Chapter Six
Coffee and Sneaking Suspicions
WEEK 4
JUNE 29TH, 2001
0830 EST
JAG HEADQUARTERS
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA
Mac's sitting at her desk, doing paperwork in preparation for a trial she had later that morning, when she feels a presence. A tall, charming, blue-eyed presence in her doorway dressed in a white uniform with a pair of gold aviator wings pinned to it. She looked up at Harm, who was standing there with a cup of coffee in each hand.
"Good morning," he greeted with his trademark grin.
"Good morning," Mac answered. "Is one of those for me?" she nodded towards the cups of coffee.
"You bet," Harm said, sitting a cup on her desk. "Sorry to disappoint, but it's not the sludge from the coffee machine here, I actually went out to get this."
Mac raised an eyebrow as she picked up the coffee, wrapping her hands around the warm cup. "Really? What did I do to deserve non-breakroom coffee?"
Harm shrugged. "You said you wanted coffee. That was part of our deal, wasn't?"
"You remembered," Mac said, smiling.
The coffee tasted wonderful, but she was worried she would regret it later. She hadn't been feeling well lately. Something had been off-kilter; she just couldn't put her finger on what it exactly was. She supposed it could just be cold feet about jumping into a relationship so soon after her engagement ended, but things felt so right with Harm. It couldn't be that.
It's probably just new-relationship butterflies, Mac thought. Even though her relationship with Harm was anything but new, this aspect of it was. Back when they were just friends he never brought her coffee before.
"I sure did," Harm said, watching her for a moment, in that I'm-Harm-And-I'm-Here-To-Help way. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling better."
Last night had been their second date. They had gone to the movies to see The Fast and The Furious. Harm had enjoyed it, mainly because it appealed to his enjoyment of fast moving objects. Mac thought it was okay. It wasn't the worst movie she'd ever seen. Nevertheless, Mac still suggested that she should pick out the next movie they see.
The date itself was great, but the aftermath had been a little sour. 'Sour' could also be used to describe the taste in Mac's mouth after she threw up all the popcorn she ate during the movie. After the movie, in the doorway of her apartment, Mac and Harm were only able to get a few good kisses in before she had to cut things short and rush to her bathroom. Losing the contents of her stomach kind of killed the mood.
Harm had been understanding, and Mac was actually more baffled by the occurrence than embarrassed. She had an iron stomach (her tolerance for Tiner's breakroom coffee proved that), and she could count on one hand all the times she'd gotten sick since moving to DC. So the fact that some greasy movie theater food did her in was odd, especially since two thirds of her diet was greasy food.
Other than that one bad batch of popcorn, things with Harm were great. However, they were still keeping things secret, so secret that Bud and Harriet hadn't even caught on yet, though Harm and Mac knew it would only be a matter of time one of them sniffed it out. They figured it would either be one of them or the Admiral who figured it out first. (Harm has his money on the Admiral, but Mac was positive it would be Harriet)
It wasn't that they didn't want their friends to know they were finally together-Harm had been wanting to shout it from the rooftops-but not even a month had passed since Mac's engagement had ended. So both Harm and Mac decided to keep things private for the time being. The last thing they wanted were rumors stirring up that would attack the integrity of either of them. Not to mention they were in the same chain of command, but that was a whole other can of worms.
Even though it was for the best, it was getting awfully hard to keep their relationship to themselves. It was downright excruciating for Harm, and it was even proving to be difficult for Mac, who was usually a private person. Mac knew that if Harm made a habit of buying coffee for her everyday, people would catch on, as easily as they did with Bud and Harriet when they first got together. But, at the same time, she found herself not really not caring. She'd noticed that she'd stopped taking things as seriously now that she was with Harm.
It was still weird to think about. That she was 'with' Harm now.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Mac was drawn out of the fairytale world she'd recently constructed in her mind where she stored all the stuff about her and looked up to see who it was.
It was Harriet, who was looking at the two of them a little sheepishly, because she'd rather cut off her foot than interrupt something or cause any sort of inconvenience.
"I'm not interrupting, am I?" she asked.
"No Harriet, of course not," Mac said. "What's up?"
"Well Sir, Ma'am, Bud and I decided to have a Fourth of July party this year, and I was wondering if you two would like to come?" she asked.
"Sure Harriet, that sounds great," Harm said.
"I'd love to, Harriet," Mac replied with a smile. "I'll definitely be there. I can come early if you need help setting up."
Harriet smoked "That would be great, ma'am."
Mac's court case was going smooth, smoother than she'd expected. She'd been able to poke several holes in the defense's argument, and she was 99% sure she had this one in the bag. The defense council was Lt. Singer, which would make Mac's victory all the more sweet. She'd definitely have to celebrate with Harm later. Maybe with another movie date, this time without popcorn, and with a movie of Mac's choice.
The judge called a recess for lunch, and Mac was using the bathroom when it hit her. She was late. Not for court, but for her period. She should've started two days ago. Like the popcorn, this was another thing that left Mac a little baffled, further confirming the theory that something was off. But what could it be? Mac was never sick, and she was never, ever late, unless there was a damn good reason for it. Her period was no exception.
For a split second, as she's washing her hands, the thought occurs to her:
Maybe I'm pregnant.
No. It was stress, definitely. That was one of the most common causes for an irregular period. Or maybe she was sick, with a virus or something. That would explain the popcorn and the late period. There was no way she could possibly be pregnant.
Mac was so positive that she wasn't pregnant that by the time she returned to court she'd forgotten the thought had ever occurred to her in the first place. The thought wouldn't occur to her again until a week later, on the eve of the Fourth of July, when her period had been a week late and she deduced what was making her feel so off. Mac went out that night and bought a pregnancy test, which she'd take the next morning while getting ready.
She'd assured herself that it would be negative. It had to be negative. But on the other hand, she was never late.