Part 2

It had taken a while for Harm to find her, despite her phenomenal lung capacity, but once he had retrieved her from underneath the desk of an officer in the next office, Harm carried the crying child back towards his office. He didn't have the words to calm the frightened child and her tears continued to flow down her cheeks, splashing and wetting the front of her dress as she cried disconsolately for her 'Mama.'

"I know, cupcake," he tried to soothe her, but knowing that she couldn't understand his English words.

By the time that he got back to the bullpen, a whole press conference of staff members had gathered, curiously eyeing the little girl in the frilly blue dress that was perched in his arms.

"Commander?" each of them broached him.

"As you were, please. Back to work," he cut them off, as he strode towards his office.

Mac emerged from her office, but he ignored her calling his name and shut his office door and concentrated on getting Ana calmed down and hopefully back to sleep.

Mac just gathered with the rest of the staff outside Harm's office as they watched him pace back and forth across the length of his office, rocking the toddler comfortingly in his arms, against his chest.

"Ma'am," Harriet approached Mac, "Do you know whose the baby is?"

"I have no idea, Harriet," Mac shook her head, "Commander Rabb has told me nothing…How do you suppose he got stuck with babysitting duty?"

Harriet just shook her head, "I don't know, Ma'am…Unless…"

"Unless what?" Mac asked her.

"Nothing, Ma'am…It's just silly…"

"No, really. Unless what?"

"Well…unless the baby is his, Ma'am," Harriet spoke up.

She grimaced as she caught the look of hurt on Mac's face, which Mac was unable to completely conceal.

"But I'm sure he's just watching her for somebody, Ma'am," Harriet tried to dismiss her earlier conjecture then she scuttled off before she did any more damage.

Mac continued to watch Harm and the baby through the window. They did seem to be very comfortable together…No, that was just ludicrous! Who on earth would have a child with Harm? And how could she not know about it? You could count on one hand the number of women Harm had been seeing over the past few years…Annie-no, definitely not, Jordan-no, dead women didn't have babies, Renee-there was no way she would have had a child, besides she was married to Cyrus the mortician now. Who on earth did that leave? She was still in close contact with Congresswoman Bobbi Latham, so Mac knew that that wasn't a possibility. But did she really know about all of the women with whom Harm chose to have a relationship?

"Of course I do!" Mac justified to herself, "I'm his best friend."

"A best friend who wants to jump his bones," Mac's subconscious added.

Mac found her eyes drifting back to the little girl who was now laid across Harm's shoulder as he patted and rubbed her back comfortingly. She couldn't see much of the baby except her tiny, porcelain-looking face with chubby pink cheeks, and a mass of brunette ringlets. Harm's back was to Mac when the little girl lifted her head up and locked eyes with her. Mac's breath caught in her chest as she took in the toddler's unmistakeably blue eyes.

"My God," Mac thought to herself, "Those are Harm's eyes!"

There was no doubt about it; those teary blue eyes definitely belonged to a Rabb.

Mac could hold herself back no longer, she made her way to the office door and knocked, gently. Harriet, Bud and Jen Coates weren't far behind her as she opened the door.

Once she was in there, she didn't know quite what to say, so just said the first thing that came into her mind;

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Harm told her quietly, continuing to soothe the baby into sleep, "She just got a fright, that's all."

"The Admiral, Sir?" Coates asked as they all watched the Commander ease the little girl back down onto the sofa and tuck her up securely in the quilted comforter.

"Yeah," Harm revealed, "She must have wandered into his office while I was with Commander Turner. The Admiral started off at me and she got frightened."

"Poor little lamb," Harriet sympathised, looking down at the little girl with a motherly instinct, "She's absolutely gorgeous, Commander!"

Mac continued to watch the little girl as she sucked on her pacifier as she slept and she couldn't help but be moved.

She nodded in agreement with Harriet and added, "She's a little doll, Harm."

Harm just scoffed and told them, "Oh yeah, she's a doll alright; A doll that cries. Loudly. I didn't get any sleep last night."

"She'll get better," Harriet told him, "She's just reached a bad age. The terrible twos?"

Harm nodded and continued.

"I just don't know what to do…" He told them helplessly, "I can't get her to stop crying!

That's all she does, day and night…And I can't calm her any. I don't know any Russian…I just have to wait for her to cry herself out. Do you have any idea how many tears there is in that tiny little person?"

Harriet, Bud and Coates just laughed, but Mac was too busy telling her heart to beat again.

'She isn't Harm's baby! Oh, thank you God,' she prayed fervently, 'She must be his brother's, Sergei is the only Russian person that Harm is in contact with.'

"So she's your Brother's child Commander?" Harriet asked him, twigging onto the same thought as Mac had.

"Yeah," Harm told them all, " Her Mama dropped her by, last night…Sergei has gone MIA again, you see and she's gone on a search to find him. Maria is with the Russian Military, too. That means I get to spend some time with the niece I never knew I had."

"It must be a shock to the system," Bud spoke up, "What is her name, Sir?"

"Ana," Harm told them, "Anastasia Maria Zhukova. And it was a huge shock to the system. It's been a while since I've babysat for little AJ and I haven't gotten much experience with baby James. Neither of them cry as much as Ana does."

"I'm sure it's just her age, Sir," Harriet assured him.

"She'll probably have teeth coming through, Commander," PO Coates pointed out.

"Is that why she keeps gnawing things?" Harm asked her, things suddenly falling into place.

"Of course!" Harriet exclaimed, "When little AJ was cutting his teeth he was absolutely rotten! No wonder she's been crying, what with her Momma away for the first time and with the teething pain that she's been going through."

"Is that why her cheeks have been flushing scarlet?" Harm asked, then mused, "I suppose that if I were experiencing that sort of pain, all day long, then I wouldn't be much fun to be around, either."

"I could nip out to a pharmacy and get you something to take the edge off her pain, if you would like, Commander?" Harriet offered, "Just some baby parecetamol or something."

"Oh, that would be great, Harriet!" Harm told her, thankfully, "In the meantime, I really need to get those files finished for the Admiral."

Everyone began to file out of the office, with one last look at the sleeping toddler on Harm's office couch, but Harm halted PO Coates with a hand to her shoulder.

"Thanks for your help, by the way, but where…?"

"Where did I learn about babies, Sir?" she pre-empted him.

"Uh-huh," Harm said, curiously.

"I'm actually a fully registered nanny, Sir," Coates, "Before I decided to sign up with the Navy, I tried my hand at childcare. Then the option of the military came up and it was too good a chance not to take."

"Thank you, Petty Officer. That will be all," Harm thanked her again and dismissed her.

After that, Harm sat down and continued to work away again.

Not long after, Harriet arrived back with the bottle of liquid baby parecetamol and some teething rings that Harm could put in the freezer, so they would cool down Ana's sore gums when she chewed on them. Harriet gave him instructions about the dosage to give Ana and instructions about how to make it up in her bottle.

Harm was finally putting his finishing touches to the case files when there was a knock on his office door. Sturgis poked his head in and commented, "I hear that you have got a girl in here after all."

Harm just nodded and looked towards where Ana was sleeping on the sofa.

"My, my, my! You always did go for the lookers," Sturgis joked then asked, "So this is your niece, Mac says."

"Yeah," Harm confirmed, "She's my brother's daughter. He's gone MIA and his girlfriend has gone to track him down…"

"Hence why you've got her, Uncle Harm," Sturgis guessed.

Just then, Mac joined them.

"Still working on those case files, Uncle Harm?" she asked.

"Yep, I'm just finishing them off. Then, all I've got to do is copy them and hand them back to the Admiral. Do you want to go over that desertion prosecution, when I'm done?"

The conversation was quickly tabled when Sturgis noticed that Ana was stirring.

"I think you're about to have you hands full again, Uncle Harm," he pointed out.

"Uh-oh," Harm muttered, making his way to the toddler, just as she let rip a sore cry from her place on the sofa.

Harm quickly lifted her into his arms and tried to soothe her, before she really got into the crying fit, but to no avail.

"She's having teething problems," he told Sturgis, pacing back and forth across his office, trying to get Ana settled, "She'll be ready for another bottle…Maybe I can put some of that baby parecetamol in it that Harriet gave me…"

He turned to Mac and asked her, "Could you possibly hold her while I go and make up her bottle?"

Mac just looked at him in shock.