Who: Bess Zeller and Chester Scabior
What: An early morning run in
Where: Law Offices



She'd awoken at the crack of dawn, showered and dressed in under ten minutes, and put her hair in a haphazardly done bun before she dropped Sadie off at Adam's (no day care this week) and set off to work. Bess wasn't behind on paperwork, her rush was far more important than that. She needed to see Brady the second he stepped into his office to make sure she could get his counsel for the custody case against Chester. Bess was sure she would win, but who knew what kind of crazy connections a death eater like Chester had.

God---she had to stop calling him that if she wanted to sound sane. She didn't know if he actually was, it was just---her gut told her that he was, but a judge wouldn't appreciate the mudslinging and...and it didn't matter. She just needed to get to the offices before Chester did, and with her security pass flashing faster than light, Bess darted into the first lift and tapped her foot greatly with each ding of a floor.

Her head was ducked as she checked her briefcase full of paperwork. Everything, she'd---whenever Chester had bumped into her before she'd written down an account of the event, she had her friends' testimonies of how cruel he'd been to her during the course of her pregnancy, her family vouched that he hadn't shown up in Sadie's life until almost a year ago and then had disappeared again---right around the time the baby had been kidnapped and---

All of her parchment dropped to the floor as the doors opened and she spotted Chester standing on the floor in front of her. Holy fucking Hell, what was she supposed to---Bess was finding it hard to breathe as she bent down to hurriedly pick up her belongings. Maybe--maybe she could catch Brady at the front doors---

"You have arrived at the Offices of Magical Law," the voice of The Lift said, making Bess cringe, "Please exit in a calm and collected manner. Remaining passengers, please keep all arms, legs, and hooves inside the lift at all times."

Bess blanched; of course there weren't any remaining passengers besides herself.

Chester was leaning casually up against the front desk of the law offices where Bess worked. Honestly he had no idea where she worked up until the other day when she mentioned it in her journal. After that it was beyond easy to find out exactly which law office she was at.

He lifted his head from the parchment in his hands when he heard the lift chime. "Bess, doll, just the girl I wanted to see." he said with a wicked grin. Of course he wasn't here to see whatever low skilled over paid lawyer she worked for. He already had all of that taken care of. His lawyer had already drawn up paperwork against Bess, he was just here to try and settle this... civilly. According to him, it didn't matter if he had disappeared for two days or two decades, if he suddenly wanted to see his daughter he had the right to.

He stepped forward and helped her up the things that she had dropped on the floor. Gosh was she that excited to see him. He stood and offered her a hand up. "Now, dear, I know that our conversation the other day didn't end all that well, but I was hoping that if I were to meet you here, we could come to some sort of an agreement."

Bess kept her head down, quickly snatching the parchment he'd picked up and stuffing it into her bag. Don't look at him, don't look at him--she hadn't actually seen Chester since the attack last year, and then he'd been under a mask and---she had recognized his voice, she knew that it was him who---Bess winced as the images were blocked from her memories, her vision blurring for a moment. She'd done her research on memory charms, she knew that someone had tampered with her mind, but she'd been too terrified to get the spells lifted. God, just--

Frowning, she stood and kept her gaze down, brushing past him and walking quickly to her desk. He could stand there all he liked, but---well no, she couldn't just sit there. Someone had to be there soon, and she had an extra key to Brady's office (for when she had to run up during court cases and find random bits of informatoin), so she would go in there and lock the door and let someone else deal with him for now.

Now---just to find the key. Bess kept her chin ducked to her chest as she rummaged through the mess the weekend secretary always made. Merlin's beard, she needed a promotion so she wouldn't have to deal with shit like this and---God, why was he here?

Chester frowned as she just ignored him, not even saying hello. Now that was just rude. He watched her rummage through her desk frantically looking for something as an amused smirk flittered across his face. Was she really that terrified of him. Well he certainly had his work cut out for him.

"Bess," he said softly as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, trailing his finger down to her chin so he could lift her gaze to him. "I just want to talk." he said cocking his head to the side, laying his charm on thick. He knew that it probably wouldn't work on her anymore, not like it did on practically everyone else but it was worth a try.

Chester dropped his hand and sighed in a feigned defeat. "I don't know what you think I'm going to do, but whatever it is, I can't very well do anything that would harm you here. Not that I would do such a thing." He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. "Just what kind of man do you think I am?" he pleaded with a pathetic sincerity that he almost believed himself. He really was good at this... maybe he could consider acting as a career.

She'd been too shocked to slap him away. The stunned state Chester put her in made Bess feel like she'd swallowed an ice cube and it was only when he pulled his hand away that she gasped and faltered away. Her parchment once again fell out of her hands but thankfully landed on her chair. Bess had never felt such a terrifying shock, and she looked up and down the hallway to see that there was bloody no one there.

"What do you want from me?" she let out angrily, though her voice was wavering with fear. How she'd ever been in love with this man was absolutely beyond her, and she wondered if he'd put her under some sort of spell. The things he'd said to her, the things he'd done. It made Bess sick that Chester was Sadie's father, and there was no way she was going to let him be in any part of her life. She wouldn't even demand child support, she hadn't in the past two and a half years. "What, what?"

Bess' fists clenched, angry that she was so scared. Angry at Chester for waltzing back into her life and ruining what was supposed to be a regrouping time for her and Fabian and her family and---just everything was supposed to be going back to normal, and now here he was, ready to fuck up her life once again.

That was a very good question. What did he want from her? He wasn't quite sure, but he did know that he didn't like the fact that that pretty boy Prewett was all over her and in his child's life. Besides, he couldn't risk any child of his, legitimate or not to be raised to be by some muggle-loving Order crusader. He needed a say in her life, so he had to be careful not to screw this up.

"Can't you see that I'm just trying to make things right?" Chester had to play his part well in case someone walked in. So far it was just her word against his that he was anything but an outstanding member of society, and he'd like to keep it that way. "Is it so hard to believe that I've seen the error of my ways? Outcasting you like I did, because I wasn't ready to be a father. It was just plain awful." The words that were coming out of his mouth almost made Chester sick. Merlin, he sounded like some pathetic Gryffindor or something. It left an awful taste in his mouth.

"I just want to help you Bess." He reached out and grabbed her hand, gently rubbing circles on her wrist like he use to do back when they dated and she was stressed out. "Can't you see---Don't you realize that I haven't stopped caring about you?"

She screamed. She couldn't control it, she could hardly believed it had come from her, but she screamed and pulled herself so hard out of Chester's grasp that she banged into the wall behind her. Bess held her hand tightly up to her chest, breathing so heavily that she thought she was going to hyperventilate and pass out. This was---this was not normal, she should not be behaving like this because of this nearly random man who---he was a stranger now, she did not know him anymore, but all her mind could focus on was that day last July, when she'd been thrown into her flat and hit and pushed and---

Bess flinched again as the scene in her mind blurred, the memory charms coming into harsh play. The painful headaches she'd endured the weeks after the attack were coming back in full play, and she could barely see, the pain was so unbearable. Bess turned away from Chester, her arms pulling into herself and it just---

Holy shit, what had he done to her?

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she shrieked, hoping to will someone into the offices before she had a full-on heart attack and died on the spot. It certainly felt possible, and she blinded reached for her wand in her robe pocket because she had no bloody idea what she'd do if someone didn't come.

Chester threw his arms up in a classic 'I didn't do shit' gesture as Bess screamed. He raised his brows at her trying to figure out what the hell was her problem. She'd lost her bloody mind, she was acting like he had assaulted her or somethi---oh. Oh.

He couldn't help the smirk that played on his lips, he has almost forgotten about that. Ha, he really did need to work on his memory charms, because she obviously remembered something. Not that he was worried or anything. There was no way she remembered it all, and even if she did, she had no proof and it was about a year ago.

Amusement played in his eyes as leaned over her shoulder to whisper in her ear, not at all worried about her fumbling for her wand, she was in no state where she could do any real harm. Not to mention it would look awfully like a unwarranted attack. "Now, darling, you really do need to learn how to separate your dreams from reality."

Chester straightened up at the chime that singled the lift stopping at the floor and cleared his throat. "Obviously now is not the time to discuss this. Here are the papers my lawyer has drawn up. I'll be in touch." he announced with a smile as he set the parchment on her desk. He nodded to the man that was exiting the lift on his way out. Ah it wasn't even seven yet and today was already a good day.