Again, thanks so so so much for the reviews. They do my soul good, and I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this. That is why I wrote it after all :) For anyone who's worried that this might be one of those stories that gets half way through and disappears (yes, that has happened to me numerous times- and I totally understand how real life can get in the way) rest assured that this puppy has been finished for a while, and I will continue to post at least once a day. Fourteen chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue.

Chapter 6

May 21, 2006
2215 Local

Mac followed Harm up the front steps of the Roberts' front porch. Each had a little boy draped over their shoulder asleep. The kids were still going strong when they left Tom and Mattie, and even after playland at McDonalds. It wasn't until the last hour of the trip home that they finally passed out. Mac was actually impressed that Jimmy lasted as long as he did with the measly forty-five minute nap he took while AJ was taking his second ride in 'Sarah' before lunch.

Harm knocked softly so as not to wake the sleeping children with them, or any that might be snoozing in the house. Bud answered the door and ushered the foursome inside. He then relieved Mac of Jimmy and motioned for Harm to follow him up the stairs with AJ, leaving Mac and Harriet to chitchat for a few minutes. After the kids were in bed, Harm and Mac bid the Roberts a goodnight, promising to call them the following day to make plans to head to the house in McLean. They traded back cars, and then Harm and Mac were on their way back to the hotel.

Mac glanced at Harm for the tenth time since dropping off the boys. He seemed...distracted? Pensive? He had that look in his eye. The one he used to get when they were working a case and he was on the verge of putting all the pieces together, but he wasn't quite sure if he had it right. Right now, all that was missing to complete the picture was a pen pressed between his pursed lips... Hmmm, Harm's lips...and his mouth. Oooh, Harm's tongue pressed….

She gave her head a mental shake to clear her thoughts. How she ever, ever got any work done in those nine years was a mystery she knew she'd take to her grave. Knowing him intimately as she did now, if she had to go back, she probably would have jumped him that night at Red Rock Mesa.

Forcing herself back to the present and away from fantasies about herself, Harm and that mattress in the back of the truck they rented from Billy the gas station attendant, she turned almost sideways in her seat to face him more fully.

"So, did you and Mattie have a nice visit? You didn't harass her too much about that boy, Michael, did you?" She figured that since they'd spent the whole day with Mattie and Tom, and that, as she told him in the car on the way home, Tom seemed to be doing just fine, his mood must have something to do with Mattie.

Flipping the left turn signal on to pass the truck in front of him, he answered with a sly smile in her direction, "No, Ma'am, I did not harass her, and I resent the implication that I might be an obnoxious father." As soon as the words left his mouth, that pensive look was back on his face.

Maybe she had it wrong. Maybe it was her miscarriage that had him upset. Perhaps being with Mattie and the boys all day was a reminder of what he didn't have. She'd certainly learned in the past couple of weeks that those thoughts could sneak up on you when you least expected them.

"Hey," she leaned forward slightly and placed her hand on his thigh, "…you okay? You seem distracted."

He began chewing his bottom lip, a sure sign that something was on his mind. He covered her hand with his and squeezed reassuringly. "Actually, Mattie did say something to me today..." he trailed off as he flipped on the right turn signal to pull up to the hotel parking lot. "Let's talk about it once we get back to the room and settled in for the night." He glanced over and gave her a tight-lipped smile before patting her hand and returning his to the wheel.

She got the distinct impression that he was stalling. However, she was quite anxious to get inside and shower off the dust and grime from a day at the airfield, so she could hardly argue. Nodding in agreement, she turned to open her car door as Harm pulled the keys out of the ignition. Walking around the back of the car, he met her by her door and wrapped his arm around her waist as they headed for the entrance.

Walking into the room first, she tossed her purse on the bureau before pivoting around to sit on the bed. Crossing one leg over the opposite knee, she began untying her tennis shoes.

"Wanna conserve water again," Harm asked. He was standing in the bathroom doorway, shirt already unbuttoned, holding himself steady on the door frame to take off his own shoes. She looked up at him to see a teasing grin on his face.

"Well, I do like to do my part in the fight to save our resources." She finished taking off the other shoe before standing up and heading to the bathroom that Harm had just disappeared into. She was practically undressed by the time she reached the doorway. The door shut behind her with a giggle. It was almost an hour before it opened again.

Harm was the first to reemerge, a thick steam flowing out behind him.

"Make sure you turn it up high or it won't kick on," Mac hollered from the still running shower. She stuck her head out from behind the shower curtain and watched from the half open bathroom door as Harm danced from one wet foot to the other across the hotel room toward the thermostat. The much too small towel wrapped around his hips was giving her a great view of his backside and she leaned against the shower wall staring appreciatively.

"Hurry, it's freezing out there!"

"Yeah, no kidding. I am the one running around the hotel room wet and naked in case you haven't noticed," he replied as he rushed back in to the bathroom and closed the door quickly to prevent the loss of any more heat.

"Oh, I noticed," she openly stared at his six as he turned toward the sink and grabbed his razor. Meeting his eyes in the mirror she winked before ducking back behind the curtain. She turned off the water and grabbed the towel hanging over the curtain rod. The buzzing of his razor was the only sound in the small room for the next few minutes.

Stepping out wrapped in white terrycloth, Mac reached around Harm to snatch her toothbrush and the Crest. "So, when are you going to tell me about this mysterious conversation you and Mattie had this afternoon?" She began brushing her teeth with one hand as she crossed her other arm over her chest to help hold up the towel, turning to face him expectantly.

She saw him hesitate, then set the razor down on the sink and look over at her. His gaze was intense and she began to squirm under its pressure. Then he took a deep breath, as if he were about to take a dive off the side of a carrier. "Mattie said that you and she talked about the admiral's granddaughter."

Mac immediately turned toward the mirror and began brushing vigorously at her teeth. "Yeah, I told her about the picture we saw," she replied around a mouth full of foam and plastic." She wasn't sure what else to say. Her emotions were all over the board when it came to that little girl. She knew that the most logical explanation was that she was transferring all the feelings she'd been having about her baby these last few weeks onto this motherless infant, an infant she'd never even seen in person. It just felt like more...

"Mattie thinks that we should keep her."

The brushing stopped and the toothbrush hung lifeless from Mac's lips as she turned to gawk at Harm.

"She thinks that that's what you want too."

Her whole body felt numb. Boy, he wasn't beating around any bushes tonight was he? Finally becoming aware of herself again, she gave him an "Um, uh," before turning to spit out the mouthful of toothpaste, deciding that an empty mouth was probably more conducive to having this conversation.

Drying her lips off with the back of her hand, she looked back up at Harm. "I didn't tell her that," she immediately defended.

"No, she didn't say you did. It was more like that female radar you all seem to have," he gave her a cute little grin to try to relax her.

"Well, did you tell her it was not practical for us right now?" She rinsed and dried her toothbrush and put it back in her cosmetics bag.

"Yes, I did," he leaned against the counter, using his investigative eyes to watch her every move.

"And that we weren't even engaged yet…haven't even lived together?" She moved to put all her jewelry from that day into her little accessories bag.

"Uh, huh. She didn't seem impressed."

Mac began brushing out her hair. When it was wet, it was a good ways past her shoulders, a look she knew Harm loved. Not that she was trying to distract him or anything... "Well, that's a teenager for you. Everything is always so easy…Black-and-White, Right-and-Wrong."

"Mac?"

"Yeah?" She snuck a look at him through her hair. His look was still intense, but not scarily so.

"Have you ever considered adoption for us?"

She put the brush down and turned to face Harm. It looked like this conversation was happening whether she wanted it to or not. Quite frankly, she wasn't so sure she didn't want it to happen. It was just so confusing.

"Honestly?" she began, smirking a little on the inside at the surprised look on his face. He probably thought it was going to take more to get her to open up. She liked that she could still throw him off. "No, I've never thought about adoption for us. I hadn't really given up on the idea of us creating our own children."

"Neither have I." He reached over and ran his finger down the side of her face. "So is this because of...of the baby...our baby?"

Tears pooled instantly in Mac's eyes.

"Hey, hey, I'm sorry sweetheart; I didn't mean to make you cry." He pulled her to him by her shoulders and gave her a tight hug. It was the kind of hug that made Mac feel like nothing bad could ever touch her. She sniffed a couple of times and let him hold her until she felt the tears recede. When she pulled back, he ran his hand through her hair. "OK?"

She nodded and curled her lips up slightly for him. "It still hits me at the strangest times."

"Me too," he smiled humorlessly.

"Really?" She knew Harm had been heartbroken about the whole thing, but she guessed she thought he would have been able to move on easier.

"Yeah," he gave a self-depreciative snort, "a couple of days ago, I was in the lobby of my building when I saw a woman with one of those snugglie things that Harriet used with AJ. The one that strapped onto her chest. There was a beautiful baby in it. Black hair and brown eyes, he was probably only a couple of months old. He looked at me and smiled this big toothless smile, and I had to excuse myself to the restroom before I embarrassed myself in front of a lot of important people."

He said that last part with true humor, but the story broke Mac's heart. She reached over and cupped her hand against Harm's cheek. "It really sucks, huh." She gave him a teary smile, which he returned.

"But we still have a chance right?" he continued eagerly. "Once I get moved to California and we get settled. You said the doctor was optimistic about fertility drugs…or if that fails, IVF. Nothing changed with that because of the..." He trailed off, not wanting to say the word that he'd come to loath. Holding her eyes intently, he looked as if her answer held everything in his world. She swore she loved him just a little more in that instant.

"Yes, Harm…relax. I have a great OB/GYN and she's ready to start whenever we are." Mac leaned forward and kissed the dimple in his chin. He grinned at her and pulled her in for a kiss that left her toes curled and her lips swollen.

When he pulled away, that inquisitive look was back. He held her around the waist and cocked his head. "So what's all this about? Is it just hormones, or some sort of maternal instinct? I'd believe that Mattie was just being a nosy, overly imaginative kid if it weren't for your initial reaction to the subject." She tried to pull away, but he held strong. "Wait, don't walk away. What's going on in here," he removed one arm from around her waist and tapped the side of her head with his finger.

She closed her eyes. How do you explain something you think is crazy without making yourself sound, well, crazy? It was so frustrating!

"Mac, do you want to adopt the admiral's granddaughter?"

Her eyes snapped open and she looked like a deer caught in the headlight. "We can't, our jobs, my place is too small, we're not married..." 'Shut up' she told herself. It was the argument she'd been having internally all day. Does she or doesn't she; can they or can't they. Will he or won't he...

"Mac, all that can be taken care of. DO YOU want to adopt this baby?"

"Yes," her voice was uncharacteristically weak. She hated it.

"Why? Because of losing our own?"

"No!" There, that was better. Firmer. Angrier. How dare he suggest that she could ever think of replacing her child with another. That was her baby, losing it was like losing a piece of her soul. She tried to pull away from him, jerking around to head for the door. He held on tighter.

"Hey, hey! Stop trying to run away from this," he demanded, his voice rising a little. "We've spent the better part of the year learning how not to do that." He loosened his grip and sighed in relief when she didn't pull away. She still wasn't looking at him though, and he couldn't help but start to get a little irritated with her sudden change in attitude.

"I would never," she took a deep breath, "could never replace my baby with someone else's. Never," she repeated venomously. She looked up into his eyes then, practically daring him to contradict her.

He was holding her by the shoulders now, staring directly into her eyes. "Then why?"

Not breaking eye contact, Mac just let her emotions take control. "Because she's a part of this family. She's AJ's granddaughter. I want her to know what a wonderful man he was. I want to make sure she's raised with the morals and values that I know Francesca would have instilled in her. I want to frame that picture of her grandfather holding her in the hospital to put on her dresser in her room. I want our friends to watch her grow and tell her stories about her Grandpa AJ. I want Little AJ to teach her to ride a bike. When she's older, I want her to be able to visit her grandfather like you visit your dad. I want him to be a part of her life, even if he's gone." Her tears were flowing again, but she didn't care. She had somehow managed to put into words what she couldn't even explain to herself in her head. It was his eyes, she suddenly realized. Even when they're at odds, she could always find the answer to anything in them.

Currently, those eyes were full of love and admiration. Before she could say anything else, he swooped down and kissed her hard. It ended just as abruptly as it began, with a huge smile on Harm's face. It must have been contagious, because there was a matching smile on her face that she didn't even notice until she caught a glimpse of herself, still wrapped in his arms, in the mirror.

"You're amazing," he stated.

"You're not so bad yourself, Sailor."

"Do you really want to do this?"

"Do you?" she fired back. "You never really said one way or the other."

"Well, it won't be easy at first. You'll be alone for the first few weeks. You might even have to move in with my mother," he shuttered for effect, eliciting a giggle from Mac, who he still held tightly. "Of course, legally and as far as anyone knows, she is an orphan. Paul Jordan was American, so technically she's a US citizen as well as Italian. And we have a letter from her grandfather, the unsealing and reading of which was witnessed by a lawyer, practically spelling out in no uncertain terms that we are family. We could argue that we are, in fact, next of kin..."

He looked at her and she felt the smile shining across her face. "There is one itsy bitsy detail that we'll need to work out," he pulled her closer and kissed her deeply, surprising her.

"Hey Mac," he said, a la Jimmy Roberts, when they finally broke apart.

"Hey what, flyboy?"

He reached behind himself into his shaving bag on the counter. When he brought his arm back around, there was a black velvet box in his hand. Mac's hand flew to her mouth and her already misty eyes spilled over yet again. He took the hand that covered her mouth, which happened to be her left, and slipped the ring on her finger. Then he kissed it. She knew she had to look like a mess. Her hair had begun to dry naturally and was probably sticking out all over the place. She had no make-up on and her eyes must have been red from crying. Somehow, she'd never felt more beautiful.

"Mac," he began again, "when we get to San Diego, before we leave D.C. if you want, but very very soon, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

With an extremely un-Marine like shriek, Mac threw her arms around his neck. Laughing, he spun her in a circle once, very slowly, relishing the feel of her in his arms. Suddenly she began laughing almost hysterically. Putting her down slowly, he pulled back and studied her as if he were debating her sanity. This made her laugh harder. It took a minute to calm herself, a minute in which Harm was actually beginning to worry.

When she regained control, Mac rose up onto her toes and kissed him sweetly on the lips, then dropped back down and smiled.

"Do you realize we just made two of the most important decisions of our lives in a hotel bathroom dressed in tiny white towels," she leaned around him and looked down, "one of which doesn't leave much to the imagination." She giggled, as Harm turned red and reached around in an attempt to close the gap at his six.

"Yeah, well, I'd planned something a tad more romantic than the bathroom to propose, but the ring was right there, and I honestly couldn't think of a better time."

"It was perfect," she punctuated her statement with a peck on the cheek.

"So," he said, giving up on the towel and pushing some hair behind her ear, "we're gonna do this? Are you ready to start a family?"

"I'm game if you are." She tried to pull off calm and collected, but she was exuding nervous energy.

He gave her a full blow, one hundred watt aviator smile. "I'll make some calls in the morning. We could probably be on a flight to Italy by tomorrow afternoon."

"Harm, you're not just doing this for me are you," she asked as she followed him into the bedroom and grabbed a t-shirt and some underwear out of her bag. She sat down on the end of the bed after slipping them on. He walked over to her in a fresh pair of boxers. "I don't want you to regret this, or feel pressured just to make me happy," she continued. "This has to be something we both want."

"You made a strong closing argument back there, counselor." He sat next to her and took her hand. "After that, I'd be crazy not to think that we weren't meant to be Sophia Rachele's parents." Kissing her forehead, he got up and pulled down the bed. "Let's get some sleep. Something tells me that soon, we'll be begging for it."

Once curled up together, Harm reached around Mac to turn off the light.

They lay face to face, drinking each other in. One by one, tears began to fall from Mac's eyes. They weren't uncontrollable; they weren't accompanied by loud sobs. These were cathartic tears. Soon she noticed wet tracks on Harm's cheeks as well. They spoke softly, well into the night…words of comfort, doubt, and affirmation.

That night they were reminded that, in the end, all they needed were each other's arms and hand and lips to know that it would somehow all be alright.

TBC