OOOO

From Ch 5...

"Tea's ready, Mac!"

Mac jumped out of her thoughts when she heard Harm's shout, accompanied by the whistle of the tea-kettle.

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Ch 6

After that, things were a lot better, thanks to their tentative truce. Harm had made it clear that he respected her decision and Mac had made it clear that her decision had nothing to do with Harm. They were of course still in quite a bit of pain, they were both still in the process of grieving, but they were both sleeping a little better at nights. The respite swiftly came to an end, when the General announced that he was sending him out of town together, on an investigation.

"There's been a mishap at Miramar. Details are sketchy, right now, but a drill instructor and two recruits have been killed, both not even 20 years old. I want to know what happened and if somebody was negligent, I want their six nailed to my desk! You understand!"

"Aye, Sir," Harm and Mac both replied, crisply coming to attention and turning, once dismissed.

They went home to pack, after that, both thinking, "God, what am I getting myself into?"

And neither one was thinking anything about the mishap investigation….

OOOO

"I'm sorry, but we've only got one room that is non-smoking. The other is one the sixth floor, which is a smoking room."

After their bumpy (and delayed) military flight, this was the last thing they wanted to hear from the receptionist at the hotel.

"That will be f…"

"I'm afraid that won't be good enough," Harm cut in.

"But we don't have any other rooms available, just now, Sir. There's been a Star Trek convention in town, these past few days."

"Harm, I'll just take the room," Mac tried to reason with him, "I wouldn't make you sleep in a smoking room after you worked so hard to quit."

"The smoke won't bother me," Harm told her, "But Coates booked two non-smoking rooms for us and was told that was what we would get."

"I will have a non-smoking room opening up later, this evening," the receptionist, looking very worried, now, spoke up, "If you wouldn't mind taking the smoking room for now, I'll put a reserve on the other room and send somebody to collect your luggage, as soon as it is ready."

"That would be great, thank you," Mac told her, before Harm got a chance to argue further.

She swiftly took off in the direction of the stairs, before Harm recovered and took her elbow, guiding her towards the elevators, instead.

"Harm, it's only a few floors."

"With the luggage that you insisted on taking up yourself, instead of letting the bellhop transport it for you. Just let me have this one thing, will you?"

Mac turned and challenged him with a look.

"Okay, maybe not just that one thing…" he admitted.

Mac immediately went to punch the button for the sixth floor. Before she could, Harm batted her hand away and went to punch it himself. They got into a wrestling match, each trying to be the one to take the smoking room.

"Harm, I told you that I'd take the smoking room! It'll only be another few hours until the non-smoking room becomes available."

"I will not have you sitting in a smoky room, not with your health as it is, just now."

"I told you, the doctor gave me a clean bill of health. And I wouldn't put a former smoker in a room smelling of smoke any more than I would put myself in a bath-tub of vodka."

"All rooms come with a mini-bar, Mac. You don't end up drinking it and just because I was in a smoker's room, I wouldn't light-up, either."

"The alcohol is in the mini-bar, Harm, I'm not swimming in it!"

The elevator 'dinged' indicating that they had reached the fourth floor, where their non-smoking room was. Harm gave a sigh and stepped out, but pulling Mac with him. He kept his hand on her arm until they were both inside the room.

"Okay, it's only a few hours until the other room is ready…We'll both stay here until it is…Want to go over those case files that the General gave us?"

Now it was Mac's turn to sigh in amusement.

"Okay," she conceded, taking a seat next to him, as he pulled the files out of his travel bag.

OOOO

Mac's room (the one next to Harm's and with an connecting door between them) was available just a few hours later. The receptionist must have had to scramble to get this sorted out. They got all settled in, before they went out to find dinner. They would be reporting to the base CO at 0700, the next morning, so after dinner they both opted to get an early night.

Harm was concerned when he saw Mac the next morning; she looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep, although he hadn't heard her moving about in her room the night before…Not that he would have noticed it; he had slept like a log.

'Damn,' he thought, cursing how deeply he slept, 'Sometimes it is so inconvenient!'

"Hey, Mac! You want to grab a quick breakfast? I think they're serving already…."

Mac just shook her head. "Let's just drive in. Maybe we can grab something on-base, once we've reported to the Admiral."

Harm definitely knew now that something was not right.

Once they had more information from the base CO, Admiral Brinkoff, Harm and Mc headed to the mess hall, where Harm got a salad and Mac picked at a plate of fries.

When they were done, they conducted some interviews and arranged to see the area where the mishap took place.

OOOO

Three days later, when they had finally interviewed everyone involved and had experts examine the equipment for faults, they still had no other option available except for human error.

"There's no way that any of the equipment malfunctioned, Mac," Harm sighed, as they sat at in their temporary office, reading over the report, "The only thing I can think of was that somebody made a mistake while operating it."

Mac sighed also, adding, "Most probably one of the people involved, one who has paid for the mistake with their life…How do we tell their family this? That their loved-one they've lost caused their own death and that of two others? As if they aren't dealing with enough…"

Harm could only nod, ruefully.

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