Why Pride?

Rating:PG
Summary:Harm and Mac run into each other picking up their take-out dinners.
Pairings:Harm/Mac
Disclaimers:JAG and the characters belong to DPB andCBS. No infringement intended.

Irritated with himself for letting Mac get to him once again, Harm slammed the door on his SUV when he got out at one of his favorite eating establishments.
He looked up as he waited to cross the street and saw the familiar sign indicating “Daks Grill” then just below it the numbers 5838 indicating the street address.
He crossed Columbia Pike and stepped onto the sidewalk and smiled at a young couple as they exited the front doors.

He and Mac had frequented this particular place many times in the last eight years but he was beginning to see that he would never have dinner with her again.
Maybe he should have told her that he loved her back in Paraguay and all the hurtful words and pointless jabs at each other could have been avoided.

Instead of doing that he had held his pride above all and she had dropped the anchor on his foot and set his soul adrift in this sea of loneliness he had been on for the past six months. His heart was broken and his mind was numb when he walked into the bar.
It was happy hour and there were wall-to-wall people.
He thought about turning around and leaving but instead stepped up to the counter where one of the regular college aged cashiers stood.
She looked up and smiled, “Commander, your order is running a little late. Would you like to wait at the bar?”
“Sure, Calley.” He grinned and stepped away from the counter and around a small alcove of college students chattering about the daily activities of student life in the most powerful place in the world.
He sat down on a stool next to a woman who had her back to him.
He noticed the familiar green of a uniform but didn’t put much stock in it as Mac had told him she was having dinner with Clay tonight.
That conversation and him offering to make pasta was the reason he was now awaiting take out from his favorite Grill.
“What can I get for you, sir?” Tony the regular bartender asked as he refreshed the drink in front of the woman next to Harm.

“Just water, Tony, thanks, I’m driving.” Harm smiled and thought of the bottle of Kentucky Bourbon waiting for him at home. Beth had sent it to him as her congratulations for him getting back in the Navy.

Harm looked over his shoulder at the woman and thought to himself how much she reminded him of Mac.
It was uncanny the way her hands looked just like Mac’s.
He smiled when the Marine next to him looked up and he realized it wasn’t her. He nodded his head and turned around.

Two stools down though, Mac sat waiting for her take out. She had wanted to make Harm jealous when she made the comment about dinner with Clay.
She had truly had plans with Clay and she had intended to head home to change when just as she stepped of the elevator in the lobby of JAG hadquarters her cell phone had rang.
She had taken the call on the way to her car and had learned from Clay’s secretary that he had been called out of the country on company business a couple of hours earlier and had asked her to call and cancel for him.

She tipped her water glass up and drank the last of it just as her order was called.
She slid off the barstool and took a couple of steps till she was standing eye to eye with Harm who had turned around to look across the bar at the same time.
She wanted to look away but could not for the life of her tear her eyes away from his. His ocean blue stare was hard and cold. Like the seas probably were the night he crashed into the Atlantic.

“Mac.” Harm couldn’t believe his eyes. The person standing before him ready to pick up take-out for one had not hardly an hour ago told him she had a dinner date with Spook Extraordinaire himself.

“H..Ha.Harm.” She stammered and he could only describe her look as deer in the headlights. Shock.
Her knees felt weak. He had caught her. Maybe she could get out of this. Her mind was turning over a thousand things to get her out of this other than the truth.
But instead she realized she could never lie to this man no matter how badly she wanted to.

“I thought you and Clay were having dinner.” Harm stated his voice devoid of any emotion even though his heart was soaring.
His thoughts were churning over a million reasons why she could be standing here alone.
Maybe she lied earlier about her dinner plans. No, as bad as it has ever been between them that is one thing neither could ever do to the other. They had formed their friendship on trust and truth. Sure they had both been guilty of sugarcoating once in a while to get what they wanted in court but never in their personal relationship.

“He had an emergency out of the country.” Mac answered quickly a nervous smile on her face almost willing him to drop the subject and let her get away unscathed.

No such luck, she thought as Harm began to speak, “I’m sorry.” Her smile faltered when she saw the sincerity in his eyes. He cared for her and it was showing in his face.

“It’s okay.” She shrugged, “We’ll get together when he returns.”
Harm started to speak again but was interrupted by the cashier calling out Mac’s order number again.
She smiled and said, “That’s me.” She hesitated then said, “I’ll see ya Harm.”
He nodded, “Yeah. See ya.”
He watched her pay and smile over her shoulder one last time before she disappeared out the door and turned left probably heading to her car.
Her car. How had he missed her car in the street outside?
He listened as the cashier called his number out as well and walked up to pay.

Calley smiled, “She’s very beautiful.” He looked puzzled at her as he handed her some cash for his take-out and she motioned toward the door with her head, “The Colonel. She’s very beautiful.”
He nodded and she continued, “Any very lonely. She comes here at least three times a week.”
“She does?” He questioned. He had asked her several times in the past couple of weeks to join him for dinner and discuss cases but she had turned him down telling him she was having dinner with Clay.
“Yeah. Why don’t you and she have dinner anymore?”
Calley asked hoping she wasn’t pushing the Commander but she remembered happy times past when the Colonel and the Commander had enjoyed dinners together.
“Stupid pride.” Harm murmured as he headed out the door.