Title: Unknown Truth
Author: Aikaterini
e-mail: militarygirl@t-online.de
Rating: PG-13
Spoiler: None
Summary: Harm has to deal with a difficult situation in his life.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They all belong to DPB and CBS! I'm just borrowing them.
Author's Note: This story came to my mind after watching 13 episodes of 'The Untouchables'! That seemed to be too much! ;-) Oh, and please pretend that Brumby and Renée never existed!



~~~~~~~

Benjamin-Franklin-Hospital
Berlin, Germany

Harm woke up and slowly opened his eyes. He glanced around the room while trying to figure out where he was but his surroundings remained unfamiliar. Where was he? It looked like a hospital room, but how did he come here. He didn't know what happened at all.

He tried to sit up when he discovered that he was hooked up on different machines. The panic was rising steadily, and he searched for a way to call a nurse who could hopefully explain everything to him. After he punched the call button, he waited impatiently for someone to come to his room.

A few minutes later, a young nurse entered his room smiling at him.

"Well, Mr. Rabb, how are you feeling? You kept us worrying a long time, you know." the nurse said with a foreign accent.

"Where am I? I can't even remember what happened. I just know that I was at the airport and then... That's all. I know something happened, but what?" At that moment, Harm remembered that he wasn't alone at the airport. "Oh my God! Where is Mac? She was with me! Wait, she should be here! She was always there when I was in the hospital, unless she was also hurt! Where is she?" Harm slightly panicked at the thought of a hurt Mac. Maybe it was worse!

"Relax a little. You are still very weak and you have to rest. The doctor will be here soon and he will explain everything to you. But till then lie down and try to sleep a bit more."

"I don't wanna sleep! I slept the whole time! I want to know what happened and where my partner is!" Harm yelled at her.

Instead of an answer, the nurse stepped out of the room and left him alone with his thoughts and questions.

~~~~~~~

Harm's hospital room
Half an hour later

The door to his room opened and Harm looked at the stranger who stepped in the room. He looked like a doctor, but Harm stayed suspicious as long as he didn't know where exactly he was and why he was there.

"Hello Mr. Rabb. Feeling better?"

"A little. Who are you and where am I?"

"Excuse me. I forgot for a moment that you didn't know what happened. You are here for such a long time that it seems normal for me to see you every day."

"What do you mean? How long have I been here? It couldn't be that long!"

"13 months. Do you think that is not long?"

Harm was silent for a few seconds. 13 months?! That is impossible! He couldn't have been here for such a long time! "You're kidding! I couldn't have been here for over a year! I was still at the airport yesterday! And where is my partner?"

"I'm sorry, but you were here for such a long time. You had an accident. Do you remember what happened?"

"No, not exactly. I just remember that I stood at the airport with my partner and everything that happened after that is gone. I can't remember more of it."

"I was afraid you didn't. There was an explosion at one gate and you where hurt pretty badly. You were brought here and we treated your wounds, but you slipped in a coma."

"I was in a coma for 13 months? What caused the explosion? Who else was hurt?"

"Some people were hurt, but not so bad. You got it bad. You and your partner."

"Mac?! What happened to her?"

"She was hit by a large piece of metal in the back and it pierced her heart. There was nothing we could have done to help her. I'm sorry."

Harm just watched the doctor and tried to figure out what he just heard about Mac. She couldn't be dead. She was a Marine. Marines don't give up so easily. He turned his head to look out the window where the rain poured down the window. The weather fit his mood perfectly well. As the raindrops trickled down the window, a lonely tear made his way down Harm's face, soon followed by more tears.

Slowly he turned his attention back to the doctor who stood still in front of his bed. "Have you called Admiral Chegwidden? He is our CO. He should know where we are."

"We did it right after you where brought here. He tried to come here immediately, but his plane went down. Nobody survived the crash. We tried to contact other people in the US, but nobody was able to come here."

"You mean nobody visited me as long as I was in a coma?! I don't believe this! At least my parents would have come here!"

"We hadn't any luck contacting your parents. They seemed to have vanished. Nobody knows where they are. I'm sorry, but there is no one who was here or even wanted to know how you are here."

"You are lying! I know that my parents would have been here! You have to call them again! I want to call them by myself! I need a phone!" Harm wanted to talk to his mother so that she could get him from there.

"I'll send a nurse to bring you a phone." The doctor left the room and went to call a nurse to bring Harm a phone.

~~~~~~~

Another room
Same time

"He wants to call his parents. What should we do? He will find out about everything!" Said a young man who stood in front of a small screen.

"No, he won't find out anything. I have arranged everything. He won't even reach his mother." another man said.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
Five minutes later

The nurse who was in his room earlier brought the phone to Harm and wanted to help him making the long distance call, but Harm ignored her completely. He just wanted to talk to his parents.

"Do you need anything else?" asked the nurse. She was angry at Harm's behavior, but she reminded herself that he was in a coma for a long time and that this behavior was so typical for him from what she had heard.

She decided to let him alone before he could say something else to her.

Harm punched the numbers in the phone and waited impatiently as it rang on the other end.

~~~~~~~

Another room
Same time

A young woman sat beside a ringing phone and waited. When the other man in the room gave her a sign, she took the receiver and spoke into the phone: "Smith Residence, Alice speaking."

~~~~~~~

Harm's room

"Uhm, I wanted to speak to Mrs. or Mr. Burnett. I guess I called the wrong number." Harm spoke slightly confused.

'No, no, you have the right number, but they are no longer here. I don't know where they are. They disappeared some time ago.'

"I heard that, too, but I can't imagine they would disappear without any sign of them."

'I'm sorry, but I don't know what happened. I have just bought this house. Maybe you should talk to someone else who may know what could have happened.' the woman suggested.

"Yes, I guess I will do that."

Harm put the receiver down and took a deep breath. His parents were no longer living there and nobody knew where they were. He had to get out of the hospital to search for them for himself.

~~~~~~~

Another room
Same time

The young woman put the receiver down as soon as Harm had done it.

"Good, now he thinks that they have really disappeared. That will drive him crazy!" the man said in a low voice.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
1704 Zulu (4:04pm CET)

Harm got up to search for his clothes or at least for something to put on. He couldn't get out in this hospital gown if he didn't want to attract all the attention of other people.

He hadn't any luck finding something, so he sat down on his bed again after a few minutes of searching. He had to wait till night to sneak out of his room and search for something he could wear. It would be a long wait, but he hadn't another choice.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
1901 Zulu (6:01pm CET)

Harm lay in his bed and watched the raindrops again. There was nothing else he could do. There was neither a TV nor a radio in his room and he hadn't even a newspaper to read. He just watched the raindrops and thought about Mac. He could see her in his mind, smiling. She is, no was, so beautiful. He never had the courage to tell her what he felt for her, and now it was to late. He never told her that he loved her. He would give everything that she was still alive and that they had a future together. As he was thinking that, the door opened and the nurse stepped inside with a tray of food.

"You have to eat something. I brought you something light. Just a salad, but after the coma you have to start with light food. Everything else would be too much."

Harm smiled at her. "Salad is just fine. Thanks." He had to be nice to everyone or they could suspect something, he reminded himself.

As soon as the nurse has left the room, Harm began to eat.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
2257 Zulu (9:57pm CET)

'Harm! Harm, please, help me! I need you!'

Harm stirred slowly. "Mac? Where are you?"

'I'm here Harm! I need you to help me! Please!'

Now he was wide-awake and glanced around the room for the source of Mac's voice. She wasn't there. She couldn't be there. Mac was dead and he had to accept that. Her voice must be in his mind only or he was still dreaming. Then he heard it again:

'Harm! Help me! I'm right here! Please, come here! Come to me!'

"Mac? You are not here! You are just in my mind!"

'No! I am here! You can't see me, but I am here! Here with you!'

"No! No! Go away! You are dead! I don't want to hear it!" Harm sobbed while the tears were threatening to roll down his face.

~~~~~~~

Another room
Same time

"That's enough - at least for now. We will do it again later. He has to suffer much more!" the man laughed.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
0821 Zulu (7:21am CET)

Harm awoke with a jolt. He was awake most of the night after he had heard Mac's voice. No, he hadn't heard her voice. It was just in his mind. He missed her, and everything came as a shock, so it's quite natural that he thought he had heard her. Nothing unusual.

He pressed the button to call the nurse. He needed something to do or he would go insane in a matter of seconds.

"Good morning, Mr. Rabb. You wanted something?" the nurse asked him as soon as she had stepped in his room.

"Yes, could you please bring me something to read? A newspaper?"

"In a minute. Anything else?"

"No, not at the moment, but maybe later."

The nurse soon returned with a paper and gave it to him. Harm looked at the cover of it and winced inwardly. The date on this paper read April 14, 2002. The last he could remember was March 3, 2001. It was over a year. The doctor was right.

He tried to read the articles, but his mind drifted off to Mac and his family and friends the whole time. After about ten minutes, he gave up and put the paper on the nightstand. It was no use. Every time he tried to think about something else, he thought about Mac. Maybe he could sleep a little more and could have pleasant dreams of her?!

~~~~~~~

Another room
0844 Zulu (7:44am CET)

"Yes, Harm, sleep a little. I hope you'll dream something nice, 'cause you won't have much time to sleep well! You'll suffer!"

"I don't think he will suffer any longer!" a voice from behind the man said.

The man in front of the screen turned abruptly to see who was there and knew it was over as soon as he saw who was standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here? Everything was just perfect! I had planned every detail of what I would do with him! Why did you have to come here now?"

"I would have been here earlier, but the flight from the US to Germany took some time. What have you done to him?"

"Nothing."

"Why is it that I don't believe you?"

"I don't know. You have to tell me!"

"Because you've always lied to us, Palmer?"

"Aw, Admiral, that's not nice. I never really lied to you!"

"You always want Harm to suffer. Why?"

"Because he has some weak points in his life?! First it was his father and now it is the beautiful Colonel!"

"But that's none of your business!"

At that moment, another person stepped in the room.

"Hey, Colonel! Nice to see you again! I'm sorry that I didn't had the chance to see you at the airport, but I had to bring Harm away as fast as possible. You know, the narcotic wouldn't hold for much longer. It had to go fast." Palmer told Mac when she stood in front of him.

"I still don't know how you did it that everyone at the airport was knocked out." Mac answered.

"No big deal. I just put the narcotic in the air-condition, and the rest was very easy!"

While Palmer was talking, Mac looked at the screen in front of him and froze as she saw Harm in his bed. He tossed and turned as if he was having some bad nightmares. She immediately left the room and ran to Harm's room.

~~~~~~~

Harm's room
Same time

Harm dreamed about Mac and how she could have died. He saw her in his dreams standing beside him at the airport. The next thing he knew was that Mac was hit by a large piece of metal that pierced her heart. It was exactly the same situation the doctor had explained to him, but the difference was that he saw everything in detail. He saw how the metal pierced Mac and how she fell to the ground. He desperately wanted to help her, but he couldn't move! He had to watch her die!

Just as he cried out her name, Mac entered the room and ran to Harm. She took him in her arms and tried to soothe him with her words. He stopped screaming her name and began to sob. She let him do it without saying anything for a few minutes. He stopped sobbing and trembling and looked up in Mac's eyes. At first, she saw exhaustion in his eyes, and then something she hadn't expected to see: fear.

"No, you are not here! You are just in my mind! You are dead! I'm still dreaming!" Harm tried to get away from her as best as he could, but Mac held him tight. He even started to kick and scream, but she knew why he did it and wanted to help him, so she didn't let him get away.

"Shhh, Harm. I am not dead. I am here, right beside you. Please calm down. I won't leave you!"

"No, you are NOT here! I just keep seeing you because I loved you too much! I can't let you go. That must be the reason. Nothing else."

Mac looked shocked at Harm. Had he just said what she thought he had? Did he really love her? "Harm? Did you mean that? Do you love me?"

Harm calmed a bit down when he heard Mac's words. That wasn't a dream. This time it was real. She was here. She was sitting on his bed and held him tight. That was too real for a dream!

"Mac? Is that really you? But I thought you are dead. They told me you are dead!"

"No, I'm not dead! It was Palmer, who made the story up! We were just sedated at the airport, so he could take you with him and play this little game with you! He wanted you to believe his story and he wanted to destroy you!"

"He nearly did it. I felt like going insane when I heard your voice last night. I thought you were dead, but I heard you calling my name!"

Harm started to tremble again as he spoke. Mac hugged him more tightly and stroked his back in a soothing manner.

"Palmer will be in prison for the next years! I don't think he will ever see the world outside again! He thought he could do this with you here, because nobody would know him and he knew that you would know too many people in the US, so he planned to do it in Germany, where the police didn't know him! It is over now! I'm here now and I will never leave you again! I love you, Harm."

"I love you, too, Sarah."

Harm looked up again and saw everything in her eyes that he ever wanted to see. All the love he felt for her was mirrored in her eyes. He reached up to cup her face and brought her head nearer. The first touch of their lips sent little sparks through their bodies, and after a few seconds it became more passionate. Mac broke the kiss for a moment to look Harm in the eyes.

"I love you so much! I can't say it often enough!" she said while looking deep into his eyes.

"I know what you mean, and I feel the same! I love you with all my heart, Sarah!"

With that, they kissed again.


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The End
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