Rating: K+
Summary: Set near the beginning of season 6 before Mac has moved the ring. Mac is prosecuting a case being shown live on television and is receiving a lot of press coverage including a feature in People Magazine. A feature which Harm reads leading him to send Mac a surprising letter which just may change everything.
Disclaimer: JAG was created by Donald P. Bellisario and is owned in whole or in part by Belisarius Productions and Paramount Network Television (CBS Studios). This is a work of fiction playing with the characters that I have loved for more than twenty years – I make no money from this and no copyright infringement or disrespect is intended.
Significant Mail
By: visions2share (a.k.a. Vi)
Mac was exhausted - it had been a horrible day and all she wanted was to change into pajamas and cuddle up with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. When the ice cream was gone, she might get up the energy to order a pizza. Or maybe Chinese. So far, the only good thing about the day was the press hadn't tried to follow her home. Thank goodness for tiny mercies.
Mac dropped her briefcase by the door, her mail on the coffee table, and hit play on her answering machine sure Mic would have finally called her back to apologize for his interview with People Magazine. Mac was already unbuttoning her uniform jacket when the machine's electronic voice filled the apartment, "you have no new messages."
"Coward," Mac spoke to the machine as if Mic would be able to hear her anger.
Five minutes later Mac was piled up on the couch under a quilt Harm's grandmother had made her that she cherished with a pint of the appropriately named 'Chocolate Therapy' ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. After two frantic bites she stuck the spoon in the pint and reached for the TV remote.
Ten minutes and two flips through all the channels later, she turned it off again in disgust and rededicated herself to her self-prescribed ice cream therapy.
Mac set the empty tub on the coffee table and reluctantly reached for the mail. She'd long been in the habit of catching up on her personal mail on the weekends but leaving it there seemed to bother Harm, and Mic – the significant males in her life – so she was trying to keep on top of it. There wasn't much just a credit card statement for a card she hadn't had the time to use, a couple of advertisements, and one standard number ten envelope addressed in a very familiar hand.
Why would Harm send her something? It was postmarked locally and the return address was his loft which wasn't that far away – he could have brought it over. Plus, she saw him almost every day at work. Not that day since she'd been up to her ears in this court martial – but usually.
Mac just stared at the envelope unsure why it was making her nervous – it felt somehow important – she didn't know why or how she knew but she was sure whatever it contained was going to be significant. Mac blew out a bracing breath and ripped into the envelope. Inside was a single yellow piece of paper any lawyer would instantly recognize as being from a legal pad. She pulled out the paper appreciating how Harm's writing was always the same no matter how quickly he wrote his cursive was without flourishes but still elegant in a timeless kind of way.
Mac briefly closed her eyes and took a breath – when she opened her eyes, what she read was more significant than she ever could have dreamed.
Mac,
I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and standing in line to pay I glanced over the magazine rack and found myself staring at a picture of you on the cover of People Magazine. I bought every copy in the stack. I sat down to study it as soon as I had the groceries put away. I thought it was only five minutes later that my phone was ringing – but I realize now it had in fact been many hours.
A car is coming for me in about thirty minutes to take me to Andrews to hop a COD for the Seahawk – a crew chief was hit by an F-14 when it landed – killed instantly. Horrible. I'll be gone several days – maybe the knowledge I won't have to see the recriminations in your eyes right away is what is giving me the courage to do this. Besides what else do I really have to lose at this point?
I've tried so hard to be the officer and gentleman my father would have been proud of and the honorable and respectful man my mother raised me to be. But, faced with the reality of your engagement to Brumby announced in an international magazine I no longer have the energy or the willpower to live up to those lofty ideals.
I know that you've chosen him – that I couldn't give you what you needed from me in Sidney. I wasn't ready, I thought, to give up my flight status and I knew I could never risk leaving you behind like my dad left my mom. I know it's too late now to make any difference but I want you to know that I love you. You are the only woman I have ever loved. The only woman I will ever love. I am begging you … no I can't do it – as much as I want you to be mine, I want you to be happy more.
I don't want to make things awkward between us and I absolutely dread losing your friendship so if you want to burn this letter and pretend you never saw it that's okay with me. But, whatever you decide, please always remember that I love you.
Be Happy,
Harm
P.S. I suppose I ought to explain about Renee – we aren't really dating or even friends-with-benefits – she needs a warm body to escort her places and I needed to not seem pathetic. Her real boyfriend lives in Illinois and half her "work" trips are to see him.
At first Mac couldn't breathe but when she finally forced air into her lungs, she realized she had so many things to do! Starting with getting rid of the ring weighing down her right hand and making a very important shore to ship call.
Author's Note: This is all I have of this story for now. I have ideas for a couple more quick chapters but I don't know when or if I'll ever get around to writing them. I am currently working on a much longer JAG story but as my real life is unpredictable I don't know when that will be ready to post. In the mean time: I hope you enjoyed this story and thank you so much for reading!
