July 28th 1914

Jack's POV

I traced my pencil as fast as I could over the sketch paper, attempting to win yet another race to finish a drawing of my daughter before she grew bored and moved onto the next object of fascination. Right now, she was utilizing her newly discovered skill of ripping up bits of grass to throw down onto the ground in front of Honey, who lay facing Danielle, transfixed by the tufts of green that were tossed around in front of her. She thumped her tail lazily; it was too hot to get too excited.

For once I was making pretty good progress. Perhaps I might even finish this sketch before my impatient subject grew bored of this perfect shady spot under the tree in the meadow behind our house. At a year and a half old, Danielle had an appetite for new experiences that was insatiable. She threw herself into every new discovery; every sound, taste and experience that was offered to her. But she bored easily, which made capturing the moment almost impossible. No sooner had I begun a sketch than she had upped and crawled away in search of something new. My sketchbook consisted of far too many half-finished sketches of her. This time, however, it seemed I would get lucky.

Or not.

This time, however, it was Honey who was the subject that betrayed me. I barely had time to notice that her ears had pricked up before she leapt to her feet and bounded off behind me, leaving Danielle with no one to toss chunks of grass at. This didn't meet her approval at all, and her face quickly screwed up in displeasure. She may have a short attention span, but everyone else's was required to be as long as hers.

Sighing, I set down my sketchbook onto the grass and went to scoop her up before the floodgates could fully open. Once a tantrum started, it would be hard to stop.

"Hey, it's alright" I said as I picked her up. "I'm sure she'll come back in a minute. She just had to go say hi. See? Look who's coming"

I pointed in the direction of the back porch of the house, the direction in which Honey had ran off to. Hurrying towards us was Rose; James balanced on one hip, a newspaper clutched in her hand, and a worried expression shadowing her features.

"What's wrong?" I asked as she reached us.

"It's happened" said Rose in dismay, setting James down on the ground. "It's really happened"

"What has?" I asked, puzzled.

"The war, of course!" she said, holding out the newspaper.

I lowered Dani to the ground beside her brother and took the newspaper. Sure enough, there was the headline, clear as day: "Austro-Hungarian Government Declares War on Servia".

"Shit" I muttered, scanning the sub-articles. One article caught my eye in particular: "All Europe Prepares for War"

"It was only a matter of time, I guess" Rose sighed. "Still, it's horrible…"

"It is"

To be honest, I hadn't paid that much attention to the events unfolding in Europe recently. I knew the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne a few weeks back was internationally significant, and would probably lead to consequences, but at the same time, Europe was so far away. An entire ocean away, as Rose and I knew all too well. It was easy to feel detached, to forget. But now here it was. The beginning of what could well turn out to be a pretty ugly war, spanning several countries, maybe even the whole of Europe.

"Other countries will probably be involved pretty soon" Rose continued, staring down at the twins, happily pulling up tufts of grass at our feet. "Britain, Russia, France… Maybe even us"

I looked up from the newspaper and saw just how worried Rose looked. I hated to see her worried. It didn't suit her. Not when she looked so beautiful when she smiled.

"This war is bad, sure. But it's not our war. We won't get involved in this. There's no reason for us to" I tried to reassure her. But it was no use. Rose had a brain. One that she took great pleasure in utilizing. She had studied the international events leading up to this conclusion in far more detail than I had. I was proud of the dedication that she put into everything she did, but now I wondered if she had driven herself to unnecessary worry.

"It's not impossible that the US would get involved in this as well" said Rose. "It could happen. Someday. And then… I don't want to think what could happen"

We both knew what she meant. There was a possibility that I could be drafted to fight. It was a possibility that neither of us wanted to say out loud; we seemed to share a common feeling that speaking the words would make the possibility seem more real.

It as a risk that we had to admit was possible; both the US entering the war and my being drafted. But to me, the war still felt very far away, and the risks to our family very minimal. It wasn't something I wanted to see causing my beautiful Rose so much worry and upset over.

I draped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Maybe. But that day isn't here now. What's happening in Europe is awful, sure. But it's not happening here. Not yet. There's no point in worrying about what hasn't happened, and for all we know, might never happen at all. Life always carries on. This-"

I gestured to the ground at our feet, where our son and daughter happily laughed together as they were subjected to Honey's protective and ticklish sniffs and licks.

"This is all that matters right now. Our family"

Rose looked up at me, her sad eyes replaced with a loving shine.

"You always know the right things to say" she said. "I don't know what I'd do without you"

The Following Day

The shadow of the events unfolding across the Atlantic continued to lurk in the back of our minds, but if Rose was still as uneasy about them as she had been yesterday, she no longer showed it. We had tossed the newspaper down on a side table, and it hadn't been touched since. Its gloomy headline lay face down, muffled by the far more cheerful sports page reporting the winner of a horse race.

It was a sunny summer Saturday; my favourite day of the week. Saturdays meant no work and the chance to spent time with my family.

At nineteen months old, James and Danielle were in the midst of an endless stream of new adventures to be had, particularly while the days were long and warm with endless hours to be spent outside in the grass, the summer sun gleaming off of their matching wisps of blonde hair. One day they were discovering the joys of pulling up the tufts of grass, the next day they were being comforted after discovering the pain of stepping on a sharp stone in the soil.

On this particular Saturday, I took the two of them to go and sit by the edge of the meadow where the horses grazed. Thunder and Rialta were relishing the summer sun and plentiful grass after a cold winter spent mostly inside, and as such took very little interest in the three of us sat on the grass in the near distance from them.

There we sat in the grass, James staring, wide eyed and silent, at the curious creatures before him, and Danielle desperately attempting to stumble off towards them. Eventually I pulled her back and sat her in my lap. She whinged in frustration, reaching out her little arms towards the horses that barely took the time to flick their ears at her.

"No!" she shouted. Her favourite word of her very limited vocabulary, which was reserved for moments when she didn't get her own way when she was sure that she ought to have. It was therefore a word we heard often.

"The first thing about horses, kid, is that you don't make friends with them by running them over" I told her as she whined.

I heard a laugh from behind me.

"She certainly is determined" said Rose as she crouched down on the grass next to me, pulling James into her own lap. He snuggled into the fabric of her blue summer dress, looking to be in danger of falling into a mid-afternoon nap. It was just like him to take every new experience in his stride. Horses might be strange, scary creatures, but as long as he was safe over here, he didn't mind.

His sister, however, wouldn't rest until the new discovery had been thoroughly poked, prodded and clambered on.

"I wonder where she gets that from" I chuckled. "Okay then, you win. Let's get a closer look"

Standing up with Danielle in my arms, I pulled up a chunk of the long grass by the side of the meadow fence before taking a step forward towards the horses.

I whistled and called Thunder's name.

He lifted his head, his ears pricking up at the familiar sound of my voice. He took a step forward at the sight of the grass in my outstretched hand.

We were still several metres away from him, but Danielle had gone quiet and still in my arms. Now that she could see how the horse moved, perhaps she could see she was out of her depth.

Thunder and I took another step closer to one another at a time, until his nose reached the grass. Now only a metre or so from Thunder's head, Danielle stared, hypnotised at him as he took the tufts of grass I offered him, staying for a rub on the nose before walking off back to Rialta's side.

"Well? What d'you think?" I asked her.

She was silent.

"Did you like the horse?"

A moment of silence, before finally, her brow furrowed with determination, a new word escaped her lips for the first time.

"Horse" she lisped, dragging out the "s" sound.

"That's right, horse" I repeated, pointed to Thunder, who had gone back to ignoring us.

"Horse" she said again more confidently, pointing with her own arm outstretched.

"I think we've learned a new word" I called to Rose, who sat by the fence with a now-asleep James in her lap, smiling in delight.

"You're so good with them both" she said once we were sat back down with them. She leaned over to rest herself against me. "I love watching you with them"

"They're only ever going to experience things for the first time once" I said as Danielle attempted to clamber out of my lap once more. "And I want to be a part of as many first times as possible"

"I wasn't raised in a world where men did much with their children" said Rose, smiling sadly as she stroked James's hair. "My own father was an exception. He spent as much time with me as he could. I know he was teased an awful lot for it among the other men, especially since I wasn't a son and heir"

"My father wanted me to spend a lot more time with me than I wanted to spend with him" I replied, unable to prevent the pang of guilt I always felt when I thought back to how much time I had wasted with him.

I stroked my daughter's wispy blonde hair which was now just long enough to begin to curl around her neck.

"Obviously he wanted me to learn to be a carpenter like him, take over the trade one day"

"You didn't want to?" Rose asked.

I shook my head.

"I just didn't enjoy it. He put up with me slouching around his workshop every Saturday for a couple of years looking bored before he admitted defeat"

"And he was okay with that?"

"Yeah, thankfully" I couldn't help but laugh at the memory. "He told me a woodworker with no passion was worse than not being one at all, and to go find something I actually wanted to do"

"That was lucky" Rose laughed. "I can't imagine what Cal's father would have done if he told him he didn't feel like taking over the steel business"

"He sounds like a bit of an asshole, this guy"

"He is" said Rose through pursed lips, her voice laced with disgust. "I only met him twice, but he was so stuck up. Rude, as well. And you should have seen the way Cal was with him. For all he tries to act in control, in front of his father he may as well just be a scared little boy"

I shook my head.

"I never thought I'd feel sorry for Cal Hockley" I said with a chuckle.

"He has a lot less than he realises" said Rose. Her voice suddenly took a more serious tone. "He doesn't realise how poor he is. He could have all the money in the world, but when it comes to love and family, you're a millionaire compared to him.

I reached out to brush a stray curl away from my wife's eyes, the ruby-red sheen of her hair shimmering in the afternoon glow of the sun. Indeed, I suddenly felt very rich.

I leaned in to kiss her, but before my lips could reach hers, the sound of a bicycle bell rang in the distance, catching our attention. I looked over to the front path in the distance and saw the post office boy dismounting, on his afternoon rounds.

"I'll go" I said, scooping Danielle out of my lap and passing her to Rose. She'd just begun to gristle in protest as I ran across the grass to meet the boy waving a familiar square envelope baring a Florida postage stamp.

Another letter from Fabrizio and Helga.

Thanking the post boy, I headed back towards Rose and the twins, tearing open the letter to read on the way.

By the time I reached her, I was grinning from ear to ear.

"What is it?" Rose asked. "Who's it from?"

"Fabrizio and Helga" I replied as my eyes scanned over the last words of the letter. "Good news. Helga's pregnant again"

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Rose exclaimed. "How far gone is she?"

"Three months, she thinks"

"Which means…" Rose did a quick calculation in her head. "She'll be due in January! Hear that, guys?" She leaned down to the twins sat side by side in her lap. "You might have a shared birthday!"

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, I'm sure James would be fine with that, but I can't imagine Danielle being okay with sharing the limelight"

"Hmm, you're probably right actually" Rose agreed with a chuckle. "Oh, this is brilliant. Just the good news we needed right now"

"See what I told you?" I knelt behind her and placed a slow kiss on the side of her neck. "Life carries on"

My apologies for the abominable lack of updates these last few months. Sadly, a combination of writer's block, studying and work has gotten in the way. I can't promise regular updates, but know that I haven't given up on any of my stories, and am still writing when I can, even if not updating frequently. See you soon :) x