Open Arms

Chapter Eight

"We'll be back in a few to get our stuff, alright?" The driver held a hand up and turned back to the windshield as Angus closed the car door. All their luggage was still in the back of the car, Angus' extra sweaters shoved again in the tight suitcases. Angus' guitar of course, had the special place of honor on his lap, being picked and played all the way home from the airport. 

He lugged it after him, trying futilely to keep up with Hannah's worried pace, practically knocking down anything that got in her way. Apologizing to anyone he passed in case Hannah had forgotten her manners, he ran several feet behind her up to their apartment. Susan had greeted them at the car as it pulled up, explaining vaguely Hermione's condition. Hannah's beloved Hermione. Anything could have happened to her. What if the two returned from a heavenly honeymoon only to return to the less than bliss state of reality, and mortality?

Kicking the door open after it almost closed on his face, he set his guitar down beside the living room couch and made his way to the hutch. Susan made room for him to see, Hannah leaning rather close as well. Of all possibilities his imagination conjured, he never would have guessed to see what he did. There, among a bed of shavings and fur, along with a soft blanket Susan placed inside for her upon vet recommendation, was Hermione, sniffing and licking away, much smaller than she had been, along with three very small, very wet, and very brown baby bunnies. 

Glancing at Hannah to see her reaction, his heart skipped a beat seeing the smile he missed for so long spread across her face. He looked to Susan, who had been looking at him as well. Turning red she looked away, giving her attention to the new mother in the Young apartment. "Hermione!" Hannah said.

"I called the vet as soon as she started acting funny," Susan explained placing a hand on her back. "He came over and gave me all kinds of instructions, and before I knew it she had three children." Her face turned sour after this comment. "Actually she had four but...one-one didn't make it."

Hannah's smiled dropped as well. "Oh no..." Hannah left the room to search the closet for a small knit blanket they kept on the top shelf. Pulling it down along with some other various blankets, she brought it back to the hutch and placed it over the cage, dimming the light for the babies and giving the new mother some privacy with her children. 

"What did the vet say about that, was it born like that, or..." Angus stopped, unsure of how to word his question. 

"She died minutes after, he said she was born too small and couldn't survive outside very well. But-the other three are okay, and the mother is too," Susan said, trying to pick their spirits up. "One is a boy, and the other two are girls."

Hannah pulled a chair from the kitchen table and sat down, Angus immediately sitting next to her. "I don't understand how this happened," she said putting a hand to her chin. "Who did this to her?"

"You said you took her to a rabbit park, didn't you?" Susan asked.

"For an hour or two, at the most!" Hannah explained. "I never let her out of my sight! Whose tomcat rabbit is responsible for this?" Hannah turned to Angus as if he knew the answer to such mysteries. 

He shrugged and half smiled and said, "Maybe we weren't watching as closely as we thought. Now what I don't understand is how none of knew she wasn't fixed. I mean, we bought her, yeah? An' they never told us or nothin', an' we jus' assumed she was an' all?"

Susan took a seat across from Angus at the table. "That must be where all the weight she gained came from," she said smiling. "I sure know how that feels."

"How've ya' been?" Angus asked.

"Better than most my size, I guess," she said. "Sleeping hasn't been great but that's to be expected. I know I might go into labor any day now and that's kind of daunting to think about." Hannah squeezed Angus' hand that was next to hers and stood from the table.