Author's Note:
I appreciate all the feedback that I have been getting for this fic. Someone pointed out a geographical error on my part, and mentioned that they do not go through Michigan when driving from D.C. I am from the Chicago area and have family in Michigan, so I thought that they would take a certain route, but when I looked it up again, I found that they would in fact be skirting the border between Ohio and Michigan for part of their trip instead of traveling through it. Maybe they still stopped there though. Oh well! Also, you may note that I refer to the Sears tower... now called the Willis Tower... just so we are clear I will always call it the Sears Tower, because to me... it will always be the Sears Tower... if you have an issue with that, then you are not a true Chicago lover... just sayin' :). Anyways, that aside, I hope that you enjoy this next installment of the Fate fic. Review if you would like!
"It says that we can take 294 to go around the city or take 94 to go through the city." She says when they are navigating their way after crossing into Illinois.
"You choose."
"It's only 3 o'clock, so I think we should take the route through the city. We can check out the skyline and see some of the sites."
"94 it is then." He says, moving into the correct lane.
When the city actually comes into view, Mac gets more excited. It was like the small town girl coming out in her. Growing up in Yuma and then moving around the world a few times, she didn't see any of the bigger cities. This was certainly a sprawl that she could get used to.
"It's really beautiful." She says, looking out the window and trying to see the top of the Sears Tower as they pass off to the side of the major part of the metro area.
"I bet it's even better at night. We should take the train in one evening for some dinner."
"I'd like that.'
"We have to find home before we can plan our evening out though."
"Yeah, we've got a ways up before we get to where we need to be. It's one of the far north suburbs that we are going to have to get off on."
"Isn't the airport around here too? I remember flying in through O'Hare off to somewhere else a few times."
"It's off to the west a bit."
"Okay." He says nodding.
When they hit their exit, there's a small farm off to the side of the interstate sprouting signs for petting zoos and pony rides. Then they hit suburbia with grocery stores and Walgreens on every corner and small neighborhoods lining the streets.
"Where did they say that they were putting us?"
"VOQ for the time being. I told them that I was looking for a place off post with my wife."
"Wife, huh?"
"I figure that they may view you as Colonel MacKenzie still, but they don't know that there is a Sarah Rabb in there as well."
"Sarah Rabb?"
"Oh, I shouldn't have assumed that you would—" he says, getting a bit flustered before she sets a calming hand on his bicep.
"I like it."
"You don't have to change your name, Mac."
"If I want to?"
"Then I would be more than happy about it."
"Here it is." She says, noticing the turn off to the base gate where the guards asked to see both military I.D.s and saluted the vehicle as it passed.
"Do you know where you're going?"
"They've got signs pointing things out."
"Well, do you want to go there first or do you want to head to the Commissary to pick up some basics for the next few days food wise?"
"Why don't we go there first to see what we've got to work with and then we can go from there?"
Pulling up to the complex, they noticed first how well maintained everything was. He had been told that he had a two bedroom apartment for the two of them until they found a place off base to settle. A two bedroom was a rarity on most bases he'd been in, so he was surprised at the accommodation, but then remembered that he was one of the highest ranked officers on this particular base.
"Home sweet home." He says, putting the car in park.
They grabbed a few of their bags before heading to the main entrance of the building where they were greeted by a young Petty Officer.
"How can I help you sir?" he asks, standing up from his desk.
"I'm Captain Harmon Rabb and this is Colonel Sarah MacKenzie." He says watching the young man scramble to attention before Harm could call him at ease. "I was told I had a two bedroom with my name on it for a couple months."
"Let me check on that sir… yes, Captain Rabb, you are in number 32 on the third floor…. And Colonel, I don't have you listed here on—"
"The Colonel is actually my fiancé, and will be staying with me here on base until we can find somewhere off base to set up shop."
"Oh, I see… then can I offer you any help getting things up to your new digs, sir?"
"No, I think we can mange, but thank you." He says, taking the keys from the Petty Officer's outstretched hand.
As they are walking toward the elevator, it's Mac that chooses to mutter under her breath, "That was the fastest I've ever seen someone snap to." She states with a laugh.
"I thought he was going to chop off his own head by how hard he saluted." He replies, joining in her laugh.
The apartment is small, but still spacious enough for the two of them to move around comfortably.
"Not too bad."
"Not at all." She says, sitting down on the bed and dropping the bags at the foot.
"You hungry yet?"
"Not really, but we should probably hold off on the Commissary for now anyways. Most are coming off duty right now, and it'll be crowded."
"How about we take a nap and then venture out to get some food tonight. I have a brief meeting at Oh Nine Hundred tomorrow, but the rest of the day is free. We could shop for food tomorrow afternoon."
"I could just go out tomorrow while you're at your meeting, and then we can take the afternoon to go around the surrounding areas to check out any neighborhoods we'd consider moving to. What about that?"
"If I put healthy food on the list, are you actually going to buy it?"
"Yes." She says, rolling her eyes at him. "In fact, if you want, we can sit down and plan some stuff out before we go shopping. I know how much you love to cook, and there are a few things that you've made that were healthy that I liked. I can change that for you, but you need to let me order really bad pizza and you need to let me eat red meat every now and then."
"Let me get this straight… you, Sarah MacKenzie—"
"Soon to be Rabb." She points her finger at him, and he smirks in response.
"You want to sit down and plan out our meals for the week?"
"I like having things like that all lined up. That way we won't scramble around trying to find something. Why does that surprise you?"
"You forget that I've seen your office before." He says, deadpan, which causes her to smack his shoulder in response.
"I got so much better than when we first started working together!"
"You did, it's just cute to see this domesticated side of you."
"I'm warning you now, that there really aren't any domesticated sides of me. I just want to know what nights you're planning on tofu so I can arrange for the Chinese food."
"Ha ha… very funny."
"One of the reasons you love me." She says with a wink as she tries to come up with a pen and paper to make their list for the week.
When the weekend came they had a full schedule of different houses to look at in the suburbs surrounding the base.
"These houses are all running together right now." She says, sitting back in the SUV with a weary look on her face.
"Have you seen any one that stuck out to you in the area?"
"Not one of those houses were houses that I could see myself in for a long period of time. They were too boring or too close to the neighbors. I thought the suburbs were where you went when you wanted a spacious house with a yard for the kids? I'm pretty sure that in the last two subdivisions we were in, you could reach out the window of your house and into the neighbor's bedroom."
"We've got one more place to check out on this list. Do you want to wait or do you want to go now?"
"Where is it?"
"Libertyville. That was the town with the main street that you liked so much and the square in the center. All the shops and whatnot were over there too."
"And there was a train station in the area, wasn't there?"
"There was… you want to look?"
"I guess one more can't hurt us. But if this one doesn't have anything that we like, I think that we need to narrow our field a little bit more. All this stuff that he has pulled for us has not been what I had in my head."
He continues to drive, but glances at her sideways once they're stopped at a red light, "I thought you didn't have any thoughts on houses. You said that when you searched for your apartment, you were just looking for somewhere to be."
"I know that I said that, but this is different. We're going to be there together, possibly start a family there, and it needs to be somewhere that I can call home… especially if I'm going to spend a lot of my time there when you're gone."
"Okay, so what do you want?"
"I want something that has a big family room that opens into the kitchen, because everyone always ends up in the kitchen for everything. I don't care about a dining room or anything like that, but I want the big family room. I want a big kitchen for you and your crazy cooking. I'd like an office and a guest room downstairs and enough rooms upstairs to have you and me and a couple of little ones. I also want it to be open, you know? I want to have lots of natural light, and I just want it to be a home."
"Okay, then that's what we're looking for." He says, pulling into the neighborhood where the last house was located.
"I already like how much room each house has. It doesn't look too crowded."
"I agree… and I can't find which one—"
"That's it." She says simply, pointing across the road a bit to a house with pale yellow siding and white shutters.
When they get into the driveway, she's drawn to it, and he admittedly loved it on first glance as well.
"Look at the porch." She says, putting her hand on the banister leading up to the large front porch.
"It doesn't wrap around." He points out, knowing that is something that she had said she would love earlier.
"There is enough room that we could make it if we wanted to, but it's nice regardless."
After nosing along a few minutes, both jump at the sound of a voice behind them. "Hello?"
They turn to face an older man with a small spade in his hand and a bucket filled with weeds.
"I'm sorry, we were just admiring the place from the outside before we talked to our realtor."
"It's a great place." He says simply, taking off his gardening gloves and putting a hand out to Harm, "Max Wilson."
"Harmon Rabb," he says and then gestures over to Mac, "and this is my fiancé Sarah."
"Nice to meet you both… what do you think of the place?"
"I think it's definitely worth looking into. Why are you giving it up?"
"My old bones can't handle another Chicago winter. I'm moving down to Savannah to be near my daughter and grandchildren."
"That will be a nice change."
"I hope it will be, but I can't go until I sell this place." He says with a laugh. "Do you guys want the tour inside?"
"You wouldn't mind? We could call to set something up for a later time if you're busy."
"Not at all. I would love to show a young couple all the rooms they can fill in this place." He says with a waggle of the eyebrows and an outstretched hand to have them lead into the house.
The inside captured them just as much as the outside did, with hardwood floors and a spacious living room with a small den or office off to the side.
"We've done a lot to the place over the years. Before my wife passed she got on a decorating kick and nearly broke our bank putting in the new hardwood and getting the siding replaced outside."
"Have you lived here long?"
"40 years this May."
"Wow." Mac says, surprised that someone could live in one place for so many years.
"It's a great old house, but it does need some work done."
"What kind of work are we talking?" Harm asks, knowing that he had wanted to work on any home they purchased anyways but hoping that it wasn't a money pit.
"The appliances and kitchen need some updating along with the bathrooms. There needs to be carpet replaced upstairs because it has been there forever. The basement is only half finished, as my wife passed away while we were working on it. Oh, and the yard is hell to maintain."
"We appreciate your honesty."
"I appreciate your interest in the place. We raised our two daughters here and now they are off with their own families in Georgia and in D.C."
"That's where we came from… D.C." Mac tells the older gentleman.
"What made you move to the Midwest?"
"We're both in the military and when we got new assignments, he proposed and took a job over at Great Lakes instead of a command in London."
"Very nice. Can I ask what exactly you do?" he asks gesturing between the two of them.
Harm takes the question with pride, "We both worked as part of the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Mac here is a Lieutenant Colonel for the Marines and I'm a Navy Captain."
"JAG, isn't it?"
"It is."
"So you're lawyers to boot?" he says, amused that the two seemed so normal and not the military or lawyer type to him at all.
"That we are."
"Well, why don't I show you the upstairs rooms and we can talk fine print."
The upstairs partially opened to the downstairs living area, which was something both liked. The master bedroom had an attached bathroom with its own very new looking Jacuzzi style tub in it.
"I thought you said the bathrooms needed updating? That tub is amazing." Mac says, walking over to it in admiration. She loved her baths.
"That was all my wife. A girlfriend of hers was visiting her daughter who apparently had one. Tell my wife that something like that exists and the next day I have to be at the hardware store. This bathroom doesn't really need any updating, but the other two do."
"So there are three and a half baths in total?"
"If you count the basement, which is set up to put a bathroom in, then you would get three fulls and two halfs."
"And it is four bedrooms?"
"Four bedrooms and a downstairs den. I use that for my office when I feel like being productive."
Heading back down the stairs, Mac can't help but glance at the pictures lining the way down.
"You have a beautiful family."
"Thank you, ma'am. I'm proud of the life we lived in this house, but now it's time to move on." He says once they reach the front landing.
"Mac, what do you think?" Harm turns to ask her and she thinks for a moment before telling him that they will definitely be in touch.