(A/N: Sorry for the confusion about the newspaper part in chap. 5 (I think. This will explain the confusion. Standard disclaimers: I don't own JAG or any of the songs I might use. Has anyone noticed that I'm going back and forth from using quotations and just doing this (HARM:) I hope that doesn't bother anyone.)



Fade out....

Mac was surprised. Palmer keeps her untied most of the day, but today he tied her right back up after she went to the bathroom. Mac could tell he was angry about something, and that gave her a glimmer of hope, that something good was going to happen.

MAC: (Teased.) Something wrong Palmer?

PALMER: (Frustrated.) Everything is wrong, Colonel. I have no more reason to keep you locked up any more.

MAC: (Confused.) Why?

PALMER: Because he is dead. He is dead before I got a chance to kill him, that basterd.

MAC: (Afraid to ask.) Who?

PALMER: Rabb. He died in a car accident last night. Some drunk ran into his car. Damn it. I was really going to have some fun with him to.

MAC: (Shocked.) What?

(Palmer held out the front page of the newspaper for her. The headline read: Naval officer dies in auto accident. He threw the paper on the ground before she got to read anymore.)

PALMER: Now I don't know what the hell to do with you. But you know I could just kill you, and get rid of you that way.

(Mac said nothing, still not believing that Harm was dead.)

PALMER: Oh well. I guess I could find something to do with you.

(Mac held back the tears, as Palmer walked away. As soon as she heard the door close, she let out a sob, that couldn't even begin to describe the pain that she was feeling. Palmer headed upstairs, wearing the biggest smile.)

PALMER: (Under his breath.) let the head games begin.

Fade out...

Harm nervously tapped his pen on his desk, waiting for Webb to call. It had been two weeks, and still no word on Palmer or Mac. He tried to think of any place that Palmer would take her. But he couldn't. All he could think about was there last conversation.

(Three months earlier, JAG Headquarters.)

(She knocked lightly on his door, and came in, shutting the door.)

MAC: Got a minute Flyboy?

(Oh, how he loved when she called him that.)

HARM: Sure Mac.

MAC: Little AJ's birthday is coming up soon, and I was wondering if you had any ideas, on what I could get him.

HARM: You know I haven't had much time to think about it myself.

(But Harm had thought about it. It would be little AJ's fifth birthday. That was all he was thinking.)

MAC: I tell you what, how about on our lunch break, we could go out and see what we can for him. It shouldn't be too hard to shop for a five year old.

HARM: Yeah.

(They looked at each other for what seemed like forever, before her face grew red.)

MAC: I uh, should get back to work.

HARM: Yeah, me to.

(She was almost to the door, when Harm called her back.)

HARM: We really should sit down and talk sometime Mac.

MAC: (Whispering.) Yeah, I know Harm. I know.

(Harm knew she had that same feeling that he did. He knew that their time was coming. Soon they would both have what they have always wanted; each other.)

Fade out... Finally, Mac did get untied that day. Right away she went for the paper that Palmer had thrown on the ground that morning. She read:

Naval Officer Dies in Auto Accident:

Today the Body of Commander Harmon Rabb jr. is being examined at the Freedmen Medical Center, in Norfolk Virginia. The Commander was said to have died in a drunk driving related accident. After stopping at stop light, at ten P.M late Monday night, Commander Rabb was hit from the passenger's side door. Officer Garret states: "The driver of the van was driving, so fast; I doubt the Commander even saw him. The driver had a tox. level twice the limit that the state requires." The driver of the van remains in critical condition at Washington medical center. The funeral will be held with full military honors on Saturday Dec. 15. There is no word yet on how many charges that the driver will be charged with.

(Mac held back her tears, as she flipped through the rest of the paper, making sure that this was not another head game. Reading a little more of the paper, she knew it was real. Harm was really dead. And he never knew that she loved him. She hated herself for not being strong enough to tell him how she really felt. Now he was gone, and he never even knew that she didn't run away from him. But he would never know now. She drew her knees up to her chest and cried.)

TBC