The Birds Gonna Make The Wedding Bed

There were a lot of things she liked about Hazel. Agnes liked the way he looked at her like she was worth something instead of like a shriveled-up waste of a woman like so many at her job once had. She loved that he was willing to give everything, his job, his way of life, his partner and friend, all up for her. It made her feel a little like a Disney princess. Agnes also adored his hands. They were strong, yet gentle and she'd never felt safer or more loved than when they'd held her as they kissed behind Griddy's Donuts. She couldn't help but stare at his big, thick hands as he guided the wheel of his car to drive them away from the city. Agnes wanted to reach over and caress them, but resisted the urge. But only just so. They were so close to their happily ever after and the last thing she wanted was to end their whirlwind romance in a tragedy by accidentally jerking the steering wheel too far left or right and causing the car to hit oncoming traffic when she reached for one of his hands to hold.

Agnes's fingers itched even so and she sighed. Maybe if she went slowly while reaching for one of his hands…

"If you could go anywhere – any time, any place – where would you go?" asked Hazel, eyes briefly meeting her own as he glanced to her.

She blinked, her hand just barely lifted from her knee. "Hmm…" she hummed as replayed the question in her mind to better consider it. Agnes shifted her gaze to the road in front of them and was quiet a moment longer before she gave up and shook her head. "I don't really know," Agnes said. She turned her head to look at Hazel and offered him an apologetic smile as he peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry, I guess I've never thought too much about where or when I might go. I'm here. Imagining myself elsewhere just felt like a way to disappoint myself—" she stopped. Face stretching into a grin that made her look a decade younger, she lifted her hand and stroked Hazel's cheek. Softly, she explained, "Before you, I thought I'd live and die alone in this city."

"I hear you. I've been many places, lots of times, but I didn't ever think about which one I'd have liked to stay in," he said, before tilting his head to press a course kiss to the side of her hand. "That is, until I met you, my love."

"Oh, you!" exclaimed Agnes between girlish giggles. His final declaration was so sweet to her ears that the oddness of his first words (lots of times? What was that supposed to mean?) instantly vanished from her consciousness. After she finished laughing, a new thought occurred to her. "Hazel?"

He smiled. "Yes, darling?"

"Is there anything you ever wished you could have been around to see?" asked Agnes as she looked out her window to see a couple of crows settle on the powerline they were driving past. "I've thought about that before," she said. Mind's eye filling with memories of girlhood days spent in her neighborhood library reading all the nature books she could get her small, sticky fingers on, she told Hazel, "There was this one bird, the Carolina Parakeet. It was a species of parrot that went extinct well before either of us were born. In a book I once read about endangered and extinct birds, they had this beautiful description of them written by a Spanish monk from the mid-eighteen hundreds. The way he described a flock of them flying out from a tree…"

She sighed wistfully. Agnes remembered the summer she read that book well. She'd been ten, her father had just run off on their family, and some days they only had one meal to eat because her newly single mother had been too prideful to go to their church's food bank then. She'd spent many nights trying to distract herself from her empty stomach by imagining what it must have been like to see those parakeets flying through the air, livening it up with the beautiful tropical hues of their feathers. "Oh, I wish I could have seen that at least once. I would wager it was prettier than a summer sunset!"

Hazel nodded as he put on his blinker and turned them down a new road. "That does sound nice," he said. "When did these birds go extinct exactly?"

"Oh gosh," murmured Agnes as she thought long and hard about Hazel's question. She had read the book far too long ago to remember any exact dates, but she did feel confident that it had been early in the last century."The last one died in a zoo sometime in the early twentieth century, I think," she said as she picked apart old, rusted memories trying to make them shine like they were from just yesterday instead of decades earlier. Agnes was shocked to find that she could almost smell the dusty sleeve of that book she read as a girl now as her mind began to open long tucked away memories. From her mouth, facts began to tumble. "There were few of them left even before that. They lived in old-growth forests and swamps and those were all but destroyed when America began to build up the Eastern seaboard in the mid-to-late nineteenth century."

Hazel kept glancing between her and the road, his eyes bright and working double-time. "Elaborate," he demanded in a brusque tone that she was unfamiliar with. "When would there have been flocks flying around? 1815? 1825?"

"Yes, around then," agreed Agnes.

Hazel relaxed and smirked. "1825 it is," he muttered.

Agnes cocked her head and frowned at him, confused. "What?"

He lifted a hand from the wheel to reach over and place it over one she had resting in her lap. Hazel wrapped her old, cold fingers in his warm hand and gave them a light squeeze as he said to her, "Nothing. It's nothing."

Agnes wasn't sure she believed him— Or if she should, but his touch was so loving and exactly what she'd wanted before this odd little conversation started she decided to let sleeping dogs lie. She was leaving the city, she had herself a man whom she loved and loved her, and Agnes felt sure she wouldn't be dying alone anymore. She was happy and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin it.

Your guys' thoughts? I felt Hazel and Agnes were the funniest, cutest couple in the show and I'm really hoping we'll get the chance to see them again in season 2.

Thank you for reading everyone!