Disclaimer: I don't own JAG or any of the characters, nor am I making any money off of this. No infringement of any kind intended.

A/N: The story starts off in Harm's POV, from there you'll catch the drift.

(Those waiting on Holy Crap, don't shoot! Chap. 6 should be out real soon. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy some meaningless fluff)

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There is an unspoken rule concerning social propriety. Every person has his own space. We bump into people on a daily basis, touch casually, lean into someone we trust. And yet around each one of us there's a loosely defined space that's our own and most usually respected and left alone, especially in a military surrounding.

I noticed one morning in the elevator that some people are more zealous about their personal space, which is what spurred this whole discussion in my head. I started paying attention to how people reacted when their personal space was disturbed and was surprised to find that responses varied from actual flinching to complete nonchalance.

A few days of observation were enough to push me into the experimental stage of my investigation, and who better to challenge than the person who challenges me constantly. It was never a question and Mac never saw it coming. It had been one hell of a week.

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(Experiment 1: A week earlier)

"Are you still awake over there?" Harm tried to see over the back of the couch to make sure he wasn't the only one working.

A distant hum was the only response he got. Naturally, he decided to investigate. Getting up from his position at her table, he made his way over to see Mac sprawled on the couch. She was lying on her stomach, propped up on her forearms, pouring over her notes from their interviews that day.

They were assigned a sexual harassment case together. Usually it would have been a simple enough case, but the petty officer they were to defend was brass-related, and therefore they were to wrap things up as quickly and neatly as possible.

It had been a long day of interviews at Norfolk, where their defendant was stationed, and now they were going over all the files and their notes at her apartment.

Mac had been exhausted and claimed the couch as her place of work, leaving no room for Harm, who ended up at the table. She'd made herself comfortable, pulling the coffee table beside her for the files she wasn't working on.

Lowering himself over the back of the couch, Harm smiled when Mac didn't even move. "Are you sure you're not sleeping with your eyes open?"

His tone had been quite, but still managed to make her jump. He pulled back abruptly before the back of her hand could make contact with his face.

Not even bothering to turn and look at him, Mac got back to the notes. "It's a good thing you have fast reflexes too, flyboy."

He just laughed and tried to see what she was so intent on reading and re-reading. "So, what has you so focused, Marine?"

Mac heaved a sigh, and then pointed out a paragraph Harm couldn't quite make out from where he was standing. "This just doesn't fit. Why would she say she doesn't know the Chief, when it would be so easy to prove that she does?"

"Some liars want to get caught, Mac."

Mac dropped her head to her chest and mumbled something Harm couldn't make out.

"What's tha-"

"You've been sure she was lying from the moment we got handed this case, Harm." Turning her head in a somewhat unnatural angle, she fixed him with a stare and got his quiet, slightly amused, attention. "We agreed this case has merit besides the defendant's blood ties, would you just try to help me find the inconsistency so we could actually make headway before the sun shines?"

In his defense Harm tried to see the notes, but her position was making it slightly hard for him. One side was blocked by the back of the couch, the other by the coffee table.

Mac started bringing the paper up to him when he caught her off guard again by climbing over the couch's arm. His strong hands held him up on either side of her, only a breath separated their bodies, and his head was right next to hers.

It took her a full minute to completely grasp what had happened. A smile crept on her lips as she debated how to deal with his unexpected, yet not unwelcome, action.

"Would you like to move the coffee table, so that you could see better?"

His simple reply – "No.", slightly stumped her, but before she could make another move Harm lifted himself off of her.

"Well, she's definitely trying to hide something. She might not be flat out lying, but she's not telling us the whole truth."

He seemed completely unaffected by their earlier closeness, but then again he had initiated it.

"We need to figure out why and what she's hiding if we're gonna get this case resolved soon." Mac was proud of her ability to bounce back from almost anything. She flitted over her notes once again, memorizing crucial parts, and heard Harm packing his things.

"Well, nothing more we can do tonight, tomorrow we can go talk to her again."

The petty officer's interview simply stumped her, she struck Mac as a straight-laced individual, and Mac did not think of herself as gullible or a bad judge of character.

"Why would she lie?" She voiced her thoughts when she heard Harm's steps nearing her.

"Why does anyone?" He was standing above her.

"Oh, come on, Harm. Are we really going to get into this?"

He put his hands up in mock surrender and smiled innocently.

"I'm just saying..."

Placing the notes on the table with the rest of the files, Mac flipped onto her back, raising her arms above her head.

"And what is it exactly you are saying, flyboy?" Despite her objections only seconds earlier to a meaningless exchange of words, she felt drawn to the familiarity of a conversation so vague it only left her confused and slightly dazed.

Accepting the challenge, Harm crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm saying you lie when you feel threatened. When you're more comfortable with the lie, or what people perceive of it, than the reality."

Fixing him with an assessing look, Mac tried to figure out where he was taking the conversation this time. "Or when you have no other option."

"There are always options, Mac." His tall frame filled her field of vision.

"Not when you're cornered with nowhere to move." He moved the foot of the couch, and rested his knee on its arm. He made no verbal response, simply smiled slightly. Too late, she realized that the gleam in his eyes wasn't caused by the dim lighting in her living room, and suddenly he was once again putting her lung capacity to the test.

With Harm practically lying on top of her once again, this time his face right above hers, Mac found that her ability to breathe under duress left something to be desired. She wanted to wipe that damned grin off of his face but her hands were in no position to move, way above her head. Even if they were, she wasn't sure her brain was fit to send appropriate commands their way.

"You've got no where to move, Mac..." He spoke quietly, sounding slightly amused. "Yet... you have an option." His raised eyebrow finally brought her out of her temporary coma. Two could play at his game.

Allowing a slow smile to spread her lips, Mac relaxed under his weight. "You're right" she whispered in a rather seductive tone, her arms moved forward in one round motion to draw his head into their circle. Bringing their faces impossibly closer, she went on. "I actually have a few." An Eskimo kiss had never looked this hot and now Harm was having a little trouble breathing. "You know which one I find most appealing right now?" Somewhere in the back of her mind she really felt sorry for what she was about to do and for lying.

"Which one would that be?"

Bringing her lips to his ear she delivered her blow. "Using my Marine training in a most spectacular way which would land you clear across the room and being introduced to muscles you didn't know you had."

For a few seconds neither moved, their eyes met and held, issuing a brand new challenge. Breaking the spell first, Harm suddenly burst out laughing and drew himself up and off of Mac. Her hands stayed in mid air for a second, and then drifted down to rest on her stomach.

"The problem is, I actually believe you, jarhead." Harm shot in her direction as he moved to gather his briefcase from the table.

"That's the least of our problems..." She muttered under her breath.

"Good night, Mac, see you bright and early tomorrow."

Mac moved to get up but Harm waved her off, already at the door. "Bye, Harm."

The door closed behind him and Mac lay back down to stare a while at the ceiling and wonder, not for the first time, how screwed up a relationship could get.

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(Present time)

The first experiment reminded me that Mac was anything but the standard subject for study. I was never one to be deterred by a bump in the road. I broadened my field of study and thought up more experiments.

Looking back, what I thought of as a very inventive approach could have just as easily backfired with horrendous results.

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TBC