Author's Note: I apologize if the last chapter sounded a little bit like the first, but I needed to catch you all up on where Mac was at since the first two chapters were all about Harm and his POV. Logistics, we all hate it I know, but it's a necessary evil in order to make things flow properly and not sound choppy and discontinuous. Today I am posting for this fic and tomorrow I will post for the Operation story, one at a time, sorry guys no pitchforks...please. Anyways here it goes, be forewarned that this is going to be a dramatic angsty cliffhanger kind of chapter...just know I love Harm and Mac and all will be okay in the end you just need to be patient and hang in there. So here we go...
Sturgis was running all over the park trying to find Harm, How hard is it to find a drunken man dressed in all white in the middle of the night in an empty park?! But to Sturgis's credit the park was full of trees and bushes that Harm could be passed out behind. He looked at all the benches and in the chess board area, but was still unable to locate him. Sturgis was about ready to call the Admiral to have him call for reinforcements, when he spotted a figure off in the distance. It was a shadow of a man, or what appeared to be a man, that was lying down on a bench on his back just staring up into the night sky. That's got to be Harm, who else could it be...a homeless person, duh Sturgis, let's just hope it is Harm. As he approached the figure he could hear him muttering to himself, What is he saying? No wait that sounds like singing...Sturgis could see a white cover lying on the ground next to the bench, that's Harm alright.
Sturgis decided to wait and formulate the best approach to handling this situation, Harm was drunk and that was going to make him hard to reason with. As he stood a few feet away he could hear the lyrics that he was singing...
Now every fool in town would've left by now
I can't replace all the wasted days
The memory of your face-can't help
thinkin'
Maybe if we ever coulda kept it all together
Where would we be
A thousand lost forevers
And the promises that you never were giving me
Here's what I'm thinking
It's over now and I've gone without
Cuz you're everyone else's girl
It seems to me you'll always be
Everyone else's girl
And instead of wishing that the road had shoulder
man you're seeing that you're sinking over time
And it's good that I'm not angry
well i need to get over, well
I'm not angry
it's dragging me under
I'm not angry
I'm not angry it's never been enough
it gets inside and it tears you up
I'm not angry but I've never been above it
you see through me don't you
This will all fall down like everything else that was
This too shall pass and all of the words we said
We can't take back
It's amazing
how you make your face just like a wall,
how you take your heart and turn it off,
how I turn my head and lose it all
It's unnerving
how just one move puts me by myself
There you go just trustin' someone else
Now I know I put us both through hell
I'm not sayin'
there was nothin' wrong
I just didn't think you'd ever get tired of me
And I'm not sayin'
we ever had the right to hold on
I just didn't wanna let it get away from me
But if that's how it's gonna leave
straight out from underneath,
then we'll see who's sorry now
If that's how it's gonna stand, when
you know you've been depending on
the one you're leavin' now
the one you're leavin' out
It's aggravating
how you threw me on
and you tore me out,
how your good intentions turned to doubt
the way you needed time to sort it out
Harm must be really out of it, he is definitely singing more than one song there. And why on earth is he singing such depressing songs, what the hell really happened tonight? Sturgis wondered.
Sturgis had waited long enough he approached Harm from behind the bench and yelled, "Rabb what the hell do you think you're doing? And why the hell aren't you answering your phone, dammit!?"
This sudden and unexpected vocal burst woke Harm up from his drunk stupor long enough to sit up on the bench he was laying on, and turn his head around trying to locate who woke him up.
"Tuurrner, what the hell are you doing here? After the cute blonde too? he grinned Too bad she's taken, all the women in this god forsaken world are taken, and what am I left nothing absolutely nothing!"
"Harm, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Women, they're all unattainable, unappeasable, and frustratingly crazy!"
"Harm, we need to talk...Mac has..." Before he could finish his sentence Harm violently stood up and grabbed Turner by the collar, Sturgis could smell his breath and it emanated of alcohol.
"Don't even talk to me about Colonel Mackenzie; she is the worst offender of her sex! Just because I told her I wasn't ready yet in Australia she goes and gets engaged to that damn Bugme! Then I give up my career and risk my life to go to Paraguay to save Mac, and I don't even get a thank you, instead I get told NEVER. Never would we be able to have a relationship, but sure she and Webb could get together no problem. But forget even trying something with me, not even one date, it's never yet we've known each other for how many years?! All I ever wanted was a shot, one date to prove to her that we were meant together. Couldn't she see that I went to Paraguay because I love her!"
Sturgis stood there shocked he had never seen Harm lose it like this before and actually say what he was feeling. How long has he been holding this all in, and what made him burst tonight of all nights?
"Then I hear this godforsaken song on the radio that got me thinking about Mac and how I need to tell her how I feel, try to win her back. I changed into my dress whites and gold wings for her, to impress her, to make her smile and laugh. I used to live to see her smile, now I could careless! Then I drive all the way over to her apartment just to find her there sleeping with Clay in every room of the apartment! She has obviously made her choice and it isn't me, so now I'm out of here for good! I'm putting in my request to Chegwidden in the morning to have my billet be changed and stationed elsewhere as many miles away from Mac as I can possibly get!" Harm shouted nearly at the top of his lungs out of frustration, anger, and hurt.
Sturgis stood there stunned. Harm went to her apartment tonight? How come he didn't see her lying on the floor? Didn't he think it was odd that the room had been trashed? He thought about Harm's words for a second, He said he saw her with Clay, but the Admiral said he couldn't get a hold of him and Mac had cancelled her date with him so why would he be at her apartment?
Determined to get some answers Sturgis asked, "What makes you think that Clay was at Mac's apartment tonight, Harm?"
"I don't know Sturgis maybe the fact that they're dating, the light's were off, her car indicated she was home, and things had been banged around the apartment in a frenzy of passion!"
Oh my God, Harm thinks that Mac and Clay were having sex tonight and that's why the apartment had been dark and trashed, he still doesn't know!
"Harm, what time did you go over to Mac's tonight?"
"Around 2025 or so! But I don't want to talk about it Sturgis, I'm going home and pack my things up and write my request for the Admiral!" Harm said walking off in the direction of his Lexus.
He came by right after the paramedics had taken her to the hospital! I have to stop him!
"Harm wait, you can't go home yet!" Sturgis said hurrying after him, he wasn't about to lose him again.
"With all respect to our friendship Sturgis but who the hell is going to stop me? Certainly not you!" He stormed off and was almost out of the park.
"The hell I won't! I need to take you to the hospital ASAP!"
"What the hell for! I'm not that drunk Sturgis!"
Sturgis caught up to him, and punched him good in the face knocking him down to the ground and causing him to lose consciousness.
"Well now you need stitches and while you're there perhaps they can pull your head out of your ass so you can salvage your relationship with Mac!" Sturgis shouted at the body of Harmon Rabb, Jr. and then picked him up by the arm's and drug him to his car and put him into the front seat and drove him to Bethesda.
"Admiral? This is Turner, I found Harm I'm bringing him now."
"Excellent job Sturgis!"
"Not quite sir, he's unconscious and needs stitches and to have his head pulled out of his six! He thinks that Mac and Clay were sleeping together tonight in her apartment and that's why it was trashed."
"Alright, call me when you get here and I'll help you carry him into the ER and I'll give the nurses a head's up on your arrival."
"Any word on Mac or Clay yet?"
"The surgeon just left the consent papers with me and I'm filling them out now. She's going to be taken up in about 15 minutes or so."
"See you soon, sir."
"Bye."
Author's note: Okay well I had several requests from people to have someone "knock" some sense into Harm, so ask and you shall receive. Any ideas as to who might have done this to Mac yet? I know already let's see if anyone else does. Review and give me your best guess.
A/N 2: The three songs I took lyrics from are all from Matchbox Twenty's "Mad Season". They are Last Beautiful Girl, Angry, and Leave (respectively).