Chapter 13: First Sight
Mac clipped the small, laminated card onto her shirt. She tried to resist the urge to tap her foot as she stood waiting for the security point to finish clearing Frank. Her nerves were frayed by now and fighting the instinct to keep moving was a challenge to say the least.
"You two go on ahead, I'll catch up," Frank said to her. He could see how anxious she was to get to Harm's room. She'd barely been able to stay in her seat on the flight from Chicago. He had the feeling that she would have started tossing people off the plane if she thought it would make it go faster.
"Not happening," she answered quickly. "I'm not letting either of you out of my sight. Ever."
"Hmm, bathroom trips are going to be awkward," Frank teased her.
"You'll get used to it, Pop," she joked back. "And if you don't, too bad, still happening," she added with a casual shrug.
"Is this a Marine thing or a lawyer thing? Making sure you keep your eyes on your witness so they don't disappear," Frank teased her.
"Consider it an over-protective-future-daughter-in-law thing," Mac replied with a grin.
The smile on his face as he shook his head and laughed quietly helped to calm her slightly. It might have been the shared stress and emotional trauma of the past four days, but they had developed a deep closeness. He could see how fiercely protective she was of Trish, which in and of itself made him love her. Somehow though, they had just clicked as they talked away the miles of this horrible adventure. "Oh, you're going to be a handful, aren't you?" he quipped.
"Good, I've been outnumbered by you boys for too long, it's about time that we were two-on-two," Trish remarked. "Think we'll be able to keep the two of them in line?"
"We'll see," Mac smiled as she directed an intentionally non-intimidating squint at Frank.
"Now are you two quite finished?" Trish asked as she leaned against Mac who wrapped her in a one-armed hug. "Get it out of your system before we go upstairs; I don't want the staff to think you've both escaped from the mental health ward."
"Don't worry, Mum, we'll be on our best behavior," Mac laughed as she looked at Trish. Calling them Mum and Pop was something that had started on the spur of the moment when they were checking into the hotel on the second night. The desk clerk had been leering at the three of them as Frank paid cash for a suite with two bedrooms and the two women waited across the lobby.
On a whim Mac had crossed the to the desk to stand beside Frank, saying "Pop, Mum said to remember to ask for extra towels." She'd been looking at Frank but in her peripheral vision she'd seen the clerk's entire demeanor shift. Suddenly the lascivious presumptions were replaced by mundane ideas of a family road trip. She'd momentarily been uncertain about the move, but it had succeeded in making the clerk lose interest in their presence and she realized it felt comfortable to refer to them by the terms of endearment. She'd stuck with it since and they both seemed fine with it.
Frank was finally cleared by the checkpoint. "Alright, let's go so you two can focus on Harm and stop picking on me," he said as he joined them. They followed a Lance Corporal whose name Mac had already forgotten to the elevator. As they rode to the ninth floor, Trish held tightly to Mac with her left hand and Frank with her right. She didn't notice the look they exchanged as she drew a deep breath when the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
The Lance Corporal led them to the far end of the hallway. As they approached, Mac saw the two guards at the door of what must be Harm's room. It was directly across from a nurse's station and there was a stairwell located just outside the doorway. When they reached the door, she spotted the SEAL insignias both Chief Petty Officers wore. Another SEAL, this one a Senior Chief Petty Officer, was in the nurse's station pretending to look over paperwork as he observed their arrival. AJ had clearly called in a few of the favors he was owed. Mac felt the anxiety growing in her the more guards she spotted. Another guard was visible in the stairwell through the window in the door and she started wondering just how much danger he was still in. What the hell had he gotten messed up in this time?
When one of the guards opened the door of room 921 for them to enter, Mac smiled at Trish and gestured for her to go in first as she squeezed her hand. Trish took a breath before she walked in, Mac entered just behind her and Frank stepped in after her.
"Mom!" Harm said with a smile as he spotted her. "It's not as bad as it looks, I promise," he tried to reassure her as he saw her tense. The truth was that he was in rough shape, but he wasn't about to admit to them that he felt as beaten as he looked. He tried to keep his eyes on Trish, but he saw Mac become too still in his peripheral vision. As much as he wanted to see his mom and Frank, he desperately wanted to be alone with Mac.
"If it were as bad as it looks you'd be unconscious at least," Trish told him as she stood beside his bed. She wanted to touch him, but she was afraid that no matter where she did she'd injure him further. There didn't seem to be any part of him that wasn't bruised, bandaged, stitched or in a cast.
"Punching out is never fun, especially over rough terrain," he shrugged at her. "Mountain, one. Harm, zero."
Mac carefully made sure she didn't react to the fact that she could've seen through that lie from the coast.
"Really, that's the best lie they could come up with?" Trish asked shaking her head. "I don't want to know what happened, I'm just grateful that you're alive and you're here."
Mac smiled to herself. Clearly Trish was not in the mood to play along with the company line. It occurred to Mac that Harm might not know that she'd had them on the move for the last few days. She didn't know what AJ had told him. For all he knew, when he called and spoken to them a few hours earlier they could have been at their house in La Jolla. That was where AJ had left them after all.
"You gave us quite a scare, son," Frank said in a light tone. He'd moved to stand just behind Trish and was resting his hand on her shoulder. "Next time try keeping it in the sky, huh?"
"Sorry. I promise, it was not intentional." Harm smiled at his stepfather and felt a pang of guilt as he took in both their faces. He'd seen them just a couple of months ago and they looked like they'd aged ten years in that time. He was certain the change had occurred within the last week. "I'm so sorry that this happened. I never in a million years would have wanted to put you guys through all this."
"We know that. Don't beat yourself up. It looks like that mountain did a pretty good job of that already," Frank shot.
Harm laughed shortly then winced and groaned. "Right, busted ribs, laughing's a bad idea."
"So, no knock-knock jokes for a few days then," Trish commented quietly. "Duly noted."
The door opened then and Mac turned quickly to face it, tensing and assuming a posture that was ready to react if necessary. She relaxed slightly when she saw AJ come through the door, though she was still on edge and certain that he had a significant amount of explaining to do.
"Good, you're all here," he commented. "Maybe now he'll listen to the doctors and get some rest." He took in the appearances of the Trish, Frank and Mac. "Hopefully so will you three. You're all looking a little rough."
"You've flown with Sarah, you know what the last few hours of our day have been like," Frank teased with a wink at Mac.
"Thanks, Pop. What can I say? We don't all have your ability to sleep anywhere at a moment's notice." she fired back with a smile.
"I've arranged for you both to stay on base," AJ said to Frank and Trish. "And I've even managed to find you a replacement for Mac and her constant hovering."
Mac let out a sigh of relief as Victor Galindez walked into the room. She smiled widely at him. "I'm so glad to see you, Victor," she said as she briefly hugged him. As she held him close she whispered, "Whatever it takes to protect them."
"Copy that," he breathed before leaning back. "It's good to see you too, Colonel."
"Mum, Pop, this is Victor Galindez, a good friend and one of the best Marines I've ever had the pleasure of serving with," Mac said by way of introduction. "Victor, I'd like you to meet Patricia Reed and Frank Burnett, Commander Rabb's parents."
"It's an honor to meet you both," Victor said with a smile.
"Victor will take you to your home away from home and make arrangements for anything you may need in the way of clothes and such," AJ told them. "The doctor should be in to kick us all out momentarily. Harm is being somewhat headstrong when it comes to listening to doctor's orders."
"Wow, Harm's being headstrong, shocker," Frank teased affectionately.
"We'll be back later, sweetie," Trish said quietly. "In the meantime, listen to your doctors. Don't make me ground you."
"I think it's safe to say I'm already grounded for a while," Harm joked back. "I love you both," he said, making a point of looking at Frank as he said it. Their relationship had never been great and that responsibility lay squarely on his own shoulders, but no matter what, he could see how much Frank loved his mother and how protective of her he was. "Do you mind if Mac hangs back for a minute? I need to talk to her," he asked them.
"Of course," Trish nodded. "We'll see you soon," she reiterated before she stepped back from the bed.
They both hugged Mac. "I'll catch up with you guys in a little bit," she assured them before they left the room with Victor.
"I'll give you two a minute," AJ said before stepping out into the hallway. Mac stared after him for only a few seconds before turning her attention to Harm.
"Mum and Pop, huh?" he grinned at her and raised one eyebrow. "They adopted you already?"
"Long story for another day," Mac told him as she perched on the edge of his bed. "How badly are you really hurt?" she asked quietly as she gently slipped her right hand beneath his so he could wrap his fingers around hers.
"It was a long week," he remarked evasively. "I've been through worse." He squeezed her hand gently. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Getting the message. If you hadn't figured it out, things would have turned out very differently. You saved my life, Sarah."
"Thanks for trusting me to figure it out," she smiled as she looked down at him. "And I need to apologize to you. All these years, I never understood what you and your mom went through when your dad was MIA. I lived through that for less than a week and it was tearing me apart. I almost get it now, why you needed so badly to figure out what happened to your dad."
"What do you mean?" Harm looked at her confused now.
"They told me that your plane went down and you were MIA," Mac explained. "What did AJ tell you?"
"That they had listed me as KIA, not MIA," Harm said, his voice and expression shifted to something darker. "I can't believe those bastards put you and Mom through that."
"We've got lots of time to figure that all out. Right now I don't want to be angry about whatever BS the CIA pulled. I just want to be happy that you're alive and here," she told him with a smile.
"You're right, there's time for the rest later," he agreed as he squeezed her hand again. "So, I guess we need to have a conversation…"