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Later that night…

'Okay, where are we?' Mac asked, running her hands down her face. She and Harm had been talking for a long while, but they were no closer to a resolution.

'We can't bring her back,' Harm said, pacing the room, 'it would send all the wrong messages.'

'Yeah,' Mac said in agreement, 'but what if something else goes wrong? I mean, Lisa's a good friend, but if they can keep confidential files in a place where they can be easily accessed, who knows what else could go wrong?'

'We can't blame Lisa for this,' Harm responded. 'She had no reasonable expectation that any of those kids would be capable of doing what they did.'

Mac nodded. 'You're right….'

'We could go check on her, see how she's doing,' Harm said.

'Camp is ending in just three days. Going to check on her would be for our sakes, not hers. It would give her the impression that we think she can't handle something like this. Besides, the girls who said those awful things to her will be gone in the morning. Lisa says that even if they'd been allowed to stay, they would still have insisted on leaving.'

'Yeah, I guess camp is only fun for them as long as they're picking on someone,' Harm commented sarcastically. He sighed. 'I can't believe this happened. I knew something was going to go wrong out there.'

'You make it sound like she's out in the wild,' Mac said.

'Well, in some ways, she is. She's had her fair share of problems with other kids at school, but they've always been minor. Generally speaking, she's always been so well liked… the other kids always end up being sort of protective towards her. This is the first time she's experienced something like this from other kids.'

Mad nodded. 'Yes, but we agreed that she needed to learn to stand up for herself, to deal with tough situations on her own, and that's exactly what she's doing right now.'

'Yeah, but I hate to think of her getting hurt like that.'

'Me too… but it was bound to happen sometime,' Mac sighed.

'What I'd like to know is how the drama coach just stood by and let this happen.'

'According to Lisa, he was stunned at first,' Mac shrugged, 'and then he wanted to intervene quietly, without creating a scene.'

'Sounds like a lame excuse to me.'

'Come on, Harm,' Mac urged, 'cut the guy some slack. It's thanks to him that we even know how bad things were getting over there. Besides, teenage girls can be hard to handle.' She fell into a long silence before speaking again. 'You know what this is, Harm? Karma.'

'Huh?'

Mac shook her head. 'I've never really told you about this, but I wasn't exactly the nicest kid in high school. Especially to girly, goody two-shoes girls. I got along with guys better… I felt they were easier to understand and deal with, and I guess part of it was because I was seeking the male approval I couldn't get at home. Other girls just made me feel inadequate and uncomfortable, and I just thought it was the "cool" thing back then to put them down.' She sighed. 'It's hard to think Katie's getting a dose of the same treatment I used to hand out.'

'That's not what this is about, Mac,' Harm said, shaking his head, 'and you know it. Besides, you were hurt and may have been lashing out, but you don't have a deliberately cruel bone in your body. You'd never have told anyone they'd basically be better off dead.'

'Of course not,' Mac agreed, 'it wasn't that extreme, but I was pretty mean. I remember this one girl, Marla… I have no idea why, but all she wanted was to be my friend…. I didn't understand why, and I guess part of me just didn't trust her intentions. I mocked her, pushed her away, until she finally just gave up and stopped talking to me. And my crappy home situation is no excuse for my behavior back then. Things were bad for me, but Katie's lived through much worse – and she still has the kindest heart you could ever hope to find.'

'She does – she's an amazing girl.'

'Yes, she is.'

Harm finally stopped pacing and sat down, grasping his wife's hand. 'I'm so proud of her for standing up to those bullies. She's stronger than we gave her credit for. That's our little girl, Mac.'

Mac had tears glistening in her eyes as she reflected on Harm's words. She was thinking back to Katie's first year with her new family. For several agonizingly long weeks, their daughter hadn't uttered a single word to anyone but Jack. She wouldn't even talk to the Russian-speaking counselor they'd found. She would whisper words of fear and distrust to Jack when she thought no one was watching, but that was it. The day Mac handed her an apple and received a soft "Spasibo" in response, the first thing Katie had ever said to anyone except Jack, Mac had struggled to maintain her composure. 'Ne za chto, Yekaterina,' she had replied, calmly, trying to act like it was no big deal. Later that night, she had wept in Harm's arms, her gratitude overwhelming.

For months, Katie flinched and trembled when she was hugged. She was terrified of physical contact… Harm had learned quickly not to get too close to her. The level of fear and trauma she displayed when he came too near was deeply disturbing and hurtful to him. The first time she put her little arms around Harm's neck, he hadn't been able to hold back his tears.

For years, Katie had nightmares almost every night, calling out and crying in her sleep. She would wet her bed and then scramble to hide the evidence, petrified of being punished. She would hide beneath her bed when anything frightened her, quivering in fear until one of her parents found her. Like Jack had done before her, for a very long time she would eat furtively, almost guiltily, sneaking away bits of food to hide underneath her mattress and between her sheets. It didn't seem to matter how many times Harm and Mac told them they would always have enough food; it took them years to accept it.

'Yes, that's our little Katie,' Mac said now, thinking back on how far Katie had come, how far they'd all come.

Harm's eyes were suspiciously moist too. 'Except she's not quite so little anymore.'