For many die-hard fans of Murder, She Wrote, the two-part episode "Mirror, Mirror On the Wall" is perhaps the best in the entire series. We're all familiar with the ending, where Seth and Jessica sail off to go fishing. However, Peter Fischer, the series' creator, had originally envisioned a much different ending - one that would have meant Jessica and Seth becoming a couple at last and that would have hinted at their getting married. Although I'm sure this is not what he wrote, it's still my take on the dialogue - and the happily-ever-after - that might have been.
I owe Disney's new Cinderella for the inspiration for this story. The beautiful English lullaby that was featured in the film plays a big part in this tale, and is something I can hear Angela Lansbury singing!
Written for the Definitive Guide to Murder, She Wrote's Fanfic 100 Challenge. Prompt: Fence.
"Seth! Are you in here?" Jessica called cheerfully, opening the door that led to the kitchen. The bright smile she was planning to shine on him was wiped from her face in the next instant. There, on the rug by the kitchen table, lay Seth, unmoving and as silent as... "Oh, my God! Seth!"
Her bag of groceries went flying as Jessica hurried to his side, kneeling beside his prostrate body. Frantically, she turned him over onto his back. The pie dish he had come for was upside down inches away from his head, his cap and glasses had fallen off, and his eyes were closed, and Jessica's heart clinched as she realized that she might never see them open again. She cradled his face in her hands. Praise God, he was still warm. She then felt for a pulse in his neck, pressing two fingers near his jugular vein. A pulse. An irregular pulse, but a pulse nonetheless.
"He's alive!" Holding on to that glimmer of hope, Jessica ran for the phone and dialed 911 twice – first for an ambulance, then for Sheriff Metzger. After informing him of the situation, there was nothing left to do but wait. Although she knew the ambulance would be there in only a few minutes, it still seemed an eternity while her dearest friend's life hung in the balance. As she replaced the receiver in its cradle, Jessica turned back to Seth. I have to keep him warm. In a twinkling, she had fetched a warm throw from the living room and covered him with it, kneeling down beside him as she did.
"It's all right, Seth," she said, taking his hand in both of hers. "The ambulance is coming. You're going to be all right." Although she knew she must have sounded crazy, talking to someone who was unconscious, Jessica also knew that Seth could hear her if she kept talking to him. Even the most comatose of patients could hear their loved ones' voices on some deep level, and knowing that they were not alone was almost always what brought them out of those comas. If anyone thought Jessica was just going to sit silently by while Seth lingered at death's door, letting him think he was all alone, they had another think coming.
"You're going to be all right," she repeated, more firmly this time. "Do you hear me? Don't you die on me, Seth Hazlitt!" Tears sprang to her eyes as the words flew free. The thought of Seth dying ripped through her like... like pain she hadn't felt since Frank died. Then again, no other man had ever been as dear to her, save for the man whose hand she now held. "Don't die on me," she pleaded, her voice now little better than a whisper as sobs choked her throat. "Please. We'll get through this. We'll be safe." A heartbeat or two passed before the words to an old lullaby began falling from her lips.
"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green
When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen
Who told you so, dilly dilly, who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly, that told me so
Call up your men, dilly dilly, set them to work
Some to the plow, dilly dilly, some to the fork
Some to make hay, dilly dilly, some to cut corn
While you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm..."
A tear dropped onto Seth's cheek as Jessica sang this verse, and she hastily wiped it away. Those sweet words rang with bitter irony now, after Seth's statement the previous day.
Have you looked at your garden lately? The weeds are beginning to carry off the rhododendrons!
They were going to fix that garden together. Jessica had planned to ask Seth for a gardening "date" over dinner, and now it looked like that chance had been torn from her. All because she couldn't get her priorities on the right side of the fence. If, heaven forbid, something did happen to Seth, she would never garden with him again, never cuddle on the couch with him during the cold winter months again.
"Lavender's green, dilly dilly, lavender's blue
If you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you
Let the birds sing, dilly dilly, and the lambs play
We shall be safe, dilly dilly, out of harm's way..."
Safe. Out of harm's way. Dear Lord, let it be so, Jessica prayed. I've already lost Frank. I'm not losing another man I... love. Realization slammed into her like a meteorite. Love? Do I love him? As she gazed down at his face and held his hand against her heart, she knew she couldn't deny it any longer. She had felt this way about Seth for quite some time now, but had always been too frightened to admit it – too frightened that something like this would happen. Now that it had, she was terrified that she had lost her chance to tell him everything she had never gotten to tell him. What he meant to her, how grateful she was to have him in her life... how much she loved him.
If you love me... I will love you.
Did Seth love her? While he was confronting her about her priorities, Jessica had heard nothing but tenderness in his voice, especially at one particular moment.
Hurt you? Oh, for pity's sake, woman. That's the last thing I want to do!
Only someone who loved her that much would have called her out on her neglect of her own life. Seth loved her so much that he never would have done anything to hurt her... yet would have done everything to keep her safe and happy. And in that moment, Jessica realized that she didn't want to straddle the fence anymore. Her priorities belonged to here, to now, to this good, good man. The man she wanted to be the king to her queen.
"I love to dance, dilly dilly, I love to sing
When I am queen, dilly dilly, you'll be my king
Who told me so, dilly dilly, who told me so?
I told myself, dilly dilly, I told me so..."
"Jess?"
Jessica blinked, suddenly aware of where she was. She was on the Cavalier, they were heading out to sea to do some fishing by Little Duck Island... and Seth was alive. They were together as friends... but Jessica now knew that she wanted them to be together as more than just that. She just needed the right moment to tell him. "I'm sorry, Seth. I was lost in thought for a moment there."
From his position beside her in the Cavalier's bow, Seth nodded. "Ayuh. I could tell from the way you were hummin' that tune to yourself."
"Tune?" Jessica hadn't even realized she had been humming anything. "What tune?"
"You know. Pretty little song, sounds kinda like a lullaby." In his slightly off-key pitch, Seth began to hum "Lavender's Blue."
Jessica laughed. "Oh, that's an old English lullaby that my mother used to sing to me. I sang it to Grady when he was a little boy."
"And to me when I was sick?"
Jessica turned wide eyes upon Seth, whose own hazel eyes were sparkling emerald and gold. "You heard me?"
"I did. Even though I was out, I heard you. It didn't matter how much those doctors poked and prodded me, or how much paregoric those nurses shoved down my throat. I swear it was that beautiful voice of yours that kept me alive."
"You're making me sound like the Little Mermaid, Seth."
"Well, it's not that big a stretch. Your voice kept me going and you saved my life."
There was the opening she had been waiting for. "Isn't that what we should all do for someone we love?"
Seth froze. For a good minute, there were no other sounds save for the humming of the Cavalier's engine, the slosh-slosh of the waves sluicing against the sides of the boat, and the cries of the seagulls. All the two of them could manage to do was gaze into each other's eyes, Seth completely stunned and Jessica waiting patiently for his reply. Finally, Seth swallowed and worked up the words that eluded him. "Jess... what are you saying?"
Jessica inhaled deeply, breathing in the salt air and the scent of cedar that was so unique to Seth. "I'm saying that you were right. I do need to rethink my life. And... I've done a lot of that in the last few days. I've finally decided to quit straddling the fence. I don't want to let my work consume me. I'm still going to write, because it's my livelihood, what I love, and what got me out of the doldrums after Frank died... but it's not going to come first in my life anymore."
Seth nodded, his eyes locked to hers. "What is?"
Jessica smiled and reached up to caress his cheek. "You. Seeing you lying in that hospital bed made me realize how much you mean to me, and how I lost sight of that because of my skewed priorities. I almost lost you, Seth. I don't want to lose you again."
Seth took her hand and kissed its palm before clasping it in both of his own. "You won't," he said softly. "Tell you the truth, while I was lyin' in that hospital bed, I did some thinkin' of my own. I've been tellin' you to smell the roses all this time, but darn it, I haven't been doin' a lot of it myself. Least, not when it comes to one thing." He laid his own hand against her cheek in a mirror image of her own gesture. "I love you, Jess."
Tears came to Jessica's eyes again, but this time, they were tears of joy. "I love you too, Seth," she said, laughing with sweet relief as he pulled her into his arms and whirled her around the bow. A knock on the window of the wheelhouse, however, brought them to a halt. Caleb was shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the two of them, which only set them off into a fit of laughter.
"I'd forgotten he was here," Jessica giggled, her cheeks bright red from exertion, emotion, and mild embarrassment.
"Forgotten who was here? I don't see anyone else," Seth quipped, loudly enough to prompt another eye-roll from Caleb.
Jessica leaned into his embrace as he combed his fingers through her windswept curls. "So... now that we've bared our souls... where do we go from here?"
"Well... first, we go to Little Duck Island and catch the biggest darn stripers Cabot Cove's ever seen. Then we're gonna set that garden of yours to rights. After that... we'll just wait and see what's down the road apiece, as my pop used to say."
"Take things slowly? See how things develop between us?"
"Ayuh. I wanna court you, Jess, do things right. Sooner or later, though, I might just have a surprise for you."
"A sparkling surprise?" Jessica grinned up at him.
Seth returned her grin, his eyes glittering with love. "Woman," was all he could say in return.
Jessica sighed in delight. "You know something, Seth? In all the years I've known you, I don't think I've ever asked you why you call me woman. I know you don't mean it in a derogatory way."
"Heaven forbid." Seth chuckled. "No, I call you woman 'cause that's what you are. Beautiful, soft, strong, stubborn, everything a lady oughta be. You're everything good and beautiful about the world as I know it, Jess, but you've still got the spunk to take it on. That's what makes you a woman to me, and that's why I love you."
Touched to her very heart, Jessica leaned in and kissed him on the lips, and he returned her kiss by deepening it, exploring her mouth and savoring her taste. "Seth," she finally breathed, resting in the comfort of his arms.
"My woman," Seth whispered, sealing his words with another kiss as they sailed off toward a horizon as endless as the sea, safe and warm in the love that told them so.