OOOO

Epilogue

Nine months later…

"Have you got your math book?"

"Yeah."

"And your English homework?"

"Uh, no…"

After a second or two of contemplation, Kim turned to the study desk that they had in the corner of the dining room, where she had completed said homework last night, before Harm checked it over. It might seem like a strange place to have a desk, but Kim needed absolute quiet while she studied, so the bedroom and the living room were off limits, due to the laundry room (sharing a wall with Kim's bedroom) and the joint kitchen, respectively.

"Honey, your socks don't match," Mac gently pointed out, as she arrived downstairs, dressed in full uniform and ready for work.

"Uh, yeah…that's in, now," Kim gave Mac a serious look and Mac just apologized,

"Oh, sorry, didn't realize that…"

After a wordless 'look-conversation' with Harm and both shrugged and chalked it up to one of those 'pre-teen' things.

Even though they had decided soon after Kim woke up that they would not pin any expectations on her recovery, she had surprised and delighted both of them. She had her days when some things didn't come as easily for her, especially when recollecting something when she was stressed or overwhelmed and her coordination had also suffered, which was still being addressed in weekly PT sessions. But despite that, she was 'their' Kim, the same as before the accident, at least in the ways that really mattered.

Today was 'career day' at Kim's school and both Harm and Mac had agreed to come in and give a small, joint talk about what they did in the military. James had agreed to handle anything major that came into the office while they were gone and anything less complicated could be handled by their junior staff members.

By the time they got to the school, the classroom was buzzing with the chatter of excited kids and the quieter conversation of adults from a range of occupations. It was not a school with a large percentage of military children attending, just a common international, overseas school run along the lines of the US curriculum, so many speakers had ordinary Balinese occupations, such as artisan, agricultural farmer and fisherman, as well as some that were more unusual, such as marine biologist, nightclub doorman, fire-chief (Yan's Uncle Made,) real-estate agent and tour guide.

The adults stood against the wall, waiting for the teacher, who was making her way around to let everyone know what order they would be speaking in. Harm and Mac had requested a slot within the first hour, since they had to get to work, but were happy to find that they were not the first ones up!

One child's mother got that honor, not that it seemed to faze her in the slightest. She gave a very interesting talk on her job as a marine biologist and ended with a quick show of some of the photos she'd taken on a recent dive to explore an old shipwreck uncovered by a passing tropical storm.

Once she was done, it was Made's turn, since 'question time' had been designated at the end of the first hour-long period. The children's teacher, who was new to the school, that school year, had quickly come to realize that her charges were nothing, if not curious and enthusiastic, so knew things could quickly get off schedule, unless she contained the question period to within the last ten minutes before break. The bell ringing should do a good job of distracting the hungry kids from their barrage of questions, she thought.

Made gave a talk about the variety of scenes he attended, not just house fires and family cats trapped within trees. He recounted a highly amusing tale about a woman trapped in a public restroom by an agitated reticulated python, but stayed away from the tale of his nephew and his best friend. Harm and Mac knew that Made could still not bring himself to talk about the incident, had not done so since he recounted the details to the kid's parents and in the incident report, even though both kids came out of the ordeal extremely lucky. Harm did not want to think what sort of scene the poor man had come across, when he first ascended that cliff-side to rescue kids who he knew and loved as if they were his own.

After Made, it was Harm and Mac's turn, but before they could make their way forward, Kim's teacher turned to seek them out, obviously having misplaced where they had gotten to, inside the classroom.

"Kim, are your Mom and Dad still here?" she asked the child and instantly, the class of children was silent. Most of the adults knew all about Kim's ordeal, the previous school year, so of course knew the story of how Harm and Mac met and how Mac was not Kim's Mother and was not (yet) married to Harm. However, being new to the community, Kim's teacher had not learned that and had not asked, since Kim so resembled the pretty, now lieutenant colonel.

"We're just here, Ma'am," Harm stepped forward, to let the woman know.

The other kids were now looking at Kim or whispering to her, obviously curious about whether she was going to correct their teacher (always a great day, in any child's life!)

Kim however decided that it was not important, because a title would never change what Mac had come to mean to her.

"C'mon Mom, Dad…We're waiting!" Kim grinned sassily at the two of them, "I want to hear some compelling reasons about why I should become a Marine or why I should become Navy!"

"Just remember, missy," Harm threw her a warning grin, "The Navy is essentially paying for you to go to space-camp, next summer…"

"No it's not!"

"Well," Harm amended, "The Navy is paying me and I am paying for you to go to space camp…"

The rest of the kids and the parents laughed as Kim mimed zipping her mouth closed and padlocking it!

"Don't forget who will also be contributing, Sailor," Mac chipped in and the children all laughed as Harm looked a tad uncomfortable.

"This is going to be a tough decision," Kim mused to herself, aloud.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Harm smiled at his daughter and Mac joined in as they finished the thought, together, "We've still got quite a few more years with you, before you have to decide!"

And all three of them really were really looking forward to finding out just what the future would hold for all of them!

FIN