AN: As I promised this part is longer than the last one. Thanks to everyone who reviewed or sent feedback. It's very much appreciated. Thanks to Alex, this part has been betaed.

Part 3

Even though they had worked hard all morning and afternoon, she and Bud were no closer to finding out where Captain Matthews was. However everything that they had found out made them almost completely certain that she had in fact abandoned her family and house willingly.

The talk with her husband hadn't been very pleasant, however informative. He seemed convinced that she had left him and was in fact furious that she hadn't brought the girl along. Before going to meet him Mac had already talked to the social worker who had been quite disturbed by the fact that Mr. Matthews had made it very clear to them that he wanted nothing to do with his daughter. Mac wasn't sure if the social worker had just wanted to get Andy off her table or was upset about the fact that at the moment it looked like Andy had been abandoned by both of her parents.

Right now Mac was heading over to the place where Andy was currently living. It was really a gray-area if you could really call this part of her work-duties, but she had promised Harm that she'd help him look for a house after work and she really needed to know if Andy was OK where she was.

There were several minutes before anyone came to open up the door after Mac had rung the bell of the big house. Eventually a twenty-something blond girl opened up with a look that was definitely annoyed at being disturbed from whatever she was doing. There was a lot of noise coming from the house. Many different kinds of music was played, all very loudly and though some of it could have been of Mac's taste, it all blended together and sounded just awful. Somewhere in the house were a girl and a boy who fought loudly and every now and then screams to be quiet was heard through the house. Mac wondered how long it would take any normal person to go insane here.

"I'm Colonel Mackenzie. I'm here to see Andy."

"Andy?"

"Andrea Matthews."

"Oh that little girl who came here yesterday. I'll show you to the office."

The young woman turned around and Mac followed her into the house, through a corridor and into something that was apparently referred to as the office. In there sat Ms Rowings with a cup of coffee in her one hand and a file in the other. The blond girl just left Mac there without announcing her.

"Mhm," Mac said and Ms Rowings looked up from the file. "I'm here to see Andy."

"Yeah, of course."

'At least it's a good sign that she remembers who Andy is and that I called earlier today,' Mac thought to herself.

"I'll show you to her," the social worker got up from her chair.

"Have you found anywhere for her to stay yet?" Mac asked hoping to get a positive answer now even more than before.

"No," was the short answer. "She should be in here," Ms Rowings opened the door to a room with a bunk bed and two bureaus. Mac recognized the backpack she had helped Andy pack yesterday that now lay beside the bed. Andy was sitting on the bed and looked up at the two adults when she heard them enter the room.

"Mac," the girl immediately let go of the doll she'd been hugging close to her like she was trying to comfort her and ran over to Mac and threw her arms around her neck. "I want to go home." Her whole body shook as she began to cry into Mac's shoulder.

"Oh, Andy."

"Where's ... my ... mom?" she got out. Mac stroked her hands over her back, back and forth trying to calm and comfort.

"I'm so sorry, Honey, but I don't know where she is," Mac felt so helpless. She'd never been so helpless in her whole life. She sat down on the bed with Andy on her lap and hugged her close to her.

"I don't want to be here."

"Are they being nice to you?" Mac was glad that the girl had stopped crying so much that she could speak. Ms Rowings had left the room unnoticed by both Mac and Andy.

"They're OK, but they're not really my friends. You're still my friend, right?"

"Yeah, I'm your friend."

"No one read a story to me last night before I went to sleep."

"I can read a story to you now," Mac said hoping that that would distract to girl from everything around her a little bit. She leaned forward to pick one of the books out of the pink backpack. They both lay down on the bed, Mac started reading and it didn't take long until Andy had fallen asleep despite the noise that the thin bedroom door couldn't keep out. Mac wondered if she had slept at all last night. She put down the book and decided to go back to the office and see if she could do something to change Andy's situation to the better.

"I'm not letting Andy stay here another night," she walked into the office and stated to the rather surprised social worker with a strong and determined voice.

"That's not up to you to decide. I can't just pull foster families out of a hat, you know."

"Then I'll take her with me. She can stay with me until you find a permanent family for her or her mother comes back."

"You can't do that. You're not qualified to take care of her and besides we can't just let anyone walk in here and take a child with them home. It doesn't work that way. She has to stay here," Ms Rowings protested, but even she had started to sense that it would be in vain.

"You didn't have any problems leaving her in my care for several hours yesterday and then you hadn't even met me."

"It's against all rules and regulations."

Mac just shrugged her shoulders. "Do you honestly think she's better off here?"

Ms Rowings sighed deeply "OK, write your phone number and address here and tomorrow I'll send someone over to check everything out," she shook her head "This is not how we do things."

"I'll go and pack her things," Mac ended the conversation and left the room.

Carefully and as quiet as possible, to let Andy sleep as long as she could, she put all of Andy's things back in the pink backpack and the clothes in the blue sports trunk that had been pushed under the bed. Very few things had in fact been unpacked and Mac was soon done.

She sat down on the side of the bed and stroked the little girl over her brown curly hair.

"Andy, it's time to wake up again." Slowly Andy opened her eyes and looked up at Mac.

"Want to sleep more," she said sleepily.

"You can do that later. At my house. Would you like to stay at my house tonight?" Mac asked softly.

"Mhm," Andy nodded more awake now.

"I've got all your stuff packed so we can leave whenever you're ready."

"I'm ready," the answer came quickly.

"OK, good," Mac said and smiled "Let's go then." She reached out her hand towards Andy and the girl quickly grabbed a hold of it.

Outside the house Mac realized how glad she was that she had decided against buying a new corvette when her old had been smashed on Christmas Eve. This car was still no traditional family car, but when she bought the new car safety had for obvious reasons been a priority.

They got into the car and realizing what time it was Mac picked up her phone and dialed Harm's number.

"I just need to make a quick phone call and then we'll get going, OK?"

Andy nodded.

"Hey Harm," she said when he answered.

"I'm so sorry, Harm, but I can't come with you today."

At first there was no answer, but she could hear him trying to swallow down his anger and disappointment.

"I am really sorry, Harm," she repeated. Now he finally answered her.

(("If you had more important things to do, you should have just said so.")) Mac could hear that he was in the car and because of that he had no reason to keep his voice down and so he didn't.

"I know it was important to you. It was important to me too," she tried to convince him.

(("Well, obviously not enough. I'm not going to be your fall-back that you can just throw away when something better comes along. No way."))

"Harm, please don't be angry with me," Mac begged desperately "Just let me explain and I think you'll understand."

She was surprised when he hung up the phone.

"Is he angry with you?" Andy asked. She had obviously heard Harm's loud voice and drawn her own conclusions.

Mac started the car "Yeah, I guess he is a bit angry with me."

"Is he going to hit you?" Andy looked scared "My dad hits my mom when he's angry with her."

Mac looked over at her with a shocked expression at her face. It wasn't so much the fact that Mr. Matthews had been abusing his wife. Even though it hadn't come up so far in the investigation, she had definitely seen the signs during her interview with him. She was completely shocked just at the thought that someone would think that Harm would hit her. She had to remind herself that this little girl didn't even know Harm and was used to something very different from men.

"No," Mac turned off the engine of the car. "Harm, would never hit me. He's my best friend."

"But why is he angry with you?"

"Because I promised him that I'd come with him looking at a house. It's very important that he finds a house and when I said I couldn't come he got very disappointed," Mac tried to explain it to Andy and she seemed to accept that Mac wasn't in danger of being beaten.

Mac wondered if she should ask her more about her father. She wasn't exactly trained to talk to children about stuff like that, but on the other hand she had been just like this girl and that gave her insight to how the girl was feeling.

"Does your father hit you too?" Mac finally asked.

"No, just my mom. They fight and then Dad gets really, really angry and I hear my mom scream. Mom thinks I don't know, that I'm asleep, but I always wake up."

Mac didn't know what to say at first. She stroked the hair out of the girl's face in a comforting gesture. "That used to happen at my house too, when I was a little girl," she confided.

"Did it stop?" Andy looked over at her a little bit more hopeful.

"It stopped when my mother left."

"Is that what my mom did too?" Andy asked. Mac had dreaded this question. She wanted to be honest, but the truth might hurt her more.

"I don't know what happened to your mom, Andy. I'm still trying to find that out for sure."

"My father doesn't want me to come home," Andy stated matter of factly.

Mac swallowed hard "I know. I'm sorry about that."

"Can we go to your place now?" Andy didn't want to talk about the hard things anymore.

"Yeah," Mac agreed and once again she started the car and drove up. She tried to make up a mental picture of her refrigerator to see if there was anything she could offer to the girl as dinner. She realized that they needed to make a stop by the grocery store first of all. Andy wasn't going to tell the social worker who'd come by tomorrow afternoon that all she'd had eaten at Mac's place was warmed up pizza and Chinese food.

When they walked into the apartment, Mac began with showing Andy around and putting her bags in the guestroom and then she quickly started working on dinner. By now they were both rather hungry. Andy helped by setting the table and after 45 minutes they could sit down and eat.

The sleepy look in Andy's face told her that tonight was going to be an early night for the girl, so after dinner Mac helped her brush her teeth and got her into her night gown. When Mac turned the last page of the story with the dinosaur, Andy had fallen into a peaceful sleep.

Mac cleaned up the rest of the dinner and started a pot of coffee. She had some catching up to do since she had left early from work, but her thoughts kept drifting to Andy and what she'd do with her tomorrow. For a second she considered calling in sick, but she soon discarded that idea. Bringing Andy with her to work didn't seem like a very good idea either, but at the moment it seemed like the only option. Maybe she could get the general to give her some leave. It wasn't like Andy was staying with her forever.

Some quick knocks on the door woke Mac up from her thoughts. She hurried over to the door. She didn't want whomever it was to wake Andy up now that she was sleeping.

Seeing that it was Harm Mac opened up, but instead of opening the door up widely and offering him to enter, she just opened it wide enough for her to sneak out into the corridor. She hoped he hadn't come here to fight more with her, but even though she was convinced that he'd understand and forgive her once he knew exactly why she hadn't come with him today, she wasn't as convinced that they'd come to that point very quietly.

"Hey," she said carefully.

"I'm sorry I screamed at you," Harm started off by apologizing.

"I know, it's OK," Mac whispered and glanced into the apartment through the little opening of the door.

"Is Webb there?" he asked her. He didn't sound angry anymore, just very sad and disappointed, like he was ready to give up and surrender.

"No," Mac said forgetting to be quiet for a second. "I haven't seen him for almost a year. What would make you think something like that?"

"Well, I ..." he started.

"Mac," a young scared voice interrupted him. Mac quickly opened up the door and went into the apartment. Andy stood right outside the guestroom and looked rather lost and very afraid. Mac walked over to her and lifted her up.

"It's OK, Honey," Mac comforted. "This is my friend Harm,"

"Is he still angry with you?" Andy whispered into Mac's ear. She was hiding her face from Harm, who was standing just inside the door. He was surprised at the scene he was seeing. He wondered who the girl was that looked so scared yet comfortable in Mac's arms and Mac looked so right holding.

"No," Mac shook her head "He isn't angry with me. Earlier on the phone he'd just gotten some things wrong."

'As usual,' Harm wanted to add. He took a few steps closer, but when the girl noticed that she tensed up and almost strangled Mac and Mac motioned for him to stop.

"Andy, it's OK," Mac said and tried to loosen the girls grip around her neck a bit "Harm's my friend and I'd like you to know him. Will you come and say hello to him?"

Andy shook her head.

"Please, for me," Mac begged.

Harm was too afraid to make it worse by saying anything and if he'd felt bad about blowing up on Mac on the phone earlier, it was nothing compared to how he felt now.

Even though she didn't say anything, Mac felt her relax a little and decided to take that as a yes and walked over so she was standing in front of Harm.

"Andy, this is my best friend Harm. Harm, this is Andy. She's going to stay with me for a couple of days." She'd explain everything in detail to him later.

"Hello Andy, I didn't mean to make you scared earlier," Harm said sincerely. At least Andy was now sneaking a little peak at him.

"Harm, I've got coffee in the kitchen and maybe you could get a glass of water for Andy too," Mac suggested and Harm nodded and left to get the drinks. Mac sat down on the couch with Andy on her lap.

"Here you go," Harm offered Andy the glass of water and she took it looking at him with big eyes that observed his every move. "Mac," Mac took the cup he offered her.

"How's Mattie?" Mac asked. She knew he'd had a meeting with the doctor's to discuss the condition more in detail now and what kind of treatment Mattie needed.

"She ... it's tough for her, but she's determined that the doctors are wrong and that she'll walk again and I can just hope that she's right. The doctors don't give much hope for it though. They just say that with physical therapy hopefully she'll be able to take care of herself, even if it is in a wheelchair."

"Who's Mattie?" Andy asked. Her curiosity had won over her fear, but she was still quite cautiously watching Harm.

"Mattie is a girl who lived ... lives," Harm corrected himself "with me." He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his wallet. He opened it up and moved a little closer to Mac and Andy so he could show the girl the picture of Mattie that he always carried with him. He was careful not to show the picture on the other side. For now the picture of Mac should remain a secret.

"She's pretty," Andy said.

"Yeah," Harm nodded. He was proud of his little girl. "She had an accident and she's in a hospital now," Harm continued to explain.

"Is she OK?"

"No," Harm shook his head "Not really. She hurt her back and the doctors say that she can't walk anymore."

"Maybe they're wrong," Andy suggested.

"We all hope they are," Mac said. She put down her coffee cup and with her free hand she reached over and squeezed Harm's. "Did they say how long she'll need to be at the hospital?"

"At least a month and after that she'll need to go in there every day at first."

"I guess we need to hurry up and find that house then."

"You'll still do that with me," Harm said.

"Of course I will. Did you find anything good today?" Mac continued to ask.

"I found one that seems promising. Maybe you could come with me and look at it."

Andy was starting to dose off again and Mac decided it was better to let her sleep in her bed so she brought her over to the guest room and back into bed for the second time this evening.

"Who is she?" Harm asked her when she returned to the living room.

"You know that case I got yesterday? With the Marine Captain who hadn't shown up for duty. Andy's her daughter."

Mac continued to tell him about her visit to the home where they had placed Andy and how she'd felt like she had to get her away from there. As she expected Harm understood exactly why she'd done it.

"Have you thought this through? He would have done the same, but still he asked her that.

"No, but ... you know, it's just temporary until they find a permanent home for her."

"Don't get too attached," Harm warned her.

There was no way that Mac could say she wouldn't. Instead she told him what Andy had said about her parents. She knew Harm had felt badly seeing how Andy had reacted to him and she wanted him to know there were deeper issues than just the girl hearing him being angry with her

"I'm sorry about that," Harm said. "I had no right getting so angry, I don't know what got into me."

"Well, " Mac shrugged her shoulders "You've been under a lot of stress lately. Anger is sometimes just a way to get it out. And what if the reason for me not showing up had been because of Webb or ... then you would have been right in being disappointed and angry."

"You would never have let something like that come in between us now. I should know that."

"But we're OK now and that's all that matters," Mac wanted to put an end to that topic.

Harm nodded "I have to go home now. I need to start early if I'm going to be able to put in a full-day at the office tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow then."

TBC