Title: Full Moon
Author: Karen
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are the property of Donald Bellisario, Belisaurius Productions, Paramount Pictures and Columbia Broadcasting Service Entertainment – this story is for non-profit entertainment of JAG fans only. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.
Notes:
A/N: It was almost a full moon when I left work last night. Pisces are weirdly affected by things like that.
Full Moon
Unknown time
Somewhere north of Union Station
He was startled awake by a bright stream of light from the barely waning full moon shining directly in his face. He’d fallen asleep on his broad leather couch with some silly movie playing on that blasted TV Webb had left in his apartment. He must be depressed to have even turned the damned thing on. He never watched TV unless it involved men and some kind of ball.
What a wretched day. He couldn’t believe he’d said those things to Mac, not after Saturday night. The moon had been full then, reflecting off the leaves on the newly greened trees. He’d had the temerity to take her in his arms and thoroughly kiss her silly at her engagement party, as though he had every right to do so, and in that moment it felt as though he did. For just a moment it felt as though she thought so too.
Then this morning he’d come off with that insipid comment about being sorry for not behaving like a proper guest. Then later he’d been downright snarky when he told her to reconsider whom she was marrying if she really felt she needed him at her wedding. How could he have done all those things? Had he been possessed? Had some demon taken over Harmon Rabb’s body and made him do things he’d never dream of doing under normal circumstances?
How would he ever face her again? How could he dare to walk across JAG OPs past her office? Tomorrow he had to find a way to make it right. Yes, tomorrow.
No, wait a minute; tomorrow he’d be on a carrier in the Virginia Capes. No, that wasn’t right. If tomorrow were Tuesday, he’d be on his way to the carrier now. What was going on? Just what day was it anyway? The moon was still too full for it to be half past midnight on Monday. What the….???
He checked his wrist. No watch. Oh yeah he’d taken it off while sitting here vegging in front of the idiot box. He’d been playing with it. A nervous, disorganized, gesture. Something like what he was doing on the admiral’s porch Saturday night. Last night. It must have been last night.
But it couldn’t have been. He’d worked all day. His hand snaked quickly to the table beside the couch, snagged his watch, and brought it close to his sleep-fogged eyes. There on the glowing face it told him it was 00:45 on Monday morning. Monday at work hadn’t happened yet. Or was something wrong with his watch.
No, the midnight news broadcast showed the date and time, it agreed with his watch. Okay, that was enough. He wasn’t going crazy; he wouldn’t allow it. So if he wasn’t crazy, what was going on? Was someone playing a trick on him?
Sinking back against the cushions, he closed his eyes a second before they popped wide open again. It had been a dream. That was it. He’d been watching that goofy movie about some guy living the same day over and over until he got it right. He must have fallen asleep and dreamed it was Monday. Or did he? Maybe he was stuck in a loop, too. Maybe he had to relive Monday until he got it right. No that was ridiculous. Those things didn’t happen to real people. Did they?
Checking the time and his watch again, he tried one more thing. Rising from the couch he walked to the computer on his desk. Nope, it agreed with the TV and the watch, it was definitely early Monday morning. If he went with this and it was some trick he’d miss his quals, but if it wasn’t a trick, he had the chance to make things right with Mac.
Except…what was right? Just what had made him apologize one minute, and be downright nasty the next? How was he going to fix this? Slowly an idea, a feeling, some natural force formed in his mind. Of course, that was the answer. That was why he’d acted that way. He’d known it, but just hadn’t wanted to admit it out loud, not even inside his brain. It was too dangerous to admit it. If he acknowledged it, he’d have to do something about it. Taking action, unless Tomcats or courtrooms were involved, just wasn’t something he normally did. But now he had to, he’d already admitted to himself what the problem was, now he had to do something about it.
Great. It’s one thing to order yourself to action and quite another to know what that action should be. With trepidation over whether he was dreaming before or now, whether he should be getting ready for Monday at work or be on his way to a carrier at sea, he double-checked the time and date once again. Then with a sigh of indecision, he turned off the TV and computer and headed for his bedroom.
Quickly, he stripped and crawled between the covers. Laying there staring at the ceiling he once again glanced out the window. That was it. The moon was still almost full. Someone could have tricked him with the watch and the computer. Even the TV could have been messed with, though he didn’t quite know how. But no one could change the moon. And if it were Monday night instead of Sunday night, it would have waned further. No, it was definitely Sunday night, or actually very early Monday morning. And that had definitely been a bad dream.
What was he going to do tomorrow? Obviously what he’d done in his dream hadn’t worked. It had been all wrong. It hadn’t produced the result he wanted. When he started that Monday, the one in his dream, he wasn’t even sure what result he’d wanted. But he was sure now. If he could only figure out how to make it happen.
Running scenarios through his mind, he turned on his side and snuggled against his pillow. If this worked, maybe he wouldn’t be holding a pillow much longer. Maybe he’d be holding the woman he’d truly wanted for so long.
Monday 0717 hours
JAG OPS
The elevator door opened on a room that was as he’d expected. Empty, except for the office of Sarah Mackenzie. She was always in early, and since she was engaged to be married in two weeks, he wondered at the fact that she still spent so much time here. It was a well-established fact that she arrived very early and left later than anyone else. Strange.
Slowly, he approached her door. Placing his briefcase and cover on the chair outside her office, he walked through the opening.
“Harm?” she looked up suddenly, startled to see him there. Rising, trance-like, she was mesmerized by the look in his eyes as he approached her. Closer, then closer still, one deliberate step at a time, he was at her desk, then around her side, then he was very much in her space.
“Mac!? It was a statement, a question, a declaration.
“What…?” Her eyes softened.
“Mac, about Saturday…”
“What…what about Saturday?” She was barely breathing. Her tongue darted, wetting her lips. Her eyes dropped to his beautiful mouth. To those lips that had captured her soul on Saturday night. The lips that had made her forget all about what was proper and what was right. The lips that had only told of a deeply buried love.
“I want…” his right hand reached for her left. Her fingers nestled into his, curling lightly against his palm. His thumb and forefinger gently grasped the ring that held her. That offending piece of metal and carbon. How easily her finger now slipped from the circlet. How right it felt when her hands came to rest on his waist.
His other hand reached around her neck cradling her head with his long fingers, as his lips descended on hers. The circlet was lost in a dull clink when his arm encircled her waist. As he pulled her into him, she gave herself up to his kiss. A kiss that spoke to her soul. A kiss that came with a hundred year guarantee to curl her toes. The world fell away and time stood still as the kiss deepened to a heart stopping intensity then gently slowed to a natural end.
She stared into his eyes, stunned beyond reason, as he stepped away. Still holding her gaze, he backed from her office.
“Come to me?” he asked, turning towards his office.
Ten minutes later, she stood at his door. “Why?”
“You know why,” he answered.
“I want to hear it.”
“Because I love you. Beyond all reason and restrictions, I love you.”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere. You won’t get away with doing that again in the office, and I want to hear it and feel it again. We’ll come back later.”
“Is everything settled?”
She held up her hand. She hadn’t replaced the ring. “He didn’t really seem surprised.”
“Let’s go.” Harm grabbed his cover, touched her arm to turn her towards the elevator, and walked across the floor close behind her.
As they stepped in, she asked a different, “Why?”
“Full moon,” he answered as the doors slid closed.
End
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