Author's Note: Here's yet another installment of the Fate series. I hope you enjoy it as I'm definitely enjoying writing it! Review if you would like and let me know your thoughts!

The coming weeks proved to be more stressful that either could imagine with Harm starting a new command and Mac working on everything regarding the house that they were buying.

"You need to get into the office to sign those papers today, or we are going to have to wait another week until we can make this happen." She tells him over the phone later in the week.

"Mac, I'm really bogged down right now. Can't you just get them and bring them to me here so I can sign them?"

"They need you to sign there or they won't accept it."

"What time do they close?"

"1800."

"I'm not going to be able to make it over there today. It's just not going to happen."

"Well that's just great." She says in a monotone, showing her anger and frustration at the situation.

"Mac, I can't help it if I have to work and you don't have anything else to do." He replies and regrets it the instant he says it.

"Just like you can't help the fact that you're an ass." She retorts, slamming the phone down.

They fell into things with just a few bumpy patches along the way, but she knew that this was going to be a bigger fight than the one they had earlier last week about leaving socks on the floor. The comment hurt her more than she wanted it to, only because she felt that at times it was true. For a man and woman who were only the job to uproot themselves and try to combine their lives there were going to be some issues. She was starting to second guess the idea of quitting the Corps for a life that she hoped for but was more than a bit scared of.

When he came in that evening, she was washing off her plate from dinner.

"I didn't mean it." He says, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her middle.

She instantly turned around with a scowl on her face, pushing him away "Yes, you did."

"I didn't mean it to come out the way that it did though, Mac. I really didn't."

"Do you not understand that I am trying to get us a house? The same house that you and I saw and then started making plans for the second we got in the car. You have no idea how frustrating it has been to try to get loans and work with the realtor and get paperwork ready, and you have to take time to sign one little piece of paper and you can't?"

"I stepped out for an hour and did it. That's why I'm so late."

"Well, your dinner's cold." She says icily, walking out of the kitchen and into the small second bedroom they were using as an office.

He figured she needed space for a while. So he gave her an hour while he ate his dinner and walked into the office while she was searching different furniture websites online.

"I'm sorry."

She turns the chair around so she can face him, crossing her arms over her chest while doing so.

"You don't get how this feels. You don't get what it's like to know that the thing you put your back up against is going to be gone in a few weeks and you're standing in the middle of the unknown."

"I do."

"How?" she scoffs.

"Flying… my accident. It was all taken away from me in a blink and then I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my life."

"But you still had the Navy."

"And you have me… I thought that I could be what you stand with now. Apparently I'm not."

"It's different though, Harm. I love you, but you're only one man."

"What's your point?" he asks, confused by the statement.

"In the Marines, there was always another post, another job for me to do. I was good at being a Marine, so I had options. If one thing was taken away, I could go in another direction, just like you did with the Navy. There is no other Harmon Rabb. If you go, if this turns sour, if I'm a crappy wife, I've got nothing left. Don't you get that?"

"I don't." he says and stops her with a finger to her lips when she starts to speak again, "I don't get it because I'm not leaving. And no matter what you do, I'm still going to love you. Why are you so hell bent on this whole thing failing?!"

The last part came out as a yell and her eyes went wide.

"Because this… this isn't any different than any other time! We've only managed to actually be with each other longer! When we toyed with the idea of us… when I put myself out there in Sydney, it FAILED. When you came to my engagement party and you admitted to me without the words that you were in love with me and you kissed me like that, it FAILED. You didn't follow through on that kiss or that conversation. When I broke it off with Brumby, you invited me over because of what I assume was love and in came Renee with her father's death, and it FAILED. You show up on the Guadalcanal and tell me that we can stop this dance but I ask you what you would give up. You FAILED. You couldn't bring yourself to answer. And then… in Paraguay… you show up after resigning from the Navy to find me and you can't even bring yourself to give me the whole answer of why you did it, so it FAILED. How many times have we tried this?"

"Sarah, this IS different. How can you not see that?"

"Because all I see is our past staring me in the face. All the slight attempts toward each other ended with broken hearts and doubt."

"I never doubted that I loved you all these years."

"Neither have I, but sometimes you hurt the people you love and sometimes you have let them go."

"I'm not letting you go… you aren't running from this." he says, grabbing on to her shoulders and looking her in the eye. "This time, it is going to work."

"Then why is it so hard?"

"Because all the other times were easy opportunities. I could have swept you away and taken you from that engagement party. I could have said yes in Sydney. I could have told you that I resigned because I loved you in Paraguay. Those were just handed to us. This was a hard decision. We had to finally make a choice that would change our lives and put us into a situation that neither of us was comfortable with. It's going to be hard when you don't know what you're doing." He says, thinking back on all those times and wondering what would have happened if either had actually gone through with any of it.

By now, the tears were silently streaking down her cheeks and her nose was red from sniffling, "What if it's too hard for me?"

"I'm here, Mac. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, and you and I are going to do all this crazy stuff together."

"You really went and signed the papers?"

"I could tell that you were upset."

"Oh, did calling you an ass give it away?" She says with a smirk.

"It did. And I really am sorry about the comment I made. I'm frustrated trying to get settled here when I would frankly rather be with you working on stuff for the new house than sitting in meetings all day. I know that you've been working hard on getting everything done for us."

"I know that you want to be a part of it. I'm just coming up on this deadline and I'm scared."

"Mac, you do have me. Regardless of what happens with the two of us being together like this, I know that you are always going to be a part of my life. I will always be there for you."

"I know you will. I figured that out a long time ago. Do you get it though? Do you get why I was so mad."

"You had every right to be, and I'm telling you now that I appreciate everything that you're doing with the house and taking care of all this crazy paperwork. If you need me to take some time to get things finalized I can."

"No… just knowing that you understand that I'm not just sitting around the house all day…"

"I know you aren't, Mac. I do."

He pulls her closer to him, his hands having never left her shoulders, and she melts into his embrace.

"Sarah, I know that you're scared, but we've got to trust this. Aside from the Navy, I feel like you're all I have, and you're in the first spot to me. You have to know that." He says, placing a kiss on the top of her head and breathing her in.

"I do."

In her heart she did know all these things. She was confident in what she had with him. It was her head after all those years of people leaving and people not being there to count on. All those years of she and Harm pulling towards each other and back away. She just couldn't convince her head that her heart was right.

Making matters worse, Harm got a call from the General in the middle of the week asking for his help on a JAG investigation. Harm gladly accepted the opportunity to help, and regretted it when he found out that he would have to be flown halfway around the country for a month instead of being here with Mac.

"What time are you leaving on Saturday?" She asks him on Thursday afternoon when he comes home for lunch after he called to tell her the news that morning.

"Pretty early, why?"

"I've been thinking about some things and realized that the logistics of this aren't going to work. You are going to be overseas, and we don't close on the house for another twenty days. My leave ends, which means my resignation is in ten days."

"Okay?" he says, not really understanding what the issue is.

"That means that there are ten days that I don't have a place to stay, and you are going to be gone when we need to move everything."

"Well, I don't know what we can do to help that."

She smiles and looks down for a moment, knowing where she was going with this and not knowing if he would accept her idea, "I want to get married on Friday…"

"You want to what?"

"I know that I freaked out when you did the same thing to me, but that was before we got here… and things are different. We've had our fights and we've had our talks and I just don't see the point in waiting."

"But what about all our friends and our family? I thought you wanted everyone here."

"I do, but we can always have a party when you get back from the investigation. It just… it makes sense and I don't want to wait anymore." She says, shrugging her shoulders.

"You really want to do this? You want a courtroom wedding the day before I leave for a month?" he says, with a skeptical pair of raised eyebrows.

"I do. It doesn't matter how it happens, right? As long as it's between you and me?"

He pulls her in with a smile, "You're stealing my line MacKenzie."

"It's the truth."

"All right… but are you sure that we can do this?"

She nods, "I looked into it, and Illinois has a one day waiting period, so if we go apply now, we can get married tomorrow morning. That gives us the afternoon to put in all the paperwork necessary for me to have the power to be on base after I'm out, and gives me the authority to get our stuff when it comes in and all that."

"You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"I've been thinking about it since our fight the other day. I know that I'm not going to run and that you aren't going to run. I know that in my heart, but I think my brain needs something to hold it all up against. So, I was looking into it and going to ask you if you wanted to do it within the next few months anyways."

"And then I called with this, this morning."

"We've always been so good with deadlines." She says with a smirk.

"All right, well, I've got 25 minutes until I have to be at the office, so let's go." He replies, glancing down at his watch.

"23, but I'm sure we'll manage."

An hour later, she's home and working on printing out the paperwork that they are going to have to have filled out before Harm leaves on Saturday, and the state of Illinois says that they can get married tomorrow.

It was a lot to take in when she took the time to sit down and think about it. With Chris, the marriage really was a means to an end with the life she was living with her father. She loved him because he was taking her away from that and he loved a good drink just like she did at the time. Mic was another means to an end if she let herself admit it. Her trials and tribulations with Harm would have to end if she was married to another man, wouldn't they? Not so much.

But now… thinking about marrying Harm wasn't like that. He was right in saying that she wanted someone to love her and she wanted so badly to love them back the same way. She didn't have that when she was going to marry Mic Brumby. He loved her so much, but she was just settling at the time. Even then, she knew that she loved Harm. It was always there. She knew that he loved her in this way that no one had before… simply. There were no bells and whistles and the angels didn't play every time she walked in the room. He just loved every part of her and that was it. It just was, and tomorrow was a day that she could look back on and know that she was making the best decision of her life.