Anwyle Brackwater

A Thursday like no other

Anne was sitting in her living room staring at the empty hearth in front of her.  It hadn’t been used in months.  Actually, since their little one had been conceived, as a matter of fact. Her mind brought her back to images of that night and the warmth that she had felt from him was a brief respite from it feeling so cold in there now.  Then after Toni scampered up to her and laid his head on her lap to try and cheer her up from the mood she was in she looked around to see the packed bag, guitar case and small little picnic basket  that was sitting next to the door and readied herself to leave for the cemetery.  

Today would be even more strange than it had been in recent weeks.  She hadn’t even been able to hop onto Zenon due to the motion of it making her stomach even more queasy than it usually was during the morning hours.    But this time she wasn’t even going to return here for a while after going to visit her husband’s grave.  Instead she resolved to go down to see her father for a bit for her birthday and spend some time in the city to just go and look around at all the changes that had taken place ever since her time away from it. She was getting rather tired of all the people stopping and whispering about her any time she would walk on past, and with her missing him so much as it was, all the gossip was just making it that much worse.

After a while the transport she had ordered had pulled up to her home and honked it’s horn signaling that it was time to go.  She quickly gathered up both of her puppers and grabbed the bag she was taking with her and headed out the door.  Musing how hard it was for her to find the key to the place since she really hadn’t locked the door in quite some time she turned around and breathed out deeply before locking the door and placing the notice on it saying that she would return in a few weeks time and got into the gnomish contraption and finally set off to Lights Hope Chapel.  

It was like any other week that she had spent at the cemetery except for the fact that she had now brought along Keeye and he was scampering around winning the hearts of those that were gathered around the Chapel.  So when it came time to leave they had plenty of help to get her back into the transport as well as faces for the smallest little pupper to give kisses to.  Giving a hug to a couple of her favorite people there she glanced just briefly over to the gravesite and mulled over the idea of transporting him from here and wondered if what she was doing, all of the sacrifices she had made if somehow her penance had been paid now due to her feelings of needing to move on had become more prevalent  as her pregnancy had progressed.  

Then, after  looking to the pilot and nodding they took off for quite a long ride.  Bouncing around in the cabin of the flying machine, Keeye’s tail was wagging continuously as he watched the dead and decaying grass slowly turn into the lush green in the Hinterlands and Arathi Highlands.  Then as time had passed and they got closer to the gates of ironforge the small little dog had laid down on Anne’s lap and take a short nap as if he knew that they would be getting close to Ironforge where they would stop riding in the transport and hop onto the tram so that Anne could look around.  

She had thought of sending some kind of message to Locke to let him know where they were, but decided against it for the time being.  She would call him from her dad’s place she told herself, and still felt rather strange about it all.  She so desperately wanted to tell him but she just couldn’t, not yet. So after quickly passing over the Wetlands she saw the Gate of Ironforge a rather welcome sign that perhaps she was right and would speak to him later and she readied herself and her now awake puppers to depart.  Then as they landed Keeye nearly bounced off the sides of the transport and licked each and every occupant inside and leaped out of the compartment.  

Realizing that it was nearly dinner time she decided to stop, give the dogs some more of their food and stop for dinner before setting off for the tram.  It took a short time for her to eat her meal and then she walked slowly towards the entrance of the tram with the two dogs in tow and hopped on board.  The ride was quite like what she remembered and she enjoyed every last bit of the wildlife that they got to see while on it and after the rather swift journey they had reached the final destination and  the three would make their way to her dad’s house so that she could get settled for the stay there and hopefully be able to catch Locke on her comm.

But before that happened and she went in the other room to call him her father cornered her and laid his hand on her stomach and just smiled.  “I am really happy for you, Sweet Pea, I know you always really wanted a child, but you need to tell him.  It’s not right for you to keep this hidden from him, even if your motivations are good.  If you don’t the stress will build up and possibly hurt this child and I know this is something you don’t want.”    Staring at her comm for several moments she stared at his picture before nodding softly.  “I know, and that is part of the reason I’m here.  You always know what’s best, and you have helped me a lot in my past even if I didn’t  listen to you.  But I am now.  I know that what you say is true and that is the last thing I want.  I’m just scared, dad.”

Raising his hands up to cradle her face in them, the man leaned in to press her lips delicately to her forehead and murmured lightly,  “I know but you’re also good and you know as well as I do that this is the right and good thing to do. “  Smiling nervously up at him the healer flung her arms around her father and clung dearly to him, “I love you dad.”  Laughing, the man returned the gesture and squeezed her back gently,  “Love you too Sweet Pea. Now go call your boyfriend.”

So after eating a gallon of food, or at least so it seemed, and going into the guest room with the two puppers with them plopped down on her lap she took a deep breath and dialed the numbers and got him rather quickly.  They both had said their greetings and she quickly spoke up after that.  A scared tone in her voice she asked,  “Locke, I, um…I need to talk to you about something. In person.  Can you come here sometime so that I can see you?”  With a rather scared tone as well he asked “Is everything okay?  I was kind of hoping that I could see you on Monday, would that work?”  Her fingers slowly glided down each of the dog’s backs and she breathed out her response,  “Yeah, that’ll work.  It’s just something…I need to say in person.”  She could even feel the tension as he spoke and said ‘okay’ she wanted to tell him that everything is fine, but the fear that he would be so angry and upset with her for keeping this from him made her fear that they would lose everything that they had built.  So when she finally spoke the only words that came out of her mouth were, “Love you.”

To say she was nervous the next couple of days was putting it lightly.  When she wasn’t eating or sleeping, which did actually take up a good portion of the day these days  she spent anxious hours feeling like she could pace a circular hole into her father’s floorboards so after looking off into the distance and just staring at nothing with a terrified look on her face her father decided that he needed to put a stop to all this.  He would continuously take her out on walks and have her bring along Toni and Keeye to allow them to play and would all but forbid her from thinking what could happen when Locke came to visit.  

But, despite his best efforts when it came time to go to sleep each night is when the fear hit her the hardest.  So when it came time to depart to meet him at the designated spot in the park with Toni seated on her lap and Keeye running around in the grassy area behind her.  The older of the corgi’s looking up at her and desperately tried to leave off where her father did  and started to lick her hand softly before  they heard soft boots on the grass and the voice  from across the walk  “Hey there, long time no see!”  The smallest dog immediately  perking up his ears and took off towards Locke but Toni and Anne kept on sitting down on the bench awaiting his arrival to them so when he knelt down in front of them the excited dog on her lap started licking his face excitedly and he flashed a smile and patted Toni’s head before looking to Anne and frowning softly upon seeing the tears in her eyes.  “I’m here, Anne, what’s wrong.  You look terrible, like you haven’t been sleeping.”

Toni would then lift his head to look up at the woman and again lick her hand and she looked down on the dog and nodded softly to him resulting him to jump down from off of her lap revealing her rather obvious belly and she continued crying as she slowly grabbed his hand and laid it on her stomach,  “Locke, I’m pregnant. I’ve known all this time.” The fear and anxiety  came right back and she started to shake as she stared deep into his with her own echoing that of crippling fear.

He stopped in his step, looking her over with a smile on his face.  “Hello Anne.”  Was all he responded with at first, following up and taking a seat at her side.  His arms reaching around her and pulling her in close to just hold her tight to his form.

“You have fretted over this, and I was unable to help carry the burden.  Even the cityscape and civilization has become rare for me lately.  Small communication, not enough communication has been very hard to deal with.”  His hands running up and down her back while his head rested against hers with a slight nuzzle.  “I’m not going anywhere, at least not to a point where I’m going to be wanting to leave your reach.”

Keeping her tight to his form and hugging her close he just listened to her heartbeat.  Unable to speak any longer he just wanted to be by her side, to be close and forget about the rest of the world.  The wars ending and brewing up again, an uncertain future but if he held onto it tight enough he could protect it.

Taking a deep breath out Anne leans heavily over against Locke.  Resting her head on his shoulder she laid there  with her arms wrapped around him.  The dogs off playing together now behind them in the grass.  “Yes, it really has been hard.  I have missed you terribly and the nightly calls are nice, but not as much as being able to sit here and just  feel you beside me, but it’s just…”  She frowns softly and her hair falls around her face as she looks down,  “This has been your dream.  It’s what you have wanted to do your entire life.  You love your airship. I just didn’t want to be the reason you gave it up.”

Closing her eyes she breathes out slowly.  Her breathing finally returns to normal as she inhaled his scent.  Loving the feeling of him being near she reached up with one of her hands and strokes his temple and doesn’t want to let go for anything.  She could just stay there next to him all day and not have a care in the world and finally be able to breathe.