Title : Christmas Comes But Once A Year…
(or, 'How wrong can a woman be'?)
Author : Jaggie 107
Disclaimer : JAG characters belong to DPB, CBS and Paramount. I hope all parties will allow me to have fun for a little while, and replace them all when I'm done. Thank you.
Rating : G to PG-13 (Just in case!)
Thanks again for the wonderful reviews! How can I not continue with such enthusiastic support! I've got to say, I was happy to find out that Alicia Montes was only in the Christmas episode in flashback, and not actually there in person.
On with the story…
Harm's Apartment – Early Christmas Morning
Mac's nose wrinkled in her sleep. Something was tickling her, but she was too tired to figure out what that something was. A smile graced her lips as she remembered just why she was tired…and the tickling stopped. Opening the one eye that wasn't buried in the pillow, Mac saw Harm's face come into focus.
"Well, good morning, sleepy head. I thought you'd never wake up!"
"I bet you were one of those kids who was always up before daylight to find out what was under the tree, huh?" Mac groaned huskily, and then blinked as she came fully awake. Harm nodded, even though his eyes appeared bleak for a few moments. Mac rolled over and sat up in the bed, leaning forward to hug him. A gesture that was returned willingly. "You stopped when your Dad went missing, didn't you?"
Harm pulled back slightly and nodded wordlessly. "It wasn't the same. I used to run into Mom and Dad's bedroom and wake them up. The first Christmas after Dad went missing, Mom tried to make up for him not being there, but it just wasn't right. I heard her crying sometimes, and I just didn't want to make it worse for her, so I stopped messing around. We still had a tree, and the usual dinner, but it was never the same. When I got older, and Frank came along, we started going away at Christmas, usually to his place in the Bahamas. When I left for the Academy, Mom and Frank began to take the cruises at Christmas, instead."
"My mom would try to make Christmas special for me, when I was little, but then my father would come home and wreck the tree, either in anger, or simply because he was too drunk and he'd fall over it. When Mom left home, Christmas became just another day. Drinking allowed me to blot out everything, even being married to Chris, because when I was sober I realized what I had done. By marrying Chris, I had simply exchanged one nightmare life for another. Drinking was my escape. Until Uncle Matt came along…" Mac paused, and Harm smiled at her.
"I have a lot to thank your Uncle Matt for," he murmured, and Mac looked quizzically at him.
"How come?"
"If he hadn't found you and helped you dry out, you and I would never have met."
Mac shook her head, rubbing her hand on Harm's cheek. "You and I would have met somehow, Harm. However much we've gone through over the years, I do believe that we were meant to be together, I just didn't realize it would take us this long…" Mac stopped talking, simply because Harm's lips found hers once more, and all coherent thought vanished from both their minds.
Later…
There was a bell ringing somewhere, and Harm put his hand out, trying to stop the incessant ringing. He could have sworn he hadn't set the alarm beforehand. In fact, he remembered quite clearly being otherwise engaged! As his hand encountered the silent alarm he realized two things in quick succession – it was the doorbell that was ringing, and Mac's closeness had him in a growing state of arousal, again. Grinning to himself, Harm wondered if this was going to be his fate now, to be always at the ready for Mac! And her gorgeous body! Dropping a soft kiss on her shoulder as she slept on, he summoned a certain part of his anatomy to 'stand down' and grabbed his robe as he walked down the steps and across to the door.
"Good morning, Harm. Merry Christmas!" Alicia Montes stood in the doorway, a wide smile on her face, but Harm noticed that it didn't reach her eyes. "May I come in?"
"Actually, no." Harm's sullen response caught Alicia Montes by surprise, and she paused momentarily, before easily side-stepping Harm and walking past him into the apartment. Harm's glance went immediately to the glass wall of his bedroom area, and Alicia followed his direction, her face turning a number of shades of red as she saw the outline of another body. In the bed. In Harm's bedroom.
Alicia began to walk towards the bedroom, but Harm's words stopped her in her tracks.
"How dare you come into my home, and intrude on my life, uninvited, Professor Montes? I'd like you to leave. Now. If you don't, I'll have no alternative but to call the police and have you removed."
"You would do that?" Alicia looked at Harm in disbelief, but before he could answer another voice interrupted.
"If he doesn't, I will."
Both Harm and Alicia turned to face Mac, dressed in one of Harm's Navy t-shirts, and a pair of boxers. Very much at ease; very much at home. Harm looked at her over the top of Alicia Montes' head, and grinned.
"My, my…I wonder if your commanding officer knows of your 'close quarters'," Alicia's tone was derogatory, but Mac stood her ground, and Harm was happy to let her take the lead.
"Any issues General Cresswell may have with the Commander and myself will be addressed between the three of us, Professor Montes, and is none of your business."
"Well, I'm making it my business, Colonel."
"Now why would you want to do that?" Mac's question was voiced quietly, but Harm could feel her quivering with barely concealed rage. His grasp on her shoulder tightened a little. If Mac noticed, she didn't do or say anything.
"I want him. You have him. When I tell the General about the two of you, both of you will be in trouble. I can make excuses for Harm, and get him off the hook. You, however, will either have to resign your commission, or be posted off to God-knows-where, and therefore will be out of my hair, so to speak." It was said with such eery calmness that both Harm and Mac glanced uneasily at each other before summoning a joint show of force. Alicia continued, unaware of their unspoken agreement to end this farce.
"I don't suppose he told you that he made a pass at me, did he?" she asked in a sing-song voice, and Mac stared at her in utter amazement. "Ah! I see he didn't. It was that night you came to the apartment, Colonel, when we were having dinner together."
Harm didn't have to retaliate. Mac knew he would never force his attentions on any woman, and as she squeezed her hand at his waist he looked down at her, giving her the briefest of smiles, but one that spoke volumes. It was time.
"Professor, I think it's time you left now," Mac began, but Alicia remained seated. There was a smug smile on her face, and a semi-automatic in her hand.
"I don't think so, Colonel. If anyone is leaving, it's you. Now you have a choice. You can either leave by yourself, voluntarily. Or I pull this trigger, and you go out in a body bag."
Mac stared at the gun as Harm slowly dropped his arm from around her shoulders and moved in front of her. His eyes never wavered from Alicia's.
As Alicia became aware of his movement she raised the gun, speaking still in the sing-song voice she had adopted. "Don't do that, Harm. I don't want to shoot you, but I will if I have to. I wouldn't kill you, but it would cut down on our time together if you had to recover in hospital first."
"Alicia, don't do this. I never gave you reason to believe that you and I should be together as a couple, and what you're doing here, now, isn't going to help your defence lawyer at trial." Harm tried to placate, but his efforts were wasted. Alicia Montes was too far into her fantasy about the two of them to listen to reason.
"Trial? I'm not going to court, Harm. Colonel Mackenzie is going to step aside so that you and I can be together, and everything will be all right."
Harm felt Mac move out from behind him, and he reluctantly let her, keeping a hand on her arm, which she didn't attempt to shrug off.
"Alicia, is this why you sent the flowers? To warn me off Harm?"
"You were supposed to be caught out by Gordon…Harm was supposed to be with me, the night of the Ball!"
"We were there as military officers, Alicia. We were representing the JAG office by being present," Mac tried to explain.
"But you left with him!" Alicia almost screamed the words, and Mac stepped back a little as the high-pitched voice scraped against her nerves.
"We left with the General, Alicia. You remember that, don't you?" Harm spoke up then, and both women looked at him. Alicia with a vacant expression as she tried to remember the night of the Ball, and Mac with an understanding of what he was trying to convey, and an intuition that his idea might just work.
"General Cresswell dropped me off at my apartment, Alicia, I swear. Harm went on to his apartment with the General in the limousine."
"I know. I saw you get out in Georgetown."
It was the first real admission of intent, and both Harm and Mac seemed to relax slightly. It wouldn't be enough to keep Alicia behind bars though. They needed her admission that she had tried to maim Mac with the flower delivery containing the acid, and that she was prepared to kill to get Harm for herself. To kill anyone who stood in her way.
"You didn't get to spend the night with Harm, though! I know that! When I came by the yesterday morning he was on his way to meet you, but you weren't together all night!"
Harm glanced at Mac and then back at Alicia.
How wrong can a woman be?
"Actually…" he began.
To be continued
