Blood Drive
By Celli Lane
Feedback: Positive or negative
both welcome. celli@fanfic101.com
Pairing: Harm/Mac
Category: Story, Romance, Humor
Rating: PG-13
Series: First in the Valentine's Day Series.
Spoiler: Nothing explicit, but anything that's aired in
the US is fair game. Takes place shortly after "Head
to Toe."
Summary: JAG is hosting a Valentine's Day blood drive,
and hilarity ensues. At least, that was the original
concept...
Archiving: Primarily on my fic site, http://www.fanfic101.com. Otherwise, just let me know where so I
can come visit it.
Disclaimer: If JAG belonged to me, Webb would have more
interesting things to occupy his time with than silly
national security, I tell ya...nope, all these guys
belong to DPB, Paramount, and CBS.
Warning: If you don't like needles or blood, think twice
before you read this.
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14 FEB 2002
0500 ZULU
JAG HEADQUARTERS-CONFERENCE ROOM
FALLS CHURCH, VA
"...Article 32 hearing," Admiral Chegwidden finished
as he handed files to
Sturgis and Harm. "Well, I think that's the last of the new
cases. Anything
else, Lt. Simms?"
"The blood drive, sir," Harriet reminded him.
"Oh, right. The local blood center will be here from 1300
to 1500 this
afternoon for--" the Admiral's voice dripped with scorn,
"--a Valentine's Day
blood drive. Participation is encouraged but not mandatory. But
if you're not
giving blood, I suggest you stay in your offices, because it's
going to be a bit
crowded in here. God knows I will," he added under his
breath.
He stood, and the rest of the staff followed his lead. Sturgis
pulled Harm off
to the side with a question about their case as the rest filed
out.
"Will you be donating today, Petty Officer?" Mac
asked Tiner.
"No, ma'am. I donate platelets, and it takes two hours.
I'll be overseeing the
blood drive from our end."
"Two hours? How does that work?"
As Tiner launched into a long-winded description involving a
centrifuge, saline,
and a needle in each arm, Mac noticed Harm behind them,
listening. He looked
sort of..."Harm? Are you sweating?"
"Huh?" Harm scrubbed at his forehead. "No, I'm
fine. It, just, ah..." He
broke off, laughing at himself. "It was the second needle
that got to me, I
think."
"Harm, you're not afraid of needles, are you?"
"I don't think afraid is the right word." He was
wearing that wide-eyed
'Mayday' look of his. "I've been around them often enough,
in my various--"
"Adventures?"
Harm fixed Mac with a look. "Let's just say I don't like
them."
"Well, sir," Tiner broke in, "I don't know many
people who actually enjoy being
poked with a sharp object and watching their blood--"
Harm swallowed audibly.
"Thank you, Petty Officer," Mac said quickly.
"Yes, ma'am." Tiner hurried off. Mac turned back to
Harm.
"So does this mean you won't be donating today?"
Harm drew himself up to his full height. "No, I can do
it." His eyes widened
again. "I just don't have to look while the needle's in,
right?"
Mac started laughing, then broke off when she saw the pointed
look Sturgis was
giving her over Harm's shoulder. "You'll be fine," she
said abruptly.
"Commander Turner, can I talk to you for a minute?"
She followed Sturgis into her office and closed the door
carefully--Lt. Singer
had some kind of homing instinct when it came to hushed
conversations.
"Mac, what's going on?"
She rounded on him. "Sturgis! This has to stop!"
He shrugged. "What am I doing?"
"You keep...looking at me, and at Harm." Some small
part of her brain informed
her that she sounded ridiculous. "Someone's going to say
something. Harm is
going to say something."
"Just a second here. First of all, no one is noticing
anything. I'm a lawyer,
Mac. I do have some small amount of self-control."
Yes. Completely ridiculous. "That's not what I
meant--"
"Second...correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you want
Harm to say something?"
14 FEB 2002
0845 ZULU
JAG HEADQUARTERS--BULLPEN
FALLS CHURCH, VA
Harm stepped out of his office and stared at the mass of
people crowded into the
bullpen. Temporary walls had been erected in several corners,
creating mini-
cubicles with at least an illusion of privacy. Tiner and Harriet
were directing
traffic near him, and there was a cluster of chairs in the
center. Everyone
sitting in a chair had their sleeve rolled up and a--
He looked quickly at Harriet. "Where do I sign up?"
he asked, trying to look
mildly curious instead of mildly nauseated.
"Oh! Right over here, Commander," she said brightly,
guiding him into one of
the makeshift offices. A tired-looking young man in a lab coat
blinked up at
him. His nametag read "Shane."
"Here to donate? Great. Have a seat. You feeling well and
healthy today?" he
asked, with a rapid delivery an auctioneer might envy.
"Ah, yes, thank you," Harm said a bit uncertainly.
"Lieutenant, has Colonel
MacKenzie donated yet?"
"No, sir. She should be here in a few minutes,"
Harriet said as Shane finished
a spiel about "personal questions" and "required
by law."
"Have you ever given anyone money or drugs in exchange
for sex?"
"What?" Harm demanded. Then his brain registered:
right. They had to ask
everyone these questions. "Oh. No."
"Have you ever had a positive test for AIDS or the AIDS
virus?"
"No."
...And so it went, until Harm's eyes had started to glaze over
and even the
anxiety about the upcoming needle couldn't keep him focused. He
occupied his
legal hindbrain by wondering how, if the "don't ask, don't
tell" policy was in
effect, a blood drive on military property could ask "Have
you had sex, even
once, since 1977 with another man?" He had argued both sides
of the case with
himself--rather well, he thought--by the time the lifestyle
questions were
almost over.
"Have you been outside the United States or Canada within
the last 12 months?"
Harm jerked his brain back. "Yes."
"Which countries?" Shane held a pen poised and
ready.
"In 12 months?" Harm thought back a year.
"Bahrain, Mexico, China..." One
very cold night in the middle of the Atlantic, he thought.
"Ah, do carriers
count? There was one in the Indian Ocean..."
Shane's pen was moving faster and faster.
"Don't forget Saudi Arabia," came a voice from
behind the wall.
"Thanks, Mac," Harm said.
"Is that all of them?" Shane asked with just a bit
of desperation.
"I think so."
"Good. Now on to medical history..."
Harm sighed.
Mac's donor technician was an older woman with salt-and-pepper
hair. She
rattled through the questions, barely blinking at the long list
of foreign
countries visited.
"Sign here, please. It looks like all the chairs are
full; if you wait here for
just a minute..."
"Sure." Mac looked over at the personnel donating.
Someone was in the process
of wrapping a remarkably bright purple bandage around Harriet's
arm. Sturgis
was joking with the technician monitoring his donation. And Harm
was there,
too, looking just a bit pale, but she wasn't ready to talk to him
just yet. She
walked over to Sturgis. "Hey."
He looked surprised. "Hi there."
"I just wanted to...I'm sorry about earlier. I must have
sounded..."
"Frustrated," he finished for her. "It's okay.
You know, Mac--"
She shook her head. "Not right now, okay?" The tech
was motioning her to
Harriet's chair. Of course it was right next to Harm's. She
grimaced slightly
and walked over. She would be normal and cheerful if it killed
her, dammit.
"Okay, sir. You're all done here. Just let me get the
needle out--"
Harm looked away, but he could still feel the needle leaving
his arm. His
stomach lurched.
"Thank you," he managed in a voice that was only
slightly husky.
"No prob," Shane said as he slapped a neon green
bandage around Harm's elbow.
"Stand up slow. Drink lots of liquids, don't lift anything
too heavy, and eat a
cookie, okay?"
"Um...yeah." Harm blinked a couple of times, shook
his head (his ears were
ringing for some reason), and started to stand up. Oh, maybe not
quite yet. He
leaned back in the chair. At least you got through it without
embarrassing
yourself, he thought.
"You did it!" Harm looked over as Mac settled into
the chair next to him. "Not
bad, Commander."
"Why, thank you, Colonel." Harm grinned. He barely
noticed the woman rubbing
iodine onto Mac's elbow.
"You remembered to eat something, right?" Mac said.
"They have tomato juice
over with the cookies."
"Oh, yeah, I--" Harm looked down to answer her just
as the technician slid the
needle into a vein. He jumped up without thinking about it.
Mac made a strangled sound as Harm's eyes rolled back in his
head. Only the lab
tech's solid grip on the arm with the needle in it kept her from
jumping out of
her seat.
Shane, with a look of world-weariness on his face, eased Harm
back into his
chair. "Told you to stand up slow," he grumbled.
Harm opened one eye cautiously. When everything had settled a
bit, he opened
the other. Tiner, Harriet, and Mac were all hovering over him.
"Sir?"
"Commander?"
"Harm!"
"What happened?" he managed.
"You fain--uh, passed out," Harriet said.
"You were out for a long time!" Tiner added.
"Eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds," Mac said.
She leaned forward and
spoke so low only Harm could hear her. "It just seemed like
forever."
When her eyes met his, Harm thought the room would start
spinning again. He
looked away and forced a smile. "I'm fine. Mildly
embarrassed, but fine."
He escaped into his office and leaned against his desk. His
mind was racing.
He should be mortified at that display of weakness. What had he
said once,
"Lose control in my world and you die?" Or something
asinine like that. But--
He looked through the blinds. Mac was still staring in his
direction. She'd
never looked at him like that, not in public. Suddenly the
ringing in his ears
seemed more hopeful than humiliating. If passing out was the
price to pay for
that, well..."Bring on the needles," he murmured.
----the end--
Author's Notes: I wrote most of this while donating platelets
on (you guessed
it) Valentine's Day...so if you don't like it, maybe we can blame
the blood
loss. :) (And in case it's misunderstood, I highly recommend
donating blood.
How else can you save someone's life and get cookies??)
Special thanks to Jen
and Packrat, who beta-read for me, and the JAG
Writers Workshop list.
Story Notes: I took the teeniest bit of dramatic license with
the questions
Harm is asked. Also, it's very likely that between their travels
and some of
their more interesting medical experiences, Harm and Mac would be
unable to
donate blood. So we're ignoring that.
Photos from www.cbs.com and
used without permission.
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