Title: A quiet afternoon
Author: Zeilfanaat
Rating: General / K
Disclaimer: Harm and Mac are not mine, they belong to D. Bellisario. However Maya and Julie are mine.
A/N: At this point in time, I don't have a beta-reader, so all mistakes in here are mine.
A/N2: Miffy is originally from Holland, where it's called "Nijntje Pluis". Nijn is short for Konijn, which means rabbit in Dutch. '-tje'is a word to make something smaller, so Nijntje means little rabbit. Pluis means fluff.
A/N3: I've re-loaded this story, hopefully without the mistakes. If you see some mistakes still in here, please tell me.
Four year old Maya and her two year old sister Julie were playing in the living room while Sarah Mackenzie- Rabb kept an eye on them from the kitchen where she was making coffee.
"Harm? Coffee's ready!" She shouted up the stairs.
"Coming! Just let me finish this phone call!" came back from upstairs. She could just hear the mumbling sound of him talking to someone on the phone, but she couldn't make out the words.
She took the two coffee cups and walked towards the couch. The moment she put down the two cups, Maya yelled at Julie, whose upper lip started to tremble.
"Maya! What's going on?" The brown-eyed girl looked up at her mother with a furious look.
"Julie ate my book of 'Miffy'"
"Di' no'"
"Did too"
"Di' no'" The little girl's blue eyes started to tear.
"Did too!"
"Stop both of you. Maya, Julie didn't eat your book, and Julie, you're not allowed to chew on books, especially not if they're not yours."
Maya turned away without another glance at her little sister, and started playing with a doll. Julie looked at her mother with teary eyes.
"Fowy?" She asked with a little voice.
"You're forgiven...this time. Don't do it again though. OK?"
"OK." the at first sad eyes sparkled again.
Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. Julie ran towards the door as quickly as her little feet would carry her and threw her arms around her father's leg as he stepped into the room.
Chuckling Harm picked up his youngest daughter and tickled her. The girl laughed. "Daddy!" she managed between the giggles. "Ftop!"
Harm smiled and sat down, putting the child on his knee.
Maya had also looked up when her father entered, but when she saw her sister sitting in his lap she angrily turned her head away again. Harm raised an eyebrow towards Mac, who mouthed: "Miffy."
That was all he needed to know to understand the situation.
"Hey Maya, doesn't your old Daddy get a hug?" he asked.
Maya didn't turn around. "No."
Julie slipped off Harms knee and walked over to her sister to stand in front of her. Maya turned away, but Julie kept turning with her.
They turned faster and faster. Then Maya suddenly stopped turning and Julie, surprised by the abrupt stop, stumbled onto the floor.
She had such a cute look on her face that both Harm and Mac were having trouble to keep from bursting out in laughter.
Maya had a smile on her face now and she stood up to walk overto her sister.
But because of the many circles she had turned she couldn't find her balance and ended up falling next to her sister.
They looked at each other perplexed, and then, very quietly, Julie began to giggle. Maya tried to contain her laughter. She was supposed to be angry. But she failed, so instead joined in with her sister.
Julie tried to stand up, still laughing, found her balance after a couple of seconds and then held out her tiny hand to help Maya stand up. But because of the movement she almost lost her balance again.
Maya then stood up without help, took a couple of unsteady steps towards Julie, and they collapsed into each others arms.
Tears of laughter went down their cheeks. Hand in hand they tried to walk over to the couch where their parentswere watching their daughters, who now looked like two drunks trying to walk to the next bar.
After two more falls they managed to get to their parents. Mac took Julie in her lap while Harm took their oldest daughter.
After the fits of laughter had subsided, Julie looked at Maya with a serious expression on her face. While frowning she said:
"Fowy fow eating Miffy. You can eat Pooh beaw. OK?"
Maya smiled at her. "Thanks, but I don't like eating Pooh bear. How about we both look at the pictures?"
Julie's face lit up. "Yeah!"
They both ran off to the box with toys in the corner, where they quickly pulled out a book of Winnie the Pooh. They ran back to the couch and looked at their Dad with pleading eyes.
"Daddy, do you want to read Winnie the Pooh to us? Please?"
Harm scratched his head. "Well, I should go back to work..."
Mac now turned to look at him with an amused smile and started pleading along with their daughters.
"Oh, come on 'Daddy', just one story. Please?"
Harm tried to give his three girls a stern look. He finally gave in. "OK, OK, one story."
"Yeah!"
Mac cuddled against Harm's side, having Maya in her lap. Julie sat on the other side, in Harm's lap, holding the book. Harm wrapped one arm around Mac's shoulders, holdingthe book with the other hand, and started reading.
Julie turned the pages every time they came to the end of the page, having her other thumb in her mouth.
When the story came to an end, all three girls were asleep. Harm smiled as he looked down at them.
'What a lucky man I am.' He thought. 'I'll catch up with the work later.' And with that he rested his head back, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The End