This is installment 8 in the Shattered Promises series.
1. Things Fall Apart.
2. Picking Up The Pieces.
3. (a & b.) Starting Over.
4. Getting It Right.
5. Getting To Know You.
6. Happy Endings.
7. Sleepless Nights.
8. See You In My Dreams.
9. Scattered Photographs.
10. Dreams Really Do Come True.
11. Celebrations.
12. Turning Full Circle.
Rating: K+ just to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: JAG and its main characters belong to the genius who is DPB and to CBS. I don't make any profit from writing any of these fics, but simply get to exercise my overactive imagination every now and then. Please don't sue me, as I haveno money and way too much time on my hands :0)
Summary: A trip to Grandma Sarah's gives Harm and Mac a blast from the past.
Spoilers: None. This isn't set at any particular point in the JAG timeline and there are no specific references to any episodes.
Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated. Please don't hesitate to press the 'review' button!
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See You In my Dreams
As the SUV pulled into the drive, Grandma Sarah came walking out of the front driveway. As Cathy, Mac and Harm climbed out, she rushed to them.
"Darlings, it's great to see you! I got so excited this morning, that I decided to prepare a nice meal and before I knew it, a whole Sunday roast was in the oven!"
"Grams," Harm told her, "I'd like you to meet Catriona and of course, you know Mac."
"Hi ma'am," Cathy greeted her, "please, just call me Cathy."
"And you just call me Grams," Grandma Sarah told her, "And of course I remember the lovely Sarah! I was so happy when Harm called to tell me! About time, too!"
Harm and Mac just laughed when Cathy told Grandma Sarah, "Yeah, that's what I told them!"
As Cathy carried her bag towards the house, Grams took her other arm and the two of them began bantering away.
"Looks like they're going to get on like a house on fire!" Mac commented to Harm as he carried their suitcase. Harm paused and took Mac's hand in his.
"So, what do you think of Gram's farm?"
"It's beautiful," Mac told him.
"Yeah," he agreed, "I spent most of my time up here when I was growing up. Even as a teenager, I preferred to come up here during the summer, rather than go abroad with my Mom and Frank."
"I feel so at home here," Mac told him, "It all seems like I've been here before..."
Quietly, she also added, "In fact, that barn does look kind of familiar…"
OOOO
Twenty years previous…
Sarah Mackenzie ran from the campervan parked in the middle of the field, to explore the surrounding farmland.
"Sarah, baby don't you go bothering anyone now!"
As Sarah turned around to answer her Mother, Joe Mackenzie burst out of the campervan, strode across and grabbed Sarah by the hair.
"Joe!" Sarah's mother Deanne started, "There's no need…"
"You listen to me, missy, if I hear that you've been causing trouble…"
"No, Dad," Sarah promised him, "I promise, I won't."
"Good," her dad replied, as he let her go and stumbled back to the van to get another beer.
Sarah broke out into a run, to get as far away from the campervan as possible. As Sarah neared an orchard, she slowed down to a walk, then thought back to when she had arrived home from school the week before, to find her Mom and Dad throwing thing haphazardly into a rented campervan.
"You were complaining that we never go anywhere our summer vacation," her Dad had told her.
"But Dad," Sarah had told him, "the school semester ends tomorrow, not today."
When she had later asked him where they were going, he had thought for a moment.
"How about the coast? A nice seaside vacation."
However, both she and her Mother had known to keep their mouths shut when he had started to drive away from the coast.
Sarah had no idea where they were now, but she liked the peace and serenity that surrounded her. It was so different from the smoggy, noisy inner cities where she had always lived.
Just then, Sarah froze as she heard a rustling. Suddenly, a figure dropped out of one of the branches of a tree. He landed steadily on his feet and as he looked up, Sarah noticed that he had piercing blue eyes.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Do you live around here? I've never run into you before."
"No," Sarah told him, "I'm on vacation here with my parents."
"My name's Harm," the boy replied, "my Grandma owns the farm over there and the orchard."
"I'm sorry," Sarah apologized, "I didn't realize that this was private property. I'll leave…"
"No," Harm insisted, "it's okay. Please don't leave. It's alright for you to be here, my family won't mind."
"You're sure?" Sarah asked him. At his nod, she held out her hand and shaking his, introduced herself.
"Hi, Harm. My name's Sarah."
OOOO
Harm glanced over as he and Sarah strolled through the long, cool grass. He noticed that she kept nervously fidgeting with her long, dark hair.
"So, how old are you Sarah?"
"Fourteen, how about you?"
"I'm sixteen."
"So, you live with your Grandma?"
"No, me and my Mom and Step Father are visiting her. We live in California, in La Jolla. Where do you live?"
"Well, my family moves about quite a bit. Right now, we live close to my Uncle in Arizona. Before that, we were in New Mexico. But we'll probably move again, soon. It's just what my Dad is used to, the military was always moving us around. My Dad used to be in the Marines…"
"Your Dad's a jarhead?" Harm interrupted her.
"He used to be," she corrected him, " and less of the 'jarhead.' My Uncle Matt is a Major in the Marines and the best one there is, too. Someday, they're going to make him a Colonel."
"Sorry," Harm apologized, "I didn't mean it as an insult. That's just what my Dad used to call them."
"And I bet your Dad's a squid, right?" Sarah grinned.
"Yeah, he used to be. He was a fighter pilot. He went down in Vietnam, during the war."
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, during which Sarah had no idea what to say, they were both distracted by noise in the sky above them. They both looked up to see a red biplane, flying over a crop field.
"That's Mr. Rawlings. He owns the farm next door," Harm told Sarah, "We'd better go back over there. He's going to dust his crops with pesticides."
"Okay," Sarah replied, "It's a really nice plane. I've spent most of my life living in big cities. You don't see those kind of planes there."
"Do you like planes?" Harm asked her.
"Yeah, I guess," Sarah told him.
"Come with me, then," he told her, "I want to show you something."
Harm then led Sarah to a large barn.
"Wow," Sarah breathed as she caught sight of the big, yellow bi-plane.
"It belonged to my Grandfather," Harm told her, "He was a pilot too, he was shot down during the Second World War. It doesn't actually fly though. My Dad was restoring it when he got called up. It's laid here untouched since he went MIA."
Looking at the side of the plane, Sarah noticed the name in black, cursive writing.
"The plane's called Sarah?"
"Yeah," Harm told her, "My Grandfather named it after my Grandma. Her name's Sarah, too. One day, I'm going to become a fighter pilot, just like my Dad and Grandfather. And I'm going to fix the plane, so that I can fly it, whenever I come home."
OOOO
Out on the porch, Harm and Mac watched the big red bi-plane fly over the fields surrounding the neighboring farm.
That's Jacob Rawlings," Harm told Mac, "That plane used to be used to spray his crops with pesticides, but it doesn't get used for that anymore. They get someone in to do it for them now. But Jacob likes to take it out over the fields, just like his Father and Grandfather did, before him."
Just then, Grams came out with two glasses and a pitcher of lemonade.
"I'm off to church, now. I made some pink lemonade. Where's Cathy, by the way?"
"She's up in her room. She a bit mopey, at the moment," Mac told her, "her boyfriend's just gone back on duty. She's really missing him, right now."
"Poor girl," Grams commented, "I remember the feeling well. I was just the same with Harm's Grandfather."
"You remember the Roberts, don't you Grams?" Harm asked her.
"You mean Bud and Harriet and their little boy?"
"Yeah, well Cathy's seeing Bud's younger brother, Mikey."
"Ah," Grams sighed, "young love."
At that moment, Grams friends from church pulled up in the driveway.
"I'll see you all later," Grams told them, "You two enjoy yourselves while I'm gone."
Harm and Mac waved, then Harm poured each of them a large glass of lemonade.
"Grams makes such good lemonade," he told Mac, "It's been a winner at the state fair ever since I can remember."
"Mmm!" Mac approved, taking a sip of hers, "It tastes wonderful!"
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