Woooog!!! Finally had a chance to edit, upload, finish. We've been swamped at work, I'm missing an employee...ugh...that means I have to cover. I am POOPED!!!

Anyway, enjoy...

Chapter 36 - Reunion

Mac was pacing when Farid came to her, preparing herself for a fight. He may have gotten a hit in without warning but the Marine Colonel inside her still knew how to fight, grapple and overtake a stronger opponent. But the man did not come to battle, instead walking shyly into her apartments as if embarrassed to be there.

"I am trying to understand, Sweet Nazanin. How could you defend a man that took you by force? This man stole you away. Violated you."

"I am sorry." And part of her really was because as Nazanin Ahmadi she'd been unfaithful to her husband. It was such an odd feeling for Mac knowing that somewhere inside lived another woman with genuine feelings for this man. The other part of her yearned for the man left battered in this home, the one that made her fall in love despite trying to shelter her heart.

"Do you have feelings for him?" It wasn't phrased as a question and Mac wondered if, perhaps, her cover hadn't been broken.

"Yes...Although I do not know why."

Farid sighed heavily and with one hand he pulled her to him, his arms wrapping around Nazanin in the tightest embrace. She willingly stepped into his arms and rested her head on the crook of his shoulder, finding an odd sort of comfort from this man. "It happens, my sweet...having strong sentiments for captors. Some even fall in love although I do not comprehend why."

Only it wasn't Stockholm's Syndrome that had turned Nazanin back to Sarah but a bump on the head and a man too stubborn to let her go. She went stiff in Farid's arms as he began to gently rock them as if dancing to some invisible song. His lips brushed the headdress dropping a kiss onto her temple. That duality had been a source for such confusion all of these years. How could this man claim to love her one moment and hurt her the next?

Despite running from her past, Mac found it funny that she'd stepped right into it - a loving man who could turn abusive. The idea made her shake and when she tried to pull away from Farid, he only tightened his hold. "You love me, Nazanin. Me and only me, you know this. That man, he is no good and will be dealt with."

"What will you do to him?""I am not certain.""He knows not what he does and believes I am another. Don't kill him."

Farid stopped moving and pulled away to look in her eyes. "Death is too good for him anyway… Oh my Sweet you look at me with such fear. I won't hurt you or your American if that is what you ask of me.""I am conflicted, my love. He hurt me but you've hurt me too."

His shoulders slumped and the cold eyes that had stared at her actually looked pained. Farid opened his mouth to speak but the noise of a jet engine sputtering to life cut him off. He checked his watch, muttered a curse and then stared at his wife. "I must go, my love.""Where?""I have a meeting, an important one and will deal with you and him tomorrow." He rushed across the apartment, out of the open door stopping in the hallways only to bark orders to the guards. "Provide my wife with anything that she needs but do not let her out of her rooms."

A similar order was given for his prisoner and before Nazanin was locked in she saw the guards hauling a limp body down the hall and into a guest room just two doors down and accessible by the secret passage on that floor.

The opulence of each and every corner of their home had always fascinated her. Each room was different but full of intricate details and needlessly sprawing living areas with doors which led to an equally large bedroom.

Even each guest room - and there were several - screamed luxury with the finest furniture, amenities, even the sheets were of the most expensive type of cotton. Mac was surprised Farid would lock Harm away in such room but then the home had few places to keep a prisoner.

She used the hidden corridor to find him knowing it would likely be to her detriment. Farid was gone, through windows she saw him hop on a helicopter and fly away to God only knew where. That gave her time to search for Harm and she prayed a worse punishment had not been dealt to him.

When she closed her eyes she still saw him doubling over, unable to stand straight as Farid landed blow after blow. He was resilient, defiant and would have taken more of a beating unless she asked them to stop.

Farid didn't anticipate that she could pick locks nor had the mind to post a guard in the living area instead of the hallway. The almost four years she spent with him helped Mac learn how he thought, some of which was impractical but allowed her to escape her confines through the secret passage.

She might have missed where Harm was taken, part of her prayed he wasn't simply tossed into the bowels of the home where the unused cellar was. That's where she would have kept a prisoner but Farid was too arrogant, too self-assured that a guest room was best. She'd seen him do that once before, treat an enemy as a guest to then dispose of them like garbage.

Mac stood leaning against the entrance, her ear pressed to the hidden door trying to gauge any signs that Harm was not alone. Lack of use made that particular entry difficult to open and she had to lean her full weight against it while her fingers held the latch.

She grabbed the candle, blowing it out when she found the sitting area dark, the only sliver of light coming from beneath the bedroom door. She used a pin to unlock it, the gentle click of the tumbler giving way sounded like music to her ears.

Stepping inside, she gently closed the door, locked it and immediately searched for Harm. He wasn't dead, she knew because that connection between them was yet humming, crackling with life. She suspected he was in the bathroom but instead found him lying on the ground, a crumpled mess of blood and bruises and filthy clothing.

He was curled up in the fetal position, protecting his midsection with one arm while the other covered his face. It was a defensive move, she knew because she'd taught it to him once before - lay on the ground on your side, cover the vital parts of your body, strike with your leg.

Dark and unseeing eyes stared blankly at her until she spoke to him. "Harm, it's Mac."

"Mac?" His hands dropped at once, the tension in his body evaporated. He was hurt, in pain, wincing once he rolled to his back and glanced up at the ceiling.

Harm was hauled out of Farid's office, his boots dragging on the ground because the guards could barely carry his dead weight. He was conscious, the only thing keeping him lucid was the pain that stretched across his body. The men grunted as they pulled him, eventually tossing him in some room and locking the door behind them.

How he was still alive, Harm wasn't sure, it was a cinch that Farid would kill him the very second he was taken. If anything, he should have been shot point blank when he reached for Nazanin, his last ditch effort to stop the man from hurting her. "Sarah?"

"Yeah, it's me. It's me...Oh God." Mac knelt at his side, wanting to touch him so badly but she didn't know if even a caress would hurt him more. "How hurt are you?"

"Asshole hits like a girl." He chuckled and Mac's exasperated sigh had him staring up to find the only recognizable part of Sarah MacKenzie were her eyes. The damned niqab covered her whole body, the headscarf covered her face and he wanted to rip her out of those stupid garbs and free her. "Can I...can I take this off?" His fingers pinched the edges of the fabric and at her nod he pulled it up-and-over her head revealing Mac's face.

"Oh Mac." Bruises were healing but some bore the evidence of the day he'd punched her. Her right cheek was pink from Farid's own hand but beneath were purple and green splotches although they were no longer as bad as they once had been. The split lip was healed as was the other cut from when his academy ring broke her skin. There was a little mark, tiny and insignificant but he noticed it and couldn't help but trace his finger over the small scar. "I'm sorry."

"No, I am." She sighed then bent down to place a kiss on his brow. His face was a bloodied mess. One cheek had a cut, his left eye was almost swollen shut so that Harm winced when he opened it. She ran a hand over the spots not banged up and he wiped away the tear that fell from her eye. "You came for me."

"Even if you wouldn't have pointed the way, I would have. I had to, Mac. I wasn't losing you again."

"Thank you." Her lips brushed his briefly as her fingers moved gently across his body, when that didn't seem to hurt, Mac helped him sit up. "Is anything broken?" She asked the second he winced and brought his arm across his ribs to protect them.

"Other than my pride?"

"Funny."

Harm sighed, "I don't know. Ribs hurt like hell."

"We'll take it slow, then." She stood first and attempted to angle her body to lift his weight, a feat Mac knew would be nearly impossible given her current lack of strength. "Think you can stand, flyboy?" Even if he couldn't, she was already tugging him up shouldering some of his body weight when his legs nearly gave out.

"How'd you get in here?"

"There's a secret passage on this floor….Can you open your eye?" Mac was hovering. She made him shower and now was sitting on the bed cross legged, using a washcloth to dab peroxide on certain wounds. While one eye only had a cut over his brow, the other was purple and puffy, Harm hadn't opened it since she found him lying on the ground.

There was concern that the eye itself was damaged but when he managed to open it to half lid, Mac gave him a small smile. The sclera looked normal, there was no blood in the eye itself and he seemed to focus somewhat. "Can you see okay?"

"Yeah. It's a little hazy, but you still look beautiful."

"Only you'd flirt at a time like this." Mac chuckled. She finished cleaning the cuts, placing butterfly bandages on a few others and finally settled a cool cloth on his eye. God, it had been hell seeing Farid strike. A man who was usually too cowardly to engage in a physical battle and yet was manically savage. He'd done it for her, or so his maligned ideology had declared.

What she feared was that her profession of love for Harm would break her cover given how easily the words came out. It was just a matter of time before Farid knew exactly who she was and then, it was all over. "We're going to die here, aren't we?"

"Like Butch and Sundance with something important at stake?" Harm said sadly, recalling that macabre conversation in the Afghan desert. "This wasn't what you had in mind was it?"

"No."

He touched her, letting fingertips move down her arm until his hand covered hers. She watched their joined hands with interest and couldn't help the shiver that ran through her whole being. Mac didn't want to die, not like this, not when they had so much life left to live. They'd survived and she wasn't ready to have it all taken away. "I was goading you then. After everything I never really considered how it would all end but this...this isn't it."

"Is your cover blown?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think so." But, she didn't know. Farid could have been toying with her, setting her up. "Honestly, I don't know what he believes."

There was only one way Farid could be sure and that was much farther than Mac was willing to go.

Sex.

He wanted her body. She despised that Nazanin laid with him and wished she could erase all of those memories that sadly were a part of her. "I'd have to eventually sleep with him to…for him to believe I'm still faithful and I can't do that. I can't...I won't even if he kills me over it, I can't betray you that way."

"Even if it's to save yourself?"

"Even then. I love you, Harm. I love you too much to pretend with him. It wouldn't be just my body that he takes, it'll be what's left of Sarah MacKenzie and I won't let him take that."

Harm tugged at her then, pulling Mac down so that his lips met hers in a kiss that was so heartbreakingly sweet, she melted into him. She moaned into his mouth, let her tongue tangle so softly with his. God she needed him, loved him and wished so hard they were back in the safety of the cabin.

He pulled her body over his only stopping because the pain in his ribs broke the kiss. It only made him chuckle. "We always get a little carried away don't we?"

"I think we always will." She sighed, resting her forehead against his. "I need you to know, I'm

not Nazanin Ahmadi. She isn't coming back...She loved Farid, not me... I'm not her. I'm not her."

"Who are you?"

"I'm…" Mac paused, seeing his expectant expression. Of course, there was only one answer she'd always give. "Your wife...I'm your wife and I'll never, ever stop loving you."

"You need to go back to your room." It was the middle of the night when Harm woke and found Mac cuddled against his good side. Her hand lay over his heart, covered by his own and that gentle rise and fall of her chest was actually calming.

She looked so beautiful when she slept but then, there wasn't a time he hadn't been smitten by Mac. She had a way of toying with his emotions, making him feel when all he wanted was to lock his heart away. He was sure that he loved her now more than ever.

There had to be a way out of this predicament, Harm hoped. Despite Webb's waiting game, his capture had to necessitate some sort of rescue or was the man so callused to let them both die? "Mac, go back, please. If someone finds you here, it won't be good."

"No." She didn't want to leave him or entertain any ideas that Farid would be back soon. Mac wanted to stay in his embrace, to forget that anything exists, but her and Harm. "I can go at first light. He's not returning any time soon."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. I don't want to leave, not yet….Just a little more time." Her head rested on the same pillow as his. Fingertips traced the shell of his ear, down his cheek to his jawline and the heavy stubble that accumulated. "Never thought I'd like this look on you but, I do."

The coarse hair felt good beneath her skin especially when it contrasted with the softness of his lips. "I love you, Harm. No matter what...I'll always love you."

"I know, Sarah. I know." For once, Harm knew he didn't have to return the sentiment. Just being here, trying to rescue her was enough.