Chapter Six:
Seven Years

APRIL 2008

0715 LOCAL
BRUMBY RESIDENCE
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Mic and Mac had their moments of dysfunction, but one thing they had gotten the hang of was delegating tasks - well, they were still getting the hang of it, but things were better. Mic was downstairs, giving Sophia and Olivia breakfast before school, and Mac was upstairs in their bedroom with Isla, who was once again going through the odd occasion where she wasn't her parents' ray of sunshine.

She had woken up sometime in the middle of the night, fussy with a low fever and hadn't slept well for the rest of the night. She was probably just teething, but after the flu outbreak that had taken down the entire household a few months prior, Mac didn't want to take her chances - she wanted to keep Isla away from the other kids until she ruled out anything contagious.

This was paramount, because Sophia and Olivia both had their first dance recital that Friday, and Mac didn't want a staple memory of their childhood to be that they had to miss their very first dance recital because their baby sister had gotten them sick.

Mac was sitting sideways in the armchair by the bay window, her back pressed against one arm of the chair and her legs draped over the other arm. Isla was snuggled against her chest, her cheek squished against Mac's shoulder. Having mastered the art of multitasking sometime shortly after Olivia was born, Mac was also journaling. She figured she could squeeze a quick entry in before Mic left for work.

She was scrawling away furiously when Mic entered the bedroom. He was dressed oddly, with his button down and tie on along with his pajama pants. He was intent on getting fully dressed while Sophia and Olivia were finishing up their breakfast.

"Hey, love," Mic greeted as he walked over to the arm chair. Mac looked up from her journal, closing it as soon as she saw Mic.

He bent down, placing a kiss in her hair. "What are you up to?"

"Just journaling," Mac shrugged. She nodded down to Isla. "She freaks out every time I try to put her down, so I can't really do much."

"Oh," Mic frowned. "Poor thing."

"I know," Mac brushed Isla's wispy bangs out of her face, looking down at her flushed cheeks. "She definitely has some teeth coming through, I checked her gums earlier."

"Bet she loved that."

"Oh she absolutely adored it."

"You know, I was thinking," Mic said as he walked over to the walk-in closet. "Why don't we take a trip for our anniversary this year?"

Mac looked up from Isla. "Really?"

"Sure," Mic shrugged. "Why not?"

They were coming up on their seventh year of marriage. It felt like such a long time, yet impossibly quick at the same time. Mac had now been married to Mic two years longer than she had been a lawyer at JAG, and for the same amount of time she had been practicing law. She had passed the North Carolina bar exam in 1994, the Virginia one a year later, and had officially/unofficially quit practicing law when she moved to Australia.

Seven years in, seven years out, Mac mused. In a completely other universe she would've been practicing for fourteen years.

But then Isla babbled something, drawing Mac's attention back to her, back to the present, and Mac couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

Her and Mic had one year left before they officially exited the second window in a couple's marriage when divorce was the most common. By this time next year, statistically they would be in the clear.

Maybe that's why Mic wants to take a trip this year, Mac wondered.

"Why this year?" Mac asked. "Not that I wouldn't love to take another trip, but I was just wondering if seven was some important milestone I was forgetting about?"

"Well, it's my lucky number."

"Oh…yeah."

Mac frowned down at Isla, who giggled at her mother's expression. She had completely forgotten about that little fun fact about Mic, but it was indeed true. Seven had been Mic's jersey number during his glory days of playing rugby, before those days were cut short by him blowing out his knee at twenty-one.

How could Mac have forgotten that? Mic had said when Mac was pregnant with Sophia, that if the baby was a boy, he wanted him to play rugby. Mac had disagreed, not wanting her son to play in such a high-contact sport. Now they didn't even have to worry about it.

"Where were you thinking about going?" Mac asked.

"Wherever you want, love," Mic replied from inside the walk-in.

Mac paused, not bothering to untangle her necklace from Isla's fingers - she'd recently developed a fascination with it. "Are you serious?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh I don't know," Mac shrugged, trying to play things off nonchalantly. "I was just wondering."

Anywhere she wanted….anywhere she wanted.

While Mac was thinking that statement over, her eyes happened to land on the bedside clock. Her eyes widened. It was almost seven thirty. She stood up, shifting Isla's weight from her chest to her hip.

"Hey Mic, are the girls getting ready for school?"

There was a pause before Mic answered, which didn't give Mac a warm feeling.

"They should be," Mic answered slowly. "I told them to."

"Okay," Mac said, walking over to the closet. She made a mental note to check on Sophia and Olivia to make sure they were actually getting ready as soon as she could. "Do you think you could take them to school today? And pick them up?"

There was another pause. "Sure…I suppose I could."

I take them literally every other day and I ask you to take them one other day because our other daughter isn't feeling well and you just suppose you could? Alright.

Mac took a deep breath. "It's just that Isla is not feeling well and she's not going to like me taking her around on errands today -"

"I can take them, don't worry about it."

Mac smiled at Mic as he walked out of the closest, now fully dressed in a suit. "Thank you," she said. "It means a lot."

"It's no problem, love," Mic placed a quick kiss on her cheek. "They're my kids, too."

"I know."

Refreshing to hear that you know that, too.

Right as Mic left, Mac remembered suddenly, like a shock, that they were less than two weeks away from Bud and Harriet coming to town. After this realization came the laundry list of things she had to do to prepare - physically and mentally - for their arrival, and then the other laundry list of things she had to do before this week, before she could even get to that list.

Mac had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from cursing in front of Isla, who was oblivious and still fascinated with her necklace.

Unclicking her pen, Mac returned to the page and wrote FUCK in the big slanted letters at the bottom of her entry.

Harriet and Bud were coming for two weeks, as their big trip for their ten year anniversary. They had initially offered - insisted, even - that they stay in a hotel instead, knowing how taxing hosting could be with small children. But Mic and Mac had insisted in return that they had a perfectly good guest room that they could use, and that had been that.

The guest room had been where Harriet and Bud had stayed the last time they'd visited, back when the guest room had been the room that would later become Isla's nursery, and the room that would one day become their current guest room had been Mic's office (because he just loved working that much).

Their first visit hadn't been the best, for reasons out of anyone's control. It had been in January of 2004, when Mac had been four months pregnant with Olivia and Harriet had very recently found out she was pregnant with the twins. When the trip had been organized, neither of the women had expected to be pregnant during it and were hellbent on seeing it through.

Ninety percent of the trip consisted of Mac and Harriet being borderline comatose with morning sickness while Mic and Bud got to play obscene amounts of golf and Sophia spent most of her time at Tanya's house. They had been able to go to dinner one night, and that dinner had been nice until Mac had thrown it back up as soon as they arrived back home.

Neither Harriet nor Mac were pregnant this time (knock on wood) so that had to mean the trip would be at least a little better.

"Mommy!"

Mac instantly looked up at the use of her call sign, and saw Sophie rushing into the bedroom, sporting lopsided pigtails and a grin missing its two front teeth. Isla squealed in delight - she adored both of her older sisters.

"Yes my love, how can I be of service?"

"Can I bring Isla to show & tell to school today?"

Mac blinked, looking down at Sophie's eager expression. Thankfully, she had experience in the art of having her daughters ask her weird stuff very early in the morning - this was by far not the weirdest.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mac said, shifting Isla's weight around in her lap as she closed her journal. Isla couldn't read yet, but Sophie definitely could. The last thing Mac needed was her follow-up question to be, "Mommy, what does F-U-C-K mean?"

"She's not feeling too well today," Mac continued. "And did you ask Daddy?"

Sophie's smile began to turn into a frown. "Uh-huh."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "And what did he say?"

"No."

"So what do you think I'm going to say?"

"….No," Sophia sighed, dropping her shoulders in a comical way that almost made Mac want to laugh, but she knew that wouldn't have gone over well. Even at her young age, Sophia demanded to have herself taken seriously at all times.

She's six going on sixteen, Mac would sometimes say jokingly. Mic never really found that joke funny, because the only thing more baffling to him than raising daughters was the fact that they would one day be women.

My love - my sweet, stubborn darling girl - why couldn't you have told me this sooner?

Suddenly, an idea came to Mac. Her quick, strategic military brain was something that came in handy very often during mother. "I do have something you can take, hold on…."

Mac got up, sitting Isla carefully down into the armchair, hoping she wouldn't start crying immediately or accidentally topple out of the chair. She darted over to her side of the bed, pulling open the little drawer on her bedside table. After shuffling past pens, her ring of birth control, and other various objects, she found what she was looking for.

Holding it in the palm of her hand, Mac ignored Sophia's impatient fidgeting and the fact that Isla was already beginning to fuss from the armchair. She was suddenly taken back to a completely different time in her life. It was her Marine Corps Expert Rifle Badge - she had all of her medals in a box in the closet next to her wedding dress, but this one had always been one of her favorites.

She walked back over to Sophia and knelt down, pressing the silver medal into her tiny hand. "Here," Mac said. "You can say you have a mommy who used to be a marine."

Sophia's scowl split into a wide, toothy grin. She looked up at Mac adoringly, a gaze she usually reserved for Mic. "Thanks Mommy!" she said, quickly wrapping her arms around Mac's neck. Mac returned the embrace, giving Sophia a kiss on the cheek and tugging one of her braids.

"No problem baby," Mac straightened up, turning to scoop up Isla just as she began to really cry. "Now you need to get to school," she gave her braid another tug.

Sophia ran out of the room just as fast as she had entered it. Mac trailed after her, gently bouncing Isla on her hip in an effort to get her to calm down. They were already approximately ten minutes and thirty eight seconds late, but Mac forced herself not to intervene to try and get them out of the door quicker, regardless of how much she wanted to.

Mic was right - they were his kids too. Them being late to school today would be his responsibility - he would be the one who would have to be apologetic to the front desk lady.

Finally coming to the doorway of the bedroom, Mac saw Sophia reach the bottom of the staircase and run up to Mic. Olivia was standing by the doorway, her backpack on her shoulders and all ready to go to preschool.

My poor little Taurus, Mac thought lovingly. Out of everyone in the family, Mac and Olivia were the only ones who shared a Zodiac sign; they were also the only ones who shared the same sense of punctuality. That meant that they were often ready to go and waiting for Mic and Sophia to get themselves into gear. It still remained to be seen which camp Isla would fall into - Mac hadn't done that much research into Geminis, she'd have to ask Chloe the next time they talked, which was never as often as Mac would like, but more often than never.

I need to tell her to come visit sometime, Mac made a mental note that she would definitely forget if she didn't write it down in the next thirty seconds, How stressful hosting is be damned - I miss her.

Drawing herself back down to the scene below, Mac made eye contact with Olivia and smiled. She rolled her eyes in an extremely overexaggerated way, which made Olivia giggle.

"Daddy, look what Mommy gave me for show and tell!" Sophia announced, holding up Mac's medal for Mic to see.

Mic's eyebrows shot up, and he looked up at Mac as she walked down the stairs. Isla was still on her hip, now calmed by the fact that Mac wasn't more than two inches away from her. His expression was unreadable, though Mac couldn't see how he would be upset about anything. The reason why he'd met her was because she'd been a Marine, after all.

He turned back to Sophia. He crouched down to be at her level. "That was nice of her," he said with a smile. "It's pretty."

I worked my ass off for that, Mac wanted to tell him, It's a whole lot more than pretty.

"I wanna be just like her when I grow up!"

That was something that took both Mic and Mac by surprise. Sophia, the world's biggest Daddy's Girl, suddenly wanted to be just like Mommy. Mac felt like she should say something, but couldn't figure out what to say, and Mic just looked utterly taken aback. The moment was broken by Olivia, who walked over to Mac and anxiously tugged at her free hand.

"Mommy, we need to go."

"I know, sweetie," Mac nodded down at her and then turned to look at Mic. "Honey, the girls need to get to school."

"Right," Mic straightened up, the thoughts going through his head still unreadable to Mac. She watched him hand the medal back to Sophia

After giving everyone goodbye kisses and double checking to make sure the girls had everything they needed for the day (she would wager that Mic hadn't thought to do that) Mac was left with a remarkably quiet house. Isla was still glued to her, but Mac would take that if it meant she could get some quiet. Your last baby teething wasn't just any old event, anyway.

Mac did finally have to sit Isla down in the living room playpen so she could fold some laundry, something that Isla perceived to be an incomprehensible tragedy until Mac returned from the washing machine with a basket of laundry on her hip, compromising to fold the clothes on the couch so Isla could keep her in sight.

Despite Isla being her third child, this was a completely new experience for her. When Sophia and Olivia had been babies, they'd had their moments of clinginess, but Mac had always been able to sit them down when she needed to, even if it had been only for a little bit.

Maybe this was the universe telling her to savor her last time going through all the ups and downs of the baby phase, or maybe it was one of the traits of being a Gemini - Mac wasn't sure.

As Mac folded, she couldn't get what Sophia had said earlier out of her head. I wanna be just like her when I grow up!

It was times like these when Mac wished she had a time machine. She wished she could go back five years to the frazzled younger version of herself who was trying to navigate being a first time mom with the most unruly baby imaginable, take her by the hand and say, "Don't worry, one day she's going to say she wants to be just like you!"

Even if time machines were real, Mac wasn't sure that her younger self would believe her. As much as Mac hated to say it, Sophia had been a very difficult baby. She cried almost nonstop and wouldn't cooperate with Mac no matter what she did, to the point where Mac was starting to believe it was intentional, despite the fact that there was no way it could be.

It would've been one thing if Sophia had been this way with Mic too, if there had been some semblance of them being in this together, but that wasn't the case. Sophia was an absolute dream for Mic, something that had infuriated Mac to no end. She was the one who was with Sophia all day, she was the one who nursed her, she was the one who had carried her for nine months and gave birth to her - and yet Sophia seemed to only want Mic. It all seemed like one big cruel joke.

He would come home from work and Sophia would calm down almost instantly, reaching out for him even if Mac was holding her (something that had hurt more than she'd like to admit). Mic would swoop her up into his arms and ask "How's my Sophie girl?" in an absurd voice that made Mac want to punch him.

Finally, one night, while Mic was trying to get to sleep and Mac knew she wouldn't be able to, she finally blurted out. "I think she hates me."

Mic had turned over to face her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Who?"

"The baby. Sophie. I think she hates me."

He'd laughed in disbelief, something that made Mac want to scream. And cry. "She doesn't hate you, love," he said. "I don't think she can hate you."

"Well then why isn't she like me the way she likes you? She's never that calm with me, Mic."

Mic shrugged. "I don't know," he replied. "I don't have some magical key to parenting. If I did, I'd share it with you," he looked up at her. Mac was now fully sitting up in bed, anxiously picking at her cuticles. "Are you sure it's not something you could be doing wrong?"

The question had been genuine, but Mic was still getting the hang of fatherhood (and was still himself), and didn't realize until it was too late that he had said the completely wrong thing.

Mac had instantly burst into tears, and it had taken Mic a comically long time to try and figure out how to comfort her. Mac could look back on that moment now and laugh - well, kind of laugh. She mostly just cringed.

Even though Sophia being a cranky baby was just one of those things, Mac couldn't help but feel guilty about it. Even today she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault. She felt bad about how much she'd dreaded the pregnancy because she was downright terrified of being a mom, that maybe that had somehow manifested in Sophia to make her not like her, not trust her.

She thought back to earlier that year, when she'd mused that maybe Sophia would be better off with just Mic and not her. Despite the disconnect she was still her daughter. And now Sophia apparently wanted to be just like her, something that filled Mac was pride but also wracked her with guilt.

"What do you think about that?" Mac asked Isla, putting her hands on her hips and cocking her head at her youngest. "Sissy being a marine?"

Isla babbled something in response, something that vaguely resembled words, but not really. She was still working on walking and talking.

"I know, that would be pretty crazy, right?"

The anger and resentment that Mac felt was overcoming her in January had subsided to a dull simmer. She no longer had such a borderline bloodthirsty vendetta against Mic, she was no longer plotting his downfall in the event of a divorce. Things were not perfect between them, but it had gotten better.

Mac had gotten better - therapy had helped a lot with that. A month into the year, Mac realized that journaling nearly every day was only making her angrier. She made the decision - not really for the sake of Mic but rather for the sake of her girls, definitely for the sake of her girls - to seek professional help, something she'd been entertaining for years before she even had kids.

Therapy had always been in the back of her mind, ever since she took a psychology class her second semester in undergrad, but it had always been something she'd put off. Back in February, though, she'd finally decided to pull the trigger and go for it. She didn't have her hectic JAG schedule to provide her with an excuse anymore - if anything therapy would've been an excuse to get out of the house more.

She'd found a woman named Crystal, who had an office in downtown Sydney. Mac had been a little weary of the drive at first - and the price, but after the intake session she decided that Crystal was worth it. She was several years younger than Mac, around the age Mac had been when she'd started working at JAG. Despite the fact that she had been younger than Mac expected a therapist to be (for some reason she thought all of them would be old), Mac found that Crystal's youth (Mac never thought she'd be at a place in her life when she'd think someone in their early thirties was young) gave her a unique perspective on some things.

For the past couple of months, Mac and Crystal had been trying to get to the bottom of why Mac was so angry, so frustrated with everything.

Maybe she could try revamping her sex life - that was the first route they ventured down. Maybe there were certain things her and Mic could do to spice things up in the bedroom - Mic had really enjoyed that, but Mac hadn't found it particularly fulfilling. Crystal also suggested that Mac start masturbating again - which she had found fulfilling for temporary stress relief but she didn't necessarily feel as though that was the root of the issue.

Their next angle of attack had been friends - maybe Mac needed to try and put herself out more in the neighborhood. So, Mac had plastered on the best, only semi-fake smile, and did her rounds through the neighborhood, trying to rekindle friendships with the moms in the neighborhood she already knew and introduce herself to the moms she didn't. She was now in a book club that met on Thursday nights and knew more of her neighbor's business than she ever thought possible.

It was interesting, and Mac had a new hobby, but that still wasn't it.

They had a session today, and Mac was hoping that maybe, this time, they'd finally hit the nail on the head.

I know it's confusing, having chapter six titled "Seven Years" - it wasn't intentional, I promise. I also apologize for the cliffhanger - the chapter was getting too long for my liking and I had to cut it off somewhere.

And yes, I know Mac is still with Mic, but just trust the process. It'll all work out, I promise :)

Thanks for reading!

-Harper