Oh the sweet reviews! That makes this chapter so much harder Dx I sorry
I felt this bit went well with the last chapter. I had the idea - this terrible, terrible idea - while I was finishing the last one. As usual, I went for it and wrote it all in one hour in the middle of the night *insert painful smile*
I have not mentioned any ages or the number of years Gaston and Belle were married... as I do not even want to think about it (that and I don't even know). Hopefully this line gave you a clue and you can prepare yourself.
*Warning: implied character deaths, loss, heartbreak, and bittersweetness.
Chapter might make you cry and/or very sad at the end. I tried to make it a bit lighter. Tried.
I apologize now.
Happy Reading...?
Summary: Going through their parents' belongings, Julia finds something and the siblings have a short conversation.
Sons: 5
Daughters: 4
~:~ ... when our song lives on ~:~
"Atha," Julia gasped softly.
Her younger sister came into the bedroom. "Huh?"
She held up a familiar doll.
Agatha matched her gasp. Tears sprung into her eyes and she carefully took the doll from her sister. The same doll she made all those years ago when she was eight. The doll that she was convinced she had sold at the festival.
"He- he- Papa kept it?" she asked in awe.
Julia nodded. "Both of them." She handed her the doll of Mama.
Agatha tried to make some sense of it. Losing her parents had been one matter, but finding out that Papa had kept the dolls and possibly looked at them often especially after she had left home made matters more upsetting.
"B-but... but a man bought them," she began, "I remember-"
Julia sniffed and closed the trunk she got them from. "He must've paid a man to purchase them. Then he kept them."
"... all these years." Agatha held her dolls close, thinking that if she held on tight enough Papa and Mama would come walking through the door and greet them with their smiles and laughter.
She whispered tearfully. "What I'd give to hug him tightly one last time." She smiled sadly. "And thank him."
"Mama was so lucky to have a husband like Papa," Julia admired.
She massaged the wedding band on her ring finger. She smiled to herself as she remembered the day Papa approved of her now-husband.
He had spent the entire afternoon with her intended before blatantly threatening the same threats to him. Her intended - a young man studying in Paris for his medical degree - did not flinch or cower at her papa's words. And that night, Papa had told her he felt nothing odd about the other. He believed he was a serious man who would do nothing but love and cherish her.
"Thank you for approving, Papa," she smiled shyly.
He shook his head and caressed her cheek. "I only want you to be happy. And this young man, he understands you and I know he will care for you and love you and make you the happiest woman in the world."
She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
"Oh god, you two aren't crying again, are you?" Nathaniel griped from the doorway.
Amelia stepped on his toes as she passed. "Don't pretend like you didn't love them," she dared.
He pushed her playfully and she hit his shoulder just as. "I do love them," he replied. "It's just... all they did was kiss and hug and-"
"Love each other?" Cedric helped out his younger sister. "Gosh, Nathie. I thought you were that sappy with your wife?" He shook his head and tsked, "Poor Louisa. No wonder I see her always talking with that nice postal man-"
"That's her brother," he grunted. "I'm plenty sappy with my wife."
Amelia shuddered. "You should have seen them last holiday." She shuddered again. "Papa finally got back at him for all the times he complained about him kissing Mama," she laughed. "He told Nathie to get a room and that it was all inappropriate for the family gathering."
Nathaniel narrowed his eyes and ignored the fact that his face was turning red.
Elle squeezed past him and sat on the bed. She picked up one of Papa's hair ties from the bedside table and fiddled with it.
While she enjoyed hearing her brothers and sisters reminisce about their parents, it stung her to know that being the youngest, she hadn't had nearly as much time with them as they had.
She was grown and had gotten married three years ago. She and her siblings visited Mama and Papa quite often. So often that a few of their respective spouses started to complain. She laughed lightly.
Then her laugh quieted and she asked a question to no one in particular. "Do you think they're happy? Wherever they are?"
"I dare say they are," Gilbert remarked softly. He stood beside Nathaniel and looked around the room. The very room he and the rest often raided in the early mornings when they were children.
Jonathan agreed. "They were always so happy."
"Even when Papa had his moods," Thomas chuckled.
Agatha laughed. "Mama had her fair share of moods too, don't you remember?"
Julia picked up Mama's book of Romeo and Juliet. She opened it and set it down, open on the shelf. She turned to her siblings and her voice went watery. "I wouldn't dare to imagine what their lives would have been if they hadn't married."
Nathaniel couldn't remain as strong as he would have liked. He wiped at his eyes but the lump in his throat corrupted his speech. "Papa couldn't live without Mama."
Elle hiccuped a sob as she remembered the day before.
Julia couldn't watch her suffer alone. She sat beside her and pulled her into a tight hug. Elle's cries grew as she felt the rest of her brothers and sisters join. They had most likely known that their parents' times were coming to an end, but she had been so convinced they would live forever.
She was the one to find Papa and she had lied in Mama's spot, curling against his cold body. And she had cried and cried until Nathaniel had scooped her up and taken her back into her old room. He had held her tightly until she had cried herself to sleep.
They let her sob and sob until she couldn't any longer.
"Are you okay?" Gilbert asked quietly after her cries lessened.
She vaguely nodded then shook her head. "I don't know."
"We'll all not be okay for some time," Nathaniel voiced. He lied back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. His thoughts were blank.
Amelia joined except she lied across him - her back smooshing his stomach. It was bittersweet that he didn't complain sarcastically as she crushed him.
Jonathan lied on the floor as the bed was too small for nine adults. Cedric joined him and both were silent.
Gilbert sat back on the bed, against the wall. Thomas stretched out as cramped as he was over his legs.
Elle leaned heavily into Julia whose hold never faltered.
And Agatha stood at the sound of eager footsteps.
A little girl with curly brown hair and green eyes scampered down the hall then stopped in the doorway of the bedroom. Her happy eyes dimmed as she looked for her mother. "Momma, Apa says we have to go."
Julia sighed. She kissed Elle's head and picked her way through her sprawled brothers. "Momma's gonna stay here with her brothers and sisters, alright? You and Apa and your brothers are going home."
The little girl pouted.
Julia swallowed. Standing in her parents' home in what felt like her father's presence, saying her daughter's name was even more heart-wrenching than she thought.
"Jules, don't give me that look," she scolded gently. "Come on. We'll talk to Apa about this." She took her daughter's hand and led her from the house.
Gilbert spoke after Julia left. "Madeleine and I discussed it already. In three days, we came to an agreement."
Cedric prompted him with a hum.
"She and I and our family will live here," he said. "I'd hate to see someone different entirely live in the very house we grew up in."
Their response was silent but Gilbert knew they approved. It was all too painful to acknowledge yet.
One by one, they left the room. Elle was the last to leave. She straightened out the sheets on the bed and returned Papa's hair tie to the table. Then she set the book Julia left open on the bed, on their pillows.
She closed the door behind her.
Written just inside the book was Belle's handwriting:
"Boundless as the sea" - Gaston read this book for me. He is truly making an effort, you know. He's trying to change. But I dare not to believe it just yet.
He named our first daughter after Juliet. I do think he loves her as much as he does our boys.
Then he gave me a life of love.
A pause followed, then the writing continued. This time of weak handwriting.
You gave me a life I shall remember always.
I wish we could be as immortal as words on pages, as the stories and fairytales we tell our children and grandchildren. I wish the light in my world could never fade...
But I leave you this note, in case you ever find yourself alone on the nights I can never again come to you. I leave you with my written love and gratitude that I- that you told me to at least think it over and to give you a chance.
I hate to imagine where I would be if I hadn't. I don't think I would be happy.
My precious love, my soul is light and as young as ever but I fear my body cannot stand such sickness any longer. It hurts me that I will leave, but I do not wish for you to remember me on my last nights.
I wish for you to remember me as the most beautiful girl in the village, as the mother of our nine children, and as the loving wife I never grew tired of being.
I lived a life of strong love, my darling. And I hope you are not too saddened with my ending. I am content and at peace. I wish the same for you.
Oh, my darling. There are not enough words and time in this world to describe what and how much you mean to me. I love you, my brave hunter, my captain, my love who I will never forget.
Goodbye, Gaston.
Another pause followed before more words of a rougher handwriting wrote:
I wouldn't dare being parted from you for more than a heartbeat. I can only hope you are patiently waiting for me beyond.
My heart aches and I feel strange and empty. I cannot bear to believe that you have gone.. that we are to bury you. I fear this note shall not give me the comfort I need. For I need you, my love.
I need your warmth and your smile. I need to hear your voice and hear your laugh. I need to hold you as I have every night since the moment you told me you loved me. I need to feel your heart beat beneath my palm. I need your ear to find my own steady heartbeat. And I need us to be happy again. I am heartbroken.
A second away from you is a lifetime of loneliness.
Perhaps tomorrow when we place you in the ground, I can attempt at peace.
Goodnight, my darling. I love you, always and forever.
Another pause. Then Elle's broken handwriting smudged by tears scrawled: Tomorrow never came for Papa.
I am so dreadfully sorry if that chapter destroyed your feelings.
This will be the only chapter I reference their deaths because I prefer to see them alive and happy :')
I figure since all of these are snippets.. everything has to be covered. Even the painful ones. And I figured it showed how strong their marriage was.
Thank you for reading. I'm going to go finish crying.
