(Disclaimer: I know doctors don’t do the ultrasounds, but it was easier to write it that way so – artistic licence! Also, I’m sorry but I have no idea if you can actually see scar tissue in an ultrasound, but hopefully you’ll indulge me and just pretend that we can? Thanks! All song lyrics here are of course copyrighted to their respective authors.)

PART 10

THE MELROSE HOTEL
2430 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE NW
WASHINGTON DC
1530 ZULU

Mac lay on the sofa in their suite quietly relaxing and waiting for Harm to return from the Rehab Hospital. She loved the suite at this hotel, it had been a wonderful place to spend their first married days together, and she didn’t at all mind that it was in place of a proper honeymoon. Of course, Harm hadn’t been able to get more time off at the moment, and neither had they been able to agree on a good honeymoon destination anyway. Harm wanted to take her sailing in the Bahamas, but Mac preferred doing something that neither of them had done before. As it was, she had pretty much decided to let Harm have his way – she knew he wouldn’t be truly happy unless he had something to ‘do’ on his vacation anyway, and she knew that sailing the boat would keep him entertained and make him feel important at the same time. There was no hurry though, this change was as good as a vacation for the moment. It was wonderful to see the old gang again, and tomorrow evening they would be heading home to London and she was actually looking forward to getting back to their house. It was sad that they wouldn’t be bringing Mattie with them, but she knew that Harm would come around eventually. He would initially be a bear, mostly because he had done a lot of work adapting the house for her arrival, and now the reminder of her *not* being there would be everywhere.

As she was laying there contemplating life, her eyes fell on Harm’s guitar and she had to smile. She was wondering why the heck he had insisted on carting that thing here all the way from London, and now she knew. She laughed out loud just remembering their party on the night of their wedding. Opting out of the traditional reception, they had instead decided to have everyone informally down to McMurphy’s for old time’s sake. Harm had initially been hesitant to celebrate their wedding there – bringing up the fact that it was both where Dalton had been murdered and she had once fallen off the wagon, but Mac had insisted that it was a good thing;

‘Our life together is not always going to be perfect Harm, but we’ll get through it… together. McMurphy’s reminds me of some bad things, but it also reminds me of all the good things, and all the times you were there for me to get me through the bad things…’

They had hired a live band and McMurphy’s had opened a special bar in back so that all their guests could drink there for free. She realized very soon into the night though that Harm actually knew a few members of the band, and knew that they would allow him to sit in on a number of tunes during the night, so that’s exactly what he did. Mac had to smile, he had been like a little kid running back and forth between dancing with her and then suddenly jumping up on stage and sitting in. He had put everyone in stitches because he had picked out specific tunes that accentuated moments in their relationship and he would name them. Some of them would be romantic, but a lot of them were funny - for example, at one point he played "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon and dedicated it to everyone that he and Mac had broken up with over the years. That had gotten a good laugh. Then one time he got up and said “Ladies and Gentlemen, ‘The Ballad of Paraguay’, or ‘How Clayton Webb tried to ruin my life… again’”. Then he proceeded to play a rendition of “Boots and Hearts” by the Tragically Hip. She hadn’t been familiar with that tune before, but it was so awfully and absolutely appropriate for that period of their relationship that it made her go from cringing to laughing and back again, several times over. Reminiscing, she started to hum the lines she could remember from that night;

‘You won’t even let me talk to you,
We’ve got some air to clear.
Well we’d probably only agree on one thing anyway…
That’s what the HELL is happening here!
Oh, fingers and toes, fingers and toes,
Are 40 things we share.
41 if you include the fact that we don’t care.
Oh, when it starts, to fall apart man,
It REALLY falls apart.
Like boots or hearts oh when it starts
It really falls apart… well… fall apart…’

She laughed in recollection. There had been two other highlights of that night. One was when Harm got Bud up to sing “Chariot” by Gavin DeGraw, but Harm convinced him to sing the word “Harriet” instead of “Chariot”. Both Harm and Bud were pretty tipsy by this point but Bud had such a good singing voice, it was hard not to be impressed by the performance. It certainly wasn’t a recreation of his drunken rendition of “Delilah” all those years ago, but it had Harriet in tears – especially when at one point the whole bar was echoing her name as loud as they could.

Bud would sing, “Give me your faith!”

And the whole bar would sing back “HAR-RI-ET!”

Mac smiled with the recollection, it had been really sweet.

The ultimate laugh though came at the very end when Harm actually performed “Don’t Phunk with My Heart” by the Black Eyed Peas. She had no idea Harm even *knew* songs like that, but she suspected he had been somewhat coached by the rather sultry female singer of the group. She had even taught him some rap hand signals and a couple of little hip-hop steps that he threw into the mix at random moments and it was so funny that Mac was sometimes unable to breathe. The thought of Harm singing in a rap style was funny enough as it was, but the lines of the song were hysterical;

“Girl, you know you got me, got me,
With your pistol shot me, shot me;
And I'm here helplessly in love
and nothing can stop me.
You can't stop me once I start it;
Can't return me once you bought it…”

Mac laughed out loud again and shook her head in embarrassment. ‘What had been the part that had made her stomach hurt from laughing?’

“Girl, you had me, once you kissed me,
My love for you is not iffy.
I always want you with me,
I'll play Bobby you play Whitney...”

God, she laughed, Harm must have really been drunk to get up and sing that although he didn’t really show it. The performance had brought the house down – not so much that it was so good, but that everyone was laughing so hard. She was sure the Admiral’s head was about to explode it was so red and he actually had tears in his eyes.

Her recollection was interrupted by Harm’s return to their hotel room. He initially looked sad when he came through the door, but when he saw her lying there smiling he found it contagious. “What are *you* smiling at, Ninja-girl?”

Mac grinned and immediately imitated the rap-hand signal with her arms and hands;

“I want your mind too
Intrestin's what I find you
And I'm interested in the long haul…”

Harm jumped in with the last line right on cue;

“Come on girl – YEE-HAW!” He then made a horse whinny sound and proceeded to making galloping noises by slapping his thigh with his hands.

Mac went into hysterics again and Harm jumped on top of her on the sofa playfully.

Mac was still giggling. “Who the hell taught you that song, anyway?”

“Mattie.”

“Ahhh… I should have known.”

“Yeah, I made the mistake of asking for her input when I told her my idea about sitting in with the band. She asked me if I would sing whatever song she came up with, and I stupidly agreed. Then of course, you know me… once I make a promise…”

“Oh I know all about your promises, sailor. Speaking of which, we’ve got a date with destiny…”

“I know” he smiled. “You ready?”

NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTRE
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
1700 ZULU

Harm had convinced Mac she needed to see her former doctor before they left Washington. Mac would have been fine to wait until they got back to London to make her first appointment, but Harm had of course insisted in that overprotective way that he had, and Mac thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consult this doctor seeing as she was the one who had operated on her endometriosis and was familiar with her medical history. She had to admit she was more than a little concerned about what effect the endometriosis would have on the pregnancy. At first she had been in denial and only wanted to be excited about the pregnancy, but more and more the dreaded feeling in the back of her mind wanted to be reassured.

Mac lay propped up on the examining table, waiting for the doctor to join them. Harm sat beside her nervously holding her hand while one knee bounced up and down impatiently.

“Nervous, Flyboy?”

Harm just returned her look with a knowing arch of his eyebrows.

“Hey, it’s just an ultrasound. There’s no pain involved or anything…”

“I know. I just… hate hospitals.”

The doctor entered and smiled at the couple. “Colonel MacKenzie – it’s so good to see you again… especially under *these* circumstances.”

Mac couldn’t help beaming. “Doctor, this is my husband Captain Harmon Rabb.”

Harm too was having a hard time fighting the pride of being introduced as her husband. “Harm” he offered as he shook her hand with a grin.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Captain.”

Mac smiled at Harm. She had tried to get this doctor to call her by her first name once before too and it hadn’t worked.

“Well let’s get down to business, shall we?” She lifted up Mac’s shirt and began to spread gel on the ultrasound wand liberally. Harm just looked at Mac with a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand.

The doctor moved the wand around her stomach, staring at the images on the screen, clicking on unidentifiable images and measuring their length. She didn’t say anything for a while and it was driving Harm insane. “Uh… everything look OK doctor?”

The doctor snapped out of her state and stared at Harm as if she had forgotten he was in the room. “Oh yes,” she said with a smile. “It all looks very good.” She turned to look at Mac. “Colonel, I was just trying to get a look at the scaring – you know it’s very minimal, which is good, but what there is seems to be in bad areas.”

“What do you mean ‘bad areas’?” Harm cut in with concern.

The doctor laughed slightly. “Well, normally I would say ‘bad areas’ because they would interfere with conception, but obviously that wasn’t a problem in this case.” She raised her eyes at Harm and he blushed under her gaze. “Colonel, are you having any pain?”

“Pain? No, I haven’t had any back pain since the surgery. My boobs hurt?” She added as a joke.

“What about other forms of pain? For example, during or after intercourse?”

Mac didn’t even get a chance to answer before Harm was glaring at her with intense concern and trepidation.

Mac continued to look at Harm as she answered the doctor emphatically. “No, I haven’t had any pain like that.”

Harm squeezed her hand and spoke almost under his breath. “Mac, you would tell me… wouldn’t you? I mean… I don’t ever want to…”

“Haaarm…” she rolled her eyes at him in mock exasperation, but then put her hand to his cheek with a smile. “Don’t worry – I would tell you – I promise.” She looked up at him through her eyebrows.

“Good, good…” the doctor continued as she looked back at the screen. “Well, I have to say everything else looks very good.”

“Do you know how far along I am?”

“Hmmm… well do you have any idea when you may have conceived?”

Mac and Harm both blushed instantaneously. “Uh…” Mac ventured, “let’s just say we’ve been getting a lot of… practice… it would be pretty hard to pinpoint a specific day…”

Harm thought the tops of his ears were going to burn off.

“Well,” the doctor turned the screen so both Harm and Mac could see it. She pointed to the screen and outlined a small form “This here is your baby.” Mac felt Harm’s hand tighten on hers immediately and she even discerned a small bead of sweat appear on his hairline. A surge of pride swelled in her, not only for the vision of the baby she was carrying, but also for the sudden surge of pride she’d just witnessed in Harm.

Harm was silent; he didn’t think he could say anything at this point even if he tried. Even though the image before him reminded him more of a ‘South Park’ character, hanging upside down, he just couldn’t help but be choked with pride at the little life he and Mac had created.

The doctor continued. “I can see all four chambers of the heart… that would indicate the second month…”

Harm and Mac exchanged glances.

The doctor continued. “Judging by the entire length of the fetus and the fact that I can see ears and limb buds pretty well… my guess would be maybe 8-10 weeks?”

Harm and Mac exchanged extremely surprised glances. The doctor looked up from the screen and picked up a small calculator. “Colonel, can you tell me when your last menstrual period was?”

“Umm… I it would have been around the 15th of April…”

The doctor smiled. “Well then, that would make your conception date… 29 April?” She looked at the couple, “Does that make sense?”

Mac stifled an astonished laugh, then turned to look at Harm. The exchange between their eyes said everything they needed to say, but since the doctor required a translation, they both responded simultaneously, “The first night…”

“Really?” The doctor seemed genuinely surprised. “Are you sure of the day?”

“Positive, doctor” Harm impressed a meaningful look on her. “I’d have to say that day is forever burned into my consciousness.”

“Well,” the doctor laughed. “You just have to understand, Captain… it is *extremely* rare for someone with endometriosis to get pregnant the first time…”

“Well, we said it was the first night doctor – not necessarily the first time…”

“MAC!”

“What?! I was just trying to be accurate.”

“I understand, but I’m *sure* it’s not really going to matter one way or another.”

Mac thought she might burst out laughing at the expression on Harm’s face.

The doctor just looked amusedly back and forth between the couple. “Well, at any rate, you two are incredibly lucky.”

“It’s not luck, doctor.” Harm said quietly, staring at the screen, “It’s fate.” Mac almost startled him when she reached a hand up to his face. He smiled at her weakly, leaned down and kissed her.

“Congratulations you two.” The doctor smiled at them. “According to my calculations, you should be proud parents of a bouncing baby boy or girl on the 20th of January 2006”.

Harm took a deep breath and looked at Mac.

“You OK, sailor?”

“Yeah.” He breathed out. “I spent the last five years thinking I was ready for this… but I guess you never truly are…”

The doctor handed him a printout of the ultrasound. “Here’s your first picture for the family photo album, Dad.”

Harm didn’t even trust himself to stand up when the doctor left the room.

KETTLEMAN’S BAGEL SHOP
ROSSLYN, VA
28 JUNE 2005

2400 ZULU

“Hey Harm.” Harriet stood and gave the Captain a quick hug. “Thanks so much for coming. Please sit down. Do you want a coffee?”

“Uh, not right now thanks.” Harm was a little uncomfortable. He had no idea why Harriet would need to drag him out like this – away from friends and family. He hoped it was nothing too serious.

Harriet sensed Harm’s uneasiness and broke into a good-humoured smile. “I’m so sorry for being all ‘cloak-and-dagger’ like this… it’s just… well, I really didn’t know how to say this…”

“Say what Harriet?”

Harriet gave him a serious look, full of trepidation. “How to say that I was wrong?”

Harm looked at her curiously. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you Harriet”.

“Oh Harm, I just have to tell you that I think I made an awful mistake… back when you asked Bud to come with you to London.”

Harm suddenly saw where this was going and he looked down at the table to stifle a small smile.

“I know you must think that I talked Bud out of it… well, heck, you know I did. It’s just that at the time, I thought I was doing what was best… I still don’t think that it was a bad thing to stay here… it’s just that, in the last two months let’s just say I guess I’ve had a change of heart. You know as well as I do that eventually Bud is going to get a billet somewhere else… I was stupid to think we could avoid that… so why would we pass up being able to pick our own billet?”

“Harriet…”

“Oh, before you say it… I know we’ve probably missed our chance. I mean I’m sure you probably already have the position filled that you wanted Bud for, but I just needed to tell you that it was wrong what I did.” She looked solemnly at the table. “I guess I’ve just gotten so used to being a mother, that I sometimes forget I’m not Bud’s mother.”

Harm had to smile at that.

“Going to London would have been a huge career move for Bud – I see that now – you could have gotten him farther than any of us ever expected him to get. But I think the thing that makes me regret this whole thing the most is…” she looked up to meet Harm’s eyes, “… missing you guys.”

“Really?” Harm was truly surprised.

Harriet smiled “Well don’t look so aghast – God, you two are our oldest and dearest friends. You’ve been there since the beginning of me and Bud, you guys stood beside us when we got married, you guys taught Bud how to be the best lawyer this side of the Potomac, heck – you even held my hand when our first born was brought into this world!”

Harm smiled at the memory and looked down at the table. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day.”

“Harm, it suddenly occurred to me that I don’t want to lose our friendship – I don’t want A.J. and Jimmy to forget who their Auntie Mac and Uncle Harm are – especially now that you two are finally together! It isn’t fair!” she laughed, “We waited so long for you two to get to this stage and now we’re going to miss it all!” She lightly slapped Harm’s shoulder in a teasing manner.

Harm just grinned at her in embarrassment.

Harriet’s voice softened. “I guess I just miss you guys. I realized that in choosing the safe option, I gave up watching our kids grow up together… having backyard barbeques, return babysitting favours and getting to be the Godparents of your and Mac’s children…I mean… God willing…” her voice trailed off while Harm’s heart skipped a beat at the statement.

Harm was at a loss for words and an awkward silence ensued before he was able to respond. “Harriet… I really want to thank you for saying that... but…”

“Oh I know, it’s OK. I know we missed our chance…”

“No! Harriett… that wasn’t what I was going to say. I mean, yes the position is filled right now, but he’s being posted out in the New Year… probably end of January or maybe February…”

“Really?” Harriet offered cautiously with a slow smile.

“I mean, if you two are still missing us at that point…”

Harriet squealed and threw her arms around Harm. “YES, YES! Oh, thank you, thank you!!!”

“Whoa, Harriet.” Harm had to laugh as he struggled under Harriet’s embrace. “Shouldn’t you be talking this over with Bud first? I mean, knowing you two, maybe *he’s* had a change of heart about this whole thing!”

Harriet smiled calmly and put both hands deliberately on the table. “Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. Of course we will talk about this together, I’m just thankful for the opportunity to broach the subject again. Thanks Harm.”

“Thank *you* Harriet”

END PART 10