Sorry this has been so long in coming, I hope you find it worth the wait!
Thanks for all who have reviewed so far, I love to hear your comments and opinions!
Mac couldn't stop the smile from appearing on her face as she walked into JAG headquarters on Monday morning. She had had a great weekend, and she was so glad to be back at work. They had spent all of Saturday with Trish, getting to know one another properly, and she had ended up spending Sunday with Harriet and baby AJ while Harm and Sturgis worked on his Corvette.
"Welcome back Ma'am" Gunny said as she walked through the bullpen, noting with amusement the expression on her face.
"Thanks Gunny" she replied with a warm smile, "Is Commander Rabb in yet?" Although they were engaged, they had decided to keep things a bit quiet for a while, with only their close friends knowing, until the Admiral had had a chance to sort out the chain-of-command issues. A positive result of this was that it enabled them to take things slow, despite the fact that they had been practically dating for the last 4 or 5 years, and in truth couldn't get enough of each other, they had both agreed that they should use the next few weeks and months to act like a new couple, learning all about each other just enjoying getting to know each other again.
"No Ma'am," Victor replied with what could only be described as a smirk, "He rang to say he was running late. He should b here by staff call though." She couldn't resist rolling her eyes in mock exasperation; Harm was never on time for anything. She nodded to Gunny and continued through the bullpen to her office, nodding at the staff who acknowledged her presence with repeated 'welcome back ma'ams.' When she got to her office she paused at the doorway in surprise; sitting on her desk were a beautiful bunch of lilies in a vase. She quickly moved up to the desk, picking up the card that was perched on top of the flowers.
'Welcome back beautiful!' it read, 'lots of love, Harm'
She felt herself blushing, and stood, re-reading the note, a huge smile on her face. The sound of a door shutting behind her pulled her mind back to the present, and she turned around to see who it was. Harm was standing there, a cheeky smile on his face as he closed the blinds on her window.
"Good morning" he said huskily, walking over and giving her a soft kiss on the lips.
"Thank you for the flowers." She said softly, "they're beautiful! But that's not exactly keeping things quiet is it?!"
"You can just say they're from a secret admirer!" Harm replied, unbothered by her concerns. He really just wanted to shout out to the world that he was engaged to the woman of his dreams, but he understood the reasons they had agreed to secrecy.
"Hmm," she replied with a laugh, "and surely they won't guess that they're from you when you have just come in here, shut the door and closed the blinds!!" Harm coloured slightly at that,
"I didn't think of that!" he replied with a grin, then he shrugged, "its not like we've never been the subject of office scuttlebutt before! That's all it will be." He grinned easily at her, and pulled her closer towards him, "can I have a proper good morning kiss now?!" he added with an innocent smile.
"Cheeky squid!" Mac replied with a giggle, leaning forward and giving him a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer, murmuring,
"Yes, but I'm your cheeky squid." They were interrupted by a knock at the door, and both jumped apart quickly, blushing like schoolchildren.
"Come in" Mac called, moving round to behind her desk as Harm too up the seat opposite. Harriet stuck her head round the door, smirking knowingly at them,
"Sir, Ma'am, I was wondering if you had any plans for Columbus Day?" they both shook their heads and she carried on, "would you like to come over for dinner? Mikey is home for a visit, and we thought it would be nice to have everyone over. Commander Turner, the Admiral, Tiner and the Gunny have all agreed."
"That would be lovely Harriet" Mac replied, smiling at her friend, "Is there anything we can bring or do to help?"
"No that's fine, just bring yourselves. Your welcome to come over earlier in the day if you want, I know little AJ would love to see you." She grinned impishly, "I'll leave you two alone," she said with a wink, "Don't be late for staff call!"
When she had gone, Harm and Mac looked at each other and grinned guiltily,
"I suppose I better go" Harm said with a grin, "See you at staff call." He winked at her, and slipped out of her office.
At staff call Harm took up his usual place next between Mac and Sturgis, rather unsubtly sneaking glances at her while the Admiral was handing out cases.
"Commander?" The Admiral asked, amusement evident in his voice, "Are you with us this morning?!" Harm jumped slightly,
"Yes sir!" he replied, snapping to attention.
"At ease Commander!" AJ replied, clearly enjoying watching Harm squirm slightly, "Just make sure you keep your mind on the case at hand." The others in the room all tried their hardest to hide their smiles at the blush that quickly appeared on Harm's face, Mac especially. She hated to admit it, but it was quite distracting having him sitting so close, knowing they had to behave like professionals, not to mention military officers. Luckily for her, her poker face was better than his.
"Yes sir!" Harm replied, also trying to keep a smile from appearing on his face. He felt like a teenager again. He tried his hardest to pay attention during the rest of the meeting but found it nearly impossible to stop his thoughts from wondering to a certain Marine Colonel, sat not a foot away. Damnit! He thought, How is I can't concentrate, but Mac is having no problem whatsoever?! I'll have to get her back for that! He smirked as his mind ran over the various possible ways to ruin, or at the very least interrupt her concentration. He got so carried away in these thoughts that he completely tuned out what was going on around him, only being pulled back to the real world by the Admiral's call of:
"Dismissed!" Automatically he jumped to his feet, bringing himself to attention in time with the others, secretly thanking god for his military training which had made some things instinctive.
He turned to follow Sturgis out of the door when he heard the Admiral's voice behind him,
"Colonel, Commander, can you hold on a second please?" Harm looked down at Mac and smiled slightly, hoping that the Admiral wasn't about to berate him, or them, for his lack off attention that morning. They looked expectantly at their commanding officer who didn't keep them waiting long.
"I just wanted you to know that the SecNav and I have come to an agreement to suit your new uh personal arrangement. Since the two of you are the same rank, there are no problems of fraternization charges as you know, but to circumvent the chain-of-command issue we have decided that Commander you will resume your position of military liaison to the Hill, but still work out of this office and work on JAG cases when you are free to do so. Does that seem satisfactory to you both?" Harm smiled and nodded.
"Thank you sir. I, uh we, really appreciate your support in this matter." He said, unconsciously glancing at Mac for support.
"You welcome Commander, Colonel. Now your assignment to the Hill will start as of next Monday, so I expect you two to keep things professional between you for the next week or so. Not that anyone is going to be surprised by this turn of events of course, but I need to give the impression that I have some semblance of control you know." He smiled at them warmly and they both laughed, still not quite believing how easy it had been for them, and embarrassed by the Admiral's repeated suggestion that it was about time too.
"Thank you sir!" they chorused.
"Dismissed." They snapped to attention and quickly left the room, chatting easily as they headed to their offices. Mac paused in the doorway to her own, inhaling the scent of the lilies still sitting on her desk.
"Are you ok with this Harm?" she asked, she knew how much he enjoyed being a lawyer and trying cases, and she didn't want him to feel like he had to give that up just so that they could be together.
"Are you kidding?" he asked, flyboy grin firmly in place, "This way I get you, JAG and the ability to listen to and tell politicians when they are wrong!" He winked at her, "Anyways partner, we better get reviewing these files, we have a meeting with the client at 1100." For a moment she looked like she wanted to say more on the matter, but she settled for offering him a shy smile and walking back into her office. She had barely had time to sit down and log in to her computer when she heard a knock at the door, and looked up to see him leaning casually on the doorframe, a pile of files in his arms.
"Since we're working together on this, wanna review the files together?" he grinned at her again, and she felt her knees turn to jelly.
"Sure, if you promise to behave Flyboy!" she retorted with a grin. They had reviewed files together a million times over, but at this moment in time Mac honestly wasn't sure if it was a good idea given the state of their concentration skills when the other was in the room.
"I'll behave if you'll behave!" Harm replied with a flirtatious grin. Mac laughed, and put on her best prim and proper voice,
"Then I guess we won't have a problem then will we sailor?!" she teased back, grabbing the top file from her file and leaning back comfortably in her chair.
They sat reading in silence for about forty-five minutes before Harm started to get distracted again.
"Maaaacccccc" he whined, trying to get her attention. She rolled her eyes, but didn't look up; that was until paper aeroplane came flying towards her, landing neatly in the middle of the piece of paper she was currently reading.
Without looking at him, she quietly unfolded the aeroplane and read the note inside.
I'm booorrreeed! it read, can you think of any ways to entertain me?! She chuckled, still refusing to look at him. Another 3 minutes passed, and then another paper aeroplane sailed in her direction, this time hitting her squarely on the forehead.
Look at me! This one read, and she smiled, looking up at her Flyboy with a look of pretend exasperation.
"I'm trying to.." she trailed of and collapsed into giggles; Harm was sitting in the other chair staring at her with puppy dog eyes, a paper version of what was obviously meant to be her Marine cover sitting on top of his head. "what are you wearing!?" she asked, unable to stop the very un-Marine like giggles from escaping. She loved this playful side of Harm that she was only just really starting to see properly.
"I think I'd make a great Marine, don't you jarhead?!" he asked, his laughter mingling with hers.
"You couldn't hack it squid!" she retorted with a grin, "you like to duck too much!" Harm pouted at her and took the paper hat off his head, placing it on the desk next to her flowers.
"I could too!" he replied "Is it time to go meet our client yet?"
"13 minutes" Mac said, "Now get your attention back onto the case flyboy!" she added, with mock severity in her tone.
"Yes Ma'am!" he gave a jokey salute and a wink, before returning his attention to the file on his lap.
There we go, felt like a bit of lightheartedness and fluff to be getting on with - next up Columbus Day – if anyone has any better suggestions for a mid-autumn holiday that they might have the day off for then I really would appreciate it – I got this one from the wonderful wikipedia but I' not convinced its real:o)
After Columbus day comes the visit to Grams' place.
Hope you are all still enjoying it! Let me know!!