Disclaimer: I don't own The Penderwicks

Author Note: For anyone unaware, this is the fourth in a series, so please go read my other stories first in this order: Enough, Worth, Promise, and finally Legacy.

Well I'm a little embarrassed actually... Here I gave this epic speech about having to move on to other projects while I rode off into the sunset. Then less than a week later... I'm back! Again. Yeah seriously. *sigh* Well I am working on other projects (a third Mysterious Benedict Society story which will be going live here shortly) but I couldn't hold back this Penderwick continuation from forming. Updates might be a little slower since I'm attempting to write two stories at once, but I figured you all might like to read what I have thus far instead of me just keeping it to myself until more was finished.

The Penderwicks - Legacy

Chapter 1 (Skye's POV)

Coffee and Saturday mornings.

Jane had written an overly dramatic short story by the same name once. But I'd learned from experience that Saturday was one of the only days of the week without so much drama. Though that lack of drama is pretty relative to the amount around the rest of the time. Like waking up to the sound of french horns before seven AM. I wasn't sure why Jeffrey had decided to take up a french horn of all things anyway. I'd already survived about a dozen "supportive wife" speeches from Rosy, but I knew that if he decided on learning a tuba next I was going to move onto the roof.

Admittedly when I thought of roofs I always missed my old one. I liked the quiet most of all I guess. So I didn't exactly want to complain about the silence hanging around the apartment this morning, but something about it made me uneasy. Or I guess you could say suspicious. It was already twenty minutes to ten but I didn't hear a sound. Not a horn, a piano key, or a badly forced impression of a foreign accent. I'd already been up for a while, and I knew Jeffrey had a habit of being a bum on weekends but…

Scooting back my chair from the kitchen table I walked down the hall and stopped in our bedroom doorway. I wasn't sure what I expected to see that was different from a few hours before, but Jeffrey was still laying there buried in a stack of covers. Honestly, he looked pretty lifeless with mostly just the top of his head visible. For that matter how was he breathing? It was an interesting mystery, but I wasn't really that concerned since he'd slept this way for the almost year that we'd been married.

But something seemed different this morning, so I slowly walked over and pulled back the blankets until his face was visible. He really did look lifeless…? But I felt a slight grin come to my face. But that wasn't really anything new either. "Jeffrey? Hey, are you dead or just lazy?" I asked calmly, yet loud enough to shake him from his half-dead daze.

After about a minute without any response at all he finally flickered open his eyes. But he still looked pretty rough. "G-Good morning...my lady…" He mumbled with a dazed and weary grin on his face. "Are the affairs of the kingdom well…?"

I raised an eyebrow not sure if this was normal Jeffrey or even a little off for him. "Well...uh we're almost out of coffee but...yeah the," I made air quotes, "kingdom is well."

He smiled before he shut his eyes again. "Good...good carry on my queen…"

"Did you inhale too much rosin again?" I said thinking about his escapade with the violin about a month ago.

But he didn't answer, instead, it looked like he'd fallen asleep again. Frowning I reached to touch his forehead, but I jerked my hand back surprised by how warm he was. Grabbing him by the shoulders I pulled him up in bed and shook him back awake carefully. "Hey Jeffrey, you're really hot."

He grinned weakly before he mumbled again. "Why thank you…"

I huffed out a sigh as I rolled my eyes. "No crazy, I mean you probably have a fever. Do you feel alright?"

He seemed to be thinking for a second, but when he closed his eyes again I knew he was just headed back to sleep. So with a frustrated sigh I just left him and went to get the thermometer. When I got back I shook him awake again and shoved it under his tongue. Once it registered I saw that the reading was 102. Frowning deeper I reached and snatched the covers off him.

"Okay that's it, you're going to the doctor," I said without giving him a chance to argue. But he still tried anyway.

"Oh no...I'm fine just a...just a little…" But he almost fell back out before he could finish his lame protest. I knew from experience that a high enough fever could make you a little delusional, so I wasn't gonna pay attention to whatever excuse he was trying to make anyway. Instead, I shook him awake again before I drug him out of bed as carefully yet firmly as I could. From the looks of him it would have taken him all day to get dressed, so I just tossed a heavy jacket at him to wear over his pajamas. I admit I felt a little sorry for him having to go in public wearing those embarrassing baggy treble clef pants, but this was an emergency after all.

I managed to guide him toward the front door, but I knew the steps were going to be another thing altogether. But thankfully we somehow managed to get to ground level without both of us tripping and landing face first. Jeffrey wasn't much help though, he was almost dead weight that spouted an occasional moan or off the wall comment. It was January and more than a little freezing too. But I was at least glad that it wasn't snowing right this second. No instead it was actually sunny, not that it did much for the overall temperature.

I was pretty sure Jeffrey had fallen asleep on the way to the clinic, which I kept telling myself was normal. But admittedly I was pretty nervous over the whole thing. Besides that time he'd caught a mild 24 hour bug he'd never been sick before. Sick with me responsible for him that is. So even if I was embarrassed to say it, I felt my hands tighten nervously on the steering wheel each time he perked to life just long enough to cough and moan. I was just glad to get to the doctor's office and prop him up in a chair. There were a few walk-in clinics open on Saturday in town, but I just grabbed the first one I came to.

Then walking up to the women behind the counter I quickly showed a few ID cards and filled out the necessary paperwork. Handing the completed form attached to a clipboard back to the woman she glanced down at it. Then after a second she looked back up at me and gave a nod and smile combo. "Thank you Mrs. Tifton, just have a seat and the doctor will be with you and your husband shortly."

I just nodded before pacing back over to where Jeffrey was sitting. He still looked mostly out of it, but he managed a weak grin. "Well...if all the nurses look like you...it can't be too bad being sick right…?"

I just frowned before I sat down next to him. "This is what happens when you stay up until all hours practicing on crazy horns…" I said a little accusingly. But he was already dozing leaning on his arm again and didn't even seem to hear me. I sighed as I looked over at him. He was always finding some way to make me worry about him… And honestly, as accident prone as he was I wasn't sure how he'd even survived living alone as long as he had.

I wanted to call Dad or Rosy for back up, but I held myself back. It wasn't like he was really dying or anything. Or at least I hoped he wasn't… But shaking that crazy thought out of my head I forced myself to focus on logic. Logically he probably just had a rough chest cold. Maybe even the flu. The doctor might give him a shot of something to help out, and then he'd be fine. In fact I could see him laying up for the next two weeks forcing me to wait on him like he was a king or something.

I almost grinned at that thought, but mostly I couldn't shake the worry. It was stupid I knew, but it was still there all the same. It was concern and worry mixed with a little anger at him for not taking better care of himself. But that just turned into a little guilt for me not taking better care of him myself. Not that he was a little kid that needed to be watched over. Or a least he wasn't supposed to be anyway.

Thankfully the nurse called us back before I could obsess any more possible disease diagnoses. Once back there he went through the usual temperature and blood pressure check, before tripping onto the scale and almost knocking his head into the wall. Finally, we were led into the examination room and I helped him stagger onto the table. Leaning his head back against the wall he stared over at me silently before he finally spoke.

"You know Skye...I've really felt better."

I couldn't hold back the slight grin that appeared on my face, I think I was at least partly relieved. "Well, that's the first thing you've said all day that made any sense. I was starting to worry you'd lost it for good."

He sighed weakly before rubbing at his baggy eyes. "You know, I'm betting that instrument rental place doesn't properly sanitize their wares…"

I raised an eyebrow. "So you caught the creeping crud from that annoying french horn?"

I was tempted to point out the irony, but remembering a line from one of Rosy's lectures I bit my tongue. So instead I just walked over and gave him a light tap on the shoulder. I figured anything harder might have ended him.

"Well, I better not catch it, then who would take care of both of us?"

Jeffrey did his best to turn his weak face smug. "Oh...so you were planning on taking care of me…?"

"Hey don't push it. I don't have in mind treating you like a king or anything. And I better not get too close…" I said playfully as I made a show of backing away from him.

He pouted in the way he always did. "Then...what about my kiss to make everything better…?"

I smirked. "If by make everything better you mean spread the crud to me, then yeah that would work."

His smugness returned. "What about yesterday? I kissed you yesterday, you still might get it."

I felt my forehead wrinkle. "You just better hope I don't, or I'm banning you from that instrument rental for life."

He sighed weakly as he closed his eyes and gave a faint smile. "Oh the old ball and chain…"

I just shook my head at him and decided to let him sleep until the doctor showed up. When he did everything went pretty smoothly. He did have a chest cold, so after giving a much protesting Jeffrey a shot they sent us home. But it was when he asked if he got a lollipop as we were leaving that I hoped it was just the fever talking. But really I already knew better. Jeffrey loved getting to me, and not even his death bed would have stopped him from trying to.

When we got home I led him to the sofa while I opened a can of soup. That was about as much cooking as I had ever managed, but at least now it was fitting. He slept pretty much the whole rest of the day and part of the next one. By Monday his fever was lower and he was at least in the sitting up and watching TV phase of recovery. But when I got home from work later that day was when I realized I was in the "oh crud I've caught the crud" phase. So after more doctor visits and a shot of my own we both ended up sitting side by side on the sofa surrounded by tissues and bottles of medicine.

In between the sniffles and coughs I made sure to remind him just why we both were in this predicament in the first place. Feeling so lame hadn't done much for helping me remember Rosy's pointers, but Jeffrey took it in stride. He warmed soup for me and kept a supply of B-grade monster flicks on to keep me distracted. Or maybe that was just another scheme to mess with me…

Either way, we spent, or should I say wasted, an entire week as sofa zombies. All because of a french horn. At one point that realization was just too much to handle, so I rehashed it again in almost amazement.

"Who knows whose lips were on that thing! We could have contracted the plague!"

"Uh huh," Jeffrey just mumbled as he reached to wrap the blanket tighter around his shoulders and stared aimlessly into the giant bird cyclops that was destroying Tokyo on the screen.

"That's the problem with wind instruments!" I went on even though my voice was hoarse and nasal. "You can't just put your mouth on anything! And then you just had to give it to me!"

At that Jeffrey turned to look at me, his face blank. "Well the thing about that is…" But before finishing his sentence he leaned to unbelievably kiss me. Then pulling back he smiled. "The good thing about it is we can't get any sicker now can we?"

I just frowned playfully at him before reaching for a pillow behind me and whacking him with it. He moaned something about abusing the already downtrodden, but it was just a distraction because he stuck back with his pillow next. And naturally things escalated from there until one of the pillows burst and a shower of feathers rained down on us and everything else in the room. That's when he almost doubled over in laughter before descending into a coughing fit. But getting his breath back he pointed over at me covered in feathers.

"Behold it's the evil bird cyclops here to menace the weak and vulnerable!" Then striking a corny pose he pretended to fire laser beams from his hands. "But have no fear citizens, for it is I, Ultra Jeffrey here to save you from this overgrown blonde chicken!"

Yeah it was at that point that I forgot all of Rosy's lectures and just jumped at him with what was left of my exploded pillow. He narrated the whole time and called it an epic battle. When all was said and done Tokyo was still standing, but our coffee table wasn't quite so fortunate.

Maybe a year ago and before when I was worried that marrying Jeffrey would have changed too much, I wouldn't have imagined this scene. I would have thought it was too good to be true I guess. Like there was no way the same person could really be my best friend and my husband.

But I was wrong…

Wrong to trust Jeffrey with horn rentals, and double wrong to think anything would change between us.

Ever.

Because he was still the same annoying Jeffrey. Goofy, and maybe even crazy seemed to fit too. But mostly… Mostly I was just glad we fit. That for all our differences we found a way to bring out the best in each other.

Even if that best looked like a feather covered coughing mess staring down at a splintered coffee table...

Well, thanks so much for reading and please feel free to review. As I said, updates may be a little slower since I'm working on two projects right now, but be assured that I will be updating as often as I can. So please hang in there with me!