Disclaimers in Chapter One.

Once again thanks to all those who have reviewed and the Snugglebug for her help and her friendship. Hugs to you, Lady! J

Harm got Mac settled on the couch and covered her with a blanket so she could get some rest while he returned o the kitchen to see what remained on his list of things to prepare. He mixed everything together for the green bean casserole and set it aside, then focused on the dinner rolls. He'd just placed the last one on the baking sheet when the door bell rang again. He wondered who it could be, since AJ had told him he was the only guest joining them for dinner. Tossing his dish towel over his shoulder, he went to look out the peephole, standing in annoyed disgust at what he saw.

Reluctantly, he opened the door and with a very firm look on his face, greeted perhaps the one person he least wanted to see that day. "What do you need, Annie?"

"I need to know why you haven't returned my phone calls or responded to my mails," she told him. "Are you going to leave a pregnant woman in the cold?"

He sighed, stepping back to allow her to come inside. He closed the door and stepped close so he could speak softly and not disturb Mac. "Listen, my folks are here and they don't know anything about any of this, and if you dare go down that road, pregnant or not I'll show you the door so fast your head will spin. Understood?"

Annie nodded and looked around the front room. "Where is Mac?"

"She's on the couch," he said. "She's not feeling well, so don't even think about bothering her. I'm sure she doesn't feel up to seeing you today."

Annie looked over at the sofa, "Harm, with all due respect what's happened?"

"I don't have to tell you," he said matter-of-factly. "All you need to know is she's not feeling well."

"Harm, I'm worried about you. If she's this ill and with your grandmother," Annie whispered.

"I can handle it," he said. "What I can't handle, however, is any funny business out of you. You've been calling my cell phone an awful lot lately, and we agreed that was for emergencies only. Somehow, I get the feeling there haven't been any emergencies."

"It was once," Annie replied and he could tell from her face she was telling the truth.

He looked at her, concern on his face. "When? What happened? No, wait, let's take this someplace else. I don't want anyone to overhear any of this." He led her to the door connecting the kitchen to the garage and opened it, allowing her to enter ahead of him.

"It was about three weeks ago, I had some pain and cramping...I got scared and called you but you didn't answer," Annie replied. "We're fine though. Don't worry. Doctor said it was stress."

He looked around the garage, hands on his hips. "Sorry. You should have left a message, I would have done what I could."

"Would you?" she asked looking down at the garage flooring. "You haven't done anything else you said you would do."

He nodded; she had a point. "I know," he said. "I'm not holding up my end of things very well, and for that I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to justify going to Baltimore for a sonogram appointment with you, for a baby that I continue to have major doubts about with regard to paternity, when my wife is so sick and my kids need me."

"Harm," Annie began. "Maybe it would be easier for me to understand if you leveled with me about Mac's situation. I really would like to help you, not in the way I did the last time, that was wrong, but in any other way."

"Wrong?" he asked. "You call what you did last time 'wrong'? It goes so far beyond that, Annie, and you know it. You played me for an absolute fool, and I let it happen. The specifics of Mac's condition don't change that one little bit."

"Maybe not," Annie admitted. "But you can be honest with me Harm we both no that. I have no stake in this; there is no reason to protect me. You have to let out the fear and the anger, and you know that's true."

"I can't do that with you, though," he replied. "I'm not exactly in the habit of venting my personal troubles to pregnant ex-girlfriends."

"Who do you vent them to Harm?" Annie asked gently. "Certainly not Mac."

He began pacing absentmindedly as he ran his hands through his hair. "I don't really talk much about it with anyone," he said. "I mean, how many people can I actually get into anything so...personal with. Some things are meant to be kept between Mac and I, like..." he nodded towards Annie's tiny baby belly, "that."

"I understand," Annie said. "But if you do need to take to someone, ever, just pick up the phone. We don't have to go near each other, I'll just listen," she told him and tentatively reached for his hand.

He pulled his hand out of her reach. Looking her in the eye, he shook his head ever-so-slightly. "No."

"No to what?" Annie asked. "No you won't come to me or no I can't touch you?"

He sighed. "No to both. I can't confide in you, Annie. I know we used to be friends and lovers and whatever else you want to call what we used to be, but that was a long time ago, and after what happened in Mexico, I can't...I can't trust you anymore. I don't trust you to be my sounding board, and I certainly don't trust you to touch me in any way, shape or form."

"You have no idea how much that hurts," Annie sighed. "I want to be there for you Harm, I want us to try and salvage a friendship out of this, and most of all I want to take that sad and haunted look from your eyes just like I...just like I wanted to do in Mexico. You can't help her, Harm," Annie said. "You know you can't help her."

"This is sounding a hell of a lot like what few parts I remember of the conversation in the cantina" said Harm, his tone showing his disgust even three months after-the fact. "You claimed then that all you wanted to do was take away my pain. You kept reminding of how I couldn't help my wife. Next thing I know, we're in a cheap motel room and - is any of this ringing a bell, Annie?"

"That was never my intent," Annie told him. "I know you don't believe that but it's true. And even more than that, you know my words are true, that's why you're so angry."

"That's where you're wrong," he said. "I'm angry because you played my emotions for everything you could get out of them that night, and set into motion the latest derailment in the train wreck currently known as my life. Yes, I do need someone to talk to when things with Mac are at their worst, but since you couldn't be a real friend, a true friend to me in Mexico, when you knew how much pain I was in, things with Mac are even worse than they were and for me to go to you about that now - there'd be no logic in that at all!"

"I was being a true friend to you...we just got carried away," Annie insisted. "Why is it okay for you to say it was all a mistake, all by accident, the influence of too much alcohol, but I must have been manipulative and conniving, right? Wrong, I was trying to listen, trying to help and we both got carried away."

"Yeah, we did," he said. "But you were the one who made sure my glass was never empty for more than a minute, and while I know I could have made the choice not to keep drinking, you knew all along what you were doing. I'm not saying I didn't do all kinds of things wrong that night because I know I did, but I'm not the only one."

"No, no you aren't," Annie replied. "And if it makes any difference, I am so sorry that that night made things so bad for you. But I am no responsible for what is going on inside that house right now," Annie pointed out.

Before Harm got the chance to answer Lucy wandered into the garage from the living room. "Daddy? Are you here?" she asked.

"I'm here, baby," he said. "What do you need?"

"Mommy needs you," Lucy said with a certain look on her little face. "Uncle AJ said to get you ASAP and Colleen tried to bit Nana."

Harm looked at Annie. "I've got to go deal with this," he said as he began walking inside. "Come back in with me; just...just keep to yourself, please."

"Actually, I'll just go. We can maybe continue this at a later date," Annie replied. "Go take care of your family. Have a nice holiday."

He nodded. "Thank you. I'll, uh...I'll check with you soon."

"I'm sure you will," Annie replied and quietly left through the garage door.

Harm hurried inside to find his mother cowering in the kitchen, trying to stay away from the dog who was being extremely protective of Mac. Mac was lying on the sofa, a very pained expression on her face as she held the phone to her ear.

"It's her doctor," Frank told him as he came inside. "And Colleen is not too thrilled with your mother."

"Let me guess," said Harm. "Mom tried to get close to Mac?"

"Mac was...well she pulled her knees up and started crying. Mom was trying to help her but neither the dog nor Mac would let her touch her. Then the doctor called and she's...Just see to her, Son," Frank said with a pat on Harm's shoulder.

"I will," said Harm, walking over to the couch and kneeling down beside his wife, waiting for the call to be over.

Instead though, Mac thrust the phone at Harm, biting her lip, tears streaming down her cheeks.

His eyes grew wide with concern. "Mac? Baby, what's wrong?"

Mac didn't reply and Harm didn't persue because he heard Dr. Bradley's voice still on the line, "Hello. Sarah? Hello?"

Harm put the phone to his ear. "Dr. Bradley?"

"Harm," he sighed. "Good I'm glad you're here. Is she upset?"

He looked at his wife and at the tears rolling down her face. "I'd say she is. Is something wrong? Did she call you?"

"No, I called you, but your daughter answered," he replied. "I need you to bring her in tomorrow. I have to do another small test on her. When I mentioned coming in, not even for the test she started to cry."

Harm placed a gentle hand on his distraught wife. "What do you need to do?" he asked the doctor.

"I need to take a sample of the endometrial tissue," Dr. Bradley replied. "Just to be safe I want to have pathology run over a sample a second time. It'll be quick and relatively painless. I also want to give her better painkillers. She did say she was in a lot of pain when I asked how she was."

"Yeah," said Harm. "She's been hurting this whole time. What time do you want to see her tomorrow?"

"How's noon?" he asked. "I'll be as quick as I can I promise. I just...when I got the rush report this morning I though it was best that we look at this now."

"Something bad?" asked Harm, his words unintentionally making Mac cry even harder.

"Let's take a second look," Dr. Bradley replied. "I'm sorry to upset your holiday, but as I said the sooner the better."

"Its okay," said Harm. "I know you wouldn't have called if it wasn't important. We'll be there at noon tomorrow."

"See you then," the doctor replied and ended the call.

By this time, DJ had climbed on Mac's legs and sat patting them, and AJ had subdued the dog and now knelt beside Mac holding her as best he could. Trish and Frank stood together off to the side lines, and Lucy was...nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd Lucy go?" asked Harm to everyone in general.

"I don't know," his mother replied. "She was here."

"I'll go look for her," said Harm. "How much longer until we eat?"

"About half an hour," replied Frank. "How come the dog isn't trying to bite him?" he asked referring to AJ.

"I guess because she sees him all the time," sighed Harm. "I'll be back."

Harm went down the hallway in search of his daughter. He checked the usual places - her room, DJ's room, the bathroom. When none of them proved successful, he tried the next place that came to mind. Opening the door to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom, he found her; wrapped up in Mac's dresses and crying softly.

"Lucy Bear?" he said quietly. "Why are you crying?"

"Cause Mommy's sick again and she's going to go away," Lucy sobbed hanging on to that pale cotton dress.

Harm got down on his hands and knees and crawled in beside the little girl. "What makes you think she's going to go away?"

"She's always so sick and when something in you doesn't work right you have to go away to heaven," she told him crying. "I don't want Mommy to go there; you can't come back from there."

He opened his arms to the frightened child. "Come sit with me," he said. Once she'd climbed into his lap, he held her close as he spoke. "Mommy's not going to go away to heaven. She's sick right now, but the doctor is going to make her feel better. Please, don't cry about Mommy leaving you, Button. She's not going to leave, I promise."

Lucy sniffled and snuggled close to Harm. "I tried to take care of her Daddy," Lucy whispered against his chest. "I really tried."

"I know, baby" he said, "and you did such a good job, but sometimes people get too sick for anyone except the doctors and nurses to really make them feel better. I'm so, so proud of what you did for Mommy yesterday, and for how you always take such good care of her when Daddy is away."

"Really?" Lucy asked looking at him with red puffy eyes.

He hugged her tight. "Really. You're such a big helper, Lucy. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I don't know either," Lucy said after a minute offering him a smile. "We better get out of here Daddy. Mommy was crying. She needs a big hug."

Harm smiled in return. "She sure does, and you know what? The turkey is almost ready. Are you hungry?"

Lucy nodded, "I like turkey."

"Well, let's go give Mommy that big hug," said Harm. "And then you can help Daddy and Nana get things ready so we can eat, okay?"

Lucy held onto Harm's hand as they went to the living room. She reached up and gave Mac a big hug then helped Trish with the plates. The family sat around the table, and Mac lay on to sofa, her food on a tray. She didn't eat it though, not even one bite.

"You're not eating," said Trish as she spied the untouched food on her daughter-in-law's tray. "Don't you like the sweet potatoes?"

"Yes," Mac replied but made no move to try to eat her food.

"Mac, you really need to eat," said Trish. "Even a few bites is better than nothing."

Mac weakly shook her head, "No. I'm not hungry."

"I'm sure you're not," said Trish softly. "But starving won't make you feel any better, dear."

Again Mac shook her head and whispered with her waning strength, "Leave me alone."

"I'm just trying to help," said Trish gently. "I hate to see you like this."

"Please...I can't..."she managed.

Trish looked over at Harm, who had a deeply saddened expression on his face as he witnessed the exchange between his mother and his wife. He shook his head, indicating to Trish that this was a battle she couldn't win.

Rising from his place at the table, he walked over to the sofa and, as so many times already that day, knelt down to her level. "Why can't you eat, baby?" he asked.

"Not hungry," she replied. "I'm so tired."

He caressed her forehead. "Want me to take you back to bed so you can sleep?"

"No," she replied again. "Just take this away please. I can nap here."

"Okay, sweetie," he said, leaning in to give her a gentle peck on the cheek before rising to take her tray into the kitchen.