Chapter 7: A Prod
Arendelle 1988
Kristoff started setting the table for dinner. He looked at the clock. It was way past the time that Anna should have gotten home. Kristoff sighed. She was coming home later and later. Law School was keeping her busy, extremely busy. He was seeing her less and less. He didn't blame her. She was working so hard but he missed his wife and their children missed their mother.
"Where's Mummy?" four year old Helena asked her Dad.
"I don't know honey," Kristoff said.
"She's running very late," six year old Josef said very matter of factly.
"Very late," little two year old Heidi said.
"Well Mummy has a lot to do at the moment so how amazing would it be if she got home and you guys were all ready for bed? That would certainly make things easier for her."
Anna returned home after a very exhausting day of University and work. She had worked pretty much all day on her law before having to go to work for a couple of hours for her shift. She was pretty much the walking dead by this point. She was so relieved when she saw her house come into view. She just wanted to collapse into her bed and snuggle into her husband. It sounded like heaven. She opened her front door and hung up her coat and placed her bag by the door. The house was dead silent. She looked at her watch. It was late, very late. A guilty expression started to make its way over her face.
She headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge. She found the dinner that Kristoff had left for her. She put the food into the microwave to heat it up. When it was done, Anna had a late night feast. The food filled Anna up with a warm feeling. Anna quickly finished it before heading up into bed. She didn't even bother changing. She just climbed into bed and into the arms of her husband. Kristoff stirred slightly as she did this.
"Hello," he said giving her a kiss.
"Sorry I'm late," Anna said. "Work was a nightmare."
"That's okay," Kristoff said tightening his hug. "Oh, don't forget, tomorrow is Parents' Day at school for Josef. We have to be there for him."
"Don't worry, I'll be there."
"I know you will."
Anna woke the next morning to the sound of her alarm going off. She had been having such a pleasant dream. However she forced herself to get up. Six am was way too early to get up but she had been doing it for the last five years. She quickly got ready and was out the door by half past. She was out before anyone else was up.
Kristoff was at Josef's primary school. He was waiting outside for Anna. He checked his watch every five seconds. He was getting nervous. She had promised to be here and she wasn't keeping that promise. Kristoff kicked a loose stone on the ground and it rolled away. What was he going to tell their son? That his Mum was too busy to show up? Kristoff tucked his hands into his pockets. Lately he felt like Anna was forgetting about her own family but he knew she would never do that. But he still felt left out. He headed back inside the school as Parents' Day was about to start. He just didn't want to see the look of disappointment on Josef's face when he sees only his Dad and not his Mum.
Kristoff entered his son's classroom and stood at the back with the other parents. He could see Josef sitting in about the fourth row. He turned around and smiled at his Dad but Kristoff could see a look of confusion on his face as when he couldn't find his Mum. The teacher was talking so Kristoff focused in on her and decided to forget about his problems.
Anna didn't have work that night so she was able to go straight from Law to picking up her children from school. She picked up Heidi and Helena from kindergarten before going to Josef's school. She parked her car on the street outside the school and waited. It didn't take her too long to see a familiar figure running towards her. The door of the car opened and Josef hopped in.
"All good? Ready to go?" she asked him staring at his reflection in her rear view window.
She saw Josef nod and so she started up the engine again. As she drove, she kept one eye on her children. She could see that Josef was upset about something.
"You okay buddy?" she asked him.
"Why weren't you there today?" he asked while staring out the window.
"Why wasn't I…?" Anna said before she realised what Josef was on about. Anna let out a groan. She could have whacked her head against the steering wheel. She had forgotten about Parents' Day at school. That just happened to be the day when the parents could come in and see what their children had been up to. Josef had been looking forward to showing both his parents what he had made that year and Anna had missed it. Anna mentally slapped herself. Stupid, stupid, she told herself. She had been so caught up at Law School that she had forgotten about her own child. Stupid, stupid, she kept repeating in her head. Kristoff was going to kill her and bury her in the garden. Well Anna didn't blame her. She would hand him the shovel.
She parked the car the garage when they got home. She told Josef to go do his homework which he grudging did. She carried Heidi into the house with Helena holding onto her pants. When Anna walked through the doors, she could see Kristoff in the kitchen, making dinner for them. Kristoff did not speak to Anna all through dinner. Anna knew he was very mad at her and didn't want to make a scene in front of the children. He didn't speak to her until they were in the confines of their own bedroom and the children had been put to sleep.
"How could you have forgotten?" Kristoff said clearly disgusted with Anna.
"I'm so sorry," Anna said. "It got crazy today. The lecturer dumped this huge assignment on us today which was due tomorrow. It took my mind off everything but it."
"Anna I feel like you are taking off and leaving us behind. I feel like we're second fiddle to your quest to get Elsa freed from prison."
"Kristoff you or the children are ever second to anything. You and the children are my top priority."
"Really? Because it didn't feel like that today. It hasn't felt like that anymore. In fact it feels like I'm a single Dad and my wife is nowhere to be found."
"Kristoff," Anna now had tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I messed up. I'm sorry."
She took a step closer to him but he took one back.
"I can't even look at you," Kristoff said. "I'm going to sleep in the couch tonight as I can't be around you."
"Kristoff," Anna began but he was already out of the room. Anna collapsed on her bed. She crawled into the foetal position and just cried her eyes out. She had failed as a wife and she had failed as a Mother.
Kristoff had gotten up early and had bolted out the door. He didn't even see Anna come down the stairs. Maybe she had already left or she didn't have to go to class until later. He was still quite upset about last night. He got into his car and drove to work. He was in such a state that he couldn't concentrate on his work. Normally when he had this much of a problem with something he would go talk to Anna about it but Anna was the one with who he had a problem with.
He thought maybe he should go talk to someone about it. He would normally go see Elsa. She was good at giving relationship advice especially when it came his relationship with Anna. She had been the one who had gotten them together in the first place. He had been to shy to ask out Anna and he wasn't even sure if Anna was into him but Elsa managed to fix that for him. The only problem now was she wasn't exactly available 24/7 anymore so he guessed he should go for maybe the next best thing.
After work he stopped by Jack's place. He wasn't as good as Elsa with giving advice but he was sort of in the same predicament as him, well sort of. When he knocked on the door, it was Pippa who answered the door. She was a little surprised to see him.
"Hey Pippa, is Jack around?" Kristoff asked.
"Yeah," Pippa said and then called for Jack over her shoulder.
Jack soon appeared holding a bottle of beer in his hand.
"Hey Kristoff," Jack said.
"Could I talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure."
Kristoff led Jack outside. He paused for a moment while Jack drank some of his beer. Very carefully, he explained his situation with Anna to Jack. Jack took a moment to answer while he took another sip of his beer.
"You do realise that your wife is trying help my wife prove her innocence?" Jack said.
"I know that but that is causing my wife to forget that she is a wife and mother."
"Look what Anna is doing is very thoughtless. She could have easily have accepted that Elsa either did the crime or that the courts had decided that she was guilty and so there was no way around that. But she didn't. She knew that Elsa wasn't guilty. She knew that she was innocent and that an innocent people shouldn't be in jail. I know Anna not being around is causing problems in your marriage but just think how much good she is doing."
"I understand that but it feels like she is forgetting how to be a Mum."
"Anna could never forget that. She loves her children so much. She made one mistake. I highly doubt she would make another one like it again. She's working so hard, job, kids, Law School. She is under so much pressure and stress. This was bound to happen at some point."
"You think I should go and apologise?"
"I think you should go talk to her."
"Alright then. Maybe I should go sort this out. Thanks."
"No problem. Anytime."
Emma was sitting in her Law class with her book opened in front of her and a pen in her hand. She was tapping her pen against her book while staring at the whiteboard. She was ready to take notes the second the lecturer opened his mouth. She stared at the empty seat next to her. Anna hadn't come in today. Emma wondered where she was. Anna never missed a single lesson. Was she just late? Could she be sick? The lecturer then stood up the front and took his position up at the lectern. He then started the lecture by calling the roll as usual.
"Anna Bjorgman?" he called when he got to her name.
He got no answer so he called it again but he got the same result. The lecturer tutted and marked her as absent on his list. Emma got worried. Did something happen? Or was she simply overreacting. Anna could just have a cold or something and just didn't feel like coming into University today but then Anna would still attempt it. She was trying to free her sister and any lecture could be the key to solving that problem.
When the lecture finished, Emma sprinted from Law School to the car park and got into her car. She drove her car to Anna's house. She had to check in on Anna to see if she was alright. She had been to Anna's house so many times before to study with Anna. Well they didn't get a lot of study done as they kept getting interrupted by Anna's children but Emma didn't mind. Her children were simply adorable. She drove the car into their driveway and got out of the car. She knocked on the door but she didn't get an answer. It didn't matter to her though as she knew where the spare key was. She used the spare key to open the front door and let herself in.
"Hello?" Emma called throughout the house. "Anna? It's me, Emma."
Emma got no answer. Emma continued onwards to Anna's bedroom. There she found Anna crying and all curled up in bed. She looked upset, demoralised and defeated. Emma sat down next to her.
"You okay?" Emma asked.
"No," Anna said. "I failed."
"You didn't fail."
"I failed at being a wife and a mother. My husband hates me and my son is disappointed in me. I failed."
"Look, just sitting around here and crying about it won't fix the problem," Emma said. "It just makes things worst as you are stewing in your problems."
"I failed," Anna repeated. "Maybe I should quit right now."
"And what? Leave your sister to rot in jail? You sister has been in there for eight years. Are you seriously going to let her stay in there for another day?"
"But my husband hates me."
"He will come around. You just need to talk to him and straighten this whole thing out and then make it up to your son. You just can't lie in your bed doing nothing all day. It won't accomplish anything."
Emma pulled Anna up to a sitting position.
"Now let's go over what you missed in class today," Emma said.
Emma made a move towards the door.
"Emma?" Anna said to her.
"Yeah?" Emma looked up.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
A/N: Here is the next chapter. Enjoy! Please review =)
