Getting Situated

Posted on Mon Nov 18th, 2024 @ 1:37am by Killian Sutton & Calista Sutton

793 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Settling In
Location: Homestead
Timeline: September 15th, 1030 pm

Calista was grabbing the last of the things that they needed for a longer duration stay at the homestead from the car when Killian sidled up to her.

"How are you doing?" he asked her quietly.

Even though she knew he was there, she still jumped a little. "I'm fine."

"No really, Cal, how are you doing?" he asked her, this time, turning her to face him, hands on her shoulders, embracing her with his worried stare.

Stifling a sigh, she looked at him, and exhaled, slumping a smidge in his locked hold. "Tired. Hungry. Worried. Terrified. Unsure of what is to come. Wondering about our own future and what's to come with us. We've been lucky. Savannah not so much. What of our parents? Will we ever be able to have kids and turn this world around?" she started rambling questions after her emotional state statements. "I mean, we had our shot, did we lose it because of the stress with what happened to Savannah and the rest of the world? Is there something wrong with me?" Tears were forming in her eyes and her chest was feeling tight. "Oh Killian, what are we going to do?"

"Shh," he said, folding her from his locked hold to a tight embrace. His hand rested on her shoulders, holding her close to him, while the other one rubbed the back of her head.

Tears broke free from her that she had been holding for being too strong.

Killian just held her and whispered sweet things to her to help her get through it.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she uttered softly between sobs. She was ugly crying at this point in time.

"You've been a rockstar hero for the last couple of weeks, sweetheart. You survived the impossible," he said reassuringly. "I don't even know how we managed to survive everything in Maine, find survivors that took us west with them."

"What about our families? Is anyone looking after them?" she asked.

"We just have to hope that they are alive, Cal. There's nothing else that we can do right now about them."

Hugging him tightly everything bubbled up to the surface and remained there, fresh as an open wound. While she felt both freed from the burden of her thoughts and worries, she felt raw from the harsh emotions as they had sliced through her so quickly. It wasn't something that she was planning on. Originally, she was going to tell him off to leave her alone. She had been in her head for most of the day anyways, heck, most of the last couple of weeks. Time both slowed down and was speedy. Now with the harvest in full swing here in Wisconsin, their home abandoned in Tennessee and their families scattered, hopefully alive somewhere, she hadn't wanted to deal with it or anyone at that time. That was the thing about her husband, and she was that way with him: he knew she needed her bottle to break, and now she had allowed it all out. "I'm fairly certain I'm going to feel hungover in the morning," she commented quietly.

"Probably," he mentioned quietly back to her. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings and there was nothing there that he could see. He looked down at his wife, his hands now moving to cradle her face within them. Kissing her gently on the lips and then the forehead, he looked back at her. "We'll be okay, Cal, one way or another. Sugar butt, you're stuck with me as long as we have a shot."

Sniffling, she leaned up to kiss him. "Yeah. Thanks for seeing what I couldn't see."

"Oh come here," he whispered, pulling her into another embrace. "At least we have each other through the end of days and we'll go down swinging, one way or another."

"Yeah," she said.

"Are you good with being here with these people. or is this something that we need to go and address on our own?" he asked again in hushed voices.

"No. We have a chance to live here, where as uncertainty lies on the horizon. I like the people here, they don't make me feel uncomfortable even though I feel uncomfortable just being within my skin most days."

"Calista, we suffered a major loss that we really didn't have a chance to grieve, especially when the Inn got overrun. If anything, grieve now. This is our chance to mourn our losses," his hand snaked between them and caressed her belly. "Hopefully one day things will be better and we can go for a family again."

"Love you."

"And I you. Now, let's get ready for bed."

"Yeah, let's not waste anymore batteries than we need to," she replied.

 

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