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Date Posted: 14:16:12 12/31/16 Sat
Author: Lace
Subject: Part 2/3
In reply to: Lace 's message, "Fair winds and following seas 1/3 (The nine years after series, the early years)" on 09:22:02 12/29/16 Thu

June 2005

The first week in London had been spent looking at housing for them, and to make sure they had the perfect medical team for Mattie. The latter being mostly Mac’s responsibility while Harm worked. In between Harm’s work and looking for housing they found the time to get to know each other as husband and wife. They had been friends for nine years, travelled together, worked together and spent time together as partners and friends, but they had never lived together before. It was a totally new territory for them both.
As the week ended they had found the perfect housing. The apartment Harm had been living in since he arrived in London wasn’t a home, it was more of a storage place. He hadn’t bothered unpacking much, and when Mac’s things had arrived he had just made the movers place it in the spare bedroom.
When Harm came into the apartment Friday after work he found Mac in the kitchen listening to music and cooking dinner. She didn’t hear him enter so she didn’t notice when he leaned on the doorframe and watched her, thinking that now he had the perfect view.
He was surprised when she stopped chopping carrots abruptly and turned. “You’re home!”
“How did you know? That music is so loud…” he lowered his voice when she turned down the volume. “…there’s no way you heard me come.”
She smiled cleverly. “I always know where you are.”
He laughed softly, remembering his words years ago, when they had arrived home after separate assignments on submarines. “What are you making?” he walked into the room and greeted her with a soft kiss. He stopped and looked at her funny, getting the most amazing feeling inside.
“What?” she questioned and studied him suspiciously.
He smiled. “I just had this really wonderful moment right now, kissing you hello. I’m really, very, happy. Why didn’t we do this years ago?”
Her faced cracked into a big smile. “Because we were too busy arguing.”
He laughed softly. “How was your day?”
“It was productive.” She started chopping carrots again. “We’re moving into the new house next week. I talked to some people, made the best arguments of my life and voila, we can move sooner than planned. And I met with Mattie’s Doctors and therapists, and they are ready to start up whenever she arrives. Her stateside Doctor thinks she’s ready to travel in two weeks’ time.”
“Wow, you’ve been busy,” Harm couldn’t help to be impressed. He knew Mac was resourceful, but in the week she’d been in London she’d been like a tornado. He was wondering if jetlag had the opposite effect on her.
“I just like to get organized,” she said with a shrug.
“Well. I’m impressed. Do you need me for something or should I just sit by and watch as you take over the world?” he asked teasingly.
“I have a few things for you to do,” she said as she put the carrots into the boiling water. “Change your clothes, set the table and maybe later you ca give me a massage…”
“Absolutely,” he leaned in and kissed her. “You are amazing.”
“Not really,” she smiled sweetly. “Just happy.”
He kissed her again, then he went to change. While he was in their bedroom changing, he started thinking about something that had been on his mind ever since they said I do one week ago. A honeymoon. Everything had happened so fast, and were still happening fast, so he hadn’t arranged anything special for her. He knew there wouldn’t be time to take her away right now, he had a new command, and there was so much to do with the new house and preparing for Mattie to join them.
“Babe?” he said as he walked into the kitchen.
“Didn’t we agree on no cute names?” she wondered as she steered the sauce and moved the carrots away from the stove before the water boiled over.
He smiled. “No, you said no cute names, I never agreed.”
“Babe, is a big no. Baby, is a big no. Love, is a big big nono,” she said and smiled when his face cracked into a horrified look. “And no trips down memory lane what Mic is concerned.”
He offered an amused look as he found plates from the closet. “I will definitely never call you love,” he promised.
“Good. And you don’t have to start calling me, Sarah, you know,” she said as she walked over to the table with the chicken.
“Well I do sometimes, but you’ve always been Mac to me. I’ll just save Sarah for special times,” he said and put knives and forks on the table.
She smiled. “So, what did you want to say?”
He looked confused.
“When you walked in here, calling me babe?” she clarified.
“Ah, yes. Things have been moving pretty fast, and it won’t exactly calm down the next few weeks, so a honeymoon is out of the question right now,” he hesitated. “I would want to do something special for you though.”
“It’s no problem, Harm,” she reassured.
“You gave up your career to marry me, and moving to London, helping me with Mattie, again,” he took her hand. “The least I should do is make sure you get a real honeymoon.”
“Harm, I did it because I love you, and because you mean more to me than a career. You’re my family, and now Mattie is too. We don’t need a honeymoon,” she leaned in and kissed him. “That’s all I need.”
“A kiss?” he questioned.
“A kiss, a hug, knowing that we’ll always be together, no matter what,” she clarified and kissed him again. “And sometimes I will want to kill you, but even then, I love you.”
He smiled. “I’ll do my best to make sure I keep the things that would make you want to kill me to a minimum. And I will kiss you a lot, hug you, and we’ll be together no matter what. That’s an easy promise to make.”
She looked into his eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said and smiled, before pulling her in for a hug. “This is nice. I like being married to you.”
She relaxed into his arms. “I like being married to you too.”

One week later Harm found Mac in their new bedroom looking thoughtfully at the dresser he’d helped her carry up earlier in the day before he went to work.
“Please tell me you haven’t been staring at that dresser all day?”
She turned with a sweet smile. “Nope, just the last thirty-nine seconds.”
He laughed and walked over to her and kissed her. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“We have a bed,” he said and looked surprised.
“I might have given the seller a hard time about not being able to deliver it until after the weekend,” she admitted.
“You gave him a little Marine speech, did you?” he said with laughter.
“Something like that, yes,” she looked around. “I’m glad we decided on new furniture for the bedroom. It makes it more ours.”
“It looks great,” he agreed and pulled her close. “Are we sleeping here tonight?”
She smiled cleverly. “I was thinking about it. It’s almost done, so… What do you think?”
He leaned in and kissed her, letting his hands find its way inside her shirt. She didn’t use much time catching on, and soon they were in bed, where they often ended up. They had been married for two weeks the next day, and when they weren’t moving, talking to Mattie, or he was at work, they were inseparable. Harm knew that making up for nine years in the first weeks they were married wouldn’t be possible, but it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t try.

The next day was spent in the house, Mac had wanted to get started on Mattie’s room, so Harm offered to unpack the living room while she made sure Mattie’s room was ready for when the girl would join them in a week. They had been in daily contact with Mattie and her Doctor, tracking all her progress as good as they could from so far away. Jennifer Coates visited Mattie every day, and she would report back to Harm and Mac about the progress. It was amazing how fast the girl was recovering. The surgery had been necessary to make sure she wouldn’t damage her spine while she was working her way through physiotherapy. As soon as Mattie was cleared to start working with the physiotherapist after her surgery, she was progressing very fast. She was walking on her own, the only thing leading anyone on to her accident was the use of her left hand. The Doctor was worried that Mattie was overdoing it, the physiotherapist unable to hold the girl back. It had resulted in a fall, which thankfully hadn’t hurt Mattie. It had however scared her enough that she started listening to the team around her.
“I’m fine, Harm. They won’t let me work out until sometime next week, because I’ve been overdoing it. I just want to be normal again.”
“Mattie, that fall this week could have damaged everything you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. I talked to your Doctor, and we agreed that if you don’t start listening, you have to postpone your travel,” Harm warned her.
“I know, we talked about it, and I will be a good girl,” Mattie said with badly hidden frustration.
“Mac’s working on your room now,” Harm said to try and steer the conversation to something joy able. “You can change it if you don’t like it, but we figured that arriving to a finished room would be better than just a bunch of boxes.”
“That sounds really great Harm.” Mattie got quiet.
“Mattie?”
“I hope I’m not messing up yours and Mac’s new life together,” Mattie finally said.
“Mattie, don’t you ever think that. We’ve talked about this, and you know how much we’re looking forward to having you here with us,” Harm said just as Mac walked into the living room.
“That was before you had spent two weeks alone. Maybe you feel like I’ll be in the way now,” Mattie pointed out.
“You won’t be in the way,” Harm reassured.
Mac took his hand. “Tell her that her room is ready for her, and so are we.”
“Mac says….”
“I heard her,” Mattie said. “I can’t wait until next weekend.”
“We’re looking forward to it too. We’ll be at the hospital sometime Friday around 1700, then the plane back leaves Saturday at 1200.”
“Are you sure you want to spend that much time in the air just to pick me up? I’m sure I can manage on my own,” Mattie said.
“We’re coming,” Harm said firmly.
“Okay, well Jenn’s here now, let’s talk later or something. Tell Mac… Tell her thanks, and that she’s a little bit crazy for taking me on like this.”
Harm laughed. “I’ll tell her. Bye Mattie.”
Harm put the phone away and turned to Mac. “Mattie said…”
“I heard it,” she said with a smile.
He leaned in and kissed her. “You really are crazy.”
“Crazy about you,” she said and kissed him again, letting her arms find their way around his neck. She was unbelievably happy.

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[> [> Very sweet. -- FJN, 21:11:04 01/02/17 Mon [1]

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