A/N: Please check out our other story Devil in the Family on the Army Wives page and let us know what you think of both pieces. Enjoy, we'll be updating more regularly in the future.
Harm Rabb and Sarah "Mac" Mackenize hurried in from the back deck, "What's the matter Mom?" Harm asked concerned.
They'd come out becuase his mother had recently been ill but she was recovering nicely. "I'm fine but...watch this." She rewound the footage to the beginning. At first the camera was fixed on the sick little girl in her father's arms, but at the end it panned out and zeroed in on Mac's face.
Mac looked at Harm and then at Trish "Where is this from?"
"South Carolina. Mac do you have a sister?"
"No I have no family left just me."
"She looks just like you Mac could be a twin" replied Harm.
"They say everyone has one but wasn't mine Diane, I doubt eeryone has a triple." She laughed it off but something about the woman's face haunted her and she quickly came back. "What's her name? The woman."
"Denise," Trish replied. "Denise Sherwood, I'm going to have Frank send them a check, it can't be cheap having to go public like that. It's the least we can do, that little girl is so cute."
Later that evening Mac got on the computer and did a check on Frank and Denise Sherwood. It told her Frank was a Lt. Colonel in the Army and had 2 childern . Jeremy T Sherwood was KIA three years ago in Afghanistan. They had a 3 year old daughter Molly Victoria. Mac stared at Denise's face and could have sworn she was looking in the mirror. Harm walked into the den and saw what she was looking at on the computer screen. "Harm I'm going to South Carolina before returning home . I need to know who Denise Sherwood is and get tested."
Harm sat on the arm of the couch. "Mac are you sure it could just be a coincidence."
"There are no such things as coincidences Harm . You can come with me or go home I should be there in a few days."
"No, I'll stay with you," he replid gently. "You do look a lot like her and they said she matched...that's major surgery, I'm not going to let you have major surgery and me not be right there with you. Come on Mac."
She nodded, she was suprised, she really really was surprised he wanted to come. As they sat in bed that night e she talked mostly to herself, "I always felt like a piece was missing. When I saw the pictures of Diane nothing really snappd in place, but tonight...seeing her on the TV, hearing her speak...it did."
Harm turned and looked at her, "You actually think you two are related?" Mac huffed and turned on her side away from he could be so dense and unfeeling.
"It doesn't make sense," Harm sighed. "It does not, how were you separated? Why didn't you ever find out about her from your uncle?" Mac shook her head, "I don't know Harm, go to sleep." He'd hurt her again.
Three days later Dr. Maxwell called to notify Denise and Frank that someone had come to their hospital specifically to be tested for the transplant. Denise smiled, "That's great news."
"You should come meet her."
Frank and Denise were shown into the doctor's office. As they entered a Navy captain and Marine Full Colonel stand. "Frank ,Denise may I introduce Captain Harmon Rabb and Colonel Sarah Mackenzie. Colonel Mackenzie came to be tested and she matched, a full identical match to you. Could you two be related?"
Denise looked at Mac resting her hands on her 7 month pregnant belly "I don't think so?"Frank stepped up to the pair "Thank you Colonel,doctor what's the next step?"
"Well need a more in depth blood panel on Colonel Mackenzie, then she'll be tested for her own health, then Molly will begin a heavy course of chemotherapy to kill her bone marrow, that will then be replaced by the donation. After that we wait."
Frank hated the word wait, "That seems to be your favorite word."
"With the Colonel's permission we will start her testing today and if she clears ,we'll start Molly on the chemotherapy shortly thereafter. Let's say everything is a go ,Molly will have the transplant by Saturday."
Harm stood shifting his cover in his hands. "When will Mac have the harvest procedure done?" "Her procedure is done first then it's Molly's turn."
Harm looked at Mac. "How is this done?"
"We insert a needle into her pelvic girdle, extract the marrow from there, then inplant it in Molly. Molly's body does the rest and begins replicating the healthy bone marrow. the Colonel will be in OR maybe an hour at most."
Mac stood her hands folded "Will I be awake?" "
"No you will be in what we call twilight sleep. Its when you are asleep but not intubated. You will have a large bruise on the insertion site and it will be painful."
Harm slid his arm around her, "She's had a lot of problems...reproductively...and has scarring throughout her abdomen and pelvis...will that make it worse for her? I don't know if this is a good idea."
Frank reacted to that, "I beg your pardon, but your wife is the one who'll have to undergo the procedure. You don't want to watch her hurt, I don't want to watch my little girl die like I watch my boy die!"'
Mac patted Harm's hand "I'll be okay, the pain I can endure if it helps their child." Mac motioned to Denise, "I would like to speak to the doctor in private with Mrs. Sherwood please."
Harm and Frank reluctantly stepped outside. "Doctor I would like you to run DNA tests on Denise and myself."
Denise looked at her, "How could we be related? I have 3 other sisters ."
Mac looked up at her, "I don't konw. I really don't know but...since I saw you on television I...maybe it's because of your little one, how adorable she is and how precious she looks being cuddled by your husband or maybe it's something else, I never felt completed before...I blamed it on not being married and not being able to bear a child but...now...If you don't want to I understand, but my family life was...not easy and maybe...I don't know." She seemed so unsure, she never seemed unsure until now.
Denise told the doctor to go ahead and run the tests. As the two women walked out of the office Mac saw the two military men standing across from each other not talking just waiting.
The were so different. Harm, tall, slender, softer featured, and frank shorter, harder, and more angular. They both reached for their woman at the same time. Denise melted into her husbad's arms giving a tiny sigh of contentment to be there, like his embrace soothed all that was wrong in the world. Why didn't it feel like that for Mac?
Mac, would you like to see our little girl? You can see her through the window,she's in isolation."
Harm stepped forward, "I'd like to go to the hotel and get settled before Mac starts the testing procedure."
Mac looked at Harm and frowned. "Denise, Frank why don't we get together for a quick meal later today? Here's my card call me."
Denise took the card and smiled. "Thank you Sarah for coming and helping our child."
"You're welcome ." Mac watched as Frank held Denise close as they walked to the elevator to go upstairs. Mac turned and looked at Harm and sighed, "What the Hell?"
"You want to see her?" he asked. "I don't want you going and upsetting yourself Mac, looking at things we know will never be."
She nodded, "That little girls exists, if I'm going to face surgery I'd like a look at her up close. After dinner," she compromised.
As they registered at the hotel Harm gave the name Rabb. They walked down the hall and into the room. Harm dropped the bags on the racks and put his cover on the bureau ."Mac what has gotten into you about this you think she is your sister?"
Mac sat on the bed "I'm having DNA tests run on our blood. If she is I have family."
"I thought I was family to you."
"You are , did you see how Frank is with Denise. I want that she knows he loves her. Do you?"
"Of course I do," he replied. "You know that, I say it often enough. I have a feeling this Denise woman is a little spoiled. Daddy's house to hubby's house...you are made of sterner stuff than she is. You'd bend me like a pretzel if I tried to coddle you like that."
"Oh I don't know Harm , once in a while it would be nice to be held and cuddled. My life could use some loving tenderness in it. I'm going to take a shower." Harm sat on the bed and put his face in his hands.
Mac took her time in the shower. When she came out she had a text message on her phone from Bud reading simply, "Ma'am, you won't believe these background checks. Call me!"
Mac looked at Harm sleeping on the bed and walked into the bathroom and sat in the counter. She called Bud. "Hey Bud its Mac what's so surprising?"
"Well ma'am Denise Branch Sherwood was born Augaust 14, 1968, at Marine Corp Air Station Yuma, Arizona. ,and so were you. Denise Elizabeth Branch had a stillborn female twin. Your mother and hers were probably on the same ward. She has threeother sisters and a brother. Denise is the youngest. Is there anything else Colonel?"
"No...no Bud thanks. I'll be getting back to you." Mac closed her cell phone and rested her chin on her hands her mind was spinning what if they were sisters how was Deanne her mother.
Mac sat and contemplated. Dense had a stillborn twin...she didnt' remember seeing an hospital pictures of herself or of her with her mother. She never thought anything of that before but now maybe it did have a meaning. Maybe it all had a meaning. She was darker skinned than either parent, she never felt she fit in, she was such an intellectual when neither parent showed much ability or interest towards books...She sighed and called Bud back asking him to fax the papers to the hotel. Bud agreed then, "Another thing ma'am, on a hunch of Harriet's I ran you mother's name, she wasn't a patient at the hospital that day. She was a nurse, labor and delivery."
Mac ended the call and shook her head Deanne stole that baby reported it as stillborn and took her turned and looked into the mirror -she and Denise were more than sisters they were identical twins. She leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. All this time she had a family a real family and they had been stolen from them. She leaned her head against her knees in shock.
She didn't know exactly when she started to cry but she must have started to in earnest because within what seemed only a few seconds Harm was poudning on the closed bathroom door. She couldn't make her legs move, she couldn't make her arms move, she couldn't make her chest move to breath, she was paralyzed from shock and could do nothing be lean against the door blocking her from the one source of comfort she'd always had.
"Mac damn it!"He pushed on the door and saw her sitting on the floor, her phone by her leg. He squatted down next to her "Mac tell me what'as wrong?Who were you talking to?He picked up her phone."
When she didn't answer he flipped it open and checked the call log "Bud". He looked at Mac" What did he tell you?" Mac looked at him "He...he told me she's my twin sister."
Harm sat on his butt hard "What?"
She sniffled and tried to catch her breath. He told me that Denise Branch, she's Denise Sherwood now, she has a husband that loves her, was born in Arizona in the same hospital as I was on the same day at the same time. There was another baby born to Mrs. Branch that day, a stillborn daughter, a stillborn twin." Harm nodded, "Doens't mean it's you Mac." She nodded, "Deanne Mackenzie was not a patient that day with Mrs. Branch. She was...a labor and delivery nurse."
"I had Dr. Maxwell run DNA tests and I bet they will prove what Bud found. I have a sister . A sister that is very happy and had a happy life while mine was hell."
Harm lifted her chin "Mac look at the woman you are , the woman you have become," he said smiling.
"Yeah Harm such a woman that wants what she has. I have to talk to her and get those results from the doctor."
"Okay, wipe your eyes, I'll go with you okay?" She shrugged and shut the door. Harm reached into his jacket and found Frank Sherwood's card and mobile number. He dialed the fellow officer who was rocking his baby girl. When his phone rang he looked at Denise, "It's DC I have to take it." He passed Molly off, "Sherwood."
"Colonel Sherwood, Captain Rabb. We need to talk alone and we need to do it now."
