Being a Barrow - A Sequel to Barrow's Boy

It's Not the Same As It Was

    When a quiet moment finally arose amidst the chaos of that summer, Theodore found himself transported back to the years of his youth, sitting in the Wilson barn, cups of lemonade in hand, with his friends around him. The only difference was the addition of Victor, sitting on a hay bale at Everett's side, though this was a welcome change. Percy, running a brush through Penny's fur (the small Highland calf they had once met now having grown to quite the size was easily both the largest and hairiest of the Wilson farm animals), was recounting his latest trip to Chicago.

     "Dottie and her friend Millie brought me and Peter to a jazz show on one of my last nights there," Percy told the group, "which was one of the best nights I've had in Chicago, I must say. Dottie's not much of a jazz person-"

     "What?"

     "Calm down, Everett, let me finish. She likes music in general, but she's fonder of Blues and the such, from what she said. But she'll enjoy jazz just fine, and we had a good night. Of course, Sam caught wind of it and decided he had to join, and he was miserable for most of the night, for some reason. Peter eventually told him that he could just go home if he wasn't going to have fun, so he did-"

     "And Sam is another one of their friends?" Victor inquired, running a finger along the rim of his glass. Percy shrugged.

     "Maybe? He's my stepbrother, so he heard about it when I was telling my Mum-"

     "Ah, I see. Sorry."

     "Don't be. You could maybe call him their friend. He's been around them more than I have these past year, that's for certain, but I'm not sure how much time they spend together, if I'm honest."

     Everett whispered something to Victor, at which the other man made a look of recognition, then nodded. Percy, so focused on grooming his cow, seemed to miss this interaction.

     "Dottie and I went out to a park the next day. I bought her an ice cream. It was very nice. She asked me to send her love to all of you-"

     "You better send ours back, then," Abi insisted. Percy smiled.

     "I will, don't worry."

     They grew quiet for a moment, Teddy placing his now empty glass on the ground and reaching over to take Abi's hand in his. Their silence was cut off by Everett, who started to laugh, drawing the attention of the other four. At their confused expressions, he motioned to the group.

     "Sorry, it's just-" He looked to Victor, then back at everyone else, "we all have our people now."

     Theodore and Abi looked to each other and he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

     "It's all come together, you know?" Everett continued.

     "Yeah," Percy replied, "Yeah, I know what you mean."

     "All as it's meant to be," Abi agreed and Theodore grinned at her.

     Theodore had not interacted with the Dowager Countess all that much in his life. Sure, there had been that time she had brought him into her home to discuss his plans for medical school, dinners when he had served her and the drama of the hospital board when he had been an intern there. Most recently, there had been the conversation he'd had with her and Lady Merton at the Harewood ball, right before he and Abi had gotten back together. Only two of these experiences felt quite personal, and, on the whole, Theodore had to admit that she was one of the Crawleys he had interacted with the least. Not that this was anyone's fault; they quite literally had a generational divide between them. It was no surprise, after all, that he had gotten along with Rose the most out of any of them, considering that he and Rose had been the two of the only people in the house born in the twentieth century.