Title: Crescendo

Author: ScarlettMithruiel

Classification: R

Rating: T or M

Disclaimer: JAG doesn't belong to me.

Author's Note: It's over. It's all over. Just watched the last ep last night and this lovely idea popped into my head. I thought the whole plot was rushed. In my opinion, the whole other backstory w/ the marine-who-wasn't-a-marine should have been cut. All the Harm/Mac stuff felt immensely rushed. So I slowed it down a bit. Hope they're kind of in character, and hope you like it. Please review. And cheers to Sara, just because she rocks.

He took particular joy in the sound of the screeching packing tape, as he sealed the last box. He took a deep breath and glanced around his apartment. Boxes. Tons and tons of boxes. It reminded him of something. Perhaps a poem? A castle in the sky. That's what his apartment looked like. There's something so ostracizing about the fact that you can fit your entire home…into boxes. He shook his head, so as to clear the thought from his mind. He didn't need to dwell on his loneliness. Not when he knew he was going to leave. And Mac was going to leave. And all the shreds of his past he wanted with him…were encapsulated in photographs. His eyes flitted around his empty apartment. Hard to believe I lived here. Hard to believe… He was reminiscing when a knock at the door pulled him from his reverie. He looked up…and there, leaning against the doorjamb, was his ideal, encapsulated in a Marine in casual dress. She smiled, and her face lit up, and he had no other option but to smile back.

"Hey." He felt her smile contained some sorrow in it. He felt that the smile, though genuine, was still a façade of some kind, despite the contradictions that relationship posed. He gestured for her to come in, and she entered. "Got all your boxes packed, huh?" It seemed so odd for them to make small talk. It made them seem like strangers.

"Yeah." He was surprised at the firmness of his voice, the smooth tone. He had thought he would have sounded a little emotional. Apparently, none of his inner turmoil rose to the surface. "You?"

"No. I still have some stuff to do." And here they were. Nine years had passed since the beginning of their so-titled "complicated" relationship. He knew it could be simplified. He was in love with her. He suspected she was in love with him. Plain and simple. There was no debate. They didn't need to dance around the bush for a decade. It was insane and stupid, but it also summed them up. As in love with each other as they were, they knew their places, they knew the rules, and it seemed like this boundary that they could not cross. Was it out of fear? No, he didn't believe so. He decided to be blunt.

"Mac, what are you doing here?" His tone was neither suspicious nor irritated. It was curious, and probing. He wanted the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God…if you wanted to be stereotypical. She cleared her throat and turned her dark and sensuous espresso eyes on his, the darker lashes seemingly delicate and gentler, in comparison. Even he shocked himself mentally speechless. I'm waxing poetic about her eyes? Jesus.

"I just…wanted to talk to you, Harm." She wasn't lying. But she wasn't very specific.

"About what?"

She cleared her throat again. Was she in an awkward position? Was she frightened? "Us."

He turned his eyes on hers, the mahogany orbs nervously flitting from place to place. He whispered to her. "What about us?" He drew his face closer to hers. It seemed to him now that her lips seemed fuller, more sensuous. They seemed to beckon to him. God, Harm, you're going insane.

"Well, you're leaving…and I'm leaving…and…we haven't really addressed the issue of our relationship." He grinned and seemed to bring his face closer to hers. She found it difficult to breathe. "Well…" She released a muffled grunt of surprise as he pressed his lips to hers. She soon found herself lost in the sensation. Her arms seemed to autonomously clasp behind his neck, as if this was the type of activity she did every day. Right, Mac. You wish. He angled his head, and all of a sudden, he was gently prying her lips open with her tongue. She inhaled air furiously through her nostrils. The only thought pervading her mind was to prolong the activity. He suddenly pulled away and they were both breathing hard. "…that was one of the issues we didn't address." And at that precise moment, he wanted to either laugh or kiss her. And he chose the latter.

He soon found himself tangled in a warm mass called Mac, and he didn't mind at all. He relished the newfound feeling of kissing her, and he experimented all different types. She began to pull at his t-shirt urgently as he moved to the flesh of her neck. She released a breathy moan as he gently guided them, albeit clumsily, towards his bedroom. A single thought punctured its way into his mind. Thank God I didn't move the bed yet. And as they collapsed on his bed, and she arched against him, the thought repeated itself.

He awoke, tangled with his bedsheets and someone else's arms and legs. A haze seemed to have settled over his memory. As the images and happenings of last night began to fade in, he grinned. Must have been the mind-blowing sex. The sunlight streamed through his blinds, and created an array of colliding diagonals on the pale flesh of Mac's back. Her short brown hair was tousled, and lay askew, remnants of a nine-year-old festation of passion. He was surprised that she wasn't up when he woke. He regretted his words as she rolled over, and lay on top of him. "Morning," she said, with a grin.

"Morning."

"You should stop staring at people when they're trying to fall back asleep." She kissed him lightly. "And you should make your sleepover guest coffee."

He reached for her pale, slender fingers. He kissed the tips gently. "I love you, Mac." She kissed him again, deeper this time.

"I love you, too."

"Let's get married." Her mouth opened and closed, in shock and speechlessness. He pondered for a second, before capturing her lips between his own. And she became lost in the sensations as the tide crashed upon her and stole her breath away once more.

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