Thanks for the reviews!

Okay, the next part's a LOT longer...

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There was one other thing Loren knew about Harm, because of which she felt compassion for him, since he'd obviously given up on ever having his own family.

For men like Harm the final and the most desirable progression of a relationship is marriage and family and she felt a swift feeling of regret that it wasn't Harm that was the father of her baby.

Were he, then everything would've been different, better. Much better.

She wouldn't have to battle her fear on her own every second of every day, no, she would have a rock with her 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (and a day more every four years). She wouldn't have to fight her fears of inadequacy and failure at being a mother on her own, with no-one to talk to and no-one to comfort her; because she knew he'd be there through it all with her, holding her hand, supporting her, comforting her and letting her know everything would be okay and that she would be the best mother in the world, the mother that any child would want.

True, men aren't necessary for a successful completion of pregnancy (but they are necessary for the pregnancy to happen in the first place), but it's the good guys like Harm that make the whole thing worth it, that make it so much easier. Besides, isn't life fuller when you share it with a partner?

Sure, having kids can be great, but life is somewhat incomplete if you have only them. The lack of romantic love in one's life can be quite painful and deeply-felt, it's a lonely existence, even with family around; and it gets even lonelier when your kids grow up and move out and you're not also lonely, but de facto alone.

This is when the advantages of having a life partner, a spouse, be it wife or husband, become crystal clear, more than ever before, even more than when the kids were still small and a handful at just taking care of them and raising them.

Loren knew that if she had the choice between having a good man, who would help her every step of the way 'till death did them part, even if it meant she'd lose her independence with marriage and family; and being a single parent just to keep her independence, no matter how unreal it is, because as soon as you have a child or are in a relationship you are no longer independent because you have to consider how every decision of yours will affect your child and/or your partner; she would rather choose the good man and no independence.

For the first time in her adult life she felt true compassion for someone, for this wonderful man, who wanted children so much, who was so good with them and who was smiling with such wonderment while feeling the baby moving inside of her, trying to predict the location of the next kick and completely forgetting the fact that he was taking quite a liberty with Loren's body, that any other man would've already met her fist for doing this in such an intimate and daring manner, the man who had already resigned himself to never getting his dearest wish, to have a family of his own, had resigned himself to the fate of growing old alone and lonely.

She barely managed to hold back her tears as she watched him tenderly caress her pregnancy swollen belly with a look of such longing and devastation in his beautiful aquamarine eyes (she blamed the hormones for being so emotional).

He was finding such delight in just feeling the movements of another man's baby and an irrational thought occured to Loren.

Why not let this man who wanted a family so much, but had given up on ever having it, become part of her own incomplete family, thus completing it and completing his own life? Mommy, baby... and Daddy.

It would give everyone what they wanted and what they needed: Harm would get the family that he so desired, her child would get the best Dad possible and she would get her rock, her support and a life-partner that would stand by her through everything life would throw at her... at them.

Wasn't this the best arrangement possible for all three of them? Would not all only benefit from it?

But that idea was immediately discarded and locked away, though not forever, it would come back occasionally in the days to come to torment her with the ghost of what could be, of an image of a damn-near-perfect life.

They were not in love, so would it be right to entrap him into a marriage with a woman he didn't love? She knew how he felt about family, he would've wanted the security of marriage and he would've wanted for the child to be legitimate, meaning they would get married before she'd give birth.

He would've probably even wanted to be listed as the father on the birth certificate if they'd get together. Not in an effort to claim what he didn't create, but to make it easier on Loren, to let people think she never had one night stands and that the father of the baby didn't run away, and on the baby, so it would never have questions about it's own identity.

But she was still Loren Singer, the scourge of JAG, and men like Harmon Rabb did not fall in love with her, nor did they want to marry her and raise a family with her.

She just had to face the fact that she would end up raising the baby alone, living with her insecurities, while Harm would find a good woman, fall in love and have a family with her.

She knew that Harm was just too good a man to end up alone and she felt a short pang at the thought that she would not be the one to give it all to him.

She wasn't in love with him, but she knew that the day Harmon Rabb would get married would be the day that she would lose a chance, no matter how small it was, of getting a wonderful husband and father to her child.

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Reviews would be really nice even though this was such a short one.