⇾𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐖𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 | 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐈𝐈

Chapter Eleven: In Which a Silly Movie Gets the Best of Me

January 13, 1967

When I woke up the next morning, I reached out for John, but quickly found out that he wasn't next to me anymore and immediately felt upset. The upset feeling luckily didn't last long because a mere two seconds later, I was rushing myself to the bathroom to throw up.

Oh my way down the hallway, I smelled something coming from the kitchen: bacon and eggs. I could only hope they'd taste as good as they smelled because John wasn't always the best cook.

I heard John come up the stairs quickly, presumably because he heard the frantic padding of my bare feet against the hardwood floors from downstairs.

"Are you oka—Donna?" He came up and crouched down behind me to gather my hair and keep it from getting in the way.

"I-I'm fine," I said in a rush, flushing the toilet and getting to my feet shakily.

"Are you sure?" asked John.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure." I smiled at him. "You make breakfast?"

His lips broke into a wide grin. "I did. The best bacon in the whole city of Liddypool!"

"That's quite a feat," I said with a giggle. "Now if the little baby would quit making mommy ill, we could enjoy it!" I put my hands to my stomach with a cheeky grin.

He laughed and took me by the hand to lead me downstairs. We'd gone to the store yesterday to get some of the food we'd need on our stay, making sure we didn't get more than we needed. He'd already carefully divided his creations onto two plates, but appeared to have been interrupted when he heard me upstairs. He finished putting bacon onto the second plate and took them both into his hands, handing one to me with a dopey smile.

"Bon appétit," he said.

"Thank you," I responded.

We went and sat ourselves down on the couch. Before I sat myself down, I went back into the kitchen to get two cups of milk for us to drink. When I returned, John was on the floor in front of the TV, surfing through some channels. He landed on a cheesy romance movie and turned to me with a smirk. I rolled my eyes. "Just leave it."

He joined me on the couch again, and the two of us watched in an intense silence, pretending like we weren't paying attention to the movie even though we were both totally absorbed in it.

By the end of the movie, we had long finished eating and I was sitting with my knees to my chest, a blanket pulled right up to my chin, tears trailing down my face.

When the credits began to roll, John looked over at me, immediately looking worried when he saw me crying.

"Donna—?" he asked timidly.

"He just left?" I said. "She was trying to make their anniversary perfect and he left? Who does that?" Now, I just sounded angrier other than anything.

He tentatively scooted closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. "It's okay, love. It's just a movie."

"John, if you did that, I'd kill you," I sobbed, curling into his chest.

"W-well, I never will, I promise." Poor John. He didn't know what to do about me when I was crying every five minutes.

"What are we doing today?" I asked him, whimpering to myself.

"Uh—." He paused to find his words. "I'm not really sure. Whatever you'd like to do."

"I wanna go see Trixie," I blubbered.

"O-okay, we can do that."

"I know we can."

"Well, whenever you'd like to leave, I am ready."

"Let's wait until after noon," I responded, gasping for air in between my pitiful sobs. "That's when the morning sickness usually stops."

"Very well, then."

I untangled myself from him and the blanket, feeling completely fine again. I wiped at my eyes furiously to get the tears to go away. "I'm fine now," I said to him, standing up and going towards the bathroom. He looked mildly terrified at how fast my mood had changed.

~~~

"Thanks for driving, John," I said happily as we pulled up to Trixie and Seamus's house that afternoon.

"Anytime, love," he said, putting the car into park and taking the key out of the ignition.

When we climbed out of the car, Trixie appeared on the front porch, a little baby on her hip. When she saw us, she waved. A moment later, Henry toddled out of the house, a big smile plastered on his face.

"Auntie Donna!" he said shrilly, running off of the porch and crashing straight into my arms as I crouched down to catch him.

"Oh, Henry, be careful," said Trixie in a worried voice, but I dismissed her with a wave of my hand, wrapping my arms around Henry tightly.

"I got a horse!" said Henry excitedly as he pulled away from me.

"Did you?" I asked him.

"I did! You wanna come see it?" He jumped up and down eagerly.

"Of course I do," I responded, and he turned and rocketed back into the house.

"How are you two? Or can I say three?" asked Trixie with a little smirk.

John raised his eyebrows, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Three."

"Well, come in, or you're gonna freeze!" She motioned us inside with her arms and we followed.

"Auntie Donna, look at my horse!" Henry came bounding into the foyer with a little stuffed chestnut horse tucked securely under his arm. "His name is Opie!"

I crouched back down on the floor and he held the horse out so I could see it properly. "Well, hello, Opie," I said optimistically, seeing him smile. Then, he turned to John. "Look, John!"

John bent down next to me, patting the little horse on the head. "Hello, Opie. That's a very good-looking horse you've got there, Henry," said John with a wide grin.

"Opie likes you!" quipped Henry, taking the horse and hugging it tightly to his chest before running off towards his bedroom.

When we stood back up, Trixie was beaming at us.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," I quipped.

"You two are still literally the cutest."

"What? Did you expect us to falter?" I asked.

"Never." She smirked. "How are you feeling?" she asked me, leading us into the living room and motioning for us to sit on the couch.

"I-I feel fine, I guess."

John leaned back against the couch and gave Trixie a sarcastic look. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh?" said Trixie with an amused smile.

"She's been crying at least three times a day," he said teasingly.

I blushed. "And puking every five minutes," I added with a little laugh.

"Oh, the morning sickness is a pain, isn't it?"

I nodded. "It's exhausting."

"Aww, poor ladies," said John. "Couldn't live without 'em."