Chapter Nine
The Art of Secret Keeping...And Elle Woods

WEEK 7
JULY 16TH, 2001

0900 EST
JAG HEADQUARTERS
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

Carolyn and Harriet were very disappointed to see that Harm and Mac's closed-door conversations decreased in frequency, but they didn't give up hope that Harm and Mac were indeed sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Meanwhile, things were a lot less tense between Mac and Harm and their 'case' was bothering them a lot less. Things were almost back to normal, except for the fact that Mac was pregnant, of course.

Sometimes, Mac forgot she was pregnant. She would wake up in the morning and everything would feel normal, then she would lay there for a few seconds, and everything would come flooding back. Once she remembered, she would feel a jumble of emotions that she would have to keep at bay in order to go to work and function like a human being.

Another thing she had to keep at bay was her morning sickness, which arrived in full force that week. She had felt nausea before, in the weeks before she knew she was pregnant, but it had been manageable. Now it came on like a tidal wave, and Mac was left feeling sick and dizzy for the greater part of her mornings. She didn't call in late or sick to save any suspicion from arising, but every day that week she'd been extremely tempted to.

Harm offered once again to start staying at her place, and Mac considered saying yes this time, but in hindsight she was very glad she didn't. She really didn't think Harm would like to wake up to the lovely sound of her dry heaving first thing in the morning. They had only been going out for a month, after all.

Mac was sitting in her office, trying to keep down what little she'd been able to eat for breakfast, when Harm suddenly appeared in her doorway.

"Hey," she greeted, giving a weak smile. In lieu of not living with her, Harm made a habit of stopping by her office every morning and staying at her apartment after work until 10 or 11pm at night at least three or four nights a week. They hadn't been on any more dates, but had one planned for that night. It was the movies again, but this time no popcorn would be ordered and Mac would pick the movie.

"Hey yourself," Harm replied, not bothering to close the door before entering. "Are you feeling okay?"

They decided to stop closing the door when they had conversations, because they realized it only made their conversations conspicuous. Recently they'd gotten very adept at using code words, so anyone who overheard them would assume they were talking about work.

"Yeah. Other than the dizziness and the nausea and the constant fear of throwing up in the middle of the bullpen, I'm fine." Mac replied, trying to ignore the fact that her stomach felt like a cinderblock and her head felt like it was on Mars.

"Have you been eating? They say an empty stomach can make morning sickness worse."

Mac laughed. "I've most definitely been eating, my problem is I can't keep it down. And who is 'they'?"

Harm smiled, blushing. "The Internet. You didn't think I'd do my research? You know I'm always thorough."

"I see," Mac leaned back in her chair. "What else did you discover in your research about the wonders of first trimester pregnancy?"

"Well," Harm smirked. "I don't know how much truth is behind it, but they say morning sickness is a sign of a healthy pregnancy."

Mac smiled, her hand drifting down to press against her stomach. Ever since she'd come to terms with the fact that she was having a baby, she found herself doing that more often. It was becoming a subconscious action, almost like a reflex. Mac knew it would be a dead giveaway if anyone other than Harm saw her do it, but half of the time she didn't realize she was going to do it until she was already doing it, so it was hard to stop herself.

"Shouldn't we um, discuss work now, Commander?" Mac asked, taking her hand away from her stomach.

"The case?" Harm asked. She nodded.

"I scheduled an...interview at Bethesda Naval for next Tuesday. And you can come with me, if you want."

Harm raised an eyebrow. "Won't the admiral become suspicious if we both go?"

Mac shrugged. "We could always tell him. We should disclose all major case information to him, after all."

"No, I don't think that's necessary yet, Colonel," Harm answered instantly, and Mac eyed him with amusement. It seemed as though Harm was more nervous about telling the Admiral about the pregnancy than she was about the pregnancy itself. It was… oddly endearing

"How is this interview going to be beneficial to our case as a whole?" he asked.

"Well...it's really not an interview per-say, it's more of just a briefing on what the standard operating procedure will be for the case moving forward."

"I'll tell the Admiral I had a separate matter to attend to so I can go with you."

"Like what?" Mac asked, curious for his answer.

Harm shrugged. "I haven't been to the dentist in awhile."

Mac laughed and found her hand going down to her stomach again, but this time she managed to stop herself. She had to learn to not do that at work.

"It's funny," she said. "Part of me wants to tell everyone about this, you know? Just so I-we won't have to worry about keeping it all a secret, but another part of me wants to keep it a secret for as long as possible."

Harm nodded. "Yeah, I get it. I was talking on the phone with my mom last night and I almost told her about five times."

Mac smiled, thinking about how over the moon Trish would probably be when she found out she was going to be a grandma. She would be a little taken aback, naturally, but so would everyone else.

"Harm," she said. "I know we said we wouldn't tell anyone, but you can tell your mom. Hell, I'd tell my mom if I had one decent enough to tell."

Harm looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't. Mac didn't ask what he was going to say, but she had a feeling she knew what it would be. She knew opening that can of worms would be inevitable, seeing as she was becoming a mother herself, but Mac decided to put it off until she absolutely couldn't avoid it any longer. Her mother wasn't going to be something she'd think about for the time being.

"Yeah well," Harm cleared his throat, "You know if I told her she'd catch the first flight here and completely blow our cover."

"I can't wait to tell Chloe," Mac said. "She's gonna lose her mind."

There was a knock at Mac's door, and Harm and Mac immediately looked up, trying to act as though Mac wasn't pregnant. It was Tiner, and judging by his expression, he hadn't heard anything too earth shattering.

"Sir, Ma'am, the Admiral wants to see you in his office."

"Thanks Tiner, we'll be there in a minute," Harm said. Mac remained silent, looking as though someone had a gun to her head.

"Yes sir," Tiner promptly left, and Harm and Mac sighed in relief.

"Do you think he heard much?" Mac asked.

Harm shrugged. "Let's hope for the best."

As Tiner walked back to his desk, he was quickly flagged down by Imes, who was stationed at Harriet's desk like she was every other morning.

"Tiner, Tiner!" she hissed, waving him over. "Come here!"

Tiner stopped. "Ma'am?"

Carolyn waved him over to Harriet's desk, and Tiner couldn't help but feel as though he was entering a lion's den.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Tiner…" Carolyn lowered her voice. "What were Commander Rabb and Colonel Mackenzie talking about before you talked to them?"

Tiner looked at Carolyn and Harriet and sighed. "Ma'am, with all due respect, I don't believe in partaking in workplace gossip. I think it's very inappropriate."

"Tell us, Tiner!" Harriet demanded, using a far more aggressive tone than necessary. "That's an order."

"I'm pretty sure this is an abuse of power, Ma'am," Tiner said.

"Come on Tiner, just this once."

He sighed again. "All I heard was Colonel Mackenzie mention wanting to tell Chloe something."

Harriet opened her mouth to speak, but Tiner continued.

"That is all I heard, ma'am," he said. Harriet scowled in disappointment.

Carolyn smiled "Thank you for your contribution, Tiner. That'll be all."

Harriet and Carolyn exchanged a look as Tiner left. Harriet sighed and took a bite out of her breakfast bagel.

"I really thought he'd overhear more than that," Harriet said as she chewed.

"Don't worry, Harriet," Carolyn watched Harm and Mac as they walked to the Admiral's office. "Something's gonna come out soon, I can feel it."

"At ease."

Harm and Mac both relaxed and the Admiral sat down at his desk, shuffling through some files.

"Colonel, the McDaniels trial starts today, doesn't it?" he asked. When there was no response, he looked up. "Colonel Mackenzie, are you alright?"

Harm looked over at Mac just in time to see her gag, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. His eyes widened. All he could think was, Oh. Shit.

Mac coughed. "Um, sir. May-may I be excused? For a moment?"

"By all means, Colonel. Dismissed." Chegwidden said, gesturing emphatically to the door. Mac hurried out, and Harm watched her go, fighting every urge to run after her.

The Admiral cleared his throat, dragging Harm back to the present.

"Commander, are you under the weather as well?" he asked. Harm shook his head.

"Uh, no sir. I would like to be excused as well, though," Harm answered. The Admiral's eyebrows shot up. He looked up and Harm swallowed.

"What for, Commander?"

"To check on the Colonel, sir."

"I don't think you going into the ladies room would be a good look, Commander."

Harm couldn't help but smirk. "I'm aware, sir. But I'd still like to check."

The Admiral sighed. "Alright, Commander. Tell Colonel Mackenzie to take her time, but I want you back here in five minutes."

Like any other normal person, Mac had her fair share of embarrassing moments. Now she could add throwing up in the ladies room at the JAG office in the middle of her workday to that list. After losing what little she had in her stomach, Mac stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She resisted the urge to burst into tears, knowing that would only make her more mortified.

Her and Harm's plan to wait five more weeks to tell anyone was probably shot. Mac knew Carolyn and Harriet were on to her, and now the Admiral would be too. Hell, probably the entire office.

Things didn't improve for Mac when she exited the ladies room and came face-to-face with Harm, who'd spent the past ten minutes waiting for her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Commander," she hissed as she walked past him.

"Mac-" Harm started, but she ignored him, making a beeline for the Admiral's office. Even though no one was really paying attention, Mac felt as though the eyes of everyone in the bullpen were on her.

"Mac." Harm repeated, louder.

Mac whirled around, almost bumping into Harm's chest. "I said I'm fine, Commander."

By that time, all eyes in the bullpen were on Harm and Mac and everyone fell silent. Mac promptly turned on her heel and marched back to the Admiral's office, leaving Harm to deal with all the intrigued onlookers.

"Sir, is everything alright?" Bud asked.

Harm nodded, forcing a polite smile. "Everything's fine Bud," he said, making sure to put emphasis on the 'Everything's fine' so everyone could hear him. He followed Mac back into the Admiral's office, trying to draw as little additional attention to himself as possible. As he walked off, he heard people slowly begin to murmur, and he wanted to kick himself.

"You're late, Commander," The Admiral said when Harm got back inside. "Your five minutes was up seven minutes ago."

Harm sighed. "Sorry sir, I...it won't happen again."

Mac was standing stiffly at attention, purposely not meeting Harm's eyes. He got deja vu back to the morning after they made love and Mac walked out of his loft. He hoped she wasn't going to start pushing him away again.

The Admiral looked between the two of them. "Commander, Colonel, is there anything I need to be aware of?"

"No sir," Mac answered before Harm could even open his mouth.

"Do you concur, Commander?"

Harm paused, trying his best not to glance at Mac. "Yes sir, I do."

2010 EST
APARTMENT OF HARMON RABB
WASHINGTON D.C

"Mac," Harm greeted, not even trying to hide the surprise in his voice. He'd figured after what happened that morning Mac would be giving him the cold shoulder, but here she was. Standing in the doorway of his apartment, in civilian clothes, holding a pair of movie tickets in her hand.

"Hi," she replied almost shyly and Harm smiled.

"Come in."

After Harm shut the door, he and Mac stood there for a few moments. She turned around to face him, biting her lip.

"Harm, I'm-"

"No," Harm cut her off, stepping towards her. "I'm sorry, Mac. I should've kept my cool. Now everyone probably knows and it's all my fault."

"Harm-"

"Look, I know that if we even want the Admiral to consider not making one of us transfer we need to not let this case-pregnancy interfere with JAG."

"Harm-"

"My point is, Mac, I put you on the spot and I'm so sorry. It won't happen again."

Mac watched him go off on his tangent, her eyebrows raised in amusement. "Are you done?" she was finally able to ask.

"Uh, yeah," Harm answered, blushing.

"I would've gotten pregnant a long time ago if I knew it would've made it easier for you to admit when you're wrong," she said wryly, and Harm smirked.

"Well, I'm going by the ancient proverb that the pregnant lady is always right," he said. "What are those?"

"Oh, these?" Mac held up the two tickets. "I thought we had a movie date, didn't we?"

"Yeah, but I thought after this morning you'd-"

"Harm," Mac closed the gap between them, looking up into eyes. "This morning was partly my fault. I overreacted. You can't help the fact that I have morning sickness. I'm just-I guess I'm just worried."

"Worried?" Harm asked. He reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. It was times like these where he wished more than anything he could read Mac's mind.

"Yeah, but, we can talk about that later," she smiled up at him. "Right now we have a movie to catch."

"What movie?"

Mac held up the tickets again and Harm read them. "Legally Blonde?" he said, wrinkling his nose. "Mac what-"

"No so fast, Sailor," she said. "You said I got to pick last time."

Harm sighed. "I did, didn't I?"

"Come on," Mac said, grabbing his hand. "It won't be that bad."

2 HOURS LATER

"Oh come on, Harm. It wasn't that bad."

The movie was over, and Harm and Mac were walking out of the theater hand-in-hand. It was safe to say that Mac enjoyed the movie far more than Harm did.

Harm scoffed. "Are you kidding? That was by far one of the dumbest movies I've ever-"

"And The Fast and The Furious was a cinematic masterpiece?" Mac asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Touche, Marine."

Mac gave Harm a teasing glance and nudged him gently with her shoulder. "What if our daughter wants to be like Elle Woods?"

Harm's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. Mac laughed at his expression. "And what if our son wants to drag race like Brian O'Connor?"

"It would have to happen over my dead body, Flyboy."

They reached Harm's Lexus, and he kissed her, wrapping his arms around her and her holding her close. The kiss took Mac by surprise, like many others. She still hadn't gotten used to just being able to kiss Harm practically whenever she wanted. Kissing him still felt new and excited, even after almost two months.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"I'm sorry, too."

Harm placed a kiss on Mac's forehead. "Do you wanna tell me why you're worried?"

Mac sighed. "Can we talk in the car?"

"Sure, anything you want, Mac."

After seven weeks, it was still hard for Mac to wrap her head around how...laid back Harm was with their relationship, especially when it came with what she wanted to do. Chris, Dalton, and Mic hadn't been controlling per-say, but they had been constricting, to say the least.

Harm was the complete opposite of that. He would bend over backwards to make sure Mac knew she had as much freedom as she desired. He didn't have any unvoiced expectations for her to meet, there were no hidden hoops for her to jump through. There was no fine print in their relationship, which felt like a breath of fresh air for Mac.

"What's bothering you, Mac?"

Harm reached out to take her hand, and Mac found herself having trouble meeting his eyes. Harm was so easy to talk to, always had been, but Mac knew this was gonna be a tough conversation to have. What Harm had just noticed her worrying about was something that had actually been in the back of her mind ever since she found out she was pregnant.

"You know how this is gonna look?" she asked him. "Once this all comes out?"

Harm sighed, resting one arm on the steering wheel. "I've been waiting for you to bring that up. I know it's been on your mind."

"It's just-Harm, you know how strict the no-fraternization policy is. You know one of us is gonna be forced to transfer. We'll be lucky if we don't get charges brought against us-"

"Mac," Harm interrupted. "You know the Admiral would never let

that happened."

"I don't know how much control he's gonna be able to have. If he lets us off the hook people will accuse him of playing favorites-"

"Let people accuse," Harm shrugged. "We'll know the truth, so will the Admiral."

While he was extremely understanding most of the time, Harm certainly still had his moments of stubborness. This was one of those moments. Mac sighed in frustration.

She turned in her seat to face him. "Harm, some of those people accusing just won't be 'people'," she explained. "The SECNAV has had a vendetta against you since the day he met you. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to take you down a few pegs, don't you think?"

Harm paused, nodding slowly. She was right. They shouldn't put it past the SECNAV to try and use this situation to his advantage. Even if they got the Admiral to vouch for them, the SECNAV would still be a problem

Mac sat back and her seat, looking up. "If anything, I'll have it worse. Technically, you're the junior officer here."

"By one rank!" Harm exclaimed. "It's not like I'm an Ensign or a Lieutenant. Speaking of which, if the Admiral let Bud and Harriet date and work together, I don't see why he couldn't do the same for us."

"We're higher ranking than Bud and Harriet were, the expectations for us are higher. The Admiral can't let half his staff date and write it off as an Admiral's privilege." Mac rubbed her eyes. "I just don't know what to do."

"Mac," Harm squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back even harder. "Don't worry about this now, okay? We just had a great date to an...okay move and we still have a few more weeks before we need to tell anyone. And even then we can still wait longer if we need to."

"I'm just-I'm just scared, Harm," Mac looked up at him, eyes shining with tears.

"Oh, Mac," Harm pulled her as close to him as he possibly could considering they were in the front seat of his car. "I'm scared too." he reached down and wiped a tear away from her cheek. "But, everything's gonna work out, okay? We've been in worse scrapes than this and came out okay. Remember when we were stuck in the Blue Ridge Mountains and had that group of rednecks chasing us? Or when you chased me all the way to Russia, twice?"

Mac laughed softly, and Harm breathed a sigh of relief.

"I guess you're right," she said.

"Yeah well, I have a better track record for being right than you may think," he replied. "Hey, what about this? Why don't we just tell the Admiral a week or so before we tell everyone else, so we can start patching things up before Harriet goes shouting everything from the rooftops."

Mac nodded. "That sounds good. Oh, and uh, speaking of which, I think I should tell Harriet."

"Why?"

"She knows."

Mac watched with mild amusement as Harm paled. He swallowed. "How could she-"

"She's known for weeks, Harm, I've told you. Her and Carolyn," Mac explained. "I'm not gonna tell her I'm pregnant yet, but I figured I'd throw her a bone and tell her we're together."

"Won't she tell Bud?"

Mac shook her head. "I don't think so. That would violate Girl Code."

"'Girl Code'?" Harm raised his eyebrows. "You're beginning to sound like Belle Woods, Mac."

"It's Elle Woods," she corrected, giving him a peck on the cheek.

Harm started his car and began to back out of the parking space. "Do you want to head back to my place?"

Mac smiled. "Of course," she looked over at him. "Harm?"

"Yeah?"

"If the baby's a girl, can we name her Elle?"

"Very funny. No."

They arrived back at Harm's apartment and as Mac was taking off her coat and folding it over the back of one of Harm's kitchen chairs, Harm made an acute observation.

"Mac, you know this is our third date, right?"

Mac paused, turning around to face him. "It is, isn't it?"

Harm's cheeks brightened. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, I wasn't expecting us to do anything. I was just uh, letting you know-"

"Thanks for reminding me," she said, walking towards him and wrapping her arms around his waist, pulling him flush against her. "I was worried I'd have to do the bend-and-snap in front of you at work a few times before you got the hint," she said coyly, placing a kiss on his jaw.

Harm smirked. "Well, I still wouldn't mind that."

Mac laughed, and they kissed, longer and deeper than they had at the movie theater.

"You know," Harm murmured when they broke apart. "I still have your bra here, if you wanna get that."

"I can get those later.

Mac placed a hand on Harm's chest, pushing him towards his bedroom.

2330 EST
APARTMENT OF HARMON RABB
WASHINGTON DC

Mac gingerly crept out of Harm's bed, being careful not to wake him up. She checked over her shoulder and was relieved to see he hadn't stirred. She tiptoed out of his bedroom and down to the living room, picking up her cell phone from where she'd hastily left it on the coffee table. She felt nervous, but it was a jittery, excited kind of nervous. The last time she'd called a friend in the middle of the night to talk about a boy she'd been in high school.

She dialed, hoping Harriet was still up and she wouldn't be waking her up. To Mac's surprise, Harriet picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hello?"

Mac found herself suddenly blushing. Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe she should've waited until the next morning. But then they would've been at work-

"Hello?" Harriet repeated.

"Hi, Harriet."

"Who is this?"

"Sorry it's me, Mac."

"Colonel, is something wrong?"

Mac laughed. "It's off hours, Harriet, you can call me Mac. And nothing's wrong."

"Why are you whispering?"

"Well, I don't wanna wake Harm up."

"Wake Harm up? Mac, what are you talking about?"

Mac took a deep breath. "Harriet, I have something to tell you. It's about...me and Harm…"