Dancing in DC

Part 2 of 2

A/N: Those of you who have been paying attention will have noticed that I have taken some liberties with the time line, particularly with the time of restoring Harm's wing. For the purpose of this story the murder of Lt Arutti and Harm's subsequent flight with the CAG hasn't yet occurred. This means that Kate Pike never met Harm in this AU and the investigation will be carried out by Harm and Meg.

Harm awoke to an unfamiliar weight on his shoulder, chest and left thigh and a warmth along his left side. Blinking the sleep from his eyes he squinted down and saw a mass of silky dark hair obstructing his further sight and realised that Beth had decided he was a more comfortable support for her head than the hotel pillow, and had also draped her left arm over his chest and her left leg over his thigh as he lay on his back.

Almost simultaneously Harm became aware of two other facts, firstly that his left arm, trapped under Beth's body had gone to sleep and that his bladder was frantically sending him an urgent cry for relief. An attempt to slip away without waking Beth failed as she clutched him the more tightly and mumbled in discontent. So, much as he would have preferred to leave her asleep, Harm was forced to shake her awake, murmuring, "Beth... I gotta go... c'mon sweetheart, let me up..."

Beth opened her eyes and smiled sleepily, "'Morning shyster," she murmured.

"Yeah, morning, Beth..." he dropped a quick kiss on her forehead and said, "Beth, I really gotta go... now!"

With a reluctant groan, Beth unwrapped herself from around him, and then as she became more fully awake watched as he launched a frantic search for his boxers. Unable to locate them and no longer capable of ignoring the demands of his bladder, Harm grabbed a pillow from the bed and covering himself with that, he fled to the bathroom, pursued by Beth's unrestrained laughter.

When he returned a minute or so later, he was more modestly covered by a towel, but he still threw a scowl in the direction of the still-grinning Beth. His glare was enough to set Beth giggling again and his testy "What's so damn' funny'?" did little to cause her to moderate her laughter.

"You," she gasped through her giggles, "Grabbing a pillow to hide your bits!"

"It's not funny at all!" he groused

"Harmon Rabb, you are such a prude!" she laughed.

"I am not!" he denied indignantly.

"Yeah, you are! Considering what we were to each other last night, the sight of a little extra flesh isn't going knock the world off its axis. Look! This is the way it should be done!" With that Beth threw the covers off and slid out of bed, and then magnificently unconcerned with her nudity she walked around the bed and into the bathroom.

When she returned, a few minutes later, she was still totally nude, but then she saw that Harm still looked uncomfortable, and she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, before sitting next to him on the bed.

"Better?" she asked impishly.

"Huh?"

"The towel? Satisfies your demand for modesty does it?"

"Oh... no... that's alright... But you said about what we were... what we did last night... Beth, we need to talk about that."

"Now you want to talk about it?" she asked incredulously.

Harm shook his head, "Not just yet, we should shower and breakfast first, I don't want you setting out on an all day drive without a good meal inside you. But then we can come back here and talk. Please, Beth?"

Beth looked at him, her bafflement plainly showing in her face, she felt that he was sending out mixed messages, that he was sorry for what had happened last night, but at the same time was concerned for her welfare.

"Is it that important to you?" she asked soberly, all amusement fled from her face.

"Yes, yes it is," he told her, equally sombrely.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Beth showered first while Harm packed his sea-bag , and they then reversed the process, so that they were both ready to leave as soon as they wanted. Breakfast was a quiet, almost silent, affair, Harm rehearsing what he needed to say and Beth dreading his words.

After breakfast, they returned to the room, and Harm slumped into the armchair while Beth sat on the edge of the bed, "Well, we've had breakfast, let's get it over with. This is where you tell me that last night was a mistake, and that we don't have a future and that you're dumping me, right?"

"God no! I could never think that last night was a mistake, it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me! And I think we are just at the beginning of a wonderful thing between us, but it can't be built on lies, Beth, and I'm offering you the chance to dump me, after what I've got to tell you. And Beth, I'm so afraid that you're just going to get up, walk out of that door and out of my life!"

Beth blanched, "Are you about to tell me that you're a traitor, a foreign spy, a murderer or a rapist... or married?" she demanded.

"Hell no!" Harm spluttered.

Beth nodded, "In that case I reckon we can work through it! Now, why don't you come over here, sit down next to me, and tell me what's got you so all-fired tied up in knots?"

Harm didn't move from the armchair, "I've lied to you," he confessed with an expression of misery on his face.

"What lies have you told me, then?"Beth asked quietly.

"It's not that I've told you any lies... it's just that I haven't told you everything, and there's a couple of things I need to tell you, if we... and if you can bear to be anywhere near me..."

"It's not a matter of bearing to be near you, Harm. I want to be near you, so please come and sit with me, before you say another word."

"Are you sure?" Harm asked.

"Yes, I'm sure... oh... don't make me come and get you..." she managed a half smile.

Harm stood, took the three steps towards her and sat on the bed, not unwilling to have her close to him.

"Go on, then. Let me hear the worst."

"I'm not quite sure where to start..." Harm faltered.

"At the beginning's usually reckoned to be a good place," Beth said seriously.

"H'mm... I don't like to think of myself as a liar, Beth, so confessing to being one makes me take a long, hard look at myself, and at the moment I don't really like what I see. A coward and a liar, and although I haven't actively told you any falsehoods, a lie of omission is still as much a lie as one of commission."

"Well, why don't you tell me what's bothering you, and let me be the judge of how bad it all is?" Beth said softly.

"OK, I can do that, I think," Harm agreed and then he started to talk again, his voice now a flat monotone, "I wasn't always an attorney. When I graduated from the Academy, I applied for and was selected for flight training. I qualified as an F-14 pilot and was eventually posted to the Raptors on board the Seahawk. I had a pretty high opinion of myself, and that opinion grew even higher when I was selected for Top Gun school. I graduated from that and returned to my squadron. And that's when everything fell apart. We'd been on a normal training flight and were returning to the ship one evening. The weather was foul, visibility poor, and we had a pitching deck."

Harm paused to take a deep a breath, "To cut a long story short, I had a ramp strike. I was pretty badly banged up and my RIO was killed. The board of Inquiry that investigated the mishap ascertained that somehow, probably due to a recent infection, I had developed night blindness. I lost my flight status. And I haven't worn my wings since."

Beth nodded, "OK... but... you survived. If you'd been in the cockpit on impact you would have been killed, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

"And so you must have ejected?" Beth persisted.

"Yeah, we did, but too low and too late. I hit the deck pretty hard, that's how I got smashed up, but Mace, my RIO, he hit even harder... he was unlucky... he didn't make it."

"Oh, Harm... I don't know what to say... " Beth fell silent for a moment and then raised her head, "Or maybe I do... When you're coming into land on deck, it's protocol to hand control of the ejection system over to the RIO isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"So... you didn't eject, your RIO did. Did you give him the order? Or did the LSO order you to eject?"

"No... the LSO waved us off, and I was going to around, gain height, and make another try at landing."

"So... your RIO made an unauthorised ejection, too low for safety?"

"Yeah, I guess. But that doesn't change anything. It was my blindness that put us into that position, and Mace just did what he thought was best!"

'Yeah, or he just panicked!' Beth thought severely, but refrained from saying anything other than, "Is that it? Is that the big lie?"

"Yeah... well, part of it..."

Beth reached out and took one of Harm's hands in her much smaller one, "OK... here's the way I see it. It wasn't a lie, not even by omission. You just hadn't gotten round to telling me about it yet. Harm, we've only been on a handful of dates. Why would you open up with a story like that to an almost complete stranger? Hell, I wouldn't!"

"Thanks, Beth. But I'm not quite finished yet. Like I said, I was pretty banged up, I spent a month or so in hospital, and then went on convalescent leave to my Gram's place up in Pennsylvania. I was pretty low and went through some really dark times. I was helped through those times by a couple of friends from my academy days. Jack Keeter was one, he and I were the same year at Annapolis, and we both went to Flight School; he's still flying for the Navy. The other friend was Diane Schonke, she took emergency leave and came up to Gram's and really helped me pull through the worst of the bad days. She had been a year behind us at the academy, and when she graduated she went on to Crypto school and was posted to Groton. We didn't see much of each other up until the time I crashed. She had her duties, I was at sea, but we kept in touch, and we got to be pretty close."

"As close as we were last night?" Beth asked, trying to keep her voice light.

"No, nothing like that. But yeah, we came close a couple of times, but there was always something that just didn't feel right. Even so, she's still very important to me."

Beth nodded; she wasn't so naïve as to think that Harm would never have had any sort of prior relationships, but if the only one he was worried about telling her about was the one between himself and this Diane, then any others, no matter how physically intimate they might have been, weren't worth her worrying about. Her train of thought led her inevitably to Meg. She had met Meg and had seen that there was a degree of attraction between Harm and her, but she also saw that neither of them were prepared to risk their friendship and their partnership, let alone their careers by embarking on an affair that that was almost certainly doomed to failure, and totally contrary to the UCMJ. No, Beth felt she had nothing to worry about regarding the tall, blonde Texas tomboy.

"Is that it? All your skeletons out of the closet?" Beth smiled.

"Yeah... that's them. Just about all the family bones left out to bleach in the sun. But... I do have two other things to tell you," Harm smiled.

"And they are?" Beth demanded, suspicious of the gleam that had suddenly appeared in his eye.

"Uh... my address in DC, and directions to help you find it!" Harm grinned as he handed her a folded sheet of paper.

"Clown!" Beth laughed, "OK, then let's see about getting this show on the road, then shall we?" she smiled. And as they stood, she linked her hands about Harm's neck, looked up into his face and added,"I'm glad you told me, Harm."

"Me too," he admitted and then bent his face to hers and captured her lips in a long, tender kiss.

"Wow!" Beth breathed when they broke the kiss. Then she frowned, "Hey, hold up there shyster... you did lie to me!"

"When?" Harm demanded indignantly.

"When you told me you'd picked up aviation speak at Miramar!"

"Oh... yeah... well... I can explain that... I think..."

"Yeah, go right ahead shyster, try and talk your way out that one!" Beth laughed.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Harm rushed home as soon as he could legitimately leave the JAG building on Monday afternoon, a knot of nervous anticipation building in his stomach. Beth was due to arrive sometime this evening, and despite the tidying up he had done around the apartment after his return from Pensacola yesterday, the place still wasn't just how he would want it.

The journey from Florida had been interesting, firstly there was the logistics of getting him to the RV where Beth's family had gathered to wave her and her friends off as they started their drive north, without giving away the fact that he and she had spent the last night together, in every sense of the word. But once that hurdle was overcome, the rest of the journey had been hassle free but interesting.

As soon as they had boarded the jet, Elwas had invited Harm to sit second pilot again, and then had not only talked him through the pre-flight checks, but had coached him through the take off and then let Harm fly the jet manually all the way back to Leesburg, only taking over the controls for the final approach and landing. Elwas had then astounded Harm by offering to let him sit second seat as often as could be managed until Harm had enough hours and experience to satisfy the FAA's requirements to be rated as a pilot on the type.

But now, Harm was getting slightly concerned. He had expected Beth to have arrived already and he was beginning to think that he was about to get a 'phone call telling him that she'd lost his address, or that somewhere along the way she had mistaken the route and was now hopelessly turned around in the middle of the madness that was DC's early evening traffic.

Just to keep busy, he bustled about, setting the table and preparing a bowl of salad, but even as he did so, he debated whether he should cook for them or order in, or maybe even take Beth out for dinner on her first night in DC, there was a Mexican restaurant no more than four blocks away that he knew would suit them both.

The question was still unresolved in his mind when the intercom buzzer sounded, alerting him that he had a visitor downstairs. He pressed the answer button, "Yes?"

"Hi Harm, it's me..." It was Beth's voice, but she sounded utterly deflated.

"I'll come down..." he started.

"No... don't bother, just buzz me in, please..."

"OK," he answered uncertainly, "If you're sure..." he pressed the button to unlock the building door and threw open the apartment door, so that he could hear the elevator as it came to a halt on his floor.

On hearing the familiar 'ping' he hurried out into the hall in time to see Beth tote a single sea-bag out of the elevator. Looking up she saw him waiting for her and managed a grin which only illustrated just how exhausted she was. He hurried forward and took the bag from her, wishing that he could pick her up and carry her too, but was forced to content himself with draping an arm around her shoulders and giving her a one-armed hug which he hoped combined welcome and support in one.

He conducted her into the apartment, saying "Sit down, before you fall down. I'll take this into the bedroom!"!

Beth smiled wearily and slumped onto the couch.

Harm returned to the lounge to find her sprawled inelegantly on the couch, her loafers kicked off her feet, and her head back against the squabs her eyes closed, and looking the picture of tiredness.

Harm couldn't help grinning in sympathy, he had been in Beth's condition far too many times than he could, or wanted to, remember. "Coffee?" he suggested quietly.

Beth half-opened her eyes and smiled gratefully, "M'mm" she murmured.

Harm disappeared into the recesses of the kitchen and busied himself with the coffee machine, but when he returned to the lounge a few minutes later, he found that Beth hadn't moved except that her mouth had dropped half-open and although she couldn't be said to be snoring, her soft, even breathing was definitely audible.

Harm's murmured "Beth?" brought no reply, so smiling he set the two mugs of coffee down on the end table and gently lifted her feet on to the couch, and placing a throw cushion on the arm of the couch, he just as gently lowered her until she was lying down. He twitched the Afghan throw off the back of the couch and settled it over her. Retreating to the armchair with his coffee and briefcase, he dug out a case file and a legal pad and set to work.

It was nearly two hours later that Beth began to stir, and Harm laid aside his work to watch her wake up. Her hair had come loose from the Alice Band she had worn to keep it out of her face while driving, and it was now marvellously tousled, her eyes were puffy, and as she sat up, plainly struggling to remember where she was she surreptitiously swiped the back of her hand across her mouth, as if to wipe away any evidence that she might have drooled while she slept, and Harm thought she was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

Beth blinked owlishly as she recovered her wits and remembered where she was, and located and looked across at Harm, a sheepish grin on her face, "sorry 'bout that, some guest huh?"she mumbled.

"Hey! Not to worry, I've been there!" Harm exclaimed, "and anyway, no eres una invitada. Mi casa es tú casa todo el tiempo que quieras!"[1]

"For as long as I want, hey?" Beth smiled.

Harm blinked, "You speak Spanish?" he asked in surprise.

"Of course I do! Harm, I grew up in Florida, and there's still a strong Spanish cultural influence, especially on the Gulf coast, where my family lives! The accent there's a little different from your West Coast accent, but I understood you OK. And anyway, that's another thing you didn't tell me: You never told me that you could speak Spanish!"

"Of course I do, Beth!" I grew up in San Diego !" He grinned at misquoting her own phrase back at her, "And that's only a few miles from the border. We've got a huge immigrant population, and Spanish is almost a second official language! Although I am more than a little rusty!" he added.

Beth grinned and shook her head, "You got me there!" she admitted.

"Yeah..." Harm's shoulders drooped slightly, "But damn, you speak Turkish and Spanish! Isn't there anything you can't do?"

"Yeah, I can't cook!" she admitted.

"So," he smiled, "Hungry?"

"Not... really... but maybe a sandwich...?"

"Well... I've got some smoked eel," he suggested and his grin broadened as he watched Beth shudder at the thought, "Or, I could do some scrambled eggs on toast for you?"

Beth considered for a moment, and then nodded, "Yeah, I could manage that, thanks."

"OK, if you want to freshen up, the bathroom's through there," he indicated a door at the far end of the lounge, "and on the right."

Beth nodded again, "Yeah I will!"

By the time a newly washed and combed Beth sat at the table Harm had finished her eggs, and pouring her a glass of OJ took a chair at the table opposite her and watched while she ate.

Finally Beth chased the last few fragments of egg around her plate trapping them between her fork and the last corner of her toast. She chewed happily, swallowed and washed the snack down with the last of the OJ.

"Better?" Harm inquired

"Yes, much, thanks... Harm?"

"Yeah?"

"Howe about I give you refresher lessons in Spanish, and you teach me how to cook?" she asked hopefully.

"H'mm... maybe... I'll think about. Oh, and while I'm thinking of things, here..." he rummaged in his pockets and handed her a pair of keys.

"What's this for?" she asked crinkling her nose.

"Keys to the building and to the apartment. I'm not going to be here during the day Monday through Friday, and I want you to come and go as you please. And there's always a chance that I may be called away at very short notice to handle an investigation. And you'll need access."

"You're trusting me with your apartment?" Beth asked.

"Sure... after all I'm trusting you with my heart," Harm smiled.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Harm couldn't remember a period in his life when he'd been quite so happy, and his new cheerful demeanour was noted at work, Commander Lindsey even going so far as to ask Meg if she knew what was responsible for the new happy Harm. Meg gazed back at him with wide open cornflower blue eyes and swore mendaciously that she hadn't got a clue!

He rapidly became accustomed to sharing his bed with Beth and their night time activities were intensely satisfying as they explored each other's likes and dislikes. The only niggle was affecting Beth and that was, despite his unexpectedly and welcome adventurous nature in bed, Harms's continued prudery as she deemed it.

Even the grunt work that he normally detested didn't seem so burdensome and he repeatedly emptied his in-tray with a speed that surprised and impressed both Commander Lindsey and Admiral Brovo, but it was always with the aim of finishing work as soon as possible after 'secure' and rushing home to Beth.

Even the gods of war and justice seemed to smile on him and for the entire week there was no need for him to leave town to investigate miscreant sailors or marines. So it was with relief that on Friday afternoon he was able to make dinner reservations at a small, newly opened, but fast becoming popular restaurant and jazz club

"It's Louisiana, not Florida, he teased Beth, and I've chosen tonight because it's a smooth jazz night... and," he added slyly, "they've got a dance floor." and was rewarded by Beth's smile. She, like he, had learned to dance at the Academy, where a certain degree of proficiency was required of midshipmen, but unlike Harm she really enjoyed dancing while he just about tolerated it, or so he told her.

He had made their table reservations for twenty hundred hours, leaving both Harm and Beth plenty of time to get home from duty and shopping respectively, and shower and change.

Harm won the toss for first use of the shower, and foiling (yet again) Beth's attempt to strip him of the towel wrapped around his waist, dressed while she took her turn in the bathroom.

Harm chose a pair of light grey slacks and a blue, cotton, button down shirt that emphasised that colour in his changeable eyes, topped off with a lightweight unbleached linen jacket, which he casually draped over the back of an armchair while he waited for Beth to dress.. His wait wasn't in vain; she wore her hair loose, just longer than shoulder length and had chosen to wear a cream silk collared blouse, worn open at the throat to show a slim gold chain with a small medallion hanging from it, and a knee length burgundy skirt with a black leather belt, and low heeled burgundy pumps suitable for either walking or dancing. Harm came to his feet as she entered the lounger and just said, "Wow!"

Beth blushed slightly, and smiled with pleasure at his reaction, "You like?" she asked.

"Yeah, I like if water's damp, or the sun is warm." he smiled.

It took Beth a couple of seconds to work out his meaning and then her smile broadened into a grin of delight, "Well..." she said approvingly, "you don't look too shabby yourself!"

"I guess we both clean up pretty well, then!" he laughingly replied

The Blues Alley, a couple of blocks south and west off M Street was a place that normally specialised in New Orleans Jazz, but switched styles to a smoother jazz at the weekends. The menu was tied in to the restaurant's overall ambiance, relying heavily on both New Orleans and Cajun specialties.

The club so close and the evening so warm it was understood, without either mentioning it, that they would walk to and from the club, so at about nineteen forty hours they closed the apartment door behind them and strolled down to M Street.

The dinner had been superb, Beth chose a Caesar Salad, followed by Crawfish enchiladas, "I have just got to see how they combine Cajun and Mexican foods in one dish!" she enthused. Harm shuddered in pretended horror at her choice and selected a Waldorf Salad followed by a Cajun seasoned vegetable supreme both of them choosing beer rather than wine to accompany such strongly flavoured food.

Neither was quite sure at what time they finished eating and moved to the dance floor where the resident jazz combo played a selection of music from such masters of smooth jazz as Kenny G, Grover Washington Jr, and Patti Le Belle and groups such as 3rd Force and The Rippingtons but they were still on the floor when the combo leader announced the last set for the night,

They had started dancing quite formally, Harm with one hand on Beth's waist and the other holding her hand while her free hand rested lightly on his shoulder, but as the evening progressed, so they moved closer, their arms round each other and Beth's head resting on Harm's chest, while his chin just brushed the top of her head, neither of them moving much, just swaying to the music. As the last plangent notes of the final selection died away, Beth looked up into Harm's eyes, "I thought you said you couldn't dance!" she accused him, "You did OK tonight, and you didn't even step on my toes once!"

"Nuh-huh," Harm shook his head, "I never said I couldn't dance, I just said that I wasn't too enamoured of it, but that was before tonight!" He shrugged, "I guess I just never had the right partner before!"

"Flatterer!" Beth scolded him gently, "But if you didn't like dancing, why did you book this place, why not just a dinner at some place where there isn't a dance floor?"

Harm looked down at her, "Because you said you liked to dance," he said simply.

"Oh..." Beth was taken unawares and blinked furiously a couple of times to dispel the moisture that had suddenly gathered in her eyes.

"Take me home, Harm," she said softly.

They were in no hurry to reach Harm's apartment however, and strolled along M Street, mingling with other late night pedestrians and soaking up the atmosphere that was peculiar to this part of Georgetown, until they passed the open door of one club where the music of Duke Ellington spilled out into the street. Harm grinned, and using the arm that was around Beth's waist, her suddenly spun her along the pavement, extending his hand to catch her and drawing her back into his arms as he led her into a dozen movements of a quick-step that carried them twenty yards down the sidewalk, as Beth laughingly protested and to the smiles and cheers of other pedestrians who swiftly made a hole for them.

Harm drew them to a stop and smiled down at Beth who lay back, panting in his arms, "You nutjob!" she complained, "Now take me home – straight home, and no more street performances!" she commanded through her giggles.

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

It had been a warm, humid night and after making love Beth and Harm had kicked off the lightweight comforter and dropped into a light sleep. Now the coming daylight had woken Beth and she stretched luxuriously, and then shivered in the dawn chill. She sat up and reached for the comforter at the foot of the bed to draw it up over herself and Harm. Then she stopped in mid-movement. They had quickly become accustomed to not only sharing the bed, but for them to wake with Harm on his back and Beth curled up against his left side with her head on his shoulder and her arm thrown across his chest. But last night they had been too hot and sweaty and their bodies must have recognised this. She had woken up curled in a foetal position, her back to Harm while he had rolled over on to his stomach, and what had arrested Beth's movement was a network of white lines on his right hip and thigh and extending across the upper part of his buttocks to the small of his back. Blinking, she realised that what she was seeing was a mass of scar tissue. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes filled with tears as she stared, trying to imagine the pain those wound scars reflected. Sure, Harm had told her he'd been banged up some in the ramp strike, and that he's had months of treatment, but she had never imagined damage like this. She shook her head, it was a miracle that he'd ever walked again, let alone passed the medical review board to stay in the Navy.

Leaning closer, the chill temporarily forgotten, she traced the line of one particularly vicious scar with a gentle fingertip, and followed that line with a succession of butterfly light kisses, until it disappeared, writhing under the front of his thigh.

Gentle as her touch and kisses were, they woke Harm, who after a second's bemusement realised what Beth was doing, and with a strangled, "Don't!", twisted around onto his back and grabbed a pillow to hide the evidence of his injuries.

It was the sight of the pillow that triggered a memory for Beth, of a frantic Harm racing for the bathroom with a pillow clutched in a similar manner. "Oh Harm," she breathed, "It's not prudery, is it? You don't want me seeing your scars isn't it! But why?"

Harm couldn't look her in the face, instead he stared at the window. "Because they're disgusting, and I don't want you to... to... hate them, to hate me because of them!" he said in a voice full of misery and despair.

"Oh Harm!" Beth said, smiling through her tears, "How could I hate them! They're part of you, so I love them!"

"You don't hate them?" Harm asked in disbelief.

"Of course not, you dumb-ass shyster!" Beth said emphatically.

The End

[1] Translation: "You are not a guest! My house is your house for as long as you want it!"