AN: Just another disclaimer. I don't own BBC America, I Love Lucy or the popular tv series Desperate Housewives, but couldn't help but have a little fun at their expense! It's all in fun though, in the name of entertainment! No real harm done!
OOOO
Part 2
One week later found Harm, Mac, Erin and Nanny Gloria situated in a nice house, in a gated community in suburban California.
"Mrs. Colmer," Gloria (or Freya, as she was now known) called to her lady employer, "it is just me."
"Hi!" Mac greeted the woman, helping her with the groceries she had picked up at the supermarket, "Thank you, I honestly don't know what I'd do without you to help me, Freya!"
"It's no problem," 'Freya' set her paper brown paper bags down and went to work on storing everything.
Mac went back to her office, where 'Tina' (Erin) was napping in her downstairs crib. She smoothed a hand over the little girl's back before she went back to work on her plans. Mac's cover was that of a part-time-architect/stay-at-home Mother. Christine Colmer was the 'perfect woman', juggling her career and household duties with seeming ease, still finding time to lavish attention upon her toddler daughter.
It wasn't long before her 'book-end' husband came home, announcing in a very 'I Love Lucy' way; "Honey, I'm home!"
Mac was not amused and her face showed it.
"Hello," Harm assessed her from where he leaned against the study doorway, peering over the pair of fake glasses that Webb had thought were necessary. The spook had reasoned that since Harm had received so much media coverage over his career, he'd need something to help change his appearance. Mac herself had received hair extensions so her hair was down to the middle of her back and she more resembled an a-list celebrity than a marine colonel. Mac had the feeling that Webb had been hoping Harm would somehow look like a geek, but Mac actually thought Harm more attractive, like the hot lecturer that all the young women develop a crush on during the first week in college. But maybe she just had a biased opinion…
"Hi," she cocked her head to the side, "Good day?"
"Besides feeling like a character out of 'Desperate Housewives,' yeah, I suppose so…You?"
"I despise this and you know it."
Mac was going stir-crazy. She'd already tried pouring over lots of case information about Captain Simmon's family, connections and possible whereabouts, but that had gotten boring after a few days. There was just nothing more that she could do from 'home.'
"Hey, you've got our child and daytime tv," Harm joked, "What else could you want?"
"Okay, okay," he conceded, when Mac looked like she might batter him with the desk lamp, "I know what you mean and I'm sure it's very boring compared to our usual day jobs, but I'm no more intellectually stimulated than you are."
Here, Mac tried to power down, for she knew he was right. Her 'husband,' Phillip Colmer was a desk worker at the city council. She knew that he had to be pretty bored with his job. It wasn't even like they had any real work to do; their assignments and submissions were delivered to them by the postman, each week. Their bosses (they were real) had no idea about their real identities. All they had to do was sit back and relax…But of course, relaxing was not something that Harm and Mac did well!
And to top it all off, Harm was about to confess news that would make it a whole lot worse.
He wisely waited until after dinner…
"I'm afraid I got picked to host the monthly 'wine-and-dine the boss' night…"
"What?" Mac almost shrieked.
At the upset look she got from Erin, she adjusted her tone, stroking the child's cheek, soothingly.
"Umm," she thought out her words first, "when exactly is this, Honey?"
The normally endearing term was laced with sarcasm, which Erin hadn't figured out yet.
"Day after tomorrow," Harm was almost afraid to tell her.
"No problem, Mrs. Colmer," Gloria looked up from where she was feeding Erin, giving her lady-boss a wink, "I'll help you put something together…Mister Colmer's boss won't know what hit him. It'll put Jamie Oliver to shame!"
Gloria watched far too much BBC America, in Mac's opinion. But there was little for her to do while Erin napped.
"Just charge whatever you need to the credit card," Harm laughed along, knowing that the bill would not be coming to them.
Finally, when even Erin was laughing along (but obviously not knowing why,) Mac gave into the absurdity of the situation and joined in.
Indeed, the event was a roaring success; between Mac's (Gloria's) good food and Erin's baby charm, Harm's boss went away with the warm fuzzies, that night.
OOOO
They spent their first full weekend out of doors, doing family things with their daughter. The zoo, the nearby public swimming pool and the park were all explored on Saturday, in an effort to stave off the cabin-fever. Nanny 'Freya' came along with them, although an extra set of eyes proved unnecessary, as 'Tina' was asleep by the end of the car trip out there.
"I can't believe that we finally get here and she's fast asleep," Harm chuckled, looking at Erin.
"She barely slept last night, Honey," Mac reminded him, her voice laced with just a hint of danger, "Somebody gave her sugar…"
"Oh, yeah," Harm quickly lost his smile, and decided to check out the gift shop, "Hey, look! It's the gift shop..."
Erin woke up in time to see the penguins, but fell asleep again in the car, on the way to the park. When they got to the pool, she woke up again and Harm took her swimming. Mac enjoyed watching them frolic about in the water, a fact that did not go unmissed by Gloria. The woman made up her mind to watch these two! They were more entertaining than daytime soap operas!
Sunday was spent on the front lawn with Mac watching Harm and Erin's antics in the sprinklers, on a big soapy plastic slip n' slide and with water guns. Eventually, Mac donned an old shirt and some denim cut-offs and joined them and they had a rare old time. Harm and Mac had given Gloria the day off to go and spend some 'metal-health time' on her own. This way, they only had to worry about the neighbors seeing the show they were obligated to put on.
OOOO
After three weeks, life had settled into a new routine; Mac had to work in the morning but allowed herself a couple afternoons a week to get together with the new friends she had made amongst her neighbors. Harm similarly went out a night or two a week, with friends from work. Even Gloria had made some friends in the neighborhood, so she got a break from her house keeping duties. This small amount was just enough to keep them from going completely crazy! Erin didn't notice that much had changed; she fit right in with this model of domesticity. She thrived in the attention that the three adults were providing her with. Harm, Mac and Gloria tried their best to begin to teach her from home, but eventually they knew that she would benefit more from attending pre-school. So, three days a week, Mac dropped her off at the pre-school just down the road, for a few hours. By the time that Harm and Mac were contacted by General Cresswell for the first time, Mac was surprised by how much she was enjoying this new life.
The General informed them of several leads, but told them to be prepared to duck it out a while longer (The fugitive Captain apparently must have his finger in a very many pies.)
OOOO
"Mommy!" Erin cried loudly, when she saw her carer at the door to the pre-school.
"Hi Baby!" Mac could obviously not correct her in front of all of these other people, "Did you have a good day today?"
"Pain-tink!"
Erin pulled her over to the painting that she had spent all morning on, now left on a table to dry.
"Wow," Mac showed the appropriate enthusiasm and encouragement, "that's great, Tina! You must have worked really hard, today! What a beautiful painting that is!"
Going home that day, Mac opted to lift Erin into her arms and carry her home, while pushing the empty stroller. Erin talked non-stop about her day and Mac enjoyed every minute of the commentary.
When he came home from work, Harm found Mac and Erin upstairs, having a pillow fight on the king-sized bed in the master bedroom. He just stood, relaxed against the doorjamb for a while and watched them, until they noticed he was there.
"Hey Erin," Mac smiled at the child, "Look who's home!"
"DADDY!" Erin launched herself off the end of the bed, knowing full well that Harm would catch her.
Harm had to hustle, but he managed it, even though he gave a big, theatrical groan and complained, "Oh! I'm too old for this! My poor back!"
Mac just laughed, she'd always thought that Harm was brilliant, an absolute natural with their godchildren.
"So how was your day?" she asked, genuinely getting into the whole family thing.
"Oh, it was alright," he dismissed, "Couldn't wait to come home to 'my girls' though. They don't throw mountains of paperwork at me! What have you two been up to today?"
"Well," Mac smiled, "Erin had preschool this morning. While she was having fun and painting us a wonderful picture, I got some work done on my projects. I finished two and then I got some grocery shopping done with Gloria. After that I went to collect Erin and we've spent the whole evening playing up here! Gloria volunteered for kitchen duty tonight…"
"Ooo," Harm's face brightened, "I thought I smelled fajitas!"
Mac looked at him with one eyebrow raised and he quickly added, "…although the ones you made last weekend were much better."
Mac just smiled and moved on, telling Harm about the other fifty-thousand little things she got taken care of during the course of her day.
He told her about his board-meetings (he'd gone into his job a total novice, so had been working hard on walking the walk and talking the talk!)
After they all ate a family dinner, Harm and Mac put Erin down for the night and treated themselves to sitting out on the patio furniture out back, to wind down after their busy day.
"Does this ever seem too real to you?" Harm spoke up, after they sat in comfortable silence for a while.
"Too often, I find myself thinking that this will last," Mac admitted, "But we both know that it can't…"
"True," Harm nodded, his face a picture of regret, "reality just seems to be a lifetime ago. But it's something that we will have to go back to."
Mac poured the last of the non-alcoholic cocktail they had made out of the pitcher and into their glasses.
"How about we just settle with 'enjoying it while it lasts'?" she suggested, "We don't know how long we'll be here, but there's no sense in making ourselves miserable the whole time."
"No, there isn't," Harm agreed and lifted his own drink to Mac's.
"Enjoying life while we're here," they both toasted.
OOOO
Mac greeted the other women as she was invited in, putting Erin down to play with the other little children that had been brought along.
Meeting up with the other young women living in the street was the highlight of her week. Most of them were in much the same position, at least the same as her cover identity, although there were a couple that she thought she wouldn't mind not seeing again. The host of today's get-together thanked her for the Victoria sponge cake she had baked and brought over. Gloria's influence on her cooking skills was definitely positive, because every woman there proclaimed that it was the best they'd ever tasted. When asked for her secret, Mac had scrambled and come up with something she had heard Gloria say, but just hoped that it would fly.
"Uh, well…you have to use a warmed, metal spoon, when blending the sugar and margarine together. But when you add the eggs you have to switch to a wooden spoon and fold gently, or the batter will curdle."
The women seemed to be nodding and accepting it, so Mac thanked her bountiful memory bank. Her giving out cookery tips…Who'd have thought?
Erin eventually came to sit on her knee, because another woman's son was getting too boisterous with his play and was really beginning to unnerve her. Trinny and Byron Banks were a mother and son who were incredibly alike. They both asserted themselves wholeheartedly, although Trinny had learned to veil her stinging comments so that they didn't sound quite so nasty.
"My friend got these little herbal pills, Heather," Mac caught a comment she made to their host over the loud chit chat of the room, "I don't ever need anything like that myself, but she says that they take any bloating straight away. You'll be looking fabulous in no time…"
Mac didn't get the chance to see just how Heather responded to this camouflaged barb, for somebody turned to her and began to speak.
"How on earth did you managed to get so trim again after having a child, Christine?" Suzanne asked, "My Emily's nearly four and I'm nowhere near my pre-pregnancy weight. It's not for the lack of trying, believe me…"
"I suspect it has something to do with my genes," Mac told her, "My Mother was just the same after having me. Of course, I try to work out, but with Tina being two…She never sits still and even with Freya around to help, it still takes two of us to watch her…I wouldn't worry about losing weight so quickly. People who lose weight gradually and sensibly are more likely to keep it off, long-term."
This seemed to settle Suzanne's curiosity and the conversation amongst the other women quickly went off in a different direction. Mac tuned it out and focused her attention on the little girl on her knee.
"I can't decide who she looks more like," Heather came over and joined her, after having enough of Trinny's weird sense of chit-chat, "She's very like Philip, but the curly hair is a little like your. Is yours like that when it's shorter? Her eyes, of course are a little like Philip's, but his aren't the same shade of green…"
"When I was younger, my hair was a little curlier. But mostly, the curls and the eye color come from my Mother-in-law's side of the family," Mac told her, " Philip got his eye color from his Father, but Tina's are very like Philip's Mother, Trish's."
"Was Philip's hair once this fair?" another curious woman asked.
"When he was very young, around Tina's age," Mac nodded, "It darkened as he got older. Philips says he hopes the next one takes after my side!"
All of the women smiled and Erin hopped off Mac's knee and went to play with Suzanne's daughter Emily. While their Moms were letting loose and just enjoying the rare time to relax, Emily and Erin played with Heather's daughter Miriam's dollhouse. The two little girls, both very friendly and sociable, always got on well and this occasion was no exception. Unfortunately, there was one child in the group that day that was determined to cause trouble. After unsuccessfully trying to force some other children to relinquish their toys, Byron Banks saw Erin and Emily having a good time with the dollhouse. Of course, he wasn't interested in their dollhouse, but he was determined that he was going to take away their enjoyment of it. I picked up a dinosaur figurine and went over, proceeding to knock over all of their furniture and maul their dolls. The little girls gave a scream and tried to push Byron's dinosaur away.
"Raarrrr!" Byron continued to wreak havoc, "He's going to EAT you! Raarrr!"
"No Byron!" Erin told the boy sternly, "Go 'way!"
Byron paid no notice, though, so Erin snatched the dinosaur from his hand and threw it across the room.
Byron began to get red in the face, his pudgy face screwing up in anger. Gritting his teeth, he ground out, "No, YOU go away!"
Without a second thought, he gave Erin a hard shove, so hard that the little girl skidded across the floor and down the small set of steps leading to the living room.
"Byron Banks!" one of the group's of women exclaimed loudly.
Mac spun round as soon as she heard Erin begin to scream, loudly.
Rushing over, she found Anna Remner lifting Erin from her sprawled position, still half-on the stairs and half-on the floor below, while speaking to Byron sternly.
"I don't believe you, Byron Banks!" she was saying, "Tina's nearly half your age! Is that the way you treat little girls who are so much smaller than you?"
Mac took the crying child from Anna, asking, "What happened?"
While Mac tried to get Erin to stop crying, Anna told Mac what she had seen.
"Byron here came over to bother the girls while they were playing house, didn't you, Byron? He didn't like it that they wouldn't let him spoil their game, so he pushed Tina so hard that she tumbled right down the stairs…"
"I'm sure it was just an accident," Trinny was trying to smooth the incident over, "He doesn't realize his own strength, half the time…Now Byron, Honey, you know that the little girl isn't as big and strong as you are…"
"He realized exactly what he was doing, Trinny!" Anna had had quite enough of this woman, now, "I watched him torment these girls for five minutes. He didn't like it when he didn't get his way, so he shoved Tina hard, very hard! YOUR son needs discipline, it's as simple as that…"
Trinny just blanched at being told straight out that her child was a brat. Mac ignored the woman and concentrated on her little girl, who was still screaming.
"Tell Mama where it hurts, Baby…" she soothed the child gently, "Did you hit your head?"
The child shook her head, but could say nothing that Mac could understand while still crying so hard.
"Shh, shhh," Mac soothed her for a few minutes, before she tried again, "Where does it hurt, Sweetie?"
"Huu…Hu…hurts…ha…ha…heeya…" Erin sobbed, convulsively, pointing to her upper left, leg, just below her hip.
"I think she landed hard on the edge of one of the steps, Christine," Anna told her, "She's lucky that she managed to get her arms out in front of her, or she would have hit her head, too."
"Yeah," Mac sighed, acknowledging that little miracle, "the last thing she needs is another head injury…"
"She's hurt her head before?" Anna asked, "Is that where the little mark above her eye came from?"
Mac realized that she probably shouldn't have mentioned it, but managed to find a way explain it.
"Yeah, about a month ago, Philip's parents were visiting us, helping us get ready for the move and they took her out for the day. A car ran a red light at a junction and t-boned their car. Erin got caught by flying glass, but they were all very lucky…a few seconds earlier and the car would have impacted the body of the car, not just the trunk area. No-one was seriously hurt. Tina's cut above the eye was her worst injury, but my Mother and Father-in-law were absolutely beside themselves..."
"How awful," Anna sympathized, "But Tina seems to have recovered well. You can already barely see the mark above her eye."
"Yeah," Mac nodded, "it'll fade until it's barely noticeable."
Erin was still crying just as hard, so Mac decided to bring her home. She said a quick goodbye and returned home, to be greeted by Gloria.
"But what is this?" Gloria gasped as she emerged from the kitchen at all of the commotion, "What is wrong with the Ninã? What is wrong, my sweet child?"
"Another child got too rough," Mac told her, taking a seat and beginning to unbutton Erin's pants, to get a good look at her leg.
She and Gloria gasped as they uncovered the livid-looking bruise, already as sinister as if it was a full day old.
Gloria muttered a string of curses in Spanish, saying something about what she'd do to the offending child, once she got hold of them.
Mac thought it wise not to mention whose the child in question was. Gloria would ream Trinny and Byron a new one!
Mac replaced Erin's pants and held her close, rocking her to try and calm the girl. Although she was not screaming at the same volume as she had been, she was still sobbing copiously. After half-an-hour, when it had not abated any, Mac decided a visit to a doctor at the ER was needed, just to be on the safe side.
She grabbed her purse, keys and cellphone and Gloria helped her out to the car with Erin. Before she pulled out, she called Harm at work, to let him know what had happened.
"Colmer," he answered.
"Hey, it's me," Mac spoke up, not thinking that she was on speakerphone, but not knowing for sure, so she refrained from using her real name, " I'm having to go out. The baby and I are going to the E…"
"Wait," Harm spoke up, "what's wrong with the baby? Why's she crying? She never cries like that...Mac are you both okay?"
"Erin had a fall," Mac told him, "While I was at Heather's another child knocked her over and her leg is really bruised. I'm going to take her to the ER, just to make sure it's nothing more than a bruise."
"Give me thirty minutes," Harm immediately said, "I'll be there…Where are you taking her? Mercy?"
"Yeah," Mac nodded, thinking, "its the closest."
"Okay," Harm agreed, "I'll be there in about thirty…"
Before Mac could point out that the hospital was a good deal further than thirty minutes from where Harm worked, he had hung up the phone. Mac sighed; the last thing she wanted was for Harm to speed there and have an accident on the way. For the next twenty minutes, she turned her thoughts about Harm off, though and thought solely about the journey to the hospital. Erin's crying was extremely upsetting and distracting while she was trying to navigate the roads and she wondered how Harriet managed to do it with four little ones in the car. She wanted to turn around and give Erin her full attention, but knew that she couldn't, just yet.
When she got to the ER she checked in with the woman manning the reception, who told her that she shouldn't have to wait too long to get a doctor to see to her little girl.
"We're not as busy as usual, today," the woman said, "Please just take a seat in the meantime."
Usually, she'd ask anyone presenting to fill out forms, but she really felt for the woman with the little girl who was sobbing into her shoulder. She picked up all the necessary forms and went over to them, a few minutes later.
"Ma'am," she asked Mac, "I know how full your hands are just now, so if you could give me the information I need, we'll get these forms filled right out."
"Oh, thanks for the help," Mac thanked the woman, "but my husband is going to be here any minute and he has all our insurance details. I can give you the basics, though..."
They got all of the preliminary details filled out, then Mac waited for Harm to arrive, to decide how they would handle the rest. Maybe Harm would have to put a call into someone at headquarters, but she'd remind him to use his cellphone, not a public phone, which a call could be traced to.
Harm arrived twenty minutes later.
"Sorry," he apologized, "I came as fast as I could. How's she doing?"
"She hasn't stopped crying since it happened," Mac told him, "I thought we should come here and see a doctor, because the bruise she's got is absolutely huge. She hit the top of her leg, under her hip, on the edge of a step as she got knocked down."
"Oh, poor Angel," Harm stroked the child's hair, telling Mac, "You did the right thing. Better to be safe than sorry, but hopefully it's just a nasty bruise. She's been through all kinds over the past month. Maybe it's the shock that is upsetting her, rather than the injury."
Harm stayed to call the Admiral and get the forms filled out while Mac saw the doctor with Erin.
"Yes, I'd say that's a very nasty tumble she took," the man nodded, once Mac had removed the child's pants, to show him the injury, "Two year olds are so mobile at this age, it's common for them to get bumps and bruises. You were best bringing her in with one as serious as this, though. I take it she's had another little accident recently, judging by the cut above her eyebrow?"
"Yeah," Mac nodded, "while in the care of my husband's parents. Their doctor said it was nothing to worry about, though, that the scar will fade almost completely after a few months."
"Yes," the doctor nodded, "I'll give you some cream that will work just as well on that scar as on her bruising. It'll help them both fade. I'm sure her newest bump isn't anything more than just bad bruising from a severe knock. That area of her leg is pretty well padded, compared to other areas, like her hip. She doesn't seem to mind too much when I move her leg like this… so it's probably nothing to worry about. Just apply a little of the cream morning and night and I'm sure that the bruise will begin to go within the week. If it doesn't seem to fade, or if her leg causes Tina any excessive pain, then bring her back in and we'll reassess her, but I think she should be okay after a few days of rest and the use of a warm compress and Tylenol infant solution."
"Tina attends pre-school, doctor," Mac asked, "do you think I should keep her home, or will she be alright going back after the weekend?"
"I'd wait and see how she feels on Monday," the doctor advised her, "Sometimes these incidents can knock a child's confidence. This child who knocked her over isn't in her pre-school class, is he?"
"No, thank goodness," Mac sighed.
"I'd encourage her to go along," the doctor continued, "if she's feeling up to it."
"Thank you, doctor," Mac smiled, then brought Erin back to where Harm was in the waiting room telling him everything the doctor had advised.
"Did you manage to fill those out?" she asked, nodding to the forms.
"All…done," Harm finished the last one, "Could you just sign here and here?"
Mac gave her signature where it was needed and Harm handed the forms over. Once she sorted them out, the nurse passed on the medicated cream, giving them instructions on how often to apply it and how much to use.
Even though the whole trip had taken over an hour and a half, Erin still had not let up on the crying, although it had abated a bit.
"She's kept this up since you guys left Heather's?" Harm looked back at the child, worriedly.
"She was much louder," Mac told him, "but yeah…I don't know how the poor little thing has managed to keep going. She's got to be exhausted by now."
Harm and Mac had obviously arrived separately, so they had to split up to get both cars home. It was one thing they were thankful for; Webb had provided them with two cars, to go with the cover identities that they were a wealthy couple living in a gated community, so that meant Mac had a car at her disposal, which not all of her other friends had. It meant that her, Gloria and Erin weren't stuck at home and could go anywhere they wanted to (and more importantly, in this case, needed to.)
Once they were home, they found that Gloria had gotten take-out for dinner.
"I knew neither of you would be up to cooking," she told them, sympathetically, "So I ordered in from that place you like so much."
This was one of Gloria's nights off, but she offered to stay, anyway. Harm and Mac thanked her, but told her to go and enjoy her evening, because they knew she had been looking forward to it for days, now. She had been completely cut off from her friends and family since this had all begun. Harm and Mac insisted that she go; they would be fine with Erin.
As it was, Harm and Mac were so worried that they didn't eat much anyway and Mac didn't put Erin down. The child clung to her, so Mac settled Erin in her arms, leaning on her right, uninjured side, facing her as she rocked her gently. She'd get a spoonful of takeout every few minutes, but with the upset the day had brought, didn't feel that hungry anyway.
"Do you want me to take her?" Harm asked, after a little while, "You've hardly had anything to eat."
"I'm not really hungry," Mac dismissed, not taking her gaze off Erin, "I just want to get her comfortable..."
"How about I heat up some milk in a bottle with a drop of honey?" Harm suggested, "It always helped get AJ to sleep. Bud says it works with Jimmy, too."
Mac nodded in agreement, so Harm went to the kitchen, to prepare the milk.
"It's only slightly warm," Harm told Mac and she now trusted him to the extent that she didn't have to check the temperature herself.
At first, Erin resisted, but eventually settled and sucked eagerly on the bottle. Mac gave a sigh of relief; this had definitely been one heck of an initiation into the world of motherhood!
They were both exhausted, so decided to get an early night. After Erin had finished her bottle Mac tried to put her down in her crib. The sleepy girl began to stir and make a fuss, so Mac sat down with her for a while in the nursery, hoping she would drop off to sleep and she'd be able to get her into her crib without waking her. She only began to cry again.
"Again?" Harm put his head in a Mac nodded, ruefully.
"There's no way we can keep giving her milk," she shook her head, "so what are we going to do?"
After a while, which was silent, aside from Erin's crying, Harm snapped his fingers.
"The car!" he said, "My mother always said it put me out like a light. It worked that time we went to the zoo."
"Let's give it a try," Mac nodded.
They grabbed everything they thought they might need and set out in the car to circle around the block until they could get Erin to sleep. By the time that they knew all of the houses and lawn decorations upon sight, they were pretty sure that it wasn't going to work, so returned home.
"How does she keep this up?" Harm exclaimed, quietly.
"I have no idea," Mac was similarly amazed and no nearer to figuring out how they were going to get Erin to sleep.
After thirty minutes of pacing the living room, Harm took Erin from Mac.
"Careful," she warned him, guiding one of his arms, "Hold her like this, it won't put pressure on her sore leg."
Harm adjusted then settled into the pacing movements he and Mac had come to know as 'the sway.'
"You're getting good at that, Squid," Mac gave him a little smile, then went upstairs to retrieve Erin's empty bottle for cleaning.
By the time that she came back down, Erin was still slightly fussy, but also very drowsy. Mac walked over, shooting Harm a look that said, 'How'd you do that?'
Harm just gave a shrug, his face all like, 'I have no idea! But I like it!'
They both crept upstairs to the nursery and Harm thought he'd just about gotten Erin down in her crib, when the sleepy girl wriggled about a bit and caught sight of Mac with her empty bottle.
"Boc," she demanded, drowsily.
"It's empty, Sweetie," Mac shook the bottle to show her that there was nothing left in it.
"Boc!" Erin insisted, with a pout and a little more displeasure.
Mac sighed and handed it to her and Erin settled down with it, content even though there was nothing in it.
"How about a pacifier?" Mac looked up to Harm, "We can't let her suck on an empty bottle all night…"
"Genius!" Harm grinned and ran out the room.
He scrambled for his keys and was straight out the front door, to get to the nearest store.
By the time he got back, Erin was again fussy, even though she had the bottle in her mouth.
"Here you are, Sweetie," Mac ripped open the packet, wiped off the pacifier with a cleansing wipe and dipped it in grape flavored Tylenol solution, before giving it to her.
Erin closed her eyes, savoring the artificial flavor. When they stayed shut, Harm released an almost silent sigh. He never thought he'd be so thankful for something artificial!
They watched her for a few minutes, then crept out and shut the door over behind them. Mac first went into the bathroom (as per their usual routine) and cleaned her teeth, while Harm changed into boxers and a t-shirt. Then they switched and Harm cleaned his teeth, while Mac changed. By the time that he came back into the room, Mac was fast asleep on top of the covers.
Harm gave a soft laugh and lay down himself, thinking about how Mac must have had the day from hell. It didn't take much longer until he was fast asleep, too.
OOOO