So a few months back I came across an old JAG fanfic I'd written years ago, which then prompted me to go back and watch all 9 seasons of Harm and Mac *sigh* which only set fire to that old flame! It didn't end there however as I began to watch Good Witch (Catherine Bell's new show on Hallmark) which despite my initial reservations, I am now completely hooked on! It's a lovely and lighthearted show...that got me thinking; why can't I have both? So I have briefly borrowed characters and places and turned them into this!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything! Please don't sue me!
"I don't want to live there! My life is in New York!" Chloe shouted as she managed to kick the dashboard on Sarah's rather expensive Porsche SUV. Unfortunately her pride and joy of a vehicle still had another 2 hours of this go.
One year ago Sarah would have been surprised at the outburst. That's because one year ago Chloe was a different girl altogether. Now Sarah lived and breathed these tantrums and breakdowns almost on a daily basis having long ago accepted the fact that Chloe was now one angry teenager who needed a lot of help.
Sarah had found herself acting almost out of reflex as life for both of them had changed so drastically and so suddenly in the last year. The fact was one minute she was a hotshot lawyer at one of the most exclusive firms in New York City, a single woman in her prime years with the world at her feet. The next she was driving one furious teenager and their entire life to a little town where this 16 year old could start over again and perhaps…get better.
Initially unsettled by the idea of looking after a teenager and a troubled one at that, Sarah had almost lost Chloe to the system. However Sarah's own troubled childhood meant she related to Chloe on a level that most people couldn't. Like Sarah, Chloe had lived most of her childhood in an abusive and alcoholic household. Unlike Sarah however, Chloe had found peace and even happiness when her biological father, a colonel in the marines, had returned from duty to claim his daughter back. And life was good. Perfect even. For all of a year before her father was rather suddenly sent on tour to Afghanistan, only to be killed by a roadside IED.
And it was that specific moment in time…that had set everything in motion and which now had them driving through a country road to start a new life in a little town called Middleton.
If Sarah had a thousand and one comebacks to Chloe's outburst, she kept them to herself. Instead she gripped the steering wheel and looked to the road ahead sending a silent prayer into the distance; 'Please…please…'
"Mattie come on we're gonna be late!" Harm called from the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm coming!" Mattie shouted back from the second floor.
Rolling his eyes and sighing, Harm moved back towards the living room and let himself flop down on the couch.
If anyone had told him a year ago that this would be his life now, well he certainly would have laughed. He would have however conceded that family life suited him perfectly fine. In fact it had and still was one of his long-term goals – a big family of his own. The right woman however still hadn't come along. Yes he'd had girlfriends through college including one long-term relationship at one point, with a lawyer much like himself. But they both knew despite it all, that they would never be together for life. They were very different in ways that would never work to sustain a marriage let alone a family.
But life was good. Great even! He had jumped ship, left the city and his high paying but three times as stressful job at a law firm, to crop dust in a small country town. Well, truth be told this whole crop dusting business just sort of…happened. When he returned back to Middleton, the place he called home, the idea was to start a small firm for his people and help them in whatever legal needs they might have regardless of how big or small their issues were. Little did he know that life had other and much bigger plans for him.
He had only been in town and back in his grandmother's farm for all of a week before he found himself deeply entwined into the life of a young girl called Mattie. A 15 year old who had taken on more responsibility than a girl her age ever should. When her mother passed away and her alcoholic father had disappeared, she had simply taken charge of the family's crop dusting business. And it wasn't until Harm had gained her trust and dug a little deeper that all of this came to float.
Understandably the lawyer in him had immediately sounded alerts and listed all the reasons why the situation could not remain like this, but he found himself hitting a firm wall in the form of a strong-headed Mattie. The girl was smart and independent. She refused to be told what to do or how things would or should be done. She was running the business and there seemed to be little discussion to it.
So, instead of fighting it, Harm worked with it.
Initially he found he could now put to use his second passion of flying and had offered to crop dust his grandmother's farm along with any other farms in the area that needed his services.
It didn't take long for them to form a close relationship. It began as friendship and a mutual love of flying and it slowly blossomed into this father-daughter relationship that neither of them could explain. Mattie felt safe around Harm. She felt protected. And in turn, Harm felt that protective instinct over her that he assumed came with any child one might have. He began to see her as something more than just a girl he was trying to help and keep an eye on…and instead…he began to see her…as the child she was. The child he wanted to protect and watch over.
To say his family was surprised at the turn of events was an understatement. His mother had always known he would one day make an amazing husband and an incredible father. That's because he was every bit like his own father – her late husband. Harm was an exact replica of his father from the physical to emotional and everything in between. But this! This was different! This was life altering in a way that no one had seen coming. Mattie was not his child. She was a grown teenager and with big problems. Moreover she had her own father despite his sudden disappearance. And then of course there were questions about his capability and his reasons behind this decision. Was he after an instant family? Was there a void in his life he was trying to fill? Would he find fatherhood too much one day and change his mind?
All these questions however were brought to a grinding halt when his grandmother had stepped in. Mrs. Sarah Rabb was a strong woman of few words. In this case they were narrowed down to this: she deeply loved her one and only grandchild and trusted him blindly. She trusted his instincts and knew he would never take a decision like this lightly. This was Harm, her grandchild proving to all what she had always known; that he was an honest and beautiful soul that just wanted to do the best for those he loved.
With the legal papers sorted and most importantly the blessing of everyone who mattered, Harm had now been Mattie's legal guardian for a year. Trish and Sarah Rabb had taken her into the family like a grandchild. Harm had bought a house big enough for the two and perhaps another person should she ever come along. And life had soon gained a pattern. School runs. Tutoring. Basketball practice, a sport that Harm had found Mattie was actually very talented at. Teacher-parent meetings. The whole works! Oh yes they had their moments. What father of a teenage girl doesn't?! But Mattie was overall a genuinely lovely girl that caused Harm little to no trouble. She was doing well in school. She kept up her end of the cleaning and maintenance of the house. And perhaps the most essential of all, Mattie loved him. Loved him like a father and like a friend. For saving her. For changing her life. For giving her a life! And a lovely one!
"Ready!" Mattie announced from the bottom of the stairs.
"Lets go!" he exclaimed as he stood and put his phone in his back pocket. "Mom and Grams are already there."
She had slowly driven up the street until they found the number they were looking for.
"I think this is it," she whispered looking at the house as she parked the car on the street and killed the engine. Pulling her handbag she got out of the car closing it behind her.
The house looked rather quaint with its whitewashed walls and large windows, the setting sun leaving the house partially shadowed. There was a layer of snow and a growing fog that gave the street a very fairytale like feel to it. The air had a faint scent of oak from the trees that lined the landscape up into the mountains.
Sarah suddenly felt as if in a peaceful dream. The kind of peace you couldn't buy in New York City. If only the feeling had lasted long enough before being rattled by the sound of a car door slamming.
"It's fucking freezing!" Chloe complained as she pulled her jacket collar further up and held her scarf over her nose and mouth.
Closing her eyes for a few seconds, Sarah took in a deep breath and turned to the house. "Come on." She called out for Chloe. "Lets check this place out."
Rubbing her gloved hands together, she pulled the keys out of her bag and unlocked the door. Stepping inside she quickly realized the house was in fact much larger than what it had looked like in the pictures. And for the price they were paying she was honestly extremely surprised. There really was a world of difference between here and New York!
Going their separate ways, both Chloe and Sarah inspected the house in their own way. Whilst Sarah looked at the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms, Chloe was busy in the backyard opening gates and looking through sheds.
"Chloe!" Sarah called out from the kitchen window. "Come back in. The removalists just texted. They'll be here in 5 minutes."
She could almost feel Chloe roll her eyes.
"Oh my God. That was so good!" Mattie exclaimed as they left the cinema.
"Yeah that great!" Harm agreed.
"How funny was the 'socialists, anarchist, the French, the suffragettes' bit?" Mattie laughed.
"Yeah!" Harm recalled the moment in the film and laughed with her. "I loved the sign language bit."
"That was so funny!" Mattie was clearly thrilled with the film.
"But wait, does that mean all of that was a hallucination?" questioned Harm.
The reality was he wasn't all that interested. But Mattie, who loved the actors and the show, had incited this movie and dinner night. The rest of them simply couldn't live down her excitement and were only too happy to come along.
"I don't know," Mattie considered the question quite carefully looking pensive as if the answer was in fact quite important. "Yeah I guess," but feeling the need to defend her favorite character she quickly added; "But you have to remember that he was basically on his way to his own death. He probably thought that was the end of it. Oh my God. I can't wait to talk it over with Andrea. We should totally go home and do a marathon now!" her thoughts spilling out of her too quickly.
"Dinner first!" chimed in Trish from behind.
Both Trish and Sarah had fallen behind a little but could still hear the conversation ahead of them.
"What do you ladies want for dinner?" asked Harm as he turned slightly towards his mother and grandmother.
"Tacos!" Mattie jumped in.
"Yes I know you want tacos," Harm pointed out smiling knowing her favorite food. Before turning back again; "but what about you two?"
Both ladies were quite happy to follow along; "Tacos is fine."
Watching the teenager happily bounce off with her father, Trish and Sarah picked up where they left off; "Did you hear Renee is coming back?" wondered Trish.
"Who?" asked Sarah frowning
"Old Andy's granddaughter!" exclaimed Trish as if it were the most obvious fact
"Oh!" Sarah looked as if a bad taste had run through her mouth. "That girl," her lips turning unimpressed.
Trish on her part smiled knowingly at the attitude. "Don't be like that," gently nudging the elderly lady.
Sarah sighed uninterested; "I take it Hollywood didn't need an extra blonde?" she asked very sarcastically
Trish shook her head though continued to smile at the old ladies antics but she had to agree; "I guess not."
"I never liked the child you know that," Sarah was adamant about that and felt the need to argue her point. "She was always such a capricious thing. Never happy with anything. Always wanting more and more."
"Did you know she wanted your grandchild?" asked Trish mischievously
"God forbid!" Sarah exclaimed almost cringing at the thought. "And don't you dare go encouraging that!" she looked Trish dead in the eyes to make her point. She was very serious about that. Sarah had always considered herself to be a good judge of character and that Renee girl from the Peterson farm downtown was bad news.
"How did you find out anyway?" asked Sarah
"Heard the rumor through town."
Sarah simply made a sound of acknowledgement and remained silent as she watched Harm and Mattie walk ahead hand in hand talking as if the world had nothing to do with them.
She firmly believed her grandchild deserved the world – and that wasn't just because he was her grandchild. He was a good man! A great man! Like his grandfather he would come to love a single woman unconditionally. Fiercely. And he deserved that one great woman. And she knew that woman was out there. She just hoped she would turn up soon!
"Lets just try and get the bedrooms sorted," Sarah stood at her bedroom door speaking out into the corridor. "We can find some pizza place or something for take out. I know I'm beat. I'll probably crash soon." Sarah rubbed at her sore and red eyes with a long yawn.
Sarah's words were met with silence but then again after her outburst in the car, Chloe had gone into one of her silent moods. It wasn't unusual. She had episodes of going silent for days. Sometimes, much as she hated to admit it, Sarah was almost relieved during those moments. That was partly because she had seen Chloe at her worst. During moments when there was so much rage ripping through her that things were thrown and horrible words were shouted. Sarah feared those moments. Not for her own wellbeing but…for Chloe's mental state. Luckily they hadn't lived through one those in months now…and Sarah wanted to keep it that way.
It had taken the removalists just over an hour to get all the boxes and furniture out of the trucks and into the house. The bed frames were up and mattresses in, but the rest of the house was mostly a mess of scattered furniture and boxes. Sarah had an incredible eye for detail and loved interior decorating, which made her almost giddy to think of all she could do with this house! It was the kind of space you would never find or afford in New York. It was almost overwhelming if it wasn't making her genuinely excited. This could be her little project. And maybe Chloe would tag along.
Speaking of; "Chloe!" she called leaving the master bedroom.
Stepping into what would be Chloe's room she found it empty, the bed naked, exactly as the removalists had left it. Disappointed but not surprised she continued on her search.
Finding the whole top floor was empty, she continued her search down stairs; "Chloe!" but soon realized that the house was empty! "Chloe!" she shouted in panic through the darkness of their backyard. "Chloe!"
Heading back inside she ran straight through and out to the front yard and onto the street. Looking in all directions; "Chloe!" Covering her mouth with her hands, feeling her heart beat heavily against her chest. "Chloe!"