Soooooooo, I know a few of you are wondering and have been asking about Anne moving in with Gilbert, well here we see what Anne has been working on during the time Gilbert is at medical school and we get a little insight into what's coming next for the pair! (Some of you are going to love this!)
Anne was in the fiction section again. She took particular care of it. She loved to line the books up in neat order, faithfully alphabetically. It was nearing the Christmas holidays for the children (and most of all for Gilbert) the snow was falling lightly outside and Avonlea was looking more and more like a Christmas card every day.
She had picked up an edition of Sherlock Holmes and flicked to the first page
"MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he stayed up all night, was seated at the breakfast table..."
"it's twins." She heard a familiar voice.
She looked up surprised by the voice, deep but playful, it was the voice of her most beloved. She looked at him surprised but for a completely different reason then you'd think with him being home a day early "Gil!" she exclaimed "What happened to your face?" she asked him.
He chuckled "the same thing as the reason why we haven't been skyping the last week, a little thing called exams." He laughed the back of his hand stroking his now long stubble, which he thought looked good "I didn't shave the week before I just didn't have time and then this last week I haven't either. I was thinking of keeping it." He told her.
She stood dead still and scowled at him as if she was working him out. "I don't know." She told him standing closer to him studying him. She pulled him in and tried to kiss him "Oh!" she exclaimed as if something unpleasant had happened "Yuck!"
"Yuck?!" Gilbert exclaimed. "Yuck!"
"I can't kiss you like that!" she exclaimed.
He chuckled and looked at her "Fine." He said defeated "I'll go home and shave it off, I ought to let mom know I'm home. What time are you off?" he asked her.
"At four." She said with a smile "I could get used to it." She said.
"No!" Gilbert protested "I don't want a single thing coming between me and you kissing." He grinned. He turned to walk away.
"Hey Gil?" she said to him.
"Yeah?" he asked her.
"You look like your dad like that." She said to him.
He shuddered for a moment and said "Alright alright I get it the beard goes!" he chuckled
She practically pounced out of work, right outside the doors was Gilbert in his car. She grinned as she saw he had shaved, she opened the door and got in the car closed the door behind her and pulled him in to kiss him deeply.
"Now that is the kind of welcome I was expecting!" he said with a grin crossing his face.
"Well let this be a lesson to you, to shave." She smiled.
"My ma didn't like it either, she said I didn't look like Gilbert." He told her.
"Well you didn't!" Anne said pulling on her seat belt, her hand automatically reaching across touching him on his thigh. He grinned taking a deep breath in at the feeling closed his eyes for a second before he opened them again and pulled away in the car.
The chattered all the way back to Green Gables, when they arrived she lead him straight up the stairs to her bedroom
"I can't believe you're really here!" she whispered.
"I do actually come from Avonlea." Gilbert smiled as she crossed the room and put her jacket in the cupboard. "What's this?" Gilbert asked her looking at the form on her desk.
She looked at him as he looked at the form with a sigh she said "It an application form." She confirmed.
"I can see that." Gilbert said and he looked at her "Are you applying to come back to university?" he asked her.
She took a deep breath "I was going to put the application in for next academic year, Master's of Art in English, I thought it would be beneficial to get, but I did the maths, I have enough for tuition but not for rent and the rest of the living expenses I need another year." She explained. He read silently through it listening to her at the same time "I talked to Miss Stacy about it in the summer she's been helping me fill out the application, I've even been spending time at the school, My free Monday and Thursday afternoons volunteering for classroom assistant, apparently they like to see it on the application form." Anne said.
"You kept it a secret from me?" he asked her looked at her first.
"Not a secret exactly, just i don't know it was in the back of my mind for a while and it kept on seeming funny to just bring it up. I've been saving, living at home and working in Avonlea meant I didn't have any expenses." She shrugged "and I didn't spend all my money on you or in coming to Kingsport every weekend, no matter how much I wanted to I thought maybe this was more important, not then us, just then spending money for spending sake."
He looked at her with wide eyes, then back at the application form "You have it all filled in for this year, all the references, Miss Stacy has filled in the recommendations and everything, this is ready to go." He said thoughtfully. "Is the rent and the living expenses really the only thing holding you back?" he asked her.
"Yes." She admitted walking away and sitting on her bed.
"Well..." he said his eyebrows arching as he put down the papers he turned around and looked at her seriously "what if that was no longer a problem?" he asked her. She looked at him confused and he chuckled "What if, you were to move in," he continued "with me." He added quietly.
Her eyes went wide she stood up quickly "You want me to move in with you?!" she asked him.
He shrugged and said "Things are heating up next year, I'm not sure how often I'll make it back to Avonlea, I know I'll try and obviously and I can't offer you a home in Avonlea but when we're in Kingsport..."
She squealed in delight jumping into his arms. He chuckled at the reaction holding her to him he said still chuckling "Is this a yes?" he asked her.
"Yes, Yes Yes!" Anne squealed kissing him happily. "You want me to move in with you?!" she asked again.
"I want you to move in with me." He confirmed. "So much!" he said to her.
"but I thought you didn't like people in your stuff?" Anne asked him with a little grin on her face.
"I don't." He told her "but its different with you," he admitted "I like to share my stuff with you." He said.
"Awww!" Anne exclaimed "That is possibly the sweetest thing you have ever said to me."
"I miss you, I miss you all the time and I want you with me, I want you in my life I want you there all the time, and this is my chance." He said with a smile.
"I'll have enough, maybe a bit more." She said. "Accommodation is expensive!" she smiled to which he nodded. She kissed him until her feet were back on the ground where she pulled back and exclaimed "Lets go and post my application!" she exclaimed pulling him by the hand.
"Gilbert!" His mother exclaimed pulling him into her as he walked into the house later that evening. "Hello Anne." She said to her quickly. "Thank god, thank god you both got here before she did."
"Mom?" he questioned "what's wrong?"
"Your Aunt Mary Maria is coming." Mrs Blythe said as if it was a fate worse then death.
Anne looked to Gilbert whose face pulled in horror and he looked to Anne "You know I love you right?" he asked Anne.
"Of course I do?" Anne asked him by the look on his face. "Who is your Aunt Mary?" Anne asked.
"Oh make sure you say both names Anne." Gilbert said seriously starting to coach her "Aunt Mary Maria." He repeated for her. "She's my father's aunty so technically not my Aunt at all."
"So your Grandpa's sister?" Anne asked.
"Yes, and she's awful!" Gilbert exclaimed.
"Gilbert!" his mother reprimanded. Gilbert looked at her his eyebrow raised "well you shouldn't say it."
"When I was five I swore in front of her accidentally, I'd heard Charlie say it and I had no idea what it meant and you know the old saying, to wash someone's mouth out with soap?" he asked Anne.
"Yes." She said confused.
"She grabbed me by my ear and pulled me up to the bathroom and literally washed my mouth out with soap."
Anne gasped in horror that anyone could do such a thing to a little Gilbert.
"Then when I was nine I thought Jim Morrison's hair was so cool." He said told Anne, "and I thought mine could be like that." Gilbert sighed "So I started to grow it, she came and took the sheep sheers and skinned my hair."
"Your beautiful curls." Mrs Blythe looked to her son sadly.
"She is poison Anne." Gilbert whispered to her. "Did you tell her I'm in a relationship?" Gilbert asked his mother.
"Yes." She admitted guiltily.
"Oh Man!" Gilbert exclaimed. "What did she say?" Gilbert asked
"She asked 'with a women?' Apparently you not dating was her way of thinking your gay." Mrs Blythe told him.
"What would be wrong with that?" Anne asked.
"Nothing, only she's homophobic." Gilbert quipped.
"Oh." Anne said looking at Gilbert "we're going to get on like a house on fire." Anne said flatly.
"Its not you Anne." Gilbert said putting his arm around her "honestly love." He whispered. He looked to his mother again holding Anne to him "When is she coming?"
"Your father has gone to get her from the airport."
"Today!" Gilbert exclaimed.
"I'm sorry she called when you went up to Green Gables." Mrs Blythe cringed. "And she was at the airport getting on a plane."
"I come home early for this?" he questioned. "And we were having such a wonderful afternoon." He said looking sadly at his mother "We had some good news to share, well potential good news." He said.
"Oh?" Mrs Blythe asked confused.
"I'm applying for a masters degree to university." Anne told her.
"At Redmond." Gilbert grinned.
"Anne!" Mrs Blythe exclaimed "Oh sweetheart that's wonderful!" hugging the girl.
"When she gets her place," Gilbert started "and she comes and lives in Kingsport, she's going to move in with me." He confirmed for his mother.
"OH!" Mrs Blythe exclaimed in excitement hugging the pair "Oh my baby boy!" she exclaimed "Oh that's so exciting!" she said pulling back. "Oh, you won't need to be apart anymore!" she squealed "Oh Gilbert, Anne that's wonderful!" she turned directly to her son and said "do you know what a good little cook you have in this girl, I think she will teach you a thing or two in the kitchen."
"That's right you can cook!" Anne remembered with a cheeky grin on her face.
"A talent I developed in my salad days." He smiled "My mamma taught me." He grinned, "I should cook for you, I haven't since..."
"Sophomore year, October." Anne grinned.
Gilbert chuckled "Oh god!" he exclaimed "Baked beans and hot dogs!" he laughed.
She smiled and nodded "Baked beans and hot dogs!"
"That doesn't sound very chef like!" His mother reprimanded him.
Gilbert winked at Anne and said "Okay, I'll have to really cook for you!"
"You haven't yet!" Mrs Blythe exclaimed. "Young man, how did you woo this girl?!"
He looked at his mother then put on a false cockiness "Look at me!" he exclaimed which made Anne giggle and his mothers eyes roll.
"He's being humble," Anne teased "his wooing was of a much higher quality then that." Which made his mother laugh and for Gilbert's mouth to fall open in a fake shock. "He wooed me with his soul and mind." She smiled "the effects are ever so much more lasting." With that made him smile, the pair looking lovingly at each other for a few seconds where Mrs Blythe looked on proudly "plus a handsome face never goes a miss." She finally said, before the door swung open and his father came silently through the door, Anne had never seen him look so uncomfortable before, their eyes locked for a moment before another presence entered the room. Gilbert guarded Anne with his own body shielding her from said presence "Hello Aunt Mary Maria." Gilbert said humbly.
The women was a couple of inches shorter then Anne with icy blue eyes and grey hair. Anne looked for some kind of resemblance to a Blythe but there was none to her face or her demeanour, but there was nothing.
"You're hair is too long again." She eyed Gilbert who took a step back.
"I um, I, with medical school I..." he stuttered and Anne looked to him amazed, he looked nervous, and scared actually, scared.
"Um," she said dissatisfied with his answer "fancy mumbo jumbo school, you don't need it." She snubbed "You have a job right here on this farm. Being a farmer too humble for you?" she asked him sharply.
"N-No." Gilbert muttered. "I-I just wanted..." he trailed.
"I, I that was always your problem Gilbert Blythe, you're selfish." She tutted "Wanted."
Anne's face dropped. Of all the things Gilbert was, he wasn't Selfish!
"And this is your girlfriend?" she stared at Anne then looked back at Gilbert "You could have had so many nice girls." She told him before she turned to Mrs Blythe "I want to rest, the flight has tired me." Mrs Blythe silently strained a smile and led her up the stairs.
Gilbert let out a sigh of relief as they heard them go up the stairs.
"Nice girls?" Anne whispered.
"Forget it." Gilbert whispered to her. "Don't listen to her." He told Anne holding her in close, Anne was amazed to find he was shaking, so she held him in a little closer. "Come on lets go to my room." He whispered. "We'll be safe once we're in there."
Ill fated as it was as they entered Gilbert's bedroom they heard her loud voice talking to Mrs Blythe "You let her in his bedroom with him?..." a pause where Mrs Blythe was speaking. "She sleeps in there?!" the exclaim was heard. "They're fornicating and you aren't doing anything about it?!" Gilbert quickly locked the door and moved away from it turning on some music pretending not to hear the insults from the other side of the door.
Anne looked wide eyed at the door as Gilbert stepped back staring at the same object. "We're going straight to hell." Anne said looking terrified.
"I doubt he cares whether or not we had sex before we got a piece of paper to confirm what we already know." He said quietly "we belong with each other." He whispered.
"Yeah." Anne smiled. "for better for worse." Anne teased to which Gilbert chuckled.
"Poison, the women is poison." Gilbert whispered to Anne.
Dinner at the Blythe's was unusually quiet that evening. Gilbert's leg was wrapped round Anne's beside him. He was looking down barely touching his food.
Cut across the silence Aunty Mary Maria's fork clattered on the plate and she proclaimed "well, John, I warned you, you've raised that boy all wrong and look at him now."
John stared silently at his food not looking up.
Mrs Blythe put down her fork and not one not to say what she was thinking said "There's nothing wrong with the way we raised Gilbert." She told the women.
"He's unmarried and having sex!" she proclaimed.
"He's in love and you couldn't expect it from our generation never mind this one." Mrs Blythe said.
"John regretted it." She said her arms folding, "and you can't pretend you didn't wish he hadn't slept with that Green Gables girl before her." She said referring to Mrs Blythe.
There was a stunned silence for a moment before Gilbert looked up amazed at his father "Dad?" he asked him.
"Green Gables?" Anne finally said quietly. "My Green Gables?" she questioned. "Ma-Marilla?"
"What does she mean 'My Green Gables'?" Aunt Mary Maria remarked.
Mrs Blythe spoke up for she was the only one not stunned "Anne was adopted by the Cuthbert's..." she started.
"And you're letting history repeating itself, I told you once I told you before the unsuitability of..."
This time John cut across "There is nothing unsuitable about it, not about Anne, not about Marilla and even though she wasn't from Green Gables you still find fault in my wife." He said sternly but still an unraised voice. "Gilbert is a grown man, he's a good man he works hard and has ambitions and is working hard to achieve them, and he's going to do it too, he'll make an excellent doctor rather soon, and never have I heard the word selfish and Gilbert used together in the context you keep using it, he's a good boy and would do anything for anyone without judgement or expectation of return. He's also well past the legal age of consent he can have a relationship with anyone he liked." The older women looked to John a little shocked as he spoke "and as it happens with Anne we do like, also, very much." He then raised to his feet and started to leave the room. "And I don't regret Rilla, I regret not making it up to her but I don't regret her, I never could." Before he opened the door and closed it behind him.
Aunt Mary Maria's nostrils flared in annoyance before she turned to Mrs Blythe and told her "You let the men have too much opinion in this household, John would never have spoken to me like that had my brother still been alive." With that said she stood up and left.
Mrs Blythe's arm went on the table her hand buried into her face. She looked to her son and to Anne, their mouths still agape in amazement. "You should find your father." She said to him gently. "I'll explain to Anne, but I think you need to hear it from you dad." Gilbert nodded his head, turned and kissed Anne softly on the cheek and left the room.
"Dad?" Gilbert called entering the hay shed. It was there he found his father with a pitch fork digging to the pile of hay and shoving it into a nearby pile.
John looked to his son shook his head and said to his son "I wish I could talk to that women! I don't know what brand of Blythe she came from but I would have hoped it was bred out years ago!" he exclaimed.
Gilbert pick up another pitch fork and starting digging with his father. They remained like that for a couple of minutes before Gilbert asked "So um, you and Marilla?"
"She was my high school girlfriend." John told him still shuffling hay "and I want you to know I was in love, I did love Marilla." He told Gilbert "and yes, for the record we were intimate too, and then one day she came and critiqued Marilla." John's eyebrows quirked "Well you can imagine, back then Marilla was as outspoken as Anne as fiery as Anne and as sensitive as Anne." John stopped throwing the pitch fork into the hay and sitting on a bale close by. "She stood there and took it," John remembered "but afterwards she told me straight I should have defended her." John sighed "and maybe I should have, maybe it would have been different." John said "but when I refused to in front of Aunt Mary Maria, she may have lost her temper." John said his lips upturning with a raised eyebrow he looked to his son. "It wasn't a me or your family but I wouldn't speak up for her, and it broke down our relationship, She eventually went and never came back." He said his hand reaching behind neck rubbing it uncomfortably.
Gilbert had stopped and looked at his dad in amazement. "Dad." He said sympathically sitting beside him.
"I'm not sorry I met your mother, and I love her, I love her and its grown beyond anything else..."
"Dad, you're telling me you were in love with your high school girlfriend, that's a good thing surely?"
His father chuckled and his arm went round his son "I've got a good 'un." He said with a smile to his son which made him chuckle.
"Sooo," Gilbert said trying to analyse it "Marilla." He said with a smile. "You know I kind of get why." He said with a shrug. "She's smart, her sense of humour is so dry!" Gilbert chuckled, "She's like mom in a lot of ways." Gilbert nodded.
"Yeah, she was, well I suppose is if you're saying it." John acknowledged.
"They don't really look alike." Gilbert thought aloud.
"No, but you know as well as I do us Blythe boys don't look for looks do we?" John replied. "I told your mother what happened with Marilla so when she met my Aunt Mary Maria she was prepared, well your mom I suppose was a little older."
"What did she say about mom?" Gilbert jumped up ready to defend her.
"Pipe down Gil." His father teased him pulling him back down to sit back next to him.
They stayed quiet for a moment before Gilbert said "Thank you." He said. John looked to him confused "you defended Anne in there..." Gilbert started, where John shook his head.
"I won't have her poising your relationship with that sweet girl." John said.
Gilbert smiled and said "Even if we're fornicating?" Gilbert teased.
John rolled his eyes "I'm not worried about that." He chuckled. "You know we love Anne." John told his son.
"I know." Gilbert smiled, he thought back and looked to his dad "so when mom was mad with Anne and you wouldn't have a word said against Anne, do you think that was all about Anne?" Gilbert asked his dad.
"Don't try that academic stuff on me." John told his son straight.
"Alright." Gilbert acknowledged, "can I ask then, why did you never tell me, about Marilla, especially once I met Anne?"
John sighed "I didn't want you thinking that you were 'making up' for my mistakes, its kind of poetic of course that the brilliant girl you loved so much was quite so much like Rilla, but I didn't want to pressure you."
"So when I said Anne had hit me across the head with the slate and she was from Green gables..." Gilbert started.
"Sounded just like Rilla." John smiled, which made Gilbert chuckle.
"Well," Gilbert shrugged with a smile to his father, the two men smiled at each other before they embraced "I love you Dad." He whispered.
"Love you too son."
Anne and Gilbert walked into Green Gables that night after eleven o'clock, when Anne saw Marilla she ran into her arms. Marilla looked wide eyed at Gilbert who shook his head and at Marilla's look Gilbert said to her "My great Aunt Mary Maria is visiting." Gilbert told her, and with that Gilbert saw a flare in her eyes which flashed in such a way he suddenly knew exactly what fire his father loved so much.
Marilla pulled back and looked at Anne "Now don't you listen to word that verminous snake tells you." She told Anne. "She nearly ruined one generations chances of happiness," she said to Anne before she told Gilbert "I won't let it happen to another." She told him.
Gilbert swallowed and said to Marilla "You don't blame my dad do you?" he asked her.
To which she shook her head "Not for a long time and many a year, once I had the chance to calm down." She said with a dry grin to Anne. "Now," she told them seriously "You two can stay here all you like until that women goes." Marilla told them "and tell your parents that extends to them as well." Marilla looked back to Gilbert "How long is she here for?"
"The week, she leaves the day before Christmas Eve." Gilbert said softly.
"A week." She nodded, "my home is your home." She smiled.
"I think I'm going to wash my face." Anne said quietly leaving Marilla and Gilbert on the veranda together.
Gilbert shifted towards the sofa on the veranda which sat opposite the chair Marilla was sitting on. He looked up to Marilla and sighed.
"You're father told you about us?" she questioned.
He nodded commenting "He really loved you."
Marilla nodded her lips pressed before she said very quietly "and it was returned."
Gilbert smiled and said "Good, I'm glad." He said sitting back on the sofa.
"I wish, I hadn't been as proud, my pride was hurt I... I was stubborn and shouldn't have been." Gilbert watched as she looked up at him, their eyes met and Marilla told him again "You, look like him, your dad, except your eyes, they're..."
"My mom's, I know." He said.
"You're a lot like him. Not just in looks, you seem to have a little bit more patience..." She commented, they sat quietly for a moment before she said "I was a lot more fiery back then, a lot like Anne..." she trailed.
"He said." Gilbert said with a grin.
Marilla's eyebrows quirked as her lips still a little pressed turned upwards.
"As for my patience, I'm glad I have the appearance of patience at least." he smiled looking at the older women.
Marilla laughed at this and told him "Don't let that women poison you, or Anne, Gilbert." She told him.
"I won't." He said. They paused again before he said "I hope, Marilla, with time, I'll show you, I'll prove to you how worthy I am of her."
Marilla looked up at him slightly bemused. "As soon as I heard the name Blythe, I knew you were worthy." She remarked "and I know your mother of course, until you two met it was by reputation." She continued "I'm glad your fathers happiness wasn't forever ruined because of what happened."
Gilbert looked at Marilla and said "that's extremely kind of you to say considering the circumstances."
"I never wanted your father miserable." Marilla told him.
"My dad married, he has a relationship..." he said heavily "...did she ruin your happiness?" Gilbert asked.
Marilla sighed heavily before she said quietly "For a while, but then a girl came into my home brightened every corner, repaired a old wound..." Marilla said looking to Gilbert.
"Anne." He nodded. "She fixes everything." He smiled.
"Even a lonely boy." Marilla said looking at him, Gilbert opened his mouth as if to ask how she could know that, but then remembered, caught himself and close his mouth. "And, anyway I'm glad you have such a good mother, I've got to know her since Anne broke that slate over your head, we talked over everything and I must admit I like her, she's definitely a wife of a Blythe." Marilla said with a smile.
Gilbert laughed "Yes, she is."
"She's brought up a really fine young man." She said looking at Gilbert.
"Thank you." He whispered.
