Title: As It Was in the Beginning
Author: rooster dawn
Pairing: Harm and Mac
Disclaimer: The characters of JAG are the property of Donald Bellisario and Bellisarius Production, Inc. Used without permission. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: What if Harm and Mac met in law school after Harm's ramp strike and Mac's return from Japan? Would their lives be the same?
Good feedback is good for the soul and my happiness.
Author's note: Yeah I know Mac went to Duke, but for the purposes of this story they both went to the same school, Georgetown. Why else would Harm go directly to JAG Headquarters in DC?
part seven Are you ready
Friday
18 September 1992
The Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland
It was a beautiful autumn day. Harm and Sarah had decided to get married in the Naval Academy Chapel at Annapolis. It was where Harm's father and mother had gotten married. It was only fitting that they got married there too.
A lot of Harm's academy buddies and crew mates were there too. Jack Keeter, his roommate during his academy days, was his best man. Mac had invited some friends from high school, Georgetown, and fellow marines she had served with.
Harm's parents and grandmother were there. Mac didn't want to see her abusive father and she didn't know where her mother was. Her Uncle Matt had agreed to give her away.
A surprise visitor to the proceedings was Diane. She wanted to see the woman who had tamed the untamable Harmon Rabb Jr. in such a short period of time. She must be someone very special. She must be very beautiful, intelligent, charming, and strong willed.
Harm was a little surprised to see her, but was happy when he saw her there. His two favorite girls would be here. It was time for Diane to meet her mirror image and the love of his life. He just hoped that Either Diane or Sarah killed him in the process.
He didn't know how he would be able to explain it to Diane or maybe both of them why he had fallen in love with Sarah and not Diane. They were identical in so many ways besides how they looked.
Both of them were very intelligent. And their personalities were very much the same after getting past their initial resistance.
When they met at the rehearsal dinner both of them were shocked. Sarah knew Diane looked like her, but to see her in person was quite another story. It was frightening to see someone who looked exactly like you.
"Diane, I would like you to meet Sarah MacKenzie, the woman I'm going to marry." introduced Harm.
"It's finally nice to meet you Sarah. I have been looking forward to meeting the woman who has captured Harm's heart. You look quite familiar to me." smiled Diane with a funny look on her face.
"It's finally nice to meet you too Diane. Harmon has told me so much about you. He said that you were his friend at the Academy. He said you helped him heal spiritually and emotionally after his crash." replied Sarah.
"You don't look surprised to see me, that is, we do look alike. I never imagined that Harm would fall in love with someone who looked like me. Hell, I didn't think there was anyone out there that looked like me." queried Diane.
"That's because he used a photo of you to make his initial move on me. He pretended that he knew me. He called me by your name. When I called him on it, he showed me your photo that he kept in his wallet.
I knew then that he wasn't using a line on me, but the shirt he was wearing, God it was so awful, it was so loud. Though I had to admit it did get the younger girls in class very excited." smiled Sarah.
"Don't tell me he was wearing that yellow and orange flowered Hawaiian shirt. I thought I burned it the last time I saw him. I kept on telling him that the women he wanted to meet don't like that shirt." laughed Diane.
"How true, I told Harmon that he looked like a fool in it. I told him only a squid thinks he looks good in a shirt that draws that much attention to himself. He told me Jack taught him about how to get women." smiled Sarah.
"Jack is a great guy, I love him like a bother, but he has no fashion sense at all. You've heard about how pilots like to love them and leave them. Well with Jack it's he loves them, but they are the ones to leave." sighed Diane.
"I still can't believe how much you look like me. We could be twins. How old are you Sarah?" asked Diane.
"Twenty five, a few years younger than Harmon." answered Sarah.
"You can't be a twin then, I'm twenty eight. We could be sisters though, I was adopted when I was a baby." reasoned Diane.
"My Uncle Matt will be here tomorrow to give me away. Maybe he knows something." pondered Sarah.
"Do you suppose if we ask Harm, will he be able to tell us why he loves you enough to marry you, but only loves me as a friend." smiled Diane.
"He might, though he did say once that he saw me as a combination of you and his grandmother." smiled Sarah.
"What exactly does that mean?" asked a confused Diane.
"He said that I was as beautiful and intelligent as you were, but I had her personality. That is I don't let him get away with anything. He is expected to toe the line whenever he's with me.
He told me that he usually could get you to let him have his own way. But I think it was just bad timing for you. He said something about Annie and being apart from you so much, that he didn't really have the time to get to know you in that manner." explained Sarah.
"That seems reasonable except that I never let him have his own way, that was just wishful thinking on his part. He usually toed the line pretty well except when he was with Jack. Jack always got him into trouble." replied Diane.
Saturday
19 September 1992
The Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland
The next day Uncle Matt flew into town. He went to meet Sarah at her hotel room. He had a surprise waiting for him when he got there. When Sarah let him into the room he saw Diane standing there with her, the spitting image of Sarah.
His mind began whirling faster and faster. Could it be? Was this the baby girl that his sister had given up so many years ago? He cursed the name Joe MacKenzie. How many years of pain his sister suffered due to that man?
He was going to have to call his sister later. She had been hesitant about coming to the wedding. She was afraid that Sarah would hate her and wouldn't want to see her. She couldn't deal with Sarah rejecting her.
He also knew his sister longed for the knowledge of her first born, the baby girl she was forced to give up so many years ago. It had started her on a downward spiral that eventually led to her running away from that bastard.
He would call her. He would tell her that he might have found her first born. He would tell her that she needed to be here for Sarah's wedding. She had to know that Sarah would have many questions that only she would be able to answer.
"Uncle Matt, please come in. I would like you to meet my friend Diane, that is Diane Schonke." smiled Sarah as she greeted her uncle. She noticed the look of shock on his face.
"Good afternoon Sir, it's nice to meet you. Sarah has been telling me all about you. It's nice of you to be giving her away." smiled Diane.
Uncle Matt looked on dumbfounded. That smile, he had seen it before. It was the same smile he saw on Sarah's face growing up. It was the same one he saw on his sister's face before she married the bastard.
"It's nice to meet you Diane. You look familiar somehow." replied Matt as he gave a sly smile first at Diane and then Sarah.
"You must be sisters." smiled Matt.
"Funny you should say that Uncle Matt, Diane and I have some questions to ask to." replied Sarah.
Uncle Matt had an idea of what those questions might be, but he really didn't have any answers for them. Even though they might looked like sisters and were close in age, he didn't know the specifics.
He didn't think he could answer them truthfully. It would all be conjecture on his part. His sister would have to be the one to answer them. He would call her and make sure she was here tomorrow to talk to them.
"The questions that you have I don't have the answers to Sarah, but I know someone who might know the answers." he replied.
"You mean my father?" asked Sarah sullenly.
"Hell no. I don't want to ever see him again. I mean your mother, Sarah." he snorted.
"You know where my mother is? Why didn't you say anything to me last winter?" asked Sarah.
"She wasn't ready to see you Sarah. She only contacted me two years ago. She knows you're getting married tomorrow, but she afraid that you don't want to see her." he replied.
"Of course I want to see her Uncle Matt. I've missed her so much." wailed Sarah.
The next morning Uncle Matt picked his sister up at the airport. It had been a few years since he had seen her last, but he always knew where she was. He was surprised to see how good she looked.
She was a little heavier than she was fifteen years ago, but she was still a fine looking woman. He could see that the girls had grown up to look like her and not the bastard he had always wanted to kill.
"Hi Deanne, it's so nice to see you again. You look so beautiful." smiled Matt as he gave his sister a big hug.
"Hi Matt, it's nice to see you again. It's nice to know that you haven't lost your charm." laughed Deanne before continuing.
"Are you sure she wants me here Matt? I did run out on her and leave her with Joe. I'm sure she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you Deanne. She might be confused as to why you left her, but she doesn't hate you. I think she really wants you here. replied Matt.
"Which brings me to the second reason why I called you."
"What is it Matt, you made it sound very important?" asked Deanne.
"Let's get a cup of coffee first and sit down. What I need to talk to you about is very sensitive and I don't want you to feel sad and hurt on this very special day." offered Matt.
They went into the Dunkin Donuts restaurant in the airport food court. They grabbed a couple of large ones, extra strength, marine grade.
"What is it Matt?" asked Deanne wondering why looked was so apprehensive.
"I seem to remember a long time ago you had a baby before Sarah." began Matt hesitantly.
Deanne's walls suddenly went up. She hadn't thought about the child she gave up in a very, very long time. It wasn't something that she liked to think about. It made her very sad. She even suffered through several bouts of depression because of it.
"Deanne! It's important that you tell me about it." demanded Matt.
"Matt, no! That was so long ago. I don't like to remember what happened." cried Deanne.
"Deanne, I know that was a painful time in your life, but I need to know. The baby, was it a boy or was it a girl? How many years was it before Sarah was born?" demanded Matt. He needed to know.
"It was a girl. You know that Matt. Joe didn't want a girl, he wanted a boy." cried Deanne.
"How many years Deanne?" Matt continued to persist.
"About three years Matt. He made me give her up. He didn't want any girls." cried Deanne.
"Do you know who adopted her Deanne?" asked Matt. The age was right. Sarah was twenty five. Diane was twenty eight.
"Matt! Why are you doing this to me?" cried Deanne.
"It's important Deanne. I met a young lady last night when I was visiting Sarah. She looked very much like Sarah." explained Matt hoping it would get Deanne to open up quicker.
"You think she's ..... my little girl?" asked Deanne hopefully.
"She is about the right age Deanne. Do you know who adopted her?" he asked again.
"It's in my purse somewhere. I always keep it with me hoping someday that I might see her." replied Deanne.
She quickly looked through her purse to the special compartment she kept all her special documents. She pulled out a laminated birth certificate. On one side it gave a name, She read it Matt.
"Diane
born to Deanne and Joe MacKenzie.
Date of birth: June 17, 1964.
twenty one inches seven pounds two ounces
brown eyes and brown hair"
She turned the laminated certificate over and read the other side.
"Diane, daughter of Deanne and Joe, given up in adoption to Frank and Eleanor Schonke June 24, 1964."
Tears were welling up in her eyes as she finished. She was about ready to let them loose.
"Deanne!" shouted Matt.
"What Matt?" she asked.
"Her name is Diane, Diane Schonke." smiled Matt.
"My little girl?" she asked for confirmation.
"It appears so Deanne." smiled Matt as he saw the smile come across her face, the one he hadn't seen in over twenty five years, the one that both Sarah and Diane both shared.
