Title: Ending The Dance
Author: JAGfreak
Disclaimer: If I owned JAG, things would be a bit different..lol...
Ending The Dance pt. 3/? --...Faithful friends who are dear to us...
Harm snapped out of his reverie;Mac was still staring up at him, a twinkle in her eye...a smile on her lips. 'how could he refuse that face?' he asked himself.
"Well?" she asked impatiently.
"Ok, let's have christmas marine." He said chuckling softly at her.
Mac's face broke out into a full-fledged smile, before wincing from the pain doing so had caused her still sore face. Harm did not miss this, he shot her a concerned look. She laid back on the pillows to appease him and smiled. "Ok Ok..I'll take it easy, stop worrying..geeze Harm."
"Hey..worrying to death about you is part of the best friend job description." he told her teasingly.
"Even if it means annoying ME to death?" she asked chuckling softly.
"Yeah I think that sounds about right..." he joked.
"You're impossible flyboy." Mac smiled softly at him, loving that she could call him that again...that it felt right to call him that again.
"I know I am, but you like that about me.. remember?" Harm teased.
Mac acted nonchalant. "Oh..do I?"
Harm just smiled at her in response, his hands clasped together, his elbows resting on his knees.
A comfortable silence fell over them. The only sounds were of their breathing...the rhythmic in and out. Their eyes were still locked, both averting their gaze every few seconds and inevitably meeting gazes once more. They both knew something was changing between them...they were just trying to comprehend how to deal with it.
Mac spoke first, her eyes searching his. "I uh...I've missed this Harm..."
Harm nodded slightly in the affirmative. "I have too Mac..."
"Thank you ..." Mac said quietly.
"For?" Harm asked softly.
"For waiting....for understanding...for giving me space...for being here for me when I had no right to ask you to be...for ...for everything."
Harm looked back at her, getting lost in her beautiful eyes. He finally found his voice.
"Did you honestly think you could push me far enough away?"
Mac was silent for a minute, though she didn't need to think about the answer..she knew.
"no" she said simply. "At one point I thought you had been...pushed too far away..too many times...but I knew better...you're a hard man to get rid of." she smiled teasingly at the last part.
"What point was that?" Harm asked, confused.
Mac debated whether or not to be honest. She really didn't want to come across as the jealous 'you were with another woman' remark...when..she really had no claim to him. She sighed audibly before speaking softly.
"Alicia.."
"That night? When you came to my apartment?"
"yeah...that was when." she swallowed slowly, she hated being so vulnerable but she wanted him to tell her it was nothing...that Alicia meant nothing that she misunderstood...that he hadn't slept with her. That the images haunting her dreams of him kissing her and loving her while Mac stood on the other side of his apartment door...waiting...was just a dream. That he hadn't been with her in that way.The silence hung over them...she waited, though she knew she couldn't be mad at him if he had...she would be hurt..but had no right to be...
"I uh...it was just dinner Mac" Harm tried to reassure her.
Mac sighed. "You don't need to explain anything to me Harm...I have no right to ask that of you."
Harm looked at her, tucked in under the covers...her body bruised, her face still red from the impact of the air bag and still she was the most gorgeous woman he'd ever laid eyes on.
"I know I don't....but I want to..." he scooted to the edge of the chair. He reached out to carefully brush a lock of her hair off her forehead. "Alicia and I are just friends....I meant what I said earlier Mac....nothings changed....I'm still here."
Mac felt tears well up in her eyes. "Harm...why now? after all these years? Why is now the right time for...for us?"
Harm understood, he'd asked himself the same question. "We weren't ready before." he said simply. "We started dancing...and kept going.....both afraid of what would happen if we stopped...both wanting to...but fear and pride pushed us on...neither of us wanted to be the first to stop...the first to show that we needed to stop....but ...after all this time...we're tired...tired of dancing...tired enough to stop."
Mac blinked back tears. "Are you ...tired enough to stop?"
Harm choked back his emotions. "..I am.."
RING! the phone interrupted the moment, cutting through the silence and breaking their intense gaze. RING! With a sigh, Mac reached for the phone.
TBC...please review with any ideas. : )