"You've become a really careful driver," Mac said. They were in Mac's car on the way to Grandma Sarah's farm. Harm had come over early in the morning and together they had packed everything into the car together and driven off hoping to get there well in time. Harm had won their usual discussion about who should drive by stating he had 8 years of not driving to make up for. Isabelle had fallen asleep early on so the trip would go fast for her.
"We carry precious cargo," Harm simply said and smiled at Mac.
"Yes, we do," Mac smiled back "But that doesn't mean you have to drive like my aunt Bertha."
"Hey, be nice," Harm protested, but he was laughing just like Mac.
"Mom left yesterday evening," Harm said a few minutes later.
"I know."
"Are you two OK?"
"Yes, I think we are. I mean I thinks she thinks me and Jack should stay together at least for Belle's sake."
"That's sort of what I got from her too," Harm said. "I talked to her about it when I drove her to the airport yesterday. I told her that if she didn't believe that you'd do anything to keep Isabelle happy, she didn't know you really well at all. I think she realized that too."
"I can't really blame her... Sometimes I wonder if this is the right thing to do. I'm not sure that I'll be happier without Jack. He's a good man and..."
"Well, there's still six months until the divorce is final, so if you figure things out between the two of you, you can try again. I guess there's a reason why they have that 6 months waiting period," Harm remarked.
"I'm sorry, Harm," Mac said and looked apologetic at him "I didn't mean to drag you into this. I mean there must be more interesting things for you to talk about then my broken marriage."
"Mac, that's what friends are for and I hope that that's what we still are... or can rebuild. To be honest though, I'm a little surprised with your insecurities about this. You seemed really sure when you told me about it."
"I was... and am, in a way. I guess I'm just having cold feet, I guess you can get that both when you're getting into a marriage and out of it. I'll get over it."
Harm smiled encouragingly at her. They were silent for a while.
"Can I ask you something?" Harm asked her minutes later.
"Sure."
"How come you and Jack never had children?"
"Well, we tried... but it never happened," Mac shrugged. Harm could see that this was something that had caused her a lot of pain. The truth was that it had caused both her and Jack more pain than they could have imagined before. They had started trying early on in the marriage and it was when it turned out to not be as easy as they might have thought it would be, that the problems in their marriage had started.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up." He tentatively reached out his hand to find hers and gently held it.
"No it's..." Mac couldn't bring herself to say that it was OK, but instead she added "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."
Mac was looking out the window. After a while she turned back to Harm. She was rather surprised when she realized that he was still covering her hand with his.
"I'm really glad that I don't have to go up here alone with Belle," Mac said.
"Is Jack not coming because of..." Harm didn't finish the sentence.
"Well, no. We couldn't get leave at the same time and I'd like to spend as much time up here as possible with Belle, so we decided that I should go alone with her. Anyway now with the separation I guess it was for the best."
Shortly after lunch they drove up in front of Grandma Sarah's house. They got out of the car and stretched their legs. Isabelle had woken up a few hours ago and had asked every second minute how far there was still to go.
Harm looked around. He could see a few changes, like the fact that the barn had been repainted in a slightly different shade of red, but almost everything was the same. A nice surprise considering how different everything else had been after his return.
They got all of their packing together and walked into the house. It smelled a little stuffy inside so the first thing Mac did was to open up a few windows and let the wind blow through the house. Last time they'd been here was at Easter time and you could tell that from the dust layer on the floor and the furniture.
Isabelle ran upstairs with her bag, put it in her room and ran back downstairs.
"Mom, are we going to go and look at the animals now? I want to see the new lambs."
"We need to clean up here first."
"But I want..."
"It's not up for discussion. If you help it will be faster, because we're not going down there before everything is done here," Mac firmly said and her daughter knew from the tone of her voice that there was no idea to argue against it. Still a little bit pouting she decided that the best course of action would be to actually help. Together the three of them cleaned and dusted and after two hours they were done, exhausted and hungry.
They had sat down on the porch in front of the house to rest a little while and were eating bananas to stop the immediate hunger. Isabelle was still very excited about the animals and after sitting still for no longer than thirty seconds she got up and started working on making her parents move as well and come with her. It took a while until she was entirely successful. Harm was especially tired and wasn't ready to get going just yet. The drive had been more exhausting then he had thought it would be.
They walked over to the farm where the Bensons lived. Aside from the land that belonged to their own farm, they were renting the land that belonged to Grandma Sarah's house and were also helping Mac to check up on the house now that Sarah wasn't living there anymore. Sarah had left the house to Mac and Isabelle in her will.
The Bensons were surprised to see them. They had seen the news report about Harm's return and had thought that Mac and Isabelle weren't going to come because of that. It was a quick visit inside and then they went outside with Mr. Benson who showed a very enthusiastic Isabelle the new little lambs that were just a little over a week old. Eventually they left to go home and have dinner. Mrs. Benson had invited them over for dinner the next day and they had promised to come.
Back at the house Mac convinced a not too resistant Harm to go and lie down for a while, while she made dinner for them. She could see that he was thoroughly exhausted. Isabelle went outside to pick some flowers and Mac started putting on a bowl of water to cook some spaghettis in. She remembered that they still hadn't put any sheets in the beds and wasn't sure that Harm knew where to find them so she went to get some from the linen closet and went up to the room where Harm was staying. She knocked on the door and walked straight in. The vision she was met by made her drop everything she was holding in her hands and put them over her mouth not to scream out.
TBC