Chapter 1

0612
Harm and Mac's House

The morning sun was shining through the window making the white sheets seem even whiter. The bedroom had been painted a few days earlier with a light beige tone as the base and one wall was covered with roses in different light colours reminding the couple sleeping in the bed of the first time they met. They both looked as if they could sleep forever, which they might have done if their three year old daughter hadn't decided to come running into the room, jumping full speed into the bed landing on her father's stomach. He made a sound which definitely made it clear it was a painful experience. But he loved it as well. The night his daughter had been born had been the happies night of his life. She had been a gift to him and his wife and they both cherished her as if they were afraid someone might show up to take her away one day. That night had also been the worst night of both his and Mac's lives. There had been complications when their little girl was born, and Harm and Mac knew they would have no more biological children. But that didn't stop them from feeling good about the one they had. They named their daughter Hope as a sign to the world around them that they had not given up hope for the future and that they would have more children even if they had to explore other alternatives.

The little girl jumping in their bed finally settled down and layed down close to her mother who still hadn't opened her eyes. She was awake though, and pulled her daughter closer to her, and her husband joined them in their soft embrace. It had become part of their morning ritual from the moment they brought the girl home from the hospital, and neither of them wanted to give it up. They layed there for a few minutes until the patience of the three-year.old was running out and she once again starded jumping in the bed. Her parents took this as a sign for them to get up. They would get no more sleep this morning.

They took turns going into the bathroom, the other one keeping a close eye on their treasure as she moved around in her room picking up toy after toy from the shelves and putting them back on the floor where they had been the night before when she went to sleep, as if she was silently protesting her parents picking them up. When all were finished they went downstairs and began their breakfast routine, Harm placing the little girl on the kitchen counter while he started working on an omelet. Hope loved helping in the kitchen, and her father always let her when he had the time. As he finished, he put his daughter down on the floor and placed the food on the table. As he did so, Mac came up from behind him, placing her arms around his back.

"Smells delisious!"

"Even though it's vegetarian? You're starting to scare me." He said as he remembered their dinner the night before, when Mac actually ordered a salad instead of a steak.

"Even Marines have to eat vegetables sometimes. Besides that steak looked like it had been cooked weeks ago, dropped on the floor and then placed on a plate with some potatoes to make it look brand new."

"Now you know the way I feel everytime I look at meat. Want to sit down?"

"Of course, Sir."

Harm held out the chair and Mac sat down. He placed a piece of the omelet on her plate and gave it to her, then did the same thing for himself and sat down across the table from her. Their daughter had already been fed and was playing in her room, making noices sounding like an airplane crashing onto the ground.

Harm picked up the paper and began reading through it. The headiline on the first page made him jump. 'Female doctor commits scuicide'. The picture next to it showed a woman in her late thirties smiling back at him. 'Janice Williams', he thought. He read through the rest of the article. She apparently had hung herself in the garage at her home. No evidence of foul play was found and the police therefore found no cause to call it anything other than scuicide.

Mac had finished her meal and when she saw the shocked expression on Harm's face she walked over to where he was sitting.

"Sad, isn't it? They say her family was killed a couple of years ago and that she never really got over it"

"I know..." Harm said in a whisper.

"What?" Mac wondered.

"I know her Sarah, or at least I used to when we were younger. I was there when her family was killed and helped her pick up the pieces of her shattered life. And trust me... It was shattered. "

"Then maybe it's not that much of a stretch to think she killed herself..."

"No Honey... Not anymore. Maybe when it all happened, but not now. She couldn't function as a person at that time, but all that has changed. She met someone a few years ago and she blossomed again. I can't believe she did it..."

"No husband or fiancé is mentioned in the article. It says she lived alone in the same house she shared with her husband Jonas and her five-year-old daughter Elisabeth, who were both killed in a tragic car accident eleven years ago."

"It doesn't make sense. I got an e-mail from her just a few days ago with an informal invitation to her wedding this summer."

"Maybe you should go see her fiancé..."

"Maybe I should..."

TBC