FF: An Abused Mother 

Author: Alicia

Summary: Trish's thoughts on life in the Rabb house.
Sequel to Art of Seduction

Disclaimer: I don't own the JAG crew. They belong to
DPB and CBS. I do own the Rabb kids. If I did own JAG
I'd have a lot more money and Hollywood would have a
few more unemployed writers!

A/N: The title comes from a comment our family doctor
made when the hospital asked if it was possible that
my brother was an abused child. He said no if anyone's
abused it's the mother!

 

 

 

May 2012

Rabb House

8 am

 

It's quiet in the house. It's actually quiet. Harm's
left for work and Lizzie and Jackson have left for
school. Mac's upstairs nursing Ariana. My newest
grandchild is only six weeks old. I'm going to take
advantage of the quiet to sit and have a cup of
coffee. I love my grandchildren dearly but they wear
me out. Things are actually going smoother than I
think either Harm or Mac expected. Lizzie is eight and
Jackson's six, so it's been awhile since there was an
infant in this house. 

Ariana was something of a surprise. Harm and Mac had
tried for about two years to have another child before
deciding it just wasn't going to happen. Mac was
completely shocked when 14 months later the doctor
told her she was pregnant.

Harm of course was thrilled. He called to tell me and
also ask me to come out and help when the baby came.
Mac was a little concerned about how she was going to
handle Lizzie, Jackson and a new baby. Harm hoped my
promising to come stay would help ease Mac's mind. 

It's not that Mac was concerned about taking care of
the baby. It's that Lizzie and Jackson are a handful
without a new baby in the house. Now don't get me
wrong, they're both good kids but they're always into
something. So far this year Jackson's spent six weeks
in a cast and Lizzie's been to the ER twice for
concussions.

They're not bad kids, just fearless. When Jackson was
almost 3 Mac changed grocery stores for a month.
Jackson loved to go to the store and talk to the
ladies that worked in the deli. Problem was every time
he went he had a new 'boo-boo' to show off. First he
was one giant scrape because he went over a speed bump
but his trike didn't. The next time he had a giant
welt on his forehead where he'd gotten hit with a
baseball when A Roberts missed a catch. When the time
came to go shopping again two weeks later and Jackson
had three stitches in his forehead, Mac picked a
different grocery store. Mac once threatened to leave
a signature stamp with the daycare so that she didn't
have to spend as much time signing her name to
accident reports before she took the kids home.

Lizzie's the same way. The ER called the pediatrician
when she was four because they were having trouble
believing she fell out of the tree house three times
in one week. This fresh out of med. school doctor
called the pediatrician and asked if she thought it
was possible that Lizzie was an abused child. Dr.
Wallace just laughed and said that if anything Mac was
an abused mother having kids like she did. The ER
doctor asked for an explanation and Dr. Wallace said
the Rabb kids are very curious and extremely fearless
which isn't always a good combination. Wallace
mentioned that any kid who, at 20 months, could climb
a set of shelves to get a razor and shave themselves
like daddy was going to end up in the ER a lot no
matter how closely they were watched. The ER doctor
later told Mac that he had to agree with Wallace's
diagnosis.

I came out two weeks before Ariana was due to help Mac
with the kids. I also came out back in the fall to
help with the kids. Mac had bad morning sickness and
Jackson started the school year on crutches. The
family was at a lake with the Roberts and Jackson
decided he could do anything AJ could do he could
also. Unfortunately AJ was jumping off a dock into the
lake and Jackson didn't make it out quite far enough.
He landed in shallow water and broke his foot in two
spots. 

About that same time, Lizzie got her shoelace wrapped
around her bike pedal and crashed ending up with a
mild concussion and six stitches in her knee.

Since I've been here, the kids haven't had to go to
the ER once. I think it's a record for them. That's
not to say things have been quiet. There are still the
calls from school to deal with. Lizzie and her teacher
got in a fight the other day. Battle of wills is
probably a better description of what happened. Lizzie
decided she didn't need to do her spelling sentences.
The teacher finally told her she couldn't go to recess
until she wrote ten sentences. Notice I didn't say ten
spelling sentences. Yep, she did. Lizzie wrote ten
sentences and used her spelling words in none of them.
We're still not sure who won that round. Quiet's over.

"I got it Mac. Rabb's" 

"He what? Okay I'll let his mother know." I hang up
the phone and see my daughter-in-law and granddaughter
come into the kitchen.

"What happened this time Trish?"

" The playground supervisor told the kids they weren't
going in until everyone was quiet. When the boy next
to Jackson wouldn't shut up Jackson kicked him. The
office wanted you to know but they're going to deal
with it there they don't need you to come in."

"Good because I really need to sit and drink a cup of
coffee that's actually hot."

"Here you go Mac. Let me take her." I hand Mac a cup
of coffee and take Ariana from her and place her in
her swing in the living room. Ariana loves to swing. I
really hope she's a calm one, for both her parents'
sake!

 

~The End~