Title:  Soon
Author:  Dancer
E-Mail:  dancersgrace@mail.com
Rating:  PG-13
Classification:  Best Harm 
                 Characterization
		     Best Harm and Mac Romance	
Spoilers:  The Mission
Summary:  Harm and Mac disagree on his flight
          Status



*****





The officers' wardroom of the U.S.S. 
Seahawk looked about the same as it had the 
day before, but something about it was 
different.  As Mac stood by the buffet 
ladling out her "reconstituted" eggs, she 
couldn't help noticing the change in 
atmosphere since yesterday.  The 
conversations among the officers gathered in 
groups of two or three seemed more ordered 
this morning - or maybe controlled was a 
better word.  

Even Harm seemed to be in on it.  Instead of 
meeting her for breakfast as they'd planned, 
he'd apparently come in early and was now 
locked in one of those same, ordered 
conversations with the Skipper of the 
Seahawk.

As she approached their table, Captain 
Holcomb rose to his feet preparing to leave. 
The only part of the conversation Mac heard 
was the Captain advising Harm, "Briefing's 
at 14 hundred."  

When he looked up at the other man, 
Harm's eyes turned bright and lively. "I'll 
be there," he declared with enthusiasm.

When Mac set down her tray next to him, 
Captain Holcomb acknowledged the 
Colonel's arrival with a nod but then walked 
away leaving her to puzzle out the meaning 
of that exchange with a man who wasn't 
talking.

"What was that about?" she asked as she 
took her seat beside Harm.

He didn't answer right away, and when he 
did, he just shrugged. "Nothing."

She'd known him too long to accept that 
answer when he was so obviously trying to 
sell it to her.  Before he spoke, he'd made an 
effort to wipe any meaningful expression 
from his face that might give him away, but 
his eyes were still dancing.

They sat in silence for a moment, Mac with 
her "eggs" and Harm with his coffee, before 
she tried again. "Did they hear from Cinc-
Med in Naples?"  Harm looked up at her, 
but clearly didn't catch her meaning.  
"About that inquiry?" she prompted him. 
Harm was still blank.  "The Rules of 
Engagement?" 

At last, a light seemed to come on over 
Harm's head, but his distracted answer 
wasn't much help. "Ah...no...I don't think 
so."

"Then, what's the meeting about?"

He eyed her carefully as if he were trying to 
make up his mind about something, and then 
took another sip of coffee. "Operations," he 
said slowly, "It's a briefing -- for a mission."

"What mission?"

"They've had something on the boards for a 
couple of days," Harm said leaning in to 
strike a slightly more confidential tone with 
her, "but they finally got the 'go' order this 
morning."

Mac's eyes brightened with recognition. "Is 
that why everybody's so quiet?"  As she 
looked around the room, she found a certain 
level of satisfaction in knowing the cause of 
all the tension she had perceived, but she 
wasn't ready for what came next.  

"Mac," Harm began, "I'm afraid you're 
going to have to handle that meeting with 
Major Graham by yourself." 

She looked up at him suddenly. "Why?  
Where are you going?" It wasn't that she 
couldn't conduct the interview without him, 
but since they'd been sent out specifically to 
assess the performance of that particular 
Staff Judge Advocate, she couldn't imagine 
Harm not wanting to take the lead in the 
investigation.  So, why wasn't he?   What 
else could be that important?

"Something came up."  Harm must've seen 
the puzzled look on her face, but he 
wouldn't acknowledge it at first. "I've got a 
lot catching up to do if I'm going to be ready 
for that briefing," he explained quietly.

As the realization of what he'd just said hit 
her, Mac sat back in her chair, stunned.  He 
couldn't possibly mean what that sounded 
like.  It had to be about some other briefing 
or a report to the Admiral.  It just couldn't 
be the way that sounded.  "Harm, where are 
you going?" she repeated with a growing 
sense of apprehension.

"Some place in the north, I think," he replied 
casually. "That's where all the action's been 
lately."

"You're flying?" asked the bewildered 
Colonel.  

"Captain said he wanted someone who could 
make the assessment on the spot instead of 
waiting for confirmation.  Said I was the 
perfect candidate," the Commander reported 
proudly. 

Mac stared at him in disbelief unwilling to 
accept what he'd just told her. 

"It's a routine assignment, Mac."

"It's a war zone," she insisted a little more 
loudly than she meant to.  Several officers 
nearby turned to look, but Mac simply 
dropped her voice and kept going.  "Harm, 
this isn't station keeping over Baltimore or 
patrolling the Superdome.  This is 
Afghanistan!"

"I know that, Mac," he assured her, "but 
that's what we're here for." 

"What we're here for is to explain the rules 
of engagement, not demonstrate them."

"Well, this time I get to do both."

An icy chill ran through her veins when she 
thought of him going into combat.

He brushed aside her concern with a tip of 
his hand. "Look, I'll probably just be doing 
recon and target assessment." 

"Which you haven't done in years," she 
contended. 

"Sure, I have," he protested. "In Kosovo."

His overly casual manner on a subject like 
this exasperated her. "Harm, you told me 
yourself that the operational ceiling in 
Kosovo was so high that satellites saw more 
of the ground than you did."

"Mac, there's nothing to worry about."  His 
tone was not so much comforting as it was 
dismissive, and the arrogance of that 
infuriated her.

"How long have you known?" she 
demanded.

"What?"

"About the mission.  How long have you 
known?"

His easy self-assurance evaporated in the 
face of her accusations replaced by a slight 
touch of guilt.  "Day - day and a half," he 
conceded reluctantly. 

"Two days," she repeated bitterly. "You've 
known about this for two days, and you 
didn't even tell me?"

"No -- No," he insisted firmly. "The Captain 
just asked me about my flight status, Mac.  
Maybe we talked about a few things, but I 
didn't know he was going to send me until 
this morning."

She glared back at him with a kind of 
muffled fury in her eyes.  "If you'd just told 
me you were coming out here to get yourself 
killed," she hissed, "at least I could have 
asked Bud to come along to help me with 
the paperwork." With that, Mac bolted the 
table and stalked out of the wardroom 
leaving behind a few startled sailors in her 
wake, including Harm.

It took him a minute to react, but by the time 
he got to the corridor, she was gone.

For the next 40 minutes, he checked 
everyplace he could think of; her stateroom, 
the Staff JA's office, even Vulture's Row, 
but no one had seen her.  He almost wished 
Bud had come along.  At least then, he 
might know where she was.  In the end, 
Harm had to give up.  She obviously didn't 
want to be found, and the briefing wouldn't 
wait.

He spent the rest of the morning studying 
maps and reading briefing books, but always 
with one eye on the nearest passageway 
hoping he'd see her go by - or better yet, 
come to talk.

At around 13:40, he decided to give it one 
more try before his time ran out.  He'd 
already been to the bridge, the wardroom 
and even CIC, but the small compartment 
the Skipper had assigned them as a 
workspace was on his way to the ready 
room, so he'd left it for last.

He found Mac sitting on the far side of the 
table they were using for a desk feverishly 
pounding away at her laptop's keyboard.  
She didn't notice him at first.  To her, he 
was just one more fighter jock in a jumpsuit, 
and she'd seen several pass by.

"What're you working on?" he asked with a 
casual smile.

The Colonel barely acknowledged him. 
"Just finishing my report on Major 
Graham," she replied tensely.

She wouldn't look up, and it seemed 
obvious that Mac intended to ignore him as 
long as possible, but Harm persevered. 
"How'd it go?"

"Fine, I guess."  She stood up and quickly 
grabbed a stack of folders she intended to 
move to a side table nearby.  As she did so, 
she continued her rather compact summation 
of her morning meeting.  "The Major regrets 
the result, but he still thinks what he did was 
right."

"Most of us do," Harm assured her.  That 
got him a dirty look, but at least he knew he 
had her attention. "Look, Mac, I wanted 
to..."

She cut him off abruptly. "Is there 
something I can help you with, 
Commander?" Her grudging, indignant stare 
only made him more determined to get 
through to her.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, there is," he 
declared. "There's something you can do for 
me.  It's kind of important." 

"And what's that?" she demanded 
impatiently.

"You can wish me luck."

He'd kept the tone of his voice more or less 
even for this request, but the way Harm 
looked at her caused Mac's breath to catch 
in her throat.  That phrase and the way he 
said it staggered her.   Suddenly, all she 
could think of was how she'd sent him off to 
the Patrick Henry in a rain of bitter words 
and nearly lost him for good to a storm on 
an angry sea.

She glanced back at him almost shamefaced.  
Her frosty demeanor was melting nearly as 
fast as her official, Marine Corps bearing.  "I 
thought you guys liked to make your own 
luck," she murmured softly.  

"'You guys?'" Harm asked in surprise. 
"Mac, I didn't change sides.  I'm still your 
partner."

She shook her head disconsolately. "Not in 
this.  I'm not qualified." Without her anger 
as a shield, she seemed suddenly lost in 
doubt. "When do you go?"

"Soon," he answered softly.  "Probably not 
too long after the briefing." 

Mac looked down at the floor nodding her 
reluctant acknowledgement.  Then, she 
spotted the loose-leafed binder he'd set on 
the corner of the table. "What did you find 
out from your book?"

He responded with a warm smile. "Well, 
they've got a lot of mountains between here 
and there," he said with a sarcastic laugh.

"And a lot of ocean," she added miserably.  
Though Mac tried to keep her expression 
fairly non-committal, the haunted look in 
her eyes betrayed her.   

Harm met her eyes on that thought with the 
glances between them saying much more 
than their words could.  He needed to soothe 
her, to wipe away the distress he saw on her 
face and make her understand.  As he 
stepped forward, he reached out meaning to 
offer a gentle hand on her shoulder, but as 
he did, Mac gazed up at him uncertainly.  
Without a word, he gave his answer, and 
they slipped quietly into each other's arms.  

Except for tiny sighs and stifled syllables, 
she said nothing, but something about the 
way her cheek strained against the side of 
his throat moved him.  It was almost as if he 
could feel the depth of her concern through 
his pores.  

He knew she was worried about him, but it 
wasn't until he held her that he realized how 
much.  When he calmly whispered, "I'll be 
all right, Mac," to try and reassure her, she 
reflexively tightened her grip to pull him in 
closer and nuzzle against him.  

He hadn't expected Mac to be so open with 
her fears for him.  Sure, she'd stated her 
objections at the top of her voice a while 
ago, but she was usually much more 
circumspect about displaying her emotions.  
This time, he could see it, and her frankness 
shook his normally disciplined reserve.  

Maybe it was their collective memories of 
his night in the Atlantic when an aircraft fell 
out from under him, or maybe it was the 
new, ambient atmosphere of a warship really 
at war that got to them.  Whatever it was, 
Harm just knew he couldn't leave her like 
this.  He could barely leave her at all.

When he spoke her name, the word 
conveyed so much more than a simple 
request for her attention that when he slowly 
drew her out from him, she looked up in 
surprise.  

Harm bent down to kiss her, but hesitated at 
the last minute.  At first, he wasn't sure how 
she'd react, but Mac only needed to see the 
light in his eyes to know they were together 
in this.  She hadn't been so sure up until 
now.  Everything else fell away as she lifted 
her face up to meet his, and they settled into 
each other arms.

The kiss built slowly from a gentle whisper 
of his lips against hers. He kissed her as 
softly as she kissed him back, but the 
intensity of the bond kept growing.  With 
every moment they were together, the 
energy passing between them amplified 
sending increasingly powerful waves of 
emotion coursing through them until Mac 
finally broke away and lay her head back 
down on his shoulder, content that he'd 
finally said it, in deeds, if not in words.

Harm held her close not wanting to let go of 
Mac or the moment, but it couldn't last.  The 
sound of boots shuffling down the hallway 
told him he'd have to leave her soon.  He 
had to go back to the world.

When she felt his arms slacken slightly, Mac 
knew their time was almost up.  Trying to 
steel herself for that moment, she gave him 
one more quick, tight hug around the 
shoulders and murmured, "You'd better 
come back, Harm."

"Or what?" he chuckled lightly. "You'll put 
me in a body cast?'

"Or a sling..." With that, she reluctantly 
stepped back to let him go.

He stood there watching her with a soft glow 
in his eyes, but she could already see the 
change in him.  "Don't worry, Mac.  I'll be 
back before you know it."

"You'd better be," she advised as if to warn 
him. She took a long pause before slyly 
adding, "You know how I hate to break in 
new partners."

Harm greeted that remark with one of his 
famous, ironic half-smiles.  "Yeah, well, 
don't go shopping just yet."

"I'll wait for the sale." 

He stepped back slowly not wanting to look 
away, but his own internal clock and the 
quickening pace in the hallway told him 
their time was up.  "I'll see you when I get 
back." 

She nodded tensely and repeated, "When 
you get back." There was more she wanted 
to say, but Harm was slipping more and 
more into his fighter jock mode, and she 
knew she had to let him. As certain as she 
was that he'd meant every moment of the 
last few minutes, she was also keenly aware 
he'd have to forget about it now to 
concentrate on the mission ahead of him. 
But even so, remembering another time they 
had stood on either side of a closing door, 
and she'd left her words unspoken, she 
called him back before he reached the 
passageway.

"Harm?"  He looked back over his shoulder 
at the beautiful Colonel who'd just called his 
name.  She held his eyes for one more 
moment of reassurance, then calmly wished 
him, "Good luck."

His smile broadened into a look of easy 
satisfaction that warmed her heart.  With a 
quick nod, he acknowledged her wish and 
added, "See you soon."

"See ya."
 
As Mac sat back down by her laptop, she 
took one more, hopeful look at the hatchway 
Harm had just left.  In her mind's eye, he 
was still standing there framed by the 
doorway with that glorious smile on his face 
and a playful gleam in his eye. 

As she savored that gorgeous picture of him, 
Mac made a mental note to file it away and 
keep it safe until the real thing returned.   
Soon.