Through Love and War

Title: "Through Love and War"

Author: Stephjag aka Steph

Email: or .be

Website:

Disclaimer: I do not own the JAG characters; they are the propriety of CBS, Paramount Studios and they belong to Donald P. Bellisario. No copyright infringement intended.

Classification: Vignette / Drama / Romance Harm and Mac

Rating: PG-13 (as always: just to be on the safe side)

Spoilers: "Each of Us Angels" and season 9

Summary: Ron Graham meets a young person at the national cemetery in Arlington. She invites him to her friend's apartment to tell him his story, a story about love and war showing that love helps us to continue even through the worst.

Author's note: The idea for this story came while I was emailing my dear friend, AeroGirl, right after having read her latest story "Remembrance," I was talking about some thoughts that I had about it. I've always wanted to write a story like hers, but I can't and I'll never be able to do so; not because I'm not good enough, no, but because we are all different. We are both writers, but we never write the same way. Sometimes we have the same thoughts about something, but we'll write it down in another way and that's good because that's how we learn how different we are, but on the other hand we are similar… anyway, the idea flew through my mind and the following lines is how I'm expressing it. I hope you readers will enjoy this…

Many thanks to AeroGirl and Dae for beta-reading!

Feedback: Please, if you would like to express your enjoyment. If my work does not appeal to you for any reason, I have no problem with that, but please, no need to share that with me.

2131 ZULU

Harm's apartment

North of Union Station

Washington, D.C.

Harm had been able to come home early today and he was thankful for it. The day had been stressful and rapport with Mac hadn't been that great either; but they were working on it, he knew that. The admiral had softened a bit, though that was incredible because of all that had happened with Meredith Cavanaugh. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but it obviously had hurt his superior officer a lot.

He was sitting on his couch, sipping bourbon and listening to some music – country music, actually. He had changed a little while ago into something more comfortable, a pair of blue-jeans with a gray sweater.

It was then that he heard a knock on his door. Harm stood up to open it. He was surprised to se Mattie on the other side of the door. "Mattie, you okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry. It's just that I need to ask you something."

"Well, first you should come in," Harm said with a smile, stepping aside a little so she would be able to pass.

Mattie smiled back at him and entered his apartment. She headed for the couch while her friend closed the door. The door closed, Harm joined Mattie on the couch.

"So tell me what is it that you have to ask me about."

"Well, actually, it's something for school. Our history teacher asked for us to do a report on some events that happened during WWII. We still have time to do it, we have to give it back in two weeks, but something's telling me I'd better begin as soon as possible. Do you have any idea of what I could do?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, I have an idea of what you could do," Harm says, looking at her a little mischievously.

Mattie had to smile at the expression in his eyes. There was something funny about it, but she couldn't put a finger on what it was.

"What would you say if I took you to a special place tomorrow. Unless you had already planned something with Jen, or someone else?"

"Nope! I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, so where are we going?"

Harm shook his head negatively. "No, that's not something I'm going to tell right now… you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out."

"Oh, come on! You're not fair. Just give me a hint, please…" she almost begged.

"No, you won't get anything from me today," Harm said biting his lower lip a little to keep from laughing. Mattie suddenly just looked like a little kid – a kid who'd been told that she would have a surprise, but not saying what it would be.

She made a funny face, then suddenly looked up at him, a devilish grin on her lips, and said, "You're not gonna tell me anything, huh? Well, we'll see about that…" Mattie leaned into him and started to tickle him.

Harm couldn't help but laugh. He reached out and took one of the pillows on the couch and held it front of him. "Hey, you're cheating!" he managed to get out between laughter.

"Well, are you going to tell me where we're going then, or shall I continue?"

"You're not going to get anything out of me," Harm said, throwing the pillow at her.

"Hey!" Mattie said, making a funny face again before she burst out laughing.

"Fair game," is all Harm could say before starting to laugh again.

Mattie abruptly stopped laughing and Harm could see unshed tears in her eyes. He stopped laughing too and pulled himself upright on the couch before putting a gentle hand on Mattie's shoulder, wondering why this sudden change of mood. Why is she about to cry? Did I do something?

"Mattie?" Harm started softly.

The teenage girl looked up at him, tears now rolling down her cheeks. Something was wrong, but Harm waited for her sorrow to calm down a bit so she would be able to talk again. He knew she would talk to him at some point; he knew she trusted him. Mattie had learned to open up thanks to him, though he was sure she still didn't tell him everything. He too had learned to open up a little more to people, thanks to her. He was starting to express his feelings a little more though it still wasn't the easiest thing to do for him.

"It's okay, Harm, it's going to pass. It's just that I never do such kind of things with my father. I mean… the tickling stuff…"

Harm heart broke, and he brought her closer to him so he could hug her. She'd told him the most important things about her father, but Harm realized now that she'd only told him the big lines of her story and that there was so much more to it. Her wounds were still gaping and would take a lifetime for those to close and heal, assuming they ever did…

He had made peace with the death of his father, but the memories were still so vivid – not really of what had happened when he died, because Harm hadn't been there. He'd only known about his father's death because of Pitcha…

Harm realized then that her story wasn't that much different from Mac's. Mattie had also a father who liked alcohol a little bit too much.

TBC…

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