AN: Thanks for your patience! I've just begun a new job, today, so things have been a little hectic, the last couple of days...Okay, so when we left off things were really starting to heat up! Enjoy! Another chapter will follow shortly!
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Part 13
"Ensign Roberts? Is Commander Rabb in the office, yet?" Mac asked Bud, as he and Ensign Simms walked past the door to her office.
"The Commander Rabb arrived five minutes ago, Ma'am…But he seems to be troubled, Ma'am. I have files for him, but just couldn't bring myself to bother him."
"Troubled how?"
"I don't know…He seems to be kinda introverted, Ma'am…And rather abrupt with his office implements."
This didn't make much sense to Mac. He'd been the definition of contentment, the night before.
Mac got up from her desk after the ensigns had left, making her way across the bullpen and towards Harm's office on the opposite side of the floor.
She gave a light rap of warning, before letting herself in, as she normally did.
Once she was inside, Harm sighed, before he looked up and realized who it was.
"Oh, hey, Mac…"
'Well, that was far from enthusiastic,' Mac thought to herself.
"You want to tell me what's wrong?"
"It's nothing you should have to worry about as well, Mac."
"But they say that a problem shared is a problem halved."
This was delivered in such a perfectly innocent, deadpan manner that Harm could help but chuckle a little.
Mac really became concerned when this chuckle broke off into a soft sob and she saw that Harm's hand shook as he swiped it across his face.
"She hates me, Mac…"
"Kim? Why?"
"I really lost it, this time…I yelled at her, told her to stop behaving and thinking like a child…She still is a child…What kind of father am I?"
"One who wants the best for his child. All of us lose our patience every now and then, Harm. She'll be okay; she'll forgive you for what you said out of frustration…"
"Not this time," Harm shook his head, "In my anger and stupidity, I blurted out everything…Dianne; Baker; why we're still here, everything! I swore I'd never do this to her."
"Oh, God..." Mac knew how much this child would probably be suffering, now that she knew her own Mother had abandoned her, in order to forge a new life with her lover. And she could see just how much the man she loved (yes, loved!) was suffering because of words said in haste.
"I don't deserve her," Harm began to sob, "She's better off without me…"
"No," Mac drew him in to her, her hands moving comfortingly up to his face then through his hair then down over his back, before repeating it all over again, "Don't say that. You're a wonderful Father and we'll make things right with Kim. It'll just take some time, but we'll make it up to her and things will be like before…"
Mac had no idea just how they were going to do this, but she'd give her all to help Harm fix this.
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"What do you mean?" Yan stared incredulously at his friend.
"I mean I don't want to go back…Let's stay out here."
The lunch hour had all but disappeared and Yan had stood to lift and shoulder his school bag in preparation for their return to class. But Kim had remained where she sat.
"But…" Yan tried to understand what Kim meant. Surely she wasn't encouraging him to ditch school?
"I don't care," Kim argued even with what little he had managed to say, "Let's not go back to class. I don't want to have to pretend I'm paying attention when I'm not. Let's just stay here and veg out…"
"They'll call our parents if we don't arrive back for class…"
"Oooo!" Kim teased the boy, only half-joking in her anger towards her Father, "I'm shaking in my boots, Yan."
Yan stood in shock for a second, but then joined in Kim's laughter.
"And if our parents or teachers come looking for us and find us? Then what?" he asked, next.
"Then we'll have to make sure that they don't find us, won't we? We'll have to go somewhere they won't think of in a million years!"
As they rode their bikes away from the grounds around the school, Yan continued to think about how oddly Kim had been behaving, today. He liked a bit of fun and rebellion as much as the next person, but this was certainly not like his best friend.
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"Rabb…" Harm picked up his office phone without using his usual formal reply.
His deep sigh made Mac look up from where she was working on paperwork, on the other side of his desk.
Harm replied with a simple, "Yes, I'll be there…" before hanging up.
"Who was that?" she asked.
"Kim's school. She didn't return to class after lunch…They wondered if I could go down and talk to her teacher."
"C'mon," Mac stood up, offering him a hand to his feet, "Let's go take care of this, shall we?"
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"What will your Dad say if he finds out we were here?"
"Probably yell at me…Ground until I'm thirty…But I don't care. He doesn't scare me."
Yan thought that the tall Naval officer was very much frightening when angered, even more so than his own Marine Major Father, so hopefully they would never have to explain their presence here at a disused local quarry.
There were all kinds of gems and treasures to be found here, semi-precious and precious stones, but few of the local kids ever dared, because of the sparsely planted, unstable nature of the terrain. What was once the working part of the quarry was now hundreds of metres underwater, and the cliffs surrounding the unintentionally-formed reservoir often gave way under the onslaught of the wind and rain.
They were just sitting in silence, up on a high slope, watching some hunting eagles swooping out over the water in search of prey. After hearing a sound echo from the far side of the reservoir, Yan looked up, noting, "Looks like we aren't the only ones here."
Kim followed his gaze, after being roused from her deep internal thoughts.
She saw that the kids in question were from their school, but in one of the much older, high-school classes.
"What do you reckon they're hunting for?"
Kim just shrugged, not really interested, but Yan stood to edge closer to to where the slope became a vertical drop almost falling straight into the water. He got so far, before the ground seemed to shift slightly beneath his feet.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, "Did you see that?"
Kim got up from where she sat and moved forward, cautiously.
Yan carefully stuck a leg out far in front of him, bringing it down hard on the ground. The earth disappeared from beneath his very shoe.
"Cool," Kim joined him, giving another kick to the remaining ground; this one much harder than Yan's and again, more earth disappeared rapidly.
Without thought, Kim jumped forward with all her weight, before bouncing back to her original position. The cascade of ground beneath them took them by complete surprise and they just managed to scurry backwards, out of danger.
For a second, they just stared at each other in total shock then broke into hysterical, belly-wrenching laughter.
When they had finally got their breath back, Kim got back to her feet, contemplating for a minute, before stepping forward again.
"Awesome!"
Yan, from his place on the ground, felt the tremor beneath his hands and knees and saw the subtle cracks appear beneath where Kim stood.
"Kim, NO!"
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