A/N: I know I left y'all hanging there, but it was kinda necessary. Thanks for reading and double thanks for the reveiws. Warning: I'm not a doctor, I only play one on TV. So the medical info may be seriously wrong.

For Every Action 9: 3 days, 3 Cities, and Three Little Words Part II

Harm sat in the Veags hopsital wringing his hands, and drinking coffee. It had been two days since Mac was shot. There were no leads on Tom O'Hare, no more activity on his credit cards. Harm ran a nervous hand through his hair. How is it that I seem to get everyone I love in trouble? Or put them in danger? He was rubbing at tired, closed eyes when a familiar voice reached his ears. "I need an update, Commander." AJ Chegwidden's voice carried and revirbirated off the sparce walls of the hosptial corridor. Harm didn't jump to attention since he wasn't in uniform, instead he sat up on the bench, and started giving a run down of Mac's injuries.

"She was shot from about twenty feet away. Bullet caught the shoulder, richoeted off a bone and nicked a blood vessel." He took a deep breath. "All of which was bad, but not life threathening. The surgeons had repaired all that dammage within a couple of hours. More dangerous, is the head injury she suffered when she knocked me out of the line of fire. She slammed her head into a marble wall. The doctors say there's no fracture tot he skull, and its a pretty nasty concussion." Harm looked up at the admiral, a man he admired and valued as a friend and commanding officer. "It's been two days and she still hasn't regained conciousness. Not good news, sir."

"She pull out of it, son, she's a fighter." Chegwidden laid a hand on the shoulder of his lead invstigator. "Any leads on the shooter?"

"No one has seen or heard from Thomas O'Hare since he left the Gates." Harm stood and shuffled to the window looking into Mac's room. "I can't figure this guy. He kills three women on his ship, violently, gruesomely, then uses credit cards and old friends to make his wasy across country." Harm looked up at AJ. "Sir, he hasn't made a race for the border, he hasn't done anything out of the ordinary for a man on vacation."

"Why hadn't you two caught up to him yet?"

"He didn't have a plan for the trip. I guess its a spur of the moment thing. We have to wait until he uses a credit card or contacts an old buddy to find out where he's headed."

"I did a little digging myself, and found out his last assignment out here was aboard the Princeton, a guided missile cruiser. He was their intellegence officer." And that cost me, Rabb. "I thought you'd want to check it out."

"Sir, I--"

"What, Commander?"

"Sir, I can't leave." His eyes went to Mac's bed. "I need to be here when she wakes up."

"I'll stay with the Colonel."

"Yes, sir, but--" Harm looked at the prone figure on the bed. "I can't leave her, sir."

"Why?"

"Because I have some things to say to her. I want it to be the first thing she hears when she wakes up."

"You love her, son?" AJ ran a hand over the smooth dome of his head.

"For a long time, sir."

"You know that causes me a few headaches, right?"

"It won't, sir."

"How's that?"

"About a week ago I was offered a job as a civilian lawyer for a commercial airline. I'm going to take it."

"The hell you are."

"Sir, I want--"

"I don't care what you want. I will not lose either of you." Dammit, Rabb. "I'll have to pull some strings, but You are not to resign your commission. Is that understood?"

"I understand, sir, but if it come down to a choice between Mac and my carreer."

"It won't."

Harm turned to the window just in time to see Mac's hand close tightly around the bedrail. "Sir, get a doctor." In fifteen minutes Mac was back, though she was groggy and still very tired. The doctor attacked her with pokes, prodding, and questions. Year? Name? Last thingyou remember? She felt like a metal paitient.

After a while she went back to sleep. Harm talked to Chegwidden and told him he'd go to San Deigo the next day. I need to talk to Mom and Frank anyway. He spent the rest of the day at Mac's bedside watching her sleep and wake, holding her hand, talking quietly with her when she was up to it. Finally about 2100 she started fussing at him. "What were you thinking, Rabb?"

"Look I told you, that showgirl kissed me, and I all but ran over her when I saw the look on your face, Mac--"

"Not that. It's forgotten." She sqeezed the hand in hers. "You ran right out in front of the gun."

'I wasn't aware there was a gun."

Then they started talking at the same time.

"What my yelling 'gun!' didn't let you in on it?"/ "I was too busy trying to catch my girlfriend to see the gun."

"Girlfriend?"/ "What were you thinking chasing that guy around the casino?"

"Girlfriend?"/ "Would you stop repeating that?"

"I was trying to keep a crazed lunatic from killing you--"/ "I can take care of myself, why did you jump in front of me? I don't want you hurt, Sarah."

"Because I love you, you idiot!" They both yelled it at the same time and the room dropped into utter silence.

Mac broke the silence "You love me?" she asked something all too close to doubt it her voice.

Harm nodded and swallowed hard. "You love me?" He asked taking her hand and hoping for the best.

"Yeah, Yeah I do." she answered quietly. "I've loved you for a long time, Harm."

"I'm not sure when it happened. Somehow I saw you one day and you weren't just my partenar, you were my friend, and long before I was ready to admit it, you were more than my friend." Harm lowered one hip onto her bed. "I was so scared you didn't feel..." she ran a hand down his cheek and guided his chin so he was looking at her. At the love that had been there for so long.

They smiled, and though they couldn't see him, AJ Chegwidden shared their smile even if his was a little sad. She knows what's right. He thought. And she's proved it again. He walked away with the bittersweet image of Harm holding Mac closely while quiet, joyous tears slid down her cheeks.



~*2*~

"Sir?" Harm knocked on the door to the admiral's room.

"Enter." he barked. Harm smiled. Old habits die hard.

"I'd still like to go to San Diego tomorrow."

"Fine, I'll stay with Colonel MacKenzie until you return or she can be flown back to D.C."

"Thanks, sir." Harm turned to leave, then thought better of it. "For everything." He added and left.

~*3*~

1330

USS Princeton, San Deigo, CA

Harm stepped onto the quarterdeck of the USS Princeton and dragged down a deep breath. He had an appointment to speak with the LC that had been O'Hare's closest friend on board. He was now the ship's Chief Engineering Officer. "Commander Sikes." Harm heard the name behind him and fired off a salute before crossing the quaterdeck to run down Commander Sikes.

Two hours later Harm was more confused than ever. According to Sikes, O'Hare had called him the day before to arrange a casual lunch. This man just didn't fit the profile of a serial killer who could kill and conceal the bodies of his victims. Shaking his head, Harm fished his cell phone from the pocket of his pants. "Rabb."

"It's me." Mac voiced filled the line. Harm smiled.

"Hey, Marine, sorry to leave you so soon, but I wanna get this guy."

"That's what I called about." she took a deep breath. "I'm no sure it was O'Hare. You'll have to check his service record, but I think he has brown eyes, and—"

"Gimme a second." Harm said as he popped open his briefcase on the passengar seat of the rental car he'd just walked to.

Mac heard him rifling throut papers and waited for the sound to abate before she continued. "I distinctly remember blue eyes."

"Blue?" Harm aske incredulous.

"Yeah, I remember thinking that they were like yours, but harder, meaner."

"Thomas O'Hare has brown eyes."

"That's what I was afraid of." Mac hauled herself to a sitting position and continued. "I think some one is trying to set him up-- I mean I know all we've is circumstantial, but Bud should be calling with forensics reports today."

"Yeah, I'll call him and see if he can put a rush on them." Harm put his key in the ignition and smiled thinking of his next errand. "You get some rest. I'll call you later tonight whe I get back to the ship."

"You're staying on board?"

"Yeah, there's a vacant stateroom. Why not?"

"Mmm." Mac intoned dubiously. "Talk to you later, Flyboy."

"All right, Jarhead, I'll call you around 0700 if I don't talk to you before then."

"Sleep well, Squid."

~*4*~

A pair of auquamarine eyes watched as Mac leaned back against the pillows and hung up the phone. When she was settled he continued walking down the hall unready to be seen just yet.

Hundreds of miles away a pair of nearly black eyes focused on the wiring for an extra light in a mostly unsused sotrage area. Finishing his installation he stepped back from the bulkhead. In the two weeks he or one of his workers had spent with the civilian contractor, they'd rarely seen anyone step into this compartment. Opening the hatch, he looked both ways before stepping into the passageway.

~*5*~

Harm pulled into his mother's driveway just before sunset. He pulled his aviator's sunglasses off as he bound up the back porch steps. He rocked back on his heels when his mother launched herself at him. "Harm!" she called as she wrapped him in a decidedly motherly bear hug.

"Hi, Mom." He said, the infamous grin spreading quickly over his features.

"What is it, Harm?" She asked seeing the grin widen by a fraction.

"What?" He asked trying to be innocent.

"Harmon Rabb, Jr. Don't you try playing dumb with me." She took her index finger and shoved it into his chest. "I'm your mother, I know that smile—far too well."

"I'm just glad I got to surprise you."

"Mmm-hmm." His mother intoned. "So," she started with all the subtly of a bulldozer. "How's Mac?"

The grin spread back over his face. Normally he would have given her a warning look or a biting come back. Instead he stood there smiling like an idiot.

"I knew it!" she all but squealed.

"Mom, Mac's in the hospital right now." Harm's face was suddenly serious; his eye were dead hard.

"What happened?" She asked and Harm told her the whole story. By the end she was confused, but her joy over Harm and Mac surpassed all other emotions. "So what's next for you two?"

"Weeeell..." Harm trailed off thinking... "That's actually why I'm here." His mother's smile could've lit up a city block.

~*6*~

Harm made it back to the Princeton just as Thomas O'Hare stepped off the gangplank. Harm's eyes were unreadable, but his hands delivered a clear messasge: resistance will get you hurt. O'Hare complied with little complaint thinking correctly that he'd seen murder in the blue eyes before him.

Harm walked him to the Legal office on the Princeton and sat him down. No words passed between them as Harm pulled the crime scene photos from the evidence locker on the wall. Harm knew with out a doubt he'd been chasing the wrong man. What was left of them man's dinner on his shoes proved it. "Why? What?" Tom tried to ask as he was overwhlemed by another wave of nausea.

"Some one set it up to look like you killed those three women."

"W-why would anyone do that?" He aske trying to avoid looking at the picutures Harm had thrown in front of him.

"It looks like you would've had good motive." Harm gathered the pictures and replaced them with the victims serivce pictures. 'This one," he said, pointing out a Fireman Valeria Franklin, "was arrested for a DUI on I-10 March 1, 2001."

"The day Angie died. My wife."

"Yeah, then there's this." Harm pulled out the glass he's given Mac.

"The Souvenior I gave Colonel MacKenzie?"

"These," Harm said holding out pictures of the victims' glasses, "Were found with each body. They're identical to the one you gave Mac."

"And I even told her to open it later, and that I was leaving." The enormity of it hit him suddenly. "He said he'd given then to several of his women friends. That they'd 'gone to pieces' over them." Tom said swallowing hard.