The Deal
By Bernadeen
Rated: M
Category: Romance (H/M)
Spoilers: Goodbyes, Standards of Conduct, and almost any other episodes before the end of season 8.
Disclaimers: I don't own and claim no rights to any of these wonderful characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes.
Summary: Of course it's about "The Baby Deal."
A/N: This story started out to be set about four months prior to little AJ's fifth birthday … and therefore, nearing the time when the "Baby Deal" would occur .. or not. Yeah, I know there are a zillion stories about "The Deal" so if you're sick of this topic, don't read mine.
However, after seeing "Measure of Men", it evolved into something else because, in my opinion,Mac had treated Harm so cruelly in that episode. Now I'm splitting the two stories and writing a separate one which will be set after "Measure of Men" but prior to "JAG-a-thon" when H&M are at odds with each other. I'm a shipper, but Mac treated Harm so badly that I may not let her have him .. we'll see. That story is "Decisions." It's mostly complete but needs an ending. Hope to finish it off and post it soon.
As editing began on this story, it took on a life of its own with the focus on "The Baby Deal" only incidental. The name was changed to "Assignment for Webb" and became an entirely different story. It now involves Harm going under cover to infiltrate a drug cartel. I'm finding I have no control over the direction my stories go! That story is a work in progress which I hope to finish someday.
I'm still trying to write a story about the Baby Deal. We'll see whether I can accomplish it here.
A/N 2: The date is necessary to bring the story near to the deadline for the "Baby Deal" but the relationship in the beginning between Harm and Mac is based on seasons 7 and 8.
The Deal
Chapter 1
North of Union Station
Monday, January 17, 2004
2130 EST
Another year beginning. Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr. relaxed at home listening to music and mused about where he was in his life. He was usually at home when not traveling on a case. No social life. He shook his head .. no desire for a social life. Wow, on the wrong side of forty and he was becoming a hermit! It really didn't bother him that he didn't have a girlfriend .. and hadn't had one for some time. Relationships were emotionally draining and a lot of work. And for what? You just got dumped sooner or later anyway!
The only woman he thought about these days was Mac. They had finally settled into a comfortable.. at least most of the time.. friendship. However, it became evident that their friendship was fragile, when first Mac and then Harm had presided over hearings in which the other was counsel for one of the parties. Harm was ashamed to admit that he had acted unprofessionally the first time he had appeared before Mac as judge. It had been envy, he supposed. He remembered feeling a bit the same way when Mac came to the Patrick Henry sporting her new rank... No, that wasn't so much envy as hurt. He was hurt that Mac hadn't shared the news of her promotion with him. That he had to learn about it only when he saw her. If she hadn't had that case, there was no telling how long it would have been before he found out she had been promoted.
No, seeing Mac on the bench was different. Always, Harm had been happy for Mac's successes and supportive when she wasn't as successful. Why he had acted so pissy when she was assigned to the bench temporarily he wasn't sure. True, she had exhibited much the same conduct when he was presiding. He soon found that his temperament wasn't suited to being a judge, and he was no longer envious of Mac's occasional assignments as judge.
He leaned his head against the back of the sofa, closed his eyes, and indulged himself in one of his favorite pastimes .. visualizing Mac walking toward him wearing a clinging dress and a sexy smile, just as he had seen visions of her for two days after hitting his head in the admiral's office several years ago. He knew it wasn't healthy to let his fantasies become so enjoyable .. but he was getting so good at picturing her there.
With a sigh, he opened his eyes and the vision vanished. Damn you, Sarah MacKenzie, he thought. Stay out of my dreams. It had been worse lately because little AJ's fifth birthday was approaching. Five years ago on the day he was born, Harm and Mac had made a deal. Five years from that day, if neither was in a relationship, they would have a baby together. Her looks and his brains or his looks and her brains.. it would work either way. They had made the promise and shook hands on it. He thought about that deal many times during the last four and a half years.
While it was only later when Mac was preparing to marry Brumby that Harm finally acknowledged to himself that he was in love with her, he was beginning to have an inkling of his feelings thinking of the baby deal. First of all, he really didn't expect both of them would be free at the end of five years, so it was a safe promise. But what if they were? He was a bit embarrassed with himself when he realized he was fantasizing about fulfilling the baby deal the "old fashioned way." Mac was his best friend .. he didn't think about her that way. But the more he thought about it, he wondered why he didn't. She was beautiful, capable, tough, intelligent .. his equal in every respect. He realized he was beginning to think of her as a woman first and a Marine second .. and that was treading on very dangerous ground.
So many things had happened in their lives since AJ's birth, but the one thing that Harm hoped would happen had not occurred. He hoped he could find a way to tell Mac that he loved her .. without getting kicked by a pissed off Marine. And that was it .. no, he was not really worried about getting kicked, but if she didn't feel the same, she would be .. what? Embarrassed? Angry? Whatever her reaction, it would end their friendship. That was the real reason he had held back so long. Well, that was actually the second reason.
After he survived his crash in the Atlantic, he wanted to tell her how he felt. He needed to tell her. When she ran away to the Guadalcanal and wouldn't answer his phone calls, he followed her there to tell her. But she didn't want to hear it. She wouldn't listen. She shut him down and wouldn't see him before he had to leave. The message was clear. It was the end.
Later she seemed to mellow, but by then his only hope was to be friends again. He pushed any more intense emotions deep within himself until he was almost convinced they didn't exist.
And then there were nights like this when he couldn't get her out of his mind, and he knew she was there forever. They should have been spending a lifetime together. Instead, they were nothing more than colleagues while anything more lived only in his fantasies.
His last chance was coming up. The baby deal. She wouldn't want to carry out the deal, he was sure. And then he would know … and then he would request a transfer to somewhere on the other side of the planet. Pearl, maybe. Paradise would be some consolation for never again seeing the woman he loved.
Impatiently he tossed aside a magazine he was holding, stood up, and started to pace. God, he wasn't usually this melancholy. Determinedly, he put thoughts of Sarah MacKenzie out of his mind and climbed the shallow stairs to his bedroom.
End Chapter 1