Title:  The Prince & His Princess

Author:  Tracy

Rating:  G

Spoiler:  Everything, pretty much!  Especially through
the beginning of Season 9.

Disclaimers:  Just borrowing the characters for a
while.  Hope that when I put them back, they won’t be
where I found them!!

Summary:  I don’t believe that they don’t miss each
other.  And if the writers that get paid for it won’t
show it, then those of us in the cheap seats will.  I
needed a little romance this week, and I love the
fall, so I put it all together, and, voila!  Enjoy the
fluff!

Feedback:  Positively worded constructive feedback
appreciated to harmnmacfan@msn.com

 

Rock Creek Park

Sunday, 2 November

1357 Eastern

 

Harm’s POV

 

He was back at his bench.  He’d been coming whenever
he was in town, between his assignments for the
Agency.  He started coming in mid-July when Bud
mentioned that she was taking AJ to the park every
Sunday afternoon to give them a break after the new
baby was born.  

 

The bench was strategically located such that he could
see the playground, but it was hard to see who was on
the bench.  He had a newspaper with him ready to cover
his face if needed, and he always had his walkman.  He
liked to listen to old favorites while he watched
them.  It was only an hour or maybe two (if he was
lucky) each week, but it kept him going.

 

He tried not to think about it much, but the
loneliness gnawed at him.  All of his friends were at
JAG, and that was gone.  He'd had a beer with Sturgis
a few weeks ago.  He kept up with Bud and Harriet, but
even that was awkward.  He tried to spend time with
them and his god son whenever he was in town.  He
could feel himself drifting away from them all.  It
was probably for the best.  Best not to have too many
attachments considering his new profession.  But this
attachment was one he just couldn’t let go of.  ‘Let
go?  Ironic, huh?’ he thought.

 

The weather was cool; autumn had finally arrived. 
They were a little late today, but Harm wasn’t
worried.  He had taken the long way over, driving down
the street that was parallel to Bud and Harriet’s and
saw her Corvette parked in their driveway.  He pulled
his headset onto his head and pressed play.  Today was
“Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits” and “Homeward
Bound” began to run through his head.  'Irony can be
so ironic sometimes, huh?' he thought of the tune.  He
picked up the newspaper and scanned the headlines,
stopping every minute or two to see if they’d arrived
yet.

 

Finally, after about 5 minutes, they came running to
the playground.  She was chasing AJ, and he was
screaming with delight.  He could even hear it over
the music.  Mac grabbed AJ around the waist and they
spun in a circle, both giggling.  Harm slowly brought
the newspaper down to watch them.

 

Mac set him down on his feet and he took off again,
this time for the swings.  Mac followed him and sat
down on the swing, pulling him up to sit on her lap. 
She pushed off with her feet, then lay back and
stretched her legs out toward the sky.  AJ lay back
with her, mimicking her movements.  

 

They stayed on the swings for several minutes, but a
four year-old’s attention span was short, and they
were off to the monkey bars.  AJ swung from rung to
rung, Mac right behind him, her hands ready to grab
him if he slipped.  He made it all the way across and
she grabbed him from the last rung and swung him
around, covering his face with kisses as he wrapped
his arms around her.

 

Their next stop was the seesaw, and Mac hesitated. 
Harm knew she was hesitant because it was hard on the
legs to bring oneself up and down so that AJ could
enjoy himself.  At that very moment, a little girl ran
up to them and plopped herself down on the other bench
and the two of them began seesawing away, laughing
their heads off.  The little girl’s father was now
walking up to the piece of equipment and talking to
the little girl for a moment.  He then turned to Mac
and began talking to her.  He was tall and handsome,
and he was smiling at her.

 

Harm’s stomach tightened.  ‘For god’s sake, can’t I
just have this? Do I have to watch men drooling over
her everywhere?’  He pulled his headset off and folded
up the newspaper.  As he got up to leave, a woman came
running over to them.

 

“Honey, I told you not to let her play on the seesaw!”
she cried. “The swings only!  She’ll get her shoes all
dirty and she has to go to her grandmother’s!”  The
man put his hand out to her and the woman, obviously
his wife, stepped into his embrace.  They turned and
he introduced her to Mac, who held out her hand to the
woman and they shook.  At that point, the father and
Mac walked over to the seesaw and picked the children
up.  The husband and wife left with their daughter,
and Mac and AJ walked away from the playground.

 

It was too early for them to leave, so Harm got up and
walked around the bend to see where they were going. 
He was risking exposure, but counted on Mac being too
focused on AJ to pay attention to him.  He saw that
they had broken into a run and appeared to be headed
for a pile of raked leaves.  With a whoop they both
jumped feet first into the leaves and began rolling
around.  Harm laughed out loud before he caught
himself.

 

Oh, if they could only see her now.  The tough jarhead
lawyer giggling like a school girl; her hair and
clothes covered with the autumn leaves.  Had she ever
looked more beautiful than she did at that moment?  He
wasn’t the best person to judge.  Every time he looked
at her he was overwhelmed by her beauty.  He stood and
watched them for several minutes, a smile on his face.

 

Mac’s POV

 

She unhooked AJ from his seatbelt and helped him down
and to step out of the car.  He didn’t like her to
pick him up anymore unless it was in play.  She had
been taking AJ to the park every Sunday for several
months.  It accomplished two things: one, it gave
Harriet and Bud a much-needed break, and two, it gave
her something to hang on to.

 

She hadn’t been face to face with Harm since that day
in the hospital. Actually, she hadn’t even seen him
that day, just heard him talking to Clay and Catherine
Gale about his new job flying for the CIA.  He had
sounded so happy and excited, and she felt nauseous. 
Harm.  Flying.  CIA.  No matter how you sliced it, it
spelled disaster.  If she’d learned nothing else from
Paraguay, she’d learned that the CIA was not a group
of people that you wanted to work for.  When the chips
were down, the Agency was nowhere to be found.  In
spite of how badly things had gone between her and
Harm in Paraguay, she knew she’d be dead or perhaps
alive but wishing she was dead if not for him.  How
had everything gone so wrong then and since?

 

Now Harm was gone and she was pretending everything
was fine.  She was playing the dutiful officer and
friend to all.  Including Clay, much to his chagrin. 
There was no way she could feel for anyone what she
felt for Harm, and no way she could feel anything for
anyone else at this point in her life.  Inside, she
was holding on by a thread.  She ached to see him, to
know he was ok, to look into those gray eyes and to
see that smile and know that everything would be ok.

 

She shook her head from her thoughts as AJ tugged at
her hand. “Where do you think you are going, fella?!” 
With that, their usual game of chase began.  AJ took
off, and Mac gave him a few seconds head start before
she started out with “I’m gonna git you!”  AJ squealed
with delight and headed straight for the playground.  
She caught him around his waist and twirled him
around.  He shrieked with laughter and yelled “More
Auntie Mac, spin me like Uncle Harm!!!” With that Mac
slowed, and brought him to the ground, her eyes
stinging.  Harm always played airplane with AJ. 
Shaking herself for a moment, she said, “Hey, feel
like swinging REALLY HIGH today, buddy?”  “YES!” was
AJ’s shouted response.

 

They played on the swings, and on the monkey bars.  As
Mac was about to grab AJ off of the last rung, she saw
a man sitting on a bench out of the corner of her eye.
 She pulled AJ to her and swung him around again, this
time with his arms around her neck, as she covered his
sweet little face with kisses.  As she made the turn
she sought out the man on the bench.  She felt like
they were being watched.

 

She was right.  They were being watched.  It was Harm.
 

 

Did he think she wouldn’t see him?  She might not be
Force Recon, but she was still a marine.  Her mind was
racing.  Fortunately, AJ didn’t give her much time to
think as he pulled her over to the seesaw.  She
hesitated as a veteran of trying to ride the seesaw
with AJ.  Her problem was solved however, when a
little girl appeared just then and began to ride along
with AJ, both of them laughing merrily.  

 

“Lily!!  I told you not to run too far ahead!” a man
called as he approached. “Your mother is going to be
very upset.  She didn’t want you to get dirty!”

 

“Maybe the park isn’t the best place to be, then?” Mac
asked with a smile.

 

The man smiled at Mac, “No, I guess not.  But Lily can
be very persuasive, and she promised her mother she
needed just a few minutes on the swings.” He laughed
at his daughter’s trick. “My wife’s in the rest room.”

 

Mac laughed too and entered into a conversation about
their respective charges, explaining AJ was not her
little boy, but rather her god son.  As she was
talking to the man, who introduced himself as Jim, she
had her arms around her, rubbing her arms in the
chill, and was gently swinging from side to side.  She
turned just a little to see Harm on his feet and
making as if to leave.  

 

At that moment, Jim’s wife walked over calling out in
complaint about their daughter’s antics.  Mac was
distracted by watching Harm out of the corner of her
eye. He had stopped his preparations to leave and was
watching them.  Mac turned back to be introduced to
Jim’s wife Linda.  They shook hands with her, gathered
their little girl and moved off toward their car.  Mac
had pulled AJ off the seesaw at the same time Lily was
removed, so that he wouldn’t hit the ground with a
thump.

 

“Auntie Mac, can we do something bad?” AJ asked with a
twinkle in his eye.  This was their code for something
Harriet probably never would have allowed, but was
something Auntie Mac would do in a minute.

 

“Ooooh, AJ, I don’t know!” she responded with a
similar twinkle. “Let’s go!!!”  They wandered off the
playground to see what kind of “trouble” awaited them.
 Mac could feel his eyes following them.  Her mind
raced. ‘What is he doing here? How did he know we were
here? Should I speak to him? God, I miss him so much!’

 

AJ pulled on her hand as he spotted the leaves.  This
was a game they had played last year in the fall
leaves, and Mac had to admit, a personal favorite.  Of
course, last year Harm had thrown her into the leaves,
and he and AJ had jumped on her and tickled her.  She
smiled at AJ and they both broke into a trot and with
a shout, threw themselves into the leaves.  She
grabbed AJ and began tickling him, and they both
rolled around and were quickly covered with leaves
from head to toe.  Their laughter rang out all around
them.  They continued to playfully struggle until they
tired themselves out.  They finally lay quietly in the
leaves, Mac on her back, and AJ against her chest,
both looking up at the sky.

 

“Auntie Mac, can you tell me a story?”  AJ was yawning
a little, his pudgy fist clenching her shirt, and his
other fist rubbing his eyes in a way that told Mac
he’d be asleep in no time.  Mac had her left arm
around AJ, holding him in place.  Her right hand was
stroking his head.  She shifted her weight a little
and began to sit up.  She didn’t really want to lay
too long in leaves full of bugs and dirt.  Afghanistan
was one thing, Washington another.  She pulled herself
up and sat cross-legged with AJ across her lap, still
holding him close.

 

“Sure, honey,” Mac replied, and began her tale.  She
liked to tell him stories of her adventures with Harm,
but always sanitized so that he would never know the
real danger that they had faced, nor that the handsome
prince who rescued the princess with a kiss were his
godparents.

 

Today she told him the story of the Sudanese Embassy. 
In her story, however, Ambassador Moshach became the
evil sorcerer Moshach who captured the princess and
hurt her.  The prince, enraged, came to rescue her,
only to see the evil sorcerer try to take her away
with a vial of deadly poison in his hand that he would
force her to drink if the prince came any closer.  She
was just at the point where the sorcerer had dragged
the princess into the dungeon of the castle when she
heard the leaves crunch behind her.

 

“I think he’s asleep,” Harm said softly.

 

“I know,” she replied, just as softly. “I was telling
it more for me than for him, anyway.”

 

Walking around to face her, he crouched down to eye
level. “How does the story end?” he asked.

 

Her eyes filled with tears to finally be so close to
him. “As it always has, and it always will.  The
prince rescues the princess.”

 

They held one another’s gaze for a moment.  Harm broke
first.  “Would you like me to take him for you, so you
can stand?” he offered.

 

“Thank you,” Mac replied, looking down at the little
boy.

 

Harm lifted him gently, easily into his arms.  Mac
pulled herself up gracefully and reached out again for
AJ, but Harm shook his head. “It’s ok.  If you don’t
mind, I’d like to carry him.”  Mac nodded in response
as they moved toward the parking area.

 

As they approached her car, Harm spoke. “Mac, how
about if we put him in my car?  I’ll follow you home
and we can leave your car there, then take AJ home,”
he suggested quietly. “If you don’t have other plans,
I’d like to take you out to dinner, maybe catch up?”
he added hopefully.

 

Mac’s heart felt lighter than it had in six months. 
“I’d like that, Harm, thanks,” she answered quietly. 
She followed him to the back of the lot where his SUV
was.  They put AJ in the backseat, and then he opened
the passenger’s side front door for her to get in so
that he could drive her back to her car.  She
hesitated for just a moment, then turned toward him
and slid her arms around his waist.  She held him
tightly, her head buried in his chest.

 

Harm was taken aback for a brief moment, but quickly
slid his arms down around her shoulders, and pressed
her to him.  He brought his head down and kissed her
temple.  He could feel her shoulders shaking, her
tears wetting his shirt front.  “It’s ok, baby, it’s
ok,” he soothed her. “It’ll be ok. I’m here, it’s ok.”
His words seemed to calm her, and she settled down. 
She held him a little more loosely, and finally
slipped her arms from around him.  She turned again
and stepped up to sit on the front seat.  Harm looked
at her for a moment, then reached across and fastened
her seat belt.  

 

As he reached across her, she watched him, wide-eyed
at their closeness.  He was all business, though, and
pulled back out of the car, and closed her door.  Mac
wiped her eyes, and pulled herself together before he
got in the driver’s seat.

 

After getting to her car, he followed her over to her
apartment and they left her car there.  She again
joined him in the front seat of his car.  They didn’t
speak, mindful of the sleeping boy.  Mac glanced over
at Harm, his strong arms on the wheel, his big solid
body beside hers.  She felt safe at last.  He was
back, and everything was right with the world.  

 

She knew that they had a lot of talking to do, but she
didn’t care.  She had a lot to make up for, to
explain, but she knew that it would be ok.  He was
here now, and he was her prince.  He would rescue her
again.  He always did.

 

He looked over at her for a moment before turning his
attention back to the road.  Their eyes locked
briefly.  He saw in that brief moment so much.  Harm
pulled his right hand from the steering wheel and
reached over to her two hands in her lap.  He picked
up her left wrist and slid his hand down to take her
left hand into his.  He brought it to his mouth and
brushed a kiss across her knuckles.  He rested their
hands together on the console between the seats.  It
was going to be ok.

 

Look for the sequel "As You Wish"