AN: Ok guys! I'm sooooo sorry it took me so long to upload the next
chapter. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed. I know it's a little
confusing so far, but don't worry. It'll all make sense in the end!!
"Do I know you?" Harm asked calmly, trying to sound as though random ensigns appeared in his office all the time.
The young women hesitated, gazing hard at Harm as though trying to make a decision. "I guess you could say we're acquainted." After a short pause, she nodded and mumbled, "sure, acquainted. That sounds good." The ensign seemed to be talking to herself again as she mumbled, "Geez Sam, you're really doing a great job here." Harm couldn't keep the confused look off his face. The tall woman was definitely in his office, and now he was positive that she had been in the elevator too. But is she had been there, why hadn't Mac seen her? And how had she gotten out of the elevator without either he or Mac noticing?
However it happened, Harm decided he simply didn't have the time to deal with the ensign or the energy to see her disciplined for her insubordination. "Now I've hardly been insubordinate. I have been perfectly civil to you this entire time." The young woman planted her fists on her hips as she took a step towards the ever more confused Commander. "In fact," she continued, "I think I would make an excellent naval officer." As she sat down in his chair and began to practice saluting, Harm wondered how the situation had gotten so out of control. Obviously this girl had some mental incapacity that made it best for him to simply humor her.
Hmmm…what he needed to do now was a little investigating. But where to start? He had to find out who this person was and why she seemed intent on driving him crazy! Harm slowly counted to ten in an attempt to regain his composure. "You said you're name was Sam, right?" Harm finally ventured.
Startled, the ensign looked at him from across his desk. "Actually, I don't think I did say, but I do have a tendency to let things slip." This answer seemed to satisfy her, for she shortly returned to practicing salutes again. 'Well, that didn't really get me anywhere" Harm thought to himself. Maybe he needed to change tactics. This young woman didn't seem to respond to the direct approach so maybe he could try the not so direct approach. As Harm contemplated whether there actually was such a thing as the "not so direct approach" and how exactly he could implement it, he began pacing the floor in front of his desk. HIS desk! And that girl was still sitting in HIS chair. 'This is not at all what I needed today' Harm groaned inwardly.
"Stop whining! Things are tough all over, and I for one don't think you have much to complain about." The ensign seemed to add a glare to her words just for good measure.
This was really just too much. It was almost as if this girl was reading his mind. Harm prided himself on being a realist, and while he was more than willing to buy into Mac's apparent sixth sense, he wasn't about to believe this ensign could hear his thoughts. Without thinking, Harm snapped, "how in the hell do you do that?" The answer came not from the young women at his desk but from a thoroughly confused Bud Roberts at the door.
"Do what, Sir?" the lieutenant asked with a puzzled look. "All I did was knock. You know, lifted up my hand and hit the…well I guess I kinda made a fist before I hit, you know not like really hit just kinda tap really but you have to make the fist or else you're just kinda slapping instead of knocking…" Bud trailed off as he caught the exasperated look in the commander's eyes.
In an attempt to stop the lieutenant from launching into another explanation on the art of knocking, which Harm was certain would eventually involve extra terrestrials in some way, he motioned towards his desk and said, "I know how to knock Bud. I was just talking to…" It was now Harm's turn to trail off as he turned to find the mysterious ensign once again missing. At Bud's questioning look, Harm quickly improvised. "Myself, I was just talking to myself. You know, practicing closing arguments and stuff." Harm sat down in his chair, half expecting the ensign to be hiding under the desk. She wasn't.
"But sir, you just got back from medical leave, you don't have any cases yet, let alone a closing argument to make."
Thinking fast, Harm decided it would be best to try and change the subject. "Yeah, well it never hurts to stay in fighting form and all that. But anyway, I assume there was some reason you came in here," Harm prompted.
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot." Bud blushed a little realizing he'd almost neglected the reason he'd knocked in the first place. "The Admiral wanted to see you and Colonel Mackenzie."
"Thanks Bud. I'll tell Mac."
Harm stood up as Bud stammered out, "well actually, sir…"
"What is it now Bud?"
A beautiful voice he'd recognize anywhere answered from behind Bud. "Well if you'd give the man a chance to speak Harm, he'd have told you that I already know." Bud moved to the side to let Mac through the door and into Harm's office. "Thanks, Bud." Mac gave the lieutenant a quick smile to let him know he could get back to his own work. 'She sure has a amazing smile.' The thought flitted across Harm's mind before he could stop it. 'That's nowhere near where my mind should be right now. We're about to go see the Admiral and I can hardly look the man in the eye with thoughts like that about my partner in my head.' "You ready to go squid, or were you planning on letting the Admiral wait all day?" Mac gave Harm her best innocent look, as if she didn't already know the answer to that question.
Harm decided to play along, rather than risk having to explain why he'd been so short with Bud earlier. "Well, I thought about letting him wait, but this is really the only time I'll be able to fit him into my busy schedule."
Mac smiled as they crossed the bullpen and replied, "well if you want I can tell the Admiral that. I'm sure he'd hate to take up any of you valuable time."
"Yeah, do that and we'll see how long it takes him to keelhaul me and ship me off to a sub under the Arctic ice." After a quick nod to Tiner to let him know they were ready to see the Admiral, Harm couldn't resist asking Mac, "Are you sure there wasn't anyone on the elevator this morning?"
Mac bit back her sarcastic comment about flyboys and too much medication when she realized Harm wasn't kidding. He was really convinced that there had been some one on the elevator with him before she'd gotten on. She couldn't keep a slight note of concern out of her voice as she asked, "Are you sure you're ok Harm? If you don't feel up to work yet I'm sure the Admiral will understand." At Harm's look, which clearly said 'yeah right, remember that arctic sub we talked about?', she tried to make a joke out of it. "Come on, it's not everyday you get shot. At least it isn't for most people. But then you do have a tendency to find trouble no matter where you are."
Harm's mouth twitched as he fought vainly to hold back a smile. "Hey, trouble finds me. And, if I recall correctly you were more than happy to participate in most of our schemes."
Before Mac could make a suitable comeback, Tiner's voice interrupted. "The admiral will see you now."
"Thanks Tiner." As he opened the door for his partner, Harm tried to get his mind back to the matter at hand. He was here to work, not see ensigns who apparently weren't really there. For the second time in less than an hour, Harm resigned himself to the fact that is was going to be a very long day.
***********************************
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1754 Same Day
With a sigh, Harm closed the last folder on is desk and put it in a box on the corner of his desk marked "out". 'Well, I was certainly right about one thing. This was a very long day,' Harm thought as he stood up to stretch his sore muscles. Harm glared at his chair that was merely on part of the conspiracy to make a man of his height so damn uncomfortable all the time. As he made his way around his desk to grab his coat and cover, Harm couldn't help staring across the bullpen to Mac's office. She had left at 1730 with most of the other personnel, and Harm had never gotten a chance to ask her about that dinner.
Harm couldn't help grimacing as he remembered their meeting with the Admiral that morning. Harm would swear under oath that Mac and the Admiral had it all planned out before he ever even got there. 'How else could things have gotten so out of control without me even having a second to think about what was going on?' Harm asked himself. Before he had any inclination as to what was going on, his partner and his CO seemed to have come to an agreement that Harm needed a little more time before he was back to his usual standards. Thus, Harm had gotten himself a whole lot of paper work to do and not much else. By the end of the meeting, Harm had wanted to scream, "I got shot in the chest and believe it or not, I can still function like any other lawyer out there!" Besides earning himself a court martial, Harm didn't think the comment would do him much good so he'd kept it to himself.
On the plus side though, the Admiral had assigned him to second-chair a couple cases with Mac, and that was always fun. It would mean getting to watch Mac at her best without having to worry about how to beat her. Oh, and of course there were all the late nights spent at each other's apartments going over the cases. That was always good. Harm's mind continued to wander as he made his way slowly to the elevator. In fact, he was so engrossed in his imaginings that when the elevator door opened, he began to walk forward without even looking up. This unfortunately caused a collision with the person exiting the elevator.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" Harm trailed off as he realized whom he'd just knocked down. "You! What are you doing back here? I thought I'd finally gotten rid of you!"
The young ensign smiled as she got to her feet. Harm took advantage of their close proximity to get the name off her ID tag. It read simply "Sam". "Sorry, you're not that lucky," Sam replied. "But don't worry, I can't stay long." She paused as the elevator doors closed behind her and the compartment began to move down. "Listen, I don't have much time but"
Harm cut her off in mid-sentence. "No, you listen. I don't know who you are or what you're doing here but I don't have time for this"
Now it was Sam's turn to cut Harm off, "I know. That's what I just said. You really ought to try listening some time. I think it would do you wonders. Anyway, like I was saying…" She shot Harm a pointed glance to ensure there wouldn't be another interruption. At Harm's curt nod she continued. "Anyway, I don't have time to explain but say yes!"
"Say yes?" Harm repeated skeptically.
"Yes. You have to say yes if you want to get anywhere with her. Trust me on this. Say yes." The ensign nodded as she glanced at the elevator again.
"Ok, I have no idea what you're talking about but if it will get you to leave me alone I'll say it. Yes." Harm looked at her expectantly. She merely sighed and gave him a look that clearly said 'How do you even remember to breath?'
"Not to me idiot!" Harm made to protest at the comment but she cut him off before he could get a word out. "Just do it. I don't have time to argue, she'll be here any minute."
"Who?"
"Do me a favor and just say yes, ok? You really are making this much harder than it has to be." Harm decided he'd had enough of the woman's games and was just about to let her know where she could stick this nonsense about saying yes when the elevator door opened. Harm turned around and was surprised to see Mac emerging.
"What are you doing here?" Harm asked before he thought to stop himself.
Mac shot him a look before replying, "well don't look so happy to see me flyboy."
Harm tried to cover his initial shock. "Of course I'm happy to see you Mac. I'm always happy to see you." A slight blush crept up Mac's cheeks at the comment. "I just thought you had already left for the night."
"Well I did, but I'm back"
"Any particular reason?"
Mac looked a little embarrassed as her answer came out in a rush. "Well, I was supposed to go to this charity fund-raiser thing tonight, but I don't have a date. I thought you might like to go, and I was actually gonna ask you if you wanted to go that day you, well you know." Mac looked uncomfortable at having mentioned the day he got shot so she quickly pressed on. "Anyway, I told Bobbi I couldn't come because I had too much work, what with you having been on medical leave and all, but then I felt bad about lying so I decided to come back in and pick up some files to work on at home." Mac took a deep breath as Harm let out a little chuckle. "Watch it squid. Keep laughing and I may drag you to that party tonight just to get even."
Unbidden, a tiny voice in the back of Harm's mind whispered, 'Say yes.' The voice sounded suspiciously like that of a certain young ensign he'd recently encountered. Without stopping to think, Harm blurted out, "yes."
"What?" Mac turned back to him with confused eyes. "Yes what, Harm?"
Harm knew if he wanted to back out of this really boring fundraiser with a lot of snotty rich people who weren't even able to get dressed by themselves in the morning, now was his only chance. He almost said "nothing. Don't worry about it Mac. I'll see you tomorrow." He almost got on the elevator to spend another night at home, alone. But that little voice wouldn't let him. "I said yes, I'd love to go to the party with you."
Mac looked completely flabbergasted. She quickly recovered enough to choke out, "Oh Harm, I couldn't ask you to do that. It'll be really boring and you just got out of the hospital…" She trailed off as she saw the determined look creep into her partner's eyes. 'He only gets that look when he's flying or fighting, and I know exactly what it means. It means don't even bother, I've already won," Mac thought to herself. Well, who was she to argue? She could use a night out, especially if she got to spend it with her sailor.
"Ok Harm. You win." Harm's face broke out into a smile at her answer, and Mac couldn't help returning it with one of her own. "But we better hurry flyboy, you're supposed to pick me up at 1900 sharp." Mac pressed the down button on the elevator. The files she had come to get lay forgotten on her desk.
"Oh I am, am I? Well, Mom always said you shouldn't keep a lady waiting." Harm and Mac entered the elevator and began the descent to the ground floor. Harm cast a sidelong glance at Mac to see if she was still smiling. She was. The smile faded abruptly as Mac turned toward Harm.
"Do you have anything to wear? I mean I already have a dress but this is a pretty high-end affair."
Harm panicked for a second before an idea popped into his head. "Oh, I'm sure I'll be able to find something," he replied mysteriously. "See you at 1900 sharp!" Harm called as they separated in the parking lot. He was too far away to hear Mac's whispered answer.
"I can hardly wait." Mac turned toward her car and couldn't keep the smile off her face.
"Do I know you?" Harm asked calmly, trying to sound as though random ensigns appeared in his office all the time.
The young women hesitated, gazing hard at Harm as though trying to make a decision. "I guess you could say we're acquainted." After a short pause, she nodded and mumbled, "sure, acquainted. That sounds good." The ensign seemed to be talking to herself again as she mumbled, "Geez Sam, you're really doing a great job here." Harm couldn't keep the confused look off his face. The tall woman was definitely in his office, and now he was positive that she had been in the elevator too. But is she had been there, why hadn't Mac seen her? And how had she gotten out of the elevator without either he or Mac noticing?
However it happened, Harm decided he simply didn't have the time to deal with the ensign or the energy to see her disciplined for her insubordination. "Now I've hardly been insubordinate. I have been perfectly civil to you this entire time." The young woman planted her fists on her hips as she took a step towards the ever more confused Commander. "In fact," she continued, "I think I would make an excellent naval officer." As she sat down in his chair and began to practice saluting, Harm wondered how the situation had gotten so out of control. Obviously this girl had some mental incapacity that made it best for him to simply humor her.
Hmmm…what he needed to do now was a little investigating. But where to start? He had to find out who this person was and why she seemed intent on driving him crazy! Harm slowly counted to ten in an attempt to regain his composure. "You said you're name was Sam, right?" Harm finally ventured.
Startled, the ensign looked at him from across his desk. "Actually, I don't think I did say, but I do have a tendency to let things slip." This answer seemed to satisfy her, for she shortly returned to practicing salutes again. 'Well, that didn't really get me anywhere" Harm thought to himself. Maybe he needed to change tactics. This young woman didn't seem to respond to the direct approach so maybe he could try the not so direct approach. As Harm contemplated whether there actually was such a thing as the "not so direct approach" and how exactly he could implement it, he began pacing the floor in front of his desk. HIS desk! And that girl was still sitting in HIS chair. 'This is not at all what I needed today' Harm groaned inwardly.
"Stop whining! Things are tough all over, and I for one don't think you have much to complain about." The ensign seemed to add a glare to her words just for good measure.
This was really just too much. It was almost as if this girl was reading his mind. Harm prided himself on being a realist, and while he was more than willing to buy into Mac's apparent sixth sense, he wasn't about to believe this ensign could hear his thoughts. Without thinking, Harm snapped, "how in the hell do you do that?" The answer came not from the young women at his desk but from a thoroughly confused Bud Roberts at the door.
"Do what, Sir?" the lieutenant asked with a puzzled look. "All I did was knock. You know, lifted up my hand and hit the…well I guess I kinda made a fist before I hit, you know not like really hit just kinda tap really but you have to make the fist or else you're just kinda slapping instead of knocking…" Bud trailed off as he caught the exasperated look in the commander's eyes.
In an attempt to stop the lieutenant from launching into another explanation on the art of knocking, which Harm was certain would eventually involve extra terrestrials in some way, he motioned towards his desk and said, "I know how to knock Bud. I was just talking to…" It was now Harm's turn to trail off as he turned to find the mysterious ensign once again missing. At Bud's questioning look, Harm quickly improvised. "Myself, I was just talking to myself. You know, practicing closing arguments and stuff." Harm sat down in his chair, half expecting the ensign to be hiding under the desk. She wasn't.
"But sir, you just got back from medical leave, you don't have any cases yet, let alone a closing argument to make."
Thinking fast, Harm decided it would be best to try and change the subject. "Yeah, well it never hurts to stay in fighting form and all that. But anyway, I assume there was some reason you came in here," Harm prompted.
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot." Bud blushed a little realizing he'd almost neglected the reason he'd knocked in the first place. "The Admiral wanted to see you and Colonel Mackenzie."
"Thanks Bud. I'll tell Mac."
Harm stood up as Bud stammered out, "well actually, sir…"
"What is it now Bud?"
A beautiful voice he'd recognize anywhere answered from behind Bud. "Well if you'd give the man a chance to speak Harm, he'd have told you that I already know." Bud moved to the side to let Mac through the door and into Harm's office. "Thanks, Bud." Mac gave the lieutenant a quick smile to let him know he could get back to his own work. 'She sure has a amazing smile.' The thought flitted across Harm's mind before he could stop it. 'That's nowhere near where my mind should be right now. We're about to go see the Admiral and I can hardly look the man in the eye with thoughts like that about my partner in my head.' "You ready to go squid, or were you planning on letting the Admiral wait all day?" Mac gave Harm her best innocent look, as if she didn't already know the answer to that question.
Harm decided to play along, rather than risk having to explain why he'd been so short with Bud earlier. "Well, I thought about letting him wait, but this is really the only time I'll be able to fit him into my busy schedule."
Mac smiled as they crossed the bullpen and replied, "well if you want I can tell the Admiral that. I'm sure he'd hate to take up any of you valuable time."
"Yeah, do that and we'll see how long it takes him to keelhaul me and ship me off to a sub under the Arctic ice." After a quick nod to Tiner to let him know they were ready to see the Admiral, Harm couldn't resist asking Mac, "Are you sure there wasn't anyone on the elevator this morning?"
Mac bit back her sarcastic comment about flyboys and too much medication when she realized Harm wasn't kidding. He was really convinced that there had been some one on the elevator with him before she'd gotten on. She couldn't keep a slight note of concern out of her voice as she asked, "Are you sure you're ok Harm? If you don't feel up to work yet I'm sure the Admiral will understand." At Harm's look, which clearly said 'yeah right, remember that arctic sub we talked about?', she tried to make a joke out of it. "Come on, it's not everyday you get shot. At least it isn't for most people. But then you do have a tendency to find trouble no matter where you are."
Harm's mouth twitched as he fought vainly to hold back a smile. "Hey, trouble finds me. And, if I recall correctly you were more than happy to participate in most of our schemes."
Before Mac could make a suitable comeback, Tiner's voice interrupted. "The admiral will see you now."
"Thanks Tiner." As he opened the door for his partner, Harm tried to get his mind back to the matter at hand. He was here to work, not see ensigns who apparently weren't really there. For the second time in less than an hour, Harm resigned himself to the fact that is was going to be a very long day.
***********************************
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, VA
1754 Same Day
With a sigh, Harm closed the last folder on is desk and put it in a box on the corner of his desk marked "out". 'Well, I was certainly right about one thing. This was a very long day,' Harm thought as he stood up to stretch his sore muscles. Harm glared at his chair that was merely on part of the conspiracy to make a man of his height so damn uncomfortable all the time. As he made his way around his desk to grab his coat and cover, Harm couldn't help staring across the bullpen to Mac's office. She had left at 1730 with most of the other personnel, and Harm had never gotten a chance to ask her about that dinner.
Harm couldn't help grimacing as he remembered their meeting with the Admiral that morning. Harm would swear under oath that Mac and the Admiral had it all planned out before he ever even got there. 'How else could things have gotten so out of control without me even having a second to think about what was going on?' Harm asked himself. Before he had any inclination as to what was going on, his partner and his CO seemed to have come to an agreement that Harm needed a little more time before he was back to his usual standards. Thus, Harm had gotten himself a whole lot of paper work to do and not much else. By the end of the meeting, Harm had wanted to scream, "I got shot in the chest and believe it or not, I can still function like any other lawyer out there!" Besides earning himself a court martial, Harm didn't think the comment would do him much good so he'd kept it to himself.
On the plus side though, the Admiral had assigned him to second-chair a couple cases with Mac, and that was always fun. It would mean getting to watch Mac at her best without having to worry about how to beat her. Oh, and of course there were all the late nights spent at each other's apartments going over the cases. That was always good. Harm's mind continued to wander as he made his way slowly to the elevator. In fact, he was so engrossed in his imaginings that when the elevator door opened, he began to walk forward without even looking up. This unfortunately caused a collision with the person exiting the elevator.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" Harm trailed off as he realized whom he'd just knocked down. "You! What are you doing back here? I thought I'd finally gotten rid of you!"
The young ensign smiled as she got to her feet. Harm took advantage of their close proximity to get the name off her ID tag. It read simply "Sam". "Sorry, you're not that lucky," Sam replied. "But don't worry, I can't stay long." She paused as the elevator doors closed behind her and the compartment began to move down. "Listen, I don't have much time but"
Harm cut her off in mid-sentence. "No, you listen. I don't know who you are or what you're doing here but I don't have time for this"
Now it was Sam's turn to cut Harm off, "I know. That's what I just said. You really ought to try listening some time. I think it would do you wonders. Anyway, like I was saying…" She shot Harm a pointed glance to ensure there wouldn't be another interruption. At Harm's curt nod she continued. "Anyway, I don't have time to explain but say yes!"
"Say yes?" Harm repeated skeptically.
"Yes. You have to say yes if you want to get anywhere with her. Trust me on this. Say yes." The ensign nodded as she glanced at the elevator again.
"Ok, I have no idea what you're talking about but if it will get you to leave me alone I'll say it. Yes." Harm looked at her expectantly. She merely sighed and gave him a look that clearly said 'How do you even remember to breath?'
"Not to me idiot!" Harm made to protest at the comment but she cut him off before he could get a word out. "Just do it. I don't have time to argue, she'll be here any minute."
"Who?"
"Do me a favor and just say yes, ok? You really are making this much harder than it has to be." Harm decided he'd had enough of the woman's games and was just about to let her know where she could stick this nonsense about saying yes when the elevator door opened. Harm turned around and was surprised to see Mac emerging.
"What are you doing here?" Harm asked before he thought to stop himself.
Mac shot him a look before replying, "well don't look so happy to see me flyboy."
Harm tried to cover his initial shock. "Of course I'm happy to see you Mac. I'm always happy to see you." A slight blush crept up Mac's cheeks at the comment. "I just thought you had already left for the night."
"Well I did, but I'm back"
"Any particular reason?"
Mac looked a little embarrassed as her answer came out in a rush. "Well, I was supposed to go to this charity fund-raiser thing tonight, but I don't have a date. I thought you might like to go, and I was actually gonna ask you if you wanted to go that day you, well you know." Mac looked uncomfortable at having mentioned the day he got shot so she quickly pressed on. "Anyway, I told Bobbi I couldn't come because I had too much work, what with you having been on medical leave and all, but then I felt bad about lying so I decided to come back in and pick up some files to work on at home." Mac took a deep breath as Harm let out a little chuckle. "Watch it squid. Keep laughing and I may drag you to that party tonight just to get even."
Unbidden, a tiny voice in the back of Harm's mind whispered, 'Say yes.' The voice sounded suspiciously like that of a certain young ensign he'd recently encountered. Without stopping to think, Harm blurted out, "yes."
"What?" Mac turned back to him with confused eyes. "Yes what, Harm?"
Harm knew if he wanted to back out of this really boring fundraiser with a lot of snotty rich people who weren't even able to get dressed by themselves in the morning, now was his only chance. He almost said "nothing. Don't worry about it Mac. I'll see you tomorrow." He almost got on the elevator to spend another night at home, alone. But that little voice wouldn't let him. "I said yes, I'd love to go to the party with you."
Mac looked completely flabbergasted. She quickly recovered enough to choke out, "Oh Harm, I couldn't ask you to do that. It'll be really boring and you just got out of the hospital…" She trailed off as she saw the determined look creep into her partner's eyes. 'He only gets that look when he's flying or fighting, and I know exactly what it means. It means don't even bother, I've already won," Mac thought to herself. Well, who was she to argue? She could use a night out, especially if she got to spend it with her sailor.
"Ok Harm. You win." Harm's face broke out into a smile at her answer, and Mac couldn't help returning it with one of her own. "But we better hurry flyboy, you're supposed to pick me up at 1900 sharp." Mac pressed the down button on the elevator. The files she had come to get lay forgotten on her desk.
"Oh I am, am I? Well, Mom always said you shouldn't keep a lady waiting." Harm and Mac entered the elevator and began the descent to the ground floor. Harm cast a sidelong glance at Mac to see if she was still smiling. She was. The smile faded abruptly as Mac turned toward Harm.
"Do you have anything to wear? I mean I already have a dress but this is a pretty high-end affair."
Harm panicked for a second before an idea popped into his head. "Oh, I'm sure I'll be able to find something," he replied mysteriously. "See you at 1900 sharp!" Harm called as they separated in the parking lot. He was too far away to hear Mac's whispered answer.
"I can hardly wait." Mac turned toward her car and couldn't keep the smile off her face.