'F' is for ... Fundamentals on the Fourth
Part 2
Harm’s thoughts returned to the discussion around him when, given enough clues, AJ filled in that the person with a connection to Independence Day and whose name began with ‘F’ was Benjamin “Fwanklin!”
“Ooh, I’ve got a double for today,” Mac contributed. “… Founding fathers.”
“What – you think you get extra points for that?” Harm asked her playfully.
“You bet. Two ‘F’s and it connects with the holiday,” she pointed out.
“I can do that.” Harm was not going to let her best him.
“Oh yeah?”
“Sure. … Friends and family.”
Mac gave him a doubtful glare, but Harm defended his answer. “… Look around – it’s part of what today is about.”
“He does have a point, ma’am,” Bud admitted to Mac.
“Well, if that counts, then I get points for ‘finger food,’” Mac stated triumphantly, grabbing another half sandwich and a baby carrot from the cooler they had brought.
Harm simply gave her one of his exasperated looks.
“I wanna carrot,” AJ requested, hopping off of his father’s lap.
“AJ,” his mother reminded him, “ask nicely.”
The boy smiled sweetly at Mac. “I wanna carrot, pleeeease.”
It wasn’t exactly ‘asking,’ but it would do.
“Here you go.” Mac handed AJ the vegetable.
“At least someone is learning how to eat healthy,” commented Harm.
Mac knew that was a barb at her, and she waved her half eaten carrot in front of him. “I eat healthy.”
He rolled his eyes at her meager evidence. “You want to pass me a piece of ‘fresh fruit’ from the cooler?” he asked her.
“Sure.” She reopened the bin next to her. “What kind?”
“Umm, a plum, if there are any left.”
“Head’s up.” She tossed a plum at him, which he caught. “It’s the last one,” she informed him.
“Anyone else interested in it?” he asked politely.
AJ spoke up immediately. “Me!! I like plums!”
“Okay, then you have it,” Harm insisted.
“Are you sure, sir?” Harriet asked. “He doesn’t need it.”
“I’m sure. Gotta encourage healthy habits.”
“But I don’t want it yet,” AJ decided, handing the fruit back to Mac to return to the cooler. The little guy was busy with his carrot.
“Harm, did you want something else instead?” Mac asked, while she had the ice chest open.
“Uh, … nah. Maybe I’ll just hold off for a little bit.”
Harriet, just then, noticed that her son was sniffling. “Oh, AJ, come here,” she requested. “Your nose is running; let’s wipe that.”
She grabbed a napkin and took care of it.
“There you go.”
Harm couldn’t resist having some fun with his godson. “Hey, AJ, do your feet smell?”
The boy looked puzzled, but then indignantly told Harm, “No!”
“Are you sure?” Harm persisted, sitting farther up. “Because, you know, … if your nose is running and your feet smell, … then you must be built upside-down.”
AJ now glared at his godfather as if the man was insane.
Grabbing the boy close to him and tussling his hair, Harm explained his joke, “Because normally, people’s noses smell and their feet are running.”
There was laughter from the boy now, but that might have been because Harm was playfully poking him.
“So, are you built upside-down?” Harm asked.
Through the giggles, AJ managed to squeal, “No!”
“Let’s check.” Harm stood up with AJ in his arms and proceeded to flip the boy over, so that the four-year-old dangled upside-down. The boy was clearly enjoying this physical play … almost as much as the Naval Commander. “Is this the way you should go?” Harm asked, facetiously.
The boy merely laughed with delight and swung his arms in circles, relishing the new direction that gravity pulled them.
“Aunt Mac, you’re upside-down.”
“I am?”
“Uh-huh. And you look funny!”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. … And ‘funny’ starts with ’F’!”
“I bet the whole world looks funny, since it all seems flipped to you right now,” Mac said to him.
AJ laughed. “Yeah!! Everything looks weally weiud.” AJ was generally getting better with his ‘r’ sounds, but now was clearly not a time he was conscious about it.
“Alright, enough of this.” Harm began to gently lower AJ, mindful of the boy’s head and neck. But once AJ’s back was on the ground, Harm playfully let his godson’s legs fall.
“Gee, you’re getting heavy, AJ,” Harm teased him. Dropping to his hands and knees, Harm hovered over the boy and good-humoredly accused him, “You’ve been growing again, haven’t you?”
“Yep, I’m a big boy!”
“Yes, you are,” Mac told him. “And you’re going to be a bigbrother very soon.”
“You’re growing up fast,” Harm agreed.
“That begins with ‘F,’ too,” said AJ.
“Yes, ‘fast’ begins with ‘F,’” Harm agreed. “Very good.”
“First-rate!” AJ corrected.
As Harm wondered where AJ picked up that phrase, he pretended to tickle AJ, which he learned long ago had the desired effect of making Bud’s child giggle. Laughing along with him, when AJ tried to ‘tickle’ him too, Harm scooped the boy up and rolled over onto his back. This left AJ atop of him.
Over the squirming boy, Harm could see that Harriet had gotten herself up off of her chair.
She addressed her son, “Okay my ‘first-rate’ little man. Mommy has to use the facilities. How about you try to use the potty too?”
AJ considered it and decided it was probably a good idea. “Okay.”
Bud stood as well. “We’ll make it a family trip.” Addressing Harm and Mac, he assured them, “We’ll be back soon.”
“Maybe not too soon,” Harriet announced. “I’d like to enjoy some air conditioning … or at least some fans to cool me down for a bit.”
“Find yourself a fridge and enjoy for as long as you want. We’ll be here,” Mac answered.
The Roberts’ family headed off, AJ firmlyholding his mother’s hand.
* * *
“You do look funny.”
“What?” Mac asked. Harm’s remark had surprised her.
“Upside-down.” Since he was left lying face up, Harm tilted his head back, making Mac appear topsy-turvy to him.
“You know,” she told him, “it’s really only cute coming from a four-year-old.”
“Don’t get all feisty,” Harm told her. “I’m simply saying that that no matter what or who you focus on, … from this angle, everything looks odd.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“What, you don’t want me to hold you upside-down like I did AJ?” he teased, punctuating the remark with a smile that had his tongue peeking out between his teeth.
“No, thank you,” Mac politely declined. “You have a habit of turning my world upside-down as it is, and that’s never a good thing.”
Harm rolled himself over on his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows to look at her. “Never?”
“Have you ever had your life turned upside-down?” It was a rhetorical question to make her point, but he answered.
“On more than one occasion. You know that.”
“Yeah, and, just like in my life, they were all traumatic events.”
Harm sat up and moved closer to Mac on the blanket. “How have I turned your life upside-down? … In a bad way.”
“Is there a good way?”
He considered that for a moment. “… Yes. When you joined the Marine Corps, you turned your life around. That was very good.”
“That wasn’t some outside force turning my life upside-down. That was me, with Uncle Matt’s help, drying out and working hard to make my life better. My life before that wasn’t right-side-up to begin with.”
A distant and sad expression overtook her face. “… And anyhow, Eddy’s death was arguably what really turned my life upside-down that time, and … that was very traumatic … even if it was what I needed to dry out.”
“I’m sorry, Mac, I didn’t mean to bring up … ”
“Fatalities? … Failures? … Flubs?” Her lips turned up just slightly, to let Harm know that she wasn’t upset. She shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”
Harm returned her small smile, glad that he hadn’t dampened her mood so much that she couldn’t have fun with him. Even if it was a silly game started by a four-year-old.
“Forgive me?” he requested.
She shrugged. “There’s nothing to forgive,” she dismissed.
“Isn’t there? When have I turned your world upside-down?” He honestly wanted to know if and when he had negatively impacted her life as she had implied that he had.
Part 3
Mac didn’t want to answer, but finally came up with, “Crashing an F-14 in the Atlantic comes to mind."
Harm grimaced. “I guess I wrecked your festivities … and wedding plans that night with my … fortuitous flying problems.”
Mac sighed. “I suppose it was … fortunate … in an odd way. I mean, it did give me the extra time to label yet another relationship as a complete failure … at least before that relationship became … finalized.”
“Maybe my fall into the ocean was fate,” Harm suggested. “…To forstall that mistake.”
Mac frowned. “If it was, then fate could have found a way that didn’t involve you nearly freezing to death in the ocean.”
“It was a bit frigid,” he admitted with a chuckle.
Noting the way Mac’s head hung, Harm appreciatively nudged her. “But you saved me. You focused that sixth sense of yours and figured out where I was.”
“What if I hadn’t? What if they hadn’t been able to fish you out in time?”
Harm looked at her and realized how much that event, and who knows what else he had done in his life, really had impacted her … and caused her pain. He somehow guessed that his dip in the ocean wasn’t anywhere near the worst example she could come up with.
But he wanted to cheer her up, not remind her of hard times.
“Okay, no more frightful memories,” he insisted. “From now on, when I turn your life upside-down, it will only be in a good way. No trauma.”
“I don’t think that’s feasible.”
“You don’t think I can … foster a positive change in your life?”
“I didn’t say that,” she disagreed. “Making changes is one thing. Turning a world upside-down has to be more … far-reaching and drastic.”
“It sounds like you are challenging me to accomplish this feat.”
Mac shook her head. “No.” Her response was adamant. “I don’t want you fiddling around with my life and messing things up.”
“Is your life fully right-side-up now? Is it completely flawless?”
“It’s fine,” she insisted.
“But with some finagling, I could make things better.” His mouth was getting the better of his brain, because if he stopped to think about it, Harm didn’t have a clue as to what he could do to accomplish that.
“I don’t want things turned around and fouled up,” she insisted. “There are finally a lot of good things in my life, and I don’t want to forfeit what I have.”
“Having something significantly impact your life doesn’t mean that you have to lose everything that is already first-class in your world,” Harm pointed out. “It doesn’t mean your current plans have to be foiled.”
He added, as an example, “Think about people who win a fortune in the lottery. Their lives might have been fine before, but now things are better. I just … want to make something better.”
“And money is great,” Mac agreed, “but you’re forgetting that too much of a financial treasure can actually be a big, fat obstacle to finding happiness. Sometimes, people who win the lottery actually become more forlorn than ever.”
“You don’t have to fret, then,” Harm smiled at her. “Any form of treasure I have stocked up is simply a figment of my imagination.”
Mac laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. You coming into a great deal of money might not be entirely fabulation on your part. After all, Frank is filthy rich, isn’t he?”
“Frank's funds are not mine, and …” he pointed accusingly at her, “… you are trying to change the subject, getting into all this fiscal stuff and my step-father. We’re talking about what I’m going to do for you.”
She sighed again. “I don’t suppose you’re willing to forego this idea?”
“I firmly intend to find a way to positively change your future.”
“You’re going to try to do something that is going to fundamentally impact my life?” Mac asked for confirmation, partly hoping that Harm would back down on the idea.
“Yes.”
“So, I should start planning my funeral?” she joked.
“I’m serious, here,” Harm insisted. “Only good things. You won’t even need first-aid.”
“Why doesn’t that stop my fretful feelings over whatever plans you’re formulating?”
His response was merely a charming grin.
She shook her head in wonder. What had she gotten herself into? “Just give me adequate warning, okay?”
“Consider yourself forewarned … immediately.”
She eyed him warily. “Now may not be the best …”
“First,” Harm went on undeterred, “… let me clarify that, although you do look funny upside-down, … so does everyone. And, … as a matter of fact, … you are looking very … fine today.” He swallowed. “Very … feminine … and desirable.” His look was truly one of serious adoration, but his grin came full force, with his next light-hearted comment. “… Of course, … you make even fatigues look good.”
Mac arched her eyebrows. “Thank you, … I think.”
She tried to ignore the sudden extra-smooth tone to his voice and the effect that it was having on her.
“But flattery,” she insisted, “even if it is rare coming from you, hardly counts as turning my world upside-down.”
“That wasn’t flattery,” he told her.
He was bubbling with determination, and there was an inexplicable fire burning inside of him, spurring him on. “And as far as flipping your world … Fasten your seatbelt, Marine, ’cause I’m just getting fired up.”
Mac found that her anxiety level was increasing regarding whatever he had planned. There was a look in his eyes that threatened to devour something deep within her. “Harm, this probably isn’t the place for …”
But her protest went no further. His lips met hers and, in that moment, the flames burning in him ignited in a flashover, completely consuming them both in a heat of passion.
Resistance was futile. Mac had lasted less than a second before fully reciprocating in this mind-blowing experience, this fulfillment of one of her most frequent fantasies.
… But they did not further the kiss too far. They were in the middle of a family event after all, and they both knew it. So, by mutual accord, they finished the kiss just before it would get out of hand, before any feral urges within them could take hold.
Mac’s eyes shown with wonder, similar to the way they had after their kiss on the Admiral’s porch, … but this time without the sadness of being committed to another man. This time, there were no feelings of loss for what could have been, no feelings of desperation or guilt to dampen the sparks between them.
They stared at each other in a daze for a long time, but Mac finally recovered enough to speak, … and she tried to put things in perspective. She forced her brain to remind herself that … he was just playing a game with her, … even if every other part of her felt otherwise.
“That was … um … a good attempt,” she acknowledged. “… But a kiss, … no matter how nice it might have been …”
“Nice?” He was clearly looking for a better descriptor.
She smiled a little. “Fantastic. … But even a fantastic kiss like that one, isn’t life altering …”
Harm’s eyes flashed, obviously wanting to contradict her statement.
“… Unless it means something more,” she quietly added.
“That kiss wasn’t meaningful?”
“Was it?” she asked, daring to hope that his intent was more than just to satisfy a challenge.
Harm knew that she wasn’t being flippant, but merely trying to ascertain what he had meant by the action.
**********************
TBC ...
