Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters created by L.M. Montgomery and Moira Walley-Beckett. I do not claim any ownership over them and offer my writing to the world as a homage of appreciation to their creations as well as an outlet of imagination to imagine an infinity of alternate storylines. This is just one of them!

Author's Note: Here is the conclusion of Part 18. There will be one more interlude to be followed by two final chapters. I really appreciate my readers' patience with updates, especially over the last few months. I hope you will enjoy the final three installments after this one! As always, I appreciate your feedback, favorites, follows, and reviews!

XVIII.B.

Bash remembered meeting Winnie and her parents at the county fair, and not only did they appear to be very wealthy, but also seemed very used to getting their own way. He didn't think the young woman would take too kindly to Gilbert's rejection.

Bash's first instinct at hearing Gilbert's words was to leap up and dance but knew that it was inappropriate, would wake his daughter and mother, and moreover, most likely upset Gilbert more than he already was. Instead Bash asked him a question: "So...how'd she take the news?"

Gilbert winced. "It was awful, Bash. At first, she didn't believe me, and thought I was speaking in jest! When she realized I was being serious, she grew upset and demanded to know everything. She accused me of toying with her affections and afterwards, she said I'd regret breaking her heart over a childhood promise. I've never seen her so upset."

Bash shook his head. "Oh Blythe, that's rough." Bash was surprised that Winnie was most likely referring to Anne in her comment, but he kept his silence so Gilbert could continue his tale. But it was telling that even Winnie observed the connection between Gilbert and Anne.

"I deserved it." Gilbert slumped a bit in his chair, looking down at the table. "I told her that she should be married to someone whose heart is wholly devoted to her. That I recently came to the conclusion that I wasn't that someone for her." He looked up at Bash and then squeezed his eyes closed in embarrassment.

Bash tried to imagine how Winnie must have felt, hearing from her beau that he couldn't marry her, accounting on the fact that he loved someone else.

Bash shrugged and looked at Gilbert with sympathy. "Well. That must have stung quite a bit. I suppose you can't really blame her for being upset. It must have been a shock for her."

Gilbert opened his eyes and nodded. "Naturally I wasn't expecting her to be happy with the news, but I didn't expect her to be so bitter. But what she said next to me allowed me to see her true intentions." He let out a long breath.

"Go on…" Bash said breathless and at the edge of his seat.

"She said I'd ruined her plans to go back to Europe and to be able to make decisions without her parents interfering. That being married to me would have given her the independence she'd longed for."

Bash's eyebrows went up. "So...she didn't go on and on about her love and affection for you?"

Gilbert looked at him incredulously and shook his head. "No! I wonder now if she truly cared for me at all. Certainly, marrying her would have given me admission to the Sorbonne, but for her, marrying me would have allowed her to live in Paris to do what she wants. It was never love, I know that now. I let my infatuation with her cloud my judgement. What a fool I've been to let myself get so—entangled." He grimaced at the word before he gave Bash a piercing glance. "Why didn't you ever say anything to me?"

Bash stood up quietly and crossed his arms. "Blythe, that is an unfair question. You know that if I'd breathed even one contrary word about Winnie, you would have carried on and told me that I just didn't understand. And I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt that you knew what you were doing and that she was the one who you wanted to marry."

Bash realized that the rum had truly emboldened him as he leaned his hands on the table to look at Gilbert more closely in the eyes. "Don't you see that you had to find out all of this for yourself, rather than relying on other people to tell you what and what not to do? Didn't it take nearly losing Anne for you to realize how much you love her?"

Gilbert stood up, still looking at him. "No. I already knew. I'd planned to tell Winnie I couldn't marry her the morning I ran into Cole and found out about Anne. Which is why that particular conversation didn't end up happening until today."

Bash felt his jaw drop. "Hold on there, Blythe. You mean to tell me that you actually had no intention of proposing that day? I even wished you good luck! And you just went on your way without a word to me." He shook his head, clearly for dramatic effect.

Gilbert turned a little red, both from the rum and the embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, I did, but I wanted to wait until after I broke the news to Winnie. Seemed the right thing to do at the time."

And Bash couldn't help but note that Gilbert still waited until after talking to Winnie to tell him. But he had compassion enough not to point that out, given how that talk had transpired.

"It's clear to me that you've been far more honorable than she deserved. And lucky for you too that you found out her true intentions before it was too late."

"I know. But I could have avoided this whole mess to begin with if I'd just been honest with myself." Gilbert's voice had an edge of anger.

"Blythe, you're being too hard on yourself—"

Gilbert shook his head. "No. If I had gone ahead and married her and moved to Paris, I would have made the biggest mistake of my life."

"But you didn't, right? So what exactly made you change your mind?" This was what Bash most wanted to hear from Gilbert.

Gilbert's look of frustration quickly dissipated as he paced from the table to the door and back. "The evening after the examinations were finished, I'd just spoken to Mr. Rose about a future at the Sorbonne once I married his daughter. Everything was set: the money and the connections to make my dreams come true. I forgot all of that in an instant when I saw Anne at the bonfire—she looked magnificent, incandescent, a bright star gleaming in the dark, vast night. My mind was suddenly full of Anne and that's when it hit me: Anne is my past, present and future. How could I not see it before?" He sat down and put his head in his hands, overcome with emotion.

After a moment, Gilbert lifted his head and Bash could see his eyes were glistening with tears. "It was always Anne, just as you said in this very room. Do you remember? You were dancing but my heart was sinking. All I could think about was how Anne actually encouraged me to follow my dream, marry Winnie, and go to the Sorbonne. That forced me to push aside my feelings and carry on as planned. But my feelings would not be moved."

Bash didn't know quite how to respond. All he knew was that it was torture for Gilbert to keep him hanging like that.

After a pensive moment, Gilbert continued. "Last week, I took a long walk after I was helping out with building the new schoolhouse. I wandered all the way out to the cliffs overlooking the sea. I tried to imagine myself on the other side of that sea in Europe and my heart ached at the thought of being so far away from Avonlea, so far away from Anne." He looked up at Bash. "That's when I knew."

Bash grinned and opened the bottle of rum once more and poured a small measure into their glasses once more. "This calls for another celebratory drink. But only a small one as we will already have a very hard time waking up in the morning."

Bash and Gilbert lifted their glasses once more and quickly drank the contents. Gilbert managed to stifle a cough that time, but Bash could tell that he was in the perfect state of mind for what he wanted to say.

"Blythe, now that you know that Anne actually loves you back—thanks to me…" Bash pointed at his chest and grinned with pride that he had been the one to recover Anne's note from being forever lost.

Gilbert grinned shyly back at him. "Yes, that's right Bash—"

"I'm not finished!" Bash interjected with a half-serious look. "So now that you know how she feels, what are you going to do about it?"

Gilbert turned red once more and looked at Bash in disbelief. "B-but that's how she felt before. Before she forgot the last four months. So Anne doesn't remember writing me that note—at least not yet."

Bash was undeterred. "Someday she may. But come on. I see the way Anne looks at you. Just like I see the way you look at her. Even Mama thinks the both of you are so tootoolbay."

"Too-tool-what?" Gilbert's confused frown made Bash want to laugh out loud.

"Tootoolbay. That's Trini for being madly in love."

"Hazel said that to you?" Bash saw Gilbert's eyes soften and it delighted him because he could see a spark of hope kindling in his eyes.

"I would never lie to you, my brother. Especially not about anything my mother says! You visit Anne nearly every day, you've helped her with her ambitious study plan, you were there for her when she wasn't even awake. How could Anne help but fall in love with you, with or without her memories?"

"I would do anything and everything for her, Bash. I love Anne, but I will respect her feelings, even if she never remembers loving me."

"Why don't you just tell her how you feel now?" Bash couldn't understand why Gilbert was so certain of an unfavorable answer.

Gilbert shook his head immediately. "No, how could I? What, just lay bare my heart and soul to her, burden her with my feelings?"

"No. Love isn't a burden. It is a gift." Bash grabbed Gilbert's sleeve and looked into his eyes. "A rare and precious gift." Bash thought of Mary, and he knew Gilbert could see it in his eyes. Bash wanted to say more, but didn't want to overdo it and spook him into inaction. So he let his words sink in.

Bash watched Gilbert reflect on his words, and after a pause, Gilbert looked up into Bash's eyes with sadness and resignation. "You're right. I know you are. But I've already hurt Winnie and it was never my intention to do so. The last thing I want to risk doing is to hurt Anne in any way."

Bash looked Gilbert in the eyes as he said, "True love does not cause harm or injury. Trust what your heart tells you."

Gilbert was stunned by Bash's words. "My-my father used to say that to me. To always follow my heart."

"Your father sounds like he was a wise man from everything you've told me about him. Why don't you imagine what his advice would be to you if he were here." Bash sat down and motioned for Gilbert to sit down as well.

Bash smiled as he held his hands open. "Look, I'll pretend to be you, and you pretend to be your father."

"What?" Gilbert looked at him in disbelief.

"It'll be easier this way, to imagine what he'd say. Come on."

Gilbert smiled and then shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Father, can I have a word?" Bash asked in a falsetto voice.

"I do not sound like that!" Gilbert whispered before he cleared his throat and continued to speak more formally with a deeper intonation: "Certainly, son. I always have time for you. Is something the matter? What's troubling you?"

Bash continued in his Gilbert voice, still exaggerated with a falsetto. "I need your advice, Father. I am in love with my friend, but I do not know if she loves me back. I'm afraid that if I tell her, she won't feel the same, and our friendship won't be the same. And I can't bear not having her in my life."

Gilbert hesitated to respond, still annoyed at Bash's imitation of his voice, but also clearly moved at how spot-on Bash's words were.

"Ah, that is quite the dilemma, son. But—how do you truly know she doesn't feel the same?" Gilbert asked, his voice still imitating the deeper voice of his father. "How do you know for certain?" He paused for a moment, as if to absorb what he was saying. "You won't know unless you speak up. Tell her how you feel."

Bash didn't respond, he just nodded for Gilbert-as-his-father to continue.

"If you say nothing, nothing will happen." Gilbert was now speaking in his own voice. "But if you speak, what you once believed impossible could be realized. You have to take a chance—and try."

Bash reached across the table and put his hand on Gilbert's shoulder. Bash then spoke sincerely in his own voice, but still in character. "Father, that is excellent advice and I'm going to follow it. Thank you."

Gilbert looked at Bash for a moment in bewilderment, then he laughed. Then he grew quiet, a frown on his face. Bash knew that look; he was trying to find a logical solution to his dilemma.

"Don't overthink it, Blythe. Just talk to Anne. The sooner the better. Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Gilbert said nervously at Bash nervously. "Well, I am planning to see Anne tomorrow afternoon."

"Look, if you didn't truly love her, you wouldn't be as nervous as you feel now. The path forward for you is clear, Gilbert. Too much has been left unsaid. Even without her memories of the last four months, it doesn't change what is here." Bash placed a hand over his heart. "Not only is love a gift, it's a leap of faith. And when you have a chance—a real chance at love—you leap. That's what I did, and despite everything that's happened, I would still do it all over again if I had the chance."

There were tears in both their eyes as they both thought of Mary.

Gilbert stood up and quickly wiped his eyes. "One of the last things Mary told me was to marry for love. Only love. I know now what I need to do, Bash."

Bash smiled and embraced Gilbert. "Go to sleep and get some rest first."

"Thank you for looking out for me, my brother." Gilbert put his hand on Bash's shoulder.

"Always. I'll always look out for you." Bash watched Gilbert leave the kitchen and heard him go up the stairs to his bedroom.

Bash stepped out onto the porch and looked out across the horizon. The night was dark and all he could hear were the crickets and frogs singing their summer songs. Then he looked up and saw a flash of light briefly gleam right above him. A shooting star. Then he made a wish for Gilbert and Anne.