December 12th

Harm held the door open and let Mac walk in before him. They were late getting in as the snow had made traffic hell. Matthew had been ecstatic by the falling snow and was already begging to get a snowboard for Christmas.

"Good morning," Harm nodded to their receptionist. "You made it in I see."

"It was chaos out there, but I was prepared and started early. "Jenn won't be here today. She has sick kids. And Bud and Harriet are stuck in traffic."

"Staff call will have to be postponed then," Mac smiled. "Come get me when they are here."

"I will,"

"Good morning," Bruce, Mac's assistant walked up to them with two cups of coffee. "You'll need this today. It's a packed schedule."

"Thank you," Mac smiled as she headed for her office.

Harm headed for his office. He had been back to work for a couple of weeks now and it was going well. He was still undergoing physiotherapy on his shoulder three times a week, but Allison was pleased with his progress and he got to do more for each session.

"Harm, Ava Hill is on line two,"

"Thanks," Harm picked up the phone. "Ava?"

"Hi Harm. They want to talk to Melanie again."

"Who? The police?" Harm wondered.

"Someone from the prosecutor's office. I'm confused, because I thought that man who kept her was killed in jail and there would be no case?"

"Yes, well the police arrested two more people and your daughter identified them as her kidnappers. There will be a trial for them and she will have to testify," Harm explained.

"I just want all this to be over Harm. My husband is in jail, my daughter is having a hard time and I'm so confused by all this legal nonsense."

"That's why I'm here. I'll call the prosecutors office and I'll get this all sorted out. I'll let them know that everything should go through me, so you don't have to worry about it. I'll call you as soon as I know something. In the meantime, you take care of Melanie. Is she still seeing a therapist?"

"Three days a week. It helps, but she still has anxiety, she wakes up every night with nightmares."

"She's been through hell. It'll take some time. What about school?"

"She's not going. I've arranged for her to be home schooled. It's okay, but she's so behind. It gives her something to focus on though and I think it's good for her."

"I'm sure it is," Harm reassured.

"I'll let you go now. Thank you."

"I'll talk to you soon," Harm assured her. He hung up and leaned back in his chair, his heart aching.

He reached for the phone again.

At the end of business hour, the snow was still falling heavily. Harm had been to pick up the kids from school and gotten them home, letting them know that driving around trying to get to their afternoon activities was off the table. Claire hadn't been driving herself to school that morning, Harm hadn't allowed it, so she had decided to drop her kick boxing session and gone home with her Dad and siblings. She had promised to make dinner while Harm drove to get Mac who had a later meeting. He hadn't wanted her to take a second car that morning, because her new car hadn't arrived from the dealer yet, declaring his SUV the only vehicle allowed on these roads.

"This is chaos," Mac declared as they were waiting while a traffic accident was taken care of.

"Tell me about it," he reached for her hand. "How was your day?"

"Bad, then worse and in the end just okay," she chuckled. "I've been running from one thing to the next all day. I had to get things out of the way because tomorrow is a full day at the university. You've been locked in your office most of the day. What gives?"

"Working on the Hill case. Mostly making sure that the family has all the information they need and that the prosecutor's office start calling me instead of them. That stupid twit I talked to gave me a few greyer hairs," he complained.

"How are the family doing?" Mac wondered.

"Not good. The father is in jail, facing a trial. Melanie is struggling with real life. She's behind in school, refuses to go and have terrible nightmares. She's still struggling with withdrawals from the drugs they gave her. Ava is at the end of her rope dealing with all this. Thankfully her Mom is on top of things. She's quite resourceful and she's living with them now," Harm saw that the traffic started moving and he put the car into motion.

"Are they getting help?" Mac wondered.

"Yeah, family counseling and Melanie has her own counseling as well. She's lucky because she has a strong family behind her. They won't give up on her," Harm looked thoughtful. "I'm just struggling to deal with all this. The girls', what they go through. Who would make another human being go through the hell these girls' have to? I don't get it Mac."

"You're a good man Harmon Rabb," Mac reached out and touched his face. "You know, in wartime women's situation often turns worse. We've seen it so many times through history. The sexual exploitation rises when there's a conflict. It's easy to forget that it happens right here in peacetime. Kids' get abducted."

"I know I've given you a hard time about being too overprotective, but I never will again," he assured her.

"I just want them to feel safe, you know. I never did when I was a kid. Thinking about it, I could have been abducted as a kid. I was alone a lot, and no one cared where I was most of the time. I don't want my kids to ever feel like that," she admitted. "And yes, I tend to be a little protective, but you are too."

"I guess," he smiled.

The next day

The snow had stopped falling during the night and the roads were cleared when they left the house that morning. Mac had finally gotten the new car delivered from the dealer so that Harm wouldn't have to pick her up since she'd be late at the University that night. He was picking up the kids and making sure everyone got to where they needed. Claire took her own car, offering to pick up Matthew at hockey after her study group had finished at the library.

"Are you staying late too?" Mac peaked into Alicia's office when she walked back to her own after getting something from the vending machine.

"Yeah, it's a lot to do," Alicia smiled. "It's empty tonight. I guess everyone else had their late night here last night. Almost all the offices had light still when I left."

"Did you get home okay? With the snow?" Mac wondered.

"It was winding down by the time I left," Alicia let out a sigh. "Thankfully. Yesterday was bad."

"The snow has its charm too," Mac pointed out. "Well, I better get back to work so I'll make it home to say goodnight to the kids."

It was an hour later when Mac locket her office door and heard sounds from Alicia's office. It sounded like glass breaking and then a shriek. She headed for Alicia's office when the door flew open and a male figure ran out of there. Mac picked up her pace and looked into Alicia's office, Alicia sitting on the floor a hand to her head.

"It was Tim Pierce," she said as she tried to stand.

"Stay down and call campus security and the police," Mac yelled and hurried after Pierce. The door to the stairs stood open and she ran over. She could hear footsteps further down, then a door banged shut. There was no point in going after him so instead she hurried back to Alicia.

"He was long gone," Mac crouched down beside Alicia. "You need to go to the hospital. I'll call an ambulance."

"He was really angry, Mac," Alicia mumbled with slurred voice, then she fainted.

Later

Mac waited while Alicia was being looked at by a Doctor. The police had come to ask questions, Mac had answered what she could, but the Doctor had denied them to talk to Alicia until she had been thoroughly checked out. Mac left to call her husband when the police were talking with Alicia.

"She has a concussion. They'll release her tomorrow. I'll be home as soon as I can," Mac reassured her husband.

"Okay. Have you gotten in touch with her family?" Harm wondered.

"Yes, her sister wanted to fly out, but Alicia refused because she didn't think her injury was serious enough to make someone go to the trouble. I suggested calling her ex-husband, but she didn't want to bother him. Anyway, I told her I'd pick her up tomorrow and that she would be staying with us until she feels better," Mac said.

"Sounds like a good idea. I'll get the guestroom ready for her," Harm promised. "I'll see you soon then."

"See you," Mac hung up.

After the police had finished she went by Alicia again, then home.

Later

"What did she say?" Harm wondered as he rubbed Mac's shoulders. They were in the bathtub. Harm had suggested it when he saw how tense she was when she arrived at the house.

"He had walked into her office wearing a mask. He attacked her, and she fought him off by stabbing him with an antique letter opener she keeps on her desk. She got the concussion when he pushed her toward the desk, probably after she stabbed him. She managed to get the mask off him in the fight, so she knew who he was," Mac let out a sigh. "I should have pushed harder to get her to report the incident with that student to the police."

"But you said he was perfectly polite when you talked to him about his paper," Harm reminded her.

"Yeah, but when I'm in full Marine mode there isn't much room for anyone to be anything but polite," she pointed out.

Harm nodded. "That's true. Look," he made her turn to look at him. "It's not your fault. No one could have predicted this."

"I didn't even think about putting together the connection between this guy and the campus rapes, even though I have seen him act chauvinistic towards female students. That and the way he spoke to Alicia should have been enough for me to connect the dots," Mac let out another sigh and leaned back to rest against him. "Have I really been so focused on everything at home, you, the office, that I've been ignoring what was right in front of me? What kind of investigator am I?"

"Mac, you're not an investigator. You used to be when you worked at JAG, but you're not supposed to be on top of everything around you. You're a lawyer and a professor," Harm reasoned.

"You would have connected the dots. You would have called the police and gotten them involved right away," Mac was sure of it.

"Babe, you don't know that," he kissed her neck. "Stop beating yourself up about this. The police got the suspect, and didn't you say that there was DNA evidence from at least two of the campus rapes? On top of the DNA they'll find in Alicia's office this guy is going away for a long time. Let it go," he kissed her neck again.

She hesitated as she let his touch make her feel better. He was good at it. "Okay."

The door to the bathroom opened. "Mom, I don't feel so good," Matthew said from the doorway.

"What's up?" she wondered

"My throat hurts, and I feel warm and cold, and it hurts to cough," Matthew leaned on the doorframe.

"Go back to bed and I'll be right there," Mac said as she reached for a towel.

"He said he wasn't feeling well earlier," Harm followed her out of the tub.

Mac put on her robe and walked out of the bathroom only to find her son waiting. "You're burning up," she said and turned him around. "Come on, back to bed."

Harm stepped into the bedroom. "I'll find the thermometer."