AN: I didn't mean to make you wait so long for the next part. There were certain technical problems keeping me from posting. I just want you to know that I'm still working on the story, but I can't say when the next part will be out... hopefully soon though. I'm glad it seems like so many are enjoying this story, thank you all for letting me know.

Part 4

Mac was standing in her office starting to pack up her things for the day. It was a Friday afternoon and she'd be forced to take some work with her home for the weekend. Webb had just called and told her that he was back in town. He'd been away for just over two weeks and she was of course looking forward to seeing him. She knew that this wasn't his fault, but she didn't really like the conditions of their current relationship. As soon as he was back in town she had to drop everything and come to him, of course she wanted to too and he was there so seldom that if she wanted to see him that was what she had to do, however it was still somewhat disturbing to her.

She put the last of the files into her suitcase and picked up her coat and cover. Just before she was about to leave, Harm came over to her office. They had driven separate cars this day since Mac had had an interview at Quantico the first thing in the morning.

"Are you leaving now?" Harm asked though it was rather obvious that she was.

"Yeah," Mac answered and tied her coat shut around her waist.

"You've got time to drive Mattie to that class trip tonight, right? I'm going for a beer with Sturgis after work. She needs to be there by 1830," he explained. Mattie had been talking about the class trip for a week now and Harm had promised to drive her over there.

"No, I don't," Mac answered him. She'd been on a rather high anger level before and now she felt it soaring to new levels. Couldn't he at least have the decency to ask with a real question if she could help drive Mattie?

"Are you sure? I doubt it will just take more than a few minutes."

"Then do it yourself," Mac was very close to screaming at him "I'm not your live-in nanny that you can just boss around. I have a life outside that apartment, you know," she walked past him, or since he was standing in her doorway maybe you should say through him, and left the building.

"PMS," Harm muttered and luckily Mac didn't hear him.

Mac went directly over to Webb's apartment just like she had planned to. After being there for half an hour she decided to call the apartment and check that Mattie really had been taken to the meeting point at the school. Mattie had answered the phone and told her that she had just been about to leave with Harm.

The next morning when Mac woke up at Webb's apartment, she decided to go back to the office and finish the work that she had taken with her to do at home. She knew she wasn't going to get anything done where she was right now and she didn't want to go back to her apartment afraid of another confrontation with Harm. She could feel that she was still fuming.

The whole day she spent at the office taking care of everything that had been put back over the previous weeks. She felt rather pleased with herself and her anger towards Harm had also lessened a lot. She had realized that she'd been in a rather foul mood even before he'd come into her office and considering how she had offered to help out more with Mattie, it might not have been so presumptuous for him to think that she was going to drive Mattie considering her social calendar was mostly rather blank.

She got up from her chair and gathered her things. Mattie wasn't coming back until tomorrow and a little peace offering to Harm might be in order. She got out of the building and started driving in the direction of her home. On the way there she picked up a large vegetarian pizza. She had gotten used to eating vegetarian by now.

Mac knocked on the door. All she could smell was the pizza she was holding in her hands. She had heard some music coming from the apartment so she was positive that Harm was at home. He opened the door after just a couple of seconds.

"Hi!" Mac said and smiled "Peace offering," she nodded towards the pizza.

"Oh... Hi Mac," at the same time a baby started crying. "I've already cooked dinner for us... Catherine is here with her daughter."

"Oh," Mac swallowed. She could recognize the voice of the woman inside the apartment who was comforting the baby with sweet calming words. "Then... then I won't disturb you."

For some reason Mac felt her eyes starting to get filled with tears. This was not how it was suppose to have gone. When Harm didn't close the door himself she grabbed the doorknob to shut the door and then backed away and went into her own apartment.

The first thing she did was to throw the whole, still hot pizza in the garbage can. That made her feel a little bit better. She stood at the counter and held on tightly to it. Soon the tears and disappeared back into the center of her heart.

At the same time in Harm's apartment, Harm went back to distractedly mixing the salad. That was the last thing he had to do to finish the dinner. Catherine's little girl Carla had settled down a bit again.

"Harm, shouldn't you go after her? She seemed rather upset," Catherine asked him.

"I'm sure Mac's fine," Harm told her, but it didn't convince her that he really thought that.

"If you want to go over and see for yourself, don't worry about me," Catherine told him and sat down on the couch "I need to feed her before I can eat anyway."

"Are you sure?" he asked. He really wanted to go over to Mac. He didn't like it at all when they had had a fight and hadn't made up yet. They always did make up, but the sooner the better. He also felt a distinct want to explain Catherine and Carla's presence in his apartment to her.

Catherine nodded at him and he put down the two big spoons on the counter.

"I'll be right back," Harm assured her.

"Take your time," Catherine said and smiled encouragingly. The friendship those two people had must be rather mighty, she thought.

Harm had to stand outside the door for quite some time before Mac came and opened up. At first she hadn't even heard him and then when she had noticed the knocking on the door, she had tried her hardest to ignore it. In the end he had been more stubborn.

"Hey," she said as she opened the door.

"Are you OK?" Harm asked her showing a lot of concern.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked him back trying to put up a strong front by being aggressive.

"I'm sorry about the pizza... maybe we can heat it up tomorrow and eat it then."

"Sure. Whatever," Mac said put her whole composure had softened a bit.

"I just wanted to say that the peace-offer is accepted and I believe I'm the one who should have made it. I was more to blame for what happened yesterday. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Mac said and a half-smile mostly consisting of relief graced her face. "I was already in such a bad mood. It didn't take much for me to boil over. I'm sorry too."

"I need to get back."

"Right. Back to Catherine," Mac nodded to him.

"There's nothing going on between the two of us," Harm assured her.

"I believe you, but even if there was something going on between the you two it wouldn't really be any of my business," Mac nodded "Not that I don't care about you and who your with... I mean as a friend of course," Mac sort of rambled.

"I care about you too," Harm said, stepped a little closer to her and put his arms around her for a tight hug. "You kind of looked like you needed one."

Mac slightly nodded. She silently wondered what was wrong with her. She had been out of balance for a couple of days now. At first she had still been able to conceal it from everyone else, but yesterday and today her emotions had been on the outside and swung all the time.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"We can go and pick Mattie up together."

"Sounds great," Harm agreed.

TBC