JAG and it's character's don't belong to me. I'm only playing in Mr. Bellisario's world. Any characters NOT taken directly from JAG or making cameo appearances from other televison shows DO belong to me.


A/N: Thoughts are in *'s


Chapter 4


Once they were airborne, Harm turned in his seat and looked at Kate. "Are you always this surprising?"


Kate smiled. "I don't have a clue what you mean."


Harm sighed. "You put on this good-old-country-girl act, but.." he paused to collect his thoughts, "you're living on an unheard-of amount on land that is basically within the DC metroplex, you have three cars, a jet that Mel Gibson would be happy to own..."


"And I have a housekeeper/nanny and a gardener, right?" Kate made a face. "None of it is what it seems. Most of the money my husband left us is tied up in trusts, and what isn't has got a list of rules that it would take your whole office to unwind. There is a set amount that we are allotted monthly for living costs. That goes to pay for the house and the land. I stumbled onto it when we moved here and it just seemed like a healthier place to raise kids than right in the middle of the deadliest city in the United States. Fortunately the trustees agreed.


"Juan and Maria only get $500 month for the both of them, less income tax and social security - which is less than I would pay for childcare and after school care for four children. I bought their home and I pay most of their utilities.. They eat with us so they have very little to purchase in the way of groceries.


"The truck was Juan's when they came to work for us. He uses it to pull the horse trailer - that Kyle and I bought early on, haul hay and that kind of stuff. Kyle bought the Expedition when we moved from Bragg to Hood. My car was shot and we had enough kids and dogs to need the space - he paid cash for it. I bought the Grand Prix after we moved here. The gas mileage on the truck was eating me alive, but I needed something spiffy enough to haul donors around in occasionally.


All of it is smoke and mirrors. We could live on my salary, but not nearly this well. I grew up almost the same way Sarah did. My dad was an enlisted Marine and my mom took jobs for a paycheck - she waited tables, checked groceries... We weren't ever POOR but we were probably not quite middle class either. The difference between me and Sarah is that I knew with every cell in my body that my parents loved me. Even after they divorced they were both always available if I needed them."


"She doesn't talk about her childhood much," Harm commented.


"And neither will I, so quit fishing." Kate looked at her watched and noted that they had almost two hours before reaching Texas.


"Why is it that the two of you haven't tied the know and raised four or five kids?"


Kate could see the shutters close on Harm's face. "What makes you thing we should do that?"


Kate snorted un-gracefully. "Don't give me that crap. Do you not realize that everybody else notices you? The way you look at each other, the way you tease and fight? You guys act like you've been married for 20 years."


"It's just because we're friends."


"Hogwash. You look at her the same way Kyle used to look at me. It almost makes me miss him."


"And look what happened with you guys." Harm had an incredibly smug look on is face - as if her failed marriage proved anything.


"Don't go there Harmon Rabb. I may have been ready to divorce my husband but that doesn't mean I didn't love him. I still do. You and he have a lot in common. I think all the guys in the military have the same kind of mindset - but pilots and SF types are the worst. You're all adrenaline-junkies looking for your next high." Harm started to protest, but she waved him off. "And that is incredibly sexy. Women flock to you." Harm gave her his best flyboy smile. "The problem is when you start to believe your own publicity. Chris never got a bad OER (A/N: Officer Evaluation Report), always got top blocks (A/N: on the form, it reads 'promote above center of mass'), always marked as 'best qualified for promotion... aced his physicals, fitness evals, and inspections... if there was a way to praise him he got it. And he took that to mean that he was special, above the rules the rest of us have to live by.


"But you seem to break the mold there. As much as you like the rush of being in an F-14 and knowing that you're the best lawyer in the Navy, you're much more grounded in reality. I don't know how your life was when you were growing up, but your whole attitude toward family screams fidelity. I don't see you being willing to throw away what you already have for something that might or might not be better."


"Thank you. I think. I don't know that Mac would even want to consider a relationship with me. I hurt her pretty badly several years ago." Harm shrugged like it was not a concern.


**Well, at least he's admitting HE might be interested** Kate thought. All she said was, "Sydney."


"She TOLD you about that?" Harm was incredulous. The Mac he knew would have been terribly uncomfortable in a discussion about that part of their relationship.


"She glossed over it as she was filling me in on 'The Story of Her Life', but the way she clammed up when I questioned her about it I could tell it was worse than she let on."


"But she doesn't talk about personal stuff to anybody. I'm supposed to be her best friend and what little I know about her childhood she let slip during a rare weak moment." Harm felt betrayed.


"You know Sarah the adult, the lawyer, the Marine." Kate wasn't sure how she was going to turn this around, but honesty seemed like the best way to go. "I knew the Sarah that showed up at my house at all hours of the day and night when things got too bad for her at home. My mom was the only mother on post who would take her in. Sarah and I were more than best friends - we spent our adolescence joined at the hip. We may have been apart for years but we've got too much history to ignore.


"Don't tell me you don't have any GUY friends that you hang out with occasionally? An all guys night out kind of thing?" Kate saw him try to deny it, but she smiled. "Sturgis... Keeter... Bud?"


Harm sighed. OK, he didn't like it that Kate knew more about Sarah than he did, but he understood that in some form, this was the only family that Sarah really knew. And she wasn't hard to get along with, unless she was picking into your private life, that is. He wouldn't have agreed to come if he didn't think it would be fun.


"Now that you've decided that I'm not the wicked witch of the west, would you like to fly for a while?" Kate smiled.


"How do you DO that? Sarah tells time and damned if you don't just read minds. The two of you are like some kind of sitcom from television."


"You've met my kids. Do you think they're going to tell me everything I need to know? You're living in the wrong century if you believe that. Most of what I pry out of them comes from reading what is left unsaid. As for you, as nice as you've been to me lately and even though you agreed to this trip, I know I wandered in out of left field put a kink in your relationship with Sarah. How else could you see me but as the witch? Now... we've got about 45 minutes until we get there. Do you want to fly this bird or not?"


Harm smiled. "Thought you'd never ask."