Seasons Of Love

Not Even the Plague...

In just the short time Rose had been attending nursery, she had started hitting milestones far earlier than her parents had expected. At just ten months old she learned how to pull herself up to stand using anything she could get her hands on. She would often be found standing holding onto the bars of her crib in the mornings or pulling herself up on the side of the couch as the family played in the lounge together.

As Rose started becoming more mobile Autumn and Winter were finding that their little girl was quite fearless. When she started crawling she would give her parents mini heart attacks because she loved playing on the stairs before they got them baby proofed. Now that she was learning to walk she would let go of her parents' hands when they were helping her practice even though she could not take a step on her own without tumbling over yet. Every time though, the second she hit the floor she would laugh and stand right back up with her hands over her head waiting for her parent's to support her again and the whole process would start over. Winter and Autumn were both starting to believe that once their little girl did master walking on her own, they were going to need to have eyes on her at all times.

Around the same time Rose had said her first, intentional words. For months she had been babbling away, but there was never any real intention behind each "ba" or "ma" that she spoke. Until one day, when Winter returned home from running errands he yelled a cheerful "Hi, my love" into the lounge where Rose and Autumn were playing. Neither one was ready for their daughter to be the one to respond.

"Hi."

The second the word left her lips she was met with cheers, hugs, and tears from both of her very shocked, endlessly proud parents. About a week later Winter came barreling down the stairs to find Autumn. The way he was shouting for her convinced his wife that something was horribly wrong until she came face to face with him, breathlessly grinning at her as he turned their daughter around.

"Rose, who's that?"

Without hesitation Rose answered, a huge smile on her face as she reached out to Autumn.

"Mama!"

A couple days after that, just before Winter's shift started, he got a call from Autumn. It surprised him as they were due to have lunch together that day, usually anything she needed to say would wait until they were together. She didn't even wait for him to greet her when he answered the phone.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, my sweet, but this couldn't wait until later. Someone is looking for you."

He stayed quiet and listened to Rose on the other end of the phone calling out for him.

"Papa....Papa?"

After seeing the smiles her words could bring to her parents' faces, Rose hadn't stopped saying them. Anytime she saw her parents she would call their names and wait to watch their faces light up as she received endless kisses and cuddles.

Because of how well Rose was developing her new skills and how excited she got every time she saw Charlotte and Carly, the parents decided to transition Rose to going to nursery full time. Part of attending nursery more, though, was more exposure to the other kids...and their germs.

Rose really had never been sick. Everyone just assumed that she inherited her mother's constitution, that not even the plague could take the Fortune-Knight women down. They made it through flu season at the nursery without Rose getting so much as a cough. Each time a new sickness bug worked its way around the nursery, the parents waited for it to reach their house; but it never did. Every so often she would have a day that she was a bit more fussy or just not quite her usual headstrong self and those days they would keep her home. They kept a very close eye on it because they didn't want to be those parents.