PicFic 12/4

[avirra.livejournal.com]

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve - 1966

Christmas Eve was normally a noisy and jubilant time in the Waverly household, but not this year. This year, it was far, far too quiet. Millicent had been ill for days and had been in the hospital. Probably should still be in the hospital, but she had practically begged to be home for Christmas and his Millicent was not a woman to beg. It was important to her for some reason and even though he wasn't sure what that reason was, all that mattered was that she wanted it.

On consulting with the doctors, they had admitted that they had done all that they could for her and that, so long as she kept up with her medication, she could convalese as well at home as at the hospital. That was all he needed to hear and so, he brought her home. He knew the real reason the doctors agreed - they weren't expecting her to pull through and thought they were respecting her desire to die at home. Alexander wouldn't accept that possibility. Millicent was a fighter. She just needed to rally her strength.

Moving closer to the bed, he was concerned about her pallor. Her skin appeared almost as translucent as that of a wax doll and that did nothing to aleve his worries. Gently taking her wrist, he reassured himself with the feel of her pulse before glancing to the bedside table. Slowly opening the drawer to avoid making noise, he pulled out an old pocket watch. The face of it was showing its age - much as his own face showed the passing years, he thought as a wry smile formed. Millicent had given him the watch as a present that Christmas he spent in the hospital during -

His breath caught as the significance of the day and year suddenly hit him. A warm smile formed as he reached his free hand to gently touch his wife's face and allowed the memories to carry him back in time fifty years.

Christmas Eve - 1916

The staff at the military hospital were mistaken about a great many things. They assumed that the quiet, pale woman at the bedside of Captain Waverly was a woman in her early twenties and the Captain's betrothed. Millicent Kildare was not a woman to correct the assumptions of others when those assumptions were to her advantage. Had they known she was a sixteen year old girl with no official ties to Alexander Waverly, odds were that she wouldn't even be allowed to visit him, let alone be permitted the nearly unlimited access she currently enjoyed.

A glance at the clock told her it was time to wake him.

"Alexander? Alexander - it's nearly midnight, darling."

He slowly opened his eyes, then a smile formed as he looked into the blue eyes that he'd grown to know so well.

"Are the stars out, my dear?"

"The clouds have gone away for now. The sky's clear. Here. It's close enough to midnight. Open your present."

The package she slipped into his hand was small and had fit easily into her pocket. A soft chuckle came out as he fingered the paper - less because of his desire to keep quiet and more because he still couldn't take a proper deep breath to get more sound out.

"You shouldn't have gotten me anything, Millicent. You being here has been present enough."

"Well, I have no intention of returning it, so you will simply have to accept it in spite of that."

"I should know better than to argue with you by now."

"Yes, you should."

Smiling at that, Alexander slowly tore the paper, trying to keep his hands steady enough to do the job. For her part, Millicent practically sat on her hands to prevent herself from helping him. She knew he felt quite helpless enough without being made to think he couldn't even handle opening a present.

It took him minutes to do what once would have taken seconds, but he successfully opened it and looked inside. A new pocket watch gleamed from the nest of soft cotton that cushioned the box.

"You remembered that mine was lost in the trenches?"

"Yes. Do you like it?"

"Very much, my dear. I have something for you as well. Just a moment. Nurse Anders?"

"Yes, Captain Waverly?"

"Would you kindly bring over the box my personal items are locked in?"

"Of course, sir. I'll be right back."

As Millicent waited with undisguised curiosity, Alexander accepted the small lockbox and opened it, pulling out what looked like a coin wrapped in tissue paper. Smiling, Nurse Anders took the lockbox back away at his nod.

Once they were alone again - or alone as they would ever be inside of a hospital - Alexander held out a slightly shaking hand to her. Millicent took it, then froze as Alexander awkwardly slid a ring onto her finger.

"I will not be confined to this bed forever, Millicent. When the day comes that I can stand next to you again, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Staring at the ring as if mesmerized, Millicent was speechless, so Alexander kissed the ring on her finger and spoke again.

"I know we would need to wait until after you finish your schooling, but you have just slightly over a year remaining before you turn eighteen. And when this war is over, you will still see the world, but we will see it together."

A tear rolled down Millicent's cheek followed by another. That worried him until he looked directly into her eyes and saw the warmth there as she finally found her voice.

"Yes. I would be honoured to be your wife, Alexander."

"Merry Christmas, Millicent."

"The best that I've ever had, Alexander. I do love you so."

Christmas Eve - 1966

Opening his eyes, Alexander reached down again and lifted his wife's left hand, kissing the ring that still rested on her finger.

"And I love you, Millicent."

All he wanted for Christmas was for her to open her eyes and smile at him again.

　

　

Comments

[jkkitty.livejournal.com]

love for life, what a wonderful idea.