Map of Days
Chapter 1
"There were no bombers turning the world to fire around us. There were no hollowgast lurking outside the door. I didn't know what our future held, but in that moment it was enough just to believe we had one." {Jacob Portman, pg 33 book 4}
Despite being in the normal present for a full week Aurora still felt like she had just stepped into it for the first time.
To be fair, she and Millard had been living in their own little bubble, ordering food to their room, spending their days leisurely sitting on the balcony – high enough that no one would notice the seemingly floating book in his hands as they read together. It had been as if hours passed as she gazed out the windows at the palm trees gently swaying in the breeze coming off the ocean, mesmerized not only by the beautiful view but by the very idea that the world out there was safe.
There were no wights, no hollowgasts, no Caul. And perhaps best of all, no threat of aging forward. As her mind would try to wrap itself around that very notion she nearly always became too distracted to finish processing all the wonderful changes. Millard's fingers would either stroke down her bare arm, or his hand would cup her cheek and she would turn to him smiling.
It had been the first time in Aurora's life where she spent a whole week not making the bed. They were in it too much. And she hadn't touched the laundry, essentially living in thin breezy button downs that reached her mid-thigh.
It was a bitter sweetness that filled her when their honeymoon ended and they returned to Jacob's house in Needle Key. On one hand she could have lived like that forever, while on the other she was beginning to miss their friends, their peculiar little family, very dearly.
It was a sight when they returned to Jacob's home late that afternoon, finding Enoch splayed upon the beige sectional, sipping something fizzy from a tumbler marked with the words 'Tampa Bay Buccaneers'. Olive was sitting beside him, upright and proper, with her gloved arm around little Claire, mouths open as they stared at the giant television that was mounted to the wall, even Claire's backmouth was slack jawed. On the floor in front of them were the twins, a long black device with buttons laying between them as they took turns pressing as the channels changed. Millard said something about bringing their luggage upstairs while Aurora wandered into the kitchen. Horace was studying the photos on Jake's refrigerator while Hugh was digging around for a snack, it looked like he might have even grown an inch while they had been gone.
Then, from the back door she appeared. Miss Alma Lefay Peregrine, in a jacket of green tweed and riding pants, as if she had just arrived on horseback. Instantaneously she began doing what ymbrynes did best.
"Enoch, remove your feet from the sofa. Mr. Portman, there are matters that require your attention."
From an adjourning hall Jake and Emma walked out hand in hand. Both gave Aurora welcoming smiles and nods and when Jacob went to follow Miss Peregrine Emma engulfed her in a hug.
"You must tell me all about your trip!" she gushed, pulling back and taking Aurora by the hands, not wasting a moment to bombard her with questions. "What was your room like? Was the view fabulous? What did you eat? Jacob just showed us tacos the other night, they are divine! Have you tried them? What about the television? Did your room have one? Did you know how many channels they have now?"
Only when Emma stopped to take a breath did they overhear Jake ask Miss Peregrine, "Didn't we kill or capture them all in Devil's Acre?"
Reality sunk in and they became very quiet as they turned and listened to what the pair were saying.
"Not quite all. A small cadre escaped with some wights after our victory, and we believe they absconded to America. And while I doubt they'll come anywhere near you – I daresay they've learned their lesson. I can only assume they're planning something. An abundance of caution couldn't hurt."
Hugh chuckled tearing into the shiny wrapper of something, "They're terrified of you Jacob."
"They are?"
"After the thrashing you gave them?" Millard's voice reached them as he came down the final stairs completely unseen and walked up behind Aurora, she knew from the feel of his arm wrapping around her waist, "They'd be stupid not to be."
"Polite persons do not spy on private conversations Mr. Nullings." Miss Peregrine huffed.
"I wasn't spying, I was hungry."
"Fortunately for you -" Horace's voice echoed from the walk-in pantry, "I am an accomplished chef de cuisine, however, we are running low on the meagre supply Jake's parents kept."
Jacob shrugged, "We eat a lot of take out." He turned back to Miss Peregrine. "Speaking of my parents, what are we going to do about them?"
"They're still sound asleep in your motor vehicle. That dose from Mother Dust put them out right properly, you needn't worry. Miss Bruntley has the situation well in hand."
The words had hardly left her lips when a wall rattling crash sounded from the direction of the attached garage. The vibrations sent glasses toppling from a nearby shelf to the floor where they shattered.
"That sounds like a distinctly out-of-hand situation." Millard said, but the others were already running.
"Stay where you are!" Miss Peregrine shouted in the direction of the living room, not that Enoch paid any mind as he heaved himself up from his slouch against the cushions and followed Jake, Emma and Miss Peregrine. With half the snack bar still in his mouth Hugh trailed after and Horace returned to digging through the pantry. Aurora's curiosity was peaked as well, until Millard's free arm joined the first around her waist and she felt him begin to pepper kisses along her neck. She tried to suppress her reaction as her body leaned back into his chest but despite herself a small giggle did escape her. Millard's grip tightened and she felt him smile against her skin.
"I thought you said you were hungry." She whispered.
"Hmm. Maybe my appetite changed Darling."
She felt her face warm with a furious blush and she hoped that no matter how long they were married she never stopped getting so flustered by his flirtatious side. She quite enjoyed it.
"I told you to stay where you were." their headmistress's reprimanding drifted to them in the kitchen.
"After that noise?" Enoch scoffed in reply as their footsteps neared.
"Come along children, we need to discuss protocol for the next several days. There's much to learn about the present and you've had an entire week off. So, no time like the present to start learning." The Bird said as she strode from the garage back into the living room convening all her wards.
"How much longer can we stay?" Claire asked hopping in her little dress and making her ringlets bounce.
"May we go exploring in the morning?"
"I would like to eat something before I perish from the earth." Said Millard which made Aurora chuckle as they shared a wide seat that matched the sofa.
Jake suggested ordering something called a pizza which earned him inquisitive and confused looks.
"Is that Floridian cuisine?"
"Not really. But trust me, you'll like it." He pulled a phone out of his pocket and stepped into the other room to make the call.
"It's so wonderful to be here!" Claire gushed swinging her feet off the end of the couch.
"And not in Devil's Acre." Horace added fixing the cuff of his sleeve.
"You know it's not all of us who are here right?" Hugh said leaning his elbows on his knees and glaring into the floor, then he raised his gaze to all of them as a lone bee zipped around his head in agitated circles. They all knew he meant Fiona, and the reminder made all their hearts sink. After making eye contact with all of them he looked back at the carpet. "She's not dead. I know she's not."
"I hope you're right." Emma said, sadness taking over her features.
Hugh's head snapped back up to her, the look in his eyes solid and defiant, "She's not."
Emma averted her eyes and played with her fingers in her lap. Hugh took a deep breath, Aurora thought she heard him try to cover up a sniffle but before it could get any more obvious Hugh rose from his seat and left the room, a moment later they heard the back door shut.
"If you can believe it." Emma said after a moment, "That was progress."
"He'll barely even talk to any of us." Olive chimed in.
"He's angry and he won't face the truth." Enoch added, and while the words were harsh his tone was soft, the reminder of Fiona's loss stung him as well.
"You don't think it's possible Fiona could be alive somewhere?" Aurora asked and felt Millard's fingers intertwine with hers.
"I'd rate it unlikely Darling."
Miss Peregrine winced before she cleared her throat, "We put out word to every loop and peculiar community we're in contact with. We've distributed communiques, bulletins, photographs, detailed descriptions – I even sent Miss Wren's pigeon scouts to search the forests for Fiona. Thus far, nothing."
Millard sighed, "If she was alive, poor thing, wouldn't she have reached out to us by now? We aren't difficult to find."
During their discussion Jake wandered back into the room, pocketing his cellular device, and for the first time since the sad topic emerged, he spoke up. "Has anyone tried looking for her. . . um. . ."
"Her body?" Millard supplied.
"Millard, please." Said the headmistress.
"Was that indelicate?" he whispered into Aurora's ear and she squeezed his hand, louder to the room he went on, now more cautious in his word choice, "The fall that likely killed Fiona occurred in Miss Wren's menagerie loop, which has since collapsed. If her. . . remnant, was there, it is no longer recoverable."
"I've been weighing whether to hold a memorial service." Miss Peregrine said, "But I can't even raise the topic without sending Hugh into a spiral of depression. I fear if we push him too hard –"
"He won't even adopt new bees." Bronwyn said with tears in her eyes. "He says he wouldn't love them the same if they'd never met Fiona. So he only keeps the one, who's of a rather advanced age at this point."
"Sounds like this change of scenery might do him good." Jake added trying to lift their spirits.
Just then the doorbell rang and he went to answer it. Claire and Bronwyn rose to follow him but Miss Peregrine gently stopped them. "I don't think you're ready to talk to normals just yet."
Claire pouted as she returned to her seat beside Olive on the couch. The redhead patted her arm gently before turning to Aurora and Millard. "You two haven't told us about your time away yet. Was it lovely? Did you get much sun?"
"Some." Aurora replied as Millard began to explain a few nights where they went strolling along the ocean at night so no one would notice an invisible person splashing in the surf. She ran a hand through her hair, she hadn't paid it much attention for the past week and was just noticing the effect the sea salt filled air had on it. There seemed to be a light loose wave to it she'd never had before, nothing like the perfect pressed curls of the 1940's that she was used to like Claire's. She would have to find some way to tame it before bed. But then she realized, what was the style these days? How did normals wear their hair? She recalled in the 20's short bobs had been sported on nearly all the women, and she hoped she wouldn't have to chop it to fit in. Their leisure time it seemed was over, and like the headmistress had said, no time like the present to learn. She just had no idea what learning of the present over the next several days, or weeks, would entail.
Then their conversation was halted when the most divine aroma wafted through the air and reached them all.
"I say, what is that?" Horace asked in awe just before Jake walked past the archway heading down the hall to the kitchen with flat boxes in his hands.
It was almost embarrassing how much they behaved like a flock of birds going after breadcrumbs as they all simultaneously got up and hurried to follow after Jake. Some even pushed and shoved to get ahead of the pack of bodies and by the time they made it to the kitchen Jake had laid out and opened five boxes on the long granite island in the center of the room. His back was to them as he retrieved plates from a cabinet but their eyes were all glued to the circles of melted cheese with steam rising off the top and puddles of grease in some places.
The back door opened and Hugh returned, in just as much a daze as the rest of them. They were snapped out of it by Horace, as he took out his handkerchief and gave it a sharp flick in the air. He tucked it into the collar of his shirt as he approached the island and inspected the 'pizza'. Folding his hands behind his back he leaned forward and examined each one, there were two that were just plain gooey cheese, another that was covered in slices of pepperoni, brown crumbles of something topped the fourth and the last one had an array of diced vegetables and what looked like cubes of grilled chicken. Taking one hand Horace waved it in the air above each one inhaling the distinct aroma, then placed his monocle to his eye and leaned in even closer.
"Are. You. Kidding. Me?" Enoch near shouted, making Horace turn as Jake chuckled retrieving a bottle of something from the fridge.
"Well excuse me." Horace snubbed back, "But some of us –"
"Just tell us if it's any bloody good!" Enoch cut him off, storming over, ripping a slice of the cheese off and taking a bite. He froze after a single chew, his shoulders relaxed and after a pause he turned to them and through his mouthful said, "It's no good, you won't like it. I'll take this one off your hands."
But as he reached for the whole box they all rushed forward, scrambled for the stack of plates and began filling each one with slices. Miss Peregrine arrived to make some order and with a sharp clap of her hands got them all to move single file back into the living room – after Jake insisted the dining room was far too formal for pizza – and they all took their seats as they quite literally stuffed their faces.
Aurora had a slice of the vegetable and chicken along with the one she now knew was broken up bits of bacon. While Millard had three slices of the pepperoni piled atop each other on his plate. They balanced their food on their laps as they tucked in and even off to the side Miss Peregrine seemed blown away by their dinner.
For several minutes there was silence except for their chewing, lip smacking and the occasional satisfied grunt.
"This is the best food in the world!" Claire announced, kneeling on the floor and using the ottoman as a table beside Bronwyn as her backmouth's teeth stretched with gooey cheese. "I'll be having this every night!"
"Not if you want to live out the week." Horace said, plucking the olives off his slice with fastidious precision. "There's more sodium in this than in the whole Dead Sea."
"Worried you'll get fat?" Enoch mocked, sitting beside Olive on the sofa, one arm across her shoulders as he ate his third slice of bacon. "Fat Horace, that I'd like to see."
"That I'll bloat." Horace clarified, "My clothes are tailored just so, unlike the flour sacks you wear."
"I got this in Pah-ree." He said in an exaggerated French accent, "From a fashionable fellow who was no longer in need of them."
Aurora laughed, covering her mouth with a napkin, "And did that fellow have a pulse?"
"That's. . . not important." Enoch said with a wag of his finger at her as she felt Millard's chest move behind her with his own held back laughter. "And funeral parlors are the best secondhand boutiques in the world I'll have you know."
Horace sighed picking up another olive, "Sometimes I envy Nullings. He could gain a hundred pounds and no one would notice."
"Aurora would notice." Enoch grumbled to which Olive elbowed him in the gut.
"I'm quite svelte, for your information." Millard replied, "Come have a feel if you don't believe me."
"I'll pass, thanks."
"For Bird's sake, clothe yourself Millard." Miss Peregrine sighed, "What have I said about unnecessary nudity?"
"What does it matter if no one can see me?"
"It's in bad taste."
"But it's so hot in here."
"Now, Mr. Nullings."
Millard grumbled something about being a married man and not needing babysitting as Aurora scooched over so he could get up. His footsteps on the stairs were louder then need be and she glanced over and saw the Bird shake her head as she returned to her slice of pizza.
Aurora set her plate off on a table under the window with some candles and a plant before she stood, brushed the wrinkles from her skirt and followed after him. The rooms had been reassigned it seemed after they'd wed so it took her a minute to find which one Millard was in. When she opened the correct door and spotted him she repressed a laugh. Millard was wrestling with a button down that he'd refused to unbutton and was trying to tug it on over his head.
"Need any help mon amour?" she asked stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her. Millard stopped his thrashing but didn't respond. Aurora reached for the top button and undid it, then continued the rest of the way down until Millard was able to pull his arms and head through. He fixed the cuffs while she rebuttoned the shirt.
"When will she stop treating us like little children?" he grumbled.
"She's an ymbryne love, she never had children of her own. Besides, all parents treat their children similarly."
"But we're married for Bird's sake." He complained as he stepped away from her to put some trousers on.
"Be patient with her Mill, there's a lot of change happening, lots of adjustments. Least of which being our marriage."
He turned to her as he was getting his belt on. "After everything we accomplished though. . . the last thing we need is mothering. Haven't we proven that?"
Aurora sighed as Millard tugged on a sweater vest and jacket before looking around for his cap. "She may be clinging. An ymbryne will never let it show when she's spiraling, or even the slightest bit shaken. Perhaps she's clinging onto us as her one normal thing, her routine, like an anchor in a storm. We have been away a week. We have no idea what the ymbrynes have been up to in the wake of what Caul did."
She saw Millard's back muscles stiffen at the name. She thought back to their honeymoon, how many times after their lovemaking, when he'd been lying over her, his head buried in her neck, how many times had she ran her hands up and down his bare back, double and triple checking for the feel of any scars from the lashing he'd taken. The others had told her, she knew all the torment and torture Millard had endured at the hands of that horrible man and his wights. And even now, after she'd reassured herself so often that he was fine, healed, alright. Even now she had the urge to walk over to him and run her hands along his back just to check once more.
Instead she walked over and reached her arms around his waist from behind, much like he'd done to her earlier. She kissed his shoulder blade and said softly in his ear. "We just need to exercise patience. It's difficult breaking seventy years of habit."
His hands rested over hers and he lifted one to place a kiss on the back of her knuckles.
When they rejoined the others Bronwyn was the first to let out a gasp, "Millard, you'll perish of heatstroke!"
"At least no one will have to imagine me in a state of nature." He replied and Aurora could tell he was teetering on the edge of his frustration and trying to logically understand where the others were coming from. "Need I remind you all how much my nudity saved our hides in recent events?"
No one seemed to want to speak of those recent events and Miss Peregrine said something about it being time for another security check and abruptly left the room.
A raspberry like sound was made before Enoch burst into laughter, "Did you see her face? She was ready to kill you Nullings!"
"Stop it! You're all being rude." Claire said, her little face turning red.
"Don't you find it wearying though, being lectured about every little thing?" Hugh asked and Aurora was relieved that Millard was not alone in this thinking. In truth she didn't like the idea of being mothered either. She was a wife now and knew navigating her new role would prove difficult, especially without her own mother there to advise her.
"No I do not." Claire replied with her chin in the air.
"I do." Emma chimed in turning to Aurora and Millard, "All the Bird's been on about while you've been away is the reconstruction effort and resuming lessons."
"She hadn't really been there when we'd tread our way through WWII so she didn't see everything we survived, and all on our own." Olive added leaning back into Enoch who had his arm across her shoulders again. "Maybe if she had. . . "
"She wouldn't be treating us like we still need our nappies changed?" Enoch finished for her, albeit more colorfully then Olive would have phrased it.
Hugh turned to his right to look at them over his shoulder, "It's not that she's ignoring everything we did, I think she just has trouble believing it."
"Well I doubt she can think on it long." Emma added, "An ymbryne's job is to protect peculiar children. The fact we were in danger at all is proof she failed that. Of course she wouldn't want to think about all the bombs we ran through or how many times there were guns pointed at our heads."
"But it wasn't like it was just her." Jacob said shaking his head as he leaned in the archway to the hall, "All the ymbryne's had their loops invaded, and their children were all taken prisoner or hid. If anything all the stuff we lived through is proof what a great ymbryne she is. That we loved her enough to keep going no matter how tough it got."
"If you say so." Enoch groaned as he leaned his head back along the top of the sofa, making his adam's apple show. "I for one don't care for the idea of sitting in a room taking more lessons after seventy years of the same."
"Well perhaps you should think of it more like a mission then Mr. O'Connor." Miss Peregrine said as she strode back into the room. Everyone sat up straighter, some looked worried about how much the headmistress had overheard. But the smile on Miss P's face told them whatever she had heard hadn't ruffled her feathers.
"A mission?" Enoch asked skeptically, like he was waiting for the catch.
"The reconstruction of our world is more then just building back up what my nasty brother tore down. With you all free of the threat of aging forward you've been given an extraordinary opportunity."
"Which is?" Hugh asked sitting up, beginning to look excited for the first time all day. Aurora could tell he was hoping for a mission to find Fiona. Something that possibly involved scouring the English countryside for peculiars in hiding, those who didn't know the threat had been defeated. Something he could use as a smokescreen for his real goal. Aurora hoped so, she'd love nothing more then for Hugh to leave through a door in the Panloopticon only to return with Fiona at his side a few days later.
"Well, with the right preparation, you could be ambassadors to other peculiar persons one day. Explorers of new loops and territories." Aurora felt Millard shift beside her, she knew how much he'd love a job where he could meet with explorers like Perplexus Anomalous and document their findings on his maps. It would be a dream come true for him. "Planners and cartographers and leaders and builders – as crucial to the work of remaking our world as you were to the wights defeat. However, before you can become any of that you must first learn to navigate this world. The present day. America. You must familiarize yourselves with its idioms and customs and ultimately be able to pass as normal."
"So you want us to. . . what?" asked Horace, "Take normalling lessons?"
"Normalling lessons! Oh how fun!" Olive said lighting up as she clapped her hands together.
"That's a lot to cover." Jacob pointed out, "I'm not sure where to even start."
"How about in the morning?" Miss Peregrine said with a knowing grin, "It's getting late and we should be readying for bed."
Just as she said it the clock turned to midnight and little Claire yawned from both her mouths.
A/N: Just describing having pizza for the first time was so much fun
