AN: Hey all! I was totally blown away by all the kind reviews. To be honest I wasn't even sure anyone was going to read this...at any rate, I'm glad you like it. I realize posting at 3 AM is a bit unfair, but there's only two chapters left, so I posted them both. Happy reading. Thanks again. Oh. I'm not sure I mentioned this: this is a three part story. Maybe four. But for sure three. And I PROMISE, the second part of the story is way better. (At least I think so.) So hang in there; it'll be up soon. TomcatGM

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Harm's cell phone started ringing just as he grabbed his suitcases off the turnstile at the baggage claim. Moving quickly off to the side and away from the onslaught of people grabbing for their bags, he flipped open his cell phone.

"Rabb."

"Hey, sailor."

"Mac! Hey! I wasn't expecting to hear from you for hours. What are you doing up, it's almost four in the morning there."

"Waiting for your plane to land. How was your flight?"

"Long, but restful. I slept almost the whole time. I was going to call when we landed, but I didn't want to wake you."

"Harm, next time, please call. I like to know when your feet are back on solid ground."

Harm chuckled. After everything they'd been through, he couldn't exactly fault her for that. "Sure, Mac. I can do that."

"Harm, I know you're really busy right now, but can you talk for a few minutes?"

He was about to tell her he'd call her back as soon as he could find a nice quiet lounge in the airport when he saw Lieutenant Graves approaching him at warp speed with a huge grin on her face. "My escort just got here. I'm afraid I've got a female version of Bud on my hands."

"What?"

"Lieutenant Graves."

"I thought you said you ordered everyone to transfer next week?"

"I did…Mac, give me just a minute, I'll call you right back I promise."

"Promise?"

"Five minutes, Mac, I swear….I love you."

"I love you too."

As he shut the phone, he greeted his new officer. "Good morning Lieutenant. I hope you're here to keep me from getting lost."

"Good morning Captain! Yes, sir, I am. General Cresswell thought it would be a good idea if I came ahead early and got things organized for you. I've got a room reserved for you in family housing on base."

Harm just nodded, trying to keep up.

"The rest of your belongings are scheduled to arrive on Monday, except your car. I don't have an ETA on that yet, sir, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. Let me help you with your bags, sir. I've got a car waiting to take you to your quarters. It'll only take about thirty minutes to get there." She grabbed one of his suitcases and started walking. "Petty Officer Coates recommend family housing, so that's what I booked, sir, but if you'd rather be in the B.O.Q. sir, I could…"

"No, no. Family housing is perfect, they'll be joining me soon."

Harm was suddenly glad he was tall or he might have had to jog to keep up with her. Trying to pay attention to where he was going, he dug his phone out of his pocket and called Mac, telling her to go to sleep and he'd call her in about an hour when they could have a more private conversation.

"Was that your girlfriend, sir?" the Lieutenant asked.

"Fiancé, but yeah." Harm slipped into the back seat of the car a young Petty Officer was driving.

"Oh, congratulations, sir! That's wonderful! How long have you been engaged?"

Harm smiled and glanced at his watch. "About thirty hours."

"She stayed behind?"

"She'll come as soon as she can," Harm said, not offering any more on the subject. The last thing he wanted was the rumor mill at the office running before he'd even stepped foot in the building.

He did his best to pay attention as the Lieutenant droned on and on about the arrangements she had made for tomorrow, but he couldn't stop thinking about Mac. Whatever she needed to discuss with him must be incredibly important or she would have waited to call. What was really bugging him was that he couldn't pin down the emotion in her voice. That hadn't been a problem for him since the first week they met. When they'd talked he thought it was somewhere between desperate and hopeful. But the more he thought about it, the more he thought maybe it was more excitement than any thing else. Harm was abruptly ripped out of his thoughts when he realized Graves was trying to get his attention. "I'm sorry Lieutenant, I'm a little preoccupied right now," he said as they pulled up to his quarters. 'And have been for months,' he added silently to himself.

"That's all right, sir, you've had a long trip, I understand. Why don't I come back after lunch so you have a chance to get settled. Petty Officer Coates told me what kind of food you like so I stocked your fridge and your cabinets for you. Why don't I set up a tour of the base for later this afternoon? That way you can just rest tomorrow and…"

"That sounds great, Lieutenant, thanks." Harm pulled his bags through the front door and closed it behind him after saying goodbye to Graves. He would have to remind himself to try and keep her busy. Who knew what trouble she'd get into if she started finding things to do on her own?

He took a minute to walk around his new little house. "Emphasis on little," he muttered to himself. Right to the left of the front door there was a deep closet, big enough to hold his bike when it arrived. Right next to it was a decently sized bedroom with a walk in closet. The next door was a full bath, followed by another closet, which held the washer and dryer. To the right of the front door was a small kitchen with a bar that opened out to the hall and the dining room. It had a small dishwasher, a few cabinets, a full sized refrigerator and a sink.

Moving into the living room, which joined the dining room just past the serving bar from the kitchen, he found an almost new couch and recliner, a small television set, and a coffee table he was certain he'd be hitting his shins on. On the far wall was a sliding glass door, which opened up to a small patio overlooking a garden on the base. Harm moved to the door next to the laundry closet and found the master bedroom. It had its own bathroom, a huge walk-in closet, and another sliding door leading out to the patio.

Harm walked back out to the living room and plopped onto the couch. It wasn't as comfortable as the one in his apartment, but it was still pretty comfy. He pushed two on his speed dial. Mac answered on the second ring.

"Hey."

"Good morning, sunshine."

"It is now. Are you at the base already?"

"In our new cozy quarters."

"Is it nice?"

"It could be worse. Lieutenant Graves stocked the fridge and it's furnished. She made sure there were sheets on the bed and everything."

"She's efficient that's for sure."

"She even got me tofu."

Mac laughed. "Wow. That is impressive."

"My biggest problem right now is deciding which bedroom to take."

"There isn't a master bedroom?"

"There is, but I thought it might be easier for Mattie if the bathroom was closer. Now that I'm thinking about it, if we put her bed on the wall near the door, it might be closer from the other bedroom. You know. Less distance for her to walk?" Harm paced it off, and indeed found that the solution he'd come up with would work better than putting Mattie in the master bedroom. "It'll be nice for us to have more privacy anyway."

"I'll definitely look forward to that," Mac replied smiling.

"So what's up? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, but we do need to talk. You remember I had dinner with the General last night?"

"Of course."

"You're not gonna believe this. He offered me a billet in London so I could stay in the Marine Corps."

"Wow…that's great, Mac."

"It is?"

"Yeah." Harm paused. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Before you left we talked about me staying home with Mattie during her recovery, and how great it was that one of us could be home with her for a while."

"Mac, I appreciate you thinking of that, and I'm sure Mattie does too, but we can work it out. How soon are you supposed to start?"

"I don't know. I haven't given the General a definite answer yet. I wanted to talk to you first and make sure we were on the same page."

"If this is what you want, you know you have my blessing…What are you going to be doing?"

"I'll be the legal advisor to Colonel Jenkins, the military attaché at the American embassy. Cresswell said I could decide if I want to stay on active duty or switch to reserve status."

"Which do you want?" There was a long pause. "Mac, the Joint Chiefs don't take this long…"

"Harm, I've been on active duty almost my entire adult life. Now that I have the choice, I'm afraid I'll be bored to tears with anything less. On the other hand, you've spent a lot more time with Mattie than I have, and it would be nice for me to be able to get to know her better and be there for her more of the time, especially since you'll be working a lot at first…I was hoping you'd have an opinion on the matter."

Harm organized his thoughts before replying. "I know Mattie would love the company and a chance for you two to get closer. I also think it's going to be more difficult for her to recognize us as her only parental authorities on matters now that her dad is out of the picture if one of us isn't around all the time…What if you only took reserve status for a few months? You and Mattie would have a chance to get to know each other better, and by the time you're ready for some more action, Mattie will be okay on her own, and you can go back to active duty."

"So you think Mattie and I need the time together?"

"No. I think your relationship will get off on the right foot if you can spend a little extra time with her right now…Do you think you need the time?"

"Honestly? Yes. I know how difficult it is dealing with an alcoholic father. Now that he's not going to be around, I'm afraid she'll get discouraged too easily if we don't pay enough attention to her right now. I don't want her to start drinking either. The opportunity is here, so I might as well take it…It probably wouldn't hurt to relax a little anyway."

"Mattie was really good about going to those ala-teen meetings. I don't think we need to worry about her starting to drink. But you're right; I think she'll need a little extra attention right now. I'm glad you feel the same way."

"So, you're okay with me going to reserve status?"

"Of course I'm okay with it. I want you to be happy, Mac. We were both a little reluctant to give up our careers. I can't tell you how ecstatic I am that you won't have to do that in order for us to be together." Harm paused then added, "Mac, if you'd rather stay on active duty, stay on active duty."

There was a long sigh, on the other line. "You're not making this easy, sailor."

Harm chuckled. "When have I ever made things easy for you?"

It was Mac's turn to chuckle.

"Seriously, Mac, just do what feels right."

"Being there for you and Mattie right now feels right."

"I trust your instincts as much as you do."

"I'll tell the General I'll be on active reserve status for a while after taking a few weeks off and see how things are going before switching back to active duty."

"I'm sure he'll be okay with that if he told you that you could choose."

"I'm sure he will too. He was pretty insistent I didn't resign my commission." Harm snorted. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Not nothing, what are you thinking about?"

"I was just wondering if Admiral Chegwidden were still at JAG if he would have been as generous…I think he would have."

"I think so too…I'd like to invite him to the wedding, Harm."

"Sure…Do you want him to walk you down the aisle?"

"I haven't decided yet…Anyway, that's if he doesn't have a heart attack when he finds out we're engaged."

Harm laughed. "I thought Sturgis was going to have one at McMurphy's."

"Did you two settle things before you left?"

"I think they're as settled as they're going to get."

"You guys used to be such good friends. We all did."

"Yeah…He's been there for me in the past…I don't hate him or anything…"

"But?"

"I can't just forget what happened on the Kennedy."

"I know he tried to charge you with negligent homicide."

"That wasn't all. We got into it in the JAG office. He flat out told me he wouldn't consider the context of the situation because of our history. We were arguing nose to nose. If that Iraqi officer hadn't walked in when he did, I would have decked him. I'm sure of it."

"Which only would have made things worse."

"Tell me about it. I would have been sitting in the brig instead of setting up that sting. Sturgis sure wasn't about to try that hard to prove my innocence."

"I'd convinced the General to let me defend you, but you got the charges dropped yourself before I could talk to you about it."

Harm smiled. "What are you up to for the rest of the day?"

"I was going to call for a meeting with the General, arrange for leave so we can get more organized, and go see Mattie. I might offer to work at JAG a couple days this week so poor Bud doesn't drown in case files."

"Are you going to call Coates for that meeting?"

"Yeah…"

"Convince her to come to London."

"Did she turn you down already?"

"Yeah."

"Then what makes you think she'll listen to me?"

"Marines have command presence."

"Touché."

Harm laughed as the doorbell rang. "That's probably my walking itinerary. She won't be happy I haven't eaten yet." Harm walked to the door and waved Graves inside. "You're going to stay at my apartment right?"

"Yeah, I figured I'd wrangle a few seamen to help me move out so Varese can move into mine."

"Good. I paid the rent through the end of August, and I take care of the utilities online so you won't have to worry about that either."

"Mr. Organized, as usual."

"I try…I miss you already."

Mac grinned. "Me too. I'll talk to you soon. Love you."

"Love you too." Harm shut his phone with a sigh. "Two weeks is going to be an awfully long time."

"What was that Captain?"

"Nothing. Let me eat real quick and then we'll head out." Harm took a deep breath. He'd be hard pressed to remember a time he'd ever been happier...