Disclaimer: Wish they were mine...sigh...

Chapter 57:

"I think that's the last of it" said Harm as unloaded Mac's suitcase from the wrecked SUV and put it into his own.

"Did you have anything up front, sir?" asked the tow truck driver.

"We did" said Harm, "but I think my wife got it all." He smiled to himself at the sound of that phrase, "my wife."

"You folks are darned lucky here" said the truck driver as the cables and pulley on the truck hoisted the damaged vehicle out of the culvert. "A few feet to the left and you would struck that utility pole head-on."

"Yeah, I know" replied Harm. "We're amazed as to why the airbags didn't deploy, though. We hit the downside of that ditch awfully hard."

"I've seen this kind of thing before" said the truck driver, "wrecks where you'd swear those bags would go off, and when the dust settled, they didn't. I worked a scene back in December, guy was driving a 2-seater sports car and got cut-off on the interstate. He lost control when the back end slid out from underneath him, smacked the cement wall with one side of the car, then spun around and hit the front and then the other side against the wall before stopping. Pieces of the car across all 4 lanes of the highway, the front end literally 30 feet from the car, and the airbags didn't budge."

"Wow!" exclaimed Harm. "Was the guy OK?"

"In the end" said the truck driver, "he was fine aside from a few stiff muscles and a bad seatbelt burn across his left shoulder, but it made no sense as to why those bags didn't go off. Police figured he must have this the wall at just the right angle to tear the front end off but not touch the sensors for the airbags."

"Amazing he wasn't hurt, or even worse" said Harm, looking once more at how close they'd come to a much more serious accident that night.

"Yeah, well same goes for you folks" said the truck driver as he attached security chains to the SUV.

"Everything OK, son?" asked Frank as he approached the two men.

"Fine" said Harm, "we're almost done here, then Mac and I can get going, I hope."

"This isn't gonna mess up anything as far as getting where you have to be by any certain time, is it?" asked Frank.

"Nah, it shouldn't" answered Harm. "We're not too far from where we're staying tonight, we'll just be getting there a couple hours later than planned is all."

"Well I'm glad this won't ruin your plans." said Frank.

"Me too" agreed Harm. "Hey, is Mac almost ready?"

"I believe she is" replied Frank, "she was singing the baby to sleep in the backseat of your mom's car a few minutes ago."

"Is she crying again?" asked Harm. "Mac, that is?"

Frank nodded. "It's hard for her to leave the baby."

"Don't think for a minute" said Harm "that it's any reflection on how well Mac thinks you two will take care of Ainsley while we're gone."

"Oh, don't be silly, son" said Frank. "We know better than that."

"Just making sure" said Harm. He and Mac both had complete confidence in his parent's ability to care for Ainsley, but it didn't make leaving her completely painless for either of them.

"Here you go, sir" said the tow truck driver as he handed Harm a clipboard with a form on it and a pen. "I just need you to sign right there for me, and we'll be all finished up."

"OK" said Harm, taking the clipboard and pen and signing where the "x" indicated. "Here you go."

The driver took the middle copy of the form off and handed it back to Harm. "I hope you folks have a really nice honeymoon and don't run into any more trouble."

"Thank you" said Harm, "so do we!"

As the truck pulled away, Harm and Frank walked over to Trish's car, where all the girls of the family were gathered.

"Is she asleep, babe?" asked Harm as he peeked his head inside the open door on Mac's side.

"Yeah" she replied. "She ate really well, thankfully, then she got fussy so I sang to her a little and she went right out. You wanna hold her before we go?"

"Yeah" answered Harm, reaching down to take his daughter in his arms.

"Hey, beautiful" he whispered softly, "you have fun with grandma and grandpa, OK? Mommy and daddy will be back before you know it." He placed a sweet, gentle kiss on her nose. "Love you, baby girl."

"Can you hand me her seat, please?" he asked Mac.

"Sure" she replied, reaching beneath the baby seat next to her and detaching it from the base. "Here you are."

"Thanks" said Harm as he put the seat down in front of himself and laid the sleeping baby inside. He fastened her straps and laid her little pink blanket on top of her.

"Well, she's good to go" he said as he stood back up, placing his hands on his waist. "You ready, Mac?"

"Yep" she said. "Thanks so much for coming to our rescue" she said to Frank and Trish. "You really saved us a lot of trouble!"

"What are parents for?" asked Trish as she gave Mac a big hug. "I'm sorry it happened, but we were more than happy to help out."

"Frank" said Mac as she hugged her step-father-in-law, "thank you so much!"

"No problem" he replied, "now you two get going, I know your husband's got some special plans for the next week."

The newlyweds kissed their daughter one more time before climbing into their own vehicle.

"Let's blow this pop stand" said Mac. "What'cha say, flyboy?"

"Definitely!" he replied as he started the ignition.

"Did the police say what was in that thing we almost hit?" she asked him, kicking her shoes off.

"Yeah" he answered as he accelerated, "a whole bunch of someone's stuff! It was a crate from a moving and storage company, and it obviously fell off a flat-bed truck at some point today and the driver didn't notice."

"Whoa" said Mac, "whoever's stuff that is will no doubt be a little pissed off to find that out!"

"You think?" laughed Harm. "The police said they'd track the owner down."

"That's good" said Mac. "Let's hope that crate 'crossing our path' so-to-speak will be the only difficulty of the week. I'm not sure my nerves can take too many more experiences like that!"

"Baby" said Harm as he reached out and took a hold of her left hand, "I'll do everything in my power to give you the best week of your life."

"I know you will" said Mac, the curiosity of what was to come making her mind run in circles.

"How close are we to stopping?" she asked, "around an hour, right?"

"Right" he replied. "Are you hungry? We can drive thru someplace and grab a snack if you want."

"No, thanks" she said, "I just want to get to where we're staying tonight so I can get out of this dress and into something way more comfy."

Harm laughed a little bit as he replied. "You don't have to tell me twice!"

A/N: The wreck with the sports car is taken directly from the one my brother was in. It was my other brother's car and it wound up totalled, but the important thing was he wasn't badly hurt.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the previous chapters! Thanks also to all those who wished my grandma well during her surgery. The operation itself went well, but her recovery isn't going quite as smoothly. She's in alot of pain and today became very disoriented, which with her always means a post-op infection is looming - the last time this happened, she became septic and was given 48 hours to live. My mom has told every doctor and nurse about that, and they're giving grandma lots of preventive antibiotics, but we'll just have to see. The surgeon told us that grandma's liver may be failing, but he won't know until the biopsies come back. As if that's not enough, the same day as grandma's surgery, one of our cats got very sick and has spent all weekend in the pet hospital. We hope to bring him home tomorrow, but we don't know for sure yet.

I really could have used a GOOD, entertaining, SHIPPERY episode on TV this week, but noooooooo, we got that...that...THAT! To me the most interesting part was the preview for the finale and the mystery of whether that kiss means what we want it to or not. I'm seriously planning on being armed with something soft when I watchthe next 2 weeks - I need something I can throw at my TV and not break it. :)