A/N: Thank you for the reviews!

3MZoey: Thank you so much! My goal was to put our beloved characters in a unique situation and create a story that is different from most.

Lil-Miss-DiNozzo78: Thank you! I will have to read your fic! Glad you liked this chapter…trying to show the angst and anger yet the underlying need they have for one another.

Japetn: Thank you so much for your review! More on the way!

Achaon: Thanks! So true. Things are never easy where they're concerned but the love keeps em going :]

GreenEyes09: Thank you so much for your review! Glad you love it!

Kelsey2010: Thank you for your review! Yeah, Mac was a bit out of sorts. Lol.

Now on to the story.

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Harm was thankful that he had brought at least one suit with him to San Diego. He attributed the fact that he had brought it along to the hope that he may by some miracle be able to take her out for a nice dinner at some point before his flight left.

He had come back to her place an hour later, knocking twice before she had answered holding her coat and clutch, coming out into the hall and shutting the door behind her. Harm couldn't help but notice that she was wearing the same black dress she had worn on their date back in DC. He wonders if she remembered.

The tension between them seemed to loom like an actual presence. Both were silent as she hit the automatic locks and allowed him in the passenger side. She drove them silently through the downtown streets toward the convention center where the dinner was being held. They got stopped at a light, Mac's turn signal jingle seemed to be magnified against the silence. She tapped her nails of her left hand against the steering wheel. Her gaze shifted to the right as she felt his eyes on her. She sighed. He needed to stop staring at her. It was making her want to shove him out of the car.

The light turned green and she yielded to the left, pulling over to the valet at the right and putting the car into park. She grabbed her clutch and got out, having not spoken a word to Harm as she handed her keys to the valet guy and took a number. She met him around the side of the car and didn't bother to stop as she continued in through the door. He was a big boy. He could keep up.

"Colonel Mackenzie!" Lieutenant Commander Drew Rollins, a coworker from the office approached her as she walked in.

Mac smiled in response. "Lt. Cmdr. Rollins, how are you?"

Harm walked up at that moment.

"I'm good, and who is this?" Drew eyed Harm curiously.

Mac turned to Harm. "Lt. Cmdr Drew Rollins this is Cmdr Harmon Rabb Jr."

Harm reached out to shake his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Same to you. How do you two know each other?"

"We work together." Harm answered.

"Worked together." Mac corrected him quickly, as she stole an hors d'oeuvres from a tray as it passed.

Harm shot her a look. Mac pretended not to notice and put the hors d'oeuvres in her mouth.

"Well, it was nice meeting you. I'll see you Colonel." Lt. Cmdr. Rollins smiled and walked over to talk to a guest that had just arrived.

Mac saw her CO walking towards her out of the corner of her eye. 'Damn.'

"Here comes my boss. " She muttered absent-mindedly and more to herself than to him.

"Don't worry. I promise to behave." Harm smirked.

She rolled her eyes.'Great. Just great.'

"Colonel, glad you could make it."

"I'm glad to be here, Sir." Mac cleared her throat and turned to Harm. "This is Cmdr. Harmon Rabb Jr. We uh, worked together at JAG. Cmdr., this is Admiral Kenley, my CO."

"Nice to meet you Cmdr. How long have you two known each other?"

"Going on a decade, sir." Harm smiled.

"She has been a great asset to the office—oh, excuse me." The Admiral said as he pulled out his ringing cell phone.

Mac looked down and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"uhuh…ok…put her on. Lena, listen to your brother. ….Just do as he says, alright?" The Admiral turned a bit to finish the phone call in semi-privacy.

He shut the phone and slipped it in his pocket, turning back to them. "I apologize for that. My daughter can be a little rebellious. I am assured it is just the age." He chuckled. "Do you have kids Commander?"

"I, uh.." Harm started.

"He has one on the way." Mac supplied, an edge of bitterness in her tone.

"Well, Congratulations. I remember how happy my wife and I were over our first." He smiled jovially.

Mac grasped her coat more firmly and her lips were set in a thin line.

"Thank you." Harm managed.

"Well, have a great time feel free to mingle, help yourselves to the food and drinks." He patted Harm on the shoulder as he moved on to speak with someone else.

"I'll go get you a drink." Harm suggested.

Mac nodded. "I'll find us a table."

They parted ways temporarily and Harm made his way to the drink table. Soda with a twist for Mac, and a glass of wine for him.

He found Mac sitting alone at a table in the far corner. He sat her drink down in front of her and sat down beside her.

Mac took a long sip, looking for anything to fill the awkward silence that fell around them.

"You wore that dress the night of our date, you remember?" He finally asks softly, he's not sure why.

"The night before your world got turned upside down? Yeah…I remember." Mac responded dryly.

Harm rubbed a hand over his face. "Tell me what to do…tell me how to act here, Mac." His frustration evident in his tone.

"That's my line, Harm." Mac said in a hushed voice, casting a glance around her as she leaned toward him. "You find out where I am and get it into your hero complex filled brain that I need to be rescued, is that it? Damn you."

"Damn you, Mac." He responded, and leaned forward just as she was.

To others, they appeared to be two people having an intimate conversation.

"I get a phone call from you telling me that you are boarding a plane and that you are sorry…and the next thing I know, instead of your voice mail, I'm hearing an automated voice telling me that your number is no longer in service? My God Mac, Do you…Do you have any idea of the kind of panic that set in at the thought of you being God knows where with no way to reach you?"

Mac swallowed, she hadn't realized how close they were until she caught herself mere inches away from him. She drew back slightly.

"I…no.., and I am sorry to have worried you." Mac's eyes were downcast as she smoothed the silk of her dress with her hand.

Harm shook his head slightly. She had apologized in the way that a child does after being chastised by an adult to do so. It was obligatory and hollow. He took a drink, letting the wine work its way down his throat. He loosened his tie a bit.

"There are …things…that I want to know that I am not sure I have the right to ask." He started softly.

"Such as?" Her eyebrow rose.

"Such as…what you have been doing the past five months, who you spend your time with, who your date tonight was…" he trailed off, that expression on his face mirroring the one he had when he had asked if she had gone topless back in Sidney Harbor.

"You were right." Mac said agitatedly, looking away as she spoke.

"About?"

"About not having a right to ask those questions." She folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. Her face revealing a certain sadness.

"How did I know you'd feel that way?" Harm asked dryly.

"You want answers?" She asked sarcastically, leaning back into him. "Ok, here goes. I've been working, I have a group of girlfriends that, while they can be a bit crazy, are fun to be around, and my date was some guy said girlfriends set me up with last week. We went out to dinner, had a pretty good time. I think he ordered the chicken Florentine, he was wearing a grey suit, pulled out the chair for me, let's see, what else?...oh wait, you want to know if we had sex?"

She was fuming.

"Enough, Mac." Harm's jaw was set. His fists clenched tightly at his side. He was sick to his stomach right now just thinking of someone else getting close to her, Christ even breathing on her.

Mac felt her blood boil and her skin crawl. She could not do this...she would not do this now.

Mac got up, grabbed her clutch, and made her way across the room and into the foyer area of the banquet hall. Harm followed.

He caught up with her and lightly grabbed her arm, pulling her quickly into the seclusion of a side hall. "Mac."

She jerked away angrily, and leaned back against the wall as he invaded her personal space. "Why are you here?"

"Do you want me to leave?" He deflected as usual, taking another step closer.

"Yes." She answered simply, folding her arms at her chest as if for protection.

"No, you don't." Harm told her confidently.

She saw red. "And you know what I want?"

He moved in closer. Mac's gaze traveled to his lips. He was leaning into her and her mind was swirling in at dizzying speed. He was making her forget that she hated him.

"I know you, Mac…and though you are telling me to go, your eyes are begging me to stay."

Her breath came out in uneven spurts, as her eyes searched his. His hand came up to caress her neck softly, as he leaned in and touched his lips to hers.

Mac moaned into his mouth at the contact, kissing him back just as intensely as he was kissing her. His tongue moved across the seam of her lips, and she allowed him access. He pulled her lower lip into his mouth for just a second, and he couldn't wrap his mind around it…he was busy trying to comprehend that for all the years, all the moments, all the glances and words and loss, these hell-filled past five months, that this moment was here and Mac was finally and blissfully against him.

She was sinking against him now, her knees bending slightly as she leaned on the wall behind her. He tipped her chin up to him while his other arm snaked around her waist and pulled her against him, supporting her weight. She moaned in response, trapped between the wall and the onslaught of his body, and wondering why she ever wanted to be anywhere else.

"Harm." She breathed against his lips. They couldn't do this here. He pulled away slightly, their breaths still mixing in the small space between them.

"I'm sorry, Mac." His voice was ragged as he attempted to speak. She shook her head, her eyes shut tightly.

"No. Don't." She didn't want him to regret anything of the past few moments. She wouldn't allow it.

They stayed that way for a few more minutes, as if preparing themselves for the cold that would inevitably envelop them when they no longer had the others body to warm them. Harm lowered his arm from around her waist, and slowly stood up straight and away from her.

She finally opened her eyes. Her lips were swollen, her hair a bit tussled, and she had never looked more beautiful.

She blushed slightly as he stared. "I …uh…need to go ..freshen up." She was awkward, and her voice shook with uncertainty.

He nodded, as he straightened his tie.

"I'll see you back in there."

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TBC leave me thoughts please lol