Harm began to stroke her hand, when he felt her tremble slightly in his grasp. She felt like silk, and he wondered what it would be like to be housed inside her skin. Not just to make love to her, but to live within that soft shell. To see himself through her eyes. He wondered if her heart quickened when he walked into the room – like his did whenever she was near. He wondered what she thought about when she stared unseeing out the window of her office. He wondered if she ever woke up from her dreams with his name on her lips.

"Harm?" She said, as if reading his mind. "Do you remember your dreams?

He frowned at he odd question, but opted to answer honestly. "Only the ones about you."

Mac's eyes widened, even as they glittered with flattery. "You dream about me?"

"All the time."

The light in Mac's eyes dimmed at his tone. "Somehow that doesn't sound like a compliment."

Harm glanced up and met her eyes, and then looked back over the water. "Sometimes it is," He told her with a half-hearted smirk. "But lately, you haven't exactly been in the safest of circumstances. And your…affiliation with Webb hasn't exactly set my mind at ease."

Mac squeezed his hand. "That's never been a serious issue Harm."

He looked at her for a long moment, and decided to take her at her word. "Maybe not romantically, but that doesn't stop him from using your…friendship to goad you into going on another insane mission."

Mac's eyes narrowed. "I won't allow myself to be used," She declared, and then hedged. "But, if there's a mission presented to me that I know I can accomplish, I won't promise you that I will refuse it."

Harm stared at the ground, and gave a grim nod. Mac reached out and lifted his chin. "However, I can promise you one thing."

"What's that?"

"I can promise that - if I have any say in the matter – I won't go anywhere without you."

"And exactly how are you going to convince the Admiral that I have to go with you?"

"Oh that one's going to be easy. I'll just remind him that you're going to drop everything and follow me anyway, so he might as well send you in the first place."

He laughed. Receiving her acknowledgement of his sacrifice in the spirit in which it was intended. "And how are you going to convince Webb that I need to go with you?"

"That one's going to be a little trickier. But I figure if I keep insisting that I won't go without you, than maybe he'll get the hint and quit asking me altogether."

"That's a good plan."

Mac looked him in the eye. "It's the only one that would work, Harm. We have tried to deny it for much too long, the truth is, we come as a set. We always have. I don't think we'll have a difficult time convincing anyone else of that."

"No, I don't think anyone will be surprised by that." He paused for a long moment. "What about you? Do you remember your dreams?"

"All of them."

Harm raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I remember them for days afterward."

"Bad dreams?"

"Most of them," She replied, and then quickly added. "Well, not really bad, just…disturbing, but I'm used to it."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Since I can remember." Harm stared at her in shock. "My life has never settled down enough to let my mind be at ease, Harm. I told my therapist about them, and she said it was because I never deal with stress while I'm awake; I push it aside so that I can get through my day. It's my minds way of dealing with things, when I don't have real life in the way to distract me."

Harm nodded. "That makes sense I guess."

"Yeah it does."

"So, when did you start seeing a therapist?"

Mac searched his face, and saw no trace of mockery. "Since you walked out of my life."

"Mac…"

"We went through a lot in Paraguay, Harm. More than I'm sure either of us wants to remember. I've been through traumatic things before, but I've always been able to come home with you and work through it. This time I didn't have you." She held up a hand. "That's my fault, I know. I didn't have you to help me, so I turned to someone who could."

"I didn't realize how much I…affected you."

Mac whispered, "Neither did I."

Harm gave her an affectionate smile, and reached out to lightly caress her cheek. "Do you dream about me?"

"All the time."

Hiss expression melted into one of concern. "Bad dreams?"

It was Mac's turn to smirk. "Not all of them. Some of them have been very…stimulating. But you haven't exactly been in the safest of situations either. I worried about you non-stop, that was bound to give me nightmares."

"Sorry."

"Me too."

TBC...