Here's the sixth chapter. Enjoy!
Scrambles chapter six: Down on the Farm
Quinn awoke, his head pounding. 'Where am I?' Was his first thought. He soon felt the warmth of someone next to him. Before he could turn to see who it was, he heard someone yell, "Sean, Gabby, get up! We've chores to do!" the male voice echoed. Quinn opened his eyes finally to the area around him. "What the...where am I?" he asked as he looked at the stone walls, eroded with age. The body next to him stirred. He turned to see Hunter waking beside him.
"What on Mother Earth? Where am I?" It was Hunter's voice but not him. He turned and looked towards Quinn. "Gabby, why are we here?"
"Gabby? Sean, are you seeing things? It's me. Quinn."
"No, that's Gabby's body."
"And that's Sean's body," he said pointing. "Who are you?"
"It's me. Morgana. What happened? You look like Demoness, only younger."
"There was that bright flash and you look like Hunter, only younger. And this place...where are we?"
"Sean! Gabriel! Come! Chores!"
"You don't think we're in Ireland, do you?" Morgana asked through Sean's mouth.
"Good bet we are, love. It would probably be safer if we just went along. See how this plays out."
"Alright. Perhaps we should change."
"Into what? This is all the clothes I see. Come, let's go." The two left, together, to see what was in store.
They, along with two others, probably the two older brothers, Daniel and Alexander, were put to work. Quinn as Demoness was sent to work in the family garden. Having been from a rich family with servants, Alex wasn't use to the manual labor required for this. He was use to the physical pains of being a thief, though. "I wonder what Morgana's doing," he said softly to himself. Morgana, having been placed in Sean's body, was doing the more physical labor. Chopping wood. Lot's of it. She, unlike Alex, was use to this kind of work. After cutting and stacking the wood she met up with him at the well.
"So what have you been up to?" Quinn asked handing the fake Hunter the old tin cup of water. She gratefully accepted it. After emptying the cup she answered.
"I was chopping wood all morning long. Feels like I cut up an entire forest." They laughed at this. Then his face turned solemn. "What?"
"This...This can't be. You know that." He stood and got another cup of water.
"Alex,...no. I don't believe that. This is our lives. We are in control of it. Not our parents. Alex, I don't care what they think."
"But, Morgana, I do," he shouted, then lowered his voice remembering where they were. "I don't want you getting kicked out of your tribe. You said it was hard for your mother to get back in. I don't want that for you."
"Alex, I respect that. But it is my choice whether I want to lose my tribe to be with you, or lose you to be with my tribe."
"What's your choice?" he asked setting down the cup.
"Alex, I choose you."
"No. I can't let you make that choice," and he walked away. Back to the fake life they had to live.
"I'm not making the choices my mother made," she yelled after him, then followed.
When they returned to the hutch "Gabby" was asked to help prepare the midday meal, and was asked to fetch water from the well. Quinn took the buckets and made the long hike to the well. On the way he remembered Forge saying onetime when Alex was down helping that this new machine could send someone back to a memorable moment in their past. 'I wonder what memory we're in.' he thought to himself. Then, when he reached the well, he remembered the argument he had just had with Morgana. He truly wanted to be with her. But because he cared so much he was willing to let her go to make her family happy. He finished and returned to the hutch.
When he got back he decided to look around for any clues of this memory. He and Sean of Gabby hadn't talked much except about training. "Well, that will change," he told himself. He was a little upset at how little he knew about either of the Hanrhan children. And here he was in their past without a clue. As he automatically began getting out cooking materials he noticed something. His "mother" was relatively "large" around the waist, but not from food. He thought back, it had just been himself, Morgana, the father, the mother and two older boys. 'That's it. This must be the memory of their sister being born. But it would have to be memorable for both, wouldn't it?' he thought continuing with the cooking.
After the midday meal, Seamus called for his oldest sons. "Daniel, Alex."
"What?" Quinn answered then realized.
"Since when do you answer for you brother, Gabriel?"
"Since never, father." 'Woowhoo. That was close.' The two older boys came in. Quinn could hear Seamus telling his brothers to get ready to go to market. "Gabs, you and Sean are to stay here with Mother while we go to market."
"Can't I go? Is it because of the way I look?" Quinn heard himself say, not knowing the words were coming from his mouth.
"Now, Gabs, you know that's not it. I need you here to take care of your mother. Okay? We won't be gone long." With that, he and the boys left. 'Take care of mother?' Quinn thought. 'What's wrong with her?' Then it hit him. 'Oh, no, man. I can't handle this. Anything but this. It's bad enough being a girl.'
While Alex was stuck doing the cooking for the evening meal, Morgana was forced to do outside chores. Some, the cutting and stacking of wood, she minded. Others, taking care of the family stable, she didn't. These she spent the most of her "free" time with. Her "father" and "brothers" had gone taking three of the horses with them. One, a blue roan mare, reminded her of Ravenhold. She tried to put that memory behind her. The last remaining horse in the stall was an old nag. "Hey, Lucky Gal," she greeted the horse, knowing the name from somewhere, "how about some oats?"
About this time Gabby came out to the stable. "Is this the last one left?" she asked reaching them.
"Yes. Father took the other three." Sean answered.
"He wouldn't let me go with him, again. It's not fair," she said starting to tack up the old mare.
"Where are you going, Gabby? And big deal. I never get to go either." Gabby lead the horse out of her stall.
"I'll be back." She mounted and rode off.
"Take it easy on her, okay?" he yelled. Then all of a sudden Morgana realized she had just witnessed a memory from Sean and Gabby's past. 'Sean's never this comfortable with his appearance. I wonder what happened to change that.' She went to mucking the stalls.
When evening came, so did Alex. After dismounting and un-tacking Lucky Gal he put the mare back in her stall. Sean came out to greet him. "Good ride. Where'd you go? Mother was asking for you earlier. I'm starting to worry." Then Morgana came out of the daze. "Wow, this is getting weird."
"Oh, I went to church to answer your previous question. By the way, our 'mother' is pregnant." The Quinn clutched his sides.
"Alex, are you okay?" she ran to him.
"Yeah, my sides have just been hurting. I'll be fine." He stood straight again.
"That's what my mom said and then she had me." Quinn looked at her when she said that. "What? It's true."
"Well, we'd better get in. I have to finish cooking." They were about to enter the house when Quinn asked, "Did you have a horse growing up? I mean, you seem to love them and all."
"One. Grey Wolf gave him to me when I was five. His name was Ravenhold. A blue roan." Her eyes lit up then burned out. "I loved him, but...I can't talk about it," she started to cry but held them back. They didn't say anything else, but continued on into the house.
Quinn had finished cooking, feeling good about himself. Morgana had set the small table for three and was now pouring three cups of ale for them. As Alex was setting the rolls on the table, their mother came in. "It's time," she said going back to the bed. Alex and Morgana just looked at each other.
"What do we do?"
"You go take care of her," Nature commanded. This was the first time Short Circuit didn't have orders to give. "I'll get some hot water."
"Okay." Alex went into the room he had woke up in that morning. There his mother was laying on the bed, with the few pillows propped behind her. 'Man, I can't deal with this.' he thought, sitting down with Sorrie.
Morgana got a fire started in the wood stove, then went and got the water. While she was filling the second bucket, Irona climbed out of the well.
"Irona, where did you come from?" Morgana was shocked at the appearance of the short pixie girl.
"The well. I'm suppose to tell you...uh, something..." She said looking around. She picked up a ratty piece of twine. "Can I keep this?" Morgana shrugged. "Oh, this will be over soon...I think...maybe...Where's Quinn?"
"He's with me."
"Cool. What's going on?" Irona asked sitting on the edge of the well.
"Sorrie's having a baby. I have to go. Quinn's alone with her."
"Good luck. You know you look like Hunter."
"I know." she yelled then realized Pixie was gone in a flash.
Morgana hurried back and put the water on. Then she went and checked on Quinn and Sorrie. Sorrie, with previous experience, was calm and ready. Gabby was visibly shaking. "Here," Morgana pushed Quinn out of the way and replaced him at the end of the bed. "Okay, any time now," she heard herself say. 'I wonder if this is how it went down the first time.' she though to herself.
Several hours later, a new, healthy baby girl came into the Hanrhan family. After cleaning her up, Morgana wrapped her in a small cloth and laid the baby in Sorrie's gentle arms. Quinn, after removing the buckets of water, went to the family's pump house to clean up. While there his stomach and sides, which had been hurting all throughout the labor, were now feeling as if they were on fire. "What is wrong with me?" he asked himself out loud. He got up and went to the out house near the hutch.
Morgana had finished cleaning herself up and had just served Sorrie a hot cup of coffee. She had settled herself in the kitchen when Gabby came in, still shaken. "Hey, how are you feeling? You haven't been looking like yourself." Then she laughed. "Seriously, are you okay?"
Quinn looked up at her, terror in his borrowed eyes. "I'm...I'm bleeding."
"It's probably from the baby."
"No." he stopped her short. "It's not on my hands." He gave her a very indifferent look. Then it hit her.
"Oh, my goss! You mean...Dude, I feel bad for you." At that they heard Sorrie cry out. "We'll talk about this later." And they both went to check on their mom.
Morgana and Alex tried to take care of Sorrie, but they didn't know what was wrong. Sean had never said if his mother was still alive. After several minutes of hard thinking, Sean, holding Shannon, pulled Gabby aside. "Ride to father. Bring him and the boys home."
"I don't feel good enough to ride."
"Do it! Now!" With that command Gabby/Quinn ran to the stable. Throwing a halter on the horse as fast as she could, leaving without tacking up properly she took off. She rode long and hard and finally reached the village. She found her father and brothers packing up to head out. "Gabby, what are you doing here?" Seamus asked, pulling his daughter from the old mare's back.
"Mother's...sick...Had the baby." she managed between breathes.
"Okay. Gabby, ride with your brothers. I'll run on ahead." He mounted the old roan and raced at break-neck speed back to his wife.
The next morning when Gabby and her brothers had returned they found the healthy newborn ant their mother doing well. The boys had explained that they rode slow so Gabby could rest after her flight. They hadn't known about all that had happened before. Morgana had been sleeping by the hearth when Quinn came and sat beside her. They had already had a little talk about "Gabby's" problem. Morgana had told him about her chat with Irona and all he had to say was, "I can't wait."
There he looked through all of the clothes drawers and the closet. 'Dis seems familiar.' he thought, remembering his former life. He came to the dresser covered in small boxes. He looked in each, and the last he found filled with odd bobbles. "Now what's all dis?" he asked aloud, and began rummaging through it. "Now what's dis?" he asked picking up a square piece of metal with buttons or something on it. Questioning what it was, he took it to Forge. Rogue saw him walking out, staring at something and followed.
"Found something, mon ami," he said and handed it to him.
"Eureka!" Forge screamed. "Remy, where'd you find this?!"
"In a box on Pixie-girl's dresser." Remy answered, placing his arm around Rogue's waist.
"Pixie." He headed back to the workshop. When he walked in Irona was brushing out Trinity's fur. "Irona." He held up the piece.
"You found it. Where?" she asked walking over to the desk.
"Remy found it in a box. On your dresser." His voice sounded strained.
"Oops."
"Well, maybe this will work now." He said going back to work. End chapter six. Seven coming soon.