Who: Kara DanversBarnes Rogers and JohnnyStorm Rogers What: being cute married people Where: their house When: Monday afternoon Warnings: nope Status: complete gdoc
Johnny hadn’t ever really wanted to take over his family’s farm. But Steve had gone and become sheriff and the girls were girls, both had gone off to get married anyway, and responsibility had him stepping up rather than doing anything he might actually want to. It had all turned out alright. He didn’t hate the work, and there was something relaxing in farming, even if it was mostly just potatoes. Fields and fields of low growing plants, leaving the world open for as far as the eye could see. There was something nice in it, he came to realize with age.
He’d started courting Kara not long after taking the farm on, had started calling himself John instead and married her pretty quickly and brought her out to live with him, didn’t ask her to lend a hand with the outdoor chores but never turned her away when she insisted. The extra hands were nice. She was nice. A perfectly suitable wife who he was glad to have.
It wasn’t often that he went up the house in the middle of the day, especially with the harvest so close, but he clomped up the back porch and into the kitchen, smiling at finding Kara there up to her elbows in flour. “Don’t suppose you’ve got some coffee on?”
***
Being a farmer’s wife suited Kara well and John was a good husband. He was kind, provided well for her, and she knew that he’d be a wonderful father when they were blessed with children. Baking day was her favorite chore and she startled when she heard her husband speak.
“John! You gave me quite a fright,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you this early in the day. Is something wrong?”
It was unusual for him to return from the fields mid day, but he didn’t appear to be injured in any way. “The kettle is full. It will take a few minutes to boil.” Luckily the stove was lit since she was baking and she’d been to the well already.
***
“Nothing wrong, exactly.” He moved to put the kettle over the stove himself before going over to stand beside her, a hand at the small of her back. He was a touch dirty from working outside, wouldn’t make too much of a mess of her, but he did like to be nearby sometimes. “Gate went and got stuck in the mud is all. Spent the last hour getting it loose again.”
There was no getting a cart out into the field without the gate in working order and he’d have much rathered spent the hour doing any number of other things. But it was what it was and there was no use in complaining about it. Farm work came with its challenges, but at least he could come into the house and see his wife’s smiling face for a few moments before he went out again.
And maybe if he was lucky she’d have some baking finished that he could sneak away with him.
***
She automatically leaned over to press a quick kiss to his cheek when she felt his hand touching her back. “Don’t get any dirt on my bread,” Kara admonished. A little dirt didn’t bother her that much, but she’d prefer if it didn’t get in their food.
“So it’s unstuck now? I’m sure if you needed help, you could have asked Clark or Derek to stop by.” Even though her cousins had their own responsibilities, they were willing to lend a hand when they could.
They were relying on their harvest to keep them fed through the quickly approaching winter and couldn’t take any risk of losing any of the crop to an early freeze.
***
Obediently, he kept his hands well away from her baking. A little dirt had never hurt anyone but he wasn’t going to get it in their food if he could help it.
“It’s all sorted,” he assured of the gate. “One of the Mitchell’s boys happened to pass by and give his help.” The family whose farm lay a ways down the road from them was an odd bunch to be sure, and the subject of a fair amount of gossip especially now that one of the boys was about to be married, and to a perfectly nice young lady at that. “It was just a bit of rust caught up in it. I’ll have to change those hinges before the snow falls or we’ll be in for some trouble.”
No matter how clear he kept the path to the gate, it wouldn’t do a lick of good if it stopped moving. “Might be worth it to just pull it down until spring, though.”
***
“Long as it won’t hurt the crops, may as well,” Kara said. “Build a new one come spring.” The harvest was looking decent this fall, so they should have a little money to put aside for the materials.
The mention of the Mitchell boy reminded her of something. “You have a preference on which potatoes I use for my dish for the wedding?” she asked. “I was going to use some of what you brought in yesterday so they’re nice and fresh, but if you have those ear marked for someone else, I can take from our larder.”
Everyone was pitching in with food for the party. They hadn’t had a big to do in a while and with everything going on in town, it was something they sorely needed.
***
Nodding, Johnny filed her opinion on it away. He’d probably wind up tearing it down if it was going to get stuck like that. The work in the spring would be worth it and he could always call on one of the neighbouring farms for an extra set of hands, or hire on a boy for a few weeks like he often did for the harvest.
“Use whatever you like,” he told her. “Even don’t mind bringing you in a bucket or two when you’re going to make it if you want them fresh.”
There was plenty coming up, and though most of it would be going into town and onto wagons heading east for sale, he could and would happily spare plenty enough for Kara to cook up whatever it was she wanted to take along to the wedding. “What were you planning on making?”
***
Kara was still trying to decide. “If I get a decent churn this week, I was thinking I’d do mashed potatoes,” she said. They were always a treat when they were made with butter and milk and seemed like a festive addition to the wedding feast. “But if I don’t have enough butter, I was just going to fry them.”
Fried potatoes were a staple of their diets. They were tasty and easy to make though. “Unless you have another suggestion,” she added. Baked seemed like too much work for the whole town.
***
“Mashed potatoes sounds nice,” John said approvingly. It wasn’t something they bothered with all that often, needing extras they didn’t always want to use for their every day meals. Fried was always good enough for him, anyway, and Kara made them as well as his mother ever had. Better even. “Make that. If you need more butter, go into town and get some.”
He knew the Mitchells had made their contribution to his and Kara’s wedding celebration as well and it was only right to return it as well as they could manage to. If Kara needed to spend a few cents on butter she didn’t make herself, so be it. That would be their small contribution along with the labour John would put into helping set the party up and take it down again Monday morning.
***
If John thought it was okay to spend a few cents on butter, Kara would trust him, so she nodded. “Okay, mashed it is,” she said. They had a good harvest this year, enough to keep them fed through the winter months and also turn a good profit on what they sold, so it didn’t seem too extravagant to buy butter if needed. With any luck, her churning would give her enough though and it would be unnecessary.
“Maybe I’ll make us an apple pie too,” she added, her eyes twinkling since she knew that was her husband’s favorite. “It’s almost our anniversary, after all.”
***
John looked at her, his smile faltering briefly. He’d absolutely forgotten that was coming. “Is it? I didn’t bring you out here just in time for the harvest, did I?”
That sounded right, and exactly like what he’d done, but at the same time it seemed too soon in the year to be their anniversary somehow. He had a memory of their wedding day being cold, of having to put a coal heater by the bed when they’d gone to it. Likely, though, he was thinking of the day being married had finally sunk in.
***
“Just after,” Kara said with a grin. Their wedding day had been chilly though they’d found ways to stay warm. “Hard to believe it’s almost three years, isn’t it?”
It was a good three years, even though they hadn’t managed to have any children yet, something people liked to remind them of. They weren’t necessarily in a hurry, though Kara had been considering making an appointment with Dr. Banner to make sure there was nothing wrong.
***
“It is at that,” John agreed with a smile, and leaned over to press a kiss to the side of her head before drifting back to take the kettle off the stove. “Can’t imagine a better partner to be spending them with.”
He’d eyed up a couple of ladies in town regardless, did still go to the brothel now and then when he managed to squirrel away the money for it, but he was devoted to Kara and definitely cared deeply for her. She was an excellent wife and a good friend to his sisters and very helpful to have around the farm. There weren’t many better than her.
***
Kara didn’t pay any mind to what her husband got up to when he wasn’t home. He was a good provider and didn’t often take time for himself so she figured that he deserved it on those rare occasions. What she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.
“Just for that, I’ll give you a couple of cookies to enjoy with that tea,” she said. They were a luxury she didn’t get to bake often so today was obviously his lucky day.
***
“If a few sweet words is all it takes, I’ll have to give them a little more often,” John said with a laugh. He knew it would never be a regular treat, there wasn’t enough help around the house to manage the chores and keep sweets on the table, maybe if his his pregnant sister came to stay and have the baby but he wasn’t counting on that, she was the stubborn sort. It would be a few years after having a daughter of their own one day unless they took on an orphan or something.
Not something John was inclined toward doing. If he did, he’d want a boy to help him outside at any rate.
***
“Can’t have you lollygagging and avoiding your work that much,” Kara teased right back. It was probably the kind of thing some wives wouldn’t feel comfortable saying, but she knew that her husband didn’t look at her as property and appreciated her personality.
She did, however, wipe off her hands and decide to join him for a cup of coffee and a cookie before he headed back out to the fields.
***
“Who’s lollygagging?” There was a definite playfulness to the accusation. “A man can’t just want to spent a few moments in his own kitchen appreciating his beautiful wife?”
He didn’t toss around compliments like that very often, but had never made secret of appreciating that Kara was pretty and not just useful around the house. He really had gotten lucky with that one; far too often the pretty girls were useless and the useful ones were plain as anything. He knew he’d have had to choose a plain one for practicality sake if it weren’t for Kara, but he was glad that he hadn’t.
***
She knew she was lucky to have a handsome husband who appreciated her and she smiled. “Well, I suppose,” Kara said. “At least as long as it takes for us to drink this cup of coffee. Then it’s back to work for you.”
***
“Yes ma’am,” John said with a laugh. He couldn’t linger, he knew it, had only come in for a cup of coffee after working the gate loose. There was plenty to be done and the daylight hours were only getting shorter, nights only getting colder. He had too much to do and not enough time to do it in.