April, JAG Headquarters
Harm followed Mac to the parking lot. They were discussing the Mariavellis case. Harm was eager to get it done so he could get back to his other cases. Mac had a bad feeling about it all.
"The diamonds will be there, Mac," Harm reassured.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Harm," Mac said as they stopped by his car.
He studied her. "Is this about Van Dyne? You don't know that he's missing, Mac. He's CIA. They go underground all the time."
She nodded. "Yeah, but something feels off."
"It'll be there," he reassured. "Come on, let's go."
She smiled. "Fine," she said as she headed for her own car.
Harm got in and turned the ignition but the car wouldn't start. He got out again and pushed the car seat forward revealing the battery.
Mac heard a bang and saw a flash then Harm's yelling. She rushed over and saw that Harm was holding his hands over his eyes.
"What happened?" she questioned. "Harm?"
He just stared at her. "I can't hear anything," he yelled.
Mac reached out and grabbed his arm. "We need to get you to Bethesda."
Later
Harm was surprised to see Mattie when he walked out of the bathroom. He'd suggested to Mac that they try to keep it from her but Mac didn't think it was a good idea. Harm had realized that Mac was right and he'd agreed to let Mac tell Mattie that he'd been hurt. Mac had gone back to JAG after she was reassured Mattie that Harm would be completely fine.
"Mattie!"
"You don't need to shout," she said.
"What?!" he yelled as he sat down on the bed. He was still a little woozy.
Mattie grabbed the whiteboard that Sturgis had found for him when he and Jennifer Coates were by earlier to get an update on his cases.
Mattie scribbled down something and showed it to him. "Was I shouting?" he said.
Mattie nodded and scribbled something more.
"Don't worry about me," Harm reassured. "I'll get to go home tomorrow."
Mattie didn't look completely convinced. She stayed most of the afternoon with him.
Mac came by with dinner and they ate together. Mac had a lot she wanted to share with Harm but she didn't want to talk about her discoveries and her suspicions while Mattie was there.
"We better get going, tomorrow is school," Mac said after they'd finished eating.
"I want to stay here," Mattie argued. "And I'm not going to school tomorrow. I'm taking care of Harm."
"Harm will be fine, Mattie. You have to go to school," Mac reasoned and started to stand. "We better go," she told Harm. She took the whiteboard and wrote something down on it.
"Okay," Harm said and smiled.
"I'll see you in the morning then," Mac leaned in and kissed him softly. "I love you."
"I love you too," Harm said loudly.
Mac smiled and pointed to her ears.
"Sorry," Harm said sheepishly.
Mattie hugged Harm. "I'll see you in the morning."
"I'll be fine," Harm said.
Mattie nodded. "Okay."
"I promise," Harm said and smiled. "I love you."
"I love you too," Mattie hugged him again.
The next day
"I don't understand why I can't be home," Mattie said and offered a less than satisfying look.
"Because I'll pick up Harm and he'll be resting all day. You need to be in school, you've lost enough last semester," Mac reminded her. "I'll stop by Harm during lunch."
Mattie hesitated. "Fine."
Mac smiled. "I promise you, he's going to be just fine, Mattie. The doctors are not worried or they wouldn't have let him go home already."
"That makes sense," Mattie agreed.
"Now, get your backpack and I'll drive you to school," Mac said.
Mac drove Mattie to school then she went to the hospital to pick up Harm. When they got home she told Harm everything she knew so far.
"Did you talk to Webb?" Harm wondered.
"Not in the country," Mac said.
"This doesn't have to have anything to do with Sadiq, Mac," he reminded her.
"What about the car battery?" she questioned.
"It could be a coincidence," he pointed out. He had to admit though that Mac's insinuations gave him a bad feeling.
Mac looked like she didn't believe in his theory. She put her plate in the sink. "I better get going. You need to rest."
"My hearing is a lot better already," he said as he stood. He steadied himself on the counter feeling woozy as he stood. "It's the inner-ear thing," he reassured when he noticed Mac's worried look.
"I don't like leaving you alone," she admitted.
"You have work to do, you can't babysit me all day. I'll be fine," he tried to reassure her.
She didn't look totally convinced. "I'll try to make it home early," she promised.
He smiled. "It'll be okay," he said and walked over to the counter where she stood.
She moved in and hugged him. "I'm glad you're okay."
He hugged her close before leaning back to look at her. "Be careful, Mac. If this has anything to do with Sadiq Fahd…"
"I know," she said and leaned in and kissed him softly. "You be careful too."
It had only been two weeks since they decided to move beyond friendship. They had been on two dates. They were taking it slow but living in the same apartment it was hard to keep from the temptation to take it to a more physical level since they were always around one another.
"I'll see you later," she said as she let him go.
The next night
Harm and Mattie were playing scrabble when Mac walked into the living room dressed to go out. When she had gotten home that night there was Iranian music playing on the stereo and she found diamonds on her bed. Harm hadn't noticed anything since he'd been in his room taking a nap and his hearing was still not completely back to normal. Mattie had been in her room listening to music and doing homework. The front door had been locked but still, someone had managed to get inside, turned on music, and left her diamonds without anyone noticing. It scared Mac to think about what could have happened to Harm or Mattie if they had been ambushed by the intruder. Harm was in no shape to protect himself or Mattie. Mac's phone had rung right after she had found the diamonds and Sadiq Fahd had been on the line. Mac hadn't told Harm about any of it other than that she knew that Sadiq was in town.
"Where are you going?" Harm questioned.
"Mattie, do you mind giving us a moment alone?" Mac questioned.
Looking between the two adults Mattie finally nodded and stood. She went to her room.
"Where are you going, Mac?" Harm wondered.
Mac took a few pictures out of her pocket and handed them to Harm.
"Where did you get these?" he wondered.
"CIA," Mac admitted.
"Are they on to him?" Harm asked as he studied the pictures.
"They will be," Mac said with clenched jaws. She was waiting for his reaction. She couldn't deal with Harm's overprotectiveness at the moment. She had a mission to accomplish and he was in no way in any shape to help. She needed him to be calm and out of the way.
"What can I do?" Harm wondered.
"Stay out of the way and be careful. He might not look anything like these pictures, Harm," Mac warned.
"You are the one who needs to be careful, Mac," Harm said with worry.
"Believe me I am," she reassured. She knew it wouldn't reassure him but she had to try. "I have this creepy feeling that he's studying me," she admitted.
"He's leading you on, daring you to get closer to him," Harm reasoned.
"Why would he do that?" Mac wondered.
"He's seducing you," Harm suggested.
"What?" Mac asked with surprise.
"He's forcing you to think about him. He wants something from you, Mac. And he might have found your weakness," Harm continued.
"What weakness?" Mac questioned. She did not have time for Harm's jealousy at the moment.
"You want to know what he's up to so that way he's using your intelligence against you," he continued explaining what he thought.
Mac let out a snort and prepared to leave. She grabbed the pictures and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" He stood abruptly and felt woozy and had to steady himself. "I'm coming with you."
"You can't help, Harm. You're still a liability," she opened the door.
"Be careful," he pleaded.
Her eyes locked with his then she was gone and he stared at the closed door.
Later
It was past midnight when Harm heard the key in the lock. He got off the couch and moved to the door. Woozy he steadied himself on the table before he felt steady enough to stand. His eyes widened when he saw her swollen lip and ripped clothes.
"Mac, what happened?" he questioned.
"He's dead," she said and closed the door behind her and locked it. She turned her focus fully to him. "I killed him. Listen, Harm. I've been debriefed by the CIA for hours and I'm beat. I need a shower and to throw away these clothes."
"But you're okay?" he questioned. He wanted to ask a million questions but he could see that she was exhausted so he kept quiet.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."
He watched her walk towards the hallway and disappear into the bathroom.
It was thirty minutes later when he was under the covers trying to shut his mind off to go to sleep when his bedroom door opened. His bed moved and he could feel her body close to him.
"Are you asleep?" she whispered.
"No," he turned towards her. The only light in the room was from the small gap in the curtains letting in light from the street.
"He wanted me, I could tell. I let him look. I wanted to prove to myself that he was just like any other man."
"Did he..?
"No, nothing happened. He resisted me like I wish I could have resisted temptation my whole life. He made me feel weak," she admitted.
"He was trying to get into your head, Mac," he reasoned.
"Yeah, he did," she said and went quiet.
Harm thought she had fallen asleep. He studied her and could see that her eyes were open staring into the dark. "Do you want to try and get some sleep, Mac?"
"I keep playing it over in my head," she said after a little while. "He was going to kill young people in a nightclub. He had planted a bomb."
"The evacuation was all over the news," Harm said.
"I had a wire. He understood when he heard the sirens." She turned fully to him and propped herself up on an elbow. "I fought him and I shot him."
"It was him or you, you had to," Harm reasoned.
"No," she admitted. "He was down and couldn't fire back."
"You can never know that, Mac," he argued.
She shook her head. "I knew what I was doing Harm. I killed him for what he was. For what he did to Webb in Paraguay. He could have told us where he was getting the PAL from. He could have told us a lot of things."
"Hey," he looked at her firmly. "You will not walk around feeling guilty about this. You did what you had to do and the world is a better place for it."
"Do you mean that?" she wondered.
"I do," he said and tried a careful smile. "I'm here, Mac. I'm not going anywhere. We'll get through this."
She nodded and moved into his arms snuggling close to him. "Can I stay here tonight?"
"Of course you can," he kissed the top of her head.