Parting Gifts Claire has never forgotten how busybodies love giving mothers advice. How even a compliment can feel painful when you’re that sleep deprived, when it feels like you’re entirely made of unmet needs and undone chores. So instead, she leans over Oggy’s tiny head, and whispers most of her compliments that way. “You’ll keep doing an excellent job growing, little one, because you have a brilliant mother. You’ll see how clever she is if you ever let her sleep, you know.” Rachel laughs, and Claire tries not think of just how long it will be before she hears that sound again.

On Monday, I finished my oneshot where Claire finally takes Frank’s ring off.

For #Wednesday100, I went another direction entirely. I noticed Claire is sitting with Oggy and Rachel during 8.04, while Jamie talks to Ian, so here we are in Claire’s head in those moments.

Wednesday 100: The Impossibility of Forgiveness Sois un bon garçon. She understands easily, the words familiar from Fergus's quiet reminders, teasing their sons, although she suspects that Amelie's tone would have been different, rough instead with death and anger. Marsali has her own anger at the woman, despite Fergus's understanding. To ignore her own child, to treat him badly, regardless of circumstance...She can't fathom it, just as she couldn't fathom her mother serving a man breakfast with his bruises on her skin. He was a good boy, she thinks to the Baroness, clawed and triumphant. Not well-behaved but good. He’s a better man. He’s mine.

Not, like, WILD about how this came out, and very not wild about the title, but I wanted to have #Wednesday100 be some Marsali POV following the excellent scene between her and Fergus in the last ep 💜

Forsaking All Others - dagnylilytable - Outlander (TV) [Archive of Our Own] An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Turned my recent #Wednesday100 drabbles into a longer “Claire takes Frank’s ring off during S8” story. With many thanks to everyone who was so encouraging about those, especially @ladyjane.bsky.social, @toitoitoi136.bsky.social, and @strawsunhat.bsky.social!

I was totally thinking about the brand during that scene; this is a lovely and powerful distillation. Happy #Wednesday100!

it's a very happy #wednesday100 with this drabble of yours!

“It’s only I’m afraid I might.” Claire has loved this man for thirty-six years and he can still surprise her and break her heart; it’s also been thirty-six years since that night in Wentworth and those demons aren’t easily laid to rest. So when, in the midst of their lovemaking, his eyes slide shut, she bites — just enough to ground him. Makes him look at her. Presses her nails into his flesh. And when they’re sated, tangled together, her hand runs purposefully over the scar where she cut out a brand and promised he belonged to no one but her.

I was really fighting with the 100-word limit on this one and not sure I managed to say everything I wanted to, but nevertheless! Happy #wednesday100 to those who celebrate 💜

Wednesday 100: All the Weights of Grief She cries at the cairn, the missing too strong, though Janie always told her, "Hush now, Fanny, no tears." Mr. Fraser doesn't mind or shame her. He's lost his own people, so he must know. Perhaps he also knows that sadness feels lighter than anger. She's not a nice girl, she knows that, but it feels especially cruel, this fury that she has toward her sister. Because Jane would have loved it here — the clear air; wise, kind, steely Mrs. Fraser; bold Mrs. MacKenzie — but she hadn't endured long enough to know. She'd left Fanny, full of tears and rage.

Loved this moment with Fanny and Jamie at the cairn (🚨Murtagh mention!🚨) so I wanted to focus in a bit on her feelings for this #Wednesday100

Marriage Portrait “I like the quiet, these days,” Brianna offers, by way of greeting. Mama smiles. She’d never call her beloved grandchildren loud, but she’s too much of a scientist to deny it. Brianna has spent years studying faces, and has never quite managed to stop herself from mentioning what they reveal. “Obviously you wrestled Da into submission,” she says lightly. Mama looks away and might even be blushing. Brianna fights a chuckle. “Relax. It’s not like you have a neon sign on your forehead. I forgot some things while I was gone, but not what you look like when you’re happy.”

For today’s #Outlander #Wednesday100, imagine Claire runs into Bree early in the morning after her makeup sex with Jamie in 8.03, because I wanted more of Bree bantering at Claire’s expense. 😂

Noah can barely remember the last time his mom had a boyfriend. He doesn't mind Elliot though. His mom seems much happier whenever he's around and Elliot doesn't try to act like he's Noah's parent. He does show an interest in him and his hobbies and so it was his suggestion to go out and see the new Wicked movie. They're sitting in McDonald's now and Elliot watches him dig into his fries. "There's something I wanted to tell you." "What?" "So... I was thinking about asking your mom to marry me." "You think she'll say yes?" "I hope so."

Noah will fight his mom if she says no 🥺 #wednesday100

Bree had questioned him when Jamie gave Aidan both rifle and promise that the bear was his and Evan’s kill — a poor exchange for all they’d just lost but all anyone could offer them. But Bree… she’d been too close, and when she looked at Aidan, she saw only Jem. He knew what it was to worry over your bairns in the face of tragedy, so he couldn’t say why it’d been fifty years since he’d lost his ma and yet he couldn’t place himself anywhere but Aidan’s too-small shoes. For Jamie, there’d been no closure, only the cavernous grief.

The notion that Fanny had never seen anyone happy at a birth knocked Claire off-kilter. How pervasive had that knowledge become for her? Fanny knew Jane had loved her, but she’d been no more than five when she lost her parents — and Claire had firsthand knowledge of how little one could recall from those years. Claire knew the ache of Faith and the hope of Bree, both… She couldn’t bear for Fanny to have any doubt. “See how Rachel looks at the baby? That heart- bursting joy and deep love you see… I know your mother felt that way about you.”

We’re back with more #wednesday100 and unfortunately, the sad thoughts won this week 😅

Wednesday 100: Love and Honor. Set the morning after episode 8×02 Jamie's left the damned book on the nightstand-Jem surprised him, came to see him early. Claire looks away from it, stares at her hands. She thinks of Paris. Of asking Jamie not to hurt Frank, of all that promise cost. She kept Frank's ring to honor the promises he made Brianna. But Frank kept Jamie from Bree as well. Claire wonders if her daughter sees much to honor in that. Jamie swore her rings would never leave her hands again. His conscience will be clear if she's the one to take Frank's off. Hers will be too.

For #Wednesday100, I got into a #FuckFrank place since the only thing 8x02 was missing was Claire getting serious about taking his ring off.

Wednesday 100: Longings Ian rises with the bairn to let Rachel sleep, sitting alongside Jamie in the dawn-lit kitchen. There is beauty to seeing Ian and his son: a breathing, growing child as his nephew thought he might never have, raised with a father's warm protection, knowledge, fierce and open love. And still, without begrudging, Jamie feels his own missed fatherhood aching beneath his breastbone. His grandchildren are blessings, their presence in his life holy, and yet amidst new, multitudinous Frasers and returned MacKenzies, the shock of Frances and William trusting him with her...still, there are all those years, lost and lost.

Original ideas for this week's #Wednesday100 were very female-focused (Fanny re: the difference between working women and independent women, something about Claire and Elspeth Cunningham) but wouldn't wrangle properly, so instead you get sad da!Jamie feels, sorry 🙃

An Outlander drabble, set after the fade to black in 8x01. Though these walls are unfamiliar, so far, they remind him of what has stayed the same. Jamie has a fresh bitemark on his shoulder, thanks to Claire’s wee teeth. Her hair is tangled, because his intention to braid it for her had faded from his mind as soon as he’d carried her to the bed. Jamie is watching her sleep, praying for these walls to shelter her when he cannot. Claire rouses, smiles sleepily. “How do you feel, mo ghraidh?” he asks her. “I’m ravenous,” she declares. From the heat of her kiss, this time, she doesn’t mean for food. A

For #Wednesday100, set the morning after the fade to black in 8x01.

Outlander is back and—after 10 months—so are my drabbles 💖

And remaining faith(ahem)ful to my past drabbles, I haven't been able to let go of Faith. Here's one 8x01 drabble and one drabbledrabble (200 words) #wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Houses and Homes i. It is a sign and a blessing, Jamie decides, to have seen Adso once more, to know Claire's beloved cheetie survived the blaze — one of the few gifts of his that did. The medicine box, the enormous tub for Claire's hot baths, the surgery built of her dreams and his own sweat, the children shaped from the two of them and grown beneath her heart, their grandchildren...all of that is gone. He takes her hand as he kisses her, feels her ring still there, and tries to believe that he alone is enough, to make up for everything lost. ii. He appreciates what Ian has done, appreciates the loving help of his men and even the neighbors who he might always look on with slanted eye and hardened heart. And yet, this only feels like a house to him, lacking the purpose and care of his planning, his own hands. Still, he promised Fanny safety, promised a return for Claire, and so he is glad it is here, sheltering them all. But settling his cheek against Claire's crown, he knows that in heather or laird's chamber, on ship or in any wandering bed, more than anything, his home is her.

Had this first one floating around for a while and finally decided it could come out to play for #Wednesday100 as a good pairing for the second, wherein I work out some of my own feelings about the new house via Jamie's POV

There’s so much to take in with the MacKenzies — miraculously — under their roof; there’s Jem, sturdy and tall, and Mandy, no longer a babe and almost impossible to recognize, but Jamie’s gaze continues to find Brianna — in reassurance, or perhaps simply for the joy of knowing her again. His lassie. A leannan. Jamie spent so long only dreaming of what his child might look like, how she might move through the world. He’ll always grieve the time lost, but after the shock of Faith, it’s a comfort too, these years with Bree — and all the years ahead of them still.

*taps mic* is this still on? 😅 New Outlander eps have got me back in the drabble mood, it’s true! Spoilers for 8x01. Also let the record show that while I am less than convinced on the Faith having lived theory, I’m writing this from the perspective of Jamie who does believe that. #wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Warm Revelations "So that's all ye wanted me for? she asks, and I tell her, Oh, ye thought twas for thon freezing hooves in my bed?" The others laugh, except for Claire's snort — gentler, a sigh — but Jamie frowns. Days ago he'd have laughed too, entertained at least by Angus's delivery, but now...Now he knows that he likes the bracing reality of Claire's freezing feet, likes teasing her about them until she kisses him quiet, likes placing her stockings to warm near the fire. Now it seems obvious that his friends are letting themselves miss what he's lucky enough to have.

Wanted to do something for #Wednesday100 about Claire being a cold feet girlie because my own feet were sadly cold yesterday, but didn't want to hew too closely to last week's snoring snippet, so instead you get newly married Jamie sitting with the bros going "RIP to y'all but cold feet are cute??"

Bruno knows Olivia doesn't feel the same way about him. She calls him when she feels like it and it's fun but he just knows she's not really in love with him. He's heard the talk around the precinct about her and Elliot Stabler of course but he doesn't really realize it until he sees her reaction to Stabler getting injured - the sheer look of sorrow on her face. She's at the hospital now and he knows they'll have to talk when she comes back. He can't keep doing this, not when he knows her heart belongs to someone else.

Poor Bruno lmao #wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Cold Season, Warm Seasons The noise, raspy and grumbling, alien, breaks Jamie's sleep. His first thought is Claire! His dagger is always nearby — Ian is away, and there are animals and strangers outside their small cabin — so he seizes it while turning to wake her, to gather her closer in protection. But then he registers her open mouth, her reddened nose, watches her draw in another breath…and expel that noise again. He collapses back, laughing slightly. She will be grumpy from illness tomorrow, but will laugh too when he tells her. Settling beside her, he closes his eyes. His last thought is Claire...

Rooted around the in the ol' brain box for a #Wednesday100 idea, and this was what came out, idk, enjoy?? 😂

Wednesday 100: Sticky Situations Jamie Fraser has faced war, death, evil beyond reckoning. This is different. "It itches, Da. I canna sit still all the way til Mam comes back, I canna do it! She's gone collecting herbs — it'll take all day!" Bree ends on a wail, and Jamie shushes her, even as he thinks that she might have considered that before rampaging through the study and spilling the paste pot into her hair. "Dinna fash, Brianna. Your mother will be back 'fore long, and she'll fix things." And he casts that familiar prayer with new desperation: come home to me, Claire, and soon.

Busy morning and the other drabble I was trying to work on didn't exactly cohere as I wanted to, so idk you get a little thrown together Laird's Room for #Wednesday100 (also pretend that Jenny is off somewhere else in this one 😅😅).

I know it's been a minute, but here's a little Eddie Liv and Noah at the park for #wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Second's Place It is different now, haunting Leoch without looking for glimpses of Ellen MacKenzie. He has tasks — fetching and carrying for his auntie, orders from Colum, the forthcoming rent party — but it feels like purposelessness. He is not too old, he knows, for marriage and some land, but the Murtagh who might have imagined those things for himself is gone: gone like Brian, like torch-bright Ellen and the bairns he'd watched her carry and love. Still, they've entrusted him Jamie to watch and walk beside, wandering too just now, yet open to new winds. He'll see where those winds carry them.

In the space before sleep I was thinking about what a weird position Murtagh is in during the early part of S1 (kinda just hanging around, only there because of Jamie but still half accepted amongst the Mackenzies?) so I mulled a bit on that theme for this week's #Wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Growing Pains, Growing Joy Fergus reminds a drowsy Jamie that it's his razor he needs for shaving rather than the spoon from the breakfast tray (and tells everyone in the household that he'd have saved Milord from grievous injury had it been the other way around). Murtagh catches Claire dozing off during a feeding session, glaring so fiercely that she temporarily relinquishes custody for a nap. And yet, when Faith's snuffling cries break the midnight peace of their bedroom, both of her parents rise, and as dawn blesses her delicate features, they are still awake and watching, amazed that she is there and theirs.

A couple of angsty 20 year separation ideas came to mind but then scuttled away from that and returned to the safety of cozy fluffy family time instead for this week's #Wednesday100!

Elliot wants to talk, Liv wants to... not talk. #eofic #Wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Combinations "Did ye learn cookery as part of yer schooling?" Jamie asks, stoking the fire as Bree pours cornmeal into her bowl, considers, adds a touch more. "Yeah, some," she tells him, cracking an egg. "Though the things we made don't really translate — no measuring cups here, or Jello salads." (Sometimes his daughter is so far and foreign to him, every word confusing, although she has joined him here and now.) Turning, she asks, "How did you know I didn’t learn from Mama?" "Because I know where her talents lie," he says wryly, and she laughs, and becomes close and his.

I love the Jamie + Bree bonding period (shocked Pikachu dot gif) so we're headed there for this week's #Wednesday100!

#Wednesday100 #eofic

Wednesday 100: The Change You Wish For an instant before going to collect Mistress Beauchamp (Claire, if he's being forward), he watches the lad run off, ear reddened. Jamie would have thought nothing of such a sight yesterday, nothing of the pain and shame, unquestioning of the necessity of punishment. He'd been the sort bold enough to have jerked himself free long before — or not stolen, or at least not gotten caught — and he knows that he'd still be thinking that way, unquestioning, but for this woman: Claire, who believes in a brighter, gentler world, and will lie and scheme and claw to see it achieved.

Whipped this one up about five minutes ago because early S1 Jamie is interesting to me (and kinda not my favorite?) in his relative comfort regarding 18th century norms - thought I'd give that a little ponder for this week's #Wednesday100

So anyway… #eo #eofic #wednesday100

Wednesday 100: Clandestine Operations The Fraser children are already surrounded by farm dogs, barn cats, all manner of livestock - even several mules! Still, Claire is unsurprised to hear them attempting to sneak a spider past her surgery. "You must be quiet or we will be caught!" Fergus hisses, but Brianna is chattering that this is why she chose Figheadair as her pet - silent, barely noticeable if Kitty doesn't squeal! - while Willie, admiring the softness and “spotties,” wonders about Mam wanting the webs for “med'cines.” Claire consults her pocket watch (Jamie’s gift, for timing pulses). Three minutes, then she will…happen upon her young tricksters.

Back to back Laird's Room for this #Wednesday100, because the idea appeared that the Fraser kids would try to sneak a stray dog inside but it galaxy brained into this because why would they need to sneak in something so pedestrian when they already have dogs?

Liv would love this. Kathy is sure she wasn't supposed to hear Elliot mutter to himself during their visit to the museum. Liv. Of course. They've moved all the way to Europe but apparently that wasn't far enough. She doesn't say anything in the moment but she takes notice and brings it up a few days later. "You still thinking about New York?", she asked him casually after dinner. "l... I mean yeah. I've lived there for a long time." "Anyone in particular you're thinking about?" "Kathy if this is about Liv then... "You still love her?" "I suppose so.'

Idk what this is tbh #wednesday100 #eo (kinda) #eofic