Who: Estella Derrick and Caden Flint
What: He comes to her rescue x)
When: This was early Friday morning right after the fiasco with Tobias and Mafalda lmao
Status: Kristin bb! You can tag if you so desire (Lord knows I love me some Caden icons ungh) but I figured we should get it up before it gets too late annnd yes x)
She was a pitiful, sorry excuse for a person. Estella could barely see with all the tears in her eyes and the way they were swollen from her crying fit---well, she was still crying, but it definitely wasn't the surprised hysterics she'd been in just minutes before. Thankfully she'd gotten Jacob to sleep early so she didn't have to worry about getting him upset by seeing her upset, so at least she had that---though she really didn't know what to think about Caden's last comment. He was coming over? Did he forget he was in Monaco? It would take hours by portkey, and by then...well, no, she'd probably still be crying, and seeing him would help so very much and...
Her already deep frown sunk lower at the sight of the clock telling her that is was after midnight, meaning that it was officially her birthday. Bloody hell, she didn't really care about her birthday, the day had stopped being a big deal when she turned, oh--seventeen or so, but still. Just added onto the dramatics of the night.
The worst part, though---Estella's lips quivered at the thought, tears spilling freely from her eyes---the worst part was her brother, that all of his trust in her was gone, oh. Estella couldn't find it in herself to place blame on Tobias, even though she knew it was his fault (even Mafalda wasn't mad at her, and--and--), and it hurt so terribly that her brother could say such things.
Estella started at the sound of her stairs creaking rather loudly and she shot up out of bed and peering out the door. Oh, she should've grabbed her wand, wow---how had she survived alone all this time, running over unprepared toward scary noises in the middle of the night---
"Caden," she let out loudly, breathlessly, and Estella shot out of the room and toward her boyfriend.
He didn’t forget that he was in Monaco. No, that wasn’t the case at all. He just didn’t care at that moment. If he was on the other side of the bloody planet he wouldn’t have cared. He would have found some way to get back to her because she was in such a horrible position at the current moment. Besides, it was her birthday. Only a couple of minutes in, but he knew that everything wasn’t going to be fixed in one day, so he wanted to make things at least a little bit better early on. Actually, he didn’t even know if it was possible for him to do anything at all, but he needed to see her anyway.
It was impossible for him to get to her house through a port key if he wanted to get there within a few minutes. Flooing to her house was another option, but he always opted against that unless he had lost his wand and there was no other option. Maybe it was just him being stubborn, but he just…didn’t like traveling that way. So, gripping at his wand after he had thrown on a pair of sneakers, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and focused as hard as he could on Estella’s living room. The last thing he needed was to splinch himself and have things be even worse. With a light pop, his feet were off of the wooden floor of his hotel room, and he was traveling for what seemed like a few minutes to where he needed to go.
Feeling the ground beneath him, be regained his composure before he opened his eyes, making sure he was in the right place. He was, thank God.
Placing his wand down on the nearby counter, he didn’t waste any time, and began to climb up the stairs as soon as he was able to walk straight again. The act of apparating from so far away was very tiring. He tried to be quiet, not wanting to wake Jacob, but as soon as he got to the top of the staircase, Estella was already running towards him.
Bloody hell, he hadn’t even realized how much he missed her until that moment. He closed the distance between them, his hands going to either side of her face as he took in her appearance. It broke his heart to see her so upset. “I got here as soon as I could…”
She was trying to talk, but all that was coming out was blubbering gibberish. Estella's hands clung to the front of his shirt, desperate to find comfort in his presence and---oh, sigh, she had not imagined his homecoming to be like this, no, no. There was supposed to be streamers and cake and---other---things. But here she was, ruining that as well, and it just made her cry harder.
"I d-d-didn't---you--you didn't ha-ha-have to," she barely managed, taking in deep breaths of air to try and compose herself. Everything had happened all at once, well, technically--over the past two days, but it felt like all at once. Mafalda had managed to guilt her enough to spill the beans about Tobias' affairs, and she didn't think---it was just one day of talking, that couldn't solve anything. Estella didn't know how she personally would take someone, let alone her husband, cheating on her, but---she liked to believe that their marriage would be...be strong enough to---survive that. If it---
"Y-you're--you're going to get in trouble." Merlin, she didn't know why she was so bent on telling Caden that he shouldn't have done this, not when being so close to him was honestly the best feeling she'd had in---nearly a month. Everything had felt so boring and empty since he'd gone to Monaco, and even though she was in hysterics, her heart was thudding madly because she was near him again.
His hand reached up to tuck her hair back, feeling his throat get tighter as she tried to speak. “Stell-…” His words were cut off by her heavy breathing, stepping just a little bit closer as she gripped at his shirt. There had never been a time when he had seen her like this, so fucking torn. He wanted to be able to place the pieces back together, but they were scattered off in places where he couldn’t get them. This wasn’t something that he could fix, and he had a feeling that if he tried to involve himself in this situation even more than he was, things would just get cracked down the middle. Her family would get cracked down the middle, because Caden’s solution when it came to people who hurt the ones he loved was to make them hurt. But this was her brother. Her fucking brother was doing this to her, and he just…he didn’t know what he could do.
“Shh…” He shook his head, trying to get her to calm down as he pulled her closer to him, holding her there as he buried his face into her hair, taking in her scent. It was something he hadn’t been able to do in quite some time, and he was relishing in it. “Stop worrying about that. I’ll be fine. You’re the one I’m worried about, love.” He moved away to kiss her temple before he reached down to take her hand. “Let’s get out of the hallway, don’t want to wake Jacob…come on.”
He gestured towards her bedroom, guiding her down the hallway until they were inside. He used his free hand to close the door behind him before moving over to the bed, pulling Estella towards him so she could sit on his lap. An arm wrapped around her waist, the other hand cupping her cheek with his palm, his thumb moving against her soft skin to wipe away a few more tears. Those intense teal eyes focused on her own and he sighed gently. “I don’t know what to do here...”
She almost felt like a child with how he was taking care of and consoling her, but she didn't mind it. Estella just continued to try and breathe, forcing herself not to erupt into a full blown panic attack, because she'd definitely been on the verge. She used to get them a lot during Hogwarts, around exam time and when big projects or essays were due; she'd never been able to deal with a lot of stress. Her last one--well, she'd been close to one during her confrontation with her mother-in-law (and that had been because Caden had shown up and heard her say--things), but her last real put her in St. Mungo's for two days. At the funeral, Jake's funeral--
Just the thought of going through that again made her dizzy and Estella curled up the best she could into Caden, taking in deep, shaky breaths.
"I'm such a bloody idiot," she croaked, dropping her gaze. Not only for spilling Tobias' secrets, but she felt like such a dope for reacting so harshly. She just couldn't help it. It was her nature, and with the past few years, it seemed like her emotions had no filters and everything just came roaring out no matter how extreme or inappropriate. "Tobias doesn't trust me--"
Estella pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes, chest hitching with a squeak as she tried to force back more tears. Her brother had been the one that helped her get through and get past Jake's death, she relied on Tobias more than anyone, and now? "So stupid."
The hand that had been wrapped around her moved slowly up and down her back, seeing the color run from her face as she leaned into him. He felt her shaking in his arms, and he tried to keep her as close to him as he could. He listened to her speak, feeling himself get more and more frustrated with what she was saying. It wasn’t at her though, his frustration. No, it was at Tobias.
“You’re not stupid. Hey, look at me…” he moved away to make eye contact again, his brows raised as he spoke now. “He cheated. He cheated, Estella, and it doesn’t matter if he told you or the bloody pope, because no matter what, this is always going to be his fault. He shouldn’t have done it, he shouldn’t have started something he had to end, and there shouldn’t have been anything to tell. I don’t fucking care if he knew it was wrong, he should have been smart enough to figure that out before he went off and shagged someone else while he was married. His wife isn’t an idiot either, if she hadn’t been thinking that he was cheating, the whole conversation you two had wouldn’t have taken place. She asked you if your brother, her husband, was cheating on her. If people are happily married they don’t ask those sort of questions, Stell. And if people are happily married, you would have been able to say ‘No’ without lying. Yeah, he told you about it, he told you he was ending it, but as I’ve said before, there shouldn’t have been anything to end in the first place. Do you really think you would have been able to lie to her? When she asked you, if you said no, could you have looked at her and told her it wasn’t true?” Caden knew better than some that she was a horrible liar. “No matter what you did, she would have found out. This isn’t your fault.”
Deep, deep down Estella knew he was right, she did, it was just--very hard to accept, what with all that was going to be messed up. Her family was the most important thing to her, and to think that she'd been the catalyst of their marriage's demise was...hell, she didn't know if she'd ever be able to get rid of the guilt. There was Caleigh to think about, and the new baby (the new baby, oh goodness), and Estella didn't want her niece to grow up without her father, or for the new child to never even know him and...and...
She didn't even have any idea how they were going to settle things. Mafalda didn't seem mad at her, but that could change--just look at Tobias' reaction to things. She'd just have to wait for the whirlwind to slow down enough to get some common sense thrown in, to see if anything could be truly salvaged.
Estella took in deep breaths through her nose as she nodded along, managing to keep straight eye contact with Caden. God, she had missed looking into his eyes. What a sappy, silly thing to say, but it was so nice to have him back again, even if she did look like a raccoon with her puffy red eyes. Her hands rose to lay gently on his shoulders, and Estella managed something of a smile as her lips kept twisting to prevent her from crying some more.
"You have a tan," she whispered, one finger grazing over his cheek bone as if to check to see if his coloring was real. She blinked away some loose tears, but was glad that her mind was managing to focus on something other than her family dramatics. Caden was a very good distraction.
