What the hell are the ff. net support doing? They've messed up the system once again and ALL the scene-separator lines have disappeared. Have mailed them THREE times, received no answer, and lastly I received a notification from my mail provider that is an invalid address... So, in all of my 116 fics scenes are from now on merged together. gggrrrrr. Now I have to use this site's system.
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It was only a few days after Loren had moved in with Harm and they were finally faced with the chore most people hate... going grocery shopping.
Now, since he and Loren were living together it was only logical that they would go about it together.
Harm honestly didn't know what to expect from the experience, never having gone grocery shopping with a woman other than his mother and Diane before in his life, but he was sure it would be a completely new experience.
It started out all right, they found a parking space near the entrance and were soon making their way into the large complex.
The first sign of trouble was the way Loren perked up as soon as they entered the mall, becoming almost hyperactive and looking around with the excitement of a child and he couldn't keep his gaze and thoughts off of her.
What was it about this woman that had him so fascinated?
Okay, she was beautiful, make that incredibly beautiful, was extremely intelligent and smart, with a quick tongue and witty repartee, was his first time of witnessing a pregnancy from up close and finally giving him the family he'd always wanted, the constantly thrilling knowledge that there was a human growing inside her, a child who was to join their little family in just a few short months.
This woman, the one he had never expected to do it, had given him the greatest gift in the world.
She had given him a family.
And now she was about to give him the experience of shopping with a woman.
He was honestly shaking in his shoes.
Okay, so it wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be, as bad as his married friends had told him it was.
He still remembered the 'advice' a few of the married guys he knew liked to give out to the younger men considering marriage and family.
It was simple: DON'T.
That had always made him suspicious. Why would something that was the core of the society be that bad?
As years went on he had become convinced that the guys with such opinion were the ones that were either not the marrying type or had made the wrong choice in their lifepartner or both.
His brief shared life with Loren had shown him that it wasn't bad at all.
Okay, so he and Loren weren't married and hadn't been living together long enough to have some major fights, but things were looking pretty good.
Thankfully Loren was still Loren and insisted on doing many things herself. Had she suddenly become clingy he would've been freaking out, convinced aliens had replaced her with a pod person or the CIA had subjected her to one of their experiments (which was more probable). He would've then been hunting down Webb if it had.
She went methodically through the aisles, sometimes disappearing for a few minutes, while Harm was pushing the cart, and when she came back she occasionally put something into it.
Everything went smoothly, except for the time when she almost caused him to have a heart attack.
The dress she was wearing wasn't a maternity dress (she was still convinced she didn't need one), but a regular one and it showed off her baby bulge, which was something Loren was no longer ashamed or afraid to show. Probably because this was not JAG and she didn't know these people.
Then suddenly, while walking ahead of him, she bent over slightly to pick something up from a shelf and Harm almost swallowed his tongue.
Obviously, in her condition and in that dress she wasn't able to crouch, so she'd just bent over, and presented Harm a fantastic view of her butt through the thin fabric. Harm thought his heart had stopped because all of the blood was heading south. While they weren't in a sexual relationship, Harm was still a red-blooded man and a view like this had a very specific effect on him. Especially when he remembered how rock solid that little butt had felt when it had been pressing and wriggling against his groin that memorable morning a few weeks back.
The next second he was absolutely sure he would die of lack of blood in his heart, since every single drop had decided to gather down south when he'd realized...
The prim and proper LT Loren Singer was going commando!
He was close enough to see that there was no line in the fabric of the dress and he was damn glad she'd worn a long dress which reached her ankles because otherwise she would be showing everything.
What the hell was she doing!? Trying to get arrested for indecency? Trying to get HIM arrested for public indecency?
Like from a fog a memory of a caught grumbling came to him. Earlier that day, while preparing for work, Loren had been grumbling about 'the damn things being too tight' and putting painful pressure on her belly. At the time he was wisely silent and had pretended he hadn't heard anything, but now it was making sense.
She'd been complaining about her panties' elastic being too tight and that was why she'd obviously decided not to wear them to the store.
He was sincerely hoping she was wearing at least something under her skirt for work because he was sure people would get curious as to why he'd locked himself inside his office for days on end and why he was blushing and avoiding Loren as much as possible.
The knowledge that she wasn't wearing anything under her skirt would've had him constantly hard around her. Either that or he would've complicated their relationship very much by just ravishing her in her office. From the heated glances she sent him occasionally he had the feeling she wouldn't protest.
Even he had heard about some women's sex drive receiving a boost during their second trimester.
Maybe he should finally start reading some of those 'what to expect...' books...
There were many books for women about pregnancy and labor, but were there any written for men to help them through this difficult and sometimes-dangerous-to-men's-sanity-and-health era?
He made a mental note to check out the nearest bookstore when he had a little time to himself.
But for now he had to make sure Loren's state of dress wouldn't become public knowledge.
He looked around to see if anyone was looking at Loren and was gratified they weren't. The people in the aisle consisted of two women not really interested in Loren. Unfortunately they were giving him the googly eyes.
He stepped closer to Loren, who had by then chosen the item she'd wanted and he turned to her in a manner revealing he was there with her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the women's disappointed looks and felt bad, but he still wasn't on the market anymore. One of the benefits of his new position as a father and Loren's partner.
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