I should be finishing my other fanfics, but this came to me and I had to let it out.

Hope you enjoy and remember english is not my first language.

Reviews are more than welcome.

War Times

Another day like every other.

The same thoughts woke up with Siegfried every morning, went down with him for breakfast, accompanied him on the way to the runs or while he wandered around the house. His moments of peace were the moments he was concentrating on work, taking care of his patients, but when the work hours were over, everything returned.

Time started to be measured by letters. The ones he received and the ones he wrote. In the interim he spent long hours making mental notes of what to write in the next letter, or rereading those he received once a week, again and again, until he could recite them mentally, resting his head on the pillow late at night after another long waiting day.

Wait. Life had become a constant and long wait. Wait for news, wait for letters, wait for...

"Tristan? Helen? " He screamed as soon as he set foot in Skeldale House and closed the door behind him.

The clinic was in absolute silence, completely empty, although there was still an hour to go before teatime.

They had been splitting up in the runs, Siegfried and Tristan. With so many men leaving to fight the war, their work seemed to have tripled. They were called to the simplest situations that experienced farmers and their employees would be able to solve without their help, but with most of these men away there was no other option.

It was strange to think that he had fought a war, but for the present one he was of no use. Too old, they said, more useful in serving the country by helping animals stay healthy so people don't run out of food. The dismissal had bothered him, even revolted him. Of course, there were countless ways to fight a war and that his work in Darrowby was just as important as any other. Hunger and lack of food was a problem in many places, but he still felt disgusted. He did not see an old man when looking at himself in the mirror.

Tristan had not qualified the fisical exams. That at least gave Siegfried some relief and he was never so relieved to know that his little brother had failed in something. It was less of a concern for him to have Tristan safe and sound under his gaze. James on the other hand... He and Margareth had volunteered. Mrs. Hall too.

For Wrens she was not old, she was experienced, welcome to help train the new generation of girls at the Royal Naval Service.

In silence he watched her stiffen, become more serious, observant and attentive. The brutal task master, Dorothy joked once. She was right, there was no room for error in a war and Audrey would make sure of it.

To see her in uniform ready to go had been to meet a woman entirely different from the one with whom he had been sharing the same roof for so many years. At least until she gave him one of her small, brief, although sad, smiles.

If watching James go was wrong, watching her go was a real crime. Since Siegfried was too old to serve the country, in theory, she, who was not much younger than he, should also be. And with that argument he fooled himself about why he didn't want to see her leave, when in fact the idea that they would have all the time in the world to deal with their feelings had given them the false tranquility that sooner or later everything would get it right was still strong within him.

Then, suddenly, the world had turned upside down and they, who would have the rest of their lives to align their paths in one, found themselves standing on the platform of the train station, surrounded by countless other families and couples saying goodbye.

"Be patient with them and try not to push Tristan too much." She had told him. "You are a difficult audience, try to be kind and thankful to Helen, she's missing James and taking over a house like Skeldale is not easy. And don't kill yourself with work, or stop eating regularly. I know how you are like and if nobody controls you, you will work like crazy and..."

"You can rest easy, I will behave the best I can." The attempt at the joke sounded wistful. "Take care, Mrs. Hall."

"You too, Mr. Farnon."

Audrey took the her suitcase from his grip and for a brief moment squeezed his hand. A simple farewell, restrained and full of unsaid things, like everything that happened between them.

Watching her walk towards the train, Siegfried finally understood that this could be the last time he would see her, that something could happen to the train, that the training base could be attacked, that she could be moved to a place that put her in combat risk.

"Audrey!" He called to her, already walking towards her in quick steps.

Of all the passionate hugs and kisses that had been exchanged around them, theirs had certainly been the most awaited. Years of waiting made them hold each other for a long time, immersed in the feeling of comfort that only being close to a loved one is capable of providing.

"I'll be here waiting for you to come home."

"I'll try to come back as soon as possible."

They murmured to each other, in an implicit promise that in the future, if there was one for them, everything would be different between them and sealed it with a delicate and chaste brush of lips, but that it would serve as fuel to keep them going for the long months that they both had ahead.

And then the letters came, one a week since she left, keeping that promise, giving each other the motivation to continue fulfilling their roles while duty was the most important.

"There you are!" Helen appeared at his office door and found him sunk in the chair, about to open the drawer in which he kept the letters that Audrey did not fail to send. "I'm heading out to do the groceries." She informed hurriedly. Helen was always full of energy and hid her concern almost all the time.

"Any sign of Tristan?"

"He must be arriving, he left some time ago." She commented, burying her hands in her pockets, ready to turn on her heel and follow the hallway. "There's something for you to eat in the kitchen if you're hungry."

"Alright. Thank you Helen."

"I'll be back soon."

He watched her go.

It was nice to have her in Skeldale. Helen, like James, had become part of the family and together the three had been facing their own pain and anguish waiting for news.

His intention was to put a little smoke in his pipe and go back to the last letter he had received a few days before. The tone was more than cordial. The distance made him realize that he was able to write about all the feelings that he was not able to talk about openly.

Sharing the worries, the anguish and especially the longing, Siegfried, like Audrey, allowed himself to open up to her on paper, hoping that one day he could do it personally.

However, before he could follow through on his plans, his keen sense of smell captured something. A subtle, cozy aroma that made his stomach growl loudly. Helen had said something about a snack, but nothing she did or tried to do smelled remotely like that.

Shortbread biscuits.

Curious, he let himself be guided by his nose to the kitchen and his nose was not mistaken. On the table, the biscuits he loved so much were cooling on two plates.

Careful not to burn his fingertips, he picked one up and smelled it, taking a deep breath of that scent that sent him to Audrey Hall. When this hell is going to end, he wondered even though he smiled absently at the memories the smell brought.

The banality of endless afternoons of sun, rain, snow or clouds. Tea-drenched conversations, discussions about how to act with Tristan, shopping plans, organizing chores, some gossip about the townspeople, and endless narratives about the cases he had dealt with throughout the day.

Shortbread biscuits smelled like home and at some point Audrey had become his home.

And then he looked at the chair in front of him, more precisely at the black jacket hanging at the back. Too small to be his or Tristan's and too formal to be Helen's.

The biscuit fell on the table top, completely forgotten as he, suspicious and fearful, went around the table and disbelieved when his eyes saw the blue stripes on the cuff and the golden buttons on the front. As he got closer he saw the hat and tie on the seat of the chair. They couldn't be Margareth's, so they could only be...

"AUDREY!" He called out loud, almost running around the house.

In her room he found the small suitcase on the floor beside the bed, but no sign of her. Nothing in the living room, nor in the exam rooms. He went up the stairs, two steps at a time, as he called out to her again. But he didn't find her in any of the rooms.

Siegfried stopped at the bathroom door and knocked softly. Audrey had the habit of soaking in the tub when she had the chance. Perhaps she was so tired that she fell asleep, or she could be so distracted that she hadn't heard the knock. He called her by name, longing for an answer that didn't come. He would never forgive himself if she had had a sudden illness in the bath without anyone being there and he knew she would be enraged if he opened the bathroom door with her there, so Siegfried opened the door slightly. Nothing again.

Heart pounding in his ears, he hurried down the stairs and returned to the kitchen, passing directly through the table to leave the house through the back door and finally found her. Standing by the lawn, Audrey watched Jess play. The dog ran and came back to her, wagging the tail, ecstatic to have one of her favorite companies back.

After running all over the house, Siegfried found himself frozen in place, watching her outline against the afternoon light. After so many endless letters filled with confessions, he had lost his words. After so many months of waiting, she was there and he couldn't get close.

A hot mass grew and spread across his chest, filling him with pressure. It was not a heart attack, he told himself with some disdain. It was love

"Audrey!"

It was her, with the black skirt from her uniform, the sleeves of her shirt draped to the elbow and the first buttons open and her hair tied in a simpler and more practical bun. There it was that small smile that hid a huge feelings, both hers and his.

Somehow he managed to figure out how to move again and found himself standing in front of her an arm's length away. Nothing would stop him from reaching out and touching her. All the miles that separated them erased in an instant.

"You should have told me you were coming home. I would have…" He would have what? Go pick her up? Certainly. Spent every day anxious waiting for the moment to see her? Absolutely. Get dressed up for the occasion? Without a doubt.

"You would have driven them insane counting the days." Audrey knew him as no one and smiled at him.

"True but..." Generally Siegfried had great useless arguments to contradict her from the obvious. They all escaped him.

"I thought you would be happy with a surprise." She said simply, shrugging.

"I am, love."

The only term affectionate or remotely close that Siegfried allowed himself to use was "little brother". He never called any of them by nicknames or by their short names and there he was, calling her love.

Audrey's smile widened and she opened her arms. No further incentives were needed. Siegfried took the last step that kept them apart and wrapped his arms around her.

All of a sudden Siegfried did no longer just exist but felt alive. And finally he let out the breath that seemed to be trapped in his lungs since Audrey had boarded that train. She was there, in his arms, alive, warm, physically whole and as relieved as he was to be together again.

He buried his face on her hair and kissed the soft strands, settling her against him, aware that he would have no peace until she was permanently back where his eyes could see her and his hands reached out to her. Pushing away the thought that the relief was only temporary, Siegfried allowed himself to plunge into the tranquility of having her there.

"Why can I feel you ribs pocking thru?" Audrey asked with her face buried in his neck as her hands skimmed his ribs in intricate patterns, running from his back to his chest. A purr went up his throat and was swallowed.

"Well, you know Helen's cooking skills… It's… challenging, on the best days."

"Oh, poor you." Her laughter reverberated in his chest before Audrey pulled away enough that they could face each other. "Thank the Lord I have two weeks to feed you back into shape." Her hands cupped his face and Siegfried, who was about to scold her and saying she was there to rest, decided that he could fight this battle later and focused on the way her eyes sparkled and how her thumbs caressed his cheeks. "I've missed you so much."

"Well... I wasn't missing you all that much." Siegfried lied jokingly and laughed when she narrowed her eyes. "You were with me all the time. Here..." He pointed at his head. "But mostly here." And gently he took one of her hands from his face to rest against his heart.

Their foreheads met and Audrey's hand moved towards his hair. He closed his eyes, anticipating what would come next and when their lips met, his arms pressed her against him to stay steady.

It was not as delicate and chaste as the previous one, although it started that way. A little shy and insecure, perhaps, but little by little shyness gave way to longing and insecurity to desire. They kissed, with lips, tongues, hands, bodies and souls, as if life depended on that simple act that it had the capacity to encompass the most complex feelings.

They kissed for a long time, making up for every minute they were apart. They kissed as if it were the first and the last time, although it was neither one nor the other.

Audrey smiled at him, her lips slightly swollen, her cheeks flushed and her hands on his chest. Two weeks would never be enough time, but it would have to be for now and he intended to make those weeks worthwhile.

"Come on, let's get tea ready. Helen and Tris will be back soon."

"Can't we send them away?"

"What's on your mind, love?" She asked, teasingly.

"Oh so many things..."

In fact, he had many things on his mind for those fourteen days. Seeing her laugh relaxed, as she was at that moment, shaking her head and giving him a curious look, was the main one.

Holding Audrey's hand, he followed her and Jess back to the house, pleased that they were happy for the present time.

Let me know what you thought of it.

Perhaps I write another chapter in Audrey's pov