Timeless

Chapter 39

Judith blinked and Gale spared a glance in Bucky's direction; he seemed like he was trying hard not to laugh or snicker at the sight. And then Judith's eyes had gone wide. "You slept with some pilot and now you're pregnant?! " Judith wailed at Kathryn.

Kathryn's jaw dropped. "Wh—no!"

"It's okay if you are, that's how Bobby and I ended up—" Eugenia hissed in her younger sister's direction.

"No!" Kathryn exclaimed in an emphatic tone. "I'm not— pregnant !"

Judith's gaze swiveled onto Bucky and narrowed. "Johnny Egan—"

"She's not pregnant, ma!" Bucky said, trying to suppress his laughter.

"This is hell, I'm in hell," Kathryn mumbled, glancing over at Gale apologetically. He just shook his head at her and gave her a warm and reassuring smile. It didn't bother him one bit. If he were a parent, he'd probably be just as concerned.

"Your FOREHEAD! You KNOW it's your best feature!" Judith exclaimed in horror.

Kathryn just looked over at Bucky and mouthed, 'hotel.' He silently agreed, giving a tired nod.

The car ride back to the Egan household was filled with talking—from Judith mostly, with the odd opinion that Eugenia chirped in. Gale couldn't help but realize just where Bucky's exuberant personality had come from. He was absolutely his mother's son and Gale would not have guessed that in any capacity. Kathryn, on the other hand, seemed to have been the odd child out in the family. Especially with how she was when she had been on Thorpe Abbot originally. It was hard to get a word in edgewise with this family anyways.

Judith was equally displeased to find that the dog accompanying them wasn't in fact just her children waiting for the owner to get the car. No, DeMarco had gifted Kathryn Egan Meatball the dog as an early wedding present—and she had full intention of taking that dog everywhere with her.

Once they finally reached the Egan household, Judith led them on a grand tour of the house, with Bucky mouthing half of the commentary that Judith was saying—clearly she'd done this whole routine before.

For Kathryn Egan, it felt strange . Here she was, back in her childhood home where she had grown up. But at the same time, she hadn't been grown up at all when she had left home. She had left home at the age of 18, gone off to college and upset her mother. She hadn't really stepped foot in the house since she was 18 anyways. Her home for the past few years had been dorm rooms, then shared nurses quarters, and then a Prisoner of War Camp, and then the men's bunks at Thorpe Abbot.

Home wasn't home to her. This was just the place that she had grown up in. Still, finding her childhood room the way that she had left it nearly left her breathless. She had been such a child back then—magazines and lipsticks were still scattered on her vanity where she had left them. All of her dresses and clothes lined the closet with a thin line of dust—and the light blush shade of the room allowed the sun to brush over the room like a warm embrace.

The person that had lived here felt like a whole lifetime ago. "Pink, huh?" Gale's voice sounded in the doorway and she turned, finding him standing there with a fond smile.

"I happened to like pink a lot when we painted this room. I was seven," Kathryn said defensively. "I see you escaped my mother."

"For the moment, yes. She's..."

"A lot?" Kathryn offered with a slight grin.

"Trying to figure out where Meatball is going to sleep tonight at the moment, actually," Gale replied.