Author's Note: Sorry guys... it has been a really rough few weeks. I know that some are asking about updating my fics, so I figured that I would get at least one of them updated for you. Hopefully I can use this weekend to do another update on some more. Either way, I hope you enjoy this installment. Review if you would like!
"I do." He says with a smile on his face as he looks into her watery eyes.
"Then, by the power vested in me by the state of Illinois and Lake County, I pronounce you husband and wife. Congratulations." The judge says with a smile and a signing of their marriage license.
Harm leans in to kiss her briefly and that was it. They were man and wife. Years of walking eggshells around each other, not committing to anyone, and loving each other… and here they were.
When they walk out of the county courthouse, they walk out hand in hand, smiling about the fact that they got married and the heavens didn't open up and swallow them whole. The other shoe wasn't going to drop before they had made it official, and Mac was starting to think that maybe it wasn't going to drop at all after all.
"So, what do you think?" he says, stopping them and pulling her in by the waist.
"I think that being Mrs. Rabb is going to do me well."
"Really? Anything else?"
"I think that I only have a few more hours until my husband has to go off and serve his country for a month or so, so we should drop of some paperwork and then go home and celebrate." She says with a smile and kiss to his chin.
"Celebrate how?" he asks, lowering his voice and kissing the corner of her mouth.
"I have a few ideas."
Her own voice had dropped down and she had leaned in closer to his ear so he heard her at just above a whisper, and he leaned in and whispered back, "You're going to kill me, Marine."
She pulls back with a sparkle in her eyes, "but what a way to go, right?"
So celebrate they did, and when the morning came they said goodbye with just a few heartfelt kisses and a wave from the parking lot. They had both agreed that they weren't going to be that couple that went through a weepy goodbye when one had to go away, because they had been dealing with it their entire relationship anyways. She knew he would come back to her as he always had and he knew that she would be waiting for him as she always had.
The only thing that struck either of them at probably the same moment was the fact that the majority of the out of town assignments they went on had been with each other. For him to go on a big JAG assignment for the General without her was something that both found about unnerving. It was soon shrugged off as the week got underway.
While he was gone, she was in the thick of things, and the only time she really wished he had been there was when she faxed her letter of resignation over to the General, finally severing her Marine career. It was a bittersweet moment that took a lot of thought before she hit the send button. She realized that it was all going to be worth it in the end though. Even if times were to get rough in the near future or months and years down the road, she and Harm were it for each other. That brought more comfort to Mac than she ever realized she wanted or needed.
Two days after she resigned her commission, she got the message that their crate had arrived with all their things. It was only an inconvenience because it happened to be just four days before they got the final closing paperwork on the house.
"If you can please hold these crates in storage for a few more days, I will be able to get a mover to come in and get everything. The Navy doesn't even have to move us in if you guys can sit on it for a bit." she says over the phone when she gets the call that their things had arrived but was worried that they weren't going to keep it for them.
"Ma'am, we will take care of everything. I know that there were some issues with this initially, so we will hold things for you and Captain Rabb, and all we need is a call on Monday with the address." The young man says to her over the phone.
"All right, then I will make sure everything is squared away Lieutenant."
"My pleasure Mrs. Rabb."
After she hangs up she smiles at the telephone and the Lieutenant's use of the term. She was Mrs. Rabb now, and the way people said it so casually when they talked to her made her get butterflies in her stomach. The butterflies lead her to e-mailing her husband to find out when exactly he was coming home this time around.
Harm,
I hope everything is going well with the investigation. Are they still thinking you will be home next Friday, or are we looking at a new timeline? I mainly ask because I miss you like crazy, and partly because we got all our stuff in, and I'm moving everything into the new place on Monday. The furniture we picked out before you left online is going to come in sometime after that too. I wish you were here and I hope that you're okay with where I put everything and all the paint colors. The resignation has been processed and I'm still getting used to being called Mrs. Rabb, but I've got to say it has a nice ring to it.
I love you,
Mac
He replies a day later that the investigation wouldn't be over by next Friday but hopefully the following week sometime after that, so Mac is on her own for moving. He also tells her that he's sure that whatever she does will be perfect for both of them, which makes her smile but makes her nervous all at the same time.
When she lived briefly with Mic Brumby, he was coming into her space and it was easy to just add a few of his pictures here and there and a couple knickknacks. They were supposed to be creating this place together. It was going to be a mixture of the two of them, and she didn't know how exactly that was going to look. The more she thought though, the more she realized that she wanted everything there and ready for him when he got home.
Monday was insane. The nerves she had about the whole move were making her nauseous and the thought that the movers were going to be at the new house just an hour or so after she got the key to the place made things even worse. She was worried that the timing of one or the other wasn't going to go according to plan, and she had a lot to do in the day.
Her goal was to get them to just move everything into the correct room for the time being so she could still paint around the boxes. That way the rooms would be ready before their new furniture came in later in the week and she could start unpacking after that was in its place.
"I appreciate all that you've done for us with getting this place squared away, and I know that Harm does too." She says to the realtor as she shakes his hand after getting the keys to their new home.
"It was a pleasure dealing with the two of you, and I hope everything goes well with the move."
"Thank you." She says and he leaves her standing on her front porch.
She sits there a moment on the worn but still sturdy patio furniture that Mr. Wilson had left for them to enjoy. It was a white wicker that she knew she was going to paint before the summer was up and update with some new cushions. It was the perfect view really. She could see the whole street from her spot here on the porch and she could easily imagine working on a small garden in the front and picture how the house would look as you pulled up.
By the time she finished with all of her imagining, the truck that she assumed had all their things was turning onto their street and the moving day had begun.
The young men they had working were amazing and had the truck unpacked in just over an hour because of how little the two of them actually had. Their small apartments could both fit in this new place with room to spare and the majority of her furniture she left when she sublet to Varese back in D.C.
It was good for when she was going to go out later for some paint to start getting down to the nitty gritty work before Harm came home. It was horribly domestic of her, but she really did want everything to be perfect when he got back. She didn't want him to come home to a house in disarray. She wanted him to come home to a place that was ready to be lived in and she wanted the two of them to get to start living the moment he was home. The more she thought about merging their two lives together, the more she wanted it to start right away.
"I miss you." She says, answering the phone a few days later and knowing that he was the only one with this new number.
"I miss you too" he says with a laugh, "How's it going?"
"You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff that I've gotten done the past few days. I've gotten most of the rooms we are actually going to use right away painted, and I was able to get a carpeting place in to replace the carpet upstairs before they come with the new furniture tomorrow. That will come tomorrow and then I'm starting to get the boxes unpacked after that."
"Well, don't run yourself ragged, Mac. I can help when I get back."
"No, I don't want you to have to worry about all this when you get back. I want you to just enjoy it."
"Even if I have to unpack boxes when I get back, I'll enjoy it because I'll be doing it with my wife."
"Your wife, huh?" she teases him with a smile into the phone.
"Yeah… it's been great trying to work that into all my conversations. I like being able to say that I have one."
"Really? Don't you think that takes away from your macho Navy persona?"
"Who cares… I love it."
She smiles, knowing that he means every word, "it has to be incredibly early over there, why are you up?"
"I figured that I would call early enough that I didn't interrupt your sleep. I know that you've been working hard on everything over there. You know that I appreciate it all, right Mac?" he says with sincerity.
"I know. And I can't wait for you to get home."
"Well, just a few more weeks and we'll be done. I should probably go though, catch a few more hours of sleep before I'm back to the grind."
"All right. I love you, be safe, and I'll talk to you soon."
"I love you too, Sarah." He says before hanging up.
The next day, when she wakes up, she doesn't feel well at all. However she isn't surprised because of how she has been working the past few days, and if the dull ache in her back was any indication, maybe she did overdo it a bit. Run down and just plain exhausted, she was glad they had decided to have the new furniture delivered and set up by the company instead of doing it themselves. It only took a few hours, but by the end of the few hours, whatever was going on was getting worse and one of the gentleman that worked for the moving company asked if she was doing all right.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but are you all right?" he asks, walking over to where she had been sitting in the kitchen as they moved in the furniture in the living room.
"I'll be fine. I think that the moving is just catching up to me. My husband is overseas right now and I've been getting everything done by myself while he's been gone."
"Are you sure? You really don't look well."
The back pain that she felt as a dull ache this morning, she dismissed as soreness from all the painting, but it had grown to something entirely different within the past few hours and she was starting to wonder if the man had a point.
"I just… We're about done here, and I would feel horrible leaving you here by yourself if you need to get help." He continues when he sees her wince after trying to stand up from her sitting position.
She takes a deep breath and realizes that she can't really stand up straight anymore before taking him up on his offer, "You know what, I'm actually starting to wonder if you're right… do you think that you could call me a cab? I don't even know where the nearest hospital is."
"It's Condell down the street just a bit. I'll call someone and you get your things, okay?" the man says, picking up his cell phone as she goes to the kitchen to grab her things before realizing that she has to go to the bathroom.
If she wasn't convinced before, she's convinced when she sees the blood and realizes that something is really not right.
