When Harm and Mac won't let you sleep...
12:01am
"Happy Birthday, baby."
Mac hated her birthday. From the age of fifteen and onward, the day only served as the haunting memory of the moment she was abandoned. There was no note and no letter, just an empty house and her father passed out drunk on the couch. She called out for her dog Ruffles only to find that the two year old Dachshund was also missing.
That's how it began.
Police question her father as to his wife's whereabouts. Missing posters were spread across town until three days passed and her mother called off the search. She was fine, she was well and she had left that miserable drunk of her husband. She'd come back for her daughter once she could settle down but, she never came. In Mac's mind, she never cared and that thought became fact the day her father died.
And then she met Harm.
Not a year went by when he didn't present her with some sort of gift. Flowers, chocolates, lunch, dinner, perfume and once they were married, lingerie and romantic getaways became part of his routine.
She still hated her birthday and never agreed to parties or cakes or normal birthday festivities. But, he made the day bearable since the moment he proposed and every single year since, at 12:01, he celebrated her life.
It always began with a kiss.
Like ringing the New Year one minute late, he waited until the clock struck 0001 and then his lips met hers. Sweet and passionate, he kissed her deeply and Mac found her stomach still doing the butterfly thing around him. As pathetic as it was, she was still insanely in love and she suspected he felt the same of her.
"Mmmmm." She kissed him back as he rolled them over so that Mac lay on top. Harm's hands gave her six a gentle squeeze and she giggled as they slid under her shirt and up her flank. "Thank you."
Mac felt him smile when they kissed again and when she stopped to lay her head on his chest, a melancholic feeling came over her. This, none of this should have happened. He was promoted and sent to London and she was off to San Diego. Despite his hasty proposal, the powers that be couldn't find a bilet that would keep them on the same Continent and Mac wouldn't allow him to quit when the coin landed in her favor.
For four years they were apart.
Long weekends, holidays and special leave were the only things keeping them together along with phone calls. But, it wasn't enough and Mac could feel the pending separation until a little magic happened on her birthday of all days - Harm was offered the chance to return to a carrier and his home base was Coronado.
They married almost immediately at a small ceremony in the Burnett residence and honeymooned in Hawaii. Thus began a different life, the one of a woman desperately waiting for her husband to return from his tour of duty. Most birthdays he'd been home in the 11 or so years that Harm had been serving on a ship. When he was away, there was always a call at 0001 in whatever time zone she was, "Happy Birthday, baby."
He'd send flowers, a ginormous chocolate cupcake and more flowers. Her non-romantic sailor offered as many romantic overtures that he could think of. Mac never knew that he would top them all this very day when she turned 56.
"What's wrong?" Harm asked when he heard a heavy sigh, the third in just a few minutes, escaping her lips. "Tell me."
Mac sighed again and in the darkness of their room, she rolled her eyes. The man always had to fix things or die trying. She both loved and hated that about him because, in her mind, not everything had a solution. "Just thinking"
"About?"
"Us." She shifted slightly, rolling off of him and on to her side. He followed suit and she smiled when his large hand carefully caressed her face. "Never thought we'd make it this far."
"Oh."
"Our engagement was hasty and the four years after that were a mess. I've never been so exhausted in all my life." They kept each other up then with calls that ran too long or conversations over a messaging program that often led to more intimate topics. "But, here we are."
"I knew we'd make it."
"Did you?"
"Yep. We knew each other for ten years, Mac. You don't let something like that go so easily although I wanted to sometimes." He confessed and she imagined that shy, lopsided grin gracing his lips. "Close your eyes, I need to turn on a light."
"Why?"
"I got you something." Harm grunted as he pushed out of bed and commanded 'Alexa' to turn on the table lamp. He left the bedroom and came back a short time later with a flat velvet box and a tiny, pink gift bag.
"You could wait until tomorrow." But, even as she spoke, Mac was sitting up excitedly and reaching for the bag that Harm held an arm length away.
"Nope. Not this time." He settled next to her and for the first time, there was a change that Mac spotted immediately. Something big was about to happen, she sensed it and when he dropped the flat box in her hand, part of her didn't want it. "Open it, please."
The tiny hinges squeaked and whatever jewlery she imagined he'd bought had been replaced by a shiney set of goldwings. They sat proudly in the box as if waiting for their new owner and when Mac stared at Harm inquisitively, he shared the most unexpected news, "I'm done. I'm out as of two days ago. Signed my retirement papers. No more sea duty, no more time apart."
"Harm-"
"I want this, Mac. The last tour I missed you so bad that I contemplated stealing a Hornet and flying it home." She was speechless and that put that arrogant, flyboy grin in place. When Mac tried to speak, he pushed the little bag closer to her. "Now you can open that."
She tore through the tissue paper, stopping to pull out the cutest, and tiny azure bikini - the kind with bottoms that would tie at her hips. "This is beautiful."
"It comes with this." He pulled an envelope out of the bag and opened it for her, unable to contain his own excitement as the word 'Maldives' spread out across pamphlets with pictures of clear blue seas and beach front bungalows. "I overheard you mention it to Harriet, we just never had the time. Until now."
But they had plenty of it now. Mac's job as the Marine liaison, although sensitive in nature. gave her plenty of downtime. "When are we going?"
"1145 today." He started casually and when Mac's eyes went wide as saucers he waved her off. "I spoke to the Commandant, he said to have a good time."
Rendered speechless yet again, she could only stare at her kind, charming, infuriating, sexy man. Her professed non-romantic had shown his true colors and she fell for him even more at that very moment.
Mac grabbed him and kissed him and may have even found herself straddling his lap while Harm lay back on the bed. She felt his reaction to her growing and absentmindedly plucked the bikini.
Harm bit his lower lip as she held up the scraps of blue. He imagined her in it, laying on the round lounger that sat on the porch of their private bungalow, overlooking the sea. He also imagined her out of the bikini when his teeth took the straps and pulled them free. The constant craving he had for this woman was insatiable and Harm would die trying to keep her happy. "I bet you look incredible in that."
"I bet I look even better out of it." She made her point by pulling the t-shirt off, exposing her body to his hungry eyes and when he raised himself up to kiss her, Mac realized she stopped hating birthdays when Harm came into her life.
"Happy Birthday, Sarah."
"It is now."
