AN: Hey everyone, thanks for being patient with me. I hope to get some more time soon ... Many thanks to everyone who's encouraged me to continue the story. Also many thank yous go to Cria for beta-reading the story.

Part 11

Harm had decided to change his clothes and when Mac walked in he had just taken his shirt off and was standing with his bare back towards the door. The back was covered with scars of different sizes and shapes. Mac could see that some of them were old and some were rather new. It wasn't just on the back the upper parts of the arms were also covered with the same kind of scars. She now realized that until then Harm had been wearing long sleeves all the time despite the warm weather. It was surprising that she was able to think things like that, because the look on her face was just of complete shock.

He hurried to put his shirt back on and it hung loosely on his body. He turned around and looked at her.

"I'm so, so sorry, Harm," Mac said "I didn't mean to walk in on you like this." She bent down to pick up the things she had dropped on the floor.

They could hear something crashing on the floor downstairs and soon Isabelle shouted.

"Mom!"

Mac went over to the bed and put down the sheets on it "I'm sorry, Harm. I'm sorry."

Harm hadn't known what to say to her and still hadn't said anything when she backed out from the room.

45 minutes later Mac had taken care of Isabelle's accident with the vase for her flowers and made dinner. She went upstairs to get Harm, this time knocking carefully and just telling him through the door that dinner was now on the table.

There was a certain tension between Mac and Harm, but they tried their best not to let on to Isabelle. Once they were done with dinner, Isabelle sat down at the kitchen table with all of her pens and papers drawing many small lambs and their mothers. Harm insisted on cleaning up after dinner since Mac had cooked and practically shoved her out on the front porch.

Sitting there on the porch she was no longer able to hold the tears back. Tears rolled down her cheek for the sake of Harm, Isabelle and herself. She couldn't believe how naïve she had been thinking that it was the exact same Harm that they had gotten back. That he hadn't been seriously hurt both physically and mentally, but just kept from coming home to them. She didn't notice Harm coming out on the porch and sitting down on the bench beside her.

"Mac..." he slowly wrapped his arms around her and drew her nearer. She buried her face in his shoulder and he was also crying by now, making Mac's sweater wet.

"I'm so sorry, Harm. I'm sorry for letting them hurt you like that, for not going after you, for not... for not..."

"Hey. Hey," he backed away a little and held his hand on her face so they were looking straight into each other's eyes "I told you that the only thing that kept me alive and sane in that place was the fact that I knew that you were in safety and the one thing I was most worried about was not whether I would ever get out of there, it was that you actually would come after me and end up there as well. And now with Isabelle... I don't even want to think about it."

Mac just shook her head. She had had this conversation so many times with Sturgis. When she had found out about Harm being missing, her first thought had been to go there and do what ever she could to find him, but Sturgis, who at the time had been the only one knowing that she was pregnant, had stopped her correctly stating that Harm would want her to take care of the baby and herself and not to endanger their lives further for his sake. Mac had at the time logically understood that Sturgis was right and complied with him, but every now and then she'd start thinking that she had made the wrong decision not going after him.

Harm nodded his head "Having you and Isabelle safe is all that matters to me," He paused slightly "Mac, you told me not to think about the past, but enjoy what we have now. Our beautiful, precious daughter is inside there and she needs us to get through this somehow. I don't know how, but I think that if we try and work together like we used to. Like best friends. Then we can get through it."

Now Mac was nodding as well. They once again embraced and held on even tighter to each other then they had done before.

"Mom?" Isabelle had come out to the porch.

"Hey Belle," Mac broke lose. She was glad that the tears had dried now "You want to get to bed?"

"I guess," she answered and looked very confused at what she was seeing.

"Let's go and get cleaned up then." Mac got up from the bench, took Isabelle's hand and together they walked up to the bathroom to brush their teeth and change into their pajamas. Mac had realized that she was rather tired and had decided to go to bed as well. Harm remained sitting outside for a while thinking, but eventually he also went into the house and to bed.

At first Mac wasn't sure what it was that had woken her up, but she had a feeling that it was something she needed to check out. She got out of bed and walked out of the room. At first she headed towards Isabelle's room to check on her, but when she heard a scream coming from Harm's room, she realized that that must have been what woke her up. She walked over to the door and knocked.

"Harm, are you OK?" she asked, but didn't get an answer. He was still talking and screaming in a language that reminded her of Farsi, yet she only understood a word here and there. "I'm coming in," she said more to herself then to him.

TBC