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Date Posted: 14:20:27 11/24/16 Thu
Author: Lace
Subject: Nine years after series chapter 22 Christmas time

Mac paid the lady behind the counter and smiled thankfully as she handed her the bag with the wrapped present in. She thanked her, wished her merry Christmas and headed out of the store. It was two days until Christmas and this was the last of the presents. She found Harm waiting on her outside the store, and she was surprised to find him talking to Clayton Webb and a woman she hadn’t seen before.
“Hey,” Harm said when he saw her. “All done?”
“Yes,” she offered a polite smile in Clay’s direction. “Hi Clay,” she said.
“Hi Sarah. You look good,” Clay said and smiled. “This is Jackie Terrence. My fiancée. Jackie, this is Colonel Sarah Rabb.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mac said and offered her hand.
“You too,” Jackie said and smiled. “Your husband told me that you are a military judge. I’m a District judge myself.”
“I am. You work here in D.C?” Mac asked.
“I moved here two years ago. From Florida. My daughter lives here with her husband, and when they had their first baby I just couldn’t be so far away,” Jackie said.
“I can understand that,” Mac said.
“I met Jackie through a mutual friend,” Clay explained.
“I didn’t know you had any friend’s Webb,” Harm joked.
“Funny, Rabb,” Clay said.
“I was a little sceptic because he’s CIA, but he assured me that the Deputy Director is mostly a paper pusher. He won’t tell me much about his past though,” Jackie said and looked lovingly at Clay.
“His past is probably filed away somewhere with a classified stamp on it,” Harm said teasingly.
“You’re in a good mood Rabb,” Clay said with an amused look on his face. “What gives?”
Harm laughed softly. “Aren’t I always in a good mood?” He took Mac’s hand. “We should get going or we’ll be late to pick up Matthew.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Mac said and smiled politely to Jackie. “Merry Christmas Webb.”
“Merry Christmas,” Clay said.
As Mac and Harm walked away she shook her head and offered a questioningly glance in his direction. “Did you have to be mean?”
“Mean?” Harm questioned.
“You didn’t have to joke about his past like that,” Mac commented as they walked towards their car.
“Clay is a big boy, he can take it,” Harm said as he opened the car door for her. “Besides, she’s marrying a CIA man, she knows that means secrets. She didn’t strike me as the naïve type.”
“Did you guys chat a lot before I came?” Mac wondered as she got into the car.
Harm hurried around the car and got in on his side. “You were away for a long time so we talked for a bit. She seems nice.”
“Good for Clay,” Mac said as Harm started the car and drove off. “He deserves to be happy.”
“I agree,” Harm said and reached for her hand.
“Really? You agree?” Mac asked.
“Hey, I like Clay. I didn’t like him with you, but I do like him,” Harm said with a small laugh.
Mac smiled and shook her head in amusement. “Thanks for shopping with me today.”
“No problem. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to spend time with you, even shopping,” he teased and kissed her hand.
“That’s sweet,” Mac said.

Later that night Mac and the kids were busy making cookies in the kitchen. Mattie had joined them, but Nathan wouldn’t be home until the next day, so the family wasn’t complete yet. Trish and Frank had flown in earlier that day, to stay until after the New Years. Mac was looking forward to having everyone there during Christmas.
Harm joined them in the kitchen after he’d finished at the gym. “Something smells good.”
Mac smiled. “It smells like Christmas.”
“We made plenty,” Mattie said and looked thoughtful. “Maybe we should bring some to the homeless shelter tomorrow.”
“That’s a great idea,” Harm said as he reached for a cookie. “Where’s Matthew?”
“He ran next door to Hank with some cookies. They had plans to watch a movie. He’ll be home by 2100,” Mac explained.
Harm nodded and hesitated. “I called Webb to apologize.”
Her jaw dropped. “You what?”
“I just wanted to make sure that he knew I was joking, and to apologize for cracking jokes about his past in front of his fiancée. Besides, you called me mean.”
“So what did he say?”
“He told me you had me whipped,” Harm said and flashed her a smile. “It’s all good, no hard feelings. Clay can handle a joke about being a spook, he’s used to it. It’s not like I haven’t heard a few jokes about my time with the CIA.”
Mac offered an amused look. “Yeah, I forgot that you went to the dark side.”
“Dad, you worked in the CIA?” Claire asked surprised.
Harm and Mac shared a look before they turned to their daughter. “I did for about six months. I was a company pilot.”
“That’s why you were not in the Navy when we first met?” Mattie looked surprised too. “You never told me why you wanted to work as a crop-duster.”
“You were a crop-duster too Dad?” Claire asked.
“I hired him,” Mattie explained. “That’s how we met and how Dad became my guardian. Well, Mom is the real reason I got to live with him, but that was later.”
“Why were you in the CIA anyway?” Claire wanted to know.
Harm hesitated and looked at his wife. They hadn’t discussed telling their kids all about their pasts. “I resigned from the Navy.”
“Why? And how did you end up in the CIA? And how did you end up in the Navy again?” Claire questioned.
“And why were you really fired from the CIA?” Mattie chimed in.
Mac sat down on a bar stool. “We better start at the beginning I guess.”
Harm sat down beside her. “Clayton Webb requested your Mom to accompany him on a CIA mission.”
“But you were a lawyer?” Mattie said with confusion.
“We had worked with Clay before, he’s actually the reason we met back when Uncle Matt stole the Declaration of Independence,” Harm said and took his wife’s hand. “Your Mom pulled a gun on me by the way.”
“I had to make it look like you were my hostage,” Mac defended herself.
“Well, anyway, we worked with Clay several times after that, and he helped me find my Dad in Russia,” Harm explained.
“This time he wanted me to go undercover as his pregnant wife, which I did. The mission went bad, we were taken hostage and your Dad resigned his commission to come find me,” Mac continued.
“I’m confused,” Mattie said. “You went on a dangerous mission to find Mom, and you quit the Navy to do so, and still you were not together when we met? How is that possible?”
Harm and Mac looked at each other and hesitated. “That’s not easy to explain,” Mac said.
“And you were dating Mr. Webb when I first met you?” Mattie questioned.
“I’m not going down that road,” Mac said and looked at her husband.
“Anyway, we got back to the US, I flew for the company until I landed a plane on a ship, got on TV and got fired. That was when I started working for Mattie, and you know the rest of that story so…”
“But how long did you date Webb? And why did you guys wait until the last possible minute to get together?” Claire wondered.
Mac stood. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. It’s the past, let’s just leave it at that.”
“Please,” Claire pleaded.
Mac hesitated and crossed her arms over her chest. “Mattie, do you remember when Harm hurt his hearing?”
“I do, he was an impossible patient,” Mattie said.
“Well, the reason he was hurt is because the mission I had been on with Webb came back to haunt us. It ended with me killing a man who would have murdered a lot of innocent people had he not been stopped.”
“But you had to, right?” Claire asked.
“No, I didn’t have to. He was already hurt and couldn’t fire at me. I killed him because he had hurt a lot of people, and because he hurt someone I cared about. I’m not proud of what I did, but I don’t regret it either,” Mac said and took a breath. “Anyway, Webb almost got me killed because he faked his death and the man haunting him came after me to get to Webb. That was the end of my relationship with Webb. At the same time, I was dealing with some health issues, and I pushed your Dad away and that’s why we waited until the last possible minute before we got together.”
“And a lot of other reasons that was mostly my fault,” Harm said and stood as well. He put his hand on the small of Mac’s back. “But the important thing is that we got together, and everything turned out just the way it was supposed to.”
Mattie and Claire stared at them. “Have you guys considered selling off the movie rights?” Mattie finally asked.
Mac and Harm looked at each other and laughed. “No,” Harm finally said.
Mac sobered up. “The thing is, we have both done things in the past that we regret, but the second we agreed to get married it all stopped to matter.”
“From that moment, we were so focused on our future, and all of you that everything else seemed unimportant,” Harm added and pulled Mac close.
“Absolutely,” Mac agreed.
Trish and Frank chose that moment to join them in the kitchen. “It smells wonderful in here,” Trish said.
“It’s plenty, so dig in,” Mac said.
“I have some place I need to be,” Harm said and kissed Mac sweetly. “I love you.”
Mac looked confused as he released her. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” Harm said and smiled widely.
He left them and they all sat down by the counter to have cookies.

Christmas Eve, after the church service
Harm touched his father’s name on the wall and remembered a moment from their short time together. He turned to his wife who were waiting for him.
“I’m ready,” he said.
She smiled and took his hand. “So, what’s the big surprise?”
“I wanted to give you your Christmas gift,” he said and opened the car door for her.
He got in as well and drove off. A little while later he drove up to what looked like an abandoned building, stopped and got out. He opened the door for Mac and smiled when he noticed her questioningly face as she got out. He took her hand and led her to a door and opened it. She looked around the hallway that they entered and wondered what her husband was up to. He led her across the hallway and opened a new door. Mac was surprised when she found the lights on and a cinema theatre appeared before her. In the room sat their kids and Trish and Frank.
“The building is being demolished soon, but tonight we are bringing it back to life. Remember how you told me about how much you loved the old cinema back in your hometown, and that your favorite Christmas movie growing up was the 1938 version of a Christmas Carrol? Well, I decided to bring the two things together. An old cinema and your favorite Christmas movie,” he said and led her to the front seats. “My lady,” he said and made her sit down before he sat down beside her. “We’re ready, Harry?”
“Enjoy,” a voice said from somewhere behind in the theatre.
Mac looked curiously at her husband. “How did you make this happen?”
“I know people,” he said secretively and reached for a basket by his seat. “Popcorn? Soda? Candy?”
“You thought of everything,” she said and leaned back in her seat to enjoy the movie.

As the movie ended Mac reached for Harm’s hand as they stood. “Thank you so much, that was amazing.”
“I second that,” Trish said.
“Very cool, Dad,” Claire said.
“How did you do this?” Mac wanted to know.
“A man must have some secrets,” Harm said cleverly.
Mac leaned in and kissed him. “That’s the best present anyone has ever given me.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” he said and kissed her again. “It’s getting late, so we should probably get out of here and let Harry close the place.”
“Hot chocolate when we get home,” Trish declared.
“Great idea,” Mattie said.
Everyone left to go home while Harm took Mac’s hand and held her back. “I want to take a picture of this place. To remember.” He reached for his phone and took the picture before he smiled. “Let’s go home.”
Hand in hand they left the building, leaving Harry to shut the place down one last time. Back home they had hot chocolate and enjoyed the evening as a family. As Harm walked from the kitchen and to the living room after getting two mugs for Mac and himself, he stopped and watched the interaction between the people he loved the most. He felt blessed to have them all in his life.

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[> So glad I checked the site...I love your stories. -- FJN, 10:12:50 11/28/16 Mon [1]

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