Okay so this one I had in my drive for about a year. Going back to S4 where things were a little simpler. Summary sucks. LOL!
Harm/Jordan to start and eventually Harm/Mac.
Summary: What happens when you're in love with your best friend and he's dating someone new? Harm's begun dating Jordan but something about the woman gives Mac a bad feeling.
Chapter 1 - The Women You Pick
It wasn't that she didn't like her; it was that she really didn't like her.
Mac tried to avoid that nagging feeling that she knew was nothing more than an unrelenting jealousy at the latest woman in Harm's life. Feeling this way was something she didn't want to entertain because, as his best friend, she wanted his absolute happiness. But, sitting at his desk, in his chair she was greeted by a photo on the upper left hand corner of the one and only Lt. Commander Jordan Parker.
That was quick. She thought and wondered if there was an official time limit as to when photos and mementos were supposed to appear on one's desk. It seemed a little tacky for him, the sudden empirical form of affection and Mac resisted the urge to stuff the photo into a drawer or toss it out the window.
Jordan was his latest girlfriend, a pretty, blond doctor - a psychiatrist in Bethesda to be exact and Mac wondered if she'd used some sort of psychological babble to snag him. The woman had barged her way into his life moving from client to lover over the course of the Holidays and Mac regretted ever handing the case to him, an effort to control the crap cases Chegwidden saddled her with as punishment.
She snorted recalling the ridiculousness of it all: a doctor who didn't know cough syrup had alcohol and so had failed a sobriety test. Had Jordan remained her client, Mac would have accepted some sort of punishment for being so utterly stupid. To Mac it smelled of an adict using a stupid excuse to get out of trouble. But, the woman had batted her baby blues and Harm was hooked once they spent an afternoon going over her file. A whole afternoon wasted on her silly little case with lunch tossed in to boot.
But then Jordan Parker wasn't just a woman, the doctor was a blonde and as memory served, Harm mostly liked pretty little blondes of the damsel in distress persuasion. Jordan had ticked all of the correct boxes of his dating requirements while Mac sat on the sidelines again.
Sighing, she kept searching through the files on his desk that required attention, giving each a once over before sprawling her signature across the bottom. The feeling of being watched made the hair stand up in the back of her neck and she raised an eye to that damned photo again, scowling at the image.
The other woman really shouldn't bother her, not one bit but, she did. Jordan Parker got under her skin like no one else, not even Annie who was a neurotic mess. There was a reason Mac disliked the woman so much and with a frustrated sigh Mac mentally admitted it: she had fallen in love with Harmon Rabb Jr.
The feelings were there from the start Mac knew but she buried them deep knowing she had no business becoming involved with a man like him. She had one hell of an opportunity at JAG and wouldn't let his cool blue eyes or sexy smile reel her in. Which was why she was downright hostile at first and flippant at best when all Harm had wanted was to keep the peace and nurture their fledgling friendship.
Somehow he'd become her best friend and between assignments, trips around the world and near brushes with death, Mac had fallen for Harm. And she'd fallen hard. Attempts to broach the subject were brushed off and now she wondered if maybe she hadn't been assertive enough. There had been a moment, a time between their return from Russia and Chris' crashing in on her life that Mac thought they would fall into each other and everything would be right in the world.
It never happened mostly in part by her own defiance as to the weight over her heart. After her past mistakes in the romance department she didn't want to crash and burn with Harm as their demise would likely be a fiery one.
But, after Russia they were close, closer than ever and spending most of their free time together. It was like dating without the usual items that came with it: kissing and lovemaking. Anytime his lips had been on her it was a chaste peck on her cheek and she wanted so much more.
Mac had been so close to talking to him and exploring the 'thing' between them. She'd caught the way he was looking at her with the interest of a lover more than a friend and she longed to bridge that gap, swore he did too. And then Chris came back into her life with the force of a runaway locomotive and Bobbi Latham crossed Harm's path. Mac's whole World had been turned upside down and inside out.
She knew he was hurting over her lies of omission but, what could she do? Mac felt she owed Farrow for her past mistakes, he was a good, kind man who didn't deserve to be saddled with her problems. Harm defended her zealously but, the newfound knowledge of her husband chipped away at something that they couldn't seem to get back.
During the Holidays she tried to express her feelings for him but Harm didn't seem to notice or care chalking up her odd behavior due to Mac's impending Article 32. The man was actually calling every woman he knew like a gigolo looking for a good time, his effort to not be alone for Christmas. Mac felt cast aside, unworthy. And then came Jordan Parker captivating Harm with her baby blues. Yes, she had helped with Chloe and Mac was greatful but she sensed something was off.
It wasn't that infuriating neurosis like Annie's, this was something altogether different - a flaw which she couldn't quite pinpoint. Then came the other part, the changes in Harm who acted differently around the woman, watered down and bendable - acquiescing to her every whim. She supposed relationships survived on that give and take but, with Jordan nothing Harm did was enough.
Her suspicions were validated two weeks prior when he'd consulted her on some problems that the new couple was having which began and ended with the woman's need to psychoanalyse him. He'd ventured to Mac's apartment late one night and chatted at great length about his insecurities and Jordan's annoyance over his job, the long hours, TADs and the fact that Harm's flight status was still current.
"She thinks it's an obsession, my flying."
"It is in a way, Harm but, it keeps you close to your dad." She understood that facet of his life and couldn't fault him. Mac had her own obsessions like the dinosaur bones she meticulously cleaned and studied.
"What do I do?"
"Talk to her. Give it time." With a great weight over her heart, Mac sent him back to her, told him it would be alright. She tried to like Jordan, after all the woman was dating her best friend. She was always extremely polite even when Jordan's neurosis showed through reminding her of Annie Pendry.
"The women you pick." She said out loud with a roll of her eyes.
Mac didn't realize the mistake she'd made until a void began to grow between them. The late, working dinners, twice a week runs disappeared, the camaraderie began to slip and then ceased to the point that Mac's interaction with her partner were only work related. It shouldn't have bothered her that he was dating, just like it shouldn't have bothered him that she was seeing Dalton a year and a half prior. Harm had verbally voiced his dislike for the lawyer, acting much like a jealous boyfriend much to Mac's growing confusion.
Taking the job with Dalton had been a risky move, a way to put some distance between the two of them when she began to feel a little too much.
Mac had fallen for Harm, desperately and totally in love with him, a fact that became evident after he'd kept her safe from poachers in the middle of the woods. It was fruitless she knew to want him so and yet she really couldn't help it. But regulations were regulations and it was easier to keep him at a distance, easier to be his best friend and nothing more.
With a sigh, she turned her attention back to the files on his desk and searched through the pile of folders in a corner. Once again she felt someone watching and when she raised her head up, Mac found Jordan Parker standing at the door.
With a look of annoyance and confusion the woman stepped out of the office and glanced up at the nameplate to find Harm's rank and last name etched into the black plastic. "This is Harm's office isn't it?" She tried to sound aloof but the questioning glare made the hair stand up in the back of Mac's neck.
"Jordan, hey...hi...Uh, yeah...yes this is his office."
"Then why are you in it?" The question came out more harsher sounding than Jordan intended but for good reason: Sarah MacKenzie was beautiful, even in those drab Marine greens. And it wasn't a run of the mill kind of beauty. No, Mac was exotic with her darker complexion and those chocolate amber eyes.
It was a rarer kind of beauty especially given how her vulnerability meshed with Marine strength. Mac was tall, slender with legs that most men would say went on 'for days'. She had caught the way in which Harm spoke of her almost reverently and saw through the 'just friends' excuse.
Although he would never admit it, Jordan knew Harm and Mac had slept together, it was evident on the causal ease they shared and the way he continually brought her up in conversations.
"Well? Why are you in his office?" The contempt dripped from Jordan's voice shaking the stoic Marine. It made Mac feel like she was being scolded for reasons she couldn't comprehend.
With a flourish Mac tapped her pen on the file in front of her and then motioned to the large stack on the right. "Reviewing a few files for Harm."
"And where is Harm?"
These were not answers she needed to give but did so for him, to not rock his little love boat. A little love boat Mac secretly prayed would sink like the Titanic. "In court."
Jordan stared at the Marine trying to find a chink in the armor that wasn't there. Either the woman was a great liar or she was being overly cautious. No matter, Mac's explanation was pleasing enough. "He said he would be out for lunch. Harm's taking me to The Ambar."
"The Ambar?" Mac raised a brow. The restaurant opened two years prior to rave reviews on the lavish establishment and decadent foods. The place wasn't exactly in her paygrade which meant it wasn't in Harm's either. Ridiculously expensive and ostentatious, it was not her scene, she couldn't imagine Harm enjoying it. "Have the lobster if you enjoy seafood, it's excellent."
"You've been?"
She couldn't help but smirk at Jordan's shocked expression. Surely the woman thought that, as a Marine Mac didn't like the finer things which was true to a degree - she'd never know about The Ambar had Dalton not taken her. "A few times. The food is good but the place is a bit pretentious." Mac shrugged. "I honestly prefer a good burger, fries and a strawberry shake."
"How pedestrian." The insult was veiled behind a sweet smile and without being asked Jordan walked in and placed her purse on the desk. "I'll wait for him here. I'm sure he won't mind."
"No, I'm sure he won't." Mac signed off on one more file leaving the stack he'd asked her to look over. She wasn't going to sit in his office and pretend to enjoy idle chit chat with Jordan for a second longer than she had to. "Excellent. I think that's all he needed. Have a nice day, Commander."
"You as well, Major."
It was a hasty retreat and Mac cast a final glance at the woman and then the picture on Harm's desk. She was losing her best friend and didn't know how to stop it without acting like an jilted lover. The short walk to her office felt like an eternity and after closing the door and the blinds, Mac slumped into her chair.
No, she still didn't like LtCmdr Jordan Parker...she didn't like her one bit and couldn't do a damned thing about it.