and who was wrong."
"Who won?"
"I did," Harm answered with a grin at Mac.
"Did you win fairly, Commander?" the Admiral asked, turning to face Harm squarely.
"Fairly, Sir?" Harm asked, suddenly uncomfortable. The Admiral's chin jutted out and Harm's shoulders sagged. "No Sir," he admitted.
"What?!?!" Mac yelled so loudly that every head in the main office popped up. The Admiral reached over the pushed the door closed.
"Explain yourself, Mr. Rabb."
Harm swallowed hard. How on earth did he get caught? "I loosened the rope on the A-Frame, and then purposely let Mac get there first." He leaned slightly to the right so that he could see Mac around the Admiral. "Sorry," he shrugged.
"You did that on purpose?" Mac asked, still yelling. "I could have broken something!"
"Mac, that pool is plenty deep enough that that wasn't going to happen," Harm said defensively.
"Enough!" Admiral Chegwidden yelled, glaring at Harm. "Major, I believe you have work to do?" the Admiral growled.
"Yes sir." She glared at Harm as well – who suddenly looked rather sheepish – but made no effort to obey the implied order.
The Admiral turned slowly toward Mac. "Then get to it, Major."
"Um, yes sir," Mac answered, quickly picking up the closest file she could grab from her desk.
"And as for you," he said turning back to Harm, "you're getting spanked."
Harm's mouth dropped open as he glanced between the Admiral and Mac, who was clearly torn between staying mad at him, being embarrassed for him and being amused that the Admiral was planning to treat him like the little boy he'd acted like.
"Let's go," the Admiral said as he pushed Harm toward the door.