A/N: Woohoo another chapter! I suspect this story has only about 2-3 chapters left. I'm kinda sad about that; I've enjoyed the writing of it thoroughly despite its angsty premise. Hard to believe it's been a year since I first published it!
And sorry, this chapter is a little…bloody.
Letters to Harm
Chapter 37: Horror
My Dear Harm,
I had another dream last night. I was back with you, we had children, three girls and a little boy, and we were so happy…but then it was like I was just watching our little family—I saw me with you, but it wasn't me, because I was watching you…confusing, I know. It was like I was seeing what we could have had…if only I hadn't messed everything up with him.
Oh, my love…it would have been so beautiful…I'm so sorry I ruined it.
I miss you.
I love you.
Mac
May 27th, 2004
0025 Local
Mac's Apartment
Georgetown
"Harm? Harm?" Mac wriggled underneath Harm, who was now dead weight against her. She felt something wet and sticky on her hands, and for a moment she tried to tell herself that it was her own blood. However, she couldn't fool herself for long; this blood was warm…fresh…Harm's. She could feel he was still breathing, but for how long? She barely had time to process this when Harm was pulled away from her and dropped unceremoniously at her side. A battered and bloodied Mic loomed over her, and in that moment, Mac knew Mic had won. He grinned down at her and gave an evil chuckle.
"Not so easy to kill, am I, luv?" Mac turned her head away, unable to stomach looking at the man who would be her killer. Mic, however, had other ideas. He straddled her body and wrenched her head until she faced him again. "Look at me, Sarah." His voice was low and menacing, belying the gentleness with which he was now stroking her cheek with his fingertips. "Why do you fight me so much, Sarah? When I love you so much?" He continued to brush his fingers over her skin, oblivious to the utter revulsion she felt at his touch.
Mac had no illusions that she was going to make it out of here alive and a large part of her just wanted to give up—living with fear for so long had taken its toll—but when she thought about her girls, about what Harm had done for her, what even Rene had done for her, she knew she owed it to them to fight.
"You know nothing about love, Mic," she spat at him, her eyes darting around to locate something, anything, that she could use against him. She found nothing, and when she looked back at Mic, she saw his eyes had filled with fury. His thighs on either side of her squeezed painfully and his weight made it difficult to breathe.
"I gave everything up for you, Sarah!" he hissed vehemently.
"I never asked you to, Mic." She spoke calmly, despite the difficulty she had getting words past her compressed lungs.
"You didn't have to, luv. I knew what you wanted."
That bit of insanity earned Mic a derisive snort and she wondered at how he could go from infuriated to delusional so quickly.
Mic's hand started to creep down her jaw to her neck, then down to her chest. "So beautiful…" he sighed as he pulled her top apart, the remaining buttons falling victim to his force. She felt both of his coarse hands move around her torso to unhook her bra, then he roughly pushed the loosened fabric up. His thumbs teased her nipples before he pinched them cruelly. Mac gasped in spite of herself and her hands automatically came up to push his hands away.
"Don't fight me, Sarah. You want this as much as I do."
Mac pushed at him even more as she wriggled her body in a futile attempt at escape. Her movements earned her a backhand across her cheek and for a moment it felt like her eye had exploded. She tasted fresh blood in her mouth, and she couldn't stop the tears that ran down her cheeks and over her ears.
"I told you not to fight me, Sarah, but you never listen." His fingers dug again into her jaw, and he smiled down at her menacingly. "But then again, I always liked you a little feisty."
Mic's other hand had slithered in between them and found its way into her pants. His fingers probed her center mercilessly and Mac whimpered, which Mic took as a sign of pleasure.
"You always liked how I touched you. He never touched you like this, did he?" His fingers drove in deeper and Mac felt herself once again slipping into that deep corner of her mind that had allowed her to endure Mic's violations of her for so long. Her arms dropped to her sides, limp, and Mic grinned wolfishly.
"That's it, Sarah. Just let it happen…" Mac's eyes drifted up and past Mic's and she prayed this would be over soon. She heard Harm groan next to her and begged God not to let Harm see what was about to happen. Don't wake up now, Harm.
Mac felt a jolt of pain at her core, and it caused her body to spasm, her arms bouncing, her fingers splayed as she bit her lip to keep from crying out. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Her fingertips brushed across a hard object when they hit the floor again. It was a familiar object, and she teased it under her palm.
"You want this, Sarah. You've wanted it since you left." Mac nodded. It was expected of her.
"Tell me you want me."
Once again, she did what was expected of her; he'd used this particular litany before. "I want you."
"Say my name, Sarah."
"I want you, Mic," she whispered. The object under her hand had gone from cool to warm.
"Tell me you love me."
Mac's fist closed around the object.
"I love you, Mic."
At that Mic gave her that simpering grin he always did when he made her say those words. "Oh, Sarah…Sarah…Sar—"
Mic gave a grunt followed by a low, gurgling moan as Mac shoved the knife in deeper, twisting it between his ribs. Blood poured outward from the wound and Mic gasped for air, his eyes widened in surprised confusion. More blood dripped from Mic's mouth as Mac sliced inward, and soon he couldn't even gasp for air. His eyes bulged outward as his face turned purple, and finally he collapsed on top of her, unmoving.
The room grew eerily quiet until only Mac's gasps for air could be heard. She twisted her head to check on Harm, relieved to see his eyelids flutter, horrified to see the blood slowly pooling around him. Her own wound had started to bleed again, and that, coupled with Mic's crushing weight made her dizzy and weak. She tried futilely to move him off of her, but her efforts only weakened her further. She felt herself slip into the quiet…
…only to be startled awake by a flurry of activity at the door. There was shouting and the sound of the door flying open to hit the opposite wall, and then a feeling of weightlessness as Mic's body was dragged off of her. Mac tried to make sense of it all, sense of the cacophony of voices, tried to fight off the hands that clutched at her, until a familiar voice penetrated the haze and she found herself pulled into the admiral's arms.
The scene Admiral Chegwidden walked into cut him to the core. Yes, he'd been a navy SEAL and had seen more death and violence then he cared to remember, but this…
As soon as the door to Mac's old apartment burst open, he saw blood. It pooled on the carpet, splattered the furniture, and decorated the walls. He'd only been to Mac's place once or twice before she'd been taken, but it appeared that nothing had changed. The lack of change was disturbing, made more disturbing by the bloody disarray it had been thrown into.
At first, AJ only saw the two males on the floor. Harm had obviously been injured, his moan at least telling AJ he was alive. Brumby lay a few feet away, an unholy amount of blood surrounding him, but there was no sign of Mac. He heard Carl on the phone calling for an ambulance as he frantically sought out his surrogate daughter, nearly crying in relief when he detected the slight movement under Brumby's body. He leapt forward and yanked the obviously dead man off of his Mac and pulled her into his arms. She fought him at first, but then recognition dawned on her, and with a broken 'admiral' she sagged in his arms.
Sirens screamed in the background as AJ held Mac, surreptitiously checking for signs of injury. He saw the makeshift bandage around her arm, but it was now soaked through with her blood. Tessa has gone to Harm, who, though pale with an obvious gunshot wound, seemed to be breathing fairly well. He'd come to as Tessa has turned him over and immediately called for Mac, but as Tessa put pressure on his wound, he'd passed out again from the pain. Wanting to go to Harm to but satisfied that the young FBI agent knew what she was doing, he turned his focus on the pale, shaking Mac.
"A-Admiral—H-Harm…"
"He's going to be okay, Mac. The ambulance is coming for both of you." The slight woman in his arms had begun to shiver.
"The girls?"
"Safe."
"M-M-Mic…"
"Dead, sweetheart. He's dead, it's over. It's all over."
He was surprised when Mac violently shook her head. "Mac?"
"No, no, no…he'll just come back. I stabbed him, cut his throat…but he found me…Harm…he-he fought him…but he…he still…"
"I know, sweetheart, I know. But you did it. He's gone." He pulled Mac closer, but she still insisted Mic wasn't dead and AJ felt new fury at this nightmare of a man who'd hurt Mac so grievously. He shuddered when he thought of how he'd found them, grew nauseated when he remembered where Brumby's hand had been when he'd pulled them apart, and as Mac nearly incoherently begged him to end Brumby once and for all, he couldn't contain his rage any longer. He needed to do something to let it out, to set Mac free.
"Okay, Mac, okay." AJ gently lifted Mac off of him and stood up. He stepped to where Brumby lay on the floor and looked around to see that no one was looking his way.
Slowly, AJ pulled out his service weapon, one he rarely carried, and in a move that would ever surprise him in years to come, AJ fired five shots into the still form of Mic Brumby. The bastard's body twitched with each bullet strike, and then everything was silent again as AJ reholstered his gun. He turned to Mac and nodded, then watched as the relief overtook her and she collapsed to the floor.
AJ turned toward Agent Marshall, who was staring at the older man in shock. AJ shrugged.
"He twitched," was all AJ said, and after a long moment, Agent Marshall just nodded and went back to business. The paramedics poured in after that, loaded up their precious cargo, and raced away in the night, leaving AJ staring down again at the mingled blood of three people. Two were innocents, and the third would never hurt anyone again.
It was over.
End Chapter 37
