Chapter Text
Claire Beauchamp Randall woke up in her new bed. She had moved up to Scotland with her three sons to start anew after the death of Frank, her husband, in a car accident almost a year earlier. She left bed and began to get ready for they day. It was the first day of school and she had to hurry. She took a short shower and dressed in a plain red blouse and jeans, good for both the school run and her new job at the hospital. She woke the boys- eleven-year-old Charlie, nine-year-old Tommy and four-year-old Jake. She prepared breakfast while the children got ready. 'Are you excited for the first day of school?' She told her sons while she served breakfast.
'Do you think the children will be nice?' Jake asked.
'Of course they will.' Claire went and hugged his youngest son. 'You are going to make so many friends.' Claire sat on the table and looked at the boys, the two eldest kept silent. They had been the most affected by their father's death and the move. Claire was spending time worried and trying to help them with the changes and hoped that once they were in school and made friends, it would be easier.
In a house not much further away, the Frasers lived. Jamie Fraser, an executive as his family's distillery, and his three daughters- ten-year-old Morag, seven-year-old Ellie and five-year-old Sarah. He was also widowed, after his wife, Mary, passed away from cancer a couple years earlier. His day began in the same way, getting ready for the first day of school. 'Do ye have everythin'? Yer backpacks, yer lunch...'
'Aye, Da, we have it.' Morag said, as they came out of the house and into the family car. Jamie drove for a minute or two to his sister's house first, to pick up his nieces and nephew, who Jamie was driving to school to help his sister, who had just had a baby. Both the Randall's and the Fraser's drove the same way, a couple of times stopping in the same streetlight, but completely unaware of each other. They parked their cars in the same street, just a few feet from each other and walked the children to school and to their classes, not far away from each other. They wished their children good luck on their first day and walked out. Jamie stopped to see an email notification from a client of the distillery while Claire checked the time on hers, who didn't notice Jamie until she crashed against him.
'I'm sorry...oh God, Jamie?' Claire gasped, at the sight of a ghost from her past.
'A Dhia, Claire, is that really ye?' Jamie said, also incredulous. They knew each other, a long time ago. They had dated for over a year during their uni times in London and then broke up and lost connection with each other until that moment.
'I can't believe it.' Claire smiled. 'How long has it been?'
'Fourteen, fifteen years...' Jamie said, smiling back. 'How are ye?'
'I'm fine, thanks. And you?' Claire asked again. 'Do you have any children in this school?'
'Aye, my three lasses.' Jamie answered. 'They're ten, seven and five.'
'I have three children too.' Claire replied. 'All boys, they're eleven, nine and four. We've moved to Glasgow in the summer.'
'Good move, 'tis a great city.' Jamie smiled again. 'Well, I need to go to work. I'll be seein' ye around.'
'Yeah, I need to go too.' Claire said too. 'Good to have a...friend to talk too in the school run already. See you soon, then.'
Claire kissed Jamie's cheeks and parted ways, both feeling a weird heat inside of them, but both brushing it out, as they thought about the time past and how the other probably had a spouse at home.