Chapter 6
Rose's mind was still in an angry frenzy as she apparated into her and Scorpius apartment. The quickest way to get to London was to floo back, but as she headed towards the fireplace and looked around the apartment, she saw how much of her belongings were still there. Things that they had used to build a life together. Things that she no longer wanted associated with him, because they were hers and only hers.
Determined to pack anything of hers that she could get her hands on, she left drawers pulled out and empty, bare hangers hanging askew, and large gaps between books on their bookshelves. It wasn't until she swept her hand across her side of the bathroom sink, sliding bottles of perfume and lotion into an extendable bag that she caught a glimpse of her left ring finger.
For the first time, the reality of what she had done was shocking through her body like pinpricks on her skin. Her chest grew heavy, and tightened as though it were closing in around her heart, restricting it. The act of breathing became a struggle that no amount of heaving would satisfy. Her hand trembled as she stared at just how bare and empty her finger truly was now, and what that represented. Instantly, tears flooded from her eyes like a harsh flowing river in the midst of a violent storm. Some splattered onto her finger, and Rose wiped them away, finding it sickening to believe that her rings were gone.
Gasping for air, Rose knew she couldn't be there when Scorpius arrived. She knew that she couldn't handle seeing him hurt but still try to comfort her as he always did when he saw her cry. And she knew that she wouldn't have the strength to push him away.
So calming herself just long enough to say the Weasley house, she flooed home, where she could cry in peace.
"How long has it been since you talked to her?" Bryan asked, sitting at his kitchen table and drinking a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
It was an early Monday morning and Scorpius had planned the night before to have breakfast with Bryan and Stacy. Although, assuming by Bryan's look of surprise when he knocked on the door, Scorpius could guess that Bryan hadn't meant so early.
"Two weeks," Scorpius said dreadfully.
"Good morning Scorpius," Stacy greeted, as she walked into her kitchen, dressed in white healer robes with her hair pulled into a tight ponytail, heading to the refrigerator.
Scorpius dropped his hand, running his fingers through his hair. "Sorry I came by so early. I just needed to talk to Bryan," he said, catching Bryan smirk.
"It's fine," said Stacy in a kind voice.
"We already have toast," said Bryan to Stacy's back.
Stacy looked over her shoulder and stared at a pile of slightly burnt toast on a plate. For years Bryan had said he liked his toast burnt on the edges, and for years Scorpius had thought Bryan was compensating, but as he watched Bryan reach for his third piece that morning, Scorpius was starting to wonder.
"I see that," she said, turning back to the fridge and selecting a green baby bottle full of milk, along with package of bacon. She closed the refrigerator door and walked over to the stove, placing the bottle in a caldron to heat up. "We've missed having our weekly breakfasts with you," she continued, throwing the strips of bacon on to a frying pan.
"It hasn't been that long," Scorpius scoffed.
"Over a year," Bryan commented, grabbing the lemon and raspberry marmalade. "Ever since you moved to New York."
Scorpius wanted to counter but couldn't. He was very well aware of the fact that since he'd moved to New York he hadn't spent near as much time with his friends as he used to. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but as his and Rose's lives went on in the city, things became distant with his friends in England.
"Well it hasn't been intentional," he said solemnly.
Stacy walked over to the table and tenderly patted him on the shoulder, while Bryan slapped him on the back. "Get over it, we get that you're busy."
Dropping her hand, Stacy waved her wand to the spatula to flip over the bacon in the frying pan. A sweet savory scent started to fill the house. "Although, we are curious as to why you're here? Isn't it like three in the morning in New York?" she asked, taking a seat beside her husband.
"I stayed the weekend in my London flat," He said. "I have a new case, so I don't actually have to be in the office, and…I just needed to get away for a while."
Stacy gave Bryan a speculating stare, but at the wailing sound of Toby's crying, she forgot her train of thought and got up to go check on him. "Test the milk," she called from halfway up the stairs.
Bryan went over to the stove, wincing as grease splattered on his arm, and grabbed the milk.
Scorpius chuckled to himself. "I never thought you'd be doing the dad thing, especially first."
Bryan shook the bottle and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt just past his wrist. "You laugh now, but this will be you soon."
Scorpius sunk back into his chair. "Assuming that my marriage ever gets worked out."
Squeezing a droplet of milk onto his wrist, Bryan looked up to his friend with apprehensive eyes. "Do you think that she'll keep the baby from you?"
"She'd be going through a very long legal battle if she tried," said Scorpius quickly as a joke, but he paused actually thinking about the situation. Catching Bryan's still staring eyes, he shook his head. "Rose wouldn't do that."
"You sure?" Bryan questioned.
Scorpius went silent and crossed his arms, thinking over the question for the first time as an actual possibility. "I'm positive," he affirmed. "You should have seen the way she looked at me when I missed that appointment." He glanced up to Bryan guilty. "She wants me involved. At least with the baby."
Bryan glided back to his seat. "Well you did mess up by missing that appointment."
"You don't think I know that?" Scorpius huffed, dropping his head between his hands. "Believe me I know how much I messed up. I just got confused and everything has been…" He pushed his hair back with his hands, closing his eyes. "Nothing's been normal."
Bryan tapped his thumb against the bottle. "Well lying to her for six months wasn't normal." Scorpius shot his head up to meet Bryan critical stare. "You don't make stupid choices like that. It's not you." He pointed the bottle to Scorpius authoritatively. "Especially with Rose, the girl that you could never get over. What happened?"
"Some form of self-preservation I guess," Scorpius whispered.
There was a sad look in Bryan's eyes. Both of them fell silent. The cackle of bacon cooking, and the occasionally squeal from Toby upstairs filled the room. Bryan placed his elbows on the table and rolled the bottle between his palms. "Can I point something out?" he asked, immersed with the bottle.
"Sure."
"Didn't this happen on a Thursday?"
Scorpius very slowly lifted his chin to look at Bryan. "Not helping," he growled.
Stacy came back into the kitchen, with a still drowsy Toby in her hands. He was gurgling but had his face buried in the crook of Stacy's neck. "We have visitors," she said in an overly chipper but soft voice, playfully tickling him in his side to try and wake him up some more.
Toby gave a small whine and flipped his head to face the other side of Stacy's shoulder. He had his fist in his mouth, and his eyes were half open, staring around the room blankly. "Poor thing," Stacy murmured, patting his back. "He's not a morning person."
"Who is," Bryan muttered, as Stacy leaned into him to give him Toby. Adjusting the baby in his lap, he reached for the bottle and popped it in Toby's mouth. Without hesitation Toby pressed the back of his head against Bryan's stomach and closed his eyes.
Bryan couldn't help but chortle, holding one arm securely around Toby's waist and the other on the bottle. Looking up to Scorpius his bright smile remained. "If it means anything I don't think she's going to divorce you."
"And what makes you think that?" asked Scorpius.
"Well has she brought up the topic again? Sent you any papers, a lawyer's number, or anything like that?"
Scorpius shook his head. "No."
Bryan gave a dismissive shrug, making Toby open his eyes. "Yeah, she's not going to divorce you. You just need to talk to her."
Waving his hand, Scorpius definitively said, "No. That is the last thing she wants right now."
Bryan glanced to Stacy, who was by the stove removing the strips of bacon from the pan. "Hey Stacy, how about you try talking to her."
Stacy's shoulders tensed up. Her back strategically facing them, as she slowly cracked an egg into the pan. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she said after several seconds.
It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Rose that made Bryan and Scorpius raise their eyebrows, but the way that she said it.
"And why not?" he pushed with a sly smirk.
She gave a nonchalant shrug, but continued to face away. "Well for starters she's in the hospital a lot now, so legally it is inappropriate for me to bring up anything that does not involve the state of her father."
"And the truth is…" Bryan sang, while Scorpius snickered.
Her shoulder's sagged, and she turned around to stare at the two guys. "I don't know Rose anymore. I mean we were friends in school, but we don't talk anymore. So for me to just ask about her marriage is… Well… Can't you try one of her friends in New York?"
"You mean the ones that actually live in New York, whereas you're local," said Bryan breezily.
Stacy rolled her eyes and turned around to the stove again. "Oh, nice. I love how your decision process was based on convenience."
Bryan burst out laughing, while Scorpius held back his fit. "Actually Stacy, I think I would actually appreciate it if no one talked to her. She seems to really want her space right now, and the last thing I need is for her to think I'm pushing people on her."
Smirking, Stacy whipped around with a spatula in her hand and narrowed her eyes to Bryan. "Would you like burnt eggs to go with your toast?"
Bryan stopped laughing.
"Do you remember Jill Summers?" asked Hermione, pouring herself a cup of coffee to take to work.
"Hey mum," said Rose, paying absolutely no attention to her mother's question. "How long were you in labor with me?"
"Too long to be considered acceptable," she answered coming around the kitchen table and sitting across from Rose.
Rose gave her mother an unappreciative look to the joke.
Her mother gave a light laugh to the reaction. "Twenty-three hours."
Rose brought her knee to her chest, balancing the heel of her foot on the edge of her chair. Tapping her knee, while her mind went to a distant place for a moment. "That's a long time," she finally said.
Hermione nodded her head, as she sipped her coffee. "That's having a baby."
Rose closed the book she was reading, and sat up straight with a more professional tone as though she were conducting an interview. "Okay, but were you in pain the entire time or was that just at the end?"
"Well it wasn't comfortable."
Rose quickly leaned forward. "But you had an epidural right? How much pain did that take away, and how bad would it be if I don't have an epidural? Because all these books say that epidurals are bad for the baby, and that they are a selfish choice for mother's to make." She grabbed her book and began to feverishly flip through pages.
"What —" Astounded, Hermione snatched the book from her daughter's hand, "are you reading? The Potionless Pregnancy: Why Even the Smallest Amount of Chemicals Could be Harmful."
Giving her daughter a wary eye, Hermione smiled and said again, "Once again, do you remember Jill Summers?"
"You mean the girl I shared a room with for seven years, yes I think I remember who she is?" Rose said sarcastically.
Hermione gave a tight but appreciative nod. "Good," she said precisely. "Her mother is one of the lower assistants in my department. She was telling me the other day that Jill is pregnant as well, and that she attends these weekly classes that—"
"Mum…" she rolled her eyes. "I don't need any classes, thank you."
"Rose, when was the last time you changed a dirty nappy?" Hermione countered.
"The book can teach me how to do that," replied Rose smartly.
"Just like how the book can teach how evil epidurals are?"
"I never said they were evil," she scoffed.
"All I am saying is that I think it might be worth talking to her."
"Fine." Rose rolled eyes away from her mother. "If I agree to talk to her will you get off my back?"
"It'll help."
"Then I'll owl her," she said sounding tired and snapping the book back from her mother's hand. Opening it back to the page where she had left off, Rose curled her legs up into her.
Feeling her mother's gaze still beaming to her, she tried her to ignore it.
"Have you talked to Scorpius about this?" Hermione asked after a moment of silence.
The corner of Rose's lip twitched. "Considering that I just had the thought… No," she said not lowering her eyes from her book.
"Drop the attitude," warned Hermione, lacing her fingers together.
Rose stuck her nose in the air and pursed her lips tightly together, knowing that her mother wasn't through with the conversation yet.
"And have you talked to him about that?" Hermione tilted her head to Rose's ring-less left hand.
Rose's eyes drooped to the finger. Her thumb rubbing over it, still not use to its light weightlessness. She had been unable to stop thinking about it for the past two weeks. No matter how hard Rose tried, the fact that she was missing a key piece of jewelry was constantly weaseling its way into her mind and her heart, causing her to feel empty and worried.
"Can we not talk about this right now?" she asked weakly.
Hermione gently lowered the book that was covering her daughters face, revealing Rose's eyes that had begun to water. "Dear, missing an appointment is not the end of the world."
Her shoulders sagged as she bowed her head to stare at her hands. "Mum, it's not just the appointment and you know it." It was hard to pass anything over Hermione, and Rose knew from the moment that she walked through the front door a month ago that her mother had noticed something off.
Sniffling back her will to cry, Rose stared back up to her mother. "Everyone was right. We got married way too fast." Shamefully she covered her face with her hands—a few tears escaping from the corner of her eyes. "I love him, I do, but I don't know who he is anymore."
A long slow sigh came from Hermione. Biting her lip, she let Rose calm down before saying, "Rose, you are sensible enough not to marry a stranger. People don't just change overnight." Rose lowered her hand. Her eyes red but no longer tear-filled. "The man that you know is there. You just need to find him again."
"Well at the rate he's going he's making it hard for me to want to find him."
Hermione stood up, clasping her hands to the back of her chair. "Well then let me put something else into perspective." Her foot steadily tapping the floor. "You have put this family through hell over the past six years, and did you really do all that just to divorce Scorpius Malfoy after seven months?"
Rose had no response. Her mouth fell open and she stared as her mother turned to grab her briefcase, leaving her to ponder over the words.
"Hey Stacy," Rose said stopping at the healers station on her father's floor.
"One moment," she responded, digging through a mess of folders then turned to another healer and said, "Please tell me you have the Hamilton file?"
The older blond women shook her head. "I'm still looking for Golffrey."
"I think I saw that one."
"Where?"
Stacy turned back to the dozens of files that covered the entirety of her table. "Somewhere in this area." She hovered her hand over a pile of file folders that were so jumbled that they resembled a small mountain.
The other healer looked exhausted. "This is ridiculous, I'm getting coffee."
"Busy day?" Rose asked sympathetically.
"Busy week," groaned Stacy, rubbing her eyes with her palms. "They want us to change the way we organize the files."
Rose pursed her lips together and felt guilty for bothering Stacy while she was so busy. "I hate to ask, but can you check and see what time healer Marshall is supposed to stop by my dad's room?"
Lowering her hands, Stacy gave Rose a curious stare. "Anything wrong?"
"No," Rose squeaked. "Just had a few questions."
Stacy swirled her chair around and grabbed a clipboard from the other side of the desk. Leafing through the pages, a disgruntled look crossed her face. "Greg—I mean healer Marshall hasn't filled out his time sheet yet. He's probably going through his own folders, but I can say that he usually does his last rounds around six."
Disappointed, Rose strummed her fingers on the counter. "Thanks," she said, partially distracted.
Nodding, Stacy turned to put the clipboard away. "Anything else?"
Rose shook her head vigorously. "No, that was it." Stopping her fingers, she caught Stacy's eyes staring at her left hand.
The cordial expression on her face became blank. Not wanting to talk about it, Rose briskly lowered her hand to her pocket and cleared her throat; pushing a smile onto her face. "So…" she said filling the silence.
Her old friend gave Rose a tender expression. "He came—" but Stacy never got the chance to finish.
"Stacy," interrupted Bryan breathlessly as he rushed through the doors that led to the unconscious wing of St. Mungos. In his arms was a limb flailing —but content—Toby and a sky blue diaper bag, which jingled as it flopped against his side. Covered in sweat as though he ran there, he skidded to a stop in front of his wife and heaved, "You—have—to—take—Toby."
"What?" Stacy's voice jumped. "I can't take him. I'm at work."
"Hi," he greeted Rose then whipped his head back to Stacy. "I know, but this is seriously an emergency."
"Can your mum not watch him?"
"Sick. And your mother hates me."
"She does not hate you," snapped Stacy irritated.
"Strongly dislike, same difference. The point is you're the only one who can ask her is you, because if I do then I get lectured about how unfit I am to be a father." He held Toby out to Stacy. Fat, chubby legs dangled as he stared at his mother blankly.
Stacy snatched the receiver to the telephone at her desk. "I hate your job," she hissed, dialing her mother's number.
"I hate my job," he countered, "but I still have to do it."
"Then why did you become an Auror?"
"Because Scorpius talked me into it."
"Seriously?" Rose piped in.
Bryan gave her a sideways glance. "It's a very long story." He smirked.
Stacy gave a swift roll of her eyes as she listened to phone ring then go to voicemail. Placing the phone back in its cradle, she glanced at Bryan. His brown hair a mess, and his dark eyes holding a panicked expression. "Go," she sighed, taking hold of her son. "I'll try back again later."
"Thank you," he said winded, placing the diaper bag on the desk and leaving.
Rose watched as Stacy gazed down to Toby and touched his plump cheek with her spare hand. "I need you to be really quiet and still for me," she said. Though, Toby disagreed as he fussily began to fidget in her arms.
"I'll watch him," suggested Rose, without even thinking.
"Really?" Stacy asked in a relieved tone.
Thinking over her offer, she nodded. "Yeah, I'm just going to be down the hall in my dad's room." She reached forward and took the baby from Stacy's arms. The look of gratitude on Stacy's face made Rose genuinely smile for the first time in weeks. "It'll be fine," she promised.
"Not as fun as you thought it'd be is it?" Scorpius asked to a brooding Mindy, keeping his vision focused on the entrance doors of the apartment building that was directly across the street from where they were parked in a ministry owned car.
"No." Mindy scowled and twisted awkwardly in the passenger seat of the car. "This is awful, really, really awful."
Although they had a location for the Collector, they didn't have any indication as to who he could be. Scorpius had concluded that it was a man, probably in his early to mid-thirties, but that wasn't a lot to go on. They needed a name or a face to really get the case moving.
During the previous week Mindy had interviewed the auctioneer who sold the Choker alarm, but all he could remember was the statue and the buyer. As for Scorpius, he searched the name Senor Sebastian through several international departments, but all of those came up empty as well, leading them to the next best thing. Stake out the building until someone showed up.
Stretching her arms out in front of her, Mindy closed her eyes. Her face scrunched up in a tiny fit as she said, "I cannot concentrate on this anymore. We have been at this for hours, and I'm starting to get hungry."
Scorpius could understand where she was coming from. Sitting in the car for five hours himself, his own legs were becoming restless. "You want to go ahead and order lunch?" he said, glancing down to his watch.
One of Mindy's eyes popped open hopefully. "Yes," she replied meekly. "Where?"
"You pick," said Scorpius turning back to stare out the front window. Intently watching a muggle man as he walked inside the building, Scorpius' stare wandered up to the open window of the Collector's flat, holding his breath as he waited to see if the same man walked through the front door. There was no such luck.
Mindy pulled a mobile from her pocket and dialed a number that was on speed dial. "Hi…yes…" Scorpius heard her say. "I would like to order a chocolate milkshake, a burger with everything and a side of fried. Also—" she turned to Scorpius and asked, "What do you want?"
"The mango pecan salad with oil and vinegar on the side."
Dubiously, Mindy stared at Scorpius. "Drink?" she asked blankly.
"Earl gray tea."
"Really?" she mouthed before repeating the order back to the server on the other end of the phone. Hanging up, she looked to Scorpius. "It'll be ready in half an hour. You some sort of health nut?"
"No," Scorpius snapped, not feeling the need to defend his food choices to her.
The both of them went back to silence, watching as a group of muggle men walked inside the building. Their eyes eagerly gazing up to the window, only to be let down.
Mindy tapped her fingers on the car door handle. "So…" she said, clucking her tongue.
Scorpius gave her a sideways glance before looking back down to the steering wheel. "Hmm?"
She smacked her lips together, her fingers still tapping, trying to think of a topic. "So…how did you end up in New York?"
Squirming in his seat, he tugged on the cuff of his shirt. "Got married," he replied stiffly.
"Isn't your wife from England too?"
"She was working in New York when I came along," he said, becoming increasingly interested in a bird that had landed on the hood of the car.
Mindy yawned. "So you met, had a whirlwind romance, and got married. Tell me, was it love at first sight?" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Scorpius flinched. "I really don't want to talk about this."
"Oh," Mindy said, her eyes going wide as she remembered the event in the restaurant two weeks prior. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Her voice had changed. The sarcasm no longer there but instead replaced with sympathy.
Tightening his jaw, Scorpius shrugged. "It's fine," he lied.
"No it's not, but you're just nice," she said sliding her seat back enough so that she could put her shoes on the dashboard. Pulling out a Magazine—with a picture of Ben on the cover—from her bag, she flipped it open and began to silently nod her head.
He watched her, noting that she looked more like a school girl than an Auror. Trying to remember how old she was, he realized that he knew nothing about her. "How old are you?" he asked.
Mindy looked confused to why he would be asking her that, until she followed his gaze to the magazine. "We all have our guilty pleasures don't we," she said embarrassedly, rolling up the magazine and leaning forward to put it away. "I'm twenty, by the way."
"So you got out of the academy…"
"Two months ago." She smirked.
Scorpius stared at her blankly. "And Cornell gave you this job?"
Mindy looked offended as she whipped her head around to scowl at him. "I hate that people only think that the only reason I got this job is because my uncle is the Head. I had job offers from Malan and Monaco before I decided to work here."
Scorpius looked taken aback by her reaction. He hadn't meant to sound as though she got the job even though she was unqualified. "I didn't mean to…" but she wasn't listening.
"No one ever considers that maybe I'm just good," she cried, fisting her hands. "It's so infuriating. I thought that you were different because so far you're the only person who I haven't heard talk about me behind my back, but…"
Scorpius flicked her shoulder to get her attention. When she turned to look at him, he held his hands up defenselessly. "I didn't mean it like that. I only meant that Cornell offered you the job after."
The tension in the car subsided. "Oh." Mindy embarrassedly turned away from him to shield her pink cheeks.
Making sure that she wasn't going to start yelling again, he lowered his hands, and cleared his throat. "So I'm assuming that this has been an ongoing issue."
"Only every day for the past month," she grumbled.
Scorpius didn't know why she had decided to work for her uncle, but he did know that she didn't deserve to be treated any lesser than the other Aurors. Like every other person in the office, Mindy was willing to risk her life to help protect their community, and that alone was enough for her to be treated respectfully.
Peering at her, Scorpius noted that she resembled a small child who had just been bullied. Her tiny features looking even smaller when her face showed no expression. "They'll come around eventually," he said encouragingly.
Mindy glanced to him from the corner of her eye and said, "Do you see what I see?"
Puzzled, he squinted his eyes, but Mindy nodded her head towards the window.
Scorpius jerked his gaze to follow Mindy's direction. A tall man wearing a suit walked towards the building. He had a gaunt face that showed the pointed shape of his skull, silver hair so light that his scalp was visible in the right light, and a pair of sunken in eyes that were so pale they almost blended in with the white. Although he looked ill, he carried himself as though he had the owned the entire city.
He stopped on the sidewalk before entering. Pacing back and forth as he frequently looked at his watch—his expression darkening with every passing second. Suddenly a yellow taxi pulled up by the curb, and the man's hard scowl dispersed into a pleasurable smile. Letting the doorman first open the backseat door, the man came forward and extended his arm, taking the hand of a beautifully elegant women, helping her out of the car.
Scorpius leaned forward to get a better visual. The women's had her dark hair pulled into a tight bun, and a large smile on her face as the man tactfully wrapped his arm around her waist. The pair of them looked strange as they embraced.
Mindy shuddered, but Scorpius was too preoccupied by the oddity to notice. Instead, his eyes were focused on the edge of the dress, which had risen slightly, revealing the tip of her wand that was strapped on around her thigh.
By the end of the afternoon Ron Weasley's hospital bed was covered with an array of rattles, teething rings, and pacifiers. That collection also didn't count the one rambunctious baby sitting in the middle of the toys, waving a rubber popup book around and occasionally hitting Ron's foot.
Although Toby was wide awake, Rose on the other hand was worn out. In theory all she had to do was sit down and watch him, but that was so not the case. From the second she entered her father's room, Toby started to fuss. He crawled up and down on the bed—Rose wasn't sure where else to put him—yanked and tugged onto anything that he could, threw plastic blocks to the ground. Pretty much anything that would possibly make Rose have to get up from her seat every two minutes he did… successfully, and that wasn't even the worst part.
About halfway through the afternoon Toby's fussing turned into full blast crying and hollering. She pulled out toy after toy from the diaper bag and handed it to him, but as soon as it quieted him Toby lost interest and started up his whining again. It truly was baffling to Rose that one little baby could have so many toys but not find any sort of use in them. It wasn't until she bounced him on her knee—to the point that her leg was sore—that Toby's screams turned to gurgles, eventually finding satisfaction in chewing on the corner of his blue blanket.
Finally, when she was sure that he wouldn't scream, Rose placed him back on the foot of the bed and was able to breathe for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Leaned back in her chair, she closed her eyes only to quickly notice how silent Toby had become. Glowering one eye to him, she saw him staring innocently at her with a devilish smirk and the book in midair. Rose waited for what was inevitably going to happen, not particularly surprised when Toby swung his arm back and threw the book at her, hitting the wall about an inch from her head.
Rose snatched the book and narrowed her glare her at him, to which Toby responded by crawling to the near edge of the bed and held his arms out sympathetically.
"That's exactly what you want isn't it," she grumbled to the baby, and placed the book on the bed. "Well let me tell you something your charms aren't going to work on me. That was wrong."
Toby wagged his arms higher, his bottom lip started to quiver, and Rose found it hard to look at his sad expression and eventually picked him up, "You're lucky your mummy is so busy," she said, settling him in her lap, which he immediately wanted to be out of a minute later.
Tiredly sighing, Rose let him go rouge on the bed, not caring if he laid across her dad's kidney. He's a grown man and can handle it, she argued to herself.
"How's everything going?" Stacy's voice, which Rose blissfully perked up at, said from the door way.
"Everything's just great," Rose replied, her voice going lower at the end.
Both women looked to the bed to see Toby gleefully spread across Ron's stomach as he preoccupied himself with popping spit bubbles. Stacy's gaze casually moving down the bed, taking in the mess of toys. "I see you two had fun. Did you leave anything in the bag?" she asked, looking wide eyed to Rose.
"The diapers." Rose smirked.
"Right," she stated, and grabbed the straps of the now flimsy diaper bag. Stacy walked to the bed where she propped up the diaper bag and waved her wand across the toys so that they would individually start to levitate into the bag. "So did Healer Marshall ever stop by?" she asked, brushing her knuckles across Toby's stomach.
"No, he hasn't come by yet," said Rose, watching how Toby smiled as he wrapped his hand around his mother's finger. He sat up when she pulled away, sliding off Ron's belly.
"You know," Stacy said, walking around the room to pick up any lingering toys, "he'll wake up when he's ready."
Rose jerked her head to look at Stacy. "How did you know that I was going to ask him that?"
Stacy picked up a rouge teething ring and tossed it in the bag. "It's what every non patient that visits this wing wants to know."
"It's just that it's been over a month, shouldn't there be some progress by now?" Rose stared at her father, his foot twitching.
Clasping her hands together, Stacy stared at Rose very professionally. "The body recuperates at its own pace. With magical illnesses we really have no way of knowing."
"But he is going to wake up?" Rose sucked on her bottom lip.
"Eventually," was all Stacy could say.
Rose took the answer and sulked back into her chair. Eventually wasn't a word that she particularly liked. It was like the word indefinitely, having no direct time or meaning. Both of which could somehow be related to her life at the moment. Subconsciously she went to rub her wedding ring for comfort only to remember it wasn't there, her thumb immediately going to her pinky instead.
Silently, Stacy continued to scour the room. Toby's eyes followed his mother around—every time she passed by he held his arms out to her, but was never picked up. When Stacy was sure that she had everything she began checking Ron's vitals, even though he wasn't her patient, which comforted Rose. Toby on the other hand began to lose patience and lifted his arms higher into the air, grasping his small fingers eagerly for his mummy, but only grabbing air.
This time when Stacy didn't immediately pick him up he whimpered.
"Now, now, none of that," she ordered. "I'm not going to forget about you." Finished, she took her hand off Ron's IV bag and turned to her son, brushing her fingers through his wispy strands of brown hair. His mouth opened widely, displaying his two uneven bottom teeth.
Rose couldn't help but notice how happy Stacy seemed to be as she affectionately picked Toby up. "Do you remember when we used to play house?" she asked, remembering back to when they were little girls playing in Rose's treehouse.
Stacy barked out a laugh. "You always made me be the stay at home dad," she commented.
Rose grinned. "Well someone had to stay at home with the kids, and I was the working mum."
"I could never be the mum, you always said my treehouse my rules." Stacy walked around the other side of the bed, standing directly across from Rose.
"That sounds about right," Rose confirmed.
"Funny enough none of those games prepare you for the real thing."
"Well a teddy bear for a child is a bit unrealistic."
Chuckling, Stacy adjusted Toby on her hip. "I suppose not." She went silent for a moment then asked, "Do you still have that treehouse?"
"Yeah," Rose nodded. "Hugo threw a fit when daddy talked about taking it down a few years ago. He claimed it was his boys clubhouse, but I'm pretty certain it still has our pink curtains hanging in the windows."
"Well we did hang them with irremovable tape."
Rose smiled at the memories of her childhood, remembering how the treehouse evolved over the years to a place of gossip and doing toe nails, then later to drinking firewhisky and snogging boys. Sadly, it occurred to Rose just how much Stacy was a part of her youth, and now she couldn't even dial Stacy's phone number without asking Scorpius what it was.
"Are you happy with how everything turned out?" asked Rose.
Stacy seemed to be having a similar thought, smiled. "Yeah I am. It's nothing like I expected, but I'm okay with that," she said.
"You're saying you didn't imagine yourself married and with a baby?" Rose said as a joke, but was curious at the same time.
Stacy snorted. "Two years ago I thought I'd never meet someone who would care about me. Then Bryan showed up, and..." she lowered her cheek against Toby's head and swayed. "Didn't you feel that way when Scorpius came to New York, like everything was somehow falling into place?"
Rose bowed her head, thinking back to the first second when she saw Scorpius standing in Cornell's office, and how angry she was, but not at him. Somehow she'd always known—even if she hadn't realized it until months later—that Scorpius had come back into her life for her, and it scared her enough to make her mad. It was as though she knew there was only one way the situation with the two of them was going to end, and that was with them finally together…for good.
Rose closed her eyes, her stomach tightened. "I know exactly what you mean," she said ardently.
Preparing to leave, Stacy swung the diaper bag over her shoulder. "Scorpius came by for breakfast earlier today."
Rose's head shot up. Her mind whirling with dozens of questions that she eagerly wanted to ask but couldn't find the voice to do it. Instead, for the simplest question. "How is he?"
"He's really torn up about you two." She pursed her lips together in debate.
"You know, I know this isn't my place…" she started again, her eyes wavered between Rose's, "but if you aren't actually planning on divorcing him could you…" Rose perched herself on the edge of her seat as Stacy stumbled for words. "I guess I'm just saying…well, asking—" Sighing, she finally blurted out, "Could you at least give the poor bloke some hope? Not a lot but some?"
Rose stared up to Stacy blankly. "Did he ask you to talk to me?" was the only thing that Rose could think to say.
"No actually he was pretty adamant on no one talking to you, but he really isn't doing well, and… I thought I'd try." Stacy began to walk to the door, just barely getting out of the room before hearing Rose speak.
"I can't talk to him without yelling," she admitted sheepishly.
Stacy looked back over her shoulder and said, "I'm not asking you to talk to him, just to do something."
Rose seemed to understand because she nodded and turned away, letting Stacy leave.
"Rose," Carla's voice squeaked as her friend walked into the Auror office. Jumping up, she extended her hand to give her a half hug. "This is unexpected."
"I know," Rose mumbled, pulling away from the friendly embrace.
Carla waited for her to elaborate, but Rose simply just looked down to Scorpius' desk. There was a neat stack of paperwork on it that looked as though it hadn't been touched all day. "Was Scorpius here today?"
"For about a minute," Carla answered. "He stopped by to get the keys to a ministry car."
Rose lifted her gaze. "Does he have a new case?" she asked.
A worried looks flashed across Carla's eyes. "I thought you knew."
Tipping her head down, Rose became immersed with a blue quill that was sitting in a jar of ink. Tenderly, she began to brush her fingers through the bristles. "No, I didn't," she whispered, barely audible. The thought that she hadn't known about the case saddened her.
"Hun, are you alright?" Carla asked sweetly.
Rose nodded but stopped her fingers; a new thought occurring to her. "Who's he with?" she looked up to her friend.
"Mindy," responded Carla with a nervous disposition.
Rose jerked her chin up, leaned back, and crossed her arms. "Who's Mindy?" her voice containing an edge that wasn't there before.
Carla's eyes went wide as though she had said something that she wasn't supposed to. "It's my fault really," she said quickly. "I was running late and Cornell put them on recovery duty, but it turned out to be something more."
"Right," Rose snapped shaking her head back down to Scorpius desk, only to have her eyes land on a framed picture of them. It was just them in the park. Scorpius stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her stomach and chin on her shoulder. Rose was smiling, pressing into him—cheek to cheek. Glancing away from the picture, Rose sighed at her overreaction.
"I'm sure he'll be back soon if you want to wait," said Carla.
"Umm." She debated, looking over the pile of work on his desk and then at her watch. It was already pushing early evening for New York, meaning it was night in London. Knowing that her mother would be worried if she didn't come back soon, Rose didn't want to put any added stress on her. "No. Just tell him I stopped by to give him this." She pulled out an envelope from her handbag.
Carla's hand wavered as she took the envelope. "Are you sure you don't want me to tell him to call you?"
"Positive," Rose affirmed. "Just give him that."
Now Scorpius didn't barely miss Rose. In fact it wasn't for another two hours that he came striding into the office to collect his things to go home. A very irritable Carla sitting at her desk, staring at paperwork, looked up to greet him.
Scorpius' eyes brushed over the stack of folders that he was going to have to take home to complete. "I wouldn't have expected you to still be here?" he said, waving his wand to his drawer to unlock the file cabinet.
"Rose was here," she said blankly.
Scorpius stopped reaching into his desk and straightened himself up. "What? Why? Was she here to see me?"
Carla shrugged her shoulders. "I think so. She wanted to give you this?" She held the envelope out to him.
A gut wrenching feeling sank into the pit of his stomach. Not hearing anything from Rose and then to receive an envelope—that didn't resemble a letter—was nerve-racking. It was as though he had anticipated the day that she would bring by forms from a lawyer. Reluctantly, he took it, unnerved by how light it was. Nothing good could come from something so light.
Carla packed her things, and Scorpius bowed his head, listening as she began to walk around him.
"How was she?" he asked, before she could leave.
Carla's feet stopped moving. "She's showing." Scorpius could hear the smile in her voice, then her shoes shuffling again as she left.
Alone in the office, with the exception of the cleaning lady vacuuming at another part of the floor, Scorpius was relieved. The lights had dimmed, to conserve electricity, and he stood like a statue—unable to look away from the envelope. Bracing himself against his desk, he turned it around, and broke the seal.
His knees weakened as a small but thick square paper that was labeled in Rose's neat handwriting: twelve weeks. Flipping the paper over, Scorpius felt his heart race—the sick feeling in his stomach subsiding because it wasn't related to the topic of divorce. Instead, it was a blurry black and white picture of a little person the size of a fist with a head and tiny arms curled up into a ball.
Sinking into his chair, his breath caught as Scorpius stared at his child.
PLEASE READ A/N: Alright, (I can't believe that I am about to say this) due to recent events I feel the need to speak up about something. Please do not take any of my Temptation Stories and post them on other sites as your own. It genuinely hurt me to find out that something like that has occurred, and I just wanted to say that as the author of these characters, they are a part of me and have been for nearly 5 years now, so for someone to simply take credit for them does deeply hurt me in ways that I never thought imaginable. I write fanfiction because I love it. I love J.K's story, and I'm passionate about these stories and now a part of me feels slightly heartbroken about this and it has been hard to recover. Because of this I have considered just pulling down all my stories off all fanfiction sites, but decided against it because you readers and your reviews/ encouragement mean the world to me, and I don't want to disappoint/punish you. That being said, if I find out that another event like this has occurred (and I will find out because now I'm looking out for it!) I may feel that I don't have a choice. These characters within these stories are so close to me and mean so much, and I spend way too much time and energy plotting, outlining, and writing them, for someone else to claim them as their own. I rather keep them private and to myself than share them to be stolen from me. So please, and I am begging you, to please not do this. I care too much to simply let it happen again. And if you are the one who did this and you are reading, please know that I forgive you.
Now, on a happier note. I hope that you liked that chapter. Please review and tell me what you thought.
Also thank you to ChirpyBitch for betaing.