[legendsport]

Montreal, PQ: June 10, 1919:

Jack had never been so nervous. Not even when he leapt onto the ice for his first shift in his one-game career with the Dukes had he been this nervous. And instead of the best hockey players in the world, the object of his fear was a 19-year-old pregnant French woman who stood maybe five feet, two inches tall.

Cursing his cast as he struggled to knot his tie, Jack told himself it would all work out.

Minutes later he stepped out of the bedroom, wearing his "road suit," the simple blue suit he wore while traveling with his team. He still had several weeks to go before the cast came off and he'd have to go back to Springfield. But right now he wasn't planning that far ahead.

Marie was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a magazine they had bought at a newstand when they'd arrived back in Montreal the previous evening.

"Are you ready?" Jack asked. "We need to leave to make our reservation time."

She smiled at him and got slowly to her feet. "The baby is kicking me again," she said.

"Probably ready to get out and see the sights," Jack said, trying to keep his tone light.

She smiled and agreed and then he opened the door for her, followed her out of the apartment, locking up behind him before following her downstairs.

The restaurant was just down the street. Jack's apartment was close to the arena, and therefore also close to several of the better Montreal eating establishments (though he hadn't visited any since before Vera got sick).

A slow and thankfully short walk brought them to the restaurant where the maitre'd recognized Jack, shook his hand warmly and seated them at a corner table.

"Why are we here, Jack?" she asked. Like most French speakers his name sounded like "Jock" when she said it. He usually found it amusing, but coming from Marie, it sped his heartbeat up.

"I know this has been a very difficult time for you. So I wanted you to have a nice night," he said and then asked her to tell him about France.

He sat and listened to her lilting voice as she described her village. She had been barely into her teens when the war started and the "Boche" as she called the Germans, had quickly driven deep into her country, and although her hometown had never been captured, it was still close enough for the big German artillery guns to reach it, when they chose to do so - which they did, occasionally.

Finally she talked about the influenza that first appeared in the spring of 1918. It disappeared in the summer but returned on a larger scale in the fall. Her parents had both gotten sick. She had been terrified, as she had only recently discovered that she was pregnant - and Jimmy was missing, and possibly dead. "I did not know what to do," she said, looking into Jack's eyes.

"I'm sorry. Did you parents recover?" Jack asked.

"No," she replied quietly. She had two brothers, one of them killed at the Marne in 1914, but the other still lived. He had been in Germany with the French Army when she left France. "He owns the farm now," she said and added that no one in her family knew she was pregnant and that her conservative brother would cast her out if... when... he found out.

Jack told her about Vera - after all, she had been Jimmy's grandmother too - and how she had also fallen to the influenza pandemic that was still raging around a world still reeling from the war that had just had ended. He ended by telling her about Vera's role in determining Jimmy's middle name. "Vera demanded that my mother name her fourth son 'Ferdinand' - and my mother refused." He grinned, adding, "My mother and her mother... both very stubborn ladies."

Marie asked, "Why Ferdinand?"

Jack had a twinkle in his eye as he explained. "Vera's father had a brother named Ferdinand who had been killed in the American Civil War. My parents had been naming their children after family and friends. Joe was named after my mother's father and Rollie after Dad's best friend. They named me for Dad's father. So when Jimmy was born, with both grandfathers already honored as well as Possum, whom Vera thought uncouth, she demanded that the new baby be named for her uncle. Mom flatly refused and they argued a bit before my father played peace-maker and suggested that Jimmy's middle name be Ferdinand."

Marie smiled. "Thank you for that story. Jimmy never told me his middle name."

"That's because he hated it," Jack pointed out. "He always told people his middle name was Theodore. Joe told me that Jimmy's Army enlistment papers were signed James T. Barrell. That probably made them illegal, but no one realized it."

"And you... what is your middle name?" she asked.

"Oh... umm, well my middle name is Charles, actually," he said, knowing it was also her father's name.

She clasped her hands and said, "Another reason for me to like you, Jack!" It still sounded like "Jock" which was what his team mates called him too.

"Do you want to go back to France after...?" Jack asked, nervously waving a hand, meaning the birth of her child.

"I do not know," she replied. "I find that I like it here in Quebec. The language is... almost the same," she added with a smile. Jack grinned and said it was probably much the same as the English spoken by Americans as being almost the same as that spoken by the British. She nodded in agreement.

Jack took a drink of water. Now or never, he thought.

"You could stay here... with me," he said.

She stared at him. Her eyes, which had widened in surprise and locked on his, both thrilled and scared him.

"Really? You would let me stay with you?" she asked.

He nodded and then said, "Sure. We could even get married."

Her eyes widened even more and she gasped.

He took this as a bad sign and quickly added, "Of course, you don't have to, I mean... I really like you and... your child would legally be a Barrell... but it's okay if you don't..."

She had leaned across the table and grabbed his hands in hers.

"Stop talking," she said. Then she leaned further, resting her belly on the table and kissed him.

She leaned back and from a distance of about six inches, said, "I would be honored to marry you, John Charles Barrell."

Jack was stunned. She actually had said yes. He never imagined that it would have been possible. True, they'd known each other... he counted in his head... only nine days, but they had spent almost every minute of that time together and for his part, well... Joe and Rollie had been right: he had fallen for her, hard. To hear that she might have feelings for him too... Wow.