Chapter 70

April 25, 2005

White House

Commander Rabb's office

0810 local

To Harm's astonishment his family was standing in his office an hour and a half from when he'd last seen them, at home.. Mac was on her first day of maternity leave. Her doctor had ordered her to begin her leave three weeks before Mac wanted to go. She knew she'd likely be bored if she stayed home. For today, she had something to do. "What are you three doing here? I know for a fact that it isn't a school vacation day." He said this to the teens after giving his wife a kiss.

The Rabb teens didn't say anything, as in walked Admiral Calavicci, who bore a very strong resemblance to SecNav Sheffield. "Commander Rabb, you are out of uniform." he stated brusquely. (I couldn't resist having the admiral make a cameo.)

"I am?" Harm was quite confused, he wasn't catching on to what was about to happen. His wife and his children were pokerfaced and not given any clues as to what was about to take place.

"Colonel McKenzie, would you like to pin captain's bars on your husband"

"Yes, I would Admiral."

Mac stepped out for a second; she had a new uniform jacket with the correct rank ready for her husband to wear. The actual promotion ceremony was held in the rose garden, the location of Harm's and Mac's first meeting. It was quiet, and brief, the media were not interested in covering a promotion ceremony of a junior military advisor to the president. Harm was duly sworn in as Captain, Mac gave him a good kiss. The ceremony over Harm walked to the gate, noting the location, and the history of Mac and Harm Mattie commented dryly, "so this is where it all began."

With the promotion, Harm would transfer to the Pentagon where his tour would last for at least one year. There was a good chance that after the year he'd be given a command of his own. Harm had not renewed his qualification as pilot; he didn't want any to miss the twins' childhood that he'd missed with Andy. He knew he'd have to keep up certain aviation qualifications, but other than that, he would no longer be a fighter pilot for the Navy.

Chapter 71

May 23, 2005

Falls Church VA

Rabb house

2200 local

Mac had felt out of sorts all day, and contributed it to the fact she was now close to her due date and had not slept well for two nights; it seemed both of her children were going to be Olympic kickboxing champion as they took turns kicking not allowing her to get a decent night's rest. Mattie and Andy had tried to stay clear of Mac most of the weekend before, as she'd been in a very crabby mood. Andy was extremely busy with just a week before graduation and he had been working feverishly on papers due that Monday. To lessen his stress level he'd gone over to Petty Officer Coates to do the work. She didn't live that far away and had a roommate that Andy had a crush on. Mattie also stayed close to home, in case Mac went into labor. Monday night Mac decided she was in the mood for clam chowder, and not the soup you get from a soup can. To keep the calm Harm made reservations and they headed to the restaurant. Mattie had a premonition, and just to be safe, snuck Mac's hospital bag into the vehicle before they left the house.

It was a good thing that she had taken the time to put the duffel in the back seat as Mac went into labor. They'd just finished eating, when Mac said they'd better head home because she needed her hospital bag. "I'm in labor, and I don't think these contractions are Braxton Hicks."

"How far along are they?" Harm asked hoping that it would be awhile, and he'd be able to get some sleep, because of his travel schedule, he hadn't slept much in the past thirty hours.

"Since the last one it's been eleven minutes and twenty three seconds." If they weren't so used to Mac's time abilities they would have blinked at her preciseness.

"I think we should head to Bethesda then, after we stop and get the bag, I don't want to have to deliver these two." Harm said turning a little pale.

"I had the feeling this might happen, so I put the bag in the car before we left." Mattie said, calming the two adults at the table. Not having to go back to Falls Church made the journey shorter.

"Dad, I'll drive. I want my little brother and sister to get here safely." Andy said as soon as Harm had paid the cashier and they were heading towards the car.

"Andy, if I can pilot a multi million dollar plane, I can drive my wife to the hospital." Harm tried to reason with his son.

"I know, Dad, but this way you can hold her hand and concentrate on her and not on the road." Andy knew he'd won the argument when his father got into the backseat, along with Mac.

By 2005, they were at the hospital and after admitting realized she was in the system as McKenzie, and not Rabb, Mac was admitted to maternity. Andy and Mattie had the responsibility of making all the phone calls to inform people of the impending birth. Privately Andy hoped that it would be a short process as he had finals to study for.\

Andy called his grandparents first thing, and told them they were at the hospital, Trish and Frank had just sat down to an early supper and didn't mind the interruption for such a special reason. They would wait until they heard about the birth, and then would make flight arrangements. Andy promised to call as soon as he knew anything. He then called his great grandmother in Pennsylvania and told her he would call her back when the twins were born.

Mattie on the other hand was to call the various people that lived in the DC area. She first called retired Admiral AJ Chegwidden, who she'd learned to like. He'd talked with Mattie often and they'd commiserated about the sometime difficulties in having and employee who was Harmon Rabb. The admiral would use his influence to let Mac's Uncle Matt know of the births as soon as they occurred. She then called Harriet who'd developed a phone tree system for occasions such as this.

Mattie and Andy went home, just long enough to get everything they'd need for the evening, and to get their homework. They may not be able to study all that intently, but at least at the hospital they could easily find out what was happening. Because of finals, Andy had no choice but to go to school in the morning, Mattie was permitted to miss classes on Tuesday, provided she did her schoolwork and got the missed assignments. She was able to do quite easily, because Shaw had a system where the parents and even the students could email the teachers regarding assignments. Mattie had forewarned her teachers about the impending absence and using her lap top was able get her assignments for the following day for most of her classes completed before midnight.

Andy had developed the ability to sleep just about anywhere, and he used that ability to sleep soundly in the waiting room of the maternity ward. Mattie on the other hand, was on a caffeine high and was wide awake at 0200 when Harm came out to tell them Mac had been moved into delivery. "Do you still want to come in?" Harm asked, Mattie had expressed an interest in being in the room for the birth. She'd kept changing her mind about it, Harm hadn't pressured her either way.

:"I'll be in there, since I'm wide awake, besides, this way; I can you both on camera." Mattie said, picking up the digital camera that had a large video capacity.

"Good point there kiddo, you go get changed into scrubs, and I'll wake sleeping beauty here and let him know." Harm said as Mattie went quickly to the locker room to change.

"Andy, we're moving Mac to delivery, Mattie's going to be in there, you can still change your mind and be there." he told his sleepy eighteen year old son.

"I'll save the delivery room experience for when I'm going to be a father, not a brother." Andy said somewhat sleepily. "Let me know as soon as they come."

To Harm's surprise, and considering the hour, AJ Chegwidden came ambling down the hall towards the waiting room at that very moment. Since his retirement he occasionally had bouts of insomnia. This was one of those nights and knew that at least for one night, he'd do something outside of his home, he headed towards the hospital. He would go to Rome in a couple months time when Francesca gave birth to his first grandchild.

"Any news" he asked. Harm looked exhausted and exhilarated at the same time "I'll stay here with Andy, you go back to the Colonel." the retired admiral ordered

It was another hour and a half before Chegwidden saw Rabb again. If anything Harm looked even more tired, and happier than he'd ever seen the man when the admiral had seen Harm walking down the hall, he shook the younger Rabb awake.

"They're both here, and they're both healthy. Mac's doing good, there was amazingly no tearing. The doc will give you two minutes and then Mac and the twins need their rest."

"Captain Congratulations you need to get some sleep pretty soon as well. "I'll take them home Mattie and I will be here come regular visiting hours." Andy had told the admiral he couldn't miss school with only three days left, he had finals each day.

The three walked into the hospital room where Mac lay beaming, holding each of her newborn children in her arms.

"So who do we have here, Colonel?" AJ asked. He felt grandfatherly towards these two, as both Harm and Mac's father's were deceased. Frank Burnett, and Matt O'Hara would have more of a grandfather role in these children's lives, but AJ had been there for nearly all the ups and downs of their parent's relationship.

"Congrats, Mac," Andy said. Even though Mac had officially adopted him, he'd decided not to call her Mom, neither had Mattie.

"This little heartbreaker with her dad's eyes is Tasia Anneliese. and this handsome little devil is William David. (DJE's real name is David William according to He'll go by Liam. "Sir here's Tasia and Liam." She let him hold each of them for a moment. Andy also took a turn holding his infant siblings.

Harm and Mac had t-shirts made to give to Andy and Mattie as gifts for being a big sister and big brother, as they'd made shirts for Frank and Trish as well, except theirs had I'm the grandparent of instead of big sister of or big brother of

On closer inspection, AJ saw that Mattie was already wearing hers, the shirt said, "I'm the big sister of Liam and Tasia." (pronounced Tasha)

"I saw the name Tasia years ago, and I liked it, it has an exotic sound looking at the spelling, Anneliese is an old family name on dad's side. As you know my middle name is David and William has been a name in my mother's side of the family for a couple of generations now.

Chapter 72

May 24, 2005

Bethesda Medical

1544 local

Harriet had just left, as the mother of young twins herself, Mac appreciated her visit more than most of the others, she'd kept it quick and had arranged to come alone. She'd invited Mac to join her at a Mom's of multiples meeting in the future. Harriet recognized the couple who got off the elevator just as she was getting on. "They're three doors down on the right, Mr and Mrs. Burnett"

Trish was beaming; she had missed most this with Andy, and planned to enjoy grandparenthood this time. She knew the bond between her son and Mac would only be broken in death, and she wasn't so sure that even that could. Frank was nearing retirement and they were seriously considering a move closer to family. They looked into several properties during the next year, but didn't find anything during that time that suited them to a tee. Which turned out to be a good thing.