A Touch of Paradise
by Vamptanzen
-- Chapter Five --
Mrs. Muir came slowly awake to the persistent ringing of the telephone. She purred deep in her throat, and turned lazily over, flinging her arm out as if to embrace someone else there in her bed, but her arm descended through empty air to land upon the tangle of blankets. She opened her eyes sleepily. Why was I expecting someone to be there? she asked herself, confused. She hadn't done that since just after Robert's death.
As she reached for the jangling phone, she realized that she felt more rested than she had in weeks. She was only slightly surprised as the phone rose up from the bedside table to meet her reach halfway.
"Thank you, Captain," she murmured as the receiver floated into her waiting hand. She sat up and cleared her throat slightly before speaking sleepily into the mouthpiece. "Yes?"
As she listened to the voice on the other end of the line, her face suddenly shed all traces of sleep and came alive with excitement. "Really? Oh, Martha, that's wonderful news! Yes, I'll be right there! Tell him I love him, and I'll get there as soon as I can." She almost flung the receiver back into its cradle.
The Captain materialized in his customary spot by the telescope. "Good news, Madam?"
Carolyn leapt out of bed and ran to her closet, pulling out the first outfit which came to hand. "Fantastic news! Jonathan's awake! The doctor says he's going to be all right!" She reached for the hem of her nightgown, ready to pull it up and over her head, then caught herself just in time as she suddenly remembered the Captain's presence. She had a sudden flash of déjà vu, as if she'd done this before, very recently, then flushed with embarrassment. "Uh ... Daniel ..."
His smile was enigmatic, and for a moment it appeared his eyes flicked down over her nightgown-clad body with uncharacteristic familiarity. "I understand, dear lady. Tell the lad I hope he has a speedy recovery, and that I've missed having him aboard my ship." He vanished, leaving Mrs. Muir with the strangest feeling ...
As she began dressing, she actually started humming to herself, and noticed that the morning had broken upon a beautiful springlike day. She didn't know why she had awoken in such a sunny mood, when up until two minutes ago Jonathan had still been at death's door, for all she knew. She shrugged. Though she had no recollection of it at all, she assumed she must have had some perfectly wonderful dream, to put her in such good spirits on waking ...
As she reached for her purse, eager to get to Jonathan's bedside, she didn't even notice the morning sunlight glinting off the delicate gold ring encircling the third finger of her left hand ...
Author's Note: My apologies if anything in this story is inconsistent with the established canon of the series. It's been awhile since I've seen the show, and only have a handful of episodes on videotape to which I can refer, so I'm not sure if the series provided more background on the Captain and his life, his upbringing or his parentage, other than citing his death date and the fact that he fought at the Battle of Vera Cruz (which took place in 1847, at which time, based on the Captain's age of 39 at the time of his death in November 1869, as stated in the series, Daniel Gregg would only have been 17 years old).
As for the name of Carolyn's late husband, which I initially had as Edmond -- my thanks to Tabitha12 for subsequently contacting me and providing the more series-canonical name of Robert. She also pointed out that, between the series and the tie-in novel, Carolyn's husband had no less than three different names: the novel refers to him as Edmond, in the episode "Mister Perfect" Carolyn's suitor Blair refers to him as Richard, and several episodes later, in "Strictly Relative", Carolyn's in-laws refer to their son by the name Robert (and, being his parents, they certainly should know their own son's name -- so this is the one I opted to go with!) ;-) .