Chapter Seven

Mac was sleeping soundly and Mattie had left for work when Harm got back to the house at 1500. He sighed when he saw the sight of the woman he loved tucked underneath a blanket on the couch. Feeling someone watching her, Mac stirred but pretended to be asleep.

'1500,' Mac thought to herself, 'Harm's still at work, Mattie is a work, oh crap.' She heard the person walk to the kitchen, and that is when she made her move. She slowly got off the couch and saw him standing in the kitchen going through on of the drawers. She posed herself to attack him when he turned around.

"Christ Sarah what are you doing sneaking up behind me?"

"Damn it Chris, what are you doing scaring the hell out of me. You are supposed to be at work."

"I secured early, and the Colonel told me to go home." He said watching the relief cut across her face.

"I ran into Josh today. He said we have to go to DC to run the numbers for Corner Pocket, but it should be operational by Sunday."

"Great, did he give you the figures to look over?" Harm asked her knowing she was talking about Clay.

"Yes, I put them in the safe in the office. I figured we could go over it together."

"Okay, well let me get finished making a sandwich and then we will look at the papers together."

He picked up the remote for the stereo and he turned on some music. Mac watched her fiancée dance around the kitchen, he produced two sandwiches and handed her one.

"Thanks Flyboy. So how was work?"

"The new boss made me pull some maneuvers in the air. He felt that I needed to prove myself."

"Did you prove yourself?"

"I think what clenched it was I redid my PFT today for him."

"Didn't you just do it a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, but I guess it didn't get into my service file. No big deal Honey. Let's go look at these papers that Josh gave us."

They walked into the office and locked themselves in. Harm pulled out the bug sweeper and found none. They then proceeded to open the file.

"Oh my God." Harm said as pictures of the cases came falling out. Harm squeezed her shoulder.

"You actually saw one of these up close and personal?"

There were three victims. They looked at the timeline, each woman that was murdered was pregnant. "Harm, this man is picking women who are pregnant with the month along they are." She whispered. "1,3,5, . . . the next one will be 7 months pregnant."

"Yeah. I had no idea there were this many. I only heard about two." Harm held her. "Look Clay included copies of the notes that some of these women have received."

The notes weren't very cryptic, just anonymous notes, "Glad to hear about the baby," "Congratulations on the buddle of joy," etc, but the victims' husbands had no clue who sent them.

"If I get targeted, that mean we will be here for 5 more months." She said to him. "We will have felt the baby move, probably even start talking about names, start designing a nursery. . ."

"Sarah, we don't even know if you will be targeted." He whispered. "I hope to God not. I don't like the idea of you playing bait. What time does Mattie get home?"

"Not for another three hours. Why?"

He got this mischievous look on his face. He picked her up and took her out of the office.

"I need to make our first doctor's appointment. When are your lunch breaks?" She asked him nipping on his earlobe.

"Why?"

"I thought you might want to come along," she said to him while her legs were still wrapped around his waist. He put her down on the ground and kissed her neck. He moved kissed her all over through the thin white cotton slip dress she wore. He hesitated when he got to her stomach. He looked in awe at her stomach which in a few more months would be showing their child.

"Wow. I can't believe you are carrying our child. I love you." He picked her up again from around her waist and put her down on the couch. She lifted her arms and he raised the dress off of her and made love to the mother of his children.

An hour later Mac and Harm were still in each other's arms, underneath the blanket, and she was rubbing the his arm. "Do you think the CIA will let us keep this couch?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I think they owe us. What time do you have to be at the wives meeting?"

"Oh crap Chris, I have 30 minutes to get ready." She leapt out of his arms and proceeded to get dressed. "And what do you think you are doing? Get up and get dressed! I am going to need you to drive me, and as much I love to see you drive naked, well, I don't think the MPs will appreciate it like I do." She smiled. "I let Maddie have the car for work. You need the car to go pick up groceries. I didn't get a chance to go today with having to register Maddie for school and morning sickness."

"Yes ma'am." He said picking up his uniform and getting his jeans from their room. He came out a couple minutes later wearing a pair of jeans and a white button down shirt. "Let me grab my wallet and then we will be ready to roll."

They walked out to the Jeep and he walked over and opened the door for her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Pulling up to the Morale/Welfare/Recreation building Harm put the car in park and helped her out of the car.

"Are you going to walk me in?"

"Yeah, why not? Besides I need to pick up the schedule for the gym and then reserve a court for me and Mattie to play one on one basketball on Saturday."

He walked her into the building and she spotted the room they were meeting in. Harm walked her over and ran into John Adams, a pilot in his new squadron.

"Hey Chris. Did your wife get talked into joining this group too?"

"Well, we both thought it would be a good idea for her to get out and meet people. If we get called away, then at least she would have someone other than me for support."

"Oh." John supplied back. "Your wife is beautiful."

"Thank you. It seems that my husband has forgotten his manners at least for a little while. My name is Sarah Marks."

"John Adams. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise." She turned to Harm, "Christopher, I forgot my jean jacket in the car and my cell phone, can you get it for me darling?"

"Sure."

He walked out to their jeep with John. "Wow, brand new."

"Sarah wanted a new car for when the new baby comes."

"Congratulations. You guys waited a while to have a child."

"Well, we actually have a teenager, my sister's child. We adopted her when she was five after my sister died. But this will by Sarah's and mine first experience with a baby."

He grabbed Sarah's jacket out of the jeep and found her cell phone. He would have to talk to her later about forgetting the phone. Harm walked back inside and helped her put on the jacket. "Here is your phone. I can't believe you forgot it. What if something happened?"

"Jeez Chris, you act like you need to know where she is at all times."

Sarah jumped in for her husband's defense, "He is just nervous, this is our first baby." She explained to her friends.

"Really? You just told us that you had a teenage daughter."

"She is adopted. This is my first pregnancy and Chris is just real jittery about it." She kissed him on the cheek and reached into her pocket. "Here is a list of the things I need at the commissary. Don't forget, the baby hates orange juice now, so you will have to double up on the apple juice so Maddie and I don't fight over apple juice."

"Okay, I got it. I'll be back in an hour to pick you up. Do you have any preference for dinner?"

"The baby is in the mood for your eggplant parmesan."

"Sarah that will take an hour to make." He looked in her brown eyes and new he couldn't resist. "Okay, I'll go and get everything. I'll come and get you around 1800."

"Sounds good honey." He kissed her on the lips and left.

Sarah sat back down with the club and they just began talking about every day ordinary things. Harm made his way to the base commissary and began wondering around the store. He saw Mattie and smiled, he was glad that he wouldn't have to leave her for a long time. Mattie saw him and ran up to him.

"Dad, I'm really thirsty, while you are in the store can you get me a white tea?"

"Sure baby, what flavor?"

"Lime. What are we having for dinner?"

"Your mother says the baby wants eggplant parmesan."

"Good, I like it too."

Harm picked up a cart and began to walk around the store. He had always skipped going down the female personal care aisle, but when he looked on Mac's list he noticed that they needed shampoo, conditioner. His eyes got wide as he read further down, Mattie needed what? He pulled the cart to the side and walked to the front where he found Mattie talking to one of the other baggers.

"Madeline, I need to ask you a question about something on your mother's list." Harm said.

"Yeah Dad."

"What kind of you know, do you use?"

"Huh?"

"You know," He said getting a little fluster, and then he finally whispered, "tampons."

"Oh, Mom normally buys me the Playtex multisize."

"There is more than one size?"

"Yeah Dad. Don't forget to pick up some junk food for me."

"In your dreams Maddie."

Thirty minutes later Harm made his way to check out and Mattie walked up. "Dad, paper or plastic?"

"Do what you think Mom uses." He said showing the cashier his ID.

"Madeline is this your Dad?" The cashier asked. Harm reached over and grabbed Mattie's white tea tossing it to her.

"Here is your white tea Honey."

"Thanks Daddy. Yeah, this is the first time Mom has made him do the grocery shopping, so I'm kinda scared about what we are going to be eating for dinner."

"Just you wait Maddie." Harm told her.

"Okay Dad. Remember to put everything up."

"I am sure I can handle that Madeline." He told her as they made their way to the car. He began to walk towards the car when Mattie held out her hand. "You want me to tip you after I just bought your food for a week!" He smiled and handed her a five dollar bill. "Don't blow it all in one place." He kissed the top of her head and started the Jeep.

He unloaded the groceries and proceeded to work on the eggplant parmesan. He glanced at the clock, and realized that he had to go pick up Mac. He put the eggplant in the backing dish and covered it with sauce and cleaned up the kitchen a little.

He saw her sitting at the picnic tables as he pulled up. He got out of the car and walked up to her. "I'm so sorry, I got caught up in cooking, I didn't keep you waiting to long did I?"

She smiled at him and pulled her jacket a little closer. "No, I just got out here. I went to the clinic next door and picked up some pamphlets on having a baby."

"What about?"

"Weight gain, exercise, eating healthy, travel, and morning sickness."

He looked at the pamphlets with her as the sun started setting. They finally made their way back home for dinner and when Mattie got home from work, Harm presented his family with a home cooked meal.