AN: sorry, guys, for making you wait this long for this part, but I've been having a lot of issues with the last and the current part and have rewritten them many times, until I was completely fed up with it and left it as it is.

Harm's introspections end with this part and then we're back to the action. Enjoy.

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No matter how much apart they drifted Harm still valued Mac as his friend, but he couldn't stop himself but regret the attraction and sexual tension that had soured their friendship. He would've been happier had there been no feelings, no attraction, just friendship and nothing else. Something like he had with Harriet.

Then it wouldn't hurt so much seeing her with other men, knowing she was giving her body to them.

Giving her body cheap because none of the men she had ever been with was of any worth, not even her current fiancee. A manipulative, emotionally abusive man, who resorted to sexual harrassment and mind games to get what he wanted, to win in some competition in which Harm refused to even participate in.

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Mac didn't know, but to Brumby she was just a tool in his hate and quest against Harm, a trophy, a beautiful woman who, not only did she satisfy his basic urges, but by doing so she also served additionally in his sick competition against Harm because Brumby knew Harm was bothered by it. Brumby did not love Mac, because Brumby loved himself too much to be able to love anyone else.

Harm had seen through the man a long time ago. He had seen the glimmer in the other man's eyes the first time they'd met, had known in that second that the other man would prove to be trouble. He had seen the challenging and hostile glint in Brumby's eyes, he had seen how the man had harrassed Mac, Harm wanted to report him as was his duty, but Mac had always stopped him and then made it look harmless. Harm had seen the warning signs of a potential abuser and controlling, obssessive, possessive personality in the Aussie, but that was not enough to go to the Admiral with for the man to send the newcomer back to where he came from. Probably under some rock somewhere in the Outback, back to the rest of his family.

Harm also knew that if he were to tell Mac what he knew of Brumby she would not believe him, claiming that it was just his jealousy talking. She would then stick even closer to Brumby, get even closer to him, just to spite him.

Mac was a rebellious person, if she believed that someone wanted to influence her to do something, she would then do the exact opposite of that. This made her also easily manipulated and Harm had the feeling that her "fiancee" would make good use of that, or even had already. Perhaps threaten her with drastic measures to get her to move that ring over...

Her first marriage had come to life because of her rebellious nature, because the few true friends she had had, her classmates, her teachers, anyone who had given a damn about what happened to her, had seen the danger of her relationship with Ragle and had tried to talk her into breaking up with him.

Harm feared (not for himself but for Mac) of what she would do if he tried to talk to her about the issue.

He knew that Mac was desperately afraid of being alone, a completely unexplainably irrational fear, and it was this fear, plus vindictiveness, that was the cause for why she still kept that ring. Even though she WAS practically single, going home to an empty apartment every night and spending her off-duty time alone now that she'd pushed Harm away; that ring still gave her the illusion of being in a relationship. Harm had had no illusions what Mac had done with Bugme that first night after she had taken his ring, it was disgustingly clear at the airport, nor any of the other times she had taken a few days off and went to Australia, but it had also made his decision for him.

He wasn't ready for a relationship, ANY relationship at the time they were in Australia and he wanted Mac to understand that he WOULD be ready, that he would be ready for a relationship with her and that he wanted her to wait for him. But Mac wanted everything right that second and wasn't willing to wait for anyone or anything, even for the man she supposedly loved. Harm was uncomfortably reminded of spoiled, little girls, who want something immediately and throw temper tantrums when they can't get it.

The fact that Mac had decided to pay Harm back for his rejection by sleeping with the man Harm had hated from the first time he had laid eyes on him, hurt Harm, a lot, and had also made him even more determined to let go of everything that was holding him back.

Just that this time, to her own misfortune and her own fault, Mac was one of the things that Harm had let go.

It was time to move on with his life, leave behind everything that would hinder him, prevent him from finding happiness and Sarah Mackenzie couldn't blame anyone but herself (if she was honest and admitted the truth to herself) for the fact that she was one of the things being left behind.

Harm from now on had one mission and one mission only, and that mission was to live and be happy.

And he was going to make damn sure he would succeed in it.

He just first had to get through the next few days without having a heart attack from all the blushing from embarrassment.

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