Harm's thoughts returned to the discussion around him when, given enough clues, AJ filled in that the person with a connection to Independence Day and whose name began with F was "Benjamin Fwanklin!"
"Ooh, I've got a double for today," Mac contributed. "Founding fathers."
"What, you think you get extra points for that?" Harm asked her playfully.
"You bet. Two Fs and it connects with the holiday," she pointed out.
"I can do that." Harm was not going to let her best him.
"Oh yeah?"
"Sure. Friends and family."
Mac gave him a doubtful glare, but Harm defended his answer. "Look around; it's part of what today is about."
"He does have a point, ma'am," Bud admitted to Mac.
"Well, if that counts, then I get points for finger food," Mac stated triumphantly, grabbing another half sandwich and a baby carrot from the cooler they had brought.
Harm simply gave her one of his exasperated looks.
"I wanna carrot," AJ requested, hopping off of his fathers lap.
"AJ," his mother reminded him, "ask nicely."
The boy smiled sweetly at Mac. "I wanna carrot, pleeeease."
It wasn't exactly asking, but it would do.
"Here you go." Mac handed AJ the vegetable.
"At least someone is learning how to eat healthy," commented Harm.
Mac knew that was a barb at her, and she waved her half eaten carrot in front of him. "I eat healthy."
He rolled his eyes at her meager evidence. "You want to pass me a piece of fresh fruit from the cooler?" he asked her.
"Sure." She reopened the bin next to her. "What kind?"
"Umm, a plum, if there are any left."
"Heads up." She tossed a plum at him, which he caught. "It's the last one," she informed him.
"Anyone else interested in it?" he asked politely.
AJ spoke up immediately. "Me!! I like plums!"
"Okay, then you have it," Harm insisted.
"Are you sure, sir?" Harriet asked. "He doesn't need it."
"I'm sure. Gotta encourage healthy habits."
"But I don't want it yet," AJ decided, handing the fruit back to Mac to return to the cooler. The little guy was busy with his carrot.
"Harm, did you want something else instead?" Mac asked, while she had the ice chest open.
"Uh, nah. Maybe Ill just hold off for a little bit."
Harriet, just then, noticed that her son was sniffling. "Oh, AJ, come here," she requested. "Your nose is running; let's wipe that."
She grabbed a napkin and took care of it.
"There you go."
Harm couldnt resist having some fun with his godson. "Hey, AJ, do your feet smell?"
The boy looked puzzled, but then indignantly told Harm, "No!"
"Are you sure?" Harm persisted, sitting farther up. "Because, you know, if your nose is running and your feet smell, then you must be built upside-down."
AJ now glared at his godfather as if the man was insane.
Grabbing the boy close to him and tussling his hair, Harm explained his joke, "Because normally, peoples noses smell and their feet are running.
There was laughter from the boy now, but that might have been because Harm was playfully poking him.
"So, are you built upside-down?" Harm asked.
Through the giggles, AJ managed to squeal, "No!"
"Let's check." Harm stood up with AJ in his arms and proceeded to flip the boy over, so that the four-year-old dangled upside-down. The boy was clearly enjoying this physical play almost as much as the Naval Commander. "Is this the way you should go?" Harm asked, facetiously.
The boy merely laughed with delight and swung his arms in circles, relishing the new direction that gravity pulled them.
"Aunt Mac, you're upside-down."
"I am?"
"Uh-huh. And you look funny!"
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. And funny starts with F!"
"I bet the whole world looks funny, since it all seems flipped to you right now," Mac said to him.
AJ laughed. "Yeah!! Everything looks weally weiud." AJ was generally getting better with his r sounds, but now was clearly not a time he was conscious about it.
"Alright, enough of this." Harm began to gently lower AJ, mindful of the boy's head and neck. But once AJ's back was on the ground, Harm playfully let his godson's legs fall.
"Gee, you're getting heavy, AJ," Harm teased him. Dropping to his hands and knees, Harm hovered over the boy and good-humoredly accused him, "You've been growing again, haven't you?"
"Yep, I'm a big boy!"
"Yes, you are," Mac told him. "And you're going to be a big brother very soon."
"You're growing up fast," Harm agreed.
"That begins with F, too," said AJ.
"Yes, fast begins with F," Harm agreed. "Very good."
"First-rate!" AJ corrected.
As Harm wondered where AJ picked up that phrase, he pretended to tickle AJ, which he learned long ago had the desired effect of making Bud's child giggle. Laughing along with him, when AJ tried to tickle him too, Harm scooped the boy up and rolled over onto his back. This left AJ atop of him.
Over the squirming boy, Harm could see that Harriet had gotten herself up off of her chair.
She addressed her son, "Okay my first-rate little man. Mommy has to use the facilities. How about you try to use the potty too?"
AJ considered it and decided it was probably a good idea. "Okay."
Bud stood as well. "We'll make it a family trip." Addressing Harm and Mac, he assured them, "We'll be back soon."
"Maybe not too soon," Harriet announced. "I'd like to enjoy some air conditioning or at least some fans to cool me down for a bit."
"Find yourself a fridge and enjoy for as long as you want. We'll be here," Mac answered.
The Roberts family headed off, AJ firmly holding his mother's hand.
* * *
"You do look funny."
"What?" Mac asked. Harm's remark had surprised her.
"Upside-down." Since he was left lying face up, Harm tilted his head back, making Mac appear topsy-turvy to him.
"You know," she told him, "it's really only cute coming from a four-year-old."
"Don't get all feisty," Harm told her. "I'm simply saying that that no matter what or who you focus on, from this angle, everything looks odd."
"I'll take your word for it."
"What, you don't want me to hold you upside-down like I did AJ?" he teased, punctuating the remark with a smile that had his tongue peeking out between his teeth.
"No, thank you," Mac politely declined. "You have a habit of turning my world upside-down as it is, and that's never a good thing."
Harm rolled himself over on his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows to look at her. "Never?"
"Have you ever had your life turned upside-down?" It was a rhetorical question to make her point, but he answered.
"On more than one occasion. You know that."
"Yeah, and, just like in my life, they were all traumatic events."
Harm sat up and moved closer to Mac on the blanket. "How have I turned your life upside-down? In a bad way."
"Is there a good way?"
He considered that for a moment. "Yes. When you joined the Marine Corps, you turned your life around. That was very good."
"That wasn't some outside force turning my life upside-down. That was me, with Uncle Matts help, drying out and working hard to make my life better. My life before that wasn't right-side-up to begin with."
A distant and sad expression overtook her face. "And anyhow, Eddy's death was arguably what really turned my life upside-down that time, and that was very traumatic even if it was what I needed to dry out."
"I'm sorry, Mac, I didnt mean to bring up ..."
"Fatalities? Failures? Flubs?" Her lips turned up just slightly, to let Harm know that she wasn't upset. She shook her head. "It's not your fault."
Harm returned her small smile, glad that he hadn't dampened her mood so much that she couldn't have fun with him. Even if it was a silly game started by a four-year-old.
"Forgive me?" he requested.
She shrugged. "There's nothing to forgive," she dismissed.
"Isn't there? When have I turned your world upside-down?" He honestly wanted to know if and when he had negatively impacted her life as she had implied that he had.