Chapter Text
“Look out!”
I called out to Joe just as a pancake landed directly in his lap.
“Uh-oh ”
came the sing-song voice of a sticky-faced toddler
with fire red pigtails and dinosaur footie pajamas.
“Thank you, sweetheart, Uncle Joe loves pancakes”
he said excitedly while stuffing said pancake into his mouth,
shaking it around like a dog.
Baby giggles exploded through the kitchen.
“Uncle Joe is a very messy eater,
someone should teach him some table manners,
huh Bri?” I asked dramatically.
Brianna was still giggling madly, “Meisiuil (Messy)!!” she squealed,
pointing her chubby little finger with bright pink fingernail polish at Joe.
She loved for Mommy or Auntie to paint her nails, and she especially loved pink.
Geillis came into the kitchen, grinning like a loon,
in that weird way you do to make toddlers laugh.
“who’s in here makin’ my wee grian (sunshine) giggle?”
“That would be Uncle Joe and his horrible table manners”
I answer wryly, casting a dirty look in Joes direction in mock disapproval.
This being a perfect example of the friendship I have with Joe and Gelly,
always dripping with sarcasm and humor.
“Ah, cut me some slack LJ,”
he said while waving his hands wildly, waving the thought away.
“I can't resist making the tiny terror laugh.”
Then he proceeded to do just that as he roared like a dinosaur
toward Briana with his hands in the air, and his fingers bent like claws.
LJ, Lady Jane, the nickname Joe had given me years ago,
for my ‘prim and proper’ Englishness, or he claims.
“Aye, I canna blame ye there Uncle Joe.”
Geillis added as she stepped behind the highchair
and bent to kiss the top of the aforesaid tiny terror’s head.
“Ooh yer a verra sticky lass, grian (sunshine).”
She giggled, examining her syrup covered fingers.
“The dinosaur princess demanded ‘cake cakes’ this morning”
I explained as I wiped down the disgustingly sticky highchair.
Pancakes and syrup always make a huge mess, but they are Bri’s favorite,
so I concede and resign to the sticky aftermath.
Geillis put Brianna down onto the living room floor, and she toddled off toward her toys,
copper pigtails swaying from side to side as she walked, playfully roaring like a dinosaur.
“Uh-uh Brianna,
Auntie Gelly will take ye to wash yer wee hands
afore ye get yer toys all sticky, aye?”
Geillis said with her best attempt at a ‘mom’ voice.
I’d have to admit she’s gotten very good at it
especially since Brianna started walking and getting into everything.
TINY TERROR FORSOOTH!
“Aye!” Bri chirped back "tIioraidh (bye)"
She waved with a goofy grin before trailing after Auntie GG.
Joe and Geillis are my very best friends; we met in med school and currently all live together in a flat in Nairn, Scotland.
A small coastal town roughly thirty minutes from Inverness, where we are currently working as residents at Raigmore hospital.
We are halfway through our residencies with two years left. The three of us have lived together in this flat for almost six years.
15 months ago, our group of three turned into a group of four with the addition of my daughter, Brianna Mackenzie Fraser Beauchamp.
Thankfully I have great friends, and with their help I've been able to continue my residency.
Raising a spirited 1 year-old while studying is damn near impossible, so we all take turns with Bri
which allows everyone to get some quiet time to study. I may be her mother, but Joe and Geillis share the raising of her equally with me.
My residency began in three weeks, and I had just found out I was pregnant.
I thought I would have to put my career on the back burner and move closer to my uncle Lamb,
when Joe and Geillis offered to be equal partners in raising my daughter.
“If the three of us have all completed medical school and aren't capable of raising one little baby together
something is seriously wrong LJ, even married couples only have two people, single parents do it all the time.
Between the three of us your baby will be well taken care of.” Joe explained.
“Our baby, ye mean Joesph!” Geillis added with a reassuring smile.
“If ye wanna keep this bairn, hen, we’re here fer ye."
Joe and Geillis knew the whole story of how I ended up pregnant and alone.
I had gone straight to Brianna’s father when I found out about her, but he wasn't there. He had gone back to Paris for university, and his parents made it clear I was not to reach out to him. Well, not his ‘parents’, per say, just his mother Ellen.
Ellen demanded I have an abortion, even threw the money at me (literally) to pay for it.
I refused, of course and she was livid. That was the moment she let all her assumptions about me become her reality.
She never liked me, but then again, I had only met her in person twice.
I was straightforward with her that day, when I told her I would call Jamie and tell him about his child, and she lost her mind.
I was young and stupid then; I shouldn't have put all my cards on the table in front of that witch because she did everything in her power to make sure I wouldn't. Including changing Jamie’s phone number or so I assume because I tried to call him multiple times throughout my pregnancy and again when Brianna was born. I even got up the nerve to call his home number, only to find it disconnected. Ellen had continued to demand I have an abortion for the first few months, going as far as to showing up at my uncle’s house and speaking to him directly. She didn't want me destroying the Fraser’s good name. Of course, Lamb being the bad ass that he is, cussed her out and threatened to tell all of Scotland's high society that she was demanding her grandchild be aborted. To which she claimed the baby wasn't Jamie’s and I was a whore. A few months before Brianna turned one, Ellen ‘accidentally’ ran into Lamb and gushed about Jamie getting married to a woman he met in Paris. I can't say that I wasn't happy for him; I was, in all honesty he and I barely knew each other. We met the first time as teenagers when I moved to Scotland. I was 17 at the time and grieving the loss of my parents. I lashed out and stayed in trouble at school. Jamie on the other hand was one of the ‘popular rich kids’. I always noticed him, and had a huge crush on him, but he was way out of my league and an all-around nice guy, we were total opposites. We spoke maybe three words to one another during that time. I didn't see him again for a few years but even then, we barely spoke. I think he actually had a girlfriend most of that time. Angus and Rupert are mutual friends of ours so we continued to bump into each other from a distance at parties or pubs over the years. Until two years ago, he didn't have a girlfriend and was home from university for the summer. He approached me the first night we were out as a group, and it went full steam ahead from there. I was on birth control, and we used condoms, but we also had A LOT of sex that summer. He returned to Paris, and I got ready to start my residency. I won't deny it; there was an undeniable connection between us, but we didn't stand a chance with a long-distance relationship. We never even discussed it; we just knew it wouldn't work. We enjoyed our short-lived, intensely passionate relationship and then went back to our normal lives when summer ended. It didn’t happen over the summer though. I didn’t understand how it happened then, considering my birth control should have prevented it but here I am with a toddler that was conceived while using contraception. The heat of the moment clouded my brain, otherwise I would have remembered certain antibiotics cause your birth control to be less effective, it happened when I was in town for my birthday, it was that very night that one time had surely been enough. ENOUGH TO CREATE THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING THAT IS MY DAUGHTER.
” Six more weeks uncle Joe,
then you can sleep as much as you like and not step into piles of syrup
when you walk barefoot through the kitchen.”
Joe's laugh is a deep, feel-good kind of laugh,
one that makes you feel all warm inside with happiness,
and it's something we hear often when he’s around Brianna,
“But...I’m going to miss her LJ” he whined.
"I haven't ever been away from her for this long"
“Are you sure I can't come with the three of you to Inverness.”
He wasn't lying, he and Geillis were by my side when I delivered Brianna,
both holding one of my hands in theirs, encouraging me the whole way.
Everyday since then the three of us had been with her daily.
Joe and Geillis even refused to go home for the holidays last year
because it was Brianna's first. Uncle Lamb came to our flat and we spent the holidays together in our flat.
“No sir! Your mother would be very disappointed
if her favorite son didn't show up for Christmas.”
“Uh, first.” He paused for dramatic effect
“I’m her only son. Only child to be exact.
I’ll just send her a video of the tiny terror belly laughing
and she’ll understand.”
Joe’s parents have treated Brianna like their granddaughter since she was born. They come from Boston for visits and they facetime her often, along with birthday cards, calls and presents. For every holiday a present arrives on our doorstep for Brianna. They were actually sad she wasn't coming to Boston for Christmas, but I missed Uncle Lamb, and he hadn't seen Bri for a few months, since he came here last year I wanted to go home this year.
Tiny bare feet came thundering across the hard wood floor,
as Brianna made her way toward Joe and I,
Geillis trailing close behind, dinosaur roaring after her.
“And just where are your clothes lovie?”
I asked her in a silly tone.
“BAF!” she squeals.
Geillis laughs,
“Every inch of the lass was covered in sticky syrup; I had nay choice.”
“Rawrrrrrrrr”
Brianna growls as she runs off toward our bedroom.
Packing a suitcase while you're 15-month-old is in the room is kind of like running a blender with the lid off,
expecting everything not to fly all over the walls would just be daft, as I suppose I must be.
“Brianna sweetheart,
if you want to go see your Uncle Lamby
you have to let mommy put our things in the suitcase.”
The little girl's arms flew above her head, her tiny fingers curling into claws, and she roared like a dinosaur while I lifted her out of the suitcase.
“Come on Lovie,
let's find you some dinos to watch
while mommy finishes packing, aye?”
Claire had asked Geillis to speak Scots and Gaelic as often as she could around Brianna to teach her from a young age in honor of her Scottish heritage.
Claire not having the Gaelic at all was thankful for her best friend. She didn't realize how much it would rub off on her in the process but thankfully so because Brianna preferred Gaelic most often than not and if Claire hadn't learned along with her daughter she wouldn't be able to communicate with her without Gelly. Meaning Claire and Joe were learning along with her.
Packing for a trip was hard enough with just Geillis and Claire but now with Brianna and all the things needed to keep her alive and occupied they were loaded down.
Claire pushed the stroller through the crowd of people, a diaper bag on her back and a rolling suitcase lugging behind them. Geillis had several other bags and Brianna’s car seat. Her arms felt like they were due to fall off any second.
“Who is picking us up?” Geillis asked,
short of breath from the run through
the train station with all the baby luggage in hand.
“I’m not exactly sure,
Lamb said he would send someone.”
“Geillis!!” Mrs. Fitz shouted in greeting.
“Glenna, so good to see ye! It's been so long!!”
Geillis hugged the woman when she reached them.
Geillis had met Glenna years ago in Scotland.
“And ye must be Claire!!” Glenna said cheerfully,
pulling Claire into her arms for a hug!
“Quentin sent me to pick ye up, I’m so glad to finally meet ye!
I’ve heard so many great things about ye!”
Glenna had become good friends with Uncle Lamb but she was The Fraser's housekeeper,
so most of what Claire knew about her had come from Jamie during that summer they spent together.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Fitzgibbons.”
Claire said with a smile, “I’m happy to finally put a face to the name,
I've heard so much between Lamb and Jamie.
Jamie always spoke so wonderfully of you!”
“och! James. Such a blessing he is.” Glenna smiled proudly
“I dinna realize ye kent Jamie, but must have met the laddie at Lamb's.
Back in town, he is, been away for nigh on four years, studyin’ in Paris.”
Mrs. Fitz leaned to help with the bags and spotted Brianna, who Claire had tactfully placed behind her and Geillis.
“This must be wee Brianna then?” she asked jovially, completely oblivious to the bombshell she just dropped on Claire.
She wasn't expecting to see Jamie in Scotland. She had assumed he was in Paris with his soon to be wife.
Claire smiled proudly at the thought of her daughter.
Her heart beating sporadically in her chest.
Would Mrs. Fitz see the resemblance?
Could she tell that Brianna was a Scot?
Geillis seen the panic in Claire’s eyes and answered before she could
“Yes, the very one, tis my niece Brianna. Claire’s daughter.”
Glenna squealed!! “Quentin never told me his wee niece was a Scottish lassie!! She is verra bonny.”
The old woman placed a light hand on Claire’s shoulder, a silent ‘good job’, that warmed Claire’s heart.
Claire breathed a sigh of relief before thanking her for the compliment.
Glenna insisted on pushing the stroller so Claire could carry her bags a little easier and they headed out to her car.
“I sent my housekeeper into the train station for Quentin’s niece, and she comes back out with a bonny wee lassie in tow!”
Brian said sweetly as he welcomed Claire and Geillis with a hug.
"Verra happy to finally met ye Claire."
Shit! What was Brian Fraser doing here.
Uncle Lamb should have known this was a bad idea.
Claire would have preferred to avoid the Fraser’s all together.
She could only bite her tongue and hope the resemblance wasn't as noticeable as she thought.
“Lamb never mentioned that your daughter was Scottish, Claire. I wouldha' never thought. She's a braw lassie!!”
Geillis chimed in quickly,
praying that no one would notice the anxiety
written plainly on her best friend's face.
“My wee niece is part Scot, part English and about 95% dinosaur”
Brianna responded with perfect timing, “RAWR!”
Brian and Glenna chuckled at the beautiful little girl.
“Aye, a bonny wee lassie she is too.
Reminds me of my lad when he was that age.”
Claire almost choked and looked at Geillis for help.
“Halo, a charaid!” Brianna exclaimed.
“Bonny nae doubt, reminds me of maself at that age."
“Aye, The lass kens her gaelic then? "
"Aye she does, I've been teaching 'er." Geillis said with a proud smile.
"Is yer son a red heid as weel then?”
"Jamie is a braw red-heided laddie, takes after his ma.”
“Seems there ‘tis lots of red-heided men in Scotland, aye Claire?” Geillis asked with a smirk.
“That’s what I hear…” Claire responded nervously.
“That is an understatement to say the least”
Mrs. Fitz added.
“Did ye meet yer lassie’s da in bonny ole’ Scotland then?”
“Aye.” Claire responded mindlessly,
eliciting laughter from the car full of Scots.
“Yes, I mean. I met him through some friends I went to school with.”
“Seems ye have a wee bit o’ Scots in ye as weel lass.” Mrs. Fitz chuckled.
“Oh...uh, yes it seems to have rubbed off on me for sure.
Gellis has been teaching Bri how to speak Scots and Gaelic since she could talk.
I figure I should learn as well before the two of them hide all the secrets from me in Gaelic.”
“Yer a braw lass Claire. I shouldna be surprised. Yer uncle is a great man.”
“Oh! Thank you, Mr. Fraser.”
“’tis refreshing to find an English lassie with respect for our language.
No many a sassenach would even bother, ye ken?”
“Wee Angus brought a friend?”
Ian asked with a laugh.
“I dinna ken ye had friend's lad.”
“Ah, shut yer gob, Murray!”
Angus snapped.
“Who said we were friends?”
Claire asked jovially.
“A wee sassenach, nae less.”
Jamie added with a smile and polite nod in Claire’s direction.
Somehow Claire knew he wasn't meaning it offensively.
Something about the warm smile he shot in her direction
let her know it was only said with good intentions.
“A cheeky one to nae doubt.” added Ian.
“Oh, most certainly.
One would have to be,
to live in the Scottish Highlands.”
“Oh aye.” the group agreed.
Claire grabbed a cigarette from Angus, waited for him to light it and walked back toward the bonfire,
while all three lads admired her backside, unbeknownst to her.
“That’s because most sassenachs arena’ as intelligent as our wee lass here.”
Geillis added proudly. "She’s to be a doctor like me, ye ken?"
“A doctor, is it? Verra nice. My Jenny is a home health nurse and
my lad just returned home from attending university in Paris to take over the family’s whiskey business.
He took some business classes over there, ken? Marketing and the like,
stayed awa’ fer many a year getting all the knowledge he could, verra educated man he is.”
“Yer family owns a whiskey distillery in town then?” Geillis concluded.
“Aye. We just rebranded this past year, my lad’s idea.
'Sassenach Whiskey' we are now.” Brian continued with pride.
Geillis elbowed Claire in the ribs eliciting a grunt of pain and
a “no nice” from Brianna who had watched the whole thing.
Geillis knew all to well how Jamie had always called Claire 'Sassenach'
“Dinna fash lassie, Auntie Gelly was just waking yer ma up.
She was fallin’ asleep over there, aye?”
Brianna looked from Claire to Geillis bewildered but seeing no problems between the two accepted the lie.
To which Claire cut her eyes at Geillis from above Brianna’s head, glaring intently,
daring Geillis to say anything else in front of Brian.
“Here we are.”
Brian said as he turned his car into Lambert’s driveway.
“Thank you very much for the ride, Mr. Fraser.
I enjoyed chatting with you and you as well Mrs. Fitz.”
Claire offered while Brian unloaded their bags and Geillis got the carseat.
“Dinna Fash Claire, was nae bother, my lad does all the hard work fer the business now,
I’m no but a man of leisure, and with my wife gone I canna just sit idle at Lallybroch.”
Claire’s heart quickened as she shared a knowing look with her best friend,
“I'm so sorry for your loss Mr. Fraser.”
“I thank ye a nighean.
Twas but three months ago as it is
but we are makin’ the best of every day.”
“Extend my condolences to your children as well.”
Brian pulled the two girls into a bear hug as they said their goodbyes,
waving playfully at Brianna as he pulled out of the driveway.
"Tioraidh, a charaid" She squealed as she waved.
Geillis shot an astonished look in her direction, that Claire countered with a wide mouthed stare.
Ellen Fraser had died. Claire’s first thought was for Jamie.
‘I hope he’s managing well enough” she knew from personal experience losing your mother was devastating, no matter how old you were.
“Ma!!” Brianna shouted, bouncing in her mother’s arms
when she caught sight of Lamb in the doorway.
“Lamby!!” she chirped as Claire released her, still to stunned to speak.
She simply stood frozen in place, watching her daughter run into Uncle Lamb's arm.