"Anne!" Mrs Blythe whispered to her stirring her from her sleep. Anne had gone back to sitting in the chair beside the bed where she had taken Gilbert's hand in hers and had laid her head next to their hands and had fallen into asleep. Anne stirred and was confused for a moment of how she had been asleep! "I thought I better wake you the doctor is due any moment to check on Gil. I thought for the sake of proprietary… Anne tell me its not me, does he not look better to you?"
Anne looked to him, where her eyes fell upon him. "I'm not sure." She said wondering if it was just a wish that both her and Mrs Blythe had to see him well that he somehow looked better to them.
"John came back from Green Gables 20 minutes ago left a bag Marilla did for you, your own clothes in there, maybe while he is being checked over by the doctor you might like to change into your own clothes."
Anne smiled. "Yes I think that would be for the best." Anne blushed just in time for there to be a knock at the door downstairs.
"Our cue." Mrs Blythe smiled.
Anne heard hustle in the bedroom over the hall, she was desperate to be back with him so she dressed quite quickly. She took the brush out the bag and brushed through her hair, she gently put half of it up and left the other half down. So if Gilbert was better he could play with her hair, if he liked.
She went out to the landing where she was met by Mrs Blythe smiling. "Anne oh Anne he's sitting up and asking for food! Oh Anne you made him better!" She hugged Anne closely.
Anne blushed, "I doubt it had anything to do with me." Anne said confused.
"Oh you must go in you must! His fever has broken, Anne he's going to get better." She said letting go of Anne and running downstairs to make her son the food her asked for.
Anne was all of a sudden very nervous to enter his bedroom. She wasn't exactly sure why. Then under the nervousness a rush of happiness came over her.
Gilbert was going to be okay!
She knocked on the door gently and opened it on hearing the doctor state "come in"
She stood nervously by the door when she entered until the doctor moved from the eyeline between herself and Gilbert. She stood silent as he gazed on her wordlessly. The doctor talking to them but neither one of you could have told you what he had said, the doctor simply shook his head with a knowing smile.
"I'll tell your mother then." He said chuckling.
Gilbert snapped out of the gaze for a moment. "Thank you doctor." He croaked.
"You had a close one young man, how your fever is gone so fast after being so high for so long… those who don't believe in miracles are sorely mistaken that's what." He chuckled. "Though if I had such a pretty thing to wake to maybe I would do a quick u turn too. Good day Gilbert." He started to walk towards the door "Anne." He acknowledged. He closed the door behind him.
There was silence between the couple for a moment before Gilbert was the first to speak.
"I thought you had been part of the delusions when I woke and you weren't here, I thought I must have…" he started to cough.
Anne quickly came and poured him some water handling the glass for him she sat on the bed giving him the water, she wasn't sure just how well he was.
"Thanks." He said croakily.
"Shhh, you're fever might have broken but that throat of yours still sounds as rough." She said as she put down the glass. She wasn't sure what he'd remember truth be told. She at first accidently swept past his hand but in the action her hand refused to moved from his, she gently interlaced their hands together.
He relaxed back and closed his eyes again.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him.
"Tired, hungry, sore." He said gruffly. He then opened his eyes and looked into Anne's "But alive."
"A great deal better then you have been feeling then." Anne smiled sweetly at him.
He gazed on her again. 'how long had she been here for?' he silently wondered but found himself unable to ask her the question, he was so sleepy. "Tired." He said to her.
"Then take a nap. I promise I'll be here when you wake this time." She said to him moving onto the chair next to his bed. "do you want me to read something for you?" She asked him.
He grinned gently and nodded. She moved towards the bookcase and was overjoyed that some of their favourite books still stood among them.
She smiled as she saw the perfect one "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain." She said. "Do you remember Gil, this is the first book you…" She trailed with a smile.
He grinned wider and nodded his head. "I remember."
She walked back over and sat in the chair beside his bed he looked to her and reached for her hand. She gently took his hand and with one hand opened the first page and started to read.
He smiled as she entered his room smiling gently her hair in a long plait down her back and a pretty green dress on. Was it just him or did she look more beautiful now then even back when they had been courting?
"Morning Gil." She said with a wider smile. "How are you doing? What did the doctor say?"
"No sign of the fever." He said happily. "My throat is still a bit rough and he still wants me on bed rest." He said with a heavy sigh.
Anne laughed a little. "He's making sure you get better." She said pouring him some water and handing him the glass.
"I feel fine except the little things." He defended. Taking a sip and putting the glass back on the bedside table.
"It's the little things that can flair right back up again in a relapse." She said sitting on the chair next to the bed holding him by the hand. "Did you have breakfast?" She asked him.
"Yes mother." He mocked her. "Some oatmeal, my ma even put some of her homemade blackcurrant jam in it and I ate every last bit."
She smiled at his mock "I only ask because I care."
He smiled at her "I know. But you know I'm on the mend don't you?" he asked her.
"I hope you are, but knowing it is a different thing." She admitted.
They sat in silence for a little while. It had been a full five days since his fever broke and Anne had come every day to see him, she patiently sat beside his bed, sometimes reading sometimes talking, once or twice when they had felt particularly close she had even sat on the bed and stroked (yes! Stroked! Gilbert had thought) into his curls affectionately as he wrapped his arms around her and cuddled into her. Neither one of them making any sort of objection. But no attempts were made by either one of the pair to advance the relationship any further. For Anne's part she was worried that her past behaviours and the fact Gilbert now knew the whole truth of it had finally turned him away. That his cries for her in the night that night had just been delusions brought on by the fever. For Gilbert's part, the last clear memory he had of Anne was the night of convocation where she had turned and ran away… AGAIN! Their 'natural' relationship seemed to allow for hugs freely, maybe, they both thought, that's what was happening.
But Gilbert couldn't shake a feeling he had about the day he had woken from the fever. Was Anne… already in the house when he had woken? The logical part of him knew this wasn't possible, his mother would have turned her away at the door if she thought he was still sick, but even so, his dreams… or rather delirium had been so REAL! He could have sworn Anne was in the bedroom with him that night, whispering sweet nothings in his ear, renewing her love for him, he a couple of times had felt… turned on by it! She had told him she loved him and she wanted to marry him and had flirted with him… then had she been sponging his naked body? No, he concluded, it was part of the intoxication of the fever which had brought these and, many many other hallucinations to life. But still… She had been coming every single day and not leaving his side until the sun began to set, it had to MEAN something.
There was a knock at the door which broke the silence "Come in." he called gently.
His mother entered with a pile of washing ready to go away. "it feels so nice to be caught up with the washing." She said smiling. "Have someone to look after you Gilbert, apart from myself."
"Sorry Ma, I didn't mean to inconvenience you." He said humbly.
She scoffed at him.
"Oh Mrs Blythe let me help." Anne said offering gently.
"You remember where it goes?" Mrs Blythe asked her as she handed her some bed shirts and pyjama bottoms. Anne nodded. Gilbert watched, his brow furrowing. How did Anne know where his bedshirts went? He watched in amazement as she put them in the correct draw in the right place, his mother putting away the towels. "I'll leave you two to it." Mrs Blythe smiled.
"Anne?" He started confused by her actions as she closed the draws. "How do you know where my pyjamas go?" He asked her.
"Oh." She said as if she had been caught in a fire. "Well… You see I saw where your mother had got them when…" She trailed blushing. She sat formally on the chair not daring reaching for his hand.
"You were here, the night my fever broke, you were here." He said in an almost whispered.
She nodded her head bowed.
He stuttered for a few moments looking for the right words to ask 'what were you doing in my room!?' "But, if you were, how were you here? Ma would never have let you in here…" he said trailing in his thoughts.
"I…" She blushed more. "Oh Jehosaphat! She exclaimed. "I never should have…" she trailed getting up to leave.
"No Anne, please! Don't!" he asked her. Grabbing her wrist gently. "I mean if you really want to go then do, but please don't feel like you have to." He said to her. She slowly came down onto the floor, she knelt by the bed their fingers intertwined. "My memories are so confused." He finally confessed. "Anne, I think I remember things but I don't know if I'm right." He looked down into her eyes. "How did you get in my room?" he whispered as if it was a great secret between them.
Anne giggled at the fully grown man whispering to her as if they were children again. "Well…" she said with a pinkness to her cheeks. "You remember the night of convocation? You asked me a question which I didn't answer." He looked at her and nodded his head. "Well, I took it as, still an open question you see, because I hadn't answered it. When I learnt of how seriously ill you were, I had to see you, I had to be here, I don't think I would have ever forgiven myself if… so I may have given your mother the answer which would grant me access to you." She said looking away shyily.
He grinned softly and took his hand and stroked her face lightly. She looked up at him, his eyes flirting with her. "You told her we were engaged?" he asked her.
"yes." She admitted shyly.
"So you were here that night?" he asked her with a husk to his voice moving down the bed so their faces were closer together.
"Yes." She told him. They moved closer together, their faces close together, his thumb still stroking her face. "Gil?" she whispered "We really shouldn't, until you get the all clear from the doctor."
He paused so close to her lips, his body shaking in anticipation. He pulled back stroking her faster. "Anne." he whispered to her before planting a kiss on her cheek. "Tell me the truth?" He asked her gently. "Is this what you want?" She giggled stroking through his hair she sat up to kiss him across his forehead. Kissing down to his earlobe nibbling at it gently she heard his breathing jagger "Ahhh!"
She pulled back afraid he was relapsing. "Are you sick?" she said shaking. "No. no! You can't be." She stated jumping up getting the glass of water.
"Anne…" he started as she pressed the glass against his lips forcing the water into his mouth.
He took the water gulping it down as quickly as she was giving it. When she relented putting the glass down he gasped for the air "Anne…" he started again trying to sit up.
"No, no no" she told him. "You need to relax so maybe we might stop the relapse." She said lying him down on the bed.
"Anne Shirley stop!" he exclaimed gently holding her hand in place. She stopped and sat on the bed.
"I can't." she whispered. "You need to get better."
"I am getting better." He laughed and sat up slightly. "My love, think about it. The women who I have loved since I was 13 who hasn't kissed me romantically in..." he couldn't even count how long "so long!" he kissed her hand which was in his now sitting up fully next to her on the bed, "and for you to kiss me like that!" he said waving his lips close to her ear. "What do you think it would do to me?" he asked her looking into her eyes.
She took a sigh "Oh!" she said then smiled gently. "You were... enjoying me?" She asked him.
He smiled. "Of course." He said gently looking into her eyes. He pulled her down with him lying her on the bed next to him wrapping his arms around her holding her to him. "Lets just enjoy each other's company again, get reacquainted again… as…" he held her to him "if you like?" he asked her stroking into her hair feeling it against his hands again.
"As…?" she flirted, looking at him playfully.
He took a breath his heart racing against his chest. "As… lovers?" he whispered.
She smiled feeling his heartbeat against her hand. "Yes." She said quietly "as lovers." She said blushing.
He smiled widely. "You shouldn't be lying on my bed with me Anne." He said mockingly.
She smiled back and looked him in the eyes "Oh be gone with propriety!" she quoted herself stroking into his curls. They both laughed at this and stayed close. "I want to kiss you." She whispered to him.
"And I want to kiss you." He said to her. "But you're right the doctor does need to give the all clear before we do." He looked concerned, "Are you going to have nightmares with all this?" he asked her.
"No, I don't think so." She said honestly. "but I have a couple of theories about that… I want to know what you think?" she said bringing herself up sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Okay." He agreed, sitting up next to her.
"Well the first was, I saw you dying in reality, and it was so much worse than my dreams it kind of out nightmared them all because it was real."
"That makes sense." He agreed. "What is your second theory?" he asked.
"Well, you probably didn't notice… but since Matthew died I never told you that I loved you." She said quietly.
"Of course I noticed." He whispered to her. "The last time you told me you loved me was the day before Matthew died in hesters garden…" he twined their hands together again "…right after I picked those yellow roses for you and weaved some into your hair. You looked like a nymph, I imagined you in this dress which had lily of the valley's over the shoulders and the dress was made out of leaves and grass and you had a crown of yellow roses, your cheeks were blushed pink and your lips were so soft against your milky white skin. The dress, just so you know was scandalously short." He said with a gentle grin. "You haven't changed a bit, just as beautiful." He said nervously then laughed. "Do you know how wonderful it is to say that out loud again?" he said grinning. "You're beautiful!"
She smiled at him blushing at the imagine he had painted of her. "well after that day I never admitted it to you ever again, do you think it could be because I admitted it, it has somehow put my mind at ease?" she asked him.
He thought enough for his bottom lip to protrude a little and he looked at her deeply. "It could be a combination of the two that would seem logical." He admitted. "You've said that you loved me?"
She smiled. "That night, I told you lots of times." She said he looked at her confused.
"How much of it was real?" he asked her.
"I said a lot of things that night." She admitted quietly. "We have a lot to catch up on."
"Well" he said putting his arm around her again, "We've got a lot of time." He smiled, "Tell me about it, I might remember it as a dream." He requested.
"Well I wanted to comfort you; I reminded you that you had asked me a question after convocation which I never answered..." She trailed looking shyly at him. "... I then gave you the answer and told you that I loved you." He sat in silent amazed that wasn't a dream or a delusion. After a long pause she asked. "Do you remember it?"
"Yes." He says quietly. "I never supposed it was real, I thought it to blissful to be..." his heart was racing.
She smiled sweetly at brought herself closer "Well let's see if I can make it crystal clear." She said taking her hand in his again. "I love you Gilbert."
He felt another weight being lifted from his shoulders. He sighed in relief of hearing those three small words from her again. His heart was racing, those feelings came flooding back, the ones he had tried so hard to suppress but he didn't try to stop them, love was running through his veins and he didn't want it to stop. He looked at Anne and ran his hands over her face again, she looked into his eyes and the words so easily followed "I love you Anne. Always have, always will."