A/N: I'm sorry this update took so long. I had a bit of a rough patch after my surgery last week, but I'm back now. I hope. Once again this is part of a chapter arc and I will try to update faster than I did this week. However, I am now drowning in wedding plans and realizing how many arguments a couple can get into when it comes to wedding planning. For example, the guest list, the food, the readings, the colors, the music…aaaaaahhhhhh! Still, I wouldn't trade him for anything, not ever a meeting with DJE! Sigh!

Once again, special thanks to Snugglebug for all that she does in every aspect of life, from fic, to wedding, to kicking my six for acting like an idiot. I love you, Lady! Big hugs. And to all those who wished me well on my surgery and my engagement, thank you all. Big hugs!

A week later Harm sat in a Starbucks near the former Rabb family home and waited for his soon to be ex wife to arrive. She was ten minutes late and he was all ready feeling the familiar feeling of worry rise in his gut. They were to try to decide on a settlement that favored them both. Maybe she wasn't going to come. Maybe something happened. Maybe he was worrying for nothing because Mac's voice broke into his frazzled thoughts, "Hi, sorry I'm so late."

"Oh, hi," he said, trying to keep his relief hidden from her. "Get caught in traffic?"

"No, I had to take Lucy to the doctor. The nurse sent her home again," Mac replied.

He sighed. "I wish we knew why she catches every little thing now. What did the doctor say?"

"He said tonsillitis," Mac replied. "Gave us some antibiotics and ordered her to rest," Mac sighed. "Of course she cried the entire time we were in there."

"She always does anymore," he said, fidgeting with the top of his cup. "You want some coffee? I'm buying."

"Yes, thank you," Mac replied. "Mocha latte?"

"'Kay," he said, rising from his chair. "I'll be right back."

A few moments later Harm returned with her coffee. Mac thanked him and took a sip, "Ah, that's nice. So…I guess we need to talk, huh?

He nodded. "I really think we can do this, Mac."

"We have a very hard time deciding if the children should eat mayonnaise on their sandwiches," Mac sighed. "But I'm willing to try to hash it out. Did you bring the papers?"

"Yeah, right here," he said, pulling them from his back pocket an sliding them across the table to her.

"Okay, why don't we start out easy," Mac sighed. "We both keep our own registered cars. They were purchased jointly, but are mainly of equal value. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine," he said, taking a drink of his coffee.

"Colleen?" Mac asked hoping she could keep the animal he'd gifted her with so many years ago.

"You hang onto her," he said. "She's settled there and the kids love her and all. You keep her."

"Thank you," Mac nodded. "The house...I think whoever gets primary physical custody of the kids should get the house. Or we could sell it, divide the profits and both get new places."

He shook his head. "No, I don't want to sell it; the kids need something stable, and I don't want to move them unless we have to. You can have the house, I'll get a two-bedroom apartment, and we'll make it work."

"What about the mortgage payments?" Mac asked. "I don't intend to pay all of that on my own."

"We can look into refinancing," he offered.

"Even so, there will still be payments to make. We can try to reduce them but...I say we pay them 50/50 until such time as I, being the resident of the house, remarry," Mac said in a business like tone.

He felt like someone had kicked him in the gut, but he found a way to dig deep and keep the conversation going. "So you're suggesting I pay half the mortgage for a house I'm not living in, plus full rent on an apartment? Sorry, Mac, try again."

"That's customary, Harm," Mac replied. "At least I'm dropping the alimony, but you are paying child support."

"I have no problem paying child support," he said. "And I guess we'll go with the house thing for now, but if it doesn't work out, we'll revisit the idea of selling it."

Mac nodded, "60/40."

"Fair enough," he agreed.

"The child support is 1/3," Mac stated. "That's standard."

"Okay." He wasn't going to fight her too much when it came to providing for his kids.

"Well that seemed easy enough, didn't it?" Mac asked sipping her coffee.

"Almost too easy for us," he said, picking up his cup and taking a long drink. "So, uh...How've you been?"

"Good," Mac replied. "I'm doing well. How about you? You don't look as tired as last week."

"Went to the doctor and got some sleeping pills," he said. "Just a few weeks worth to get me over the hump."

"I've been there," Mac replied.

He looked puzzled. "When?"

"A few times," Mac replied. "After your last crash, when I got sick, after Paraguay..."

"I never knew that" he said, feeling the familiar pain of being kept in the dark once more. "Did they help you, the pills?"

"Yeah, they helped me relax enough to fall asleep," Mac replied. "Did you have your flight physical yet?"

"Last week," he said. "Passed."

"So nothing is...there's nothing wrong?" she asked. She was concerned that the stress might not be good for him. He was over forty.

"Blood pressure was a tiny bit elevated," he admitted. "But not high enough to cause terrible concern."

Mac nodded, "Keep an eye on that," she advised as her cell phone rang.

"Colonel Rabb," she said into the receiver. "Oh hi." A pause. "No, we usually put it in her juice...that won't help anybody, Mic, just hide the Tylenol in the juice," Mac instructed. "Well it worked," she sighed. "I'll be there soon. Bye."

"Obviously Mic is staying with the kids" said Harm, keeping his tone remarkably civil.

"Yeah, he's not the best caregiver when they are sick, but it's the rare man who is," Mac sighed.

"Um, any chance I can see Lucy today?" he asked.

"Why?" Mac asked.

"Because she's sick," he said. "And I'd like to check on her, that's all."

"I'm just afraid if...Okay," Mac agreed. "Not too long though."

"No, just a few minutes," he said. "I don't want to upset her."

"We have to decided about the kids," Mac sighed. "I admit my original terms weren't the best."

"No, they weren't," he agreed. "Do you have any offers for me?"

"Every third week for the entire week," Mac offered.

He thought for a few moments. "Yeah, we can give it a go I suppose."

"Really, that easily?" Mac asked shocked he'd given in.

He sighed. "It's not ideal, but nothing we work out will be. I can't have what I want, but...How about every third week for the entire week, and three hours every other Saturday afternoon?"

"I don't want to disrupt their weekends," Mac sighed.

"Mac, can you really call a few hours with me 'disrupting' their weekends?" he asked civilly.

"What about Wednesday?" Mac offered. "Every second and fourth Wednesday, no overnight?"

"Wednesdays for the three hour thing?' he asked.

"Four," Mac replied.

He nodded. "Okay, we'll go with that - every second and fourth Wednesday for four hours, and every third week for the whole week."

"You don't look happy," she sighed.

"I'm not happy, Mac," he said plainly. "We just sat down and divided up our lives over coffee - where's the happiness in that?"

"You did better than you would have in court," Mac replied. "That's something to be happy about."

"True," he sighed. "For what it's worth, thanks for working with me on the custody thing."

"You're welcome," Mac replied. "Harm...I...I have a new lawyer."

"Oh?" he asked, surprised. "Why'd you cut Brumby loose?"

"Because I need him more in another capacity," Mac replied. "I'll have Mr. Johnston contact Ms. McAuliffe with our new terms."

"All right," said Harm, void of all desire to delve any further into that topic. "How's our little boy doing?"

"Okay," Mac replied. "His arm is getting better every day. He misses you though."

"I miss him, too," said Harm.

"You can come back with me and see him and Lucy now if you want to," Mac replied. "Mic said her temperature was really high...She might like to have Daddy for a while."

"I'd like to see them," he said, his eyes shining for the first time all afternoon. "Where'd you park, I'll walk you to your car."

"Just outside," Mac replied. "Thank you."

The pair left the coffeehouse and half hour later pulled into the driveway. Mic's car was all ready in the garage.

Mac pulled her car in the drive first followed by Harm's SUV. She stepped out and waited for him to come to her side. She wanted to see Lucy and DJ smile when they laid eyes on their Daddy.

"I won't stay very long," said Harm as he slipped his keys into his pocket.

"Lucy's sick, she's going to want you, you know that," Mac replied. "Stay as long as you need to."

He nodded. "Shall we?"

Mac slipped the key into the lock and opened the door. "I'm home!" she called out into the house. In answer she received the sound of Lucy's hysterics, "You lie!" she sobbed. "You're a liar!"

Harm looked at Mac for a split second before running into the living room to find out what had his daughter so upset. "Lucy?" he said when he saw her standing in the corner, red-faced and sobbing. "Baby, what happened?"

The poor little girl was so hysterical by now that breathing let alone speaking was a chore. She was sick to begin with, was running a fever and now...Mac came over to them, "Lucy? Baby?"

The child turned and clung to her father, unable to speak for another minute or two. Once her voice returned, all she said was "Uncle Mic is wrong!"

Mac turned to look at Mic who had the good grace to look sheepish instead of indignant. "What is he wrong about, Honey?" Mac asked stroking Lucy's hair as Harm held her.

"Uncle Mic said…" she cried."He said you…you aren't coming home anymore. He's lying!" she sobbed. Then looked up at Harm with huge baby blues, "Isn't he?"

Harm didn't answer. He just glared at Mic. "You wanna take her to her room?" Harm asked Mac, knowing what was about to happen and not wishing for his soon-to-be-ex wife or his daughter to be anywhere close.

Mac nodded and reached out for the still sobbing child, "Let's go to your room and see Pooh Bear. Then Daddy will come and read you a story, okay?"

Lucy went to Mac's arms and she hastily carried her from the room. She could feel the anger, the heat radiating in their living room and she didn't want Lucy anywhere near it.

No sooner were Mac and Lucy out of sight when Harm stormed over to where Mic was sitting, in the lounger that Harm once called his own. "Get up!" he said, leaving no room for debate. "Now!"

"Why?" Mic asked. "You're the guest here now. Not me."

Harm wasn't messing around. He reached down and yanked the Australian up by the collar of his shirt and held his grip tight as he spoke. "What the hell were you thinking telling Lucy that I'm not coming back?" he asked eyes dark with fury. "You trying to make her even sicker than she already is?

"I thought she all ready knew," Mic defended. "She was whining and crying about you, disobeying me..."

"How could she have already known?" asked Harm. "She wouldn't have talked about me coming back if we'd told her I wasn't!"

"Will you let go of my collar?" Mic asked in a firm tone, putting his hands up to remove Harm's if he did not comply.

Harm released the collar, shoving Mic back a bit in the process. "You're taking advantage of the divorce, Brumby, and don't think I don't know it. Don't think for a second that I don't know that you're trying to pull my kids away from me, and don't think for a second that I'm gonna stand for it!"

"Who says its the kids that I want?" Mic asked in a low voice.

Harm just glared. "You'll never have her, Brumby," he growled. "She's too good for you."

"Is she?" Mic sneered. "She was married to you for seven years."

"Precisely why she'll never fall for you," shot Harm.

"So why didn't you tell Lucy about the divorce?" Mic asked. "Or did you?"

"No, we didn't," he said. "And if it's any of your business why, we were waiting to tell them until it became final. Thanks for shooting that plan all to hell."

"Well...you have to discipline that girl," Mic sighed. "She's spoiled rotten..."

"No, she's not," said Harm firmly. "She's a 5-year-old who's been through far more than she should have in the past year."

"She has no respect for her elders. She doesn't listen to a word I say..." Mic sighed. "How was I supposed to know that you and Sarah didn't tell her and it was a childish delusion that she thought you were coming home?"

"You should never have said anything like what you said to her!" spat Harm. "Telling a child that her father isn't coming back - what kind of jackass are you, anyway?"

"She needed an attitude adjustment," Mic insisted. "Little witch bit me."

Acting solely on instinct, Harm reared back and clobbered Mic squarely on the cheek. "Don't ever call my daughter that again! Do you hear me?"

Mic reached back to return the punch, but Mac appeared in Lucy's bedroom doorway before he could, "Harm...Can you come in here, please?"

Once more glaring at Mic, Harm walked towards the bedroom.

"Ignore him," Mac advised. "Lucy isn't adjusting well to his being around so much. We have to tell her."

"Ignore him? Mac, he called our daughter a 'witch'!" said Harm.

"She has been difficult since you've moved out," Mac tried to excuse.

"With him around all the time," he said. "It's no wonder!"

"He's not around all the time," Mac sighed. "Can we please talk to her so she'll settle down. She got sick a few minutes ago, all that crying and her fever is higher now...Let's just talk to her," Mac sighed and reached out to tug on his hand.

With a reluctant sigh, he nodded and followed Mac into Lucy's room.

Lucy was lying on her bed with her beloved Pooh Bear. She was still crying, the sobs interspersed with pitiful sounding coughs. "Daddy, Uncle Mic is lying isn't he?" Lucy asked, big blue eyes wide.

It killed him to have to tell her the truth. "No, baby," he whispered, kneeling down to move her hair off her sweaty forehead. "He's not lying. Daddy isn't going to come back to live here anymore."

Two big tears slipped out of her eyes as her bottom lip poked out in a full fledged Rabb pout, "Why?" she squeaked.

He took a deep breath. "Because Mommy and I need to be away from each other and stop making each other sad."

"But...I want you here," she whispered. "Now I'm sad."

He pulled the child into his arms. "I'm sad, too, baby. Mommy and Daddy tired to make things better so that we could all still live together, but we couldn't do it." He knew most of the blame for that lie with him.

Mac came and sat down next to them, stroking Lucy's hair, "None of this is your fault, Baby. And none of this means that Mommy and Daddy don't love you and DJ very, very much."

"I want Daddy to live here," cried the child. "Like it was before..."

"I know," Mac soothed. "But it just can't be that way, darling. If it were, Mommy and Daddy would be angry and sad all the time. You wouldn't like that would you?"

Lucy shook her head as she continued to cry. She looked up at Harm. "But I'll miss you too much."

"You'll still get to see Daddy," Mac comforted as Harm rocked. "You get to go and eat with him every Wednesday night and one whole week every single month you get to go and sleep over at Daddy's new house. Won't that be fun?" Mac was aware she'd added an extra Wednesday to the agreement, but for now it was necessary.

"Can we eat at Chuck E. Cheese?" sniffled Lucy.

Mac smiled, "I'm sure sometimes Daddy will let you, won't you Harm?" Mac asked. He hadn't been answering Lucy's queries...and she knew why. He was crying too hard to speak for himself.

Between Harm's strong hugs and Mac's soothing words Lucy finally settled down and went to sleep. Mic had the good sense to not be in sight when Harm left a half hour later after securing permission from Mac to visit Lucy the next day to see how she was faring.

Over the next weeks the custody arrangements were presented to the lawyers and a court date was set to finalize the proceedings. In one short month, Harmon and Sarah Rabb would end their marriage once and for all.