Part 8

"Belle, can you go and open up? It's probably Harm," Mac shouted to her daughter from the kitchen. It was close to 12 o'clock the next day. Harm had called an hour earlier and she had invited him over for lunch. Since both she and Isabelle had gotten a sudden craving for pancakes that was what they were having for lunch.

Isabelle didn't answer and just went over to the door and opened up.

"Hey Harm!" she said rather cheerfully. She hugged him.

"Something smells delicious," he said.

"We're making pancakes. Mine look like scrambled eggs, but Mom says they will taste good anyway."

"I'm sure they will," Harm agreed. He followed Isabelle out to the kitchen and said hello to Mac.

"Hey Mac."

"Hey Harm," she said and smiled not entirely convincing. Harm thought she looked like she hadn't gotten any sleep at all last night. She could see in his eyes that he was wondering how it had gone yesterday, but he wasn't going to ask as long as Isabelle was there.

"Belle, can you set the table?" she asked as she flipped the final pancake over.

"OK," she answered and Harm helped her getting the table in order. They were going to sit outside on the back porch. It was really warm to be June so they were happy that the porch was in the shade this time of the day.

They sat down and started eating. Harm gladly accepted one of Isabelle's own made pancakes when he was offered. When they were finished eating they took care of the dishes together. Harm sensed that Isabelle wasn't quite as cheerful as she had been yesterday, but she seemed to be all right from what he could tell.

Isabelle went to get a deck of cards and they sat down at the table again and played for a quite long while.

"Are we going to talk about going to Grandma Sarah's farm now?" Isabelle asked suddenly.

"Well, I guess..." Mac said looking at Harm "Harm, you are very welcome to come with us to Belleville, but I can understand if you need to be here at home now. I mean you've just gotten back. I wasn't even sure that we, me and Isabelle, were going now."

"Mom, we have to go. You said so."

"But maybe now we'd rather stay in Washington so we can spend time with Harm here. We could still go later on in the summer."

"But that's why it would be so great if Harm came with us. Please come," she said turning to Harm and pleading with her eyes.

"Do you want me to come?" he asked Mac and looked attentively at her.

"Yes, I do want you to come," Mac said and smiled encouragingly at him. There was absolutely no sign of her saying so just because of Isabelle or for any other reason than actually meaning it.

"Then how can I say no," Harm said and smiled "I'd really like to come with you."

"Cool!" Isabelle said and threw herself at Harm climbing up to sit on his lap.

"So when were you going to leave?" Harm asked.

"Well, we had planned to leave on Monday, but that can be changed if it doesn't work for you."

"No, that sounds great. I actually think it's going to be really nice to get away from here for a while. I'm not used to having so many people around me all the time."

"I know it's always very nice to go up there and just take it easy, go for a walk in the woods or look at the Benson's animals. Isabelle loves it up there. It's weird because I thought it would seem so different when Sarah wasn't there anymore, but it's like you can still feel her presence up there somehow," Mac told him. Isabelle was still sitting on her father's lap sorting the cards in some kind of game of her own. It looked so right.

"Where was she buried?" Harm asked.

"By the church up there. It's what she wanted. It was a beautiful service. I wish you'd been there."

"I wish I'd been there for many things."

"So do I," Mac said and getting an idea "You know what, you could still get to see them. Wait here," she asked Harm and Isabelle. They remained sitting, Harm trying to figure out the logic of Isabelle's game, and Mac went over to the bookshelf in the living room and took out a big photo album. She brought it with her back outside.

"My first album," Harm read the title of the album.

"It's my first album," Isabelle explained and put away the cards so Mac could put the album down on the table instead..

"Oh, really," Harm said.

"Yes."

Mac opened it up and on the first page was a picture of Isabelle as a little baby and her name and date of birth written bellow it.

"Oh my god," Harm breathed out. Mac slowly turned over to the next page. There were some pictures of a very pregnant Mac and a little note bellow saying 'just gone into labor'. It was hard to say exactly what the look on her face was saying, all Harm could feel was a pain so deep it felt like it was tearing his heart out that he hadn't been there to take part of it. And they just looked so beautiful Mac and his daughter, so, so beautiful. He wasn't sure his heart could survive this.

TBC