PART 15

DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
WASHINGTON, DC
24 DECEMBER 2005
1630 ZULU

Harm and Mac waited patiently by the carousel for their last bag to descend and release them from the hell that had been these last 12 hours.

Mac leaned helplessly on Harm's shoulder in exhaustion – she was over eight months pregnant and the more than eight and a half hour flight had taken a lot out of her. She was trying to be strong, but she was so close to a nice bubble bath now that she could barely take any more.

Suddenly Harm saw their last bag and reacted with a muffled exclamation that contained more than one slightly audible curse. Mac had to laugh - she had always heard the expression about having a mouth like a sailor, but Harm wasn't one of those people you would normally describe in that way. The flight must have taken a lot out of him too.

"Sorry," he smiled wryly and steadied her so he could retrieve the bag. He held onto both shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "You OK?"

"Yeah" she smiled.

"I'll be right back."

In less than 30 seconds, he was back holding their bag triumphantly. "Giddy up, Marine – we're outta here." His relief was clearly evident.

As they started through the airport to the exit, Harm turned and looked at Mac. She looked so beautiful that pregnant – he always knew she would – but she was so tired he felt sorry for her. He was tired enough as it was, but he wasn't eight months pregnant. He wished she would have listened to him and agreed to stay home this year, but there was no holding her back. It was like arguing with a wall. 'Well, what else was new with them' he thought and laughed to himself. Suddenly Harm stopped and grasped her gently around the back of her neck with one hand. "Hey" he said quietly as he softly massaged her, "You gonna be OK, beautiful?" He then pulled her to him with one hand and kissed her lovingly.

Mac smiled in response – it amazed her not only how one of Harm's kisses could rejuvenate her, but that he continually found her beautiful even at her most vulnerable. They were still standing there, foreheads together and smiling into each other's eyes when they heard the familiar, grating voice.

"Well, I always knew it."

Harm and Mac turned to see the form of Renée Peterson standing there, hand on one hip and shaking her head slowly in disbelief.

"Hey Renée." Mac was the first to rebound from the shock. She felt Harm's initial urge to run, but she grabbed onto one of his hands tightly – finally rewarding herself for all the times that she had been the odd man out in this threesome. "It's so good to see you!" She said with a not-quite-fake smile. Harm's jaw dropped open slightly and he turned to look at his wife as if she had lost her mind.

"Likewise." Renée took a few steps closer to the couple and sized up Mac's condition thoroughly. "Well congratulations, Harm… I never knew you had it in you."

Harm suddenly turned his jaw-dropped expression towards Renée. He had been about to be friendly to her, but that last comment he took as a particularly uncalled for, low blow. He regrouped slightly and raised one eyebrow in her direction.

"Oh, I mean the commitment part, of course." She waived a hand at his wedding ring.

"Oh." Harm said as he put a protective arm around Mac's waist. He was at a loss for what to say. He got the feeling that Renée didn't want this conversation to be particularly friendly.

"Heading into town or out?" She said curtly.

"In" Mac offered politely. "We live in London now."

"England? Wow, you two are really moving up in the world aren't you? Still fighting crime together like Batman and Robin?"

"In our free-time" Harm interrupted Mac before she could answer. He didn't want to give Renée any more information than they had to. He just wanted to get them the hell out of this conversation.

Renée nodded again, clearly looking for an opening to hurt these two. She didn't know why she needed to… she had been the one to leave Harm… and she always knew that these two were in love…it was the main reason she had left. For some reason though, finally seeing the tangible evidence in front of her was somehow more painful than she imagined it would be and she needed to lash out. Needed to punish him for leading her on all that time when he obviously knew where his heart really lay. "So, is this your first?"

"Yes." Mac beamed and rubbed her belly. There was a long pause.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Well, they tell us it's supposed to be a boy." Mac smiled again and looked adoringly at Harm… just to lay it on a little heavier. Harm looked at Mac and rolled his eyes with a tiny hint of a smile – he knew exactly what she was up to.

"Great." Renée said sarcastically – "Another Rabb heartbreaker."

Harm suddenly turned and eyed Renée – not sure whether to feel sorry for her or grab Mac and drag her out of there as soon as he could.

"How are the twins?" Mac offered.

"Fine" She responded with a nod. "They're good." Another long pause ensued. Renée distinctly thought she saw Harm scanning for escape routes. 'Hmmm… well obviously nothing has changed in regards to me' she thought, 'he was always looking for escape routes back then as well.' She sighed - try as she might, she couldn't come up with a single way to be mean to these two. She suddenly figured she should just bail as soon as possible. It was Christmas after all – water under the bridge… it had just been the way she had seen Harm looking at Mac when she had first spotted them. In all the time Renée had been with Harm, he had never looked at her that way. Hell, her own husband never looked at her that way now… it wasn't fair. She was beautiful, why couldn't she have captured his heart like that? A brief stab of pain darkened her eyes and she looked at the floor briefly. "Well, I guess I better get going. I have a flight to catch." She pointed over her shoulder.

"Well it was really nice to see you again, Renée" Mac beamed another fake smile at her.

"Yeah, wasn't it?" Renée attempted a fake smile of her own, but it failed miserably. She nodded to them both "Mac, Harm… Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Renée" Harm said quietly.

"Merry Christmas." Mac chimed in cheerily.

Renée turned and walked away from the couple. Harm turned to Mac and raised an eyebrow at her. "You're bad." He smiled wryly.

"Me?" she feigned in mock defensiveness. "She was looking for a fight!"

Harm just smiled, glad that the scene was over without it indeed turning into a cat fight. Having seen Renée, Harm was suddenly overwhelmed with how much better life was with Mac than it had been with her. He brought both hands up to the side of her face and kissed her tenderly.

Renée Peterson could hear her subconscious repeating in her mind like a mantra… 'Don't look back, don't look back…', but she wasn't able to resist. She stole a glance back just in time to see the kiss. The stab in her heart flickered once more as she quickened her pace. "Damn it." She cursed and bit her lip.

ROBERTS RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
24 DECEMBER 2005
2130 ZULU

Bud Robert's opened his front door and immediately broke into a huge grin at the couple standing before him. Harm stood there with his coat collar up around his ears and Mac was so pregnant that the winter coat she was wearing did nothing to hide her condition.

"Captain! Colonel! C'mon in! You're just in time for cocktail hour." He noted the swirling and blowing snow outside. "Wow, the weather is really picking up outside, eh? It's a good thing you don't have far to go to your hotel tonight."

Harm stood back and guided his wife through the door by placing a hand at the small of her back. He grinned at Bud slyly as they witnessed Mac's attempts to get her swollen body up over the one step it took to enter the house. "Well, if it gets much worse, Bud, we may be racking out here for the night."

"Sir, you and the Colonel are always welcome."

"Bud. I think you can call me Sarah now. I'm officially on Reserve status as of two weeks ago."

"Sorry, just a habit." Bud grinned and helped her off with her coat.

"HA-HAAAA!" Mac heard Harm's voice and looked over to see him embracing Mattie with gusto. "It's great to see you kiddo! Look at you! I missed you like crazy." Mattie was now in a manual wheel chair and had good use of her arms. She was able to get herself around without difficulty. Mac looked with sadness at the look in Harm's eyes. A part of him was happy, but she could tell a part of him felt guilty that he hadn't been there to help her through it all.

"Well, I'm glad you missed me, 'cause I was kinda thinking of coming out to visit you two when my spring term is done this year."

"You'd better! Although it'll be three by that time so you better be prepared for some babysitting."

"It's a date then." She smiled and winked at Harm.

A few minutes later, after hugs and handshakes all around, they sat once again amongst their good friends. Mac sighed, happy to finally be at their destination.

"So how was the flight?" The Admiral spoke up, noting Mac's uncomfortableness.

"Ugh! It was awful!" Mac proclaimed forcefully.

Harm raised an eyebrow in concurrence. "Yeah, it was bad enough that we had a nasty head wind and had to land in Newfoundland to refuel, but the last two or three hours the turbulence was brutal."

"Three hours, twelve minutes and forty-three seconds…" as she rubbed her belly.

"Oh you poor thing." Harriet cried. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"No thanks, Harriet. I already had an antacid. I'm hoping it will help. Everyone's just going to have to excuse me tonight – I probably won't be the best company until this subsides. To top it all off, we ran into Renée Peterson in the airport."

"Wow" Bud responded. "How did that go?"

"Well Bud," Mac said with a sarcastic smile, "let's just say I think that's what gave me the indigestion."

Harm blushed and rolled his eyes as everyone in the crowd snickered.

Two and a half hours later they were just finishing supper and Mac was still looking uncomfortable. Harm eyed her warily and often. He had tried to talk her out of flying at this late stage in her pregnancy, but she insisted that she was still a Marine and wouldn't pass up this opportunity to spend the first Christmas away from JAG in their traditional manner. She had desperately been looking forward to it and wanted to share the pregnancy with everyone in some way.

Harm had felt badly for her because she really had no close girl friend in London to share the pregnancy with. She had missed the opportunity to go baby shopping with Harriet, having a shower thrown for her, etc. She needed at least this to share with her friends before the baby arrived. In short, he had been outvoted.

Mac shifted on the chair and grimaced.

"Maaac. Why don't you go sit down on the couch or something?"

Mac sighed and looked helplessly at her husband.

"Are you in pain, Mac?" Harriet looked concerned.

"No… well, yes my back hurts now." She looked defeated.

"Honey, when is your due date again… I mean, do you think you could be experiencing early labour?"

Harm's faced turned to Harriet in alarm, "She's not due until January 20th!"

"Well Harm, you know babies have been known to make their entrances whenever they damn well please." The Admiral cautioned. "Maybe the turbulence… well, … moved things along a little bit."

Harm got up and nervously helped Mac to the couch. "Ma-ac." He told her quietly with a twisted grin, "Please don't do this to me now. I don't think I'm ready yet."

She shook her head with a smile, "I don't think I have much of a choice Harm. Besides, it's probably nothing. Try not to worry."

"Well, I hope you have a name picked out, just to be sure." Sturgis couldn't help joking as he stood to help everyone gather the dishes from the table.

"Well we've got part of it picked out anyway." Mac responded with cheer, happy to be diverting her mind from her steadily increasing discomfort.

"Don't tell me you're going to call him Harmon." Mikey chimed in with a laugh.

Everyone stopped in dead silence and stared at Harm for a reaction. Harm eyed the younger Roberts accusingly. "And what's wrong with Harmon, Mikey?" Bud had told Harm a long time ago how much Mikey hated to be called that now.

"Well, it's just that…" the younger Roberts stammered and couldn't finish his sentence.

"Stand down Flyboy," Mac jumped to his rescue. "I'm sure Mike was just going to point out the fact that he couldn't be Harm Jr., Jr…. right Mike? Besides, I've said it before and I'll say it again – one Harmon Rabb in my life is enough."

Mikey laughed nervously, "Uh, yeah… exactly."

Harm gave Mikey a warning glare, something akin to 'I'm not finished with you yet' as Mikey recoiled to the kitchen with dirty dishes.

"Well, we thought of the same thing." Mac continued. "But I really wanted to use the name Harmon in there somewhere… I guess I'm just sentimental." She smiled at Harm. "So, we've decided to use a middle name that we will actually call him by."

"See, neither my father nor I had a middle name. So this way, we can call him Harmon, but avoid the jr. jr., or the 'Harmon the third' crap… excuse my language."

"Well what have you been throwing around?" Sturgis wondered.

"They can't agree on anything" Mattie jumped in disgustedly and everyone laughed.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Smiled Coates.

"Well, I'd like it to mean something." Harm complained. "I don't know, I guess I'm just not completely OK with a name you pick out of the air and pin to some poor child. I'd like it to mean something."

"Oh wait," squealed Harriet. "I have a Baby Name book upstairs!" She immediately darted up after it.

"I don't mean that…" tried Harm, but she was already off up the stairs. Harm continued with the people who were still there listening to him. "I mean, I'd like it to mean something as in… well for example Mac's Uncle Matt. That was our first case together and her closest relative, so Matthew would have been a good name…"

"So why don't you use it?" wondered Bud.

Harm raised an eyebrow at his friend, "Well Bud, because we can't be the parents of a Matt and a Mattie." He said emphatically.

"Oh sure," Mattie interjected sarcastically, "Blame me for your two's inability to agree…"

Everyone laughed except for Mac who suddenly went two shades paler than she had just been. Harm was at her side in seconds. "Ma-ac?" He bent down on one knee and held her hand.

"I'm OK. Just could you help me up? I've got to use the ladies room." She seemed somewhat stoned faced and it worried Harm immensely. He wanted to ask her if she needed help, but he knew with that crowd he'd be open season in a second if he suggested it. He only hoped that Mac would truly let him know if she needed him. He helped her down the hallway.

"Mac. Are you sure you're OK?" he complained before she closed the door.

Mac blew the bangs off her forehead and tried to smile. "Yeah, I think so sweetie."

"Somehow I'm not reassured by that."

She leaned in and kissed him gently. "I'll be right back, don't worry."

As Harm re-entered the living room, Sturgis was reclined on the sofa thumbing through the Baby name book. "Hmmm… a name that means something to you and Mac… let's see… well there's always 'Clark'…"

"Very funny, Turner"

"Clayton?"

"Don't even go there" Harm gave him a warning glare as he walked into the kitchen.

"Need some help Harriet?"

"Oh thanks Harm, you're a dear. I've almost got the dishwasher loaded, but could you do me a favour and put the crock pot back up above the cupboard there. I can't reach it."

Harm did as he was told and then turned to Harriet seriously. "Harriet, you don't suppose… I mean, do you think Mac could really be in labour?"

Harriet smiled. "Well anything's possible."

"Yeah, but I mean this is early. Is the baby going to be OK?"

"Well, she's over 35 weeks – that should be totally fine. I know a friend who delivered at 36 weeks just last month and the baby was 7lbs!"

"Really?" Harm leaned back against the counter and let out a worried breath. He was a little reassured, but still not anywhere ready to have this baby now. "Do you think I should take her to the hospital?"

"Well, let's just watch her for now. Her water hasn't even broken yet. Don't worry, you're amongst friends – friends that have lots of experience with babies. This is the safest place you could be right now."

Harm smiled. "Thanks Harriet, that makes me feel better." He walked back into the living room just as Mac came around the corner from the hallway. She had one hand on her belly and the other was clutching the doorframe. She definitely looked ill.

"Mac?" Harm questioned the message he was receiving from Mac's pleading eyes.

"Harm – my water just broke."

Harm rushed to her side and helped her to walk by putting one arm around his shoulder.
Sturgis immediately vacated the couch and made room for Mac. Just before she got there she was stricken with her first serious labour pain. Her face cringed but she bore it stoically.

"Owwwww."

Harm knelt in front of her with that 'dear in the headlights' expression of his.

Mac attempted to breathe normally and tried not to laugh at him. "It's OK sweetie, but I think you better call us a cab".

"Right!"

Harm got up and sprinted to the phone as Harriet, Coates and the General's wife all gathered around Mac to try and make her comfortable.

"Bud" Harm called. "I can't remember any Washington cab numbers - what are they?"

"Why don't you just take one of our cars instead?"

Harm pointed at Bud. "Good idea, Bud"

He raced to the door, grabbing his jacket off the coat rack on the way, then screeched to a halt in the threshold. "Hey Bud, you don't happen to own a four wheeler do you?... Preferably one with a plow?..."

Bud walked up behind Harm and observed the thick blanket of snow that had covered the neighbourhood and the near white-out conditions. They looked at each other slightly stunned, "Yikes" said Bud.

"OK" Harm tried to gather his wits again, "Cab it is."

TBC