BE BRAVE
(II)
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The afternoon of Albert's departure, Rose Narracott finds her husband drinking.
It's not an unusual sight, of course, in their house – but she hesitates in the threshold anyways, hands on hips. Because it's hard enough as it is, letting her baby go to war, without worrying about Ted's drinking habits as a plus. So she marches forward and swipes the bottle right out of his hands, watches as he totters backwards, stunned.
To be frank, she's stunned, too. In fact, she's always respected Ted, always respected his habits, no matter how nefarious they were to his health – and she wonders what's made her do it, this time. Maybe she's especially tired; maybe she's worried; maybe she's just fed up that Ted can't stay strong without alcohol for a tiny moment.
Pointing a finger at her husband with her other hand on her hip, Rose sets the bottle on the kitchen table with a resounding thud and scowls at him. "Ted Narracott," she says, deadly calm, and he looks down, "can't you just stop drinking for an instant?"
Ted's fists clench, and he breathes heavily. "But it's so hard, Rosie," he mutters, and she kind of feels sorry for him. Kind of, because doesn't he know that it's hard for her, too, watching her Albie slip on an army uniform alongside Andrew Easton and knowing that he's going out to the great unknown?
She has this great urge to punch Ted, punch some sense into that stubborn head of his. But then she stops for a moment and thinks it's not going to work, yelling at him, because if anything, it's only going to make him more miserable and more convinced that she'll leave him at any chance – which she won't, of course. You know, she didn't marry Ted Narracott without reason.
So Rose takes his hand and puts it to her cheek and murmurs, "Be brave, Ted. I can know you can be brave for our Albie," and when she kisses him, it's almost as if when they were young, before they had Albert – before Ted went to war and got ruined by it. "Be brave, darling."
He hears her, she knows he does. She smiles and kisses him again and dusts her apron, making a move to dump off the bottle of liquor when she hears him call her name. "Only if you're there with me, Rosie," Ted says, and there's a little curve of his lip – a little smile.
Rose smiles, too. "Every step of the way," she replies, and that's a promise.
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Ted/Rose is so freakin' cute, I swear... :D This was harder to write, though, I'm not sure why. And, hmm, for some reason Rose reminds me of Narcissa Malfoy from Harry Potter :/
Next up is Capt. Nicholls/OC; and please do read and review, especially if you favourite/alert!