Chapter Forty Eight
One week later:
Harm and Mac after yelling at each other for 30 minutes decided that seeing the psychologist would be a good thing. There relationship was strong, but even a rock can split apart if water freezes in the tiniest of cracks. They set an appointment to meet them after they got checked out for their injuries. After the doctors checked Harm's injuries, they decided to put Harm in a walking cast so he could maneuver better, and then it was off to the psychiatrist office for them.
Inside the psychiatrist office:
Mac sat down in the office. She agreed with Harm that they should probably see a psychiatrist together, at least for one session and then they would see where it went, under one condition though, it had to be Dr. McCool.
"Commander Rabb, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Colonel Mackenzie has told me about you."
"I hope most of it was good."
Mac gave him a smile and laughed at him. "Of course it was good."
"So what is the latest installment of your life, in other words, what brings you here today?"
"Our daughter is sick." Mac said quietly, "And we don't think we are handling it too well."
"Let's not forget her nightmares." Harm piped up.
"My nightmares, last night you were the one having nightmares." Mac said defensively.
She brought out the foam baseball bats. "Time out you two. Now use these to hit each other – lightly."
Harm looked aghast at her. "No. There is no way I will ever hit Mac, or my children even with a foam bat." Mac smiled and hugged him.
"This is why I love you so much." Mac whispered. "Dr. McCool, I don't think we will need the baseball bats."
"Okay. So let's try this again. When did you have a baby Mac?"
"It's a long story, but she is here now, and she is mine, and she is sick."
"And there is nothing we can do about it. I hate that. All the things I can do in the world, and I can be sick for her. I can't take away Mac's nightmares because I couldn't save her from it. So help me Mac, I couldn't save you from it." Harm interjected.
"I couldn't save you from crashing into the deck. I wanted to put the whole night in rewind and tell you not to get on that plane! I was scared."
"So you both are scared. I thought in your line of work you couldn't be afford to be scared, so it is something that new to you."
Harm looked down. "When you get scared, you lose control, and you die in my line of work. I have to be strong for my family."
Mac held his hand. "We can both be strong together, and be scared together. Harm let me in."
"I know Mac. But you have to let me in too."
"The nightmare I had last night, it was the same. You were being taken from me. The nightmares are always different, but the matter is that you are always being taken from me."
"Baby, I will always try to be here for you, I am scared for you. We have had a lot happen to us in the past couple of months. We have had a child dumped on our doorsteps, we thought Clay was dead, only to come back from the dead, you were captured, I got rammed into a ship by a suicide fighter pilot, it is enough to make anyone crack. And now, Mackenzie is sick."
Mac looked at him. "Why didn't you let me know that you were scared? I was trying to put on a brave face because you let out that there was nothing wrong."
"I don't know. I didn't want to be weak. Our entire we have had to put on brave faces Mac. I started when Dad went down and I was the man of the house. You have had to be strong your entire life."
Dr. McCool smiled, and realized that the two had serious communication issues. "It sounds like are prime candidates for PTSD. I don't think you have it severe enough for medication. I will set aside time, but I for some reason, I think you two will be too stubborn to use it. It also sounds like you have to be better at communicating emotions to each other, you can lean on each other and you need to talk to each other, it may help with the nightmares you two are having. Talking is a powerful tool. Call me if you need anything. Let me know how Mackenzie is doing."
"Thank you Dr. McCool. I may take you up on some sessions, and Harm may come along, I will call when I have time to schedule an appointment."
Harm looked at Mac and admired her courage. He stood up and shook the doctor's hand and hurried back to his baby's room.
He found his parents and Sergei inside of the room. "Brother, tell your parents that I do not need their money to go to college."
"Harm, tell your brother he is more stubborn than you."
"What are you guys arguing about?"
"Sergei went to Georgetown University and toured the campus. He loves it there, and did the preliminary application, and the dean of the college said that it looked good."
"Wait a minute, he filled it out today and got accepted today?"
"Yes, I just happened to know the dean fairly well, we took classes at Berkley together." Frank filled in. "Sergei had taken some classes in Russia, and they were able to get verbal confirmation and a faxed transcript over. But Sergei won't accept any tuition help."
"What program did you want to get into?"
"Right now, I want to do pre-med. I took two years of it back in Russia. I got interested in it after being trained in the Army. But when I was recalled last year to help out with the mission, I figured I could go back later. I can't get into the program without two letters of recommendation though, but I can get started with regular classes regardless. But I do not want your parents' money."
"Sergei, you saved our granddaughter's life. It is for everything you have done. Please." Trish said.
Sergei looked at his adopted parents and then to his brother, "Only if I can pay you back later on."
"Accepted. Let me call John to let him know."
"Sergei," Dr. Anton Polinsky addressed him walking into the room, "I will write a letter of recommendation, and I am sure a Lt. Commander Beckit will."
"Thank you all."
A couple of days later:
Harm took his Tuesday and spent it at the hospital. He found the doctor in there. It had been two weeks since his baby was admitted into the hospital for a disease that had plagued children for the longest time. His parents had flown back to California realizing that there was nothing that they could do, but promised to come out in a month for a week before Mattie started school again. Mackenzie was getting better. The doctor said the bacteria was leaving her system, and her coughing had become less frequent and not as severe. It looked like she was going to pull out just fine.
He cradled Mackenzie in his arms, and she giggled a little just like she used to. He smiled down at his little girl that he loved more than his own life. Mac had watched him cradle Mackenzie so gently.
Mac walked into the room and wrapped her arms around the both of them. "She is not going to disappear Harm. You know, we can't protect her from everything."
"Guess who I heard from the other day." Harm said putting Mackenzie in the crib.
"Who?" Mac said reaching her hand into the crib and rubbing Mackenzie's back.
"Jordan. I had Catherine Gale find her, and had Jordie call me because I wanted to know birth and other health information for the future. Don't be mad. She asked to see Mackenzie."
"What did you say?" Mac replied calmly.
"Absolutely not. She wanted me to travel to where she was."
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"Because I didn't know how you would react. Jordan unfortunately is the mother listed on her birth certificate, and because of that, we can't always rely on our health information. I did it to protect Mackenzie."
"I know you did, I'm not mad. In fact I was thinking about doing the same thing. I just can't believe she wanted to see our baby."
"Look, Jordan is to sick to travel, and I refuse to let her see my baby again."
"Good, because if I ever get my hands on her, even though I love Mackenzie, but she stole the experience of us having our first child together, of you seeing me pregnant with your first baby."
"I know Mac, but I look at our giggly, bouncy, princess, and I realize that if I didn't have her my life would be missing something. She helped bring us together."
"I know. I love Mackenzie so much, I would die for her."
A week later, Mackenzie was discharged home, and the admiral was feeling gracious and allowed Harm and Mac to take the rest of the day after lunch off.
They walked into the pediatric ward as they did every day for the past three weeks. They had to go to the hospital a couple days before so Mattie could get her walking cast taken off. She was happy to be free of the contraption.
"Commander, Colonel. I hear that Mackenzie is going home today."
"Yes, that she is." Mac said. Harm had spent the night before washing all of Mackenzie clothing and all of her sheets, and all of the toys that he could fit in the washer. He knew that it was unlikely for her to contract it again, and that she didn't pick it up that way, but he figured better safe than sorry.
1900 EST
Rabb Residence
King George, VA
"Mackenzie, look we are home."
She clapped her hands with delight. The doctors were worried that Mackenzie would have to deal with the complications that were closely associated with the disease, but she seemed to be okay. Harm hobbled up the front steps and held the door open for Mac. The past couple of weeks they had been taking turns staying with Mattie and Mackenzie, and they were happy just to know that they would all be underneath one roof again.
They walked inside and found The Roberts, Jen, Sergei, AJ, Admiral Jonas, Sturgis and Varese in the kitchen around a cake. "Welcome home Mackenzie!" little AJ exclaimed. "Uncle Harm, Aunt Mac, Mommy and Daddy said that Mackenzie was real sick."
"Yeah buddy, she was."
"I drew her a picture." Little AJ handed his Aunt Mac a picture and she looked at it. It was a picture of the house with a rainbow over it with Mattie, Mackenzie, Harm and Mac standing out front. "This way Mackenzie won't want to get sick again." AJ explained.
"Well AJ, I think your Uncle Harm and I will frame it and put it in her room. Does that sound good buddy?"
"Yes."
Mackenzie who was still a little wiped out due to the infection let out a long yawn. "I think I am going to put her to bed now." Harm said to Mac. Mac nodded and proceeded to cut the cake for the guest. Everyone enjoyed their cake and said goodbye to Harm and Mac. They all knew it was going to be a short get together, but they wanted to see Mackenzie well.
"Mom, there is left over fettuccini with chicken on the stove for you and Dad. I left the chicken out of Dad's side. I didn't want Uncle Sergei to cook again, so I tried." Mattie said while helping clean up.
"Thanks kiddo. You have been a trooper throughout this entire ordeal. I just want to say, you have been a great daughter Mats."
"Well Mom, you have been a great mom. You know, I was thinking. I am lucky. I had a great Mom and Dad before, and circumstances beyond my control took them away, and I just want to say, that even though you are my second Mom, I don't think of you as any less. Do you think Tom will let Dad and you adopt me?"
"Mathilda Grace, I love you so much." Mac reached over and engulfed her in a hug. "I couldn't ask for any better daughter. I don't know if Tom will, but we will get the ball rolling on it."
Harm stood in the hallway listening to their conversation, he didn't mean to ease drop, he was just there. He walked into the kitchen and found them still embracing and engulfed his two women in his life with a hug.
"Harm, dinner is on the stove. Our daughter made us dinner!" Mac said.
"Thanks Mattie. How about you go straighten up your room while me and Mac eat dinner, and then come down. We will all watch a movie tonight."
"Dad, you said that I had to start going to sleep earlier because of school starting in two weeks."
"I know, but think of this as a reward for being such a great daughter." He smiled at her. "Where is your Uncle?"
"He went out with Jen." Mattie answered. "You know, it only took them a month to figure out what it took you 9 years to figure out!"
"Mattie go up stairs, and clean your room!" Harm said throwing the cleaning rag at his teenager.
"Aye, aye sir."
"Come down when the room is ready for inspection."
"Dad?"
"Yes."
"I need you to sign a permission slip, it's in your office, and I need you to talk to Tom about formally adopting me. Oh, the permission slip is for me to attend summer camp for NJROTC at school."
"Are you sure you want to do NJROTC? I don't want you to do this because you think it is something that will make me happy, I want you to do it because it makes you happy, and it is something you want to do."
"Yeah Dad. This is what I want to do. I thought about it all summer long."
"I'll sign it for you Matts."
Mattie went upstairs and cleaned her room while Harm finished straightening up the kitchen. He looked at the baby monitor that had the lights going whenever Mackenzie was breathing. He stared at the monitor realizing at that moment that he could breathe easier.
TBC - -
