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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.
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Safely home after four weeks away, Mac placed the twins in the playpen before she helped Harm unload the car. Happy that there was not much laundry to do, mostly because Trish had insisted on doing it the day before, Mac took the twins' bags to their room to unpack them, while Harm took their luggage to their room.
Following her parents example, Lily took her case into her room and shut the door. When Mac came out with the twins empty bags, she looked at Lily's shut door. Thinking it unusual to be closed during the day, Mac opened it slowly and was surprised to see the case opened on the floor and Lily under the covers in bed with the only thing she'd unpacked; her teddy.
Padding over, Mac carefully pulled back the covers only to discover her daughter was asleep. Troubled, she felt Lily's forehead believing the child was sick, only to find her temperature to be normal. Quietly, Mac pulled the covers up once more and hoped that when Lily awoke again she would be back to herself and eat something. While she was in her bedroom, Mac unpacked Lily's things before placing the twins' empty bags inside Lily's empty case and closing it.
Heading out to the hallway and closing the door behind her, Mac met up with Harm.
"I'll take that," he said, reaching for the case. "Lily unpacked it quickly enough?"
"No, I did," Mac said quietly. "The only thing Lily unpacked was teddy before she climbed into bed and fell asleep."
"She's asleep?" Harm said surprised; after all, the child had slept for at least two hours in the car. Opening the door slowly, Harm put down the case and went in to check her for himself. It wasn't that he didn't trust Mac, he was just very concerned. "This is so not like her," he said when he was back out in the hallway.
"Do you think it's something more than pining for Grams?" Mac asked and Harm shrugged. He knew the two had a very close relationship but he didn't think it would account for her current state.
"Let's just let her sleep for awhile and see how she's doing when she gets up," he said, picking up the case once more.
As the afternoon passed, Mac made several trips to Lily's room trying not to wake her but hoping she did; she didn't. In the end, Harm realised if he didn't intervene, his wife would drive herself crazy.
"Hey, honey," he called, grabbing her hand as she passed by the kitchen table where he'd been reading the mail. "While the twins are settled in their playpen, I was thinking it's the perfect opportunity to do some grocery shopping."
"Yeah, I guess," she agreed, after all they needed food for dinner and the weekend.
Pulling her onto his lap, Harm picked up a pen. "We can make a list out now and I can go..." he said, knowing she preferred to do the grocery shopping so she could buy 'real' food as she argued it. "Unless you feel up to it and want to go." Mac nodded and Harm smiled, he'd gotten his way.
With the list in her purse, Mac backed her car out and headed towards the local Safeway store. For an hour she strolled up and down the aisles before waiting for the slowest ever cashier. Navigating her trolley back to the car, she was surprised to feel a tug on her arm and she spun quickly ready to strike any perpetrator who dared to touch her.
To her relief, and joy, it was AJ.
"Sorry to startle you, Aunty Mac," AJ said as she embraced him. "It's just good to see you again. Did you have a good time at the farm?"
"We had a fantastic time," Mac replied. "It's such a wonderful place to relax, alas, now it's back to reality. What about you? How is summer vacation treating you?"
"Pretty good," he replied as he took charge of the trolley and wheeled it towards Mac's car. "Hanging out with friends mainly, spending some extra time at the gym trying to improve my fitness, hanging out with Janie."
"And Janie is?" Mac questioned as she opened the trunk.
"Um...a friend..." he said with a blush colouring his cheeks.
"A girlfriend?" she probed as he started to unload the trolley.
"Not really...well, maybe...yes," he stammered, not daring to look at his godmother.
"Obviously this is something very new," Mac commented as AJ packed the last of the bags into the car and locked the trunk.
"Yes, it is...very new," he said nervously.
"New as in your mom and dad don't know yet?" she questioned and AJ nodded. "It's alright, I won't tell them," she added and his relief was visible.
"Thanks, Aunty Mac," he said with a shy smile.
"Tell your mom I'll give her a call later," she said, kissing his cheek.
"I will. Give my love to Uncle Harm and the kids," he said before saying goodbye and taking her trolley back with him into the store.
Mac returned home in a much brighter mood after her encounter with AJ and grabbed her purse and keys before unlocking the front door, knowing Harm would help her unload the car. Coming into the living room she smiled when she saw the twins had crashed and fallen asleep on the floor of the playpen. Looking to the sofa, she saw Harm sitting there, Lily had woken and was now straddling his lap, her head tucked under his chin and her arms were wrapped around him as she had tried to snuggle as close as she could get.
"Hey, Harm, hey, pumpkin," she said quietly so as not to disturb the twins. "How are you feeling?" she asked, raking her fingers through Lily's messy locks.
Lily didn't respond so Mac looked to Harm. "Lily is still a little sad about having to leave Grams and the farm," he said, rubbing his daughter's back.
Mac pouted as she looked at Lily's sad, teary face. "Oh, baby," she said gently. "I know it's hard saying goodbye but we'll be back there before you know it."
Sitting down beside them, Mac stretched her arms out believing Lily would come to her as she usually did. While she loved her daddy dearly, she had such a special bond with her mommy that often Mac knew she was hurting before she did. "No?" she asked and Lily shook her head before turning her head away.
"Sorry!" Harm mouthed as he caught his wife's sad expression, Mac just shrugged before leaving to bring in the groceries. Harm offered to help but Mac shook her head before telling him it was fine and not to disturb Lily.
Late in the afternoon with the groceries away and Harm in the yard playing with the twins, Mac went out and sat on the porch swing next to Lily. She didn't say anything and didn't touch her daughter; she just sat alongside her, hoping the child would open up.
When Lily had not spoken in twenty three minutes, Mac stood up, kissed her head and went back to the kitchen to sort out dinner. It was going to be a simple meal of baked macaroni and cheese for the kids and pasta and salad for herself and Harm. She had just gotten the necessary items from the pantry when the back door opened quietly. Knowing it was Lily, Mac didn't turn around, instead she waited for Lily to make the first move.
"When will dinner be, mom?" she asked quietly coming to stand beside her mother.
"I was planning on having it at six, which is in about an hour," Mac replied putting down her knife.
"Oh, okay," Lily said as she continued to stand there.
"Would you like something to eat now?" she offered, knowing the child hadn't had much all day. Lily nodded. "What would you like?" she asked as she went to the fridge. The child just shrugged. "Well, how about some milk and cookies and then there'll still be room for dinner. Lily nodded and Mac was very concerned about her child's quietness.
Pouring the milk and placing two cookies on a small plate, Mac put the snack on the table and Lily sat down, Mac sat next to her.
"I'd really like you to talk to me about how you're feeling, Lily," Mac said softly. "I might be able to help you."
"You wouldn't understand," Lily said, picking up a cookie.
"What wouldn't I understand?" Mac asked surprised by her statement.
"Any of it," she said with a deep sigh.
"How do you know?" Mac probed as Lily drank her milk.
"Because you don't have a family so you don't know how it is to leave them," Lily said, picking up her glass.
Mac bit down on her lower lip, trying not to allow her tears to flow.
"What do you mean I don't have a family?" she questioned, trying to keep her tone even.
"You don't," Lily said with a shrug. "Daddy does but you don't. Daddy would understand."
"Fine," Mac said standing up and leaving the kitchen. She couldn't continue the discussion with her daughter, couldn't even be in the same room.
Almost running to her bedroom, Mac closed the door behind her as her tears cascaded. While she knew there was no malice in her daughter and it hadn't been the child's intention to hurt her, it had hurt and hurt deeply. Slumping to the floor beside the bed, Mac grabbed a pillow and sobbed into it. Here she was feeling happy and content at having experienced her first real family vacation ever, to have shared an amazing mother – daughter moment for the first time in her life, only to be reminded by a seven year old that it wasn't her family, that she had no one.
In that moment, all Harm's hard work at giving his wife the family she craved seemed wasted.
Coming in from the backyard with the twins, Harm found Lily still sitting at the table, tears streaming down her face.
"Hey, baby," he said, putting down the twins and embracing his daughter. "What's wrong?"
"I think I made mommy cry," she sobbed into his chest.
"What makes you think that, Lily?" he asked, pulling back to see her face.
"She wanted me to talk to her and I told her she wouldn't understand and then she started crying...but I don't think she knows that I know..." Lily said trying to stop her tears. "I didn't mean to make her sad I just didn't think she'd understand."
Harm was puzzled; Mac was usually very careful about crying in front of the children and nothing Lily had said explained why there would have been tears from his wife.
"Lily, honey," Harm said, grabbing a Kleenex and wiping the child's face. "What exactly did you say to mommy?"
"That she didn't have a family so she wouldn't understand," Lily said, not comprehending why those words would upset her mother so much – Harm did.
"Lily, mommy has a family, she has us and we love her very much," he said, putting the child down.
"I know but I meant she doesn't have a mom and dad and grandma like you do..." Lily explained sadly.
Harm nodded, his daughter was right but he wished she could have phrased it in a much better way.
"Okay, I'm going to put Rose and Harry in their playpen. Can you keep an eye on them while I go see if mommy's okay?" he asked, picking up the twins and heading to the living room.
Lily nodded trailing behind him.
Rapping on his bedroom door, Harm wanted to give Mac the chance to prepare herself for the intrusion. Not hearing 'go away', Harm felt it safe to enter. Slowly, he opened the door and left it open so he could hear the children.
"Gorgeous?" he said, spying her sitting on the floor; her head resting on her knees, her arms wrapped around them. "Hey." He slid down the bed to sit beside her and wrapped her in his arms.
Mac's only acknowledgement he was there was to rest her head on his shoulder.
"She's only seven, Mac, she didn't mean it the way she sounded," he soothed, kissing her head.
"I know," Mac said with a sniffle.
"Still hurts, doesn't it?" he asked and she nodded. "You have to know that you have a family that love you very, very much."
"I know," she replied, trying to catch her breath.
"She meant that you didn't have parents and grandparents like I do," he tried to explain but Mac just shook her head. "What?"
"She's right though," Mac said. "Aside from you, I have no one."
"You have the children too," Harm reminded her and she nodded. "And my parents and Grams love you like their own. You might not be blood related, but given we're married, that's probably a good thing," he added, with a laugh, trying to inject some humour into the situation. It didn't work.
"I'm being stupid, I know," Mac said, resting her head on his chest. "I don't know why I'm being so emotional..."
"You're not being stupid, Mac," he said kissing her head, though he was wondering about her emotional state as well. "You're being human. And this is probably partly my fault too."
At his last words, Mac looked up surprised. "How could it be your fault?"
"The day we were in the park, Lily asked why we never saw your family and I said you would talk to her about it. She said you wouldn't as you hadn't told her about babies, so I said I could tell her about babies and well, you know the rest," he said, rubbing her arm as he spoke. "If I had have addressed it then, or gotten you to do it afterwards, then perhaps Lily would have a better understanding of your family."
Blowing out a deep breath, Mac hooked her arms around Harm's neck and held on. "Why does it still hurt so much?"
"I don't know, sweetheart, but I love you, Mac," he said, kissing her temple.
"Love you," she whispered in reply.
"And I promise you that I will try and be all the family you will ever need, could ever want," he whispered, kissing her head once more. "And ..."
"Thank you," she interjected, holding tighter. She didn't need anything other than him. Despite what her daughter may think she did have a family...with the man in her arms she had a family, she had a life, she had everything.
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