Chapter 29

The bone weary exhaustion was disconcerting considering all he'd done was sit in a cell for the better part of a week. Time spent was awkwardly familiar for a man who worked so hard to uphold the law. At least brig time hadn't lasted as long as his past stint where week's bleed into a whole month of confinement.

What hurt the most was the same decree that had played out once before - no visitors. His legal team met with him once. Jury selection had turned into a multiple day affair and he'd spent each one of those days in his tiny cell without much human contact.

If he'd missed Mac during the two years since he'd left Washington, this separation was felt with a little more desperation. This was a terrible start to a fledgling marriage although it was fitting for the kind of whirlwind relationship they'd endured. Hopefully it would be a memory they'd laugh about at some point.

It was fairly late in the day, early evening when he sauntered into his flat where he found Mac pacing with a cordless pressed to her ear. She hadn't noticed his entrance, a fact that was mildly worrisome but then the Marine was much more concerned with yelling at whomever was on the receiving end of her call.

"I'm a Colonel in the Marine Corps and the acting commanding officer of…Of course! It's been a week and no one can seem to tell me about the prisoners' wellbeing." She was livid, her face tainted pink as she paced in stocking clad feet. Mac only wore half her uniform, the jacket and tie hung from the back of the sofa and a few buttons were undone.

He stared at her for a moment, noting the frantic way Mac chucked a pen at a legal pad that sat on the coffee table. He missed this side, the impassioned way she argued, the vigor to ensure things were handled her way. Harm had the right mind to wrap his arms around her middle and pull her to him but his mind flashed to a vision of him flying through the air, slamming his spine on the ground while her foot crushed his larynx.

"Sarah."

She whipped around at the sound of his voice to find Harm standing near the doorway wearing rumpled jeans and a shirt that were a size too big on him. He held a plastic bag in one hand inside which was his uniform and cover, the clothing he wore when DeLong sent him to the brig.

"I'll call you back." Mac said but her finger had already hit the 'off' button and the phone slipped from her hand a second later. It hit the soda, bounced off a cushion and landed somewhere on the ground where it would remain until the following day.

Looking at him felt like she was staring at a mirage in a vast desert - a figment of the imagination that would disappear if Mac reached for him. It was his smile, a tired version of his flyboy grin that lit up his eyes and sent her into his arms.

A warmth spread through her when their lips met and that desperate, hopeless feeling vanished into thin air. The bag in his hand hit the ground and when Mac stepped back it was only to run her hands up and down his flank, his back and face searching for clues of mistreatment.

He didn't pull away or wince and actually had the audacity to laugh when she pulled up his shirt in search of any kind of bruising on his body. "Tell me they didn't hurt you."

"I'm fine…a little exhausted but-"

Though her arms looped around his neck, the shadows which fell over Mac's face came on the heels of a memory of Harm in a Marine uniform. He'd escaped the brig with the help of a certain spook and came to her seeking the aid of Mac's linguistic skills to decipher Russian documents.

"Did you break out of the brig?"

Harm rolled his eyes and chuckled, "That was one time."

"Did you?"

"No,Cresswell got me out. He and Hollings agreed I'd spent more than enough time for a simple assault charge. Funny how things change when you're on the receiving end."

"Think DeLong will leave you alone?"

"No."

"I don't either, given that the prosecution chose the jury off of her suggestions, this is still an uphill battle."

Harm wrapped his arms a little tighter around her, not seeming to care about DeLong or the trial. It was Friday night which meant they'd been married for exactly one week. "Let's not talk about her or Vukovic." He had more pressing issues, it had been one week since they were married. "Happy one week anniversary."

"Happy? It hasn't been a very happy week." She dropped her head onto his shoulder and immediately scrunched her nose at the stale scent coming off him. "You need a shower."

"A shower, some food and a good night's sleep."

Mac brought her head up and looked at him. She resisted running her hands over his body again although she wanted to be certain that he wasn't hurt. "Are you really okay?"

"Yeah. Just tired."

"I tried to see you. I went every day but that bitch-"

He lowered his head to hers and kissed Mac softly. "I know, Nick told me. Cresswell threatened mentioning it to the President. That got her to back off."

"Mmm…Go take a shower, I'll make you something to eat."

"Okay." He slipped out of her arms but didn't get too far as her hand pulled him back to her.

"I missed you, Harm…I missed you more than I ever thought possible. Just being near you is like the air I breathe - I need it. I need you."

"I need you too."

"At the risk of sounding clingy and possessive - don't leave me again." She raised herself up on the tips of her toes and pressed her lips against his.

Mac found herself pacing the loft hours after Harm had fallen asleep. A kind of nervous energy coursed through her veins and now that he was back home, she was determined to keep him there.

A quick call from Kate sent her to the guestroom where she sat by the glow of a computer monitor reviewing files Harm's former partner sent. There were images, travel documents but only one or two had Vukovic and DeLong together. One such picture was nearly a decade old. Vic stood amongst his peers having a medal pinned to his chest as Adele looked on like a proud mother.

Of course that made the warning bells sound off and about a dozen red flags crossed Mac's train of thought. According to Kate there was no family relation, no kin that the two shared. Considering DeLong had never been married, even potential extended relatives were removed from the list.

Mac needed one smoking gun and yet there was nothing, nothing and more nothing.

The soft glow of morning light peaked through the windows and it was then that Mac finally gave up. She chucked the mouse at the desk and groaned from the pain of achy neck muscles.

"You didn't sleep did you?" Harm's voice was gravelly, sleep laded in that sexy timbre that made her tummy do flip flops. He spoke almost in a whisper as he placed his hands on her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze. "Turn that off, Mac. Come to bed."

"I'm not gonna sleep. My mind-" She placed her hands over his and then reached for the mouse that Harm quickly snatched away. "Harm-"

"Mac. C'mon, I sorta missed sleeping next to my wife."

"You sorta missed me?" She teased all the while standing when he took her hand and pulled her upright.

"Yep, sorta." Harm pulled her across the room, through the adjoining bathroom to the master. "I sorta dreamed about you. I sorta worried about you…Just sorta." He pulled off the t-shirt she wore and tugged down her shorts until Mac was left in only her bra and panties, the next scraps of clothing to hit the floor along with his boxers.

Her hands touched his torso, skimmed down the blocks of his abdomen until she stopped at his hips. "You sorta have an erection." Mac took him in her palm and squeezed gently, his groan a direct response to her gentle touch.

"Are you sorta wet?" Harm's hands roamed her body, mapping out her marvelous curves. He wrapped his fingers around one hip while his other palm cupped her mound to find her moisture could coat his fingers.

There were no more words as Harm walked them backwards until his legs hit the end of the bed. He sat at the edge and pulled Mac onto him, their bodies joining with urgency.

"That was one helluva homecoming." Harm lay on his back, his breath coming in shallow puffs. His body was coated in a fine sheen of sweat as was the woman who lay next to him.

"Yeah," Mac turned her head towards him, her grin mischievous and sexy. "It was sorta good."

His laughter was rich, earnest and contagious levity they both needed. Their uphill battle could take a backseat for the moment. "I miss laughing, this last week was soul sucking."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't do much to help." She wanted DeLong to pay but it was the 'how' that was stumping Mac. In a way Adele had done right by Vukovic, incarcerating the man who had assaulted a junior officer.. She realized that their efforts needed to turn back to Vukovic.

Harm turned on his side which felt like a herculean effort. She'd worn him out in spectacular fashion. "Guess neither of us are super heroes no matter how much we try. I'm thinking, let's not worry too much about DeLong. We have bigger fish to fry."

"I went to see Kate Pike." Mac more or less blurted out and cringed when she heard the sharp intake of breath from her husband. She turned her head towards him again and found Harm looking a little concerned. "You don't have to worry, we didn't gab about your favorite color of underwear. But we did agree to be friends."

"Not sure how I feel about that. We were a fling and Kate could be a little-"

"Jealous?"

"A bit, yes..When I said I didn't love her, I mean it. I didn't love her. I regretted it the following morning because it was clear she wanted something else and I didn't."

"And that's why you kept me at arms length."

"Yes. Maybe if it hadn't happened you and me-"

She turned to her side and ran a hand slowly over his cheek which began to show a five-o-clock shadow. "No hindsight stuff, okay? We're right where we're supposed to be now."

"Yeah, we are." Harm kissed her palm and then dropped back onto the mattress with the most content sigh. "So what did Kate have to say?"

From the moment she saw Lt(jg) Jessica Davis and all through the trip back to London, there was only one thing that kept churning in Mac's mind. "Jess, she resembles me quite a bit."

"You saw her?"

"Yes…Now I think I understand a little more why you hit him."

Harm sighed and admitted the one thing he was having difficulty verbalizing. "He's obsessed. Thinks I was jilted and we had a common interest in hating you."

He had hated her once, Mac knew and that had been her fault, her doing. A want to make him jealous by dating a man she had no hopes in ever falling for. Clay was a destructive mess and she settled because being worthy of true love was impossible to attain. Therapy had helped her come to grasp with her faults and she was healthier for. "You did hate me once."

"A little. But it's sorta hard to hate the girl you're in love with."

"Sorta, huh?"

"Yeah, sorta." He snorted. "What did Jess say?"

"She wants to tell her husband first and then decide." Although her want to come forward sounded promising, Mac had a sinking feeling it would not progress to anything worthwhile. Still, the woman's appearance was a little jarring. "There has to be something else. Someone else."

There was but he'd never been able to reach Mayfield and wasn't sure his query would net any big gain. Harm briefly considered breaking into Vukovic's flat but adding breaking and entering to his charges was rather unappealing. "If we were in Washington I have a detective or two that owes me a favor. I'd love to see what's in the creep's apartment."

She snorted, "He's not a serial killer, Harm. It's not like he'd have 'trophies' hanging around. Or pic…" Mac's voice cracked and a second later she was throwing herself out of bed and rushing to the bathroom.

"You okay?" He sat up to see her turning on the shower. "Mac?"

"Get up. You need to shower and get dressed." She was going through his drawers yanking out jeans, a shirt and hjs underwear all of which she threw at him. "C'mon. We need to get going."

"Where?"

"Just trust me."

Begrudgingly he followed her lead and nearly fell when Mac took his hand and pulled him into the bathroom. "Woah, power down, Marine." He yelped as she ushered him into a shower that was far too cold and stopped her hands that were briskly lathering a bar of soap.

She seemed possessed, manic and it was sorta scaring him until his hands roughly grabbed hers. "Sarah, stop. What the hell is happening?"

"We need to get to JAG. There's a thumb drive I found in Vukovic's office, I hid it in one of your books. I'd forgotten about it until now. What if-"

Harm took the soap from her and began to lather it in his larger palms. "Hurry, maybe we'll miss the weekend cleaning crew." They hit the road fifteen minutes later.