Retrial

"I'm not into sharing." Mac clarified and tried to close her office door but all 6'4" of sexy Naval Commander pushed it open and followed her in. "Excuse you."

"What do you consider sharing, Mac?" Harm closed the door behind him, locked it and made a show of closing all of her blinds while she stood by with her arms crossed. "Because you are damn well guilty of it just as your client is."

She was insulted. It was another verbal slap in the face and she was done taking those from him. So much for a more mature Harmon Rabb, the man could still be an ass and part of her wondered why she still continued to carry a torch for him. A dimming torch but she carried it anyway, such was her curse. "If you're referring to my ex-husband…"

"No. Not him. I meant...Mic." The name slid off like a poison and Harm didn't know what he hated more: the fact that the Aussie almost married her or that he broke her heart.

"Mic? I never…"

"Never?" Harm cocked one eyebrow. "Tell me you weren't engaged to one man while you were in love with another." The carefully chosen words made her eyes grow wide and quickly her expression changed to anger. She shared the both of them in his opinion, he her work husband and Mic a pathetic excuse for a fiance.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

He was walking towards her, slowly nearing like a jungle cat about to pounce. The normally tough Marine felt so small and maybe a little fragile but he kept coming despite her moving backward and putting her chair between them.

"What about with Webb? Did you think about someone else while you were with him?"

"Harm, stop." But it was true. So true. She was desperately in love with another man while she was with another, had been for years although he never seemed to notice. Mac never considered that she was sharing herself as well, Harm being her "work husband" and the others being whatever the hell they were to her.

She was ashamed of herself and the stupid predicaments her love life had put her into. "You're right I suppose. I'm a terrible, terrible person."

"You're not terrible. I'm guilty of the same thing." He grinned, that wide, sexy flyboy kinda grin and somehow Harm had bridged that gap she tried to keep between them, rolling her chair out of the way. "And I was let in on a secret of yours."

"Secret? I don't have any secrets."

The grin spread to his full flyboy smile, the one that could often make her feel so weak. He was still walking forward and Mac was quickly losing avenues of escape when he stood between her and the door. His head cocked to the side and his smile softened. He was staring at her now almost lovingly? "Oh, but you do have secrets. One regarding how you feel about me that I may have gotten out of a certain submariner last week after a few drinks."

Several drinks. They were trying to make nice, Sturgis' idea of regaining their friendship consisted with a pick up game where Harm more or less beat the piss out of him following five or six rounds of shots at hole-in-the-wall bar near his aparment. Both officers were shit faced when conversation about relationships surfaced. Sturgis' want to comit to Varese but her schedule was wreaking havoc on them.

Harm managed to remain silent when the man suggest Alicia Montes as a nice 'fit' for him to which he could only snort. 'I don't want her like that.'

'Why not? She's smart, good lookin' and you can tell she likes you.' Sturgis slurred and when Harm made to argue a revelation spilled out of his mouth. 'When are you gonna admit that you love Mac?'

Harm nearly slipped off the barstool and onlu remained seated because pilot reflexes had him holding to the bar with a vice grip. 'Not that again...Look, we're friends, just friends. I care for her a lot…' And he loved her so bad it hurt but Harm had come to the conclusion that romance was not in the cards for them.

She should have come to him after Webb or even after that terrible accident where they mended their friendship but little else. He loved her but, maybe not enough to get our of their vicious cycle. 'What? What did you say?'

Sturgis was slurring his words again but he caught the tail end and any drunken stuppor sobered as if a pail of ice water had been dropped over his head. 'She told me she's in love with you…'

Mac's mouth dropped open and any chance she had to slip back into her poker face vanished. She couldn't hide her secret if she tried. "He couldn't. He wouldn't! Sturgis doesn't gossip." Even in those times where animosity raged between them she knew he'd keep his oath.

"So it's true?" Harm's voice softened and he was now near enough that he could smell the faint scent of her skin and her perfume. It was the one he gave her for Christmas, a newer fragance that was exborbanrly expensive but he knew would suit her. And he wasn't wrong. "You're in love with me?"

She swallowed. "That was years ago...a freudian slip. We've since moved on...you moved on with Alicia."

"No, Mac. I haven't moved on." He reached out to touch her, his fingers hooking under hers. "I don't think I know how to move on nor do I want to."

She glanced down at their hands and how his completely ensconced hers. His touch was electric, magnetic and she couldn't fight the pull of him. "Harm?"

"Jesus, Mac. Do I really have to say the words?" Harm's voice was mostly a plea against Mac's lips when his head ducked down to kiss her. And kiss her he did without any sort of reservation. An arm wrapped around her waist, another held the back of her head in what was his final act of desperation.

Harm kissed her like he wanted her and exposed everything he couldn't say with words. He kissed her slow and deep, his tongue touching the tip of hers when Mac's lips parted to accept the welcome intrusion. She moaned into his mouth and her nails ran through the short strands of his hair, pulling him closer.

She felt him lift her and realized he settled her at the edge of her desk and was standing between her legs when the need for air finally broke them apart.

"I'm in love with you too." He finally said. Her arms were wrapped around his torso and her legs around his waist. Her lips were swollen and she was glowing and damn did she look good. "And for the record, I'm not into sharing."