AN: I hope some of you do remember this story. I was forced to abandon it for a couple of months, but now it's back with the final two chapters. I'm afraid it hasn't been beta-read, so all mistakes belong to me. Hope you enjoy!

Part 8

The next week went well. Mac, Mattie and Andy had gotten used to this new routine and everything went quite smoothly. Mac could hardly believe it when she went to bed and realized it had been a week since her talk to Harm. Mattie had talked to him a couple of times during the week, but every time he'd called Mac had been busy with Andy and she hadn't gotten the opportunity to talk to him.

Later that night Mac woke up from some noises coming from the door to the bedroom.

"Andy?" she asked towards the door. It happened sometimes that Andy would wake up in the middle of the night and come into her room because she couldn't sleep.

"No, it's me," a familiar voice said.

"I thought you weren't coming until next week," Mac raised herself up to sitting position.

"The replacement arrived sooner then I expected," Harm explained "I'm sorry I woke you up. I just needed the spare pillow and blanket," he motioned for the wardrobe where he kept things like that.

"You're not going to sleep on the couch, Harm," Mac said in the firm voice that she sometimes used with Andy.

"It's OK," he tried to say, but he was interrupted by her.

"Look, your bed is big enough for the two of us. Just come and lie down here and don't be silly. We're adults, right?"

"Are you sure?" he said still standing with the blanket and pillow.

"Otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it," Mac assured him.

"OK, then," he changed into a t-shirt and then he carefully lay down at the other side of the bed from her. "Did everything go well this week?"

"Yeah," Mac said "It's been fun, but ... we missed you."

"I missed you too," Harm said "Mattie says you've been taking good care of her."

"I don't know if I've done all that much."

"She seems to think you did." He stroked his hands across her arm. He was lying on the side and he could see the contours of her face in the soft light of the moon and streetlights that came through the blinds of the window. "Mac, I love you too."

Mac quickly turned over to lie on the side as well and he could see the relieved smile spreading from her lips to her eyes.

"You knew that, right?"

"I wasn't sure you could say it ... I wasn't sure I could say it myself."

"I love you, Mac," he repeated and closed the little distance between them and placed a soft and gentle kiss on her lips.

"I love you," Mac whispered as she moved closer to him and let him embrace her with his arms.

"Go back to sleep now, Mac. We'll talk more tomorrow," Harm said.

"Good night, Harm."

"Good night."

----

"'Morning," Mac said. She had been lying awake listening to Harm's even heartbeats for several minutes. During the night Mac had remained lying with her head resting on his chest with his arm securely wrapped around her holding her in place and that was also how she had woken up.

"Harm, we need to get up now," she tried to wake him up. She brushed her hand across his chest. It wasn't until she leaned over him and placed a quick kiss over his mouth that he started to react. He smiled and looked straight up in her eyes.

"What ... what time is it?" Harm asked a bit confused with where he was and how he had been woken up, but he was not objecting to it at all.

"7:32."

"God, Mac. It's a Saturday," Harm protested.

"Yeah, well my little darling girl doesn't care about that. And soon she'll come in here and want me to start breakfast so unless you want to explain this ... to her," Mac raised her eyebrows.

The thought of that wasn't so appealing to him apparently, because he quickly agreed and they both started untangling themselves from the sheets and the covers. Mac got her clothes together to go and get dressed in the bathroom.

"Good morning," she said when she met Andy out in the hallway. "Slept well."

"Yeah," Andy said. "Mac, can we have pancakes for breakfast, please?"

"I think that could be arranged," Mac nodded. She turned around when she heard the door to Harm's room open.

"Harm, you're back," Andy squealed out. She ran up and he lifted her up and hugged her. "Mattie, Harm's back," she shouted towards Mattie's room and she started to wrestle her way out of Harm's embrace to run into Mattie and wake her up. Mac and Harm started following her. Mac decided to leave Harm and Mattie alone to reunite and took Andy's hand and went over to the kitchen to start the pancakes.

Half an hour later Harm and Mattie came into the kitchen just as Mac was flipping over the last pancake. Andy had been babbling the whole time, but Mac had heard very little of what she'd said. Her thoughts were circling around her and Harm and she couldn't as she always did otherwise focus on what Andy was saying.

"You OK?" she asked Harm and Mattie. She could see that Mattie had been crying and she wasn't completely sure that Harm hadn't too.

"Yeah, I'm OK," Mattie said.

"Mattie and I were thinking that we'd like to do something for the two of you as a thank you for everything you did for us these weeks," Harm said. He had one hand on Mattie's shoulder.

"And since Andy told me she wanted to go to the zoo, I thought maybe we could all go together," Mattie concluded.

"Yeah," Andy said excited "I want to, I want to."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun," Mac agreed. "But let's dig into these first," she motioned to the pancakes that were in the middle of the set table.

---

"Andy, you can't go running off like that," Mac said when she for the third time had been forced to run after Andy so as not to lose her.

"Sorry, I forgot."

"Then you need to hold my hand the whole time so you don't forget," Mac said and she took a firm, but gentle hold of Andy's hand. "So where do we want to go next?"

"I want to see the kids' farm," Andy said.

Mattie looked rather tired and Harm looked a bit worriedly over at her. "Why don't you and me go to the kids' farm and Mac and Mattie can sit down at the café over there and hold us places for lunch?"

At first Mattie seemed to want to protest, but then she nodded OK.

"Let's go then," Andy said and took a hold of Harm's hand instead of Mac's.

"Do you want an ice tea too?" Mac asked as they had settled at a table under a big green umbrella outside of the café.

"No, I just want water I think."

Mac went away to order the drinks and soon returned.

Mattie and Mac talked lively and almost missed when Harm and Andy were coming back. It was Mattie who first spotted them and pointed them out to Mac. When Andy caught sight of her and Mattie the little girl slipped out of Harm's hold before he had a chance to react and ran over to Mac and Mattie. Harm quickly ran after her, but he didn't catch up with her until she was already at the table.

After lunch they continued to walk through the rest of the zoo. Andy's eyes were glowing and when they were walking back towards the car she concluded that this had been the best day in her whole life. Harm felt pleased that the day had been so good, because the happier Andy got the happier Mac seemed.

They drove back to Harm and Mattie's house since Mac's car was still there and they needed to pack everything up before they could go back home. Truth be told Mac wasn't really in any hurry to get home.

While Mac first went to pack up Andy's and later her clothes, Harm put on a pot of coffee and made some lemonade for the girls. Mattie and Andy had sat down out on the porch with a game. While the coffee was brewing he decided to go and check on how Mac was coming along. He found her in his room packing down the last of her clothes in a bag and then she closed it. She looked up at him when she noticed his presence in the room.

"Hey, you forgot those," he said and pointed at a pair of socks that were halfway hidden under the bed. He took the few steps over and bent down to get them for her. The only problem was that she had also kneeled down to get them and their head clashed together.

"Ouch," Mac said and Harm pulled her up to sit on the bed beside him.

"Sorry" they both said at the same time. Harm put out his hand and gently stroked his fingers across the spot on Mac's head where they had knocked. At first Mac wasn't sure if it was just her imagination or if his head was actually slowly moving closer to hers. However she was convinced it wasn't just in her mind when the movement stopped midair.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?" Mac said disappointed.

"I've been wanting to do this all day," he told her as he finally moved forward and kissed her. He put his arms around her and pulled her closer to him at the same time as Mac put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

"We have to stop," Harm said as he broke the kiss minutes later.

"I know."

Mac stood up and picked up the socks that had been thrown back down on the floor and put them into the bag. She looked down on her clothes and made sure that there were no signs of their previous activity. Harm was doing the same thing when she stepped up close to him again and put her mouth to his lips and softly kissed him.

"Let's go down to our girl's before they come looking for us," she said and took his hand and led him out of the room. Right before they stepped out on the porch they let go of each other.

TBC