June 2010
"Isabelle, you better get down here now," Mac shouted. She was standing in the hallway looking up the stairs to where her daughter had her room.
"Coming Mom," her daughter shouted back.
A couple of minutes later Isabelle came running down the stairs.
"Sorry Dad, I just had to finish my drawing for Grandma. Look it's a puppy!"
"It's very nice, Belle, but we need to get going now," the tall man standing beside Mac said. The time that Belle had needed to get ready, he had needed to use to get ready to leave.
"Your Grandma is going to think that it's wonderful. She's meeting you at the park later," Mac added.
"Why can't you come with us too, Mom?"
"I need to go and meet an old friend at the airport, but I'll see you later in the afternoon."
"Go out to the car and I'll be right there." Once Isabelle was out the door he turned to Mac "Good luck today. Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
"Yeah, it will be fine. Sturgis and Trish will be there among others. I appreciate you taking Belle today," Mac paused "Do you think we've done the right thing keeping this from her?"
"What else could we have done? Tell her that her biological father is alive, but have no idea that she exists and we have no idea how he's going to react to this. When you've talked to him we will know what to tell her. One more day hasn't hurt her."
"Dad, are you coming?" Isabelle shouted towards the house.
"I have to leave now. Be strong, Sarah," he said and stroked his finger over her cheek.
"I'll do my best. See you tonight," Mac said quietly. Only two days had passed since they had found out what had happened to Harm after his plane crashed down over Afghanistan eight years ago. One uncertainty had been replaced by another. Mac now had know idea of how he was going to react to finding out he had a daughter and how their lives were going to be affected by his return. She couldn't explain in words what she was feeling. It was a blur of conflicting emotions; happiness that Harm was coming home, sadness that he had missed so many important years of his daughter's life and a fear of how he was going to react to the news of her.
Mac realized she didn't have much time anymore and grabbed her car keys. Harm was going to come with a plane at 1000 and she wanted to be there in time.
A crowd of people were standing and watching the Air Force plane land. The crowd consisted of Harm's family and former colleagues. At an assigned place photographers and journalists were waiting. Mac was standing next to Sturgis trying to keep as calm as possible. The plane slowly taxied toward the crowd. Soon after
it stopped, the door opened.
A tall Navy uniform framed the door. Everyone's attention was solely directed to this one person. The place was deathly still. No one was moving. The only sound was of hundreds of cameras snapping off photos.
Harm kept walking towards the crowd and the first he reached was his mother.
"Oh Harmon." They put their arms around each other and held on tight. Then they let go and Harm wiped away the tears that were strumming down his mother's cheek. She then stepped away to give room to someone else. This someone was Mac. He held her and swung her around in a firm embrace, Mac was holding on even tighter to him.
"You missed me, huh?" Harm said and Mac just gave him one more tight hug. "I missed you so, so much. It was the thoughts of you that kept me alive the whole time there." He lightly stroked her cheek and brushed the tears away with his thumb.
"I missed you too, Harm, more then you can possibly know," she told him and then she too stepped back to give the rest of his friends and family a chance to greet him. Many minutes later everyone had gotten to hug Harm and they were all getting ready to leave. Harm assumed that he was going to go with his mother, but he didn't know if he still had his apartment. He had only been told a few things about what had happened while he was gone. One was the death of his elderly grandmother. He was sure there were many more things that had changed as well.
"You need to go with Mac now. She has something to tell you," Trish said and squeezed his hand. Harm turned to Mac and she smiled nervously at him.
"So I'm guessing you have something pretty important to tell me. And somehow my mother knows about it too," Harm said once they were both in Mac's car.
"Yes, I do. Where do you want to go?" Mac said. She didn't want to talk about it in the car.
"Somewhere not so public..." Harm said looking around at the represents from media who had started to pack up their things. He was hoping they could go to his own or Mac's apartment where it would probably be a lot calmer.
"We can go to my place," Mac said. "You look well, considering..."
"They treated me better the last couple of months so... I'm not quite allowed to talk about all of that yet. I just want you to know, I didn't stay away voluntarily, I would never have done that to you or anyone else I care about. Especially not after what had just happened between us."
"Harm, I never ever doubted that you would do everything within your power to get back to us," she looked over at him from her position at the wheel.
"You moved?" Harm asked after a few moments of silence when he noticed they weren't heading the direction of her apartment.
"Yeah, four years ago." Mac answered. "It's not much further now." Soon they were parking in the garage of Mac's house.
Mac unlocked the door and offered Harm to enter. She showed him to the kitchen and started making coffee for them and took out some things for them to eat. Harm offered to help, but Mac told him to sit down at the kitchen table. When the coffee was ready she sat down at the table.
Everything about the house told Harm that there was a family living here and not just Mac. Most likely a family with children. He had looked around as they entered, but he hadn't found any photos. He wondered if that was what Mac wanted to tell him. He realized that he really shouldn't be surprised that Mac had moved on in her life, that she had gotten family she had always wanted, but there was a little disappointment in his heart at that fact. Maybe he should appreciate that at least she had seen some of the same things in their relationship back then, to feel that she needed to tell him in private about her new life, about her family.
"I wanted to tell you this in person, so you don't hear this from someone else," Mac didn't get any farther before the door of the house was opened and sounds of light running steps was heard.
"Belle, I told you to wait in the car," her stepfather cried after her "Come back here," but Isabelle wasn't listening and soon she entered the kitchen.
"Mom, I forgot my medicine."
"Oh," Mac said. She wasn't sure if either Harm or her daughter was realizing who the other were.
"I'm sorry, Mac. I tried to make her wait outside and I was hoping you wouldn't be here yet," Harm was surprised to hear Jack Keeter's voice. Jack had at one time been Harm's closest friend and though they hadn't seen each other a lot in the years before Harm's crash in the Afghani dessert, there had still been a certain band there that made this situation seem rather weird. Jack grabbed the bag with all of Isabelle's medical things and hoped to be able to leave before either of Harm or Isabelle realized who the other were. He realized that it would probably be wisest to let Mac tell Harm about her daughter alone if she had the chance. Not knowing what to say to Harm, he just nodded and said "I'm glad that you've gotten home well."
"Who are you?" Isabelle asked Harm curiously.
TBC