14
Mattie was silent for most of the journey back to DC as she started to come to terms with the fact that she was about to start a new life. One part of her was excited at the new opportunities, and just the bare fact that while she had lived all her life 'out in the sticks' she would now be living in the city, and although that prospect was exciting, it was also just a little bit scary.
Harm had seen, in the rear view mirror, Mattie fall into what seemed to be a mood of deep introspection, and reaching across he gripped Catherine's forearm, and with a jerk of his head directed her attention at the teenage girl in the back seat, but at the same time giving a miniscule shake of his head and mouthed 'let her be'.
Catherine nodded her head, whether in agreement with Harm, or just acknowledging his lead, he wasn't sure, but he leaned forward and switched on the radio, tuned as always, to a smooth jazz station.
After some time the music penetrated through Mattie's thoughts and she listened for a few minutes before she spoke, "That's pretty sucky, ya know?"
"What is, Mattie?" Catherine twisted as well as she was able to look back over her left shoulder at the teenager.
"That… stuff… on the radio," Mattie said in a challenging tone.
"Oh, you don't like Jazz, then?" Harm queried, raising his voice so that Mattie could hear him, even though he had stay face forward, concentrating on his driving.
"Nah, it's kinda… like…"
"Sucky?" Catherine supplied.
Mattie couldn't help but giggle, "Yeah, I guess you don't like it either huh?"
"Oh I don't mind jazz, well, not smooth jazz like that… it does have its uses…"
"Yeah, like what?" Mattie challenged, the sneer evident in her voice.
"Oh… for dancing to…" Catherine offered, ostensibly looking over her shoulder at Mattie, while keeping a corner of her eye focused on Harm.
Mattie listened to the rhythm for a moment or two more, "It's kinda slow…" she defended her position.
"True… but… just imagine, candlelight, evening gown, him in a tux, just the two of you, and the music, his hands on your waist, your hands on his shoulder… your head resting against his chest… and the two you, not really dancing, just swaying to the rhythm…" her voice died off into silence.
"Uh… not really my scene, ya know?" Mattie replied deadpan, but her eyes switching rapidly between Catherine and Harm.
"Give it time, squirt," Harm advised her soberly as he shot a quick sidelong look at Catherine, surprising the hell out of her, but affording no small measure of amusement to the girl in the rear seat.
"Um… how much time?" Mattie asked, out of pure mischief.
"Oh…" Harm was surprised by the question, and then an awful thought struck him. The girl - the teenage girl - in the back seat was on the verge of becoming a young woman. In only three years she would be accounted as an adult for most purposes, and although she hadn't mentioned boys, so far, it could only be a matter of time… but in the meantime she was waiting for a reply, and so apparently was Catherine…
"Yes, Harm," the blonde asked him, desperately trying to keep a straight face, "how much time before my little scenario is really Mattie's scene?"
Harm turned his head for an instant to scowl at her, but then made a quick recovery, "Oh… I'd say fifteen to eighteen years…"
"M'mm, that makes sense," Catherine nodded her agreement, much to Harm's surprise, and then she pulled the trigger, "after all, unless she's exceptionally lucky, she's going to have to have a few unsatisfactory moments before she finds Mister Right."
"Yeah, that's true…" Mattie said wonderingly, and then more positively, "after all, gotta dip my toes in the water before I dive in headlong, right?"
"Of course!" Catherine beamed.
"Yeah. Right." Harm muttered, privately resolving that as far as Mattie was concerned there was going to be an absolute minimum of toe-dipping and positively no headlong anything while he still had breath in his body. Then the thought struck him, just what exactly was he getting himself - correction - what exactly had he gotten himself into?
Catherine and Mattie both heard his tone and looked at him sharply, before turning back towards each other and sharing a grin. They were both forced to turn away and look elsewhere before they allowed that grin to become the threatening shared giggle.
Harm glared at Mattie through the medium of the rear-view mirror and then shot a meaningful glance at the now seemingly oblivious Catherine who appeared to be admiring the scenery as the Lexus continued to speed up the US-29 towards DC. He was well aware that somehow he had afforded no small degree of amusement to his passengers, but was at a loss to say exactly what he had said or done; on the other hand he was happy to see that Catherine and Mattie were finding common ground, even if it was only in joining forces to pick on him!
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Harm dropped Mattie's bags just inside Catherine's front door and stretched his shoulders. Turning to the two women he said, "Why don't I put the kettle to boil, and then when we've had a hot drink you can get Mattie settled in Catherine, while I get started on dinner?"
"Yeah… OK, fine… but you might need to go to the store. I don't think there's much of anything left in the fridge," Catherine advised him.
Harm sighed before crossing to the kitchenette and opening the fridge. "H'mm, curds and whey…" he said as soon as he'd recovered his breath after opening the half-used carton of milk, and some limp lettuce… You know, you really should have emptied the fridge before you came over to stay at my place…"
"Yeah, like that was planned." Catherine said, her tongue firmly in cheek.
"Oh… so it was purely coincidence that you just happened to have a bag with your overnight stuff in your car?" he teased her.
"Damn straight!" she chuckled, "Anyway, I was being a girl-scout - be prepared!"
"Were you a girl-scout?" Harm asked, pausing in his excavation of the fridge and raising his eyebrows in interrogation.
"Yes, of course I was," Catherine told him mild surprise. "Like I said, typical middle class childhood, and all that went with it."
"Uh-huh," Harm nodded, closing the fridge door. "OK, let's get the tea brewed and then…"
"Tea?" Mattie protested.
"Yeah, Catherine can't drink full coffee, and neither of us will drink decaf, so we're drinking tea for the next few months. And anyway, like I said the other day, I'm not sure that coffee is good for still-growing teenagers!"
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Catherine rinsed the cups under the faucet and left them to dry on the draining board as Harm shrugged back into his jacket and left the apartment to head for the grocery store.
Mattie sat cross-legged on the couch, her battered trainers in response to a critically raised eyebrow from Harm, had been kicked off and lay untidily next to each other on the floor between couch and coffee table. "Aren't you going to dry them?" she asked Catherine, a nod of her head indicating the cups.
Catherine looked at Mattie for a few seconds and then back at the cups, "No… I don't see the need to wipe them dry, gravity and evaporation works pretty well most of the time, besides it's getting past the stage when I want to stay on my feet any longer than is absolutely necessary."
"Uh-huh, do you want to sit, now?" Mattie asked, making room on the couch.
Catherine placed her hands in the small of her back and pulled her shoulders back in a stretch, she thought for a second before she answered, "No… well, not here. Why don't you grab your stuff and we'll make a start on getting you settled in…"
Mattie grinned and picking up her two bags from where Harm had dumped them, she asked "The room I stayed in before, right?"
Catherine grinned, "Well, I've only got the one bed in my room, and I'm certainly not about to share it with you!"
"No…" Mattie giggled, "Somehow I don't think Harm…" and then realising what she was about to get into, she blushed fire-engine red and rushed into the spare room. Catherine grinned, both at the teen's lapse and at her mortification, before she followed Mattie at a stately waddle, to find the teen already sitting on the edge of the bed, and turning out the contents of one of her battered suitcases.
Not much to Catherine's surprise she noted that Mattie's wardrobe seemed to consist entirely of jeans, sweats, T-shirts, knitted jumpers, and sweat-shirts. Indicating the closet and the chest of drawers, Catherine said, "Go ahead and put your stuff away; I cleared the drawers and the closet. I'll tell you what though," she continued as she looked at the way some of Mattie's things had been stuffed into the suitcase, "You go ahead and hang what needs to be hung in the closet, I'll re-fold some of this stuff before it goes in the drawers".
The two women busied themselves for a while, Mattie breaking off only to prevent Catherine from lifting the second of the suitcases onto the bed, before all was tidied away. Harm had returned from his shopping expedition and had paused only to stick his head around the door frame to announce his return before heading for the kitchen where he could be heard clattering pots and pans as he prepared dinner. In the meantime Catherine had given Mattie's clothing a swift but thorough scrutiny and had made a mental note of what she considered some deficiencies, and when Mattie said, "OK, that's everything," Catherine raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Everything? You didn't leave any clothing down in Charlottesville?"
"No… nothing, that's it… why?" Mattie asked curiously.
"Well…" Catherine hesitated a moment or two, this could turn out to be both tricky and embarrassing, "It's just that you don't seem to have any dresses or skirts…"
Mattie made a face of disgust, "Nah… that's not who I am…"
"H'mm… OK, but… uh… Mattie… you don't seem to have any bras, either?"
Mattie giggled, half in embarrassment and half in amusement, "Well, no… I guess not…" she looked down at herself self consciously, "Up until a couple of months ago, I was like as flat as an ironing board… I mean, I know I'm not exactly a swimsuit model now, but then I was really, really…"
"Flat?" Catherine contributed.
"Yeah… and then when these started growing… I would rather have died than gone into a store on my own and tried to buy one…" Mattie confided in a rush.
Catherine was hard put to conceal a grin, but then asked in a more serious tone, "Umm… what about other female… feminine stuff?"
"Huh?" Mattie asked, at a temporary loss as to Catherine's meaning, but then as the penny dropped she blushed even more furiously, and dropping her eyes to stare at the pattern on the coverlet, mumbled "Uh… school nurse…"
"O-Kaaaay," Catherine answered, "Well, you're going to need bras and panties, and as much as it 'isn't you', you're going to need at least one dress, or a skirt and blouse and jacket combination…. For court," she added as she saw Mattie's look of incomprehension. "So I guess I need to take you shopping," and then as Mattie opened her mouth, her protest easily visible on her face, Catherine added, "Unless you'd rather Harm took you shopping… and you know what sort of dress he'd say was most suitable…"
"Crap! Yes! Oh… sorry, Catherine!"
"I should think so too!" Catherine half scolded and half laughed at Mattie's slip and her almost palpable embarrassment.
"Yeah, but he'd have me in a dress more suitable for a ten year old!" a still blushing Mattie protested.
"Exactly! And do you really want him to go with you to buy underwear?"
"God! No!" Mattie exploded, and then both she and Catherine burst into peals of laughter at the vehemence of her protests.
Still giggling they made their way back out to the living room from where they could see Harm bustling around the kitchenette, "Hey, Mats," he called, "Set the table will you, please?" before he noticed their amusement, "And what's tickled your collective funny bone?" he demanded suspiciously, only to become even more suspicious as Catherine and Mattie exchanged a look and then burst out into renewed laughter.
"Oh… just girl talk, Harm," Catherine assured him. "Absolutely nothing that you'd want…" and she paused an impish amusement dawning in her eyes as she realised that he'd just handed her the perfect opportunity for payback, "or need to know, and you have no idea how long I've waited to say that to you, sailor!" she finished.
Harm frowned for a moment, standing still with a spatula poised above the wok, puzzled not only by the emphasis she had put on the verb, but also at the end to her sentence, then as he recalled his delight at saying much the same thing to her, not all that long ago, his frown cleared, and he returned to stirring the prawns and vegetables, "Oh, I've actually got a pretty good idea, of just exactly how long," he grinned, as Mattie looked back and forth between the two, her eyes alight with curiosity.
Catherine raised a quizzical eyebrow, "Oh, really?" she said doubtfully as she took a few steps towards him.
"Oh yeah. I think I remember every conversation, if not every word, we've ever spoken to each other," Harm claimed.
Catherine felt her eyes prickle, and blinked a few times to clear her vision before she stood just in front of him, "Liar," she said softly and holding his shoulders for balance, she rose on her toes and kissed him gently on his lips, "but, I love you for that thought."
For a second both she and Harm froze as the import of what she'd said sunk into their brains but before either could say anything Mattie disturbed them, "Hey, I think something's burning!"
Harm swore softly as Catherine dropped he hands, allowing him to spin back to the stove and quickly lift the wok off the heat.
"So, we go hungry now?" Mattie challenged him.
"What? And leave me to cope with a hungry teenager and a hungry mom-to-be?" Harm replied in mock horror with an accompanying over-acted shudder, "I think not! No, all I need to do is to add just a sprinkle of this, and maybe just a scruple more of that, and perhaps just a hint more of garlic, and… I do believe the rice is ready."
Harm transferred the rice from the steamer to a large platter and then divided the stir-fry on to three plates placing them on the table where his two girls had already seated themselves.
Mattie stared and sniffed suspiciously at the food in front of her, the smell of the herbs and spices already, or so she felt, making her nose run and her eyes water, and she cautiously took a small portion on her fork and even more cautiously tasted it, only then becoming aware that both Harm and Catherine were watching her with guarded amusement. Mattie felt the colour rise in her cheeks again and she glowered at both in turn, "What?" she demanded, "Haven't you ever seen anyone eat stir-fry before?"
"Well… yes," Catherine answered, fighting to stop herself from bursting into laughter, "but never quite so… so…" she sought for the appropriate word, "suspiciously!"
Mattie contented herself with a brief glare at Catherine before turning back to Harm, "And what's your excuse?"
"Oh, I just wanted to make sure that mademoiselle is satisfied with my culinary efforts," he said airily.
"Oh." Mattie was silenced as she considered her response, not quite knowing how best to handle the teasing she knew she was getting, until her own sense of mischief came to her aid. She took another, larger, forkful and chewed it thoroughly, with an abstracted expression on her face and an unfocussed gaze at nothing in particular. "Well," she drawled eventually, signs of animation returning to her expression, "it's edible, I'll grant you that much… but it's a little bland… could you pass the soy sauce, please?"
Harm looked stunned for a second, before he regained his composure and stood to take the sauce from the cabinet above the kitchenette worktop, just as Catherine crowed with delighted laughter, "Oh, very well done, Mattie!"
Harm managed a grin as he re-took his seat, "Yeah, Bravo Zulu, squirt!"
Mattie's interest was engaged, "Bravo Zulu?" she queried, "What the he… what the heck's that?" she swiftly amended her sentence as his - and Catherine's - eyebrows started to climb.
"It's Navy-speak; it means well done, or good job," he explained to her, and then in slightly more severe tones, "Mattie, you are going to have watch how you speak. OK?"
Mattie squirmed slightly, "Yeah, I s'pose, but my father wasn't too fussy 'bout what he said, even when he wasn't drinking, so I guess I just sort of slipped into the habit, and then the guys at the hangar… well, I guess it's hard to say 'oh darn it' when you've just scraped all the skin off your knuckles… hey, that reminds me, you are about the only guy I knew around the hangar that didn't cuss and swear, an' I thought sailors cussed a lot?"
"Well, they do Mattie, but even the roughest sailor tries to moderate his language when he's around women and kids, and if he does make a slip, then he generally apologises for it. Cussing doesn't prove that you're big or hard, swearing only proves two things, firstly that you have a limited vocabulary, and secondly that you lack control. Besides, as the father of one my oldest friends once told us, if you cuss at the little things that go wrong in life, what are you going to say when something big goes belly-up and you really need a cussword?"
Mattie nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah… I guess you got a point there…"
"Yeah, I guess I do." Harm smiled to take any sting out of his words.
"And so do I," Catherine added as she pushed on the table to help herself rise from her chair, "Normally the cook doesn't do the washing-up, Harm; but I've had it for the day, so perhaps Mattie could help you?"
"What do you think, Mattie. Should we cut her some slack?"
Mattie cast a mock-jaundiced eye at Catherine, "She's going to play this pregnancy card right to the end, isn't she?" she said to Harm
"Darn straight I am!" Catherine smiled, "And then, once the baby's here, I'm going to play the new mom for just as long as I can, too!"
The clearing away completed and the dishes washed and dried Harm put the kettle on to make tea while Catherine and Mattie established themselves in front of the television and squabbled amicably about which of the nearly two hundred of Catherine's DVDs they should watch, settling eventually on a compromise between Mattie's desire for something to do with flying, and Catherine's wish for something light-hearted, by choosing to watch Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.
Harm, delivered the teas to the occasional table and then complete with baby oil, lavender essential oil and a towel, and while Mattie sat cross-legged on an ottoman, he joined Catherine on the couch, where covering his lap with the towel, he manoeuvred Catherine around until he could access her feet for a foot rub. After half an hour, during which he reduced Catherine to an almost catatonic state, he gently changed his position on the couch so that he now supported her head and shoulders against his chest while all three laughed at the on-screen antics of Red Skelton, James Fox and Sarah Miles and the rest of the ensemble cast.
The film finished, Harm gently prodded Mattie with a sock-clad foot, "Time for bed, young lady."
Mattie yawned, "Yeah, I guess. Goodnight Harm, 'night Catherine." And somewhat groggily she rose from the ottoman and headed towards her bedroom.
Harm eased himself from under Catherine's body and gathering up the cups, he rinsed and dried them, saying. "We'll have to give her ten minutes to clear the bathroom before we need it."
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Despite Harm's claim for the need to give Mattie a ten minute period of grace, it was nearly an hour before he and Catherine finally slipped under the comforter on her bed. Harm lay still on his back as Catherine laid her head against his shoulder and propped her swollen belly against his hip.
"Did… did I… uh… embarrass you, earlier?" Catherine asked from the safety of the darkness, once the lights had been killed.
"When?" asked Harm
"When I said… when I said… that… I uh… loved you, for saying you remembered…" Catherine faltered.
"No, not all" Harm responded instantly, "I know just what you meant, and exactly where you were coming from! It's just a different form of words for saying thank you, and how much you appreciated what I said." But why, oh, why he asked himself, couldn't he just tell her that his heart had nearly stopped when she'd said that, and he had had the impulse to say something along the same lines in return. Because you're a coward, he told himself. No, he argued, I didn't say anything, because I don't know whether I love her or not, and I'm not going to pull a Renee or a Jordan on her.
Catherine relaxed, lying still and quiet, her head still tucked into the hollow of Harm's shoulder, relieved that he had chosen to accept her words as a thank you, rather than a declaration that had surprised her as much as it had him, and the truth of which she was unsure. As the tension, of which she had been unaware, drained from her body she felt and heard the slow thumping of his heart almost under her head, and letting a soft sigh escape her mouth, she closed her eyes, snuggled even closer into the circle of his arm and let herself be lulled to sleep.
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Harm worked his left arm vigorously; it seemed that he and Catherine hadn't moved all night while asleep, consequently, when he had awoken some fifteen minutes ago he has still on his back with her head nestled even deep into his shoulder, the crown of her head almost tucked under his chin. As a consequence, his left arm had gone numb and his shoulder had gotten stiff. Now, as he stood under the stinging needles of hot water in the shower, he was still trying to relive the residual ache in his shoulder joint. His exercise was abruptly terminated by a hammering on the bathroom door and a frantic teenage voice, "Haaarm! I need to pee!"
Sighing, he turned off the hot water and quickly wrapping a towel around his waist, he unlocked the bathroom door only to be pulled through it by what seemed to a red, blue flannel handled mop which uttered a "Thank God!" before the bathroom door was slammed in his face, leaving him barefoot and still dripping on the carpet in Catherine's living room.
With a shrug and a wry grin, Harm headed back to the bedroom, hoping to at least to get dry and get his boxers on before Catherine woke up. Catherine was still asleep, and had compensated for his absence from her bed by dragging one of the pillows down so that it lay vertically along her body, supporting her bump and giving her arms something to hold on to. Harm looked at her for a long moment, her face was relaxed, still, calm and at peace, with just a couple of faint crow's feet lines at the corner of her eyes to indicate the passing of the years and the usually concealed sense of humour that lurked just below her apparently cool, no-nonsense exterior. Turning away with a smile, he shucked the towel from around his waist and energetically rubbed himself dry before reaching into his sea-bag and retrieving a clean pair of boxers and a fresh T-shirt, before he turned around to find two blue eyes staring appreciatively at him, the sense of humour he'd just been reflecting on evidenced by the gleam of amusement in those self-same eyes.
"H'mm… how old did you say you were?" Catherine asked lazily.
Harm regarded her quizzically for a few moments, he was sure that she was about to make some sort of age-relevant quip, but what form that quip might make he was ignorant, so sighing in resignation, and waiting for the shoe to drop, he sat on the edge of the bed, and leaning across planted a soft kiss on Catherine's lips before he said in trepidation, "I am forty…" then a thought struck him, "but you know that… you've read my file.." he accused her.
"Yes, I have," Catherine smiled, "but I wanted to hear you say it out loud, just so that I could say that you've got pretty good buns for an old man!"
Harm clapped a hand to his chest and groaned theatrically, "You couldn't have just said 'good morning'? You had to wound me to the heart instead?"
"Well, I could have," Catherine admitted, "but where would be the fun in that? But if it makes you feel any better," she propped herself on her elbow and her other hand snaked out to gently grasp the nape of his neck and draw him down to her as she raised herself and kissed him gently, "Good morning, sailor."
"Hey you, good morning," he replied, as he helped support her weight while she sank back on to the bed.
Fr a few moments more they stayed where they were, his finger tracing the delicate line of her cheek and jaw, as smiled up at him, until a growl from her stomach broke the moment and they both chuckled quietly.
"I'll get the breakfast started," Harm offered, "while you hit the bathroom. I got turfed out prematurely by Mattie, so she should be finished in there by now."
"Ah, I wondered why you were dripping all over my bedroom," Catherine smiled, "we'll have to do something about that, organise a rota, or an order of precedence."
"I don't really think that's going to solve the problem, Harm replied as he walked around to Catherine's side of the bed, to help her to her feet, "After all, when you gotta go, you gotta go, Just think about it, how much warning do you get when our baby starts pummeling your bladder?"
"True… not a lot. I mean, I was up twice during the night, and both times I just about made it…"
"See, that's exactly what I mean; if you had been that desperate and there'd been somebody else in the bathroom, then… Hey! What do you mean you were up twice during the night?"
Catherine gave him an odd look, "Of course I was up during the night, I'm up two or three times a night every night…"
"Oh, how come you didn't disturb me?"
"Because you sleep like a log! The only time you've ever woken was that once night at your place when I woke you up deliberately to turn the damn heating on! And the way you sleep so sound when I'm up in the wee small hours almost makes me hate you!"
Whatever good humour had been present when Catherine first woke up had obviously dissipated, and a shocked Harm suddenly realised the she was very near to tears, "Oh, Catherine," he said with a catch in his voice and he took a step towards her, only to be halted by her to hands raised palms facing him, as if she were about to push him away.
"No!" she said fiercely, "Don't! Don't touch me!"
Harm retreated a half-step, "Ok, OK, if you don't want me to, then I won't." His voice clearly reflected his bemusement as he asked, almost plaintively, "Just tell me what you want, and I'll try…"
"I want not be pregnant! I want my baby! I want my mom to be well, I want…" Catherine broke down and wept, sinking back in a seated position on the band and covering her face with her hands, while her tears trickled through her fingers.
Harm couldn't help himself, he could no more watch a woman in distress without offering comfort than he could fly without strapping on an airplane, he sat next to Catherine and greatly daring, he looped a long arm around her shoulders, and drew her gently against his chest, letting her cry until after long minutes her sobs degenerated to sniffles and then stopped. She stayed where she was for a few minutes more, cradled against his chest, but then wriggled against the restriction of his arm. Taking her movement as a signal she wanted to be released he dropped his arm and let her sit up, which she did without meeting his gaze, her own eyes fixed firmly on her hands now clasped in her lap.
"I… I… I'm… so sorry…" she offered tremulously, "I don't know what happened… one moment we were talking… and then… I got so mad at you… and then I got scared, and frightened… and…I felt so sad…"
Harm half turned towards her, one hand rising to rub gentle and, he hoped, comforting circles on her back, "Hey, it's alright," he soothed her, "anytime you want to get mad at me just go right ahead."
That did make her turn her face towards him, "Don't patronise me, Harm," she warned him in a half-plea, half-threat.
"I'm not," he defended himself gravely. "Well, not consciously anyway. Catherine, there is no way I can ever know what you're experiencing, all I can do is offer my unconditional support, and take my lumps when I have to…"
"But that's so unfair… I mean it isn't even your fault that I'm the way I am!" she protested, still somewhat tearfully.
"I know… but I'll tell you something: I wish it were my fault. That way you could whale on me without having to feel guilty about it. Oh, hell, whale on me anyway, just as much as you like, but just skip the guilt part, OK?"
The beginnings of a smile broke through her tear clouded face as she sniffled again, "What did I do to deserve you?" she demanded.
Harm tilted her face up to hid and again kissed her gently, "You said 'yes' to just about the craziest scheme anyone ever planned!"
Catherine's smile grew a little warmer and she nodded happily, not trusting herself to speak.
Harm stood again, and once more offered her his hands, "Come on then, let's get you started for the day, while I start breakfast. Pancakes OK?"
"M'mm, yeah… but with butter and marmalade, please?"
Harm blinked, "Butter and marmalade?"
"Yeah, and… oh… with sardines, too! The tinned ones in oil!"
"Sardines? I thought your craving was for cheese?"
"Cheese? No! Oh… now I have got to go to the bathroom! Thank you so very much!"
Catherine's unexpected culinary demands meant another swift trip to the store for Harm, leaving Mattie to her own devices for twenty minutes, but with strict instructions to keep an eye on Catherine and to keep an open ear just in case she needed help while she was in the bathroom.
"So that means no too-loud music; and no headphones either!" he warned her sternly.
"Aye, aye, sailor!" she responded with a cheeky grin and a sloppy attempt at a salute. All of course without getting up from what seemed to be her favourite cross-legged position on the floor.
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The morning had passed quickly enough. Breakfast had been slightly later than planned and Harm wished he'd had a camera to record the look of horror on Mattie's face as she'd watched as Catherine had worked her way through a stack of pancakes smothered in butter and smeared with thick-cut, somewhat bitter marmalade, accompanied by a can of the small, olive-oil saturated fish.
He also wished for a camera to capture the look of rapturous content on Catherine's face as she used the last of the pancakes to wipe her plate clean of the oil, butter and marmalade residue.
After breakfast and the cleaning down and squaring away of the kitchenette Harm had driven over to his apartment to collect his uniform for the morning and now the apartment was the scene of contented domestic activity. Mattie and Catherine had divided the Sunday paper, while Harm labored at the ironing board to restore razor-sharp creases to his shirt, jacket and pants, prior to grabbing a polishing cloth and a can of shoe polish to ensure that his shoes were properly spit-shone.
He drew a deep breath and smiled as he watched Catherine and Mattie playfully arguing over who should get which section of the paper next. Tomorrow he would be back in uniform for the first time since spring, but at the moment this felt like domestic bliss, and he'd willingly take as much of it as he could, and he reflected, his smile quirking into a wry grin, it probably still wouldn't be enough.
"Hey," he called out, bringing the wrangling between the two women to a stop, "Anyone got any thoughts as to what they might like for lunch?"
Mattie turned her own brilliant blue eyes on him, "Pizza?" she suggested hopefully.
Harm and Catherine exchanged a brief look, and grinned "No!" they chorused.