I'll Be Home for Christmas
Summary: All is going well for our favourite family, until the duty of being military personnel rears its ugly head. You may want to read the two prequels to this story, if you have not done so already. 'Doorstep Angel' and 'Birthday Surprises' can be found by searching under my author's name at 'JulieM.' The first story in this series was mostly a Mac centered one. The next focused on Harm and Mac with their child, becoming and then extending their family. This one's mostly Harm and the kids. Enjoy!
AN: This one's for my cousin Matt, who was in much the same predicament as Mac, around December of last year.
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Part 1
Harm knew, as soon as he walked in through the front door, that something wasn't right. It was unnaturally quiet. The glow from the setting sun was almost completely gone, yet every single light in the usually warm, brightly lit home was off. He didn't bother to rectify the situation; he had bigger worries on his mind. The only sign of life was the stack of mail that sat, half-sorted, on the small table beside the couch.
"Sarah?" Harm called, careful not to let his own nervousness creep in. It was just him worrying about nothing, he tried to tell himself.
"Calum? Buddy? Where's Dad's boy?" Again, there wasn't a sound.
When there wasn't a single sound to be heard in the house, yet Mac's car was still in the driveway, it usually meant that his family was having a rare-old time down at the play-park, down the road. But Harm had passed it on the way home, had scanned it for any sign of his family, just as he did every evening, out of habit…
Where else would they go? The nearest shopping precinct was not even within walking distance.
Quietly, he toed off his shoes, picking them up and ascending the stairs in sock-clad feet.
He left his dress shoes just at the top of the staircase, on the landing. He'd worry about putting them away later, once he'd figured out what was going on. He ducked his head into the first room, on his right, belonging to his and Mac's adopted son, Calum. It was deserted, even his toys were out of sight, not scattered about, abandoned in mid-play, as they usually were. Harm thought of going straight to the master bedroom at the end of the hall, but decided to check in the nursery, first.
He heard a soft crooning before he caught sight of his children, his nine-month-old daughter Hannah, laying in her crib, his son Calum standing beside her.
"Calum?" he asked, watching his son's head shoot up before he scurried straight over to him.
"Daddy!" Calum buried his little face into his neck, "Mommy's sad…She's been crying and I didn't know how to make her happy again. I cleaned up all the toys in my room, but that didn't work…So I came in to keep Hannah company, so she wouldn't cry, too."
"You're doing a great job, buddy," Harm hugged and congratulated him, "What would your Mommy and I do without you, huh!? Don't you worry about Mommy; Daddy will go and take care of her. You stay here and keep your sister company, okay?"
Harm set the boy down and he went back to sit beside the crib again. Harm dropped a quick caress on the top of his daughter's downy-soft head, before he turned towards his and Mac's bedroom.
Harm stripped off his outer coat and his tie, undoing the top button of his shirt. They were dropped haphazardly on the chair just inside the door.
"Sarah?" Harm asked, as he rounded the corner, into the main bedroom.
Mac was sitting at the window, looking out onto the street, now lit up in lamp-light.
"Honey?" Harm crossed to her. He knew without seeing her face that she had been crying, it was written across her demeanor, in her slumped shoulders, the tenseness of the hands that were gripping a now-crumpled sheet of paper.
Harm smoothed has hands over her shoulders, getting her attention and a small glimpse of her tear-stained face.
"Honey, what is it?"
Mac remained silent, but handed him the ball of paper.
As he took in the words it contained, Harm felt fear and shock land in his stomach with the subtlety of a breeze-block. After a few minutes, Harm scooped her into his arms and headed to their bed.
There was a lot that they would need to handle in the next three weeks, but that could all wait for tomorrow.
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"Where is Mommy going?" Calum asked for the third time that morning.
"Mommy's going to a big ship in the Persian gulf," Harm responded, automatically. Over the last week he and Mac had worked out exactly what was within his ability to grasp, "Remember the ship Daddy took you to see last month, with all the airplanes on the deck? The one Mommy's going to is almost exactly the same…"
"Yeah!" Calum exclaimed, excitedly then sobered, "Daddy? Can we go too?"
"No, son," Harm sighed; he'd wondered when this question would come up, "Mommy's got to travel a long way to get there. We need to stay here and keep the house clean and tidy."
"When's Mommy going to come back?" Calum's eyes were now filling with tears as he finally understood that this event would not be filled with excitement, like his trip to the Ticonderoga.
"She's got to stay there for some time, son," Harm gave his son a hug, rocking him comfortingly.
Even the baby knew that this was a somber moment, so remained quiet and still in her high-chair, munching gently on some cheerios.
"But why?" Calum's voice cracked and Harm had to fight the emotions himself.
"She'll be playing an important part in keeping all those men and women safe, in Iraq. But you and Hannah and Daddy will stay here and look after each other…and we'll send Mommy lots of presents and letters, so she knows we love her, that we miss her and so she knows how very proud we are of her…Now let's stop missing Mommy before she's even gone; let's make her favourite breakfast and bring it up to her on a tray, before she wakes up and comes looking for us…Calum, can you get the margarine out of the fridge, while I take care of the toast?"
The little boy dutifully went to go to the fridge and Harm took care of putting the bread into the toaster.
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Mac was just stirring when she heard noises outside her door.
"Grab the door for me, please, Calum," Harm's voice was a whisper, but Mac heard it in the still and silent room.
After a short pause, the door-handle rattled a little, before opening slowly.
"Good morning, Mommy!" Calum smiled, as he appeared from behind the door and saw his Mother was awake and watching him.
"Good Morning, baby!" Mac couldn't help but beam, as Calum ran into the arms she held out for him.
Harm was in the doorway behind him, balancing a filled tray with one hand, Hannah sitting in his other arm.
"Good morning," Harm dropped a kiss on her lips after lowering the breakfast tray onto her lap.
"What would I do without my boys?" Mac wondered aloud, as she dropped another kiss onto the top of her son's head, "They keep me so happy and well-fed…And you, Missy! Did you wake your Daddy and your brother up early, this morning, Miss Hannah?"
Harm sat on the other side of the bed, with Hannah on his lap, while Calum climbed onto the bottom of the bed, sitting in the space between their two sets of legs.
Mac tucked in with glee, while Harm told her, "At the crack of dawn…didn't you, my little rooster?"
Both Mac and Hannah couldn't help but giggle, even with their mouths full; Mac's with breakfast, Hannah's with half her fist.
Calum leaned down and cuddled into Mac's legs. She smoothed a hand across the fair hair of his head with one hand and continued eating her scrambled eggs with the other. She'd really miss this over the coming months. She quickly determined to make the coming weeks.
OOOO
Calum was silent as his parents, dressed in their uniforms, led him from the car and through the base, towards the airstrip.
Conversely, Hannah had known that something was wrong from the second she woke up this morning and was fairly bad-tempered. That mood had changed to tearful as they loaded Mac's gear into the trunk of the car, so Frank and Trish had offered to take her in their car, to the base.
That meant that they could concentrate on preparing Calum for the day ahead, in their own car.
"Mommy, don't go," Calum fretted, as Mac pulled him into her arms for a cuddle.
"No, not yet, sweetie," she reassured him, "We've still got some time, yet. Are you going to be a brave boy and help Daddy while I'm gone?"
Calum half-heartedly nodded his head.
"Because Daddy doesn't remember the routine as well as you do," Mac continued, "He doesn't know what time you need to get up in the morning, so that there's enough time to bath and dress Hannah, enough time to get you dressed and give you both breakfast, to pack your school bag and drive you to school and Hannah to the crèche. He doesn't know how to get all of the grocery shopping done and remember everything, so you don't need to go back and get things that you forgot. Can you help him with all that?"
Again Calum nodded, only slightly more reassured.
"I'll miss you, Mommy," Calum told her, mournfully.
"I'll miss you too, baby," Mac, tried to keep the tears from overflowing, "But I'll email as often as I can. And when they let me, I'm going to send you video messages, ones that you can put on the DVD player and play over and over again. It'll be almost like I'm really there."
Harm came and joined them with Hannah and for the next ten minutes, they huddled together as a family. Then Frank and Trish came forward and offered their own farewell, hugging Mac tightly. Since before she and Harm had even got together, both Trish and Frank had loved and treated her like she was their own daughter. Mac gave a last hug and kiss to her children, telling them that she loved them. Then Frank and Trish took Calum and Hannah with them, to go and get something to drink and use the restroom, so that Harm and Mac could say their own goodbyes in private.
"Shhh," Harm rocked Mac softly, in his arms, "It'll be okay. We'll be okay. All of us."
"I always knew it was a possibility," Mac wiped the tears away, "when I went back to work after my maternity leave was up, but I never thought that they'd deploy me abroad. Especially to a place so dangerous…"
"The Coral Sea has a great crew," Harm hushed her, "One of the best in the fleet. They'll keep you safe for me."
"Don't you worry about me," Mac shook her head, joking, "I'm a Marine, remember?"
"I know…you give them hell, Marine!" Harm smiled, taking her face in his hands and enveloping her in a deep kiss.
It would have to last them for the next five months and Harm wasn't caring about the crowds around them, they were too busy bidding their own loved-ones farewell.
All too soon, it was time for Mac to board the bus that would take her out onto the airstrip, to her waiting plane. Frank and Trish returned with the kids and they all gave Mac a final hug, before she turned towards her duty.
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