Title: And So We Begin Again

By: tayryn

Rating: OMG it’s SO TAME!!!

Disclaimer: not mine

 

Notes:  for my friend “frakkin_eh”… a little more… bracing help.  (she knows)

 

Tis just a little ficlet

 

~CL~

 

Charles watched Laura square her shoulders as she stood beside the wagon.  Her body was rigid and unmoving as she stared straight ahead.

 

“Laura…” he called her name softly.  He heard her draw in a shuddering breath and knew that she was fighting to hold back her tears.

 

Securing the brake, Charles climbed out of the wagon and stepped up behind his wife.  He wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against his chest.

 

“How are you holding up?”  He murmured against her ear.

 

Laura shrugged as she covered his hands with hers.

 

“You knew this day would come,” Charles told her quietly.  “And this isn’t the first time you’ve gone through it.”

 

“I know…” Laura replied.  “But it’s just…”

 

Charles followed her gaze down the lane to the red-bricked schoolhouse, and more specifically, the downy-headed little boy bouncing with excitement between his two older siblings.

 

“He’s my baby, Charles.  I’m not ready for him to start school yet,” Laura told him.

 

Charles smiled and tightened his arms around her.  He’d known that this had been bothering her.  Had known that she’d been having a hard time coping with the fact that their youngest child was no longer a baby, and wasn’t ready to let go.  “I know, sweetheart.”

 

If he was honest with himself, Charles was having a hard time with it as well.  His mind kept flashing back to the first time he’d held his third child.

 

 

“He’s beautiful, Laura,” Charles told her, his voice filled with awe.  He’d felt the exact same way when she’d given birth to their first son, Allan  He leaned over and brushed a soft kiss over her lips, then whispered.  “Thank you.”

 

His gaze returned to the sleeping little boy in his arms.

 

 

“Kris is going to be fine, Laura.”

 

“I know,” Laura whispered.  “It just happened too soon, Charles.  It was only yesterday that I gave birth to him.”

 

When she tilted her head back to look at him, Charles reached up and gently wiped away the tears on her cheeks.  “You know…” he began, nuzzling her temple.  “We could always try for another one…”

 

Laura giggled.

 

Charles grinned at the sound, and moved his lips to her ear.  “Just think of all those hours we can spend practicing…”

 

Laura blushed.  “Well… my mother IS in town,” she circled her bottom against him, “and the kids ARE in school…” her voice trailed off suggestively.

 

“I love the way you think, Mrs. Lattimer!” Charles said and nipped her earlobe.  “Let’s go!”

 

Within moments, they were both in the wagon…

 

…heading home.

 

~fin

 

 

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