Right so I noticed something after I published which I had written in last week which I didn't realise was in there (it was from an earlier edition of the chapter) its now removed and makes sense of this.
I love this chapter, I tried to put in so many things which I remember from my own pregnancies, wow the feels!
Thank you all for your comments, I fear I can not answer them right now! I'm sorry, and I'm sorry for the sporadic uploads, my OH has been very ill but is now on very strong antibiotics and he's gradually getting better, but of course having a sick OH is worse then sick kids, and of course they've been on their summer holidays over here in the UK. Crazy goings on! Hopefully the beginning of school will bring some normality back into the world!
Love to you all
Carrots x
"Do you think they'll be excited?" Anne asked Gilbert as she put the finishing touches to the flowers on the dining room table.
"Excited?" Gilbert replied incredulously "You do remember this is my mother, we're talking about?" he asked her. "The women who the day she felt she could encouraged us... no indeed offered to buy the condoms for us."
Anne laughed and added "the wrong way about getting grandbabies."
"That's what I said." He said with a grin where in one swoop he glided up playfully held Anne around her stomach his hand over it protectively "They will adore the fact you are pregnant." He told her as she giggled "As I do." He said his smile wide again.
"I don't think anyone could be as excited as you are love." She whispered over the shoulder he was kissing.
"How am I meant to feel?" he asked her gently "I now have two Shirley girls to take care of."
Anne turned in his arms and looked at him seriously "What are you talking about?" she asked him. "This baby is a Blythe."
He looked to her and swallowed before he said "I just, I assumed that you'd want her to have your last name."
Anne smiled and looked into his eyes "She's a Blythe."
Gilbert's lips upturned for a moment before he said "How about Blythe-Shirley then?" he asked her.
"How about..." she said flirting with him her arms going around his neck "...you don't undermine just how much meaning is in a name," she said.
Gilbert looked into her eyes "its not very feminist of you." He remarked with a mischievous grin.
"Really?" she asked him "I was under the impression that feminism allowed me the choice." His lips upturned his eyes lit up as he looked deeper into hers. "This is my choice, everything all of it, is my choice, and I will always choose you." She brought his hands down to her stomach and she whispered "Our Baby, together, our baby Blythe." She told him softly.
His knees bent his lips to her stomach "Did you hear that baby girl?" he asked her stomach. "Our Baby girl Blythe." He whispered.
She smiled looking down at him, before there was a knock on the door. His head looked up to her and she asked him "Are you ready?"
He stood up and kissed her square on the lips for a moment "Ready." He confirmed, and with it he took her by the hand walked across the room and with his free hand opened the door.
"Gilbert!" Mrs Blythe exclaimed "Oh honey!" she said planting herself in a hug. "Oh look at you!" she told him "Are you eating properly?" she asked him, "Not four months back and you look..."
"I look fine mom." He said with a kiss to his mother's cheek.
"Growing more like a man every day." His dad said. "Leave him be." He said going past them with a grin to his son.
Marilla smiled and looked to Anne, "I take it you're feeling better now?" she asked Anne concerned.
"Much better," Anne confirmed with a hug to her guardian. "How are the twins and Mrs Lynde?"
"Not much has changed in the three days since you last spoke to Davy." Marilla confirmed as they entered the apartment.
"Welcome to our little pad." Gilbert said with a grin at the look on their faces. "Let me show you where you'll be staying." Gilbert said with a smile he took his parents to the main bedroom.
"Now are you sure you and Anne will be okay in the living room?" His mother asked him.
"We'll be fine." Gilbert confirmed. "The sofa is a really comfortable sofa bed designed for multilabel usages." He confirmed.
They entered the bedroom where he smiled at their entering "Clean sheets," his mother said with a grin "my my we are getting the royal treatment."
Gilbert chuckled "Anne's doing," he informed them, "not that I would see you in our bedsheets." He carried on as they looked around the room. "Anne says 'one can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things.'," he quoted her.
"I hope she keeps it pretty for you then." Mrs Blythe said with a smile.
"Of course," he confirmed "she's in it." He said with a cheeky grin, the sentiment and the cheek made them smile "I'll let you get settled in." He said to them as he left the room, at the same time Anne was exiting the spare bedroom where Marilla was staying.
Anne smiled to Gilbert as they crossed the room and sat on the cuddle chair together. Gilbert under Anne's legs him tucked into her as his arms went around her his hand resting on her stomach.
"Hey, we might not be able to do this soon?" she whispered with a smile to him.
"Cuddle?" he asked her, "I hope we'll always do that Anne."
"I mean snuggle on here, it'll get rather cosy with the three of us." She whispered.
"Oh!" he said with a grin and a chuckle.
"I'll get fat." She said to him.
"No!" He told her softly but sternly "never fat, not my Anne-Girl." He whispered. "Pregnant yes, not fat."
She smiled and whispered "Do you think they can see?" she asked him, referring to her now 14 week bump.
He looked down to the very slightly rounded stomach his hand rested on. "Well I can tell, but I see you naked all the time." He flirted with a satisfied look on his face.
"Oh all the time?!" she flirted.
"I wish." He murmured in her ear softly with a fixed and hungry gaze.
She looked at him softly and kissed his cheek lovingly.
"As for your tummy you know no one else has noticed it." He reminded her "I know, but I know you."
"But my clothes are going to get really tight very soon!" she whispered happily.
"I know love." He told her "we can get you some of those pregnancy clothes if you like?" he asked her.
Anne smiled "maybe, not yet."
"So," Mrs Blythe said as they sat around the dinner table, Anne had cooked a successful dinner they had chatted and caught up on current events, Mr Blythe had returned to the car for yet another care package his wife had made the pair before they had sat down to dinner, among which was some apple preserves which Gilbert had quickly popped in the oven with some oats for a dessert. "Is there any reason you have us all here?" she asked them curiously. "You've never asked us down before."
Anne smiled blushing into her food while Gilbert cleared his throat a smile appearing on his lips. "So subtlety put mother." He said with a grin.
"Well its just you've been down here for two and a half years, and only now are you asking us to come." Mrs Blythe grinned.
"Its not that we didn't want you to come but..." Anne started quietly, the three guardians all looking up suddenly at her making her feel a little self conscious. "Oh God..." she whispered.
"We have some news." Gilbert said with a grin as they all turned to look at him. "You're right." He told Anne, "it is intimidating." Which made her chuckle. "Okay here I go." He continued "Mom Dad, Marilla, Anne's pregnant."
A silence hit the room as the three froze for a moment before Mrs Blythe's knife and fork clattered on her plate her the sound of her chair being pushed back along with a shriek of pleasure "Oh Anne!" she exclaimed Anne standing to meet her Mrs Blythe hugging the girl "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed "Oh my boy!" she exclaimed dragging him up by his collar wrapping her free arm around him. "Oh my baby boy!" she cried as tears pooled in her eyes. "Oh!" she exclaimed pulling back. "I'm so happy!" she exclaimed.
"You don't say!" Gilbert exclaimed.
"Do you know what it is, a girl or a boy? Is it too soon to be able to tell?" she asked them.
"Its a gir..." Gilbert started.
"Its too soon!" Anne cut across half glaring at him "though Gilbert is convinced its a girl."
"I'm telling you!" he told them.
"How far along are you?" Marilla asked Anne.
"Fourteen weeks, so it will only be another couple of weeks before our next scan, they should be able to tell at that scan." Anne told her. "Would you like to see the pictures of the ultrasound, after dinner?" she asked them.
John smiled at the calculation and while the women were clucking around Anne whispered to Gilbert "Fourteen weeks huh?" he asked him, "Around New Years?" he said with a grin to his son.
"Yeah, we know when, it had to be," he said with a smile,
John broke into an identical smile to his son "Congratulations pappy." He said to Gilbert.
Gilbert chuckled and smiled at his father. "Thanks." He said. "I couldn't be happier." He admitted. "Grandpa." He added with a grin to his father.
Marilla and Anne took the opportunity to go for a walk down to the park.
"You seem content Anne," Marilla said to her softly. "It suits you."
Anne smiled her hand over her barely there baby bump. "It's unexpected, but... Oh Marilla!" Anne exclaimed, "its the strangest and most wonderful feeling I've ever experienced!" she told her before her smile faded "Aren't you sad, you never had children?" she asked her guardian.
Marilla looked at her seriously for a moment before she asked "I know I'm not overly sentimental, that I sometimes, pretend to be more detached then I am." She said to her "but don't you think I take the same pleasure a mother would in seeing you grow? And learn? Become independent from me, its a oxymoronic position to be in, a mother, you know you're successful when you've prepared them to live without you."
"Ohhh!" Anne said with a shiver "I don't think I'll ever be ready for that!" she exclaimed.
Marilla smiled "but look at you, look at you and Gilbert, the life you are building together."
Anne stayed quiet for a moment before she said "I want you to know, how grateful I am for you and Matthew taking me in all those years ago." Anne told her to which Marilla started to shake her head "I know it was a boy you were after, a boy to pass the farm into to carry on the Green Gables legacy."
"We only ever wanted you, we needed you." Marilla told her sternly. "We didn't need someone to take over the farm, we needed joy in the home."
Anne smiled linking arms with the older lady "Well you always have Davy." Anne said with a smile playing at her lips.
"Oh there is no way we could have handled a Davy before an Anne." She told Anne which made Anne laugh, "but you know he's not so bad. He's turning out okay." Marilla told Anne, "thanks to your patience."
"No not just me..." Anne said quietly.
"But in part, and Gilbert." Marilla acknowledged
Anne smiled and then added as her smile broadened, "well Gilbert is going to make a wonderful daddy."
"He's excited." Marilla said with a smile. "It's nice to see, not many men show that side of them." She took a heavy sigh "You are careful, aren't you Anne, with the Blythe temperament, for all they seem as their names imply, they can plunge into a depression, that's quite dangerous."
"You mean like John did with you?" Anne asked her curiously.
"Rilla please, listen to reason..." he started.
"Reason?" Marilla practically accused him.
"My Aunt Mar-" he started.
"This isn't about her!" Marilla exclaimed to him.
He looked at her genuinely perplexed. "Not about her? Rilla, love, the things that she said..."
"Were mean and nasty..." Marilla started
"And had no truth to them." John ended.
"And?" Marilla asked him accusingly.
"And?" John reflected.
"Why did you not say it then?" Marilla almost growled she was so angry.
John swallowed and looked genuinely scared, "Now Rilla..." he started.
"This whole thing, us, we started on the fact that you hated bullies." Marilla confirmed with him.
"I do!" he confirmed
"Then why would you not speak up for me to my biggest one?!" Marilla pleaded.
"Because she's family Mar!" he exclaimed looking into her eyes. They remained silent for a few seconds before she stood up suddenly.
"Rilla, wait!" he said to her "wait wait wait..." he said holding onto her by her wrist his eyes wide, looking terrified "please," he said to her quietly. "What can I do?" he asked her.
"You can go and stand up for me." Marilla told him.
He head shook before she ironically chuckled "well that sees to that now doesn't it?" Marilla told him her hand trying to shake free.
"Rilla wait!" he tried again.
"No!" she shouted. "You know I don't even care about me," she told him straight "but one day she will say it to a women who matters enough for you to say something!" she told him.
"Rilla, come on..." he tried "You know you're the only one for me." John pleaded again.
"No." Marilla choked. "No, I'm not, otherwise you'd see, you'd get it, I hope one day you will love someone enough to stand up for them." She said shrugging him away and despite his calls for her she didn't look back.
"After that, I didn't see him so much, I understand he had plunged into a depression of sorts, not many saw him at all, it wasn't until his father got ill, about 2 years before Gilbert was born he started being out and about, then when his father died when he fully took over the farm, by then he'd met his wife, I believe she was pregnant with Gilbert at the time." Marilla told Anne.
"How much time had passed?" Anne asked Marilla.
"From that argument to Gilbert being born?" Marilla asked. "Sixteen years."
Anne looked to her wide eyed and surprised "Oh Marilla!" she exclaimed "Oh that's tragical!" Anne sighed, "You know John stood up for you." Anne told her. "Well us actually, You me, Mrs Blythe, he did it all in one go."
Marilla looked to Anne surprised before Anne grinned "he said he could never regret you, anything about your relationship together," Anne said with a knowing grin.
"Oh?" Marilla said her cheeks flushing. "Well," she added "it was a long time ago."
Anne smiled softly "you know I believe, when we love someone, when we actually love them, no matter what happens love doesn't go away."
Marilla looked to Anne sharply "I hope you don't tell Gilbert that about Roy."
Anne shook her head "I did like Roy a great deal, but Gilbert knows I never loved Roy."
Marilla looked shocked again at Anne "But you were with him for two years!" Marilla exclaimed.
Anne shivered, "Oh don't remind me." She said lowly. "Stupid thing to do, especially considering..." Anne trailed looking down at the ground.
"How you felt about Gilbert?" Marilla looked to her with a knowing gaze.
"You knew too Marilla?" Anne asked with a smile.
"We all thought you did." Marilla told her.
"Oh I suppose its old news now but I did, my heart knew I loved him." Anne smiled more "I never comprehended that love could... that I could..." Anne sighed and shook her head "I'm sorry Marilla, I should be able to talk to you about it, its just..." Anne trailed.
"You do talk to Gilbert about it though, he knows all he needs to."
"He knew before we got together yeah." Anne confirmed. "And yes, it does occasionally come up, I don't want it to define me Marilla, rather the whole experience helped refine me, if that makes sense."
"Are you wanting to find out the sex of the baby?" the midwife asked as Anne made herself comfortable on the examination bed.
"Daddy doesn't believe he needs it." Anne said with a smile to Gilbert. "But yes, we would." She confirmed.
"Well I shall see what I can do." The midwife smiled "if they are in the cooperative mood." The midwife said, the gel going onto Anne's stomach.
Anne looked over at the monitor as the imagine of the baby came onto the screen.
"Is that her?" Anne asked.
"See I have you doing it now." Gilbert said with a smile.
"Forced habit." She said with a grin to him.
"That is." The midwife said with a smile. "That's your baby." She told them. "Lets get their measurements and then we can look for the sex." She confirmed.
Anne looked to Gilbert at every measurement watching the way he smiled at the screen with a look of awe on his face. Finally when the measurements were read he managed to whisper a "Wow." Before Anne asked him.
"Is the baby okay?" Anne asked.
"In your last scan they were measuring small, yes?" The midwife asked.
"That's right, by a couple of weeks." Gilbert confirmed.
"Well the bad news is that the baby is still measuring a little small, still by a couple of weeks but they are growing, the likelihood is, that the baby is just a small baby."
"So nothing to worry about?" Anne asked.
"We should set up another couple of appointments just to be sure the baby continues to grow, different babies grow at different rates." She said.
"So, its something to worry about?" Anne asked again coming up slightly.
"You shouldn't worry mummy." Gilbert said soothing her with a grin "You need not to get stressed, for our daughter."
The midwife smiled as she kept the scanner on Anne's stomach "Looks like daddy's instincts are right." She said with a smile which made both Anne and Gilbert's head whip up and look at the screen.
Gilbert smiled fully saying "That's my girl!" he proclaimed.
"You see there?" The midwife said "No Penis." She said.
Anne smiled fully and asked "are you sure?!" she exclaimed. "I'm having a girl!"
"I'd say 90% sure." The midwife confirmed "and we only say that to cover our backs!"
"Gil!" Anne exclaimed "Oh my god! I can't believe how right you were!" Anne smiled looking at the look on his face "Daddy's girl." Anne whispered to him to which their fingers intertwined from when their hands had been holding from the beginning of the appointment, and Gilbert's lips kissed into Anne's hair as he smiled with pride.
"There are ten thousand names in this book, how are we meant to pick just a handful?" Anne asked as they cuddled on the sofa that evening. Gilbert's back was on the sofa arm behind them Anne slipped up next to him her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat.
"Did you not have any favourite baby names as you were growing up?" Gilbert asked her. "I know Ruby had her baby names picked out since 4th grade."
"Really?" Anne asked.
"Mia and Oscar." Gilbert repeated back.
Anne chuckled and shrugged "I had names I liked of course." Anne admitted, "But they were mostly names for my window friends."
Gilbert looked to her a little shocked "Window friends?" he asked.
"I'd get lonely" She admitted "I supposed they were much like imaginary friends only they'd look like me but a more beautiful me, a less flawed me." She sighed "Katie and Violetta," she said "When I lived with The Thomas' they had a bookcase in their sitting room with glass doors. There weren't any books in it; Mrs. Thomas kept her best china and her preserves there-when she had any preserves to keep. One of the doors was broken. Mr. Thomas smashed it one night when he was slightly intoxicated. But the other was whole and I used to pretend that my reflection in it was another little girl who lived in it. I called her Katie Maurice, and we were the best of friends. I used to talk to her by the hour, especially on Sunday, and tell her everything. Katie was the comfort and consolation of my life. We used to pretend that the bookcase was enchanted and that if I only knew the spell I could open the door and step right into the room where Katie Maurice lived, instead of into Mrs. Thomas' shelves of preserves and china. And then Katie Maurice would have taken me by the hand and led me out into a wonderful place, all flowers and sunshine and fairies, and we would have lived there happy for ever after."
"I can't believe you've never told me this." He said quietly "Katie and Violetta were your friends?" he reiterated, to which she nodded.
"Then of course you have my Cordelia's and my Geraldine's names which I believed to be elegant and perfectly beautiful names, things I wish I was called instead of Anne." She said with a grin.
"I won't be having that." Gilbert said shaking his head. "I hope your name gives you some joy now?"
Anne chuckled playing with his rib cage for a moment before she said quietly "I'd want to name her something which meant something." She told him, "like your last name, Blythe, it means merry, happy carefree." She said with a smile. "I don't know, maybe something which means the same thing, which reflects what she makes us feel. Something which does her justice, I don't know, childish fantasy names hardly seems to cut it."
Gilbert nodded and said with a smile "Blythe Blythe." He said with a grin. "Bliss, Felicity, Beatrice," he suggested to which Anne looked to him amused, before he stopped and said softly "Joy." He said simply.
"Joy?" Anne asked.
"Yes." He said nodding. "Joyce, but Joy, its a classic which we both like, not overly common now adays which we both like, but its beautiful because it just, it describes exactly what she brings to us."
"Joy." She said with a smile. "Joyce Blythe." She repeated again her hands going to her stomach. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed "We have a name for our little lady!" she squealed.
He slid down the sofa coming in front of her laying his hands on her stomach. "My god Anne!" he exclaimed "I think other people will be able to tell soon." He told her.
"Really?!" she asked him excited "Oh I hope so!"
"Are you kidding?!" he exclaimed "you're growing a miracle in there!"