“Bound By Love”
A JAG Fan-Fic
By Sheri Mitchell
Part 2
Harm parked the car down the street
from the house and climbed out, joining Mac on the sidewalk. He wished there was time to make
sure
she was okay with what he’d said, both to Steadman and to her on the way over
here, but Moyer and Piper were already out of their car and coming over. He didn’t have time to do more than give her
a look that promised a long talk, very soon.
As she so often did, she seemed to
read his mind, giving him an answering smile.
She held his gaze until the two detectives joined them. The smile slid almost reluctantly from her
face as she turned to the cops. Harm
turned as well and with frighteningly little effort, his attention shifted, his
entire focus again on Aaron.
Because he and Mac knew the layout
of the house, they split up, each going with one of the detectives. Piper and Mac took the front, Harm and Moyer
went around back. Using one of the keys
Steadman had given them, Moyer unlocked the back door off the kitchen and they
slipped inside.
As they moved through one empty room
after another, Harm’s heart sank lower and lower. When they met up with Mac and Det. Piper in the living room, Harm
could see Mac was as disheartened as he was.
Moyer didn’t give them time to dwell on their despair. Gesturing to get everyone’s attention, she
pointed to the floor above. Harm nodded
with the rest of them but he couldn’t generate any real enthusiasm for
continuing the search. He knew in his
gut that the second floor would be as empty as the first.
And he was right. They split into two teams again at the top
of the stairs, but this time it was Mac who fell in beside him. A painful sadness stabbed through Harm as he
peered into the first bedroom. Aaron
had chosen this one as his if they bought the house. As with every other room in the house, the closet doors stood
wide open, so he didn’t need to go inside to know it was completely empty. Burying the memories a little deeper, Harm
moved on to the next room.
Poking his head into the bedroom, he
confirmed what he already knew. This
room was empty as well, but a difference immediately caught his eye. In here, the closet doors were closed.
Because of the room’s small size,
when he and Mac toured the house, they didn’t even go into the room. They simply looked in from the doorway, as
he was doing now. Steadman indicated no
one had been in the house for legitimate reasons since, so there was only one
way that closet door could have been closed.
His gut clenching in a painful knot, Harm threw a glance at Mac then
moved into the room.
He went straight to the closet but
hesitated a moment, his hand on the knob, seeking the courage to open the
door. Mac’s hand settled on his back as
he drew a deep breath and yanked.
This time, finding a space
unoccupied was a relief. There was no
small, crumpled form lying on the floor, no blood or other debris that would
tell him his worst nightmare had become reality. But…there was something in the closet.
Before he could do more than
register that fact, Mac ducked past him and picked up a small, fuzzy
object. Harm recognized it instantly
and a whole new fear wrenched at his insides.
“It’s Aaron’s backpack.” His voice was hardly more than a rough
whisper.
Mac nodded and Harm immediately
kicked himself. She knew what it
was. She’d bought the damn thing for
Aaron as a back-to-school present. He
reached out to take it from her and saw the fine tremor in her hand as she
slowly, almost reluctantly, released it.
He took the pack with one hand and slipped the other over her cold
fingers, gripping tightly.
The gesture was all the
fortification she needed. She gave him
a small, appreciative smile and squeezed back.
He squeezed again then slid his hand from hers and opened the pack.
Aaron’s usual school stuff was
inside, including the electronic game Harm had told him not to take. How the hell did he manage to sneak that
in here?
The question brought a fresh wave of
grief and Harm had to clamp down hard on it to continue searching the pack
without his vision dissolving into a damp blur. The fear was shoved aside by confusion as he removed a small,
definitely foreign item.
“What’s that?” Mac asked.
“The lid from a coffee cup,” he told
her, holding it out for her to see.
“There are two or three of them in here.”
She frowned. “Aaron doesn’t drink coffee.”
“No,” he said slowly, the pieces
already starting to fall into place.
“But maybe Barnes does.” Shoving
the pack into her hands, he spun around and strode toward the door. “Det. Moyer!”
The woman appeared in the doorway,
her expression guarded and hopeful at the same time. Harm held out the lid.
“Aaron’s backpack was shoved in the closet and this was inside. I think it might be his way of trying to
tell us something about Barnes.”
She took the lid and examined
it. Printed around the outside edge in
rainbow colors was a logo. Moon and
Sunny’s Coffees. “I know the
place,” she told him.
“Harm, look at this.” Mac appeared beside him, holding out a wax
paper wrapper emblazoned with the same logo.
“This was also in the pack.”
Harm took the wrapper from it. Inside, was a half-eaten donut. The first real ray of hope shot through
Harm. “It’s fresh!”
Mac’s eyes went wide. “That means Aaron put it in there not long
ago. Oh, Harm, he’s still alive! He’s all right!”
“For now, but he won’t stay that way
if we miss the call at noon.”
“It’s ten fifty-seven. We’ve got an hour.”
“That’s not enough time,” Moyer
pointed out. “You two head back to your
place. Bob and I will check out the
coffee shop, flash Barnes’ picture around and see what we get.”
Harm shook his head. “This is the first real lead we’ve had. We’re not sitting on our sixes while you
check it out.” He pulled out his cell
phone and started punching in a number.
“What are you doing?” Moyer asked.
Mac beat him to the answer. “He’s going to forward the home phone to his
cell.”
It barely even occurred to Harm to
wonder how Mac knew that’s what he was planning. They were so completely on the same wavelength so much of the
time now, it felt totally natural for her to know what he was going to do
without him saying a word.
Moyer shook her head in
disbelief. “Why didn’t I think of
that?”
As soon as he had the phone
transferred, they headed back to the cars.
Moyer stopped them as Harm was unlocking the passenger door. “I know this coffee house. It’s a Mecca for yuppies and yuppie
wannabes. She gestured to Piper and
herself. “We’ll stand out like a pallbearer
at a football game. If you two think
you can handle it, I’ll give you Barnes’ picture and you can go in and show it
around.”
Harm didn’t even need to consult
Mac. “We’ll handle it.”
~~~~~
Aaron sat in the back seat of the
man’s car, his fists curled into tight little balls to help control his growing
fear. He didn’t know where they were
going now, but he was certain they weren’t taking him home.
After a ride that seemed to take
forever, they stopped outside a plain blue apartment building. He couldn’t see out very well but it looked
like something was going on. There were
people all over the place, standing on the sidewalk and looking around. He looked out the front window of the car
and saw a fire truck parked a little ways away. He saw the man and the lady in the front seat exchange a look.
“What the hell…?” the man said
roughly.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll go find out.”
She hopped out of the car and went
straight over to a lady standing on the sidewalk. They talked for a minute, then she came back to the car. She got in and closed the door. “My neighbor across the hall said some idiot
upstairs had a kitchen fire. It’s out
but the place is filled with smoke. She
doesn’t know when we’ll be allowed in.”
“Damn! Now where am I supposed to stash the kid?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped
back. “You’ll just have to keep him
with you. My neighbor said the fire
department wants to talk to all the residents, so I’d better go deal with
this. You can’t bring the kid near
them, so you’d better just take off.”
The man grumbled and muttered a few
words that would get Aaron’s mouth washed out with soap then waved an angry
hand. “Go, before they get suspicious
and come over here. I’ll catch up with
you later.”
She got out of the car, then leaned
back in the open window. “You’ve got
some time to kill. Why don’t you go get
yourself another of your precious coffees?
That’ll calm you down.”
“I told you to quit bugging me about
my coffee,” he snarled.
She just laughed and waved at
him. “See ya, brother dear.”
Aaron’s ears perked up. So, she was his sister. He’d thought she was his girlfriend. That explained why they never kissed or
hugged each other the way his dad and mom – his dad and Mac – did.
Still grumbling, the man put the car
in gear and took off so fast Aaron had to grab the door to keep from falling
over.
~~~~~
Over the years, Harm and Mac had
been on more than one undercover mission that required them to act like a
couple, but this time, it wasn’t just an act when he reached out and took her
hand as they strolled casually toward the coffee shop. It was all part of the ruse, but he meant
the gesture in every way possible. The
squeeze she gave his hand said she knew it and that she meant it too.
There had always been a subtle and
complex nonverbal communication between them, allowing each of them to convey
something to the other without so much as a word. He hadn’t expected that to change with the shift in their
relationship, but it had. Like
everything else between them, it had strengthened and deepened. With a single squeeze of his hand, she could
offer her strength, her support, her love.
And he was going to need it
all. Aaron had been gone for a day and
half and already it felt like forever.
He also knew that the longer a kidnapping victim remained in the hands
of his captor, the less likely it became that he would be returned safely. Even if they got a lead from the coffee
shop, there wouldn’t be time to act on it before he had to find a quiet place
to take the twelve o’clock call.
They were still a few feet from the
door, but already he was scanning the patrons at the three outside tables,
looking for someone who looked like a regular.
As he reached inside his jacket for Barnes’ picture, his peripheral
vision caught the door of the shop opening.
A second later, a voice shouted out.
“Dad!”
Harm’s head shot up and zeroed in on
the voice. The blood in his body surged
through him like he’d just pulled a 9-g turn.
Aaron was right there in front of him on the sidewalk!
But even as that thought registered,
he realized Barnes was there too and he was dragging Aaron roughly against him. With the other hand, he drew a weapon and
pointed it directly at Aaron’s head.
“Not another step!” he roared, then
his gaze shifted to behind Harm and Mac.
“Put it down or he’s dead!”
Harm spun and saw Moyer and Piper
behind them, their guns drawn. They had
been waiting down the street and must have seen what was happening. Without even thinking about it, he slapped
Moyer’s gun down. “Put it away!”
He waited just long enough to see
her start to comply, then spun back to Aaron.
His eyes as wide as two full moons, his son stared at him. Even from this distance, he could see Aaron
was trembling violently. Harm held out
his hands in a gesture designed as much to calm Aaron as it was to placate
Barnes. “Take it easy. We’ll work this out.”
Mac could feel the tension radiating
off Harm in huge, rolling waves, but she never took her eyes off Aaron and the
gun pressed to his head. One wrong move
and three lives would be irrevocably shattered. She watched Aaron’s wide-eyed gaze shift from Harm to herself,
locking on with the same piercing intensity she had seen so often in his
father.
But there was something else in that
gaze, an anticipation, a readiness she had also seen in his father –usually the
instant before he tried something stupid.
Instantly, Mac remembered a
“surprise” she and Aaron had been preparing for Harm. They had planned to show him in a couple of weeks, after Aaron
had practiced a bit more. In the same uncanny
way she always knew what Harm was planning, she was certain she knew what Aaron
had in mind and it filled her with terror.
He wasn’t ready to do it for real yet.
Before she could think of a way to
warn him not to try, Aaron exploded into action. Wrenching away from Barnes, the kid drove his elbow sideways,
precisely as she’d shown him. The
effect wasn’t quite what it was supposed to be, however. Aaron was a good two feet shorter than most
people who tried that move. Instead of
driving his elbow into his opponent’s stomach, Aaron connected with a much more
sensitive spot a little lower down.
Howling in pain, Barnes doubled over
and started to drop but as Aaron leapt away, Barnes managed to grab his ankle,
dragging him down too.
Aaron’s sudden move startled Harm,
but his reflexes kicked in and the instant he saw Barnes’s gun come away from
Aaron’s head, he lunged. He could see
Aaron was going down but his height and quick reaction put him right where he
needed to be to grab Aaron and roll away.
Instinctively, he covered the small body with his own. He knew Barnes hadn’t dropped the gun and at
any second, he expected a bullet to rip through his back. All he could do was pray his body was big
enough to stop the round.
~~~~~
As shocked as she was by Aaron’s
move, it didn’t stop Mac from reacting.
Harm lunged for Aaron, just as she’d known he would, so she leapt toward
Barnes. The man was on his knees but he
still had the gun and he was bringing it up with surprising swiftness.
Every ounce of her fear, rage,
despair and disgust went into the most savage kick she had ever launched. She felt and heard the satisfying snap of
bone as her foot connected with Barnes’ arm.
Stepping through the kick, she aimed another one at his face. With another satisfying crunch, he dropped
like a rock, blood pouring from his nose.
The instant she was sure he was down
for the count, she spun toward Harm and Aaron.
For a moment, all she could see was Harm’s broad back then, very slowly,
he rolled over. Coming up into a
sitting position with Aaron on his lap, he looked around, as if trying to
figure out what had happened. His gaze
settled on Barnes, then slowly traveled to her. It locked on and she saw a new and different fear slide into his
eyes, the kind of fear that spread through a person when faced with the full
extent of what could have happened but hadn’t.
He wrapped his arms even tighter
around Aaron and she saw his hands shake for a moment, but his own natural
resilience came through quickly and he drew back to examine Aaron from head to
toe. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” Mac could tell Aaron was shaken and scared but in true Rabb
fashion, he covered his reaction with a dazzling smile that could charm a
Leprechaun out of his gold. “Did you
see me, Dad? Mac and I have been
working on self-defense. It was
supposed to be a surprise for you.”
Harm slowly turned his gaze to
her. “Oh, it was a surprise all right.”
Mac knelt beside them, sliding a
hand across Aaron’s back. “You did
great, but it was a really risky move.”
“I know, but I just got so scared
and then I remembered how you told me to use fear, not to let it stop me.”
Mac shook her head in
disbelief. It was amazing what small
pearls of wisdom the kid chose to remember.
Laughing softly, she threw her arms around the two most important men in
her life, at last letting the adrenaline edge she’d been riding for so long
fade into nothingness.
They both gave her a long, tight hug
then they slowly untangled themselves and got to their feet. Det. Moyer wanted to take Aaron’s statement
right away but Harm insisted he be checked out by a doctor first. Aaron tried to take Moyer’s side, insisting
he didn’t need a doctor. Mac watched
him argue with his dad and had to bite her tongue to keep from telling Harm
just how much Aaron reminded her of a certain macho naval aviator she knew.
Harm finally won out. Aaron reluctantly started toward Moyer’s
car. As he walked he slipped on hand
into Harm’s and the other into Mac’s.
The fierce way he clung to both of them belied his earlier bravado. They both got into the back seat with him,
flanking him protectively even in the safe confines of a police car.
By the time they were finished with
the checkup and the statement, it was late afternoon. Moyer dropped them off at Harm’s car and they headed home. As eager as he was to get his family home,
Harm drove slowly, plagued by a familiar lethargy that always followed the
adrenaline rush of a crisis.
He couldn’t help the long sigh that
slipped from him as they came through the door of the apartment. The place was a mess, but he didn’t give a
damn. Kicking the door shut, he gave in
to the one overwhelming urge that had been running through him all
afternoon. He picked Aaron up with one
arm and pulled Mac close with the other.
Still fighting the physical and emotional letdown, he simply stood,
awash in the most profound relief he’d ever experienced.
Very slowly, Mac drew back enough to
look up at him. “You okay?”
“I am now, or more precisely, I will
be.” He took a deep breath. “Marry me, Mac.”
A confused frown settled on her face
and she held up her hand, displaying his ring.
“I already said I would.”
“I mean now – as soon as we can pull
it off.”
She searched his face in silence for
a long moment. Harm never took his eyes
off her, but from the corner of his eye, he could see Aaron watching her as
well. A slow smile spread across her
face. “All right. How does two weeks from now sound?”
“Too far away,” he said honestly,
“but I suppose I can wait that long.”
Mac chuckled. “You’ll have to.” She reached out to give Aaron a tickle. “Somebody needs new shoes to go with his tuxedo!”
~~~~~
It was going to take a logistical
miracle, and a lot of help from
Harriett Simms, but Mac was certain they could get everything ready for a
scaled down version of the wedding she and Harm had been planning. An even greater miracle would be if the
groom managed to wait until the new date.
Ever since they got Aaron back, Harm had been gripped by a restlessness
Mac had never seen before and, frankly, it was beginning to worry her.
Everything about him was more
intense. He had always been an
vigorous, energetic person, but his behavior was starting to border on
hyperactive, as though he was continually operating on at least a couple of
pots of strong coffee. When he needed
to, he seemed able to focus that enormous well of energy, making him virtually
unstoppable in the courtroom, but it was at home that it worried her most.
Despite his normally active
lifestyle, Harm had always been fairly good at powering down at the end of the
day, but now, it seemed he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, wind down. He played with Aaron, taking him to a nearby
park to play catch or Frisbee. After Aaron went to bed, Harm went to work on a
myriad of small repairs around the apartment.
When he couldn’t find something physical to do in the evenings, he
buried himself in casework until the wee hours of the morning. As far as Mac could tell, he was sleeping
fine, he just wasn’t spending much time doing it.
One evening, Mac stayed home to
catch up on some work while Harm took Aaron to the park. Around eight o’clock, the door flew open,
startling her. She looked up from the
pile of papers spread out on the table as Aaron charged in. He raced straight over to her. “You should have seen the pop fly I
caught! It went up and up and up but I
kept my eye on it, just like Dad told me, and when it came down, I was right
under it. I just stuck my glove up and
it landed right in it! It was the
greatest, Mom! You shoulda seen it!”
Mac froze, swamped by déjà vu. Her gaze flew to Harm, confirming he’d heard
Aaron’s slip as well. They both waited
to see what the boy would do.
Aaron’s gaze hung on her for a
moment, then slid briefly to his father before returning. Slowly, the smile slid from his face. “I…I meant it this time. I figured since you and my dad are getting
married, that I should call you Mom.”
She pulled him onto her knee. “No, you don’t have to call me Mom. You can go on calling me Mac, just like
you’ve always done.”
“Oh.” He hung his head. “I
thought…” His voice turned so soft she
missed the rest of what he said.
“What was that?” she prompted,
giving him a little squeeze.
His head came up, his eyes meeting
hers. “I said I…I want to call you
Mom. I thought it would be okay.”
Her eyes flooding with sudden tears,
she pulled him into a tight hug. Over
the top of his head, she met Harm’s slightly moist gaze. “Oh honey, it’s more than okay.”
~~~~~
The Saturday before the wedding,
Harm asked Mrs. Bailey to look after Aaron and asked Mac to take a drive with
him. He wouldn’t tell her where they
were going, but the sparkle in his eye and the smile on his face told her that,
wherever it was, it was going to be fun.
He drove out to a quiet residential
neighborhood and parked in front of a small house nestled among large mature
trees on a corner lot. Without saying a
word, he jumped out of the car and came around to her side, assisting her out
like she was stepping from some kind of coach.
“Harm, would you please tell me
what’s going on?” she implored with a laugh.
“You’ll see. Come on.”
He caught her hand and led her up the walk.
“Whose house is this?”
He stopped, focusing that amazingly
intense gaze of his on her. He lifted
her hand and dropped a key into it.
“Ours.”
She gazed at him in complete
shock. He must have seen her reaction
because he gave a soft laugh and went on quickly. “You’ve got veto rights of course, but I made a tentative deal on
this place yesterday. It’s subject to
your approval, but other than that, it’s ours.”
“You…bought this?” she said slowly,
still stunned.
He nodded. “It’s your wedding present.
I hope you don’t mind getting it early.”
“Are you…sure? Can we afford it?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s about half the price of that
monstrosity we looked at earlier. It’s
got three bedrooms, but the basement is unfinished so there’s lots of room to
expand.” With a knowing smile, he put a
hand on her belly, silently telling her what kind of expansion he was referring
to.
She shared the smile for a brief
moment, then he grabbed her hand and led her toward the door. “The garage is big enough to hold both cars
and there’s a little shed out back I can turn into a workshop when we do get
ready to fix up the basement and the back yard is positively huge. Aaron will go crazy out there.”
He took the key from her and
unlocked the door, guiding her inside without ever pausing in his
commentary. “There’s a great big tree
out there just begging for a treehouse.
There’s a good school a block and a half away and they have an
after-school care program so we won’t need a sitter every day.”
He took her on a whirlwind tour of
the small, cozy house, doing a fair imitation of a motivated salesman. He finally stopped in the hallway outside
the master bedroom. “So, what do you
think? Do you like it? If you do, it’s yours.”
Her head spinning, Mac took a moment
to catch her breath. “Yes, I like it,
but I don’t understand why you rushed into finding it. After what happened, I figured you’d want to
wait a while before having anything to do with a real estate agent.”
“Mattoni put me in touch with his
brother-in-law. He’s a good guy and
about as honest as you can expect a realtor to be,” he explained. He pulled her against his chest. “Say yes, Mac. Tell me you want this house.”
She mentally toured the place one
more time. It really was perfect. Smiling, she slid a hand across his
cheek. “Yes, I want it.”
Swooping in, he kissed her soundly,
then pulled away, reaching for the door of the master bedroom. “Good, or all this would have been a waste
of time.”
He flung the door open to reveal the
most romantic scene she’d ever laid eyes on.
Unlike the rest of the house, this room was furnished. In the middle of the room stood a queen-size
bed made up with red satin sheets.
Flickering candles filled the room, lighting it with a soft glow and
glinting off a polished ice bucket stocked with a bottle of sparkling soft
cider and flanked by two tall fluted glasses on a small bedside table.
Utterly powerless against the sudden
tears that filled her eyes, she turned to him.
“Harm, it’s beautiful!”
“I thought you’d like it. Mattoni’s brother-in-law is bending the
rules for me. We’ve got the place for
the whole weekend, even though we don’t officially take possession until you
give the go-ahead.”
He didn’t give her a chance to
reply. Folding his arms around her, he
pulled her close and found her lips with his.
His hands roamed her body, fanning flames of passion that were never completely
extinguished, only banked. Even as she
responded, parting her lips to admit his probing tongue, a small voice inside
told her something wasn’t right.
Even this was contaminated by the
restless energy inside him. There was
an urgency in his touch that had never been there before, adding an edge to him
that made her vaguely uneasy. As though
trying to consume her on the spot, he deepened the kiss, his hands going to the
buttons of her blouse.
She covered his hands with her own,
trying to urge him to slow down, but he wasn’t getting the hint. He freed three buttons then pushed the
material aside to trail a finger across the sensitive flesh protruding above
her bra. The sensation was exquisite
but it couldn’t quite silence the nagging voice inside her.
As the desperation within him grew,
the uneasiness inside her did too. “Harm,
wait.” She tried to take a step back,
but his arms tightened around her until she began to feel as though she was
being smothered. Putting both hands
against his chest, she pushed, forcing him to let her go. “Damn it, Harm, stop!”
Her sharp tone and angry shove
finally got through to him. He froze,
his arms still lightly encircling her.
She took another step back, removing herself from his embrace
completely. “What is going on with
you?”
“What do you mean?” he asked with a
frown. “I…I thought you’d enjoy a
little romance, that’s all.”
“Romance, yes, but you’re acting
like a teenager in the backseat of a car.”
She saw the hurt enter his eyes and took a step forward, resting a hand
on his arm. The heat of his flesh
spread instantly through her palm.
“Something’s not right for you and it hasn’t been for at least a
week. You’ve been on edge ever since we
got Aaron back. What’s wrong?”
He blew out an explosive breath and
paced away, whirling to face her before he spoke. “I don’t know! I’m just…restless. I…I feel like I need to get everything to…to
where it’s supposed to be. I need to
make you mine and Aaron yours…to make sure we’re…together…permanently.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I know how crazy that sounds, but…” His voice trailed off helplessly.
Very slowly and deliberately, she
took a step forward, putting her hand in the middle of his chest. She spoke softly but with utter
conviction. “I am yours. You said it yourself, the three of us are a
family and before long it’s going to be four.”
She slid her hand up his chest then
moved to cup his cheek. “Harm, you’ve
been through so much lately, first fighting to get custody of Aaron then almost
losing him so soon after, but I promise you, nothing is ever going to separate
the three of us again. We were working
on becoming a family when the kidnapping happened but that tragedy has forged
us into a stronger unit than I ever thought possible.”
He slid his arms around her again,
very gently guiding her against his chest.
“I guess I’ve been acting pretty strange, huh? I’m sorry, Mac. I didn’t
mean to crawl all over you, pawing like an out-of-control teenager.”
A coy smile slid onto her face. “I don’t mind being pawed, but it has to be
for the right reasons.”
“Oh really,” he replied, the gleam
coming back into his eyes. “How about
these reasons: I love you, you’re the
sexiest woman I ever met, we’re alone for a change, and just holding you close
like this is driving me crazy.”
Her smile widened. “Now those reasons, I like.”
“I thought you might,” he whispered,
finding her lips again.
This time, his touch was
feather-soft and filled with tenderness, rekindling the fires inside her faster
than anything she’d ever known. When
his questing hands and mouth turned urgent, it was the urgency of passion,
filling her with a need as great as his own.
Their clothing yielded quickly, landing in a heap beside the bed. When at last they were both free of the
restraining material, he lifted her and gently placed her in the middle of the
bed. The cool satin contrasted starkly
with the heat of his body as he moved over her.
Anticipating the final joining, she
raised her hips, but he gave a soft chuckle and slid a little lower on her
body. “Not yet, sweetheart. This one’s gonna take all day.”
~~~~~
One week to the day from the
romantic liaison in their new home, Harm stood under a canopy of trees in Rock
Creek Park, his heart close to bursting as he watched the most beautiful woman
in the world glide toward him in a swirl of white satin and lace. He was only vaguely aware of the large group
of friends and family gathered around them but he was pretty sure everyone was
as mesmerized as he was.
On the arm of Admiral Chegwidden,
Mac came forward slowly, a radiant smile shimmering beneath her veil. Her gaze went briefly to the admiral as he
took her hand from his arm and placed it in Harm’s open palm. Harm was momentarily startled when Admiral
Chegwidden’s hands closed over his and Mac’s, as though symbolically sealing
them together.
Open displays of this nature weren’t
common from the admiral, making the gesture all the more meaningful. He fixed Harm with a penetrating gaze, his
eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions it would take days to sort out. Before Harm could even begin the task,
Chegwidden dropped his hands and moved away.
It was their cue to turn to the chaplain.
The ceremony itself would forever
remain a bit of a blur, but Harm would never forget the first time he kissed
his wife. She tasted of peppermint,
probably from a candy she’d eaten before the ceremony, but even that strong
flavor couldn’t mask the unique taste that was hers alone. Mingling with her perfume and the warmth of
her lips against his, the combination filled him with a heady rush that left
him reeling.
Harm would have been content to let
the kiss go on forever, but the hoots and applause from the onlookers had them
breaking apart long before he was ready to.
Grinning widely, he shot them all a look, saving a wink for Aaron, who
grinned back just as broadly. Their
little ring bearer had done his job perfectly, presenting the satin pillow and
the two gold bands nestled within it.
Those bands had now taken their
rightful places, loudly and proudly proclaiming the commitment they had just
made to each other. Next week, Mac
would extend that commitment when she formally adopted Aaron, making him her
son legally as well as in her heart.
She and Harm had talked about it in the lazy moments among the red satin
and candles last weekend and presented the idea to Aaron when they got
home. The kid loved the idea, even if
he didn’t really understand the implications.
Tonight, when it was all over, Harm
and Mac would return to the red satin sanctuary. He’d hustled the paperwork through and they took formal
possession yesterday. Aaron was going
to spend the night with Bud and Harriet, but he would be joining them the following
day and then, finally, Harm would begin to feel like his family was where they
belonged. Mac’s reassurance had eased
the restlessness within him, but he was still eager to have the three of them
in one place, a place that was truly their own.
It seemed to take forever to greet
all of the guests in the receiving line after the ceremony. He was truly amazed that so many people had
been able to attend on such short notice, but at the same time, he was glad
they had. He wanted to share this day
with all of the people who were a part of his life.
Not long after the final guest had
offered their best wishes, Aaron came racing over and grabbed his hand. “Come on, Dad. Uncle Bud says it’s time for a group photo.”
“Oh Uncle Bud says so, huh?”
he replied, grinning at Mac.
“Yeah. I get to be in the picture, don’t I?”
Mac smiled as she took his other
hand. “Of course you do. You’re part of the wedding party, aren’t
you?”
Aaron dragged them both over to a
massive stone bridge over a gurgling stream.
The photographer was busy setting up on the bank of the stream below and
by the time the wedding party was assembled, he was ready to snap the picture.
From his place in the center of the
group, Harm waited for the picture, his mind wandering back over the past few
months and all the changes that had taken place, all the stresses and tears,
tragedy and triumph. Then his mind
wandered back farther still, examining the course of his life. Everything that had happened to him, every
instant in his life, good, bad or indifferent, had been in preparation for this
moment, when he could put one arm around his wife, the other around his son,
and smile for a camera as if everything was right with the world – because,
finally, it was.
Epilogue
On a cold April morning, just before
sunrise, Harm accepted into his arms a squirming, squalling bundle and gazed
for the first time into the face of his baby daughter. Baby Sarah looked so much like her mother it
was almost frightening. I guess that
means she’s got my brains, he thought to himself, suppressing a laugh. He would share that punch-line to a very
private joke with Mac when they were alone.
Carrying the tiny bundle as if she
was the most precious thing in the world – because she was – he brought her to
an exhausted, exhilarated Mac, turning and leaning down so she could see the
baby.
“Oh, she’s perfect,” she whispered,
gently stroking the back of the baby’s curled fist.
“That she is,” he replied softly,
kissing first mother, then child.
“So who’s going to be the one to
tell Aaron he didn’t get a brother?” she asked with a smile.
“He’s waiting outside and I promised
him he could see the baby as soon as possible, so I guess that job will fall to
me.”
“What do you think he’ll say?”
Harm looked again into the slightly
pinched and still wrinkled features of his daughter. “I think he’s going to love her as much as we do.”
The End
This
is part 2 of a 2 part story
It
is also the second part of a two part series.
Part
1: “Second Chances”