Title: Meant to Be
Author: Chocolatequeen
Disclaimer: I don't own JAG or any of it's characters.
A/N: After What If, I started thinking about where our Dynamic Duo is and
what it will take to get them back to each other. This is what I came up
with.
Prologue: Fate
"Wherever you go, there you are." It had been an easy lie to tell, much simpler than telling her friends what her fortune really said. Besides, they'd heard the same thing from four different people, they needed something else to think about and laugh at.
Why then was her lie haunting her? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it out of her mind. "Wherever you go, there you are." She heard her own voice saying it, the soundtrack of her life caught in an endless loop.
It was an easy lie to tell, and it should have been just as easily dismissed. Instead, every time she heard it, she was reminded again of exactly where she was and how much she wished she /I go back and take the road not taken.
She didn't want to go back too far, just a year. In the grand scheme of things, was twelve months really too much to ask? If she could, she would go back to that evening when she'd shown up at Harm's, wearing the pregnant suit. This time, when she asked him how he was doing she would give him time to answer. This time, when he tried to tell her how he felt she would let him speak.
Whenever Harm had wanted to speak, she wouldn't let him, and when he couldn't she made sure he knew how disappointed she was. Those were her tragic flaws, the mistakes she would have to live with.
Oh, he was far from blameless in the painful drama that was their relationship; he was incapable of speaking in plain English at crucial moments. But in the end, she had been the one to say never. That word, that one little word, was the reason she could no longer look down the road not taken.
And perhaps that was why her lie still seemed to burn on her lips. "Wherever you go, there you are." Those words taunted her with their cruel honesty. Unable to go back to the past, without a future to move towards, she was simply stuck where she was.
"Wherever you go, there you are." Why did she lie? That question bothered Harm more than anything he'd seen in his visions.
There's no such things as a simple lie, he knew that. A good lie always has its basis in truth, or else no one would believe it. There must have always be a hint of truth in things false.
Mac's lie was no different. Her fortune had been the same as they'd all had, but rather than share that and allow them all a laugh at the quirks of fate and unimaginative fortune writers, she'd lied.
It hadn't been just any lie either. The meaning of the lie was exactly opposite the meaning of the true fortune. Instead of hope, it smacked distinctly of despair.
Despair was an emotion Harm had grown all too familiar with in the last year. Between brig time, losing his job, almost losing Mac, seeing her with Webb, and being told they'd never have a chance, there hadn't been much room for hope.
Then she'd showed up at Mattie's custody hearing and said things he'd never thought he'd hear her say. She didn't just say he'd make a good father, she said he was the type of man she'd want to father her own children—she could think of no one better. For the first time in months, he felt a flicker of hope.
The fortunes today and the vision they'd shown him had fanned that flame. He'd always thought he and Mac were meant for each other, and now he had a distinct picture of what life would be like if—and when—it happened.
It wouldn't be all roses, he'd seen enough of his own flaws manifested to know that. However, it was destiny, if he could just get Mac to accept that. "Wherever you go, there you are." Well, he'd just have to make sure she understood exactly where they were, and this time they could take that road together.
Prologue: Fate
"Wherever you go, there you are." It had been an easy lie to tell, much simpler than telling her friends what her fortune really said. Besides, they'd heard the same thing from four different people, they needed something else to think about and laugh at.
Why then was her lie haunting her? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it out of her mind. "Wherever you go, there you are." She heard her own voice saying it, the soundtrack of her life caught in an endless loop.
It was an easy lie to tell, and it should have been just as easily dismissed. Instead, every time she heard it, she was reminded again of exactly where she was and how much she wished she /I go back and take the road not taken.
She didn't want to go back too far, just a year. In the grand scheme of things, was twelve months really too much to ask? If she could, she would go back to that evening when she'd shown up at Harm's, wearing the pregnant suit. This time, when she asked him how he was doing she would give him time to answer. This time, when he tried to tell her how he felt she would let him speak.
Whenever Harm had wanted to speak, she wouldn't let him, and when he couldn't she made sure he knew how disappointed she was. Those were her tragic flaws, the mistakes she would have to live with.
Oh, he was far from blameless in the painful drama that was their relationship; he was incapable of speaking in plain English at crucial moments. But in the end, she had been the one to say never. That word, that one little word, was the reason she could no longer look down the road not taken.
And perhaps that was why her lie still seemed to burn on her lips. "Wherever you go, there you are." Those words taunted her with their cruel honesty. Unable to go back to the past, without a future to move towards, she was simply stuck where she was.
"Wherever you go, there you are." Why did she lie? That question bothered Harm more than anything he'd seen in his visions.
There's no such things as a simple lie, he knew that. A good lie always has its basis in truth, or else no one would believe it. There must have always be a hint of truth in things false.
Mac's lie was no different. Her fortune had been the same as they'd all had, but rather than share that and allow them all a laugh at the quirks of fate and unimaginative fortune writers, she'd lied.
It hadn't been just any lie either. The meaning of the lie was exactly opposite the meaning of the true fortune. Instead of hope, it smacked distinctly of despair.
Despair was an emotion Harm had grown all too familiar with in the last year. Between brig time, losing his job, almost losing Mac, seeing her with Webb, and being told they'd never have a chance, there hadn't been much room for hope.
Then she'd showed up at Mattie's custody hearing and said things he'd never thought he'd hear her say. She didn't just say he'd make a good father, she said he was the type of man she'd want to father her own children—she could think of no one better. For the first time in months, he felt a flicker of hope.
The fortunes today and the vision they'd shown him had fanned that flame. He'd always thought he and Mac were meant for each other, and now he had a distinct picture of what life would be like if—and when—it happened.
It wouldn't be all roses, he'd seen enough of his own flaws manifested to know that. However, it was destiny, if he could just get Mac to accept that. "Wherever you go, there you are." Well, he'd just have to make sure she understood exactly where they were, and this time they could take that road together.