Fixed the previous chappy according to Cassandra30's advice, check the new AN.

Thanks for the reviews, guys, keep them coming.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sound of the approaching sirens woke her up 10 minutes later and she struggled to get out of the car.

Harm had in the meantime located the knife their attacker had wanted to use and, using a handkerchief, had secured it.

The whole matter with the cops took about half an hour in the parking lot of the bar, drawing a lot of on-lookers, and another hour at the station, giving and signing their statements and contact information.

Since it was self-defence, coupled with the defence of the life and health of his girlfriend and their baby, his breaking of the guy's arm was quickly dismissed, with several officers impressed with his restraint as they would've surely killed the guy had he tried to do it with them and their women. Harm and Loren were still going with the girlfriend/boyfriend/parents story as it was easier than trying to explain their complicated relationship to the cops. Hell, after tonight they didn't even understand it themselves, how could they even try to explain it to others?

The profiler that had been quickly called told them that they were most probably the suspect's first victims and it was definitely looking like the guy had intended to become a serial rapist-murderer. He'd been caught just in time, before he could even make his first victim. For once would the system do the right thing and throw the entire book at the guy, to prevent him from coming out too soon and fulfilling his plans.

Upon hearing that, Loren silently thanked the powers that be once again that Harm had walked into that bar that evening.

Had he not, it could've gone a whole other way.

Much worse, with people dead or hurt.

If she could've arranged MPs to pick her up, then the guy would've chosen another victim and traumatised and even killed some other poor woman. Or women. Had it not been Harm that had escorted her outside, but someone else, with none of Harm's training, he would've probably been dead now and she raped and killed, along with her unborn child, also. She hoped that the guy would either himself experience rape while in prison, curing him of doing it to others, or would get killed in there. Only that way would women be safe from him.

They'd driven to the station with Harm's car, Loren being too exhausted to drive safely, and when they were free to go he made the executive decision to leave her car in the bar's parking lot and drive her home, via his apartment to pick up a few necessities.

At first she glared at him for taking control of the situation and claiming that she was too tired to drive, but she was truly too tired and drained to make a good show of it. The effect of her glare was then spoiled even more when a huge yawn almost dislocated her jaw.

Then she argued that she was fine and didn't need anybody babysitting her, which Harm over-rulled. "It's not just about you, it's also a selfish gesture. I need to be sure that you two are alright and I myself need to be with someone. If I'm being honest I have to admit that this whole thing has shaken me up too. It's one thing to be attacked while on a mission somewhere, that's my job and I'm prepared, I'm in the zone, but a completely different to be attacked randomly in my own city. We were all almost killed tonight and I need human company now, your company to know we're all still alive."

Loren's eyes softened then and she relented. That was a pretty convincing argument that he'd presented her with, because after a short consideration she realized that he was right. If she was so rattled by the whole experience, why wouldn't Harm be? He was right. It was different on the mission, he was prepared for it and it was in a foreign country. Besides, then he wasn't taking care of a woman and her unborn child.

And that was the crux of the matter. He'd been guarding someone close to him, a friend, who was pregnant and during the hour before the incident he'd spent every second bonding with her and her child. It was only natural that he'd thus come to care for her and her baby, after having bonded with both, and, because of that the attack and the reality of what danger she and the baby had been in, he would've been affected too. It's always worse, much much worse, if someone we care about, especially someone as helpless as an unborn baby, is in danger than if only ourselves are in danger. Even with his training and decades of combat experience and life-and-death situations he was still a human, a very decent, honest and good man, and the reality of what could've happened would've definitely had an effect on him too.

Besides, if she was completely honest with herself, she too didn't like the thought of being alone right now, she wanted and needed someone close nearby, a person she knew, to hold her if she'd somehow manage to completely drop her walls and the aftermath of the attack would hit her. While independence, self-reliancy and being single are all good and well; there are times when it can also be a curse, like the times when we need someone to just hold us and reassure us that it's okay or that it'll be okay and instead we are all alone and have to get through solely by ourselves, which would be much easier and quicker to accomplish if we had someone.

And now Loren realized it was the time to drop her walls and the pretense and let someone get close, if only to reassure her that she was still alive, to make her feel safe.

They detoured to his place so he could grab a change of clothes for one night and his toiletries.

While Harm was rooting through his bahtroom cabinet Loren wandered into his bedroom. She was tired and her feet hurt so she decided to sit until Harm was done.

She sat down on his big bed and immediately her eyes started closing from exhaustion. Too tired to fight it and to care where she was and how it would look, she lay on her side until she was stretched out on his bed, with her legs off the edge of it. She felt safe doing that because she knew Harm would never hurt her, nor take advantage of her nor use it against her anytime in the future.

By the time Harm came out of his bathroom Loren was already fast asleep and he smiled gently at the vision of her sleeping peacefully on his bed.

Asleep, without her sometimes-bitchy demeanor and sharp tongue, with her features softened and a small smile on her lips, she was actually quite a beautiful woman.

Her long blond hair was fanned out across the pillow like a halo, her otherwise sharp body- and face- features had been softened even further by her pregnancy, her cheeks a healthy rosy color, lips darker red, hair fuller, shining brightly like spun gold, luxuriously thick; in that dress she was wearing he couldn't have helped but notice already in the bar that her breasts were fuller, larger, from what he remembered from that very eventful Chrismas 2001 party at the Roberts because that very amazing red satin dress sure as hell hadn't left much to the imagination and she'd drawn masculine glances of approval throughout the evening, even from Bud. Of course, when he was sure Harriet wasn't looking. Even in her sleep was her hand on her small swelling belly protectively, as if defending the life inside from any threat.

Until now he had never been really aware of just how beautiful a woman she actually was, because he'd pined away for the unattainable for the past few years and hadn't noticed other women, especially not what was right before his eyes.

While pregnant women had never been attractive to him, he wasn't Tiner who had a thing for them after all, mostly because pregnancy meant that they were taken which made them pretty much asexual beings in his eyes and partly because they'd lost their figures and just kept getting bigger, which was because it wasn't his child that was making them big, otherwise he would've thought and felt the opposite, but this time he had to admit that he was looking at a truly enhanting being.

Perhaps he was now seeing her in a different way because she'd let her guard down for him, let him see and know that she needed him, however temporarily, or because they'd acted as if they were involved and he the father of her baby for the entire evening, or because she was sleeping on his bed which was something that indicated a romantic relationship by itself, or because he knew she was single.

Not that he would ever do anything about it. Not without having moved on from Mac and especially not without some pretty clear signals from Loren that she'd welcome his advances. Not that that would ever happen...

---------------------------------------------------

REVIEW!