The car pulls to a stop against the curb outside a suburban neighborhood. Harm is preparing to get out of the car when something, rather someone catches his eye. He sits outside a seemingly normal looking house. He's spent the better part of a year sailing around the world trying to shake her. No matter how far he goes he can't seem to shake the image of Sarah MacKenzie from his mind.
Too many time she has been his plan B, even when she was his plan A. His life has revolved around himself for too long. He is ready to surrender, to give it all up. Finally he has come to his senses. Harmon Rabb has finally hung it up. He is officially retired from the Navy. He chides himself for waiting so long to come to her, and bare his soul to her.
From the driver's side of his car he watches at the scene unfolds before him. It's Saturday morning, and he finds Mac out in her yard. She seems more happy, and carefree than he remembers as she plucks the weeds from her flower garden. He is nearly ready to evacuate the vehicle, when he notices her look up from her kneeling position. Harm hesitates, and continues to observe her.
A second person joins the scene. A boy stops in front of the raised bed with a wheel barrow. He begins collecting the pile of weeds from the ground, and relocating them into the wheel barrow. Harm freezes as the innocent pair weeds a flower bed, completely unaware that he is watching them. He puts the key back into his ignition. He is ready to put the car in gear when the sound of knuckles wrapping against his passenger side window shifts his focus.
Mac stands outside the black mid-sized SUV. The door unlocks, and without hesitation she opens the door. She shakes her head as she locks eyes with the occupant of the vehicle.
"What the hell are you doing parked outside my house?"
"I was just asking myself that," Harm admits, "I should go."
"You came here for a reason," Mac calls him out.
"A foolish one. In my head time stood still. You were here just as I left you. It sounds idiotic as it is coming out of my mouth. Clearly your life has gone on."
"Time marches on," Mac reminds him.
"I won't bother you. I will just be on my way. I shouldn't have come."
"You aren't bothering me. The watching me from the street is a little bothersome, though. Harm you can get out of the car."
"I don't want to interrupt whatever your plans for the day are."
"I'm weeding the flower bed. I would not be particularly upset if you interrupted."
"I…" he studies her brown eyes looking for some sort of answer.
"Why don't you get out of the car, and act like a normal human being? You're worrying the villagers."
He kills the engine, and abandons his vehicle. He follows her into her yard. She leads him to a fence. He follows her through the gate into her back yard. As the gate swings closed he can see the swing set, and a soccer goal. The boy dribbles his soccer ball around cones. The boy stops as Harmon comes into view. He offers an ornery smile, and kicks the ball into the goal without looking.
"Can I get you something to drink?" He offers, as he moves towards him.
"No thank you."
Harm studies the boy standing before him, who he guesses to be somewhere between eight and ten years old. He has jet black hair, and bright hazel eyes. He is dressed casually in a t-shirt, pair of shorts, and sneakers. Mac clears her throat.
"Ben this is Harm."
Ben extends a hand, "Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot of stories about you."
"Nice to meet you, too."
"Mom, is it okay if I go play my game inside?"
"Stay offline," she warns.
"Yes, ma'am," he nods, and mockingly salutes as he scurries to the back door.
Mac leads her former colleague, and beau to a set of patio furniture. He takes a seat across the table from her.
"Are you sure that you don't want anything to drink?"
"Mac, I'm fine."
"I wouldn't go that far," Mac mutters under her breath.
"I'm not thirsty. I'm just…" he finds himself at a loss for words.
"If you have something to say then spit it out."
"I had a whole speech planned," Harm reveals.
"For me?"
"I didn't know that you had a kid."
She grins, "You never asked."
"I shouldn't have assumed. That was a mistake on my part. When I saw him it just threw me through a loop."
"My life didn't end when you walked out the door."
"Obviously. What else don't I know?"
She shrugs, "There isn't much to tell."
"I don't know what would make me think that you wouldn't choose to pursue having a child after we parted ways."
"That isn't really what happened. I didn't pursue it. I wasn't in the place to pursue anything, really. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until my son came on the scene."
"It is just the two of you?" His brow arches.
"And our elderly dog, Rusty."
"You still have Rusty? He has to be…" Harm tries to do the mental math.
"He's thirteen. Every time I take him to the vet he is in disbelief."
"Great Danes don't live that long, do they?"
She shakes her head, "Not usually. Especially with the beginning that Rusty had. They projected him to live to be about eight, if he was lucky.""
"So what keeps him going?"
"He was a new dog the day I came home from the hospital with Ben. Not that it's really surprising, Ben is a pretty special kid."
