Chapter 13

Mac adjusted the fall of her long white skirt with nervous fingers.  The silk hem whispered across the sand, barely heard above the gentle rush of waves clambering up the shore.  A breeze off the water kissed her bare shoulders, tugging at the gossamer veil that tumbled to the ground behind her.  She breathed in the salt-smell of the ocean and listened for a moment to the piercing cries of gulls.  The sun warmed her skin, promising to become hot as the morning progressed. 

Beside her, Harm stood quietly.  He'd been quiet all morning-- subdued, even.  Mac hadn't asked.  She was having trouble keeping her emotions in check already.  Fighting with him would only make the difficult impossible.

Harm was dressed in a classic tuxedo.  Mac detested it.  Not because he didn't look good in it, but simply because it wasn't dress whites.  Dress whites and gold wings… In the wedding photos her mind conjured for her, he was always clad in the dignified splendor of his dress uniform.

She pushed the thought away with determination.  Dwelling on should-be's was a dangerous pastime. 

The minister, a grandfatherly man with a thick mane of white hair, stood before them, Bible poised in his hands.  Mac was distantly aware of Harriet standing a pace behind and to her right, and Sturgis off to Harm's side. Harm's family, the Admiral, Bud and Gunny watched from behind.  Cameras ringed them. 

For Mac, the moment seemed frozen in time.  She wanted to scream at them all to stop! That this was wrong, all wrong.  But it was far too late for that.  She had a part to play.  She had her lines memorized-- vows Bud and Harriet had, mercifully, written for the two of them.  And so she would repeat the words, with ashes on her tongue and bitterness in her soul, and wonder if they could ever recover from this day.

The minister opened his mouth to speak the first words of the ceremony.  As he did, Harm suddenly came to life. 

"Wait!"  He held up one hand, forestalling the minister.  "Could you… just… hold that thought for a minute?" 

The interruption jarred Mac. Heart pounding, she turned to him, hardly daring to hope.

He grinned, showing his trademark little boy smile.  "I'll be right back."  He released her arm, then turned and walked away, cutting between Sturgis and the surprised minister.  His long strides took him quickly down the beach, his head turning from side to side as if he were looking for something.

Mystified, Mac looked at Sturgis.  "Where is he going?"

Sturgis shook his head as he watched Harm's retreating figure.  "I hate to say it, Mac, but I think the stress may have driven your man there around the bend."

For a moment, she was convinced Harm was just going to walk away.  But then he stopped, scooped something up out of the sand and headed back.  When he got close, she discovered he'd fetched a long, slender piece of driftwood.

Mac blinked.  "A stick?"

"Yep."

"…"

"Patience, Mac."  Using the tip of the stick, he drew a long slash in the sand beyond the place where Sturgis stood watching him with a bemused expression.  Walking backwards, he turned ninety degrees to continue the line behind the minister, then up the side next to Harriet, and across the back, completing a passable square around the wedding party.  Then, apparently satisfied, he tossed the driftwood down on the sand and returned to Mac's side.

She stared at him.

He winked, his blue eyes laughing.  "Work with me here, Mac.  It's a porch."  He spread his hands.  "Best I could do on the spur of the moment."

A porch.  Their one and only place of honesty. 

He looked directly into her eyes, his voice soft.  "I told you I never make a promise I can't keep."

Mac couldn't breathe.  In an instant, her world turned inside out and upside down.  Her heart soared.

"I'm not dreaming, am I?" she asked him.

"No, you're not."  Harm drew her close, his expression growing serious.  "I'm sorry it took me so long to figure this out."  He touched her cheek.  "I love you."

Pure, joyous laughter bubbled up out of her.  "I love you, too, Harm."

She hooked her arms around his neck as he bent toward her.

"Ahem."

Startled, they turned to look at the minister.

He smiled kindly at them, his eyes dancing with amusement.  "If you don't mind, I need to say a few words first before we move on to the kissing part."

Mac ducked her head, laughing in embarrassment. 

Trying rather unsuccessfully to look decorous, Harm hooked her arm through his and turned them to face the minister.  Mac gripped his arm with one hand and her bouquet of roses with the other as if they were the only things that kept her from floating away.

The minister straightened his shoulders, glanced at the Bible in his hands, then looked out over the small crowd.  "Dearly beloved," he began in a solemn voice, "we are gathered her today… on this porch, apparently… to unite this man and this woman in holy matrimony." 

"I'll be very interested to hear the story behind that one," Mac heard Sturgis comment in an undertone.

The minister continued with the ceremony, explaining the sanctity of marriage, admonishing both of them to live up to the vows they were making, and promising them God's blessing on the family they were becoming.  Mac clung tightly to Harm to keep herself upright.  Family.  She hadn't thought beyond the turmoil of her relationship with him to see the full implications of marriage.  She would have parents again… Frank and Trish already treated her like a daughter, more so than her own parents ever had.  She would have a brother-- sweet, loyal Sergei-- and she would have Harm.  Her husband.  Her partner.  Someday, the father of her children.  That was more family than Mac had ever dreamed of having.

 At the proper time Harm turned to Sturgis, accepting from him a slender gold band.  He turned back to Mac, taking her hand.  His gaze delved into hers, endlessly blue.

"Sarah, I give you this ring as a symbol of my undying devotion…"

He called me Sarah.  The sound of her name had never been sweeter, nor held so much meaning. 

"I promise to be your faithful husband, to love you-- and only you-- for all the days of my life…"

Tears misted Mac's vision as Harm slid the ring onto her finger.  His thumb brushed her palm, sending an electric thrill up her arm.  Then it was her turn.

"Harm, I give you this ring as a symbol of my undying devotion…"

No matter how many times we've hurt each other, I never doubted that you would be there for me when I needed you, or that I would be there for you.

"I promise to be your faithful wife, to love you-- and only you-- for all the days of my life…"

I've never loved anyone else.  I never will.

She slipped the ring onto his finger with a smile that nothing could dim.  Hands clasped, they stared into each other's eyes.

Nearly forgotten, the minister closed his Bible.  His voice rang out over them.  "Therefore, by the authority invested in me by the state of Florida, I now pronounce you husband and wife."  He leaned forward, nodding conspiratorially.  "Now it's the kissing part."

Laughing, they did exactly that.  Mac threw her arms around her husband's neck and felt his arms close around her waist, nearly lifting her off the ground in an expression of pure joy.  His mouth fastened on hers, sweet and intense. Mac responded hungrily, secure in the knowledge that Harmon Rabb, Jr. was hers to love-- now and forever.

#

Harm was getting dizzy.  He was alternately hugged and pounded on the back by what seemed like an entire horde of people, though he knew in reality there were less than a dozen. 

"Buddy, you really had me worried for a minute, there," Sturgis said after embracing Harm rather forcefully.

Harm's smile dimmed for a moment.  "Me, too."  He lowered his voice.  "I almost made the biggest mistake of my life today."

Sturgis' smile didn't change.  "Considering some of the stupid things you've done, that's saying a lot.  But I must say I agree."  They both turned to look at Mac.  She stood a few feet away, talking animatedly with Harriet, Harm's mother and Frank.

"What changed your mind?"

Harm stared at Mac for a moment.  The white gown set off the coppery tone of her skin and made her dark hair and eyes glow.  But it was her radiant smile that captured him.  He had never seen a pure smile from her, one untouched by secret pain.  Not until today.

He turned to look out over the water.  "Have you ever come to a point where you realized that what you were about to do violated absolutely every principle of honor or decency you thought you lived your life by?"

Sturgis nodded, his expression somber.  "Yes, though I was contemplating killing someone, not marrying them."  After a moment, his smile reappeared.  "You're a lucky man, Harm."  He clapped him on the shoulder.

Harm grinned.  "I'm not going to disagree with you there."

The Admiral joined them on the heels of his statement.  Smiling with evident satisfaction, he laid a hand on either man's shoulder. 

"Congratulations, Harm." 

"Thank you."  It took an effort not to add the "sir" that belonged on the end of the sentence.

The Admiral turned to Sturgis.  "And congratulations to you, too, Sturgis, for whatever you said in that 'lecture' of yours.  It obviously worked."

Sturgis waved his words away.  "I don't think I had much to do with it."

While they talked, Selena began gently shooing them all away from the ring of cameras so another couple could take their turn.  Harm shook his head at the insanity of it.  Only a couple of miles down the beach, he could see the huge wharf complex and the white silhouette of the Radiant Heart in her berth. 

"What have I gotten us into?" he muttered to himself.

A short distance away, Mac caught the direction of his gaze and lifted an eyebrow. 

Harm went to stand beside her.  "We don't have to do this, Mac," he said quietly.  "I'll take you anywhere on the planet you want to go for a honeymoon-- just name it."

She looked up at him, the warmth of her gaze tempered by solemn consideration of his words.  Finally she shook her head.  "I'd like nothing more, Harm.  I really would.  But we have a million dollars to win," she said in the same tone of voice she would have said, "We have a job to do," had they been alone.

Harm hugged her gratefully.  He would have abandoned the investigation rather than risk his relationship with Mac, but his conscience would have nagged him incessantly had he done so.  Mac understood him well.

After he and Mac had said their goodbyes and been showered by the obligatory rain of birdseed (rice being inappropriate because it tended to choke wild birds), they climbed in their limousine for the short ride to the cruise ship.  Once inside, it took Harm about twenty seconds to string together three very important realizations: One, that Mac was now his wife.  Two, that they were alone in the back of the limousine.  And Three, that he had absolutely no reason in the world left for not kissing her.  So he did.  Mac responded ardently, as eight years of repressed longing found their first taste of freedom.

They were both breathless by the time the limousine pulled to a stop.  Harm took one look at the people and cameras crowding around them and groaned.

"Just a few more minutes?"  He traced Mac's collarbone with the fingers of one hand, then kissed the point of her shoulder.  "We're not going to get another chance to be alone until tonight."  Having wasted so many years already, the additional delay seemed excruciating.

Mac laughed deep in her throat, her gaze promising a great deal once that time arrived.  "We mustn't leave our public waiting," she joked, affecting a starlet's breathy voice.

Harm gave her his best leer.  "I'll make it worth your while to have the driver go around the block a couple of times."

"Mmmm.  Tempting." Mac kissed him soundly.  "But how 'bout we have him drive around the city a couple of times and I'll make it worth your while instead?" 

"You know," Harm said when next his mouth was free, "this brings an entirely new dimension to the idea of negotiating plea bargains with you."

Mac laughed.  "C'mon."  She sat up, drawing him with her.  "I'm sure everyone out there is wondering just what we're up to."  She grinned as she fixed his tie. 

For a moment, her smiled dimmed.  When he gave her a questioning look, she slid her hands down the front of his jacket and she shook her head.  "Should've been white," was all she said, though her eyes expressed much more.  They had finally found each other, but the circumstances were far from perfect.

He cupped her cheek.  "If we started counting 'should've's, we'd be here all week," he told her softly.  "Which is more my fault than yours.  I wish I could go back and change those things, but all I can do is tell you I love you, Sarah MacKenzie, and I don't plan to ever let another 'should've' come between us."

Mac stared at him for a moment.  Then her face lit with a smile.  "It's Sarah Rabb, now."  She wagged a playful finger at him.  "And don't you forget it."

"Never," he promised, grinning.