This is a bit of a filler chapter, it has some nice moments but a back and forth with what Harm and Mac want. I think between the tension and the stress of the "mission" there isn't time to really dwell on feelings too much. There will be a moment that it will happen though. ;) I promise! We might even get a few "l" words out. Hehehe :)

Enjoy!

Jackie.

PART 5 – Chit Chat

July 21, 2005
1230 Zulu
Somewhere East Of Corner Brook
Newfoundland, Canada

They were kissing, slow and passionately, giving into emotions that had been hidden away for so long. His mouth trailed hot kisses from her lips to her neck, stopping to unbutton the flannel shirt she had on. "Right there." She cooed, arching her body against his. It was right as he was going to continue his exploration when he felt something shifting in the sleeping bag.

Cracking one eye open, Harm found Mac laying with her back to him. He groaned slightly; it'd been a dream. Groaning again, he flipped onto his back, hoping to save himself from any embarrassment if she were awake. Not that it should matter. He was a man after all and she was a desirable woman. Still, what if it repulsed or disgusted her? Harm was sure he'd never live it down. He turned his head slightly, enough to watch over her sleeping form. Being so close to her was killing him. Sure, they kissed just a few days ago, but what was it really? Just a friendly kiss? A kiss between two people heading into a very dangerous territory? He wish he had the guts to just lay his heart on the line, but he wasn't too sure she wouldn't trample it. For that matter, he couldn't be certain that he wouldn't hurt her. His track record with women had been less than spectacular. And if they did make it, if it was written in the stars as he hoped it was, would she be taken away from him? Would she suffer the same fate as those he'd opened his heart to? He couldn't bare that thought. Harm had barely made it through Jym and Diane's deaths and was sure that losing Mac would be the end for him. Quickly, he maneuvered himself out of the bag, he had to get away from her, at least for a few minutes to clear his head. After slipping on his boots, he headed into the trees.

Mac wasawake, though. She had heard a moan, then felt his arm pulling her closer to his body. It was then that she felt him against her lower back, making her catch her breath. He wanted her. True, he was a man and having slept next to a woman all night had to have some reaction, especially since said man had been locked up for months without a female companion. Part of her kept doubting their delicate relationship, tossing aside the notion that he loved her and keeping the one that he only desired her. Fundamentally, it made sense; they were both attractive people with a healthy sexual appetite. And that was fine, they were only human. What wasn't fine, however, was the thought of them having a one night stand, or worse, it being so awkward that the weight of it all would finally snap their lifeline. It was that which held them both back from anything more. The fear of losing a friend. But, they weren't just friends, were they? No, and he'd even confirmed that. She felt his eyes on her, something that made her feel safe. What was he thinking about as he stared at her? Was he doubting things just like she was? Or was he coming to his senses? For that matter, why hadn't she come to her senses? Mac felt him shift and move out of the bag. Instantly, she missed him; his presence, his warmth, all of him. Sighing, she rolled onto her back.

The sun was beginning to rise behind them, it was time to head out, get this crazy thing over and done with and head on home. Rummaging through her pack, she pulled out two packs of instant coffee and oatmeal. Mac placed them inside the MRE warming pouches then set them upright against a rock as she headed into the trees to do her necessities.

"It's not eggs and bacon, but the oatmeal isn't all that bad." Harm stated with a grin. When she returned, he'd had the camp nearly picked up. He'd even started warmed and prepared the coffee as much as possible to her liking. "Gotta say, these MRE kits have gotten better."

Mac nodded and took her coffee from him. "Yep, but the coffee needs to be stronger." She grimaced a the dark liquid and downed it in a matter of moments.

"Caffeine is caffeine. . .at least it's better than Tiner's. . Remember?"

Oh, she remembered, especially the day Mac found that Tiner hadn't quite realized filters were a necessity. "How don't you know that to brew coffee you need a filter?"

"Not a clue, but between the Admiral, Tiner and you, it's a miracle my kidney's still working. . . I'm not entirely sure who's was stronger." He chuckled. "But nothing was worse than that soy watchamacallit coffee you brought as bribery when you though I had tickets to the Super Bowl game."

"Uh huh, you do know that Sturgis and I are still contemplating where to hide your body after we skin you?" She gave him a pointed glare. Both she and Sturgis had nearly bent over backwards, believing that Harm had tickets to the super bowl when he and Skates were flying cover in an F-14.

"It was a nice picture though." He'd taken a picture of the superdome as they flew over it upside down. "And you can't be angry with me. Neither you nor Sturgis could handle going supersonic. Hell, I can't even get Sturg to go in 'Sarah'."

"Ah, but, you forget I can fly now." With a grin, she raised a finger up.

He rolled his eyes playfully. "Gonna have to take extra insurance out on 'Sarah', won't I?"

"Hey!" She gave him a good smack on the shoulder. "I did it for you, you know? I thought you'd be proud of me."

"I am, Sarah. . .I am."

And that look he was giving her was just making it difficult to stay even partially upset. With a huff, she took her MRE from him. "Yea, you'd better be, I was shaking like a leaf the first time I took her up alone."

"Well, next time, I'll teach you a few aerobatics."

Mac smiled at him. "I'd like that." True, she'd been scared to death to learn how to fly, especially a plane that had meant more to him than his precious Tomcat. If anything had happened to 'Sarah' she was sure it would kill him, which is why Mac took great care in learning to do everything properly. Now all they had to do was just get back home. "Eat up, flyboy, we have a lot of land to cover."

After finishing his breakfast, Harm covered up their campfire and removed any traces of their presence. They set out walking east, using the map and compass that he was carrying. "Truth or dare." About a half hour into the hike, the silence was starting to get to him. True, the terrain was a bit tricky, but that didn't mean they had to huff and puff without any type of conversation.

"What?" Mac stopped for a moment, and watched as he continued hiking.

Turning slightly, he noticed she'd stopped following. "What? What? Truth or dare." He gave her a sheepish look, then shrugged. "We haven't talked in like half an hour. . .The silence was irritating me."

Mac too, but she wasn't going to let him know that she'd been picking her own brain thinking about past circumstances and their inability to get passed them. "And you want to play truth or dare?"

Harm shrugged. "Well, yea. . . I mean we can't really do dares, but. . .C'mon Mac."

"Okay, no holes barred though." With a mischievous grin, she headed past him, throwing over her shoulder. "Gimme all ya got, Hammer."

'How does she do that?' Harm thought, glancing at her figure as she made it through a heavy area of foliage. 'How does she have the ability to turn me into a bumbling idiot?' His mouth was agape, so much for having a little fun.

Mac peeked at him through the bushes. "You going to stand there all day?" And there was that grin again, the one that said she was trying to make him squirm. "And truth it is, Commander." She winked at him and started moving again.

Harm practically ran after her. "Okay. . . okay, let me think here." The terrain bettered and he was able to walk right next to her. There were tons of things he wanted to know about Mac. Something's a little less G-rated than others. So, he started off slow. "Do you think you'd been a paleontologist if you weren't a Marine?"

"Yes." She said quickly, then chuckled. "You know, I said no holes barred, I meant it."

"You think you could do better, MacKenzie?" He stopped for a moment, slipping a canteen out of his pouch.

Mac nodded. "Yep, and, don't forget, on this trip I'm Mrs. Elliott, Dave." Stopping as well, she took the compass from him, and made sure they were heading in the right direction. "I got a good one, how old were you when you lost your virginity?"

The second the question got out, he was choking on the water he'd tried to drink. Harm braced himself against a tree, wheezing as he tried to get his coughing under control. "Wow. . .some of the water came out my nose." He pinched his nose, then snorted a few times to get the residual water out.

"Uh, well, guess the truth or dare portion of this adventure is over." She patted him lightly on the back, then ran soothing circles. "You okay?"

Harm nodded. "Sixteen. . in. . . Laos."

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What about Laos?"

"When I uh. . . lost. . .Whatever, I was nearly sixteen. . .There was a girl, named Jym. I met her when I set out with a man named Stryker. . . I was trying to find my father. . .It sort of just happened." He swallowed a bit more water with a shrug.

Mac quickly did the math, then stared at him for a moment, noticing a hint of guilt in his eyes. "That's the girl who was shot by the boarder patrol?" He was surprised she even remembered and even more surprised he'd told her. When did he tell her anyway? "You told me when you and Sturgis were working on the Lieutenant Hien case. Remember?"

"Yea. . .I guess she was my first love. If you even know what love is at sixteen." He shrugged and placed the canteen back in his pack. Harm knew that was one of the many issues he wanted to discuss with her, but now wasn't the time. With a grin, he poked her side. "So how old were you went you were. . . uh. . . deflowered?"

There went her eyebrow again, followed by the most unladylike chuckle. She knew he was changing subjects, but that was fine. This whole truth or dare thing was supposed to be about riding stress and having fun. "Deflowered ? What are you writing; a romance novel?"

He set off again, pulling back one of the bushes so that she could pass through. "Yea, well. . . So?"

"Thank you." She curtsied then passed through. "Sixteen and the back of a car that Chris stole. . .It was uncomfortable and nearly turned me off to ever trying it again." She shrugged. "I thought I was in love, or at least a sixteen year old version of being in love. He was older, a bad boy. Dad hated him. . .It was everything I was looking for. . ." Harm frowned slightly. His first time had been nice, Jym had literally guided him on what to do, how to move, where to touch. But hearing Mac's experience, he couldn't help but feel remorse for her. The strangest thing was the contempt that he felt over a man he'd never met. They'd never really discussed much about Chris Ragle, passed the things that pertained to Mac's case, but he could tell she harbored some feelings for him. And that little tidbit had him enraged. It wasn't because he was jealous, though that was a huge part of it. But, it had to do with the way Chris seemed to have treated Mac. She sensed this tension radiating from him. It was time to keep things light. "Moving on to more amusing subjects, tell me something you did at the Academy. . .Stories of you Sturgis and Keeter keep floating around, but I want to hear it from you."

Harm chuckled, oh there were a lot of things the three of them did. From stupid pranks like gluing teacher's materials to their desks to the time they'd told the plebes that an initiation to the Academy required them to do a lap around the quad, at night, completely naked. "Well. . .There were this group of middies, who got on everyone's nerves. . .You know? The guys who's whole entire family tree wound up in the Academy, so they figure they don't have to do much? Well, they started picking on Sturgis for being a preacher's kid and we decided to let them have it. . . Sturgis, Keeter and I went off and bought as many crickets as possible. . . I'm talking like at least two hundred of them, which we let loose in their rooms."

Immediately, Mac started to chuckle. "Let me guess what they'd do at night. . ."

"Oh yea, they didn't sleep for about a week. . . I think if you head to their rooms you might still find one or two in there." He chuckled. "Then there was the time we got dared to run down the girl's dorm completely naked."

Mac stared up at him. "Did you?"

"Ooooh yea, and then spent a month working kitchen detail along with the other guys on our floor since non of us would own up to doing it."

"Well, I've done my own pranks, remember Juanita Ressler?"

If Harm recalled correctly she'd been Mac's former law professor, one who'd kindly suggested that Mac should have become a lap dancer instead of a lawyer. "Kinda hard to forget her after that lap dancer comment." 'Although,' He thought with a wicked smile, but decided to censor his own thoughts.

Mac ignored that bit. "One of the girls in my class and I had become friends. Professor Ressler also had problems with her. . .So we decided to pull a few high school pranks. . . Like the powder of chalk inside the slides she would pull down. My friend was pretty good with computers, so she hacked into the school's mainframe and changed all the course schedules for the day. She ended up having to walk the whole school only to find that her class was canceled that day."

Harm chuckled. "You were bad, Mac."

"Oh, I was worse, until Uncle Matt straightened me out. . .I got pretty good at stealing cars." That girl seemed so far away from the woman that Mac had become. Funny how a trouble maker could turn into such a straight shooter.

"It's past. . .You aren't her anymore." Harm glanced down at Mac and smiled. "Hey did I ever tell you about the time we spiked Keeter's orange juice?" He said, as they continued their, now pleasant, hike through the woods.

1610 Zulu
Bethesda Naval Hospital ICU
Bethesda, Maryland

"I'm sorry, sir, only those authorized are allowed to visit Mr. Webb." There was a Marine standing at the door to Webb's suite at Bethesda. One very large and intimidating Marine. "I would need to see your pass or have your name in this chart."

Raymond Levine glanced up at the Marine. "I am the Deputy Director of the CIA. . . And he is one of my operatives, I believe I have clearance."

But, the Marine didn't waver. "I am sorry, sir. . . my assignment is clear."

"I'll have your chevrons for this, Corporal." Turning around, he began trying to formulize another plan to get into Webb's room. It should have been simple, an in and out sort of thing, but they were guarding him better than the president. All over the hospital, they'd been told to be on the watch for anyone suspicious. A pair of Marines stood watch at the entry way to the ICU. Another stood by the nurses station and finally the one at Webb's door. He fingered the silver case in his pocket. All he had to do was inject the contents into the IV and Webb would rest in peace.

"Raymond? Raymond Levine is that you?" That voice, he knew that voice. Turning around he found Mrs. Porter Webb heading in his direction.

Damn. "Mrs. Webb. . .It's good to see you. . .I am very sorry about Clayton, all of us at the agency are pulling for him." He plastered on a fake look of remorse and attempted to comfort her.

"I always live with a fear of something like this happening. . .No matter how old they are, they are still your baby." She sniffled, using a tissue to wipe away tears. "Tell me, Raymond. . .What happened? What went wrong?"

All chances of escaping came crashing down as she pulled him over to the ICU waiting area. His hand came slowly out of his pocket and out to grasp one of her hands. "It's classified, but I know you do have clearance. . ." He glanced around for wandering eyes, then leaned in. "Did you know a Harmon Rabb?"

"Rabb? Why yes, he was a friend of Clayton's and a Commander in the Navy." Porter had always liked Harm, there was something about the Commander that she'd always found admirable. He was one of the few that seemed to care when Webb faked his death the first time. "His partner dated Clayton for sometime." Now Mac was someone she wasn't to fond of. Which was the reason why they'd never met until his second death. Frankly speaking, she'd expected nothing but the best for her son and a woman that was military simply wasn't it.

Ray was surprised that she'd so openly refer to her son's private life, but thought nothing of it. "Well, the Commander seems to have been involved in treasonous affairs. . . There's no easy way to say this, but, we believe he was the one that injured your son."

Great, now he had another story to fabricate for his needs. Which, was fine, there weren't too many people that knew what he was up to in regards to Rabb. The people that did would remain quite if they knew what was good for them.

Porter stared at the man as if he'd grown two heads. True, she wasn't all that familiar with Harm, but, he'd saved her son three times as she recalled. Men like that didn't turn. "Treason? Raymond, dear, are you sure about this? Clayton says otherwise."

His face remained a void of emotion. "Quite, Mrs. Webb. The Commander made it look like someone else shot your son, when it was him. I assure you, there are no doubts." Ray discussed the whole case to her, leaving out how they were trying to have Webb killed for breaking protocol. Instead, he made Harm to be the bad guy, the one who tricked Webb then tried to kill him. Porter sat there, confused as what to believe, the Commander wasn't the type to do things like that and she had to admit, her son had been slightly out of it when they spoke. "So, you see, it's a miracle that Clayton is alive. . .In fact, we need to have some of our men here to protect him as well."

Porter waved him off. "That won't be necessary, in fact, as soon as he comes out of this, and I have no doubt in my son's strength, I am taking him home to recover."

"Is this because of the past? Why don't you like me Mrs. Webb?"

She was inclined to laugh in his face. But, maintained her good mangers. Did he really think she was that stupid? Ray Levine was a fool if he didn't think anyone knew what he was up to. Clayton Webb may have bought into the lies, but Porter new better, the Levine's had a very tainted history within the agency and she wouldn't trust any of them as far as she could throw them. "To be honest, Raymond, yes, it's because of the past." She was referring to a training mishap that had happened nearly 8 years ago, when Webb was being trained for field duty in Columbia. In fact, as Clay put it, if Harm and Mac wouldn't have been there, he'd have been a goner. "Socially, our families have never gotten along, and while that isn't tragic, we've set our personal feelings aside during business hours. However, I don't think you've afforded that same treatment for my son."

"I was his trainer, Mrs. Webb, not a friend. . . I was supposed to test him."

Porter grinned, an evil looking grin that was making Ray shiver. "Yes, a trainer and I can't seem to put a finger on how a mediocre trainer, such as yourself, has made it to be the Assistant Deputy Director." She placed a hand on his arm and chuckled. "You must be the luckiest Levine in the agency. . .everyone else has either bowed out or is pushing a desk at Langley."

He chuckled, without any reason to. Raymond Levine had the sudden need to snap that woman's neck in two. Sure, his family wasn't the best, they weren't Webb's, but they had a right to be in the agency. "Actually, ma'am, I am now the Deputy Director. Mr. Kershaw suffered a terrible accident and has passed away. I was informed I'd be heading the agency from now on." His voice was dripping with something that resembled true emotion, but his eyes were devoid of it.

"That's terrible." Porter said, biting back the spite she was dying to set free. Clay had suggested that he didn't think Levine was involved, but she knew the family way too well, non of them were to be trusted. But her son, unfortunately, thought of Ray Levine to be some sort of God. "Well, if you don't mind Raymond, I prefer to be alone at the moment. . .I'll contact you once Clayton wakes up, you might want to apologize for sending him out on some half-baked scheme."

Ray smiled at her. "I am not sure I follow? Half-baked scheme?"

"Goodbye, Raymond." Standing, she left Ray sitting there alone, a Marine guard glaring at the man. He stared up at the Marine, then looked around. Suddenly Ray Levine felt like he was standing on quicksand.

Sorry for the lack of "Conversation" as Xblue put it during the last chapter. I posted very late and was very tired. ;)

Moonlight – my e-mail radiorox(at)bellsouth(dot)net, but you can find out just about anywhere. Even Yahoo! Had a thing on it.

Froggy – Hehehe, they were going to smooch, but then smooching in such close confines would lead to something else and, that something else will come up in another body heat section.

Xblue – We still WILL have conversations, I just took a slight hiatus from them! Jeez! Excuse me for being tired. Oh the bad guys are gonna get theirs, cos I added to extra bad folk to this story, but they won't last more than a chappie. ;) Calix – What up dood! – Oh petition, there is an online petition somewhere about getting the DVD out. T he petition has been out for a few years, I think it has like 1000 + signatures and nothing has come from it. Maybe if we chained ourselves outside of the Paramount building and hum the JAG theme over and over? Could work!

Jtb – It's going to be back and forth for a while, simply because the tension/stress of what they are doing. I don't expect them to just fall into eachother and poof! It will happen and soon! I promise :)

Joanoa – Shippery will come, at the moment, I am working on them talking without even realizing that they are. Notice they've been untabling things? Which leads me to ask. . .couldn't they have written something like that in the show? Occasional moments when things come out and they talk about it without biting eachothers heads off?

Mjag – LOL! Adventures in camping, I like that. . . would be a good series of vignettes where everything in the camping world goes wrogn with Harm and Mac and co.

Tina – LOL! Your computer isn't the only one possessed, mine is not only possessed but it chooses to allow every bug in the planet to sneak on in. So much for a firewall and virus protector. :P

NK – They would SOOO rock on Wisteria Lane. One could dream. I've thought about writing it where Harm and Mac go undercover to Wisteria Lane for something. Course they see Rex/Clay and are like WOAH! Mac would be all pissed off at him even more because he lied to her and had a wife on the side, which is why he was never around. Works huh? ;) – Helfman is the female Navy Judge, the blonde? Played by Jennifer Savidge – She's the one in "Lifeline" and a bunch of others.

Body heat fans – there will be more Body heat in the up and coming chapters. ;) But, as with the actual show, it can't be Harm and Mac all the time cos I wrote in people that we need to know what they are up to. Like kind Mr. Levine. And fun Maj Steele. ;)