Typhoid & Gossip Ch 34: Gilbert - Out of Bed, an anne of green gables series fanfic

Author's Note:

I noticed didn't update the date for when the story was updated, though it shows the latest chapter. FYI if you haven't read Davy - Deliveries yet, go back and read that first.

Faith-hope-and-glory - Glad you enjoyed the last chapter. And I'd think Mrs. Lynde would be a great help to anyone with her fount of wisdom about children, and her strong opinions.

— Gilbert —

Tuesday, July 5th, 8:00am

Apple Bough, Avonlea, PEI

I'd been in a haze the past few days. Anne Shirley had agreed to marry me! But beyond that I was constantly concerned watching her. Had she caught the typhoid from me? Sunday she'd nearly fainted at one point, having to rest her head hanging off the bed as she laid beside me and Davy talked our ears off sitting at the foot of the bed. I still puzzled over the lack of chaperoning that we seemed to have. But then I didn't even dare kiss my fiancé, oh what a lovely thought. To properly kiss her and I couldn't until I'd been cleared. Dr. Spenser had been quite clear about that. So perhaps that was why.

I'd woken from a dream, and saw it was mid morning now. I'd dreamed about when I'd been tending little Anne. My heart clutched at the memory. What had happened to her? Had she recovered too? I could hear others moving about, Mother in the kitchen no doubt, and I could just see Anne sitting at the table in the sitting room eating her breakfast, dressed for the day.

Struggling I forced myself out of bed, struggling to get up, she'd rushed over leaving her breakfast, to help me, "Let me Gil."

I was exhausted, and needed the chamber pot I realized as I became vertical. "Chamberpot." I whispered.

She set me up, positioning it in easy reach before bitting her lower lip. "Should I fetch Davy or Mr. Blythe to help you?"

"Bladder too full." I tried to adjust the night shirt, swaying when she let go of me. In the end, she turned her back as I relieved myself then wanted to help me to lie back down. I had to agree, and slept for a few more hours.

The next time though I woke, she helped me to eat some thin soup then I'd insisted on leaving the room. So with Dad on the other side, they'd helped me to move to the couch in the sitting room, and propped me with pillows to lay there, as Anne kept me company, reading to me from one of her books, and telling me about her plans for the principal position she'd gotten at Summerside Highschool.

She'd then left me there with Davy who told me about his fishing plans and birthday plans and swearing how he'd wait for his party until I could be there, and Fred too. I was glad for Fred, though I had to hold back a laugh at the memory of the day before when Anne had moaned about how we couldn't yet see little Fred, for word had come that Diana had named him such, Then another memory popped into my mind, of Anne in bed with me whispering her own suspicions. Had she? I was struggling with what was real and what was not. And still that sinking fear that I'd...

Even though she'd said she'd wanted me, that she could not wait. I feared what I'd done. Unfortunately that brief memory or dream was spilled with other dreams just as graphic and just as inappropriate to speak of to one's fiancé, especially when one has been dreaming of her quite vividly for years and sometimes waking to the bed being a mess for the dream. But she'd always been willing in my dreams. Except for that one...

How did one began that topic? I worried over it, and didn't dare say anything, especially there in the sitting room. Thinking of what Davy had seen, had we? Scratched on my behind? The more I thought on it, the more I found it impossible. How would that have happened if not... Of course, Aunt Mary Maria sat down in one of the chairs just at that moment of my thought and began to lecture me about not recovering properly, and that I'd likely be a cripple or something or always weak...

I did my best to drone her out. We didn't have time alone all day, Anne and I. Instead others were always about, it'd been much the same the day before, for it seemed that unlike my parents Aunt Mary Maria had taken it it into her head we needed to be constantly chaperoned. Finally towards evening when Anne and Davy were helping me back towards the bed in the spare room, now aired and cleaned throughly I whispered in her ear. "Anne-girl, I... Could you slip down and wake me in the night? I think I remember..."

She flushed, nodded. And I fell asleep worrying about that slip of a memory and Davy's words about my state when I'd first arrived home. That then turned to a rather too graphic dream of Anne and I swimming in our birthday suits in a pond filled with rambles, and I was moaning her name as we'd finally found a spot with one single rock to rest on when I was woken by the real Anne.

"Gil..."

I'd made a mess of my night shirt. I ignored it as best as I could as she helped me to sit up, praying she wouldn't notice, at least the bed clothes kept my mess hidden. Still, perhaps it was the dream, that I took her hand and as she helped me to sit against the head board. If Anne being my future was the result of typhoid I'd take it any day.

"Hello Carrots."

She bristled. "Don't tempt me to find a slate Gilbert Blythe."

"Why Anne Shirley." I smirked. "I think it's a lovely name for you."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll have to think of an equally appropriate name for you then Mr. Blythe, perhaps 'Idiot'?"

I grabbed her, pulling her close, perhaps it was the dream influencing me, and having no real memory of her lips, only Dr. Spenser's warning came through, so I began to tickle her. She laughed as I found a spot on her side.

There was a creaking of floor boards above. We both froze, waiting as the sounds went away. Perhaps I should wait to ask until later.

"Gil?" She whispered, near my ear. "I think whom ever it was went back to sleep. I... Maybe we should wait, not the middle of the night for what ever you were going to..."

"No." I grabbed her waist, pulling her to sit beside me, enjoying that though it came in bursts, I was starting to regain some of my energy and strength. "I... Anne I can't do this conversation where someone might walk in on us."

She pulled away slightly, adjusting my old bed robe, and her nightgown below for her legs had been exposed, and quite beautiful. I would file that away for later, the memory of that glimpse. One day I'd...

"What did you wish to speak of?" She spoke in a voice that screamed school Ma'am.

I wanted to ask about the marks, yet her mannerism, I feared I might have had them when she'd run into me. So instead I spoke about our future, Summerside, Kingsport, and our wedding in three years. I did though ask just what sort of first kiss she wanted, laughing.

She bit her lip, flushing, "One we can tell our grandchildren about." She wouldn't look at me though. And perhaps I thought, perhaps I'd just gone swimming in a bramble as Davy thought, and some of my lucid dreams were just that, dreams of Anne in quite indecent ways that was quite premature to think about.

Finally, exhausted, she slipped away, and left me alone to sleep.

The next day, I continued to gain strength. We were quiet around each other the next morning. And I'm afraid I went quite red when I requested of dad for a proper bath. So Anne had been sent off to visit and get news on Diana and the baby. She couldn't hold the baby of course, but report on his looks while Dad helped me to bathe, and clean up properly. I'd even insisted on wearing something besides a night shirt so was helped into a pair of trousers and a work shirt, soft with wear.

Moody came by for a visit also, and Anne had rushed out, insisting on with him there that she should go and see Marilla. So I saw little of her since our confessions. She had forgiven, but still... I began to doubt.

He'd been good natured, and tried to hint at our news, but Anne wasn't there, and truth was I was enjoying this quiet time of just us knowing. Our precious secret. That Anne Shirley had said yes. So I reminded him that I wasn't yet recovered, though able to sit up a bit more than the day before.

Dr. Spenser came by too, and declared my fever down to 99 degrees, and likely would be gone the next day. He then informed me that likely in a month or so I could be considered clear of the danger of spreading the typhoid.

So I napped with dreaming of giving Anne a proper first kiss that we could tell our grandchildren about, and of course that meant it wouldn't be the product of my fantasies, but hers likely in some romantic spot. Chase, and innocent. I fell asleep dreaming about a first kiss at our apple tree. Only to wake to Aunt Mary Maria sitting beside my bed and lecturing me on being eating, as I looked too thin, and most unbecoming and no girl wants a man who was skin and bones.

Anne came up for a bit, but perhaps our talk about the future, our first kiss, she'd blush as I did. I prayed she'd speak to me in the night again, for I had more dreams to share with her. It would be unwise to share the ones of the marriage bed to come until close to our wedding, but other dreams. Red headed children, a home on the island, her being Mrs. Dr. Blythe.

Those were our secret dreams, that even if everyone knew without an official announcement she was the future Mrs. Gilbert Blythe, and likely the Future Mrs. Dr. Blythe, it was our secret dreams. I'd insisted on changing into my own fresh night clothes that night, climbed back into bed and dozed until the house was quite quiet. She hadn't come down, so instead using all the strength I could gather I slipped out of bed, and seeing my bed robe returned to me by Anne who'd sighed with my first trip out of bed it was time for me to wear. That it smelled of her and hadn't been washed was wonderful. I hoped when she moved to Summerside and I to Kingsport, I'd have my newer one and would gain back weight, so I hoped she'd take it with her. I slipped barefoot though up the stairs, careful of the creaks. Years of sneaking in as a young man after some adventure with Fred, Moody, and Charlie. We'd sneak out to fish, or one time we'd drunk a bottle of whiskey Charlie had gotten ahold of during my year at Queens. I'd regretted that one.

So now completely exhausted, and having made it up the stairs I slowly pushed my door open, glancing into the room I hadn't been in except briefly the previous Christmas. Even then I'd tried to avoid much time at home. Ever since that proposal. There was no moonlight and I went by feel, slowly, fearing I'd trip on a trunk or some item I'd not expect. I did stub my toe on her trunk, and sucked in my breath. I slipped the door closed behind me, and found my way towards the bed. I could see stars outside the window, and smell her. I reached for her, finding my fingers against her hair. I knelt down, "Anne..."

"Gil?" She startled, and I had to cover her mouth so that Aunt Mary Maria who unlike my parents is a quiet sleeper, next door.

Suddenly, I was concerned, how the thoughts only clicked then, her loosing her stomach, her dizziness a few days before. Typhoid. I reached down to touch her forehead. Thankfully cool. "Anne, I'm worried, what if you have caught the Typhoid?"

She sat up, holding her own cold hand to mine. "Any fever?"

"No." I sighed, sitting down. Suddenly what I think is a memory comes flying back. The rim of a chamber pot digging into my behind, a towel covering me as I dripped from a bath, Anne dressed before me, kneeling as tears flowed down her eyes and mine too. The two of us holding each other's faces as I begged her to be with me until the end. And I began to pull her closer as my intestines gurgled, only the memory faded then. "Anne, I kissed you at the hotel didn't I? The kiss when Dr. Spenser says the month is up won't be our first."

She flushed. "Yes. But it wasn't something one can tell others..."

"No... " I didn't blame her, not if our first kiss had me sitting on a chamber pot. No man ever wants that to be known. And perhaps I realized, that was where the scratches came from, perhaps they were just that chamberpot. Because that memory, I am determined now to believe that it was just a nightmare. That I'd ever do that to Anne. I am determined to live upto the ideals she sets before us all. "I may have ruined that first, but I won't the rest. I'll work hard, and you'll be the most beautiful bride in Avonlea when you marry Dr. Gilbert Blythe."