See Chapter One for Notes and Disclaimers

30 September
2315 ZULU
Mackenzie Rabb Residence
ManassasVA

"Happy Birthday dear Lucy! Happy Birthday to you!" the group of assembled visitors sang in honor of the fifth birthday of Lucielle Rabb.

"Make a wish, Lucy Bear," Mac encouraged as Harm, Bud, and the Admiral all stood poised with cameras to take a picture of the landmark event.

Lucy blew out her candles and smiled as Mac adjusted the pink party hat she was wearing on top of her curly brown head. Lucy was truly a beautiful child, with Mackenzie coloring and Rabb eyes; she would break hearts for sure.

"Okay," Mac smiled. "Let's cut this beautiful cake here. You did a good job on this Harm."

He grinned and blushed slightly. "I try."

Harm began to cut the cake he'd baked using a mold shaped like Minnie Mouse while Lucy asked, "Mommy, where was I born? Was I born in Uncle AJ's office like little AJ?"

Lucy never cared before about where she was born or who was there or anything like that, but earlier she overheard the Admiral joke about AJ's sudden appearance at JAG ops and that peaked her curiosity.

"No," Mac replied. "You were born at Bethesda Naval Hospital. It's the place where you came to see Mommy after DJ was born and after she had her belly surgery. It's also where you went to see Daddy last year after he fell down. Remember?"

"Yes," Lucy nodded. "Where you and Daddy were was scary. Was it scary when I was getting borned?"

"Yes," Bud answered.

"How do you know?" Lucy asked. "Were you with Mommy and Daddy?"

"I sure was," Bud replied. "I was there and so was Aunt Harriet and Uncle AJ and little AJ. In fact, I was the one who drove your Mommy to the hospital and I even stayed with her almost an entire day while Daddy was trying to get home."

"Where were you Daddy?" Lucy asked, taking a bite of her piece of cake.

"Well," Harm began his story.

29 September 1999
1413 ZULU
USS PATRICK HENRY

"Petty Officer Tallon, I will ask you one more time," Harm said exasperated at how long this investigation was taking. "Did you ever actually see Chief Donohue drinking liquor from the Officers' Mess?"

Before the Petty Officer could answer it came over the speaker, "Shore to ship call for Commander Rabb. Urgent!"

Harm quickly rose from his chair and made way to the communications area to receive his call.

"Commander Rabb," he said breathing hard.

"Hi, Honey," Mac sounded happy, she sounded all right. But the call said urgent.

"Babe, you can't call me and say it's urgent just because you want to say hi. I'll get back to you later," he sighed. Mac had been very clingy since she entered her third trimester.

"You won't reach me later, Honey. I was just calling to let you know that I'm leaving for the hospital now. You're son or daughter is about to be born."

Present

"Well needless to say I was at the Skipper's feet like a shot, trying to get him to let me fly back to base on the morning COD. After begging and nearly losing every ounce of pride I had, he gave in. I didn't get there until about ten hours before you were born."

"Did it take me a long time like DJ?" Lucy asked looking at her baby brother who had cream frosting all over his face.

"Oh yeah," Mac laughed. "It took you even longer."

1 October 1999

0145 ZULU

Bethesda Naval Hospital

Maternity

"Cleansing breath," Harm instructed and demonstrated. "Good girl."

Mac leaned back weakly against her husband, sweat dripping down her face, most of the color drained from her skin, except for the black marks beneath her eyes.

"I can't do this anymore, Harm. I can't," she told him her voice so soft he could barely hear it.

He kissed her damp brow. "It'll be over soon," he comforted.

"You've been saying that," she sighed. Then she groaned and grimaced, "Here we go again."

They did that for another half hour, and then Mac's doctor came in. Mac was lying in Harm's arms with barely enough strength to hold up her own head, never mind push a baby out. He was getting worried and he made those worried known.

"Doctor, how much longer can she go through this? She's so tired," Harm fussed, stroking Mac's cheek.

"Let me take a look and I'll give you some answers, Commander," the younger Marine Captain assured him. "If she hasn't progressed further we'll have to do a Cesarean."

"No," came Mac's feeble protest. "No, C-section."

Harm lifted her hand to his lips, "Honey, if it means your health or the baby's health, you have to have the C-section. Now listen to the doctor."

"She's almost there. Let's give her another fifteen minutes to see if she dilates the last centimeter. If not then we'll take the baby," the doctor told Harm. "Just hold onto her and let her rest. She'll need her strength soon either way."

"Did you hear that, Baby? You're almost there," he whispered to her. "Let's have some of that marine attitude."

Mac started to do her Lamaze breathing again. When the contraction passed she seemed to have renewed strength and vigor from some deep recess of her being. She pushed herself up and said, "You asked for it, Flyboy."

0300 ZULU

"That's it," Harm encouraged. "Good girl, good girl. I love you."

"Shut up!" Mac screeched as she bore down and concentrated on pushing the baby out. "This is the last time you'll ever touch me. I mean it. Come near me again and I'll bend you like a pretzel!"

"Push, Colonel," the doctor instructed ignoring Mac's tirade. "The head is almost here."

Mac pushed again as Harm counted to ten and kissed her damp hair.

"Okay, stop," the doctor directed. "Just an easy push on the next one."

The contractions were right on top of each other so the next one was only 45 seconds behind. Mac gritted her teeth and gave a small push with the last of her energy and thankfully she felt the baby slip from her body into the doctor's waiting hand.

Present

"For as hard as it was to deliver you I could have sworn they were going to tell me that it was a boy, but sure enough," Mac leaned over and kissed her daughter's forehead. "It was my precious little girl."

"I'm not so little anymore," Lucy boasted. "I'm a whole hand old."

"You'll always be my little girl, Lucy Bear. Even when you're as old as Daddy," Mac teased and smiled at Harm.

"Hey, you're not that far away from forty there, Lady," he teased back.

The ringing of their doorbell broke up the trip down memory lane. Mac rose to answer the door, wondering who it could be as all of their friends were all ready here. When she opened the wooden door to admit their visitor she smiled. "Clay! What a happy surprise!" Mac opened her arms and gave Clayton Webb a long tight hug.

"How are you, Sarah?" he asked tenderly.

"I'm fine. We're celebrating Lucy's birthday. Come on in, every one's here."

Harm stood watching from where he was positioned helping DJ drink his milk. Clayton Webb had always rubbed him the wrong way; he was always too close to Mac. And after they took that assignment to Paraguay over a year ago when she pretended to be his pregnant wife, well, it had gotten harder for him to deal with Webb. Still he had to be polite.

"Webb," he greeted. "Good to see you. Lucy, say hi to Mr. Webb."

"She can call me Uncle Clay," Webb said.

"She'll call you Mr. Webb," Harm said. "I'm her father." With that he rose from the table and headed to the kitchen.

Mac sighed. There had always been tension between Harm and Clay, but now it was worse, since Paraguay it was much worse. "I'm sorry, Clay," Mac apologized. "Harm's feeling a bit territorial today."

"Its okay, Sarah," Clay replied. "If I had what he has, I'd be territorial too."

Clayton had been making comments like that since they returned, and Mac ignored them. They'd gotten very close in Paraguay both nearly dying for their case, so Mac let it go. She knew it goaded Harm, but a tiny part of her liked that. It made her feel like she was important to him, that she was worthy of his jealousy. Mac moved to join Harm in the kitchen with the excuse of getting Clayton a cup of coffee while he joined Harriet, Bud, and the children.

"What's wrong?" Mac asked him, laying her cheek against his tense back.

"I don't like how he looks at you Sarah. And I don't like him telling our children what to do, when did this start?" Harm griped.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone was jealous," she teased with a hint of seriousness.

"Oh, yeah," he chuckled a bit and turned around pulling her to his chest. "What gave you that idea, Colonel?"

"Your attitude, your chest pounding, but mostly it's this somewhat attractive shade of green you're turning, Commander."

He leaned over and kissed her on the mouth full force, a kiss not only conveying his love for her, but his desire. When he pulled back he placed a tiny kiss on her forehead. "Nobody loves you like I do," he told her.

"Nobody ever will," she replied and leaned up to kiss him again. They were interrupted by yet another visitor.

"Who could that be?" Harm asked.

"I don't know, I thought the whole world was here," Mac replied and followed him to the door.

Harm opened the door and would not have been more surprised to see Admiral Nimitz himself standing there. "Annie? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to visit, and to celebrate your daughter's birthday Harm," Annie told him.

"How do you know when our daughter's birthday is?" he asked putting a protective arm around Mac.

"You told me in Mexico, Harmon. Don't you remember?" she asked with a smile that said a lot more to him than it did to Mac.

"Well, welcome, Annie," Mac managed. "Come on in and have a seat. You remember everyone don't you?"

"Yes, hello," Annie greeted the rest of the party goers. She looked at Lucy who was busy showing the Admiral and Clay one of her new toys. "She's a doll, Harm. All Rabb."

"Not quite," Harm smiled at his daughter. "That beautiful complexion is all her mother. And her smile, she has Sarah's smile."

DJ was busy studying the stranger who had invaded his home. He wasn't sure if he liked her so he just watched her quietly with big eyes. When the woman turned to him though and smiled at him, he only wanted his Mommy, but she was not nearby, she was talking to Uncle Bud. The lady reached for him and picked him up, "He's precious as well, Harm. I can see why you are proud of him."

DJ did not like being held by strangers and he especially did not like this one. So when Annie lifted him, the little boy let his displeasure be known and loudly.

Mac heard her son begin to cry and spun around to see the cause of her baby's distress. When she saw her child in Annie Pendry's arms red faced and crying, something inside of her snapped. She flew over to them and grabbed for the boy pulling at him, but Annie was not releasing him fast enough. "Give him to me. Give me my son!" Mac demanded.

Harm was startled by Mac's reaction. True she didn't like Annie, but Annie wouldn't hurt DJ. So he intervened by taking his son into his own arms.

"It's okay," he whispered to DJ. "Daddy has you. It's all right."

Clayton saw Mac's eyes shining, her form shaking, and he put his arm around her shoulders. "He's all right, Sarah. He's all right, he was just scared."

Annie did feel sorry the little boy was scared and she did apologize. "I'm sorry Mac. Josh was skittish with new people too. I didn't mean to upset him so much."

DJ calmed in Harm's arms and babbled, "Ma Ma," reaching for Mac. She took the boy and held him. "I'm sorry I overreacted," Mac explained then turned the boy to face Annie. "DJ this is Annie, Daddy's friend. Can you say hi?"

DJ looked at the woman who made him cry. Safe in his Mommy's arms he gave a small wave.

The tension soon lifted and the celebrating resumed as Lucy opened her gifts, mostly clothes dolls, except for a bicycle from her Uncle AJ and a learners computer from Grandma and Grandpa Burnett. Harm kept watch over the festivities from a distance, never letting on how nervous he was. Finally he was able to corner Annie in the kitchen.

"What are you doing, Annie?" he demanded.

"Celebrating your daughter's birthday," she replied. "Why?"

"Annie, is this some…is this about Mexico? Are you trying to intimidate me or play some kind of game because I'm warning you, I'm not playing," Harm whispered fiercely.

"I only want to be part of your life, Harm. We can have our cake and eat it too," Annie purred trying to lean into him. He skillfully backed away.

"Annie, no. Not again, never again," he said firmly. "It was a mistake I don't care to repeat. I've all ready hurt Sarah enough."

"Did you tell her?" Annie asked.

Harm's silence was her answer. "You didn't tell her, so how did you hurt her?" Annie asked.

"I lied Annie I broke our vows, a promise. Once is bad enough, but twice…" he trailed off. "Mexico was wrong Annie, adulterous for us both. I love Sarah and you said you love Peter. Let it go, let's do as we said and leave what happened in Mexico."

Sadly, Annie nodded before leaning up to kiss his cheek. "I hope she realized how lucky she is," she said sadly before turning to go. Harm watched her go then with a sigh returned to the pity.

Neither one had seen Bud Roberts near the bathroom door. He had heard the whole thing.