Guest Starring: Marcia Cross as Reverend Beverly Ross
"I never actually felt the need to see that movie, but it was actually pretty good. Considering that it came out in December, I can't believe that they were still playing it." Mac was smiling widely as she and Nate came walking out of the movie theatre.
"Yeah, well the books were better. The Two Towers was always my favourite book. Aragorn is forced to choose between Arwen and Eowyn. I always thought he made the wrong choice. Eowyn was over the moon for him, she was a strong woman who was desperately trying to make her way in a male dominated culture, I mean, God, she was hot!" Nate chuckled happily.
"Strong women are hot? You realize that you may be one of the few men in the world who actually is willing to admit that out loud?" Mac chuckled. If she was being honest with herself, there was nothing more attractive that he could have possibly said.
"Come on, Mac. I grew up with the pre-eminent female psychologist in Virginia; I had it engrained into me at an early age that strong women were ideal. When all of my friends were learning Greek mythology with me, they were always crazy about Aphrodite but I was always more intrigued by Athena." Nate's smile shrank a little. The two of them walked out of the lobby into the street where a crowd was gathered. Mac was wearing Nate's old letterman's jacket over her shoulders.
"Gun!" A male voice shouted. Two shots rang out and Mac felt herself on the ground with Nate covering her.
"Alright, Nate, you can get off, now." Mac shook him. She rolled him off her only to see that he had been shot twice in the back. He had taken one to the shoulder-blade but the other lower and to the left of his spine. He was bleeding rather heavily. "Someone call an Ambulance!" Mac ordered. Someone in the theatre told her that an ambulance had already been called and was on its way.
Time stretched into a length inconceivable. Mac was kneeling on the pavement, holding Nate up and keeping her hand firmly pressed against the more serious wound in his abdomen in order to keep pressure applied. After a few minutes passed, the ambulance arrived and loaded Nate inside, Mac insisting that she had to ride with him.
0349 ZULU
HARM'S APARTMENT
NORTH OF UNION STATION
Harm and Meg had settled down to a nice dinner. Sergei had so impressed General Ross during his interview that the General insisted on writing the recommendation to Annapolis. Even more impressed then General Jack Ross was Nate's younger sister Anna who was impressed enough with Sergei enough to offer to help him work on his English proficiency on Friday nights, something that she as an English teacher was qualified to do. So, Harm was having Meg over yet again.
They were just finishing up the movie and about to watch Letterman when the phone rang. "I'll get it." Harm leapt off the couch for the phone. He grabbed it off the island. "Rabb."
"Harm, it's Mac." Mac's voice was timid and shaky.
"Mac? What's wrong?" Harm asked, sensing the rampant emotions in her voice.
"I'm at the Bethesda. Harm, Nate's been shot. I don't know how serious it is, no one's telling me anything because I'm not his emergency contact." Mac explained, fighting tears. "Harm, he got shot trying to cover me."
"Mac, this isn't your fault." Harm started to explain.
"Harm, could you, could you just please come down here. Harm, I feel so alone." Mac was almost whimpering.
"Yeah, sure I'll be there soon." Harm replied, he then cut the connection and strode over toward his door.
"Harm, what's going on? What happened?" Meg questioned from the couch.
"Mac's down at Bethesda, her……friend, was shot, she's not feeling too hot." Harm slipped on his shoes and grabbed his coat.
"Well, do you want me to come with you?" Meg offered, not quite understanding why he help probably wouldn't be particularly appreciated.
"No, it's okay, it's probably best not to create too big a crowd." Harm replied weakly. Harm covered, in reality, he knew that Meg being there would let Mac know that he had been with Meg when she called and that would likely only lead to another fight. "Feel free to stick around." He called as he rushed out of the apartment leaving a stunned Meg Austin in his wake.
0436 ZULU
BETHESDA NAVAL MEDICAL CENTRE
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
Harm came bounding through the glass doors at Bethesda. He ran to the ICU waiting room only to find Mac pacing the floor and gnawing on her nails. He walked up to her slowly. "Hey Mac." The greeting was hesitant. More like one that you extended to an estranged family member then a close friend.
"Hey Harm, thanks for coming." Mac offered weakly.
"What happened?" Harm asked as the two of them took a seat in the waiting room.
"We went to see a movie. Lord of the Rings, he couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it. We walked out into the street after the movie and someone shouted 'Gun!' Next thing I knew, I was on the sidewalk and Nate was draped over me. Eventually, I shook him off and I saw the two bullets in his back. His breathing was shallow. Eventually the ambulance got there. He went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance but they brought him back. God, Harm, you were right, any man who's ever gotten close to me is either dead or wishes he was." Mac sniffled loudly and continued sobbing. "He's such a good guy, Harm. He just got too close and now he could die because of it!"
"Mac you have to know that I didn't mean to say that, it was stupid and immature and irrational and practically everything I could ever regret. Please tell me you know that." Harm pleaded.
"Harm, if you didn't mean it, even the tiniest bit. Why did you say it?" Mac gently tried to dry her eyes. Harm paused for a second. She didn't know what she was asking of him. She couldn't know. Could he honestly tell her that he was just trying to throw Sturgis off his scent? Trying to not let his oldest friend know that he was attracted to his partner, could he tell her that?
He was hesitating. That was all Mac saw. A man who was hesitating, that was it. It wasn't even a romance related question, it was merely about how he saw her and he was still hesitating. Had they become so far estranged that he couldn't even be honest with her on something as simple as this? "Harm, forget that question for a second. Let me ask you, did you ever read Lord of the Rings?"
"Yeah, when I was a teenager." Harm was slightly confused by the question.
"Okay, now, you know the King guy?" Mac asked in her own timid way.
"Aragorn?" Harm inquired.
"Yeah, okay which woman did you think he should have ended up with?" Mac was referencing her last conversation with Nate.
"The woman he did end up with; the Elf. She gave up her immortality for him." Harm answered. "Why are we talking about this?"
"Just reminded me of something that Nate and I were talking about." Mac replied. Harm reached out to take her hands but Mac recoiled. Harm was just about to ask what Nate had said when they were interrupted. A kindly older nurse walked over and put her hand on Mac's shoulder.
"Mrs. Ross, dear, Lieutenant Commander Adler has news for you." The nurse responded and Mac looked up at the old woman in order to avoid the questions in Harm's eyes.
"Thank you, nurse." Mac smiled at the elder woman before she walked away.
"Mrs. Ross?" Harm questioned, trying to keep the judgemental sarcasm out of his voice.
"No one was telling me anything, Harm. The only way I could get them to talk was telling them that I was Nate's wife, don't read anything into it." Mac got up and walked over toward the corridor where the hallway led to the OR.
"The last time you said that, Mac, your picture ended up in Washington Life and now half of DC thinks you're dating Nate." Harm retorted, the two paused and stared each other down. "Are you?" Harm posed the open air question.
"No, but why do you care anyway?" Mac shot venomously. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a good man whose health that I should probably check up on. Especially since he probably saved my life tonight." Mac walked back down the corridor toward where Lieutenant Commander Adler was coming out from surgery.
"Mrs. Ross?" The Lieutenant Commander asked. Mac nodded mutely. In the last ten minutes she had lied about her relationship with Nate every time she responded to that question with and yet there was something life-affirming about it. "Your husband has sustained some rather extensive injuries. The bullet that went through his shoulder-blade, entered at such an angle that was mere millimetres from his myocardium. The second bullet hit one of his kidneys. Now, the stress and shock of these injuries, as well as the position of the first bullet was likely enough to cause the cardiac arrest that occurred in the ambulance. He tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the fall to the pavement. Of course this injury is relatively minor in relation to the other two."
"Thank you, Commander." Mac nodded.
"Sarah!" Mac heard the voice of Nate's sister Beverly calling from the outside corridor. Mac turned to see most of Nate's family standing in the corridor. Mac motioned for them to come over and join her, which they did with minimal prompting.
"As I was saying. The ACL injury may not be as imminently serious as the bullet wounds but it will likely require more intensive recuperation in the long term." The doctor warned. "Your husband is a very lucky man; a lesser man might have succumbed to his injuries, Mrs. Ross. We're moving him into a private room; he's stable so that's not an issue. A nurse will come and fetch you when his room is ready, Mrs. Ross." Mac knew that the doctor's repetition of the words 'Mrs. Ross' were intended only as SOP to remind a fraught wife of the fact that her husband was still with her. For Mac, all it did was remind her of the fact that a good man had almost died protecting her life. The doctor turned away from the family and walked away back down the hallway.
"Mrs. Ross? Sarah, dear, did you and Nathan?" Eileen Ross seemed too elated to finish her question.
"Another Marine, my boy has taste." General Jack Ross added.
"Mom, Dad, in your blind want to see Nate happy, you've conveniently forgotten the fact that the would-be bride is not wearing either an engagement ring or a wedding ring." Beverly announced.
"I was going nuts trying to get information about Nate's condition and no one would tell me anything because I wasn't Nate's emergency contact. So, I told them that we were newlyweds and with Nate's schedule, he hadn't gotten around to changing that yet." Mac explained.
"Resourceful girl. Of course, if you hadn't had time to do something as basic as that, then it would be easily believable that you hadn't had time to update your marital status with the Department of the Navy, so any checking of the database would have turned up nothing." Eileen Ross concluded. "Sarah, dear, I do think I'll sleep better knowing that someone like you is looking out for my Nathan." Harm picked that moment to walk over.
"This is Harmon Rabb, he's a friend of mine, and he works with Nate." Mac introduced Harm to the Ross family It wasn't lost on Harm that she had introduced him as her friend. Over most of the years together, they had pushed the definition of friendship in a lot of ways, but rarely communicating and then calling each other friends, was a new border push.
"Rabb?" The General questioned aloud. "Ah yes, I wrote your brother that recommendation to Annapolis. Fine young man, very gung-ho about continuing the military service that he started in Russia. If the resume that my son forwarded to me is any indication, he'll be a hell of an asset to the Marine Corps."
Harm winced internally. The slight ill will that Harm had felt toward Nate moments earlier dissipated when Harm was forced to deal with the fact that Nate had gone above and beyond to get Sergei into the country. God, there was something about this situation that made the words 'shades of grey' fall like a wilted comparison. He never knew what it was to feel gratitude and hatred at the same time. The nurse approached the waiting group of people.
"Mr. Ross is in room 108, everything is set up and he can see visitors now." The nurse informed them before heading back toward her admitting station. The group of five headed down the hallways of Bethesda looking for room 108. When they came upon the room, they saw Nate. He was sitting up in the bed, doctor's orders being that he not lie down on the bullet wounds just yet. His eyes were wide open and he was looking at the group that had gathered in the doorway. His eyes shot right to Harm and Mac.
"If I knew that all I had to do was get shot to have you two talk to each other, I would've asked Mike to shoot me weeks ago." Nate quipped with his typical self-deprecating tone.
"You're not going to get all cynical on us now that you've been shot are you?" Harm asked.
"No, I was cynical long before the bullet." Nate chuckled. "Thanks for coming, Harm."
"I can't stay. I have to get home before Sergei gets worried, I ran off without leaving a note and the last thing I want is my naïve Russian brother wandering the streets of DC looking for me." Harm joked, in reality; he just didn't feel comfortable being with Nate's family in what was really a family kind of situation.
"See you at work Monday!" Nate called after Harm as Harm walked down the hallway. He had to chuckle, there was no way Nate was going to be into work for a while, much less Monday. Back in the room, Mac walked over to Nate's bedside and softly took his hand in hers. "Funny, I remember being single when I lost consciousness, apparently, at least according to my nurse, I woke up married."
Mac blushed and moved her eyes to hide from Nate's eyes. "I was a little worried and no one was telling me anything." Mac admitted. "It was the only way I could get any information."
"Nathan, be nice to the girl. You've had her pacing the halls for hours waiting to see if you were alright." Eileen Ross smacked her son's shoulder.
"Yeah mom, it's my fault I got shot. Forget the guy with the gun." Nate joked and even Mac had to chuckle a little. She stopped to wipe her eyes.
"You took a bullet for a good woman, son. I may not like the fact that you got shot, but I'm damn proud of you for taking a bullet for Sarah, here." Jack Ross motioned toward the woman sitting at his son's bedside. "Taking two was damn brave." Mac sniffled loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.
"You could have died trying to save me." Mac's voice was weak.
"Nah, you're being melodramatic." Nate assured her.
"Don't give me that condescending tone, Nate. You flat-lined in the ambulance!" Mac protested as he grip tightened on his hand.
"Yeah, but I didn't die. Well, at least not permanently, I'm still here. I still don't understand why the admitting staff wouldn't give you any information. I mean, the paramedics were good enough to let you ride along in the ambulance." Nate was notably confused.
"Since I'm not your emergency contact, they said the only way for them to release information would be if I was an immediate family member so I kind of fibbed." Mac was smiling almost guiltily. Nate's eyes searched for a second then went really wide.
"Would they have notified my emergency contact by now?" Nate questioned.
"Yeah, hospitals are normally pretty good about that sort of thing." Mac replied, now slightly confused herself. Nate was about to know the discomfort that Mac felt every time that he and Harm were in a room together with her. Sure enough, as if on cue, Peach came storming through the door.
"Nate, I got a call from the hospital administration saying that you'd been shot. I didn't realize that I was still your emergency contact. Although you never were one for paying attention to those things unless you had to." Peach was ranting. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the position Mac was in.
"Peach you know my mom, dad, my sister Bev and this is…" Peach cut him off.
"Sarah MacKenzie, or are you forgetting that I read Washington Life, Nate?" Peach turned to face him; her expression was almost like that of someone who had been deeply betrayed. And Mac thought that she and Harm had issues. Peach was harbouring some serious feelings for the man that she had worked side by side with for nine years.
"You must be the infamous 'Peach', I've heard about you." Mac commented protectively as she moved her hand to Nate's cheek. A gesture that did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room. The sidelong glances were inescapable.
"All good things I hope." Peach remarked snidely. "Now, what happened that you went and got yourself shot?"
"There was a shooting outside the movie theatre we were at. Nate got shot protecting me." Mac replied, she loved being catty once in a while. It was almost like a stress reliever.
"Oh." Peach replied. In that instant, Mac regretted her moment of protective cattiness. "Well are you okay now?" Peach turned her attention
"Couple of bullet wounds and a torn ACL, I got hurt worse growing up with Preston and Stephen." Nate laughed.
"You did not!" Eileen protested.
"What about that time Steve shot me in the ass with the arrow? Or the time Preston landed on my tibia and shattered it? The fact that I was still fit for the Marines by the time I got out of Princeton is a testament to my endurance." Nate joshed.
"Well, uh, I guess that I'd better be going." Peach backed awkwardly out of the room.
"Well, that was……different." Nate laughed sarcastically.
"Son, you and I need to have a talk." Jack Ross gave his son a wise, knowing look.
"No arguments here, dad." Nate adjusted himself in the bed. Stephen Ross entered the room at that exact moment.
"I just got the call, my precinct picked this one up. I've got two of my best detectives on it but we already know what happened pretty much." Steve threw himself down into the chair.
"What happened, son?" Jack Ross questioned.
"It was a gang shooting. Two Bloods in a car saw a few Cripps coming out of the theatre where you two were. The crossfire was exchanged and it looked like you two got caught in it. Heard you almost took the dirt nap big brother." Steve chuckled slightly. "Don't worry about it, my guys are sweeping the scene. In a few minutes, the Crime Scene team and my detectives will have a pretty good idea of what went down. You two will of course have to give statements as to what happened; depositions and the like but as you know, Colonel, it's all SOP."
"Yeah, yeah, thanks Steve." Mac nodded and Steve went out into the hall to talk with the doctors and get write ups to enter into evidence later on.
"Would you guys mind? I don't think there's ever been a better time for dad and I to have that talk then right now." Nate inquired of everyone in the room. His mom, Bev and Mac all exited the room leaving just Nate and his dad. "So……"
"Yeah. Listen son, I realize that this might sound a little trite but I want to apologize for the last decade. I wrongfully blamed you for Preston's accident and I've been taking it out on you ever since." Jack Ross started.
"It's okay, Dad. We all knew Preston was the favourite. Losing him wasn't easy for any of us." Nate reassured his father.
"Son, Preston was never the favourite. You were. Preston needed direction. You weren't the oldest, so you couldn't provide it but I needed you to help give him direction in someway. I figured if he was trying to beat you he could at least make something of himself. Stephen always looked up to you and of course I never had to worry about you, Nathan. You were always the smartest kid I ever knew. You have to get it from your mother, that's the only explanation. I just wanted you to be the leader I always knew you could be. I figured the Corps was the ideal atmosphere for that. But now, now when I hear people tell me that you're going to be President some day, I know that you're fulfilling that part of your destiny that I always saw in you and you didn't even need the Corps to do it." Jack Ross paced the floor nervously.
"Thanks, Dad." Nate was awestruck.
"Now that we've got that settled. I feel the need to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. Son, what are you doing here? You've got two fish dangling from the hook and you can't have both of them. It's not fair to Peach and it's not fair to Sarah. You did take a bullet for Sarah though, which tells me that you must be closer to clarity." The General explained.
"Mac's not on my hook, Dad. She's on the hook of a man that I respect very much. I'd take a bullet for him and what I did tonight was pretty much the same thing. Mac and I lean on each other, but I wouldn't say that we love each other." Nate responded.
"You're a good Marine." Jack Ross was solemn.
"I always tried to be." Nate added.
Out in the hallway, Bev and Mac were sitting in chairs in the corridor looking out a nearby window. "You're not in love with my brother." Bev stated plainly.
"What makes you say that?" Mac replied, taking a sip of hospital coffee.
"Sarah, I'm a Presbyterian Minister, I marry couples who look at each other lovingly, you don't look at Nathan that way. You look at Nathan like the two of you are very close but you're not in love." Bev explained.
"Does he……does he look at me that way?" Mac asked tentatively, suddenly feeling like a suspect.
"If anyone can see through that damn Marine stoicism of his, I just wish they'd tell me how they do it." Bev chuckled. "I do know that Nathan cares for you very much, although, I suppose what he did tonight is proof enough of that. I just don't understand how you and Nathan found yourselves getting so close so quickly. Don't take this the wrong way but until you showed up at the cottage none of us had ever heard of you."
"Nate and I ran into each other at a time when both our lives were in a state of flux and we decided that it was easier to ride the waves together then try and conquer them separately. Now I think we both know that we're playing with fire." Mac admitted.
"I'd say that almost goes without saying. Don't get me wrong, Mac, I think you and I could be friends it's just that I really do worry about my brother. Nathan takes the blame for everything in the life of everyone around him that's gone wrong and I think the reason he doesn't date is because he doesn't want to add that to the list." Bev was softening in her tone.
"He's a good guy. There aren't many left like him." Mac admitted.
2 DAYS LATER
HARM'S APARTMENT
NORTH OF UNION STATION
"Admiral, sir, can I ask what brings you by?" Harm opened the door to let the Admiral into his apartment.
"Meg's asked for a transfer, effective immediately. I sent her to the NATO office in London to be the Chief of Staff. You want to tell me what happened that she felt the need to leave here so quickly?" Admiral Chegwidden questioned.
"Now why does everyone always assume that I did something? First with Mac, now with Meg. You know it's not always my fault." Harm argued through a combination of shock and frustration.
"I know that you might not get the benefit of the doubt sometimes but you do often enough. In any case, I can't see it being her work, it's top notch so logically it would have to be her personal life. This leads me to believe that either you know what's wrong or if you don't, it's because you are what's wrong." The Admiral concluded.
"You know, when you're right, you're really right." Harm admitted self-deprecatingly.
"She said she was packed and Tiner made reservations to have her on the first flight from Dulles to Heathrow tonight." The Admiral informed Harm. "She told me to give you this." The Admiral handed Harm a letter from the inside of his jacket. Harm took the letter and tore open the envelope.
Dear Harm,
I know, it must feel like I'm just slipping away again, but I'm not. When I originally got orders to come back to Washington I was excited because part of me always thought that there might have been a chance for us. When I first got back, everything that happened was looking like my suspicions could be confirmed. But soon after your friend's wedding a few weeks back, you've been slipping, Harm.
I know why that is. It's her. I guess I thought that maybe, your feelings for her weren't that strong or maybe your feelings for me might be stronger but I was wrong on both counts. I saw things start to pop up. Like the way you behaved at the wedding after the illustrious dance. Or when you saw her picture in the magazine and then finally when she called the other night.
Call it my own insecurity, Harm, but I couldn't go on that way. Looking over my shoulder wondering if I was only holding a place until you worked things out with Colonel MacKenzie. I can only advise you to not waste any more time. You know what you want, Harm, go after it. I hope we can still be friends and I'm sure you'll understand if I don't call for a while.
Sincerely,
Meg
Harm closed the letter and tucked it back inside the envelope. Then looked up at the Admiral. "Are you going to go to London to talk to her?" The Admiral asked as the two men took a seat.
"No. A clean break was what we needed and a clean break was what we got. I have no right to ask any more of her." Harm admitted weakly.
"Well, son, what are you going to do?" The Admiral inquired, leaning forward, his elbows digging into his knees.
"Not much I can do. I can't go back and I don't want to stay here. I've got to move on." Harm stated solemnly before tossing the letter on the table. Life had once again thrown Harmon Rabb a curveball. Harm stared at the blank TV screen in front of him. "Orioles/Yankees game tonight." Harm offered, looking up the Admiral.
"You got any beer in this place?" The Admiral asked, getting up out of the chair.
"In the fridge." Harm chuckled a little. It was good to laugh again.
2200 ZULU
BETHESDA NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
"Alright, Mr. Ross. Your X-rays all look good and you can head on home today." The Doctor was smiling widely as Mac helped Nate adjust his crutches. "You're going to have to take it easy on that knee for a while. I'm sure Mrs. Ross will see to that."
"I sure will." Mac chuckled slightly, as did Nate. Their 'marriage' had become something of a novelty.
"I'm releasing you into Mrs. Ross' custody, I'm sure a Marine Lieutenant Colonel will keep you under control and prevent you from doing wind-sprints up and down staircases, right, Colonel?" The Doctor asked.
"Well I'm not sure I want him getting too lazy, doc." Mac jested.
"I take a bullet for you and you still won't let me off the hook? What do I have to do?" Nate dragged out a mock whine.
"The dishes." Mac added causing some laughter in the room.
"I hope we don't see you in the near future, Mr. Ross." The doctor said as they left the hospital. The doors closed behind them and the doctor headed back into the hospital.
"Mac, I don't have to stay with you, I'll be perfectly fine on my own." Nate protested.
"Oh no, you were released into my custody, I can't have you getting hurt. The nice doctor man will think I wasn't taking very good care of you." Mac toyed.
"Please, Mac, I'll be perfectly fine, really I will, you can come by and check on me but you really don't have to take me in." Nate was pleading.
"Would it really be that bad?" Mac's tone was accusatory.
"No, I'm sure it would be fun. It's just that……" Nate started muttering.
"Just that what?" Mac questioned.
"I plead the fifth." Nate jested and Mac wheeled him to the car.