The tough one to write - you'll have to let me know how it reads.

Although I don't seem to be able to stop… since I want to know what happens next, I will have to write the next one soon. (This story is actually keeping me up at night. I write in my notebook in bed before I fall asleep, and type in the morning… jeepers…)

Thanks to the reviewers. You guys are amazing.

Courtroom B

1225

Judge Alberti was a tall, striking black woman in her fifties. She had eyes that glittered intensely, and a sharply regal profile. One look at her and it was all Harm could do not to salute. "And where do you propose the young lady will live, Mr. Rabb?"

"With me, of course, your Honor." He folded his hands in front of himself, felt them slide wetly against each other and dropped them to his sides. He resisted the temptation to stick them in his pockets only by calling on all his military training and pulling himself to parade rest.

Mac, sitting in the courtroom, could see it from far. She whispered something under her breath.

"Ma'am?" Bud, sitting next to her, whispered quietly in response. She looked at him and shook her head.

"He's really nervous. I don't think I've ever seen him this bad, not even when the Admiral was on his back."

"I know." The lieutenant shook his head. "I wish there was something I could do."

Mac shot him a smile, put her hand on his for a moment. "We're doing it. And he's not done yet." She looked back up at her partner, who seemed totally out of his element, and wished she could shake this strange nervousness that was sitting in her chest. Taking a deep breath, she listened to the judge.

"But where, Mr. Rabb? I understand the young lady has property that will be left to her when she comes of age, some distance from here?"

"Yes, your Honor, but we've talked about it, and I'd like to have her in town with me."

She looked at her notes again. "You're a pilot, correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And you, as legal guardian, would have jurisdiction over that property - which includes a hanger, I believe - until she's older?"

Mac stared, amazed. This woman pulled no punches. That she could actually suggest that Harm might be after the airfield property was shocking – but also told the colonel that this judge had seen her share of impropriety in this kind of case. Come on, Harm. Speak to her concerns, don't just be defensive.

Harm frowned. "I'd help her manage the business, but the properties are hers and will remain so."

"I see." The judge filtered through some papers on her bench. "You seem to have a lot of friends in high places, Mr. Rabb." Harm looked at her, trying to figure out how to react to that comment. "While I appreciate their fervor, it doesn't change the fact that you travel a great deal, and are a single man looking to take responsibility for an adolescent girl."

"Your Honor, she would need to be placed somewhere-"

"Which also begs the point: Why didn't you tell child services as soon as you realized her situation?"

Harm floundered. "She would need to be placed somewhere. Doesn't it make sense to put her with someone who is willing, even anxious to help?"

Alberti looked down at him over her reading glasses. "Some might say too anxious, Mr. Rabb."

"Your Honor!" He stopped, bit back the objection, realizing his usual combative style would get him nowhere here. "I assure you that I would do my best to give Mattie a supportive environment to live in."

There was some quiet as the judge sifted through more of the stack of papers before her. Eventually she looked up once more, focusing on Mattie. "Young lady, I'd like to ask you a few questions. Would you come up here please?" The judge indicated the witness stand chair. Mattie shot a nervous look at Harm, who nodded with a reassuring look. She stood and walked up to sit.

"Do I have to swear in or anything?"

It earned her a rare smile from the judge. "No, I just want to know a few things. For example, how did you meet Mr. Rabb?"

Mattie bristled a bit in spite of Harm's training. "Commander Rabb keeps a plane at our airfield. A Steerman."

"I see. Does he take good care of it?"

"Yeah, it's in great shape."

The judge raised her eyebrows. "And how did it develop that this customer decided to try to become your legal guardian?"

The girl frowned. "We just get along, that's all. We're friends. And when he heard I was on my own he was worried about me, and said he would do something about it." She looked at Harm and smiled bravely. "It's what friends do."

He grinned back at her from where he sat.

"Yes. I'm sure. What I'm not sure of is why you want to do this. Your father is still living. If he comes back, he is still your father."

"He's not coming back. I don't matter to him."

"People change, you know. Are you saying you wouldn't give him a chance, even if he changed?"

Mac shook her head from halfway back in the courtroom as Mattie struggled through her response. "Oh, my."

Bud turned to look at her. "It doesn't look good, does it." She shook her head, unable to answer.

While the judge quizzed Mattie on school, moving, and the business she had been running, Mac frowned and picked up her briefcase. Quietly she opened it, pulled out a pad, jotted down a few notes. She handed the paper to Bud.

"Listen," she whispered. "Can you check this out?" He scanned it quickly, his eyes widening as he did.

"Ma'am?"

"Please, Bud. Would you? You have your laptop with you, right? I can't leave… I don't know if it will help or not, but we're in the thick of it now." He looked at her, his expression grim, and nodded.

"I'll see what I can find." Quietly he ducked out of the back of the courtroom without disturbing anyone. Mac turned her attention back to the hearing.

"Thank you. You may return to your seat."

"Your Honor?" Mattie's voice sounded quite small in the nearly empty room.

"Yes?"

"I- well, I just want to say that I really want Harm – Commander Rabb - to be my guardian." The judge gave her a polite smile.

"Yes, that's clear. But I'm sure that you realize what we want is not necessarily what is best for us." Even Mattie could feel the steel behind the softly spoken comment, and as she walked back to sit with Harm her eyes began to water. He leaned over to say something when she whispered furiously at him, blinking hard. He looked a little dubious, but nodded.

"Your Honor, if we might take a short recess?"

"Recess? I believe we're nearly finished here, Commander."

Mattie stood and blurted out, "I have to go to the bathroom, okay?" Her voice cracked and she swiped a hand hard over her face. Harm looked at her, then at the judge pleadingly.

"Your Honor-"

The judge nodded with an elaborate sigh. "Fifteen minutes. No longer." She stepped down and vanished into her chambers.

Harm turned to Mattie but she had dashed down the aisle and out the door of the courtroom. Mac stood up and looked at him. "Should I follow her?"

"No." He rapped his knuckles on the table. "She'll come back. She just –" he faltered a bit – "she just doesn't like people to see her cry." Mac walked down to where he was and put her hand on his arm.

"How are you holding up?"

"How do you think? You can hear it in her voice. Ah, Mac." He rubbed his fingers against his forehead and closed his eyes. "She's not going for it. What am I going to do?" He exhaled heavily. "God… what am I going to do?"

Mac blinked back her own tears, trying desperately to find some way to remain professional, and thereby helpful. He went on, almost talking to himself, his voice bleak.

"I don't know. I can't even begin to explain why I want this so much. I didn't go looking for it, she was just dropped in my lap, like a gift… and now I can't imagine not being there. Not having her." He half turned away from Mac, staring at the far wall. "The story of my life. Always too little, too late."

Mac reached out toward him. "Harm –"

He was too distracted to notice. "My dad, us, and now Mattie… Anytime I try to do something, anything that really means something, it always…" He seemed to abruptly realize that she was standing there, and shook his head. "I'm going to get a drink of water. And find Mattie." With a few long strides he was out of the court, and Mac was left standing there alone.

She took a deep breath, walked up to the judge's bench, and ran her fingers idly along the smooth maple. Turning, she looked at the room, one of she didn't know how many court rooms that had shaped her life, molded her character. Rooms that were built for the sole purpose of making important decisions.

"I guess that's what I need now."

"Pardon, ma'am?" Bud had walked up to her, silent as her thoughts were loud. "Is it done? Or are we recessed?"

"Bathroom break. But it doesn't look good. Any luck?"

"Some." He handed her the paper. "Harm might still manage to get primary custody if her father should show up. It's happened before." Frowning, he shrugged. "Do you think it will make much of a difference?"

She looked at the paper and smiled wanly. "I'm grasping at straws, Bud. I wish there was more… but I'm trying to figure out what the judge's biggest worries are."

"Well, the single fatherhood."

"Right. And the property, but I really don't think that's huge. I think it's the lifestyle…"

"Right." Bud shook his head. "Not much we can do about that."

"No." Mac looked up as Harm and Mattie walked in from the back of the courtroom, his arm around her as he leaned over to say something with a smile while Mattie struggled to keep her composure. Mac swallowed hard. If that girl knew how hard it was for Harm to smile right now…

She sighed. "There must be something. Something I'm missing." She turned and saw Bud was watching the connection of the would-be father and daughter intently, his eyes filling abruptly.

"Sometimes, there just isn't anything you can do, Mac." Her eyes followed him as he walked slowly back to his seat, looking just a little older than usual.

"Oh, Bud…" Mac tried to push back the flood of feelings that this case was stirring up for all of them, and only noticed absently that her cell phone was buzzing. Blinking back tears, she stepped out in the hallway to answer it.