Author: Hollyjp
Subject: The Right Thing - June 08 HBX Challenge

The Right Thing - June 08 HBX Challenge
by HollyjpHere are Challenge 2008 lines for June.
Mac: Why are you doing this?
Harm: Because it's the right thing to do.
I've stopped trying to stop you.
(What If)

Disclaimer: This is for fun only - not for profit.

The Right Thing

Harm reached for Mac’s suitcase and loaded it into the back of the taxi that waited near the curb in front of their house. For the past three years Sarah Mackenzie and Harmon Rabb Junior had lived in the house on Military Road they purchased together after they had married and Harm had been transferred back stateside.

Then they had been wildly in love enjoying the freedom of being in love with one another finally after so many years. When Harm learned to let go, he let go but good. Mac had never laughed as freely or as much during those first years. Who knew that Harm was such a comic! She had never expected that silly side to him that he had revealed once he decided they should marry.

But Mac wasn’t laughing now. It was a sure thing that she would never carry a child of her own. She had grappled with the pros and cons of staying or leaving. Harm would make a wonderful father to more children as he had with Mattie. He had convinced Mac that they should apply to adopt children. He had convinced her that raising a child together with her was the most important thing. Mac had been over the moon when they had submitted their paperwork. Then last week the social worker had called them in for an interview.

FLASHBACK
Social Workers Office

They had fired questions at both of them separately and together. Things were looking good until they got to one question. Mac’s heart had cracked when she heard the social worker ask, “Have either of you ever been treated for an addiction to any substances?”

“Do cigars count?” Harm had asked with a smile.

“No sir, although we prefer to place children in non-smoking families, we don’t worry about the occasional use that you describe.” She had then turned to Mac and seen the stricken look the same time Harm did. “Are you okay Mrs. Rabb?”

“Mac?”

“I’m an alcoholic,” Mac had informed the social worker who held their future family in her hands.

“Oh I see. How long?”

“Ten years this time.”

“This time? You’ve fallen off the wagon?”

“Yes...once...ten years ago.”

“But Mac, you had been clean for ten years before that,” Harm interjected. “It’s not a problem is it?”

“Well, it does impact your suitability score negatively, but it’s not impossible. I’ll have to take this to the board for their approval.”

“Is there anything more?” Mac asked gathering her things together.

“No, I think that’s all. We’ll be in touch in seven to ten days with a decision.”

Harm quietly walked with is hand on her waist back to their car. He slid behind the wheel waiting for Mac to say something. Anything. The silence was getting to him.

“I’m sorry Harm...I can’t give you your own child and now it looks like I’ll prevent you from adopting too. I should just leave so you can get on with your life.”

“What are you saying Mac? You want to leave me?”

“No...yes...I don’t want to Harm, but it’s the fair thing to do.” Mac brushed the tears away that she couldn’t hold back.

“Don’t jump to conclusions Mac. You’ve only had the one slip in all this time. That’s got to count in your favor. You’ve been able to maintain a military career. You’ve been a big sister to Chloe and to Mattie. You did great with our god children. You’re going to be a great mother soon.”

“You’re trying to cheer me up and I don’t think you can right now. I need some time to think about this and figure out what to do.”

“You want some space?” Harm asked taking her hand in his between the seats.

“Exactly.”

“How much?”

“I don’t know Harm. A week to ten days...until we know where we stand.”

Harm didn’t like it but he agreed to give her the space she wanted.

PRESENT

Harm closed the lid on the trunk of the taxi and turned to help Mac into the back seat. His throat burned with the tears that threatened. Mac didn’t look much better than he felt.

FLASH BACK

Mac had been wavering back and forth waiting for the call from the social worker. Harm was at the airbase while she was in their home office going through some paperwork when the phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Mrs. Rabb?”

“Yes?”

“This is Mrs. Latrell with the adoption agency. I’m sorry, but the committee feels that you’re score is too low to risk placing a child with you at this time.”

“What are you saying?” Mac asked stunned despite the fact that she had been positive that this is exactly what would happen.

“Ma’am there were too many things that added up to you being a risky decision.”

“What things?”

“You ages for one. You’re both in the military. Your history with alcohol...”

Mac had heard enough. “Thank you for getting back to us so promptly. I’ll let my husband know.”

Mac had hung up the phone and gone to look out the window. Harm was just coming home and he had knelt down to talk to the tow-headed twins next door. The two boys worshiped Harm and followed him around every chance they got. It was the nail in the coffin. Mac could not keep Harm from having the family he needed and deserved. She had to do the right thing. She had to leave.

Quickly she packed her bags with the stuff she could carry. She took them downstairs prepared for Harm to fight her on this. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the confrontation.

FLASHBACK
Ten minutes ago.

Mac had called for a cab to take her away from their house, their dreams, their life together. Harm met her at the door. She braced herself for his reaction knowing he would try once again to tell her how it didn’t matter and that she should stay. Each time previously Mac had wanted to feel the hope and love from Harm and had allowed him to talk her into doing the very thing she really wanted to do but felt she shouldn’t.

“Going somewhere?” Harm asked as he saw her with her suitcase in her hand.

Here it comes she thought as he quietly studied her.

“Mrs. Latrell called.”

“I know. She called me too. What did you hear?” Harm asked.

“That my drinking problem is interferring with you becoming a parent.”

Harm thought about it for a minute. So many times they had come to this issue. So many times they had prevailed and stayed together because he had given Mac the ray of hope she wanted. He searched in his head for something to say to work his magic again. All he could latch onto was some old worn out words that he had seen on one to many posters and plaques over the years. Yet it wouldn’t let him go. Quietly he nodded and reached for Mac’s suitcase. It would kill him to do this, but he knew it was his only option this time.

Harm reached for Mac’s suitcase and loaded it into the back of the taxi that waited near the curb in front of their house.

Mac watched Harm waiting for the words to convince her to stay once again.

They didn’t come. Instead, Harm held the door open for her to get into the cab.

“Why are you doing this?” Mac asked in a whisper, shocked that the words weren’t coming.

“Because it’s the right thing to do. I’ve stopped trying to stop you.”

The cab door closed and Harm stepped back so the cab could pull away. Mac’s eyes were fixed on his face. He didn’t know what she could read in his eyes or his soul. He just knew his heart shattered as the cab pulled away with the one woman he knew he would love forever.

It was true he had wanted a family with Mac, but it looked like that wasn’t to be. Not even a family of two. Harm was truly lost as he felt the pain fill him and grieved, not for the loss of children, but for his other half...Sarah Mackenzie Rabb.

She had filled his life with such joy and with so much love. Mac however wouldn’t be happy without the child she wanted to the exclusion of all else it would appear. Until she dealt with that loss, however she was going to deal with it, she wouldn’t be happy with her life, with him, or her career.

Harm turned and walked back to the house. It would be a long night he feared.

Mac sat in stunned silence in the back of that cab as it drove away.

“Where to lady?” the cabby barked a second time.

“Sorry...downtown I guess.” Mac wasn’t sure where she was going, but heading for the city was the first step. She could get a place to stay tonight. Maybe have a drink or two and drown her sorrows. Why not? She’d only slipped up once before and she had no reason to try anymore. Harm wouldn’t even know.

Harm. He never gave up on someone...until now. She remembered the last time she had gone off the wagon. Harm had told her walking away was the hardest thing he had ever done, yet he had known it was the one thing that would help her get back on track. What did he know that she didn’t this time?

Suddenly the need for a drink didn’t seem so important. The need to tell the social worker, Mrs. Latrell, what she thought of her for stealing a good home from a needy child was forefront in her mind.

Mac tapped the cabby on the shoulder and gave him the address of the social worker’s office. Seething, by the time they arrived, Mac told the cab driver to wait for her. She stormed into the office and firmly but politely told the receptionist that she needed to see Mrs. Latrell.

“How can I help you Mrs. Rabb?”

Once she was shown in, Mac turned her indignation on the woman that was trying to snatch her last hope for children.

“You can change your mind. My husband and I would make great parents to a child. Yea, we had hoped to adopt a baby, but you can’t tell me there aren’t older children that need a strong, caring home just as much. We never said we wouldn’t consider an older child. You never even asked.”

Hardly stopping to take a breath, Mac launched the next round of her attack.

“If anything was going to send me back to the bottle this would have done it. Being told that my one mistake was going to keep a child from a loving home was bad enough, but to risk losing Harm, the one man that I have loved above all others, who has fought for us to be together time and time again, would send a lesser woman to the bottle. I’m not a lesser woman, Mrs. Latrell. I’m a strong woman that knows my heart and my mind. Will you reconsider your decision?”

“Mrs. Rabb...”

“Colonel Rabb. And I’m married to Captain Rabb. We deserve those titles just as much as some child deserves to be raised by us, two loving and devoted parents.”

“Yes, well, you’ve made a strong case for your situation. You’re right...there are older children and children with special needs. They need a good family as well. Are you sure you could handle the stress of a military career and the stress of caring for a needy child?”

“Those two things shouldn’t be exclusive. Yes my husband and I have to handle stress in our jobs, but we know how to do it. We’re a team. We’re there for each other. We know how to make a tough call if we need to...especially my husband.”

“Go home Colonel Rabb...I’ll be in touch soon.”

“Does this mean you’ll reconsider your decision?”

“Yes...you’ve made an excellent case for yourself and proven to me beyond a doubt that you are strong enough to parent any child. Go home. I promise I’ll talk to you soon.”

Mac returned to the cab with a bounce in her step giving the driver instructions as to where to take her. She had things to do now.

Harm heard something and looked back out the window he had just walked away from unable to believe that Mac was still gone and hadn’t called or anything nearly three hours later.

He watched her get out of the cab and take packages and her suitcase from the driver...the same guy that had taken her away from here three hours ago. He opened the door to go meet her.

“Mac?”

“Hi...sorry about my little temper tantrum Harm...can I come home?”

“You know you can. What changed your mind?”

“You did.”

“I don’t follow.”

“You never give up on anyone or anything Harm. You never have. I’m not sure why you let me go, but it worked.”

Together they walked into the house and set down the things Mac carried.

“Been shopping?” Harm asked.

“Among other things.”

“Care to share?”

“I love you Harm.”

“I know. I love you too.”

“You letting me go made me realize that I didn’t want to go and I don’t want to go back to the bottle. I’ll admit I thought about it. Then I realized that I would be proving Mrs. Latrell right, so I went to see her. I told her that I was stronger then that and that I knew there were children that needed families and she was crazy to turn down a loving home where any child - an older one or one with special needs - could be loved and welcomed.”

“Good for you Mac.”

“Yeah...and good for us maybe,” Mac grinned leaning into her husband’s chest with her arms around his waist. “Mrs. Latrell said she would talk to us soon and I was right. She’s reconsidering her decision.”

“I’m proud of you Mac. Just remember one thing. If the decision is still no, I don’t want you to walk away because of it. I need you Mac. I love you. Without you there is no family. Understand?”

“I think I do now Harm. You had to let me go and see if I’d come back to you on my own didn’t you?”

“Yeah. You know that plaque my mother has?”

“If you love someone set it free. If it comes back to you it was meant to be.”

“That’s the one.” Harm grinned. “You know what this means?”

“We’re meant to be.”

“Right.” Harm noticed the light on the answering machine blinking. It must have been a call that came in when he had gone out to meet Mac. “Maybe this is the call Mac.”

They listened to the message together, three times.

“Captain and Colonel Rabb? We’ve reconsidered our decision. Not only do we think that you will make the kind of parents we want for our children, we think we have a family for you. Please call right away when you get this message. Congratulations Mom and Dad.”

“Harm they have a child for us. Lets call.”


TWO HOURS LATER

Harm opened the door to Mrs. Latrell and their children. Mac gathered the toddler the woman carried into her arms, while Mrs. Latrell introduced the other two children.

“That little one is Cara. She’s sixteen months old. This is Bella and she’s four. And this is their big brother, David.”

“I’m six,” the sturdy little boy announced. “I can take care of my sisters.”

Harm knelt down to look the little boy in the eye. He stuck out his hand to greet the man-child. “You know, David, you’ve taken on a lot. You’ve done a good job. Like any big brother, you’ll have a life time of loving and caring for your sisters. For now though, you also need to be a little boy. We’re here so that you can do that too.”

“I’m too big to be a little boy.”

“You’re right. But you need to show your sisters how to play and have fun. That’s an important step for them learning to be good, well adjusted happy adults some day.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll make sure you have food, clothes and a place to stay warm and dry,” Harm told him.

“Does that mean we won’t be able to go swimming?” Bella asked.

“No Sweetheart. You can swim lots of times and then have a warm house and dry clothes to put on.”

“Okay...David, I think we should stay here. These people are nice,” little Bella tried whispering to her big brother. “And Cara’s tired and scared but she likes this lady.”

“Okay. We’ll stay.” His stiff upper lip was threatening to collapse from exhaustion and something else that Mac couldn’t place as she watched the dark haired, dark eyed boy trying to keep it together for himself and his sisters.

“I know this is short notice,” Mrs. Latrell began, “but when you came to see me I was waiting for their arrival and trying to decide what I would do with them. DO you have a crib for the little one?” she asked with her fingers crossed.

“It’s a youth bed but it has a side rail. I think it will work for tonight. The portable crib we have is a little too small for Cara,” Mac explained.

Once the three children had been settled into their new bedrooms, the adults would talk.

Cara and Bella were put together in the lavender room Mac had hoped would be the nursery. David was installed next door in his own room, the former guest room, which was painted in basic beige walls for now. Eventually he would get to decorate his own room to fit his interests. For now it would do.

Once the children were settled, Mrs. Latrell walked back to the kiving room with them. “Can we sit down? It’s been a long day.”

“Yes it has. Would you like something? Coffee? Tea? Lemonade?” Mac asked anxious to hear the story of the children and glad she had gone back to confront Mrs. Latrell.

“Nothing for me. Let me fill you in on what happened, and why there are three children needing a home. They were here on vacation with their parents. Their mother was an orphan and joined the Navy when she graduated from high school. She met their father in Italy. The children speak both Italian and English, but this was their first visit to the United States. Their mother wanted to show them her home land when she was asked to come for a special ceremony at the base.”

“Don’t tell me,” Mac grimaced knowing what was to come.

“I’m afraid so. The children were staying with friends today when their parents’ car was hit by a truck. The brakes had failed. They were killed instantly. Their father’s family in Italy was contacted. They do not feel they can take the children as they are in their seventies. I know you were looking for one child...”

“We’ll take them,” Mac didn’t hesitate. “Harm and I know there will be challenges, but its okay.”

Harm just nodded in agreement as he slid his arm around his wife. “We both experienced the loss of a parent during our childhood,” Harm explained. “We’ll be able to identify with what they are going through.”

“There will be a six-month period where you’ll be monitored. This will be considered a foster placement at first. If all goes well, in six months you can partition the courts for full custody and then another six months before the adoption is final.”

“Thank you Mrs. Latrell, for giving me another chance and letting us show you we can be good parents.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you both for taking them on so quickly.”

Harm walked Mrs. Latrell to her car while Mac let the emotions of the day have a moment of control. The tears came hard and fast for a few seconds when she looked at her suitcase sitting forgotten by the stairs. Harm found her wiping her face and blowing her nose on a tissue when he returned.

“Mac? Honey, what’s wrong?” Harm gathered his wife into his arms and held her tight.

“I’m okay...and nothing is wrong now...for us. We have our family.”

“Well, it will be awhile before they’re ready to call us mom and dad.”

“I know...but what if me have them use nicknames or something different from what they called their parents?”

“Like what Mac?”

“I’m not sure yet. But if they called their father Dad, maybe they could call you Pop.”

“Pop...I like that.”

“Well maybe they can just call me Mac.”

“Maybe...but I think it’s a good idea. We’ll talk to them about it in the morning.”


Rabb Residence
Next Morning

The quiet giggles alerted Mac that the girls were awake. She quiet stood by the door listening to the older one, Bella, talk to the younger one, Cara.

“Remember Cara, Mama and Papa are gone. We have new parents now. Maybe they’ll let us call them Mom and Dad like the other American kids do. Would you like that?”

Cara responded with baby jibberish that was cute but didn’t mean much to Mac yet. And then she heard the little voice say, “Mom.”

Mac looked up and met Cara’s eyes with her own. Two sets of brown eyes studied the others. Bella, the green-eyed middle child, must have taken after her American mother, while the other two with their dark hair and dark eyes must have inherited more of their Italian heritage.

“Good morning Cara. Good morning Bella. I would love to have you call me Mom if you want to.”

“Davy up?” Bella asked.

“Yes. He’s with Harm...Dad...in the kitchen.” Mac smiled at the girls.

“Davy likes to cook.”

“I know. He told us that he cooked breakfast for you on weekends with your Papa.”

“Mama...Papa...” Cara had puckered up and started to cry.

Mac scooped the toddler into her arms, fully aware that she needed a clean diaper very soon, and soothed the fresh tears.

Bella immediately started rubbing her sisters back helping to sooth her. “She misses Mama and Papa still.”

“I’m sure you all do.”

“Yes, but Davy and I know it doesn’t help. Cara’s too little to understand yet.”

Mac finished changing Cara’s diaper and set her on the floor. Together she hugged both little girls to her.

“You know what? You’re Mama and Papa would want you to feel whatever you feel. It’s okay to cry if you’re sad or laugh if you are happy. You are little girls and your brother is a little boy. You need to be children and let us be the adults.”

“Okay. Can we eat bress-fass now?” Bella pleaded.

“Of course you can.” Taking the two little girls by their hands Mac lead them to the kitchen, where they found David or Davy as his sisters called him, laughing at the silly shapes Daddy Harm was making on the griddle.

It was the right thing to do, Mac knew in her head and her heart. Here was the family they wanted and that needed them.

The End