Off the Carousel

Have I Told you I can see the Future?

A/N: Thanks everyone, for reading! Love you guys!

Enjoy!

Grey house was no longer the bleak, hollow shell it once was. The town pitched in. Mr. Tinsdale and his brothers de-shuttered the windows, raked and mowed the lawn, trimmed the hedges. The Maloney household pitched in on the inside, fixing the rotted floorboards, cleared the dust from old furniture, swept, waxed and polished.

The interior was harvest gold. The chandelier glowed with new bulbs, and long simple velvet red carpet ran from the foyer to the front room. Liz Merriwick dotted the place with beautiful candles, and Mrs. Maloney coated every available space with flowers donated from the gardens of Middleton.

Carolyn pressed a hand to her belly. The dress was perfect. Long and lacey, snug in all the right places. She traced the embroidered bodice, feeling her heart beat-beat under her breast. In less than an hour, she would be married to the man she loved. The man with the goofy grin and sometimes untamed hair. The man who chased her, who made her fall...

The man who picked her up. The man who kissed her. The man who waited for her. Who loved her. Yes, soon they would be wed. Soon, she would give birth to a child and her life would never, ever be the same.

She turned, stepped into the hall and jogged out the kitchen door into the woods beyond.

xxx

Ten steps into the woods behind The Grey House, Meredith tripped over a branch, faceplanting into the muck and leaves under a young elm tree. The fall tripped her up, out of her spiraling thoughts. "God, what was that?" she blurted to the darkness.

Laughing, she sat up, crawling to sit under the tree. She was such a klutz. The laughter turned to tears and crying and back to laughter as her hormones yo-yoed.

Derek would laugh too. Shake his head, kiss her dirty tear-stained cheek and sigh that little Mcdreamy sigh. Oh Meredith.

"Oh, Meredith."

She stilled, stiff under the voice she almost couldn't bear to hear. Carolyn's presence threatened to smother when she was trying to breathe.

"I-I didn't know. I'm sorry," Carolyn's words rippled as if she spoke through water. Meredith felt dizzy, tired... and sadness was threatening to overtake her.

"Meredith?" another voice. Cassie's saccharine benevolence. "Are you all right?"

She wanted them to leave, beg off. Just let her breathe. Yet at the same time if they left, she'd be alone again, and that felt just as unbearable. Cool wind suffused her bones with chill. She drew her knees to her chest and bowed her head. If she closed her eyes, they'll go away.

"Meredith? You should come inside. It's quite cold out," Cassie said.

Crunching leaves, rustling branches. "Meredith?"

She did not get up, she turned her head, staring into the dark woods.

Derek! Derek!

Meredith! I heard your voice. I thought I was dreaming.

xxx

What was she doing? Carolyn wondered. This was ridiculous, standing out here in the woods. In a few moments, bells would ring, guests would stand, and the march would commence, all attention to the grand staircase she was to descend. She would take her father's arm, and his posture would puff and swell with fatherly pride as he walked her down the aisle.

Instead she was here, shoes soiled and muddied as she stared down the small bank to the creek and the little bridge she'd first kissed her lover.