See Chapter One for Disclaimers and Notes.
Special thanks to Snugglebug and to all those who have reviewed.
The weeks flew by and finally it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Harm was about to leave to get Trish and Frank at the airport and Mac was busy preparing stuffing to Harm's explicit instructions. That morning had dawned with her period, but she kept her silence. She didn't want to ruin this day for her husband or her children. She'd tell him later on, and would ward off the pain with an extra pill. This was a happy time, and she wanted it to stay that way.
"Remember," said Harm to Mac as he finished tying DJ's shoes in the kitchen.
"Lots of sage in there, babe."
"You wrote it down and reminded me twice," Mac replied as she worked on the stuffing. "You taking them both?"
"Just him," he answered. "Lucy said she wants to stay here."
"Hmm," Mac replied. "That's fine. I'll let her help me measure apples for the pie."
"Sounds good." he said, leaning in to kiss her. "I'll be back as soon as I can be; I love you."
Mac leaned up to kiss him, "I love you too. Drive safe." Then to DJ, "Be good for Daddy. I love you."
"Love you, Mommy" he said, taking a hold of his Daddy's hand.
Mac watched Harm escort DJ out of the room, then let out a groan, placing her hand on her belly. She looked up, "Not now. Not now," she prayed aloud and went back to her work. "Lucy!"
The child heard her mother's call and came bounding down the hallway from her room. "What, Mommy?"
"Time to help Mommy okay?" she asked with a smile. "Get the apples out of the fridge, please."
"Okay," said Lucy, pulling the refrigerator door open with all her might and retrieving the bowl of apples.
Mac set Lucy to work washing off the apples while she finished prepping the stuffing and put it in the fridge, all the while fighting to remain up beat. She didn't want to let Lucy know how she felt, or Harm either. Finally though the pain gave way to nausea and she made her way quickly to the bathroom.
"Mommy?" called Lucy as Mac ran down the hallway and closed the bathroom door.
"Stay there, Lucy," Mac called as she felt her stomach revolt sending her breakfast and the smallest bit of blood out of her body. "Oh God," she thought. "Please not now. Not now," she prayed again.
"Mommy?" asked Lucy as she came running down the hallway in search of Mac. "Are you okay, Mommy?"
"I'm fine, Baby," Mac told her. "Go back to the kitchen," she got out before she was sick again. When that spasm passed she quickly locked the door.
Lucy did as her mother asked, returning to the step stool by the kitchen sink and continuing to wash the apples.
A few minutes later Mac made her way shakily down the hall and back to her daughter. "How you doing Lucy?"
The child looked over at her mother and was very frightened by what she saw. "Mommy, you're all white," she gasped.
"Mommy is just tired," Mac replied holding onto the sink.
"Do you need to go take a nap?" asked Lucy.
"I'll be okay until Daddy gets back," Mac replied. "How are these apples coming?"
"I'm washing them really clean," she said. "We don't want any dirt to get into the pie, right?"
"That's right, Honey," Mac replied feeling a dampness between her legs. "Lucy can you get down and do Mommy a favor?"
Lucy stepped down carefully from the stool. "What do you need me to do?" she asked.
"Go to Mommy's bed and get her a pillow," Mac replied. If she sat in the chair with a pillow behind her it might be bearable until Harm got home. "Please."
"Okay," said Lucy, hurrying off to her parent's room to get Mac a pillow. She pulled it off the bed and moved as fast as her little legs would allow her to back down the hallway. She rounded the corner into the kitchen, and stopped cold. "Mommy," she said in a weak and frightened voice. "You've got blood on you."
"Its not blood Baby," Mac lied. "I must have sat down in some..." She stopped halfway to bite back a moan of pain.
"No, it looks like blood, Mommy," said Lucy, growing more frightened by the second. "Did you get hurt?"
Mac took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah, I have a boo boo." She replied and tried to move from the sink over to the chair only to lose her balance to a fierce pain and a dizzy spell once she let go.
"Mommy!" cried Lucy as she dropped the pillow and rushed to her mother's side. "Mommy...I'm scared..." she cried.
"Don't be scared Baby," Mac soothed through her agony. "Can you pull that chair over here. Mommy just fell down, like you do sometimes," Mac explained involuntarily pulling her knees up to her chest and moaning a bit in pain.
"O...okay," sobbed Lucy, doing as Mac had asked and pulling a chair over for her.
Mac tried to grab onto the chair and pull herself up but the effort was too much. She was beginning to feel nauseous again, but did not want to be sick in front of Lucy. "Lucy, go play in your room," Mac told her daughter as she felt the pain intensify and the bleeding soak through her pad and her pants. She didn't want her baby anywhere near this.
Lucy was still crying as she sat next to Mac on the kitchen floor. She knew something was deeply wrong with her mother, and there was no one around to help her. Wanting to do as she was told, but not wanting to leave her mother alone, she chose to stay beside Mac instead, gently stroking her mother's head like Harm would have done, although Lucy had never witnessed it.
Mac felt her strength rapidly leaving her and soon could no longer fight the pain or the nausea. She didn't want Lucy to see her get sick, so she asked her, "Lucy, close your eyes for Mommy." The child could barely hear her.
"But I need to see you to rub your head," cried the child.
"Lucy," Mac managed to get out before her stomach revolted against her will and she was once again sick, this time though only blood came up.
"Mommy! Mommy!" screamed Lucy, now hysterical at the vision in front of her. "Mommy! You're gonna die! Don't die!"
When the spasm passed Mac laid back down against the linoleum and felt tears start to drip down her face. Angrily she wiped them away. She could feel the familiar cold creep up on her and hear her daughter's screams, "No Baby. Mommy's going to be fine," she assured her. "Daddy'll fix it when he gets home, okay? Can you be a brave girl and go get Mommy's blanket?"
"Don't die, Mommy! Please, don't die!" sobbed Lucy.
"Lucy, please," Mac breathed. "Go and get Mommy's blanket." She couldn't stop herself from shaking anymore. "Please do as I say, okay?"
The child nodded, continuing to sob as she ran down the hallway and yanked the quilt off the master bed. She dragged it behind her, managing not to trip over it as she reached the kitchen. She laid it over her mother, covering her all the way up to her neck.
"Can you be a big girl for Mommy, Lucy?" Mac asked reaching for her daughter's hand and fighting the darkness that she felt upon her.
"Uh-huh," sobbed Lucy, scared out of her mind.
"Can you try to stop crying?" Mac asked. "Mommy's going to be okay. This happens all the time with Da...dy,"she said her speech starting to fade.
"I want Daddy," said Lucy, slowing her crying only a little. "I want him..."
"So do I, Baby," Mac replied. "Can you go call him for me? Can you do that?"
"Okay," cried Lucy, pushing herself up from the kitchen floor and hurrying to pick up the handset from the table in the living room. She knew Harm's cell phone number from memory; it as something they'd schooled her on for her own safety. She pressed the numbered keys and then put the phone to her ear, trying to stop crying so that she could hear her Daddy when he answered. All she heard, though, after 4 rings was "Hi, you've reached Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr. I can't answer my phone right now but if you'll leave me a message, I'll..." She turned the handset off and began to cry in earnest once more. "Daddy! I want my Daddy!"
"Lucy, it's okay," Mac managed. "Come stay by Mommy. Daddy's be home very soon."
Meanwhile, Harm sat with his mom and Frank in intense holiday traffic. Usually a patient driver his demeanor at the wheel upset his mother. He honked the horn and even swore out the window until she called him to task, "This isn't going to move the cars, Honey. Just relax we'll be home soon."
"We've moved a half a mile in the last half an hour," he said impatiently. "I need to get home."
"I know, Sweetie," Trish said. "But Mac is there, dinner's being cooked, relax."
"I know," he said. "But I don't like being gone for long when she's got either or both of the kids by herself."
"Harm," Frank broke in. "I'm sure she's fine. She's a wonderful mother. It'll be fine."
He nodded as the traffic finally began to move above 12 miles per hour. "About time!" he said, mindlessly messing with the radio as he sped up.
"It's okay, Mommy," said Lucy as she sat beside Mac and patted her shoulder. Mac had grown more and more pale, something which was noticeable even to a child of 5. "Daddy'll be here in a few minutes, right?" asked the little girl, waiting for an answer but receiving only silence. "Mommy? Mommy, do you hear me talking to you?"
Mac did hear her baby talking to her, but she had no strength left to fight the pain and the blackness as it mercifully descended on her.
"Mommy?" questioned Lucy weakly as the tears began to pour from her eyes again. She shook Mac gently but it didn't do any good. She began to sob again until she remembered another phone number her Daddy had helped her put to memory. Scurrying up from the kitchen floor, she ran back into the living room, where she'd left the handest on the coffee table. She picked it up and pressed only three numbered keys this time, 9-1-1, before putting the phone to her ear.
"911, what is your emergency?" the soft female voice replied on the other end of the phone.
"My Mommy is hurt," cried Lucy.
"Is your Daddy home?" she asked knowing sometimes the children would panic and call when there was another adult home.
"No, he and DJ went to get Nana and Papa Frank at the airport," answered the child, still very upset.
"Okay, take a deep breath for me. I'm going to need you to answer some question okay. What's your name?" she asked.
"Lucille Patricia Rabb," sobbed Lucy.
"Well, Lucille," the lady said. "I'm going to send some people to help your Mommy. You live at 2114 Maple Tree Blvd, Manassas, VA, right?"
"Uh-huh," answered Lucy. "I want my Daddy..."
"Well, I'm sure he'll be on his way home soon," the operator comforted. "Can I talk to your Mommy? Is she awake?"
"No" said Lucy, beginning to fall apart yet again. "She's on the floor and she's got blood on her."
"Can you tell me how she got hurt? Did she fall down?" the operator asked having all ready dispatched police and medics, now she just wanted to keep the child talking.
"I don't know," said the little girl through he sobs. "She tried to sit down, but she fell on the floor, and there was blood on her and then she didn't talk anymore and..."
"Okay, are you near her right now?" the operator asked.
"No," answered Lucy. "I'm in here and she's in there."
"Does the phone have a wire on it?" the operator asked.
"Nuh-uh," said Lucy. "Daddy doesn't like that kind."
"Can you bring the phone with you to where your Mommy is?" she asked again.
"Uh-huh," said the child, still crying as she began walking back into the kitchen and sat down on the floor next to Mac. "I'm sitting with Mommy now."
"Okay, now I want you to talk to her and I'm going to talk to you and tell you when the medics come, okay?"
"Okay," said Lucy, listening carefully to the dispatcher's words.
When Harm finally made it to their road and turned down towards the house. As he expected DJ had fallen asleep in his seat, what he didn't expect was to see two police cars and an ambulance outside his home.
"Oh God," he said aloud. He sped the remainder of the distance down the street and came to an abrupt halt in front of the house. Without a word to his Mom or Frank, he jumped out of the driver's seat and ran towards the front door.
The scene he saw when he reached the house shocked him. He walked through the front door into the living room to see Lucy, wrapped in a blanket being rocked by what appeared to be a plain clothes cop. Off to the side he saw the younger half of the paramedic team that had been to them twice before. "Get an IV started," he heard.
"I can't," the younger voice said. "Damn veins keeping collapsing."
Harm stood frozen for a moment until Lucy cried, "Daddy!" from her shelter on the officer's lap.
"Lucy!" he exclaimed, kneeling down and opening his arms to her. He picked her up and hugged her tight. "What happened?"
"Mommy's hurt," she sobbed. "She didn't answer me and she's got blood on her...I'm scared. She had blood come out of her legs and her mouth and...She didn't talk to me, Daddy. She didn't talk to me."
He knew then that they were dealing with a repeat of that horrible night on the bathroom floor, to some degree anyway. He held Lucy close to him as he tried to soothe her before going to check on Mac. "I'm so sorry you had to see Mommy get hurt like that, baby. Can you go back and sit with this nice woman here so Daddy can go check on Mommy?"
"Where's Nana?" Lucy asked wanting her family even though the lady was very nice.
He'd actually forgotten all about his mother, step-dad and son in the car. "They'll come inside in just a minute," he said. "Until then, can you be my big girl and go sit with this nice lady for just a little longer?"
Lucy nodded and sat back on the officer's lap as Harm dashed into the kitchen where the medics were working on Mac who had just about come around with some saline.
"What happened to her?" he asked the medics, wanting to hold her hand but choosing instead to remain out of the way for the moment.
"Same thing as usual, I expect," Ray replied. "Wish I could say it was good to see you Mr. Rabb," he said as he took Mac's pressure. "I still don't like this. We're going to have to take her in."
Mac heard that and was able to understand him. She moaned a bit and launched a feeble protest, "No."
"Mac, baby," Harm said, moving in closer and taking a hold of her hand. "You have to go, okay?"
Mac didn't even recognize him, "Harm? Where's Harm?" she asked looking directly at him.
"It's me," he said, caressing the back of her hand. "It's me, baby, I'm right here. You're going to be okay."
"I want Harm," she said again, eyelids getting very heavy again. "Lucy?" she asked. "Where's Lucy?"
"Mac, it's me, it's Harm," he said. "Lucy's in the other room; she's fine." He turned to the medics. "How much blood did she lose this time? She seems even more incoherent than last time."
"She's lost quite a bit," Ray replied. "At least four units. We have to get her to the hospital right now but she won't let us touch her."
Meanwhile it finally dawned on Mac that Harm was back with her. She looked at him and whispered with bloodless lips, "It hurts."
For the first time in awhile, he felt that awful twinge of guilt wash over him, the guilt that he couldn't stop her suffering. He looked up at the team of medics. "Take her, do whatever you need to do."
"No, no," Mac protested. "I have to get...get the dinner," she slurred.
"No, you're going to the hospital, babe" he said, his voice calm yet insistent. "The dinner stuff will be here when you get back."
Mac's eyes opened wide with fear just a second as she looked at her husband, then her head lolled to the side as she went out again. "Billy, move now!" commanded Ray. "Mr. Rabb, you follow."
Harm stood up and fell in behind the team as they rushed his wife out to the ambulance. As they loaded her up, Trish, Frank and DJ were standing in the yard watching the whirl of activity.
"Harmon, what happened?" Trish asked her son.
"Bleeding again," he said as he stopped for only a second. "I'm going to follow the ambulance. Lucy's in there with a cop. I'll call when I know anything."
"Did Lucy see it?" Trish asked fearful for her granddaughter.
"Yeah," he said. "And the kitchen floor is a mess. I'll clean it up when I get home, till then just keep them out of there."
"Harm, this can't go on. It's not good for the children," Trish interjected even though she saw he was desperately trying to get away. The ambulance had all ready disappeared from view.
"Not now," he said, taking off down the driveway towards his vehicle in the street. "Take care of them for me, mom."
"Of course," Trish replied and held her grandson tighter as she watched her son tear off down the street.
Preview: Harm awaits news on Mac at the hospital. Trish does her best with Lucy and speaks her mind to her son.