A/N: Thanks for the Art of Seduction reviews. My collaborators and I are working on another, similar story, we're not sure whether it will be multiple chapters yet.
"Alright, ninja-girl, now you just move the stir-fry around the pan like this." Mac was standing in front of the stove and Harm was trying to teach her how to cook. Of course Harm's teaching style involved standing directly behind her with one arm around her waist and the other hand on top of hers, to 'guide' her. He started placing kisses behind her ear slowly working down to her neck.
"Harm! If you keep doing that, we'll never get dinner ready." Mac protested as she felt the hand on her stomach move up toward her breast.
"Right now, dinner as at the bottom of my priority list." He whispered huskily into her ear.
"Well, this is certainly an encouraging scene for a woman who wants grandchildren." A familiar voice said from what Harm could assume was near the door. His face immediately taking on a 'kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar' look, Harm returned his on hand to its place on Mac's stomach.
"Please, tell me that didn't just happen." Harm whispered into Mac's ear.
"Sounds to me like your mom caught you trying to cop a feel, sailor." She gave him a pat on the thigh as they turned around to face Trish Burnett who was not the only guest in the Rabb-MacKenzie apartment that fine August evening.
"Mom! Grams! Frank! Uh, what a surprise, I had no idea you were coming to visit." Harm said as he forced a smile.
"Obviously, not." Grams said indicating the position he and Mac had been caught in.
"Harmon, we wanted to surprise you, we haven't talked since you went to Russia and it's been even longer since we've seen you." Trish supplied in a matronly tone.
"I think, I'll just be going." Mac wasn't exactly dressed to meet her boyfriend's parents. She was wearing a pair of cut-off blue-jean shorts and a black spaghetti strap shirt that could have stood to be more conservative.
"Where are you going? You live here." Harm informed her as she walked toward the door.
"She what? Harmon, you not only have a girlfriend, she's moved in with you and you haven't told your mother?" Trish's voice took on a demanding tone. Mac had to stick around for this, there weren't too many times she had the chance to join in making Harm squirm.
"Harm, you haven't told your mother about us?" Mac was indignant as she placed her hands on her hips and stood next to Trish.
"Would you believe that I've been really, really busy and it slipped my mind?" Harm tried to offer in an attempt to save his six. Grams and Frank were watching the scene and trying to quell their laughter. "Alright, mom, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is my mother Trish Burnett." Harm made the introductions and the two women shook hands. "Sarah, this is my stepfather, Frank and my grandmother, Sarah Rabb."
Mac was pleased to meet the people about whom she heard so much. It was also nice to hear the name Sarah Rabb because this was the woman who'd helped Harm through one of the toughest times in his life after his ramp strike. "Mom, Sarah and I were just getting dinner ready, why don't you all go sit at the table and I'll have it out to you in a few minutes?" Harm suggested as he headed back over to the kitchen.
"Alright, sailor, I think this will probably go faster if you solo in the kitchen, so I'm going to talk with your mom, okay?" Mac put herself between Harm and the stove and put her index finger right on the tip of his nose. She leaned up to give him a quick peck on the cheek before heading over to the table.
"Harmon, how's Mac doing?" Grams called from the table.
"Ask her yourself, Grams, she's sitting at the table with you." Harm replied, knowing full well that his family knew Mac as 'Mac' and not as 'Sarah'. Harm's reply brought big smiles to the faces of Trish, Frank and Grams who had been well updated on Mac's adventures with Harm.
"So you're Mac, you know that you're all my Harmon has talked about for two years?" Trish smiled and scooted her chair over closer to Mac.
"Is that right?" Mac was now interested in what exactly Harm had told his mother about her.
"Oh, yes dear, every time Harmon calls me up at the farm it's 'Mac this' and 'Mac that'. Why, the boy sounded like he had a high school crush." Grams smiled wisely as she saw the young woman try to hide the blush that was rising in her cheeks.
"So, how long have you and Harm, been dating?" Frank asked from across the table.
"Well we started dating back in February; so six months, eleven days, seven hours and fifty-seven minutes." Mac could have given them the seconds too but she figured that might be a little too much.
"Yes, Harmon's told me about that little knack that you've got for time. Quite an impressive thing." Grams was a very warm woman and incredibly understanding for the position that she'd caught Mac and Harm in earlier in the kitchen.
"Thank you, but it hasn't helped make him on time for work." Mac added and got laughs from the other people at the table. Harm was walking over with dinner when he heard the laughing.
"What's so funny?" He commented as he started to distribute dinner to everyone's plate.
"Mac was just telling us how her gift for time still hasn't helped you get into work when you're supposed to." Trish supplied as Harm looked annoyed.
"Mac, I thought we talked about this?" Harm pleaded.
"We did but then I found out that we've been dating for six months and we're living together and you still hadn't told your mother about us." She shot him a coy smile.
"So, mom, how did you get into the apartment? I thought I'd locked the door." Harm questioned.
"Oh, well we ran into a very nice Marine downstairs and when we told him who we were, he chuckled and handed us the key." Trish raised a forkful of her son's stir-fry to her lips.
"Yeah, that's a friend of ours from work." Harm added as he took his seat next to Mac at the table.
"So, flyboy, when do you guys have to go to the studio to record that track for the USO Christmas album, tomorrow?" Mac looked over at her boyfriend who was relieved at the change of topic.
"1300, we've decided on Snoopy's Christmas, you know that old song about…" Mac cut him off.
"Only you, would think of dogfights and planes when someone asks you to record a Christmas song." Mac commented and gave him a quick peck on the cheek to show that she was kidding with her tone.
"You're recording a song for the USO?" Frank questioned as he finished off his dinner.
"Well, not just me. Back last November, a bunch of us at work formed a band and we play a regular gig on Friday nights. Well, a USO rep showed up at one of our gigs in May and liked what she heard, so she asked us to lay down a track for this year." Harm smiled and reached for Mac's hand on the table, a gesture that was lost on no one.
"Also, there's a novelty to having a band composed of sailors and Marines playing on a USO Christmas album, even if they are pretty good." Mac playfully elbowed him in the ribs.
"So, Harmon, when are you going to give your mother and I some grandchildren and great-grandchildren to spoil?" Sarah Rabb asked, trying to catch her grandson off guard. Harm nearly sprayed his water all over the table at the question.
"Grams! I uh…uh." For a lawyer, the ability to communicate seemed to have left Harmon Rabb at that instant.
"Give the boy a break, Sarah. He's finally found a nice girl, I think we can let him take his time." Frank recovered for his stepson.
"Thanks, Frank." Harm started breathing regularly again.
"Frank, when you're old like I am, time isn't something you've got a whole lot of. So, I guess I just want to see my grandson happy fast." Sarah Rabb chuckled.
"Nonsense Grams, you'll outlive us all." Harm smiled across the table at his grandmother.
"If that's the case, I'd like some great-grandchildren to keep me company." Gram smiled slyly and Mac tried very hard not to laugh at the look on Harm's face.
"You know, Harm, your grandmother might not be too far off base." Mac added and watched as Harm's eyes widened in terror. She was only playing with him but his reactions were worth it.
"What! Mac, I know that we talked about this but I thought we'd take things in the usual stages, you know, engagement, marriage that kind of thing." Harm's defensiveness in the face of what was obviously a rouse that the women had cooked up was causing Frank to laugh heartily.
"Alright, you three should be very ashamed of yourselves, I think you've given the poor boy shell-shock." Frank lectured with a humorous tone to his voice. "Harm, why don't you and I go out and get them some Ben & Jerry's, it should get you out of the line of fire for a little while, anyway."
"Sounds like a good idea, Frank." The two of them got up from the table and Harm grabbed his keys on the way out to the car. The two men walked out to the car in silence and got in. "Listen, Frank, I never got to thank you for supporting me when I called before going to Russia." Harm started. Russia had made him thankful for the people that were still around him.
"Harm, don't mention it, I was happy to support you in your search to find your father. I knew it was important to you and you've always been important to me so I knew that this was something you needed to do." Frank tried to explain without sounding like he was ranting.
"Thanks. Frank, I know that I've been well…a brat since we met, but you've done a lot for me, you've been there during some pretty tough times. I never gave you credit for sticking around when a lot of guys probably would have run off hollering into the night." Harm smiled somewhat self-deprecatingly.
"You're the closest thing to a son I've ever had, Harm. I wanted to see you happy and it didn't matter what it took to make you that way." Frank supplied almost as if he were trying to explain himself.
"I really am sorry for being a brat, friends?" Harm offered extending his hand.
"I think that would be good, yeah." Frank shook Harm's hand. Harm went into a nearby convenience store and picked up a few pints of Ben & Jerry's before getting back in his car and heading back to his apartment.
As Harm walked toward the door, he heard laughter and more voices inside than he remembered leaving at the apartment when he left on his ice cream run. Harm opened the door to find that Jim and Angie had joined his mother, Grams and Mac in the apartment and Jim was recounting the story of their trip to Syria to rescue Mac. "So then Mac says: 'So, Robin Hood did you and your Merry Men just decide to save Maid Marian or what's the deal with this crew?' And Harm replies by introducing Keeter as Friar Tuck, me as Little John and Webb as Will Scarlet." A wave of laughter passed over the attentive audience of ladies. "I'm telling you, it was classic."
"Jim? Are you trying to get me in trouble or something?" Harm joked as he put the ice cream down on the island and the ladies raided it.
"No, I just figured that your mom should hear how busy you've been keeping yourself. Don't worry, I didn't tell her about the infamous Beltway Burger parking lot rumour." Jim joked right and Harm's eyes widened.
"What Beltway Burger parking lot rumour?" Trish asked, her mouth full of ice cream.
"It's nothing, Mrs. Burnett, don't worry about it." Jim covered for his friend.
"Harmon, I still can't believe that you managed to survive being in the desert with this young rapscallion and Jack Keeter." Grams and Trish were sharing a pint of ice cream, they decided that the younger women should each get their own pint.
"Yeah, well, Jim's better in combat than he is in a courtroom." Harm joshed his friend as he sat down on the couch.
"He's not bad in a haystack, either." Angie added with a smile.
"Angie!" Jim protested with a shocked look on his face.
"Oh, we're all adults here." Grams insisted in an attempt to put Jim at ease.
"It feels good that they're finally making fun of someone other than me." Harm laughed as he gave Jim a slap on the shoulder.
"Which reminds me, Harmon, how is it that you can fearlessly face terrorists but you can't propose to a nice girl like Mac?" Trish's maternal intervention mind was back in full gear.
"Mooooooooom." Harm whined. He was planning on proposing to Mac and soon; he just didn't like being pushed.
"I'm going to have to agree with your mom on this one, Harm." Angie and Mac were sitting on the far couch, smiling.
"I don't take orders from you, Captain." Harm reminded her of her newly obtained rank.
"No, but you do take orders from me, Commander." Jim looked up with a sly smile.
"You wouldn't." Harm challenged.
"Not yet, it's only been six months, just don't wait too much longer." Jim cautioned with a smile as Harm breathed a sigh of relief.
"I think we've tortured him enough tonight, Sarah." Trish relented as she saw her son go over to the fridge to get a bottled water.
"I think you're right, Trish." Grams shot a wise smile at her grandson who was coming back into the main living area.
"Harm, why doesn't your family come to the studio tomorrow? The USO rep said that we could have some visitors to watch the recording session." Jim suggested and it seemed to meet with approval from everyone.
"I don't know, we're supposed to be in the studio from 1300 until 1430 tomorrow, aren't those like 'prime shopping hours' or something." Harm's comment wasn't as well received.
"Flyboy, any time I have your credit card is a prime shopping hour." Mac's reply brought a smile to Trish's face.
"I like this girl." Trish put a hand on Mac's shoulder.
"Alright Trish, Sarah, I think we should probably head back to the hotel and turn in for the night, don't you think?" Frank suggested as he moved toward the door.
"Fine, by the way, we'd love to come to the recording studio tomorrow. What's the place called?" Trish asked as they followed Frank out.
"Libertyville Recording Studios. We start at 1300, so you might actually want to get there a little early, mom." Harm told her.
"Alright, I love you Harmon." She said as she walked out the door.
"Love you too, mom." Harm shouted as the door closed. Harm and Mac turned to their only two remaining guests who were cuddled up on the opposing couch.
"We brought a movie?" Angie suggested as the held up the tape.
"Put it in than, girl." Mac gave her friend a high-five. Angie slid the tape into the VCR and TV that Mac had convinced Harm to buy.
"What is it, Angie?" Harm asked, hoping that it wasn't some big Marine Corps movie.
"A Few Good Men." Angie replied as she curled up under Jim's arm.
"Oh great choice, Tom Cruise in a Navy uniform." Mac curled up to Harm who looked down at her with a disbelieving expression.
"Kevin Bacon in a Marine uniform." Angie tossed back.
"Even better." Mac replied and the two guys looked annoyed.
"Harm! Can you hear the movie over these hormones?" Jim shouted for effect.
"No way! Not with the way they're raging!" Harm shouted back and the two men laughed. Angie looked over at Mac with a 'they are so immature' kind of look and mouthed the word 'men' and Mac laughed.
About halfway through the movie, Mac and Harm were making out like teenagers and their moans were louder than the movie. Jim subtly reached over and smacked the back of Harm's head.
"Hey!" Harm protested.
"You're not a teenager." Jim pointed a scolding index finger in Harm's direction. Than went back to watch the movie when Harm, smacked him across the back of the head.
"You're not a chaperone." Harm smiled as his friend rubbed the back of his head. The two ladies were getting fed up with the immaturity and proceeded to smack both of the men on the chest.
"You're ruining the movie!" They protested and everyone laughed before returning their attentions to the film. After the movie ended, Jim and Angie said their goodbyes to Harm and Mac and left to go back downstairs.
Harm and Mac got ready for bed. It amazed Harm how Mac could look sexy in just about anything that she decided to wear to bed. "You know, I forget what this bed looks like at night without you in it." Harm stated as he threw himself down on the bed next to her.
"Not planning on getting rid of me, are you, sailor?" Mac smiled an turned toward him.
"Not if I can help it, sweet thing." They fell asleep in each other's arms.
1800 ZULU
LIBERTYVILLE STUDIOS
WASHINGTON, D.C
"I'm not sure if we can do this, I mean we've never done anything this high profile before, what if we screw up…there's just too much." Bud was silence by Jim's hand over his mouth.
"Lieutenant, what have I told you about pushing the warranty on your tongue?" Jim questioned and Bud calmed. "We'll be fine, we've practiced the song, and we know it. Just think Bud, we're joining the ranks of so many greats who've played on these albums before us. It's something you can tell your kids about." Jim assured his friend.
"Yeah and even if we screw up a few times, that's the beauty of the studio over our liver performances, we can do as many takes as needed to get it right." Harm gave Bud a pat on the shoulder.
"I don't know, sir. Maybe the Lieutenant is right, maybe this is just too much." Tiner was sitting on his stool behind the drum kit.
"Guys, we transposed the sheet music so that we could jazz up the guitar, bass and keyboard parts for this version, we've practiced the song and we all know how to play. I don't see the big problem." Harm looked at Bud and Tiner who still looked hesitant about the whole idea. Trish, Frank, Grams, Mac, Angie and Harriet all piled into the sound engineer's booth to watch the guys record.
The sound engineer flipped the switch to talk to the guys in the booth. "You know, if your band-mates are really worried, why don't you do a quick warm-up song, I'll lay it down on tape and play it back. This will only work if it's a song you guys know really well though."
"Well, what's that song that we normally play before our rehearsals?" Tiner asked.
"Oh yeah, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, we can normally do that one pretty well." Jim supplied.
"Alright, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight, on four." Harm declared as everyone took their places around the studio. Tiner clacked the drumsticks together to count them in. Jim and Harm both had to do vocals for this song that was the only tough part about it in rehearsal.
"One, two, three, four!" Tiner called and the instruments started in.
If I had told her, that I loved her
She would have stay till who knows when
But I guess I couldn't understand it
When she said 'I want to be your friend'
'Cause a friend would never doubt you
Or ever, put you up tight
And now I wonder, What's she's doing tonight
Oh yes, I wonder, what she's doing tonight
Oh, I wonder what she's doing
Tonight!
We were so close but we should have been closer
And it's making me feel so sad
But I tell myself I didn't lose her
Because you can't lose a friend you never had
And a friend won't say it's over
And walk out just for spite
And now I wonder, what she's doing tonight
Everyone in the booth smiled as they saw the guys thoroughly enjoying themselves in the booth, playing along to the song. Grams and Trish couldn't help but smile at seeing Harm look genuinely happy in the booth
Oh yes, I wonder, what she's doing tonight
Oh, I wonder what she's doing
Tonight!
The instruments broke off without vocals for a few seconds and the USO rep slinked into the sound engineer's booth to watch the warm up. Just as the instruments were about to lead back into the vocals Harm improvised. "Alright, Jimmy, let's go!" Harm said into the microphone
'Cause a friend will always be there
If you're wrong or if you're right
And now I wonder, what she's doing tonight
Oh yes, I wonder, what she's doing tonight
Oh, I wonder what she's doing
Tonight!
As the song ended, there was massive applause from the guests in the booth and the USO rep leaned in to talk to the sound engineer. "See, I told you these guys were good." She flipped open the intercom into the studio. "What was that?"
"A warm up." Harm replied with his signature smile.
" One hell of a warm up." The sound engineer muttered under his breath. "Would you guys like to hear it played back?" Bud and Tiner nodded in the affirmative out of the want to set their nerves at ease but Harm and Jim didn't need to hear it back, they knew that they'd nailed it. The sound engineer played the track back at them and even Harm and Jim couldn't believe how well their rendition of the song had gotten off.
Frank was standing in the boot and he saw how much Trish was enjoying listening to her son play his music. He pulled the USO rep aside. "How much for a copy of the tape of today's session for my wife? She really likes this."
"I'll work something out for you, you can get a copy for free since you're family with the band." She smiled and headed back over to the mixing boards. The engineer flipped open the channel into the studio one last time. "Alright guys, you ready to lay down Snoopy's Christmas for us?"
The guys' rendition of Snoopy's Christmas went off without a hitch. Harm had even found a way to use the whammy-bar on the guitar to simulate the sounds of a Sopwith-Camel going into a dive. After about four takes, they had the perfect version and when they heard it back, they all smiled, they had actually succeeded in cutting a track for a USO album. It wasn't something that any of them had in their career goals but it was a nice notch to have in your belt.
They cleared out of the studio and met up with their friends and family out in the reception area. "You guys were great, I don't think you've ever been quite that good, even at McMurphy's!" Mac smiled widely as she leapt into Harm's embrace.
"You performed wonderfully, Harmon. You all were so good." Trish smiled as the guys made their way over to them.
"That was something spectacular, I don't think I've heard those songs in the longest time and you guys were just able to bring them right back to life." Frank walked up and shook his stepson's hand firmly before Harm pulled him into an unexpected but welcome hug. The sight brought another smile to Trish's face, Harm seemed to have finally made his peace with Frank's place in her life. "What would everyone say to an early lunch?" Frank suggested.
"Frank, you're actually willing to feed three Marines? You're certainly braver than I thought." Harm's comment got laughs from everyone, even the Marines. Frank picked a nice little place on E street and the group dined al fresco for lunch around 1440. Harm was his typical, vegetarian self while everyone else had at least a little meat. Harm laughed when he heard Jim's order which was 'the biggest piece of red meat you got'. The waiter even examined the Marine to see if he had indeed been serious with his order.
Their orders had come back about twenty-five minutes later and the waiter had brought a fifteen ounce porterhouse steak out and placed in front of Jim. The waiter almost had a look of disgust on his face as he pulled the 'rare' tag out of the piece of meat. "How can you eat that?" Harm asked as he almost winced as Jim cut into the meat.
"This? This is just a morsel, I should take you out to the Grant homestead back home in Tennessee. My family has competitions to see who can eat the biggest piece of steak in under and hour and every Grant has lived to be over ninety. So don't give me that diatribe about your food making you live longer." Jim tossed him a wise, sarcastic smile.
"See, Harmon, now there's a boy with a healthy appetite." Sarah Rabb teased her grandson.
"Mrs. Rabb, it's not the amount he eats cause I've seen this boy haul off and bury some pretty impressive amounts of salad. We just have to concentrate that hunger toward actual food like Bacon, steak and pork chops." Everyone at the table shared a laugh at Jim's comment.
"I think there are some things that even the Marines can't pull off, Colonel." Harm added.
"Hey, Truman once said the only propaganda machine that could rival Stalin was that of the USMC." Angie added since Jim had a mouthful of steak.
"You mean Uncle Sam's Misguided Children?" Harm retorted before Mac playfully slapped his arm.
"Hey, you're dating one of those misguided children." She tossed at him playfully.
"And loving every minute." Harm replied and the two of them gave each other an Eskimo kiss.
"I think I just lost my appetite." Tiner commented and everyone laughed.
After lunch, Bud, Harriet and Tiner broke away from the group and headed for their respective homes. This left only the people who were headed to the apartment building North of Union Station. "Angie, are you sure the Admiral didn't mind babysitting David today?" Jim cautiously asked his girlfriend.
"He seemed really enthused about the idea. I think he likes hanging out with the little guy. Maybe there's an inner child inside the rough and gruff SEAL." Angie suggested and the thought itself created a wave of laughs among those who knew Admiral Chegwidden. Jim invited everyone in for some 'Good Ol' Tennessee Apple Cider' when they got back to apartment.
Jim opened the door to the apartment to find the Admiral and David watching 'That Thing You Do' and using the brooms as guitars while dawning cheesy sunglasses. Their reverie came to a halt when they saw that they had been caught by the people entering the apartment. "Colonel." The Admiral nodded trying to contain his embarrassment.
"Admiral, should I ask or do I just assume that you and my son were playing 'rock star', sir?" Jim along with Harm, Mac and Angie were all trying to keep a straight face.
"Colonel, I think it goes without saying that this doesn't need to be brought up?" The Admiral sort of ordered in question format.
"Understood, sir." Jim said with a smile and walked into his kitchen to start making the drinks for everyone.
"Hey, Grams, can I go talk to you in the hallway for a second?" Harm tugged on his grandmother's sleeve. The two of them walked out into the hallway and made sure the door closed behind them. "Grams, did you bring it?" Harm asked with a smile.
"I sure did, I don't think that little woman of yours will suspect a thing, not after that display we put on last night." Grams said as she pulled the velvet box out of her pocket.
"I really have to thank Jim too, he helped me put the whole scheme together. I didn't expect him to get you guys here so early though. I thought you'd interrupt me serving dinner, not making dinner." Harm smiled and opened the box to examine the ring.
"Yeah, well we didn't exactly expect to catch you in the act young man, but she's a keeper. Never forget, your mother and I were serious about those grandchildren." Sarah Rabb smiled wisely at her grandson who seemed as though he'd finally found all that was going to make him happy in life.
"I know, Grams, I know and there's no one I'd rather have as their mother." Harm slipped the box into his pocket as the two of them walked back into the apartment. Sarah Rabb had never been happier for her grandson than she was at that moment. She was so proud of the man that he'd become and she knew that the only people as proud as she was, were looking down on him right then. And she knew that they were smiling just as widely as she was.