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Part 33

Because Mac had been up with the children at the crack of dawn, Mattie and Harm ate breakfast alone, the next morning.

"I'm assuming that they got away okay," Mattie commented.

"I think so," Harm nodded, "She promised to give me a call on my cell phone once she got an opportunity, to let us know they got there safely."

"Mobile," Mattie corrected him, with a smile, "They don't use the term 'cellphone' here, remember? Well, when you hear from them, just drop me a text message to let me know, okay?"

Harm smiled at his teenage daughter's sass. She really was becoming too smart for her own good! But he did like it in a way, because it meant that she was progressing and in doing so, becoming more like she had been before the accident. Harm remembered back to a time where such an occurrence would have been literally unthinkable; so now, as he ushered Mattie out of the house and to his car, he offered up a prayer of thanks.

"Hey there!" Harm greeted both of the children, loudly, as they ran in the front door, "Did you three have a good time?"

"Yeah!" both children began to simultaneously tell him about their adventures of the day.

"Whoa, hold on…" Harm regretfully halted them, "Let me just finish cooking the tea, then you can tell me all about it…"

He quickly took care of the stir-fry, which needed his full attention, then, once it was done, sat on the couch next to where his wife had collapsed after she has entered the house behind the kids.

"Honey?" Harm asked her, carefully, "Did you have a good day?"

"I had a great day," she assured him, "It was just long, that's all…I'm absolutely shattered!"

Harm maneuvered Mac to face away from him, so he could rub her tired shoulders as their younger children recounted their stories to them. These included Tyler falling into a large pond and getting soaking up to his waist, falling out of a tree (luckily he had fallen into a leafy bush and this, coupled with the fact that the tree wasn't too tall, meant he wasn't hurt) and Tiegan riding a horse for the first time.

Harm and Mac were settled in front of the television and it was nearly past ten at night. Even though it was a Saturday, both children were already long in bed, because their field trip the day before had been a taxing one.

Since Mattie was also in bed, (she had been out most of the day with Jen) Harm and Mac felt they should not waste the opportunity to spend some quality time together with no distractions. Right now, they settled on the couch and were engaged in a make-out session, like a couple of teenagers (which can be nice from time-to-time, even for the most mature of couples!)

"I know I've been saying this a lot lately," Harm mumbled, in between exchanging kisses with his wife, "But I definitely think we should do this more often!"

"I second that," Mac smiled, as she hooked her arms around her husbands neck and pulled him closer into her embrace, also effectively shutting him up.

They weren't too preoccupied, however, to hear the sound of a door upstairs, then the sound of quiet voices.

With a sigh, they both pulled away and straightened up, once they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Hey there!" Harm greeted their children, all three of them, "I thought you three would have been asleep long before now."

"We were," Tyler told them, "But then we woke up…"

"And now we can't get back to sleep," Tiegan finished.

Mattie just stood behind her younger siblings, watching them with a smile.

"Is there something wrong?" Mac asked her children, "Something that's keeping you awake?"

She had a feeling that this might be the case.

When both children remained silent, Mattie, as the oldest, decided to step in and help out. Both children had showed up at her bedroom door fifteen minutes before with an urgent question.

"Well," Mattie took both of the children's hands in hers, as she steered them forwards, to where their parents were sitting, "It's not so much a problem as a question and I think that maybe Tiegan and Tyler couldn't wait to ask you and that's what was keeping them awake…"

Tiegan and Tyler both nodded, so Mattie continued, as they looked to their parents, then back to her.

"What Tiegan and Tyler asked me, a little while ago...and now would like to ask you…is if it would be okay for them to call you Mom and Dad?"

Harm and Mac's mouths very briefly dropped open for a second, before they both came to their senses and began to nod.

"Of course it's alright," Harm smiled and nodded.

"So long as it's what you want to do," Mac added, "We would love for you to call us that.

"You can call us Mom or Mum or anything like that…"

"I'd rather you didn't call me Mom or Mum," Harm interjected, smiling, "But Dad is fine…"

All three children began to laugh and Harm and Mac joined them, as the whole group squashed onto the sofa for a 'family hug.'

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