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This is a sequel to 36 Hours and is set nearly three years on from the original instalment...liberties [aka guesses] have been taken with ages and such.
Disclaimer: Not mine... well, except for the little ones.
Thanks for the reviews.
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The last week of school went fast and Lily was more than excited when Harm picked her up on the last day to start her summer vacation – especially as it meant a family trip to her great grandmother's farm. She loved it there and though she hadn't been in a few years, she still remembered feeding the chickens and watching the horses gallop in the adjoining field.
"Where's mom?" she asked, as Harm loaded the wheelchair into the back of the car. "I thought she said she'd come pick me up too?"
"Mommy was a little sore after her appointment to have her stitches out this morning," Harm reported, as he slid into the driver's seat. "So, she's at home resting."
"Did she get a good report like me?" Lily asked eagerly still very proud of her near perfect report card.
"Dr Mollison was very happy with mommy and she said that things were looking good," Harm replied with a sigh of relief; he'd been praying for a good result. As an additional bonus, the doctor had said that as Mac's condition had improved so rapidly that they'd hold off on the next appointment but that Mac was to reschedule the moment she felt things weren't right. Something Harm had promised faithfully would happen, with or without his wife's consent.
With the early finish of the school day and the morning at Bethesda, lunch had not been eaten and Lily was feeling rather hungry.
"Dad...dy," she sang from the backseat.
"Yes....sy," he replied with a grin, he knew what was coming next.
"Do you think we can have a special lunch today?" she asked. "You know 'cause I got such a good report and so did mom."
"What did you have in mind?" he asked, shaking his head at just how much his wife and daughter sounded alike when trying to wrangle a fast food meal out of him.
"Well, I think mommy would really love something from Beltway Burgers, don't you?" she asked, smiling broadly at him.
"I think she might," Harm agreed. "But what about you?"
"Well, I can get something from there too," she said happily. "After all, we don't want to have to stop twice, do we? Otherwise mom's burger will get cold."
"That's very good of you, Lily, thinking of your mother," Harm said with a smirk.
Lily just giggled knowing that she and her mother had planned this particular lunch before she'd left for school. Harm glanced at his girl in the rear view mirror; he knew a guilty giggle when he heard one.
"What are you giggling about?" he asked, in mock seriousness.
"Nothing, daddy," she said with another giggle.
Carrying their bounty as her father carried her, Lily handed over the food bundle to her mother as she hugged her.
"A special lunch, mommy," she said, gleefully. "Beltway Burgers ... just for you."
"For me?!" she enthused. "Thank you, so much, Lily."
Easing Lily into a kitchen chair, Harm just shook his head, so much joy over a dead meat and grease filled meal. As he walked to the fridge he caught mother and daughter high-fiving and shook his head once more – he'd been set up by them...again.
While Mac and Lily ate heartily, Harm heated up some leftover lasagne and leant on the counter waiting for the microwave to ping. He couldn't help but smile at the simple joy the burgers had brought them and thought that perhaps their good news that morning had allowed them all to take a breath and just enjoy each other.
Turning his attention back to the microwave, he was more than surprised when Lily appeared beside him, holding the bench to keep herself steady.
"Hey, what are you doing, pumpkin?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "You know the doctor said no walking..."
"I know, dad, but it doesn't hurt...look!" Letting go of the bench she took two steps before overbalancing and toppling forward. Saved from headbutting the floor by Harm's firm grasp on her shirt, Lily was brought back up into a standing position.
"What were you saying, Lil?" he asked with a smile. "I know you think you can walk but your ankles are fixed in place, you've got no way of stabilising yourself."
"But I just want to do things on my own...not waiting for you...not using my chair..." she said tearfully. Nearly three weeks of captivity had taken their toll.
Considering her plight for a moment, Harm looked to his wife for some help. Walking over to the pair, Mac kissed her daughter's head.
"How about if we let you crawl?" she said. "But only in the house."
"Like a baby?" she said, eyes widening as she considered this small reprieve.
"Like a baby," Mac confirmed. "It may not feel that comfortable, especially at the top with the cast and your knee...but you can try it."
Instantly, Lily went to drop onto the floor but Harm held her firmly.
"Maybe you should start on the carpet," he said gently, "It's a bit better for your knees than ceramic tiles."
It took Lily next to no time to master the ability to crawl with the casts, and aside from knocking the coffee table a few times, Harm was happy to leave her in the living room while he went back to get his lunch.
"I'm surprised she's lasted this long," Mac said following him into the kitchen. "I think I would have been crawling from day 1."
"Yeah, I think I would have too," he agreed, placing his plate on the table before looking over at Mac. "Can you come here for a minute?" he asked crooking a finger.
"What's up?" she asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Were you the mastermind behind Miss Lily's request for Beltway Burgers?" he asked quietly, pulling her closer to him.
"Moi? Would I do something like that?" she asked innocently.
"Yes, you would," he confirmed. "I get the feeling I just got played."
"Like a fiddle, Harm...like a fiddle." Mac laughed as she kissed him.
Over the weekend, Harm and Mac packed the last of the cases, ready for their trip. As the back of the vehicle got fuller and fuller, Harm could only laugh. Once upon a time he could have gone away for months with nothing more than a seabag. Now, a couple of weeks away meant packing more than the contents he'd ever had in his loft...still, he wouldn't have had it any other way.
This was going to be their first family vacation with the twins. They'd gone away with them overnight a few times but nothing as ambitious as this. Granted, they were going to another place which Harm considered home but the twins had never been there before and he wasn't too sure how they'd fair out of their natural habitat.
"You sure we've got enough?" Mac said, wrapping her arm around him as he surveyed the trunk.
"Yeah, I think so," he said, returning the gesture. "So long as we don't forget their pillows and assorted favourite toys, we're set."
"Lily is so excited," Mac said with a smile. "She's called your grandmother three times already today."
"Really?" Harm said looking down at his wife. "For what?"
"I think it's just to make sure that we're still welcome," she replied with a laugh. "Mind you, if she keeps calling, Grams will change her mind."
"No chance, Mac," he said shaking his head. "My grandmother has called here more in the last week than in the whole time we've lived here. I think she may be more excited than Lily."
Any further discussion was curtailed by the sound of smashing glass and screaming.
"Lily?" he yelled at sound of his daughter's panicked cries. "Where are you?"
"Harm!" Mac called rushing into the seldom used dining room. "Lily, baby, what happened?" she asked gently, surveying her daughter's crumpled body covered in glass.
"I was getting ...the...the ..." she began tearfully before Harm ran in and scanned the room.
"Are you hurt, Lily?" he asked brusquely, squatting next to his wife and slowly taking off the glass shards he could see.
"I wanted to get my report card..." she sobbed, pointing to the place where the shelf used to be in the cabinet. "I was going to take it to show Grams..."
"And then what happened?" Mac asked as Harm continued his de-glassing mission; she could feel the emotions rolling off him.
"I stood up and lost my balance...and it all came down," she said as her tears tumbled. "I'm sorry, mommy."
"It's okay, Lily. Ssh now," she said wanting to cuddle her but not wanting to hurt her with the amount of glass around.
Not only had Lily brought down two glass shelves, but she'd also brought down their contents including eight fancy water glasses, a water jug, four photo frames and an assortment of special awards and items the family had gathered.
"What did I tell you about walking?" Harm asked gruffly before answering himself. "You weren't to do it."
"I didn't walk, dad, I crawled and then stood up," she said, reaching for his hand. "I'm sorry, daddy. I didn't mean to make you mad at me."
Drawing a deep breath, Harm looked at his daughter as his wife looked at him.
"I'm not mad at you, Lily," he finally said with a reluctant sigh. "You just gave me a fright..."
After picking off most of the glass he could see, Harm helped Lily stand to brush off any other shards. When Mac pulled off three more pieces, Harm shook his head. Not being confident that there was no more glass embedded in her clothes, he had Mac strip her while he went to grab spare clothes for her.
"Daddy is mad at me, isn't he?" she whispered once she was sure her dad had gone.
"No, Lily, he's not. He said so," Mac said, caressing her face. "Daddy just got scared."
"Daddy's never scared," she replied, not really believing her mother.
"He is when it comes to you, and Rose and Harry," she said quietly.
"And you?" Lily asked, as Mac raked her hand through Lily's hair.
"Yeah, I think I've given daddy a few frights, but it doesn't mean he doesn't still love me...or you," she explained, sitting on a dining chair.
Standing at the door, Harm listened to the conversation, willing his emotions to settle. These two were two of the most important things in his life and over recent weeks had combined to add more than a few grey hairs to his head. He knew he shouldn't have been as gruff as he was but seeing his precious daughter lying in a pool of shattered glass, his control had faltered. He just wanted them both well and in one piece, was it too much to ask?
Returning to them, Harm dropped the clothes on the end of the table and moved to his daughter.
"I love you very much, Lily," he said, kissing her head as he lifted her up from the glass covered carpet.
"I'm really sorry, dad," she whispered as she clung to him as he tried to put her down.
"I know you are, pumpkin," he said, drying her tears. "It's alright. Daddy will fix it."
"I just wanted to show Grams my good report," she said tearfully, holding onto his shirt.
"I know," he replied, kissing her head. "Grams will be very proud of you."
"Not when she knows about this," Lily replied, gesturing to the ruins.
"Then we won't tell her," he said with a wink.
By the time she was dressed and even with her father's mood improved, Lily was still very remorseful and teary. Sitting on a chair, Harm hoisted her into his lap and allowed her to cuddle into him. Mac went to check on the twins who were napping and was surprised to return to the dining room to find it empty. It didn't take much investigation to find them on the sofa in the living room.
"Can't do anything right...can I?" Lily was saying to her father. "I'm dumb and stupid."
"You are not," Harm replied sternly.
"Am so," she retorted. "Can't walk, can't stand, can't do anything... can't even have a bath."
"Hey, hey," he said, pulling her closer as her tears tumbled again. "It's only temporary, you know that."
"It feels like forever," she sobbed, as Harm rubbed her back.
"It's only been three weeks," he replied, wondering how they were going to manage the second half of her recovery if she stayed in this state.
"It's forever...three whole weeks...and three more to go...I won't be able to do anything at the farm and Grams won't let me help her in the kitchen and I won't be able to get the eggs or ride the horses," she rambled.
"Hey, where's all this coming from?" Harm asked, drawing her face up. "An hour ago you were so excited."
"That was before I was a stupid doody head," she said, shaking her head and clasping his shirt.
Mac had heard enough and walked in before sitting on the sofa next to them. Carefully, she pulled her daughter across onto her lap, being mindful of her own recent issues.
"Lily, we know you are frustrated with your casts, we would be too if we had them," she said quietly as Lily wrapped her arms around Mac's neck. "It must feel like you can't do anything you want." Lily nodded. "And I bet you're thinking that when we get to Grams that you'll just have to sit in your chair so you won't break anything...of yours or of Grams." Lily nodded once more. "But you won't... daddy will ride the horses with you, Grams will let you help her...but you will have to be in a chair for that, you and I can collect the eggs every morning..."
"What about the twins?" she asked wiping at her face.
"Well, they'll be able to do things too, but you'll get to do some special things...and I bet Grams is going to make such a big fuss over you," Mac whispered, kissing her head.
"She won't...she'll make a fuss over the twins because she hasn't met them yet...and everyone thinks they're so cute and stuff," Lily said, her normal good nature gone.
"You're right, Grams probably will make a fuss over them, but you just wait, you're her special girl and she'll spoil you the most," Mac said with certainty. She knew the relationship the child and old lady had developed on their last visit when Lily was treated as nothing less than a princess.
Not knowing what else to say, Lily snuggled into her mother and closed her eyes, surprising Mac.
"Are you tired, baby?" she asked, caressing her face. Lily nodded, her eyes still closed. "Did you sleep properly last night?" Lily shook her head...she'd been so excited about the coming vacation she had kept crawling out of bed to make sure she had packed everything she needed to. Mac smiled knowingly, this would explain the mood...the emotions.
"Do you want me to take you to bed for a nap?" Harm asked, standing from the sofa.
Lily opened her eyes and shook her head. "Can't I just stay here with you, mommy?"
Mac looked at Harm and he nodded, so Mac nodded too. "I think that's a good idea. How about we lay down here and nap together?"
After some careful manoeuvring and a rearranging of cushions, the pair lay comfortably entwined on the sofa. Tenderly, Harm covered them both with the throw rug before kissing their heads and whispering 'sweet dreams'. Closing the blind, then curtains, he blew Mac a kiss as he backed out of the door and closed it.
Taking a deep breath, he headed to the kitchen to grab the dustpan, brush and bin and then headed to the dining room to get it clean before the twins awoke.
xoxoxo
