Gilbert left Avonlea and Anne, but surely not forever?
Here's how we think Gilbert Blythe will return!
- A collection of one-shots about Gilbert's return to Avonlea
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anne smiled wistfully across the fields of avonlea. even after so many decades, she was still as vibrant as she was as an adolescent. there was one other thing that had stuck in her mind like a forget-me-not on wool. him. she wondered how it could have worked out. what she could have done differently. perhaps she should have extended the olive branch sooner. she couldn't help but laugh at what a stubborn mule she could be.
she'd seen him in the papers a few times. doctor gilbert blythe. the eligible bachelor. he was a constant source of gossip amongst the woman of avonlea. how handsome he was, how single he was, how well-off any wife of his would be. she couldn't help but turn her ear to the conversation when she heard his name. she'd never admit that though.
anne had never left avonlea since queens. after burying matthew and marilla it felt painful leaving them alone. every day, before and after school, she would visit their adjacent graves and try not to cry. their deaths had hit her with the force of a thousand hurricanes.
she had her small moments of happiness. she always had a smile for diana, fred and the wright children and jerry and ruby were always fun, but there was one person she greatly missed. the one person who had apparently forgotten her. she adjusted her hairpins as she walked through the meadow.
"anne shirley?!" called out a voice" her eyes shot to the voice, before her heart got stuck in her throat. it was him. he had the same hair, the same eyes, the same stupid smirk.
"gilbert blythe." she smiled wistfully. he ran up to her and laughed. she'd imagined this reunion a million times over in her youth, back when she denied how ardently longed for him. it felt less intense than she'd imagined it. it felt right.
"the one and only. how have you been?" he smiled widely, as if decades hadn't passed and they were still fresh, innocent young children. he sounded as if this were both the most ordinary day and the most monumental moment of his life.
"i've been-." she felt her youthful bitterness rise. before she knew what she was doing, she was yelling. "fifteen years pass and all you've got to say to me is how have you been? are you kidding me? fifteen years i wondered what on earth i said to you that forced you to never even write to me! i thought we left on such good terms, i bloody forgave ou! wholeheartedly! and what did i get in return? fifteen years of hostility!" she slapped a hand over her mouth. "good lord, i don't know what came over me.
"goodness anne! what on earth are you going on about? of course i wrote to you! you never wrote back!" the cogs turned in anne's head.
anne blushed so severely her face matched her hair. "oh dear.we moved from green gables when it was ransacked and i changed my surname to cuthbert. evidently the idiots at the post office got it mixed up." she couldn't help but laugh. "fifteen years i sat wondering why on god's green earth you never once thought to speak to me and this is why."
"do you forgive me for incompetence then? at my trusting an evidently subpar postal system." she rolled her eyes and nodded. they walked down to anne's place where she eagerly (though attempting not to sound it) invited him in.
"i turned 26 last month. it's been difficult, what with marilla and matthew and diana getting married and moving away." she poured him a cup of tea before sitting down at the little table.
"so the beautiful anne shirley cuthbert really never got married?" anne blushed at his compliment.
"i wouldn't go so far as to describe myself like that, but yes. never found the right person."
"26 and no husband. who could have guessed carrots would be a spinster?" he smirked teasingly.
"i wear the badge of spinster with pride. i hardly think keeping a grasp on my freedom is a bad thing. and please don't remind me about the carrots business. lord what a little fool i was." there as a silence before she spoke again. "gilbert, why did you never come back?"
he looked down into his cup of tea. "it was you, really." anne blushed with guilt, embarrassment and confusion. "don't think you did anything! now i know i can blame it on the post office. it's just...there were many...personal things written in those letters and i assumed the reason you didn't write back was because my feelings were unreciprocated. of course, i was such an idiot back then. i couldn't bare going back to avonlea, and once i had grown up and told myself that i needed to go back, i already had a good job and good house. i couldn't just leave." now it was gilbert's turn to blush.
"well...the past is in the past. i'm sure we can rekindle our friendship. and now you know my address, you can send me letters. and i assure you they'll get a response." she laughed. when gilbert didn't answer, she frowned. "are you alright?"
"anne, the reason i'm here is because i'm coming back to avonlea. permanently. so i suppose i wont have to send letters." he paused. "would you be alright with that?" they both knew there was an underlying meaning behind his question.
there was only one answer anne could give. "of course."
of course, in my head they get married the next day and have ten children, but you can decide what happens after. -fleur ( -flowersanddeath )
