Author's Note:

As always, I've gotten caught up in writing too many different things, but I wanted to update this one so you know it is still alive! Hope you enjoy the update and review if you would like!

"Colonel MacKenzie." The girl says finally, putting her hand out for Mac to shake, "My name is Kate Bran…"

"I know who you are." Mac says quietly.

"I'm sorry for just coming down here, but…" she starts and then realizes that Harm is in the room and looks in his direction for an introduction.

"Commander Rabb… I'm," he looks to Mac for confirmation of the introduction, "Sarah's fiancé. It is a pleasure to meet you. We've been talking about you a lot these past few weeks."

"That's why I'm here. When Mrs. Booth called to talk to me about moving foster homes, she mentioned that it was a Marine Colonel. I knew that it was you, so I… I just came here."

"From Arizona?!" Mac says, concerned for her to travel all that way by herself.

"No, I'm here in D.C. Uncle Matt had me transferred out here because he knew that you were going to be working with JAG."

"Uncle Matt? How do you..."

"When I was little, I would always get cards, but when I was old enough to read them, I think he started sending more stuff. A few years ago, he told me about how he got me sent to D.C. when I was four to find a new family because he thought that maybe one day I would want to meet you. I wasn't allowed to send him letters back, but he said that the lady that worked with you guys on the adoption agreed to let him send me letters if it was okay with my adoptive parents. Since I didn't get adopted, no one said I couldn't have the letters. He told me all about who you are and about you when you were little. It's like I already know you, even though I don't really know you at all."

Mac had tears in her eyes listening to the young woman speak about staying in contact with her uncle for all these years and not being able to get him to help her out of the situation she was in.

"I never knew that he was in contact with you. He never told me." She says at almost a whisper.

"He said that it had to be my decision in the end. When Mrs. Booth told me who it was, I had to come see if it was you that wanted me."

"It is." She says as confidently as she can muster.

"Why?"

How do you explain all of this to a sixteen year old girl that you haven't seen in as many years? How do you tell her all that led up to you finding her again and wanting her back?

"I… you know what, why don't we go somewhere and talk?" Mac says, finally realizing that JAG was not the place to have this conversation.

"Okay." The young girl says timidly.

"Mac, why don't you just go to my place. It's closer than yours and I'll just bring home food. Katherine, you are more than welcome to stay for dinner if you would like."

"Umm… I think that I might like to do that, but I have to be home by ten because of curfew."

"We can get you home… how did you get here?" Harm explains and then asks.

"Took the bus."

Harm turns toward Mac then, watching her hands shake as she grabs for her cover and her purse. When he sees the nerves, he tells Katherine that Mac will be out in just a minute and watches the girl walk out before coming to stand beside Mac.

"You okay?"

"I didn't know that she was going to be here." She says, standing up to face him with tears in her eyes and a tremble in her voice.

"I know you didn't, but are you okay?"

"She's… she's all grown up, and I had nothing to do with it. She's this beautiful young woman and she's my daughter and I don't even know her. What if she ends up hating me? What has Matt told her, Harm? I don't think I can… I don't know how to…"

"Sarah… come on. You told me yourself that she was loved and she was wanted. You just weren't in a position to take care of her when you were 19. You told me that you wanted a chance to be someone for her, so take that chance now, because she's here. Besides, you're an amazing woman, and I can't see any reason why she wouldn't grow to love you like I do."

"I never abandoned you…"

"You didn't abandon her, you thought you were doing the right thing… you were doing the right thing, but something went wrong. But she's here now, so go with her."

"Okay." She says, letting out a deep breath that she had been holding and turning toward the door.

"Mac?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The car ride was in silence and when they got to Harm's apartment and were sitting face to face the silence just grew more and more uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have come before we met with Mrs. Booth." Katherine says, standing up and walking towards the door after realizing how hard the situation was.

"No, I want you here. I want to answer all your questions. That was one thing that I told Mrs. Booth. I wanted you to be fully aware that you were my biological daughter when you were heading into this. I want you to know everything you want to know."

"I'd like to change my question." She finally breaks after a minute, moving to sit back down across from Mac.

"Okay."

"I think that before I find out why you want me now, I want to know why you wanted me then but gave me away."

"Did Uncle Matt say that is what happened?"

"No, but that is what you and that Commander were saying."

"Eavesdropping one of your specialties?" Mac asks with a quirk of her brow.

"Actually, yes. Moving from house to house with bedrooms full of kids, you learn to listen to them to find out what's going on in a new place."

"How many places have you been to?"

"Enough." She says with a far off look to her face.

"Oh."

"So?" she asks, wanting the answer to a question she had asked for years.

"I was an alcoholic. Well, technically, I still am, but I haven't had a drink in years. I grew up in a household where my dad was a drunk and my mom abandoned us when I was fifteen years old. When you were five months old, I fell off the wagon for the first time since I had found out I was pregnant with you. I drank too much and passed out. When I woke up, Uncle Matt had already taken care of you and he told me that I shouldn't make you live the life I had growing up. I knew that he was right, so we put you up for adoption and found a great couple to take you. Apparently they weren't so great."

"They were. I remember little things about being with them when I was younger, and then I remember the day that someone came and got me and took me to a new house. I didn't understand until later what had happened. That's when I started getting the cards from Uncle Matt and Mrs. Booth and met a lot of different people all the time for a while. None of them wanted me, so I stayed in different places. I was always one of the oldest, so I was always the one they said could go to a new place. Something about me understanding it better…." She said, trailing off when she noticed that Mac had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"That wasn't what you were supposed to have."

"What was I supposed to have?" She asks quietly wanting to know the life Mac had thought she would live away from her.

"I thought you were living in the suburbs somewhere with a nice family, maybe a few siblings and a big dog that you loved. You were supposed to be doing well in school and on every sports team you could be on and being happy. I just wanted you to have this amazing life with people who loved you."

"I'm still really good at school… the other stuff just didn't work out."

"I'm sorry." Mac finally says, not being able to meet the girl's eyes.

"You're prettier in person, you know?"

Mac just looks up at her wondering what could have possibly brought the comment on.

"When he started sending me articles and things with you in them I would stare at your picture for hours, wondering where you were now. Were you here or were you off defending a case somewhere halfway around the world. Then I would imagine you coming to get me one day and we would go off together and travel the world and I would be able to tell everyone that my mom was a Marine. I kept it all to myself though, hid the pictures and the articles so no one could see them. I was so excited when I read an article about you working here in D.C. I even got to see that trial that you did on TV. Well, I only got to see one day of it, but it was still something."

"You can't always believe what you see and read."

"Was that other lawyer really one of your old teachers?"

"She was… actually she was the one who told me that I couldn't become a real lawyer. It was to push me, but I think she believed it until I beat her."

"Indonesia, was that real? Did you get that medal?"

"It was… that was a difficult trip for me."

"You saved so many people though…"

"There was a little girl… I went back and found her later and made sure she was okay, but we had to leave her behind."

"She reminded you of me."

"Every child I see reminds me of you."

"Why now? Can I ask you that?"

"I found out a few months ago that I most likely can't have another child. My thoughts were with you constantly then, wondering if I had done right with the only child I would ever have. I wanted to see if you were okay and found out that you had never been adopted because of your diabetes."

"Yeah, well, no one wants a sick kid."

"You aren't sick. You're…." she pauses for a moment to look at the young woman sitting in front of her, "as perfect as the day you were born."

After that comment everything just hung in the air. It was as if the younger girl was trying to make sense out of all that she had just learned and the older woman was still recovering from having her daughter in front of her after all these years.