One-Shot Collection

This second one-shot was written after playing Harvest Moon D.S Cute. After marrying Doctor Trent, I asked myself how Claire would have felt if he had not only kept his hours in Mineral Town BUT added some more working time on top of it. This is what I came up with :) I am open to any one-shot requests (*prays for someone to request a one-shot relating to VAUGHN and CHELSEA LOL :P Nah, i'm open to any pairing in any game...i refuse to write for Regis daughter Sabrina and Vaughn though so please don't ask! :P)

Title: The Doctor and the Farmer (previously known as The Married Life).

Summary: Doctor Trent is continuing to work in Mineral Town even after marrying Claire who lives in Forget-Me-Not Valley. What are her thoughts on that?

Story Type: Inspired by Game play.

Stars: Doctor Trent (D.S Cute version) and Claire (D.S Cute)

Word Count: 2,338

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. These include the characters made up by Natsume for their games, or the characters created by other users. I'm simply using them to tell a story.

"Oh..." Trent exclaimed from the left side of bed. He stroked my arm up and down, kissing my neck and tightening his arm around my naked waist...I never wanted this to end. "...I am going to continue working in Mineral Town."

I could feel my blood drain from my face; the colour, I couldn't tell if it had changed or not. Everything suddenly seemed...different. It was easy to understand that he wanted to continue to devote his life to those people in Mineral Town; heck I was friends with almost all of them. There weren't any other doctors, so they would have a hard time getting along without him. If Trent left, then there would be no other doctor. Eli was a nurse, so she couldn't manage on her own.

Though I was disappointed, I tried to hide the disappointed expression, "Oh?"

He nodded his head, leaning his head on top of mine and continuing to stroke my arm, "They don't have another doctor. And it's hard to find a replacement. Especially for a town so small." Trent's hair was bare, that thing...I couldn't remember the name, was gone from his head. It lay on the table in the middle of the house, it was placed there...actually, I think it was thrown. "So...I agreed to continue being their doctor." He seemed fine with it; not that anything was wrong of course. "That means I won't be here when you wake up...and I-" He cleared his throat, "-will only be here at night."

Something caught in my throat, and suddenly breathing was so hard. I tried to breath, I tried inhaling and exhaling. Keeping it to a minimum so Trent wouldn't worry since he was a doctor. I could feel myself begin to shut down, for many seconds I tried my best to breath normally...but with each passing moment it started to get harder and harder.

"Some nights I may stay late so I may not...be back until eight at the earliest." He seemed cool, calm, collected. Was I the only one who was panicking? Or maybe even sad? "They agreed to continue to give me Thursdays off though."

I sighed quietly, trying to keep my cool, "That's great!" Trent loved his job, and everything about it. When he visited Forget-Me-Not-Valley, he would often hand out medical advice and make sure people were exercising. Sometimes Muffy would complain about how he only talked about medical related information and nothing else. "I'm glad they are letting you keep your job." I was half lying through my teeth. Keeping his job was great news...if we were moving to Mineral Town. I could feel my stomach start to tense up, it suddenly started lurching and paining...but I tried to pretend it was fine. "When do you start?"

Trent shot me a smile, then turned on to his back and looked up towards the ceiling, "Right away...they want me there tomorrow."

Mentally I went through the days of the week. Tomorrow was Saturday; so Thursday was...I sighed in my head when I saw the number on my fingers. It was a grand total of FIVE days away. Way too long. But...I looked over at Trent; flashing back to all that talk about curing diseases and maybe even...one day becoming the greatest doctor in the world. He was happy with this decision...really happy.

With my entire being I wanted to tell him to stay, to not go back to Mineral Town. But even though I wanted to express my sadness, my emotions based on this idea, I couldn't. Rather, I looked up at him and forced a small smile, "I'm really happy for you." And I was...to a point.

He turned back on to his side and tightened his arm around my waist, "Really?"

I nodded my head slowly, holding back the tears and swallowing, "Of course." Popuri sometimes commented on my ability to lie. Once I fooled her into believing the abdominal snowman was real and that during the winter it would come to both Mineral Town AND Forget-Me-Not Valley to eat all the chickens. Needless to say that until she was told and convinced of the real truth, she spend every living second in the chicken coop during the winter to keep this "thing" away. Besides Trent took his job seriously...so I wasn't going to stand in the way of his dream.

Affectionately Trent smiled at me, "You know Eli's been asking about you..." He changed the topic quicker than anything, something that he did often at times. "...she wanted to know if you're pregnant yet."

Ignoring my earlier emotions, I rolled my eyes and turned to lay on my side. Good 'ol Eli, always being so motherly like to me even though I stole the only potential husband from her that she'd ever have. "Doesn't she know we've only been married...for a couple days?" Trent leaned into my hair, stroking it softly and placing his chin on top of it.

"Is that all its been?" He asked, "It feels like it's only been hours. Time goes by fast..." He started to blush, "...when I'm with you."

A giggle came out from my chest. I put my hand over my mouth, my cheeks heating up, "Same..." I lightly touched his cheek, caressing it with great care, "...I love you."

Trent blushed harder, rubbing the back of his neck, "I love you too."

The last half of the winter was the slowest season I had ever encountered. Every night Trent wouldn't return until after nine o'clock, he'd be too beat to say anything. And some nights...he wouldn't even eat. He'd open the door, smile a little and then drag himself all the way to bed and crash. On Thursdays, he'd spend all day at Hardy's place with Eli training as Hardy's "apprentice." He'd always eat at the bar with Eli and Hardy...and return home after I had gone to sleep. We would go weeks without speaking.

Some days I would sit on the beach; and just let the tears fall. I felt neglected...pushed away for work. It was like everything was falling on top of me, I was being underpaid and overworked, and my own husband wasn't there. He was always working or sleeping...I would wipe the tears, and just continue to cry until there was nothing left to cry about.

To ignore the pain, I worked myself to the bone. Countless things need to be done. Five golden barns (it took a LOOONNNGGG time to have enough money to afford them) were placed at the back of field, with several animals wandering around the field of snow. Around the animals was a stone fence; several pieces had been replaced with golden lumber. But not too many, it took forever to save up for the individual pieces. Having it ensured me a good night sleep, because then I knew no wild animals would get in with the animals and have a feast.

There were still several sections of plowed soil; I brought my hoe up above my head and plundered it into the earth. Preserving these fields was probably the hardest part of farming, especially during the winter time. Bringing my head up, and rubbing a little bit of sweat off of my forehead with my hand I surveyed all the empty sections of soil. Someone could've sworn I was some crazy old mam with weird hobbies. There was not one seed planted, not one plant was growing. The entire field of crops was lifeless.

I heard a voice from behind, and turned to see Lumina waving her hand. She wore her orange coat, "Claiirreee!" She called out in a beautiful tone. Lumina had been married to Rock since year 4; one year ago. They had a little baby boy; the cutest thing I had ever layed my eyes on.

She ran over and gave me a loose huge, obviously trying to avoid all the sweat, "Hey," I smiled at her, "What's up? Shouldn't you be at home taking care of Ryan?"

Lumina shrugged, "Sebastian suggested I take a break. Lectured me on getting fresh air, and not spending ALL my time with the baby." She folded her arms over her chest, "he blames Rock since he isn't there to take care of the baby."

I laughed, "That sounds like good 'ol Rock."

"Yeah...he isn't a working guy. It's annoying, but..." She shrugged her shoulders again, cocking her head, "enough about me. Where's Trent? You know? The man you MARRIED?"

The subject was touchy, "Uh..." I pretended to be occupied, "oh look, is the snow melting?"

Lumina frowned, "Don't change the subject!"

"Well...he.." I sighed, "They needed him to work in Mineral Town. Continue to be their doctor."

She smiled, "That good-"

"Yeah," I interrupted her, she hated it when I did that, but I did it anyway, "but...I haven't spoken to him in weeks."

"WHAT!?"

"Sh!" I put my finger over my mouth, "keep it down!"

Lumina's eyes widened, "Don't kid with me Claire"

I sighed, "I wish I were."

There was a long silence, Lumina stared at me...she did nothing more for a long time. I didn't look at the clock and time it, but it felt like hours before she finally opened her mouth, "That's unhealthy for your relationship!"

"I know." I nodded my head, throwing my hoe over my head and plowing down to the ground, "but he loves his work. I can't just demand that he stop working because his overworked housewife wants him to come home and be with her all day."

Lumina frowned, "First...you aren't a housewife! A housewife stays at home and does housework. You're a farmer! Second, what's wrong with that?" She crossed her arms over her chest, "yeah he needs to work, but he needs to be there to support your emotionally! He can't just...not be there for you!"

It was true. "I know." I threw my hoe down and sighed, "I just feel so wrong taking him away from his job. I can't stop him from working, he loves it so much."

"But..." Lumina kneeled down, picking up the hoe, "...he can't just not spend time with you. What if you had children?"

Several times that had come to my mind. If we had children and Trent kept working this hard, then the child or children would grow up without a daddy around...I'd be like a single parent. "Lumina...I can't..."

She didn't say anything, but rather shook her head. She had every right too.

When spring came around, things only got worse. Many days Trent would call me and say he wasn't coming home...this extended even to Thursdays. As I looked at my calendar, days flew by and I was getting worried...he was never like this. He loved his job but wasn't obsessive over it to the point where he broke promises.

On the 14th day of spring, I decided I had enough. Hardy was in his office often, so I made up my mind to ask him what was going on with Trent. Whether I liked the answer or not was up to what Hardy would say. I knocked on his door, but before he answered I could suddenly feel darkness clouding over my mind. I grabbed my head and heard nothing before I blacked out.

There were voices around me, whispers. One sounded like a younger man in his early twenties and the other belonged to an older man in his late forties or fifties. I opened my eyes slowly to see Hardy gazing down at me. He didn't smile, "How you feeling?"

I put my hand on my forehead, "What happened?"

"You fainted." He pointed outside the window, "found you lying on my doorstep. Figured it was from exhaustion."

Another figure came to view, he got up suddenly and ran over to me. Though my sight was blurry, I recognized that dark hair and white coat anywhere...Trent. He placed his hand on my check, "Are you hurt? Do you feel okay? Why were you working so hard?"

Hardy sighed, "She wasn't working too hard. The baby was just tiring her faster."

We both froze and turned to Hardy. I croaked, "B-baby?"

"Yeah," He frowned, "didn't you know?" When there was no answer he frowned, "Oh well...there's a possibility there may be two..."

Trent stared at Hardy, "T-twins?"

"What else do you call two babies?" He looked at his watch, "Ok. I gotta check on Romana." And while murmuring something under his breath, Hardy disappeared and shut the door behind him.

At once Trent's face fell. He looked at me, "This is all my fault..." He kneeled down by my bedside and stared at me, "if only I hadn't been working so hard. I should've been paying attention to you instead...then you wouldn't have fainted and-" Trent didn't finish, rather he put his hands over his eyes and kept quiet.

"Hey," I patted his head, "it isn't your fault."

"But it is," Trent sighed, "I shouldn't have accepted that job." He sighed, "You should be my priority. You NEED to come first..." Trent looked at me for a moment and then smiled, "but no more of that." He got up from my bedside and grabbed his phone.

I tilted my head, "What are you doing?"

He smiled, "Calling the mayor of Mineral Town to condense my working hours." And with those words I knew everything was going to be okay.