Disclaimer: Not mine

The next week seemed to last for an eternity. When the weekend finally arrived Harm was both relived and disappointed. Mac had kept a distance ever since her birthday. She had avoided him all week. He took the point by Tuesday and stopped trying to get trough to her. If she had to talk to him though, she would make it as short as possible. He felt the tension between them; she wouldn't even look at him. 'At least she doesn't have to pretend like I don't exist for the next two days' Harm thought. She had closed him completely out, and he was hurt. They got a long so well lately, as friends. He even thought for the slightest moment that they actually had a chance at something more too. He couldn't stand it anymore, now it was actually worse than after Paraguay, at least she would talk to him then. Getting trough the weekend was also tormenting. At work he saw her everyday; he thought he might be better off when she wasn't around, but it only got worse. Now, he couldn't see how she was doing either. He missed hanging out with her, talking to her… Being with her. This had to stop. They had to talk, get trough this - together.

Monday came and Harm had psyched himself up to talk to her. She wasn't there at staff call. 'Wow!' he though. 'She's actually late! I'm getting her for that!' he smiled to himself. That thought was killed when he learned that Mac had caught a cold and was on sick leave for the next couple of days.

Around lunch time things were heaping up on his desk as he had his own cases as well as some of Mac's. He sighted and picked up the phone and dialled a familiar number.

"Grace Aviations, this is Mattie Grace?" her familiar voice said in the other end.

"Hey!" he was delighted to speak to her.

"Hi," she sounded just as delighted "It's been a while. I almost thought you had forgot about me!" she teased.

"That's not even funny! I've been jammed up at work. How's business going?" he teased back, feeling a little guilty for not calling the other day.

"Excellent! I was just done fuelling some of'em up. So, what are you working on?" she asked.

"Everything! Mac's sick, so we got a little extra work, I can't blame her though…"

Mattie cut him off. "Listen, I'm going into town later, want to meet up or something?" she was eager, he could tell.

"Sure! Want me to pick you up somewhere?" he said as he put away some files and pulled another one out from the stack.

"No, no… Dad's driving…" She sounded a bit off.

"You okay with that?" he asked a bit unsure.

"Yeah, at least he's not dinking anymore, but the whole father/daughter thing will take some time…" she said.

"Everything's going to work out just fine Mattie! You'll adjust… Besides, I'm only a phone call away if you ever need anything!" he assured her.

"I know, thanks… So, should I just come by your place?"

"My places it is, I'll even fix you up something!" he winked.

"Cool! I'll be there around 6pm, okay?" She asked.

"Okay, see you then! Bye…" he hung up and buried himself in work again.

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Around 6:30pm Mattie had nearly finished her plate as Harm picked on his.

"Earth to Harm?" Mattie chuckled as he came out from his trance.

"Oh! Sorry about that…" he said distractedly and picked some more in his food.

"Why don't you just tell me what's on your mind?" She asked, taking a last bite.

"It's nothing, really… Just thinking about a co-worker, that's all…" he said as he put his fork down.

"Mac, right?" she asked questionably.

"How did you know?" he said surprised.

"You've talked an awful lot about her lately!" she laughed.

"I have?" as he thought about it, he might have done so.

"Yeah! What's up with you and her anyway?" she asked, gathering her dishes before she went to put them in the dishwasher.

"Nothing… We're partners that's all…" he said, looking down on his plate, starting to picking at his food again.

"Oh, come on! You plan her birthday and buy her a diamond necklace, I might be 14, but I'm not brain-dead!" she said sitting across from him again.

"As I said, we're friends… Very good friends!" he sighted.

"Sure there's nothing more to it than 'just friends'?" she teased.

"No!" he sounded like he was 5. "I sort of blew it…" he looked towards a picture of them standing nearby.

"Really? How come?" she asked as she followed his eyes. She went to fetch the picture to get a better look at this Mac person. "Wow, she's pretty!" she said putting it between them.

"Yeah…" he sighted. "She is!" he took the picture and looked at it.

"What happened?" she asked again.

Harm took a deep breath before he started to tell her everything: the other night, Australia, Mic, Renée, Webb…

"Jeez, really sounds like you two have gone through a hard time!" she said after hearing the whole story.

"Yeah, you can put it like that!" he chuckled at her.

"Listen, my dad is picking me up any minute now. Why don't you order a pizza since you haven't eaten anything, go over and straighten things out between the two of you?" she suggested. "She's clearly frustrated about this Catherine woman, I know I would be, and if I were sick, I would love if someone brought me pizza!" she said.

He suddenly felt like the youngest one in the room.

"You know what? That's not such a bad idea! And besides, I'll remember that for next time you're sick!" he smiled.

"You do that!" she said as she got up and went to get her jacket.

"Hey, I'm sorry I wasn't the best of company today…" he apologised.

"Don't worry about it! After all you've done for me the last thing I could do is to be a good listener," she smiled. "Besides, I enjoy hearing about your life too you know!" she hugged him goodbye.

He smiled as he watched her go. She was so young, yet she understood him like no one else, except… Well - the exception would be Mac.

He cleaned his still full plate, put it in the dishwasher and turned around towards the table. He slowly picked up the framed picture and put it back with the others, smiling. He called to order a 'half meat lovers, half veggie' pizza before he headed out to pick it up and drive over to his partner.

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She opened the door and looked directly into a face she knew very well - maybe too well for her liking at the moment.

"Oh… You… What do you want?" she said before she sneezed into a Kleenex.

"That glad to see me, huh?" he actually looked disappointed.

"Look, I'm not in the mood or shape to talk right now, okay?" she looked at him with a stern look, hoping it might make him go away.

"May I at least come in?" he pleaded.

She hesitated. "I really don't… All right, all right!" she opened the door wider so that he could step inside.

"Well, glad to see you haven't run out of paper yet!" he chuckled as he saw at least a dozen toilet rolls and Kleenex cartons all over her apartment.

"What, are you here to make fun of my cold! What do you want?" she asked clearly irritated.

"I just want to talk to you. About everything, about us…"

She cut him off. "There is no 'us', there probably never was an 'us'!" she sneezed again.

"But I…"

She cut him off again. "See, that's the problem" It's always about you Clay! Believe it or not, but I am sick and tired of it!" She went over to her coffee table to get a new Kleenex.

"Hear me out will you?" he asked calmly. He was always calm, it bothered the heck out of her.

She shut her eyes, silently counted to ten to calm herself down and gather her thoughts. She sighted. It was only fair to listen to him. They had after all been dating for almost a year. "All right…" she sat down, so did Webb.

"I'm sorry about how things ended Sarah…" he said looking at her.

She laughed. "How can you be sorry about that? We agreed, remember?"

"Actually, you agreed with yourself…" he said before he looked her deeply in the eyes.

"Are you saying you're regretting this?" she asked, breaking the contact immediately.

"Yes! I want us to work things out! I'll change, you'll change. We'll adjust to each other!" he said, giving her a new Kleenex.

"Thanks," she sneezed into it. "But I am perfectly happy with my life right now!" Okay, that wasn't completely true, but she wasn't telling him that. "Look Clay, you work for the CIA. It's your life, just like the Marine Corp. is mine. Work always comes first! Just admit it, we can't change that and honestly, none of us wants too…" she smiled, hoping he'd understand. She soon realized he wasn't giving up that easily.

Harm parked his car outside her apartment building, grabbed the pizza and rushed up to her door. As he approached he heard familiar voices within it. What the hell was he doing here? She was actually laughing, with him. His heart sunk, he hadn't heard her laughter in quite some time. He wasn't eavesdropping; it was inevitable not to hear what was being said, right?

"What about the time you almost made the waiter cry when your food was served cold?" Webb said. She laughed again.

"It's not my fault they served me cold steak! I was hungry!" she giggled.

He laughed with her. "Look Sarah, I just want it to work out between us…" he said in a low serious tone.

Harm had heard enough. He practically stormed out of the apartment building while different thoughts went trough his mind. He wasn't angry; he didn't have the right to be, did he? It wasn't like they were dating or anything? Still, he felt a small tingle of jealousy in the back of his mind. He threw the pizza into the nearest container and jumped into his car. He buckled up and started to drive. He wasn't really sure of where he was heading and he didn't care. The frustration only grew inside of him. He turned over, hit the steering wheel with the fist of his hand and swore. Why was this always happening? Why couldn't they just make it work!

Up in Mac's apartment Webb didn't stop to push, he kept bringing up all the fun memories from their relationship, completely ignoring what made them brake up in the first place.

"We can make this work Sarah! We'll adjust…"

"No Clay, we can't! We both know it! I don't want a man who's only there for me every once and again when his job allows it, every time it suites him, and who I can't confide in!" she was getting angry. He just wouldn't get it.

"I had no idea you felt that way…" he said.

"No really, you though we had the perfect relationship, didn't you?" she said sarcastically.

"Don't you try to get all lawyer on me here!" he said, also pretty irritated.

She couldn't believe what she just heard. "What did you say to me!"

He regretted it as the words left his mouth. "Look, Sarah…"

"Get out!" she yelled as she got to her feet.

"Who gave you that necklace?" he asked as it glittered in the light from her lamp, completely ignoring what she just said.

"None of your damned business Webb!" she hissed back.

He looked at her, the necklace and then towards a picture of her and Harm, putting two and two together. "He's a lucky man you know." he said in a low, angry voice before he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

Tears formed in her eyes, but she fought not to let them fall. She needed comfort, and she knew where to find it. Lifting the phone off the receiver, she dialled a familiar number, Harm's. He didn't answer. 'Of course he didn't answer! He is probably out with someone, Catherine Gale for instance.' God, right now she hated the Company and everyone who worked in it! She looked towards the picture Webb had looked at while she bit her lower lip to prevent her from crying. Had she lost her partner forever?

Nix707: Thanks again for great reviewing, but I'm sorry to let you know... Webb's not completely gone ;) Don't worry, "the fluff is coming", just wait and see!