Title: Tax Day
Authors: SarahRabb [Lhoatland ] and Pat Steiner [SSbpMN ]
SUBJECT: Mac comes to help Harm with his taxes
Rating: T, teen
Disclaimer: JAG belongs to CBS et all. No copyright infringement is intended. The following is for entertainment only.
Sarah knocked on Harm's apartment door. It was only eight in the evening but when Harm opened the door he looked like he'd been through the wringer. "Harm what's wrong?" Sarah asked concerned as she stood there with two bags of dinner.
"Have you ever tried to do taxes on the last night with your receipts and cancelled checks in a shoe box?" he sputtered, pointing to the dining table where papers were scattered everywhere. "I could wish you were from H & R Block but if you brought food that's almost as good." He stopped and looked at her pretty features, peeking out of the hood of her sweatshirt jacket. "And I'm glad to see you" he finished lamely.
Sarah smiled, "Well I brought you food and I've a feeling I can help you out..." Sarah said secretively, "after all I've taken care of my taxes..." She sat down at the table with him and began to dive into the burritos she had for them.
"Of course you've taken care of your taxes" Harm muttered, "you've probably got your refund too. I've been meaning to get to these things for weeks, and with our case load, then I was letting Renee keep me..." He stopped at that point, not wanting to bring up the woman with whom he had parted company the week before. "Anyway..." he added lamely, "bean burrito please" and as he was requesting that, his eyes dropped to her hands, checking for the ring.
The ring was missing and had apparently been missing for quite some time. Sarah handed over the burrito to Harm and asked, "So what have you got so far?"
"A headache" he responded, pointing to the excedrin bottle, and then he lifted her hands, seeing only her Marine ring. "Something's missing here, you want to tell me about it?"
"I think you're filling this out wrong," Sarah said looking at the form. "You should definitely be marking the impending dependant form here..." Sarah said, "I think about six months is definitely impending," Sarah smiled and lay his hand on a rounded baby mound.
"Oh my god, my god, my god" his breath left his body all in one gasp of words. "Six months-ok three months ago- after we came back from Sydney" he was running his hand through his hair, trying to think and at the same time feeling her stomach. Then realization hit, "It was Seoul. Renee ran off to see about...oh who cares...but I was drinking, not drunk just enough to make me want to talk and I came to your room and we...oh my god we made a baby that night?"
"Yes we did," Sarah sighed, "and just maybe you might want to check this section as well..." Sarah said pointing to the spousal section, "but I'd say the baby will help your deductions."
"My hand is shaking too much to do anything like that right now" Harm answered, "but I see what you mean about helping my tax situation out." He came around the table and lifted her from the chair, drawing her to him for a long kiss. "Sarah Catherine Mackenzie I love you" he stammered when they stopped for air. "I love you and want us to get married as soon as possible. Can you see your way clear to do that?"
"Yes, actually I was hoping you would see your way to that," Sarah answered laying a hand on her swollen abdomen. "I was coming tonight to tell you, before we got sidetracked. Now what else do you need help with?"
"Everything" he swept his hand across the table, giving her a helpless look, "but you don't honestly expect me to do taxes after finding out I'm going to have a baby with the woman I've loved forever now do you?"
"Yes," Sarah replied with a smile, "we're having a baby, we're going to need that deduction, besides if you don't file your taxes I'm going to be negligent," she smiled and then leaned over and kissed him. Then she sat down and helped him work through his financial disaster of record keeping as though they were going through a case. They finally finished at 10:30. "Now you get to go to the post office and get this in the mail."
"And what are you going to do while I'm doing that?" he frowned, still shell shocked by it all. The taxes were a minor crisis now, the news that he was a father-to-be still lay heavily on his mind.
"I am going to change into a big t-shirt after taking a nice long bath and then I'm going to prop my feet up on the couch and if I'm asleep when you get back well you can wake me in the morning..." Sarah responded, "the baby thinks I shouldn't drive all the way back home."
"The baby's father doesn't think so either, and bless the baby for sparing me from saying 'there's no way I'm letting you drive all the way back across DC at this time of night alone' because then his mother's Marine stubbornness would have gotten involved." Harm declared. "I'll be back real quick."
"Okay," Sarah smiled and then she kissed him spontaneously. "well the baby's father had best hurry back."
"This is the last time I ever do this" Harm muttered a full hour later when he returned. "Forty five minutes in line to get to the guy who takes it." He looked around the now silent apartment. "Mac where are you? Am I supposed to find you?"
Sarah lay on Harm's bed with nothing on the soft light falling on her altered figure. "Love me Harm, love me as I love you." she whispered.
Harm gulped hard and dropped his clothes into a puddle at his feet, sliding in next to her. "You are beautiful" he sighed, running his hands over the length of her body. "I love you." He placed a soft kiss on top of the baby mound.
For all of their hesitancy, it was now all so simple. A man and woman deeply in love, and soon to bring the product of that love into being.
THE END
What a cute story! And it reminds me I have to get a check to IRS! GRRRR
