A Peculiar Time in 1944 - A Millard Fanfic (Miss Peregrine's Home) #wattys2020

Chapter 20

oOo oOo oOo Two Years Later oOo oOo oOo

MILLARD P.O.V.

He sat on a hill writing about what he'd observed in town that day, for the past two years he had buried himself in his work to distract him from the pain he felt in his chest everyday. After the break up with Aurora Hugh had been adamant that Millard was making a mistake. He should rush after her and ask her forgiveness, get on his knees if he had to and beg her to take him back. And Millard wanted to, he desperately wanted to but he wanted Aurora to have a chance to be happy without him. Hugh had called him a stubborn mule and left to find Fiona.

Everyday after that Millard made sure to wake up earlier than the others and head into town to work on his book. It helped to distract him from the million thoughts that ran through his head. He had listened to his head when he broke up with Aurora and now his heart was rebelling, if only he knew what it was saying. It was like his heart spoke an entirely different language that Millard could only partially understand, it was maddening!

Before he'd met Aurora he felt like his life was alright just missing some sort of purpose but now he felt like a piece of him had been taken away, it left him feeling empty. He found that he couldn't decide what was wrong and what was right anymore. So he decided to do nothing, he would take no action and let life work itself out. In the meantime he'd bury himself in his book and research – no matter how miserable he felt.

AURORA P.O.V.

Aurora was in the parlor with Bronwyn and Claire, the girls knew how depressed she'd been feeling and had invited her to join them in their tea party to cheer her up. Aurora welcomed the distraction and honestly was having a very good time with the younger peculiars.

Suddenly, the front door slammed shut and they saw Emma run up the stairs with a letter clutched in her hand, she seemed distraught.

"I'm going to go make sure she's okay." Aurora said before following Emma up the stairs. When she got to their room she found Emma sprawled out on her bed face down in a pillow. Aurora could hear her muffled sobs and sat beside Emma and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. After giving her a moment Aurora asked, "Emma what happened?"

Her only response was thrusting the crumpled envelope in her hand at Aurora. It was dated April 1963, the current time outside the loop, and it had no letter only photographs. Two were of Emma that she must have sent Abe and he'd sent back. The first was sent jokingly where Emma was peeling potatoes and pretending to smoke one of Miss Peregrine's pipes. The inscription on the bottom said 'peeling spuds and dreaming of you. Come home soon. Love, your potato.' The next one was sadder, probably sent after Abe had neglected to write for a while. It was Emma standing in front of a birdcage looking solemn. The back had a lipstick kiss and the writing beneath it said ' feeling caged without you. Won't you write? I worry so. Kisses, Emma.' The next photo had to be from Abe, it showed a middle aged man –Abe Aurora realized- holding a little girl probably around four years old. Underneath it had only three words 'This is why.'

Aurora's heart broke for her friend, she knew how bad it felt to have your heart broken but this was so different from her and Millard. Abe had fallen in love with another woman, gotten married, had children, became a father. And Emma was stuck here still a teenager, still living in the loop. Emma had been there for Aurora when she had felt so glum she didn't get out of bed for a week. She had snuck tubs of ice cream and spoons into their room and talked all night with Aurora while they filled their bellies with the frozen treat. And now Aurora would do the same for her.

oOo oOo oOo

The next morning Aurora and Olive barged into Emma's room. Aurora had a brown paper bag in one hand while Olive was holding a large tray piled high with French toast, bacon, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and muffins.

"Rise and shine sleepy head!" Aurora said cheerfully. Emma only groaned from under the covers.

"No, I'm not leaving this bed."

"Which is why we brought breakfast to you!" Aurora replied pulling the covers off of Emma. She rolled over and glared at them but when she saw the tray she smiled.

"What's all this?"

"This is your break-up breakfast!" Aurora answered with a smile. Emma seemed wary as Aurora reached into the brown paper bag and pulled out three glasses and set them on Emma's nightstand. Then she reached back into the bag and pulled out a carton of orange juice and a bottle of champagne. Olive put the tray down on the trunk at the end of Emma's bed as Aurora began to pour and serve mimosas.

oOo oOo oOo Two Years Later oOo oOo oOo

Together the three girls helped each other through their boy problems, Emma slowly came to terms with the fact that Abe had moved on, while Aurora continued to avoid Millard as best she could. Just seeing him made all the pain come back but at the same time knowing he was avoiding her as well caused a whole different kind of pain to emerge. Olive even had her own boy troubles; Enoch seemed completely oblivious to Olive's attentions and she was starting to feel like she'd have to be a dead cadaver if she was ever going to be important to him.

Day by day they helped each other through it and little by little they began to feel better. Before they knew it another two years had passed them by and it was 1965 – according to Miss Peregrine's calendar that she kept in the parlor. One day Aurora decided to write to Abe, she hadn't seen him since France and without his letters to Emma she had no idea how her old friend was doing. She knew Emma would feel awful if she mentioned it, so she decided to keep it from her friend as she snuck through the loop entrance to drop the letter in the post box in Cairnholm.

After she'd mailed the letter she was distracted by one of the magazines on display. She was in awe of how much the world had changed, the women on the cover of the magazine wore clothes with colors so bright Aurora's eyes hurt like she was looking into the sun. The patterns were as loud as the colors and the skirts they wore went at least two inches above the knee! When she opened the magazine she was shocked to see more women modeling clothes, some of them even wore pants! If they wore a shirt with sleeves the ends drooped like oddly shaped triangles and the bottoms of the pants matched. The hair was different too, in Aurora's time women – like her mother – curled their shorter hair on a daily basis. Aurora had never taken to the trend seeing as how a war was going on as she had entered adolescence. The women in the magazine had pin straight hair that only curled out at the bottom. It all struck Aurora as a very strange style and she was glad Cairnholm was too small and untouched by society to worry about keeping up with fashion trends, otherwise she'd stick out like a sore thumb.

She put the magazine back and turned to head back home and almost crashed into someone.

"Oh, pardon me." She apologized to the young man she'd walked into.

"No, it was my -" he paused as he got a good look at her. At first she didn't understand why he was staring but the more she looked at him the more familiar he seemed. She'd seen those bright blue eyes somewhere she just couldn't remember where.

"-fault." He finished before clearing his throat, "I'm sorry for staring but you remind me of someone."

Aurora shrugged nonchalantly, "I just have one of those kinds of faces." She said casually and hoped the young man would drop the subject. She knew if he ended up asking around about her the townspeople would have no idea who he was talking about. She couldn't risk him getting curious and poking his nose into her business. So she smiled and apologized again for nearly running into him and headed back down the road. She didn't get far before he yelled, "Aurora Abbott."

She paused but didn't look back at him and instead hurried down the street quicker than she had been moving before. It didn't seem to deter him though, since she heard his footsteps following her.