Disclaimer: None of the fine folks from JAG belong to me...
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Chapter 12:
"It's gonna be another long day" Mac said aloud to herself as she walked out to her car. It had been 2 weeks since the insemination, and she'd just gone in to Dr. Kendall's office to have blood drawn for the pregnancy test. Like the last time, they said they'd call with the results before 5:00, and like the last time, Mac wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her mind on anything else.
"Hanging in there, my love?" asked Harm when he saw Mac in the break room at JAG. She was making herself a cup of tea, which didn't satisfy her the way coffee did, but she'd given up coffee during the 2 weeks they'd been waiting, trying to be as health conscious as she could stand.
"Trying to, how about you?" she replied.
"Better than you may think" answered Harm, "of course it helps that I'll be in court all day. Gives me a lot less time to sit and think, you know?"
"Oh yes, I know" replied Mac as she took a sip of tea.
"Same as last time, they'll call sometime before 5:00?" asked Harm.
"Yeah, the sooner the better" said Mac. "Come check with me during your recess, OK?"
"Count on it" said Harm, and with a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching, he gave her a kiss before heading back to his office.
Mac spent all morning working on the defense in a Drunk and Disorderly case she was presenting the following day. Her phone had rang different 4 times, none of them were the doctor's office, but each time her heart jumped into her throat. When it rang again shortly before lunchtime, she'd gotten so used to it not being THE call that she didn't give it much thought as she picked up the receiver.
"Mackenzie" she said, still mostly paying attention to her work.
"Hi, Sarah, this is Kacie from Dr. Kendall's office" said the voice on the other end.
"Oh, hi" replied Mac, her heart once again in her throat and her full attention now focused on the call.
"Your blood test results are in, and congratulations are in order!" said Kacie, "It was a definite positive!"
"Oh, wow" said Mac, sitting back in her chair, "so the numbers are OK, they're where they should be and all that?"
"Oh yes, everything looks just great" said Kacie, "we'll need to have you come back in 2 days and we'll check again and make sure the numbers are doubling like they're supposed to, but so far things are exactly where we want them."
Mac wished she could take the news with nothing but joy and confidence, but losing the first baby had made that impossible. "Ok, well thank you so much for calling" she said, "I'll be in on Wednesday morning and we'll hope and pray the news is just as good."
"You're welcome, Sarah" said Kacie, "and again, congratulations - we're all pulling for you after what you went through last time."
After hanging up the phone, Mac sat at her desk for awhile, feeling nearly every emotion humanly possible. She was thrilled, scared, excited, terrified and nervous to name a few. "Hey, little one" she said quietly, putting her hand on her tummy, "you need to hang around, OK? Your daddy and I want you more than anything, so make yourself at home in there. Speaking of your daddy, I wonder if he's close to recess yet…" She looked out her door and saw Harm walking into his office, and she immediately stood up and headed down the hall.
When she got to his door, she didn't say anything. She stood there silently waiting for him to notice her, which took all of 5 seconds.
"Hey, Mac" he said, "Come on in. Any word yet?"
Still silent, Mac nodded her head and smiled.
"It was positive?!" asked Harm, his tone a mixture of excitement and anxiety.
"Yes" said Mac, her smile now even bigger and her eyes welling up with tears.
"Wow, I don't know what to say" responded Harm as he walked over and gave his girl a big hug. "How do you feel?"
"Surprised, scared, excited, worried, nervous, happy, you name it" said Mac, wiping her eyes.
"Does everything look OK, I mean the numbers and all?" questioned Harm.
"Kacie said everything looked great today" said Mac, "now we just have to hope things still look good on Wednesday." Her smile faded when she said that because she couldn't help but think about how she never even made it to the second blood test the last time.
"It'll be OK this time" said Harm, knowing what Mac was thinking because he was thinking it, too.
"Let's hope so" said Mac, "I already told this baby how much we want it and to make itself at home in there, so I hope he or she is listening."
2 days later…..
"Mackenzie" said Mac as she answered the call.
"Hi Sarah, it's Kacie from Dr. Kendall's office"
"Hi, Kacie" said Mac, "well, what's the verdict?" she asked, trying to keep the butterflies in her stomach under control.
"Your numbers for today are just over double from Monday" said Kacie, "which is exactly what we wanted to see."
"So everything is good so far, right?" asked Mac, the butterflies going crazy.
"Everything is great so far, we're all so excited for you!" responded Kacie.
"Thank you, we're excited too" said Mac. "When do I need to come back in?"
"Dr. Kendall wants to see you in 2 weeks." said Kacie "Would you like to schedule that right now?"
"Yeah, that'd be good" answered Mac, flipping her day planner ahead a couple of weeks.
"How about 3:30 on the 21st?" asked Kacie.
"That'll be fine" said Mac as she made a note of the appointment in her day planner.
"Ok, we'll see you then" said Kacie, "and again, congratulations to you both."
"Thank you" replied Mac, as she hung up the phone. She immediately headed to Harm's office to tell him the wonderful news, and to make sure he put their next appointment on his schedule.
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Harm saw her coming down the hall and stopped what he was doing, hoping she was headed his way with some news.
"Hey", she said when she reached his office, "get out your day planner."
"OK" said Harm, reaching for the large blue book which was sitting next to his briefcase, "what for?"
"So you can write down the date and time of our first prenatal appointment" said Mac, a humongous smile appearing on her face.
"It's really happening this time?!" asked Harm, both thrilled and dumbfounded.
"It looks that way" replied Mac, "the blood test numbers for today are just over double from Monday, and they said that's great, so it looks like this just might actually happen this time!"
They hugged each other so very tight, too excited to speak.
"Oh, I guess I should tell you when the appointment is, huh?" said Mac, realizing she hadn't done that yet.
"Yeah, that'd be good to know" said Harm with a little laugh.
"The 21st at 3:30" replied Mac.
"21st at 3:30, got it" said Harm as he jotted it in his planner, then got out a bright yellow highlighter and colored in that date block. It was going to be a big day, and they both knew it.
A/N: See, I promised things would look up for them again! My goal is to continue posting a chapter each day, but since I'll be having surgery soon, that may slow things down a bit. Fear not though, there's no chance this story will go unfinished - eventually, I'll get it all done....