I know I've been in the middle of another Night Court story (well, technically two) but I've decided to put it on hold until I can either find my original outline or come up with a new one. (A bit more on this in a profile note.) I've been rewatching the original series yet again and I wanted to try and explore the end of Season 8 without all the chaos Season 9 brought to the Harry/Christine storyline. I've not watched the reboot, so none of that is going to be taken into consideration, either. I hope you enjoy!

"Charlie asleep?"

"As soon as his head hit the pillow," Christine chuckled as she sat on the arm of the couch. "You tuckered him out today."

"Me?" Harry replied with feigned defense. "If I recall, you were the one who invited me to the carnival."

"Harry… Charlie is barely one year old. There's not much for him at a carnival. I brought him along so you had a pass to play in the kiddie area." She winked.

"Well, maybe he won't remember today as well as you and I will, but he'll remember Snuffles here-" he elbowed the four-foot stuffed elephant sitting next to him.

Christine laughed. "Thank you again for winning him a prize bigger than his crib."

"Any time," he smirked. After a moment, he added, "I had fun today."

"Me too."

"Really. These last few weeks with you have been terrific. When Margaret left… I knew it hit me hard, but I didn't realize how miserable I was feeling until I started feeling… I guess happy again, you know."

"Believe me, I know."

"Right. I'm sorry."

Touching his shoulder she said, "You don't need to be."

"How have you been doing?"

"I'm all right. Honest. The last few weeks have made a difference for both me and Charlie. He's loved having you around."

Harry smiled, leaning back against the cushions. "I'm nuts about that kid."

"And he's nuts about you — with or without Snuffles."

"You don't think Tony minds having me around?" he asked, growing more serious.

Christine scoffed. "He's not around enough to have an opinion."

"You mean you haven't told him?"

She shrugged. "Why should I? We're divorced. And so what if we weren't? Charlie has every right to spend time with his Uncle Harry as much as I have the right to spend time with a friend."

Seeing that she was growing agitated, he tried to backtrack. "It's okay. Never mind. I shouldn't have brought it up. I guess I just figured—"

"No," she breathed. "I'm sorry, Harry. I'm still kind of reeling from this whole thing."

"Who can blame you?" he said, touching her knee. "A lot changed awful fast. Even if some of it has been the best change possible."

"You know, sometimes I still can't believe I'm a mother. I thought I'd be used to it by now."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

She quirked an eyebrow.

"I mean, sometimes I can't believe you're a mother, either. At work, you're, you know, you. Then the weekend comes and I know if I'm bored I can pop over for Saturday morning cartoons."

With a nod, she said, "I've started having a bowl of Cheerios ready for you."

"Which reminds me, can we have Fruit Loops next weekend? You know, for Charlie," he teased.

"Oh come on, that's nothing but sugar."

He let out a theatrical sigh. "Mother knows best."

She swatted his shoulder.

"But seriously, I hope I'm not putting you out. Saying it out loud, I'm realizing I might be intruding."

"Not at all," she said in almost a panic. "I look forward to it. That was one of the hardest things when Tony left. He was almost always around Saturday mornings. Of course, he typically made more of a mess for me to clean up. I get chores done while you're with Charlie."

"So long as you're sure."

"I'm positive. You've always meant a lot to me, Harry — you're my best friend. But these past few weeks… I don't know. I feel like something's changed, but at the same time, it feels familiar spending so much time together. With Tony coming back when Charlie was born, all of my spare time was spent with them. Then you were with Margaret and…"

Harry finished for her. "It didn't make sense for us to spend time together outside of work."

"No."

"Though I'd never wish for either of us to go through any of this again, I am glad we're here now."

Pursing her lips, she nodded, sliding down next to him on the couch. "Me too."

The energy between them shifted. This wasn't the first time it'd happened recently, but it was the first time it had happened when they were completely alone. When Christine asked if she could ask him a question, Harry swallowed and prepared himself for the conversation they'd had a few times throughout their friendship, but was surprised when what she said had nothing to do with 'them'.

"What happened with you and Margaret?"

Standing up abruptly, Harry started, "Christine—"

"I know, you don't want to talk about it."

"I can't, Christine. I need you to trust me."

"It's just that you've kept it to yourself for so long. Whatever happened with her changed you."

"It's no different than what happened with you and Tony. You aren't the same person you were a year or two ago, either."

Though she couldn't deny this, she felt it was also unfair. "I had a baby."

"… So maybe I can't compete with that."

"You might feel better if you talk about it," she encouraged him.

"I know I would," he said with annoyance. "Can't you trust that I have my reasons? None of that matters anymore. I'd rather focus on the future. Right now. Why go through this back and forth again?"

"Because," she replied, then quickly trailed off. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, Harry curious but not about to hurry her along as she formulated her thoughts.

Eventually, she went on. "Because there's been a shift between us. I know you've felt it, too. I'm not suggesting we figure it all out tonight or even in the next week or month, but I can't go on not acknowledging it. We've been through all that before."

"There has been," he agreed, albeit with some reluctance. "And I know we can't avoid talking about it forever. But what does this have to do with Margaret?"

Christine took a breath before answering. "Because the only reason you're not with her is because she left. If, and I know it's a big if, something were to happen between us, I want to know it's… I guess permanent, if it progresses to that point. You were going to marry her."

Taking her hand, Harry looked her square in the eye. "Christine, listen to me. Margaret is never coming back."

"But what if she does? What if we were together and she did? I can't go through what I went through with Tony again. Especially not with you. He might not have left me for another woman, but his love of his job was greater than his love for me. It would crush me if I lost you in a similar way because I know if our relationship hit that point, there'd be no going back to being just friends unless the parting was mutual. You mean so much to me. On some level, I knew me and Tony weren't right for each other all along, but I don't know if I could reconcile it with you."

He couldn't help the soft smile that appeared on his lips, although he remained serious and squeezed her hand tighter. "Believe me, I have been thinking up the possibility of us, too. That's never been an easy discussion for so many reasons. But I can assure you that Margaret is not coming back. She can't. And if, for some incredibly unlikely reason, she did and you and I were together, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't be torn between the two of you. No one compares to you. If not for our careers, I think we would have gotten together years ago. Remember when I was fired?"

She nodded.

"If we got to the point where we've put our relationship before our jobs, we'll have had to have made some big changes. Maybe not as drastic as this, but I could have pushed Maragaret into letting me go with her. She knew I wouldn't be happy giving up my career — my life here. My friends."

Pulling her hand away, gently leaning back, she said, "Wait a minute… you had a choice to stay with Margaret?"

"Yes and no."

She thought for a moment, then things started to click. "She 'can't' come back… Did she… have to leave?"

He nodded this time, breaking eye contact.

"Her job?"

Another nod.

"She was in danger."

"Yeah."

"Oh, Harry… I'm so sorry."

He shrugged. "It is what it is."

"You were crazy about her… why didn't you go with her?"

"I wanted to," he admitted despite knowing it would only complicate her worries. "I told her I would, but she refused. She was right to, even though I couldn't see it at the time. In the greater scheme of things, we didn't know each other that long. Yes, I was ready to marry her, but completely changing my identity would have been too big a test. I wouldn't even have been able to say goodbye."

"No wonder you were so upset."

"She asked me not to tell anyone for a while. By the time it was safer to, I didn't want to go through it all again. And I couldn't be positive. I didn't want to take a chance, especially around the courthouse. In case someone was snooping around knowing we were involved. They might have thought she would come back to see me or that I know where she is. I needed to protect her."

"I'm sorry I pushed," Christine said after a moment. "I should have realized."

"It's all right. You were trying to help."

"I guess I was making it worse."

"I wanted to tell you," he said. "I almost did. I knew you wouldn't tell anyone."

She shook her head. "I should have known."

"It's all right, really. You know now."

"I promise never to bring it up again."

"It's okay," he pressed. "And I'm okay. It crushed me, but I've accepted it. Looking back now, I can see that maybe we weren't the greatest match. You all saw it before I did."

"Maybe," she said, "but my opinion wasn't the most unbiased."

Harry chuckled. "Here I thought you were just trying to get back at me for anything I might have said about you and Tony not being right for each other."

"Maybe we need to start taking each other's advice more often."

"Might have spared us some heartache, huh?"

"A lot of heartache. Then again, if not for Tony, I wouldn't have Charlie."

"I'll say that's worth everything else," he smiled.

"Absolutely."

"Mostly I'm worried about her," he said after a few seconds. "I have no way of knowing if she's okay."

She touched his arm. "I can't even imagine."

"Sure you can. Tony's a cop. Your marriage might not have worked out, but you still care for him."

"I do," she sighed, "I guess I felt like that when he was in South America, but still, it's different."

"Well… I suppose it doesn't really matter now. Things change."

"Which brings us back to us…"

"Yeah."

Seeing his shoulders tense, Christine nudged him with her foot. "I'm not looking to sort it all out tonight. Like I said before, I just don't want to fall into old patterns. We let things go unsaid between us for so long. Once we finally confronted it, I feel like things got easier even though we chose not to complicate things by getting involved. I know those reasons haven't changed."

"No," he said sadly, "they haven't. Which is why I hesitate to talk about it. Because I don't want any more change right now. At least not the kind of change that means we can't spend time with each other."

"Neither do I."

"Then again, the way we've been going out — with or without Charlie — might have people coming to certain conclusions anyway."

"That's true."

"And so far, it hasn't seemed to matter. It certainly hasn't affected our roles in the courtroom."

"Not at all."

"But then again, we aren't, you know, technically, romantically involved. But emotionally…"

Grazing her bottom lip against her teeth, she said, "I'd say that's as much of a conflict as being romantically involved at this point."

"So when you think of it that way, it's easy to think there's no harm in letting things evolve naturally. Because maybe we'd come to the conclusion that we're better as friends and nothing would need to change."

"Exactly."

"But if we decided to pursue a, like you said, more permanent relationship, we'd feel less intimidated by the notion of one or both of us addressing our jobs."

"I agree."

"So, where does that leave us now?"

Sitting up again, Christine said, "I think it leaves us with the agreement not to force anything one way or the other. Things are always going to be complicated between us, but if something is happening here, I think we owe it to ourselves to let it. Because you're right. We might come to realize we're better as friends. At least we'll know for once and for all."

"I think you might be right. I'm tired of pretending I don't feel something significant for you."

"Me too."

"But I do think we need to keep this between us for now. Obviously, everyone knows we've been spending a lot of time together, but I don't think we should be making any announcements."

"No, I agree," she said with some relief. "I can't handle the pressure."

"So what do you say: Tomorrow it's back to business as usual, then Friday we take in a show and then I'll bring over a box of Fruit Loops Saturday morning?"

Christine laughed. "You can eat whatever you want, but those are going nowhere near Charlie."

"Ah, come on. You let him have some of my cotton candy today."

"Actually, you let him."

"But you didn't stop me," Harry smirked.

"Only because you both looked so happy."

"I'm going to quit while I'm ahead," he said as he stood up. "Thanks again for taking me along today."

"Anytime," she said, standing as well and following him over to the door. "And I'm sorry again about Margaret. For what happened and for prying it out of you."

"Don't be," he said as he turned around to face her. "I would have done the same."

"I know."

While one hand reached for the doorknob, the other touched Christine's cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."