TITLE: To Err Is Human

AUTHOR: Clairisant and Brenda

CLASSIFICATION: AJ/Mac

FEEDBACK: Always welcome.

CREDITS: A special thanks to our beta readers, Qupeydoll and Mary.

Chapter 1

Saturday, October 29, 2005

0925 EST

Wal-mart near Mac's apartment

Mac sighed in frustration as she stepped into the nearest Wal-mart to her apartment. She couldn't believe that she had ruined another coffee pot. It must be the third she had destroyed this year simply by being careless. She would be in a hurry in the morning and leave it on all day. Sometime during the course of the day the silly thing would boil dry and by the time she got home in the evening it would be ruined. This time had been particularly entertaining! When she picked up the pot it had exploded. Mac was just lucky she hadn't been hurt.

That was how she came to be in Wal-mart on a Saturday morning instead of being at home drinking coffee and doing her weeks worth of laundry. She stood there in front of the dozen or more makes of coffee pots trying to decide which one to get. Snorting to herself she wondered if they made one that had an idiot alert, or at least would turn itself off!

"Having trouble deciding on a coffee maker?" a familiar voice came from behind her.

It sounded a little like Admiral Chegwidden, but there was a strange accent to the voice she didn't recognize. Spinning around she saw a tall man in a baseball cap with collar length hair and a thick bushy mustache. Realizing it wasn't her former CO and just some curious passerby, she gave him a half smile and a little sigh. "Yeah, there's just too many to choose from."

"Well is it for yourself or a gift?"

"Why would that matter?" she asked with a puzzled frown between her brows.

"If it's a gift you would need to know the receiver's drinking habits before you could choose wisely. If it's for you then you already know that."

With a frustrated sigh she admitted, "It's for me."

"Then the question becomes why are you replacing your old one?" he held up his hand to tick off the possible reasons. His thumb came out and he said, "Your one at home is to big," his pointer came out next, "Your one at home is too small," then his middle finger came out, "Or your one at home quit working."

Grabbing his middle finger without thinking, between her thumb and forefinger, she said, "It's this one."

With a wicked gleam in his eye because she was still wiggling his middle finger, he replied, "Oh really?"

Mac sighed again realizing this handsome stranger was now flirting with her. Over the last several months she had come to an understanding about herself. Since Admiral Chegwidden's retirement she could admit her true feelings at last. She had decided that if she couldn't have the man she really wanted then she wouldn't have any at all. That was why she hadn't had a single date since her volatile break up with Clay.

So with a sad smile she let go of the stranger's finger and raised her hand to gently pat him on the cheek, saying, "I have a feeling that you're working up to asking me out." Her grin became a little wider at the look of surprise on his face. She wasn't sure if it was because she'd guessed his intentions or if it was because she'd had the audacity to voice it. "I have to tell you that if I said yes to you, it would only be because you remind me of someone I've loved for a long time but can't have, and that wouldn't be fair to you."

Capturing her hand against his cheek the man's eyes filled with warmth and compassion, he asked in hushed tones, "Someone you love?"

"Yes," she nodded sadly with unshed tears pooling in her eyes. "My former boss. I've loved him for nine years and now he's gone."

"Gone?" the man whispered.

"Oh, he's not dead or anything, he just retired and left town. I haven't seen him in months and you remind me so much of him…your size, and voice, and your kindness…so you can see why it wouldn't be fair of me to go out with you wishing you were him…"

To be continued…