Saturday

It was after ten when Harm and Mac had showered and went downstairs. It was the nice thing about the kids growing up and becoming more independent, they didn't have to get up with them, and could instead indulge in a little extra morning activity.

"Good morning," Mac said as she walked into the kitchen and found the kids sitting around the table. Max lay on the floor by Rose's feet.

"It's about time you got up," Claire teased.

"Have you been up long?" Mac wondered as she fixed herself a cup of coffee. "Thank you for making coffee."

"No problem. And I didn't get up until about an hour ago," Claire said as she put a plate with pancakes on the table.

"Did you guys get up early?" Mac asked Matthew and Rose.

"Eight," Matthew said and moved his cheek away from his mother's kiss. "No kissing, Mom. I'm not a baby."

Mac ruffled his hair and hugged him instead. "You'll always be my baby." She hugged Rose too. "How did you sleep?"

"Really well. Max woke me up this morning, because he wanted to go outside," Rose smiled.

"Okay everyone, breakfast is served," Claire said as she sat down.

"It looks great," Mac smiled as she sat down.

"Where's Dad?" Matthew wondered.

"He'll be down shortly. He needed a shower," Mac explained just as Harm walked into the kitchen.

"Morning," he smiled and joined them by the table. "Something smells great."

"Someone is chipper this morning," Claire commented.

"It's a good day to be alive," Harm said and reached for a pancake. "So, what are the plans for today?"

"Can I borrow the car? Lena wanted to meet." Lena was a friend of Claire that lived in Beallsville.

"Sure," Harm said.

"We better get started with Grams room," Mac said to her husband.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"Can Rose and I go see if Phil and his sister is home?" Matthew wondered. Phil was a boy Matthew's age living at the next farm over.

"Sure," Mac agreed.

"Can we take Max too?" Rose asked.

Mac nodded. "Just keep his leash on."

After cleaning up the kitchen Mac found her husband in Grams room. He was standing by her bed, smiling and holding a picture frame in his hand. He was so preoccupied, he didn't even notice her presence.

"Nice picture?"

He turned to her. "Yeah," he walked over and handed it to her.

"Is this what she kept on her nightstand?" Mac smiled by the memory of the day the picture was taken. Grams had demanded a family picture of them, so she lined them up on the porch and tried to figure out the camera they had gotten her for Christmas, but hadn't touched since then. Matthew was just two months old, his first trip home from London.

"The kids got impatient when she was struggling to figure out the camera," Harm laughed softly. "It's a nice picture of us."

"It is," she let out a sigh. "The kids are really growing up, huh?"

He put his arm on the small of her back and caressed it softly. "And now we have a new addition to the family. Grams would love what we're doing."

"She would have welcomed Rose with open arms," Mac looked around the room. "How's the cleaning going?"

Harm hesitated. "Slowly," he walked over to the nightstand and picked up a stack of letters. "I found these," he handed it over to Mac.

"Letters?" she questioned.

"She saved all the letters I wrote her through the years," he smiled. "The first one's are from I was about six. My spelling isn't all that great," he joked.

"When did you stop writing her?" Mac wondered as she looked through the big stack.

"I wrote when I was at Annapolis, flight school, whenever I was out at sea or stationed some place where it was hard to visit on the weekends. And I wrote her while we were stationed in London, and Florida." he took the stack from her. "We better get started."

"Can I read them?" Mac asked pleadingly.

"Yes, but not now," he pointed to the closet. "You clean out the clothes, and I will start with shelves. I'll just put the books in the library."

"Make sure you put them in alphabetical order by category," Mac reminded him.

He laughed. "Yes, I wouldn't want to mess with yours or Grams system."

She laughed softly, then opened the closet door. "What do you want to do with the clothes?"

"What's not too worn we donate, the rest we throw away," Harm said as he reached for a blue book with no title on. He opened it and found Grams writing. "Memories," he read out loud.

Mac turned from the closet and looked at him. "What's in it?"

"Pictures, writing," he flipped through it. "Paper clippings. A lot about me," he closed it and put it on top of the letter stack. "For later."

Mac turned back to the closet. "Why didn't Grams use the master bedroom upstairs?"

"My great grandparents lived here with them when they first married, and she refused to kick them out of their room upstairs. She and Grandpa decided on the bedroom downstairs because it would give them more privacy," Harm explained.

Mac nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"Grams loved having the library next to her bedroom, because she could use it as her own private study. No one else used it much, so it felt like she had her own part of the house," Harm continued and looked like he had spaced out. "She moved here from the next town over, thinking that she'd live happily ever after with the man of her dreams. She lost a husband, and then a son. No wonder she was disappointed when I chose the Navy."

"I didn't know that she was disappointed," Mac said.

Harm snapped out of his thoughts. "She was. Mom too. They were both happy when I couldn't fly anymore because of my eyes. My Mom was not happy when I joined an active squadron again."

"A lot of people weren't happy about that," she reminded him.

He smiled. "I know."

It took them most of the day to sort through Grams things, then they discussed what to do with the room and decided to repaint and remove the carpeted floor. Harm decided to see if the carpet hid the same quality parquet as the upstairs bedrooms had and he smiled when he noticed that it did.

"It will make a nice guestroom," Mac said as they prepared dinner that night.

"I think so too. We can keep the bed and bedroom furniture, but the mattresses need to be exchanged. The painting will be a nice winter project for me," he smiled and stopped steering the sauce, taking a hold of her hand and pulling her close. "Did the kids get lost on their way home?"

"I just think they had a hard time leaving. Linda said that Rose and Penny were getting along really well. And Matthew and Phil had been helping Drew on the farm all day, having their own little projects," Mac smiled.

Harm leaned in and kissed her softly just as Claire walked into the kitchen. "Really? Guys!"

Harm released his wife. "Sorry," he said innocently.

"Old people shouldn't be so affectionate," Claire pointed out as she walked over to see what was cooking.

"Old people?" Harm questioned with amusement.

Claire laughed. "Okay, ancient then."

"Yeah, that's much better," he rolled his eyes just as he heard the front door open and shut.

Mac chuckled and went to meet Matthew and Rose. "We had the best time," Rose said happily.

"That's great Rose," Mac hugged her, then her son. "Dinner is ready."

"Mom, can we go over tomorrow too?" Matthew wondered as they walked to the kitchen.

"We're driving back home tomorrow," Mac reminded him. "But maybe for a little while."

Later that night Harm found his wife on their bed engrossed in the letters from him to his grandma. He noticed the temperature in the room and went to shut off the electric oven so they wouldn't melt during the night. He went to the bathroom and got ready for the night, before he joined her on the bed.

"Almost done?" he wondered.

"Almost," she answered absentminded.

He took the pile of letters and put them on the nightstand, just as she finished the last letter. He watched as she put it away then reached for her hand and pulled her close.

"That was very insightful," she relaxed against him, running her hand down his chest.

"How so?" he wondered.

"I got a glimpse of you before we met, and it was nice to hear your words to her about some of our adventures. Your crush on Diane, the struggles of your Navy career, meeting me," she smiled. "It's all so insightful."

He kissed her forehead. "It's nothing you didn't know before, right?"

"I guess, but non-the less, it was nice to read. Thank you for letting me read private letters," she said shyly. "It meant a lot to me."

He hesitated then reached into his nightstand and retrieved another letter. "I put this away," he handed it to her. "But you can read it."

"Why did you hide it?" she wondered and checked the date of the letters. "Oh, it's after Paraguay."

He nodded.

"Harm, if you don't want me to…"

"No, you should read the letter," he smiled. "You should."

She hesitated. "Okay," she opened it and folded it out. "Dear Grams. I'm sorry that I haven't been to visit in a while, it's been busy. Thanks for the letter. I know you prefer me writing instead of calling so here goes. I have some news. I'm not in the Navy anymore. I would have told you in person, but I got a new job as a CIA pilot and I can't make it out there in a while. Don't worry, it's just regular planes with important people, nothing dangerous."

Harm noticed the look Mac was giving him. "Like I would tell Grams about how dangerous it was."

Mac turned her focus to the letter again. "Anyway, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I'll tell you when I make it out there. In short terms, I resigned my commission to travel to Paraguay to look for Mac. She got into some trouble on a CIA mission. It was interesting, but we both made it back home alive. And I know what you're thinking, but I'm sorry to disappoint you, I didn't tell her that I love her. I made a mess out of things instead. I'll try to make it out next month and you can give me that look and shake your head in disapproval. Love, Harm."

Mac folded the letter and put it back in the envelope and gave it to him. "Did she shake her head and give you that look?"

He nodded. "She sure did. Grams always had a way of making me talk about the things I didn't want to talk about. We talked a lot about you over the years."

"I'm glad we're done making things complicated," she smiled and put her head on his shoulder, hugging him close.

"Me too," he agreed and pulled her close. I love you."

She lifted her head to look at him. "I love you too."

He smiled. "Look at this," he reached for the book he'd found in Gram's room earlier in the day and opened it up to a page.

Mac smiled when she saw a clipping from the Washington post, a picture of Harm and her and the title; Dream Team. "From the Kohler case."

"Yeah, we got him off on the charges and the Washington Post wrote a big article about the case," Harm remembered. "It was a good day to be a JAG."

"Yeah," she agreed and looked at what Gram's had written by the picture of the two of them. "If they'd only see what I know."

"She wanted so much to see me happy, and letting go," Harm put the book away.

She put her hand on his cheek. "You did eventually."

He kissed her deeply. "And you know what?"

"What?" she asked.

"The reporter who wrote that article was right," he smiled. "We are a dream team."

Mac smiled lovingly. "We sure are."