Chapter 1

Summary: After three years, Mac is fed up with her life in LA and decides to head back home...to her best friend in the world. H/M shipper

Spoilers: *shrugs* I dunno. Lets just say that its all pre-boomerang and Brumby never happened. He came, he went, he didn't pursue Mac.

Disclaimer: Don't own them, never have, never will. On second thoughts...yeah, I do own them. Wanna make something of it?

Rating: PG-13

Tuesday, 1900 local

Casey residence

Los Angeles

"Night-night, mummy" said Alison Casey, kissing her mother goodnight.

"Night, pumpkin. Sleep tight." her mother replied, kissing her on the forehead.

Alison was two and a half years old. She had the most beautiful dark auburn ringlets that fell just past her shoulders one glance at her and her mother left no doubt as to her being her daughter. As well has the hair colour, she had her mother's liquid chocolaty brown eyes, only hers were covered by a pair of oval shaped pinkish-red glasses.

"Now remember, munchkin. You stay in here, and don't leave the room unless you really have to, okay? Now have you been to the toilet and filled up your water cup?"

The little girl nodded her head in confirmation, not questioning her mother's orders to not leave the room. This was normal as far as she was concerned, and she loved her mother very much and did what she said.

Her mother smiled "Good girl. Night Sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you too, mama"

She turned off the overhead light switched on the nightlight and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Sarah Mackenzie-Casey stood outside the door of her little girl's room and leaned back against the wall, sighing. She was such a good kid and she didn't deserve a lot of the stuff she went through. The reason she didn't like her leaving her room at night was because if she did, she might run into Robert Casey, her husband, who often came home highly drunk.

Her husband was an alcoholic who reminded her of her father every time she saw him. True, she had loved him when she had married him, but back then it had all been very different. He had been nice, charming, romantic, everything a woman wants in a man. But when they had gotten married he had insisted they move to LA, where he had grown up. She had been reluctant but had eventually agreed and they had moved, and she had had to leave all her friends, not to mention her best friend, behind. She had transferred temporarily to help out a civilian lawyers office in LA and when Ali had been born she had asked to be stationed there permanently. She also requested to be kept out of fieldwork for the Marines so that she could look after her child. Soon after they had moved Rob had started changing. He not only drank in front of her, but got drunk in front of her. It went downhill from there. By the time Ali was born he was getting drunk almost every night and had started threatening her and getting verbally abusive. She had thought about leaving but he threatened her frequently and she knew that if she left, then she would have to take her daughter with her and she didn't want to move Ali around when she was doing so well at preschool. She loved it there and Mac didn't want to upset her by suddenly moving her away from everything that was familiar to her.

Mac headed into the kitchen and got herself a small apple to munch on while she was waiting for Robert to arrive home. His dinner was sitting on the table with a cloth over it, stopping it from going cold. She had just finished her apple when she heard the sound that she no longer looked forward to; the lock being turned in the door. Robert Casey was home.

Robert Casey unlocked the door and entered the house. He walked through into the kitchen and found his wife waiting for him with his dinner on the table.

"Hello, Rob. How was your day?"

Why does she always have to be so damn nosy? He wondered to himself before answering:

"None of your business, you lazy lay-about."

Her face was impassive and she took the insult without flinching. The marine in her wanted to knock him down, but she knew that if she did so then it would only lead to a screaming match and that would serve to do nothing except upset her daughter.

Rob was sick of the stoic attitude she had adopted lately. Any insults he hurled at her seemed to roll right off her and it annoyed him that he couldn't even get a reaction out of her. Sometimes he wondered why he didn't just divorce her. But He reasoned with himself if she wasn't here then I would have no one to indulge myself in at the end of the day. And goodness knows I would have trouble finding someone else with such a body. Might as well keep her around. If only she hadn't had that annoying kid.. I mean, she's cute and all, but she just gets in the way all the time. I never knew a kid could be so much trouble.

When Ali was first born, Mac had not been sleeping with Rob but had stayed on a mattress by the floor of her Ali's cot (A/N: a crib for you those of you who don't speak Australian) so that she would be near her if she needed to be fed. Even though Ali was now two, she often got scared at night and for the last year Mac had slept in the room with her on the second single bed she had eventually set up in there. Plus it was a good excuse to get away from her husband at night. The less time she spent with him the happier she was.

Rob finished his dinner and picked up the bills that were on the side of the table. He wouldn't allow her to touch the bills as he believed that as a woman she was incapable of looking after it herself. He read through the electricity bill, the water bill and then got to the phone bill. He looked at it carefully before turning to Mac.

"Sarah, why is there a distance call to DC to the same number every single week?"

"The same reason there has been one each week for the last three years, Rob. My friends live in DC and every week I make a call to my best friend."

"Yeah, well, I want you to stop these calls. They're costing me a fortune."

This made Mac really angry. He was saying that her phone calls were costing him, when he wasted all his money on alcohol. And aside from that, her weekly phone calls to Harm and her daughter were what kept her sane. Literally. If she couldn't call him then she didn't know what she would do. He listened to her without judging her and although he had told her many times that she should leave, he didn't pressure her about it and actually understood her reasons for staying. He was always there to talk to and despite the fact the Rob hadn't allowed her to go down and visit once in the three years she had been living in LA, they were still best friends and kept up with what was happening in the other one's life. The only time she had seen him was the time when she had to sort out a client who had moved to DC and had volunteered to be the one to fly down. Not just volunteered, begged. Harm was the only one who knew about how Rob treated her and he had sworn to not tell anyone. If she couldn't call him and pour out everything she was feeling to him, then she figured that she would probably crack and end up drinking again.

"No"

"No? No what?"

"No, I am not going to stop calling my best friend. I only call him once a week."

"Him?"

"Yes, him. 'Him' is just a friend, my best friend in fact. And I haven't seen him in three years. The least I can do is call him."

"So you've kept up your contact with that Rabb person, have you?"

"Yes. If you moved away from your best friend you'd call them too."

"Maybe. And you're saying that you've called him every single week since we got here."

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that. He was my best friend when I was in DC and he is still my best friend now."

"I thought that you were just going to forget him when we left. That's one of the reasons why we did leave" He added under his breath.

"Excuse me? You wanted to leave just so that you could separate me from my best friend? And did you really think that by separating us you could make me forget him? Our friendship is way too strong for that, and you should know it."

"Yeah, your friendship. Of course that's all it is, isn't it? Just friendship." He said nastily.

She hated it when he was like this. He wasn't just a drunk, he was a mean drunk...just like me she thought sadly.

"Are you implying that there was something else going on between myself and Harm?"

"Of course I am." He spat out. "I mean, we were engaged and you spent all your time around eating pizza and doing who knows what at his place."

"Well he was my partner. Most of those nights we were working on cases."

"Yeah, partner. And most of those nights? What were you doing the other nights, huh?"

"Spending time with my best friend."

"Spending time with him. Is that all you ever do? I mean, for goodness sake, you spend hours with

him on the phone every week and you end up spending more time talking to him than you do to me, and you live with me."

"Yeah, well. Maybe if you stopped coming home drunk then I would actually talk to you a bit more. And be reasonable, why don't you? You're complaining that I make just one call a week, when you, on the other hand, waste all the money by going out and getting drunk virtually every single night. At least when I call him it means that I have someone to actually talk to. I can't remember the last I was able to have a conversation with you. In fact, I don't even remember the last time you came home sober! I'm not the one who is causing us problems, so how dare you accuse me of cheating on you." Mac said, raising her voice slightly. If it hadn't been for her daughter sleeping down the hall, then she would have been screaming at him.

Unfortunately, he did not share her concern for the sleeping child and consequently did not bother to keep his voice down. When she asked him to be quieter he only shouted louder and pretty soon their conversation had turned into a shouting match.

Six minutes later they were still shouting and Rob, getting sick of shouting, decided to put a stop to it the only way he knew how. He started walking in the direction of Ali's room.

"Where are you going, Rob? Don't you dare touch my baby."

"I'm going to do exactly as I please" He said opening the door of Ali's bedroom. "This child seems to be the cause of every single problem in this house, so I'm going to teach her a lesson." he said, his

speech slightly slurred, reminding Mac of his drunken state.

Wonderful. I now have a drunken husband has decided to take his anger out on my daughter. I have to stop him she thought to herself desperately. Oh how did I get myself into such a mess?

"No, please don't touch her." Mac begged. Rob ignored her and stood in front of Ali's bed where the small child was sitting huddled against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest. She was trembling uncontrollably.

"Listen here, you stupid child. You are the cause of all the problems around here and you do nothing but get in the way. Its time you learnt a lesson." He stated, raising a hand preparing to beat her. Mac snapped up and grabbed Rob's raised hand and twisted it around behind his back, making him yelp in pain.

He now focused his attentions on Mac and aimed a blow at her head. Anyone could have seen it coming from a mile off, and she blocked it with ease. His next blow was aimed at her stomach and she blocked it too, and at the same time landed a punch in his right side. He clutched his side and looked up at her with a malicious expression on his face.

"You leave me and my daughter alone, Rob" Mac said angrily.

"Why should I? You deserve to be taught a lesson just as much as she does." He retorted, raising his fists to prove his point. He planned to fight her.

She shook her head. "I wouldn't try to fight me, Rob. You know you can't win. I'm highly competent in self-defence, marine trained in hand-to-hand combat and an expert at kickboxing, remember? I could knock you flat in a matter of seconds."

"I don't care what you say, you bitch." He made another move toward Ali and was startled when a fist suddenly came out of nowhere and hit him in the side of the face."

"Don't. Touch. My. Daughter." She said, articulating every word carefully. She was mad. Very mad

"Whatever. You'll just have to stop me, then."

"Oh, I will stop you. C'mon, bring it on." She challenged him. She was now pumped up with adrenaline and knew that he didn't stand a chance against her. He had caused her so much unhappiness since her baby had been born and this was her opportunity to let him have a turn at feeling the pain. She finally had a chance to let out her anger on him.

As she fought him it became obvious that he had at least a little bit of hand -to-had combat training. Although a lot of his blows were obvious and easy to block, some of them surprised her and caught her off guard and managed to hit her mark. Still, despite the weight advantage he held over her, her fighting skills were far superior to his and after three full minutes of non-stop fighting she was much better off than he was, having only sustained a few heavy blows, as opposed to the many he had taken. A shocked two year old looked silently on at the display in front of her in amazement. Whoever would have thought that her mummy could be so much stronger than her father?

"Give it up, Rob. There's no way you can win. Quit while you're ahead." She told him. Anger was rushing through her and although she would like nothing more than to punch his lights out, she felt that she ought to give him a chance to reconcile himself.

"You wish, you whore" That was the last straw for her. She lunged at him and assaulted his stomach with a series of painful punches before he had the chance to react. He fought her back kicking and throwing wild random punches in wherever he could. She finally decided to end it and landed a neat blow to his head, effectively knocking him out.

"Mama? I'm scared," A small scared voice piped up.

"Oh Ali baby. Come here pumpkin." Mac knelt down and held out her arms and Ali ran into them sobbing. The poor thing. I can't believe she had to see that. Why did I let her see that? She wondered. Another voice inside her head answered her question for her. Because if you had tried to take the fight somewhere else he would have just gone back to her when he started losing. She sighed and held her precious little girl tighter to her chest.

"Ali, honey. I need you listen to me, okay." She said once Ali's sobbing had subsided. "We're going somewhere else for a while. Without your father. Do you understand?"

Ali nodded. Mac always referred to Rob as Ali's "father" rather than "daddy". Because that's all he was. He was her father and that was only a biological fact. Nothing more as far as she was concerned. He had never acted like a dad to her and had made it no secret that he resented her being around.

"Father's a bad man, isn't he Mummy." She stated, catching Mac completely off guard.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he tries to hurt you and he's always yelling at you and he tries to hurt me too. I don't like him. He makes you sad and that makes me sad."

Mac looked at her daughter in astonishment. She was shocked at what her daughter had just said but in a way she was relieved. It made leaving just that much easier.

Six minutes later Mac had packed a medium-sized bag with a few changes of clothes for Ali and herself, a warm jumper (A/N: there is no such thing as a sweater in Australia) for each of them and some toiletries and basic makeup. She had also tied Rob's wrists together so that if he did wake before they had a chance to leave he wouldn't be able to hurt either of them.

She slung the bag over her shoulder and picked up Ali. Then they silently made their way out of the house and across the lawn to Mac's car. She had long since sold her Corvette for something more suitable and now had a silver CRV, which they could fit more comfortably and safely into. She quietly unlocked the doors and buckled Ali into her car seat. She started up the engine, wincing inwardly at how loud it seemed in the heavy silence, and headed off toward the airport.

Tuesday, 2000 local

LA airport

Fortunately, they lived near that airport and managed to get there in just under half an hour. By the time they arrived, Ali had fallen asleep in the back of the car. Mac got out and quietly picked up the bag then unbuckled her sleeping daughter and gathered her into her arms.

As they entered the Airport they were met with the quiet bustle of leisurely activity. There were not nearly as many people as if it had been during the day but there were still a few people here and there and although there were hardly any people there, they made it look like it was busy. She made her way over to one of the desks and was greeted by a young woman with blonde hair and a pair of stylish blue-rimmed glasses.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" She asked kindly.

"Yes, please. What time is the next flight to Washington DC with available seats?" She asked

"Hang on, I'll just check." she tapped something on the computer in front of her and looked back up at Mac after a moment.

"You seem to be in luck. There's one in only an hour and there are plenty of seats. Would you like some tickets?"

"Yes please." Said Mac gratefully.

"How many do you need?"

"One adult and one child, please. I have to buy a ticket for her, don't I? She's only two." she asked indicating the sleeping child in her arms.

The lady behind the desk nodded her head. "It depends. Usually we only allow children under two on without tickets, but that's really more just a size thing. You don't have to buy a ticket but it means that she'll have to sit on your lap the whole time."

"Well in that case then I think I'll get two. She gets pretty restless if she doesn't have room to move while she sleeps."

"Okay then. That will be $1100."

"Just a sec, I'll get my card." She heaved the bag up onto the counter and began looking through it one-handed. She located the elusive credit card and handed it over. It was the card for a savings account that Rob didn't know about, with $5000 for emergencies. As the lady swiped the credit card Mac put the bag back onto the floor. While they were waiting for the transaction to go through the lady started a conversation with Mac.

"So, why are you flying going out to DC at 10pm without buying tickets first with just one bag and a daughter with you? If you don't mind my asking."

Mac sighed. She knew she must look pretty strange, arriving at the airport with only one bag, her daughter and no husband.

"Its complicated" she said. "But if I tell you it's going to be a long story."

The lady shrugged "Your choice, honey. You have almost half an hour to spare before you have to board and there are hardly any people around so you won't be holding anything up. If you don't want to talk about it, then fine, but you look as though you could get something off your chest."

Mac smiled at the young woman. She didn't know what it was, but something told her that she could trust this woman.

"Okay then. And it would help to talk about it."

"How about we go sit on those chairs over there?" She asked, pointing to some chairs that right now were looking very inviting to Mac.

"Besides, I only have fifteen minutes left on my shift. I'm sure no one will mind if I leave early."

Mac nodded and they made their way over to the lounges. Mac sat down with Ali in her lap, and the little girl began to stir slightly.

"Go back to sleep, pumpkin." she said, stroking Ali's hair absent-mindedly

"You're running, aren't you." The lady said. It wasn't a question but more of a statement.

"By the way, I'm Sam" she added, holding out her hand.

Mac nodded in confirmation and took her hand and shook it

"Sarah. But call me Mac, everyone does...or at least they used to." she added quietly.

"That has something to do with who you're running from, doesn't it?"

She nodded. "I haven't been called Mac since I left DC three years ago, except when I talk to my friends on the phone. It's my husband I'm running from. He's a drunk and verbally abusive and tonight he tried to hit Ali. When we first got married we were actually living in DC, but then he decided that we ought to move to LA, so we did. All my friends live in DC and in the three years we've been married he hasn't let me go back to see them once. I've had to keep in touch with them through e-mail, but I've missed them so much. I talk once a week with my best friend, but he's the only one who knows what's really going on."

"He?"

"Yes. He is just a friend. Besides, I haven't seen him in three years"

Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Bloody hell" Mac said. "Why does no one believe that I can have a male best friend and not be romantically involved with him. I've known him for eight years now and people still won't leave me alone despite the fact that I've been married for three entire years now."

Sam sniggered "I'm sorry. Continue on with what you were saying."

Mac sighed. "I've just missed out on so much. I mean, I haven't seen AJ, my godson, in three years. I only have photos to see how much he's grown. I call people on their birthdays, but I can't call more frequently because Rob complains about the cost, even when its only a few dollars. I miss them all so much, though."

"Man, that would suck. So are you leaving him?"

"Yes. I've wanted to for a while now, but I kept thinking that maybe we could pull things back together and that maybe he really did still love me. But then tonight, we had a shouting match and he tried to go after my baby. I stopped him but then he tried to hit me instead."

"Did he hurt you badly?"

Mac laughed. "Ha! Wishful thinking on his behalf. I hit him at least three times as much as he hit me and after a while I decided to take pity on him and just knocked him out."

"Pity?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, while we were fighting he was losing badly, and that just made him even more stubborn. He wasn't going to give up and there was no way that he could have won, so I knocked him out sooner rather than later. When I left he was still lying unconscious on the floor with his hands tied together -- just in case he woke up before we were gone."

Sam gaped at her. "Wow, you must be some fighter. Either that or he just couldn't fight."

"Actually, he's a pretty decent fighter. I would say that he's had some kind of self defence or something, because he held his ground surprisingly well."

"Well if he's had some training, then you must have had heaps of it. I can't see a scratch on you."

"They're mostly under my clothes, but yeah, I am pretty good at fighting. I'm a marine," she stated grinning "not to mention trained in hand-to-hand combat by the Marine Corps themselves, plenty of self defence up my sleeves and expert kickboxing training."

"Wow. Well, I think that you did the right thing by leaving. It's important that your daughter is safe. So where are you headed when you get to DC?"

"I'm going to go straight to Harm's. He's my best friend and he'll know exactly what to do. That's the great thing about him. It doesn't matter that three years has passed, we're still best friends and we've always been there for each other no matter what. Hey, do you want to see some photos of my friends back in DC?"

"I'd love to."

Mac pulled her wallet out and pulled out a wad of photos she kept in there and began showing them to Sam.

"This is AJ, the last time I saw him, and this is the last photo that Harriet sent of him. Oh, and this is Bud and Harriet, AJ's parents." She showed her a few more photos of Bud, Harriet and AJ before taking out her favourite photo. It was of Harm and her in civvies lounging in deck chairs in the Admiral's backyard at one of his barbecues.

"This is Harm. He was my partner at JAG, and best friend, for five years before I moved here. Out of everyone I miss him the most."

She showed Sam some more photos from everyone at JAG; Gunny, Tiner, Sturgis, even a few of the Admiral and one of Singer. They began to talk about Mac's job at JAG and her life before she was married. She was just in the middle of telling her a story about one of the times she had gone up with Harm in Sarah when Ali woke up.

"Mama, want drink." Just then a call came over the loudspeakers.

"Attention ladies and gentlemen. All passengers on flight 187 please board at gate 6. The plane is leaving in 30 minutes. Repeat: All passengers on flight 187 please board at gate 6. The plane will be leaving in 30 minutes."

"Well, that's our flight. Come on pumpkin, we'll get you a drink then get onto our plane." she said to Ali. Ali nodded.

Mac smiled at Sam. "It was really great to meet you, Sam. Thanks for everything."

"Yeah. You know, it's been really great to meet you. I almost wish that you weren't going so that we could get to know each other."

"Yeah me too. Tell you what, give me your phone number and I'll call you when I get back to DC and we can talk again. "

"That's a great idea!" Sam wrote her out her number and gave it to Mac, who put it in her wallet.

Mac stood up and picked up her bag and Ali.

"Come on, munchkin. Lets get you some juice."

Wednesday, 2200 LA time

Somewhere over the US

Mac shifted in her seat again. She was having trouble finding a comfortable position and her internal clock told her that they had only been on the plane for an hour, but it seemed like a lot longer. She looked over at the seat beside her and watched her angel sleep for a while. She eventually drifted off to sleep thinking about the fact that she was finally going home, that she would finally get to see her best friend again.

Wednesday, 0200 LA / 0500 DC (DC time will be used from now on)

DC airport

"Excuse me, ma'am, but you have to wake up now. The plane's about to land." Mac opened up one eye to see the flight attendant staring down at her.

"You need to put your seatbelt on, ma'am, and so does your daughter."

Mac nodded at her. "Okay. Thanks."

She reached over and woke up Ali and did her seatbelts up for her. By the time they had landed it was 0515 and Ali had fallen asleep again. She waited for the other passengers to leave the plane then stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. Then she picked up her sleeping daughter and perched her on her hip and exited the plane. Once inside the airport she found an ATM and drew out $200 cash and went outside to hail a taxi.

Outside it was cold and wet, with the rain falling torrentially down onto the tarmac outside. Mac mentally kicked herself for not thinking to bring an umbrella, but fortunately there were a few taxis waiting outside at the taxi stand, so she didn't need to stand in the rain to wait for one. Unfortunately, however, the taxis were around 15 metres away, meaning that she had to run through the pouring rain to get to them.

She hugged Ali closer to her and wrapped her coat around her daughter in hopes of keeping her at least semi dry. She made a dash for the nearest taxi and opened the door and got into the back seat.

"Hi there, ma'am. Where to?" The taxi driver asked.

"Hi. Umm..." She debated what address to give the man. Her internal clock told her that it was currently 5:30am, and she didn't want to disturb Harm so early in the morning. The only other option, however, was to go to a motel and she didn't think that she could stand being so close without being able to see Harm. Besides all that, she really missed him and craved comfort, which she knew that he could give her. Finally deciding, she gave the man Harm's address and he looked rather surprised when she did.

"That's not really the nicest part of town, you know. You don't really want to be going there this early in the morning, if you don't mind me saying so, ma'am. It wouldn't be safe for you or (not of) your daughter."

She smiled at his concern. "Thanks for the concern, but its okay. I have a very good friend who lives there and will look after me."

"Okay then"

During the ride to Harm's apartment, the two adults made small talk, however the driver didn't question anything such as why she was getting a taxi at such an hour, especially to such a bad part of town, or why she was travelling so late with her daughter with her. For this, she was grateful, as she didn't really want to think about what had conspired in the last eight or so hours. As they got closer, all she could think about was how good it would be to see Harm again. She knew that despite the early hour, he would be happy to see her too and gladly let her stay with him for a while.

Wednesday, 0549

Outside Harms apartment

When they arrived outside Harm's apartment, it was still pouring and Mac paid the driver and got out and bolted for the entrance as fast as she could, Ali tucked once again inside her jacket, asleep. She reached the doors only to find they were locked, with a keypad for entry.

"Damn! Since when does this part of town have such good security measures?" she said to no one in particular, shoving at the doors. She was getting soaked and the doors were not budging. She spotted a notice next to the door reading:

Any visitors wishing to enter the building must buzz the person of whom they wish to visit, who will open the doors. If wishing to enter the building after hours, please press the red button.

Mac located the red button and pushed it.

"Yeah, what do ya want?" came the sleepy voice from the speaker beneath the button.

"I'd like to come in, please."

"I'm sorry, miss, no visitors this early in the morning."

"But I need to get in! Please." she begged

"I'm sorry, miss, but rules are rules. Why should I let you in and not anyone else?"

Mac's exhaustion and frustration got the better of her and she lost her cool with the guy. "Because I just flew in from LA, I'm standing outside at 5:49 in the morning with my two year old daughter in the pouring rain and I have absolutely nowhere else to go and if you don't let me in I will have no choice but to sleep in this torrential rain on the doorstep because the taxi I came here in has just driven off."

"Er, just a sec." A moment later she heard the locks on the doors open and thankfully pushed on the now open doors and entered into the dry interior of the dimly lit building. From around the corner came a young security guard who was obviously a newbie who had been assigned to the graveyard shift of looking after the after hours security.

"I'm terribly sorry about all this, miss, but we're told to send late night visitors away. I'm sorry you had to get so wet."

"That's okay. We're inside now and that's all that I really care about."

"Ah, miss, can I ask you what you're doing here. Do you have a reason for being here? Because if you're not here to visit someone in particular then I'm afraid that I have to send you away again. Not that I want to, of course." He added quickly.

"No its fine. I have a friend who lives here. I just flew in from LA and I needed somewhere and he's my best friend so I figured I'd come here."

"Can you give me your friend's name?"

"Sure. Its Harmon Rabb."

"Ah yes, I've seen him round quite a bit. Isn't he some sort of military person or something?"

Mac smiled. "Navy"

"Ah, I see. What does he do in the Navy?" He asked her. The truth was that he was actually quite good friends with Harm, however he figured that if this woman actually was a friend of his, then she would be able to tell him a little bit about Harm.

"Well he started off as a pilot but now he's a lawyer, for the Judge Advocate General. I was partnered with him for about five years."

The guard's eyes widened as he realised who he must be talking to. "So you're the infamous Sarah Mackenzie. He talks about you quite a lot, you know."

"Hang on, how do you know what he talks about?" she asked, immediately suspicious.

The guard chuckled. "He told me you were sharp. I know Harm quite well. I figured that if you were really a friend of his then you would know a little bit about him. I'm Matt Reynolds, by the way. Nice to meet you." He stated, holding out his hand.

Mac took his hand and shook it. "Well, you already know who I am, but just call me..."

"Mac" He finished off for her, "I know, everyone does. Harm told me."

Mac smiled. "As much as it's been nice talking to you, I'd really like to go see Harm now. Besides, I should really get Ali into some dry clothes." She said, indicating the sleeping infant resting on her hip."

"Sure thing. Do you need any help with your bag?"

"No, I'll be right thanks. It was good to meet you. Bye"

"Bye"

Mac turned and headed for the elevator, which was thankfully working. She went up to Harm's floor and anxiously stepped out and walked to his door. She stopped and took a deep breath. She didn't even bother trying to make herself look presentable; her hair would no doubt be a mess, her clothes still dripping, what was left of her makeup smudged, her daughter perched on her hip looking just as unkempt. Why bother?

She took another deep breath and knocked loudly on his door, flinching at how loud it seemed compared to the silence surrounding her. When she heard nothing from within, she knocked again, even louder. This time she heard something move inside his apartment and just to make sure she knocked once more. There was the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the door then the sound of the safety chain being taken off the door and the lock being unlocked. The door swung open.

A/N:I have now changed this chapter so that the time differences and flight times are correct. Thanks to everyone who gave me info on the times, especially Nikki. Thanks also to Harm-n-Mac Shipper for pointing out the couple of mistakes that Bekki and I both missed. They've also been corrected. And of course, thanks heaps to the wonderful Bekki, for beta-ing it for me. You're a gem. *runs over and hugs Bekki*

I have no idea if I should keep on going with this story or not. Please tell me what you thought. Did you love it? Hate it? Whatever, I just want to know.

PLEASE REVIEW! Even if its just to tell me that you read it.