p class="MsoNormal"The sweet smell of the cherry blossoms would forever remind Olive of the moment Sebastian gave her the bouquet to formalize their relationship. Though she'd been drawn to him early on, another quiet, introspective soul, their relationship had been a slow build. Waves from across the lake. Brief interactions as Olive buzzed around town on her various quests. Stolen glances at the Saloon. Blushing faces as knees touched in the dark. Overtime their conversations became longer, deeper, and more intimate. Other people in town had described Sebastian as moody or negative, but Olive hadn't found him as such. He didn't radiate rainbows and sunshine by any means. Instead he was thoughtful and perhaps non-conformist but not with ill-intent./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive had always considered herself an introvert, and took the time to think things through before responding. She could see other's growing frustration with her slow response at times, but never felt that way with Sebastian. He was patient and understanding. She always felt that he valued her opinion and the fact that she took her time when expressing herself. Opening up to each other had felt comfortable./p
p class="MsoNormal"The bouquet was beautiful, at least in Olive's eyes. It had a perfect combination of flowers. It hadn't been a surprise, they'd gotten very close and had been dating without labeling it so for a while. All the same Olive was overcome by the affection. She made a vow to herself that she would cherish the bouquet and treat it with the same care that she would treat their relationship. When the bouquet hadn't even begun to wilt two weeks later, Olive swore up and down that was the reason why./p
p class="MsoNormal"Under the stars in the warm summer air was where they'd made love for the first time. When Olive returned home, one of the flowers had bloomed, exploding in rich berry colored hues. Over the course of their relationship, leading to their eventual marriage, the bouquet changed with them, but never gave signs of drooping. Olive continued to care for it and nurture it even as they had settled into their life together, treasuring it as much as she had the first day she received it, despite now having other tokens that signified their love. They remained blissfully happy./p
p class="MsoNormal"Then the virus hit, turning everyone's lives upside down. Olive and Sebastian, much as everyone else, had been glued to the news, fearing for the safety of themselves and their young daughter. The townsfolk got some relief from the fact that Pelican Town was such a sleepy place that rarely got outside visitors. They considered themselves fortunate that none of them had contracted the virus, but remained cautious just the same. Other than medical supplies, they stopped any incoming or outgoing shipping as a preventative measure./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive, Marnie, and Willy jumped into action to ensure that the town had all the produce, animal products, and fish that they needed. Caroline assisted with her personal garden and everyone was vigilant in saving seeds to ensure perseverance in this practice. Leah taught anyone who was interested about foraging and doing so sustainably. Harvey ensured that he was staying up to date with the ever evolving information and worked with Caroline on alternative medicine treatments for ailments to alleviate the need to use up the supplies on hand for things that could be effectively treated in other ways. Everyone in the town truly embodied the nature of being part of a community in whatever way they were able to so that Pelican Town was able to thrive from within. The decrease in stress levels across the town was palpable./p
p class="MsoNormal"Despite how successful the town was with this, they still felt the effect of the hurt from the outside world. Haley and Emily's parents ended up stuck at sea and their opportunities to connect with their daughters were few and far between, leaving the girls in a near constant state of wondering about their health. Elliot lost his father to the virus, and was crushed by his inability to attend the services or be more than a distant support for his mother. So the town came together to hold their own vigil and support Elliot in his grieving process. Both Olive's brother and sister contracted the virus. Her sister had been briefly hospitalized and both had made a full recovery, but Sebastian had supported her through several sleepless dread filled nights. Shane, Sam, Emily, Alex, Abigail, and Leah had come to help them with the burden of farming to keep the whole town fed during her turmoil./p
p class="MsoNormal"The world had been changing, but the people of Pelican Town had founds ways to get through it together. Lewis determined it was imperative that their accomplishment be showcased, so to the dismay of many of the townspeople he invited the governor to once again come to the annual luau. There were murmurs leading up to the event, but with some reluctance everyone still attended, keeping their distance, frowning to see that it was not just the governor who came, but his entire family as well as a news crew. Lewis shot daggers at anyone who looked anything less than happy to be there, going so far as to make direct comments to some individuals who did not seem to perk up./p
p class="MsoNormal"It was of no surprise when it resulted in the town no longer being the safe haven it had been. While Pelican Town was being broadcast across the area as this idyllic community, the virus sunk its teeth in. Not only were the townsfolk attempting to sort out the best way to keep everyone healthy, the tourists began seeping in, seeking out the comfort and support that they had witnessed on TV. Lewis stuck his head in the sand about how his constituents were fairing, and what they'd actually thoughts about the whole thing and instead spent his time trying to pacify the newcomers who were not getting the experience they'd hoped for when coming to Pelican Town./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive and Sebastian were forced to put locked fences up around their property after several strangers came onto the land unannounced in an attempt to enjoy the spoils of the farm. They were stressed, but the bouquet continued to flourish. Some nights the pair would lie in bed together, silent, just breathing together, finding comfort in each other's presence. No matter what the day would bring, they would always end it in a warm embrace. Over time they were forced to limit their interactions with others, including Sebastian's family, as the virus spread. It took a toll of them, especially trying to normalize things for their daughter, Sophie. They kept her entertained as best they could, but it had been challenging to be sure. They set up video chats, but Sophie couldn't understand why they could just take the brief walk to go see everyone in person./p
p class="MsoNormal"Their efforts hadn't been enough. One night they'd fallen asleep in their warm embrace that evolved into a feverish morning. Olive tried to stay calm while Sebastian was burning up. She got him water and a couple of pain killers, calling Harvey as soon as their bedroom door shut behind her. Sebastian had to quarantine. Harvey and Maru would come each day, looking like beekeepers fully decked out in protective clothing to check on him and bring him the food Olive had made for him. She and Sophie were not allowed in. She ended up having to borrow some clothes from Maru because all of her clothing was in the bedroom. Olive would sit with her back or side pressed against the bedroom door, talking to him. At night she would read to him from some of his favorite books. She wasn't always sure if he were awake or not for the whole thing. It was hit or miss how much he'd be able to talk, but every single day he would tell her how much he loved her and she would do the same for him. It began to feel to Olive that their separation would never end. She would fall asleep in the living room, gazing at her bouquet, drawing comfort from it./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the separation became her permanent reality Olive felt as if she was walking through a fog. It was a waking nightmare that she couldn't quite wrap her head around. Her bedroom felt foreign and cold to her. The bed was far too large. Was it always this big? Robin had come to stay with them for a period. They grieved together, comforting Sophie and trying to help her through her confusion. It was painful but they had each other. After a few days, feeling that Olive and Sophie had found a routine that worked for now, Robin returned home./p
p class="MsoNormal"Sam began to come by more often, his connection to Olive deepened by their shared mourning. He was able to put on a happy face much better than Olive was. He accessed a silliness inside of him that made Sophie smile, which in turn warmed Olive's heart. Though there were bright moments throughout her day, Olive still felt the sting of the loss, nearly making her sick./p
p class="MsoNormal"Her bouquet remained as beautiful as ever. She found herself talking to it during her sleepless nights, long after Sophie had fallen asleep. She told it all the things she would have liked to tell Sebastian. Overtime she learned how to better manage her grief, but she still felt sick. She began to worry that the sickness she felt was actually physical and not just emotional. When Harvey asked her about when her last period was, Olive was unable to answer him. That night she found herself crying to her bouquet, begging it for guidance./p
p class="MsoNormal"She wasn't sure why Sam was the first person she told. Perhaps it was their strengthening connection, or perhaps it was his warm demeanor. She just hoped it wasn't because he was the first adult she'd seen and she couldn't keep it bottled in any more. It wasn't until she pulled away from the hug he'd engulfed her in that she realized that the golden Sam too had tears streaming down his face. Ultimately it didn't matter, but Olive wondered why he'd cried. Were the tears solely from grief, or were they tears in solidarity for the widow in front of him, dealing with the confusing emotions of being pregnant with a child that would never know their father? That was the first time Sam spent the night. Accidentally of course. They had cried together, and sat on floor in the living room with their backs pressed against the couch, drinking hot chocolate. Through their tears they told each other stories. Some the other was familiar with, some were new. Olive even found herself laughing for the first time, possibly since before Sebastian had gotten sick. She remembered looking at the bouquet, smiling at it before she fell asleep. In the morning she woke up in her bed, finding out later that Sam had carried her there. She found him snoozing with a too small blanket on the couch./p
p class="MsoNormal"Her in-laws had experienced a similar sadness in their joy when Olive shared the news. She had plenty of support from all over, but the emptiness was still there. She had nearly daily visiting farm hands on a rotating basis, all of whom were getting regular medical assessments from Harvey prior to coming. And then there was Sam, who was there every single day. It was never at the same time. Sometimes he would bring food. Sometimes he would occupy Sophie so that Olive could nap. Other times they would just talk, or watch a movie./p
p class="MsoNormal"People in town began to talk. Not to her face, but the whispered followed her. Olive couldn't be bothered to be upset about it, she knew the truth, as so did those who she was closest with. She was growing to love Sam, just not in a romantic way. They'd been friends for a long time, they just hadn't been this close before. Olive had come to accept that the hole in her heart was just a part of who she was. She was having a conversation with her bouquet when the contractions began. She knew it was too soon for anything to be done about it, but she gave Harvey a call just the same. Olive cried when Radley was born. It was evident even from his scrunched up newborn face that he was the spitting image of his father. Harvey didn't notice the newly blossomed azure flower in the bouquet when he left the house. Sam was the first non-biologically related person to hold the newborn. The number of nights he was staying over the house increased dramatically during the first few weeks of Radley's life./p
p class="MsoNormal"The virus had remained ever a threat, but a decreased one over time. The tourists had stopped coming so Olive had taken the locks off the fence. They hadn't done her any good anyway. Sam kept his spare key just in case. Nothing in Olive's life felt the same, but she found herself crying less. There was so much of Sebastian in Radley, and not even just in his looks. The way he embodied his father's spirit at such a young age simultaneous filled and broke Olive's heart. When he woke during the night, Olive would bring him downstairs so as not to disturb Sophie. She would sit with him, and rock, telling him stories of his father. Her eyes drifting over to the old bouquet that she had long come to accept possessed magical qualities. Once Radley was back sleeping in his own bed, Olive would blow the flowers a kiss in the darkness before retreating to get some more sleep./p
p class="MsoNormal"It wasn't too long after Radley's first birthday that Sam approached Olive to discuss their relationship. She admitted that she cared deeply for him, but she wasn't sure that she would ever love anyone the same way she lovesd /sSebastian. Sam understood and was accepting of this, identifying the complex nature of their relationship himself. He wasn't even confident that he himself felt a romantic love for her, so much as wanting to recognize the significance of their companionship./p
p class="MsoNormal"Radley never called Sam dad, but he may as well have. Sam never opened up to Olive about his love life, not that she ever would have even asked. Yet she couldn't help but wonder if he never really dated because of them. He'd become so enmeshed with her little family that it made Olive feel a bit guilty. She didn't want him to miss out on any happiness because of some kind of obligation he felt towards them. Of course by this point, it wasn't really just Sam any more. It was his whole family. Olive had always had a positive relationship with them. Jodi and Kent had both confided in her as friends despite the fact she was only a couple of years older than their son. And Olive had always had a soft spot for Vincent, who was now preparing to go off to college. They began a third set of grandparents to Sophie and Radley. When it was questioned by anyone else, Jodi would brush it off, reminding anyone who needed it that Sebastian was like a third son to them, Olive had always been a family friend, and mind your damn business. It became such that Sam and his family, Olive and the kids, and Robin and her family, which had now grown to include Maru's partner, all shared one large happy table at the Feast of the Winter Star./p
p class="MsoNormal"Radley was four, going on five when Olive was the one to revisit the conversation about their relationship with Sam. After he assured her that he did not feel held back by her or the kids in anyway, Olive asked him if he would like to get married. She made it clear that she wasn't sure that she'd ever be a proper wife to him, but she would love and care for him as best as she could. In her eyes he was very much already family to her, and couldn't imagine how she would have gotten through the last several years without him. Sam admitted that after some research he believed that he was likely aromatic, but he was more than happy to celebrate their connection in that way./p
p class="MsoNormal"The wedding was a small gathering on the beach. Sam had slept in the bed with her before, but now it felt different. Olive knew it would never be the same. That she would never have back what she truly wanted. She just wasn't expecting it to feel the way that it had. Why would their marriage have made any kind of difference to something she'd done countless times before? It wasn't that she disliked sharing the bed with Sam, but it was just off. Ultimately she determined that it was most likely the implication others had that they were now experiencing newlywed bliss. She wasn't sure that anyone else truly understood their relationship, and maybe that's what was upsetting her rather than Sam himself. She talked to the bouquet about it, which as always didn't give her a response, yet somehow she felt better./p
p class="MsoNormal"Years passed, and life had brought on more changes. They'd lost both Sam and Olive's respective fathers. Her kids had gotten older and still her bouquet remained the same. She and Sam had a happy though utterly non-traditional marriage. There was plenty of love just the same. Olive had been feeling run down, but she had just chalked it up to age. One day she noticed that she was becoming short of breath easily and her chest would feel tight on occasion. It hadn't made sense to her, she never decreased her level of activity. Sam expressed concern himself so Olive agreed to talk to Harvey about it./p
p class="MsoNormal"The news was unexpected. Olive had always associated lung cancer with smoking, which she'd never done. She sat at the kitchen table in silence alone, reeling. The prognosis wasn't ideal, and the treatment was risky at best. It had been years since she'd last done it, but Olive was once again crying to the bouquet, begging for answers it wasn't capable of providing. When Sam came in and she told him what was going on, he sat and cried with her too. Olive knew what the Sebastian sized hole in her heart felt like even after all of these years and she wasn't ready to be that hole in someone else's heart. She couldn't do that to her kids, to Sam, to her mother, her siblings, and all of the other people that loved her. Olive didn't fear death, but she wasn't actively seeking it out./p
p class="MsoNormal"The treatment was effective, but not fully. It shrunk, but didn't eradicate. It only served to delay the inevitable, but that was enough. Olive took things more slowly and savored her life. Another flower bloomed in the bouquet. The first since Radley had been born so many years ago. Olive reflected on each new blossom and the moments they reflected from her life, but she couldn't quite place the significance of this one. She talked to the bouquet, and she'd talked to Sam about it. Neither had answers for her, but Sam agreed that it was a beautiful flower. Olive pondered when the last unopen flower would finally flourish./p
p class="MsoNormal"Days passed into weeks, passed into months. Sam returned to the house after working in the field, his intent to wash the dirt off his hands and face, get a snack, and go check on Olive, maybe joining her nap. Sam quickly realized that he didn't need to check on Olive because in the vase on the table before him was the now wilted bouquet save for the final bloom, a cherry blossom that she would never get to enjoy the sight of./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive had always considered herself an introvert, and took the time to think things through before responding. She could see other's growing frustration with her slow response at times, but never felt that way with Sebastian. He was patient and understanding. She always felt that he valued her opinion and the fact that she took her time when expressing herself. Opening up to each other had felt comfortable./p
p class="MsoNormal"The bouquet was beautiful, at least in Olive's eyes. It had a perfect combination of flowers. It hadn't been a surprise, they'd gotten very close and had been dating without labeling it so for a while. All the same Olive was overcome by the affection. She made a vow to herself that she would cherish the bouquet and treat it with the same care that she would treat their relationship. When the bouquet hadn't even begun to wilt two weeks later, Olive swore up and down that was the reason why./p
p class="MsoNormal"Under the stars in the warm summer air was where they'd made love for the first time. When Olive returned home, one of the flowers had bloomed, exploding in rich berry colored hues. Over the course of their relationship, leading to their eventual marriage, the bouquet changed with them, but never gave signs of drooping. Olive continued to care for it and nurture it even as they had settled into their life together, treasuring it as much as she had the first day she received it, despite now having other tokens that signified their love. They remained blissfully happy./p
p class="MsoNormal"Then the virus hit, turning everyone's lives upside down. Olive and Sebastian, much as everyone else, had been glued to the news, fearing for the safety of themselves and their young daughter. The townsfolk got some relief from the fact that Pelican Town was such a sleepy place that rarely got outside visitors. They considered themselves fortunate that none of them had contracted the virus, but remained cautious just the same. Other than medical supplies, they stopped any incoming or outgoing shipping as a preventative measure./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive, Marnie, and Willy jumped into action to ensure that the town had all the produce, animal products, and fish that they needed. Caroline assisted with her personal garden and everyone was vigilant in saving seeds to ensure perseverance in this practice. Leah taught anyone who was interested about foraging and doing so sustainably. Harvey ensured that he was staying up to date with the ever evolving information and worked with Caroline on alternative medicine treatments for ailments to alleviate the need to use up the supplies on hand for things that could be effectively treated in other ways. Everyone in the town truly embodied the nature of being part of a community in whatever way they were able to so that Pelican Town was able to thrive from within. The decrease in stress levels across the town was palpable./p
p class="MsoNormal"Despite how successful the town was with this, they still felt the effect of the hurt from the outside world. Haley and Emily's parents ended up stuck at sea and their opportunities to connect with their daughters were few and far between, leaving the girls in a near constant state of wondering about their health. Elliot lost his father to the virus, and was crushed by his inability to attend the services or be more than a distant support for his mother. So the town came together to hold their own vigil and support Elliot in his grieving process. Both Olive's brother and sister contracted the virus. Her sister had been briefly hospitalized and both had made a full recovery, but Sebastian had supported her through several sleepless dread filled nights. Shane, Sam, Emily, Alex, Abigail, and Leah had come to help them with the burden of farming to keep the whole town fed during her turmoil./p
p class="MsoNormal"The world had been changing, but the people of Pelican Town had founds ways to get through it together. Lewis determined it was imperative that their accomplishment be showcased, so to the dismay of many of the townspeople he invited the governor to once again come to the annual luau. There were murmurs leading up to the event, but with some reluctance everyone still attended, keeping their distance, frowning to see that it was not just the governor who came, but his entire family as well as a news crew. Lewis shot daggers at anyone who looked anything less than happy to be there, going so far as to make direct comments to some individuals who did not seem to perk up./p
p class="MsoNormal"It was of no surprise when it resulted in the town no longer being the safe haven it had been. While Pelican Town was being broadcast across the area as this idyllic community, the virus sunk its teeth in. Not only were the townsfolk attempting to sort out the best way to keep everyone healthy, the tourists began seeping in, seeking out the comfort and support that they had witnessed on TV. Lewis stuck his head in the sand about how his constituents were fairing, and what they'd actually thoughts about the whole thing and instead spent his time trying to pacify the newcomers who were not getting the experience they'd hoped for when coming to Pelican Town./p
p class="MsoNormal"Olive and Sebastian were forced to put locked fences up around their property after several strangers came onto the land unannounced in an attempt to enjoy the spoils of the farm. They were stressed, but the bouquet continued to flourish. Some nights the pair would lie in bed together, silent, just breathing together, finding comfort in each other's presence. No matter what the day would bring, they would always end it in a warm embrace. Over time they were forced to limit their interactions with others, including Sebastian's family, as the virus spread. It took a toll of them, especially trying to normalize things for their daughter, Sophie. They kept her entertained as best they could, but it had been challenging to be sure. They set up video chats, but Sophie couldn't understand why they could just take the brief walk to go see everyone in person./p
p class="MsoNormal"Their efforts hadn't been enough. One night they'd fallen asleep in their warm embrace that evolved into a feverish morning. Olive tried to stay calm while Sebastian was burning up. She got him water and a couple of pain killers, calling Harvey as soon as their bedroom door shut behind her. Sebastian had to quarantine. Harvey and Maru would come each day, looking like beekeepers fully decked out in protective clothing to check on him and bring him the food Olive had made for him. She and Sophie were not allowed in. She ended up having to borrow some clothes from Maru because all of her clothing was in the bedroom. Olive would sit with her back or side pressed against the bedroom door, talking to him. At night she would read to him from some of his favorite books. She wasn't always sure if he were awake or not for the whole thing. It was hit or miss how much he'd be able to talk, but every single day he would tell her how much he loved her and she would do the same for him. It began to feel to Olive that their separation would never end. She would fall asleep in the living room, gazing at her bouquet, drawing comfort from it./p
p class="MsoNormal"When the separation became her permanent reality Olive felt as if she was walking through a fog. It was a waking nightmare that she couldn't quite wrap her head around. Her bedroom felt foreign and cold to her. The bed was far too large. Was it always this big? Robin had come to stay with them for a period. They grieved together, comforting Sophie and trying to help her through her confusion. It was painful but they had each other. After a few days, feeling that Olive and Sophie had found a routine that worked for now, Robin returned home./p
p class="MsoNormal"Sam began to come by more often, his connection to Olive deepened by their shared mourning. He was able to put on a happy face much better than Olive was. He accessed a silliness inside of him that made Sophie smile, which in turn warmed Olive's heart. Though there were bright moments throughout her day, Olive still felt the sting of the loss, nearly making her sick./p
p class="MsoNormal"Her bouquet remained as beautiful as ever. She found herself talking to it during her sleepless nights, long after Sophie had fallen asleep. She told it all the things she would have liked to tell Sebastian. Overtime she learned how to better manage her grief, but she still felt sick. She began to worry that the sickness she felt was actually physical and not just emotional. When Harvey asked her about when her last period was, Olive was unable to answer him. That night she found herself crying to her bouquet, begging it for guidance./p
p class="MsoNormal"She wasn't sure why Sam was the first person she told. Perhaps it was their strengthening connection, or perhaps it was his warm demeanor. She just hoped it wasn't because he was the first adult she'd seen and she couldn't keep it bottled in any more. It wasn't until she pulled away from the hug he'd engulfed her in that she realized that the golden Sam too had tears streaming down his face. Ultimately it didn't matter, but Olive wondered why he'd cried. Were the tears solely from grief, or were they tears in solidarity for the widow in front of him, dealing with the confusing emotions of being pregnant with a child that would never know their father? That was the first time Sam spent the night. Accidentally of course. They had cried together, and sat on floor in the living room with their backs pressed against the couch, drinking hot chocolate. Through their tears they told each other stories. Some the other was familiar with, some were new. Olive even found herself laughing for the first time, possibly since before Sebastian had gotten sick. She remembered looking at the bouquet, smiling at it before she fell asleep. In the morning she woke up in her bed, finding out later that Sam had carried her there. She found him snoozing with a too small blanket on the couch./p
p class="MsoNormal"Her in-laws had experienced a similar sadness in their joy when Olive shared the news. She had plenty of support from all over, but the emptiness was still there. She had nearly daily visiting farm hands on a rotating basis, all of whom were getting regular medical assessments from Harvey prior to coming. And then there was Sam, who was there every single day. It was never at the same time. Sometimes he would bring food. Sometimes he would occupy Sophie so that Olive could nap. Other times they would just talk, or watch a movie./p
p class="MsoNormal"People in town began to talk. Not to her face, but the whispered followed her. Olive couldn't be bothered to be upset about it, she knew the truth, as so did those who she was closest with. She was growing to love Sam, just not in a romantic way. They'd been friends for a long time, they just hadn't been this close before. Olive had come to accept that the hole in her heart was just a part of who she was. She was having a conversation with her bouquet when the contractions began. She knew it was too soon for anything to be done about it, but she gave Harvey a call just the same. Olive cried when Radley was born. It was evident even from his scrunched up newborn face that he was the spitting image of his father. Harvey didn't notice the newly blossomed azure flower in the bouquet when he left the house. Sam was the first non-biologically related person to hold the newborn. The number of nights he was staying over the house increased dramatically during the first few weeks of Radley's life./p
p class="MsoNormal"The virus had remained ever a threat, but a decreased one over time. The tourists had stopped coming so Olive had taken the locks off the fence. They hadn't done her any good anyway. Sam kept his spare key just in case. Nothing in Olive's life felt the same, but she found herself crying less. There was so much of Sebastian in Radley, and not even just in his looks. The way he embodied his father's spirit at such a young age simultaneous filled and broke Olive's heart. When he woke during the night, Olive would bring him downstairs so as not to disturb Sophie. She would sit with him, and rock, telling him stories of his father. Her eyes drifting over to the old bouquet that she had long come to accept possessed magical qualities. Once Radley was back sleeping in his own bed, Olive would blow the flowers a kiss in the darkness before retreating to get some more sleep./p
p class="MsoNormal"It wasn't too long after Radley's first birthday that Sam approached Olive to discuss their relationship. She admitted that she cared deeply for him, but she wasn't sure that she would ever love anyone the same way she lovesd /sSebastian. Sam understood and was accepting of this, identifying the complex nature of their relationship himself. He wasn't even confident that he himself felt a romantic love for her, so much as wanting to recognize the significance of their companionship./p
p class="MsoNormal"Radley never called Sam dad, but he may as well have. Sam never opened up to Olive about his love life, not that she ever would have even asked. Yet she couldn't help but wonder if he never really dated because of them. He'd become so enmeshed with her little family that it made Olive feel a bit guilty. She didn't want him to miss out on any happiness because of some kind of obligation he felt towards them. Of course by this point, it wasn't really just Sam any more. It was his whole family. Olive had always had a positive relationship with them. Jodi and Kent had both confided in her as friends despite the fact she was only a couple of years older than their son. And Olive had always had a soft spot for Vincent, who was now preparing to go off to college. They began a third set of grandparents to Sophie and Radley. When it was questioned by anyone else, Jodi would brush it off, reminding anyone who needed it that Sebastian was like a third son to them, Olive had always been a family friend, and mind your damn business. It became such that Sam and his family, Olive and the kids, and Robin and her family, which had now grown to include Maru's partner, all shared one large happy table at the Feast of the Winter Star./p
p class="MsoNormal"Radley was four, going on five when Olive was the one to revisit the conversation about their relationship with Sam. After he assured her that he did not feel held back by her or the kids in anyway, Olive asked him if he would like to get married. She made it clear that she wasn't sure that she'd ever be a proper wife to him, but she would love and care for him as best as she could. In her eyes he was very much already family to her, and couldn't imagine how she would have gotten through the last several years without him. Sam admitted that after some research he believed that he was likely aromatic, but he was more than happy to celebrate their connection in that way./p
p class="MsoNormal"The wedding was a small gathering on the beach. Sam had slept in the bed with her before, but now it felt different. Olive knew it would never be the same. That she would never have back what she truly wanted. She just wasn't expecting it to feel the way that it had. Why would their marriage have made any kind of difference to something she'd done countless times before? It wasn't that she disliked sharing the bed with Sam, but it was just off. Ultimately she determined that it was most likely the implication others had that they were now experiencing newlywed bliss. She wasn't sure that anyone else truly understood their relationship, and maybe that's what was upsetting her rather than Sam himself. She talked to the bouquet about it, which as always didn't give her a response, yet somehow she felt better./p
p class="MsoNormal"Years passed, and life had brought on more changes. They'd lost both Sam and Olive's respective fathers. Her kids had gotten older and still her bouquet remained the same. She and Sam had a happy though utterly non-traditional marriage. There was plenty of love just the same. Olive had been feeling run down, but she had just chalked it up to age. One day she noticed that she was becoming short of breath easily and her chest would feel tight on occasion. It hadn't made sense to her, she never decreased her level of activity. Sam expressed concern himself so Olive agreed to talk to Harvey about it./p
p class="MsoNormal"The news was unexpected. Olive had always associated lung cancer with smoking, which she'd never done. She sat at the kitchen table in silence alone, reeling. The prognosis wasn't ideal, and the treatment was risky at best. It had been years since she'd last done it, but Olive was once again crying to the bouquet, begging for answers it wasn't capable of providing. When Sam came in and she told him what was going on, he sat and cried with her too. Olive knew what the Sebastian sized hole in her heart felt like even after all of these years and she wasn't ready to be that hole in someone else's heart. She couldn't do that to her kids, to Sam, to her mother, her siblings, and all of the other people that loved her. Olive didn't fear death, but she wasn't actively seeking it out./p
p class="MsoNormal"The treatment was effective, but not fully. It shrunk, but didn't eradicate. It only served to delay the inevitable, but that was enough. Olive took things more slowly and savored her life. Another flower bloomed in the bouquet. The first since Radley had been born so many years ago. Olive reflected on each new blossom and the moments they reflected from her life, but she couldn't quite place the significance of this one. She talked to the bouquet, and she'd talked to Sam about it. Neither had answers for her, but Sam agreed that it was a beautiful flower. Olive pondered when the last unopen flower would finally flourish./p
p class="MsoNormal"Days passed into weeks, passed into months. Sam returned to the house after working in the field, his intent to wash the dirt off his hands and face, get a snack, and go check on Olive, maybe joining her nap. Sam quickly realized that he didn't need to check on Olive because in the vase on the table before him was the now wilted bouquet save for the final bloom, a cherry blossom that she would never get to enjoy the sight of./p