One More Try

Home, Sweet Home

The day Reg and Wilf were returning from Milan, Jean drove to the airport, together with Ophelia. Cissy was in her own car, but right behind them. While they were all a little nervous, Pheli was also incredibly excited to have her father back. She had even made a sign with his name on it so he could find them more easily. There was no reason for her to worry though, they were spotted immediately and she flew into Reg's arms before she even had the chance to properly hold up her sign. Jean smiled indulgently and gave a little wave but Reg gestured for her to join them and so they had a family group hug right in the middle of the airport.
For Cissy, things went a little different. When Wilf saw her, he dropped his this and just stood there. They hadn't seen each other in a while and he was just overwhelmed, nothing could have prepared him for seeing her again. And she was smiling at him. He wanted to tell the whole world, scream at the top of his lungs, that Ciccy was smiling at him, that she was happy to see him and how happy he was to see her. Time seemed to stand still, but after looking at each other for a while, she finally walked towards him and hugged him which made Wilf realise she was real and not just another dream, so he hugged her back.
"Hi there, beautiful." He whispered into her ear. Nobody else was supposed to know what he told her. It was their secret. Nothing mattered anymore because they were back together.
"Are you coming, dear, I got the car waiting" His fiancée interrupted his train of thought and they left the airport hand in hand, ignoring the photographers and people around them. They hadn't seen each other ever since Cissy had left with Jean and Pheli after their first visit, she'd been busy teaching some classes at her old school, filling in for a teacher on maternity leave. There just hadn't been enough time to fly out to Milan and after that more or less voluntary break, they were even more certain about each other. Talking to the teacher she was filling in for and eventually meeting the new baby had made Cissy think, she was neither too young nor too old to have children, this would be the perfect time actually. She just wasn't sure how Wilf would feel about it. They put everything he had into the car and when they had gotten in and closed the doors, Wilf pulled Cissy into a long and gentle kiss.
"I'm so glad to have you back." He whispered against her lips and it was true. He'd never missed someone that badly.
"I'm glad to see you too. Let's go to my place, I made your favourite dinner and maybe... You could stay the night?" Cissy sounded almost shy when making her request, she hoped he wasn't too tired, she just really missed spending time with him, no matter how.
"That sounds wonderful. I have brought you some gifts from Milan and... I'm just glad to be back. How was teaching?" He was so glad she'd asked because another night all alone would have been unbearable for Wilf.
"I loved it. Not as much as singing and acting but... It wasn't too bad." Cissy told him everything she'd done over the past weeks, even though they had spoken on the phone multiple times a day, however she conveniently forgot to mention the baby, that would have to wait until the timing was perfect. They enjoyed a delicious dinner and then settled down in front of the TV, but the movie they ended up watching was nothing more than background noise.
"You know, this is actually the first time I don't hate returning from a trip. In fact, I quite like it." Wilf confessed and Cissy looked up. What a strange way to say that he was glad to be back.
"What do you mean by that, dear?" Maybe she had just misunderstood, but Wilf sighed and absentmindedly played with her hair. He took a few deep breaths before starting to speak.
"Cissy, I don't tend to talk about these things, simply because I consider myself to be a very positive person and because I believe dwelling on the past only upsets us. But..." He sighed again, suddenly he felt very old and tired. Opening up was always a very unpleasant experience for him, the only person who knew about his troubled past up until now was Reg and he couldn't just tell Cissy to ask him, could he?
"I have never had a proper family. I have Bond Manor, the name, the fortune, I don't lack anything in the material sense, but I never had someone to come home to. I never had a place I could truly call home. My parents died in a plane crash when I was a little child, my grandparents raised me and... Well they had very old fashioned ideas about raising children. They did it from a place of love and concern for me and my future and I loved them back but yet... It was difficult. My grandmama died a few weeks after my 18th birthday and well, I've been alone ever since. To be honest I had lost my way a little bit in the past and I do regret these things today, I really do. Reg was the only family I had but it was very different but now there's you. You are so loving. You care about me, more than I care about myself to be honest and... You are just wonderful and I missed you so terribly, it was physically painful. You turned my life around in the best way possible." Cissy said nothing and just hugged him, holding him very close. She was moved and at the same time she felt incredibly sad for his lost childhood. But this also explained why he always seemed so carefree, he just pretended to be fine because nobody ever cared to dig deeper. That just proved once again what a terrific actor he was. Terrific. yet tragic. All this new information gave her a much better understanding of her future husband and his feelings, no matter how deep he tried to bury them.
"I'll be your family for as long as you want me to." She promised him, surprisingly solemn but in that moment she was very serious, this meant something to him after all.
"Is 'always' an option? Because having a family for the rest of my life sounds just... Wonderful" Wilf asked and he smiled at her. Not his usual jokester happy-go-lucky smile, but a genuine one."
"Sure." Cissy replied and she decided in that very moment that maybe giving him the family that he seemed to want so desperately was just the right thing to show her love for him. So she thought through it once more and then cleared her throat.
"Wilf, I have been thinking a lot while you were gone and..." He looked nervous and Cissy quickly continued talking. "Oh please don't be alarmed, it's not a bad thing. It's just... I thought a lot about the future and I realized that I would love to have a baby with you, maybe even two. I didn't have the best childhood and neither had you but I thought together we'd make a great team and..."
"Yes... Yes, I think that's not a terrible idea at all. No, actually it's a great idea. I... I think we would be good at this." He chuckled but his hands were actually shaking a little bit and the thoughts in his head were racing. Deep down he longed to be a father, to protect and raise a little human. He longed for a proper and stable family unit, something that six months ago would have been unthinkable, but with Cissy it seemed like a logical consequence. But he was also nervous because he knew he had to finally grow up and get some things and issues in order before he'd even be adequate as a father. He was scared, he didn't want to repeat the mistakes of his childhood, being a parent just seemed so hard without a role model. However nothing could stop him to do his very best and not just have the family he'd always dreamed of but also make Cissy happy, which was always his top priority. Cissy was thinking about it too, she knew it wouldn't be easy, but this was her heart's desire and more importantly, she could be the one to give Wilf everything he ever wanted. Something that would finally set her apart from all the other girls he'd been with, this was an issue she was still a little insecure about. They both had not the slightest idea just how much this seemingly trivial decision to start a family would change their lives.