Chapter Text
“Blythe.”
A voice makes Gilbert stir in his sleep. He lets out a whimper and rolls over, refusing to wake up.
“Blythe. Gilbert,” the voice insists, and he feels a hand shaking his arm.
Bash?
“Wake up you moke!”
Yup. Definitely Bash.
Gilbert finally manages to slightly open his eyes and the afternoon light blinds him. Bash is standing over him, looking slightly exasperated.
“What?” Gilbert asks, voice muffled with sleep. “What time is it?”
“It’s almost one in the afternoon,” Bash replies. “I know you had a long shift at the hospital last night but this is an emergency.”
At this Gilbert bolts up in his bed, his doctor brain taking over any trace of sleepiness. “What happened? Are you okay? Is Delly okay?”
“Everyone’s fine!” Bash quickly says, wincing. “Sorry, not that kind of emergency.”
“Bash!”
“I’m sorry! But it is an emergency,” Bash insists. “I wouldn’t wake you up if it wasn’t.”
“Okay, okay,” Gilbert says, rubbing his eyes. “What is it?”
“You need to pick up Delphine from school.”
“That’s it? Don’t you usually call a babysitter for that?” he asks, slightly confused.
“Yes, Blythe, but Mr Barry just called about a last minute situation with the exports team and Mrs Lynde couldn’t come on such short notice,” Bash explains, visibly frustrated with his adoptive brother’s refusal to just get up already. “So can you please do your uncle duty and go pick Delly up?”
“When does she get out?”
“In half an hour, ” Bash says pointedly.
“Oh shit!” Gilbert finally gets out of bed and hastily starts getting dressed. “Okay, I’m coming.”
“Thank you!” Bash calls out, already rushing out the front door. “I’ll text you the address. Don’t be late!”
*
Gilbert is late.
It’s not completely his fault, traffic in the afternoon is always a nightmare even in their relatively small city. That, and he had never been to little Delphine’s school so he accidentally gets lost. He’s not extremely late though, so he’s sure he’ll be able to persuade his 7-year-old niece into forgiving him with a quick trip to her favorite ice cream shop. He just hopes Bash thought ahead and called the school so her teacher doesn’t think he’s trying to kidnap Delly or something.
He vaguely recalls Delly talking about her teacher during dinner. Gilbert never took his niece’s stories about Miss Shirley too seriously, knowing how wild Delly’s imagination is. It’s just impossible that a teacher would do things like take her students on a field trip to the middle of the forest so they could “whisper secrets to the trees, the best listeners nature had to offer”. It simply sounded ridiculous, but Delly did complete a very nice project on the different varieties of trees in Prince Edward Island.
When Gilbert finally arrives to the school building—and only about ten minutes late, to his infinite relief—he feels uneasy. Like there’s something momentous about to happen to him but he doesn’t know exactly what. Weird. He walks up the steps to the front door when someone pulls it open from the inside and a red-headed figure barrels into him.
“Whoa!” he exclaims taking the young woman by the arms before they both fall down the stairs. “Are you okay?”
Then she looks at him with big blue eyes and his heart picks up speed. His mind goes blank as they both take each other in. She’s short, barely coming up to his shoulders. Her long red hair is cascading down her back and she’s looking at him with parted lips and a faint blush on her freckle-covered cheeks. Cute, his unhelpful mind supplies. He swears the world slows down around them, and he almost forgets where he is. Then it’s like the woman in front of him suddenly shakes herself off the weird spell between them.
“Sorry,” she sputters. “Oh god! I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay, no worries,” he smiles at her.
“This is mortifying,” she continues, avoiding his gaze. “Utterly mortifying! I wish this was the first time my overactive brain makes me lose sight of my surroundings but I can promise it’s not, probably not the last either...”
“It’s fine, really!”
“...which is why the principal will have a field day with this,” the redhead rattles on, “she was just reminding me about the perils of being distracted in the school environment and not even an hour later here I am. Harming people!”
“You just bumped into me,” Gilbert quips, amused.
“Oh but only because you’re an adult, and my tiny constitution couldn’t possibly make a big impact, but imagine the catastrophic consequences of such an accident if I were to crash into one of our tiny students!”
“Well, I won’t tell if you don’t,” he gives her a teasing grin. “This... accident can stay between us.”
The woman rolls her eyes but seems grateful. He takes a proper look at her this time and that’s when he notices that she’s covered in paint of different colors from head to toe. There’s a big splotch of green on her right cheek and multicolored droplets all over the tips of her red hair. She’s wearing an apron that maybe someday was white, but now is anything but. She looks like she’s just come back from a paintball battle instead of a classroom. She notices him staring and crosses her arms in front of her, self consciously.
“Can I help you with anything?”
“Uh...” Shit. Gilbert had almost forgotten why he was in the school in the first place. Luckily for him, this is the moment his niece finds him.
“Uncle Gilby!” Delphine squeals, throwing herself at his legs. He smiles and picks her up, almost forgetting the weird encounter with the woman still in front of him.
“Hello Princess Delphine,” he says warmly. “Daddy couldn’t come pick you up, wanna have a date with your favorite uncle?”
“You’re late!” she chastises him, crossing her little arms.
“I know,” he says, apologetically. “Will you forgive me if I buy you ice cream?”
“Three whole balls?” she asks excitedly. Gilbert laughs.
“Okay, but don’t tell your dad,” he whispers conspiratorially. Delly giggles and he puts her down, taking her little hand in his. Then he turns to the woman still standing in front of them. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Gilbert Blythe, Delphine’s uncle. Her father couldn’t pick her up today, he had a last minute situation at work.”
The redhead begins to introduce herself but the little girl in Gilbert’s arms interrupts her.
“Uncle Gil this is Miss Shirley! She’s super smart like you,” Delly says excitedly. “Isn’t she the prettiest girl in the whole world?”
At this both adults blush a deep red. They both avoid the other’s eyes and Gilbert clears his throat wishing his niece hadn’t inherited Bash’s gift for embarrassing him in public.
“That’s impossible, Princess Delphine,” he answers, very pointedly not looking at the indeed very pretty woman in front of him. “You are the prettiest girl in the world. Now go pick up your stuff, we should get going.”
Delly giggles in delight and runs back into the school building, leaving the two adults alone in an awkward silence. Gilbert looks back at the teacher and tries to clear the tension.
“So you’re the famous Miss Shirley?” he asks, flashing her a smile.
“I guess I am. Most adults just call me Anne, though,” she replies, offering her hand. He shakes it and he does an okay job of ignoring the strange tingling sensation the handshake gives him. Anne clears her throat this time—looking similarly affected, might he add—and tries to stir the conversation into a safe topic. “Delphine is a very bright girl, you must be proud.”
“Oh yeah, I am,” he smiles warmly. He never thought he’d be the type of person to get sappy about kids, but watching Delly grow up has been one of the greatest joys of his life. She’s brought so much joy to their home, and she continues to amaze him every day with the things she learns and the adventures she get herself into at just seven years old. He can’t quite contain the expression of pure love that takes over his face, and Anne must pick up on it because she smiles back at him. He looks back at her... colorful current state of being and chuckles. “I’ve heard a lot about you, actually. I thought Delly was making your crazy lessons up, but I guess I was wrong.”
He didn’t mean it as a bad thing, but the icy glare she gives him tells him his choice of words was definitely a mistake.
“Excuse me?!” she whispers, anger clear in her voice. Gilbert gulps.
“Oh! I didn’t mean...”
“I’ll have you know that my methods are calculated and highly efficient,” she hisses. “It’s enough that the old fashioned people at this school question me even though I’ve proven myself time and time again. I won’t tolerate it from someone who’s only known me for fifteen minutes and hasn’t even set foot in this school once!”
Gilbert is at a loss of words. He obviously didn’t mean to offend Anne, but the fire in her eyes suggests she is very much offended—even tempted to hit him with something given the opportunity. He hates himself for it, but underneath all the embarrassment he thinks Anne Shirley is a passionate individual alright. He can’t lie to himself and say she doesn’t look beautiful all riled up, because she does—hands resting on her hips, eyes bright, flushed cheeks, looking ready to take on the world.
Before he can say something even more idiotic and give her an opportunity to actually slap him, his very opportune niece bursts through the door again demanding the ice cream he promised.
He lets sweet, unaware Delly drag him away as he casts an apologetic look at the still furious teacher. She merely crosses her arms in front of her.
“Good afternoon, Mr Blythe,” Anne says coldly. With that she turns and disappears inside the building.
Gilbert is left with the strongest shame clouding his thoughts and a heart doing somersaults inside his chest. Fuck.