OOOO

See part 1 for disclaimers…

Part 10

Cate had conked out on the couch while Harm went to go and fix her something to eat and she looked so exhausted that Mac covered her over with a quilt and Harm put her meal in the fridge.

"She can take it along with her for the boat journey, tomorrow," Harm told Mac as they made their own way to bed for the night. Harm courteously let Mac use the bathroom first to get ready for bed and by the time that he was finally ready to go to sleep, Mac was already curled up, looking decidedly good amongst his bed sheets. As he climbed in himself, Mac scooted over towards him and he embraced her, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead.

" 'night Harm," Mac murmured, sleepily, relaxing into her position curled up by Harm's side.

" 'nite Mac," Harm replied, running a hand through her hair affectionately before he leaned over to turn the bedside lamp off.

They both drifted to sleep, each listening to the relaxed breathing of the person next to them.

OOOO

At about six the next morning, Harm woke as he did every morning, without the use of an alarm clock. Quietly, he climbed from the bed and crept through to the living room, grabbing the cordless phone and taking it into the kitchen, so that he didn't wake Cate, who was still asleep on the couch. He quickly called into work and let them know that he wouldn't be coming in until later that day, so that he could focus on getting Cate back to Sepadan. He knew that he wouldn't be able to concentrate properly at work anyway, if he didn't go along to make sure that Cate got settled back in okay. After he had hung up and placed the phone back on the charger, he peered over the back of the couch, noting that Cate had not even moved from the position in which she fell asleep the night before. After that, Harm went back into the bedroom and carefully climbed back into bed beside Mac.

OOOO

By the time that he woke again, the sun had risen and Harm estimated that it must be sometime between seven and eight o'clock. Next to him, Mac was asleep on her front, her head turned towards him and her arms tucked into her sides. Harm thought to himself that she looked very much like a little girl in this very open, prone position. Regarding her silently, he also noticed, as the bed sheets were down somewhere around her lower back, that she looked very skinny underneath her tank top and pyjama bottoms. From the way that she had been sleeping solidly while she had been staying here, Harm also knew that she had to be catching up on lots of sleep she had lost at home. He felt quite bad knowing that his disappearance had been the cause of a lot of the worry that had brought her to this state. Harm made a promise to himself that he'd put all of his effort into making up for this, in the oncoming months.

As if sensing his gaze, Mac's dark eyelashes began to twitch against her delicate skin then fluttered open. Harm greeted her with a smile and telling her quietly, "Hey there."

"Hey your...self," she replied, stopping mid-word to let out a broad yawn.

"Somebody's still tired, I think," Harm observed.

Mac looked thoughtful for a minute then replied, "And I think that somebody's going to be late for work."

"I took the morning off. I think we should probably see Cate home, make sure that she gets settled back in okay."

Mac nodded in agreement.

"She seems to be very nervous about going back, even though it's home to her. The poor kid thinks that she doesn't deserve the right to be there, to be happy, you know?"

"Yeah, I noticed that. Because her Mom was always giving her that impression, she doesn't think she's good enough for those children," Harm agreed then confided, "Even before she started working in the school, she was always worried about if she was good enough for the job. She did more work and made twice as much effort than anyone else, in just about everything that she did, yet she still questioned her worthiness to be there."

Mac shook her head in sadness, commenting, "In a way, she seems almost like a child, sometimes. She'd do just about anything to gain your approval and respect, yet in other ways, she's a more mature than you or I."

Harm smiled in agreement, recalling the way that Cate had patiently shepherded her class of children around like a young mother hen.

Mac let out a sigh and snuggled back down into her pillow. Almost as if he was being drawn by an invisible magnetic field, Harm leaned over to Mac and planted a soft kiss on her shoulder. Mac smiled and sighed again, this time in contentment as Harm curled up next to her, draping an arm over her shoulders and laying his head on the pillow next to hers. They both met each other's lips in a soft kiss before they closed their eyes and drifted back to sleep.

By the time that nine o'clock came around, they had both fought the almost overwhelming compulsion to stay in bed and made the morning trip to the shower. Once Harm emerged from the bathroom dressed casually in shorts and a shirt, he and Mac went into the living room to see about getting breakfast ready, in time for Cate waking up. To their surprise, they found Cate already awake, sitting up in bed on the couch, watching TV.

" Mornin'," Cate greeted them, "You not off to work yet, Harm?"

"I've taken the morning off," he told her, "Mac and I were wondering if we could see you home, help get you settled back in?"

Cate just beamed like a five-year-old, as if Harm and Mac had just named her their best friend. When they thought about it later, Harm and Mac both supposed it to be quite natural, considering that nobody had ever shown that sort of enthusiasm for being involved in Cate's life before, especially not her own mother.

Cate took a deep breath and climbed in beside Harm and Mac, in the speedboat that would bring her back home. She anxiously twisted one hand inside the other throughout the entire journey, biting her lip nervously.

Harm wanted nothing more than to tell her that she didn't have anything to worry about, that everything would be fine, but he knew he could give her no such assurances. He couldn't promise that things would be back to normal once she got home, knew that none of them could erase what had taken place over the previous weekend. Harm knew that Cate wanted to go home, but the question was, would she be accepted back? He really hoped so, but that was up to the villagers, up to the children whom she had left behind. So Harm did the only thing he could do; he promised Cate his support. He reached over and gently took Cates hand in his, squeezing it in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. Cate looked up and gave him a thankful smile then turned her eyes again to the river ahead of them, towards the next bend and what would be beyond it. After a while, the scenery began to become familiar and Cate inhaled a tense breath. She pulled her backpack onto one shoulder as she bolstered herself for what came next. As the boat pulled up at the jetty, they began to see curious faces peer out of the windows and doorways of the village houses. Children stopped playing in the dirt and looked up to see the boat docking. Tentatively, Cate climbed onto the jetty pontoon and walked up the gangway to the mainland, followed by Harm and Mac. However, before she put a foot on dry land, she stopped short, looking to the people watching her, waiting for their reaction. For a tense minute, nothing was said and time and space seemed to stand still. Then something stirred in the dust and Cate found herself begin to cry.

"Chigu Cate!"

As the little girl ran towards her through the swirls of dust, Cate thought that her heart might explode out of gratitude.

"Oh, thank God!" she murmured to herself, as she caught Teja up in a big hug.

Yep, the little girl had always been her favourite! This prompt was all it took for all of the other children to come running over to Cate and she knelt down on the ground and caught them all in a hug as best as she was able to.

"Chigu Cate, Chigu Cate! You come home!" The elated children cried.

"Yes, I've come home," she told them honestly, "I ran away because I was scared and didn't know what to do, but now I've come home. I've missed you all so much, my children! I'd like to come home for good, if you will have me?"

By now, all of the adults had wandered out of the houses and were gathered around.

At Cate's request, one person looked to another then that person looked to another person. Cate awaited their decision with baited breath. Finally, after everyone had silently consulted one another, it was up to one person to make a final decision. Ridwan, son of the village elder and eventual inheritor of his Father's position gave his verdict, to be followed by much shouting on the part of both adults and children. Shouts of excitement and approval.

"Bagus! Cate, you come home to stay, okay?"

"Bagus!" Cate told him, beaming.

OOOO

It was little over four days later that Harm and Mac found themselves at the ferry terminal again, to make their weekend trip to Sepandan. The boatman was just about to cast off the ropes tying the speedboat to the dock, when someone shouted from inside the small office, nearby.

Harm and Mac noticed a small man lean out of the office window as he shouted to the boatman. They assumed that he was asking the boatman to stop. A minute later, the small man stepped out of the office, trailed by a dark blond-haired, European woman.

"This is the boat for Sepandan," the small man assured the woman then helped her into the boat, giving her a small nod as she thanked him for his assistance.

As the woman turned around and took a seat, it only took Harm and Mac a one-second glance at her clear blue eyes to know exactly who she was.

She noticed them watching her and smiled.

"Mrs. Anderson?" Harm questioned.

"Yes…well Anderson-Scott…Kimberly Anderson-Scott," The woman told them, seemingly thinking about how the two of them knew her name, "You know my daughter?"

"Yes," Harm told her, "We work with her at Sepadan. I'm Harm. This is Mac."

"You're with the Red Cross?"

"No," Mac told her, "we're just weekend volunteers. We're both lawyers."

Harm noticed Mac hesitate and visibly think about this statement. It wasn't actually true that Mac was a lawyer. Right now, she was technically between employments. Still, it was a lot less complicated, this way.

"How is my daughter? She did get my letter, saying that I was coming, didn't she?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Harm told her then struggled to find something else to say. What exactly was it that he was supposed to say, in a situation like this?

Kim Anderson seemed to realise this and prevented him any further difficulty.

"She's not happy I'm here, is she?" Kim asked them.

"I wouldn't say so. No, Ma'am," Harm told her, truthfully.

She seemed to appreciate his honesty and smiled, continuing.

"I don't blame her for that. I've hardly been the best Mother…I just want to make up for all of this wasted time. I had my wee girl when I was very young, you see. It was extremely hard, being a single, teenage mother. For years I suffered from severe self-esteem problems, I never felt I was worthy of being trusted with a child as precious as Alexandra. Add to that the fact that I was technically still a teenager, right up until she was four then I guess you could say that I was the most irresponsible mother in all of Glasgow. But I've grown up a lot over the last five years. I want to make up for my past mistakes, I want to gain her trust back…"

Harm and Mac felt pity for the woman facing them. They could tell that despite the fact that Cate's Mother was still under forty, she'd had a hard life. Even though she looked as if she took great pride in her appearance, her posture was quite hunched and self-conscious. Her clear blue eyes showed the strain of her life and dark rings circled the skin below them.

"Cate told us that you've re-married," Mac spoke up, grasping at straws, trying to find a topic of conversation.

"Yes, just last year," Kim confirmed, "I couldn't bring myself to drop my maiden name, so I just added it on. Most of my friends just think I'm trying to be posh."

"Did you have a long trip to the ferry terminal, Ma'am?" Harm asked conversationally.

"A short taxi ride," Kim told them, "I'm staying at the Shangri-La, so I'm not that far away. Same side of the city."

They were silent for the remaining minutes of the trip, all three anticipating their arrival at Sepadan. As the boat pulled up at the jetty,

Harm and Mac led the way up to the mainland. Kim held back, behind them. Cate was sitting up at the cafeteria with a group of her school children. They were gathered around a game of Bantumi, or as the people here called it, 'Congkak.' Cate finished dropping small white seashells into a circle of bowls carved out of the thick wooden playing board. As her last shell clattered in the final bowl, she took out all of the shells in that bowl, then each emptied each of the other bowls along her side of the board. She deposited the shells in the hollow nearest her end of the board and all of the children cheered. Seemingly, Cate had beaten her opponent. She smiled and gave the little boy a hug and lots of encouraging praise. The boy simply smiled, not seeming to mind all that much. Perhaps Cate's win had not been completely due to her skill at the game! Harm smiled as he saw the boy's friends gather around him and chatter away animatedly, once they were out of Cate's earshot.

Cate turned and smiled as she caught sight of Harm and Mac. However, her smile disintegrated when she caught sight of the expression on their faces. Her head tilted to the side and her eyes frowned in puzzlement as she tried to decipher what she saw written there. Harm and Mac moved aside, allowing Cate to see who had joined them on the boat ride to Sepadan.

Cate froze, not moving or uttering a word for a few seconds. Then she simply looked away and took off in the opposite direction.

"Alex…" her Mother began.

OOOO