See part 1 for disclaimer

Part 7

Harm was in the airport early on the Friday morning. Mac's flight was a bit late and none of the coffee bars or restaurants in the flight terminal were open yet, so Harm just contented himself to sit on one of the cold steel chairs across from the flight gate. He'd totally lost track of time, when he saw people start to emerge from the gate, half an hour later. He contemplated standing up, then decided to remain sitting, at least until he had caught sight of Mac, when she suddenly walked into view. Before she caught sight of him, he managed to study her for a few seconds. Her hair was a bit longer than he remembered it and she had lost weight. He surmised that she had probably lost the weight while she was recuperating from the trip to Paraguay. The journey had also taken its toll on her, judging by the tired way than she pulled her wheel-along-case behind her. Her eyes regained some of their life when they alighted upon him. Silently and slowly, she made her way over to where he was just getting to his feet. After an awkward silence, he was the first to speak. But he kept the conversation clearly neutral.

"How was your flight?"

The indifference that he spoke with stung Mac to the core, but she tried to keep from showing it, recovering quickly with,

"Long. I bet the jet-lag is going to be bad…Your Mom and Frank send their love. So does everyone at JAG."

They silently made their way to Harm's car and spent the journey with Mac trying to make conversation. Unfortunately, it was mostly one-sided. When she enquired about it, Harm told her briefly about his new job, but steadfastly steered away from anything that hinted at being too personal. The day passed much that way and Mac was too tired to put up much of a fight. When night came, Harm too began to grow weary, lowering his defences just a little. They were sitting in the living room, having just finished dinner.

"As always, dinner was great. Thanks Harm," Mac complemented him.

"That's not what you said, that time on the Watertown," Harm commented, without thinking.

Mac just froze and looked at him for a second, studying his demeanour. He looked tired. No, tired wasn't the word for it. He looked exhausted. It looked as if he wasn't getting any sleep, either.

"Harm," Mac broached the subject, "I'm sorry about that time, about everything…"

Harm immediately stood up and backed away.

"Not now, Mac," he evaded, "I'm going to go and get everything for setting up the sofa for you, then I think that we should both get some sleep."

OOOO

The next morning, Harm was awake early. He had slept well, the night before, but would not let his mind acknowledge that it was because Mac was so much closer again.

She was still asleep on the couch when he walked into the open kitchen for his breakfast. Munching on his breakfast cereal, he took the time to study her again, while she was asleep and all of her defences were down. Yep, she was certainly much skinnier, even more so than he had seen her in Paraguay…when she hadn't had the baby suit on, that was. Here, Harm stopped the train of thought…It would just lead him back to the hurt that he had been trying to get past over the last few months. But could it be that she had been missing him? Missing him like he had been missing her…

"No!" his mind shouted, "You weren't missing her, you were only missing your old life back in DC. Don't let her in, it'll only cause you more hurt."

Harm's resolve hardened once more and he forced himself to look away from her. He tossed his breakfast dish into the sink with a clatter, startling Mac awake in the process. Without a second thought, he walked back into the bedroom to grab his carry-all so that he could leave for the ferry terminal on the other side of the city.

Mac simply watched as he walked towards the front door from her place on the couch.

"Help yourself to anything in the fridge," He told her, "I'll be back sometime this evening."

The door closed behind him and Mac gave into the tears that had been threatening since her arrival in KL.

OOOO

It was late evening when Harm came in from work, that night. Mac had surprised him by ordering a take away dinner from a nearby restaurant. When they sat down to dinner, Mac noted, "You seem quite casually dressed for work. Was it because it's a Saturday?"

"The firm doesn't work on Saturdays. We spend weekends helping a small village that the firm sponsors. It's up north and is pretty basic. Because it's so cut off from the industrialised region of the country, we help them with getting their supplies in, all of their repairs and upgrade work."

"The village is rural? Is your firm the only people helping them? What other help do they get?" Mac questioned, interested.

"The British Red Cross has been helping out full-time and we try and volunteer as much as we can on vacations and weekends, but there's a lot that needs done in an area as isolated as that. Until modernisation and transport reach the village, our help is about the best they're going to get," Harm told her.

"Do you work there on Sundays, as well?" Mac questioned, "Do you think I could come along and help out?"

Harm just shrugged, feigning indifference.

"Sure," he told her, "If you want to. It's pretty hard going in the heat and the humidity here, though."

"I'd like to help," Mac insisted. She also hoped that if she could spend some more time with Harm, she might be able to break some of his defences down and talk him around.

OOOO

Early the next morning, Mac and Harm were at the small ferry terminal, waiting for the speedboat that would whisk them away to Sepadan. Harm seemed to have softened a bit in his attitude towards her during the night and Mac gladly took his offer of a hand when she went to climb into the rocking speedboat. After the rocking had eased, Mac found herself enjoying the trip, which speeded them out of the filthy, industrially polluted waters and took them up a river that looked virtually untouched by man. The towering banks of earth and the dense tropical rainforest on either side of them left Mac transfixed by its beauty. Seeing Mac's reaction to the beauty that he always admired, every trip he made up here, Harm commented to her, "It's really something, isn't it?"

Unable to find words to describe it, Mac simply nodded, words thankfully being unnecessary at that moment.

They darted further on up the river, where they passed several villages, all of the traditional Malay longhouses being raised up on stilts above the swampy riverbanks. Children played in the water close to the riverbank or played along the stilted walkways between the houses, pausing in their games to wave at the passing speedboat. Harm, Mac and the boatman waved back, the boatman shouting back in reply, "Selamat Pagi!"

"It means 'good morning' in Malay", Harm told Mac, "All the people here are pretty friendly, especially the children. You'll soon find that when we arrive at Sepadan."

Mac found that he was right, when they pulled up at the jetty of Sepadan village. There was a large group of school children waiting for the arrival of aid workers on the pontoon. They all greeted Harm enthusiastically, as he was quite well known to them all. They also quickly noticed Mac and went to Harm to get him to introduce the newcomer. Harm was barely able to hear anything over the babble and chattering of all of the excited children. Just then, Cate made her way through the children, playfully scolding them in Malay for being so over-zealous around the guests.

"Mr. Rabb," Cate turned to Harm, "I think the children would like you to introduce them to your friend."

"Cate, children, this is Sarah MacKenzie, an old friend of mine from back home in DC. Mac, this is Cate, she's an aid worker here with the British Red Cross and is a teacher in the village school."

"It's nice to meet you," Mac shook Cate's hand, "Please, just call me Mac."

"It's nice to meet you, Mac," Cate replied, "Thanks for coming to spend the day here. We sure could use an extra pair of hands."

All of the children were now shaking Mac's hand in turn, fascinated by the attractive westerner.

"All right, you lot, sekola! Back to school, now! We're never going to get your schoolwork finished with you all down here. And English the lessons will have to wait until next Thursday…It was nice meeting you Mac. I'll see you both later."

With that, Cate retreated, flocking her swarm of children back up towards the village school. Harm and Mac went up towards where the rest of the volunteers from Delaney, Chung and Bell were gathered, about to hear of the assignments of the day's tasks.

OOOO

Once they were hard at work, loading bricks into a cart, Mac turned to Harm.

"It seems like you're getting on well here," she commented.

"Yeah," Harm responded, non-comitally, "They've really made me feel welcome."

Mac just breathed a big sigh and pleaded, "Please Harm… could you not act like this…."

"Like what?" Harm responded, defiantly.

"Like this!" Mac exclaimed, "I can't stand the way that you're acting with me…Like I'm not even there, like you just don't care anymore…"

"I don't Mac," Harm lied, "It's over…I've moved on. I've got a new life and I'm happy. I know that may be hard for you to accept, but that doesn't make it any less true."

"So you don't care about us anymore?" Mac asked, her heart aching, "Is that it?"

"There was no 'us,' Mac," Harm stated cruelly, "At one time, I did think there may have been something there…but you proved me wrong…You and Webb."

"There was nothing between me and Webb…" Mac protested.

"That's not what it looked like to me!" Harm threw back, "What, you lost your balance and fell on his lips?"

"NO!" Mac shouted, then lowered her voice again, "I was scared…I thought he was dying."

"Oh, yeah," Harm jibed, "I forgot, that's the only way you know how to react when a man shows some very slight interest…"

Instantly, he knew that he'd gone too far.

Mac just looked at him, hurt. No, that look was beyond hurt. It was that day before the Jagathon again. Desolation: that was the word to describe a look like that. Mac didn't know what to do. She dropped the bricks she had picked up and turned and strode away.

God, would there ever be a time when she wouldn't have to hurt anymore? Maybe Harm was right. Maybe it would be easier to walk away…no, there was no way that she'd let that smug bastard get the best of her. Striding past the school, she noticed all of the children running out through its doorway. It sounded funny not to hear the shrill noise of a bell, like happened in every other school she had known. Mac sat down for a minute on the wall around the schoolyard, and got herself together. When she next looked up, she saw Cate walking out through the front doors of the school. Cate smiled as she recognised Mac and made her way over to her.

"Hi!" she greeted her, "The humidity here is something else, isn't it?"

Mac nodded, noting, "I thought that I might be prepared, coming from the US. It gets pretty hot there during the summer, but this humidity is like nothing I've ever encountered. I've lived in Japan before, but even that's nothing like here."

"It was something that I had difficulty getting used to, when I first came here," Cate agreed, "Even now, it sometimes gets to me a bit and I've been here since I was sixteen…"

"How long have you been here?" Mac asked her, adding, "If you don't mind me asking…"

"This is my sixth year here," Cate replied, "Which makes me…"

"Twenty-two! Really?" Mac exclaimed, "Sorry, I just know plenty of people who would love to hear your secret for looking as young for your age as you do."

"Yeah, that's what a lot of people here say," Cate chuckled, "I'm pretty much used to it, now. It never really used to happen that much…I managed to get out to KL okay…anyway, it's pretty hot out here. How about we go and find shelter and something to drink?"

OOOO

AN: I'd like to give a big thank you to all of those awesome people who reviewed. Thank you for taking the time, I love to read your thoughts on my story! My familyis originallyGlaswegian, but living abroad all of my life, I don't have the accent, though wish I did! I think it's lovely, although my Glaswegian friends think it's a funny thing to wish for! No, I don't think that the Glaswegian accent is difficult to understand at all, but that's just me. I have more problems with accents from other places in Scotland...Aberdonian, for example...Is it just me, or is it a whole other language?