Rosetta

2

Scarlet's alarm blared through the calm silence of the house. She nudged Wolf in the shoulder.
"Wolf...," she said, blearily. "We need to wake up."
Slowly, Wolf sat up against the bed rest and yawned. "Good morning, Alpha."
She leaned her head on his shoulder when something else broke the silence. Juliette had run from her room and jumped onto her.
"Good morning, my little firefly," said Scarlet. She looked at her daughter and realised that her gaze always skipped past her fiery red hair and onto her eyes. Her bright green eyes, just like Wolf's.

"Maman, can I scare Papa?" She looked up at Wolf, who was pretending to sleep.

"Go ahead, but I don't think he'll be too happy about it."

She slid down the side of their bed and went over to his side. She crawled on, stood up and leaped onto his chest. He feigned shock, and drew them both into a tight embrace.

"My girls," he said. He kissed both their cheeks and drew the covers. Getting up, he put Juliette on his shoulders and put a hand out to Scarlet. She took it and he lead her downstairs.

"What do my girls want to eat?" He asked, mainly directing it at her.

"Make Juliette whatever, she's probably been up for ages. I'm just going to brush my teeth."

He bent down to Juliette and whispered, "Boring old mom," into her ear. She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Scarlet went up the stairs and looked at the photo frame of Wolf with Juliette as a baby.
She had not once been afraid to give her to him. He had been more nervous himself, saying that he had never even held a baby before. He had come to her, worried that the baby would be wolf-like like him; when he saw Juliette, all his worries vanished.

"Scar, you coming?" Wolf called from downstairs. She snapped back to the present.

"Coming," she called.
                                       *
Scarlet bent down and yanked at the stalk. She pulled so hard that her fingers began to burn, but the carrot would not move. It was the last thing she needed to do before she could go inside for the day. Suddenly, Juliette came running towards her.
"Maman, Maman!" She called, only 15 paces away from her. She sounded worried, and it took a lot to scare this chaotic toddler.

"What is it? Are you okay?" Now Scarlet was worried.

"It's Papa. He's falling. He's got an ouchie. He said he want Maman!" She looked as if one more sentence would bring her tears.
She thought through her toddler's riddles for only a second before realising what she meant.

"Where?!"

"By the 'ickens," she said. She was trembling.

Scarlet scooped up Juliette and ran to the chicken coop. Wolf lay on the floor, resting on his elbows.

"Wolf! Wolf, are you ok?!"

"I'm fine. I tripped over one of the chickens, and my left ankle hurts. I've had worse."

She rolled up his trousers revealing a great bruise. Juliette had gone into the house and come out with her first aid kit.

"Juliette! It's heavy, and how did you find it?" Scarlet took it off her and opened it up.

"Papa show me when I was falling," she replied. "Oh Papa, you ok? How's your ouchie?" She bent down and kissed his forehead.

"Better, now my girls are here," he said.
Scarlet was ripping off bandages and wrapping them around his ankle.

"Maman, can I give 'ickens food?"

"A little bit, Juilette."

Wolf was staring at her wrapping the bandages.

"How did you learn to do that?" He asked.

"Do what?" She snipped of some medical tape to secure it. To Juliette, she said, "Jules, inside now." She left the chickens, which were probably over fed, and ran inside.

"I mean, how did you learn to take care of wounds like that?"
She rolled his trousers back down and stared at his ankle, brushing her hand against the lump of fabric.

"I needed to. Dad would sometimes come home so drunk, he would smash things and I would have little cuts on my arm. I left mine alone, mainly just wrapped his. No one would ever ask. And..."

"And?"

"Grandmère shot herself in the foot once. That's why people called her crazy. I had to wrap her wounds. She hated hospitals."
She stood up and held out her hand to him.
He took it and pulled her down beside him.
He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight.

"Your not gonna comm the doctor, are you?" He asked.
Scarlet pushed herself up to meet his gaze.

"Why? Scared of the needle?" she smirked.
He scowled at her, and sat up.

"Can you walk?" She asked, concern writing itself on her face.

"Scar, I'm fine," he said strongly. He tried to get up, but instead he winced and fell back to the ground.

She held out her hand but he ignored it and tried again. He fell back down, holding his ankle. Scarlet let out her hand again.
"Ze'ev. Let-"

"Uh oh."

"What? What, are you ok?" She reached for his hand and grabbed it.

"You only call me Ze'ev when you're angry."

"I am. When Grandmère tried to stand on her foot it got worse, and then we did need to go to the hospital."
She pulled him up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and helped him inside. She looked at the sky. The sun was setting in shades of red, orange and the brightest yellow. This was one of the things she had missed most when she had been trapped in Luna years ago. The thought of the day ending the same way it starts.

"Scarlet," he started.

"Yes?"

"I was gonna say something romantic, starting with your full name. But then I thought this through my head. My name is in your name. I just thought about how amazing that sounds."

She led him into the house and eased him onto the sofa. She thought about his words for a moment, before saying, "That just shows that you make me better, even with my name."