Thanks to all of those who reviewed: swimERfanatic13, Lu78, Jitka, GermanJagaholic, calimary, MarineFlyer86, alix33 and michelleUK - You guys made my day! I hope everyone enjoys this next installment.

MAC

Mac had been sitting in her car for the last 18 minutes and 23 seconds. She didn't know what to do. She knew Sturgis was right. They did need to talk; to get their lives back on track. She missed him so damn much! He had been her best friend for so long, even through their ups and downs; their lives had been interconnected on so many levels. She had hated the last few months, completely cut off from one another. But she still didn't know how to fix it. It had been her words that had torn them apart this time, and she couldn't take them back. The look on Harm's face as she'd said the words still haunted her dreams. Every time she closed her eyes she would see the pained expression on his face; the look of disbelief and confusion. A sudden knock on her window startled her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Sturgis standing outside her car, peering in the window. Rolling her eyes, she wound down the window and looked enquiringly at him.

"Are you planning to sit there all night?" he asked placidly, not seeming at all afraid of invoking her Marine wrath.

"Why are you still here?" Mac countered, irritated.

"Being a friend." Sturgis replied simply, "You need to go and talk to Harm, Mac. You are both miserable without each other. Don't you think this has gone on long enough?" She looked at him, knowing he was right.

"He hates me. You saw him tonight, he could barely stand to be in the same room as me for more than 10 seconds."

"Harm has never truly hated anyone." Sturgis replied calmly, "He may have been mad at you before. But the man is in love with you, the look on his face tonight wasn't hate. It was far from it. He just didn't know what to say to you."

"Didn't want to talk to me more like." Mac muttered darkly under her breath. Then, the rest of Sturgis' words filtered through her brain. "What do you mean he is in love with me?" Sturgis looked away guiltily. Busted! Well, he reasoned, someone needs to get through to her. Lord knows Harm is about as easy to read as a Tolkien novel translated into Japanese.

"Sturgis?" Mac questioned again. "Harm is not in love with me. If he was, we wouldn't be in this state. He would have stayed and .." she paused for a moment, "and fought for us. But he didn't, he let me walk away..again." There was suddenly silence, and Mac looked up, surprised to see Sturgis had disappeared. The passenger door opened and he slid in quietly.

"Mac, what happened down there?"

"Oh nothing much. I just told Harm that things would never work out between us because we both wanted to be on top. I don't know why I said it"

"You know you're wrong about that don't you?" Sturgis replied, after a pause of shocked silence. "He's never wanted to be on top. He wants to be by your side. He just doesn't know how. Harm's not good at relationships, he never has been. Surely you know that?" Mac looked down at her hands.

"He's never seemed to have that much trouble before." She replied, "Women flock to him in droves." Sturgis rolled his eyes.

"You must have noticed that he never let them in completely. I don't think he knows how. I've known him a long time, and I can tell you one thing. He tries. He really does. He wants to let you in, but he's scared that if he does, you'll leave. Loving someone unconditionally is hard enough if you don't have any baggage. But for Harm, the last person he loved unconditionally left when he was 6 and never came back."

"Why couldn't you have been around a few years ago!?" Mac asked sarcastically. "You should write a book: Insight into the great Harmon Rabb by a Preacher's son." A flicker of amusement appeared on her face, before being replaced by sadness. "I can't do it, Sturgis. He hates me. I don't think I could take the rejection. Not again." Sturgis sighed.

"Fine. But Mac, you are going to have to talk to him one day. One day you will find your way back to each other. You'd save yourself a lot of heartache if you did it now rather than later."

"I just can't." Mac replied. Sturgis reached over and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

"Well I'll leave you to your thoughts." He said, moving to get out of the car. I better go and see if I can talk some sense into Harm. He thought wryly to himself. "See you tomorrow, Mac."

"Thanks." She said softly, glancing over at him. "And Sturgis?" he paused in the doorway and looked back at her questioningly. "You'll find him at the Wall." She added, so quietly that if he hadn't been looking at her, he wouldn't have been sure if he had actually spoken or not.

"How did you know I was going to find him?" She shrugged.

"I just did." She smiled wanly at him. "See you tomorrow."

HARM

True to Mac's prediction, Harm was sitting with his back against the Wall, staring bleakly into space. Sturgis walked up hesitantly, knowing perfectly well that Harm was likely to get up and leave without talking to him. They hadn't spoken since Harm had left JAG and Sturgis knew he hadn't been a very good friend. As he approached, he took a moment to study Harm. He looked exhausted and defeated, there were circles under his eyes and he looked pale. Sturgis could see Harm had seen him and moved up quietly and sat down next to him, mimicking his friend's stance. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"How did you know I was here?" Harm asked.

"Mac told me you would be." He replied. Harm laughed bitterly.

"Figures."

"She really misses you, you know?"

"Yeah right."

"She does. She just doesn't know how to change things between you, when she desperately wants to." Harm put his head in his hands.

"She basically told me she didn't want any more to do with me. She didn't even thank me for saving her, she just lectured me for giving up my commission. She was so mad at me. I gave up everything for her, and she couldn't even say thank you."

"I don't know why she did that. But I do know she regrets it. Harm, she would give anything to take it back. She hasn't been the same since you left. She desperately wants her best friend back."

"I'm not her best friend; No-one would treat a friend like that."

"You need to talk to her. The two of you can get through this. Maybe it's time to move forward; leave the past where it is."

"Mac made it pretty clear that there was no type of future for us." Sturgis sighed, frustrated. Talking to Harm was like talking to a brick wall at times.

"Harm. I am going to spell this out clearly. I don't know why Mac said those things. But I do know she regrets it. She is in love with you; she just doesn't know how to tell you. She's terrified you will throw it back in her face and you'll be back to square one."

"She told you that?" Harm asked, looking at him for the first time since he had sat down.

"You need to speak to her." Sturgis repeated, avoiding the question.

"I can't."

"Just promise me you'll think about it." Harm rolled his eyes.

"I promise." He muttered.

"Good. Now how do you fancy playing some one-on-one tomorrow and maybe going for a drink?"

"Sure, that would be good." Harm smiled at him weakly. "Thanks Sturgis. I'm sorry I haven't been in contact. I just needed some time to lick my wounds alone."

"No worries man, I totally understand. See you tomorrow. About 6pm at the gym?"

"Thanks. See you later." Harm agreed, not moving a muscle. Sturgis pulled himself to his feet.

"See ya." He said, and headed back to his car. Those two were going to be the death of him.

JAG HQ, the next day

"Hey Mac," Sturgis' warm voice came from behind her as she reached for the coffee.

"Morning." Mac replied, turning round to look at him. She had barely slept. Sturgis' words had been going round and round in her head, and every time she had closed her eyes all she could see was Harm's face as he had caught sight of her in the bar. She couldn't get the song he had put on the juke box out of her head. What have I done? She thought morosely. I've never seen him look so defeated and sad. I can't believe I caused this.

"Mac?...Mac? Are you with me?" Sturgis was calling her.

"Sorry, I was in my own world for a minute." She replied apologetically, "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink tonight? I've got to pay a visit to my father straight after work, but I could meet you at about seven thirty?"

"Sure. McMurphy's?" Sturgis Turner, just what are you planning? She thought to herself.

"See you there!" Sturgis replied with a grin, "Staff call in ten."

Later that day

"Man, you need to work out a bit more." Sturgis said teasingly, as he side-stepped Harm and took a shot. Harm laughed, and stole the ball away from him easily before Sturgis could go for the rebound.

"You were saying?" he countered smugly as he sank the shot.

"You wanna call it a day? I could really do with a beer." Sturgis replied, glancing at his watch; seven twenty. If he wasn't careful Mac would leave before they got there.

"Sure. Let's go change."

They changed quickly and headed out of the gym and across the road to McMurphy's. Harm hesitated slightly as they approached the door, unwilling to re-experience the previous night's events.

Sturgis was nervous as hell. It was more than possible that the pair of them would kill him for the stunt he was about to pull. He pulled open the door and walked in. He spotted Mac almost immediately, and walked quickly up to her.

"Sorry I'm late." He said, smiling nervously at her.

"No problem. How was you..." she trailed off as she saw Harm come up behind him. "Traitor." She hissed, flashing him a furious look.

Harm paled as he caught up with his friend. "Mac..." he managed to say, before turning to look accusingly at Sturgis, who wilted slightly under their joint glares.

"Ok I'm sorry. But you two really need to sort this out. This was the only way I could get you in the same room." Mac's expression softened slightly.

"Sturgis. You can't force Harm to speak to me if he doesn't want to." She said, refusing to look in Harm's direction.

"Would you mind not talking about me as if I wasn't there?" Harm interrupted in annoyance. "How do you know I don't want to talk to you?"

"Because if you did, you would have returned one of my calls." She shot back quickly, "I left you something like 20 messages over the last few months."

"Which you wouldn't have had to do if you hadn't told me you wanted nothing more to do with me." Harm replied angrily.

"That's not what I did Harm." Mac protested. Sturgis stood in silence, his head swivelling to look between the pair as they got angrier and angrier. Well this is working out well. He thought ironically.

"Really?" Harm raised his voice as he answered back sarcastically "So that's not what never means then?"

"Dammit Harm" Mac got to her feet, "If I could take it back I would. Is that what you want to hear? Well its true! I would! I wanted to the moment I said it, but you didn't do anything that suggested you would want me to. You didn't fight me on it! You just walked away." She stopped, her face flushed.

"I thought that was what you wanted. Don't you understand Mac? I want you to be happy. If that's what would have made you happy then I would abide by your wishes." He paused for a moment, his eyes meeting hers for the first time in 6 months. He was shocked to see tears in them. "I thought that was what you wanted." He repeated quietly, feeling all of the anger drain from his body. Mac stared at him for a moment, and sat down again suddenly, realising her legs were shaking.

"All I ever wanted," she started, wondering if she really had the nerve to do this. "All I ever wanted.." she began again, "was for you to want to be with me. To fight for me. To love me." She got quickly to her feet. "I've got to go." She said suddenly, and pushed past Harm and Sturgis, making a beeline for the door. She was stopped 3 seconds later by someone's hand on her arm, pulling at her to turn her around. Her heart beating wildly, she acquiesced and turned to see Harm standing in front of her, shock on his face. They stared at each other in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then Harm took a step forward, slipped a hand under her chin and lifted her lips to meet his. She stood stock still in shock for a moment, before responding to the feel of his lips on hers. She shuffled a little closer and he wrapped his arms around her. After a couple of minutes they pulled back, both of them blushing hotly as they realised that they could possibly, finally be on the same page.

"That's all I ever wanted too Mac." Harm replied, his voice husky. She smiled shyly at him.

"I'm sorry, Harm. I really am." She said quietly, unable to tear her gaze away from his.

"Me too." Harm replied, leaning in to press a kiss on her lips. "So," he continued, pulling back, "where does this leave us?"

"Back at the beginning?" she replied hopefully. Harm pulled her into a hug.

"Works for me." He whispered with a smile. They stood for a few moments, unaware of their surrounding until they heard someone clear their throat behind them. They pulled apart and turned to see Sturgis looking at them, a huge smile on his face.

"Is my life safe?" he asked teasingly, laughing out loud at the looks on their faces.

"For now." Mac replied, smiling wickedly. "Now. What says we get ourselves a drink."

Thanks for reading guys! please let me know what you think of it! I could possibly do one more chapter, depending on what you all think!

:o)