Author: fananicfan
Subject: August 2008 Challenge - How To Make A Marine Speechless, Part Two

I knew they would be at least a few inquiring minds that would want to know what happened next, so I was prepared this time...the conclusion was already in the works. I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but your comments on part one were so kind, I wanted to give you part two as a gift of appreciation. I hope that I've done better with spacing this time around - at least the funny characters weren't there so that it wasn't too hard to read.



How To Make A Marine Speechless - Part 2

Harm had decided that same night that the kiss had happened that, if Mac brought up the kiss, they'd talk about it. If she didn't mention it, then he wouldn't say anything about it either. They had a trial to concentrate on at the moment.

Consequently, the kiss hadn't been brought up by either of them over the course of that trial preparation weekend at Harm's apartment or during the first week of the trial. However, that was about to change.

It was the middle of the second week of the trial. They'd concluded the prosecution's case only this morning, but, that afternoon, they'd been dealt a blow to their case by the defense's first witness, a Marine, Major Samantha Jones. Thank goodness the time of the day had caused the judge to call for an adjournment for the day after her testimony had been given. It gave them time to come up with a cross examination strategy to overcome it. Harm and Mac had agreed to discuss strategy at her apartment at 1800. Harm was going to go home and change, and then stop and pick up dinner on his way to her place. Mac had reminded him that it was his turn to buy.

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They were sitting at her dining table. The Chinese food take-out cartons, pushed to one end of the table, gave them room to work. They'd finished eating only a few minutes ago, so their strategy session was just getting underway.

"You should do the cross of the major in the morning," Mac said off the cuff.

"Why? The colonel scared of a little ole major?" Harm teased.

"No, because if the cross isn't going well, you can use your trick to make her speechless." Mac was sorry that she'd said it the moment it came out of her mouth. She'd told herself that the kiss was just his way of getting back at her for making him lose his train of thought a couple of times. He hadn't really meant it, had he? The 'had he?' part had caused her to mind to dwell on the kiss daily since it had happened.

"I told you that I don't know if it works on every Marine. I just know that it works on you."

Harm was trying not to dodge the subject, but he didn't want to talk about it now, either. He still didn't know if she'd ever let him kiss her again and he was, quite frankly, not sure that he could handle hearing that it had been their last kiss.

"Has it ever worked on anyone else?" Why had she asked that? She didn't really want to know that. She wanted to know if he was currently trying to render any other woman speechless with his kiss.

"I don't think so, but then, I don't kiss you the same way I've ever kissed anyone else."

"You don't? How is it different?"

Okay, this was the discomfort that Harm had been trying to avoid. He didn't want to tell her that it was because he felt differently about her than he'd felt about any other woman. "It just is." That made him sound like he was five, he thought.

"Harm, I want to know how it's different....please?" She sounded like she was begging.

"Because I feel differently about you. Now, let's get back to the case. After the trial, I'll answer your questions."

"Why can't you answer me now?"

"Because the answers could change nothing or everything. I don't know if I can focus on the task at hand, putting Hanson away for murder, no matter how the conversation goes."

"But we will talk?" she asked, just to make sure that he wouldn't put her off forever.

To put her worries at ease so she could concentrate he said, "I promise. The day we get a verdict, I'll make you dinner at my place and I'll explain."

"Okay, since you promised," Mac said, sounding unconvinced that she'd ever hear the answer.

"Now, I think you should cross examine Major Jones," Harm said, wanting to put an end to the discomfort of the last couple of minutes.

THREE HOURS LATER

Mac had let the subject of their kiss go, but it had been in the back of her mind the entire time that they'd been discussing the case.

Mac hadn't taken the time to think about how much she was enjoying working this closely with Harm again ... well, not until tonight. Now they were standing near the door, and he was about to leave. She didn't want him to go. It was a feeling that was different from any other she'd ever felt. It wasn't that she didn't want to be alone. It was that she didn't want him to go. She wanted him to stay because she wanted him to be with her. It may not have sounded different to anyone else, but it felt different.

Harm had put on his coat and had turned to open the door, but turned back around to say something. "Mac, let's meet at the office thirty minutes early. We'll go over our plan one more time right before court to make sure that it sounds as good after sleeping on it as it sounds tonight."

Mac didn't answer him. Instead, she stepped up to him, the palms of her hands making contact with his chest before ascending up around his neck and putting her lips against his.

Harm didn't know what to do, but he wasn't going to let the opportunity to kiss her go to waste or risk her taking his lack of participation as rejection, so his arms wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her into him a little closer. When her body was firmly against his, the kiss deepened, and her tongue wrestled with his in his mouth.

The kiss ended in a romantic slowing. First, tongues in one's own mouths, grips on each other relaxing, lips separating, and then Mac took a step back. "A kiss for luck," Mac said.

It was Harm's turn to leave an apartment, shaking his head without a word and in disbelief. What had she done that for? Was she testing him? Trying out a theory of her own? Why would she kiss him? Why would she kiss him like that...with meaning and emotion? He needed to forget about the kiss until after this trial, and then they'd talk about both kisses.

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The trial had lasted another ten days, but, at the end of the three week trial, the verdict had come in. They'd done it. The verdict had been guilty on all counts.

True to his word, Harm was making dinner for Mac at his place that evening in celebration of their victory and to help ease them into a conversation that he wasn't sure that he was ready for, but had been putting off entirely too long.

They'd eaten dinner in relative silence. Mac had gone home and changed, and her red dress was clinging to the curves of her body. Harm couldn't think of any casual dinner conversation. The only question that kept coming into his mind was 'why did you wear that dress?'

For Mac's part, she was having a similar problem. Harm was in a pair of dark gray slacks and a light blue-gray pullover sweater. He looked more handsome than ever. She'd dressed up. She was hoping that this was going to be an occasion to remember and she didn't want him to remember her in old ratty jeans and a top. She wondered if his choice in clothing had the same rationale behind it as her outfit.

Once dinner was over, they moved to the couch, each wondering how to start the conversation that they needed to have.

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Mac began with the case. "You were great at cross examining Major Jones. I think that's really what won the members over."

"Thank you, but I don't think I could've done it without that good luck kiss that you'd given me the night before," Harm responded.

"About that...I know that I shouldn't have done it."

"Oh, so you didn't mean to kiss me?" They'd just started this conversation, and he was already wishing that it was over.

"I meant to kiss you. I wanted to kiss you. I just don't think that my motive for kissing you made the best sense," Mac explained.

"I thought that your motive was to wish me luck," Harm said.

"Yeah, that, too, but there was more to it," Mac said, looking away.

"Tell me what the rest of the reason was," Harm said in response.

"I thought I was here tonight for you to tell me why kissing me is different, not for you to give me the third degree," Mac responded.

"Please, answer my question," Harm said softly.

There was something about the way he was looking at her that made her answer him. "Fine, I wanted to kiss you because I wanted you to kiss me. I wanted to feel like I did a couple of weeks before that...speechless." Mac sighed. "I guess it doesn't work when I kiss you." Mac's shoulders slumped in defeat, and her eyes dropped to stare at her clasped hands in her own lap. Harm had gotten her to tell him what she felt, but she hadn't gotten her answer.

"Mac..." She didn't look up. "Mac..." She still didn't respond. Harm slipped his index finger under her chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "Mac, I kiss you differently because I feel differently about you than I have for any other woman. I'd like to kiss you speechless every opportunity I get for a long time to come."

"Kiss me now," Mac's said in a shaky voice, her words cutting off the possibility of where this conversation could lead them.

"I plan to kiss only you from now on," Harm said, trying to clarify what he meant.

Tears threatened to fall from Mac's eyes, but they had no time to before Harm's lips came to hers in a sweet kiss that lasted only a few seconds before his lips were gone from hers.

"It's different when I kiss you, Mac, because I love you."

The next thing Harm knew, Mac's lips were on his in a kiss filled with hope for them and of the passion that had long been simmering between them.

This time when their lips parted, they were both speechless for a moment, but Harm found his voice first.

"Was that kiss to say good luck in the future or were you saying that you think that we can talk about there being an 'us' after all this time?"

"I say we consider tonight as our first date," Mac responded.

"Oh, no you don't. You're not going to call this our first date." Mac looked confused by his reaction to this being their first date until the rest of his words reached her ears. "I can see it all now. You'll be telling our children that you had their daddy declaring his love for you on the first date."

"Our children...?"

"Yes. Don't look at me like that. I remember your condition, but what were the odds that you'd get me to tell you that I loved you or having me talking about marriage and children? Those two things happened, so I'm sure that we'll be able to overcome the odds of us conceiving, too."

"Harm, I love you."

This time, Harm's lips came to hers. The kiss that they shared this time was tender and loving and soul reaching.

When their lips parted, it wasn't so much that they were speechless as it was that they didn't want to break the moment. They wanted the moment frozen to savor the time in their lives when they'd exchanged kisses and declared their love.

After a few minutes, they knew that they had things that they needed to discuss, old hurts to work through, but it was too heavy a conversation for tonight. After all, it was only their first date, and it was Valentine's Day.

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EIGHT YEARS LATER

RABB HOME
MASTER BEDROOM

Mac is putting on a pair of earrings while debating which shoes she wants to wear with her dress to dinner while their five-year-old daughter and their three-year-old son are watching from their perch on their parents' bed.

"Why are you and Daddy going out on a date?"

"Because it's our wedding anniversary, and we want to celebrate the night that we decided that we wanted to be together and have you and your brother," Mac answered her daughter.

"Did you know you loved Daddy before you got married?"

Mac sits next to her daughter on the bed. "I loved your Daddy from the start, but our lives had been so different that we didn't think that we could make a marriage work, but eight years ago tonight, Daddy told me that he loved me. Over the next year, we talked about why we didn't think it would work and how we could overcome those things to make it work. Seven years ago today, we got married, and then, ten months later, we had you. Now that you've heard that story for the millionth time, Momma needs to hurry up and decide on which shoes she's going to wear, because Daddy will be ready to go any minute."

Mac hugged and kissed both of their children before slipping on a pair of shoes. "You two be good for your grandma tonight, okay?"

Her children nodded in the affirmative, and Mac smiled. She and Harm had overcome the odds, though with a little medical help, but they had two beautiful children, and she loved them dearly.

Harm appeared in the doorway to their bedroom. "Grandma's here," he announced, and the children jumped off the bed and were gone in a second.

"You look beautiful," Harm complimented.

"I was hoping that the dress would leave you speechless like you've left me every Valentine's Day for the last eight years," Mac commented.

"Before the end of the night, you'll have dazzled me with your beauty, swayed me with your charms, left me speechless at least once, and breathless more times than I can count," Harm replied.

Mac's lips came to his in a short, sweet kiss. When their lips parted, she said, "I'm ready."

"Then let's go have the first date of our next year together."


THE END --- Did you like the ending or should I have stopped after part one?