Chapter 9

'He was kissing her!' Mac thought, even though she could hardly believe what was happening. She had wanted this for so long! Even before that 'almost kiss' in his bedroom all those years ago, she had dreamed of him kissing her. But this! This was not how she had imagined it happening. Not in a hospital room, but rather after some wonderful declaration of their mutual love for each other. This kiss was happening under false pretenses and she should stop it. But it was so tender, so sweet, so wonderful, that she didn't want it to end. Even as she thought that she really had to end it and tell him the truth of what brought him here, the decision was taken from her.

He ended the kiss and straightened up, saying, "There now, one wish granted. Here's hoping that there will be time for many more."

"There won't be!" she cried sadly.

"Well then, as many as we do have time for," he told her with a gentle smile.

Unable to stand his kindness and pity in the face of what she knew was really going on, she just blurted out, "AJ, I'm not dying!"

"That's the spirit, Sarah! A positive attitude is always the key in these matters. We will fight this as hard as we can. We'll be in it together," he promised.

"No! We won't! You don't understand…"

He interrupted her, "Sarah, I do understand, and I want to be here with you, by your side all the way."

"You won't when you hear what I have to say! It was a lie! Chloe got you here under false pretenses!"

"Oh," he uttered quietly, taking a step away from the bed as he read the truth in her eyes. "I see. I'm sorry that I presumed in that way then, Sarah. I would never have kissed you if I had known you didn't want me to! You definitely have enough on your plate without the stress of my unwanted advances."

"No! The 'kiss' part wasn't a lie! The 'dying' part was!" she protested.

It took him only a moment to process this; his shoulders no longer slumped and he stood up straighter. His eyes gleamed brightly as he exclaimed, "You're not dying! Sarah, that's incredible! What ever would have made Chloe think that you were? And how could she have made a mistake like that?"

A bit exasperated at his assumption of good in the devious teen, Mac wondered for just a moment if he had been spending too much time with Bud Roberts. It seemed the young idealist was rubbing off on AJ, with a sigh Mac informed him, "Chloe didn't make a mistake. She outright lied!"

"Why in the world would she do that?" he wanted to know.

"She was trying to get us together," she muttered in response.

AJ seemed stunned, however he still managed to ask, "But why would she have lied to do so?"

"She wanted to make me happy," came her reluctant answer.

"By making me think you were dying?" he demanded incredulously. "Did she think that would give you a good laugh?"

Mac knew that nothing short of the whole story would be enough to explain how this horrendous situation had come about would do at this point. "You might want to sit down for this," she suggested, indicating the chair in the corner of the room.

When he had pulled it away from the wall and a little closer to the bed she realized that he wasn't going to come as close as she would have liked. Last night, Harm had pulled the chair closer than AJ did.

He turned his gaze on her once he was settled in the chair and waited for her to continue talking. Taking a deep breath Mac began, "I haven't been happy for a while, and even though Chloe and I don't get to see each other much since she moved in with her grandparents we do talk on the phone and email each other. I guess it became bad enough that even though she is only sixteen, Chloe started to notice…" she saw him fold his arms across his chest and knew that she had been rambling. After all the years she had worked for him, Mac knew that was his way of informing her that she should 'get to the point'!

"With you and Harriet gone from the office we seemed to loose that 'family' feel. I had no problem with the SECNAV appointing Sturgis to be in charge, but Harm clearly didn't feel the same. The tension between those two put everyone in the office on edge. Then there was the ongoing speculation over who would be put in your position. It was almost a relief when General Creswell was finally appointed. Well, to everyone but me I guess…"

To be continued…..