Quick Note: I'm loving so much of what I read on here at the moment, that I find myself often thinking about the characters long after I've read the chapter (it's possible that I'm just a little obsessed with AOGG fan fic!) This little vignette came on the back of Chapter 16 of Elizasky's Glen Notes (1907-1914). I was going to suggest it to her as a potential chapter when I realised it didn't fit with her timeline, so I wrote it myself, and thanks to Elizasky's encouragement have posted this peek into Gilbert's mind during the war...

"Is that Faith Meredith leaving?" Asked Gilbert as he met Anne on the verandah of Ingleside

"Yes, she was up here sharing her news from Jem. She didn't share all the letter, I believe your son's letters are just as inappropriate for sharing as the ones you used to write me" Anne's eyes twinkled as she spoke, suggesting that she quite liked the inappropriateness of some of Gilbert's letters."It must give Jem so much strength, over there in the mud and horror" Anne continued "to know that he has Faith to come back to. All our young fry have been so plucky from the start of this War."

"I've been wondering" mused Gilbert "If I could have been so 'plucky'."

"Of course you would" Anne said quickly, somewhat shocked at Gilbert questioning himself and jumping to his defence "I'm sure the captain of the football team, leader of the Lambs and Coopers Prize winner would have had ample resources to draw on to face anything."

"But I didn't have you" he responded, turning her around to face him. "When I was Jem's age, we weren't together. We weren't even friends. People have made so much of my winning the Coopers, but honestly, I only studied that hard to stop thinking about you"

He pulled Anne into a hug as he spoke. "I think if War had come then," he continued "I'd probably have joined up just to escape,... but without you back here to keep me grounded,... I'm not sure I would have ever come through it."

Anne shuddered, thinking about how different their lives would have been if they'd been young now instead of then. "I'm sure I would have come to my senses if you were going off to fight", she said quietly into his chest.

Gilbert bought his hand up and lifted her chin to look into those grey eyes he loved so much, that were now full of tears as she contemplated what their lives could have been. He kissed her, not like a man who'd been married for almost a quarter of a century and had fathered 7 children, but with all the passion he felt back then, suddenly overcome with the thought of what it would have been like to face so much without Anne, not caring that they were on the verandah of Ingleside for all the Glen to see.