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As Belle cleans the blood off her patient, she sighs. Another achievement: a successful carotid ligation done to a young woman. A few years ago, she would’ve been beaming with joy, however today, although satisfied and – of course – proud, she is completely exhausted and thinks of nothing but the sweet warmth of her home.
Don’t get her wrong. She loves being a surgeon. She loves… everything about it. She loves the hope, the joy that it brings her. Belle loves every single aspect of medicine and surgery – even the failure. She loves having her own hospital, her own surgical theatre, far away in The Islands, revolutionizing medicine every day, and doing it all with someone she loves so dearly by her side. After all, it was all the woman could ever ask for.
However, today, she’s just exhausted. It’s her fifth surgery today and she feels completely, utterly drained. She takes off the surgical apron, thanks the nurse who assisted her, picks up her books and gets ready to leave, another sigh escaping her lips.
It’s been 8 years since she and Jack left for the islands. Belle made a bargain for Jack’s release – considering he saved the life of the governor’s daughter – and they left shortly afterwards. Without a blessing, sadly. Deep in her heart, she knew she would never be allowed to marry someone of Jack’s kin and pursue her love for science. So, they ran. Once Belle was able to get on her feet, she ran straight to the young surgeon she has given her heart to and both of them boarded the first ship and harbored the port. She thought this decision was the lesser evil between the two.
Of course, she misses her parents, their estate, her little sister Fanny, whom she often writes letters to. She even pisses the colony of Port Victory – the scorching heat, the clear skies, the palm trees…God, even that damn gravel that always got into one’s eyes.
But having their own hospital, their own practice, their own family…everything here was theirs. Not borrowed, not given, not stolen. They built it. Brick by brick. Belle cherishes it all, especially when things just seem too good to be true; when she thinks she’s sleepwalking, living a dream.
She enters through the front door of their home, takes off her black cotton coat and beige hat, putting them aside.
“Jack, Amelia, I’m home!” she exclaims, tiredly.
No answer.
“Jaaack…” she trails off and looks around, scrunching her eyebrows, utterly confused by her husband’s absence. After all, she usually gets quite an extravagant greeting with Jack kissing her deeply, sweeping her off her feet. And of course, their little, 3-year-old daughter Amelia always comes bouncing on her feet, playing with Belle’s colorful skirts.
She searches the living room of their tiny cottage, with no sign of her husband or her daughter. The kitchen? Negative. Amelia’s bedroom? Not there. Her and Jack’s bedroom? It’s almost like they disappeared into the thin air…
Suddenly, she hears little giggles and whispers coming from the workroom. They don’t use it a lot anymore, as the surgeries and managing the hospital occupies most of their time. In a way, the room reminded Belle of her old bedroom – blue walls, anatomical drawing plastered everywhere, on every surface. When they first moved in, Belle practically lived in this room. Her perfectionist side used to take over, and she found herself carefully mapping and revising before each surgery. Jack always made sure to stop by, sometimes to revise, sometimes to rest, but always to admire his beautiful wife. With Belle so focused and determined…what a sight for sore eyes.
Naturally, she goes to investigate the commotion. When she pushes the wooden door slightly open and peeks through, the sight has warmth spilling all over her body – her stomach, her face, but especially her heart.
There they were. Both sat on the floor, silently giggling and whispering. Amelia has what seemed to be lamb’s or cow’s skin and stitches in her small hand, looking inquisitively at what her father is doing (and of course, questioning every little step). Jack is kneeling beside Amelia, holding her hands – a medium-sized needle in them – clearly having chosen such for the girl to be able to grasp in properly, but still guarding it with his own hands so as to not hurt his precious daughter.
He was showing her how to suture a wound.
“Yes, Amelia, your mummy knows how to do this, too. But we can surprise her, yeah? You are already so spectacular at this, darling, you can definitely show off your new skill to mum! She will be so proud,” Jack beams at their little girl, whispering words of encouragement, carefully helping Amelia hold the needle and pierce the skin. The smile he wears on his face is so genuine and caring and…
She leans quietly against the white door frame, watching in awe. How could she ever regret anything about the fact that she chose to pursue a life with Jack Dawkins?
“This is fun! This is what you and mumma do at the hospital!” Amelia says enthusiastically. She is often with them at work, the hospital becoming a second home for her. Even though she is quite a handful to deal with sometimes, they wouldn’t have it any other way. She always cheers the patients up with her infectious joy, making them forget about their pain, even temporarily. And either way, Amelia is naturally extremely inquisitive and seems to always be interested in what her parents are doing. Especially so when she tries to mimic the motions of their scalpels with her fork during dinner.
“Okay, now we shall remove the germs from the tools…But maybe we should do that when you’ve aged a bit, can’t have you playing with acid now, can I?” Jack says, when the hardest part – the final stitch – was done.
“But I wanna do it now!” Amelia protests, scrunching up her little nose.
“I don’t think mummy would be too happy with me if I let you do that, darling. Maybe for another time, yeah?”
Belle must have made noise when shifting her position against the door frame, because Amelia suddenly lifts her eyes and forgets everything she was upset about. The girl drops the skin and stitches and runs straight to the woman, her little hands grasping at her skirt.
“Mumma! You’re home!” the little girl beams as Belle picks her up and caresses her blonde hair.
“Hi, darling,” Belle smiles, placing a little kiss on her daughter’s cheek, “I see you and dad kept quite busy, huh?”
“Yes! Daddy taught me how to fix a w-wou-woud!” she stutters, clearly having trouble with the word.
Belle laughs softly. Her daughter is struggling with the word ‘wound’ but already knows how to suture it.
“Well, what do you think, then? Was he a good teacher?” Belle turns to her husband, who is now standing up, looking at them with a smile on his face, the needle they were using grasped in his palm.
“Yes! Now I can be just like you! Save everyone at the hospital!” she says, extending the word ‘everyone’.
Belle admires how smart and full of enthusiasm her little girl is. Her own personal sunshine for every day. Amelia reminds her so much of the sun back in Port Victory – always there, full of energy, bringing so much light into her life.
“Amelia, why don’t you head into your bedroom and get ready for sleep? Dad and I will be there shortly for a bedtime story, yeah?” Belle puts Amelia down, letting her run off to her room to change.
As Amelia disappears behind her bedroom door, Jack steps closer to Belle, pulling her in, placing a kiss every so delicate on her lips. “Welcome home, love.” he greets.
“Hello there yourself, I see you put yourself up to quite the task?” Belle inquires, laughing softly.
“Well, she insisted. Told me she wanted to surprise you…And you know, having inherited your stubbornness…” Jack teases, earning himself a little slap on the shoulder.
“Oh, shut it,” Belle rolls her eyes and kisses him once again. God, she will never grow tired of this. She hold the kiss for a while, with Jack slowly caressing her cheek, returning it, smiling into her lips.
“Long day?” he asks when they’re pulled away.
“Five surgeries…not a lot, just very intense,” Belle rests her forehead on his shoulder, letting the man put his hands around her waist and pull her closer.
“Well, then we shall read for Amelia and go straight to resting. I can take over for you tomorrow if you’d like…” Jack trails off.
“That’d be great. Maybe Amelia can show off her new skills to me,” Belle looks up at her husband, her chin now propped up on his chest. He smiles down at her, seemingly proud of himself.
“Jack?” she inquires after a moment of silence.
“Yeah?” he hums, looking at her questioningly.
“Let’s stick with medicine skills for now, yeah? Don’t teach her how to steal,” it was now Belle’s turn to tease her husband, the memories of their past flooding her mind as she speaks. The woman, of course, was not a fan of the Dodger’s past, having condemned thievery. Yet, she has to admit, the sheer skill Jack has acquired over the years was…impressive.
“Oh, love. Don’t you worry, she has plenty of time to learn the art of pickpocketing. You never know when it might become useful. Certainly, helped me a lot in surgery,” the man laughs, holding Belle close. She rolls her eyes at him.
When they enter their daughter’s bedroom, Amelia has already tucked herself in, eagerly waiting for her nightly bedtime story. Belle picks up the book from Amelia’s nightstand and turns a new chapter of the fairytale they were reading. The woman silently wonders about how long it will take for her to start reading anatomy books to her daughter as a bedtime story and silently chuckles at the thought. Both Jack and Belle lay with their daughter on the rather small bed, one on each side, with Belle softly reading the new chapter of the night and Jack gently caressing his daughter’s long, blonde hair, helping her fall asleep.
(Belle also believes Jack may be more enticed in the story than Amelia is (but in all actuality, Jack loves the way Belle’s voice sounds when she reads the stories and the calmness of his daughter’s light, even breaths. It reminds him of a childhood he did not and could not have)).
Belle can’t help but notice the way Jack looks at Amelia. A look so pure and soft, absolutely ready to give the entire world, the entire universe for the little girl lying in between them.
That night, Belle realizes: she’s not the girl Jack loves most in the world anymore.
But she didn’t mind. She definitely didn’t mind.