A/N: The music idea from Chapter 10 starts to come into effect in this chapter, in case anyone actually went along with that idea of ours.
1657 LOCAL
HOSPITAL OF MANILA
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Mike and Gunny had left to go make reservations at the hotel, while Mac, Nate and Peach were waiting for word on Harm from the doctors. Three American military personnel received special treatment due to their connections through the embassy. It had been a long day for these people. Nate had finally been able to switch out of the Ghillie suit but he still had paint on his face and hands. Mac was in a similar state but they were both joking about Gunny wanting to go back to the hotel so he could clean up and not look like a member of a Marine war party.
"Heard anything yet?" Peach asked as she sat down beside Mac who was holding a cup of steaming coffee in her hands.
"Nothing, the doctors took him in for the neurological work up hours ago. I hate all of this. I hate that this had to happen, I hate that we live in a world where someone on a diplomatic mission can't simply do their job without possibly becoming pawns in a game of international chess. You want to know what I hate the most?" Mac's cheeks were still tearstained as she turned to face Peach.
"What?" Peach asked softly as she put a hand on Mac's shoulder.
"I hate that the first time I heard Harm use those words, it was because the torture he had been exposed to was intense enough to cause a brain injury." Mac's voice broke part way through the sentence and Peach hugged her. Nate was leaning against the sterile white brick wall of the hospital fighting severe exhaustion. The three of them just maintained these positions for a few more minutes before the doctor came walking through the corridor out to them.
"Are you three here for Harmon Rabb?" The doctor inquired looking at Mac and Peach then at Nate who was leaning against the wall opposite them. Mac nodded and got up to stand toe to toe with the doctor. "My suspicions were confirmed, Captain Rabb has suffered a very mild version of an acute subdural haematoma. The morphine that he was injected with on the ride here, slowed the progress of the bleeding into his brain. We have to operate immediately to rectify this problem. The surgery is long, it's also very delicate and very risky. Lucky for you, the best neurosurgeon in the South Pacific operates out of this hospital. You need to sign this consent form." The doctor produced a form and handed it to Mac.
"You still have Harm's medical proxy, right Mac?" Nate asked, not meeting her eyes.
"As far as I know." Mac took the form from the doctor and read it over. "How risky is this surgery, doctor?"
"This isn't an everyday occurrence, ma'am but the surgery is routine enough that the risks are comparatively minimal and the Captain should retain completely normal brain function. The CT Scan and MRI weren't as bad as some I've seen. I feel it necessary to inform you that in cases such as these, amnesia is a common symptom, so it is unlikely that the Captain will remember anything since the trauma." The doctor's words cut through Mac like a scalpel. "If his trauma is anything to go by, not remembering what caused it would likely be beneficial."
Mac nodded absently. Harm wasn't going to remember. That was just perfect. "Just perform the surgery, bring Harm back to us, please." Mac pleaded as she handed the consent form back to the doctor. The doctor nodded at Mac before turning and heading back down the corridor toward the OR.
"Alright, the doc said it was going to be a long surgery. Mac why don't you go and get cleaned up and everything, Peach, you too. I'll stay here and wait for information. Mac, you come back in a few hours and relieve me. The surgery should be nearly over by that point." Nate began to lightly pace back and forth.
"Yet another good plan, you've had a lot of those since we left the States. Did you have a bowl of wheaties before we left?" Mac joked, mustering a weak smile.
"See you in a few hours, Mac?" Nate suggested. Mac nodded in agreement. "See you back at the hotel, Peach?"
"Yeah, Nate, see you then." Peach hugged Nate and then headed down the corridor to the lobby with Mac. Nate took a seat where Mac had been previously sitting. He just leaned forward, his elbows digging into his knees and his head in his hands. The last week had been a hell from which escape always seemed out of reach.
2105 LOCAL
MANILA HOTEL
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Mac had gone to sit at the hospital with Gunny a half hour ago. There were three rooms rented by the Company for the uses of the six people who had gone through the affair on Borneo. Gunny and Mike were to share a room that Mike was now the only one occupying there would be one for Harm and Mac since she was judged by the group to be the most capable of taking care of a wounded Harmon Rabb who had just gotten out of major surgery.
This meant that the last room was for Nate and Peach. Nate staggered in. He existed now in that realm of consciousness which lies between tired and dead. He needed a hot shower to scrub the seventeen hour old paint off his face and hands He stripped down to his boxers as he walked across the room and grabbed a towel. He opened the door to the bathroom only to get hit in the face by a cloud of steam.
"You here to do my back?" Peach's head was visible over the shower curtain.
"Oh, sorry, Peach, I didn't realize that you were in here." Nate went to retreat but stopped. "That showerhead is whisper quiet."
"Yeah, it…uh…I noticed that." Peach stuttered, her eyes locked with his. "So, are you going to wash my back or what?"
"What!" Nate was stunned by the courage of her question. Then he thought for a second. "Oh, did you hurt your shoulder or something?" Ask a stupid question.
"Does there have to be a reason?" Peach's voice dropped to a dangerously seductive tone. Nate knew that certain things had to be set right in his life before anything could actually transpire down here in Manila.
"I have to make a phone call, first. I'll be back though." He quickly grinned before slinking out the bathroom door. He grabbed his pants off the floor and fished through the pockets for his cell. After finding it, he went walking out to the balcony to place a call.
"Stacy Anderson." The voice came on the other end of the line.
"Hi, it's Nate." Nate started.
"Nate, where are you?" She asked with slightly more excited tone.
"I can't tell you that. Listen, we really need to have a talk." He launched right in. After all, he'd faced a camp full of terrorists today, there was nothing else to be afraid of.
"This is the break up call isn't it?" Stacy asked. "Listen, Nate, I've been thinking about it, too. There are just too many incompatibilities here. We want different things for starters, not to mention the fact that the second Peach gets into trouble, your life becomes expendable in your own mind and you'll run off to any corner of the earth in order to save her."
"How did you know?" Yet another surprise was able to sideswipe Nathan Ross.
"It wasn't tough. There are only a handful of people that you would run off after without telling me, all of them but one are still here in the States. Stands to reason that whatever you ran off to fight, Peach had something to do with it." Stacy stated simply. "I'm not angry. Far from it, I was a fool, we both were. I just want the answer to one question."
"I think you're entitled." Nate tapped his fingers on the railing of the balcony.
"Did you do anything that would constitute cheating on me?" Stacy asked, he TV superficiality showing ever so slightly.
"No, I haven't." Nate moved back toward the door to the room.
"That Ross integrity still in tact as always. I do suppose this is the end. Count on me to vote for you when the time comes." She joked lightly and even Nate laughed as Stacy hung up the phone. Nate tossed his cell on to the nightstand and headed back toward the bathroom just as Peach was coming out.
"Were you actually coming to wash my back?" She quirked an eyebrow with interest.
"We'll never know now." Nate smiled as he ran his index finger along the soft cotton of her towel.
"Uh, yeah, guess we'll never know. Where are you going?" She asked as he moved passed her.
"To wash this paint off my face and the vegetation out of my hair." Nate stepped back through the door and smiled at her before closing the door behind him.
SAME TIME
HOSPITAL OF MANILA
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Gunny sat in a chair as Mac paced in the waiting room. There was going to be no calming her down until Harm was out of surgery and Gunny realized that. So, rather then try, he figured that it was better to just let her pace. Mac was gnawing on her fingernails, tapping on every wooden surface available and basically doing every single mind numbing, boredom indicating exercise, humanly possible.
There were times that Gunny was sure that he was going to have to run into the OR himself to ask the doctor how much longer it was going to be. "Colonel, ma'am, I just wanted to say that I think that you and Captain Rabb really have a chance this time."
"I wish I shared your optimism, Gunny." Mac turned to face her fellow Marine.
"He did say that he loved you, ma'am. Now, whether or not a man has a head injury, those are some tough words to get out." Gunny was trying to comfort Mac in the best way he knew how.
"Except, knowing Harm, he won't remember and I won't be able to talk about it with him so it'll just add another layer to all this tension between us." Mac began to ramble as she sat down next to Gunny.
"Ma'am, you flew ten thousand miles, trekked through jungle and killed three people to save his life. That's how Marines say 'I love you'." Gunny protested and Mac had to laugh. "You and the Captain are just two people who need each other, ma'am. There's no getting around that. Everyone at JAG, we just try and ignore it but we all see it, too. I think you and the Captain need to talk."
"Of course we need to talk, that's exactly why we won't." Mac was completely humourless in her statement. Just as the Gunny was about to dig deeper into what was going on, the doctor appeared, still in his OR scrubs.
"Miss MacKenzie?" The doctor asked, Mac nodded, got up and walked over to him. "The surgery was textbook. We were able to control the bleeding sites between the dura and the arachnoid. We removed the blood clot without any difficulty and the Craniotomy scars are expected to heal nicely. We're going to keep under observation here for a while until I think that the risks of postoperative infection, seizures or intracranial pressure have subsided. Once he's settled in his room, a nurse will take you up to see him."
"Thank you, doctor." Mac was nodding solemnly, the doctor turned back toward the OR and Mac let out a heavy breath. "Well, it all sounds like it went well. I guess that's all I could hope for."
"We'll be in to see him in a few minutes, ma'am. I'm sure that you'll feel better when you can see him." Gunny's reassurances were now getting weaker.
"I'm not sure how many more times I can do this, Gunny. How many more times can I seem him inches from death and feel like I was absolutely helpless to stop it?" Mac was nearing tears yet again.
"But don't you see, Ma'am? You did stop it. If we hadn't shown up when we did, the Captain would have died out in the jungle. You are the major reason that he's still alive, yet again. It was you who pulled him out of the ocean last year remember? You're never helpless where he's concerned. I think if anything, ma'am, the reason you're hit so hard is because for you, it's all too real." Gunny's mind was going at full composure to bring back Mac's composure.
"God, I knew there was a reason we brought you along, Gunny." Mac put her hand on Gunny's shoulder to thank him.
"I'm great in a clinch, ma'am." Gunny smiled wisely as the nurse came down the hallway toward them. This was it; Mac was yet again going to have to face Harm in a hospital bed. Something that never got any easier.
"Miss MacKenzie, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to Mr. Rabb's room now." The Nurse was a sweet older lady. Mac and Gunny followed the nurse as she led them through the hallways to the elevator. The seconds spent in the elevator seemed to drag on as the elevator carried them up to the fifth floor. The doors opened and the nurse led them out of the elevator and down the hallway. They stopped as she opened the door to the room for them. "He's still under anaesthesia but he should be coming out soon. It would serve him better if you were here when he came out so the doctor has extended visiting hours for you."
Mac stepped into the room and walked over to Harm's bedside. Sitting in a chair that she found there, she took his larger hand in hers. "Hey." She whispered to his limp form and thus began her wait for Harm to regain consciousness.
2214 LOCAL
MANILA HOTEL
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Nate lay in the bed, fingering idly through a copy of The Sun Also Rises that he had picked up in a bookstore a block from the hotel. He'd never been so nervous in his life about sleeping in his boxers. In fact, he was sure that if he had packed any pyjamas, he would most definitely be wearing them right now. But he had never been good at packing a suitcase. So, there he lay, in his boxers, on the right side of the bed, the desk lamp on and a book in his hand. Nate couldn't keep his eyelids propped up any longer so he put the book down on the nightstand.
Peach came walking out from the bathroom wearing a negligee to match her nickname and rose incredibly high on her leg, in the back it just barely covered her rear. Nate's eyes practically popped out of his head when he saw her come walking toward the bed. Not sure whether to curse or thank the heavens at this point, Nate did what any other man on the planet would do, gawk like a teenage boy.
"You see something you like?" She asked bravely as she followed his line of vision. Nate tried to say something, anything but found himself incapable of speech. "It's okay, Nate, I've known for quite a while that you like my legs."
"What!" Nate gulped heavily after getting the one word out in a surprised shout.
"You never exactly hid that very well. The first day I wore a skirt into work, I think you made eye contact all of four times." Peach climbed into the left side of the bed and slipped under the cover but she turned on her side to face him. Nate knew he had to recover his footing; she had him on the defensive.
"Did I do something particularly nasty to you recently?" Nate asked trying to regain his place.
"Not recently; why would you ask a question like that?" Peach was confused by Nate's switch in demeanour.
"I'm just trying to think of a reason why you would wear that while sleeping in a bed with me." Nate commented as he switched off the desk lamp.
"Oh, I'm so sorry; my flannels were in my other suitcase." She sounded sarcastic and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "Loosen up, I bought it today because I thought it would look pretty."
"The 'how to wash' tag is the biggest and most opaque piece of material on that thing!" Nate protested, turning to face her and trying to keep his eyes on hers.
"Your point being?" Peach replied with sly tone.
"Nothing, I have no point other then the fact that I need sleep." Nate had reverted to Plan B and that was, when one is trapped, shut down the conversation.
"Oh come on, Nate; what are you thinking about." Peach turned Nate back over to face her.
"I'm not telling you, because I'm not thinking it. Therefore I refuse to give any credence to the thought of saying it out loud." Nate shut his eyes and laid on his back.
"Uh oh, Princeton Diction Alert. You've gone into personal crisis mode." Peach cajoled as she pushed his shoulder.
"Have not!" Nate retorted with the efficiency of an adolescent.
"Have to." Peach shot back.
"Have not!" Nate was getting slightly irritated.
"Fine, then tell me what you were thinking about?" Peach raised herself over him in the push-up position.
"Why do you want to know so badly?" Nate questioned.
"I've always wanted to get into your head. What I really want to know, is why you flew six thousand miles, used the same sniper rifle you last used when you made the shot that day with Preston and then finally the looks you've been giving me ever since you saw me at the camp." Her arms were tiring and she lowered herself ever so slightly closer to Nate.
"I…I…I…just don't know. For once in my life, the mantra of having the answers has failed, is that what you want to hear? That knowing you died, that I'd never see your face again probably would have killed me and not in a figurative way." Nate was starting to ramble a little. "I was…hell, I still am scared. What I'm most scared of is the last thought that went through my head before the raid on the camp this morning."
"Talk to me, tell me what was going through your head." Peach pleaded, allowing herself to collapse on his chest.
"All I could think about was the last nine years. All I could think about was how no matter what I had to get you out of there alive, at any cost. That's why I told the President that I didn't care about his nomination, that's why I pulled that rifle out of the back of a closet and that's why I flew six thousand miles. For you, for everything that's happened in the last nine years and because none of it mattered at all if you weren't here with me." Nate came out with the explanation.
"Wait, what nomination?" Peach stopped his ranting.
"The morning that I found out, Gavin called me to tell me that the President was going to nominate me to permanently fill the Secretary of State's chair. I was heading into the confirmation announcement and the first day of hearings when I found out about you and Harm. I told him that I was going after you and the only way he could stop me was to kill me. He told me that I was throwing a promising political career down the toilet and I told him that without you it didn't mean a damn thing anyway." Nate watched as Peach rolled off his chest and stood next to the bed.
"You have to understand that this is a lot for me to take in." Peach raised a hand to her chest. "I mean, in the nine years I've known you, the only time you ever put someone ahead of your work was when you had to go to your brother's funeral."
"Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger then it was before." Nate quoted as he got out of bed.
"Please tell me that wasn't Oscar Wilde, we have bad luck with Oscar Wilde." Peach was starting to feel weak, just as she had felt in the park in Dublin.
(Cue "Patience" by Guns'n'Roses)
"Yeats." Nate said with a smile as he raised his hands, placed them on her shoulders and slowly rubbing her upper arms. "You feel cold."
"I'm scared." She whispered as he inched closer.
"Why?" He asked quietly, his eyes daringly looking her over.
"Because the rules are changing." She felt him step closer to her and she felt the warmth of his hands begin to warm her.
"What rules?" He took her small hands in his.
"The rules……the boundaries that define our relationship. The ones that we've always been so careful to adhere to. We were always friends, coworkers and even best friends but now, the lines are being erased and I don't know what you're trying to tell me." She looked up into his eyes and found them darkened with lust.
"I think I'm in love with you." Nate whispered. "That was my last thought today before the operation started. It was all I could think about when I had to make that shot today and it was all I could think about when I first hugged you today. Nine years was a lot of time to waste."
"I don't know what to say to that." Peach's voice carried a softness as she moved into him. "Other then this." She leaned up and caught his lips quickly with hers. She brought her arms up around his neck and held him close against her. To let him know that she was really there, that nothing of this had been dreamed. She felt his hands move around her waist to her back and she couldn't help but smile at where the journey of nine years had finally led them.
When they pulled away, Nate was the first to be able to speak again. "What was the smile for?" She pushed him back on to the bed.
"Is it wrong for me to be happy about this?" She asked as she climbed on to the bed and straddled his hips. He smiled fondly as he watched her take her position. The peach coloured negligee slowly riding further up her thighs.
"No. What we've been doing since Dublin, that's what has been wrong with us." Nate answered but she pressed her index finger to his lips, then followed her finger with a quick kiss.
"Shhh." She hushed him. She started to slowly kiss his lips and then his neck as she hunched over him. She felt his hands travel up her legs and she had to smile again. She always knew that her legs were an object of desire in his mind and now that he had touched them she felt revered cherished as his hands moved from her legs to her hips and then in a feather light way, touching her back and inciting electric shivers through every nerve ending in her body. She sat back up on her heels, her hair thrown back. She lovingly reached down and took his hands in hers. "Such powerful; instruments, a sniper's hands." She commented lightly as she bit her lower lip
Nate's luck being what it was with timing lately, Mike Bradley popped in through the door at that point. "Hey Nate, I...whoa!" Mike reeled back upon seeing what was going on in the hotel room. "I see I'm interrupting."
"You certainly are." Nate growled as Peach rolled off of him. "Why did you come barging in here?"
"Oh yeah, that." Mike might have been married but that still didn't change the sight that Peach made in her negligee. "I just got a call from the hospital. Harm's awake."
"That's great!" Peach was smiling as she got up off the bed. "Did Mac say when we could go and see him? I'm assuming it was Mac who called you."
"Gunny said that the doctor extended visiting hours for him because of the amnesia side effect and that we could go see him tonight. Seems like we're going to be running you ragged for a few more hours, buddy." Mike gave Nate a pat on the shoulder before heading out of the room and having the door slammed behind him.
"Looks like we might as well get dressed. Pity letting a good negligee like that go to waste." Nate turned and shamelessly eyed Peach.
"It's not going to waste, but it's going to have to wait." She quipped as she tossed his clothes at him.
0012 LOCAL
HOSPITAL OF MANILA
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Mac was sitting by Harm's bedside for a while waiting for him to come out of the anaesthesia. It had been a few minutes since the nurse left them. She lightly stroked his hand as she pleaded for the ability to once again see those blue eyes open. She ran a hand along his hairline, where the bandages now bordered his forehead, and down his cheek. Gunny waited out in the hall to greet Nate and the others as they came back from the hotel.
Harm tried to roll over in his sleep as he came too. Mac watched as Harm yawned and then slowly opened his eyes. "Mac?" His dry mouth was able to get out.
"Hey, sailor." Mac smiled as she welcomed him back to the land of the living. "You gave us quite a scare."
"Where am I?" He shook his head from side to side. "The last thing I remember was being dragged back into the hut where they were beating the crap out of me." Harm looked around. "Where's Nicole? Did she get out alright?"
"Yeah, she got out alright. You're the one we were worried about." Mac rang the buzzer to let the doctor know that Harm was awake and within a few seconds, the doctor was in the room. The doctor did all the necessary tests on Harm's motor skills and brain function. Mac held Harm's hand throughout the whole thing, something that didn't get lost on either of them. After making a few marks on Harm's chart and exchanging a little small talk, he was off on his way again.
"Mac, what happened?" Harm sounded groggy as he squeezed her hand.
"When we found out that you guys had been caught in an ambush, Gunny, Nate and I decided to take off and try and find you guys. Which we eventually did. Yesterday morning, we pulled you and Peach out of the camp. You had sustained a serious head injury, so we didn't take any risks in transporting you here. We got you here as soon as possible." Mac explained as Gunny re-entered the room.
"You should have seen her, sir. Colonel MacKenzie was like Rambo Barbie." Gunny laughed and Harm did too, but he quickly held his ribs.
"Don't make me laugh, Gunny." Harm smiled at the look on Mac's face. Gunny noticed the look too and quickly covered his six.
"Sorry ma'am, that one was just too good for me to pass it up." Gunny stood up and retreated back out the door.
"I think you scared him off, Ninja-girl." Harm muttered and Mac had to smile at the use of a long unheard endearment. Gunny peaked his head back in at that moment.
"Ma'am, we've got some visitors out here who request to see the Captain. Your orders, ma'am?" Gunny tried to sound as official as possible.
"Tell the Major and his friends that they can come in as long as they promise not to rouse the patient." Mac chuckled as Mike, Nate and Peach pushed by Gunny and entered the room carrying a big brown teddy bear that said "Get well soon" in Filipino.
"Looks like you're on the mend." Mike gave Harm a pat on the shoulder with his remaining good arm.
"Yeah well, no thanks to you. From what I hear, it took a gang of jarheads to save me. I'll never live it down when I talk to the CNO again." Harm smiled weakly as he reached out and took the bear from them.
"Thanks……you know……for keeping me alive." Peach's voice grew sentimental as she addressed Harm.
"Looks like you've made the most out of your renewed lease on life." Harm lifted his hand and extended his index finger to indicate the point at which Peach's hand intertwined with Nate's. Gunny had noticed it earlier but rather then make anything of it, he just smiled and nodded.
Mac on the other hand went wide-eyed when she saw it. She remembered the scene in the airport back in Washington and felt the need to ensure that Nate was doing the right thing as he promised back in the States. "Harm, I just have to step outside for a second with Nate to talk with the doctor about something. We'll be back in a few minutes okay?" Mac smiled a lightly grazed Harm's cheek with her fingers. Harm nodded and Mac walked out of the room, Nate following fast on her heels after having been tossed a rather mean scowl.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mac demanded as they stepped out into the hallway.
"You mean by holding the hand of the woman I love I have violated some weird article in Filipino law?" Nate crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"What about the girlfriend back in Washington. Remember? Miss ZNN Exclusive, or did you forget about that little road block? I'm not one to interfere with people's personal live normally but the last thing Peach needs after the week she's had is to be led on by you." Mac argued with a very persuasive anger-sarcasm combination.
"You don't think I at least have the class to make sure I'm single before I get involved with someone?" Nate questioned with the same sharp edge.
"I don't know, I never would have thought you would keep a relationship secret from me." Peach remarked as she walked out of Harm's hospital room.