Who: Emmeline Vance and Caradoc Dearborn
What: Midnight madness---flirting, facepalming, insanity, pregnancy, deathly glares. Oh, I'm not exaggerating.
Where: Emmeline's flat
When: Early Monday morning BACKDATED DUH



Emmeline twisted her tongue hard in her mouth, foot bouncing rapidly as she tried to remain calm. Sitting in the dark of her living room was not the best way to accomplish this, but she couldn't move herself from the very tight corner of her couch that she'd pressed herself into. What was taking him so bloody long? Wasn't he a competent wizard? Couldn't he appear in the blink of an eye?

Merlin--she had to calm down. She'd been feeling sick all week and had been so confused as to why she'd felt like throwing up at the mention of a hospital or green robes until about twenty minutes ago when she looked at the clock and realized she'd have to be making her first set of rounds as an intern and holy fuck, where was Caradoc?!

The loud crack of apparation nearly made her shriek, but the little sense she had did remind her that she had a pregnant woman asleep in her bedroom. Oh--that was right. Anneliese was pregnant and had refused to go home, and how on earth would Emmeline have had a pregnant woman sleep on the couch. She needed a bloody spare room.

"Do you want tea?" she asked quickly, jumping up in one quick motion. Emmeline pressed up on her toes for a swift peck on the lips before darting off into her kitchen. Now that Caradoc was here, she couldn't just sit there.

"No, not---" It occurred to Caradoc quickly that Emmeline was in a rarer form than he had previous thought she would be in, and it really didn't matter if he wanted anything from firewhisky to water. He was going to get tea. A very large cup of tea that had probably already been made in the time it had taken him to come over here. A sigh escaped from his lips as he shrugged his cloak off, and tossed it onto the nearest piece of furniture.

"Are you aware that you're walking around in complete darkness?" he tossed up lazily, but made no effort to summon a candle or use his wand. It was possible a sudden change in her environment might send Emmeline into a frenzy. Caradoc lethargically followed her to the kitchen, his finger tips brushing against everything he passed.

It didn't bother him that she had demanded he come at such a late time, surprisingly. In fact he felt quite content about it. "Calm down," he instructed as he walked into the kitchen, sliding himself comfortably close enough to her to talk quietly into her ear. "Make yourself tea."

"You are not allowed to seduce me right now," she muttered almost angrily, barely twitching to look over her shoulder. Of course, even in her worst states she couldn't force herself away from him and nearly let herself fall back into him. But--no, that would mean she could relax and that would mean she'd fall asleep and then she wouldn't wake up for her alarm and she would end up being late to her first day and then she would die---

Emmeline cupped her hands over her face and took a deep breath, the suction it caused almost choking her. Good--Lord, this was the worst possible way she could have spent the night before her first day. And it wasn't even that bad, so just imagine if she hadn't had to spend hours calming Anneliese down.

"I'm going to have a nervous breakdown," she let out into her hands, though he probably couldn't understand a word she was saying. "She's pregnant and I don't know what to do and I have to go to work and---" Emmeline let out a very high-pitched, frustrated sound into her hands before dropping them to the counter.

He let out a soft sigh, and completely ignored Emmeline's first warning. She, obviously, didn't know what was good for her at this point, in her extreme paranoia (concerning what wasn't exactly clear yet), but that was fine. Caradoc had something of a good plan to accomplish this--- calming down business. Or at least an inkling where to start.

So as Emmeline mumbled and sputtered, Caradoc focused his attention on other things. Like her ear, her earlobe, the skin behind her ear, and eventually trailed down to various parts of her neck. He was barely listening to what she was saying; it was all jumbled words anyway. Though, eventually, one word did sound off much clearer than anything else had, as if she had purposely stopped to pronounce it fully for him.

Pregnant, she just said---

Caradoc felt his heart nearly stop as he instantly halted movement, and felt his skin begin to tingle unpleasantly. She didn't know what to do? She had to go to work? He fumbled, unwilling to put together anything. But Caradoc's mind began to race far too quickly for his own good and---- perhaps that was the reason why she was so wound up, and wanted him to come over at such a strange time, because---

Oohhhh no. No, no.

"What?" he gasped, pushing Emmeline away from him while jumping away from her like hot fire. This wasn't possible--- nor was it happening because things like this didn't happen and holy shit.

"It just had to be tonight, right!" she let out, spinning around to press her back into the counter. Emmeline was involuntarily near tears; from nerves, from having to see her best friend so stressed, from--everything. She crossed her arms, only to wave her hand around in a dismissive manner, "I can't catch a bloody break--"

Emmeline finally looked at Caradoc, really looked at him, and her mouth gaped at how absolutely petrified his expression was. What the hell did he have to worry about? Besides being a death eater and a spy for the Order---but right now, what did he have to be so terrified of? Emmeline blinked a few times, sucking in her cheeks in annoyance.

"It's not that bad, goodness," she let out with a breath. It was one thing for her to be completely startled about the news, but Emmeline refused to have anyone else think anything about Anneliese for getting pregnant so quickly. It wasn't bad, she was planning to marry Jugson, and that had all been settled nearly a year before the little slip up.

She fell into silence for a few moments, seconds, who knew--Emmeline's eyes trailed around the kitchen trying to find something that wasn't Caradoc's purely horrified expression before letting out, "And she took my bloody bed."

Caradoc continued to watch Emmeline in pure horror, and at one point almost willed himself to glance at her stomach. Could you-- no, you couldn't tell that quickly, but with his luck she would be fucking-- bursting at the seams by the end of the week. If she was--- which Emmeline wasn't, though it wasn't as if the crying was helping him make any good conclusions.

"What do you mean it's not that bad?" This time, his face contorted into complete skepticism and accusation. What was she on? Caradoc reached for something to hold on to blindly, then latched onto the back of her kitchen chair like his life depended on it. He felt it did.

Who? Who had taken her bed? The unborn child that was already ruining their lives? Was that what Emmeline was trying to say? This had to be some twisted nightmare he was having. Caradoc's hand flew to his face as he tried tirelessly to put everything together into a scenario that actually made sense. But, of course, he nothing came up, because apparently, he had been sent to another universe where nothing made sense ever and only bad things happened.

"What the fuck are you saying!" His hand flew from his face as he yelled out.

"What the fuck are you saying?" Emmeline let out almost as loudly, surprised and annoyed that Caradoc was behaving this way. Her hands went up in defense, completely bewildered by his violent reaction to the news and her tired brain worked and turned over what on Earth would have him so--

---of course.

Emmeline's expression hardened immediately as she managed to trace all the tangents her thoughts were going on to hit the one, specific reason why Caradoc would be reacting like this. She was quite sure she'd never felt this hot in her life, and she was very sure she'd never been able to see red before this moment, but oh. Just look at him. Just look. That is how he'd react if she actually was pregnant. Bloody fucking wonderful to know that Caradoc would look ready to flee the country--he'd even pushed her away, oh, calling him over had been a brilliant idea.

"You know what--" some tears escaped her, and as she furiously wiped at them, a rather mean idea came to surface. Caradoc, in all of his dramatic reactions, had never once stated why he was behaving this way. Emmeline could blame her original frazzled state for not being able to comprehend his actions. How was she supposed to know that he thought she was pregnant? Why would he assume she couldn't remember to take a stupid potion?

"You can leave, you can just--go."

Wait, wait-- what just happened? Had she just--- wait. Caradoc stood there for a few moments, desperately trying to put everything together into something that he could wrap his head around. But all he could barely focus on was Emmeline's voice, her body language, and the way she had pushed by him, and---- holy shit, this was not good. He jerkily unclenched his hand from the chair.

"Emmeline--- Wait---!" And believe him, he would very much like to leave as she had told him too, and keep on going until he hit border lines (only after murdering Matilda fucking Mulciber because she had fucking jinxed him). But--- that wasn't---- oh, he wanted to kill himself. That would be so much easier.

"I---" Caradoc reached for Emmeline's wrist, mouth still producing silent words. Ugh, he hated this feeling; not knowing what to say. And it frustrated him beyond belief, because it seemed to always happen around her which was completely uncalled for, there was no reason why she should force him to a point where he didn't know what to say. He always knew what to say, he was Caradoc Dearborn.

But not tonight, apparently. "I--- wait--- I didn't---"

This was mean. This was really mean. Though, actually---if Caradoc knew she knew that he was talking about her being pregnant, then it would be really mean. But she was a rather good actress, and she was quite put off at his reaction to 'things', so Emmeline decided that she didn't feel bad at all. Unless he started spewing things about how he'd be there for the baby and what not, which she was quite certain would never come out of his mouth, so.

She let him tug on her wrist, and Emmeline stopped, letting out a shaky sigh. She had to word her next sentence carefully, if she wanted to come out of this looking completely innocent, if even a little bit crazy. Crazy she could deal with.

"I just---" she paused again, shaking her head slightly and looking down. Part of her wanted to laugh, and a smile almost tugged at her lips but she twisted her face to look as if she was holding back tears. No, laughing would be the end of their relationship, and as much of a pain as Caradoc was, Emmeline rather liked having him around, "If you react like that over--over Anneliese being pregnant, I mean..."

Emmeline looked up at him with a pitiful expression, shaking her head lightly and biting her tongue. It was a good thing she'd already been in a shoddy mood; it made conjuring tears that much easier.

Caradoc dropped Emmeline's wrist like a heavy rock as his face darkened. That was not what she had originally stated. There had never been any mention of--- Anneliese (though honestly, that didn't surprise him the least), or, anything of the sort that would imply that Emmeline wasn't--

He suddenly felt very, very angry.

The boiling burn of embarrassment suddenly filled his body, but for the first time in a while, Caradoc smothered it. Wouldn't want to wake the pregnant one. "That's why you made me come over here," he responded in a placid tone, any form of emotion completely washed from his face. His arms hung flat on his sides, and he stood up straighter to watch Emmeline carefully. Caradoc took deep, long breaths, trying to calm down the murderous thoughts running through his head. Oh, this was completely uncalled for. Now, he didn't believe her tears for a second.

Things like this made him really not care about poking around Emmeline's mind for shits and giggles. She wouldn't even notice; he had practice well enough to the point where if he really focused, and the person was just that much distracted, it was manageable. But he had decided he would now--- maybe not tonight, but, oh, the door was wide open for it.

Continuing to keep his eyes fixed on Emmeline, Caradoc stayed perfectly still as he spoke. "Is that all?"

She pressed her fingers into her eye, completely exhausted by now. Why did she date, again? All boys ever seemed to do was give her massive headaches, and maybe she could have prevented this one, but it didn't stop the fact that it was more than alarming to see his natural reaction to the rather precarious situation she...wasn't in.

"No, I never even--I told you---" she dropped her hand, looking up at him with a really apathetic expression. Emmeline at the moment didn't care if he was mad (and he looked very mad, maybe she should care), he'd jumped to his own conclusions, he'd panicked like a fool, and--well. She just didn't care. Right.

But why did her real reasoning have to be even more embarrassing? So maybe she cared a little, because all she'd been expecting from her demanding journal entry was one of Caradoc's infamous relaxing snogs. Maybe she should have let him seduce her, earlier.

"I've been--having panic attacks all day, all--week," she let out in a flustered tone, not able to catch his eye, "And--then Anneliese comes over here all---pregnant and---I thought." Emmeline sucked in a deep breath. Whatever glory she'd felt over making Caradoc panic had completely vanished, and now she was just annoyed at herself for probably ruining any sort of chance at getting sleep tonight, "I thought you could...help. I don't know what happened just now."

How---had she managed to lose this? Juliet would be so disappointed in her, unbelieveable.

Surprisingly, Caradoc held his tongue from saying what he deeply wanted to say. It would be--- mean. He didn't believe this was all a byproduct of her anxiety, not by a long shot; they both knew what had 'just happened,' and for such a late hour, Emmeline really kicked up her devious side. But now wasn't really the time to bring it back up.

He supposed. Unfortunately. This would just have to come back up later in another form of passive-aggressive revenge, that was all. Caradoc was fairly certain he would still be angry about it for a while, so. Some other time when it didn't look like her eyes were going to roll back into her head at any second, or she would start shrieking about anything else.

Not that he wasn't--- it was just that--- oh, he was completely at giving up now.

A sigh escaped from his lips as Caradoc finally looked away from her, squinting at the small clock on the wall. "Time for sleep," he stated in the same calm tone as before. He wouldn't mind sleeping now, actually, but somehow he figured that wouldn't happen between Emmeline's refusal for sleep or his mind refusing to let it happen to continue to race (yes, he was thinking about lots of things now). Well, at least that was what the day was for. Placing a hand on the back of her waist, he smoothly directing her back toward the couch.

Her hands went to her face again, partly from stress, but mostly embarrassment now, even though she'd---he'd been the stupid one and--fine. Fine! She'd been a bit of a bitch, fine. Happy? Happy? Not that anyone would even know about her admittance of this fact because it was all going on in her bloody head and---

--holy hell, he made her crazy. She was definitely not crazy before. Emmeline wanted to spin around and smack Caradoc for making her go crazy, go bloody insane, but that would be highly counterproductive, not only for their relationship (because she found herself fretting about it more and more as the time passed) but for her own, very limited sanity. And her internship--somehow she had forgotten about that in all of the madness of the past...five...minutes.

Merlin's bloody beard, they worked fast.

Emmeline dropped down onto the couch, face still pressed hard into her hands. She didn't even know if she could sleep now, her mind was racing far too much about everything. Internship, Anneliese, Caradoc, embarrassment, nerves--very rarely did she find herself in such a state--well, when it didn't have to do with death eaters, and it was proving to take the better of her. How the hell was she supposed to be a healer when she couldn't even handle her first day in the bloody program?

The night before her first day in the program!

"I'm sorry," she let out breathlessly into her hands. How he was even still there, she had no idea. Bloody maniac, she was.

He stood in front of Emmeline for a few moments, with his hands crossed over his chest and his chin dipped low. She was... an absolute mess. And not only was she an absolute mess, but she was a mess that had just apologized to him. About who knew what. Which really sent off a red signal meaning she was far below just a plain and simple 'absolute mess.'

Caradoc knew he should have brought over a sleeping potion from the Order house right from the get-go. At least then there would have been an actual reassurance that she would have gotten some form of sleep. Caradoc sighed again, hands dropping from his chest and his face softening.

"Sleep," he said in a quiet tone, finally kicking off his shoes to sit down next to her. Before Emmeline moved, he pushed himself up against the side of the couch, giving himself something of a relaxed, half sitting up-laying down postion. He tugged at the back of her shirt, indicating for her to lay down. It wasn't as tight as it thought it would be--- not that it honestly mattered anyway.

She tried not to hesitate, it was just simply in her nature. Emmeline let out a short whine as she was pulled into him, but it didn't stop her from settling into Caradoc's side. Or--lying on top of him. It was a strange position, kind of half and half of how you should actually be seated on a couch but. Not bad. And--it wasn't as if she hadn't spent the night with him before, those times just usually involved a bed and a lot less crying.

Sometimes there was crying, but not often.

Emmeline pressed her face into Caradoc's chest, eyes wide open for a moment as she thought of something to say. Part of her was worried that he'd think she was crazy, but then a louder, surprisingly loud voice actually, was telling her that it didn't matter. Not because of the fact that she did honestly believe there was something mentally unstable with the both of them, but she reminded herself that even after all the ruckus and--madness--he'd still stayed.

Her arm draped across his chest--she couldn't find any words (mostly because her brain wasn't functioning properly at this point), and just pushed her nose into his neck for a second before shifting into a comfortable sleeping position.

Well, then.