A Moment in the Cabin

Gut Feeling

I look at Rose stunned as she continues to eat her pudding. Christopher nods slowly before a small smile crosses his face. "So, you're saying that I may do something with my life?"

Rose nods her head while scrapping her spoon around the container to get the remaining chocolate. Christopher gets up to get more food and I lean against the table. "When did you learn all of that? At Lehigh?"

"No, I learned it while watching the Imitation Game in World History. It was one of the core classes for Lissa. I hated the class, but the movie was really good."

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I roll over to find the other side of the bed cold and I open my eyes to the dark room. I look up at the clock on the bedside table to find its late, or in this case very earlier in the morning. I groan and sit up in bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes before wandering out of the bedroom. I find Rose sitting in the chair in front of the window with the blinds open, sun pouring through the window, bathing her in a golden glow.

I take her in and frown at the furrow in her face. She has her knees drawn up to her chest and is resting her chin there, her arms wrapped around her legs. "Rose?" I ask quietly and she jumps in her chair. Her cheeks are flushed and regardless of how much she may have rubbed at her eyes, I can see that she was crying. I sink down in front of her and rub my hands over her sides, leaning in to kiss her head. "What's wrong?"

Rose just shakes her head and rest her cheek on her knees again. I caress her other cheek and she closes her eyes against my touch, her lips parting slightly and a shallow breath passes through. She opens her eyes again as she unwinds her arms from her body and reaches out to me. I pull her off the chair and into my arms, her head tucked under my chin. I run my fingers through her hair and shift so that I am leaning against the chair, the two of us sitting in the middle of the pool of light.

"You can go back to bed Comrade, I know you have to work in the morning," Rose whispers and I squeeze her tighter. Rose sniffs against my chest and I kiss her head. "I don't mind sitting here with you."

We sit together for a few more minutes before Rose wiggles out of my arms and stands up, holding her hand out to me and I stand up. She pulls me back into the bedroom and crawls into my bed, waiting for me to lie down next to her. The moment I lay on my back and open my arms to her, she curls into my chest like a koala.

"I had another nightmare about Mason."

I rub my hand in large circles over her back and wishing I could do something to take those memories from her. She endured something traumatic long before she should have, and a day doesn't go by where I don't feel like I failed her by not being there just a few minutes earlier. "Plus, Lissa's darkness has been building up and it's making me edgy. So, my dreams are a lot more vivid and dark," Rose murmurs, rubbing her foot over my leg. I've learned that she does that small gesture to comfort herself when she has had a particularly rough day, and I find the gesture soothing for me as well. I run my lips over her forehead and wrap my arms tightly around her, hoping that it will comfort her a little more while she comes down from her dream induced terror.

"Tell me something happy," she says meekly, and I ponder what I could tell her to make her feel better. "Uh, well. When I was younger, I would beg my sisters to let me play with them, and at the time I was maybe seven or eight years old. After begging Karo and Sonya to let me play with them, they dressed me up in our mother's clothes and put make up on my face before sending me out to the parlour. I thought Mama was the only one there, but in fact, Mama had company. Actually, come to think of it, your father was one of the people sitting there."

Rose giggles quietly in the darkness and lifts her head up to give me a small smile. "Oh, please tell me your mother has a photo of that somewhere," Rose pleads, and I shrug. I know for a fact that Mama has many photos from that day and more that are even more embarrassing. I shrug as Rose lays her head back down on my chest.