OOOO
Month 1
"You've reached the Rabb residence; we're not in just now, but if you leave your name and number, we'll get back to as soon as we can"…'beep!'
"Sir? It's Harriet…Bud and I were just wondering if you and the kids would like to join us for dinner, tonight? Just let me know; it'll be no problem to put some more burgers on the grill for you and Calum…and of course we've got plenty of baby-food for Hannah, as well…Okay then, Sir. Bye…"
Harm sighed. He'd been screening his calls all weekend, every weekend so far, but he supposed he'd really have to answer this one. After a few minutes of pause, he picked up the phone and dialed Bud and Harriet's home number.
"Hello, Harriet? Hi! Thanks so much for the invitation, but the kids are actually with my parents, today…Yeah, they flew out on Friday, to surprise us and spend some time with the kids…Thanks, but I'm afraid I'm not the best of company. Rain check, though? Okay, thanks! Bye…"
OOOO
"Mommy! Mommy, Mommy, MOOOMMMEEEEEE!" Calum chanted, as Harm finally got them all through the front door and into the house, after a long and frustrating day. They'd stopped at the base post office on the way home, to pick up a parcel the postman had been unable to deliver, the day before.
"There you go, buddy!" Harm smiled, depositing the package only slightly bigger than their mailbox on the coffee table in front of his son, "Rip into it!"
Calum ripped off the paper and packing tape, then tore into the box underneath. He exclaimed in wonder when he saw all manner of gifts inside. After quietly pouring over a rolled up poster or the USS Coral Sea, and cap each for him and his Father, a model of an F-14 tomcat and a pint-sized t-shirt each for him and Hannah, he grabbed the letter and DVD case at the bottom.
"Daddy!" he shook the box at his Dad and Harm quickly took it from him, inserting it into the DVD machine on the bottom shelf, below the widescreen tv.
When he and both the kids were settled on the couch, he pressed play on the remote control.
They all sighed with relief and peace as Mac's smiling face appeared on the screen. As her words of love poured over them all, they relaxed back into the comfy cushions. This was a program that had been set up on many of the fleets sent into war, to help them keep in touch with their loved ones at home. It was particularly helpful to those who had children, because it meant that the deployed parent could feel like they were still taking part in the everyday routines of their children. Mac managed to send such a DVD home every fortnight, one in which she could read her children a bedtime story, then 'tuck them in' by singing them to sleep. Calum insisted on watching the DVD every night and several times a day, each weekend, until a new one came in the post. At the end of every DVD for her kids, Mac asked her husband to pause the DVD, so that he could put the kids to bed, for they were almost always both fast asleep by the time 'children's hour' had finished! Then he'd return and resume the DVD, listening as she told him what was going on aboard the ship (omitting any military secrets, or course!) She'd tell him how much she missed him and the kids, of the things she'd think about; their happy times as a family, whenever she felt lonely in her bed, after hours, when all was not quite silent, but at least quieter. As always, she'd allay his fears, telling him how the crew was taking care of each other; how they were keeping her safe, even though they still joked that she was a 'legal-weenie.'
"I love you; take care of each other for me, okay?"
When the screen went blank again, Harm turned the DVD off, to be enveloped by the discomforting sound of silence in the large house.
OOOO
"Daddy, you need to wake up…It's late…"
"Hmmm?" Harm squinted into the bright light that had been turned on in Calum's bedroom….
'Calum's bedroom?!' Harm suddenly realized, with shock, where he currently was.
A glance at the Spiderman themed clock on the wall told him that it was nearly past time to be leaving the house, and here they all were, still in bed, in their pajamas (well, not Harm; he was in civvies, but not his uniform) and none of them had even thought about preparing and eating breakfast!
"Sh…Shoot! Alright Calum, you need to be a big boy and start getting ready for school…I'll go and get Hannah ready for crèche…"
"I'm already ready for school Daddy!"
A quick glance at Calum confirmed that yes, he was dressed, but that his shirt clashed horrifically with his shorts, his shirt was buttoned up wrong and the button fly his shorts was undone.
"Uh, good job, sport! Why don't you go and eat some breakfast and get your bag all packed, I'll take care of Hannah and I…then I'll come back and help you just a little bit with your clothes…"
Calum looked down at himself, mildly affronted; he thought he looked perfectly fine, but just shrugged and went to the kitchen to help himself to a bowl of cereal.
While his Dad got his sister and himself ready, Calum opened the fridge, searching for the milk to go with his bowl of cheerios. After a little accident a couple of months earlier, his parents had begun buying small cartons of milk for him to use, so that they didn't end up with a lake of milk over the kitchen table and floor again. Calum insisted on helping with every 'grown-up' task that caught his attention and once it did so, there was no dissuading him! Calum grabbed one of these cartons off the shelf and then went to pour it over his breakfast.
"Coates?" Harm was busy trying to wrestle Hannah's squirmy legs into her jeans and call into headquarters, at the same time.
"Good morning, Sir," she sounded far too chipper for somebody who was already in work at this hour.
"I'm afraid I'm running late, today, Petty Officer…"
"Don't worry, Sir…I'll just tell the Admiral that you had to stop by Langley to pick up those autopsy results that you were waiting on for the Robinson case…"
"I don't have those results, yet," Harm shook his head, sitting a reluctant Hannah up so that he could fit a t-shirt over her head, "they weren't through when I left….
"Lieutenant Roberts picked them up last night," Jen let him know, "after you'd left for the day…I've got them on my desk, so you only need to pick them up on your way in to see the Admiral…They pretty much confirm your suspicions, Sir…"
"You're a life-saver, Petty Officer!"
"I try, Sir!"
With a chuckle, Harm snapped the phone closed, picked Hannah up and headed out to see what mischief his son was getting up to!
Calum was preparing to put on his shoes and socks. Harm halted the boy, so that he could first get him into a new shirt and button up his shorts.
"I can do my socks and shoes, Daddy," Calum, told his Father.
"Okay," Harm said, buttoning the fly on Calum's shorts, "You do it then…Make sure you put them on the right feet…"
"But socks don't come in left and right, Daddy…"
"Not the socks, sport! The shoes…"
"Oh! Oh, yeah!"
Harm was still chuckling when they were all in the car, pulling out of the driveway.
OOOO
"Is Mommy coming back soon?" Calum asked, as Harm helped him out of bed sometime before sunrise, as had now become the norm.
"Uh, not yet, buddy…She's still keeping everybody on the ship and in Iraq safe…"
"But when?"
"There's still quite some time, still."
"How long?"
"The days will pass faster if you don't count them, son…A watched kettle never boils…"
"Huh?!"
"Never mind…You'll understand when you're older…"
Harm lifted some clothes out of Calum's wardrobe, to get the boy ready for school.
"Not those ones, Daddy," Calum pushed away the khaki pants and shirt his Father attempted to put down on the bed beside him, "I want my Spiderman outfit, today."
"Buddy, you know you can't wear your Spiderman outfit to school…" Harm was so tired he barely had the energy to protest. Would his teacher really care if Calum wore the full-length, blue and red suit to class today? Hmmm…probably! But how to explain this to a six-year-old?
Calum was frowning at him and for the hundredth time since his wife had gone, Harm found him thinking, 'I'm nowhere near as good at this as Mac is…How can I do this all on my own? I'm totally crap at this!'
Then another idea caught in his mind…'How would Mac handle this?'
"You wouldn't want to scare the other kids, would you?" Harm reasoned with the boy, "Shooting off your web-slingers, climbing up the walls and across the ceiling? What would Mrs. Cattersley do if a masked stranger walked into class? She'd faint from the shock of it!"
Calum giggled and nodded his head eagerly in agreement.
"We can't have that, because Mrs. Cattersley is a really nice lady, isn't she?"
Calum nodded again. He was turning out to be a little charmer, like his Dad and Harm really did suspect that his son was one of the teacher's favourites! Not that he'd ever say it aloud, lest any of the other parents get upset…But yeah, his boy loved going to school each day…at least he had, before Mac had left and Calum and Hannah had been stuck with their incompetent old Dad to get the household and childcare duties done. He was hardly what you would call a 'Mister Mom' type!
Harm pushed his thoughts aside; he had more important things to take care of, now.
"You can wear it when you get home, after Daddy comes to pick you up, okay?"
"Yeah, okay Daddy."
Today, they all got dressed, fed and ready for the day ahead of them, walking out the front door and getting into the car only twenty minutes behind schedule. It wasn't ideal, but it was still an improvement!
OOOO
After another busy day Harm collapsed into bed, though sorely-needed sleep proved elusive, especially as the events of the day wouldn't quit swirling around in his head. Calum had knocked a paint pot onto himself, an hour into class, so Harm had had to head home to grab a change of clothes for him. And later that day when he picked Hannah up from a play-date, en-route back to Calum's school, she had dropped her drink onto the floor of the car. The lid had burst off (Harm didn't recall that ever happening to Mac) and Hannah had murmured something that sounded suspiciously like 'shit!' He wasn't a hundred percent sure of it, though, but he would have to make sure he was more careful about what he said around the two kids, even when he didn't think they were listening. Mac would not be happy if Hannah's first word was a curse! There were no repeat offenses, so Harm had tried not to worry about it too much.
OOOO
"When did your boys start talking, Harriet?" Harm asked, curiously.
"Uh, somewhere between 11 and 13 months, Sir," Harriet replied, "AJ was a little faster, but probably because Bud gave him so much 'coaching'."
"It was almost a whole two months earlier, Harriet," Bud wandered over from the kitchen, where he had been pouring them all another drink, "I swear, Sir, one night AJ and I were watching an episode of Star Trek and he just came out with, 'Doctor Spock!' It was amazing!"
"Bud, he did not say 'Doctor Spock'," Harriet snorted, "That character wasn't even in the episode! It was just baby-jabber!"
"He did so," Bud argued, "AJ just probably recognized the uniform…"
Harriet laughed as she told Harm, "It sounded more like 'booger-snot' than 'Doctor Spock'!"
Harm tried not to laugh, but it was just too amusing. Bud looked quite offended, so Harm decided to try and attribute the laughter to something else.
"It's just that I think Hannah said something, when I picked her up from crèche and in the days since, I haven't made up my mind what to do about it. I mean, I couldn't tell for sure, in between all of that babbling, but she dropped her cup, which burst open over the carpet and…well, I could have sworn she said… 'shit'! I have caught myself before I accidentally use certain words, but I don't know that some haven't slipped out without me realizing!"
Harm had glanced cautiously at the kids, to make sure they were all thoroughly engrossed in the tv, before he had uttered the offending word.
"AJ's come out with a few little gems he's learnt from the kids in his class and on his school bus," Bud confided, with a small grin, "It's so hard not to laugh, sometimes!"
"Are you sure it wasn't 'ship'?" Harriet asked, "That's what she calls her 'sippy-cup'."
"I sure hope so," Harm laughed, "Otherwise I'm going to be in big trouble with a big-bad marine!"
OOOO
Month 2
"Are you alright Sir?" Harriet asked, with concern.
She was now on maternity leave and had only come into JAG so that she could change some of the photographs in Bud's office and do a general clean around his work surfaces.
But the Commander she now saw before her had given her reason to pause, leaving her duster on the top of one of the desks in Bud's office, still only half clean.
"You don't happen to have any aspirin, do you, Harriet?" Harm looked up, hopefully.
"I'm sorry, Commander, I don't," Harriet smiled in sympathy, "How are Calum and Hannah doing?"
"I got Calum back to school today, after a bout of the flu," Harm blew his nose, for the umpteenth time that morning, "But now I think Hannah is going down with it. She had a bit of a cough this morning, but I'm really hoping that it won't come to anything…And I haven't even had time to think of myself."
"Sounds like you're knee deep in that flu, yourself," Harriet commented, guessing, "Calum brought it home from school?"
"Yeah, how'd you guess?!" Harm deadpanned.
Harriet grinned, adding, "Let me go fetch you a cup of herbal tea, Sir."
"No, you should be resting your feet, Lieutenant…" Harm protested.
"No problem, Sir," Harriet waived off his concern.
"Commander!"
Harm jumped up and stood to attention as his CO appeared in the doorway of his office.
"Sir!?"
"Go home, Commander!"
"But Sir, I'm f…"
"Go home, that's an order. Don't let me see you back here until you have a doctor's note saying that you and your children are healthy again, understood? I don't need your case of botulism spread around my staff…"
"Yes, Sir," Harm sighed, gathering his belongings, before going to find Harriet, to tell her that she was to put her feet up and drink that mug of tea herself!
OOOO
After picking up Hannah, Harm drove them both home. He could have just left Hannah in the crèche the whole day, but he didn't think he was ready to face the house on his own. He never went home until he had picked the kids up from school and the crèche and he could hardly stand it without Mac's warming presence, let alone without that of the kids. Calum didn't finish school for a few more hours, yet, but he and Hannah would find something to occupy them, in the meantime. Once he had changed out his uniform and had given Hannah a bottle and burped her, he settled her down in her crib, as she had begun to fall asleep. He returned downstairs, where he picked up one of the DVDs from Mac and slid it into the deck of the DVD player. Then he got comfortable on the couch and hit 'play' on the remote control. He didn't bother turning the volume up, because he didn't really feel like listening to the tale of Rapunzel, he just really needed to see his wife's beautiful face right now. Before he even knew it, the children's portion of the DVD had finished and Mac was turning to put the storybook down beside her. Harm quickly moved to turn up the volume, fumbling the remote which slipped out of his hand, bounced onto the floor and out of sight, under the couch.
"Dammit!" Harm cursed, squeezing his hand under the couch, fishing for the AWOL implement. In the end, he had to get on his hands and knees, on the floor, with his six in the air so that he could reach in until his bicep was squished into the small space beneath the couch.
"Finally," he groaned, as his fingertips closed around the remote.
Once the volume was turned up, Harm was quickly able to ascertain where in the 'conversation' his wife was. He'd watched this particular disc so many times since it had arrived in the mail, as many times as the kids…Well, almost as many times as the kids! Calum was understandably obsessive about the few discs in his collection from Mommy.
"I don't know how I'm managing to get as much work done as I am…" Mac was now saying, "Flight ops are constantly going on, even in the dead of night and then there are different sirens and klaxons going off in the ship…all of that doesn't exactly lend itself to allowing me to sleep, on top of my usual insomnia…I can't wear any kind of ear-plugs, just in case there's some sort of emergency aboard the carrier and I don't hear the alarms…But even if all that stuff wasn't going on aboard ship, even if I didn't have the problems that I do with sleeping through the night, I wouldn't be able to get to sleep because you're not there…I toss and turn on this tiny little bunk and I can't get up and go to check on our babies, to make sure they're okay and put my mind at ease…I know you're taking such good care of them, but I really wish I was there with you, to take part in all the things we would do every single day and not even think anything about it…I miss you guys so much and I want to be home with you more than anything right now…"
Her ramblings only slowed so that she could get her breath and wipe away the tears that had managed to escape, despite how she had called upon all her marine strength to hold herself together.
"I can just imagine you telling me that I need to suck it up and stop giving the Marine Corps a bad name…" Mac laughed tearfully as she said this, trying to joke to cover her embarrassment, but Harm still shook his head, as he carefully picked himself up off the couch and crouched closer to the big-screen television.
"No, never, honey…" Harm whispered, trailing his hand across her face on the screen, as if to wipe away her tears, like he always did while she was actually with him, "Please don't cry…We're all going to get through this…"
Harm knew it was going to be difficult, at times even unbearable. He wasn't going to say they were going be okay, because he knew that as hard as he was finding juggling work and the kids' schedules, Mac would find it even worse, without being able to be with any of her family. She had taken to living as a family like a duck to water, despite having little experience of such a thing both during her childhood and her adult life. Harm felt like he had almost been brought to his knees, he was missing Mac so much, some nights. Even throwing himself into nurturing their kids or his job didn't help divert his attention away from his wife, much of the time.
"But then I think about how much faith you have in me and that makes it so much better…I don't know how I'd be able to cope without your support and encouragement…"
Now sitting in the sunlit living room, more than an hour later, Harm began the disc again. Most of the tension that had been present in his muscles for the last few days had by now melted away and he lay motionless, face down on the couch, his cheek resting against the back of one hand. His eyes were wide and teary, focused closely on the screen of the tv…
OOOO
It was with a shock that he woke up to the sound of Hannah's cries. Thankfully, upon consulting his watch, he found that he had not been asleep long and still had thirty-five minutes before he had to leave to collect Calum from school. That was plenty of time to change Hannah's diaper which was inevitably wet through by now. He hoisted himself up off the couch, the weight on his shoulders thankfully much lighter than when he had first arrived home.
"Hey little girl!" Harm greeted his teary-eyes daughter, as he peered into the crib, "You feeling a little lonesome, there? Yeah, me too. How about we keep each other company until your brother comes out of school?"
As Harm had suspected, her diaper was indeed wet and dirty. He took care of it quickly and efficiently without so much as a grimace, before he dressed Hannah in something warmer, more suiting to the cooler weather that had moved in.
As he made his way back downstairs and into the living room with Hannah in his arms, he realized that the tv was still on, with the volume turned up unnecessarily high. He stopped for a few minutes, knowing that time wasn't that pressing…And realized just which part of Mac's conversation was currently being played. He quickly ducked down to grab the remote control from the arm of the couch and pressed the mute button.
"That, Miss Hannah, is a grown-up conversation that isn't suitable for little ears...I figure you'll have to wait…oh, at least thirty more years until you will be old enough to even hear that sort of thing!"
OOOO
Once they had picked Calum up from school, Harm brought them home for a late afternoon/early evening snack.
"Did you have a good day at school, today, sport?"
"Uh-huh!" Calum mumbled around his mouthful of sandwich.
Harm was so glad to see his son that he didn't have the heart to reprimand him for talking with his mouth full. He waited for the boy to chew and swallow before asking him anymore.
"What did you do?"
"We had spelling and art and…story-time…"
"Uh-huh," Harm nodded, encouraging him, "and what else?"
"Snack-time…and show and tell…"
"Did you bring anything for show and tell?" Harm suddenly frowned, not remembering his son telling him anything about this.
"No, it wasn't my turn, this week…Well, I'm not sure when Mrs Cattersley said it was my turn, but I think she said 'next month'…" Calum pondered to himself.
"Don't worry, buddy," Harm smoothed a hand over his son's head, "Daddy will check with Mrs. Cattersley, tomorrow."
"What could I bring in for show and tell, Daddy?"
"I don't know…what have the other kids brought in, so far?"
"Um, Georgie brought in her pet bullfrog…and Amy brought her Mommy and a photograph to show the class…she said she's going to get a new baby brother or sister…"
"Hmmm…" Harm pondered, "You could tell them all about Mommy…"
"What exactly does Mommy do on the ship, Daddy?"
"She's a legal advisor on the USS Coral Sea. She keeps all of the women and men aboard the ship safe and when she is needed, she flies to Iraq and Kuwait, to advise on the care of those who have been injured or arrest…those who just need help."
Harm and Mac had had a tough time explaining what her duties would be to their son. He was not quite seven years old, yet and understood only the basics of what they actually told him.
"She plays a very important part in helping the people involved in the war," Harm surmised and Calum seemed happy enough with his explanation.
"Daddy, can I go and put my Spiderman costume on?"
"Yeah, you go and do that, buddy," Harm nodded, "Daddy will feed Hannah her lunch, while you do. Remember, though; don't put your mask on until you've come all the way down the stairs. Last time you had in on backwards and couldn't see where you were going."
"Okay Daddy!"
Harm thought over his son's stories from school and it triggered some thoughts of his own. He thought he might have a project of his own that they could all work on, while waiting for Mac to come home.
OOOO
"Daddy?"
"What's wrong, son?"
"Can I sleep with you tonight?"
"Okay, champ, climb in…You didn't have bad dreams, did you?"
"No, but it's starting to thunder."
"There's no need to be frightened. I bet it sounds just like this where Mommy is…Just pretend that fighter planes are taking off from the deck above your head…"
Harm was so exhausted that he hadn't even heard the beginning rumblings or even the rain hitting off the bedroom window. By the time the two of them were dropping off to sleep, the thunder was starting to rattle the window panes and Hannah began to cry. As he left Calum in bed, seeing as the boy was out for the count, Harm gave up any idea of sleep coming anytime soon, concentrating on getting his daughter back to sleep before she woke her big brother, too.
OOOO
"I wish I was still allowed to handle automatic weapons in the courtroom," Harm joked to Sturgis, his second chair.
"Why's that?" Sturgis asked Harm.
"Because I could use a bullet to the head right now," he took a deep swallow of his coffee, while he read over his notes before their court session began.
Sturgis snorted with laughter. There was nothing like a lack of sleep to totally discombobulate Harmon Rabb, Jr.!
"The storm felled two trees on my street," Sturgis mentioned, "It was very powerful, apparently…not that I noticed…I slept through it."
"Calum too," Harm mused, "Funny, that it's the same boy who woke up at three am on his birthday, last year, because he heard the squeak of the staircase, when Mac and I were going to put his presents out!"
"Kids are funny that way," Sturgis remarked, "I remember you sleeping through fire-drills during our first semester at the Academy, yet if Keeter tried to sneak into your foot-locker, you were awake, radiating the cheer of a Rottweiler."
OOOO
Harm looked at the countdown system he had set on his office computer.
"That's neat," Sturgis commented, "How long now?"
"91 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 6 seconds."
"You know an exact time?"
"No, but that's a countdown until midnight, the day that Mac is scheduled to arrive home…It helps to know that we won't be waiting that long…"
"She'll know exactly how long is left, if anyone were to ask her, at any given point during the day, huh?" Sturgis asked, grinning.
"Yep!" Harm smiled back at him.
"You are one lucky man," Sturgis surmised.
"I am…and I'd better be going," Harm wheeled his chair back from his desk, "I've got to be back in court in fifteen minutes."
Once he was sure that Harm was gone, Sturgis motioned to some of the other JAG staff to come into Harm's office, so he could show them what Harm had set up on the desktop of his computer!
OOOO
"Hey Sailor, how are you guys managing without me?"
Harm had come to realize that he simply could not do without these ship-to-shore calls. They were lucky that they'd had the opportunity for only two of them before now, but they were as much of a life-line to him as the DVDs were to the kids. He could talk to his wife, in real-time, about any problems he was having and she would help him to overcome them. Most importantly, he could tell her that he loved her and hear her say it right back in return. He could hear the love in her voice, knowing that it was directed just at him, for the moment, since the kids were usually in school and crèche when she called. It made him feel so loved that his heart began to throw itself against his ribs.
"We're doing okay…Hannah's getting so big and Calum wants to start the after-school soccer league that the school runs…I convinced him that he should wait for the current semester to finish, before he starts adding to his activity load."
"And what about you, have you been taking care of yourself? You sound like you have the sniffles…"
Harm loved how Sarah always managed to keep him in mind, even when the children were taking up her every waking minute. He truly thought she was the most amazing woman, lawyer, mother and wife.
"Just a bit of a cold left over," Harm shrugged it off, "I'll be okay; it's almost completely gone, now."
"You need to take good care of yourself, flyboy," Mac told him, "I don't like not being there for you when you're sick. And you'll have a lot to do to get Christmas ready for the kids, before I come back."
"So you will be home on-schedule, then?"
"It seems like it…But things are kind of unpredictable out here…"
"Can't we just wait and do of all of the shopping together, like we always do?" Harm couldn't help but keep the whine out of his voice. It wasn't that he didn't like Christmas shopping, but he just preferred it when Mac was with him. It was a tradition they'd had at least once each holiday season, since not too long into their partnership at JAG.
"Not a week before Christmas, Harm!"
"Okay, I'm sorry…I only asked."
"If you thought buying for one child was hard enough, buying for two will be a nightmare…"
"I know I just like it when we go together…We can bundle up and walk through the streets together, when the snow is just beginning to fall…"
"How do you think all the presents for so many friends are going to get bought, by themselves?"
"Please, Mac," Harm actually held up a hand in surrender, "I don't want to fight with you…I know you're in the middle of a really tough situation out there… I just want to make the most of this time I get with you…"
An uncomfortable silence came over the line, then…
"You're right…I'm sorry, Harm…Being this far away is hard for me and I really want to be there to help with everything…"
"I know, baby…I think every day of how brave you are and how stupid I am because I can't even persuade Hannah to let me take her shoes off so she can go to bed, or get Calum to wear normal clothes to school, not the Spiderman outfit that he wants to wear.."
"You're doing a fantastic job, honey. Don't you let the little setbacks get you down; you do the best you can and…"
"…that's all that anyone can expect…Thanks, Mac. That makes me feel better. Of course it's not as good as a snuggly Marine Lieutenant Colonel to keep me toasty warm, at night…instead I've got a nearly-seven-year-old who snores and kicks lumps out of me as if he were a camel and an eleven-and-a-half-month-old who drools on me!"
"Never mind, I promise I'll make up for it once I get home," Mac's warm voice held the fire of that promise.
"Where are you, right now?" Ham wondered, aloud.
"The Comm. room, why?"
"There's nobody else there, is there?"
"No, but I'm not sure if somebody's monitoring the call or not…"
"Then phone sex is out of the question?"
"Harm!" Mac laughed heartily, mock-serious, though her tone implied the opposite, "You're incorrigible…Just you wait until I get home!"
"I look forward to it, Marine!" Harm goaded her a little more.
OOOO
