Title: The Kennedy Center

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Disclaimers: I don’t own any of these characters. They all belong to the initials.

Rating: PG

Category: UST, maybe a little angst, and a little romance

Summery: Some of the JAG team go to a fancy party.

Notes: This takes place after Boomerang and before Surface Warfare during Season 5. I wrote this one then but I just never got off my butt to post it.

“Sir, I have some news you might be interested in.”

“What is it, Colonel?” he asked without looking up at her.

“Regarding Mic.” He eyes flashed to her left hand then not seeing the engagement ring flashed back to her face. “I told him no.”

One eyebrow curled up. “Why?”

“Because I don’t love him,” she stated flatly.

“So, does this mean that I going to have to transfer one of my top two lawyers.”

“I don’t understand, Sir.”

“You’ve turned down Brumby, what about Rabb?”

“Harm? No, Sir. We are just friends, Sir.” AJ looked carefully at her face, either she was telling the truth or she was becoming a better liar.

“Are you sure? I thought there was something between the two of you.”

“Permission to speak freely, Sir?” He nodded. “I do love Harm but I’m not in love with him. He is the best friend anyone could hope for. Honestly, I had thought that there might be something more between us at one time, but his leaving made me realize that I was wrong.”

“How so?”

“He’s the fly by the seat of your pants fighter jock and well, frankly, Sir, I get air sick.” AJ chuckled.

“Have you talked to him about this?”

“Yes, Sir. That’s why it’s been a little awkward between us lately. He thought I turned Mic down for him.”

AJ thought, ‘No wonder Rabb’s been moping around like a bear with a sore paw.’

“He’ll get over it soon enough, Sir. It shouldn’t effect our work.”

“I know it won’t effect your work, but don’t sell yourself short, Mac.”

The both of them were surprised at what he said so Mac tried to respond quickly with a simple, “Thank you, Sir.” He nodded.

“Did you have anything else, Colonel?” he asked still surprised he said what he had.

“No, Sir.”

“Dismissed, then. And Mac, thanks for sharing your news.”

She walked out of the office and back to hers, but on the way she stopped at Harms office.

“Hey, Flyboy. How you let me buy you lunch?” He looked up at her surprised since he didn’t hear her come in.

“Where?” he asked suspiciously.

“How about that veggie place you like so much?”

“Why?” he asked even more suspiciously. She couldn’t resist laughing.

“Because I feel like it ok?” she asked good-naturedly.

“Ok. Leave it to the Marine to think about food.” She smiled at him thinking that he was getting back to his old self. She was happy about that.

A couple of days later Mac and Harm seemed to be falling back into their normal routine, much to everyone’s happiness. No one liked to see them out of sorts with each other. Later that day, AJ called them into his office.

“I realize that this is short notice but does anyone have plans for tomorrow evening?”

“Yes, Sir,” said Harm. Mac, Bud, and Harriet all had negative responses.

“Ok, good. Francesca is going to be in town this weekend and has invited us all to a party.”

“That sounds like fun, Sir,” said Harriet. “Where will it be?”

“The Kennedy center. Tomorrow at 1900.”

“Sounds fancy. Too bad I have plans. I promised a very special lady I would spend the weekend with her,” said Harm trying to tease Mac.

Unable to help herself Mac said, “Oh, tell your grandmother I said ‘hi’.”

He responded with an ok before he realized that he’d been had. Everyone laughed, including him. He shook his head and mumbled, “Marines.”

“The occasion is formal attire, civilian preferably,” he said to Bud.

“Sounds like fun, Sir. It would be nice to see Francesca again,” said Mac.

“Yes, it will. So will I see you all at the Kennedy Center?”

“Why don’t we meet at my place early and carpool from there?” suggested Mac.

“Sounds good.” They all agreed.

The next day

Mac was running behind because she went out searching for the perfect dress to wear. She eventually found it but it left her little time to get things together before her guests arrived. She got home and tried to get everything ready. Luckily, she had all the h’ors d’ourvers ready. She quickly took a shower and had just slipped into her lacy under garments when the doorbell rang. Tossing on her robe she hurriedly peeked out the peephole to see Bud and Harriet. She opened the door and asked Harriet if she would let the Admiral in when he got there. She went back into her bedroom and finished getting ready. When she was almost done, she heard another knock on the door.

The Admiral greeted Bud and Harriet then complimented her on her navy blue dress. “I couldn’t help myself, Sir. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. Even if it is ‘navy’ blue,” she said with a smile.

“As long as the Colonel doesn’t wear Marine green,” Bud laughed. The laughter stopped as he noticed Mac walk out from the bedroom. Harriet and AJ turned to see what caught his attention. No one spoke as Mac walked out wearing a beautiful emerald green gown. She was starting to get nervous from their stares when finally AJ spoke.

“You look wonderful, Mac.”

They all talked for a while, enjoying the food and their drinks. Finally it was time to go. Having decided to take two cars, Mac went with AJ and Bud and Harriet went in their car because they might need to leave early due to Little AJ. They planned on meeting Francesca there since she had needed to be at the party earlier. She greeted them as soon as they arrived.

After greeting everyone, Francesca had to slip away to check on something. As she walked away they see a lady wearing a backless dress and on her shoulder is a small red rose bud. This brought up the subject of Mac’s tattoo.

“Ma’am, didn’t I hear somewhere that you had a tattoo.”

“Yes, Harriet you did. Sir, would you like to dance?” AJ smiled as he took her hand and led her to the dance floor.

“So the tattoo is a touchy subject?” he smiled.

“Not really. I accidentally mentioned it once to Harm and he really doesn’t want to let it drop. It’s actually becoming a game now. I guess I will eventually have to tell him.”

“He’ll probably make you show him.”

“No. He won’t be getting a chance to see it. He’s seen me in a swimsuit and the tattoo is not visible then.”

“Now you have me curious,” he said softly as she blushed. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“No. It’s okay. It’s just that not many people have ever seen it.”

“How long have you had it?”

“I got it when I was sixteen.”

The conversation stopped for a few moments then he continued, “So what is the tattoo of?”

“I’m not going to tell you what it is.” But she had a feeling that one day he would see it.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he said with a large grin as he continued to twirl her around the dance floor.

During a dance

“Well, I see that you and Rabb are pretty much back to normal.”

“Yes, Sir. We’ve talked about how I feel for him and he understands.”

“That’s good. I would have hated breaking up the best JAG partnership there is over some unrequited feelings.”

“Harm knows how I feel about that too,” she said softly.

“Meaning?” he asked.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” She seemed embarrassed and would no longer look into his eyes. But deciding to be bold she continued. “I do have feelings for someone but I can’t act on them.”

“Why not, Sarah?” he pushed.

“Duty, Sir.”

“Duty?”

“Duty is sometimes resisting doing things we would like to do, sir,” she said, repeating the words he had once said to her.

He looked at her startled, and saw the truth in her eyes. He said nothing just pulled her a bit closer and continued to dance.

The end for now