Tell Me The Story
This was inspired by the scene in Parenthood where Joel and Julia tell Sydney the story of the day she was born. For some reason, every time I saw that, I think of Harm and Mac, and with the anniversary of the series finale not too long ago, inspiration struck.
Summary: Harm and Mac's daughter wants to know a little bit more about her parents' love story.
Disclaimer: Still not mine, nor will they ever be.
April 2017
Rabb Residence
Alexandria, VA
xxx
Caroline Rabb sat on the edge of her parents bed and watched as her mother busied herself with the task of getting ready to go out.
She was ten and a half years old and had the personality of both her parents – she was feisty, she was stubborn, she was independent and she was smart. She had also taken a shine to flying almost instantly. Mac claimed that it was because Harm had "brainwashed" her as infant by building a custom mobile for above her crib – complete with tiny little yellow biplanes swinging back and forth. Harm, on the other hand, claimed it's genetic and Caroline was predisposed to love flying because it was a "Rabb thing."
"Why do you put that stuff on your face?" Caroline asked as she swung her legs back and forth.
"So I can look pretty," Sarah MacKenzie Rabb answered without thinking. Almost immediately, she regretted her answer. What kind of mother was she to say that makeup made you pretty? She stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment and paid attention to how, as she got older, her skin began to lose its elasticity, there were fine lines that would inevitably turn into wrinkles on her forehead and around her mouth, and her stomach wasn't quite as firm as it was back in her Marine days. "But what is more important is how pretty you are on the inside," she added while looking at her daughter through the mirror.
"You're pretty to me, Mommy. I don't think you need that stuff," Caroline said as Mac finished applying her mascara and stepped away from the vanity.
Mac smiled. "That's exactly what your father says to me."
"What do I say?" Admiral Harmon Rabb, Jr. asked as he stepped into the bedroom with two year old Jacob on his hip.
"That Mommy is pretty and doesn't need make up!" Caroline exclaimed before Mac could respond.
Harm nodded and smiled as he made eye contact with his wife. "That is very true."
The corners of Mac's mouth turned into a smile. It was funny, she thought, about how so many years ago, Harm would have responded in some round about way about how beautiful she was. Minus one very dark time in their marriage roughly seven years ago, their communication skills improved so much through the course of their marriage that it amazed her to recall how they used to be with each other before they acknowledged their feelings that fateful night in Harm's loft twelve years ago.
Jacob babbled happily in his father's arms and reached out towards his mother. It was ironic, that the small boy who was adopted, resembled her and Harm more than Caroline did in appearances. Caroline, their own flesh and blood, had curly, blonde hair, green eyes and porcelain skin, taking after Harm's mother. Jacob, however, had dark hair, blue eyes, and olive skin. He truly did look like a combination of both Harm and Mac. "Come to Momma," she cooed as she reached out and took him from Harm.
"Dad!" Caroline exclaimed. "Why aren't you ready yet?"
"What do you mean?" He looked down at his dark black suit, crisp white shirt, and navy blue tie. "I am ready."
"You don't have your uniform on," she said, exasperated. Why were parents so difficult sometimes? "You said you and Mom were going to a work party tonight and that was why JoJo was coming to watch us. Usually when you and Mom go to work things you wear your uniform."
"Usually." Harm pointed out; being the JAG now – who happened to be married to a former Marine Lieutenant Colonel who was also once a member of the JAGC, did lead to quite a few social appearances for him and Mac these days. "But tonight is different. Tonight we are going out for Mom's work…not my work. You see, your mother made partner at her law firm and that's a pretty big deal, so all the other partners are throwing a dinner party in her honor."
"That's pretty neat."
"Well, your mother is pretty neat…and smart…very smart.. She even beat me a few times in court when we used to work together. But only a few times," he joked with a sweet smile. "Holborth, Greene, and Associates is lucky to have her as a partner in their firm.…" he trailed off for a moment as he focused intently on Mac.
Caroline watched her parents with a smile. It always obvious to her how much they loved each other. Her mom and dad always looked at each other the way the prince and the princess looked at each other in the movies.
Mac sat on the foot of the bed with Jacob on her lap and Caroline next to her. "Now, be good for Joann. Dad and I should be home in time to tuck you in, Caroline. If we won't be home in time, we will call and say goodnight." She looked down when she felt Jacob tug on her necklace. "No, no, Mister," she warned as she removed his tiny hands from the silver chain.
In that moment, Harm managed to sneak into the hallway and when he returned, he was holding a beautiful bouquet of roses. "For you, Mrs. Rabb," he said as he held them in front of her. "You do realize what today happens to be, right?"
"Twelve years since I decided to turn in my letter of resignation."
"Or twelve years since I got my deadline." He flashed his flyboy grin.
"The flowers are beautiful," Mac said as she inhaled their sweet scent. "Thank you, sailor."
"There's SO many!" Caroline chimed in.
"There are lot," Mac agreed. "They must have cost a small fortune."
"You know, I had to take a second mortgage out on the house and sell the Vette," he teased with a wink. "But…..they are worth every penny. There's 21 to be exact…one for every year I've known you."
"Daddy, do you buy Mom roses cause you met her in a rose garden?"
Harm sat down on the edge of the bed as well. "Yes, Itsy-Bitsy."
"Da-ad," she groaned. "I'm not a baby anymore."
"You'll always be Itsy-Bitsy to me," he said as he pulled her onto his lap. "Always."
"Just like how you call mom your Marine but she's not a Marine anymore?"
"Exactly like that."
Caroline studied the bouquet of flowers for a moment, and remembered what her dad said about one for every year he knew her mother. "You and Mom must have been married FOREVER," she said after truly focusing on how many flowers there were. "Did you get married the day you met or something? Is that why there are so many?" Her young mind struggling to understand that her parents weren't married forever, because, to her, they always have been.
"Actually, honey, your father and I had known each other for a very long time before we decided to get married."
"Tell me the story, please? Is it like Cinderella and Prince Charming? Or did you meet when you were little like Carl and Ellie in UP?"
"Daddy and I have a very unique story that is very special to us."
"All I know is that you and Daddy met in a rose garden."
"Did you know that rose garden was at the White House?" Harm asked.
"Were you the president, Dad?!" Caroline all but squealed.
Harm and Mac both couldn't contain their laughter. "No," Harm answered.
"Oh, please tell me more. Please, oh please, oh please."
Mac and Harm looked at each other and conversed without the need to exchange any words aloud. They both agreed that Caroline was old enough to know some of their story. "We will tell you more," Mac began, "but it will have to wait because Dad and I have to leave in four minutes and thirty seven seconds."
"Aww, man. That's not fair."
"I'll tell you what," Harm began. "Mom and I will make sure to come home before bedtime and we can tell you the story. How does that sound?"
"That would be acceptable," she said in her best lawyer voice. " I have no objections."
"What about you, Counselor?" He asked Mac. "Any objections?"
"None that come to mind," she smiled.
"Okay," Harm clapped his hands together. "We will reconvene at bedtime. I promise."
Dinner was a simple, yet elegant affair hosted by the head of Mac's family law firm. Even though Mac was the guest of honor, they managed to duck out at a fairly early hour so they could keep their promise to their daughter. And now, after changing into their pajamas, they found themselves squeezed into Caroline's twin sized bed with her.
"I'm glad you guys were able to keep your promise," Caroline spoke as she snuggled between her parents.
Mac ran her fingers through her daughter's curly locks. "Your father has never broken a promise," she whispered.
"Dad is the best dad in the whole wide world and his promises are very special. That's what you always say about his promises."
"Yes," Mac agreed. "You have the most amazing daddy in the whole universe and his promises are so special."
"Can I hear the story now, pleeeasse?"
"Yes, you may. Where do we start?" Harm asked.
"At the beginning , Dad."
"Oh, right, silly me."
"It all began in 1996…"
"Wow that's like forever ago. You must be old."
"Hey, do you want to hear this story or not?" Harm teased.
"Sorry," she apologized. "So, why were you at the White House?"
"I was getting an award for some flying I did the year before."
"Why were you there, Mom? Were you getting an award too?"
"No, I was there because someone I knew stole a very important document and I was going to be partnered with your dad so we could get it back."
"Were you proud of Daddy's award?"
"Well, I didn't meet him yet, so I don't know if I would say proud, but I was impressed."
"After the president gave me the medal, Uncle AJ introduced me and Uncle Bud to your mother. As I shook her hand, your mom said I could call her "Mac," and I stared at her for a minute."
"Was it love at first sight? Is that why you stared at her?"
"Not quite…she looked a lot like someone I used to know and I was confused."
"But you thought she was pretty, right?"
"She was more than pretty, she was beautiful. Very beautiful."
"What did you think about Dad, Mom? Was it love at first sight for you?"
"I thought he was very handsome and that I loved his smile….although I most definitely did not admit that to him," she grinned.
"So if it wasn't love at first sight, when did you fall in love?"
Mac felt butterflies in her stomach. In all the years they've known each other, they have talked openly about anything and everything. However, surprisingly, this was a conversation they never had. For some reason, they never once asked each other about when they knew they were in love….or what that defining moment was for them. Even though it took them so long and so many wrong relationships before the ended up together, they just sort of resigned to the fact that they had always been in love with each other and everything that happened in between was a necessary part of their journey.
She took a calming breath as she waited for Harm to answer Caroline.
Harm held Mac's gaze and never broke eye contact. "I knew I was in love with her around the time we were working together for about a year. There was a bad guy who broke into her apartment and wrote mean things on the walls. He was trying to scare her…and all I could think about was making sure your mom was safe because I couldn't imagine what I would do if anything bad would ever happen to her."
Coster, Mac thought briefly before listening to Harm to continue.
"That night, Uncle AJ was having a special party at his house and everyone was supposed to be there, and almost everyone was….except for you mom, so I went to look for her. When I got to her apartment, it was dark and it looked like she wasn't home. I knew she was home, so I kept knocking and hoping she would let me in."
"Was she mad at you?"
"I wouldn't say mad, we had a little…situation... come up earlier that day and I think she was embarrassed about what happened and some of the not so nice things she said."
"Were YOU mad at her? Did she open the door?"
"No, not at all. And yes, she finally let me in, but she wouldn't turn the light on or look me in the eye."
"What did you do?"
"I turned on the light and I made her look at me and when she looked at me, I could tell she was crying, and it made me so sad. It was in that moment that I knew we had a bond like no other and that I loved her in a way I had never loved anyone else before. I would do anything to keep her safe even if I was to scared to admit that to her then."
"Is that when you knew you loved Daddy, too? Huh, Mommy?"
Mac blinked back a few tears – to know that Harm knew he loved her even when she was at her absolute worst, made her feel all kinds of things. "Umm….not quite. It took me a little bit longer to realize just how much I loved your father."
Harm raised an eyebrow. "Please do tell, Mac."
"Patience, Admiral. Patience." Mac teased. "Ahem," she cleared her throat. "I think the defining moment for me was when your dad told me that he had eye surgery to restore his night vision so that he could go back to flying. That meant he would be leaving JAG. It made me feel all kinds of things... I was happy that he could finish out something that we had wanted to do since he was even younger than you, I was angry because he didn't tell me it was something he was thinking about doing in the first place, and it also made me sad."
"Why were you sad, Mom? Cause you would miss him, right?"
"Up until that point, your dad was the only person who ever stayed in my life. Everyone else just came and went, but not your dad... he was always there and it made me feel safe and valued, and the thought of not seeing him all the time was so terrifying." Mac reach behind Caroline for Harm's hand and ran her fingers over his knuckles. "It was also right after we made an important deal, and I thought maybe he was trying to get out of his end of it."
"What was the deal?"
"Um, that's a story for another time," Mac said. "One story a night, kiddo. It's getting late."
"So, did you tell dad you loved him then? When he went back to flying? Is that when you got married?"
"Actually, no," Mac chuckled. "I believe my exact words were 'I have so much to say to you, but I can't seem to find the words' on your dad's last day at JAG."
Caroline shook her head. "You should have found the words, Mom."
"Believe me, I wish I would have."
Hindsight is such a strange thing, Harm thought as he gave Mac's hand a gentle squeeze.
"So, Daddy came back to JAG and then you got married, right?" Caroline asked excitedly, trying to fill the gaps in herself. She never remembered her daddy flying any planes other than 'Sarah', and she knew he was a lawyer, so that must have meant he went back to JAG before she was born.
"Yes," Mac answered.
"But," Harm picked up, "It took another six years or so for that to happen."
"SIX YEARS?" Caroline practically screamed.
"Ssh, ssh," Mac reminded her. "Jacob is sleeping."
"It's way past your bedtime now, so it's time for the abbreviated version," Harm said. "I didn't fly for very long; I realized I was too old to be on a carrier full time. So, I decided to go back to JAG. A lot of things happened in between - a lot - but six years later, your mom and I both got new orders. She was going to be stationed in San Diego, and I was going to be stationed in London."
"On our last night in Washington, DC, I went to your dad's to say goodbye."
" I basically told her I loved her in a roundabout way, and I said something like, "Mac, we have twelve hours.""
"And I said - "We had nine years" and your dad said that he must have needed a deadline, and I told him he got one."
"Then Mom asked me what I was proposing, and I told her I was proposing."
"But that meant that one of us would have to resign, and we didn't know what to do, so your dad suggested something about letting fate decide our future."
"So, we called up all our friends and asked them to meet us at McMurphy's and we told Uncle Bud to bring his JAG coin, and we flipped a coin to see who would resign."
"So you must have won, right, Dad? Cause Mom's not a Marine anymore and you are still in the Navy, so you were the winner."
"No matter what, there wasn't going to be a winner or loser. We were going to start a life together, and that was a win-win either way," Harm replied. "So, what happened was, Uncle Bud flipped the coin and..."
"And I reached up and grabbed it before it landed," Mac chimed in.
"And everyone was silent... they just stared at her in shock. It was silent for a long time..."
"...One minute and twenty six seconds..." Mac interjected.
"One minute and twenty six seconds," Harm amended, "Before your Mom looked at everyone and said "What? I always wanted to go to London.""
It was the simple answer she gave their friends, but later that night, she told Harm the whole truth. She explained how she went to see Harriet before the twins were born, and witnessed firsthand how much Harriet loved being pregnant, loved her children, and her family, and didn't even miss the Navy. Mac confessed how much she did want to try to experience that, too, and staying in the military would have made it more difficult. She never once regretted her decision to grab the coin before it landed.
"Oh, wow," Caroline replied in awe. "And then you got married , right?"
"Right," Mac confirmed, "and then you were born a few years later... and then not long after that, we came back to Washington."
"Will you tell me about the day I was born?"
"Next time," Mac assured her. "It is a story as beautiful as you," she tapped her daughter's nose, "but it is bedtime now."
Harm and Mac untangled themselves from the small bed and bent down to give Caroline goodnight kisses.
"Sweet dreams," Harm whispered as they shut off the light and stepped into the hall.
Mac followed Harm to their bedroom and watched the slight limp in his step. "Our little snuggle session with Caroline hurt your back, didn't it?"
"It's worth every ache. And besides," he flashed a smile. "I'll be okay in the morning. Unless of course you'd be willing to give one of your massages tonight? I'm sure that would work, too." He asked, knowing full well her answer would be 'yes.'
"Oh, that can be arranged," she answered in a sing song voice as they crossed the threshold of their bedroom. "Give me a second to brush out my hair first?"
"Mhmm," he agreed as he headed to the bathroom.
"Did you mean it?" Mac asked from her seat at the vanity. "What you told Caroline?"
Harm stepped out of the bathroom, with his toothbrush in his mouth, and raised his eyebrows as to ask, "Mean what?"
"What you told Caroline…about realizing you loved me when Coster was stalking me - when I fell off the wagon."
Harm nodded, signifying he understood her question and disappeared to spit his toothpaste out. When he returned a second later, Mac was sitting cross legged on the bed. "Yes," he answered as he sat down to join her.
"Interesting."
"Why is that?"
She shrugged, almost embarrassed to answer. "Because if it is true, it means you love all of me…even the part of me that I have a hard time loving... Mac the alcoholic...that part of me."
"I can assure you that I love all of you…every single part of who you are….every single inch of you." His hands made their way from her knees to her thighs. "Did you really think I would ever not want to carry out our deal?" He asked suddenly. "That was really why you thought I wanted to go back to flying- because I was running away from it?"
"At first, yes, I guess I felt abandoned. I know that sounds selfish, but I later realized how important flying was and how important it was for you to give it up on your terms and not being forced to give it up. You like to do things on your own terms, Admiral," she giggled as his mouth made contact with the ticklish skin on her neck and he gave it a gentle nip. "Wasn't I supposed to be giving you a massage?" She asked when she could finally force her brain to string together coherent thoughts again.
"We can do other things too, you know," he leaned forward to wrap his arms around her waist and in one swift motion she was on her back. "Like this," he demonstrated by trailing feather light kisses along her collarbone.
"I like this," she sighed contently.
"I know," he grinned.
"Considering we made love together for the first time twelve years ago, we could be nostalgic tonight and recreate the event entirely, Flyboy."
"Mmmhmm, we could."
"Are you up to it, old man?" She teased as she arched any eyebrow – nine years of desire made them rather adventurous that night. "If your back is bothering you too much..."
"Enough talking, Mac," he mumbled as he buried his face in the crook of her neck and continued to kiss his way down her body.
"Funny, as I recall, you said that that night, too."
"And as I recall, we had on a lot less clothing..."
"We did, didn't we? And I also recall a bathtub being involved,"
"Indeed…but that was that was round two. You think you're up to an entire reenactment, Marine?" He challenged. "Because I am."
"Game on, sailor."
She captured his face in her hands when he returned to kiss her lips. In that moment, she thought about the kiss they shared in his apartment before he proposed and how it was her favorite. It obviously wasn't their first kiss, but it was different because they were able to let the barriers down. It was a kiss between them, filled of passion and promise and hope for the future.
It wasn't a kiss with a ghost of the past, a goodbye kiss while she engaged to another man, a mistletoe kiss or a congratulatory peck on the cheek.
She remembered the thrill of being able to touch him freely and pull him close to her. She remembered what it felt like to press their foreheads together as she cupped his face in her hands for the first time during a kiss.
It was real. It was magical even.
The sound of Harm's voice drew her out of her thoughts. "You okay, Marine?"
"I'm always okay when I'm with you."
"Right back at you, MacKenzie."
"Well, there is one way I can be better…
"…with less clothes on. A lot less clothes on."
She flashed a smile. "Stop finishing my sentences ."
"Stop starting mine," he countered with a smile of his own.
And in the hours that ensued, it was safe to say that in 21 years of friendship – mixed in with 9 years of foreplay, and 12 years of marriage – the passion between Harmon Rabb and Sarah MacKenzie was still burning strong. Very, very strong.