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Date Posted: 12:22:09 05/01/13 Wed
Author: Dee
Subject: April Challenge - Truth-filled Lies

A/N: A day into May, but here’s my answer to the April Challenge. As usual, I own nothing – I just enjoy hanging out with them.

Harm walked into his house and straight into his wife’s waiting arms. Their embrace was long and warm – they’d missed each other while he’d been away for a couple of days attending a conference.

Harm sighed deeply, tightening his grip around Mac’s waist. “It’s so good to be home.”

“It’s good to have you back,” Mac replied, her voice slightly muffled against his chest. “We missed you.”

“Speaking of which, where’s the rest of the gang?” Harm asked.

“Katie’s in her room, and Jack and Matt are down the street with the Brenton kids,” Mac replied. “They’ll be so thrilled to know you’re home – it’s been a rough couple of days in this house.”

Mac gently extricated herself from Harm’s arms, placing a hand on one hip as she looked up at him, the frustration evident in her dark, expressive eyes. “They’ve been driving me up the wall, Harm… Jack spent the entire afternoon doing strange experiments in the garage… the entire house was reeking of ammonia when I came home. And Matt is even more restless than usual. Yesterday, he got into trouble at school for reading an aviation book during English class.”

“And Katie?” Harm prompted.

Mac shrugged and sighed. “As for Miss Katie, I haven’t got the slightest clue what her problem is today. She’s barricaded herself in her room – she must have put a chair against the door or something – and she won’t talk to me. And according to the boys, she’s been locked in there since they came home from school. That was hours ago.”

“She won’t even open the door?” he asked in concern.

Mac shook her head. “Nope, I’ve been up there a dozen times to check on her, and each time she just yells out ‘I’m fine’ through the door, and that’s it. Maybe she’s mad at me, but if she is, I have no idea why. I was going to try again at dinner time.”

“Let me,” Harm said, heading upstairs. He rapped on his daughter door, which was decorated with paper flowers and a banner that said ‘Katie’s Room.’

Katie’s muffled voice came through the door. “Mommy, I said I’m fine! I’ll be down for dinner!”

“It’s not your mom, honey.”

“Daddy?” Katie’s voice held excitement, and in what seemed like no more than a second, the door was flung wide open, and Harm’s sensitive thirteen year old had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Even after years spent together, Harm was still deeply moved every time Katie freely showed him affection. He remembered how terrified she’d been of him when she first came to live with him and Mac, and he felt honored to know how much she had come to trust him. He hugged her back, and then reached down to lift her face up to his.

“I missed you so much, Katie.”

Katie wouldn’t look into his eyes. She bent her head and buried it against him, and moments later, Harm felt wetness seeping into his shirt. Alarmed, he pulled Katie into her room and sat down on her bed. She continued to cling to him as she cried, and he stroked her hair and tried to calm her with soft endearments.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mac standing in the open doorway, looking as worried as he felt. She walked quietly into the room and joined her husband and daughter on the bed, sitting on the other side of Katie and rubbing her back gently. When Katie looked up and saw Mac, she cried even harder. Her parents tried even harder to comfort her. After a few minutes, the sobs turned to soft sniffles, and Katie dried her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, looking down. “I’m really, really sorry.”

“Baby,” Mac murmured, “it’s okay. Whatever it is, everything is going to be okay. Your dad and I love you very much – you know that. And you know you can tell us anything.”

Katie nodded slowly, but she still wouldn’t look up. “I know.” She fell into a long silence.

“Did something bad happen at school today?” Mac prompted gently. She glanced at Harm over Katie’s head, both parents’ eyes filled with anxiety as they tried to contemplate what could have upset their child so much.

Katie nodded slowly. “I-I I’m so embarrassed… and I don’t want to hurt you and Daddy’s feelings.”

Harm reached down and lifted Katie’s head, looking deep into her eyes. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you could ever do that could make us love you any less than we do.”

Katie nodded again. “Okay… I’ll tell you… but you’re going to be so disappointed in me. There’s a new kid in my class, Jay, he just moved here from Los Angeles….”

She paused. “He’s really friendly and popular and cool… everyone likes him. He’s met lots of famous people, and all the girls think he’s really cute.”

Harm’s jaw tightened as soon as Katie mentioned a boy – he was already thinking of what would constitute a suitable punishment for any kid who dared to make his daughter cry.

Katie continued her tale. “Yesterday I got paired with him for an activity in English class. We had to do a presentation on something that was important to us – and we had to make it as… dramatic and interesting as we could.”

“So,” Katie took a deep breath, “Jay and I decided that we would talk about our parents. His parents are lawyers, just like you guys.”

“So…” Katie continued haltingly, “Jay went first. His dad is a famous defense attorney – he’s always on TV. He’s represented lots of Hollywood celebrities. And his mom works for one of the largest corporate law firms in the country. Last year, her firm won a class action case against a huge multinational pharmaceutical company – the company released a drug without revealing all the side effects. So anyway… when Jay was done, it was my turn….”

Harm and Mac exchanged looks over their daughter’s head… they’d both started to figure out where this could be going.

Katie kept her eyes glued to her feet. “I talked about how my dad used to fly fighter jets, and everyone thought that was pretty cool. But when I got to the part about my dad being in an accident and becoming a JAG lawyer, and my mom being in the JAG Corps too… well….”

“They kinda lost interest, huh?” Mac asked with a wry smile.

“Yeah… I talked about how you and Daddy would prosecute and defend clients in court martial proceedings. I talked about how sometimes you would even be on opposite sides in the same case, and some of my friends thought that was really dramatic – until someone asked if you would go home together afterwards and argue about the cases, so I had to admit that it was before you uh, got together. I talked about some of the other things you told us… about how you used to handle investigations for the Navy, but when they asked for some really exciting examples, I didn’t really know any, so I… uh….”

Katie was silent for a long moment. She took a deep breath, as though gathering up her courage, and then the words spilled out all at once, in a rush.

“So I – kinda exaggerated a little bit. I made up stories. I said that… that you and Daddy went on dangerous missions and saved thousands of lives. I said you both worked undercover for the government in countries all over the world. I said you actually captured terrorists and all kinds of criminals and put them behind bars. I said you saved civilians in life-threatening situations both here and abroad, at the risk of your own lives. I even made up stories about Daddy flying top-secret missions to war-torn countries, and… and I’m so sorry, because the last thing I want is for you to ever think I’m ashamed of you or that I want you to be more than you are, because that’s not true… I’m so proud of you, and I love you both so much.”

Katie hung her head, returning her gaze to her feet. She was clearly on the verge of tears. Her parents, on the other hand, had been exchanging surprised glances during her impassioned confession. Harm spoke up.

“Uh, the thing is, Katie –”

She looked up at him, grabbing his hand. “I’m so sorry, Daddy. I know I shouldn’t have told those lies, and I feel so guilty, but I just felt like I had to come up with something exciting, and –”

“Katie, listen,” Mac stopped her from her other side, “what your dad was going to say is that the things you told your class… well, they weren’t exactly lies.”

Katie’s face was a mixture of shock and astonishment. “But… I made them up….” And then a light dawned in her eyes. “Wait… so I thought I was making them up, but those things actually happened?” She smiled. “That is so cool!”

“No, it’s not,” Harm shook his head, while Mac rolled her eyes at the typical teenage response from their daughter. Harm continued. “The things we did, the assignments we were given sometimes, weren’t ‘cool’ – they were hard… sometimes incredibly hard, and we had to rely on every ounce of our training and instincts to get through them. They were risky and dangerous and very, very serious, and we’re very fortunate that we did get through them.”

Katie nodded frantically, excitement still shining in her eyes. “Yeah, I mean, I know that, but how cool is it that I wasn’t actually lying?”

“Uh, you kinda were,” Mac inserted dryly. “You didn’t know that the things were saying were true. And you should never feel pressured to make up false stories to impress other people. Who you are is more than enough, and don’t let anyone ever make you feel otherwise.”

Katie nodded, sobering a bit, although her eyes were still alight with excitement. “I know, I know... and I’m sorry. And I understand that I should be punished… I know I shouldn’t give into peer pressure, and I won’t ever do anything like this again, I promise. But I’m just so… relieved to know I didn’t actually tell my entire class things that weren’t true. And maybe a part of me always knew that you and Daddy were heroes, not just to us, but to so many other people.”

Harm shrugged. “Don’t put us on a pedestal, Katie. We don’t see ourselves as heroes. We’re no different than the many other people who’ve taken an oath to protect our country.”

Katie smiled. “Well, you and Mommy will always be heroes to me.” Suddenly, something seemed to occur to her. “How come you’ve never told us those stories?” she asked, her eyes darting from one of her parents to the other. “Don’t you trust us?”

“It’s not about that,” Harm said, shaking his head. “There are some things we can’t tell you, because of the nature of the assignments, and there are some things you aren’t quite old enough to know yet.”

“And before you remind us that you’re thirteen now,” he interjected, when he saw Katie open her mouth in indignation, “that’s not old enough for you to know some of the things that happened back then. Your sister Mattie knows some of it, and as time goes on, the rest of you will too.”

Katie nodded. “I can live with that.” She put an arm around each of her parents, holding them to her as tightly as she could. Her grip was surprisingly strong for such a petite girl. “Thank you for not being mad – and thank you for still being here with us, after all the things you went through. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without you.”

“Well, thankfully you don’t have to – and we’re so thankful for you too, Katie,” Mac said, “for the very same reasons.”


Later that night

Harm and Mac finally fell into bed around midnight – the evening had been long and chaotic. In his excitement over his dad’s return, Matthew had been stubborn in his refusal to go to sleep, and just when they’d managed to get him tucked in and fast asleep, Jack had attempted yet another home-lab experiment – this time in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the smoke billowing from one of his makeshift machines had set off the smoke alarm, waking Matt up in the process.

“What a day,” Mac yawned, stretching her long limbs. She turned her head towards her husband. “You must be exhausted – you didn’t even have a chance to recover from your trip.”

“I’m fine,” Harm said, reaching out to pull Mac into the warmth of his body. “I’m just glad to be back home with you.”

Mac smiled and leaned up to kiss him. The two lay in silence, their bodies slowly relaxing, tension slipping out of their muscles, their breaths growing deep and even. Then Mac felt a rumble against her – Harm’s quiet laughter.

“Wanna share the joke?” she asked sleepily.

“I was just thinking that Katie was right – as crazy as some of those things we did were, they were also kinda cool.”

Mac smiled broadly. “Speak for yourself, Rabb,” she teased, “You might have thought it was cool, but I really can’t say I felt the same. In fact, I often asked God what I’d done wrong in a previous life to deserve being partnered with such a risk-taking cowboy. You turned every situation we were in into the wild, west West.”

“Yeah right,” Harm countered. “You like to act like you’re the responsible one, but you loved every moment of it, and you know it.”

“Okay okay, I’ll admit it, even at the risk of feeding your already overgrown ego,” Mac said, running a hand lightly over his ribs. “I always did love being with you – no matter where we were, or what we were doing… and I always will.”

“Same here, Mac,” Harm responded, kissing her, “same here.”

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Replies:

[> To quote Katiie, "that's so cool!" Great story, would love to hear more about Jack and his experiments -- usmgrad, 13:32:10 05/01/13 Wed [1]


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[> LOL loved it Dee -- Bev uk, 14:49:53 05/01/13 Wed [1]


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[> Great. Loved it. -- Beth, 15:49:36 05/01/13 Wed [1]


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[> AW! -- Marianne Valentine, 16:59:08 05/01/13 Wed [1]

This was SO sweet!


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[> Great story Dee and I really enjoyed this Rabb family. -- Can Sheshe, 19:57:47 05/01/13 Wed [1]


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[> Loved Katies' vivid imagination, if she only knew! Way to go, Katie, -- JoyZ, 11:42:33 05/02/13 Thu [1]


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[> Well done, Dee. Harm and Mac have some adventurous stories to tell! -- Lee, 20:19:45 05/02/13 Thu [1]


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[> Just imagining what those three kids would really be thinking if they only knew. Delightful story, Dee. -- carramor, 01:23:29 05/03/13 Fri [1]


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[> "Cool" story, very cute -- jan, 18:26:51 05/12/13 Sun [1]


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