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Date Posted: 22:54:01 02/17/13 Sun
Author: Teacup
Subject: What Do You Want (on Valentine's Day)? -- February 2013 Challenge

For the February 2013 Challenge, combining Valentine's Day with the lines:
“What do you want?”
“I want a lot of things.”
“What do you want most?”
“The thing I want most … is to never lose you.”

What Do You Want (on Valentine's Day)?
by Teacup

“What do you want?” Harm nearly snarled after the marine had knocked on the frame of his open office door.

“For you to not bite my head off, for starters,” answered Mac. She took a breath, and tried to ask calmly, “May I come in?”

Harm shrugged. “Whatever.”

At the cold response, Mac lost the desire to try to talk to Harm. “Never mind. I’m about to head out to meet Burch. I’ll see you … when I see you.” And with that, she turned to leave.

“Mac!” Harm called after her. But he had hesitated too long, and she had already made it to her own office.

He followed and didn’t bother to knock or ask to enter her space. He simply went in and closed the door behind him.

“I’m sorry,” Harm apologized, although he was still obviously agitated. “I just … I’m not in the best of moods today.”

“Really?” As if she hadn’t noticed.

After a long pause, without Harm saying whatever was on his mind, Mac went ahead and told him, “I didn’t ask for this assignment.”

He shook his head. “… It’s not just that.”

“It’s also not my fault that you have court today and aren’t allowed to be a part of this little sting operation. I know you always want to be at the helm of any potential excitement around here.”

“You think that’s what this is about? That I’m some … adrenaline junkie pouting ‘cause I have to stay back at the office?”

Mac raised her eyebrows. “Isn’t it? What is it you want, Harm?”

Out of the corner of his eye, through the window on Mac’s door, Harm saw someone in the bullpen. He raised his finger, signaling Mac to wait. “Hold that thought.”

Mac sighed in exasperation as Harm quickly opened the door and headed out to intercept Bud, who had been heading to Harm’s office.

A moment later, Harm returned with a small box in his hand. He closed the door again, and as he opened the box, he told Mac, “The thing I want most … is to never lose you.” He took a watch out of the box. “This has a tracking device in it. Wear it, please?”

“Harm …” Mac started to object.

“I don’t trust NCIS, Mac. And I don’t … I just want some insurance that, if the situation goes badly, I can find you.”

“It’s not your job to keep track of me, Harm. I’m a big girl, not to mention a marine, … and NCIS has plenty of agents who will be on surveillance.”

“Surveillance can go wrong.” He put the watch in her hand. “Suspects can change the rules of the game, and …”

“And you feel the need to monitor my every move? No, thank you.” She handed the watch back to him.

Harm huffed. “Just for this afternoon while you’re on this op,” he pleaded.

With a new sense of bitterness, he continued, “Then you can leave it behind wherever you want to before you go on your hot date tonight. … I have no intention of spying on you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He put the watch on her desk with more force than necessary. “I’ve got to get to court.”

Harm exited, leaving behind a very confused marine.

“What hot date?” Mac asked quietly, since the man she wanted to ask was no longer in her office.

Less than a minute later, Carolyn Imes, who was at headquarters on TAD, came by. “Mac, have you seen the file for the Guernsey case from last year?”

“Hmm?” Mac asked, having been lost in thought.

“The Guernsey case,” Carolyn repeated. “Have you seen the file?”

“Umm, no. Not recently. Last I saw, it was in the filing cabinet.”

“Are you okay?” asked Caroline.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Just getting ready to leave for this thing with NCIS.” Mac wasn’t at liberty to say what she was doing with NCIS.

“Well, good luck with that, whatever it is,” said Caroline. “If I don’t see you again today, have a good time with your ‘date’ tonight.”

Mac’s reaction was immediate and uncensored, but with plenty of exasperation. “What date is everyone talking about?”

Surprised at Mac’s response, Carolyn defensively explained, “I was just referring to our break room conversation the other day.”

Mac remembered. Carolyn and Jennifer Coates had been in the little kitchen area when she went in to get some coffee.

“I don’t know about that,” Carolyn was saying. “Dinner is nice and all, and flowers are always lovely, but I want more from a guy. I want a lot of things. Tangible, lasting things, … like nice jewelry … or a new car.”

“Sounds a bit greedy there, Commander,” jibed Mac as she poured her coffee.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Carolyn stated. “But the petty officer here seems to agree with you.”

Jennifer confirmed, “I was just saying how I would be happy to simply have a decent guy in my life to spend Valentine’s Day with … A guy who really cared about me.”

“I know the feeling,” Mac admitted, more wistfully than she intended.

“Speaking of the big night…” Carolyn looked at Mac. “Do you have a hot date lined up for the holiday this year?”

Mac smiled. “Absolutely! As a matter of fact, I am very much looking forward to my plans this Valentine’s.”

“Oh, do tell!” Carolyn’s interest was definitely piqued.

After taking a sip of her coffee to allow the proper amount of suspense, Mac divulged, “I have a date with a cup of hot chocolate, a good book, and plans for an early night snuggled in my nice, warm bed.”

Carolyn deflated. “That doesn’t count, Mac. Surely, you have gentlemen lined up to take you out.”

“Not exactly.” For all of her bravado the moment before, Mac was disappointed that she would be spending another Valentine’s evening by herself.

“I bet we could remedy that,” said Carolyn. “It’s still two days until Valentine’s.”

“Well, finding someone decent is still easier said than done,” Jennifer noted.

Mac dismissed the whole thing. “I’m way past the point of wanting to find someone to go out with just for the sake of having a date on a certain night of the year. I’ll be happier by myself than fumbling through an awkward evening with someone I hardly know.”

“What if it was someone that you know well?” asked Carolyn. “… Say a handsome jet jock turned attorney?”

Not again. “Carolyn.” A look accompanied Mac’s verbal warning that made it clear that the other officer was to drop the subject. “I’ll be fine with my Valentine’s Day plans just as they are.”

** ** ** **

Coming back to the present, Mac realized that Carolyn was currently asking her something.

“So, who else was bothering you about a big date tonight?”

Mac paused, but did not have the energy to come up with some story, so she decided to answer honestly. “Commander Rabb mentioned something. … I have no idea what gave him the impression that I’ve got a hot date tonight.”

Carolyn got an odd smile on her face. “I’ll bet it’s because he’s planning on being that hot date.”

Looking at Carolyn as if she had grown another head, Mac asked, “What are you talking about?”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this.” Carolyn looked around to make sure no one was within earshot and lowered her voice. “… But yesterday afternoon, I went to ask Harm a question. He wasn’t in his office, so I decided to leave a note on his desk. I accidentally knocked a pen into his trash can, and while I was retrieving it, I happened to see something in the garbage. It was a sticky note that Harm had written on. … It had the phone number of a florist on it.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Mac told her.

“Mac,” Carolyn added, “Your name and address were also written on the note.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe not, but if he was hinting about you having a date, … maybe you’ll get home and have some flowers waiting for you … with an invitation to meet him somewhere?”

Mac shook her head. She didn’t have time for these silly scenarios. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case. If you’ll excuse me, I really need to get ready to meet NCIS.”

“Sure,” Carolyn responded.

After Carolyn left, Mac took a second to try to clear her head. She knew from Harm’s negative attitude that he was not dropping hints that he was going to be her date tonight. So, what was Harm thinking?

She took in a deep breath. ‘Put it out of your mind, MacKenzie, you’ve got an op to focus on.’

* * * *

Court had run much later than he had hoped, so Harm rushed back to his office. Running into the Admiral in the bullpen, he asked, “Sir, any word on Colonel MacKenzie?”

“No, Commander. But with NCIS, I have to assume that no news is good news. If things went awry, I’m sure that reporters would have been all over it by now.”

“Right, sir.”

Harm wasn’t really sure about that, but he was certainly not going to argue.

Back at his office, he immediately went to his computer and started plugging in the information for the tracking device signal to show up on his screen. Part of him wanted to just call Mac, but if she were still somehow involved in the op, a call could jeopardize things. And if she was done with the op, then he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to her. Yes, he wanted to know that she was safe, but he knew that she wasn’t happy with him at the moment, due to his earlier attitude.

And he was unhappy with her, too. She was going on a date tonight with someone else. And, from what he had overheard in the break room the other day, she sounded … excited about it.

It didn’t matter that she had no way of knowing that Harm had been working up the courage to ask her out for Valentine’s, … that he was finally going to open up to her about being ready to take their relationship to a new, romantic level. She was moving forward with someone else, and that hurt him deeply.

But no matter how else he felt, Harm would always want to make sure that Mac was safe. Maybe he would never have her heart, but he would be damned if he would let something happen to her if he could help it.

Ergo, the tracking device. He knew there was a large possibility that the signal would be coming from JAG headquarters, because Mac had probably left the thing on her desk. But still, he needed to check … just in case.

Bringing the proper screen up, he was surprised that the signal was not emitting from JAG Headquarters. She had taken it, after all!

But he was more surprised to realize that signal was coming from the area of his apartment complex. He quickly dismissed a number of possible explanations, concluding that she must have left the watch at his door in a statement that she wanted nothing to do with it.

His workday being over, Harm felt pulled to get home as soon as possible. He wanted to know for sure why the watch was there. Maybe she had left a note. He hoped that she had. Even if it was an angry note, at least it would be communication from her. Hopefully, it would reveal that her op had gone well, and then Harm could relax and try not to think about what kind of guy had gotten his hooks into Mac now.

* * * *

When he reached his apartment, he was surprised to see no sign of the watch with the tracking device near the doorstep. He was sure the signal had been coming from here though. He opened his door. No sign of anything out of place inside.

If the signal had come from this general location, but the device was not here now, did that mean that Mac had come and gone … keeping the watch with her? He really wanted to call her now – to find out what was going on. But, chances were that things were fine and Mac was getting ready for her romantic night out. If the op had gone badly, there would have been no opportunity for Mac to have swung by his place, right?

Just after he changed into some civvies, there was a knock on the door.

Lo and behold, the subject of his thoughts had appeared in his hallway.

“Hey,” Mac said when Harm greeted her. “I, uh, … came to return this.” She held up the watch.

“Oh. Okay.” He opened his door fully so that she could come in. “You can keep it if you want,” he added.

“It is a nice watch,” she admitted, “… but the tracking device - a little creepy.”

“Yeah,” he conceded, taking it from her. “So, things went alright with the sting, then?”

“More or less. Nothing ever goes exactly as planned, but we managed to get Burch in the end without any bloodshed. So, I’d say it was a success.”

“Good.”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkward moment where neither spoke.

Harm, resigned to the fact that Mac was due to have a date with another man, finally broke the silence. “Well, you probably have to get going …”

Mac half-nodded. “You have plans tonight?” she asked.

He fought the urge to lie about having someone to be with. “… Just me and my guitar.”

Mac felt relieved. “That sounds almost as good as my plans.” Her voice indicated that her scheduled event was less than ideal.

Wrinkling his brow, Harm said, “I don’t think your date would appreciate that assessment.”

“I don’t think the book I’m reading or my cup of cocoa are going to be offended.”

“I thought you were going out with someone tonight?”

“I never told you I had a date with anyone.”

“But you told Carolyn and Jennifer …”

Mac had figured as much, once Carolyn had reminded her of that conversation and she had some time to sort through the events of the past week.

“You know, Commander, if you are going to eavesdrop … you might want to stick around for more of the conversation.”

“I wasn’t eavesdropping …” Harm defended. “I was going to get a cup of coffee, but it sounded crowded in there, so I decided to come back later.”

“Okay,” Mac accepted.

There was another moment of silence.

“From what I did overhear,” said Harm, “it sounded like you were pretty excited about your Valentine’s plans, though.”

“I was,” Mac confirmed. “… I mean, as a single woman, it’s not a bad way to spend the evening. It’s not what I’d like the most, but it’s not a bad alternative.”

“What do you want the most?” asked Harm.

Mac shrugged. “What most every woman wants on Valentine’s Day, I guess.”

“To be inundated with chocolate and flowers?” Harm hypothesized.

Mac shook her head. “To share Valentine’s Day with a man who …” She considered her next words carefully. “… who loves her.”

Harm swallowed hard. He saw the sincerity in her eyes. More than that, was Mac implying him with the look she was sending his way?

Regardless of her intent, now that Harm knew she had no one else to meet tonight, he knew that this could be his opening.

“If you’re not determined to head straight back to your book and all,” he ventured, “… I could be that guy.”

They shared a gaze that made it feel like more than their eyes were connecting.

“You could, huh?” asked Mac.

Harm nodded timidly. “I don’t shell out a ton of money on a special watch with high tech gadgets to make sure just any woman is safe.”

Mac hadn’t really thought of it that way. “No, I guess you don’t.”

“Have dinner with me?”

Smiling for a moment, Mac answered, “I would love to have dinner with you.”

Harm’s heart was beating a mile a minute and his thoughts were not far behind. “Great! I’m not sure we can find anyplace decent to go, with it being Valentine’s Day. I was going to take you to the Sequoia, but that’s out of the question now. We can go somewhere less formal and very crowded … or have dinner in. I think I have some chicken that I can …”

Mac walked right up to Harm, gently grabbed his head and brought his face down to hers for a swift, but firm, kiss.

Stunned, Harm did nothing for a moment. “What was that for?” he finally asked.

Maybe he hadn’t realized that he had just admitted to already thinking about taking Mac out to a very nice dinner tonight, but Mac certainly caught it. And where her flyboy may be dense in a lot of areas, the combination of his having admitted that he loved her, in some manner at least and via certain code, with the fact that he had wanted to take her out on an actual romantic date on Valentine’s Day, made her believe that they just might get it together yet.

So, what was that kiss for?

“Just to let you know,” Mac answered, “in case what you want for Valentine’s is to spend it with a woman who loves you, … that I could be that woman.”

Harm grinned. “You could, huh?”

Mac shrugged. “I don’t sit out in a cold car for hours waiting for just any guy to come home so I could clear up some misunderstandings about my availability.”

“That’s why the tracking signal was coming from here,” Harm realized.

“Yeah, between you tracking me and me staking out your place, we both may be in danger of taking this spy stuff a bit too far.”

Harm smiled at the thought. “Well, considering I told you ahead of time that the watch had a tracking device in it, and you knew I would check on said device while you were here on your stake out, it seems neither of us is too good at being covert.”

Considering that for a second, Mac suggested, “Maybe that’s because, deep down, we know that when it comes to the two of us, we need to start working on being more overt.”

“You’re right,” Harm agreed. “Do you mind if I practice being more overt right now?”

“No,” Mac answered.

“Okay.” He stepped up to her, cradled her face with one hand, put his other on her waist, and slowly met her mouth in a much deeper kiss than the one she had bestowed on him a moment before.

When they pulled apart and opened their eyes, there was a sense of awe between them.

Mac licked her lips. “Yeah, I definitely think we ought to practice being more overt with each other.”

“I agree,” said Harm.

“Good,” she said in a tone that indicated that they had just settled everything important. “Now, you said something about dinner?”

Harm chuckled. “I did. What do you want?”

They both knew that the food wouldn’t matter. What they wanted most was to be with each other. And, on that count, this was now the best Valentine’s Day that either of them had ever had.

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Replies:

[> Very cute, Teacup. I'm glad to see that you're writing again. -- Lee, 00:00:27 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> Very fun. Very Harm and Mac! -- Shazam, 00:33:09 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> Lovely story, Teacup. I always love your writing, especially your Harm/Mac dialogue. -- Dee, 02:02:27 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> I loved this, Teacup! Any chance for an update on your longer stories? -- yiota, 11:03:20 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> Ohhh, very nice! Thank you! -- Ciara, 11:12:05 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> Loved this story, typical of our daring duo, glad to see you posting again! -- JoyZ, 11:41:52 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> LOL cute story Teacup -- Bev uk, 14:04:16 02/18/13 Mon [1]


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[> Just loved this story! Thanks for giving us a sample of what could have been. -- carramor, 11:14:50 02/19/13 Tue [1]


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[> Lovely story! -- Sunset, 23:45:10 02/19/13 Tue [1]


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[> Wonderful story. So Harm and Mac. -- Beth, 05:40:18 02/20/13 Wed [1]


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[> Very cute, Teacup! Thanks! -- Jan, 21:18:16 02/21/13 Thu [1]


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[> Good story .Definitely a Mac and Harm story -- marye904, 14:45:03 02/27/13 Wed [1]


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