Author's Note: Here you go with an update. I'm sorry this is coming along so slowly. The other fic was totally in my head and now I've got another one stuck in there as well. I hope you enjoy this update and look forward to another one! Review if you would like and enjoy!
All of the different restrictions put on me weren't actually as bad as I thought they were going to be. Working as a judge had come to an end, but I had already talked to the Admiral about switching over on a more permanent assignment.
Our next focus was a house. We had been working on finding somewhere for a while but now that there was a deadline sitting right in front of us, we really needed to get a house settled. That's what brought us here this Saturday, standing in the middle of the living room of the house that I swear I described to Harm.
"Mac, it's perfect."
"Did you see the front porch? And did you see the back yard, and then there's the kitchen… Harm it is the perfect kitchen for you."
"I want to do some updating to some of the bathrooms and part of the kitchen, and I think that we need to think about replacing some of the flooring, but I don't see anything that I don't like."
"There's only one… well a few more things we have to do now."
"Have a couple of kids and get us a big dog?" he says with a laugh, knowing that I was remembering telling him about the house I could see myself living in for the rest of my life.
"What do you guys think?" the realtor says, coming to join us again in the den.
"We're very interested and want to put in an offer."
"That's what I thought, so I already drew up the paperwork with an offer written in."
Harm's eyebrows raise as he takes the paper from the realtor and looks down at the offer, which had a lot less zeroes than we were anticipating, "You're kidding me, right? We aren't going to be taken seriously with that offer, I know what this house was listing for."
"True, but I'm positive that you'll get the house if you put in this offer."
"Why do I sense that you know more than I do."
"Because I do." He says with a smile.
"What's wrong with the place?"
"Nothing… I just had help with setting this house up for the two of you, and I know that you'll be fine."
"Help?" I ask, wondering what exactly that could mean coming from a realtor.
"Did you know that I spent a number of years doing real estate out in California? La Jolla and the surrounding areas specifically."
"So I assume that you know my step father."
"Frank and I go way back."
"And what exactly did Frank help you with?"
"I mentioned the house to him in passing and he told me that his beautiful daughter-in-law had described that very house to him one morning while the watched the sun rise together. He said that you would love it and that you should have it no matter what, so he took care of that part."
"By doing what exactly?"
"Buying the house for you." The realtor says, smiling.
"Harm! Frank can't buy us a house!" I loudly say, protesting such an extravagant gift.
"Oh no, don't be mistaken, he didn't buy it in your name, he bought it for himself with the intention of selling it to the two of you because he told me that you wouldn't accept the gift."
"How much did he pay for it?"
"I am not allowed to disclose that information to you, but I can say that it was less than what it was listed for and more than the offer we are sending."
"That tells me nothing." Harm says, knowing that his stepfather was only wanting the best for us.
"Harm, if we are buying it from him then we can put what we want, so why don't we up the offer to something that we would feel comfortable with, and if he says that he doesn't want that much, then we will make sure that he takes it anyway. Either way, he was right and this is the house for us. He just wanted to make sure that we got it."
"How many times did you and Frank get up early together?" he says with a laugh and I fondly remember waking up and joining Frank to watch the sunrise over the ocean and chat away the morning about everything we could think of.
"Enough times that I understand where he's coming from and I appreciate the gesture. He didn't get to spoil you then, Harm. Give this to him now.
He thinks about it for a moment, looking down at the papers in his hands before telling the realtor that we were going to definitely buy the house, but he needed to raise the offer by sixty thousand dollars. This would still be a steal, but more realistic than the amount that was down originally.
One month later, the house would officially be ours, but since Frank owned it, he insisted that we start getting everything the way we like it immediately. This meant shopping for new furniture, painting the walls, deciding on decorations.
"You know, I'm actually surprised at the two of us." Harm says two weeks later as we are curled up on the couch in my apartment.
"Why?"
"Because I have totally enjoyed getting this house ready for the three of us with you. Our tastes seem to be totally different, but we agree on all the same things."
"Well, it's the first time that we're buying things to last… I think that's the difference."
"When do you want to look at baby furniture?" he says, patting my slightly rounded stomach.
I was around three months pregnant now and the baby was just now making my waistline feel its presence. I couldn't button things the way I used to, but no one knew except Harm and I.
"After we get everything else done. This part is for us for now, and I want to get it all settled before we bring in everything the baby is going to need."
"You're right."
"So we have about a week to finish the painting and get everything in the way you want it to before the furniture is delivered."
"Bud wanted to come help me this weekend and we even invited the Admiral and Tiner over. It's going to be a guys weekend so you girls can do all that mushy gushy stuff that you love to do like get a manicure."
"Nobody asked why I wasn't painting?"
"I told them that I wanted you to have a break after all the work you were putting in on the house already."
"Harm, I haven't lifted a finger."
"They don't know that, Mac."
"All right, I think that's a good idea then."
It all went without a hitch, and we were ready to move in, until getting called into the Admiral's office.
"How's the move coming along?" he asks as they are called at ease and asked to sit down.
"Well, the majority of it is happening this weekend, you know sir."
"I do… which is why this is hard to have to ask, but I need you both on an investigation. Something that happened on the Patrick Henry."
Crap. That is my only thought when the Admiral says it, because I'm not allowed to travel and even if I was, I can't serve on a carrier while I'm pregnant because it would be against regulations.
"So you're sending us both to the Patrick Henry?" Harm asks after giving me a nervous glance.
"No. I'm sending you to the Patrick Henry, Commander. The Colonel needs to stay here to do some investigating from home."
"Oh, okay, we can work out the moving stuff at a later time then. I'm sure I can get some help for the weekend." Harm says as the two of us breathe a sigh of relief that our secret was kept.
"I will take care of that Commander. I'm sure that I can rearrange my weekend to help the Colonel at the house, and I'm also sure that I can enlist the help of a few people around the office to help as well. Besides… you know very well that I wasn't going to be sending the Colonel off to the Patrick Henry with you… I believe that it would be against regulations."
"Sir?" I ask without actually asking the question.
"Your secret's safe with me, and I'm sure hardly noticed by anyone else."
"How long have you known?"
"Right before you took your leave for the honeymoon I figured it out. The fact that the Colonel wasn't supervising our painting this past weekend confirmed the whole idea."
"We had just found out before we left sir…"
"You forget that I've watched the two of you carefully dance around each other for years. I know what to look for. Just like that day in the conference room when I thought the Colonel was going to toss her breakfast. All things to look for." He says with a smile on his face.
"We were waiting until I was further along to tell everyone, sir. I'm sorry that we didn't let you know right away."
"How far along are you Colonel?"
"Almost 13 weeks sir."
"Well, by my understanding, isn't that when you start telling everyone the happy news?"
Another nervous glance passes between Harm and I, not knowing whether or not to share all the details with the Admiral.
"Sir, there are some concerns with the pregnancy that we weren't aware of. I was actually going to come meet with you in a few weeks to talk about when I need to start going on limited duty."
"Everything's okay?" he asks with the concern of a father.
"Most likely, it will be sir. But we need to keep an eye on Mac and the baby so everything goes smoothly." Harm says, reaching over to grab onto my hand… not caring that we were in the Admiral's office.
"Well, whatever you need, you let me know. In fact, I want to sit down with you next week to talk about what your doctor would like you to do for maternity leaves and whatnot. We'll have to get Lieutenant Simms in here to talk about the paperwork as well, so you may want to let her in on the secret sometime soon."
"Will do sir."
"Now, let's get back to this case on the Patrick Henry."
Harm was to be gone for just a few days, but it was just enough to make me upset that he was leaving so soon.
"I know that you have to go out there and I can't go out there, but this really stinks."
"We've been apart before Mac."
"I know we have, but it's totally different now, and I'm just worried about this weekend and moving everything around."
"Well, the Admiral has come up with a great cover story for you, and you and Harriet will be out celebrating your pregnancy while the men do all the work."
"Sending me out of town on another part of your investigation was good thinking on the Admiral's part, and assuming responsibility for the moving trucks was above and beyond his duties."
"Mac, he loves you. You know that, and I think that since he doesn't have his daughter here, you're the closest thing he has to that. Why not let him dote on you for a while?" he asks, and I'm forced to remember all the times the Admiral had acted more like a concerned parent than a commanding officer to both of us.
"I know… I just wish that my husband was here." I say, wrapping my arms around him to show him just how much I was going to miss him.