Story [MCU] On Down Thru The Years... [Barnes Extended Family] [UDC 8]

Beautiful with Winifred helping the younglings cope and giving nurturing one on one time. Really got to the heart of what Mark was bothered about.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha ... Thank you!



Week Twenty - UDC 8 - Small steps to think about bigger ones...


96. Outrage


Sitting here in his own home, at the table, felt so normal. For a moment, he could let himself forget... and then her hand brushed his and he blinked at her, startled. She drew her hand away slightly. "I lost you for a moment, didn't I?"

Victor looked away, bile rising in his throat. "I..."

"Victor, look at me." The steel in her tone caused him to obey, and then her hands were cradling his. "It's natural to mourn. You and she told me that, remember? If it's too soon, then I will simply be a friend and nothing more."
He found himself nodding in acceptance. Put that way, it didn't feel like a betrayal.


97. Outright


As he saw Hannah out, they both heard voices coming from the living room. Victor paused momentarily and looked in to find his mother-in-law and oldest son reading together in a sight so familiar that his eyes stung. A soft push from behind caused him to spin and stare at her, and she nodded into the living room. "Go on and join them. I'll see myself out."

"It's rude-"

"Your son needs you," Hannah told him gently. "And you need this. Go on." She watched him enter the living room and sit down in an armchair close to the couch.


98. Maps


"Why do we have to learn this?"

Hannah paused in washing a plate to turn and look at Mark, seated at the table with a textbook, open to a map of the 48 U.S. States. Victor had had to work late, so she'd volunteered to babysit with Mark's help for the evening. "Because history is good for you. Makes you think."

"It's dumb," Mark complained. "Why do I need to know the Capital of California? It's not like I'm ever actually going there!"

Hannah fought an urge to chuckle at him as she dried her hands and paused to check on where Natalie and Gilbert were, then picked David up off the floor where he'd been playing with a toy at her feet. "Maybe not. And... Sacramento. Repeat, please."

"Hannah!"

"What? I'm serious." She sat down next him, smiled. "Dave here wants you to tell him all about State Capitals!"

Mark eyed his little brother. "He's a year old and can't even talk correctly yet."

"Too?" David asked, staring wide-eyed at Mark.

Hannah laughed and hugged him. "Yes, David! Too!"


99. Keys


A familiar man was waiting at her apartment door when she dragged herself home after a long shift on the ward, and Hannah smiled tiredly as she fumbled for her apartment key. "Who has the kids?"

"Winifred has Dave and Gil," Victor answered, shifting the bag he was holding from hand to hand. "Mark is at Becca's, and Natalie is with Hazel."

She eyed the bag, then unlocked the door and let him in. "What's the occasion?"

"Dinner," Victor admitted as he moved to unpack the food. "Do you like cheesecake?"

Hannah set her things down and frowned at the containers. He'd gone to Juniors, just to bring dinner to her? "Of course I like Cheesecake. Is that brisket I smell? Victor, you shouldn't have!"

"Why not? It's what friends do, after all. Have dinner together?"

Somehow, she got the feeling it was more than that...


100. Home


After dinner, Victor pulled another box out of the bag and handed it to her. She frowned at him as she opened it, only to pause at the ring nestled on a square of velvet along with a key. "What is this?"

"I like you," he admitted after a moment. "The kids like you."

Hannah stared at him. "Mark barely tolerates me."

"He's coming around," Victor said with a smile that caused her to blink, startled. His smiles hadn't gone all the way to his eyes since before... "And I'm willing to take the next step if you are. Move in with us?"

"So this isn't a proposal?"

"This," Victor told her as he pulled the simple ring out of the box and showed it to her. "Is first step to think about a bigger one. You were right, you know. I wasn't ready when Rebecca and Winifred and Hazel pushed us together the way they did. I might be, now."

Slowly, she leaned closer and cupped his cheek with her hand. She wanted to ask what brought this on, what had changed over the months since that awkward first dinner. Wanted to, but was willing to wait for those answers. That he was asking at all meant something. "Then... yes."

 

Beautiful and natural progression. Congratulations on completing the drabbles.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha ...thank you!!!!!!

A/N: I left off with Hannah and Victor in an odd place in their relationship, so...


Week 13 (09.29.06) - UDC 1 - Victor Nettleton and Hannah Bailey


61. kiss


As he stood in the doorway, listening as Hannah read a story to all four of the children, Victor couldn't help but reflect on why she'd say no but still move in with them. It wasn't that they didn't like one another, or that either of them were scared to take a chance... he remembered coming home one evening to find Emma and Hannah seated at the kitchen table, deep in conversation. Greg had left her. Had disappeared from Brooklyn, in fact, without a trace. Six months later, Franklin had been born. Five months after that...

"Victor?" Hannah's voice drew him back to the present and he blinked at her. "Come join us?"


62. hug


Hannah watched as he sat down on the edge of the bed, and then she passed the book to him, while hugging Gilbert and Natalie closer. Mark was on Natalie's other side, holding David. As he continued where she'd left off, Hannah smiled at how natural it came to him. It was one of the things that had made her say yes to his sort-of proposal. For now, it was enough, to share him with four kids that she loved as if they were her own. Did she want him as well? She was starting to.


63. smile


Victor glanced away from the book for a moment to find her smiling wistfully, and smiled back. Then he noticed Mark, frowning at both of them, and made a decision. "How about you read?"

Mark blinked in surprise, and then they exchanged sleepy toddler and book. He frowned at the book. "But I can't do the voices like you and Hannah do."

"Just read, Mark."

As Mark read another chapter of Anne of Green Gables, Victor cradled David in his arms and enjoyed the moment. There would be time enough for other concerns... tomorrow.


64. frown


In the hallway after they'd gotten everyone into bed and settled, Hannah leaned into him for long moments. She wanted to ask how he'd done that, made everything feel normal, but couldn't find the words. She wanted to ask him why her. Why did he want her in his life, in the lives of his children, after she'd lost her own unexpectedly. In the end, she simply stood there and didn't flinch when he put his arms around her.

"Victor?"

"Hmm...?"

"Give me time."

He frowned down at her, and then nodded. "For?"

She shook her head and didn't answer immediately.


65. laugh


It was a year and a half almost to the day when she finally raised the topic again, this time by sending all of the children to their grandmother and aunts and fixing dinner just for the two of them. Victor smiled when she laughed at one of his stories about things going on at work, and then she handed him a small box. "What is this for?"

"Open it."

He did, and frowned at the two rings laying there in the case. "Hannah?"

"Will you marry me, Victor Nettleton?" At his continued frown that was slowly blossoming into a smile, she shrugged. "It was my turn to ask you."

At that, he had to chuckle. "I guess it was."

"Well?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now tell me more about your day."

And so he did...

 

Reading Anne of Green Gables, made me lol.

Very Drabble-like. And good.

 

Sweet and comfy feels with the reading a bedtime story and Victor's patient understanding/acceptance that Hannah needs time to get used to feeling/belonging to a family again. Her proposing back was too sweet.

 

@Vek Talis : Thank you.

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha : Thank you, Jade_eyes.

Is this an update? By golly, it is... getting unstuck, finally, too.


Week 12 - 6/22/09 - prompts provided by Mira_Jade - UDC 4 - Portrait of Grief


56. Saint


Sitting in the stillness of the sanctuary, Hazel finally allows herself to cry, to let the feelings overwhelm and wash over herself in a way that she could not have done at home. It had been a double funeral with no bodies, a memorial service where everyone was free to speak of the deceased, her brother and his friend who had become part of the family. Had it really been more than a year? It felt like just yesterday that she'd stood on a pier, seeing her brother off...

She jumped, startled, when one of the Parish Priests sat down quietly next to her, understanding in his brown eyes.


57. Sinner


He found her on the steps of an unfamiliar church, and couldn't help but pause at how lost his wife seemed. It was a rare moment where she allowed herself to be unguarded, and when she looked up from her gloved hands, the expression on her face scared him. Then she patted the step next to her, and he obliged. "Hi."

She leaned into him, allowing the closeness. "How'd you know?"

"Emma."

Rebecca chuckled. "Of course."

"Why this church?"

She took a deep breath, let it out... "We had a funeral here, once."

William nodded slowly. That made a certain amount of sense. They sat there together a long while, observing the street and passersby.


58. Savior


The flour was caked on her hands as she kneaded the dough methodically, taking her frustration out on it rather than anyone else. It wouldn't help anyone to see her angry and crying, not now, not when they'd lost so much.

A hand on her shoulder gave her pause. "I'm fine, Victor."

"Maybe, but don't you think you've kneaded it enough?"

Emma stared down at it, suddenly realizing that it was going to be hard to eat. "Oh."

"It'll make good bread, though."

It was so ridiculous, the notion of eating something that she'd been working so fiercely while upset, that she couldn't help but laugh.


59. Killer


Without her grandchild the next day, Hazel again took the walk to the market, hoping to see that young man who had reminded her so much of her brother. She wasn't sure if she'd imagined the resemblance or not, but it was worth investigating a little bit, just to make sure.

Turning a final corner, the market now in view, she pauses and looks around for the man. She doesn't find him, and will wonder off and on for a very long time.


60. Martyr


He found her seated at the kitchen table, staring at a piece of paper with a blank expression on her face. Slowly, he moved to look at it over her shoulder and read what was typed there, not understanding at first. How... "Wini?"

"I don't know," she said, her accent unusually thick in her voice. "I..." Even more slowly, he got her to set the paper down and then pulled her into his arms. "George, I..."

Seeing Rebecca at the entrance to the kitchen, he shook his head. She nodded and left them alone. They stayed there, locked in a tight embrace, for a long, long while.

 

Poignant glimpses of grief and consolation