On day two of "the agreement," Mac was the first one to wake up. Sometime around 4:30, she heard the back door open. As confusion swept over her, the Marine tiptoed downstairs prepared to take on the intruder. At the bottom of the stairs, the room beginning to make sense despite the lack of lights, she saw her daughter slip quietly into her room and shut the door behind her. Walking just as quietly to her door, Mac stood outside thinking about her next course of action. Should she be motherly and kind, or should she lay down the law? After a few minutes the answer came to her, albeit through no dictum of her own. Mattie was crying; Mac needed to protect her.

"Mattie?" Mac tried the door handle, only to find it locked. "Matts, please let me in. I want to help you." Hearing no response, Mac assumed that she was going to be ignored. Just as she was about to give up hope and resort to threatening to break down the door, she heard a soft click. Trying again, she found it unlocked. Stepping inside, she saw her daughter, tears coursing down her face.

"Mattie… How can I help?"

"You can't. There is nothing you can do. This whole two weeks thing isn't going to work. You and Harm aren't going to hit me—you're going to give up on me." As she was saying this, Mattie slowly backed up until she was at her bed. Once there, she lay down, producing gut-wrenching sobs into her pillow.

Although she was feeling uncertain herself, Mac made up her mind to be strong. Taking purposeful sides to the bed, Mac sat down on the edge and put a firm hand on her the girl's back, rubbing with calm strokes. "Sweetie, we are not going to 'give up on you'—ever."

"Don't call me that! Only my mom can call me that, and she's dead!"

Her sharp words and their indirect meaning cut to the core of Mac's heart. Mattie was doing the same thing that Harm had done earlier at the breakfast table—she was pulling away, defining herself as a non-entity of the family. Mac, again, chose to stay calm.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I won't call you that again." Mac waited for Mattie to acknowledge her apology, but after a few minutes of continuous sobs and no response, the older woman broached the topic that she knew would only cause more angst.

"Mattie, where were you tonight? Harm and I were worried when you didn't come home directly after physical therapy." Wisely, Mac chose to leave out the fact that it was 4:30 in the morning when she actually did decide to come home.

"It's none of your business," came the sharp retort.

"Actually, it is our business." Harm's voice reverberated from the doorpost.

Turning over so she could get a clear look of his face, Mattie said the only thing she could think of to hurt her dad of three months. "I hate you."

"And I love you." Harm stepped away from the door towards Mattie's bed. Grabbing her wrists, he pulled her off the bed and into a solid embrace. He could feel her desperately trying to push away, but he would have none of it. He continued to hold her in his arms until she quit struggling. Releasing her, he watched as her knees went wobbly, but tried to stand tall. She was very determined to appear untouchable.

"Your mom asked you a question, Mattie."

"She is not my—"

"Enough." Harm silenced her with one word and a cold, hard glare. And then he repeated himself word for word.

Seeing no help, Mattie repositioned herself on her bed and began playing with one of the blanket corners.

"I went out."

"Where?" Mac took over the line of questions.

"With friends."

"That doesn't answer my question, Mattie. I need to know where you went, with whom, and what you did."

Looking only at Mac, Mattie answered in brief, monosyllabic words. "A club. With Jess and Deb. I ate food and talked."

Beginning to feel frustrated, Mac began to lecture instead of question. "You were out past curfew, young lady. I could understand pushing your limits by an hour, but 4:30? What the hell were you thinking? What the hell—"

"Matilda—" Harm managed to cut off both his wife's rising anger and get to the point, again with one word, "Outside now."

Looking at Harm, Mac, and then back to Harm again, Mattie slowly got off her bed, the sickening feeling tightening around her stomach yet again. Harm led the way out of her room, through the kitchen, out the back porch, to a wood pile that was stocked neatly against the garage.

"Take it down."

"Wh-What?"

"Take it down. Piece by piece. I don't want a single piece of wood left in that pile. Get as mad as you need to get—throw them if you need to. Come get me when you're done; I'll be there in the kitchen." Without another word, Harm turned to go back inside.

Mac had been standing in the kitchen watching them with what little light the back porch bulb gave off.

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see."

Three minutes later, Harm heard the first piece of wood slam against the wet grass. Ten minutes after that, Mattie came in drenched in sweat, dried tear marks on her face.

"Can I have a glass of water?"

Harm acquiesced and poured her a half a glass of tap water. When she was done, he took her by the shoulders and led her back outside. This time, Mac followed.

"Now, pick it all back up, stacked just as neatly as it was."

Mattie looked at the pieces of wood, some scattered farther then others, as she had thrown the first ten across the back yard fairly hard. "Harm, that's going to take forever."

"I'm afraid that's the point. Mattie, if you're not careful, you can mess up relationships in a matter of seconds; it takes a lot longer to put them back together, and even then they will never be the way they were before." Checking his watch, Harm added, "You have an hour and a half before school, so you'd better get going. Even if you start now, you'll probably be late."

Taking Mac by the hand, they walked back inside in silence. Once inside, Mac started a pot of coffee.

"That was good, Harm. Real good."

"Thanks. Frank used to make me do that—it generally helped me cool down a bit if I was upset. She's going to be sore, though—physical therapy, staying out all night, and then this. She hasn't taken her meds since yesterday morning."

Suddenly needing to be held, Mac came to Harm's side and wrapped her arms around him. More than willing to oblige, Harm wrapped his arms around his wife, kissing her softly, and then more passionately after a few minutes. As long as they stayed together, they would get through anything and nothing would get through them, even their troubled, teenage daughter.