▪▫▪ c ε d (docstheword) wrote in valesco,
@ 2013-10-27 20:39:00

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Caradoc slammed the front door shut purposely, letting the loud noise announce his arrival to the inhabitants within. Well, really, one inhabitant within, as the other had presumably been asleep for the past hour; but Andrew would not be woken by familiar door activity. Emmeline, on the other hand, the mother of his child, the witch he had been living with for the past two years, the one Caradoc had restarted his life with, she would definitely notice.

Notice, and then proceed to ignore him like she had been for the past couple of weeks, but notice nonetheless.

Letting out a long sigh, Caradoc proceeded slowly through the front hallway, stopping only to toss his gloves and scarf on the side table. It was cold out, and it had taken him much longer this time to locate Emmeline and Andrew (there were a few of houses in possession that Emmeline could choose to ignore him in), so he found his patience properly tested. It had only been two days in which they had been out of contact, and Caradoc didn't truly believe it was in Emmeline's best interest in knowing what he had been up to in France, for---

He had almost walked by her, with how quietly she had been sitting in the study. Stopping abruptly, Caradoc watched Emmeline from the doorway. She appeared unfazed, continuing to write whatever it was she was writing (a letter, perhaps?) as if she continued to be the only body in the room. After a few silent passing moments, his chin dropped to his chest as his brow furrowed.

"How much longer are you planning on keeping this up?" he asked, one of his hands waving idly around the room. To what he was referring, of course, wasn't an object in the room, or her writing, but the small detail that every night she would, instead of staying home, move to one of their various decoy houses without him, leaving him to either stay home alone or go on a hunt for his family. At first he had let Emmeline do as she wished, as a necessary means to state her displeasure over him, but now it had just become irritating.

"Just so I know."

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advancingly
2013-10-28 01:38 am UTC (link)

Emmeline had not been this angry with someone in a very long time. She actually could not recall a fight that had lasted so long and with so few words. She should let him know that, that no one in this world had infuriated her as much as he had. She hadn't flinched at his childish slamming of the door, and she had not offered any inclination that she noticed his arrival in the room, but oh, she did. Emmeline was currently penning a lengthy letter to Anneliese about her latest news, telling her friend with a flourish about how perfectly wonderful John was, and finding it quite easy to; any thoughts she currently had about Caradoc, she simply wrote the exact opposite and it helped her compose the most charming of images.

She was not in the wrong. She felt no guilt. Caradoc could slam as many doors as he wanted like the child he was and Emmeline would remain completely unfazed. He was the one that had disappeared for two days with no announcement, no letter, and absolutely no reasoning when he'd returned. He was the one that had allowed her thoughts and mind to spiral into the most miserable of thoughts, he'd let her find herself unable to breath at the slightest of thoughts that he'd been caught, captured, or worse---

There was only a slight inclination of her head as Emmeline forced the terrifying thoughts away. The moment she'd seen he was all right, though he'd not bothered with an explanation, Emmeline could breathe and properly place her anger upon him. If he could do this to her, then she was not going to expend any energy into attempting to find out why. He shouldn't have. Not after everything, he shouldn't have a reason large enough to have put her through two days of torture, but he had, and now he was banging doors as if these past few weeks of the silent treatment had been equally as dreadful.

Her gaze lifted, a blank expression on her face as they stared each other down. Emmeline blinked, "I had thought two days might be enough. They weren't."

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docstheword
2013-10-29 07:57 pm UTC (link)

His brow lifted in momentary understanding, and then Caradoc released a long breath. He had assumed her behavior was due to his temporary disappearance earlier in the month, though whether or not it should be existing as an issue... that was something entirely different.

Caradoc had not told Emmeline about his run-in with Therese Bonaccord, so that certainly didn't leave room for enlightening her about the activities he had partaken in afterward on Therese's behalf.

The thought that Emmeline would not take kindly to his French journey, which included breaking into a Ministry prison and murdering an inmate, had not occurred to him; it was irrelevant. He supposed he should have let her know he would be leaving, and to not think much of his lack of presence, but that would only have led to questions and looks, neither of which Caradoc had wanted to deal with. It was... he did not wish to speak of it.

"Right," he drawled after a few paused moments. "Well, the quicker you get over it the better." Caradoc shrugged slightly as he spoke, and paid no attention to how... callous and hypocritical Emmeline would view his words. Regardless of true they rang to his inner thoughts, he knew they would set Emmeline off into breaking her silence. This silence of hers would break and they could finally move on from this little blip.

So, in preparation for her backlash, Caradoc crossed his arms over his chest and leaned to rest against the doorframe.

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advancingly
2013-10-30 02:30 am UTC (link)

There was a rather large crick in her neck. Emmeline blinked a few times at Caradoc, attempting to mentally brush away his words before she looked back down at her parchment. She signed the letter with a flourish, wishing that she really felt as happy as she had made herself with her words. After all they had been through, he really could play such games with her? Emmeline folded the letter and stuck it in an envelope, carefully addressing it to Anneliese & Henry & Gabriella. She would send it in about an hour, so that the speedy bird she attached it to would reach her friend by tea time. With the letter finished and tucked away, Emmeline had lost the only other thing she could focus on besides her infuriating significant other.

"I made an idle comment to one of the women at the park this afternoon," Emmeline said, running her hands across the crease of the envelope. "I felt the need to--I mentioned that my boyfriend had come home late a few nights back, and had been so secretive about where he'd been. Do you know what she said?" Emmeline didn't bother to look up at him, or wait for a response. "She reckoned you were cheating on me. Instantly, her mind went to an affair. I laughed so hard."

Emmeline's brow furrowed, knowing that Caradoc's sharp tone had been purposely orchestrated to start an argument. She didn't want to fall for it, but she couldn't stop talking.

"It had never even occurred to me that that's what you could've been up to. Shagging some floozy downtown." Emmeline shrugged. "I didn't have the chance to. For two days the image of Grayson Wilkes torturing you in a dark dungeon burnt itself into my mind." Her hands folded themselves over the letter that she had placed on the table, unsure what to do with herself. The unbridled joy that had come over Emmeline at Caradoc's return had nearly washed away all the torturous hours she'd suffered the days past. Nearly. She had allowed herself that brief, wonderful moment of relief before her anger at him took over.

"For two days I thought that you'd been found, that a rogue death eater had traced everything back to here. That you were---that something---" Emmeline's teeth clenched. She could unfortunately recall quite vividly those first few hours, days, weeks, months after Caradoc's 'death.' They caused hot tears to sting her eyes, and she tilted her head down even further.

She was so angry at him.

"And now you're back, expecting me to simply be fine with knowing that you were doing something you were not supposed to be doing," Emmeline said through gritted teeth, finally looking up at him. She had not been in the right might to attempt a proper investigation of his whereabouts, with her worry and Andrew, but she knew. There were very few things in life that could've caused Caradoc to disappear like he had, and she had thought that she and Andrew had taken priority over them.

Her glare hardened and she looked back down at her hands. They had clenched around the letter, crumbling it in her fists. Emmeline's stony expression cracked. She should congratulate him; he'd managed to break down her walls. Her voice was soft, as if her thoughts were escaping her, not meaning to be heard, "I don't know how you could've done this to me."

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docstheword
2013-11-02 10:38 pm UTC (link)

He breathed in quietly, taking care to feel the air enter his lungs, and then just as delicately exhale it. It was... a perplexing string of thoughts he was currently experiencing, each one less definitive and more unresolving than the next. It would require him to explain to Emmeline his history with Therese and her insufferable ex-boyfriend for her to understand why it had been... why he was obligated to help Therese deal with her past in the only way he knew he could. But then, Emmeline would not have approved of his actions, returning to Europe for Remy's murder, or the fact that he had obliviated Therese's entire memory of him that day in the park...

And then, it was with a pained internal sigh that he next thought how Emmeline knew very little of his friends from his Hogwarts days. Evan she knew, yes, and Mackenzie only because she had forced her way into both of their lives, but even then that had only been... she would never truly understand...

He would not be reprimanded like a child for his own actions. It was his life, and his responsibilities to what damages he had caused in the past. It was necessary... for him to clean up what he could, now. There was nothing else for Emmeline to... it was a different part of his life, before her, that she didn't fit into for the right reasons. She did deserve an apology for scaring her, but somehow, Caradoc couldn't quite give it to her. Because if felt trite, or because he knew there would be more for him to apologize in the immediate future, he wasn't sure.

By now, the silence between them had lapsed significantly. It had come time to speak, come time to set the tone that Emmeline had cautiously opened with her soft words. But he could not meet her with her level of sincerity, no. He could not. And that she so demanded it of him...

Caradoc's face screwed up severely for a brief moment, then relaxed. "I know what I am doing," he stated frankly. "And some things must be done." He shook his head now, and pushed off the door to stand stock straight.

"I will not entertain your ideas of what I should or should not do." His voice turned flat, very much emotionless. Caradoc looked down, now picking at the hem of his cloak. His continued in a low tone, as if speaking on a second thought. "And you of all people should know I would never purposely intend to hurt you." A cold feeling began to creep over his chest. "Have I not proven that, to you, after everything that has happened?"

Caradoc felt a bit of anger emerge within his words, but he quickly sought to temper it. There was a fine line he was grappling with... Despite calming his tone, a blaze still burned in his eyes with his last words. "Do not act as if I purposely set out with hurting you in mind."

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advancingly
2013-11-04 03:17 am UTC (link)

Emmeline shot to her feet immediately, ready to argue that he very much would entertain her ideas. Her hands gripped the table, feeling as if she could throw it across the room with the intense frustration she was feeling. Emmeline attempted to interrupt him, but her mouth shut into a thin line as Caradoc continued. The fire that felt like it had been lit at her feet was doused with his cold words, and all Emmeline felt was this insane mixture of confusion and anger. How could he think that--! But he was the one that had chosen to---to disappear! They'd made choices!

"What things?" she exclaimed, unable to control herself as she crossed the room toward him, hands up in a pleading manner. It was the closest to him that she'd been in what felt like years and it made it harder to keep herself steady. Emmeline incredulously looked up at him, eyes wide with honest confusion. She and Caradoc had been out of the chaos that England brought to them for almost three years, come March. "What could be so important that you would leave Andrew and I for two days? Caradoc, what must be done--"

Repeating his words triggered an old memory, a fight that occurred in the Order house that she hadn't thought of in literal years. Back and forth the members of the Order of the Phoenix battled, shouting and yelling about morality and justice against what must be done. James Potter's face hit her vividly, the hatred---Emmeline took a step back from Caradoc, fists clenched against her chest. She suddenly felt nervous.

"What did you do?" she asked, voice low. Andrew was upstairs and asleep, and even if he had been in the room he would not understand her words or connotation, but Emmeline didn't want to understand it herself. She kept her eyes locked on his, hoping, praying that her thoughts were going down the wrong conclusion's path.

"Please---" Emmeline winced as her voice broke, her eyes stinging with tears; it felt like her whole body was betraying her. Don't "Tell me."

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docstheword
2013-11-04 04:32 am UTC (link)

He turned away from Emmeline when she approached, and even felt better when she backed away slightly. No, he did not want her close, for her words alone pierced him enough, there was no need for her close proximity as well. Crossing his arms over his chest, Caradoc felt the twisting in his heart deepen.

For the past five years he had spent his life on borrowed time, which had always been a fact that had never quite sat well in his stomach at the end of the day. It hadn't been... he had meant to die that cold night in January, but for reasons out of his control... it had effected him, but not in the way that seeing Therese had. It had reminded him, enlightened him to the destruction that had been his choices in England.

"Nothing," he lied easily. He kept his head down, still thinking... still contemplating... and suddenly, Caradoc felt tired. He felt very tired with this parade, tired with his thoughts, and tired with feeling like he must come up with a viable excuse to keep Emmeline tempered. If she wanted to know, then she could. But he would not fold to her displeasure over it, and would not attempt to subdue a brewing battle because of it.

"Therese Bonaccord," Caradoc murmured abruptly. "She was here, I ran into her in the park." His brow contorted for a moment, before the words began to slip from his lips effortlessly.

"She told me about how her psychotic auror ex-boyfriend continued to harass her, even all these years after my and Evan's death. So I erased her memory of our talk, went to France, and killed him."

Caradoc paused for a moment, and then added, "He wrote a book about me. I did not want her suffering any more on my account."

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advancingly
2013-11-04 05:39 am UTC (link)

Emmeline stared, gaping, she---He'd said it all with such ease. She'd gotten the explanation that she'd requested, but not necessarily wanted. This---when she's asked for him to tell her, she'd known that...her mind had jumped to the 'what ifs' of their past, but...

It used to be commonplace, the idea of going into battle and taking a life. Doing spy work for the Order, fighting in duels that you really had no chance of winning but somehow did. Emmeline found herself being forcefully pulled back into that mindset, as if his words had completely shattered the quiet, normal life they'd been attempting to live since they'd left England. His words had shattered that, and now she felt like she was back in middle of the war. Back in the middle of a time where a slight creak of your floorboard might mean you were going to be killed in the next few seconds. A time when every shadow could be concealing someone ready to put an end to everything you held dear.

Tears struck her eyes and Emmeline did not bother to wipe them away. She vaguely knew of this Therese woman, she remembered her from some outings with Mackenzie, but she had not known Caradoc had this sort of connection to her. That he'd cross an ocean and risk being found out to put an end to her torturer. A small, tiny voice far back in the recesses of her mind found the gesture noble, but the was too much fear engulfing her now. Fear for everything she currently held dear, fear for the little boy sleeping upstairs who had absolutely no idea of the terror his parents have been battling for years.

"We have a son," Emmeline whispered, unable to control the shaking of her voice. If this had been two years ago, before Andrew was in her life, Emmeline was sure that she would be flying off the broomstick in rage. But all she could manage in this moment was to keep her nearly paralyzing fear contained. The sheer panic that as good as Caradoc was at what he'd done, there was always the chance that something was left behind, something was touched, that there was something that could lead them here, that the death eaters still with their ears to the floo could overhear---it could bring them straight to their door step.

"We have---this has---this has to--end."

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