Disclaimer: Don't own'em
A/N: As it stands, there are 20 parts. However, I am inordinately conflicted over how to divvy up the parts so we'll see what happens.
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Insights - Part 2
Harm's Apartment
Monday
2045 Local
Properly amped up on cold meds, Mac felt better than she had all day. She eyed Harm's front door with some trepidation. Cold meds may have made her slightly more lucid, but they weren't the stuff of courage. She steeled her resolve, and knocked on the door.
The door swung open almost immediately to reveal a rather relieved looking Harm.
"I didn't think you'd come." He gave her a small smile, but she could see the caution in his eyes. He motioned for her to come in, and shut the door behind her. She draped her coat over the arm of his sofa, buying a bit more time before she had to face him.
"You're leaving tomorrow morning." She offered awkwardly. "I'd hate to leave things like that."
"This afternoon..." He trailed off. His glance dropped to the floor, and then flitted back to her, full of regret and uncertainty. "We always fight."
She shrugged, then looked him in the eye and tried to sound more sure than she felt.
"I was thinking about it. We have to learn to fight fair."
He studied her for a moment, then let out a deep breath, seeming to breathe easier. He nodded, and she saw a smile twinkle in his eye. The gesture was enough to alleviate the tension Mac had been feeling since she'd walked out his office that morning.
Mac sat down heavily on his couch. She glanced at Harm, trying to gauge how he'd react to her suggestion.
"Maybe we could take turns" She offered.
The corner of his lip curved up at that. "At giving in?" He said dryly. He took a seat on the couch beside her.
Mac rolled her eyes. "No, flyboy: at compromising."
Harm's smile widened, and he turned to face her. He draped his arm over the back of the sofa, his fingers close enough to touch her. "So you do mean giving in."
Mac turned to face him, taking his hand in hers. "Be serious," She admonished gently.
They shared a smile. Hers was the first to fade. She looked at their clasped hands.
"Maybe we could learn to negotiate," She offered.
"Like plea bargaining?" Harm put his free hand on her knee, his thumb rubbing light circles on the fabric of her jeans.
"Like." Mac shrugged as she traced patterns on the back of his hand while she held it.
Harm pursed his lips thoughtfully, and nodded.
"Worth a shot." He concluded. "After all, we are lawyers by day."
"Alright," Mac stated decisively, though still partially distracted with tracing patterns on his skin. She looked up at him as a thought occurred. "Umm. We need to test it out."
Harm grinned and tugged at her hand, drawing her closer to him. "You want me to pick a fight with you, French fry?"
Mac laughed.
"Maybe you could tie a string around your finger" She raised his hand and gently shook it. "Just as a reminder the next time we fight."
Harm scoffed as he pulled his hand out of her grasp, wrapped it around her waist and drew her even closer to his side. "Please. I could negotiate life out of the very jaws of death. I don't need reminding."
Mac rolled her eyes as she leaned into his side. She drew one leg up on the couch, sitting as close as she could be to him without actually sitting on his lap. "Maybe we should work on the arrogance thing, too." She teased.
Harm grinned, rubbing his nose lightly along hers. He ducked in for a quick kiss. "I can think of better things to work on."
Mac was now rather familiar with that gleam in his eye.
"Really?" She did a fair imitation of a lazy drawl. She trailed a finger along his collarbone. "And what would that be?"
"Making up." Harm stated as if this was the obvious and only conclusion. He leaned in to kiss her jaw, slowly unbuttoning her shirt.
"Good point." Mac sighed, resting her forehead against his jaw as his hand slipped beneath her shirt.
He paused suddenly. Mac looked up, wondering why he'd stopped. She found him watching her cautiously. He was studying her face, looking like he wanted to say something.
"What?" She asked, feeling his wariness seep through her skin.
"So no more emails from Brumby." It sounded a bit like a question, but his words held a firmness that was missing in his expression.
"Harm." She warned. "He was my partner for months. I consider him a friend."
"No, you don't." He declared with authority.
"Good god, Harm." She rolled her eyes, her warning now tinged with exasperation.
"Mac. He does not want to be just friends with you."
"No man does, right?" She replied, upset. She pulled away from him, and dropped her head back against the couch. "Are we back to that?"
"No, no we're not," He defended. He huffed his displeasure.
"Alright," She stated decisively, and turned to face him once again. "Let's try this bargaining, compromising thing."
She waited for his nod before continuing.
"Mic's been sending me a few emails since he returned to Australia. Stuff like the temperature down there, and invitations to come visit—"
"What?" Harm exploded, but was quickly silenced by the pointed glare she levelled his way.
"I was not planning on accepting," She stated, her tone and her expression firm. "Even before I came back from Germany."
"You weren't?" He searched her face for confirmation.
"I wasn't." She emphasized.
"Why?"
She took a deep breath, debating whether to continue. Harm would think her silly.
"After my Article 32 and Admiral's Mast, I swore off men." She braced herself for his teasing.
He raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"They're nothing but trouble." She defended. "I did not want to get involved with anyone. And for all of Mic's overly flirtatious approach to the opposite sex, he is sweet and he is a good friend."
"Overly flirtatious approach to you, you mean. I don't like it."
"That is not compromising!" She exclaimed.
"It's your turn to compromise." He stated stubbornly.
She stared at him for a moment.
"You are a piece of work." She shook her head, both in disbelief and amusement.
"Hey," He exclaimed suddenly, and she knew he was trying to distract her from the matter at hand. "So your rule to swear off men doesn't apply to me?"
"I've learned that I have a very hard time abiding by the rules when it comes to you." She confessed with a touch of drama. She hoped he wouldn't see the truth behind her words, or the amount of concern it really caused her.
He grinned. "That statement has a lot of potential. Merits further investigation."
He unfastened another button on her shirt.
"Don't change the subject, and stop trying to distract me." She scolded him lightly, catching on to his stunt. "We're supposed to be compromising." She put in a half-hearted attempt at batting his hand away.
"The only thing I want to compromise is your state of dress," His fingers again reached for her shirt buttons, and a heated smile was levelled at her.
"Rabb," she warned.
He sighed, and dropped his hand. "Fine. I acknowledge that I may have overreacted."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Fine," He huffed. "I did overreact. And you can be friends with Mic if you want."
Both her eyebrows shot up, and he hastened to recant his statement. "I mean, you don't need my permission to be friends with anyone, even if it's Mic or Pol Pot or the devil himself."
"Harm!" She pushed his shoulder, clearly exasperated. "You were doing so well until that last bit."
His cocky grin rushed to the fore. "I was, wasn't I?"
She laughed. "We definitely need to learn to work on the arrogance thing..." Mac trailed off breathlessly as Harm nuzzled her neck.
"Later?" His hands busied themselves with unbuttoning her shirt, his mouth with tasting her.
"Hmm." She sighed, threading her fingers through his hair.
She was all ready to get lost in his touch, when she remembered the second item that had led to their verbal sparring.
"Harm?" She didn't have the will to pull away from the wonderful things his lips were doing on her skin.
"Yeah?" He slipped his hands around her back, his mouth nibbling on the skin between neck and shoulder.
"You're going to have to go the reception for the recruitment commercial." She didn't have it in her to mention Renée. After all, it had only been one dinner; just as he'd said over the phone when she'd been in Germany. She'd overreacted. She blamed the cold. And – she thought of Renée's overt sexuality and blatant confidence – maybe it'd be better not to hear what he had to say on that front.
He stilled in his ministrations, and Mac bit back her momentary disappointment at the loss of sensation.
"I know," He rested his forehead against her shoulder, and sighed. "Unfortunately, I've been ordered to attend."
"I'm sure it'll be fine, Harm." She caressed his face with the back of her fingers, offering some consolation.
"You're coming aren't you?" He pulled back to look at her.
"To protect you from the talent scouts? Of course."
"The benefits of dating a Marine: I get my very own bodyguard." He teased. His smile turned devilish. "And hey, don't forget to wear your blue uniform. Green is not your colour."
She punched him in the shoulder.
"Don't even joke about that," She admonished.
"Ow." He rubbed his arm, and then added, his grin not abating. "That was worth the pain. Tell you what Mac, for agreeing to be my bodyguard, I'll autograph a poster just for you." He gave his cockiest grin. "You can hang it in your bedroom, right in front of your bed. After all, if I remember, you are my hottest and most vocal fan..."
"On second thought, the talent scouts can have you."
"I'd rather have you scout my talents, French fry." He kissed her neck, his lips trailing along her collarbone, then along her jaw.
"Mm." She sighed as his hands reached her belt, and his teeth gently tugged her earlobe. She threaded her fingers through his hair, savouring how smooth the cool strands of his hair felt under her touch. "Impress me, Flyboy."
--
Harm's Apartment
Tuesday
0616 Local
Harm and Mac stood facing each other at his front door, just inside his apartment. Mac eyed his travel bag, which lay by his feet. She'd just come back, and he was going away on assignment. While she was stuck in freakin' Antarctica. She decided she was mad as hell at Mic. Big loser jerk.
And her stupid cold wasn't helping. If anything it'd gotten worst since last night. Well, maybe she should've rested, but it was a lot more fun making up with Harm. Damned meds weren't doing their job, is what. She'd woken up all congested, and her throat was a bit scratchy and she just wanted to crawl into bed with Harm and forget about the rest of the world.
She felt his warm hands snake around her waist, to her back, and pull her towards him, holding her close. Mac sighed as she looked up at Harm. She placed her hands on her chest, and decided she could grudgingly concede that if she couldn't be in bed with Harm, this position wasn't such a terrible one. If only he wasn't leaving.
"Will you miss me?" He smiled down at her wearing that look of warm affection, and suddenly Mac felt just a bit better.
"Like French fries would miss ketchup." She grinned widely up at him, and leaned up on her toes to kiss his chin. "Like Mushu would miss pork."
He laughed lightly, his eyes sparkling momentarily. His amusement, however, was quick to fade into reluctance as he watched her. Mac thought even he looked a bit upset.
"What?" She asked, trailing her fingers over his cheek.
"Even from half a planet away, Brumby can be a real pain in the ass." He tried to pass it off as a joke, but she knew he was being serious.
"Harm!" She warned, knowing how much Mic had always grated Harm. And vice versa. "Don't do anything stupid down there. I'd hate to have to come bail you out."
Harm broke into his full out grin, and slipped into flirt mode right in front of her eyes.
"Telling me that doing stupid things will have you hop a plane to come see me might not be the right way to go." His hands were slowly caressing her waist and lower back, and the caresses made Mac forget to come up with a witty retort.
Instead, she bit her lip, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She stood up once again on her toes, and kissed one corner of his mouth.
"You are too tall, Sailor." She whispered, kissing the other corner of his mouth. "All this standing up on my toes is making my calf muscles too bulky."
"I like women with overdeveloped calf muscles." He kissed her neck, her jaw. "Very sexy."
She laughed, and lowered her feet back to the ground.
"I'll call you." He said, sounding – to her mind – surprisingly forlorn. He rested his forehead against hers.
"I'll look forward to it." Her tone matched his.
"See you in a few days, Sarah." He mumbled against her lips, before kissing her.
"A few days, Harm." She echoed.
He took a step away from her, and picked up his travel bag. He was about to turn around and head out the door, when he suddenly stopped. He turned back around to face her.
"I almost forgot." He glanced up at her, his head bowed, looking oddly self-conscious.
"What?" She prodded gently, wondering if she should be worried by the hesitancy in his behaviour.
"I, uh, got something for you. I mean," He looked away, and then back at her, hastening to add, "Nothing major. Just, um, because we won't be, I mean..." He sighed. "I'm not very good at this." He admitted with mild embarrassment.
"I think you're great at it." Whatever 'it' was. She still had no clue, but she was finding this side of him very endearing and couldn't help but smile.
He dug into his jacket pocket.
"Here." He handed her a Snickers bar. "I uh, got it yesterday from the vending machine at work. Um, for you. Because you weren't feeling well."
She laughed in delight, warmed through and through by the gesture. She took the bar from him. "My favourite."
"I know." He smiled that endearing half-smile of his, cracking any restraint she may have had.
She took a quick step towards him, leaned up on her toes and kissed him with everything she had.
He looked slightly dazed when she was done. "Wow," His cocky grin was now back in place. "What would you have done if I'd bought you a king sized bar?"
She laughed, and pushed him towards the door. "Go on. You have a plane to catch."
With one last quick kiss, he turned and left. Mac closed the door behind him. She leaned against the heavy wood of the frame, feeling a giddy happiness as she looked at the chocolate bar in her hand. She could hear Harm whistling all the way down the hallway.