A/N: Thanks to all who have reviewed and to Snugglebug for everything she's done for the fic and in real life. Hugs, Lady. :D

I hope to update again by the weekend. Enjoy!

The weeks preceding the finalization of divorce were relatively peaceful, Harm and Mac alternated custody of the children, Harm came to see Lucy nearly every day, for she was sick fifteen of the twenty eight days since they reached the agreement. That period of peace ended on Wednesday night however when Harm went to Manassas to pick up his children.

Harm couldn't wait to see his little ones when he arrived at their home on the appointed Wednesday night. He'd been TAD the previous one and had missed that visit. Smiling and armed with presents he knocked on the door and waited for Mac to come to let him in. When she opened the door, he could not miss the black circles under her eyes or the white washed look of her skin.

"Mac?" he said. "You look sick; you feeling okay?"

"Yes, I'm just tired," Mac replied. "DJ's all ready."

"What about Lucy?' he asked, setting the armload of gifts on the sofa.

"You can't have Lucy tonight Harm," Mac replied.

"Mac..." he said in a warning tone.

"What?" Mac snapped, her exhaustion wearing on her patience.

"We have an agreement," he said. "Don't cause problems, please."

Mac placed her hands on her hips. "Damn it, Harm. I'm not causing problems. She had surgery today; she's not leaving the house!"

His eyes grew wide as dinner plates. "Surgery? Surgery! For what?"

"She had her tonsils out, you knew that," Mac sighed.

"No, I didn't!" he exclaimed. "You never told me! Why not, Mac? Why not?"

"I didn't tell you because...I told Mic...Mic told you, Harm! If you forgot well..." Mac shook her head.

"Mic told me nothing!" spat Harm. "He and I don't even speak when we can avoid it, why was I supposed to find out anything from him?"

"I asked him to tell you," Mac replied. "He told me he did and that you insisted on having DJ."

"He's lying," said a very angry Harm. "Because he never told me jack shit about anything!"

"I find that very hard to believe, Harm," replied Mac. "Why would he lie?"

"For the same reason he told Lucy that I wasn't going to live here anymore," said Harm, hands waving for emphasis. "He's a self-centered bastard!"

"When he told her that he was telling the truth. We were lying, some of us," she glared at him. "Are better at that than others."

"Oh, here we go again," he said, rolling his eyes. "Can you just let it go? I screwed up everything, okay, it's not news anymore!"

"Well apparently it is when you of all people insist on accusing perfectly decent men of lying," Mac shot back. "Admit it; Lucy doesn't matter as much to you now that you have your new little daughter to love."

"You're wrong, Mac," he said, pointing his finger at her. "The chances that I'm that baby's father are less then one hundredth of one percent. I got the results last week; Annie's baby is not mine just like I swore all along, but no one believed me!"

"Then why didn't you come to the hospital?" Mac asked. "She cried two hours for you and you never came! What was so damned important?"

"I didn't know she was there!" he yelled.

"And I have a bridge to sell you," Mac replied dropping down on the sofa head in her hands.

"Mac, why on earth would I not have been there if I'd known?" he asked emphatically. "It's your job to make sure I know about things like this, and you didn't do it!"

"I told Mic to tell you. I had to go to the hospital with our petrified little girl at 0600 this morning," Mac hissed.

"I'm not sure I believe you, Mac," he said. "I'm thinking you didn't ask Mic to tell me anything, just so I wouldn't show up and you could use this to get custody!"

"You son of a bitch!" she hissed. "I told him to tell you and he told me he did! Now do you want to see your son or don't you want anything to do with him either?"

Harm shook his head, his face red with anger. "I can't believe you, Sarah; this is low even for you. Mark my words, after this stunt, I will get custody."

"We all ready have a suitable arrangement," Mac replied as DJ toddled out of his room, eyes running with tears at the raised voices.

"Not anymore we don't," he said, going to pick up DJ and try to comfort him. "How could you keep this from me? How could you let Lucy think I chose not to be there?"

"I didn't tell her anything," Mac replied. "She came to that conclusion all by herself. You might think us both ignorant but we are not. And what do you...you honestly think after this you'll have a chance in Hell for custody! You'll be lucky you ever see them again once this gets out to a judge, this along with every other stupid, selfish thing you've done. If you go there, Harmon, I swear that I will crucify you. I'll destroy you," Mac bit out. "Not only won't you see them ever, ever again, you won't have a pot to piss in. I will bury you!"

He shifted DJ into his other arm, grabbed his cover from the couch and headed for the front door. "Don't get your shovel out just yet," he hissed setting the boy down and placing his hands on his hips. "I want to see my daughter."

Mac let him go to Lucy's room. It wasn't Lucy's fault, any of it. When Harm opened the door, he saw the tiny girl sleeping in her bed, her Pooh tucked under her arm.

He entered the room quietly and knelt beside her bed.

Lucy stirred when she sensed her father's presence. She opened her eyes and looked at him. In a tiny raspy voice she said, "Hi Daddy."

"Hi, Button," he said with a smile. "How do you feel?"

"My throat hurts," she rasped. "I'm really sleepy."

"Go back to sleep," he said softly. "I just wanted to tell you I love you."

Lucy smiled her Rabb smile, "I love you Daddy."

With that her little eyes closed and she fell back to sleep. Harm turned down the hallway and reclaimed his son.

"We don't have to get messy, Harm," Mac tried as he was preparing to leave.

"So threatening to keep my kids away from me forever," he said. "And to 'bury' me is your idea of playing clean?"

"You were the one who brought up custody Harm, not me," Mac replied in a low voice as not to upset DJ. "I'm just warning you about what's going to happen if you insist on terminating the present arrangement."

"Don't play mind games with me, Mackenzie," he said, reverting back to the most informal days of their relationship. "You're not going to scam me out of my kids; you're just not. You're setting me up here, trying to make me look bad, and it's just not going to work. Mark my words, you won't win."

Mac advanced on him, closing the space. "Oh trust me," she said in a deadly low voice. "I most certainly will. I'm their mother; they need to be with me. Not with a father that could care less what happened to them. You didn't even care about Lucy when she was born...You barely made it in time. Sure you did a fine job of pretending..."

"Just shut up," he said, shaking his head at her nonsense. "You know I love my kids, you're just grasping at straws and it's not going to do you any good."

"Well see about that in court won't we?" Mac asked, stance unwavering, hands on her hips. She reached for DJ, "Give me my son."

Harm turned to where the boy was as far away from Mac as possible. "Forget it, this is my time with him!"

"Fine, enjoy it, it's the last time you'll see him until he's eighteen," Mac hissed. "If you are one second late with him, I'm calling the police."

"Whatever," he said, disgusted that he'd lost almost 45 minutes arguing with Mac. He walked towards his vehicle, doing all he could to calm down and enjoy the miniscule amount of time he had with his little boy.

Mac sat on the sofa crying a long time after Harm left. It was nearly an hour since he left and she still sat there and sobbed. She was surprised when she heard a knock on her door. Harm couldn't be back all ready? Could he? Maybe he wanted...All thoughts were suspended when Mac opened the door to Mic. "Hey," she sniffled and let him inside.

"What's wrong?" asked Mic gently. "Why're you so upset?"

"It's Harm," she whispered and sat down. "He...He's..."

Mic sat beside her and took her hand. "Go ahead, love. It's all right; tell me."

"Mic, did you tell Harm...did you tell him about Lucy?" Mac asked, brown eyes wide and running with tears.

"I sure did," he said, outright lying to her. "He didn't seem too concerned; just amazed me."

"He came here today and he said that...that you never told him," Mac sighed. "He was so angry I thought maybe you forgot."

Mic hadn't forgotten; he'd simply chosen not to do as Mac had asked him to, purposely creating a terrible rift in an already beaten and torn marriage. "Would I forget something like that?" he asked rhetorically. "I think not, love."

"He...he was so angry. He...he says he's going for custody now. He accused me of purposely not telling him. Maybe...Are you...forget it," Mac sighed. "Please just...I'm not good company right now."

"Nonsense," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're just tense, but I can help with that." He began to gently rub her shoulder, waiting for her to look up.

"I'm scared Mic," she whimpered looking into his eyes. "What if he wins?"

"He won't, Sarah," said Mic. "He just...won't." He ceased his massage on her shoulder. "Turn around here for me, turn your back this way."

Mac shook her head, "No...No, he always used to…could you just please..."

He took hold of her shoulders and turned her body to face him. "Then tell me what to do, Sarah" he asked in a hush. "Tell me what...what you need. Please?"

"Could you...please hold me?" she asked and reached her arms up for him. She needed someone strong to lean on, she leaned on Harm so long, she no longer knew how to stand on her own.

"Come here," he whispered, opening his arms for her. She nestled into them and he pulled her in close, holding and comforting her in silence for several minutes before leaning down and softly kissing her temple.

"I hate him so much sometimes," she sniffled. "But part of me...a part of me misses him so much."

"Understandable, sweetheart," said Mic. "You were together for a long time, but that doesn't mean you can't let him go."

"I...I don't know what's happened to him. How could he...How could he just not care about her? It doesn't make sense, she's his life."

"He's fickle," said Mic. "Remember when you were his life?"

Mac sniffled and nodded her head. Just then they were interrupted by a little raspy voice, "Mommy?"

"What's wrong, baby?' she asked, rising to go to her.

"Is Daddy here?" she asked. Lucy remembered seeing her Daddy and wanted him again.

"No, baby, he's not," Mac replied.

"Was he here?" Lucy squeaked her weak battered voice all ready faltering.

"He was here before, to pick up DJ," said Mac. "He'll be back soon."

"Can he come sing me my song?" she rasped out, pressing on her throat to get her voice to work.

"Of course he can, baby," said Mac. "Come with Mommy, you need to get back in bed."

"My throat hurts," she squeaked out to Mac.

"Would you like a popsicle?" asked Mac.

Lucy nodded and cuddled next to Mac's leg.

Mac retrieved a popsicle for Lucy and could tell that the little one was not going to go back to bed on her own. She didn't feel well and wanted her Mommy and her Daddy to comfort her, but Daddy was busy with DJ. Mic took Lucy in his lap and helped her eat her Popsicle without dripping it. Mac kept them coming to soother her baby's throat all the while sitting close to Lucy and to Mic, taking comfort from him while they both gave comfort to Lucy. Before anyone knew it, it was time for Harm to return. He was one minute early.

He opened the front door quietly using the spare key they kept hidden in the rock garden. DJ was asleep, and he didn't want to wake him if possible. The scene that met his eyes when he got the door open was one he'd see in his nightmares for a long time to come. Lucy was sitting on Mic's lap, her head on his shoulder. Mac was sitting almost on Mic's lap, with her legs entwined in his. If the sight alone wasn't enough to break Harm's heart in two, the sound that went with it no doubt was. Mic was singing to Mac and Lucy...he was singing Lucy's "sleepy song", the one Harm had sang to her since before she was born. In that instant, he realized he'd been all but replaced, and the divorce wasn't even final yet.

Mac sensed Harm's presence first, "Right on time," she replied disentangling herself from Mic and moving to take DJ. "Thanks for getting him to sleep."

"Fell asleep in the car," said Harm, trying to keep his emotions in check as he passed the boy to his mother.

"Just the same," Mac replied and took DJ. "Is she asleep Mic?" Mac asked.

"Awful close if she ain't," he replied softly, glancing at Harm for a split second.

"Can you take her back to her bed?" Mac asked. "I have him."

"I'll take her," said Harm.

"That's all right, Harm," Mac replied. "We have it under control. You can go now."

Without the strength in him to fight anymore that night, he just nodded and showed himself to the door.