Chapter 62:
"This is soooo romantic" she said with a sigh as she leaned back against Harm's chest in the whirlpool.
"Mm-hmm" he replied, "very relaxing."
"Incredibly" agreed Mac, sliding down a bit more into the hot, foamy water. "A lot different than the last one of these we were in, huh?"
Harm chuckled. "Yeah, I dare say you're feeling a lot better in this one than you did in that one."
"Uh, ya think?" she laughed. "You can't possibly know the pain I was experiencing in that hospital tub."
"I never once claimed I did" said Harm. "I mean, I've been through some damn painful stuff, but the sheer physics involved with childbirth give me the creeps."
"You didn't act creeped out" said Mac. "Did it really bother you that much?"
"Yes and no" said Harm. "Yes, it bothered me that you had to go through something that painful and I couldn't take away any of that pain, but no, it didn't creep me out enough to cause me to not want to be there for you, not even close."
"You really were an amazing labor coach" she said, "I hope I told you that before now."
"You did, babe" he replied, kissing the top of her head. "I did my best, I'm glad it was enough."
"It was more than enough" said Mac as she stretched out a little more in the tub. "I still say we need one of these at home."
"Where would we put it?" asked Harm.
"I dunno" said Mac, "maybe rip out the tub in our bathroom and put it in there and put a shower stall next to it?"
"That house is only a few years old" he said, "you sure you wanna rip things out of it already?"
"No, not sure" said Mac, "just a thought."
"We'll see" said Harm, wrapping his arms around her.
"Maybe next time" she said, "we can try for a water birth."
"A what?" asked Harm.
"A water birth" repeated Mac, "you know, do the labor and delivery in a birthing tub."
"As in have the baby under water?" he asked.
"Yeah" she replied, "it's supposed to be more relaxing for the mother and less traumatic for the baby than coming out into the cold air."
"I gotta tell ya, Mac" he said, "that sounds a little too weird to me."
"Why?" she asked, "what seems so weird about it?"
"I'm not sure exactly" he said, "just seems weird! However, if it's something you want to explore further when the time comes, I'll do my best to keep an open mind."
"That's all I ever ask" she said, reaching out to find his hand.
"Do you think a lot about when we'll try to have the next one?" she asked him.
"Some" he answered. "Why, do you?"
"All the time, actually" she said.
"You're not ready for another one already, are you?" he asked in a tone which made it clear he wasn't ready yet.
"Oh heavens, no!" exclaimed Mac. "Ainsley's only a few months old, there's no way I'm ready to try again for at least a year, maybe a little more. It's not like we'll be able to just decide we want another one and go about it like normal couples do, and I'm in no way ready to dive into any of that again anytime soon."
"Ok, good" he replied. "This is something I probably should have asked before now" he continued, "but even given our history and all that, there's no chance it could happen in the general run of things this week, or anytime soon, is there? I mean we haven't been careful at all since you had the baby, I guess it never really occurred to me that we needed to think about that…"
"Relax, Harm" said Mac, "I asked Dr. Mianni that very thing last week and she said since I'm still nursing Ainsley full-time and I'm not ovulating, there's no chance whatsoever. Throw in my other issues, and we've got nothing to worry about, I promise."
"OK" said Harm, breathing a sigh of relief he hoped she hadn't noticed. "You know I want more children, just… not right now."
"I know, babe" she said, "I feel the very same way."
They sat in silence for a few moments, taking in the essence of the room, the romance that surrounded them.
"You miss her, huh?" asked Harm.
"Of course" she replied, "so do you."
"Yeah, I really do" he said. "She's doing fine though, we know that."
"Mm-hmm" said Mac, "I'm trying not to think much about missing her because it won't do anyone any good and it'll only detract from this special week, but it's hard. Especially at night when I wake up to feed her and she's not here." Mac began to choke up.
"Hey, hey" said Harm softly as he held her close. "I miss her too, I know it's hard being away from her like this, but she's OK."
Mac quickly regained her composure and calmed herself down. "You're right" she said. "I now see why people usually get married before they have children, though!"
Harm smiled and nodded his head. "What do you say we get out of here and take a nice, hot shower? It'll take your mind off of things."
"Will this be a 'shower shower' or a 'Harm shower'?" she asked.
"Well, what kind of husband would I be" he said, "if I allowed my upset wife to shower all by her lonesome?"
"I'm glad we spent some time here" said Mac as they left the hotel parking garage later the following afternoon and headed out of San Antonio.
They'd had breakfast in bed that morning.
They'd had dessert in bed that morning.
He'd showered.
She'd showered.
They'd showered.
They visited the Alamo and the Zoo.
They'd driven up to the Hill Country, just north of the city limits, and taken in the beauty that Harm had read so much about in planning the trip.
They returned to the hotel in time to check out (thank God for the option of late check out!) and grab dinner on their way out of town.
"Too bad the bluebonnets aren't blooming now" said Mac, looking out the window as they rolled along the highway. "You can see where they'd be, right out there."
"Mm-hmm" said Harm, "unfortunately most wildflowers don't do much in the dead of winter."
"No" she said, "but maybe we can find a postcard or something with a picture of bluebonnets."
"I'm sure we can do that" said Harm. "Oh, you said you wanted to call home once we got on the road?"
"Oh yeah" she said, "where's your phone? I forgot to charge mine last night and the in-car plug isn't in here anywhere."
"It was in here yesterday" said Harm, looking around a little bit while keeping his focus on the road.
"I dunno" said Mac, "probably under one of the seats or something, we'll find it."
"Yeah" said Harm as he handed Mac his phone, "not like it got up and walked off."
She chuckled as she pressed a few keys on the phone and put it to her ear.
"Hey, Frank" she said. "We're great, yeah, we left San Antonio a little bit ago and had some dinner, now we're on our way to the next of Harm's secret destinations."
She looked over at him with the last part of that sentence, and he simply smiled.
"How's Ainsley?" asked Mac as she continued her conversation with Frank. "That's good, yeah. Yeah, we figured it'd take a few nights for her schedule to get back to normal. No kidding? Wow, you two are good!"
"Wonder what she did this time?" thought Harm to himself as he turned on the signal to change lanes.
"Everything is going good, then, huh?" asked Mac. "Well, we're glad to know that, it makes enjoying ourselves a lot easier. Tell Trish we called and give Ainsley kisses from us. We will, OK, thanks, Frank, bye."
"I take it all's well?" asked Harm.
"Yep" answered Mac. "He said the baby's already almost back to her normal schedule, which is amazing considering we've only been away for 2 days."
"Wow" said Harm, "that's great! She still fighting them over the bottles?"
"He didn't really say" said Mac, "but knowing our child like we do, chances are she's still making it known that she's none too thrilled about them."
"Yeah, probably so" laughed Harm. "By the time she decides they're OK, we'll be back and it won't matter."
"I hope it won't matter" said Mac softly.
"What?" asked Harm. "Why would it matter?"
Mac sighed deeply. "Because there's a chance that after getting a bottle all the time for a full week, she'll figure out that it's much easier to get the milk from there than from me an she won't wanna nurse anymore."
"Oh, Mac" said Harm, "don't think like that, babe. She's always wanted you over that bottle, always. Think about all the times I've given her one at night, she fights me every time, and at the reception, she flat out refused to take the bottle from my mom, remember."
"I know" replied Mac, fidgetting with her wedding ring, "but that was before she was getting very many bottles. It's been proven that babies learn quickly that the way they move their mouths and tongues between breastfeeding and bottle feeding is different, that it's much easier to get what they want out of the bottle, and if you give them too many bottles, they might refuse to breastfeed after that."
"I don't think that'll happen with Ainsley, babe" said Harm, reaching over and taking Mac's hand. "We did what we had to do for the week, and we'll deal with whatever we need to once we get home. If it means we have to fight her in the opposite direction and get her not to want as many bottles as she's getting this week, we'll do that. I'll help you do whatever we have to do, OK?"
"I know you will" she replied. "I'm just … I've wanted to do this for so long, and when it looked like I may never get the chance, it about killed me. Now that I've been given the chance and I've done it, I'm loving it and I hate that one week away from her could ruin it all."
"I know, babe" said Harm, "but let's both try really hard not to dwell on that, or anything else we can't control for that matter, and let's just focus on us for the rest of the week. Whatever's gonna happen at home, with the baby or anything at work, or whatever, is gonna happen whether we think about it or not, and we'll have to deal with it, but we don't have to let it detract from our honeymoon, right?"
Mac took a deep breath. "You're right. Let's talk about something else, like where we're going today…?" She looked at him with a cockeyed grin.
"Nice try there, beautiful" he said, smiling back at her. "Not gonna work, though."
"Tell me this, then" she said, "at any point in the remainder of this week, will I know where we're going before we get here?"
"Probably not" said Harm, "but you're so smart, you may figure out bits and pieces of some things."
"There you go" she laughed, "challenging me again!"
"Only if you want to take it as such" he replied. "I'm just trying to take my wife on a nice, romantic getaway to some places we've never been before, but if she chooses to interpret that as a challenge, well then…"
"You're impossible sometimes, you know that?" she asked as she shook her head.
"But you l-" he began to say as she cut him off.
"But I love you anyway" said Mac, "yeah, yeah, I know, I do. A whole lot, too."
"How much is 'a whole lot'?" asked Harm, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb.
"Get us to where we're going" said Mac, "and I'll show you."
A/N: Sigh...I'm getting REALLY anxious about the finale on Friday! If I make it through without crying - good tears or bad - it'll be a miracle. It's always hard to say goodbye to old friends, and sicne this was the first show my husband and I ever got into watching together 10 years ago, I feel like I'm really losing a friend. :( I'm not giving up hope that the ending will be shippery, but part of me is just...sigh...worried.
Anyway, enough of that sad stuff - I hope you're enjoying the honeymoon chapters as much as I'm enjoying writing them. :)