Chapter 6

Home is where your best friend is

Wednesday, 2247, DC time

Harm's apartment

"Hello?"

"Sarah?"

Oh hell, now I know what Harm meant about people getting the wrong idea. It's 2247 and I've just answered the phone in Harm's apartment. Rob is bound to get the wrong idea. Oh man, I am so dead. Mac tried to figure out how she could possibly avoid Rob, however no ideas came to her, so she did the only thing she could do in the situation and talked to him. She only wished that she had Harm with her for moral support. But she didn't, because he was still in the shower.

Mmmmm, Harm in the shower... Mac's mind drifted off to the shower where Harm was and conjured up a few images that most definitely should not have been there. Stop it Mackenzie. You're a married woman...although not for much longer She smiled to herself.

"Sarah? Are you there?" Mac's mind was torn from her thoughts and back to reality by the sound of her husband's voice on the other end of the phone.

"Uh, yeah. Hi. How did you know where to find me?" she asked, mentally kicking herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. Way to go. Could you have said anything stupider to him? That was about the most idiotic thing to ask, not to mention I don't want to know his answer, or how he got that answer. What was I thinking....who am I kidding. I'm not thinking at all...

Rob's retort was angry. "I knew that you'd be there, Sarah. I never could trust you, could I? The first sign of something going wrong and you immediately run off to his place. How dare you?"

Mac listened disbelievingly. "So you found me. Now what?" she asked coolly.

"What do you mean, now what. Now you come back home, where you ought to be. I came home this evening and I had to cook my own dinner." he said, as though the idea was completely ludicrous. "Oh, and I didn't have an ironed shirt to wear this morning. When you got home you're going to really have to work on not being so lazy."

At this point Harm entered the room, dressed only in his boxers and a t-shirt, and came to stand near Mac, listening intently to her side of the conversation.

"Lazy!?" Mac shook her head in disbelief, despite the fact that he couldn't see her and vice versa. "You complain if I don't have dinner on the table for you when you come home every night, which might I add is in a highly drunken state nine out of ten times, and you're calling me lazy? You're perfectly capable of looking after yourself. But tell me something. Is that all you see me as good for? A maid to do everything for you?

Harm watched as Mac's expression grew from one of annoyance and mild anger to one of utmost rage.

"Why, you lousy, egotistical, revolting, gutter-minded..."

She was cut off by his retort and Harm tried to guess what he was currently saying - he already had a good idea what Rob had said in his last comment.

"No, I will not. No....NO, I won't do that either. Why? Why!? Because I'm not coming back. That's why."

Harm caught a flash of anger in Mac's eyes, as she looked up and saw him standing

"....you're saying?"

"Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. I want a divorce."

Her words hung in the air and to Harm they seemed so final. It didn't matter whether Rob had considered a divorce or not. Mac knew that it was what she wanted and Harm knew that, being as stubborn as she was, she was going to get her way.

It was about 20 seconds before Rob made any sound, and when he did he absolutely exploded. "You take off from here without a word, hop onto a plane and then casually over the phone decide that you suddenly want a divorce!? Just who the hell do you think you are?"

" Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie of the USMC, sir!" she shouted, making it sound like she was once again at boot camp.

Harm smirked as he heard her reply. Damn, she did those marines proud. Semper Fi, Mac

"Mackenzie-Casey, you mean."

"No, I don't." She replied icily. "I'm sick of you Rob. You changed and you don't even care any more. I've tried to keep loving you, but the truth of it is, you're not the person I married. He was nice, sweet, sensitive, would never have even drunk in my presence, let alone get drunk in front of me. He also respected my feelings and would have actually cared about our daughter. You're not him." Mac took a deep breath and continued. "It's over, Robert. You, me, us. It's over. I was going to call you anyway to tell you that I'm filing for a divorce as soon as I can."

"What!? You mean you're actually serious about a divorce? No, you can't be serious."

"Oh yes I can, and I am deadly serious. I want a divorce."

"But..."

"But what, Robert? You know as well as I do that there is nothing left between us. I've tried multiple times to do things to save our marriage, but nothing has worked."

"What do you mean, things to save our marriage?"

"See that's my point. You didn't even notice them. Things such as the time I booked the holiday beach resort up on the coast for the valentines day weekend."

"Yeah, and spent most of the time dragging us around after that other couple." He added bitterly.

"That was Bud and Harriet, who I hadn't seen in ages. And we didn't spend the whole weekend with them, just one evening. If you will recall, the other two days were spent with me sitting alone by the pool while you went and got trashed at the casino bar." Mac was getting angry now. How dare he make it sound like it was all her fault, when she had honestly tried her hardest to keep their marriage from failing.

"Yeah, well if it weren't for-"

"Shut up, Rob." Mac said angrily. Rob stopped, shocked. Ever since Ali had been born she hadn't ever really stood up to him, out of fear for what he could do to Ali. Now that he was many states away, she had no problem in doing so.

"What did you just say?" He asked her, articulating each word with a deliberate clarity.

"I told you to shut up. I don't want to hear about how everything is my fault, because I know that it's not. I'm sick of being ordered around by you. Now it's your turn to do what I say, and I say that we're getting a divorce."

"Oh what the hell do I care, you haven't been worth much to me since…."

Mac cut him off. " How does this sound? I want full custody of Ali, the furnishings and other assets I brought with me from DC, my car and exactly half of the money from our joint account. You can have all the rest of the assets, the house the other half of the account. I don't want anything else, I just want out of this marriage. I'll have my lawyer contact you with a detailed list. "

Mac knew that this was bound to get his attention. Even though they had a joint checking account, Mac had two other accounts. One was the emergency one that she had pulled at the airport and the other one was another savings account, also under her maiden name, into which she put all extra earnings that didn't go directly into her account from her office. Things such as payments from individual clients, which went directly from the clients to her without going through the office, went into her savings account and when people asked for an account to put the money into, she gave them her savings one. As a result, she had around $56 000 that Rob didn't know about. It was a good thing that being a lawyer paid so well. Even giving Rob half the money in all their joint accounts and the rest of their assets, such as the house, she would still have plenty to start over in DC.

"All the assets?" Mac could picture his face lighting up at the prospect.

"Not all, but a fair amount. You get half the money plus the whole house and the majority of what's in it and I get what I want. Fair?"

"Yeah, whatever. Fine. But how come you assume that I don't want joint custody?"

Mac looked at Harm and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please. You never cared about Ali. Why start now. We all know that you'd soon enough win the 'worst father of the year' award. And besides, there is no way any judge would give joint custody to a drunk, you'd be lucky if you were even allowed supervised visitation!"

"Yeah, well, it's not my fault that I was never much of a father to Ali. I mean, it's kind of hard to try and be a father to someone when you know that you're not their father."

"Not that father!? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about. That trip that you went on to DC to see a 'client'. Ring any bells?"

Mac's mouth went dry as she realised what he was implying. That trip had taken place around five weeks before she had discovered that she was pregnant.

"Yes as a matter of fact it does. I put all of the client's affairs in order and represented him in court then came back home."

"Put his affairs in order, did you? "

"What the hell are you implying, Rob?" she spat, knowing exactly what he was implying.

"You know very well, bitch. It was about four or five weeks after you came back from that trip that you found out that you were pregnant."

Mac was stunned. How could he have possibly thought her unfaithful to him? A thought suddenly struck her.

"That's why you were trying to beat Ali. You said that she was the cause of all the problems in the house. That's what you meant." she said quietly, her brain still trying to process everything.

"You know, for someone who everyone says is a really smart lawyer, you can be incredibly slow on the uptake, you know." He taunted.

"You're a nasty man, you know that? And to think that I actually used to love you."

"Whatever, tell your boyfriend hey for me and that I hope he enjoys you."

"He is not my boyfriend. He is my best friend, nothing more, nothing less, and has been so for the last 7 years."

"Whatever, liar." came the taunting reply

Mac grew even angrier. "If you think that I'd actually cheat on you, for whatever reason, then you obviously never knew me. Go to hell, Rob." she snapped before slamming the phone back onto the hook.

She leaned back into Harm and began to cry. She turned around and buried her head in his chest and he held her close.

"It's not fair." she sobbed, her voice somewhat muffled. "All I want is to be happy. Is that such a hard thing. I thought that it was just him that had changed and I couldn't work out why. And now I find out that it's because he didn't trust me. Not even for the first year." She cried even harder and held onto Harm as if her life depended on it. He picked her up and carried her to his bedroom where he lay her down on the side of his bed. She curled up into a ball and wrapped her arms around her knees. Harm pulled the covers over her and went to leave.

"Don't go. I don't think I can stand being alone again. I already feel so alone. Please, Harm. Stay with me."

Harm walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down with his back resting against the wall and pulled Mac's head into his lap.

"Shhh, marine. You're going to be okay. I promise you that. And you know that I always keep my promises."

He absent-mindedly stroked her hair and she soon stopped crying and fell into an exhausted sleep.

So peoples, what did you think? Sorry I haven't updated for so long, but you know, its been Christmas and whatever and I have been kinda busy....not to mention that our internet keeps dropping out. As always, I LOVE REVIEWS!!!!
Anyone who reviews will get a chocolate brownie! Oh, and a HUGE thank you to Chris for helping me fix my mistakes and to Bekki who didn't kill me when she found out where my plot was going to go.