Harm made quick strides through the lobby and towards the hotel bar, with Mac in tow.

'What am I going to say?' he thought, 'How can I save this?'

Except for the staff, the bar was empty. Harm sat down at a table and signaled a nearby waiter.

"Whiskey and a soda with a twist." he ordered.

Mac sat down and the waiter returned with the order. Harm took the glass and downed the drink in one gulp. He ordered another.

"We going to actually talk, or are you just going to drown yourself in booze?" Mac asked. She was getting impatient

Harm felt an urge to make some snide remark about her drinking history, but just barely managed to bite it back. He knew that such a remark would do nothing to help his case. But her remarks beginning to get on his nerves, which was doing nothing to improve his already foul mood.

"I'm working towards something." He said with no trace of emotion.

At first Mac said nothing, but then something nasty inside her made her say, "If you need that to work towards something than that's generally a sign there's a problem."

Harm only just managed to stop the words: "You should know" from escaping.

'If she keeps going like this, I'm going to lose it. If she weren't a woman, I swear to god I'd…'

The waiter brought the second and Harm consumed it with equal voracity. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Here goes." He said and thought.

Mac looked at him expectantly.

"Okay, first things first. Why are you so convinced that it'll never work out between us?"

"I told you why." Mac had to keep from rolling her eyes. This was getting her nowhere.

"Oh, I know what you told me. You know what I think?"

Mac sat motionless.

Harm sighed angrily, "I'll tell you. I think it's a cop-out, plain and simple."

Mac felt her anger beginning to rise. "A cop-out?"

"Damn right. You can't tell me the real reason because you're afraid so you throw some bullshit metaphor at me."

"Afraid?" Mac's eyes flashed. "You want to talk about being afraid? When I wanted to talk about our relationship, back in the hotel room, who was the one who said 'let's table this discussion for another time'?"

"I wasn't afraid. I wanted to avoid an argument. You didn't want to talk about our relationship, you just wanted to rant and rave at me for not telling I resigned my commission."

"I didn't rant or rave. I just wanted to know why you did and why you didn't tell me."

"I told you why, and I didn't tell you because I knew you'd act like this."

Mac rubbed her temples, "Like what?"

"Like what I did the worst thing I could do. Like doing something for you was the worst mistake I could ever make." Off her perplexed stare he continued, "Don't act so surprised. It's not like you've been happy to see me since I found you."

His tone took a bitter turn, "But I suppose that's just par for the course."

Mac, who had been staring at the tabletop, looked up in shock. "Just what does that mean?"

Harm gave a dismissive snort as if he had become resigned to some horrible truth.

"It's simple. I rescue you, Webb gets the 'thank you' kiss and I get the insults."

Mac couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That's what's been bothering you? I kissed Webb, that's what bothering you?"

"No," Harm exclaimed, "That's not what's been bothering me."

"You wouldn't have said it otherwise." Mac pointed out.

"All right, so it bothered me. So what?"

"Well it explains a lot." Mac's voice developed an edge, "The insults, the innuendoes and finally that little comment of 'you can have him'. Even after I said that there was nothing going on."

"What do you expect me believe? I'm a lawyer and a pilot. I make judgments based on what I see."

"You see, how can we have a relationship if you won't believe me?"

At that moment Harm had his epiphany.

'I can't believe it. Can all of this be because I jumped to conclusions…again! I'm such an idiot!'

In an instant all of his anger disappeared. He slouched back in his chair, with a look of utter defeat on his face. He had no answer. She was right. They couldn't work, not like this.

Mac saw all of this and her heart broke. Friend or foe, she hated to see him in this kind of pain. Her expression softened. "What do you see now?" She asked. Unsure of what he might say.

"I…" Harm looked as though his world had ended, "I see that I was wrong."

He sat up and gave Mac a sorrowful look that tore at her. "And I see myself having just lost the best thing…the best friend I ever had."

'No!' Mac's mind screamed. This wasn't what she had wanted at all. She had realized that they couldn't be lovers, but she didn't want to lose him as a friend.

'Well what did you expect?' A nasty voice in her head whispered, 'Did you really think that he would just take that kind of rejection as a polite brush-off?'

To be honest Mac wasn't sure what she had thought. She was angry at the time, too angry to think straight.

"You haven't…" She began.

"You were right Mac." Harm hadn't heard her. He got up from the table. "Goodbye." He stated finally as if she were dead. Stiffly he turned and headed for the exit.

Mac sat speechless.