TITLE: The Dating Game
AUTHOR: Kasey
EP-RELATED: Jagathon
RATING: PG-13L, Macfic
SUMMARY: "How *dare* he say that?"  Response to Harm's 
(very uncalled-for) comment about all men who have ever 
dated Mac.
DISCLAIMERS: I don't own them.  Don't sue please.  No money 
is changing hands.  Now, I think Harm's gorgeous, but there 
are times that, if I were Mac, I would slug the guy for 
things he says.  'Nough said.  

How *dare* he say that about me?  And about-...all the men 
I've dated are dead or feel like they are?  How the hell 
would HE know?  And even if he DID know, which he 
*doesn't*, what gives him the right to say that?

...It was never on purpose.  A lot of times my fault, sure, 
but never intentionally, I-...

And what about me?  Huh?  The men I've dated feel dead - 
what about how I felt at the end of those relationships?  
What I felt like all through my marriage with Chris, 
or...When Farrow broke it off I highly doubt *he* felt 
dead.  I wanted to curl up under a rock; he didn't care.  
Chris was probably *happier* at the end.

Which leaves Dalton and Mic.  And Dalton didn't die because 
of me so much - and, by the way, who wished more for death 
at the end of that fiasco?  Who...fell off the wagon and 
was stalked by a bastard who claimed he was protecting her?  
The *other* person in the relationship feels dead?

So who it leaves to feel dead is Mic - and that was Harm's 
fault.

Oh, who the hell am I kidding?  I never loved Mic as much 
as he adored me, I-...I tried.  I cared more about him than 
anyone else I've been involved with.  It wasn't that I was 
in love with Harm, he's...my partner and my friend and 
that's *all*.  If it would've been Harriet lost at sea, Mic 
wouldn't even have QUESTIONED my loyalties.  He would've 
sat with me, arm around my shoulders, while I waited for 
the news.  But because there's this assumption that Harm 
and I are secretly in love with each other, it wasn't htat 
I was concerned for my best friend's life, it was suddenly 
more sinister and riddled with ulterior motives.

I loved Mic.  I really truly did.  But I guess I'm not a 
girl to commit.

Which Harm should know ALL about, Mr. I-Don't-Ever-Say-'I-
Love-You'-Because-That-Makes-Me-Weak-And-Dependant.

And let's examine the state of being and state of mind of 
all HARM'S ex-girlfriends, shall we?  Diane is dead; the 
Vietnamese girl he loved is dead; Neurotic Annie certainly 
feels like she is; Renee is married to someone whose JOB is 
the dead.  And then he sleeps with more fellow officers 
than-...So he has the nerve to criticse who *I've* dated 
and say *they* tend to die or want to?

Jackass.

You'd think with all that's going on in my life right now 
that he would at least PRETEND to be supportive?  And 
considering how much he *loathed* Mic...

How dare he say that?  Of all the things he's ever said to 
me, that is *the* most-...

But when he said it, I couldn't say anything.  I just 
turned and ran.  And snapped at the Admiral without meaning 
to.

Because how do you respond when there's a degree of truth 
to what the other person said?