Disclaimer: Not mine…just borrowing…

A/N: Sorry about the delay, but I am officially done with the move-in process and had a wonderful time on my orientation retreat. It's great to be back at school, even if it means a chaotic schedule, but I promise to complete this before the chaos of classes set in next week. Happy reading!

Chapter 10:

"I don't know where to start," Mac said when Harm handed her mug of coffee.

"How about the beginning?"

"You mean the honeymoon?" she smirked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of when you moved to Australia," he laughed.

"I went because his mother was sick, and then Mic asked me to stay," she began with what he already knew, "At first I refused on the basis that we had a life and friends in D.C. Not to mention my career, but Mic made a compelling argument. I knew how unhappy he was here. He missed his country and the navy. Every time I put on my uniform I could sense his resentment."

"He gave those things up on his own, Mac," Harm broke in, "You didn't force him to leave it all behind."

"Yes, I did," she corrected, "Not directly, but it was me and it wasn't fair to him, especially since I got pregnant."

"So that was your plan, to leave the Corps and become a housewife the minute you became pregnant?" Harm asked in a voice a little harsher than he would have liked it to be, but he couldn't help it after hearing how she easily blamed herself the situation.

"I don't know, maybe," she answered quickly, "I never really had time to make a plan. Nat just happened."

"He wasn't planned?" he had always assumed that Mac had planned to get pregnant right away because of the baby deal.

"With our baby deal you'd think I would have just jumped at the idea of motherhood, right?" she raised an eyebrow, "I love Nat, but I had wanted to give the marriage a year to make sure that it was stable before I brought a child into it. I don't know how it happened. I was on the pill, but somehow I still got pregnant. My doctor told me that I must have missed a dose, but I know I didn't. It was either the .05 chance of failure or Mic."

"Mic?"

"When things first got bad, the one thing that kept me going was my son. If it wasn't for him and later Talia…" she trailed off then switched gears, "Mic knew that I wanted my kids to have a stable childhood more than anything, and that gave him power. I never had any proof but I think that he may have messed with the birth control. I know it sounds paranoid, but I don't know," she eyed Harm over her mug, "You think I'm crazy."

"I don't. You know him better than I do," he felt them lapse into another silence and wanted to make sure she kept talking, so he thought back to his conversation with Chloe, "Chloe said that your house in Australia was beautiful. Who found it, you or Mic?"

"He surprised me with it when I was six months pregnant with Nat. It was right on the beach and was surrounded by gardens. More importantly each room had tons of windows, so you never felt closed in," she said with a smile, "I immediately fell in love with the place and did not even think about the downside."

"Downside?"

"I took fifteen minutes to get to the nearest neighbors, but even that was nice at times. We lived in our own little world. While I was pregnant, I split my time between decorating our house and researching cases for Mic. When I wasn't busy with that I was with Mic, so I never really made any friends there. After Nat was born, Mic didn't like me driving the baby because I wasn't used to Australian roads, so I spent the days at home until Mic got off work. Since there were no nearby neighbors, it became all about my baby," she sighed, "It's not as pathetic as it all sounds. I was happy, really I was. I just never realized how isolated he made me. Other then when I was running errands, the only person I had constant contact with was Mic."

"You think that was Mic's plan?" Harm asked suspecting that it was.

"At first I figured that it was just my paranoia," she shook her head, "I figured that I was seeing things because I wanted them to be there. Until I had proof, I tried to believe that it was just a series of coincidences."

"But you found proof?"

"Yeah," she set down her coffee, "You know how I stopped e-mailing you? Well, I stopped because I got no response from you or anyone else for that matter. Mic diverted the e-mails from my inbox and intercepted anything that I tried to send. He blocked all incoming international calls too, with the exception of Chloe. He knew that if she stopping calling, I would be suspicious and I would have been. He wanted to think that everyone else had forgotten me and moved on with their lives. I believed him and I cannot believe how stupid I was."

"You were not stupid, Mac," he told her firmly, "Mic manipulated you. None of it was your fault."

"Right," she said unconvincingly, "Anyway, a couple of months ago I found proof of what he'd done. That's when I seriously began making plans to leave Australia. I had done the research on international custody on everything earlier, but I never done anything concrete."

Harm sat silently taking in what she had told him. He never would thought that Mic would go to the extremes that he did to cut off Mac from her previous life. It was mind boggling for him, because while he never liked Mic, Harm had never truly despised the man. It was hard enough for him to control his rage when he saw Mac's split lip, but when Harm heard her repeatedly blame herself for what Mic had done, he wanted to kill the man. His thoughts were interrupted when Mac stood up to leave the room, "Where are you going?"

"Talia's awake and I want to get her before she wakes up Nat," she continued walking and he followed her into the bedroom, where they found Talia sitting up and staring at them with her wide blue eyes.

"That's some maternal instinct," he marveled as Mac carried her daughter out of the bedroom.

"She's been waking up at exactly this time ever since we got here," she began getting a bottle ready, "I think it's the time change."

"Why don't I feed her?" he offered noticing that she was still fully dressed while he was in pajamas, "You can take a few minutes to change out of your clothes."

"You sure you can handle it?" she asked with a grin.

"We'll manage," he took Talia into his arms and then the bottle, "Won't we, sweetie."

"How did you get to be so good with babies?" Mac asked twenty-five minutes later when Talia was once again fast asleep. They had returned to the couches where Harm had put fresh cups of coffee. Dressed in an old t-shirt and shorts, she felt much more relaxed, although she was not looking forward to the rest of their conversation. In fact she was doing anything she could to delay the conversation.

"Harriet," Harm smiled, "After Jimmy was born she refused to let me remain incompetent around children."

"You were never incompetent with little A.J."

"Would you have let me baby sit one of your kids back then?"

"Well, no," she admitted with a smirk.

"So."

"So."

"Tell me about when it first happened," he ordered gently, not allowing her to skirt the issue.

"We had this party for Nat's first birthday," she began looking down at her hands, "Mic's extended family came and the Brumby men are known for drinking too much. Anyway, Mic's cousin Ian made this joking comment that Nat didn't look anything like Mic. Ian meant that he inherited his good looks from me, but Mic took it to mean that Ian didn't think he was the father. We laughed it off, but after the party he accused me of having had an affair."

"With whom?"

"You," she looked up briefly and returned to studying her hands, "I told him that we were just friends and that we never – but he didn't believe me. He took a swing at me and I was able to duck it, but he slammed me against the wall. When he let me go, I told him to get out and ran upstairs. I spent the night locked in my bedroom with Nat, and in the morning he was gone. There was an apology note and an address for his hotel. I hurled the note against the wall and got online to book flights back to D.C."

"Why didn't you leave?"

"I couldn't find our passports. Mic had put them in a safe deposit box and I didn't know how to find the key. I also didn't think that anyone in D.C. would be willing to take us in, so I gave up on that idea. Two weeks later I agreed to meet Mic for lunch to discuss a divorce, but we never really got to that," she took a shaky breath, "I missed him and after we set some conditions I let him come home. It was stupid, but for some ungodly reason I still loved him and wanted him back.

"Anyway" she continued, "He came home and we had four good months. Then one night her came home drunk and slapped me awake because I did not wait up for him. After that it was three good months. He didn't hit me that time, but he twisted my wrist so hard that he broke it. At the hospital, I was the one who made up the story. It makes me sick to think about that," she clenched her jaw, "It was then that we found out I was pregnant again. He didn't touch me while I was pregnant, but he hit me twice between the time she was born and when I left. I was having post-partum issues, so things were tense. I was difficult to be around."

"Don't say that," he gently took her hands in his.

"It's true," she met his eyes.

"Mac," he looked into her eyes that were trying to hold back the tears, "You know it's not."

"Let me finish, please," she pleaded her voice wavering.

"Okay."

"Thanks," she took a steadying breath, "I thought about leaving a lot, but I knew filing for divorce would take me away from them. I had no proof that Mic had done anything and I knew that the courts would see him as the better parent. After all, he had the job, the house, extended family, and friends in Australia, whereas I had nothing. I knew that I would need to have a job and a stable home if I wanted full custody, so I had to wait until I would be able to establish all that without Mic's knowledge."

"But now he knows," he concluded.

"He found the papers yesterday and showed up during dinner," her eyes drifted to Nat's broken plane, "I put Talia to bed, and when I came back downstairs Mic was interrogated Nat about his plane. Nat told him that you had given it to him, and Mic refused to give it back. When I reached to take it from him, he hit me and smashed it against the wall," she looked back at him, "Will you be able to fix it?"

"Yeah," Harm moved to sit next to her, "I will."

"Not just the plane, Harm, I mean everything," she whispered as her tears began to fall, "I screwed up everything."

"No you didn't," he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his shoulder, "We'll figure out everything together."

JamieAKAaclassyone – Yes, Harm is the picture of calmness around Mac because he's a good friend, but he will not be anywhere near composed when he first runs into Mic. And I know what you mean about classes, I want to take things that don't relate to me major…ah!

Nix707 – Thanks again for the complements, they mean a lot. And I love Nat and Talia too, I keep turning them into my ideal future children, they're more or less well-behaved and just seem to love everyone. Of course few real kids can behave that perfectly, but I can pretend. Oh yeah, the explosives are definitely mounting for the Harm/Mic confrontation.

Shalimar2 – Ooo! I got an "as usual"…I feel special! Hehehe!

Duchovny0901 – Thanks for letting me know you're reading and your thoughts. I really appreciate feedback on how I'm writing Mac. I have limited experience in the area of battered women and considering I'm a single college student, I have know even less about being a mother, so it's good to hear that I'm doing a decent job. Thanks again!

Radiorox – I know exactly which episode you're talking about because that's actually the one that got me started on this story idea. I don't know what it was called either, but Mic manipulates Mac until she apologizes for being insecure when he's at fault. I'm working on the non-sneaky thing and I'm glad you're able to see past the rugrats and keep reading this!

Bite Beccy – That's me, Miss Meanie…hehehe!

Manda – I'm glad I'm keeping you happy.

xLovexNxPainx – I think you'll have to get in line behind a few others before you can get to Mic. Not only his a jerk, but he made Nat sad and I just won't stand for that.

Cmdrchasenovack – Thanks, I didn't think Harm would jump at her questions, especially since she shows up with crying kids. I think he would have gotten the kids settled and happy, and then made sure Mac was okay too. Only then would he start asking questions, so I wrote it that way.

Macandharmlover – Oh yeah, there's no way Mic will just jump on a plane back to Australia.

Pain – Sorry…but I'm just evil sometimes..muahaha!

KittyX – You're welcome! ;o)

Southernqt – Your wish is my command and thanks!

Sammy – Thanks, I don't want the kids to be the center of the story, but they are definitely part of the woman Mac has become and if she and Harm are going to have a future together it will include those guys.

Toplesslemon – Are you implying that any Harm/Mac progress is bound to result in something idiotic screwing it up? Right now Harm's focused on taking care of Mac, so things are safe.

Dess – I know what you mean, he just seemed borderline sketchy. He always seemed to be guilt-tripping her into doing things, and I feel like that would have led to a rather icky marriage. She deserves to have someone she loves (cough, Harm, cough), not someone she's manipulated into caring for.

Anita – Thanks for the review and the well wishes for school!

Tina Frank – I know exactly what you mean on the temper and the manipulation. The way I see it, Mic legitimately loves Mac, but he's jealous and controlling. He's also very smart and while Mac is tough, she's not immune to manipulation, especially when it comes to men. Also, I hated on the show how they just had Chloe disappear, I won't let that happen!

DushiNoSushi – Glad to have you reading and thanks for the review! The whole idea of Mac being caught in an abusive situation like with her parents has always intrigued me. I don't think she would let herself fall into the exact same situation as her mother, with constant physical abuse. Mic is supposed to be a decent guy, who occasionally lapses into physical abuse, which Mac recognizes. What she doesn't see is the mental/emotional abuse he inflicted. And Mac would never leave her kids under any circumstances.

Mac 4 – Thanks and don't worry, Mic has something up his sleeve.

Starryeyes10 – Thanks!