| Subject: Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi! - Part 18/25 |
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Teacup
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Date Posted: 07:19:14 07/18/07 Wed
In reply to:
Teacup (aka Ever-Xmas)
's message, "Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi!" on 23:51:19 06/30/07 Sat
Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi!
Previously:
Mac nodded, somewhat understanding the complications caused by her official duty at the time.
“I’m still not, I guess,” added Harm, admitting that although he had good reason to believe his brother was the baby’s father, he didn’t have any admissions or any solid proof.
Mac could see that Harm was agitated over this subject. Gently she told him, “It’s okay, … we don’t have to discuss it now. … But thank you for telling me.”
Just as she had done in the car earlier that night after Harm’s recollection of his painful childhood memory, she reached out to touch Harm and offer what comfort and support she could. He gladly accepted her hand in his.
Part 18
After a minute of quiet, Harm wanted to get things back to the fun they were having before. He leaned in closer to Mac. “Do you see what I see?” Harm breathed into her ear.
The gentle sensation of the air from his mouth against her made the hair on the back of Mac’s neck stand up. “What?” she asked.
“A star,” Harm said.
“A star?”
“A shooting star, I think.” He tilted his head. “… Actually, it kind of looks like a kite with a long tail.”
Mac realized that Harm was eyeing the plate of cookies. They were in various shapes, and one did represent a shooting star.
Harm let go of Mac’s hand and began to reach over her to grab a cookie. Mac almost moaned from feeling his body against hers as he stretched across her to access the tray from the coffee table on her side.
“Mmm. This is good,” said Harm with a full mouth, as he ate the cookie. He was enjoying the fact that he could use the cookie as an excuse to express satisfaction, covering the real reason for his elation, … the brush against his tantalizing partner’s body.
Harm was about to make another comment, when Mac shushed him. Something else had caught her attention.
“Do you hear what I hear?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Do you hear that? … It sounds like a voice.”
“Probably the wind … or a little animal,” Harm suggested.
“I don’t think it’s coming from outside.”
“I don’t hear anything,” Harm admitted. “But it could just be that I’m getting old. I understand that hearing is one of the first things to go,” he joked. “Right up there with the mind.”
“Hey, you’re not that much older than I am, … so can the age talk,” Mac ordered. “You are not old.”
“I’m just trying to accept that I’m getting to be past my prime,” Harm humbly admitted, before assuring her, “But that has no implication on you, Ms. MacKenzie. You are very much in your prime … and will be for a long time, I’m sure.”
While she felt flattered, Mac tried to ignore his compliment and instead focus on Harm. “You’re not past your prime,” she told him, “… whatever that means.”
“It means … I’m not at my finest anymore.” He wasn’t complaining or moping about it, but just trying to lay out the facts. “… Not as attractive as I used to be.”
“You’re definitely wrong there, Harm,” Mac quickly intervened. “If anything, you’re more attractive now than when I met you. … You’ve matured, … well, for the most part,” she modified with a small smile.
She looked at him carefully, appreciating what she saw. “You’ve become more … distinguished, … but no less handsome. You’re a very attractive man,” she assured him.
Mac saw the corners of Harm’s mouth start to turn up, and she quickly averted her eyes away in embarrassment. But a moment later, she couldn’t help looking back. She expected Harm to have a full blown grin, reveling in her statements about him.
Instead, he still wore only a small, shy smile, and he looked at her in wonderment, as if what she said meant a great deal to him. It endeared him to her all the more.
Their eyes met, twinkling brightly in the flickering firelight, emotionally drawing each other in to an unspoken connection. Harm’s very aura was overwhelming to Mac, and before she knew it, Mac found herself supplementing, “You’re very desirable, Harm, … right now.”
She had meant ‘right now’ as in the present day, but somehow as the words left her, it became clear that ‘right now,’ did, in fact, mean that very moment to her.
Some magnetic pull was drawing her to him … and apparently him to her, because their lips were now just half a foot apart. And ever - so - slowly, that space was closing. There were no thoughts, no awareness really, … only some magical force bringing them together.
Their mouths were mere inches from each other, electricity already sparking between them. Their bodies, lips, and hearts anticipating, seeking, … longing for more of the experience they had tasted in the kitchen earlier.
And then … a knock on the door halted everything.
It may have been the night for ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’, but for Harm, … it was ‘No! NO! NO!’ that screamed inside his head.
… Mac had been about to kiss him. What cruel fate would send someone to interrupt them just as they were about to make a significant connection!?!
And it would have been significant. There was nothing to dismiss the meaning of the kiss, nothing to excuse their actions. No mistletoe, no stressful situations, … nothing pushing them together except … their own attraction, … their own special bond.
Mac froze at the abrupt knocking sound. Awareness suddenly setting in, she realized how far she had leaned in toward Harm. She put her hand on his chest now to balance herself and backed her head away from him slightly. But she paused when their eyes locked. Mac didn’t want to take her hand away from him, … but the knocking came again, shaking her into reality.
“I guess I should get that,” she said hesitantly and nervously.
Harm reluctantly agreed with a whisper. “Yeah, …” At that moment, Mac unconsciously licked her lips, which only flamed Harm’s desire for her. He closed his eyes in frustration and an effort to control himself.
Mac forced herself up, which was not an easy thing to do, and went to the door where she absentmindedly started undoing the locks.
Meanwhile, Harm was mentally cursing whoever was out in the hallway. Who would be knocking this late at night?
That thought suddenly snapped him to attention as he realized Mac was undoing the locks without finding out who was waiting on the other side.
“Mac, … check to see who’s there,” he reminded her before she opened the door.
Mac hadn’t been thinking and had completely forgotten safety protocol. She looked out the peephole. “The power is out, so it’s dark,” she observed.
Instead of asking who was there, as she would have done if she were operating without the mind numbing feelings stirred in her less than a minute before, Mac began to open the door just a crack.
Harm started to get up, wanting to be ready to protect Mac if some crazy psycho killer was trying to worm his way into her apartment.
As Mac peeked out, she saw a familiar woman whose son, about twelve, stood next to her.
Startled by the opening door, the woman looked up at Mac. “Oh, hi. … Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually be home. I know you went out earlier, … and with the weather …”
“I’m here,” Mac confirmed the obvious. “What’s up?”
“We’re really sorry to bother you this late at night … especially Christmas Eve, but we had a mis-”
Mac had opened the door wider, giving the lady a sudden view of Harm which momentarily caused her to pause.
“-hap.” She glanced back at Mac with embarrassment. “You have company,” she noted. The woman then let her eyes go back to Harm, noting that both he and Mac seemed to be in night clothes. Then she spotted the cozy looking arrangement by the fire.
“We really shouldn’t be here,” the woman declared. “Bobby, we’ll try to handle this on our own. Mac has company.”
The boy spoke for the first time, objecting to his mother’s suggestion. “She needs to fix him!”
In his arms, Bobby was cradling what appeared to be a bird wrapped up in a towel.
“What’s the problem?” Mac asked.
“It’s Frosty,” answered Bobby. He held up the parrot, so she could see. “He’s hurt. You can fix him.”
Mac was no vet and didn’t know why Bobby thought she would be able to help.
Seeing Mac’s confusion, the boy’s mother explained, “I’m sorry. He knows you’re military, like his dad. And he’s convinced that his dad can do anything. He thinks you all are trained to deal with everything, … even bleeding birds.”
“Well, we do get basic first aid training,” Harm offered.
This reminded Mac that her visitors didn’t know each other. “Uh, Kelly, this is Harmon Rabb. He … works at JAG with me … and is snowed in here tonight. Harm, this is my downstairs neighbor, Kelly, and her son Bobby. Bobby’s dad is in the Army and is currently deployed in Afghanistan.”
“Nice to meet you,” Harm offered his hand and smile in greeting to the mother. After he shook Kelly’s hand, he bent down to Bobby. “So, what’s wrong with your bird?”
“His name’s Frosty. Dad named him that because he’s all blue and white. … I had Frosty out of the cage when the lights went out, and he sort of freaked. He’s always in his cage when it’s totally dark.”
Kelly added, “He’s a very temperamental bird. Doesn’t deal well with changes. Creature of habit, needing things just the right light, noise, temperature. … Surprisingly, he likes it on the colder side, … another reason for the name.”
“Then he should be very comfortable in here,” Mac said, remembering that the temperature in her apartment was freezing at the moment. Although, given her position by the fire a minute ago … with a certain man, she currently wasn’t cold at all.
“Come on in,” she invited. “I’m not sure what we can do, … but we can look.”
Harm suggested, “Bobby why don’t we lay Frosty on the table in there. He’s not going to fly away, is he?”
“No, I’ve sort of got him wrapped up,” the boy answered.
“Did you want anything while you’re here?” asked Mac. “Not much I can offer with the power out, but I do have cookies. Bobby?”
He nodded. Mac picked up the cookie platter and a candle and handed them to Harm. “Here, take these with you to the table. I’ll be right there. I’m going to see what kind of first aid stuff I’ve got.”
Harm and Bobby went to the table, while Kelly hung behind with Mac, who was picking up a flashlight to go searching in her bathroom.
“I’m really sorry about interrupting your romantic night,” Kelly apologized. Before Mac had a chance to process what Kelly was implying, the woman continued, “So how long have you been dating this guy?”
“We’re not dating,” Mac explained. As they walked by the fireplace, Mac saw Kelly eying the little cove set up in front of the fire with a single blanket discarded on the floor.
At Kelly’s skeptical countenance that followed, Mac realized that her neighbor was still thinking that she and Harm were involved. “We’re just good friends,” Mac insisted.
“He’s seeing someone else?” Kelly asked.
“No,” Mac answered, reaching the bathroom.
“Then why are you just friends? That man is gorgeous, and he’s absolutely delicious enough to eat.”
“Kelly, you’re married!” Mac scolded with a bit of wide eyed surprise at her neighbor’s comment. She wasn’t sure if it was more upsetting that a married woman was ogling another man or that any other woman was ogling Harm.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t look,” Kelly insisted. Getting a little somber, she added, “And with my husband gone, … it’s hard.”
Mac knew that deployment was difficult for families, especially during the holidays. That was one of the few benefits Mac had of being single and alone. Even on her shorter missions, there was no one left behind missing her.
Things were hard for those in the military. A lot of sacrifices are made. But sometimes people forget how difficult life can be for the families left behind of the service members who are overseas.
Mac looked at Kelly with sympathy. “How’re you coping?”
“… Okay,” the other woman answered. “I miss him. Bobby misses him. He worships the ground his father walks on.”
Mac smiled a little, thinking of someone else who had a deep-seated adoration of his father.
“If there’s anything I can do, …” Mac offered.
Kelly grinned mischievously, replying, “Be honest with me about you and the incredibly sexy guy in your apartment.”
Even though the bathroom was mostly dark, Kelly could see that Mac did not approve of her request. “… My man is across the world,” Kelly complained, which turned into pleading. “Let me live vicariously.”
Mac shook her head at the begging, as she picked up the supplies she had gathered. But she well-naturedly replied, “Then you’d better find someone else to live vicariously through, because the extent of my love life right now is the cheap romance novel I picked up a few months ago when there was nothing else at the airport.”
“I don’t buy that nothing’s going on between you two,” said Kelly.
Mac headed back out through the living room. “Believe me, … Harm and I are … just … very close friends.”
“So, …” Kelly looked back at the blanket on the floor as they passed the fireplace again, “we didn’t interrupt anything?”
Mac stopped and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She wasn’t sure exactly what had been happening between Harm and her before the knock at the door.
Kelly interpreted Mac’s silence and facial expression and responded both excitedly and apologetically, “We did interrupt something!”
Mac started blushing, and she knew it. She wasn’t going to comment. “… We’d better check on the boys,” Mac stated and quickly made a bee line into the other room.
“So what do we have?” Mac asked the two guys.
Harm answered, “Looks like Frosty managed to cut himself up pretty good. He’s bleeding from at least two places.”
“He totally spazzed out,” said Bobby, referring to Frosty’s behavior after the power went out. “I don’t know what happened. I had him perched on the broomstick … We were playing. And then everything went berserk.”
Kelly supplemented, “I was in the other room, and I heard all kinds of ruckus, banging, and screeching. Then it got quiet. … But he only paused a moment when I heard Bobby holler, ‘Stop!’”
“I was trying to catch him, but he was flying here and there, all around in a square … to each corner of the room,” Bobby explained. “I can usually get him pretty quick, but it was so dark …”
“You obviously got him eventually,” Harm praised the boy.
Blood was soaking through the towel surrounding Frosty. Mac handed Harm some cotton balls and he pressed them against the points of bleeding.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any antiseptics, so I hope pressure’s enough to stop the bleeding,” said Mac.
“What if it doesn’t stop?” Bobby anxiously asked. He could just imagine poor Frosty ending up in nothing more than a puddle of blood.
His mother answered, “Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about that possibility.” She brushed her hand through her son’s hair.
“Hey, Mac,” said Harm. “I know it’s unlikely in your kitchen, … but do you have any flour or corn starch?”
Mac shot him a look without remark, before going into the kitchen. She came back a moment later with a bag of flour.
“What do you think those cookies got made out of?” she asked him, pointing at the serving platter.
“You made these cookies?” Harm asked in surprise. “I’m impressed. … I didn’t even gag,” he joked.
“Hey,” Mac objected. “I can cook … and bake when I want to. … Plus, I’m not the one with the history of producing toxic waste in loaf form,” she shot back.
“There was nothing wrong with my meatless meatloaf,” Harm insisted defensively.
Bobby looked at Harm, making a face. “How do you have meatloaf with no meat?”
“Exactly,” Mac agreed.
“Well,” Kelly jumped in, “these cookies are very good, Mac.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d say Bobby likes them too,” the mother added.
The boy was now working on his third. “Yeah, … they’re good.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying them,” Mac smiled at the boy.
Harm had applied some flour to the bleeding areas, but upon closer examination, he said, “You know, I think this one is a blood feather. … I’m pretty sure you have to remove the whole feather to get it to stop bleeding.”
“I didn’t know you knew so much about birds,” commented Mac.
“I don’t,” Harm answered. “… But I do know a thing or two about wings.” He flashed his smile at her, before asking, “… You got tweezers?”
“Yeah.”
“See if you can remove that shaft right there,” he told her.
“Won’t that just make it bleed more?” asked Bobby.
“No, … I think it’ll heal better if the blood’s not being pulled down through this feather,” said Harm. “… But I guess we do need your consent to do this little operation. Do we have your okay?”
Bobby looked to his mom, who shrugged.
“He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about,” she said. “I think we need to put our faith in him.”
“I guess if he’s a marine, he knows what he’s doing,” Bobby admitted, ready to agree.
“Actually, … I’m not a marine,” Harm pointed out. He saw Bobby looking with confusion at the sweatshirt he was wearing. “… I’m just borrowing the shirt from the marine here,” Harm explained nodding toward Mac.
“I thought you worked together?” Bobby asked.
“We do,” said Mac. “We’re just not in the same branch of the military.”
“I’m Navy,” Harm declared.
“Oh,” replied Bobby, with a look of disapproval. “Dad says the Navy’s full of wimps.”
“Bobby!” his mother scolded.
“He does,” the boy emphasized to his mom. “… Says Army can beat Navy any day. And sailors don’t fight; … they just sit on boats. At least marines know how to fight.”
Mac grimaced. “I see the Army/Navy rivalry is alive and well.”
“There are other ways of fighting,” Harm informed the boy. “Your dad’s never flown a Tomcat into combat,” he pointed out with pride.
“No, … but that’s just sitting in a big machine,” said Bobby unimpressed. “It’s not dangerous. … The Air Force is full of pansies too.”
“I wasn’t talking about the Air Force. The Navy has its own planes that launch off carriers,” Harm informed him.
Mac added, “And flying can be just as dangerous as ground combat. A lot of pilots have lost their lives flying missions.”
“Don’t they just eject?” Bobby indifferently asked.
“They don’t always have time,” Mac answered.
“And even when they do,” said Harm with a distant stare, “… sometimes the result is worse than dying.”
His thoughts drifted to POW camps and his father, the physical pain and lasting injuries from ejecting … His own recoveries had been hard enough, but he knew pilots who had been through worse … Then there was the guilt, … especially when the other person in the plane doesn’t survive, … like his RIO after his own ramp strike.
Due to Harm’s comment, Mac knew the type of things he was thinking about. She also knew that Bobby wouldn’t understand any of it. So she needed to steer this conversation to a better subject matter for her sailor and restore Harm’s image in Bobby’s mind.
“Well, regardless,” she said, “Harm here has had enough ground action to qualify him as an honorary marine. I wouldn’t let him wear that sweatshirt otherwise.”
Mac gave Harm a quick, reassuring smile, before adding, “And believe me, he’s got more courage than anyone I’ve ever met, … including all the marines I know, … and that says a lot.”
Harm was touched at how Mac was defending him, and for a few seconds couldn’t help but focus on her with appreciation.
“Anyway,” Harm decided to move on, “we should take care of Frosty here, okay? … We’ll let Mac do the surgery.”
“… Yeah,” Bobby decided. “Okay.”
---
TBC ...
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A/N:So, how many of you were internally screaming ‘No, No, No!’ just like Harm was when there was a knock at the door?
I don’t do it to be cruel … Really, it’s for the greater good of the storyline. More development, more fun, more Christmas references, … and the guests will eventually leave, with plenty of story to follow.
Anybody keeping a list of the Christmas allusions to send to me when this story is done? If so, how’s that going?
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