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Part 31

When Harm came home from work, the house was in darkness, but he was surprised to find his wife sitting at the computer, just off the dining room. The light above her seemed to be the only one that was on in the whole house.

"Hey there," he greeted her, "Are the kids in bed?"

"Yeah," Mac nodded, "We've got such an early start tomorrow; I thought they should get as much sleep as possible. And Mattie's already turned in for the night, too."

Mac was going along as a 'Helper-Mum' on the school trip. Because they had such a long way to go to get to the country park destination, they would have to be at the school by seven fifteen at the latest. Mac wanted to take no chances of getting stuck in traffic, so she had planned a whole schedule for the next morning to make sure that they left the house on-time. Harm understood why the children were now in bed, and Mattie had probably gone to bed early, too, because Thursday was an intensive day for her PT sessions.

"You'll never guess who I had in my office, this afternoon," Harm asked Mac.

"Who?" she replied, not even trying to play along.

"Okay," Harm noted, "this isn't a fun…"

"But it's shorter," Mac pointed out to him, "I really don't have the energy for these games at this time of night."

"Okay," Harm conceded, "Robbie came to see me today. He's thinking about enlisting once he finishes school, next spring and wanted to ask me some questions about how to prepare."

"What did you tell him?"

"Well, he was thinking about the Army, the British Army, of course and I told him that he'd have to be pretty fit to pass the entrance exams that they have…I don't know much about the British Military, but I do know that their requirements can be pretty high, depending upon what branch you have in mind, so I just advised him to start some physical training, as well as to keep studying. I know that they look for good grades, too."

"He's a good kid," Mac nodded, "He seems smart. The military would be a good move for him."

"Yeah," Harm nodded, "I think they'd be eager to recruit somebody with the geological interests that he has…But I do know that recruits in the British Army pay for a lot of their own equipment…I hope that he's going to be able to support himself, at first."

"Wendy told me that he has a weekend job," Mac mentioned, "It's smart idea to have some money saved, especially if you has no family to help you out. You may need it at some point."

"And I know Wendy will always do as much as she can for him," Harm added, nodding.

Both were silent for a minute, thinking about how children such as Tiegan, Tyler, Robbie and Timmy all came from similar backgrounds, but didn't all have the same good fortunes. It made one thankful for what they had in life.

"So…what about you?" Harm asked, moving to rub his wife's shoulders, "You need a good night of sleep, too. How come you're not all tucked up in bed like Mattie, Tyler and Tiegan?"

"Couldn't sleep," Mac shrugged her shoulders, closing her eyes as she enjoyed his ministrations.

Harm knew that you couldn't order your body to do something; it would usually ignore you, no matter how much it was told. But maybe he could get her to relax and that might just send her off to sleep or allow her to wind-down and get some rest. One thing he did know was that the computer wasn't going to help, because Mac spent most of her working day in front of one.

"Hey, that's not going to help you any," he told her, gently pulling her away from the desk and out of her seat, " How about we try to take our minds off of work?"

He led her into the living room, where there was plenty of space, then switched on the stereo, selecting one of their favorite CDs and loading it. Once he had selected a track that had special meaning to them both, he returned to Mac and took her in his arms.

As she settled against him, resting her head against his shoulder, she sighed.

"Mmmm, this was a good idea," she approved, "We should do this more often. As much as I love having the kids around, it's nice to have some time to ourselves, wherever we want to be."

Truth be told, anywhere in the house that wasn't their bedroom had come to feel 'off-bounds' because they might be interrupted, at any time. While Tiegan and Tyler were first settling in, they had felt that maybe it would be wise to refrain from open shows of affection around the kids, just in case it embarrassed them. But now that they all felt more comfortable as a family, perhaps the time had come to start introducing the everyday shows of love and affection again. They had felt the same when Mattie had come home from rehab, too, but she had enough emotional maturity to tell them to stop being so formal with each other around her and 'kiss already.' It was unlikely that Tiegan and Tyler were going to do so, given how young they were.

"How about when the kids are around?" Harm asked, "Do you think this might make them feel uncomfortable?"

"I'm really not sure," Mac admitted, "But we could start with just small things and work our way up."

"Like what?" Harm asked.

"Like the way you used to lead me with your hand on the small of my back," Mac suggested, "Or holding hands again, or even kisses on the cheek…I'm sure that they will get used to it if we build it up gradually."

"Yeah," Harm nodded, suggesting, "and perhaps it would help if Mattie were around as well, at the time. She doesn't bat an eyelash at that sort of thing and she would set a good example for Tyler and Tiegan."

"That's a good idea," Mac agreed, "It would show them that it's normal behavior between parents and that it isn't anything to be embarrassed about."

Since Mac's comment about the way he used to touch the small of her back while they were walking together, Harm had begun to use his palm to rub circles into this spot. Mac's breath had become deep and contented, her eyes drifting shut. Her right hand was placed up on the back of Harm's neck, around where his hair stopped and she was unconsciously massaging her fingertips up and down.

They both swayed as one to the music, which had by now switched tracks a couple of times.

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