Good October, Hearties! I am back with this short story. I still have ideas floating around about a future story with an older Josephine, but for now I have this sweetness.

~ The Proposal~

April 16, 1916.

For an April afternoon, it was warm. Not too warm where it was miserable, but warm enough for a short sleeve outfit as well as a light jacket for if the wind would pick up. A young woman, aged thirty, was sitting by the lake with a small four-almost-five year old girl. The auburn haired child was following a mother duck and her babies towards the water while dark brunette mother kept an eye on her.

"Josephine," Clara Stanton called out to her daughter. "Don't go into the lake."

"I know." She replied with a laugh. "I no Genie and go in when I'm not suppose to." She tossed several pieces of broken bread into the water and watched as the mother duck and her babies swam back towards her to grab the bread. "Mommy, can I have a pet duck?"

"Ducks belong in the wild. Besides, we still have Walt."

"He smells a lot."

"He doesn't enjoy taking a bath." Clara chuckled. "Come on over, I'm going to read something until Carl comes along."

They had been waiting for Carl Elmer for at least an hour now. Clara knew the sawmill factory was becoming a bit busy right now with so many demanded orders, so she always gave Carl at least a half hour to catch up. For example, if Carl said he'd meet her at three, Clara would give him until three-thirty before officially calling him "A late snail."

Forty-five minutes post the given time Carl said he'd meet the girls for lunch, the hazel brown haired man was seen walking to the girls with a basket filled with desserts (Clara provided sandwiches). "Well you're super early, Miss Clara."

"You are the late one."

"I'm running on a different time clock."

"Which one?"

"Mine." He laughed as he sat on the blanket. "Where's Miss Josephine?"

"By the lake." Clara said and pointed to the water. "She really loves the water." Clara observed the small girl as she stood on the very shore of the water, just having her ankles covered in the water.

Clara's nightmares ever since that unforgettable night on the ship coming from England to New York were up and down. She still had nights where she woke up in a cold sweat, sometimes sobbing, from the events. She would have nightmares of being inside the ship or being on the back end of the ship and watching as it dived straight into the bitter winter water or the nightmares would be of her being in the icy water. The past year they haven't occurred as much, but they still happened from time to time.

"Clara?"

"Hm?"

"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Oh," Clara felt her cheeks blush. "I'm okay. Really."

Carl smiled. He, too, had nightmares to this day as well. Though his memories were a bit different from Clara's (being in different places from time to time during the even) the memory of falling into the water with Gwen in his arms and having to swim away as fast as he could with her in his arms as the giant ship sank into the ocean as well as having to stay in that freezing water for what felt like a hundred years until a row boat came back to save himself, the White children (Gwen and her brother, Bart) and Clara. His nightmares and stress have gone away a few times but they came up once in a while. He only sobbed when he went to bed.

Only Clara and Carl knew their experience on that ship and only they knew how the other person felt. Everyone in Hope Valley did feel for them both, never imagining that sort of thing to happen (then again who did?), and Hope Valley citizens would say they understand why Clara wasn't fond going remotely close to the lake nor enjoy the month of April and the cold, winter months anymore...but it was different. Carl knew why Clara wasn't fond of being so close to the lake (even a small one such as the one where Josephine was feeding the ducks), the month of April or even the cold winter months.

The exactly three years and one day courted couple ate their sandwiches with Josephine as the chatted and laughed among one another. Clara began to braid Josephine's hair until Carl began to tickle Josephine's stomach and caused the little girl to laugh. Clara stopped braiding and watched the two. She couldn't help but laugh when Josephine climbed onto Carl's back and he began to spin around gently.

"Don't drop her."

"Never will."

"Mommy, can Carl come over for dinner?"

Clara looked between Josephine and Carl and said, "I don't know."

"My parents aren't coming until tomorrow night for a visit so I can come over. I'll bring something."

"Sounds good." She smiled.

Carl smiled back. Better tonight than now.

A few hours later after making the spaghetti and meatballs and helping Josephine with a few short school assignments, a knock came at the door of the house. Walt and Josephine walked over to the door. "Who is it?"

"Carl."

"Carl who?"

"Carl whose got cookies in his hands."

Josephine opened the door instantly and hugged Carl in the legs. "Hi Carl!"

"Hello, Miss Josephine." Carl hugged her. "Hello, Miss Clara."

"All these years I've known you and you still call me Miss Clara."

"Can't help it." Carl sniffed inside the home. "What did Miss Abigail make that you claim?"

"Funny."

A few hours later the trio and Walt sat outside on the chairs, Josephine on Clara's lap, gazing at the stars. Clara hummed the same old song that she's always sang or hummed to her daughter. "Mommy, where did you hear that song?"

"From my friends father. All the way in England."

"Oh. Why did you go?"

"I had to." Clara rubbed her hair. "I'll tell you when you are older."

"But it weren't for mommy going to England, she'd never would had met me."

"You came to Hope Valley eventually."

"Yes, but with good reason besides helping Lee." He grinned at her and winked.

"Oh." Clara blushed. "I'm flattered?"

"Not you," Carl acted offended. "I meant Miss Josephine, Clara." He chuckled.

"I do the same if I were you." Clara laughed just as Josephine yawned. "Bedtime, Josephine."

Fifteen minutes later Clara tucked Josephine into her bed and together they said their prayers. "Mommy, can you tell me a story tonight? Not one from a book."

"I will tomorrow night." Clara said. "But first I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

Clara brushed back a piece of hair and said, "You like Carl, right?"

"Hmm. Besides Gene, Polly, Opal and Walter, I like Carl a lot, a lot."

"Oh good. Because I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

Clara smiled softly at her. "You know your my favorite person in the entire world, right?"

"Isn't Nana Abigail your favorite person?"

"She is, but your my favorite person too. Plus my best friend." Clara explained. "What we have now, just you and I, I wouldn't want to change that unless it was only a good thing."

"OK."

"Josephine, would it be okay if I married Carl?" Clara questioned with a grin. She knew the answer in her heart—her soul— but still wanted permission from her little girl.

Josephine sat up in bed and cheered joyously. "Really? You and Carl getting married?"

"Only if it's okay with you. Walt already said he was fine with it."

"Yes!" Josephine jumped, making Clara hold her in place. "You can marry Carl! I like him a lot a lot!"

"I'm so happy to hear that."

"Is that why you have that ring on?" Josephine pointed to the diamond ring on Clara's finger. Clara nodded. "It so pretty."

"His mother gave it to him." That was true, the ring belonged to Carl's mother. He had received it from her back in December when she and Carl's father were visiting from Boston. "He proposed last night to me."

"Mommy, why is April 15 a important day? You always talk about how you do not like it but then also like it."

"It's a long story. I'll tell you when you are older." She kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, my love."

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?"

Downstairs Carl was sitting on the chair petting Walter and waiting for Clara to return from tucking in Josephine. He heard footsteps and was surprised to find both Clara and Josephine walking down. "Did I sleep here without knowing it?"

"Yes." Clara answered.

"Mommy told me everything!" Josephine jumped up and down happily.

"Oh yeah? What's your answer?"

"I said yes!" She ran to Carl and hugged him tightly. "You can marry mommy."

"Thank you, Miss Josephine."

Clara laughed softly and said, "You need to kick that habit out, Carl. You don't have to keep referring to everyone as Ma'me, Miss or Sir. You've been here for a few years now."

"Can't help it."

"There was one condition about our marriage."

Carl looked up from the hug with a questionable expression. A condition? "We can live here still. My house isn't capable to hold all our of us."

"Not that," Clara told him. "Josephine, ask Carl."

The auburn hair and light brown eyed little girl looked up at the much older boy asked, "After you and mommy marry, are you my daddy?"

Carl's face broke out into a joyous one. He wasn't expecting that question at all and yet he already knew his answer for the past two and a half years. "I thought I was already your daddy."

Josephine tilted her head. "Mommy said my real daddy lives in England and is missing."

"Ah, no, I meant for the past several months I thought I was already your daddy."

"I called you Carl."

Carl smiled and said, "I felt like your daddy. Even if you called me Carl."

Josephine giggled. "Okay!" She hugged him again. Carl hugged her back.

Clara put Josephine to bed shortly after and then returned back down to say goodbye to Carl. Carl and Clara wrapped their arms around one another and placed their foreheads together. "I'm so happy she said 'yes' to this." Carl said.

"I knew she would. I knew I didn't have to ask her, but I felt like it would be nice to include her." Clara said. "Third time getting married and I'm already thirty. Oh goodness."

"Second didn't count."

"No, but have I not than there would be no O'Mally family, no Gabrielle, no George and Josephine and more important—"

"Myself?"

"No, no Walter." She laughed. "I would of met you anyways since you came to help Lee."

"Oh fine," Carl rolled his eyes but smirked. "I guess the last person you met is the best." Carl kissed her cheek gingerly. "Goodnight, Miss Clara."

"Goodnight, Carl." Clara kissed his lips.

Clara said her prayers that night and climbed into bed with Walt next to her ankles. She fell asleep with a smile on her face. She still loathed that she was kidnapped. But she was so happy that good things came out of it. Friends, George and Josephine, Carl and Walter.

As so Clara 'proposed' to Josephine, and Josephine 'proposed' to Carl.

This is just a one-shot, but I do plan on writing the wedding scene one-shot and then a honeymoon one-shot.

Fun fact: Polly, two years younger than Josephine, is Jack and Elizabeth's daughter.