She knew only a couple of things right now.

Her son was safe. Tomas was safe ... and that was very, very important. The other thing, though, was that Corner Conway was dead. She wouldn't admit this to anyone (indeed, she didn't think it was a very good idea), but she'd been very ... close with Corner in her younger years, despite his protests and the fact that he had been mourning his wife at the time. She'd been a bitch anyway.

It meant that she missed him, though, in a way that was more emotionally invested than most other people might get. Sure, she felt sympathy for people who lost others ... and even when other Aurors died, but this was still different.

She'd taken the day off, and Tomas should have too - but she knew he was too stubborn for that. She'd spent the day with their son -- making cookies hadn't worked out very well, but Geoffrey was still having fun decorating them even if they tasted a bit off. Anything to distract both of them, right? Merlin's sake, the boy had been through two traumatic moments in the past year.

Lunch time was his favorite part of the day. Not only because he got to stop working and instead got to eat, but because...

Well, okay, maybe it was that.

BUT he liked going down to the lab to see Avis, so that was another reason lunch was his favorite part of the day. It was simple things that like that Tomas felt like he needed to hold onto, as the rest of the world was far too dark and gloomy to focus on. He spent his whole day on crime scenes and fighting dark wizards, let him have his hour of talking bullshit with his friends, or trying to convince his wife of a quick shag in the janitor's closet.

Roderick reaaaally hated him, it was fantastic.

"OHH Avis," Tomas announced himself into the lab, bursting the door open. He'd gotten scolded for this before, but he was in a very good mood and could deal with the lecture. He waved the bag of Chinese food tauntingly. "I have very bad for you foooooood!"

Dirk loved his job, he did, but he loved Fridays even more. He still got to go in and work with the goblins (when they let him!), but he got to look forward to a nice quiet weekend of doing whatever he pleased. Lately it had been trying to get Derek to hang out with him, even though that usually just involved watching telly. It was something! Dirk was worried about his big cousin, especially now with the war getting so intense and--

He blinked curiously, as the shelves of his cubicle began to shake. Dirk's eyes twitched back and forth as he watched the pictures he had hanging drop to the floor, and the bust of Gorgak the Terrible started to inch forward and forward. And his desk was shaking, and now his chair, and Dirk was startled to his feet at the sound of someone screaming, "EARTHQUAKE!"

An earthquake! Oh hell, Dirk had just been thinking that some erumpents had escaped again! Earthquake! What was the first rule of an earthquake? These were NOT the things they taught you in Hogwarts! How was he supposed to survive an earthquake if he didn't have the proper training?! DEREK WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO, THAT IS WHY DIRK WANTED TO REMAIN CLOSE TO HIM AND----

The bust of Gorgak the Terrible teetered off the shelf and smacked Dirk straight in the forehead, making him drop to the ground, and thankfully roll under his desk.

He really did love his job, he did.

ooc: http://www.scribbld.net/users/valesco_mods/32698.html

Who: Avis, Tomas, and Geoffrey and Yorick
What: Some skeletons come out of the closet. LULZ
Where: Avis' office in their house. Fancy!

( Let's get off the topic of dead fathers and their skulls )

"I was thinking---well, dinosaurs is a little played out, I mean. They're extinct, but then we could do a dig, like---sand box with bones in there and I know you'd enjoy that, but I mean, how's he supposed to know what the hell he's looking for---"

Tomas let out a shaky breath, hands flipping through his journal as he pulled out random pictures he'd started collecting over the past few weeks. He'd never thrown a kid's birthday party before, and he figured with magic it should be even more awesome than the birthdays he remembered and---where the hell was that witch with their test results.

Sitting back in his chair Tomas' foot began to shake in anticipation. They'd been in the waiting room for a good ten minutes now, how bloody hard was it to check yes and no? Unless--unless they'd failed, and first Avis would kill him, and then he'd get sent to jail and have to suffer there with some of the wizards he'd put away himself and that was just bloody annoying.

No, no they didn't fail. He was sure he'd answered all of his questions correctly, and there was no way that Avis failed. So--it was just a waiting game. Tomas looked back at his journal and flipped past a few more pages.

"Or---or we could just do quidditch. That has to be fun--do they have kiddie versions of quidditch?"

Who: Avis and Tomas Booth
What: Late night excursions leading to life altering events. Srsly!
Where: Their house, then the crime scene
When: BACKDATED to AUGUST 9TH (...his birthday :])

( Apparating. Two minutes, pants or not. )

Even though he would never, ever admit it out loud...well, no, no he would, but he'd probably only admit it in a fight, or something, to show that he really wasn't the bad guy or something---well, anyway, even though it might take some effort for him to admit, Tomas really did enjoy this husband act. You know, being nice to your wife. Doing nice, sweet things. Things that normal women often sighed that their husbands never did. Sure, they hadn't been married for even a month yet (two days! He was good with dates, unlike other husbands), but he was definitely trying to get as much husbandry stuff out there without making it overkill.

If that made sense. Because husbands usually didn't do stuff---so. Tomas didn't know, he was new at this!

At any rate, Avis wasn't the most normal of women, which was fine with Tomas, really, it was one of the main reasons he'd married her, so it was really give-or-take whether or not she was going to enjoy his birthday surprise. Which, yes, consisted of paperwork (because if all else failed, she'd get her bloody paperwork), and a plethora of other things he'd been busy collecting this past week. It took Avis being bed ridden in St. Mungo's to realize how much time he really did spend with her, and Tomas was currently on Moody's shit list (though, when wasn't he) because he refused to work with any of the other investigators.

Avis was his partner, thanks.

"Knock, knock!" Tomas' cheerful voice came from the door, but he didn't enter just yet. He grinned over at his wife, who looked terrible, but he didn't mind it too much.