This was supposed to be a longer chapter, but in the end, I decided it would be better to split it in two. The other half coming up soon!

Sending a huge THANK YOU to all the reviewers!


Clayton Webb looked paler than death. For several minutes he just stood there, his eyes boring into her as if he hadn't heard her. He opened his mouth two times, but nothing came out. Then he sank onto the sofa and crumbled into himself. His elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, his back hunched. A man who had just suffered an immeasurable loss.

Meg kept biting her lip, completely without and the idea of what to do next, how to behave.

"I am sorry," she said after a while. "Perhaps I should have worded that better. It sounded crude. And wrong. Look, I don't know how she got there, but little over a week ago we found her in a really awful motel and she was in a most pitiful condition. She had a fever, injuries on her hands and feet and she was almost completely out of it. She was in a very bad state, and Harm... he is just taking care of her."

Webb raised his face. Meg was shocked to see tears trailing down his cheeks.

"Is he?" he asked and it was bitter. "Is he really? Or is he just making sure he has her where he can control her and everything she does? Where nobody can reach her? You say she was in a very bad state. Did he at least take her to a hospital?"

Meg shifted in her seat uncomfortably and shook her head lightly.

"So if I understand correctly, the woman who I have been in the most intimate relationship of both our lives for more than a year now is currently in Harm's bed, in his apartment and he is there holed up with her, right? She had injuries but he did not take her to a hospital. She has her own apartment but he took her to his loft which is really just one big room with no walls for even a separate bathroom. She has a significant other," Webb jabbed a finger into his own chest, "but he is the one who takes care of her?!"

"He... well... she... she apparently didn't resist or anything," Meg decided to defend Harm. No matter what, he was still her friend. He was still the man she loved. "I would have thought she would want you since you say you are in a relationship, but frankly Mr Webb, she barely said two words. She just cried all the time."

It was Webb's turn to look uncomfortable in addition to his apparent misery. Meg caught the guilty look in his eyes.

"What happened between you two, really?" she asked rather severely. "Her being in the state she is might actually not be of your doing, right?"

"No!" he gritted between his teeth. "I love her. I would never hurt her. But we ... we had a big argument. She left for work the next morning and never came back. I have been looking for her ever since."

Suddenly he jumped to his feet and almost ran for the door.

"Where are you going?" Meg cried out instinctively.

He stopped, his hand on the doorknob. He dropped his forehead against the hard pannels of the wood. He started sobbing.

"Mr Webb, please," Meg pleaded without really knowing what she wanted him to do. She did not need his anguish right now, not when he has painted such a negative portrait of Harm she simply refused to believe. But everything Webb had said sounded true. And many of the previously missing pieces he provided clicked into place and made the mosaic complete. Harm has always had a strong protective streak, she knew. It made only sense he would be protective of a woman who looked like his lost girlfriend. More than protective. He would take care of her every need, shield her from everything unpleasant. He would stand between her and everybody who might hurt her. Including, apparently, her own boyfriend. Harm turned it all into an obsession. Because that first woman died violently. There was nothing he could do for her. He probably felt he could do better where Sarah Mackenzie, with the face of Dianne Schonke, was concerned.

Finally, Webb calmed down. He kept standing by the door, trying to compose himself.

"I apologize," he said, his voice still thick with tears.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Meg assured him. "But tell me: you have mentioned Harm interfered with the Colonel's relationships. How?"

"Ask somebody else, Commander," Webb answered. "Ask anyone who knows the two of them. That way you will know I am not lying to you and I will not have to talk about it. This is all too painful for me."

She was disappointed but saw his point. He opened the door and stepped out of the apartment.

"Wait!" she called after him. "What do you mean to do now?"

"To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. I need to think. But perhaps... perhaps you could do me a favour?"

"Of course."

"Go to Harm. Don't tell him about me. Otherwise, he will shut you out. Will not tell you anything. Or, at the most, will tell you how bad I am for Mac. Because in his mind, nobody is good enough for her. But if you could just go to him and ask about her. How she is. And then you could tell me. Please? I am seriously worried."

"I will," she said quietly.