▪▫▪ 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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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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