Title: That Kind of Man

Author: LobsterDoc

Rating: Older Kids

Prompt: Deemus

In A Merry Little Christmas, after Harm leaves Mac's apartment in anger, what goes through Mac's mind that causes her to show up and testify for Harm at the hearing?

**********

Just after Harm left Mac's apartment:

For several minutes she simply stood there, worrying her bottom lip, fighting tears, wondering what the hell had happened. The sound of his anger and the slamming door echoed again and again, an endless loop of recrimination. What had she done? He had come to ask a favor and she had turned it into a referendum on their relationship. What was she thinking? Why had she insisted on pushing it? It was true that he could have confided in her sooner, but why had she jumped all over him? She had seen how uneasy he was, how out of sorts. Yet she had deliberately antagonized him. They were finally starting to get some semblance of their friendship back, and she had blown it. She sighed, running her hands through her hair. What else was new? It seemed clear that she was destined to be stuck in this loop forever. Whenever their friendship seemed to be on track, she would see to its destruction.

The ringing telephone brought her back to the present. She moved to answer and then decided to let the machine get it. It was unlikely that Harm was calling her, and she wasn't interested in talking to anybody else tonight. As Clay's voice came over the line, inviting her to a gathering at Mother's on Christmas Eve, her eyes filled with tears again. How had she messed things up so badly?

Glancing around the room, she wiped her eyes. There was nothing she could do about this tonight, and she had a long list of chores for the evening. She poured herself some more hot chocolate and picked up the next package, intent on wrapping all the presents in the pile. She turned on the stereo, allowing the Christmas music to once again fill her too-quiet apartment. She sipped cinnamon hot chocolate. She nibbled gingerbread cookies and a candy cane, but nothing worked. Forty minutes later, their conversation was still playing in her head.

"We've already established that you're a lousy son."

"There is no us." "Well you made sure of that."

"This is too important for you to screw up."

Frustrated, she crumpled a sheet of wrapping paper and threw it across the room. Maybe she should call him. No. That wouldn't work. He was furious with her. He no longer trusted her. And who could blame him? What had he said? A child? He was petitioning for custody of a child. The Commonwealth of Virginia? She had to find out what was going on, but she had no idea how to do that without more information. Maybe something would come to her in her sleep. She quickly cleaned up the mess in the living room and retired for the night.


**********


It had been a long, boring day. Mac was in between cases and had spent the entire day looking for busy work to keep her mind off Harm's custody case. She had tried to get information out of Bud and Coates and even, in desperation, Sturgis, but all of them claimed to know nothing more than she. Mac suspected that Coates had more information, but her loyalty to Harm forced her to keep it to herself. Frustrated that the day had come to naught, Mac packed a few stray files into her briefcase and reached to turn off her computer.

Her exit was interrupted by a knock on the door frame. She looked up to see Petty Officer Coates looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes, Petty Officer?"

"Lieutenant Commander Roberts asked me to give you this information. He said it would help with the case research you had asked him about earlier today." Coates laid the paper on the desk and exited without waiting to be dismissed.

Curious, Mac picked up the note and read Bud's familiar scrawl. "The company in question is Grace Aviation."


**********


Four hours later, Mac straightened painfully, rubbing the stiffness from her neck and shoulders. Armed with the name of the company where Harm had worked, she had followed tiny threads through newspaper archives, legal databases, credit bureau reports and police blotters until she had woven a tapestry. Harm had befriended a teenage girl with an all too familiar story. Her mother dead, abandoned by her drunken father, Mathilda Johnson desperately needed a friend, and Harm was just the champion she needed.

This time, Mac feared Harm had picked a nearly impossible cause. A single, male, naval officer petitioning for custody of an unrelated female minor; the problems seemed insurmountable. But she was uniquely qualified to understand the power that one man, especially this particular man, could have in a young woman's life.

And if Sarah MacKenzie had anything to say in the matter, the Commonwealth of Virginia, too, would understand.

The End