Timeless

Chapter 45

A/N: Okay....give me all the pregnancy thoughts, questions, headcanons, I'm to that point haha

The car ride back to the house was done in total and complete silence. After Kathryn had finally stopped the tears from spilling down her cheeks, she had asked to go home—and Gale agreed. Judith was an absolute terror for approaching Kathryn publicly about something that was none of her damn business anyway. They hadn't even been married for a full year and already it seemed that people were butting into things that had nothing to do with them.

If he had been patient with Judith before—all of that was gone now and he couldn't care less if they never spoke again. He'd keep Kathryn away from that woman with all of the gusto of a man protecting his wife. Even if it meant keeping her from her own mother.

Gale glanced over at Kathryn as he drove—she said nothing. Her gaze was kept carefully trained on the streets that they were passing. "You shouldn't listen to her," Gale said in a careful tone. He knew that treading lightly was going to be the thing that kept him on good terms with Kathryn.

"About which part?" Kathryn questioned, letting out a sigh. "The part where I'm a whore or the part where I'm selfish and driving you away?"

"To all of it."

Kathryn just sucked in a sharp breath and tore her gaze away from Gale. "You know—it wasn't so bad getting called a whore by everyone else. But from her—"

Instantly, Gale's right hand was on her hand and holding it gently. "You're not ."

She just gave him a pained smile. "Are you gonna hit everyone who makes me cry?" She questioned quietly.

Gale remembered—faintly—that back when they had been on base, he had punched the man who made Kathryn cry. And truth be told, every single time that someone had ever even questioned Kathryn's integrity or made any such comments, he had wanted to beat people senseless. She was his wife —and he'd be damned if he let people get away with that.

"I just might."

"We're gonna be here for a while then," Kathryn murmured as he parked the car in their driveway.

"Come on—" Gale's voice died in his throat as he looked over at Kathryn, just sitting in the car. "Honey?"

"I'm coming," Kathryn was slow to follow him, steps heavy as she made her way inside.

Even the inside of their house seemed to have a somber tone—despite the fact that it had been her refuge just hours earlier. As soon as the door was securely shut, Gale just gathered Kathryn up in his arms and hugged her against him gently.

"It's not always going to be like this," Gale murmured into her hairline.

She wasn't so sure about that. Kathryn suddenly felt very much like she was a liar . Because her mother hadn't necessarily been wrong about something that she had said. It was true, they had only been married for a year. But Kathryn had avoided the topic of children of their own—avoided the topic of pregnancy even—and that all was for a reason.

Breaking away from the hug, Kathryn just let out a deep sigh and looked up into Gale's eyes. Those deep eyes—with the expanse of an ocean and a sky, the promise of freedom, the promise of life—

"Do you want kids?" Kathryn murmured the words that terrified her more than any other words in existence.

Gale's expression flickered for just a moment, hovering in between uncertainty and confusion. "We don't have to talk about this right now, Kath."