AN: Great thanks to everyone who enjoyed the story and told me about it or commented in any other way. You aren't the reason I write, but very much the reason I want to post my stories. This end is kind of... I don't know you'll have to read it to find out. I hope you won't be disappointed.

Part 6

August 2010

"Benji, get down here and open up. Your father is here."

"Coming Mom," he shouted from his room.

Benji came running down the stairs, flung the door open and jumped into his father's arms.

"Happy birthday, Ben," he said and gave him a blue wrapped up present.

"Thank you. Mom, look what I got," he said to Mac and stepped a little further into the hallway to sit down and open his present. Mac and Harm were both careful not to take their eyes off of him to ensure not having to look at each other more than necessary.

"That's nice," she said and watched him open the package, which turned out to be containing a model of a yellow Stearman just like the one Harm had.

"You were late again. Mom, said you were going to come much earlier than the other people, but they will be here anytime now," Benji informed his father as he was opening his present.

"I was caught up in something..."

The phone rang and Benji ran to the kitchen to answer it.

"I know we said so, but I thought it might be a little awkward because of..." Harm trailed off.

Once again there was a knock on the door and this time it was Harriet, Bud, AJ and Jimmy. The adults greeted each other a bit cautiously. Benji soon came and got Jimmy and AJ to go and show him his presents.

Jimmy and Benji had been good friends for long and now they were in the same class in school as well. It was only through their friendship that Mac had any contact with the Roberts' at all. The friendship she had had with them had deteriorated after it was clear that Harm and Mac weren't going to work out their differences. They had been stuck in a difficult position between the two of them and even though they hadn't wanted to choose sides, in the end they had been forced to just like the rest of their common friends. Some of them had kept up the contact with Harm and some had stayed with her. From having shared so many things, their friends, experiences and thoughts, they had ended up only having fading memories and their son in common.

She showed them through the house to the back of the house. The sun was shining and in the garden she had set up tables and a barbeque. Tomorrow Benji was going to have a party for all of his school friends, but today was just for the family consisting of adult friends of his parents. Not much later Sturgis and his family arrived as well as the big AJ, Liz and the office clerk from Mac's firm.

Harm was sitting together with Sturgis trying to make a good and normal conversation. Sturgis had gone from being Harm's best friend to Mac's confidant and ever since then they had both felt uncomfortable around each other. After a while they had stopped seeing each other at all privately. AJ was in charge of the barbeque and Mac and Liz were running in and out of the house carrying the rest of the food outside. Eventually they were ready to eat and the whole party tried to be as nice and unrestrained as they possibly could. Except for the children they all knew about the ongoing custody battle between Benji's parents, but they also all wanted to try to give the little boy a nice and normal birthday. It was of course impossible for them to keep the tensions away from him and the children were quick to disappear into the house as soon as they could.

Mac started piling the plates together and Harm was soon to help her carry some of the things back to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen instead of taking out the cake and start lighting the candles like he had thought she would, she turned to him asking him to come with her.

"I have something for you," she said as she walked into her office. "I actually wanted you to have them before the party, but... Could you close the door, please."

He did as he'd been told and then turned back to her seeing her pulling something out of the top drawer of her desk.

"I've signed these papers. You can let your lawyer look at them and then come back to me," she tried to do it as much like everyday business as she could, but didn't succeed very well. "I think you'll agree with them though."

"What is it?"

"It's all in the papers," Mac said calmly. She wanted this conversation to be over as soon as possible. This was the hardest thing she had ever done.

"But I want to hear it from you."

"I'm giving full custody of Benji to you. I'm letting you take him to San Diego. I don't want to go to court against you. I don't want to fight with you."

"What made you change your mind?"

"If I fight with you over him and win, he'll end up hating me for taking you away from him. It's a loose/loose situation for me regardless of what happens in court."

"I don't want to fight with you either and I don't want this," he said and started ripping the papers apart.

"Harm, what are you doing? I thought that was what you wanted most," Mac protested.

"It's not what I want most," he explained.

"Last time I asked you what you wanted most I didn't know what to make of the answer I got."

"Ask me again."

"I don't want to play this game with you, Harm," she wondered what he was doing, where he was going with this.

He looked hurt at her.

"There's something else I need to tell you," Mac started off realizing that she couldn't keep it to herself any longer.

Harm looked at her understanding that this was something important

"I'm pregnant... again."

"Am I..." Harm asked disbelieving that this would happen to the two of them again as she had said.

Mac nodded.

"You sure?"

"Is that how low your thoughts are of me these days?" Mac asked hurt by his question, but deep down also realizing why he would ask.

"Mac, if you say that I'm the father I believe you," he said confidently. His head was spinning with this new information.

"You don't have to worry about it. I have an appointment at the hospital... I'm having it," she paused at word 'it' feeling like the word was twisting a knife in her heart "taken care of."

"This is not what you want Mac," Harm said with a lot of certainty.

"It doesn't... I... Harm, it's obvious that we don't do this well. Being parents together. And it will be too confusing for Benji. He's going to go through such a hard time now with the move as it is. We all are, we don't need more trouble added to this."

As she was talking her eyes were starting to fill up with tears and a few of them were making their way down her cheeks. Harm stepped up closer to her shaking his head.

"This is not what you want," Harm said again brushing the tears away from her cheeks with his thumbs. "It doesn't have to be this way," he echoed the words from a few weeks ago. He took a deep breath and added "Most of all I want us to be a family, Mac. We never tried being parents together like that."

"Isn't it too late for that?" she asked wondering exactly where they were heading with this discussion. Coming in here she had thought he would just be so thrilled over the papers, that he wouldn't question her motives. She hadn't planned to tell him about the new baby until after the party when Benji had gone to bed and the guests had all left.

"Not if we both want to."

"Why do you want us to be a family?" Mac asked him prepared to hear a repeat of the conversation from eight years ago, possibly just in a little nicer tone.

"Because I love you," came the spontaneous answer and Mac swayed a little causing Harm to grab hold of her to steady her.

"You?" she was all she could get out.

He nodded and smiled. He had been so afraid of telling her this, but once he had said it he realized just how relieved he was by it. No matter how she felt he didn't regret saying it.

"I... I love you too," she said and let out all of the air from her lungs. The impact of their words hit them both like a brick wall.

"Did you back then too?" Harm asked the question they were both pondering, but already knew the answer to. If they loved each other now, they must have done it back then too. These last years hadn't exactly brought an environment where love was going to blossom.

"Always did."

"Me too."

"We're such a mess," Mac said in devastation over what they had possibly missed all of those years of fighting. 'Where can we possibly go from here?'

"Come with me to San Diego," Harm said like he had heard her thoughts. Before she could say anything he started arguing for it "I don't want to be on the other side of the country from you, away from our children. I think we need to get away from all of this. The house, our friends and old habits. We'll start over in a new place..."

"Harm," Mac interrupted him "Yes."

"You'll come with me?"

"Yes."

Harm leaned in towards her, but stopped before he was touching her lips. She closed the distance between them and they started kissing each other, sensing things they had never done before, when they had kissed. There was no fear, only love and comfort.

"Yuck," came from the door that had just been flung open "Benji, your parents are making out in your mom's office," Little AJ shouted causing everyone in the house to stop their movements and Harriet to drop the big saladsbowl on the floor with a big crash. When Harm and Mac hadn't returned out to the backyard they had decided to start carrying the rest of the stuff in and start to leave as soon as they came back. 'At least they're not screaming' had been the thought on everyone's mind.

"No way," Benji shouted back, but still ran to see for sure. After him came the rest of the people from the kitchen and the rest of the house too curious to stay away. They all stopped in the doorway with Benji standing a bit closer to his parents than the rest of the group.

Harm and Mac had sprung apart by the shout from Little AJ, but Harm now put his arm back around her back and leaned over to give her a quick peck on the mouth just for show. The surprised group of people couldn't find any words to say. Well, except for one person.

"Cool. Are we having cake now?" Benji said in the same breath and looked urgently at his mother.

--

"This was the best birthday ever," Benji later told both of his parents as they were tucking him in for the night.

"I bet it was," Mac said and smiled at him "What would you say to all of us moving to San Diego together?"

"I'd still get to see Jimmy sometimes?" he asked carefully wanting to have all of the information before he said what he wanted to do.

"We could still go back and visit here sometimes," Harm assured him.

"I think that would be OK, then. Would we Dad, you and me all live in the same house?"

"Yes," Mac said and stroked away some strays of hair from his face "We're really sorry Benji that we've been fighting so much, but we'll try to do better from now on."

"We promise," Harm said and Benji was fully aware of what it meant when his father said he promised to do something. He was almost asleep when his parent quietly snuck out of his room.

Down by the door Harm turned to Mac.

"I love you."

"I love you too," Mac said "I'm sorry we can't do these years over for him. Make it better. He's been so hurt by us."

"We'll just make the future so much better. For her too," he said and touched Mac's abdomen something he had never been able to do when she was pregnant with Benji.

"Or for him."

"Or for him," he added and smiled.

"I love you, Harm."

"I love you too."

Those words couldn't be said to often. They made a silent pact that they weren't going to count the years when they should already have been saying them.

"You could stay, you know," Mac said.

"I'll be back tomorrow, Harm declined. To be completely honest they both knew that now might not the right time to push it any further.

"I love you," Harm said and kissed her. The passion and the desire building in the kiss were overwhelming them both. "Kissing you like that makes it really hard for me to leave."

"Then don't. Never do," Mac told him, pushed the door shut and took his hand leading him towards her bedroom, their bedroom.

They'd stay by each other's side like that for the rest of their lives.

The End