#woman stresses about exam she willingly applied and studied for

[duskofastraeus]

Got my DELF exam results back and I officially have the French B2 diploma!! I got an 81% and though I think I could have done better, I am just glad that the entirely nightmarish routine of reading 92728 articles and listening to 98228 podcasts about French sociopolitical problems everyday is gone! Now I just have to focus on Spanish and Italian in order to obtain the DELE and the CILS…

[imagineclaireandjamie]

The Getaway: Part 10.

Anonymous said: Seriously dying for COC and the Getway. Please? More chapters?

The Getaway Part 9: HERE.

Jamie had been rubbing Claire���s feet on and off in front of the fireplace as the warmth encased them. Brian and Ellen, Julia and Henry had all gone out for a meal together in Inverness city centre leaving the lovestruck young pair to have an evening to themselves.

“Why don’t ye want me to come?” Jamie whispered, moving Claire’s hair to the side so that he could nuzzle her neck.

They had quietly been discussing Claire’s return to Oxford to pick up her A Level results. Jamie desperately wanted to be there for her when she received them but Claire was nervous. Not only was she beginning to show a little, but since she’d hightailed it to the highlands she hadn’t been in contact with any of her friends and to have them meet Jamie this way worried her a little.

“I do, Jamie,” she replied, her cheeks flushed red from the blaze of the fire, “b-but what if I do badly and everyone sees that I’m pregnant AND THEN I have to introduce you to people. I just don’t know if I can cope with so much pressure in one day.” Burrowing closer to Jamie, Claire tried to dispel the nerves from simply thinking about results day but her stomach gurgled loudly, betraying her.

“What if I stay in the car while you go into school?” He almost begged, not wanting her to leave without him. “I willna get in the way, I promise. I just want to be wi’ you. If you leave,” he continued, his fingers moving to splay over her midriff, “then you’ll be gone for nearly a week. I’ll miss you.”

“I know,” Claire said her heart skipping a beat. “I’d miss you too. I just don’t know what to do.”

“Can I come wi’ you then, and if you want me there I’ll come and if no’ I’ll just stay at your house until yer back?”

“What if I don’t want to go at all?” Claire sighed, moving to stand.

Jamie stopped her though, pulling her back against him. She went willingly but sat more rigid now. “You dinna have to do anything, but surely ye want to ken yer results?”

“Does it really matter now? I’m not going to university anyway. All that anxiety and stress for nothing,” she muttered. “I don’t want to go back, not to Oxford, not now. I want to be here with you. They’ll post my results or mum and dad can go and collect them, and besides,” she sniffed. “I can go online and they’ll tell me whether I’ve been accepted to university without me having to collect them in person, won’t they?”

“Aye, that’s true,” Jamie returned. “But ye will be going to uni, Claire. You’ve wanted to be a doctor for a long while, mo nighean, ye canna just give that up.”

“What if I want to be a mother now, instead?”

“But that willna be forever. Whether ye just want to just defer for a year or a wee bit longer, there might come a time when ye do want to go back and study. Then ye’ll want to be prepared. Collecting yer results was supposed to be a grand moment, ken? Ye told me how excited you were when we were away.”

“I’ve just changed my mind, that’s all,” she said finally. “You’re right, one day -maybe- I’ll want to re-apply for the course but now I just want to be here. Just you, me and our baby.”

Smiling, Jamie plucked the blanket from the back of the sofa and wrapped them snuggly in it. It warmed his heart to hear her talk about their child positively. Claire didn’t seem worried about how young they were or that the pregnancy had all but derailed her university plans. She just seemed to have fallen into it head first with no regrets.

“You know you can still start your course, right?” Claire whispered, unable to read Jamie’s expression as they snuggled on the settee.

“Och, I ken that I want to. But no’ in September.”

“You don’t need to stay at home with me, you know?”

“As much as ye want to be a mother,” Jamie replied, “I want to be a father. I ken our parents have been verra supportive and while we have them on our side I’d like to stay wi’ you. I can help Da around the farm wi’ chores and such, that’ll give me some experience but some days I’d just like to raise our bairn wi’ you. If ye dinna think I’ll get in the way,” he jested.

Pushing herself up, her hands resting either side of Jamie she looked deep into his eyes and smiled gently. “You want to be a stay at home dad?”

“Aye,” he said proudly. “I do.”

“And you want to come to Oxford with me?”

“I really do, lass.”

“Then let’s go,” she decided, bending in for a kiss. Melting against him, Claire let her lips mould to his as he pulled her back into his arms. Claire’s belly brushed against Jamie’s and she suddenly felt a huge surge of energy rush through her. It wasn’t the movement she’d been used to but something infinitely more powerful.

Gasping she pulled back a little, enough that Jamie pushing himself upwards as he tried to keep the contact between their mouths. Opening his eyes, he glanced up at her and watched as she shifted the bed-shirt from around her tummy and watched the small bump as if it might grow right before her eyes.

“What is it, a ghraidh?” he asked, his gaze held on her stomach now.

“I think I felt the baby move. Actually moved...not just bubbles.”

“Bubbles?” Jamie asked, tipping his head to the left as he looked back up at Claire’s face.

“Yes. It was like...gas,” she said, blushing madly at the admission. “Little bubbles of gas rising within me, floating around and bursting on the inside of my belly but not that one. It felt like a solid kick to my abdomen.”

Placing his large hand over her newly exposed stomach, Jamie leaned forward and watched intently as his fingers stroked her soft skin. “We’re halfway through now, my own,” he whispered, his lips coming to rest over the small incline that lead up to her covered breasts. “We canna wait to meet you. You are safe and loved, wee baby Fraser.”

Shaking, Claire reached her hand down to bury in Jamie’s hair as she tried to curtail her sobs. Tears ran down her cheeks despite her trying to contain them, though. She watched as the droplets of water fell onto Jamie’s arms. He jerked, smiled and looked up before bringing her back down to his level and holding her against his chest.

“The more I begin to feel the baby move, the more I know this is the right thing.” Claire said happily.

“...and the more time ye spend wi’ me the more I love ye, mo chridhe.”

“Well, intelligent and well travelled...” she quipped, kissing Jamie’s neck softly. “Though the former has yet to be proven since I think I vomited my way through my exams.”

“Hush, you,” Jamie whispered contentedly. “You’ll have passed them. I ken you. You studied hard, even when we were away. I have faith in ye, utter faith.”

“Foolish mortal,” Claire laughed yawning through her words.

“You forget,: he returned cockily, “I’m clever too, ye wee sassenach smartypants.”

“Wise you are,” Claire said, doing her very best Yoda impersonation.

“True. Can I ask ye, Claire?” Jamie asked quietly.

She could tell that he was nervous now, his knee jiggling as the lay in the semi-dark lounge. “Of course, what do you want to know?”

“Will ye marry me before the bairn comes? I know yer mam made a comment about waiting until afterwards and I ken that would probably be a smart move. We’d have more time to plan it and buy nice things. But I just want to be yer husband. I just want to marry ye - wi’out the pomp and circumstance.”

“Oh God, yes please,” Claire returned without waiting for him to fully finish. “I want to marry you but I overheard our parents talking about guest numbers and I don’t want a massive ceremony.”

Jamie knew from the very beginning that Claire wasn’t interested in having masses of unknown relatives staring watery eyed at her as she walked down the aisle. She wasn’t nervous of it, but he had a rather large extended family - he was used to it - but she’d only ever known her parents and her estranged uncle Quentin (known affectionately as Lamb). Suggesting a small, intimate occasion was a little selfish on his part but he knew she’d agree with him.

“I just want ye all to myself, Claire,” he said. “And I dinna want to wait 5 months, maybe more to declare myself officially to you.”

“Then let’s elope,” Claire said, her hushed whisper sounding deadly serious as she slid her nose along the column of his neck and up so that she could look into his eyes as she spoke. “We don’t need to tell anyone, we just disappear. We’ll be married before they find us.”

“Gretna?” Jamie replied, his voice becoming incredibly high pitched as nerves got the better of him.

“Yes, anywhere, just me and you?”

“Okay,” Jamie said, his smile matching Claire’s as they grappled to hug each other. “When?”

“Before Oxford, please?”

“Next week then? I can take mam’s car - we can say we’re going into Inverness for the day, aye? That way we’ll have some time before they know we’re gone.”

Nodding, Claire gripped Jamie’s t-shirt as she tried to reply and failed. Having been so deep into her revision, Claire had not yet passed her driving test and even if she had, she wouldn’t have been insured on the Fraser’s car so it would have to be Jamie who did the driving.

“Do you think they’ll be mad?” Claire said, finding her voice at last.

“Possibly. But Mam and Da ran away to marry, I dinna think they’ll be mad for long.”

“Good,” Claire replied, her heart slowing back to a normal rate now. “They’ve done so much for us, I don’t want them to hate me for suggesting this.”

“Ye silly bean, they could never hate ye or be mad at us for long. They’ll ken it’s what we want and they’ll be happy for us...eventually.”

“Then it’s settled,” Claire whispered against Jamie’s shoulder. “Next week.”

“Aye, Mrs Fraser-to-be,” Jamie rasped, emotion suddenly getting the better of him. “Next week I get to say ‘I do’.”

“Who says I’m taking your name?” she quipped in return. “I’m an independent woman, I might want to keep my own surname.”

Picking her up and swirling her around as gently as possible, Jamie placed Claire back on her feet again, captured her lips beneath his and whispered against them so low that she barely heard him over the crackle of the fire. “Maybe, if ye want that mo nighean donn, maybe I’ll take yer name instead.”

Claire laughed, her tears returning as she lead Jamie upstairs by the hand. Turning around on the stairs she winked, causing the light to catch the moist pink glow of her cheeks. “Well, Mr Beauchamp-to-be,” she chuckled, “I think that makes you a very modern man.”

“One that ye want to take ye to bed?”

“One that I would *very much* like to take to bed,” she said, entering their bedroom and peeling back the sheets.”How about,” she continued, sitting down and patting the mattress in invitation, “Mrs Beauchamp-Fraser-to-be?” As much as she’d been serious about suggesting him taking her name and her keeping her own, the sound of his name and hers combined on his lips gave her a thrill like nothing else.

“So long as we’re together, mo nighean donn,” Jamie said, joining her in bed. “I dinna care what we’re called, aye?”

“Agreed,” Claire sighed, wrapping her arms around Jamie’s waist as they both pulled the covers securely around them. “In the immortal words of Metallica, nothing else matters.”