Author: Lace
Subject: Cleaning the air HBX Challenge August 2008

Cleaning the air

HBX Challenge August 2008

The characters are not mine, I'll just use them in this story.

This is set in the season ten episode; 'Fit for duty'.



“You care to join us Mac?”

“No thanks, I'll take a rain check.” Mac entered the elevator, feeling rather angry. How dared he invite her with them? How dared he do anything with that woman?
At the hospital after her accident on Christmas Eve he had said that he was still there for her. She thought he meant that he was still waiting for her to be ready for a relationship, but clearly there was some kind of time limit that she didn't know about.
Unbelievably! First he made her believe that he wanted to have a family with her; then when she needed time to get her head around it, he went after Professor Montes. Then he said that he was still there and now he was chasing after Doctor Elgin. Mac was sick and tired of his inconsistent need to be with her.
Mac was pulled away from her thoughts by a sudden stop in the elevator. They were definitely not moving any more.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Mac punched the buttons in the elevator; not because it would help any, but because she felt the need to punch something.

“Easy Mac, no need to get violent.” Harm touched her arm with his hand.

Mac pushed him away. “No, you can take it easy.”

Harm took a step away from her and raised his arms in defense.

Mac took a deep breath. “Sorry, I just don't want to be stuck in an elevator.”

“That's understandable.” Harm grabbed the phone and talked to someone on the other end. He turned towards Mac and Doctor Elgin. “It's' going to be a while.”

“Great!” Mac started pacing the small room.

“Did they say how long it would take?” Doctor Elgin asked.

“They have to find out what caused the elevator to stop; it could take minutes or hours, depending on what's wrong.” Harm looked at Mac. “We'll just have to be patient.”

Mac ignored him and kept on pacing, she needed to do something.

“Mac, maybe you should sit down and relax.” Harm suggested.

“Maybe I don't want to.” Was her only response to that suggestion. How was this possible? Stuck in an elevator with Harm and Dr Elgin. What had she done to deserve this?

“Please, you're driving me crazy.” Harm was irritated, she could hear it in his voice.

Mac stopped and turned to him. “Oh, I'm sorry.” She rolled her eyes and sat down with her back leaning against one of the walls.

“Are you angry with me?” Harm sat down, leaning towards the opposite wall, facing her.

“Yes.” Mac replied before she realized that a lie would have been more appropriate since this would lead to a discussion she didn't want to have with him.

“Why?” Harm tried to think through his actions concerning her lately, but he couldn't think of anything that might have upset her.

“It's not important, I just want to get out of this place.” Mac leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

“If I did anything to make you mad, you should tell me about it.” Harm clearly expected her to explain it to him.

“Just let it go.” Mac kept her eyes closed.

“It's important to talk about things.” Doctor Elgin sat down too; leaning against the wall between them, she decided to get involved in the conversation.

“Spare me the psycho babble.” Mac opened her eyes and looked at Doctor Elgin. “I'm not interested.”

“But I'm interested in why you're so mad at me.” Harm started to get annoyed. “If I don't know what's wrong, I can't fix it.”

“Just leave it Harm. It's not important.”

“I feel that it is.” Harm stood and grabbed the phone again. He listened to the voice in the other end, then hung up.

“It's going to be a while.” He sat back down again. “Now, let's talk about why you're mad at me.” He tried to give Mac his most charming smile.

“Don't use your charm smile on me Harm. It hasn't worked before, the odds are very much against it working this time too.” Mac pulled some files from her briefcase.

“What are you doing?” Harm pointed to the files.

“I'm getting some work done. I can't just sit here.” Mac opened one of the files and started taking notes on a legal pad.

“You're a workaholic, aren't you?” Doctor Elgin asked.

“Probably.” Was Mac's only response. She figured that short answers would make Elgin leave her alone. The last thing she needed was to be psychoanalyzed.

“Why?” Elgin obviously didn't take the hint.

“Excuse me?” Mac looked up from her file.

“Well, most people have good reasons to bury themselves in their work. To keep other issues away perhaps?” Elgin decided to try and analyze Mac.

Mac glared at Doctor Elgin. “Well right now I'm trying to keep you from talking to me. Clearly I'm not doing a very good job.”

“Mac, be nice would you.” Harm was shocked by Mac's behavior.

“I'm sorry, but I don't want anyone in my head.” Mac concentrated on her work again, hoping that Elgin would leave her alone. Sure she worked a lot, but Mac loved her work. It wasn't like she had anything important in her life that she neglected, she just wanted to have a great career now that she probably never would have a family of her own.

“I didn't mean to get in you head, it's a professional habit I guess.” Elgin said apologetic.

“That's okay, I'm sorry I got angry. I'm not very good company tonight and I wasn't planning on being social.” Mac tried her best to be nicer. After all, it wasn't Doctor Elgin's fault that she was angry. Not directly anyway.

“Either one of us were expecting to be stuck in an elevator tonight. I would much rather be on our date.” Doctor Elgin smiled and turned to Harm.

“It wasn't a date, it was a thank you dinner. I'm not dating at the moment.” Harm said, then turned his focus on Mac. “The person I want to date, doesn't want to date me.”

“I never said that I didn't want to date you, I just didn't know there was a time limit on how long you would wait for me to be ready. You are so inconsistent, it's hard to know when you're waiting on me and when you're dating blonde's.” Mac hadn't planned on getting into a fight with him tonight, but clearly there was no way around it.

“That's why you've been angry at me, you think I'm not there for you any more. You really think I would do that? I can't believe you think that little of me.” Harm got on his feet as he spoke.

Mac stood as well. “I don't know what to think any more Harm. Every time I'm ready to be with you, you're having dinner with another woman. How would you feel if I went on a date with some guy when I was waiting for you to be ready to commit?”

“Like you did with Webb you mean?” Harm threw in her face.

“You left me behind Harm. You didn't even return my calls while you were in the CIA. If you had just fought me when I said that we would never work, I would have reconsidered. And for the record, I didn't start anything serious with Webb until after the whole thing with Sadike Fahd. Sure we had dinners and he wanted more from me, but I just didn't feel the same he did. But he was there Harm, he had the right equipment and after that one thing led to another and suddenly we were dating. Sure I cared about Webb, I even thought I loved him for while, but it was a mistake. I wasted a year on him, but that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that we have waisted nine years. Sometimes because of me, but you share a great deal of the responsibility. What the hell is wrong with this elevator.” Just as Mac yelled the last sentence, she felt the elevator move and the doors opened. “Finally.” She turned to Harm. “I just wanted you to fight for me for once Harm, just to make me believe that we could actually make it work between us. I need to believe in us.” Mac walked out and left the building in a hurry.

Harm tried to catch up to her, but when he came outside he saw her drive away.

“Damn it!” He ran to his car and drove away from JAG. He needed to talk to Mac.


Mac's apartment

When Harm arrived at Mac's apartment, he couldn't see her car anywhere. Hoping she would come home, he decided to wait for her.

Thirty minutes later he saw her park her car, grab some groceries and walk towards the entrance of her building. He got out of his care.

“Hey Mac, wait.” He yelled and walked faster towards her.

Mac stopped and turned around. “Have you been waiting for me?”

“Yes, I want to finish our talk.” He grabbed one of her grocery bags. “Can I come in?”

Mac hesitated. “Okay.” She walked inside the building with Harm right behind her.

Once inside her apartment, they took the groceries to the kitchen. Mac started to unload the bags and put the different items away. Harm watched her work while he thought about what he wanted to say.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” Mac gave him a questioning look.

“I do.” Harm took a deep breath. “I don't know what to say to fix us. I want you to trust me, but you clearly don't. I'm sorry I said what I said about Webb, that wasn't my brightest moment.”

“I'm just sick of being faced with all my past mistakes whenever we have an argument. You really know how to hurt me.” Mac rubbed a hand over her face, then she looked into his eyes. “I want to trust you Harm, I really do. But I need to know that we can put the past behind us and focus on the future.”

“I'm sorry I hurt you. I want to put the past behind us and start working on a future for us. No more low blows and mean comments.” Harm reached out and took her hand. “I'm sorry about today. I shouldn't have gone to dinner with Dr Elgin, even if it was innocent.”

“That's okay, you did ask me to come with you. I'm sorry I overreacted.” Mac smiled and stepped closer to him.

Harm stroke a finger over her cheek, before letting his hand fall down by his side. “Does this mean that we can forget about all that's happened and move on?”

“We shouldn't forget about it, but we should be able to move on. Our past will always be there, but we have to stop letting it get in our way.” Mac leaned up and kissed him lightly on the mouth.
“That's a start.”

“A very good start, I think.” Harm kissed her again, his arms still hanging down by his sides.

“It works better if you put your arms around me.” Mac smiled teasingly.

“Sorry.” Harm laughed and then he hugged her close to him. “Let's make a deal.” He released her and looked into her eyes. “I'll stop being a jerk and you'll start trusting me.”

“I think I like that deal.” Mac smiled. “Let's make some dinner, I'm starving.”

“Let me make dinner, you go and relax.” Harm kissed her again, then he released her.

“Let's order in, that way we both can relax.” Mac took Harm's hand and led him to the living room. She gave him the phone. “You order a pizza, I'll go change.”

Harm took the phone from her. “Does this mean that we're dating?” He smiled.

Mac gave him an insecure smile. “I think it does.”

“We'll make it work Mac, I promise.” Harm kissed her head before he called the pizza place to place their order.

Mac walked towards her room, but stopped and turned to look at him. “Yes, we will make it work.” Mac whispered and for the first time in her life, she felt sure that everything would be fine.