first_in_time | Zagreus Sits Inside Your Head (for Splendid

Barbara looked out at the view as Ian put the last of their things in the car. From the front door of the little Bed and Breakfast, she could see beautiful rolling hills for miles. The last of the morning was being chased away as the sun rose higher in the sky, thawing everything out. Even the cows seemed more active on one particular hill.

"I wish we could stay for a little longer," she sighed to Ian, turning her back on it all so that it might be easier to leave. Her arms folded, one hand still held on to the key they were yet to return. "I don't suppose your car has a secret time traveling device so we can spend an extra few weeks here?"

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From:

splendid_roman

"And there I was thinking you just wanted a walk."

A walk wouldn't go amiss at the moment, but without Joan. Ian tugged Barbara back the way they'd come, leaving Joan glaring after them.

"She'll be all right once she's calmed down a bit," Ian said, trying to reassure them both of that fact.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara sniffed and squeezed his hand. "I hope you're right. I'd hate to think that we'd be like this forever."

From:

splendid_roman

"You're her only family, she's not going to risk losing you just because we eloped." He stopped to put his free arm around her and hug her.

From:

first_in_time

Both of Barbara's arms went around Ian and she hugged him tightly. "You haven't seen her hold a grudge before," she said into his shoulder.

From:

splendid_roman

He hugged her back properly, purposely not looking back at where Joan might be. He hadn't, but he couldn't believe that Joan would hold a grudge against her daughter for that long. "She can't hold a grudge forever. Not against you."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara nuzzled into him some more, her finger clenching onto his cardigan. It hurt that her mother couldn't be happy for them right away but Barbara knew that Joan was projectin how awful she felt about not being included. She had though that Joan would be happy for her because she wouldn't hav to deal with Ian's parents, whole she possibly hated more than Ian.

"I just don't understand why she has to be so awful sometimes. Why can't she just accept things the way that they are instead of trying to control them all the time?"

From:

splendid_roman

He sighed. "I don't know." He wished there was something he could say to make it better, but Joan was the only person who could do that. He had to settle for hugging her tightly and waiting until she was ready.

From:

first_in_time

It felt good to be in Ian's arms, even if they were in public. He felt warm, and filled her with a sense of safety and belonging. She could have stayed like that for the rest of the day but there was one more set of parents to tackle before they thought about going home, let alone being together, just them.

"Come on. We really should go and meet your parents before they start wondering where we are."

From:

splendid_roman

"We have plenty of time, we won't be late," he assured her, checking his watch. But they should leave soon, in case the traffic was bad.

He kept one arm round her on the way back to the car. "The gardens were pretty, we should come back for a walk sometime."

From:

first_in_time

"We should," she agreed quietly. "At least your parents should be a little more agreeable."

From:

splendid_roman

"I hope so." But even if they were also upset at not being invited to their wedding, he couldn't imagine them being that bad.

"We just have to get it over and done with and then we can ignore everyone else for the rest of the summer holidays." He smiled at her.

From:

first_in_time

She smiled back and kissed his shoulder as they parted to sit in their seats inside the car.

"It'll be interesting to go back into routine, and it'll be interesting to see if anyone realises that we're married."

From:

splendid_roman

"The rings are a dead giveaway," he pointed out. He started the car and switched the radio on for some background music. "But I don't think we've been behaving any different now we're married." Not in public anyway.

From:

first_in_time

"We haven't really been around other people since we've been married. Maybe they'll spot some kind of difference, even if the rings are a dead giveaway."

By the time they reached the restaurant, Barbara was in considerably higher spirits. She helped Ian choose a table and sat close enough to his side that she could hold his hand in her lap while they waited for Ian's parents.

"I'm surprised they haven't got any of the grandchildren today. Don't they often have one lot over most weekends?"

From:

splendid_roman

It was just as well they didn't - Ian didn't really want to have this conversation with a child present. "Tom's home at the moment, so I think he's spending time with David and Jamie." They were going away for week in the summer, but Ian couldn't remember when. "I'm not sure what Alice is up to." But if his parents did have Katy to stay at the moment he was sure they would have mentioned it.

And when they arrived they didn't have any children in tow. Ian stood to greet them, keeping his left hand out of sight, sure that his mother would spot that instantly. After handshakes for Ian and his father and hugs for everyone else they all sat down and opened the menus on their table.

"You never did say what this was in aid of," Audrey said, not really paying attention to her menu.

Ian would have preferred to wait until they had eaten to tell them, but they wouldn't be able to hide the rings that long. He hesitated a moment over his answer and he was briefly saved by the waiter coming to take their drink orders and Robert chose them a good wine.

While the waiter fetched the bottle Ian said, "Barbara and I have just been in Scotland, where we got married."

"Congratulations," Robert said. "We should have had champagne."

Audrey rolled her eyes at him. "Why did you do that? I thought you were planning a wedding closer to home." She sounded more confused than upset.

From:

first_in_time

"There was just a lot of pressure to please everyone and what we wanted wasn't anything like what was expected...we just wanted something small and simple. It felt like this was our only option." Barbara realised too late that she probably worded that wrong and tried to seem apologetic. She hoped it worked.

"You're probably right about that," Robert said and folded his hands on the table. Barbara looked at him and smiled.

From:

splendid_roman

"A wedding should be about pleasing yourself," Audrey agreed. "But you could have had a small wedding and just invited us and your mother. You didn't have to run away to Scotland and get married on your own with no one you knew present." Her tone managed to make Ian feel like he was just a boy and had done something wrong.

"It just seemed easiest and the only way to stop all the arguments." Under the table he squeezed Barbara's hand.

"Everyone always has opinions on weddings," Audrey began, but stopped when the waiter returned with the wine. And told Robert in no uncertain terms that they were having this wine and not swapping it for champagne. Robert sighed but let it go.

When the waiter had gone Audrey carried on. "But we were looking forward to seeing you getting married."

From:

first_in_time

"Well, we did get you a present," Barbara said brightly, hoping to distract Audrey a little, and pushed the second wrapped picture across the table toward her. Barbara's ring once again happened to be on her free hand, and Audrey paused to look at it a little closer.

"Now, that's quite lovely. I take it you chose it? Ian would have been hopeless at choosing something so pretty - don't look like that, dear, men are generally poor at choosing jewellery. Robert, have a look at Barbara's wedding ring. It's subtle but still really nice."

Obediently, Barbara held her hand out toward Robert. Not that he was terribly fussed with rings and things. Still, he looked it over to please Audrey (and, to a lesser extent, Barbara).

He gave his new daughter in law a fond smile and patter her hand. "It's beautiful."

From:

splendid_roman

"It's just a wedding ring," Ian said. He couldn't really see what the fuss was over rings either.

His mother ignored him and undid the wrapping. "I can see you used Ian's wrapping paper," she said, noticing the Christmas theme on it. Once she unwrapped it she held it up so Robert could see too. "Don't they look lovely," she said, sighing over it. "My new hat would have gone wonderfully with your dress, Barbara."

"You bought a new hat?" Ian was sure she had hats and didn't think she'd needed another one.

"It was a big occasion, you getting married." Audrey put the portrait to one side, so it wouldn't get any wine or food on it. "I don't know what I'm going to do with it now."

From:

first_in_time

"Neither do I," Robert told Ian quietly, leaning over the table a little, "but you say those sorts of things just to please the women. Makes life easier in the long run. And that's my first bit of marital advice."

"We can always have a garden party once we find our own house," Barbara told Audrey, "I'd still love to see your hat."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian nodded. "I'd gathered that," he said quietly to his father.

"A hat would be perfect for a garden party," Audrey said thoughtfully. "How long do you think it'll be before you buy a house?"

"A little while," Ian replied. "We did save money on the wedding and we will be able to save more now we're not paying sets of rent and bills.."

From:

first_in_time

"You're young!" Robert declared, "you should travel!"

Barbara smiled at Ian without saying anything.

"Travel? Robert, they just got back from Scotland. How much more traveling would someone need to do?" Audrey huffed a little and fiddled with the cutlery in front of her. "No, I think that saving for a house is a wise decision. One of the best decisions you've had lately."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian had a feeling that 'one of the best decisions' meant that recent decisions, like eloping, hadn't been good decisions at all. He decided to concentrate on his menu, handily just as the waiter came over, which meant that he knew what to have. Robert and Audrey had been here often enough that they knew the menu well enough to choose something quickly too.

"How was Scotland?" Robert asked, once they'd all given their orders and the waiter had taken the menus away.

"It was very pretty." Ian sounded nostalgic about it, missing the place already. "It was hard having to come back to London.

From:

first_in_time

"We could have stayed there forever," Barbara added, her tone matching Ian's. "It was so wonderfully quiet in the mornings, and the waytge sun hit the hills...I'd almost say it was magical."

"You should enjoy what silence to have while you're not having babies," Audrey said and smiled at Barbara.

"Don't scare the newly weds with that talk, Audrey. Frankly I'm surprisd they noticed the silence and the prettiness, what with it being their honeymoon-"

"Robert-"

"We were far too busy on our honeymoon to notice anything outside the bedroom."

"Robert! We are in a public place!" Audrey huffed at her husband, who cheekily grinned back.

"We should go on a second honeymoon ourselves."

While Audrey webt a bright shade of red and fiddled with her napkin, Barbara blushed but giggled behind her spare hand.

Edited Date: 2013-08-21 07:12 am (UTC)

From:

splendid_roman

Ian blushed himself, not wanting to think about his parents doing that sort of thing. "I'm sure if you went away Alice and Katy could look after the chickens." With all the time Audrey and Robert spent looking after Katy he was sure they could convince Alice she owed them a favour.

"We could..." Robert looked at Audrey, sounding like he wanted something.

She sighed, but smiled. "We'll talk about that when we get home." She turned back to Ian and Barbara. "I want to hear more about your wedding, since we didn't get to go. Who were the witnesses, did you bring anyone with you or did you just pull them off the street?"

Ian shook his head. "There was another couple getting married just before us in the same position so we were witnesses for each other." And then they'd exchanged addresses and promises to keep in touch. Whether they would was something else.