Chapter 12

"Oh…" Fern sighs as she approaches them and saw what she had interrupted. "Come on. Let's get you two some cake and champagne." She turns back towards the house where Calla is standing in a door way looking humored. Fern looks beet red in the face as she grabs her girlfriend's hand and walks towards the cake.

Violet and Leon watch as their friends go back into the house before turning back to each other. Their eyes meet and they're both smiling. Leon nearly laughs the words. "We should go celebrate the birthday girl. She'll be wanting a toast from me, and if I don't deliver I won't hear the end of it."

After the cake and champagne is served Mr. and Mrs. Appleton begin the toasts. "Today we celebrate our lively Fern." Her father, a well dressed man in his early fifties begins. Her mother continues the toast. "Ever since she was little she has kept us on our toes. She was always climbing on things and digging through things, wether it be through her parent's closets," She pauses for the laughter with a pleased smile on her face. "Or the whole she dug in the garden she said would reach to the other side of the world." More laughter from the audience erupts, even a little chuckle from Violet before she turns to Leon and whispers. "That's absurd!" He laughs a little harder from Violet's response. He lowers his voice to respond. "That's Fern."

When the laughter has subsided Fern's father speaks again. "This being her eighteenth birthday her mother and I have decided to sponsor her and a team of four other travelers to adventure to the place Fern has always wanted to go." He smiles at his daughter with tiny tears in his eyes, and his wife finishes the announcement. "To the other side of the world!" She raises her glass as Fern's mouth nearly drops to the floor. Ever raises their glasses and the crows responds. "To the other side of the world!"

As the crowd settled Leon found Fern staring at him intently and he knew she wanted him to give a birthday toast. He just shook his head and mouthed. "How am I supposed to top that?!" Fern can't read lips so she is just getting more irritated until Leon finally speaks up. "Well! I don't have a gift as amazing as what Mr. and Mrs. Appleton have just given, but I may have something greater. I have a friend named Fern Appleton who is a constant reminder to live our lives fearlessly. To Fern!" He raises his glass and everyone repeats his last statement before clinking their glasses to whoever is near and taking a sip. He turns to violet to clink his glass to her and she speaks in a joking tone. "That was a good speech. Did someone write it for you?"

He almost spits some champagne at her from the shock of her joking with him again. Once he downs the champagne in his mouth and clears his throat he responds a little cheekily. "I've been reading a lot, I think the writer is wearing off on me… something about honey attracting more bees."

After all the toasting was done and the cake was eaten, Violet could see that Leon was getting quit exhausted. She found an opening to speak to Fern. "I had a lovely time tonight Fern. I think I should get Leon home." Fern leaned to see around Violet to see Leon slumped on a couch looking like he needed to sleep. "You're quite right. It's an exciting day for him tomorrow."

Violet smiles, "Yes, I'm sure he is very excited to get his cast off." She knows that Fern is only talking about getting his cast off and not all of the other plans they had made for the day.

Fern giggles, "One step closer to the other side of the world!" When Fern finished her statement she saw the confused look on Violet's face. "Oh, they told me weeks ago about the trip, and I asked Leon to be on the team. As soon as he is healed up enough we head out. He didn't tell you?"

Violet felt a little uneasy about this whole arrangement. "I'm not sure why he would have. I'm leaving tomorrow— and we hadn't really talked about when or how we might see each other again after that…"

Fern crossed her arms and glared out at the nearly asleep Leon, who is not even aware of the exchange between his friend and Violet, before returning her focus back to Violet with warm eyes. "Well, at least you'll have something interesting to talk about on the car ride home!" She laughs. "I'm sure that the two of you will figure something out. He is hopeless in oof!" Fern's statement was cut short by her girlfriend elbowing her in the ribs. "What the heck was that for Calla?" Calla just shook her head at Fern until it sunk in that Leon still hadn't expressed his feelings to Violet yet and made and "oooh" face before smiling back at Violet. "Thank you for coming to my party Violet. I hope that you and I meet again. Feel free to use my room to change back into your dress." Violet bows her head and thanks Fern again for lending her the beautiful dress.

Once in the car, heading back to the little house, Leon asked if he could rest his head on her shoulder. Violet didn't respond to his question the way he thought she would.

"Leon— when do the doctors say you'll be healed enough to go back out on your adventures?" She asked after looking down at his leg and then up into his soft blue eyes that make her feel a little weak.

He blinked, not sure where these questions are coming from. "I get the cast off next week. After that it's just a process of gaining muscle back, which will happen faster the sooner I'm back out in the world and not cooped up in that house." Watcher her face, the way a wrinkle formed near one of her eyebrows and her lips tugged to one side for a moment he was beginning to wonder if there was something she wasn't telling him.

"How long will this trip be?" She asks before biting her lip.

"Well, even though we are being sponsored by her family, we want to be frugal with their money, so we won't be taking planes. We will just stick to trains and boats… I'm not sure exactly how long we will be there honestly, we haven't really discussed a deadline… oh…" he was starting to see why she was asking the questions. He blamed his tiredness on his slow uptake. He wanted to ask 'are you wondering when we might see each other again after tomorrow?' But he didn't, he just let the silence take over the car.

When they arrived at the little house Violet went ahead of Leon to the house and he stood at the fence, watching her walk away for a moment. Just as her foot met the first step he spoke. "Violet." She turned to look at him. His voice was calm. "Would you… mind helping me up the stairs?"

She raised an eyebrow, her foot still on the first step. "I thought you could climb them on your own?" She knew full well that he could.

"I can." He said before starting the short walk to the house. "But can and should are two different things, so I'm told."