The intro to this one, stick it out it's not as bad as you think.

There's a sweet interact between our star crossed lovers. Yeah, it's angsty in the words of Ursula from The Little Mermaid "It's what I do, it's what I live for." Heheh.
So this story should end in 20 chapters at least, that is the goal.

I actually have the ending written just need to fill the blanks that will be 17, 18 and 19.
Have some patience with me as I have a few ideas, none of which I like. Plus, my muse is a bitch. :/

CHAPTER 16 -DEMONS
When I speak I cross my fingers
Will you know you've been deceived?
I find a need to be the demon
A demon cannot be hurt
"Demons" by Guster.

When Mac awoke she expected to be in his arms, not an empty bed. It was cold In the spot where he should have been sleeping and when she sat up, Mac saw why. "No."

Harm was tied to a metal chair, legs bound with duct tape to each leg and his arms were behind his back. His head hung down and droplets of blood were slowly dripping from the side of his face. He was naked.

She hurried to his side and stopped, horrified at what she found. There was barely an inch of skin unmarred. His face was severely bruised, one eye socket clearly broken by the way it had swelled.

His torso had marks across it as if someone had repeatedly struck him with a whip. The same injuries continued lower and Mac's breath hitched. "Oh God." She swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat and managed to push two fingers to his neck finding a slow but steady pulse. How he had survived the abuse was a miracle.

Mac's fear for him turned into anger and when she made to cut his bindings, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Did you miss me, Sarah?"

"Sadik." She should have known the agency couldn't handle him. When Clay had told her the terrorist had been killed, she should have asked for proof.

The man smiled fondly at her and cast an appreciative glance at her naked body. He pressed something cold and metallic into her right hand and Mac looked down to find a 9mm pistol with a suppressor screwed to the barrel. "Your lover is a strong man. He didn't even scream, not once."

Why the hell was he putting a gun into her hand? "Because we are friends, I'm going to give you two options." Casually, he leaned against a small table and smiled at her.

Mac glanced over at Harm finding each wound bleeding more and more, opening before her very eyes. Blood was dripping off of his body as if he'd been drenched in it. She pointed the gun at Sadik and pulled the trigger, but the weapon wouldn't fire.

By the weight, Mac knew it was fully loaded with one in the chamber. She tried again, desperately pulling at the trigger but, getting no response. "Two choices, Sarah. Not three." He straightened and turned her to face Harm. "Shoot him or I will continue to torture him. I will make you watch as I revive him and start again and again and again. Only you can set him free."

"No." Hadn't she wanted this? Didn't she want him dead and gone? Wasn't she keen on ending his life? "Harm." His name on her lips sounded so foreign. She couldn't stop her hand from raising and aiming the pistol at Harm's head. Her hand shook and with a quick breath she did the unthinkable and pulled the trigger.

"Harm!" Mac tried to move but, a hard, male body surrounded her. She was draped over him, head formerly resting on his chest until she looked up to find those aquamarine eyes filled with concern. She had been dreaming.

"Mac?" He tightened his grip on her and turned them so that they were laying side by side. "What is it?"

"Nightmare." She said quietly and took a deep breath. Something about it felt too intense, too real. Sadik was dead, wasn't he? Why did this feel like some sort of premonition? Mac had tried so hard to keep Harm out of her work with the CIA and yet, here he was in the thicke of it. And if Sadik were alive, would he go after Harm too?

"About me?"

"You and me… How'd you know?"

"You screamed my name." His hand moved over her bad shoulder, tracing the scar with his finger tips only to replace them with his lips. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Kinda forgot you had surgery when I pinned your arms down." He rather enjoyed seeing her fully stretched out beneath him and that cute, annoying glare when he immobilized her.

"Therapy. Full range of motion." She said against his lips when Harm kissed her. "Not in pain." Mac licked his lower lip and slipped her tongue inside his mouth when he deepened the kiss.

"What was the dream about?" He asked as his lips left her mouth and moved to her neck.

"Sadik…"

Harm's mouth that began a trail from her neck to her chest stopped at the mention of the terrorists name. He raised his head up and looked at her. "There was a task force sent for thim. He's dead Mac." At least that's what Webb had told him.

"So was Clay."

As much as he hated to admit it, Mac had a point. If Webb could fake his death so easily it wasn't hard to imagine Sadik doing the same. "Touché." It was another thing added to the growing list of problems that neither of them could deal with at the moment. "Premonition or a nightmare?"

Mac sighed, she didn't want to consider that on top of everything she now had to deal with Sadik could be out there, stalking them. "It's probably nothing."

Harm glanced out the window to find the storm still raging, a sure sign they would be there a little while longer, at least in the houseboat they were safe. "Too bad we can't just stay here forever."

Mac smiled for the first time in what it felt like forever. There were worse places to be than wrapped in his arms and forgetting the world outside. "You mean having sex and sleeping our lives away?"

"Sounds good to me." His mouth came back to the spot on her neck that he found so tempting.

"Add something to eat and I'll see what I can work out." She moaned when his teeth nipped over her skin and she wondered why it took so long for them to be intimate. It was the worst possible time and yet, Mac couldn't help herself. From the moment he began touching her, the walls she'd erected began to crumble. She wanted more of his touch and the safety of his arms. Never could she have dreamed he'd be so attentive and passionate.

Each kiss made her want to drown in him forever. God she wanted to be his fully and tell Harm what she felt for him for so long. Only the words wouldn't come, the closest she would get was his name on her lips. It was the one part of herself that she wasn't willing to give to him. She couldn't, not like this - not after what she'd done. Mac felt unshed tears stinging her eyes knowing that their time together would end and eventually, she would have to leave him.

The thought tore at her and she longed to find a way to keep them together but couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to him. Mac wouldn't put him through that life, not knowing where she was or if she was coming home. And then there was the demon still in her, a darkness that she could feel hiding in the edges of her mind. The problem was that Harm would follow her to the end of the Earth if needed, especially now when there was nothing else separating them but her.

"What's wrong, Mac? You're a million miles away." Harm's eyes shone with concern and he tightened his hold on her.

She ran a hand over his face and the stubble that had grown. It felt oddly good on her skin especially when he kissed her neck. The contrast of the softness of his lips and the rough stubble was erotic to her. "You didn't shave."

"Do you want me to?"

"I kinda like the scruff." Mac said and laughed when he rubbed his chin on her cheek. The sound made him relax although Harm could sense an odd tension. She was keeping something from him.

"I don't like the sadness in your eyes. What aren't you telling me?" He wanted to insist on an answer but her lips captured his in a slow kiss. Harm kissed her back but broke the kiss abruptly. "It's something more than the phonebook…"

"Harm." Mac draped a leg over his hip, opening herself to him. She slipped her hand between them and gently began to stroke him. Her actions worked, taking his mind away from a conversation she wasn't willing to have. His eyes closed when she touched him and his body's response to her was almost immediate. "I need you." Her sultry voice made him push aside the questioning as his hips moved in time with her hand that was slowly stroking his passion.

Harm's own hand came between them, fingers finding her wet and ready for him. "I need you." She said again and moved to align her hips with his and guided him into her. "Slow this time...I just...I need to feel." Mac said shyly.

Harm kept eye contact with her as he slowly moved in and out of her. Her eyes were half lidded, lips parted when she moaned softly each time he entered her. His body soon glistened with sweat at the restraint it took for him not to thrust harder. He wanted to bury himself inside her and never pull away.

Mac's hand came to his face as she leaned in and kissed him in time with his movements. "Sarah." Why did he have to say her name? Why did it have to sound so right coming from him? She felt the tears sting her eyes again and Mac pulled him close so that she could bury her face against his shoulder as she cried.

She could hear him say her name again followed by another affirmation of love that Mac wished she'd never heard. In her mind she admitted to herself the words she wouldn't say out loud to him.

I love you, Harm.

….

A few hours later he woke up to an empty bed yet again. Frustrated, Harm rolled onto his back and sighed. He propped himself up on his elbows and found Mac fully clothed and standing by the stove. The smell of something delectable assaulted his senses and he felt his stomach grumble. "What smells so good?"

"Canned soup. All I have are non perishables and MREs." She shrugged. Mac had also found a box or two of crackers that she placed on the small table by the stove. "Your clothes are dry." She motioned to the end of the bed and from her tone Harm knew it was a silent request for him to dress which he did after showering and shaving.

They ate in companionable silence and he could practically hear the wheels turning in her mind. She didn't look at him, merely stared at the window lost somewhere in thought. It wasn't an awkward 'morning after' tension, it was something else altogether and Harm could sense the change in her, the distance although she was inches away from him. He wasn't sure where to start or what to tell her until Mac broke the silence. "You aren't safe here. First course of action is to get you back home." Her voice was woody sounding, emotionless and all business.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Mac locked eyes with his to see the determination there and that arrogance of a jet jock, military man who could solve all problems. Only, this wasn't the military and the stakes were a little higher when dealing with so many unknowns. "This isn't a game, Harm. You could be killed."

"And you have no back up." He pointed out sadly, unwilling to think about his former friend and the betrayal brought on by Keeter. When Mac made to object, he held a hand up to silence her. "Hear me out. I may not know a damned thing about your assignment but, I am good with weapons and let's face it, things generally run smoother when were together."

He was right, of course. A much as the two of them could be nothing but trouble, working together usually solved things when they were both in the military. That wasn't the case any longer, he didn't know just how FUBAR things could get and how quickly. "This isn't the military. there is no ROE to follow or SOPs. Everything happens quicker, in a split second and all of the information we have is hazy at best. I'm not even sure where to start."

"There's a cop that helped me find you. He works for Clay, I think he could help."

"Marx, I know him. He's helped Keeter out a time or two." She didn't like the man too much, but knew he could be trusted. "That may be a good start."

"You take the lead, Colonel. Whatever you ask of me I'll do without question."

She eyed him suspiciously. Through all of the years when they worked together, he rarely let her take the lead. That alpha male, macho side of him always wanted to be first without question. It made them bump heads too many times and was a constant source of irritation that often made her feel like a sidekick over a partner. It was amusing to see him asquised so easily but then, he knew nothing of her assignment. "Without question?"

To prove his point, Harm came to his feet and stood at perfect attention, eyes locking on a spot on the other side of the room. "I'll do whatever you want ma'am."

"At ease, Commander." She said with a soft smile. "We do make a good team."

Harm nodded. "The best." He reached across the table and took her hand in his. His touch was gentle, loving as his thumb stroked her skin. The banter between them died then and she physically pulled away and settled back, those eyes of hers meeting his almost unseeing. "What?"

"You can't touch me anymore… not the way…" Mac swallowed hard and closed her eyes as she tried to ignore such a simple touch that made her come alive. "I can't do my job if…This has to stop." She motioned between them and her eyes glinted with a combination of sadness and resentment. "You're my work partner and nothing else." She declared in a tone that he'd heard from her before when she'd been angry and trying to make a point. There was no reasoning with her when she spoke to him that way.

"Is it really that easy for you to slip back into it?" The idea made a flash of pain grip at his heart at the thought of any progress they'd made being erased so easily. Harm reminded himself that this wasn't the woman he knew once. She wasn't his Mac anymore, no amount together would change that as long as she worked for them. He feared what she would go back to, the unrelenting monster that had tried to kill him. "Will you forget?"

"I have to." She said with finality as Mac closed her eyes and began repeating her mantra to herself. She felt the vestiges of the headaches start although they were much more measured and controlled. Distantly, she could hear his voice calling out to her, warning her not to do this, that there had to be another way. When she opened her eyes, she felt the icy professionalism slide back into place. "It'll be okay, Commander."

'There will never be an us.'