My Fairy Queen Anne

what if i'm alright right here?

After Alex had seen him and made a few pointed threats about what would happen if he left the world (some of the highlights being, "If you die, Gilbert Blythe, I'm going to resurrect you only to kill you just for the sport of it"), Anne was rushing straight back in.

He was sleeping soundly, and she didn't want to disturb his rest, so she brought a book in, sitting by him and reading, looking over at him every couple of minutes to make sure that he was indeed, still sleeping and not something else. She was reading Pride and Prejudice, her comfort read in times of trials and tribulations. It gave her such strength to know that two people so initially repelled could get over their pride and prejudices and find the greatest of loves and compatibility in the other eventually.

After an hour, Josie came back with sandwiches and bags full of some of the clothes that she and Anne had left at the boarding house (after all, Alex couldn't stay there), and the three of them ate out in the hallway. The only way they succeeded in tearing Anne away to get some food in her was to make the nurse swear to tell her if Gilbert woke up. Her vigil continued when she finished, pausing only to ask the other two if they wanted to see him.

They simply shook their heads. Alexander knew how important this was to the inconsolable girl and figured Gilbert would probably get better the fastest with the girl he was almost annoyingly in love with by his side, and Josie was just there for emotional support. 

After another four hours, she watched with hope as his long and dark eyelashes fluttered, his eyes opening slowly.

"My intended is awake," she whispered to him, a small smile curving her lips. The word made a pleasant fluttering pass through her body, like a swarm of butterflies tickling her.

"You have no... clue how... ecstatic...that word makes me," he said with a contented smile, closing his eyes blissfully as her hands stroked his thick mop of dark curls.

"I think I have a considerably well conceived idea of it," she shrugged, brushing her soft pink lips across his forehead. "And you shouldn't be exerting yourself. Rest, my love. The greatest gift you could give me is being well. Are you hungry?"

He nodded and she ran outside for a moment, fetching the plain potato sandwich they had brought him. Even if she couldn't eat, the doctor hadn't said anything about Gilbert eating, had he? In her years of experience, she had seen many bouts of typhoid, and she knew that foods that were full of starches and wheats would boost his strength immensely.

He tried to take it from her, but she shook her head. "No, let me."

Cutting it up into small bits, she helped him sit up and fed it to him piece by piece as he smiled gratefully at her.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked him hopefully.

"I'd like... to say yes, but..." He trailed off, his heart withering in his chest when he saw the optimistic light in her eyes slowly fizzle out.

"You're not getting worse, are you?"

He shook his head from side to side and an audible sigh of relief escaped her lips.

"The doctor says that you have to make it through today night, and you'll be fine," she mentioned nervously, fidgeting with her emerald colored skirt. He noticed and tried to allay her concerns, placing a bony hand atop hers.

"I will," he coughed, not doing much to extinguish her worries.

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He said once again, eyes boring into hers, "I will."

She simply looked away, blinking away her tears.