Author: Hollyjp
Subject: March HBX Challenge - Mending Fences

Here are Challenge 2008 lines for March.
Harm: I know this changes things Captain.
Doesn't mean that one day we can't mend fences.
Captain Hochausen: Yes it does.
(Blind Side)


Title: Mending Fences

Author: Hollyjp

Setting: Harm and Mac have just announced that they are getting married. The coin has been flipped and they now know who the coin says will resign their commission.

Author’s Note: I took the liberty of changing ranks to make this dialogue fit.

MENDING FENCES

The coin landed and the ringing ended the silence that had fallen over Murphy’s waiting to find out the fate of Captain Rabb and Colonel Mackenzie.

“Wow! Looks like England calls Ma’am,” Bud watched back and forth between his favorite mentors hoping that they were as committed to the idea of the coin deciding their fate as they were to each other. He was a little nervous waiting to hear their reaction.

“Good thing I like bubble and squeak,” Mac quipped before turning to General Creswell.

“You’ll have my paperwork on your desk first thing in the morning sir.”

“You don’t seriously think I’ll accept your resignation, do you Colonel?” demanded the once friendly commander in chief.

“I had hoped you would understand our situation, sir, and support us.”

“What Mac’s trying to say sir, is that we understand that on short notice this is going to be an inconvenience, but we hope that if you are given thirty days, you will be able to find a replacement for Colonel Mackenzie in San Diego,” Harm tried to use diplomacy which had worked a few times in the past.

“I know what the colonel is saying Rabb, and I don’t like it one bit.” Turning back to Mac he fired an icy glare at her and then followed up with bitten off words. “If you had come to me and explained three days ago that you and Rabb were in love and that you had decided to marry, I would have moved heaven and earth to help you. You didn’t. You waited until the last hours before departure and then used a coin to make your decision. What kind of officers are you that you don’t know your own mind!”

“Sir, that’s where you’re wrong,” Harm began. “We’ve always known our own minds, it was the other person’s mind we weren’t sure about. I don’t want to lose Mac and I don’t want to be half way around the world from her either. I want to marry Mac because I love her and have loved her for a long time. Your sudden announcement that we were leaving JAG and going in opposite directions is the catalyst for our sudden decisions. If you decide to play hard nose and refused to accept one of our resignations, I will pull whatever strings necessary to go over your head and make it happen. If that’s not commitment enough for you, then its will be your problem, sir.”

Creswell turned his icy stare on Harm as he talked and then refocused on Mac.

“I might be able to forgive you if this was a Marine, but a squid?”

Mac couldn’t hide the smirk playing at the corner of her lips. “Well sir, he’s gone nose to nose and toe to toe with Marine Recon Forces and come out on top, so even though he wears Navy blue instead of Marine Corps green or red, I’ve got to give him credit for being able to hold his own with Marines...including me.”

The steam seemed to be dissipating from the Generals ears and the ice melting in his eyes as he considered what Harm and Mac had said in their own defense. He knew that if someone had stepped in a questioned his relationship with is wife when they first announced their engagement he would have acted in much the same manner. Satisfied that the two officers were truly in love and prepared to make an official commitment to one another, Gordon Creswell backed off.

“I’ll see you both in my office tomorrow morning zero eight hundred. I’ll give you my final decision then.” With a perfect snap turn on his heel, he wheeled and stormed out the door of Murphy’s leaving a quiet gathering in his wake.

“Well, now I guess that puts a damper on things, doesn’t it?” Harriet quipped watching Creswell depart.

“It doesn’t have too,” Mac announced. “We’re together now, and after everything we’ve faced to get here, a commanding officer with a hair cross-ways isn’t going to change things as far as I’m concerned. What about you Harm?” she asked leaning against his chest still as she looked up into his face.

“Are you okay with resigning your commission?” Harm quietly asked, dropping a kiss on her nose.

Their eyes locked on one another as Mac thought it through once more before answering. “I can do this for us.”

“Mac, this has been the problem all along,” Harm sighed in defeat.

“What has Harm?”

“Neither one of us wanting to resign but knowing one of us would have to in order to make it work.”

“I disagree. I know this changes things, Captain. Doesn't mean that one day we can't mend fences. People renovate their houses and their lives all the time. Besides, what’s a fence? We take it down or put it up to signify a specific area is all. We make the area bigger or smaller as we need to for whatever our lives hold. You aren’t getting cold feet are you, Captain? Is this your way of backing out?”

“No! I’m not getting cold feet about loving you or wanting to marry you?” Harm pulled her even closer to his big, warm body.

“Are you regretting what you said in the heat of the moment?” Mac asked, praying he hadn’t and willing to fight for this thing between them, even if he wasn’t.

“No, Sarah. My only regret is that I didn’t say something sooner.”

“So what’s it going to be Captain. Does it make sense to mend some fences together?”

“Yes it does.”

“Good.” Mac started to step back from Harm’s warmth, when he stopped her with a look. “What?”

“Now that we have that clear, there’s one more thing.”

Mac rolled her eyes and groaned. She could read the little smirk on Harm’s face and knew trouble of another kind was brewing. “What is it?”

“You said that I said things in the heat of the moment. I just wanted to remind you we didn’t have time to generate much heat before we dashed over here. So when it comes to heat, you haven’t felt any yet. Ready to go back to my place?”

“Lead the way Captain.”

And he did.

AN: Imagine this scrolling across the bottom of your television screen later that same night:

NEWS BULLETIN: Sensors detected an unusually high temperature in an area north of Union Station. Officers sent to investigate apparently interrupted a couple engaged in an intimate moment in a loft apartment. Rumor has it they were military officers celebrating their engagement. Congratulations to the lucky couple!