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Thomas rang Heather to attempt to talk her into withdrawing the divorce filing. Heather hung up on him as soon as he started yelling at her as she had always done.
With Heather refusing to take his calls and unable to locate her to try to force her to talk to him in person, he was forced to hire a lawyer who contacted Heather's lawyer to arrange an appointment for mediation.
Heather didn't want to see her husband, she still loved him but she knew that if she went back to him, she couldn't trust him not to hurt her next time he lost his temper and she didn't want to open herself up to the hurt of having to reject him in person.
Unfortunately, her lawyer was insistent, he explained that refusing the mediation would reduce the settlement if they went to court. Heather told him smartly that she didn't care about the settlement, she only wanted the divorce but the lawyer told her that Thomas would be able to ask for a delay while they attempted mediation unless she had a good reason to refuse, so it was in her best interest to attempt supervised mediation.
Tim and Hadrian were suspicious about the lawyer's motivations and worried about what Thomas would do. Hadrian suggested that if Heather did go, she should not meet Thomas alone, or even just alone with her lawyer who might be easily manipulated into leaving them alone. At first he thought of sending invisible protection but that wouldn't protect Heather from the verbal and emotional abuse. However there was one person who could. He called Auror Lynda Sherrington and asked her to be the visible bodyguard and to counter any threats Thomas made with her presence and the threat of pressing charges for the assault if he didn't agree to let the divorce go through uncontested and as quickly as possible. He reassured her that both she and Heather would be under the protection of a pair of invisible house elves for the duration of the meeting and afterwards until they were sure Thomas was not trying to follow them or have them followed.
Thomas arrived at the meeting determined to get Heather to come back to him, or if not come back at least maintain the marriage so he could make excuses for her absence, claiming that she was caring for a family member or something. He knew he could play on the guilt of his career being ruined to make her co-operate. And if she did come home then the distance between San Diego and DC would prevent his former son from visiting the base and upsetting their relationship again. He walked into the room confidently until he saw Heather sitting there with Special Agent Lynda Sherrington next to her.
"What are you doing here? This is a private meeting," Thomas objected to her presence.
"It is hardly private with both sets of lawyers here to make sure I comply with the meeting so you cannot use it to delay the divorce proceedings," Heather said snarkily.
"That's hardly meeting the spirit of mediation," Thomas' lawyer said mildly reproving.
"I brought a bodyguard because I didn't trust either of you lawyers to keep me safe from my husband. I am here for one reason only, to expedite the divorce. I will never return to a man that will hit me for remaining in contact with my son," Heather said firmly.
"You know I never meant to hurt you," Thomas stated.
"SSA Sherrington did file a report that night, given the force of the blow you would have knocked me off my feet and probably broken my jaw," Heather declared, unimpressed. "If SSA Sherrington wasn't there I would have been in the hospital and the MPs would have investigated my assault whether I pressed charges or not. Forgive me if I'm not willing to give you another opportunity to destroy both of us."
"Heather," Thomas protested. "I'm willing to let you stay in DC instead of being moved to San Diego with me. In another six years I'll retire to this area if I'm not promoted to the pentagon before then and we can try to start again."
"No Thomas, I want things finalised between us. I don't want this hanging over my head. Sign the divorce papers, or I will have you charged with assault," Heather demanded.
Thomas looked at her in horror. "That would destroy my career. I would be dishonourably discharged. We would lose everything."
"No. You would lose everything, I would have to go through the trauma of a trial but in the end, I would have my divorce whether you agreed to it or not," Heather countered. "It's your choice. Sign the papers and the divorce will proceed quietly or refuse and we go to court. I am not staying married to you."
"You'd lose your half of my pension too if I get dishonourably discharged, you know?" Thomas reminded her.
"Tim has already accepted that might be the case and offered me a place to live and a small stipend so I can be independent, if I have to make that choice to get free of you and your manipulations," Heather replied. "You have nothing left to lose by signing the divorce papers."
"You're asking for three quarters of all the marital assets," his lawyer became involved.
"In return for no alimony, it's a fair deal and will benefit your client more than mine unless he retires in the next two years," Heather's lawyer returned.
"I spent my entire married life moving from one Naval base to another, leaving the friends I'd managed to make behind, not working because Thomas didn't want me to, always having to present the right image, be the perfect future Admiral's wife, I believe I've earned the money and I have no desire to be tied to Thomas' willingness to pay alimony. I want all of my entitlement up front so I never have to contact Thomas again," Heather said. "I never want to be dependent on him."
"You're closing off any chance of a reconciliation," Thomas said disbelievingly, the feelings of hurt over her leaving overtaking his anger at her embarrassing him like this for the first time.
"I've already given you a second chance and it ended in the threat of violence exactly like the first time. Why should I believe you're willing to change?" Heather said quietly.
"I love you," Thomas said sincerely.
"I loved you Thomas McGee, but you destroyed that, it's not possible to love a man I cannot respect," Heather said sadly.
"It's a fair deal," Heather's lawyer replied. "You're not likely to get a better one in court, if you want to waste the money on lawyers instead it will come out of your share." Thomas' lawyer reluctantly nodded to him, agreeing with the assessment.
"Think about the attention and publicity a court battle could cause," Heather said, knowing that that would convince him quicker than the money.
Thomas sighed and signed the papers. Heather immediately got to her feet and left the room, head held high to hide the tears in her eyes and Thomas hung his head and cried.
Auror Sherrington drove Heather home where Hadrian and the children greeted her at the door and with Hadrian's support and understanding, she submerged herself into their activities to avoid thinking about what she had lost.
Tim stayed in the bullpen watching the location of Thomas' cell phone while he met with Heather and afterwards was relieved to see him leave the DC area heading back to Florida via a commercial flight soon after Hadrian had contacted him to say Heather had arrived home. As soon as he had boarded his flight Gibbs who had been watching Tim monitor the situation, gave his young agent the rest of the day off to spend with his mother.
-o0o-
That weekend, Hadrian and Tim hosted a pre start of school dinner for the friends Teddy had made at Salem and their families. The children from the DC area been visiting back and forth several times but the parents really hadn't spent time together as a group since the day they met at orientation. Because of where they'd sat at lunch during the school visit a lot of these parents were nonmagical, and were glad to see that Tim and Hadrian appeared to live in a muggle area in a normal muggle house, though a much larger one than most of them had ever lived in.
"This is a lovely house," Sebastiano DiMaria's mother Toni gushed. Her son 'Seb' rolled his eyes and looked grateful when Tim quietly directed him into the old ballroom where the other children were running around playing.
"I love the way we can travel all the way across the country in minutes, did you cast the magic on the portkkey? Are they available for purchase? Are they cheaper than an airfare?" Adrian Christie's mother Narelle asked. The Christies were from just outside Kingman Arizona.
Tim laughed. "The ministry of magic and Gringotts, the wizarding bank, do sell portkeys and they have branches in several major cities around the country. I expect the school will give you a list of places. I'm not sure of the cost because Hadrian is able to make his own, or in this case I requested one of the school staff to make them for me for today, since I don't know your exact addresses or co-ordinates to anchor your end of the portkey. These are return use portkeys, they will take you home after your visit and then become inert, just toss them out or in the recycling the way you would any other rubbish. The one Adrian will be issued for school will be a multi-trip portkey, that will do an unlimited number of trips between two set destinations, probably something like an armband or lanyard he can wear full time."
"So we can't get it to take us somewhere else?" Narelle Christie asked.
"The person who made it would be able to change the destinations, the school would take care of it if you moved house, but if you wanted one to bring you here to shop or something you would need your own. I'm not sure whether you'll be able to travel with Adrian on his school portkey," Hadrian said.
"Is the house completely non magical?" Jessie Matheson's mother Leanne asked curiously and slightly disappointed. "I expected magical houses to be very different to normal."
"I do use magic to protect and maintain the house, but you're right it isn't a magical home like the ones I was familiar with visiting friends when I was at school, we live largely in the nonmagical world and need to have a home Teddy and the girls could have their friends over to play," Hadrian said. "The amount of magical appliances and things varies from person to person, especially here in America but a truly magical home in Britain wouldn't have electricity or a telephone, everything that you use electricity for would be done entirely by magic."
"Does magic help keep the costs down? I know FBI Agents are well paid but I wouldn't have thought you could afford a house like this. The heating and cooling alone would cost a fortune. Not to mention you'd need maids and gardeners if you both work," Adrian Christie's father Simon asked.
"The house has environmental control wards which keep the temperature and humidity stable. We do have fire places in a lot of the rooms but they're not required to heat the house. There are also self cleaning charms on the fireplaces toilets, bath tub and several other places that would require regular scrubbing, and you're right we do have help, but the help mostly isn't human. There are a race of elves that need to form a servitude bond with humans to live. They take care of the house and other than their living expenses they're paid with the connection to my magic. As for the cost of the house it was bought as a ruin for a little less than the cost of the land would've been if the house wasn't there, with family money and I used magic to restore it, we couldn't have brought it from our salaries even with magic to help," Hadrian explained.
"Can we meet a house elf?" Sophie Luxford's mother Vivienne asked eagerly.
"Certainly, let me call Tollie. Tollie can you come here please," Tim said, pleased to get off the topic of money. He was comfortable now with the idea that Hadrian paid for more than half their house but recognised that several of the other parents were uncomfortable with the obvious wealth of the house and grounds.
"Master Tim called Tollie, what can Tollie do for Master Tim and Master Hadrian?" Tollie popped into the room shocking some of the parents.
"Teddy's friends' parents wanted to meet you so they know who is helping us look after their children while they are here," Tim said going around the room and introducing each of the parents. "Tollie is a nanny elf, she belonged to Teddy's grandmother and looking after Teddy and the girls is her primary responsibility though she does also try to mother Tim and I as well," Hadrian said causing the parents to chuckle and relax.
"You has used enough magic todays, you need to stop," Tollie told Hadrian firmly.
"That's what he's talking about," Tim said amused.
"But you're not using any magic, are you?" Jessie Matheson's father Thomas asked nervously. He couldn't see Hadrian using magic and he was worried what the unseen magic could be doing to them.
"I am wearing a glamour, that is magic made to hide something about the way I look. It enables me to be able to move about in public in nonmagical areas without drawing too much attention. Normally the magical drain would be very slight but most of my magic is unavailable to me at the moment," Hadrian admitted, dropping the glamour.
His guests looked at him in shock.
"Is that… Are you carrying a baby?" Narelle Christie asked. "How is that possible?"
"Are you a transsexual man?" Simon Christie asked.
"No I'm not, I conceived though a spell that allows a man to fall pregnant and carry a baby, though the magical cost is fairly significant. I'm expecting twins," Hadrian said.
"Does the spell turn you into a hermaphrodite?" Leanne Matheson asked.
"No it doesn't alter my genitalia at all I was born and remain completely male. The baby is conceived through a spell and the combination of my magic and Tim's and is supported entirely by my magic," Hadrian said, trying not to sound defensive in spite of the overly intrusive question.
"Did you carry Teddy, Rosie and Daisy as well?" Ellie Bramwell's mother Janine asked.
"Teddy is adopted, he was my godson, but I did carry Rosie and Daisy," Hadrian said.
"Are they Tim's daughters as well?" Harley Lynch 's mother Mika asked.
"Yes," Tim said smiling. "They are our children. It takes two wizards magic to produce a baby, it's lucky that it didn't require me to cast a spell, the magic in me was enough."
"And they have magic? Is that because of the spell that made them?" Leanne Matheson asked.
"No, the spell doesn't give them magic, they're witches because with his magic bound or not both Tim and I are wizards," Hadrian said.
"So you don't know whether the babies will have magic?" Vivienne Luxford asked.
"We didn't when they were conceived but the healer has confirmed that they both do have a magical core. That doesn't necessarily mean they will have enough magic to be accepted at Salem but they will have some, enough to interact with the magical toys the girls have and to be able to use potions and magical healing," Hadrian replied, understating the situation. The twins were both highly magical and would be strong wizards or witches baring an injury to their magical core.
"I didn't know that healers could do that. If we had another baby then how early could a healer tell us whether it had magic?" Thomas Matheson asked.
Something about the way he asked the question set Tim on edge, his wife also looked unhappy about it too. "You should know that it's illegal to abort a baby that you know has magic, and it isn't terribly safe either. Aborting a magical child usually results in untreatable infertility, and in rare cases will kill the mother," he said.
Thomas frowned. "Why would you tell me that?"
"Because of the way you asked, as if you would only consider having another child unless you knew it either would or wouldn't be magical," Tim replied. "Which do you want it to be? My guess is nonmagical, I suppose that Jessie is lucky that you didn't bind her magic like my parents bound mine."
"I wouldn't do that to her. You said that it would cause depression and change her personality," Thomas said.
"It would, the majority of the world would consider it one of the worst forms of child abuse. There is a strong campaign for it to be made illegal here too, we should succeed in the next year or two. The number of children who get their magic bound is thankfully declining, most of the first contact workers now warn of the mental effects and more than half of the children they do have to bind they are being called back to unbind within a few weeks," Hadrian stated.
"Once you told us that I knew I could never do it to Jessie but there's no harm in wanting to have a child without magic," Thomas said.
Hadrian and Tim both noticed Thomas conceal a slight grimace as his wife spoke up enthusiastically. "We'd never do that, magic is a gift."
"You already have one child without magic, do you treat him better than you treat Jessie since you found out she was a witch?" Hadrian asked using a small spell that would let him know if Thomas gave him an honest answer.
"Of course not," Thomas protested. The spell let Hadrian know that the man mostly believed his answer and Hadrian made a mental note to contact the wizarding child protection to keep an eye on the situation to protect not only Jessie from her father but also assess the risks to her brother from potential neglect by their mother who was a little too delighted that Jessie had magic, if they weren't already involved. The situation seemed likely to lead to the kind of resentment between the siblings that his mother and aunt had developed.
The children trouped in and serious conversation was abandoned in favour of wrangling the preteens into sitting calmly enough to eat a healthy meal. Tim and Hadrian smiled as they listened to the future students' excited chatter. They were all getting along very well and looking forward to attending their new school.
"Oh is it just that it's so unexpected to see a man being pregnant that makes you look ready to pop already? Are you due?" Janine Bramwell exclaimed as Hadrian got up to slowly follow the children out of the dining room after eating.
"No I have another seven and a half weeks, it's partly that I don't have the hips for childbearing so they're still sitting entirely above my pelvis instead of starting to settle into it and there's the fact that it is twins and that all the weight gain is in my stomach, other than looking like I shoved a gigantic beach ball or two up my jumper, my healer speculates that the rest of me is actually still underweight for my height. My healer is still hopeful I'll last another month but I must say that I'm starting to feel like the sooner the better so long as they're both healthy," Hadrian said.
"Oh I remember that feeling, it was bad enough with one, though Ryan was over ten pound born so I looked and felt like I was carrying twins," Beth Wheildon commiserated.
"The last couple of weeks are pretty miserable but soon you'll be holding your baby and it will all be worth it," Mika Lynch said supportively.
"Oh I know that, but I still have a couple of months to go and it already feels like I can't do half the things I want to do. Thank Merlin that Heather, Barbara, Tim and Teddy are so helpful and the elves do almost all the cooking and cleaning anyway. I don't like leaving the children in the elves care too often though I know they're perfectly safe with them, but they're too focused on doing their work and they emotionally aren't able to let the children just make a mess and learn the consequences of their mistakes without needing to clean it up or fix things immediately," Hadrian said.
"Do you have to have a caesarean?" Toni DiMaria asked.
"Yes, though a magical one, thank Merlin. They will heal the incision completely before I the anaesthetic wears off so I won't have to feel any of it," Hadrian said.
"Do they have spells to get rid of the caeser scar, the flabby tummy and the stretch marks afterwards?" Janine Bramwell asked.
"Yes there won't be a scar after it's been healed and there's a potion to remove stretch marks and spells to tighten the skin but I will still need to lose the weight if I've put any on and work hard to get my muscles back to the six pack I had before," Hadrian said sighing.
"Would the stretch mark potion work for me? Would it still work even now?"
"If you have the internal magic to activate the potion, then it should work, I have heard of some parents of first generation magicals being able to use potions even though they don't have enough magic to learn to use a wand," Hadrian said. "I couldn't guarantee it though, I'm not sure how common it is or any way to tell which of you will have that ability."
"How do I get my hands on the potion?"
"I'll ask my healer and if he thinks it's worth it, I'll give you his details so you can schedule an appointment," Hadrian said knowing better than to let non-magicals access to take any potion unsupervised by a healer. The results could be erratic, either it might work, do nothing or cause an anaphylactic reaction.
He led them outside where the children had organised an impromptu game of soccer and Christie Matheson and several of the fathers joined in, ending the serious conversations. Hadrian and the other mother's exchanged baby and pregnancy stories and talked about decorating the nursery. they were shocked to hear that it was orange and Hadrian took them up to see it.
"I never would have chosen orange but it's warm and cozy and surprisingly restful, I like it," Beth Wheildon said admiringly. "Did you use a designer?"
"No we made all the decorating decisions together, Hadrian made the colour choice for this room," Tim said.
"Very bold choice. You've done an amazing job with all the decorating," Mika Lynch said.
"Thank you, it's easy to make bold choices with colour when changing it costs nothing and only takes casting a spell not a whole weekend repainting, I think I tried about a dozen different shades of orange before this one," Hadrian said
The day ended well, and Tim and Hadrian were glad to get to know Teddy's new school friends and their parents. The parents were also glad to have got to see a little more of the wizarding world and share their experiences of accidental magic and finding out their child was magical.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
I wish everyone the best in this time. Please stay safe and keep your distance, stay at home if you can and keep in contact with family and friends on line.
