Okay, this is a little bit of introspection and a bit of Harm putting his foot in (if he thought talking to Mac was like navigating a mine field - and he had actually navigated a mine field - then he's gonna realize talking to a pregnant, hormonal Loren makes talking to Mac look like a five o'clock tea with sweet little old polite and nice ladies).

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True, he and Loren weren't in a romantic relationship, but they were going to raise a child together and that meant that, when it comes to the possibility of a relationship with someone else, they were effectively committed to each other, excluding everyone else.

He had known he would be killing the chance of finding someone he could fall in love with when he'd proposed the idea to Loren, but family always comes first.

Besides, he was no longer willing to risk having his heart broken again as had happened too many times in his life already, with the woman either dying like Gym and Diane, or leaving him like Annie, Jordie and Renee or playing games like Mac, who'd been the main source of emotional pain for him since Diane's death.

To a small extent it would've been completely just had Harm himself or Diane's parents, the people who'd been most hurt by Diane's death, had the pleasure of ending her murderer's life.

Diane had been family to Harm, the woman he loved for more than 2 decades now (who says you can't love a person, just cause they're dead? The heart still remembers them, still loves them.), the woman he'd intended to marry, and every religious book, even the Bible and the Old Testament, demand an eye for an eye.

And this baby Loren was carrying was Harm's family, just as was Loren his family from now until eternity. Before he and Loren had gotten together they'd been his relatives, but now they were his real, his immediate family, his own child, not that of his brother, and the mother of his child, not the one time sex partner of his brother's.

And for his family Harm had always been willing to give up anything, even his own life, and the chance that someday in the murky, vague future he would meet the woman he'd fall in love with and who'd fall in love with him for who he was, everything he was, not just a part of him, and would want to just be with him and not play some head games with him, try to make him jealous; this chance was so small and miniscule that he had no problem giving up on it.

Which also meant he would have to show every woman who was interested that he wasn't on the market.

--

"I saw a maternity store earlier." he mentioned and then, at Loren's confused look, explained hesitantly, instinctively knowing it was a dangerous thing to talk to a pregnant woman about the fact that her clothes aren't fitting her anymore. "You can get some maternity clothes there."

"Are you saying I'm getting fat?" she asked archly, hands on her hips, eyebrow cocked warningly.

"No! No." he hastened to difuse the situation. Man, talking to a pregnant woman (or was it just pregnant Loren?) was worse than navigating through a minefield. He could attest to that, since he'd done it. "I'm just saying that in the three and a half years I've known you, I've never seen you wear something that was too big on you, your clothes always fit you very well, showing off your figure."

"So, you're saying I'm easy and dress like a sl..." she demanded, getting angry, but was quickly cut off by Harm, who knew they were starting to attract attention. Mentally Harm groaned, the hormones really were a bitch, making Loren into some highly sensitive and explosive barrel of gunpowder. Or dynamite.

"You're not that, never would be, and you're far from easy." Harm pleaded. "I'm just trying to say that you've always dressed with style and you were always slim and fit, but you're pregnant now and you won't be able to wear those clothes for long. Besides, I've heard you saying something about something being too tight the other day."

She settled down, conceding his point.

Her clothes were getting tight, the fact that she could still wear them was because she rarely wore pants, and never jeans, so her dresses were still able to stretch enough to accomodate for her growing belly. However she knew she had to get new clothes and, something she dreaded, a maternity uniform.

She'd taken her current uniform to the tailor and had had it tailored for her new figure. No-one, except for 4 members of the senior staff, knew her secret yet, but the second she'd step out of the car in the parking lot wearing a maternity uniform the whole damn base would know. If not sooner, becase after all those Marine guards at the gates were worse gossips than stereotypical women... She could just imagine what everyone at the office would say when they'd find out.

Sleeping her way up the ladder would probably be the nicest assumption they'd make. True, she wasn't the best person in the world, and she was still trying to figure out what she'd done to deserve a guy like Harm caring for her and want to stay with her for the rest of their lives and raise the baby with her, but she'd never use her body to climb the ladder.

She wanted to get up there on her own merit, with her skills as a lawyer and officer, not with how good she was in bed. Only if she was in some cheap, dwindling from low ratings and low quality writing, soap opera and the producers would've replaced her with a pod person just to assassinate her character would Lieutenant Loren Singer do something like that, no other way.

And she knew no-one at the office would believe the truth.

Could she use Harm, have everyone believe it was his baby? She'd have to seriously talk about that with him later. Besides, he had clearly said that he wanted to be this baby's Daddy, with everything it entails, he would be the one to raise the baby with her, so biologics don't matter.

After all, it never matters who is the father, what matters is who is the Daddy.

--

Then his last words came and she raised wide eyes at him. 'He didn't mean it the way it sounded.' she tried to convince herself. 'He hasn't noticed it.'

But then she caught his eyes darting downwards swiftly and then back and she knew he'd noticed her lack of underwear. Cursing the fact that she no longer felt comfortable in her own underwear, much less her constantly changing body, she blushed deep crimson and was at least somewhat gratified to see him blush too.

"Before we get arrested for public indecency." he mumbled quietly to himself, but Loren still heard him.

She was baffled, why would he be the one arrested? Make that, why would any of them be arrested? Okay, so she wasn't wearing any underwear (thankfully the dress had an in-built bra, otherwise her lack of one would've been pretty noticeable), but the dress was still ankle-length, not showing anything. How could he have noticed? She immediately shook off the thought that Harm had been checking out her ass closely enough to notice the lack of pantylines as ludicrous. Harm didn't see her as an attractive woman, she was sure.

And why would he get arrested? Then she noticed the way his body was stiff, the way he was tensing his muscles as if fighting a battle against his own body and she glanced down, quickly raising an impressed eyebrow.

Something was definitely wanting to wake up down there and even with the added shield of his jacket it would've been noticable were it to awaken fully.

And, from what she had felt just a couple of weeks ago, it would've been impossible to hide it. He would've been sure to attract numerous attention from the women they'd encounter and she would have to do some really blatant and aggressive marking of her territory, of Harm, if she wouldn't want him dragged off against his will and ravaged by some woman.

And Loren wasn't in the mood for fights right now.

However the knowledge that she had such effect on him, so much power over him, that she could arouse him by doing practically nothing, was intoxicating and empowering.

She was already trying to figure out how to best take advantage of this.

She could use it in court, when they'd go against each other. With them living together she could easily make sure he'd know she was going commando or make it known to him in court. If his reaction would be anything like it was now she would win without a problem.

But that would've been impossible as the Admiral knew about their new relationship and living arrangements and would thus never let them have the same case again.

Nonetheless, she had to agree with this arrangement.

Not only would their relationship endanger the sentence, but the trial itself could cause problems in their domestic life as it would definitely create tension between them, as they would either be opposing each other or have different ideas on how they should defende/prosecute the defendant if they were on the same side. Harm would then probably have to spend the night, or a few of them, on the couch, which would've made Chegwidden angry at her, because Harm would've been unable to get up, much less go to work and continue on the case from the damage the couch would've done to his back.

This way it was a win-win arrangement.

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