The Great Pumpkins

OCTOBER 12TH, 2013

400 EST
THE LOCAL PUMPKIN PATCH
SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA

The one thing Mac missed about Virginia was fall. She loved California, but there wasn't much change in the seasons. In Southern California, it got almost unbearably hot in the summer, then it was roughly seventy degrees for the rest of the year. At least that's how Mac interpreted it. Harm and Trish, being native Californians, swore there was a difference. Also, her children were none the wiser to the gorgeous foliage of the Blue Ridge Mountains they were missing out on, so Mac was alone in her yearning for a legitimate fall.

One thing they weren't missing out on were pumpkins, so the Mackenzie-Rabb family was spending the afternoon at the pumpkin patch. Southern California might not have had fall weather, but it had pumpkins. Mac was going to have to take what she could get.

"What about this one?" Mac asked, showing a perfect looking pumpkin to her youngest. For being only three, Lily Rabb was taking picking out a pumpkin extremely seriously.

Lily looked at the pumpkin for a few moments without saying anything. Mac could see the wheels turning behind her big brown eyes, and the serious expression she had on her face almost made Mac laugh.

"No," she shook her head. She stuck the tip of her thumb in her mouth, something she always did when she was wracked with whatever difficult decision three-year-olds faced. It was a habit Harm and Mac were trying to break her of. They would appreciate it immensely if one of their children would grow up without needing braces.

Mac sighed. "Okay. What about…" she looked around. She swore they had already looked over all the pumpkins. They'd been looking for almost an hour.

"What about this one?"

"No," Lily looked over her shoulder, pointing to a group of pumpkins sitting on the other side of the field. "I wanna go there."

"Are you sure?" Mac asked, hoping that Lily wasn't sure, hoping that she would actually change her mind and that one of these pumpkins would suffice.

Lily nodded. "Uh-huh."

Mac closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked down at Lily and smiled, hoisting her up onto her hip. "Alright, here we go."

"Daddy, look. I found mine."

As a semi-tradition, each member of the Mackenzie-Rabb family got to pick out their own pumpkin. Adam Rabb had made his pick.

Harm took the pumpkin from his son, looking it over. It was a standard, round orange pumpkin. "Nice," he said. "I like the classic approach."

Adam beamed, showing off the gap where he'd recently lost one of his front teeth. Depending on how that new tooth grew in, he was probably going to need braces.

Harm chuckled and ruffled Adam's hair. It was then that he noticed there was only one child at his side instead of two, Harm looked up to try and find Clara. She was eleven, so Harm and Mac weren't too strict about her going off by herself in public within reason, as long as she told them where she was going. The problem was, Clara often forgot to tell them when/where she was going.

Harm looked back at Adam. "Where's your sister?"

"With Mommy."

"Your other sister."

"Oh-" Adam paused, frowning. "I don't know."

Thankfully, before Harm was able to conjure up too much paternal panic, Clara appeared at his side, causing him to jump. She had a habit of being able to sneak up on him, something she got from Mac.

"Dad," she said. "I found my pumpkin."

Harm looked around, but there was no pumpkin nearby. "Where is it?" he asked.

"I need your help."

"My help?" Harm's brow furrowed.

"Uh-huh," Clara nodded, tugging at Harm's shirt sleeve. "Come here."

Clara may have had Mac's Marine stealth, but she had Harm's tendency to have grand ideas without really thinking them through.

THE NEXT DAY

1100 EST
MACKENZIE-RABB RESIDENCE
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

"Mommy can I have the paint?" Lily asked.

"Sure honey, just a second."

Harm looked up from the newspaper he was spreading over the dining room table. "Paint?" he asked. "I thought we were pumpkin carving."

"Lily wants to paint hers," Mac answered.

"Why?"

Mac leaned in close to murmur in Harm's ear. "She didn't want to hurt the pumpkin," she said.

"Oh," Harm nodded slowly, looking at Lily's pumpkin. "So that's why she got a white pumpkin."

"Uh-huh," Mac said. "It only took us an hour to narrow down what color pumpkin we wanted."

Lily, oblivious to her parents' conversation, looked up at Harm. "Daddy, do you like it?"

"I love it."

On the other side of the table, Adam was trying to pick out which design he wanted to carve into his pumpkin. Always the planner, he'd drawn out several designs to chose from on printer paper. Judging by the expression on his face, he was probably going to need some assistance in choosing.

"Dad, I need help picking."

"Can you go check on Harmon Rabb III before you help Adam?" Mac asked.

Harm frowned. "Why are you calling her that?"

"Because I think her decision to get a fifty pound pumpkin was directly influenced by your genes."

Mac gave Harm a very pointed look, and he sighed. "Adam, I'll be with you in a second, okay?"

Clara was on the back deck with her great pumpkin, and Harm found her sitting cross-legged beside it, her elbows propped up on top of it.

"So...what exactly is the game plan for this?" Harm asked. As he looked down at the pumpkin, he wondered if he was going to have to ask to borrow Frank's saw to carve it.

"I don't know," Clara shrugged. "I think I might just leave it like it is."

Harm blinked. "Huh?"

"Yep," Clara nodded. "I like it plain."

There were times when Harm wished his daughter's imagination didn't run as wild as it did, but on this occasion, he wished it would run wild. When she pointed to that pumpkin at the pumpkin patch the day before and said, "I want that one," Harm just knew Clara had some grand plan up her sleeve for what she wanted to do with it. Apparently, that was not the case.

"Honey…" Harm paused, trying to figure out how he could word his statement so he could avoid hurting her feelings. "Your mom and I paid for a fifty pound pumpkin. That you were supposed to carve, and you're not gonna do anything to it?"

"There's not a law saying someone can't buy a pumpkin without planning to carve it," Clara looked up at him. "Or is there?"

There were three people in the world who could beat Harm at his own game. The first person was Trish, the second person was Mac, and the third person was staring up at him.

"No," he answered. "I was just making sure we were on the same page."

Clara smiled down at her pumpkin. "I just wanna look at it. I like it."

Harm took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, whatever you want."

When he walked back inside, Mac looked up. She was sitting next to Lily, helping her open up her paint set. "So, what is she going to do?" Mac asked.

"Nothing," Harm answered.

Mac's eyes widened, and Harm had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing. "You're kidding, right?" she asked.

Harm did allow himself to snicker as he sat down next to Adam. "Nope. She says she just wants to keep it plain."

"Oh my God-" Mac had to stop herself before she let something slip she couldn't say in front of the kids. "I can't believe her."

"She is her father's daughter," Harm answered.

Mac laughed, shaking her head. "I don't need reminding."

Later that night, the Mackenzie-Rabb stood at the end of their walkway, admiring their pumpkins. Lily had painted polka dots on hers in an assortment of colors and Adam had attempted to carve a fighter jet, but it really only looked like one if you held your head at a certain angle when looking at it. Mac had gone with the standard Jack-o'-lantern look for hers, and Harm, always the one for a spontaneous romantic gesture, had carved a heart with an arrow through it on his, with an 'H' and 'M' in the middle.

And in the center of the display, was Clara's pumpkin. It easily stood up, being three times larger than all the other ones.

In a rare move for someone approaching her teenage years, Clara wrapped her arms around Mac's middle and snuggled against her. "Do you like mine?" she asked, purposely baiting Mac with the question.

Mac looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. She knew what her daughter was doing. "I love it," she answered.

"You don't have to lie, you know," Clara told her. Mac laughed and smoothed her hand over

"Are you sure you don't want to carve it?"

If this one looks familiar, that's because it's a repost. I'm working on another fall/Halloween themed piece that'll hopefully be up before Christmas! :)

Thanks for reading!

-Harper