Chapter 7
Although Rose was completely confident in her pregnancy book's ability to teach her how to take care of a baby, she had to admit that watching after Toby for a few hours was a bit of a wakeup call. So, early the next morning she sent an owl, making arrangements to meet with Jill on Tuesday the following week.
Now there was a part of Rose that was a bit curious about these classes. Since the ultrasound she had become more accustomed to the thought of being pregnant. She paid more attention to things that she ate, and took to measuring her stomach in the mirror to see if it had grown anymore from the day before. Occasionally, she would even find herself just looking at the ultrasound photo for no apparent reason. So a class being offered about babies, and with her having a baby, the idea of attending one of these classes interested her enough to discuss them.
That being said, there were plenty of reasons for Rose to feel awkward about meeting Jill for coffee. Though she and Jill had sort of become close during their seventh year, it wasn't a friendship that either of them pursued after they had graduated. And up until the last week or so Rose hadn't given much thought to the woman. Still, when Tuesday rolled around, Rose got up, got dressed, and went to the designated meeting spot, a small café, in central London.
Rose was first to arrive to the quaint café and ordered herself a green tea instead of coffee with no debate. Then she took a seat at a table outside, opened a book, and enjoyed the warmth from the July sun's rays as she waited.
It wasn't until about twenty minutes later—Rose in the depths of the historic goblin battle of 1432—when she heard, "Rose," being called from behind her.
Whipping her head around, Rose spotted a rather large women, wearing an ill fitted ankle length dress that was loose in some areas and tight in others, walking towards her. She had puffy cheeks with red blotches covering them, swollen breast that were impossible not to notice, and a bugling midsection that clearly displayed that she was pregnant. Rose had to look twice before she recognized the woman as Jill.
"Hi," she said back, trying to hide her surprise and standing up to greet her.
Jill gave a small wave as she stopped at the table breathing heavily. "My crackpot healer says that walking is good for me, but he doesn't understand that it's harder to do that when you're carrying an extra thirty-five pounds around."
"You've gained thirty-five pounds?" Rose blurted out.
Jill slowly lowered herself down into the chair across from Rose. Her chunky legs spread apart so that barely her thighs were touching. "Oh, and I just keep on gaining," she wheezed, once she was settled.
Rose took her seat again and waited for Jill to catch her breath before she said anything else. Up close Rose could now see that the red blotches on Jill's face were clusters of pimples and they also covered her forehead and chin as well.
"I know," said Jill, catching the direction of Rose's eyes, "I thought I'd gotten over acne when I was a teenager."
"I didn't mean to stare," Rose said. "Has it been like that your entire pregnancy?"
"Yup," replied Jill. "The acne, the weight gain, I'm tired all the time, or I'm nauseous. I know my healer said that every pregnancy is different, but this is awful." Jill gave Rose a onceover and then asked, "How has yours been?"
Rose wasn't sure what to say. All her symptoms so far had seemed relatively mild. At least they were mild enough not to give her a clue that she was pregnant until she was well past two months. "I've been tired a lot," she said sheepishly.
"It'll get worse. Once that baby starts to really grow and move—"
"Can you feel it kicking yet?" Rose interrupted with more interest.
Jill smiled. "Yeah, she kicks."
"She?"
"Umm hmm." Jill smoothed out the dress over her bump. "Yeah, I'm having a girl. Do you know what you're having yet?"
Rose shook her head. "It's too early to tell."
"Have you at least thought about it?" asked Jill, sitting up.
A wave of guilt came over Rose at the fact that she hadn't even thought about what the baby would be. So far just accepting that she was having a baby had been a big step. Subconsciously, she rubbed her hand over her stomach. "I guess I have just been adjusting to the whole baby thing in general."
Scooping her brown hair up and tying it into a wad on the top of her head, Jill leaned back into the chair. "I always knew it was a girl. It was all I could picture having, and I just had that feeling, you know."
Rose focused her eyes on her tea. "Not really."
Jill scrunched her eyebrows together, watching as Rose stirred more sugar into her tea. "I'm not going to judge you because you don't think about it."
Rose met Jill's eyes with comfort. "Sorry. Lately I feel like everyone judges me. Even strangers. It's…maddening."
Jill tipped her head back barking a cynical laugh. "You want to talk about being judged. I'm unmarried, I haven't heard from my boyfriend in months, and I've had to move back in with my mum. Trust me, I'm the least likely person to judge anyone."
Rose smiled to herself, remembering when Jill offered to be her friend when no one else was talking to her during seventh year. "That's a relief," she said with barely a whisper.
"So who did you end up with?" Jill asked curiously, not seeming to want to stay on the subject of her life.
"Scorpius," Rose answered, jerking her head up to Jill. "I married Scorpius."
"As in Malfoy?"
"You know another Scorpius?" Rose asked bemused.
"No, it's just…" A wide grin added to her surprised expression. "I guess, I never thought that that would happen."
The corner of Rose's lips twitched upwards. "Yeah, neither did I. It just sort of did though. He came to New York, and I gave in." Her expression feel at the thought of missing him.
Catching onto the tone, Jill reached into her handbag, pulled out a pamphlet with a smiling baby on the cover, and handed it to Rose. "So different classes meet on different days of the week," she said, starting the conversation that they had originally planned to have.
Rose opened the pamphlet and glanced over the class titles, which each had a description underneath. On the last page there was a calendar for the next three months that showed what time and day the specific class or meeting was being offered.
"Birthing classes are on Monday evenings, but you won't be needing to go to those until your third trimester," Jill said, as though had memorized the schedule. "And there is month by month meetings, which are weekly gatherings for all the women that are all the same month as you, which I recommend because it's nice to compare things with one another, and also the counselor can tell you what to expect and answer any question you have. Also there are yoga classes that are designed for pregnant women, and…"
Rose closed the pamphlet, feeling overwhelmed by all that Jill was saying, the thought of pregnant yoga seemed a bit much.
"Sorry," Jill said, "I really feel like these classes help prepare you, so I get a bit excited over them."
"It's fine. It's just that I don't even know where to begin," clarified Rose.
Jill gave a sympathetic smile, and reached for the pamphlet, pointing out a date on the calendar. "I think you should start here. It's a basics class where they go over bathing, and swaddling, and other things like that."
Rose nodded. "And it meets on Thursdays?" she asked, looking at the pamphlet.
"At eight," Jill confirmed.
Leaning back into her chair, Rose drummed her fingers over her bump in debate. It wasn't that the classes didn't seem fine, it was the thought of being in a room surrounded by excited mothers-to-be that made her not want to go. She already felt guilty for not even considering what the sex of her baby was, and she could only imagine how awful she would feel once she was asked a thousand other questions about things she probably should have considered, but hadn't.
Jill must have noticed Rose's apprehensive expression because she added, "I'm in that class right now too. Just take one, and if you're interested in more I can introduce you to the director of the classes, and you can talk about which ones would be a good fit."
Refusing to meet Jill's eyes, Rose tugged on the part of her shirt that was around her stomach, which had suddenly become very warm and confining. The brief coolness of fresh air calmed her momentarily as she continued to think.
"They really do help," added Jill with an encouraging nod.
Finally, Rose looked up, her bottom lip clamped in between her teeth. "Just one?"
"Just one, and you can even bring Scorpius if I'm not enough of a deflector for you."
Rose snorted but gave a nod as well. "Alright," she said, taking a deep breath to slow her pounding heart.
"Good," Jill exclaimed. "We meet just down the street from here." She extended her arm to point a finger at a small brick building that was connected to two larger buildings. "So I'll see you tomorrow."
"I guess so," Rose replied, still reluctant.
Similar to when he had left Lexie, Scorpius was back in the habit of not sleeping, or at least not sleeping enough. He threw himself into work, and worked until his eyes couldn't stand to be open. Only then would he go into his and Rose's room, crawl into bed—half the time without even changing out of his work clothes—and fall asleep.
Usually this occurred around three in the morning, giving him roughly four hours of sleep before he had to wake up to repeat the process over again.
In the wee hours of that particular Tuesday morning the schedule had been the same. Scorpius had sat in the middle of his living room floor, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, studying as much as he could about any Senor Sebastian. He looked through books, old case files, rereading any information that he had that might give him a clue, but he didn't find anything.
He had known for a few days now that the only way Mindy and he were going to get any information was to go undercover, but he kept searching. Going undercover was always stressful and dangerous, and at the moment with the state that he and Rose were in, it was really the last thing he wanted or needed to do. So he kept searching for anything that would make a difference, biding his time before he had to tell Mindy about his plan.
As usual, around two forty five his eyes began to burn, and he decided to head in for the night, with no new information emerging. Planting face first into the bed, he didn't bother to pull down the covers, he just adjusted the pillows a bit and closed his eyes.
Now, Scorpius wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, or if he had been to sleep at all considering that his dreams and thoughts both consisted of Rose and babies, but he did know that when his phone went off at four-thirty that morning, he instinctively answered it on the first ring.
"Hello," he said, trying to recall answering the phone, which had felt a lot like a dream.
"Hey," an annoyed female voice snapped—a police siren going off in the background along with other people talking. "It's Mindy. I need you to meet me on the shore of the Lower New York Bay on Staten Island."
Scorpius rolled on his back and rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up enough to comprehend. "What's going on," he asked half way falling back asleep.
The deep voice of a man said something uncomprehensible to Mindy. "I have clearance to be here," she shouted, more into Scorpius' ear than she meant to. "Remember that girl we saw with the Collector last week?" she immediately said, returning to speaking to Scorpius.
Scorpius blinked. "Yes."
"Well, her body washed up on the shore," she answered bluntly.
"What?" Fully awake now, he propelled himself up and began looking for his shoes in the dark.
"Yeah, you need to get down here before more of the NYPD get involved."
"Have you talked to Cornell?" he said, tripping over one of his shoes.
"He's on the way. So I'd hurry if were you," she said sounding distracted, only to start yelling at someone else again.
"Okay. Where are you exactly?" Scorpius asked, trying to get her attention again, but the phone went quiet because she had hung up.
Without an exact location apparition was useless. The Lower New York Bay shore line was miles long and it would have taken too long to search by foot, so Scorpius chose the next best thing, broom. Using a simple cloaking charm he took flight from the top of his building and made way to the bay.
It had been a while since he had flown anywhere, and Scorpius had to admit that these weren't the most ideal conditions. It was still dark out, and the wind had an extra strong current, but still it was an enjoyable flight. He had forgotten how in control he was on a broom. How the cool wind slapping his face made him feel alert and awake. He almost didn't mind the fact that his fingers were so bitterly cold that they were stuck in a clutched position around the handle. In fact if it hadn't been for the dire circumstance Scorpius probably would have done some loop de loops.
Coming up on the shore line, Scorpius could see the bright red and blue lights of police cars flashing, along with a crowd of people gathered around. Descending about half a mile from the scene, he stashed his broom and walked the rest of the way.
When Scorpius got there, he spotted Mindy yelling at a large broad shouldered man who was at least a foot taller than her. She had a finger pointed in the man's face, waving it erratically as she shouted, "I'm warning you to keep back or so help me I will hex you and your entire family into oblivion."
"She has been the biggest pain in the ass since we arrived," said a familiar voice coming up beside Scorpius.
"She's new," said Scorpius, glancing sideways to see Harper Willcoat standing next to him. "How've you been, it's been a while."
Harper stretched his arms up above his head. "Yeah, it has," he looked around the scene and then back to Scorpius. "Where's Rose?"
Not wanting to go into too much detail Scorpius replied, "She's off field duty right now. She's pregnant."
"With you?" Harper asked, looking pleased.
Scorpius scratched the back of his hair. "Yeah. We got married in December."
"Congratulations." Harper slapped Scorpius' shoulder. "I'm glad things worked out."
"And Catherine?" asked Scorpius, changing the subject.
"She and Levi are great. Things are good."
Scorpius smiled to Harper, happy to hear that Catherine was willing to give him a second chance. "Good."
Mindy's screeching voice rang over their conversation. Both of them looking over to her, Harper said, "Are you going to stop her anytime soon?"
"Yeah, I'm letting her get it out first."
"Well can you at least explain who we are? My men have got to get in there too, and she's cast a protective charm around the entire crime scene so no one can get in there."
"She's very new," Scorpius mumbled, running his hands through his hair. "What exactly are you doing here?"
"Remember we play interference between the muggle and wizarding world? It's not often that you have a dead witch show up." A thought suddenly occurred to Scorpius, but he didn't have a chance to mull over it because Mindy had spotted him and waved her finger ferociously at him.
"Come with me, I'll see if I can get her to let you in." Walking across the beach towards the crime scene Scorpius asked, "Has the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy sent over memory adjusters yet?"
"Yeah, but they are working on the crowd of locals right now, and then they are going to do the NYPD."
"And I'm assuming that is who she is talking to?" He nodded to Mindy.
"Now you listen here little girl, this woman was found on New York ground that makes it our territory." Scorpius heard the broad shouldered man say once he was in earshot.
"Scorpius will you please help me here," growled Mindy,
Scorpius instead looked at Mindy. "I know it can be frustrating but you can't just banish the NYPD from a crime scene." Harper waved his hand. "Or the FBI."
"Oh yes I can, according to act five of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, any witch or wizard may do whatever means possible if it is deemed crucial to the protection of muggles and wizards alike."
Scorpius peered over Mindy's shoulder to look at the scene that she was protecting. To him the protection charm was a visible teal circle that was outlined in the sand. In the center of the circle lay the woman with a thin fabric draped over her body, but her hand was laying out uncovered, emitting a golden smoke from her finger nails. Feeling the tops of his sneakers becoming wet, Scorpius noticed that the tide was rising, but completely surpassing the circle as though there was no land there.
Facing the NYPD officer, who seemed grateful to have someone there to calm Mindy down, Scorpius asked, "What clearance are you?"
The man paled, understanding that Scorpius wasn't going to be that much help. "I'm a four," he announced unwillingly.
Reaching into his pocket, Scorpius pulled out a government issued card and handed it to the man. "Well I'm a six, and I am asking you to just stand back a minute and let us take a look, and then we will let you do whatever you want."
Mindy's jaw dropped, but she didn't say anything. The man, on the other hand looked as though he wanted to argue but couldn't. "Fine," he muttered, taking a step back.
"Are you seriously just going to let them waltz in like that when we're done?" Mindy asked, lifting her charm for Scorpius to enter the ring.
"Of course not," Scorpius answered. "The adjusters will have dealt with them by then, I just needed to get him out of the way for now." Making Mindy continue to hold the charm down, he yelled "Harper get over here."
"And whose this?" she said.
"I'll explain later," replied Scorpius, walking closer towards the body.
Grabbing his wand from his back pocket, he waved for the fabric to slide off of her, revealing her entire body. She was wearing the same red dress that she had been in the day they saw her last week, but her dark hair was down and tangled.
Getting closer, Scorpius knelt down, Harper and Mindy standing a ways back. The gold smoke was everywhere, wrapping and curling itself in thin steady lines around her body as though trying to go back inside of her.
"What is that stuff?" Harper asked, interrupting Scorpius' train of thought.
"It's magic," he replied, sadly. Holding his hand not far from the woman's neck noticing significant bruising around it. "Harper come look at this?"
Harper went to the other side of the body and held his hand out in the impression of the bruises, finding that his thumb and fingers matched the imprint. "She was strangled."
"But what does that have to do with the magic?" Mindy asked coming up behind Scorpius.
"I think he was trying to separate it from her."
Mindy released a shaky breath. "Is that possible?"
"Apparently," he said.
Uncomfortably, Scorpius lifted the hem of her dress to see that the wand strap that he'd spotted last week had been tightened around her leg so tight that it left a deep impression on her skin.
"Was her wand located?" Scorpius asked Mindy, lowering her dress and reaching for the cloth to cover her back up.
"No, but it could have easily been lost in the ocean."
"Or it was collected." Standing up, he pulled Mindy over to the side as Harper started making notes about what he saw.
"I need you to follow the body back to the Auror department's examiner and track down her name. If she had a wand that means at some point she would have been in the system." he said authoritatively. "When you have that, I want you to go back to the Collector's apartment and follow him. Don't talk to him and use a cloaking charm no matter what. Get his routine."
"And what about me?" Harper said, coming up beside Scorpius and Mindy.
"What about you?" Mindy said defensively.
"Well your suspect is a muggle right, and he's working with other muggles I'm assuming, which makes this my territory as well." Harper crossed his arms.
Mindy looked as though she was about to start arguing with Harper, but Scorpius intervened. "It's the way it is Mindy. He does have every right to work on this case. Besides he's good, and it'll be easier to get the F.B.I to let him work with us than trying to access their databases with a warrant."
"Okay," Mindy said, annoyed and confused all at once. "But who is he?"
Scorpius held his hand up. "Later, I promise. Harper if you're going to work with us, I need you to look up the name Senor Sebastian. He's not in any of our records but he might be in yours. Look at art collectors to start with."
"Got it," Harper said.
"And what are you going to be doing?" Mindy asked, crossing her arms.
"I'm going to be prepping us to go undercover." He looked back at the body reluctantly, the gold smoke fading as it couldn't enter back into the woman. "It's one thing to have a crazy person who is collecting magical artifacts. It is an entirely different thing to have someone trying to extract magic."
After her meeting with Jill, Rose spent the rest of the morning sitting in the hospital with her father—reading and rereading the pamphlet—until Hugo came to relieve her for lunch.
"What are you doing here?" Rose asked mildly surprised.
Hugo walked in with a backpack and a large, handled case. "Oh you know, thought I'd give you a break…visit him for a bit…hide from work…"
"You love your job."
"Not recently," he muttered, taking a seat and pulling an empty lunch cart in front of him.
Rose closed the pamphlet and leaned forward. "What's going on?"
"I'm not really in the mood to be around Lexie at the moment." He lifted the case onto the cart and waved his wand to snap free the locks, revealing a typewriter.
"Couples quarrel?" asked Rose.
"We would actually have to be a couple in order to have a couples quarrel," said Hugo tiredly, "but yeah we're fighting about something."
"Do you want to—"
"Nope." Hugo shook his head. "Don't want to talk about it, just want to work."
"Alright then." Rose leaned back into her seat and glanced down to the pamphlet. "Well since you're here, mum thinks I should go to some parenting classes, and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking over some of my dad shifts?"
Hugo eyed the pamphlet in Rose's hand and chuckled. "Sure, I went to a few of those with Lexie. They're kind of interesting."
Rose chewed on her lip, the thought of inviting Scorpius had been nagging her ever since Jill had mentioned it. "Is it common for the dads to go?" she asked.
"Sometimes," he responded, "I mean for me they taught me some things that I needed to know how to do too, and also it just made me feel more involved with the whole process."
"Right," Rose mumbled, still in debate.
Hugo pulled out a notepad from his backpack and placed it beside the typewriter. Seeing the amount of work that he needed to get done, Rose decided not to distract him any longer and left for the day, not entirely sure what to do. It had been so long since she'd had an afternoon that wasn't dictated by a schedule that she found herself walking aimlessly around the crowded street of Diagon Alley, browsing through Flourish and Blotts and purchasing herself a mustard and mayonnaise sandwich with pickles and anchovies. The disgusted look on the sandwich maker's face as he made her order, didn't go unnoticed by Rose.
Taking the sandwich with her, she chomped away at it as she continued walking. The overly salted blend of pickle and anchovy satisfying her craving with every bite. It wasn't until she was finished and throwing her trash away that a particular storefront caught her attention from across the street.
Connected in between a row of other shops, its pale green paint stood out immensely against its neighbor's darker shades of maroon and navy. In its display window was a white basinet with ruffles covering the legs, a baby pink pram with an old fashioned handle and wheels, and a rocking chair carved out of oak that was stained a dark brown. Above the window hung a pealing, painted sign that said Babies and More Incorporated since 1908.
Finding herself drawn towards it, Rose dazedly walked into the shop and regretted it immensely. There was a large section of cribs and basinets to her right. Some were older, small, made of brass and tarnished, while others were large overly ornate masterpieces that looked more fit for an adult rather than a baby. On the opposite wall was a collection of tiny shoes, onesies and bonnets—the clothes getting bigger as the aisle went further down.
For a moment Rose could not move. Her eyes whizzed around the store, taking in numerous items that she hadn't thought anything about needing: breast pumps, swings, and temperature taking potion kits. On some level she recognized that she was going to have to buy some things for the baby eventually, she just didn't think there would be so much. The question of where was she going to put all of this stuff not escaping her mind.
"Do you need any help?" a woman from the register asked, distracting Rose.
Rose's mouth opened but no words came out, instead she gave the smallest headshake and walked further back to a section of aisles that looked less intimidating. There was one aisle entirely dedicated to diapers, which Rose walked past, and another that was full of nothing but bottles—raising the question of plastic or glass. She left the bottle aisle deciding to do some research on which was better. The last aisle she past was covered shelf to shelf with stuffed animals.
There was giant tiger sewn to sit on its hind legs that looked much too stiff to be any comfort to a child, and a few clichéd teddy bears that were wearing ridiculous outfits such as raincoats or ballerina tutus. Strolling down the aisle, Rose began to feel like the whole expedition was pointless. She wasn't even sure why she had entered the store.
Decidedly, she turned to leave, only to halt at the sight of a white bunny that was laying limply on a bottom shelf. It looked as though it had been sitting there for years, forgotten. Sure it wasn't as decorated as the other toys, in fact with the exception of a thin blue bow around its neck it had no decoration at all. An odd sadness consumed her as she bent down to pick it up.
The stitched smile on its face could have been mistaken as a pleading tone if she tilted her head right, and its eyes looked desperately wanting. Now Rose understood that stuffed animals didn't have feelings, but the longer she held it, the more she couldn't understand why no one had bought it. It wasn't very large, and it had a fluffy tail, accompanied by long floppy ears that were perfect for being dragged by. Giving it a squeeze, she noted that it had a soft plushy stuffing.
"Isn't it fun?" a stranger asked from further down the aisle.
Looking down to her, Rose saw a slightly older pregnant woman with a radiating smile hobble towards her with an overloaded shopping cart that looked like half of its contents were going to fall out. Mid-way to Rose the woman stopped and grabbed a purple duck and a pink teddy bear, and then proceeded to stare at them as though it were the most important decision of her life. Eventually concluding that she was unable to choose, she tossed them both in the basket.
"It's something," Rose agreed, glancing back down to the bunny.
The woman's arm reached passed Rose to pluck up a yellow dog, which she added to the cart without a second thought.
"I always have the hardest time deciding."
"Clearly," mumbled Rose.
A short middle aged balding man with a larger gut and a shiny round head appeared at the end of the aisle. In his hands was a colorful collection of about four dozen onesies. "Carol?" he said in squeaky voice, walking towards them and stacking the clothes in the shopping cart. "They had a sale."
The woman, Carol, became irksomely ecstatic at the thought of sale. "I'll have to go look at it in a minute. Ed, I was just perusing around and stopped to chat to my new friend—"
"Rose," she said, fighting the urge to giggle.
"Hello," he said, greeting Rose with a large toothy smile. "I'm Ed." His grin never faltering as he wrapped his arm around Carol's shoulders; his freehand reaching for hippo to add to the cart.
"Is it your first?" Rose asked, counting that as the fourth stuffed animal to be selected by the couple.
"I wish," chuckled Ed.
"It's our fifth," added Carol enthusiastically.
"Five," Rose nearly choked, apparently not recalling that her father was one of seven.
Carol grinned. "I just love the experience." And she grabbed yet another stuffed animal, a peacock, and placed it in her cart, not noticing that a packet of teething rings had fallen out.
"It's kind of like a collection," Rose stated with a sardonic grin, shifting her eyes to the variety of stuffed animals in her cart.
Both Carol and Ed laughed. Clearly, neither of them understood the sarcasm. "Exactly. We just love them so much when they are little."
"Right." Rose noticed Ed's hand move from Carol's shoulders to her lower back. A heavy lump developed in the pit of her stomach, as she watched Ed's hand start to affectionately rub Carol, knowing that Scorpius would probably be doing the same thing if he were here. In fact, he would probably be doing the same thing that Carol and Ed were, picking up one of everything for the off chance that they might use it, leaving Rose to be the voice of reason. She could picture him now, being excited and giddy when it came to picking out furniture and testing rocking chairs.
"I think we need one more?" Ed said looking up and down the aisle.
"Of course. For good measure." Carol began to glance around at the selection that was left and mumbling, "What do we not have…" she continued to check her cart, "I know, a rabbit."
Rose's head jerked up. The word rabbit, pulling her out of her sentimental moment. Subconsciously, she felt her arms tighten around the forgotten bunny in her arms.
"That's nice," Carol said, nodding to the bunny rabbit that Rose was holding. Her greedy claw like hand reaching forward to clutch a hold of one of its dangling legs, giving it a firm squeeze. "Are you going to buy it?"
"Uhh," Rose took a guarded step backwards, yanking the leg free from the woman's grasp and held it protectively to her. "Yes," she snapped, with a warning tone, not to touch her baby's bunny again. "Yes I am."
Scorpius took a hesitant breath as he stood merely inches away from Ron Wesley's hospital room; the door was closed and intimidating. Now at the current moment in time he would have given just about anything to see or talk to Rose, but this was under peculiar circumstances. The fact that Mr. Weasley was on the other side, conscious or not, was nerve wracking, and then there was the matter of Rose herself.
She had made no means to contact him in weeks, other than giving him the photo of her ultrasound. It was all sensitive territory with Rose, and he wasn't entirely sure if she would even be reciprocal in talking to him. However, he had to tell her that he was going undercover, even if all she did was nod and stare at the floor. So without thinking Scorpius went to the one place that he knew she would be.
He raised his hand but was unable to knock. Instead it wavered in the air, his knuckles skimming the slick cool surface, as he waited to gather his nerves. It wasn't until a nurse walked by giving Scorpius a wry eye that he finally cleared his throat and banged on the door.
Upon hearing a shuffling, the door cracked open just enough for Scorpius to see the bright red tip of Ron's hair laying on a pillow. Taking it as a sign to enter, Scorpius pushed forward, his eyes kept on Ron, whose mouth was hanging open emitting a roaring snore.
"I thought you were a cousin," said Hugo. Surprised, Scorpius spun around quickly to see the younger Weasley sitting crisscrossed in a hospital chair, hunched over a key board, with a large yellow notepad in his lap.
Hugo shifted in his seat, stuffing his wand back into his pocket; not once looking up to Scorpius.
Scorpius stood still, waiting for Hugo to say something else, but no noise came except for the steadily beeping heart monitor that was connected to Ron's arm. "Would you have let me in if you had known it was me?" he asked, breaking the silence.
Messy red-brown hair flared forward as Hugo shook his head. His eyes slanted downward, refusing to meet Scorpius'.
"Yeah. I wouldn't have answered the door for you either," Scorpius sighed under his breath, and focused his attention back on Ron.
Mr. Weasley was much skinner than he had been when Scorpius had run into him at Christmas. There was a flabby deflated look about him. He had a heavy amount of patchy red stubble on his chin that helped to hide the gauntness of his cheeks. His skin was a pale with an almost green tint that gave Scorpius an uneasy feeling, and at closer inspection he could see that even Ron's freckles looked discolored.
It was in that moment that Scorpius found a new admiration for the strength Rose had to have to sit with Ron all day long. Observing on a day to day basis how his body was turning into a slender lump of visible blood veins and bones, and worrying about the fact that the worse that her father got the harder it would be for him to wake up. It was something that Scorpius wasn't sure he'd be able to do.
"She's not here," Hugo said over the clacking keys of the typewriter.
Remembering the whole reason why he had come to begin with, Scorpius asked, "Will you tell me where she is?"
There was no reply, just the sound of Hugo pulling the carriage return lever to start a new line on the paper.
Scorpius lifted his head to look at Hugo, who was solely focused on the work in front of him. "Will you please tell me where my wife is?" he asked again in a deeper voice.
"I don't know," Hugo replied.
Scorpius sighed and walked around the bed so that he was standing directly in front of Hugo. "I get that I'm not your favorite person in the world, and believe me you're hardly mine, but please will you tell me where she is? It's important."
Hugo stopped working and slouched back into his seat. Shaking his hair, he pushed his bangs out of his eyes and stared at Scorpius with a catty smirk that Scorpius found beyond annoying.
Chuckling to himself, Hugo rolled his eyes. "You know, if you want a fighting chance to fit into this family eventually you are going to have to understand one thing."
"Which is?" Scorpius crossed his arms and gave an irritated look.
"That we're not all setting you up to fail." He perched his elbows on the tray in front of him and balanced his chin on top of laced fingers. "So when I tell you that I don't know where Rose is. I really do mean that I don't know where she is."
Scorpius looked to his shoes, scratching his neck. "Then will you please tell her that I need to talk to her?" He peeked up to Hugo. "It really is important."
"Yeah," said Hugo. "Though I'm sure if you wait a few hours she'll call you herself because I think she wants to talk to you too."
After Scorpius couldn't find Rose he returned back to work, meeting Mindy in the filing room and looking into the records of every registered witch that had been arrested or reported missing within the past six months. Of course there was nothing in any of the files that they could link back to the woman: no finger prints or birthmarks matching their victim. This discovery left Mindy extremely irritated.
"Are you sure she was registered?" she asked at one point.
Scorpius continued to read the current file that was in his lap. "She had a wand, she was registered," he grumbled.
He knew speaking to her so bluntly wasn't gaining him any points in the friend department, but he was a bit too preoccupied with the case and constantly checking his phone to see if Rose had called to care.
Not long after that conversation, Mindy left to go meet some friends for dinner. Scorpius, on the other hand, stayed behind an hour longer, deciding to go home around seven. Rose never called, and considering it was past midnight in London Scorpius figured that she was probably asleep. It crossed his mind to just show up at her house but his better judgment decided against it for the sake that it was late and neither Rose nor her mother would appreciate it. Packing a few extra files to examine at home, he left, picking up a bag of kale chips, which substituted as dinner.
It was just before sunset when Scorpius unlocked the door to his flat. The golden rays of sunlight flooding in through the front windows momentarily blinded him to the point that he almost couldn't make out the figure that was sitting on the couch.
Feeling for the entry table to put his keys on, he kept his focus on the person, who stood up. The red in her hair catching the light and illuminating.
"Rose?" Scorpius said, dropping the keys and grabbing his wand to draw the drapes closed. The room now dark, cast everything in shadows. Scorpius' eyes blinked with relief.
"Hi," she said lightly.
The only light around them was the sliver of sun that peeked through the middle of where the two drapes met. Unable to get a decent look at her, Scorpius walked around the couch, the files and kale chips still in his arms.
"What are you doing here?" he asked surprised.
Rose bowed her head and shrugged, wrapping her arms around her. "Is this a bad time?"
Scorpius looked at where she was sitting and saw a book laying open on its spine along with a blue stripped shopping next to it; momentarily he wondered how long she'd been waiting. When he glanced back to Rose he saw that she was looking around the messy room, focusing anywhere but on him.
"Want one?" he asked, holding out the bag of chips while reaching for the files under his arm and putting them on the coffee table.
Rose jerked her head up at the offer and shook her head. "Uh, no," she said with a squeak. "I just came to talk."
"Okay." Scorpius motioned for her to sit down, while clearing away a large stack of files that covered the couch opposite of her. Taking his seat, a heavy feeling began to fill his stomach. "What's going on?"
Rose pulled her knees into her chest, covering her stomach. Her eyes still looking around the room. "You have a new case," she commented, avoiding the question.
"Yeah." Scorpius leaned forward, brushing his hands through his hair. "I've actually been looking for you today to talk to you about it."
"Why?" she said in a lackluster tone. "You've had no problem putting that case ahead of me or your child."
Scorpius inhaled a heavy irritated breath. "That's not funny," he growled, narrowing his eyes to her. "Are you here to talk to me or bitch at me?"
"Sorry," Rose said in a tired voice. "I'm not trying to be mean, this case is just a sore subject for me." She leaned back into her seat. "I'm not entirely thrilled about it," she said, focusing on the painting that hung on the wall behind him.
Scorpius clasped his hands together. "Well you're about to be a lot less thrilled with me because I'm going undercover."
"What?" her voice was serious, and her eyes zipped to his, staring at him more intently than they had in months. "Undercover?"
Scorpius peered at her from the corner of his eyes, unsure if she was mad or not. She sat silently on the couch with her nostrils flaring, but her gaze never failing. Eventually she pushed her legs forward so that her feet were on the ground, and she was sitting straight up.
"We're having a baby," she stated dryly.
"I am well aware."
"As in another human being," she continued, paying no attention to Scorpius' words. "Who needs the both of us around. Have you considered how dangerous this is? What if you get caught? You know what will happen then?"
"I'm not going to get caught," Scorpius said.
Rose gnawed on her lip, looking as though she had more to say. "So are we talking full time undercover with no contact and I won't know where you are, or part time where you will be coming home at night?"
Scorpius licked the salty residue of chips off his lips. "The specifics aren't clear."
"And are you choosing to do this or was it assigned?" she had finally lowered her gaze.
Scorpius didn't respond, which gave Rose her answer. Exhaling a heavy sigh, Rose bowed her head, her shoulders slumping. "And what about me and the fact that I might need you around right now? Did that cross your mind?"
Scorpius lowered his gaze to his shoes. "I didn't think you wanted me around at all."
Rose crouched forward, covering her face with her palms. "I don't know what I want, but I do know that I don't want you undercover. Especially not right now."
Instinctively, Scorpius got up and walked over to where she was. Sitting down beside her, he hesitantly placed a hand between her shoulder blades.
"I thought that we were trying to work things out," she continued. "That we were taking this time apart to figure out how to get us back."
With the way that she was positioned, Scorpius couldn't tell if she was upset or frustrated. He kept his hand on her, brushing his thumb over her shirt.
"Is that what we're doing?" he asked in a soft tone. "Or are you filing for divorce? Because Rose, you've been sending out some mixed signals. You say you want me around but then you give back your wedding rings. I don't know what to make of it." He paused. For the first time in weeks they were having an actual conversation, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her by asking the wrong question about where their relationship stood, but he had to know. The torment of continuously waiting to figure it out becoming too much. "So do you want a divorce?"
She stiffened under his hand. Her head remained covered by her hands, which personified her breathing. "No," she said, her voice muffled.
Scorpius hand began to move in larger more comforting circles. "Okay then. I can do both. I'll be undercover and I'll be there for you."
"How?" How she grumbled tiredly, massaging her forehead with the soles of her fingers. "Love, you couldn't even show up to an appointment," she sounded exasperated.
"Rose that was a very different situ—" She turned her head to the side, giving him a skeptical glare. "I'll get a day planner," he added.
Rose closed her eyes and sat up, forcing Scorpius' hand to fall. "I'm taking some pregnancy classes, and I would like you to come with me,"
"Then I'll be there."
"Don't say that you will come and then not show up," she scolded, turning to look at him with stern eyes. "I mean it, I'm not going to put up with this again. If you can't go then tell me now."
Scorpius covered her hand with his, rubbing it until she softened her expression. "I'll be there."
"Do you promise, and I mean promise?" She was staring at their hands.
"Yes."
"Okay." She pulled her hand free of his and slouched back into the couch, bringing her knees back into her chest. "They start tomorrow at eight."
"Great." Scorpius readjusted himself so that he wasn't so close to Rose. "Is that what you wanted to talk to about?"
Rose nodded. "Pretty much."
"Anything else?"
Rose shook her head but suddenly stopped and glared at him. "So help me Scorpius you better show up."
PLEASE READ A/N: Alright, Things have been a bit nuts lately and with everything that happened in March, I honestly needed a break from working on this story. That being said I'm not one for abandoning things and I am back to writing regularly again. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Especially their talk. Please let me know what you think.
Also Thank you for ChirpyBitch for Betaing