"Harm, I have a bad feeling about this," Mac said once Harm had turned off the engine. They were parked just outside the Schonkes' house and Mac was starting to regret going over there. She had decided to go there without calling first, so they weren't expecting her. It had been a week since her return from Arizona and in that week she and Harm had done some research to make sure that it was in fact possible that she was Diane's sister. At that point they were already pretty sure she was, but once they saw the old articles in the newspapers about the kidnapping of Jim and Marilyn Schonke's daughter, there were no doubts about that fact anymore.
Mac had been so happy with the intense support she had gotten from Harm. He had pushed her when her insecurities had gotten the best of her, but still let her stay in control of the situation. They hadn't said a word about their cancelled date yet and it didn't seem likely that they were going to talk about that anytime soon either.
"Mac, I'll be waiting here the whole time, but if you're not ready for this yet and want to talk to them on the phone first or just wait I think that's OK too and we can go back here when you're ready."
Mac watched the house hoping to somehow get a sign saying what she should do. The house wasn't very big, but it had large lawn in front of it and it looked like there was a garden behind. It seemed very well taken care of, but wasn't at all flashy or too perfect. It looked nice and cozy. Mac, however, knew better than to assume that the outside of the house had to be a reflection of the people living there, so it didn't reassure her a lot. She had come this far now though and she just had to know.
"No, I just need to get it over with." Mac went into marine-mode thinking of the walk up to the door as a mission she had to carry out.
"Mac... good luck," he said right before she closed the door.
She walked steadily up to the door and raised her hand up to knock on the door. She paused before she touched the door. This was the point of no return. And then she knocked loudly on the door.
30 seconds later the door opened and she stood face to face with a sixty-something grey-haired man. His eyes were identical with her own.
"Diane," he sighed. The confusion played across his face. He wondered if he was seeing a ghost or if he had completely lost his mind.
"No, sir, I'm not Diane," she said and shook her head looking deep into the man's eyes.
"Oh, God... Sarah."
Before Mac had a chance to say anything he had wrapped her in his arms and were holding her tighter than anyone had ever before.
"Sarah, you're alive. We thought that you were dead. We have missed you so, so much," he mumbled into her hair.
"Who was at the door?" a female voice asked. The man stepped back from Mac and she could see him brushing some tears away from his eyes. He didn't know what to say and neither did Mac.
The older woman stepped closer unsure if she could trust her eyes. What she thought she was seeing had been deemed impossible by everyone.
"Marilyn, it's Sarah."
"What? How?" she swayed a little in the air and the man grabbed hold of her to steady her on her feet. As he with his left arm held his wife he now offered his right hand to Mac.
"I'm Jim Schonke, but I guess you've figured that out by now. Sorry about the..."
"No, it's... I'm Sarah Mackenzie," she said and shook his hand "I'm sorry for coming here unannounced, maybe I should have called first. I didn't meant to shock you like this." She sneaked a peak at the woman in front of her, but she still seemed lost in another world.
"It would have been a shock, regardless of how we had found out." Jim moved his arm a little and that seemed to wake his wife out of her thoughts.
"I'm Marilyn," she said also taking Mac's hand. She looked at the woman, who was her daughter, trying to memorize everything about her, especially the differences to Diane.
Mac felt a little uncomfortable being watched so intensively, but it also gave her a chance to really take a look at her biological parents. Her mother was about her own height and brown-haired. Her eyes were blue and they were the only thing on her that looked old. She looked very young despite the many grieves she had been put through in her life. The sadness was just in her eyes. Jim gave a distinguished feeling of security and stableness away and Mac picked that up right from the start. She felt safe standing there close to him.
"Maybe, we should sit down in the living room," Jim suggested and carefully released Marilyn to go and close the door.
"Yes, that's a good idea," his wife agreed and carefully reached out to Mac and started to lead her towards the living room and offered her a place on the yellow couch covered with red cushions. The colors and the style of the room was very much like in Mac's own apartment. That fact made her smile.
"Would you like something to drink?" Marilyn asked nervously.
"A glass of water perhaps," Mac said just to avoid any more uncomfortable silence.
Marilyn soon returned with three glasses and a bottle of water.
"Thank you, ma'am," Mac said.
"Would you please call us Marilyn and Jim?" she pleaded with Mac and Mac nodded in agreement.
"So, how come you're here now?" Jim asked her sitting in the armchair opposite the couch.
"My... father died almost two weeks ago..."
"I'm sor..." Marilyn said instinctly, but then realized that this man might have been responsible for her daughter's kidnapping and swallowed the rest of the sentence.
"Before he died he told me I wasn't his biological child," Mac continued not paying attention to what Marilyn had said "I never knew that I was adopted. He said my mother had handled everything with the adoption and that he had suspected that everything hadn't gone quite by the book."
"It definitely hadn't. They kidnapped you," Jim interjected trying hard not to get upset realizing these might be people that Sarah really loved and cared for and attacking them probably wasn't a good move at this point. "I'm sorry, please continue."
"When I saw your names I realized that you must be related to Diane."
"You knew Diane?" Marilyn interrupted her again.
"She would have known who you were," Jim added.
"No, I didn't know her, but I know Harmon Rabb and he told me how much I look like her, so I knew her name and had seen some photos," Mac explained and saw how both of them flinched at Harm's name.
Marilyn and Jim continued to ask her some questions about her life and she readily answered them. The tensions slowly released all three of them and soon they were talking very freely. The mood got a bit more serious when they started talking about what had happened the day of the kidnapping.
"I had just gotten back to the house. You and Diane were sleeping in your pram," Marilyn started telling Mac. Mac had read a little about it in the newspaper articles she had found, but it was nothing compared to hearing the story be told. "I let the pram stay on the porch. It was good for you with the fresh air and everything and then I just went into the house for five minutes to call Jim and tell him to pick up some milk from the grocery store..."
"It's OK if you don't want to tell me about it," Mac said when Marilyn stopped talking for a while. Even though so much time had passed since the kidnapping it was obviously very hard for her to talk about.
"No, I do have to... When I got back out on the porch I heard Diane crying and... you were gone."
"They never found any lead on you or on who had taken you," Jim added with sadness in his voice.
"Diane cried constantly for weeks. She just wouldn't stop," Marilyn added.
"It must have been awful for all of you," Mac nodded.
"But you're here now. You're alive and well, that's all that matters."
"Maybe you want to take a look around the house?" Jim asked Mac trying to lift up the mood again. The three of them walked down a hall going into the first bedroom on the left. "This was Diane's room. And yours too, before..."
"Oh," Mac looked around the room. There weren't a lot of personal items in it. Mainly just a bed and a desk, but on the wall right over the bed hung two pictures obviously drawn by a child. On each picture was a baby one with pink and one with purple clothes on. On the picture closest to where Mac was standing was 'For Diane from Zachary' written with slightly irregular letters and on the other one was 'For Sarah from Zachary'.
"Zachary is your older brother. He was seven when you two were born," Marilyn smiled at the memory of how proud he had been when she had brought his two baby sisters home. "He's a lawyer just like you," she added.
They continued walking across the hallway and into another bedroom.
"This is Zachary's and Jimmy's room. Jimmy is just 18 months younger than you are," Jim continued to tell her "They still use the room whenever they come to see us."
"They will be so excited when they hear about this," Marilyn firmly stated and pressed Mac's hand.
An hour later Mac was forced to leave. It was a Sunday and the next day she had court early in the morning. They had exchanged phone-numbers and Jim and Marilyn had invited her over for dinner sometime hopefully in the next week so she could meet her brothers too. Zachary lived in Washington too and Jimmy, who was in the Navy just like his sister had been, was currently stationed in Maine, but his parents had been very convinced that he was going to be able to take some leave to come down to Baltimore and see them. It was with fear mixed with excitement she looked forward to that meeting.
They said goodbye and Mac walked out to the car where Harm was still waiting.
"I'm guessing things went well considering you were there for so long."
"I'm sorry about that."
"That's not what I meant. I'm just glad you got to talk and the expression on your face tells me you feel better about it now too."
"I do, I do. And thanks for waiting."
TBC