For reasons about to be revealed this is going to be one long Author's Note. You're still advised to read it, it will explain much.

First off, I deliberated for a long, long time whether to do this, as it's pretty cliche and corny, but I hope you'll still like it. You'll know what I mean when you get to it :-)

I'm sorry some of you didn't appreciate or "get" the previous chapter, because as with many other parts of this fic I was aiming at making it lighthearted and funny instead of serious; but I stand by it and will NOT rewrite it. If you don't like it, then that's your problem, it's staying the way it is. I'm writing my fics the way Iwant them to be written, not anyone else. I know this is harsh, but it's like it is.

Ignoring that, it's been great having you all along for the ride, but every ride must end someday and for this ride that day has come.

Yes, this is this fic's last chapter. One Normal Evening is over and done with. I'm finally putting the COMPLETE on this monster.

You're probably asking yourselves why I'm doing this now, that it's kind of sudden, and why I'm doing it at all... The reasons are simple.

The answer to why doing it now and that it's sudden, is that it's not sudden at all. I've decided long ago to end it with an epilogue after Loren gave birth. Another plus is that 100 chapters is a good, round number.

Why am I doing it at all? Simple... it has to end at some point and I feel this is the best point available. Sure, there are decades of their lives left, but where would I end this fic if not here, now? 1 month down the road? 3 years? Their time or our time? How many more years would this fic continued to be posted before it was finished IF it was ever finished?

I can't believe it actually took exactly-to-the-day 2 years and 7 months (100 chapters and over 150,000 words - a LOT more than planned when I first posted it) for this fic to be uploaded in it's entirety. A lot has happened during this time in my life, both good and bad, and I'd like to thank you all who dropped a line, especially to my regular reviewers.

But my deepest gratitude goes to Lynn, who's been steadily and unwaveringly there for me from the very beginning of my time as a JAG fanfic writer, from my very first JAG fic, years before I found fanfic. net.

You can all believe me when I say that if it weren't for her, you wouldn't be reading this fic, nor any of the others I posted over the last 4 years here. Simply because they wouldn't have been written. It's Lynn who's kept my spirits up and kept me from giving up even through the most vicious attacks of rabid MacFans/HarmHaters on Voy and HBX (even though it's called a Harmy board it's actually a haven for Mac lovers) boards and then on this site, when they even added death threats into the mix of personal attacks and insults. Liking it or not, they had to in the end face the fact that I, pro-Harm notHarmMac fanfiction are here to stay, in huge part thanks to Lynn.

I know I'll never be able to properly thank you, my dear friend, for all you've done for me and simple words will never properly convey my gratitude, but still: Thank you.

I'm finishing this fic with the words of one of the greatest statesmen ever to have lived (even though I don't agree with many of his tactics, plans, wishes, decisions and ways of doing things through his decades in power there is no doubt the world would've been much different had it not had him in that spot during that crucial time), that I think are very, very spot on here.

And PLEASE, PLEASE don't do what you usually do for the last chapters of fics (namely reading it and then promptly closing the window without leaving feeback), instead leave a few words of acknowledgement that, yes, you did read the last chapter of One Normal Evening. It will mean a lot to me and it's the only payment I will ever get for literally thousands of hours of work on it.

With that I say au revoir and see you in the next fic.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

RABB RESIDENCE

1654 LOCAL

PRESENT TIME

SEPTEMBER 2005

NEAR LONDON, UK

Standing in front of a window Loren is looking into the world outside, so bright and sunny.

Her husband is hugging her from behind, his chest against her back and his hands on her flat belly, where they are locked with hers, their fingers entwined.

Outside, in the fenced-in frontyard of their english home, their 2 year-old son is playing with his Golden Retriever puppy under the care of his godparents.

Even though Jack's pretty obviously awkward with such a small child, having not much experience even with his status as a godfather due to the fact he lives on another continent, there's no doubt he's quickly getting the hang of it, unaware of his new wife's speculating glances. Despite having been married for only 6 short months Beth's already sure this is in their future too, she just doesn't know yet when. But the second Jack shows the desire to expand their unit she'll be ready and willing.

Inside the house, under Harm's and Loren's joined hands a baby is slowly growing, only 2 months old and already raising hell, turning it's mother's mornings into frantic runs to the bathroom, but neither Loren nor Harm would have it any other way.

Their son has certainly been a surprise, following the Rabb tradition by being an almost complete copy of his father.

Even the eyes.

ESPECIALLY the eyes.

The aquamarine Harmon Rabb eyes...

Because of Harm and Loren both needing to know for sure they had a discrete paternity test done, confirming Harm's theory that, yes, HE was the father of the baby and not his brother Sergei.

Until Harm revealed the truth of their child's paternity he and Loren hadn't talked much about the timeframe and circumstances of Loren's conception. After all, what man would want to know or even talk about his woman's sexual life before him, especially when it had to deal with his brother?

By using cases as reference points (something that made it perfectly clear just how pathetic their lives were before the encounter in the bar that turned their lives around) he pin-pointed the exact night Loren got pregnant.

From what little information about that night he had by then acquired (and even wanted) from Loren he managed to piece together the following scenario.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

It was the night Harm got home from a long, tiring investigation, made even harder by Mac's barbs and behaviour (though she'd gotten a LOT better ever since Harm had stopped being available and Mac had realized he and Loren were meant to stay together), to find Sergei and Loren passed out still fully clothed on the couch in his apartment, two bottles of wine empty on the coffee table in front of them. He let them be, too exhausted to do anything but quickly shower and collapse into his bed.

The sound of the toilet flushing a couple of hours later barely registered with him. Loren, the one who had to pee, was still too under the influence and too sleepy to remember she's been sleeping on the couch and not in the bed. As alcohol tends to it awakened Loren's sexual drive while eliminating her inhibitions and in that moment of lust she thought the man she got in bed with, grabbed on and started fondling was the same man she frequently spent time with during the last couple of months.

Loren's manipulations were what woke up Harm and the last thing he heard before his world turned into bliss were the drunken "Look at the birdie".

Soon he was wide awake and eagerly participating, but jet lag and the belief that there was no way this was real, that a woman was really there, riding him with the abandon of the knowledge that the world was about to end, that he was even having sex; contributed to the decision that it was all just a wet dream, nothing more.

A strange dream considering who he was dreaming of, sure, but a dream nonetheless. After all, there was no chance in hell the haughty, unapproachable LT Loren Singer would ever be making love to him of her own accord.

Waking up a few hours later for his run before work Harm was too preoccupied with getting ready to even notice the small lump on the other side of his huge bed. Finding Sergei still sleeping on the couch, this time alone, Harm assumed Loren had already woken up and left. Waking the younger man up he told Sergei he could take his bed, an offer Sergei eagerly took. While Harm was still out Loren woke up naked in bed with Sergei, took things at face value, panicked, got quickly dressed and escaped from the apartment, sure she and Sergei have had sex.

A few days later she had a talk with Sergei, the young man unsure what Loren was talking about with how much she was beating around the bush. He nonetheless agreed with her that friends was all they'd ever be. Soon after he had to leave the country because there was no way to confirm his paternity, thus taking himself permanently out of the picture and making Loren breathe easier, no matter how guilty she felt for it.

When she later found out she was pregnant there was only one candidate for the father in her mind, unaware of how far from the truth she was.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

When Harm finally told Loren of his findings, weeks after their son's birth, the long wait time had not gone down well with Loren who was still pissed for him not being there so she could break his hand in the middle of contractions. At least HIS scar was usually covered by clothes... and whenever Loren saw it again she was consumed with guilt, something he occasionally took advantage of. Many times to the benefit of both.

After Trish dug out Harm's old baby photos the similarity between Harm and his son was put in black and white.

With that kind of proof the only thing left to do was to get that final reassurance. The paternity test allowed no doubt and it took a while for Harm and Loren to come to grips with the fact that Harm actually was the baby's biological father and that the birth certificate wasn't lying.

Harm and Loren have been sure they'd be getting a daughter, so they hadn't even thought of boys' names. Yet, while Loren was still sleeping Harm had a breakthrough and quickly arranged for a birth certificate to be issued and so Baby Rabb became Burke Rabb. A testatement to how well he knew her Loren liked the name. Navy was, after all, in their veins and what better name than that of a famous Admiral?

Funny, how the last 2 years have gone so differently from what Loren had set for herself so long ago.

Married, a mother of one and with another on the way was not how she imagined, or even wanted, her life 3 years ago, with Harm being the last man she envisioned this wedded bliss with.

Not because she thought him the last man to want something like this, nor because she ever believed he would be a bad father or husband, but because she never believed he would ever consider her worthy of his attention and affections, much less consider her worthy of being his wife and the mother of his children.

But fate is a fickle thing and constantly keeps changing the rules of the game, managing to land them together in the end.

It is an arrangement Loren has no complaint over, much less wishes it had never happened.

6 months ago they stopped using protection and just a few weeks back they found out that Loren is pregnant again. They're ecstatic over the news, still walking on clouds.

Harm can't seem to stop touching her belly, now with the security of the knowledge that she loves him he's gotten even more tactile and openly affectionate than the first time, something that drives Loren nuts. In frustration, because she loves him so much and because his touch never fails to awaken her lust.

This is one of the moments Loren treasures, because she receives abundant confirmation that there really is paradise and heaven and they are actually both on Earth, not somewhere beyond, for they are in the arms of this man.

She's drowning in it when she hears the words whispered into her ear "Have I ever told you that I love you?"

She smiles softly, she's heard these three words thousands of times over the last few years from this very man, but she'll never tire hearing them from him.

Playing along she teases "No, you haven't."

The chuckle that rumbles through his chest warms her, making her shiver in pleasure at the same time.

"I love you."

She smiles tenderly again and lightly caresses his hands.

"Love you too."

"Always." they echo.

Loren knows, and she knows he knows, these are not empty words.

They will love each other....

Always.

Now this is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Dedicated to my dear, long-time friend, Lynn.

FINIS