Chapter Seventeen:

Christmas Eve

Harm and Mac's House

0900 EST

Mac looked over at her fiancée and breathed a sigh of relief. He was there, in her bed . . . she vowed to herself that she would never take those moments for granted again. Watching the sun spill across his face, she reached over him and took his temperature. It was 101.2. It was an improvement from the night before, and she smiled, knowing that his fever was coming down.

She heard him call her name in the middle of the night several times, knowing that he was in the middle of a nightmare, and she tried to wake him, but couldn't. She knew what the nightmares would do to a person, and they would have to figure out a way around it.

Looking at the baby monitor, she heard Mackenzie stirring, and knowing that her daughter would soon be up demanding her full attention. Getting up she quietly slipped on her bedroom slippers and leaving the baby monitor in her room, she claimed her daughter.

"Hi there munchkin!" Reaching into the crib she pulled Mackenzie out.

She didn't wail, she just had a couple of tears running down her eyes for some reason. "Oh, baby . . . did you have a bad dream?" Mac asked smoothing out her curls. She figured that she must have inherited the genes from her. Mattie came into the nursery rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Mom?"

"Yes darling?"

"Is it okay if Max comes over tonight to exchange Christmas gifts?"

"Yeah, just make sure that it is okay with his mom."

"Did you and Dad come up with a suitable punishment for me because of the tattoo?" Mattie asked timidly.

"After discussing it with your father, we have decided that you are going to volunteer every Sunday starting in 2005 at the hospital. I already set it up with director there."

"Fair enough." She was thankful that it wasn't being grounded. Plus it was two-fold in Mac's eyes. Mac felt that Mattie needed to be exposed to different things, and maybe, just maybe she would decide to go into a field that was less taxing on her family.

Mackenzie snuggled into her mother's breast, and sighed contently. Mac made her way down the stairs with her girls and handed Mackenzie off to Trish who was waiting with wide open arms for her granddaughter. She blew a raspberry on her tummy and watched Mackenzie squeal with delight.

"How did Harm sleep last night?" Franks asked.

"He had a couple of nightmares, his fever broke though." Mac said breathing a sigh of relief.

Sergei came trotting down the stairs and scooped up Mackenzie out of Trish's arms. "It's the baby!" He screeched, throwing his niece in the air and deftly catching her. "Mac, I need to ask you something."

"Sure Sergei." Mac said sipping her coffee, listening to Harm's breathing through the baby monitor.

"Can Jennifer stay tonight for the holidays . . . I don't want her to be alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day."

"We can put her on the foldout couch in the office." Mac said. She knew that Sergei and Jen were intimate, and she knew that they would maintain the appearance of propriety, especially with a 16 year old in the house. Jen would probably sneak to the downstairs office around six in the morning so she could be with him.

He smiled. "Thanks Mac, she we will really appreciate it."

Mac turned her attention once more to the baby that squirmed in her Uncle's arms. "Dada!" Mackenzie squealed pointing to a picture of Harm in the kitchen.

Frank smiled, "She is just so smart."

"She gets that from me!" Mac exclaimed. "But those eyes, those eyes are all Harm's."

She heard a crash from upstairs and she immediately took off running to the sounds of Harm's screams. Mac reached the top of the stairs in record time, demanding the Mattie stayed downstairs. She ran to his side and ran a soothing hand through his sweat soaked hair.

"Come back to me Harm." She whispered slowly into his ears.

His blue eyes shot open, and screamed. "No!" He looked into her brown eyes, and felt immediately at peace. "I love you so much."

"I love you too sweetheart."

Sergei came up and knocked softly. "I need to change the medication in your IV. Do you want to come downstairs and watch us finish decorating the house?"

"I would love to get back to my life." He sighed, pushing the last horrors of his nightmare away.

"Well good, because your teenager is chomping at the bit to put up decorations."

"You didn't decorate?"

"We put up a tree, but we were going to spend Christmas in California." Mac sighed.

"I ruined your Christmas plans." He said softy.

"No you didn't Dad. You are the best Christmas gift a girl could get." Mattie said holding her sister in her arms. Mattie watched as Sergei lifted Harm out of bed and support him on his bad side.

"Let's get Christmas started." Harm said, hoping that he could keep his family safe from all the horrors he had to endure.