VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, [10] ]



[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 22:59:47 01/17/13 Thu
Author: Cammy
Subject: The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 17

The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 17
By: Cammy
Disclaimer: Not mine
Rated: R (for language and sexual situations)

Author’s Notes: See Chapter 1.

New note (s): Thanks to all for the really kind and thoughtful feedback. It has made finishing this story worth it. Also, I stole a line from a movie for this chapter - let me know if you figure out which one.

2330 EDT (Local)
Wednesday evening
December 24, 2003
Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
The Mall, Washington, D.C.

“As he goes left and you stay right. Between the lines of fear and blame. And you begin to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend. Somewhere along in the bitterness. And would I have stayed up with you all night. Had I known how to save a life.” – The Fray, How to Save a Life

Her glove off, the slick granite wall felt bitter cold under her fingertips. It had been more than a year since she had visited the Vietnam Wall, but the grooves of the etched names felt so familiar to her.

Mac had distantly registered the footsteps of a passerby but was too lost in thought to turn around. Until she heard his unmistakable voice.

This couldn’t be happening, she told herself.

“What are you doing here, Mac?”

A million thoughts ran through her as she turned around. She felt her shoulders straighten automatically. She’d flown halfway around the world to find him but hadn’t succeeded. Now here he was, right in front of her, in the flesh.

“Harm.” She wondered if the simple utterance of his name betrayed how surprised she was to see him.

For a few moments, they just stared at each other.

She drank him in, struck by much hadn’t changed. Ever the perfect officer in his Class A uniform suit and dark coat. The gold, white and navy cover sat firmly on his crown of dark hair. His eyes looked gray in the moonlight.

Conflicting emotions coursed through her: Elation that he was safe and back on the ground. Anxiety. Fear. Hope.

He didn’t make any move to reach forward and touch her in greeting like he had so many times before. She wanted to reach out and hug him, needing some type of physical contact, but the guarded look in his eyes and the cool tone of his voice kept her arms at her sides.

Harm finally broke the stand off. “Mac, I thought you were still in Naples. What are you doing here,” he asked again, a little more gently this time.

“Just got back – well for a couple days at least. I’m actually supposed to be in San Diego, but got bumped from my flight and I got stuck in Washington. I thought you were on CAP duty tonight.”

He stared quizzically at her. “I was earlier. How did you know?”

“The Admiral told me. I was at Bud and Harriet’s for dinner before tonight’s Christmas Eve service.”

Harm nodded and Mac couldn’t tell if he was surprised, confused or still as angry with her as he had been before she left for Italy.

She continued, “I didn’t think you would make it to the Wall tonight.” She gave him a half-smile. “I thought someone should pay your respects, wish him Merry Christmas for you.”

“Thank you.” He lips quirked upward slightly in return and she felt buoyed. “That….that means a lot.”

It was then that she felt the soft fall of small cold snowflakes on her face. She looked up. “Oh my gosh, it wasn’t supposed to snow tonight.”

Mac smiled happily and caught some of the falling snow in her left gloved hand. When she looked back up at her companion, he wore the same inscrutable expression she had seen from him so many times. The one that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Harm broke her gaze and looked up through the falling snow. “It’s really starting to come down. We should head out. The temperature is going to continue to drop.”

Mac shoved her hands back in her coat pockets and nodded in agreement, “Where did you park?”

“I walked. What about you?”

Mac was surprised. It was more than a couple miles to his apartment from here. “I took a cab. My ‘vette is still in storage. I paid the driver to wait though. Can I give you a ride?”

Harm gave a small grin. “That would be great. Thank you.”

The two started walking back in the direction Mac came as silence reigned for long moments.

Mac had no idea what to say to him. For all of the bold declarations she had played out in her head since she first read the transcript of his Article 32 testimony, now that she was actually with him, she was at a loss.

Her earlier phone conversation with Allie and the news Harm was in a relationship with Catherine Gale were weighing on her. She wondered if he had been heading back to his apartment – or to Catherine’s before he ran into her.

Mac was saved from tormenting thoughts of Harm with another blonde when he stopped in front of the cab and opened the door for her. “Hop in, Colonel.”

Harm walked to the other side of the vehicle and got in as well.

“Where to, ma’am,” the patient driver asked. The meter she could see running told her she would be compensating him well for his time.

“Georgetown.” “Union Station.” Their answers collided in the small car.

The driver eyed them in his rearview mirror. “Which first?”

Harm turned to Mac, “Let me make sure you get home okay, it’s late.”

“I don’t mind dropping you off first, Harm. You have to be exhausted after flying for the last couple of days.” She smiled at him, mustering the courage to banter just like they used to do every day. “Besides, my car, my rules, Commander.” She looked ahead to the driver, “Union Station, please,” giving the driver Harm’s address.

Harm shook his head. She smiled at eliciting the same exasperated, perplexed response he’d given her often during the course of their partnership.

The driver headed up Constitution Avenue, and Mac glanced up at the bright shining Washington Monument, a beacon in the dark night.

“Miss Washington,” Harm asked, sounding more casual than either of them felt.

Mac nodded, keeping her gaze out the window, not trusting her ability to not betray exactly what – or who it was – she missed about D.C. “Yeah, I did.”

“What’s in San Diego?”

“Needed to meet another JAG officer, but was bumped from my flight.”

“Nothing you could do over the phone?”

“No, not this.”

Now composed, she turned to him. His attention was elsewhere and she followed his gaze.

She felt the heat rise in her cheeks – and in other areas – when she realized what had Harm distracted.

Mac’s coat had fallen open, revealing her black dress’ high slit up one of her thighs.

Harm finally looked up and then immediately looked away when he realized he had been caught checking out her legs. She shifted her coat and dress. He cleared his throat. “Sounds like top secret spy business. Picking up tricks of the trade from Webb?”

Harriet’s comments to her earlier in the night had prepared her for this. Barely. The bitterness in his voice still hit her hard.

“That’s a leading question, counselor.”

“Withdrawn,” he said automatically, a reflex of their years of playful arguments. He didn’t even crack a smile though, she noticed sadly. She stared back at him.

“There’s nothing going on between Webb and me.”

He broke eye contact with her. “That’s not what I heard.”

“Says the one of us who actually is dating a spy,” she said, keeping her gaze on him as he looked at the window.

He turned slightly in her direction but didn’t answer. Mac was disappointed; she wanted him to deny it.

As the driver turned left on Louisiana Avenue, Mac realized they were close to his house. She didn’t want to leave it like this. The whole reason she was back in the country was to see him and now it felt like there was still an ocean between them.

As they turned onto G Street and pulled up to his apartment, he finally made eye contact with her, for the first time since they had met up at the Mall. She felt like she was under examination.

She broke the silence. “Look, Harm, I’ll be in town for a couple days. Can we grab dinner or coffee or something and catch up?”

The cab pulled up near his building, but too close to trees and shrubbery for Harm to exit on his side of the car. Mac opened her door, hopping out. “Here, you can get out on this side.”

Harm followed her and surprised her by closing the taxi door, stopping her from getting back in it. “I was actually hoping I could talk you into coming up for a cup of coffee now.”

She hesitated at first. Hope surged deep within but she fought it. It was past midnight at this point. “You’ve been flying patrol for days, Harm. You must be exhausted.”

Harm crossed his arms. “You’re not going to leave your best friend all alone on Christmas Eve are you?” He tried to make his tone sound light.

She wanted nothing more to lose herself in him for the next few hours, days, years, a lifetime, but there was something different about him. He was intentionally keeping her at arm’s length. Right now, she felt as far away from him as she had been sitting in her office in Naples.

“Best friend, huh?” She asked. “I used to have one of those, but he never called me back.”

He looked away. “I should have returned your call, Mac.”

A million conflicting emotions ran through her. “Yeah, you should have.” When he didn’t say anything else, she moved to open the cab door. “Look, it’s late.”

“Come on, Mac. We haven’t seen each other in months. Finding you at the Wall tonight was…” he trailed off. “There are a couple things I need to tell you.”

Mac looked up at him, taking in his tall solid figure as the snow came down around him. She felt her stomach clench in anxiety and anticipation. The look in his eyes was inscrutable.

“Look, I’ll drive you home later. Whatever you want. Just come upstairs for a little while.”

She guessed he wanted to tell her he was involved with Catherine Gale. Whatever it was, she wasn’t leaving his home until she brought up what he said at his Article 32 testimony.

Mac didn’t care if he had moved on or not. She was done with games and half-truths and unrequited desire. It was Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth.

Harm took out his wallet and handed a $100 bill through the driver’s open window. “Merry Christmas, sir.”

The driver laughed cheerily. “Merry Christmas, yourselves. You two don’t stay up too late now. Santa’s got work to do.” He winked at them.

Embarrassed by the driver’s implication, Mac brought a hand to her face, shielding herself from the bright headlights as the cab pulled away.

She swallowed hard as she followed Harm into the building.

If eight years was coming down to this one night, so be it.

2355 EDT (Local)
Wednesday evening
December 24, 2003
Harm's apartment
North of Union Station, Washington D.C.

“I draw you close with every breath. You don't know it's right until it's wrong. You don't know it's yours until it's gone. I didn't know that it was home ‘til you up and left. Come and find me now.” – Josh Ritter, Come and Find Me

The ride on the elevator up to his apartment was uncomfortable. Neither of them spoke and she wondered if Harm regretted his invitation for her to join him for coffee.

Soon enough they reached his floor, and Harm unlocked his door and opened it to let her through.

“Thanks,” Mac said, moving slowly through the doorway, taking in the surroundings she hadn’t seen in months. God, she had missed this place.

A lamp in his living room and a few of the track lights over the kitchen were still lit, probably a careless result of his hurried exit a couple hours ago – she could see his suitcase and sea bag sitting in the middle of the living room. The track lights left the apartment bathed in a soft glow that mirrored the moonlight seeping in from front windows. Harm didn’t move to turn more lights on.

She shivered, not sure if it was the cold or the company. At the Wall, he hadn’t looked all that excited to see her. If she was honest, she had been looking for a warmer homecoming.

Harm hung up his coat and cover and moved back towards her. It was the closest she had been to him since the last time she was at his apartment, when he had told her she might be the ‘only thing’ he needed. “Here, let me take your coat. Do you want coffee or tea?”

Mac was overwhelmed by his nearness and could still smell a light hint of aftershave that was wearing off. She took the opportunity to really study him for the first time in months. He looked tired, more lines gracing his forehead than she remembered. He also looked so, so good. She’d forgotten how handsome he was. Strong chin, long lashes, smooth skin.

Harm must have been at least a little affected by their closeness as well because his fingers lingered over the lapels of her jacket longer than they should have as he stood in front of her.

She met his eyes and held the gaze for longer than she had in months. “I missed you so much.”

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]



Replies:

[> Loved this, but I need the talk pleeeeeaaaaasssss.... pretty, pretty, please with sugar on top? -- Shazam, 23:42:49 01/17/13 Thu [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> More, more, more -- please and thank you. -- carramor, 00:17:49 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> Post again soon. I am on the edge of my seat! -- Debbi, 00:53:53 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> That was so amazing... simply can't wait for the next chapter. -- Dee, 01:47:24 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> OMG ! I also am on the edge of my seat ! Can't wait for what follows !OMG by hasard I think I found the line from the movie ( inside ) -- Laurence, 06:10:28 01/18/13 Fri [1]

I like the line :

' It was Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth. '

perfect

English isn't my mother - tongue.

then I checked via internet and found an IMDB link

it's come from the movie ' Love Actually ' dated from 2003


[ Edit | View ]

[> arggggh the suspense post soon please -- roz, 07:29:15 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> Well you've certainly got us on the edge of our seats, don't keep us in suspense too long - Please! -- Ciara, 08:40:17 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> You have gotten them this far Cammy, 'he who hesitates'? -- JoyZ, 10:38:22 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> Please post again soon! Pleeeaseee? -- yiota, 12:47:40 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> Wow Cammy dont stop now girl i need my fix and quick pretty please -- Bev uk, 14:38:16 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> More please.... -- FJN, 15:11:07 01/18/13 Fri [1]


[ Edit | View ]
[> Hoping against hope -- marye904, 21:52:59 01/19/13 Sat [1]


[ Edit | View ]



[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.