Feb 16th 2007
Heathro Airport
London England
0900 Local Time
Harm slowly let out a breath as he finally stepped off the
airplane and around the couple who was finding the airport mesmerizing. Tourists!
The matter in
Naples had taken a few days longer than he'd planned, and with results that
weren’t going to go over well in D.C..
Those results now belonged to someone else, and he just hoped that he
wasn’t called back in on it. He wanted
to be home and close to Mac. Missing
any day of her pregnancy was distracting, but after missing nearly two weeks it
was all he could do not to murder someone.
“Afternoon, Sir.
Glad to have you back.” Jen said, grabbing Harm’s attention. “And before
you think the worst, everything at home is okay.”
Surprised at being met by Jen, he could only spit out
“Afternoon to you too, Jen,” as she fell in step with him towards the luggage
carriage. Then, knowing that Jen
obviously was there for a reason, “how are things ‘really’ here? And where is
my wife?”
“I told Mac that you should be in sometime today, and that
you had to report to the office before going home. General Creswell wants to ask you a few things on the Reedy
case. She's expecting you at home
later. And I wanted to caution you that
there's a war going on at the Rabb flat.”
“They never mentioned any problems when I called home.”
“Sir,” Jen said, shaking her head. “The last thing they
want you to do is worry, but I wanted to forewarn you that you need to tread
lightly when you get home.” (Anybody would have to tread lightly – not just a
man…)
Harm grabbed his bag and they started heading towards the
tube station, “And why do I need to tread lightly?”
“Mattie and Mac have been at war the past several
days. Mac is kind of, well,
over-sensitive to everything, and Mattie...”
“Jen, Mac is pregnant and everything's going to set her
off. What's going on with Mattie that she can’t understand that?”
Jen tried not to look at Harm while she spoke, “Mattie's a
little hormonal herself this week.”
He caught the clue faster that she'd thought he would.
“Oh,” was all he said.
“She hasn’t been, ya' know, regular since her accident, so
it caught her off guard and embarrassed her at school. And she's had bad cramps…”
“And why hasn’t she told Mac about these things? I mean, she told you?”
“Mac and Mattie had a meeting of the emotional kind last
week on the day Mattie started, over stereo volumes and grades. Mac grounded
Mattie, so she missed this big party, and she also took away the speakers to
the CD player. Since then, they've been cordial at best.”
Looking at the top of the subway car, Harm silently
mumbled, “Women and their moods, someone please save me.”
“And I should add lastly that your missing Valentines Day
didn’t help much either, and then with the party tomorrow night... You might want to wish you were still in
Naples. Uh Sir.”
“What time did you tell Mac that I'd be home?” He asked,
trying to figure out if he had time to catch up with his wife before calling
the General.
“I said I didn’t know, but I did add that by close of
business.” She caught him trying to figure out the time zones, “The general
knew your flight plans and said that he'd
be at JAG one hour after your flight landed. He didn’t seem too pleased with the outcome.”
“Jen, the word 'pleased' and how everyone feels on this
case are voids that even I wouldn’t dare cross.”
“I think after you get home you may change your mind.”
Hours later
Rabb Residence
London England
Kensington District
1530 local time
Harm unlocked the door, dropped his bag to the floor, and
went in search of Mac. He knew that she
was taking naps during the day, and debated the result of waking her up or
letting her sleep. If she was as moody
as Jen said she was, then he might just let sleeping Marines lie.
He found her asleep on the couch, curled up with a baby
name book, and went in search of a camera to take a picture. He was grateful for small disposables since
their digital had been hidden because Mac didn’t want random shots of her
pregnant floating around. He kept
several cameras in his briefcase and jackets so he could take them when she
wasn’t looking. Knowing it was odd for a father to create his own version of a
baby book, he took them anyway so that someday they could look back and see the
best time of their life in color.
After snapping off a few shots, he headed to the bedroom to
change and get ready for the fun evening that was coming with his gals.
A few minutes later Mac sensed she wasn’t alone and spotted
his bag. Getting slightly irritated that he didn’t wake her up when he got in,
she went in search of Harm.
“Why didn’t you wake me up when you got in?” she asked, as
she found him coming down the hallway to the kitchen.
He was surprised at the ire in her voice, and wanted to start
off on the right foot. “Because you looked too beautiful there sleeping to wake
up and you need your rest,” he said as he leaned down to kiss her and pulled
her into his arms.
He held her till he heard her sniffling, and pulled back to
look at her face, “What?”
“Just hormones Harm.”
“How are you feeling today? Has the baby been moving around a lot?”
“Here, feel your child.” She grabbed his hand. “He or she
has been kickboxing all afternoon. I
was surprised that I slept as well this afternoon as I did.”
“When is your next appointment? You didn’t say anything about it, or the one you had yesterday,
on the phone last night.”
Mac knew that he was angry about having to miss the
appointment so instead of having a disappointed Daddy she had called and
rescheduled, “I canceled it and made a new one for Tuesday. Jen already has you cleared for the
afternoon. And since I canceled that
one and we're close enough for another ultrasound Dr Evan said he would go
ahead and do it then.”
Harm knew he was smiling like an idiot, “That’s great. So we can see what we’re having.”
“Is that all you want to know? Is it a boy?” she said,
becoming instantly defensive.
“No Mac, that isn’t all I want to know.” He came back, trying to smooth her feathers.
“Well sure doesn’t sound like it. I'd think making sure
that it's healthy would come first.” Turning on her heel she stormed off to the
bedroom.
Staring at her retreating back in shock he thought over his
next move and wondered what in the
world was going on with her emotions.
Jen was right; Naples was looking pretty good if this was the new Mac.
Giving his wife five minutes to hopefully cool down, he
ventured into the bedroom and found her laying on the bed with her back to the
door, “Honey are you okay?”
Sniffling, “No, these damn mood swings have me fighting or
crying every few minutes. They just
seem to be getting worse.” She felt him join her on the bed, “I’m sorry I
snapped at you about the appointment.”
“Don’t worry about it Mac, I hear that this is part of
being pregnant.”
“Just where did you hear about it?”
“From the general this afternoon, from AJ when I saw him
last week, from Bud when I called about a case last week and from Mom when she
was here in November. AJ suggested that
I buy a hard hat and just sew my jaw shut till the baby is a year old.”
“Am I that bad?”
“No.” he answered hoping to head off another outburst and
wondering if there was a right answer to that question.
“Liar, and I bet you would get a different response from
Mattie.” She let loose a heavy sigh, “We haven’t been our best since you left.”
“Well it was the first time that I was gone longer than an
overnight trip and you two had to deal with each other as mother and daughter
one on one.”
“I think I failed.” Mac murmured as her fears about
motherhood came back up.
“Mac, there's no pass or fail, and I before you start to
tell me all about it, I think that it needs to stay between you guys.”
“Are you sure? We
haven’t been able to stay in the same room longer than it takes to scarf down
dinner.”
“I think that this is something between the
females in my life and at this juncture in time and for my manhood, I'll let
you two work it out.”
“Coward. What are you going to do if we have a girl?”
“Become a mute when she becomes a teenager and pray that we
all come out alive on the other side.”
Chuckling, he leaned over and gave her a kiss and placed his hand on her
stomach. “Is he always moving around like this?”
“Yes, it never sleeps.”
“Mac, I know we've argued about it, but I really want to
know what we're having. And before you
say that you want it to be a surprise, his or her looks still will be.”
“Are you going to be disappointed if it's a girl?”
“Why would I be disappointed? She would be my little girl, mine to spoil and most of all a part
of the woman I love. I'm just going to be happy raising whatever we get
Mac. I just want to know boy or
girl. You know how much I hate
waiting.”
She snorted, “Yes, you're one of the few people I know that
read the end of a book first to make sure you know what happened,” she said, trying not to cry over his
determination to know the sex of their child.
“So do you want a girl more than a boy? Or are you just
giving me a hard time since I call the baby a he?”
“I'm like you Harm, I just want a healthy baby no matter
the sex, I just want to be surprised at the end, but you're right. It would make it easier to buy stuff and for
our friends from across to the pond to send baby gifts early.”
He decided to be daring, “I'm glad that you see that I'm
right about this dear.”
She smacked him across the arm after using him to get out
of the bed. “Smart aleck, always trying to get the last word in.” She walked
over to the closet to pull out a dress.
“I want you to know that it took me forever to find this dress for that
party tomorrow night.”
Mac laid it over the front of her and looked over at her
husband to see his opinion. “So?”
“I think that I'm going to be the envy of every man
there. I mean how many captains get to
take such a good looking Marine to a formal dance?”
He was rewarded with watery eyes and blessed the foresight
to call his Mother for advice before leaving the office.
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