To the reviewers: Thank you for reading and responding! (And to msa… you see, the floors were being polished in the entry halls of the BOQ, and they were directing people away from there, and … um… the commissary had a power outage so that the lieutenant and Harm had to grab coffee where they could. Ahem. In other words, my bad, good catch! : ) )

Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr, was on the beltway when it hit. An overwhelming sensation of loss, a loss that hadn't even happened.

"Yeah, Rabb, and what if it did? What if she doesn't just transfer, or even just marry someone else. What if she -" He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought. "Right, counsel, as long as she's alive, there's hope." He pounded the steering wheel, shouting.

"Hope of WHAT? What are you waiting for?", and must have shouted something else, as well. A woman in a minivan full of kids glared at him. Harm looked sheepishly at her, mouthed 'sorry', and changed lanes for his exit.

As much as he tried to dismiss it, the image of Sarah Mackenzie lying dead in the street, hit by a drunk driver, maybe after one of their stupid, stupid arguments, was blazing in the front of his mind. In full, horrible color. Those luminous dark eyes glazed and empty. Never being able to make it right again. Never being able to apologize. Never being able to talk it out, or pretend, as they did so often, that it just didn't happen. Never being able to hold her, ever, ever again.

A nasty little voice in his head said, "Well, Commander. At least you won't have to worry about deciding whether to take it a step farther anymore." Something finally snapped into place. He swore softly and stepped on the accelerator.

JAG Headquarters

Colonel Sarah Mackenzie was standing at the copier, staring blankly at the wall opposite her as she waited for the documents to finish reproducing. "Exciting work, Colonel?" She blinked with some embarrassment back to awareness, smiled brightly if somewhat artificially at the Admiral as he walked past.

"Oh, unbelievably exciting, sir. But they're almost done." The Admiral returned her smile and was safely in his office when Harm came flying into the bullpen. He ran to her office, looked in, turned and searched the room slightly more frantically than a seasoned fighter pilot should. When he saw her, he visibly exhaled, as if he'd been holding his breath. He covered the distance between them in record time, yet when he stood in front of her, half a step apart, he hesitated. She frowned, puzzled, and gave him a quirky smile.

"Commander? Is something-" She didn't finish as he wrapped her in a hug and held on tightly, his head dropped on her shoulder. She laughed in surprise.

"Mac."

There was something in his whisper that turned her expression to one of concern. She responded quietly, realizing peripherally that they were getting puzzled looks from the staff.

"Harm? Are you all right?" She tried to pull back to look at him, to figure out what was going on, but he wouldn't let go. He whispered her name again. Slowly, she put her arms around him, holding him tight, rubbing her hand across his back. Whatever was going on, she couldn't let him down when he was so obviously upset. "It's okay, Harm," she whispered back to him. "You found me. Tell me what's going on."

He held her tighter for a moment, then released his hold, his hands sliding to rest on her shoulders. "I need to talk to you." She blinked.

"Sure. Of course. My office?" Her dark eyes were compassionate as she spoke.

"No. Not... not here." He looked around, realized that work had come to a standstill in the bullpen. He flashed a big smile at them. Mac could tell at a glance it was the fake version, but then, she also knew he was perfectly capable of fooling most people with that smile. Good thing the Admiral wasn't here. "Ah." Harm looked back to Mac, a slight wave of panic in his eyes.

Realizing that this was rapidly turning into another one of those moments when she was called on to save her partner's life, she thought quickly, smirked at him, and gave a very theatrical sigh as she half turned toward their coworkers. "Well, well, well. I guess that means I won the bet. And don't think that throwing yourself on the mercy of this court is going to work." She rolled her eyes across the audience, looked primly back at the commander. "It's not my fault if you can't go for three months without a speeding ticket. You promised me two hours of paperwork!" He laughed weakly, shrugged at the rest of the office, and smiled again.

"It was worth a try."

There were scattered laughs and amused looks. The staff largely returned to what they were doing before the sideshow began. Mac looked at him, continuing in the theatrical voice.

"Now if you'll follow me, Commander, I'll pick out some choice files for you."

She headed for her office with a slightly sheepish Harm in tow. When they got inside, she closed the door halfway and turned to him, her eyes dark and serious once more. "Are you sure you don't want to talk here?"

Harm looked at her. His eyes softened their piercing gaze, and she felt something melting inside her. She looked away, ostensibly to see if the staff was still following the story. "It looks like our acting was good enough. I don't think we're the center of attention anymore, so if-" she stopped as his hand touched her cheek. He was staring at her, completely absorbed. "Harm?" He raised his other hand, cupping her face gently.

"Oh, Mac." She felt the warmth of his breath, and then the soft caress of his lips chastely brushed against her cheek. He pulled back carefully. "Can you come over tonight? Please? I'll make dinner... and we can talk." She opened her eyes, which had closed of their own volition, and it seemed a thought crossed his mind. Mac knew that 'deer in the headlights' look all too well. "Unless - you don't want to? I mean, if you have other, ah..."

She blinked at him, again. "Harmon Rabb, if I don't get a full explanation, and I mean full, of whatever is going on in that flyboy brain of yours, I'll -" she stopped. "I don't know what I'll do." A smile slowly spread from her eyes to her lips. "But I'll make sure you don't like it. What are you cooking?"

He looked happier than she had seen him in months. "Anything you want. Anything." She was tilting her head curiously, when a sly smile crossed her lips.

"Surprise me."

"Okay." Her smile began to fade when his expression became nervous once more. "So, ah, which files do you want me to take?"

"Files?"

"Yeah, you said I was going to do paperwork for you…" He trailed off, and she almost laughed at the little-boy look in his eyes.

"Harm, I was just trying to get us out of there. You don't have to do any paperwork for me."

He looked almost disappointed. "Well, okay." He moved toward the door, and stopped with his hand on the frame. "I'd do it, you know."

"I know. But you really don't owe me any work time."

The sea-blue of his eyes grew brighter as he stared at her, as if his heart was beating just a bit faster. "I owe you a lot more than that."

Harm ducked out before she could say anything else, and Mac stood at her desk staring at the door for quite some time before she shook her head and realized she'd left her paperwork in the copier. She was ready to walk out and get them when the worried questions began, as they always did when she had a particularly interesting experience with her sometime partner. Especially if he wanted to 'talk'.

Is this good? Is it bad? Has he decided he knows why we can never get together? Has he fallen for someone else, and wants me, his 'best friend', to be the first to know?

"Auugh." She turned and leaned against the door, closing it, and put her face in her hands for a moment. When she took them away, the woman of resolve, the highly competent Marine, was back. Moving to her desk, she hit the intercom.

"Tiner. What can I do for you, Ma'am?"

"Yes, Tiner, I think I left my files on the copier. I'm in the middle of things here, could check for me?"

"Sure thing, Ma'am. I'll bring them over."

"Thank you."

Mac sat down and pulled a couple of files closer, opening them to support her claim of busyness. As she did so, she chuckled, sighed, and tried to get her mind to be quiet long enough to get some work done.

He wants to talk.