Clara's First Word

MARCH 2003

1800 EST
JAG HEADQUARTERS
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

Harm and Mac's working dinners had gotten a lot more interesting since they became parents. Granted their dinners had also gotten a lot less productive, but the entertainment value had most definitely increased.

"What are you going to do about the McElroy case?" Mac asked as she poked her chopsticks into her takeout box. "Have you thought about your closing argument?"

"No, not really," Harm answered sheepishly. He leafed through the stack of papers in front of him, with his own takeout box getting cold on the table and a squirming Clara in his lap. She was in the very beginning of what Harm and Mac had quickly coined her "monkey see, monkey do" phase, so naturally she reached for the stack of papers just as Harm did, grabbing a section of the stack and lifting them up by the corner.

"Clara, no-" Harm started, but it was too late. Several papers slid from the stack and onto the floor.

"Don't mess with Daddy's papers," he finished lamely. Mac snorted, covering her mouth with her hand so Harm wouldn't notice her amusement at his plight.

Harm did notice, of course, because Clara started to giggle as soon as Mac did. Harm looked between them and rolled his eyes. "You two," he said, bending down to pick up the papers, keeping one arm around Clara to keep her on his lap.

Mac scrunched her nose at him, knowing the silly face would make Clara laugh more. "You love us," she said, leaning across Harm's desk, propping her elbows on the desk. "Doesn't he?" she asked Clara. "Daddy loves us so much."

"He does," Harm confirmed, glancing up at Clara with a smile.

"Do you want me to take her for a little bit so you can actually get some work done?" Mac asked, reaching her hands across the desk for her daughter. Clara squealed, almost launching herself out of Harm's lap to try and get to Mac. Harm's eyes widened, his grip on Clara tightening out of instinct.

He looked at Mac wearily. "I think you should. At this rate, I'll drop her."

"You would never do that," Mac said as Harm passed Clara to her. "I trust you."

Mac placed a kiss on Clara's cheek before settling her into her lap. She had work to do as well, but not nearly as much as Harm did, plus she would gladly take any opportunity to get some Clara cuddles.

"Do you know who that is?" Mac whispered to Clara, pointing to Harm as he arranged his papers back into the correct order. Clara giggled and babbled something incoherent.

"That's Dada," Mac told her, pointing to Harm and purposefully over annunciating the syllables. "Can you say that? Da-da?"

Clara giggled again, but didn't say anything. Out of the corner of Harm's eye, he saw Mac's shoulders slump in disappointment. He looked up from his papers and wiggled his eyebrows at Clara, pointing to Mac. "Look," he said, and Clara twisted around to stare up at Mac. "That's Mama. Can you say Ma-ma?"

Clara grinned up at Mac, but didn't call her mama. Harm and Mac both sighed.

"She'll get it eventually," Mac said. "She's just taking her time."

"Right."

"I mean she was early with walking. We can't expect her to be early with everything."

"Right."

Both of them looked down at their daughter, who stared back at them with wide, indifferent eyes. She had absolutely no idea how anxiously her parents were awaiting her first word. Harm and Mac had started it off as a competition, with Harm trying to see if Clara would say "Dada" before "Mama" and Mac expecting the opposite. However, as time wore on, they just started hoping she would say something, anything.

"Are you sure you have nothing to say?" Mac asked Clara, tickling her side. "It's your first amendment right. Freedom of Speech."

Harm smirked. "I think she's a little young for that, Mac."

She shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

More time passed, and it was a little past Clara's bedtime when Harm and Mac decided to call it quits for the evening. Clara was still wide awake, something that didn't bode well for her parents trying to get her to sleep that night - Harm and Mac both had their fingers crossed that the car ride home would have her out by the light.

"Can you take her back for a second?" Mac asked Harm, who had miraculously been able to get some work done. "I want to use the bathroom before we leave."

"Sure, Mac."

Once again back in her father's lap, Clara watched with interest as Mac headed for the door of Harm's office. She'd finally gotten out of the phase where she would freak out every time Mac got out of her sight, something Mac was immensely grateful for.

Harm was glancing over his papers one last time before putting them back in his briefcase when he noticed something about the McElroy case that he'd forgotten to ask Mac about.

"Hey Mac," he called just as she was exiting his office.

"Yeah?"

"Mac!"

Harm and Mac stared at each other. They were pretty sure they had just heard the same thing, but they couldn't be sure.

"Was that what I think it was?" Mac asked, her mouth opening in disbelief as she looked at Harm and then down at Clara.

"I think it was," Harm replied, nodding slowly. He lifted Clara up so she was standing in his lap. He pointed to Mac. "Who is that?"

"Mac!" Clara repeated with a giggle, this time perfectly clear. Harm laughed, and Mac's eyes lit up as she walked back into the office.

"What did you just call me?" she asked, her excitement that her daughter had just spoken for the first time ever outweighing the fact that she technically hadn't gotten Mac's name right. She leaned down to make eye contact with Clara, making the same silly face she had made earlier. "You're supposed to call me Mama, silly."

"Mac."

"Ma-ma."

"Mac!"

Mac laughed, and Harm shook his head. "To be fair, that is your name," he said. "And 'Mac' is what I call you all the time, to be fair."

"At least we know she's listening to us," Mac said, sitting down on the edge of Harm's desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Clara, who grinned back up at her with a smile that was all Harm's.

"I'll tell you one thing," she said, reaching down to gently tap the tip of Clara's nose with. "She is her father's daughter."

"That she is," Harm agreed with a smirk. "Don't act like you don't love it."

Mac rolled her eyes. "I'm okay with it," she teased. "You know this means I win, right?"

Harm immediately frowned. "No it doesn't!" he insisted. "She still hasn't said Mama or Dada yet."

"Technically she addressed me, though."

"By the wrong name!"

"Her heart was in the right place," Mac said, playfully nudging her foot against Harm's. "I knew exactly what she meant," she tapped her temple. "Mother's intuition."

Harm pointed at Mac again. "Who is that?" he asked, while Mac waited with smug excitement.

Clara stared at her mother for a few minutes, thinking hard about what she wanted her answer to be.

"Come on, third time's the charm," Harm said, pointing at Mac again. "Who is that?"

"Mama!"Harm's mouth dropped open and Mac threw her hands up. "See?" she said smugly. "I told you. I win."

I labeled this piece as "semi-reupload" because even though this is a story that I had posted before, this one shot in particular is new. Since this is a collection of short stories rather than a regular, chronological story, I figured that there's no real need for me to repost the one shots in a specific order. Plus some of them I want to go back and revise before reposting them just because I have a different vision for them now versus when I wrote them two years ago. Hope you all enjoyed this fluff piece. There was scarcely any fluff between Harm and Mac on the show, so I take any opportunity I can in my fics to include some fluff for them. They deserve it.

-Harper