A few months pass us by in the blink of an eye; and I enter my first winter in the Valley. The skies become darker, the temperature drops, and my summer dresses get replaced with tights and pinafores.

With the colder weather, Shane and I snuggle under the covers. Our lips meet, and he places my hand onto his bare chest.

"You warm enough?" he murmurs, pulling me closer to him.

"Yeah." I reply with a smile.

"I miss you when I'm not with you." He smiles and kisses my forehead gently. "I love you, Madeleine."

"Then just always be with me." I reply.

Shane chuckles. "You know, you're so deadpan it's hard to tell when you're joking."

"I'm not joking. Why don't you just come live on the farm? It's not like you're so far away from Marnie's that you can't just... walk 5 minutes and see her and Jas. And I love you and I wanna see your stupid face in the morning."

Shane smiles. "You sure? You want a lazy useless lump like me living here?"

"As long as you feed the chickens."

"That's a given." he grins and pulls me into a kiss. "Alright, then. I'll do it."

***

I would love to say the next weeks are bliss. However, they are not.

It's nice living with Shane, of course, but I didn't realise how much mess a couple makes. First of all, Shane has a tendency to forget about the dishes (or that's what he says, anyway) and has to be gently reminded to do them lest I lose my temper. Then, the amount of socks he leaves on the floor is absolutely staggering.

Even so, there are some good parts of living with Shane. He helps out on the farm, he cooks dinner - autism friendly, of course - and it's nice sharing a bed at the end of the day.

I wake up to Betty smacking me repeatedly with her paw, and I groan softly. My head is pounding, and I groan softly. Shane is still snoring next to me, glad to not be getting up at 6am.

I lift my weary body out of bed, and am immediately struck with nausea. I pause for a second, closing my eyes, and waiting to see if it's just a morning tummy ache or a genuine warning sign.

Yep, genuine warning sign.

I sprint out of my bedroom and into the bathroom, nearly missing the toilet altogether, and vomit. I cough a couple of times. It's been a few years since this last happened to me.

I weakly stand up, flushing the toilet, and leaning against the wall weakly for a moment. I slowly feel my strength return, and after washing my hands because I'm not disgusting, I open the door to the bathroom and leave.

To my surprise, Shane is stood there, staring me down. I jump slightly.

"Did you just throw up?" he asks.

"Uh, yeah, but I feel better now."

He shakes his head. "Nope. Back to bed."

I stare at him. "But Shane, the farm-"

"Shh, shhh. I don't care." he pressed a finger to my lips. "I'll look after the farm. You get back to bed and rest."

"But I feel fine now!"

"Do I have to lift you up and carry you to bed?"

"Yes." I reply.

"Well, I'm not gonna do that. Mostly because I haven't been to the gym since I was 17. Please, Madeleine, just rest and I'll eat you out extra good when you're feeling better."

"Shit, you could have just said that." I reply, and head back into our bedroom.

A few hours pass, and I'm feeling better, so I decide to get out of bed and find Shane. He's in the living room, watching a gridball game. I watch him for a few seconds.

"Hey, get the goddamn ball!" he screams at the TV. "Hey! Get it, get it-" he pauses, his eyes widening. "Fucking idiot!"

"Hi." I say. He looks up at me.

"Oh, Madeleine. Was I being too loud?"

"Yes, but I also feel better and I request you eat me out extra good."

Shane smiles and wraps his arms around me. "Well, I wanna know why you're puking before I do anything. Did you eat something funny?"

"What, you think I got food poisoning from some undercooked air fryer chicken?"

He smiles. "Alright, no need to be snarky. You got any ideas?"

"I don't know, to be honest. I've kinda had a headache all day."

"Well, great, I really needed to know that."

I roll my eyes. "And you say I'm the snarky one."

"Right, well, nausea and headaches. What's that gonna be? PMS? Period stuff that I don't know anything about?"

"...come to think of it, my period is kinda late."

Shane stares at me. "Don't do this to me, Madeleine."

"I'm sorry. I'm just saying."

"Well, don't just say." He replies. "what do you want me to do with that? Oh, my girlfriend might be pregnant? This is me we're talking about."

"I'm sorry, honey, but I'm not a liar."

"Withholding information from your easily spooked boyfriend is different to lying."

"I'm sorry." I mumble.

He sighs. "It's okay. Look, do you have any tests?"

I nod. "Yeah. In case of an emergency like right now."

"Go take one, then, silly." he pushes my back gently. "I'll be right here panicking."

I go into the bathroom, and take the test. I take a few deep breaths as I set a timer.

And I think. How would I be a mother? Hell, how would Shane be a father? Neither of us seem entirely equipped to be so.

Plus, we've only been together 6 months. Surely getting pregnant this early isn't a good idea.

The timer rings out. I look at the test.

"So? What does it say?" I hear Shane's voice, and I exit the bathroom.

I hand him the test.