Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me - Wintumn Stories

Sisters by Heart

Autumn was always early to work. She liked having a little time in the office to herself to set up before Marjorie showed up. The other manager was much more social and would often put off starting the day in favor of talking for a while. Autumn was more than happy to do so, but she was a very organized person and needed to have her work planned out to make sure she could get everything done.

So she was surprised she showed up this morning and the doors were already unlocked. She made her way into the office to see Reece sitting at Marjorie's desk looking nervous. He stood up as soon as he saw her walk in. Autumn's heart sank as she assumed something terrible had happened. Her brother was never far from Marjorie unless he was at the sister nursery, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Big brother. Is everything alright, where's Marjorie?" Autumn spoke in her usual even tone, but her face gave away that she was worried.

"What? Oh yeah, she's fine. I'm sure she's on her way. I just told her I had some work to get done so I left early. I just needed to talk to you...alone." Reece had started pacing around the office, there was obviously a lot on his mind. "Autumn, I've been thinking..."

"Bet that hurt." Now that she knew nothing dire had happened she desperately wanted to lighten the mood. She looked at him with a smirk as she didn't want to miss his shocked expression.

"Ouch...anyway. I want to ask Marjorie to marry me."

"Hmm. And people thought Winter and I moved fast."

"Seriously, Aut. I wanted you to know before I asked her. You're obviously going to be the first person Marjorie wants to tell and I wanted to give you fair warning for all the emotion."

"Reece, I think that's wonderful."

"Thanks, sis. Wish me luck."

"You don't need it."

Autumn watched her brother leave the office as she thought about what he just said. She hadn't ever seen him as happy as he was with Marjorie. He spent so long being miserable in his last relationship, he deserved someone to love him the way Marjorie did. Not to mention that she was Autumn's best friend. She couldn't think of anyone better to have as a sister-in-law.

The closest thing that Autumn ever had to a sister was Mia. The two had been inseparable for years. Autumn didn't remember a time when Mia wasn't around. She was Reece's best friend from the moment he started school. Autumn always thought herself more grown up than she was and wanted to do what the older kids were doing so she would trail behind Reece and Mia whenever they played together forcing them to include her in their games. It never took much convincing though, the two older kids loved having her around. Mia didn't have any siblings, so she thought of Aut as the little sister she always wanted.

Mia was the only real female influence in Autumn's life. The two would have sleepovers where they would talk for hours about school, life, boys, anything at all. When they got older Mia would take Aut out shopping and helped her through all the drama and changes in her preteen years. Living in a house with only men, she was glad she had someone there to help her with the questions she didn't want to ask them.

But once Roger had his claws in Mia, everything changed. She wouldn't even look in Autumn's direction. Any time Autumn tried to talk with her, Mia would laugh in her face and walk away; usually making a snarky comment about how the younger girl was too needy. All of Autumn and Reece's secrets she'd gathered over the years were fed to Roger and he used them to tear the siblings down. Before prom Autumn held out hope that Mia was just going through a rough time and eventually they would get back to how they were before. But that never happened. The night she lost her brother was as devastating as it was because she knew she also lost Mia for good. She became emotionally closed off after that. Autumn had to rely only on herself because the people she trusted the most let her down. She wouldn't talk to anyone about her personal life for fear of having her feelings used against her again.

She hadn't been able to form as close a bond with anyone, especially not another woman, until she met Marjorie. Early in their working relationship there were so many moments where anyone else would have given up and fired Autumn. Boss's daughter or not, she was not a good fit for the deputy position at first. She knew the job and the rules but she took her authority so far that it made the work environment toxic. The fact that Marjorie took the time to work with her to make her a better manager showed just how big a heart she had. She wouldn't let her fail.

Marjorie was the first person to ever invite Autumn out on a "girls night" when she first started at the nursery. She didn't know why she accepted at first. This was the kind of thing she would usually avoid, but she found that she did want to get to know Marjorie better. Autumn had a lot of respect for the way she was willing to protect the staff and stand up for them in any situation. She spoke kindly of Autumn in board meetings even when her father put her down, she was the first person to know about her relationship with Winter, and she could hold her own against Autumn with sarcastic comments. She was Autumn's friend.

Marjorie proved to Autumn time and again that she cared for her, putting her deputy's feelings above her own in one of the most important situations in her life. Marjorie fought her attraction to Reece for weeks because of his and Autumn's past. She didn't want to lose Autumn, so she just wouldn't pursue it. Even after she had obviously fallen for him and they had planned a date, the second she thought he was back to his old ways, taunting Autumn with dead flowers, she broke it off to support her friend. When the siblings got close again, Autumn was the first to encourage her to finally act on her feelings for Reece and was so glad when they finally got together. Marjorie was perfect for her brother, and she loved seeing him happy. Though she would never tell them she thought that.

The two women had countless nights out where they talked about their lives and their work. Well, usually Marjorie did most of the talking but every so often she could get something out of Autumn. She was really the only person other than Winter who was able to get her to open up. That's why Winter knew to send Marjorie to Autumn at the bar. If anyone was going to get through to her at that point it was Marjorie. And Autumn would never be able to repay her for being there for her at her lowest.

Marjorie was already a sister to Autumn. Her marrying Reece would just make it official. 

A/N - Sorry this was not truly a "Wintumn chapter", but I thought it was something interesting to explore.  Also I'm dying over all the Marjoreece proposal/wedding hints that are being dropped in the videos. Hopefully we get that soon...and one for Wintumn too <3