A/N: I know I should be working on Learning to Fly, for those of you who have read it. This idea struck me at work and I've been trying to keep it rotating in my head so I don't forget about it. This idea was too good to pass up, hope you like it.
He sat at the bar, slowly running his hand over the glass of Bourbon that sat in front of him. Every once in awhile he would look down at the SEAL insignia that decorated his left chest above his ribbons. His glass was still as full as it had been when he walked into the bar that night. It had all happened so quickly tonight, one minute he had been having a quiet dinner with a few people and the next he was confronting a friend on something that was none of his business.
Happiness, it wasn't something that was meant for a SEAL to try to understand. He had been attached to the Seahawk when he met Harm and the two of them became fast friends. When he told his friend that he was going to be in Washington attached to Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon and he figured that the two of them should get together. Harm wanted to introduce him to a few people, like his girlfriend and a married couple that he worked with.
Bud had seemed like a damned decent guy and his wife Harriett was a sweetheart who seemed to have a perpetual smile on her face. Harm was his usual self, a good host and always up for a few good jokes and stories as they updated one another on their lives. When it came to his girlfriend though, the two men shared a vary differing opinion. In his eye's Harm's girlfriend was shallow, egotistical and more interested in the idea of Harm than Harm himself; this was obviously not how Harm saw her.
He and Harm had talked a lot in the years since the Seahawk. In the last few years, he couldn't help but notice that his friend's thoughts were captured by his latest partner at work. In there first conversations he seemed really focused on the way his partner looked, but after the trial of a SEAL team leader their conversations turned more to the personality of this woman named 'Mac'.
-Flashback-
Dinner was laid out in front of them. Harm was seated next to Renee and across from him. "So Harm, how's Mac? Still engaged to that Australian Neanderthal?" He put some Chicken Penne on his fork and pushed it into his mouth.
"I don't think Mic's all that bad?" Renee looked up at the SEAL smugly.
"Don't you refer to him as Bugme, Harm?" He shot back, no enemy had ever gotten the best of him, especially not some dimwitted blonde.
"Yeah well, he's a bit of a pain. They are still engaged." Harm tried to keep the smile on his face, trying to prevent friendly conversation from turning hostile.
"Pity, it's been a long time since you told me anything good about her. I'm sorry that was uncalled for." He wasn't apologetic, but making it sound like that allowed him to initiate the conversation and make it seem unintentional.
"What has Harm told you about Mac?" Renee looked inquisitive and confrontational as she leaned on the table .
"Depends on what year of their partnership you're talking about. The subject matter has a tendency to change." He got himself some more Penne. "Harm this is awesome, I've got to say."
"Thanks, it's a recipe I just found." Both men were making an effort to change the topic of conversation.
"No changing the conversation you two, I want to hear what Harm has told you about Mac." Renee was insistent, she really leaned in the table, like she was trying to intimidate the SEAL.
"No I really don't think you do." He was flippant and moved back to the dinner. "You think you can give me this recipe, I know I'll probably butcher it but I'm going to be stationed in DC and I should probably learn to cook." He smiled as he swallowed what remained of his dinner.
"The thought of SEAL cooking." Harm made a mock shiver.
"So where did you and Commander Rabb meet sir?" Bud was also trying to move the conversation away from the direction Renee seemed insistent upon taking it. It was making everyone rather uncomfortable.
"Well my SEAL team was attached to the Seahawk when Harm was still flying. We became friends over a few poker games." He smiled, they were good times, and of course they were a lot younger than.
"Why won't you answer my question?" Renee seemed quite insistent and now that it was her who was forcing the issue, it would be okay for him to throw himself back in the ring.
"Because I'm not a fool. If I answer honestly, I'll only piss you off, which will get Harm pissed off at me which I don't want and if I lie I'll be a traitor to my character, a thought worse than angering either of you." He had a contained annoyance for the pushy woman.
"What is that supposed to mean?" While the SEAL's anger was contained, Renee's was in full force. Bud and Harm were noticeably uncomfortable. Half of Harriett didn't want to have the situation to escalate, the other half of her wanted to hear what Harm really thought of Mac.
"What it means, is that for the first two years they were partnered together all I heard was "Mac this" and "Mac that" I heard a lot about her looks and her toughness about how she thrilled him with the way she challenged him. I even told him I thought he had a crush on her, but he just told me that I was crazy. He told me that he was a fool after Australia, from what I understand both Keeter and I heard an earful of regret that night. Now since I'm sure I've overstayed my welcome…"He looked across the table and saw Harm's stoic face. "I will go. Thanks for the dinner Harm it was great. Bud and Harriet, it was nice to meet you." He nodded their way and walked out the door.
"Well I suppose we should be getting home to, Commander. Thanks for dinner." Bud and Harriett had left soon after he had left.
-End Flashback-
So here he sat, at a bar, one Bud had suggested when he ran into him in the street below Harm's apartment. McMurphy's, an interesting name for a tavern, the bartender was a nice enough guy but he was no shoulder for his frustration. Than she walked into the bar, in uniform no less. She was brunette and beautiful but she wore a ring, it was okay, he didn't want that tonight, not from her anyway, he wanted an ear tonight, someone who could understand or at least sit and talk.
Their eyes locked across the bar. He was about six-foot-two, blonde hair and brown eyes, he stood out in his Class A uniform. He was an officer, his shoulders were slumped in self torture. She decided, in a moment to reach out to him, she didn't know why but there was something that told her that maybe she would learn something about herself by reaching out to this one tortured soul.
"Evening Sailor." She put herself down on the barstool next to him.
"Evening yourself Colonel." He got up to stand at attention and salute her but she stopped him.
"It's okay Lieutenant Commander, you just looked like you needed a friend is all." She smiled at him.
"Thanks colonel, a friend sounds really good right now. God knows I alienated enough of them tonight." His index finger weakly worked its way around the rim of his glass.
"Sounds like there's a story there. Tonic water with lime." She motioned toward the bartender.
"It's on me. If you're willing to sit here and listen to the problems of a SEAL, it's the least I could do." There was a weak smiled tugging at his face. He was a few days passed a shave and had that rugged look.
"You always turn to the drink when you've got a problem?" She looked at him, it was a problem that she herself had faced and maybe, just maybe if she could save one more soul.
"Never, I live my life by an Irish proverb. 'A man takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, the drink takes the man.' It just seemed like the only thing willing to listen to me after what happened tonight." He looked grim and pushed the bourbon across the bar.
"So what happened?" She leaned on the bar and looked into a pair of grizzled war ravaged eyes.
"I'm a SEAL that's been assigned to Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon. Tonight was my first night in town and I went to go have dinner with a former aviator turned JAG lawyer friend of mine who I met while attached to the Seahawk a while back." He looked down at the bar.
Her heart skipped, how many other former aviator turned lawyers were stationed at JAG that had also served aboard the Seahawk, he had to be talking about Harm. "Go on."
"Yeah old Harm really dug himself one this time. Leapt right in it too. All I've heard for the last five or so years from him is about this woman Mac. How she's beautiful, how's she's tough, how he loves the way she challenges him. Anyway, I go over to his apartment tonight because he says he wants me to meet some friends of his and new girlfriend and I expect that he's finally beaten up himself and this damned Australian troglodyte that this Mac is engaged to and he's dating Mac. I get there and I find that he's dating this blonde bimbo. I know these girl's he used to have one in every port back in the day so I baited her by talking to Harm about Mac." He smiled, he had manipulated the conversation rather nicely.
It was all Mac could do not to show any emotion and just listen, surely he didn't know who he was talking to. "What did you say?"
"I asked if she was still going to marry the Australian. I told him that it had been a while since he told me anything about her. So his girlfriend wanted to know what he had told me about Mac." He smiled and looked right at her face, his new Coke in his right hand.
"What did you tell her?" An anticipatory smile crossed Mac's face.
"Exactly what I just told you. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. Hoorah!" He jested as a great smile made itself apparent.
"How did she take it?" She couldn't believe that someone had actually come down on the 'Video Princess'.
"I don't know, I got a look from my friend that would kill anyone who wasn't a SEAL or Marine so I got the hell out of there. As I walked to the elevator I heard a lot of screaming and crying so I guess there was a big fight over it. After I met Bud in the parking lot, he told me that this was a nice place so I came here. All I wanted was for a friend of mine to be really happy and all I succeeded in doing is getting him angry with me." He took a solemn drink of his Coke, pursed his lips and looked over at her.
"Sounds like an eventful evening." She was understated but didn't know how to react; this man had done what some her other friends had wanted to do for years.
"I'm gonna put that man through SEAL training, maybe he'll finally get some perspective and tell her what he's been telling me and Jack Keeter for years. Or I could just beat him with an M-16 until he forgets two of the last five years, make sure she's the first thing he sees when he wakes up and hope he gets it right this time." The two of them shared a laugh at the last suggestion.
"That last suggestion might not work." She managed to get the last sentence out in between laughs.
"Yeah well crazier things have happened between Harm and Mac. He told me the two of them kissed on the Norfolk pier one night, she thought he was kissing some dead flame, he told me that he just agreed with her cause he thought she was rejecting him. Oh my favourite was his description of her sticking with him on this trip through hell in the Russian Taiga. He said that when he saw her in that nightgown, he knew no other woman was ever gonna cut it." He laughed as he recalled Harm's exact description. "Than there was the night I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him with the chord. He came home from Australia, where the two of them were on this case. She threw herself at him, laid it all out on the line and all he could do is ask for more time. Imagine having all you wanted laid at your feet and saying 'not yet'. He got on the phone that night and sounded like a man who was full of regret, there was no doubt in my mind that he wanted to go back in time and change that one moment." There was a sarcastic ire in his voice.
Mac tried to hold back sobs, the tears welling in her eyes. "Sounds like your friend really has a thing for this woman." She sniffled slightly as she tried to compose the parts of her emotions that were crumbling.
"Apparently everyone sees that he loves her except him." He was being sarcastic but he didn't realize how much his comment stung. Mac wasn't sure how Harm really felt and the fact that it was so obvious to someone else made her feel worse. "Hey Marine, this love story is nothing to cry over, I'm sure they'll figure it out soon enough. I hope so both of those people certainly deserve some happiness." He smiled as he finished off his Coke.
"I thought SEALs were supposed to be stoic. You opened up pretty easily tonight, sailor." She smiled comically as she nudged him in the arm.
"Like I said, I needed a friend, although just to cover my rep we should exchange names so it doesn't get around that I opened up to someone without knowing their name. I'll even go first. Hi, I'm Lieutenant Commander Eric von Mauser." He gave her a small smile as she shook her hand. She hesitated to tell him, would he even believe her? Would he be embarrassed? Would everything that had seemed so simple and had made the night's exchange to enjoyable, be spoiled?
"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie." She said back, trying to read his expression, he was self-satisfied and he even held a Chegwiddenesque smile.
"Well than I guess you're the one person who needed to hear what I said the most huh?" His sort of wise smile and half-chuckle during the handshake was a great moment. She leaned in and gave him a hug of gratitude for what he'd said.
"Thank you." She said into his ear as he gave her a pat on the back. That would of course be the moment that the night of kindness between strangers was shot to hell. Mic Brumby entered the bar at that moment to see his fiancé hugging a Navy Commander. His eyes brimmed, he could only think of Rabb, he didn't notice the lack of a thick third stripe or the different hair colour or anything else, he just projected. He jogged over to the scene at the bar.
"Just what is going on here?" Mic was abrupt but he did manage to come to terms with the fact that the Commander in question was not Rabb.
"Just a hug between friends, mate." Eric was almost mocking in his answer.
"I don't appreciate the tone, mate. I also don't appreciate coming to a bar and finding my fiancé hugging strange men." Mic's ire was rising.
"Hey, she can hug whoever she wants. You remember women's lib, right?" Eric's cocksure smile was enough to send Mic over the edge. The Aussie dealt a swift right hook to the SEAL's jaw sending him reeling to the floor. Eric got up and looked around the bar. "Well at least we know that the Caveman tactic is alive and kicking." His loud comment got 'round the bar laughs. The Australian looked flustered but threw another swift punch to Eric's ribs.
"How's that for Caveman tactic mate?" Mic said smugly as the SEAL barely flinched once the punch hit. "Aren't you going to fight back?"
"I don't hit women." Eric's response was once again loud enough to get a reaction from the other bar patrons. A swift left jab caught Eric on the other cheek but this time it didn't do as much damage. "Come on Aussie you're dealing with a SEAL not a Koala bear."
"You SOB I ought to…" He tried to finish his threat but couldn't
"You ought to what. I'll tell you what I ought to do, mate. I ought to warn you that as a Navy SEAL I know eighteen ways to kill you with my bare hands so unless you want this confrontation to get very ugly very fast." He was dead serious and even a little flippant as he brushed a little blood from his lip.
"He's right Mic, he's trained to kill you not beat you. You should stop before this gets worse." Mac was pleading, she was already going to hurt Mic tonight with something she said, there was no need for someone to hurt him physically while she hurt him emotionally.
"Protecting your little fling, Sarah? I would have expected more from you." Mic fired his comment off with some real spite.
"I'm not her fling you dumb Dingo, she's a friend of mine. A better friend than someone like me could hope for on a night like tonight and you should be thankful that you have a woman like that in your life. God knows you don't deserve her" When he stood ramrod straight he was an intimidating figure. A six-foot-two former Annapolis linebacker tends to have that effect though.
Mic threw another punch, this time an upper-cut to Eric's jaw followed by a kick to the ribs. After regaining his footing Eric simply called the attention of the bar. "Would someone please call an ambulance and tell them that someone at the bar has incurred serious injury."
"You admitting you hurt now?" Mic was smiling maniacally as he strutted.
"No, I'm being responsible, I'm about to beat you within an inch of your life and would like you to still be alive when I'm done." Eric looked over to Mac. "Mac I'm sorry I have to do this."
"Than don't, be the bigger man and walk away." She looked into his eyes, pleading with him to just let it drop.
"I'm afraid I can't I took six hits without hitting back and I even warned him, but he pushed me so this is how it's got to end." Eric looked sympathetically into her eyes. Just as he did, Mic's left cross met his cheek. Eric didn't even wince, flinch or grimace this time he just stood stoically. A flying right cross met the side of Mic's face sending him reeling into Eric's left hand that was coming at him as well. A roundhouse kick sent Mic flying into a table. Mic got up and made a run at Eric, a clothes-line turned into a headlock and the Aussie was soon at the mercy of the SEAL. He forced Mic into a kneeling position. "Are you willing to stop before I really hurt you?" Eric gritted out from between his teeth.
"Not on your life!" Mic replied as the SEAL tightened his grip on the Aussie's neck. With great reluctance and a heavy sigh, Eric drew himself back, tensed the muscles in the arm that held the Aussie's head firmly in place and just as he was about to slam the butt of his hand into one of Mic's vertebrae someone caught the his elbow and prevented the blow. Eric looked over his shoulder to find the domineering figure of his six-foot-four friend.
"Harm!" Eric released the Aussie and stood next to his friend. "I never thought you would've come to talk to me, not after what happened earlier." Eric smiled at his friend.
"Well, I was angry as hell about an hour ago. Until I started thinking about it, what you said about Mac, what Renee screamed at me, it all kind of came together, you were right I need to do something I've been putting off for a long time. Mic got up from the floor and turned on the two reconciling friends, throwing a punch in Harm's direction. Eric caught the punch in mid-air and looked the Aussie straight in the eye.
"The left hand got away with it; the right hand's going to put you in the ICU and just to reinforce my point." The SEAL grabbed the offending arm at the wrist and elbow forcing one joint up and the other down, breaking the arm in two places and releasing a cry of pain from Mic.
Two paramedics came running through the door and looked bewildered. "We were told someone in here needed urgent medical attention." The one said inquisitively. Eric and Harm had wondered back over to the bar on either side of Mac.
"Yes, that man over there has a broken arm." Eric was repressing sarcasm as he pointed out Mic who reluctantly went with the two paramedics. "As for you Mr. Rabb, you said there was something you had to do that you should have done a long time ago?" Eric tossed a knowing wink in his friend's direction.
"Yeah Harm, what is this mysterious thing that you've wanted to do and just how long have you wanted to do it?" She was being playful as she looked longingly into his eyes. Harm leaned in and kissed her, passionately and fully. The two of them took in every second of it to cherish and enjoy the moment. The people in the bar looked as though they'd just been subject to the events of some great soap opera.
"I've been waiting to kiss you like that since that day in Columbia, when you almost kissed me for the first time. God how I wanted you to go through with it." He said softly, as he pulled out of the kiss.
"I regretted not doing it; I've regretted it until now, this very moment." She was happy, for the first time since they had met she was right where she wanted to be with this man.
"Mac, do you know what this means?" He smiled that signature smile of his.
"No more good-byes?" She nearly burst with tears of happiness finding their way down her cheeks.
"I love you Sarah." He said, tilting his head so his forehead met hers.
"I love you Harmon Rabb and maybe later I'll show you how much." She smiled and shot him playful set of eyes.
"Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. Let me be the first to congratulate the two of you. I'm glad you're finally happy Harm, it's all one friend could want for another." Eric turned toward the bartender with the biggest smile on his face. Looking back at his friends he smiled at them, they looked like life was for once working in their favour. "Bartender, another round on me."