[Realm of the Muse] Response

You're walking along the beach one morning when you notice something sticking out of the sand. As you get closer, you realize it's a bottle with a message in it. You crack the bottle open and read it. What does it say?

[ooc: based on role play in milliways_bar]

She felt absolutely horrible. Seven months pregnant and Sarah Jane was positive that she couldn’t possibly get any bigger than she already was. She could barely see her feet below her stomach and what little she could see felt horribly swollen. Whoever said pregnancy was one of the most wonderful times in a woman’s life was completely wrong. In her opinion, anyone who actually agreed with that was deserving of the black eye she had given her husband earlier in the day.

So far, James’ idea of a beach get away hadn’t been much of a success. They had done little more than bicker on the way to Brittany, and had ultimately avoided each other the whole weekend. Today was their last day, before flying back in the early morning just in time for James to make the rush hour to work. Sarah was thankful for that. The sooner company included more than just her husband, the better.

At least this far away from the hotel, the beach atmosphere was peaceful. In the early hour, there were few people around. There wasn’t anyone to pester her about her condition, curious to know all they possibly could about the baby. There weren’t any children to avoid running in to and no pets either. Best of all, being in James’ world meant that there was absolutely no worry of any sort of alien threat. Sarah Jane was completely safe to walk along the beach without any sort of second thought.

Yet, there was only so far she could manage to walk without tiredness wearing her down. Though she would have liked to explore further, Sarah had gotten good at recognizing her limitations these past few months. She carefully sat on one of the many rocks that formed a line out towards sea, smiling as the tide splashed around her ankles. The water felt good on her sore feet, as did resting. Valerie seemed to agree; playful kicks reminded Sarah Jane of how much her daughter already was a handful to deal with. Naturally, she blamed James entirely.

Sarah was content to sit on the rock and watch the waves in the far off distance. She rubbed at her belly as she watched, both pleased and annoyed when Valerie seemed to return her gesture in the only way she knew how. As she watched boats pass in the distance, she yearned for travelling. What she wouldn’t give to be on some alien planet right now. But those trips would have to wait a while yet.

Lost in thought, Sarah was startled at the feel something smooth hit her foot. She bent downward the best that she could to investigate and was surprised to see the bottom of a bottle slowly being freed from its sandy prison by the surf. Grinning to herself, she dug around with her foot until the bottle popped out. Then, it was easy enough to collect from the surf.

She was even more surprised when she saw a faded note inside. But she wouldn’t have a chance to read it just yet. Before she could even attempt to open the bottle, Sarah heard her voice echo in the wind. She craned her head, and smiled wryly when she saw who it was. Eyebrows went up and her face fixed itself into a stern glare. The yelling quickly became more discernable as James hurried down the beach. It was clear that he didn’t want her playing on the rocks. That only made Sarah Jane more determined to stay put.

After sticking her tongue out at him, she turned her attention back to the bottle. The cap was sealed with some sort of wax to prevent leakage. It shouldn’t be too hard to open it. There was only one way to find out; but once again, she found herself interrupted.

“Sarah.” He spoke sternly, looking at her with concern and anger, both traits barely visible but obviously there. She had been around him enough in the past year to know what looks like mild anger on some is really cold fury on James Bond. He was not happy with her, and for a moment, Sarah Jane almost regretted punching him this morning.

“Sarah,” he repeated. “Please find somewhere else to sit.”

She shook her head, turning her attention back to the bottle. Sarah found no reason to be talking to him right now. All the bloke was good for was knocking women up, or, at least, knocking her up. She was tired of this pregnancy. A pregnancy, she kept maintaining, that was entirely his fault. Instead, she began to pick at the wax.

His sigh was rather audible. “Would it help if I apologised for earlier?”

No. The only thing that would help would be if this whole mess suddenly went away. But this time around, thinking of a life without Valerie and a life without James got to her in a way it hadn’t the other fifty-two times she had thought it today. She possibly couldn’t imagine her life without them. She didn’t want anything else but her daughter and her husband at this very moment. It was an absolutely horrid concept.

Her sniffles and tears started quietly, quickly picking up in volume and anguish. As she held up the bottle with one hand, she used the other to wipe at her face. Sarah Jane didn’t even protest when James gently pulled her up from the rocks and held her close to him. She only sobbed, pushing the bottle into his chest.

“…just…wanna know…what’s in there,” she murmured between tears.

Whatever James’ response was to her daft request, it was lost on Sarah until he began stroking the tears off her cheeks with his thumbs. Misty eyed, she looked up at him, confused. He placed a small kiss on her forehead, smiling softly. Then he held up the note from the bottle, having opened it while she cried.

“It’s in French,” he explained before kissing her forehead again. “And it doesn’t say a lot. It’s from a man -- don’t ask me who, darling; the name’s faded – to his fiancée. He was away at sea and thought of her every waking second, much like I have of you all weekend. He misses her dearly and only wishes that he could spend all morning lounging around in bed with no one else in the world but the two of them.”

He smiled warmly at her as he crinkled up the message. Sarah Jane hesitantly returned the smile, wiping away the last of her tears. It wasn’t exactly the apology she had hoped for, but it had worked. At the very least, they had today to salvage the awful vacation. She knew by the way that he looked at her that it would be a day well spent. Lost in thoughts of love, she never even bothered to question the contents of the note.

James ducked his head down to give her a tender kiss, one that Sarah eagerly returned. As they kissed, he allowed the crumpled up note to fall into the water splashing around him. She would never know that her message in a bottle was a ship’s inventory list rather than a love note. They were both content to leave it this way.