By Wednesday, we actually had a pretty decent routine going. We would wake up in the morning, part ways to get dressed for work. We would meet up at the breakfast table where she always had waffles. I mixed my breakfast up a little. Monday I'd had oatmeal, but Tuesday I'd had pancakes. Wednesday I had a bowl of fruit with bacon on the side. Coco had waffles with butter and syrup.

And every day she happily devoured them like they were her last meal on earth.

After breakfast- she would go back into the kitchen and come out a minute later holding cups of coffee- she said the coffee we had was better than what she had at her office- and she got me a cup because- according to her- she was used to doing everything in pairs.

This morning, we apparated to the the office and almost immediately a paper airplane nearly took her eye out. She managed to catch it in her fist just in time.

She handed me her coffee, which I took without thinking, and she opened the letter with a frown.

"Oh."

"What?" I asked, concerned.

"It's from Baz. He's not feeling well." She took her coffee back and held the note out to me to take

'Coco, wont' be in the office today. Under the weather (It's just a cold, calm down) don't wait for me at lunch. Love, Baz'

I stared at it a moment then folded it back up and held it to her.

"We could do lunch." I offered. She gave me a suspicious look as if I was plotting something nefarious. No, she was the one I was looking out for, she hadn't gotten her revenge yet for me holding her under the water.

"Fine." She answered after a full thirty seconds of us staring at each other without saying a word.

"Great, I'll meet you at your office and we can go from there." We parted ways and i started debating about where we should go. We could have gone to the cafeteria, that would be the easiest but I didn't want to go to the cafeteria, that would feel like a normal day. If I was going ot take her out for food then I wanted it to be somewhat nicer. I thought abut the bistro where I used to go with Daphne and I put that out of my mind. It had taken far too many lessons for me to learn to stop replacing Daphne in my mind and in my old routine with Coco. Neither of them appreciated it and I was starting to feel like a bell end for it.

When the time came, I headed to The Prophet offices and found that Coco was already sitting on the bench outside of the office waiting for me.

"Ready?" I asked. She looked lovely as always. Usually she went for a tighter, more sultry office outfit but today she'd actually worn slacks, with a tucked in button down. It was a more masculine look but she still pulled it off flawlessly.

We hadn't had any incidents since the one we'd had after work on Monday. Every night Coco still built the pillow fort between us and I did have to admit there was an upside to the barrier, as every morning we would wake up with either of us pressed against our side of the pillow wall.

"Let's go." She took my arm as if I was going to apparate, but I didn't, I led her out the front doors and we headed down the road. It was in the opposite direction of the place I usually went to with Daphne. This place was all about Italian food.

Judging by the way Coco's eyes lit up when she saw the sign- I would say I made the right choice.

"Pasta." was all she said. I laughed and she tensed. I could see her in my periphery, turn to look at me. "You're not making fun of me." She realized.

"I'm not." I agreed.

"Good." Her shoulders relaxed a little and I opened the door for her to walk in.

"Table for two please." I requested. We were led fairly quickly to a table and our menus appeared before us. I opened it up and read over the options.

"I've never been here before." I informed her. "So I can't speak to the quality but my boss recommended it."

"Your… boss." I paused and looked up from the menu to look at Coco, she was pale.

"Yes, Mr Danworth." She swallowed hard but looked back down at the menu. "Coco, are you acquainted with my boss?"

"Not really. His- wife. No. His Sister in law- knew my mother. Invited her to the wedding and everything." Coco cleared her throat and flipped to the other side of the menu. I watched her for a moment but she didn't look up at me.

"Alright." I sighed. The waiter came to take our drink orders. I got a whiskey, Coco got a water and when the waiter came back for our food order, we were prepared.

"Thank you- for lunch." Coco commented, toying with the napkin in front of her.

"Of course."

"Theodore- Oh." I turned and my eyes widened when I caught sight of Daphne.

I hadn't seen her since our fight. She had skipped the wedding- not that I had actually talked to anyone at the wedding anyway. And before that she'd been avoiding me- though I hadn't really been looking for her.

"Daphne." I stood up automatically, my eyes on her. Daphne looked back and forth between Coco and I for a moment before she sighed and walked over.

"I actually wanted to speak to you- both of you." She admitted.

"Grab a chair." Coco offered. Her eyes were narrowed slightly but there didn't seem to be any malice in her tone.

Daphne conjured up a chair and took a seat.

"I didn't know you guys would be here." She commented. "I guess it's just- fate or something."

"So you were here alone or?" Coco glanced around.

"No- I was here with a friend." We both stared at her a bit, waiting for her to say something else but she moved on. "Anyway I wanted to let you know, Coco. I didn't leave that note on your desk. When Theodore confronted me with it I was just upset that he would think I could do such a thing."

"To be fair, I brought it to him and suggested that you had to have been the one." Coco crossed her legs and leaned back. Daphne's eyes flared but she calmed down quickly.

"And I can see why you would have thought it was me. But no. I had nothing to do with the note. I'm not quite that childish." She was looking at me when she said it.

"Thank you." Coco finally answered. The waiter came over to ask if Daphne wanted to order anything but she declined, claiming she already ate.

"I don't know who did but- that's definitely not… normal behavior." Daphne commented.

"Well whoever it was hasn't bothered you since- right?" I asked, looking at Coco, who went back to toying with her napkin. "Right?" I straightened.

"I mean- yeah. I think."

"You think?"

Coco rolled her eyes and brightened as the waiter came back with our drinks.

"Cordelia." I snapped.

"Things have gone missing from my desk but it might not be that I might have just misplaced those." Her desk was a mess so it was possible.

"What kind of things?" I asked

"Quills, I had a bottle of nail polish at my desk that vanished… I had a ring-"

"A ring?" My eyes dipped to her hand, but both her engagement ring and wedding ring were on her finger.

"It was just a costume jewelry ring- I took it off for the engagment ring, and I had left it at my desk- but it's not there now." she shrugged. "Nothing of value which means I'm probably just misplacing them."

"Maybe." I sighed, leaning back.

"The point is, it's not me, it wasn't me doing it and it sucks that it's happening." Daphne bit her lip. "I'm not going to lie and act like I'm happy about all of this but I'm not that petty."

"Yeah, understood." Coco nodded,

"Okay." Daphne watched as the waiter brought our food before she stood up, "anyway- I will see you both later." She said her goodbyes and headed out.

"So any clue who she might have gone to lunch with?" Coco asked.

"No." I answered honestly. "Maybe Pansy, but if it were, I don't know why she wouldn't want to tell us about that."

"Weird."

Lunch went by with very little issue, I finished my whiskey, the pasta being enough to keep me from feeling any of the effects. Then when we were done I paid for our meal and we went back to the Ministry, but instead of Coco going back to her own office, she was following me.

"A quickie after lunch sounds great, babe, but maybe not after pasta."

She gave me the most unimpressed look I've ever seen in my life. I couldn't stop the grin from creeping across my cheeks.

"I need to get the statement from your boss before I get fired."

"That's less funny." I commented.

"Not by much." She shrugged. The two of us walked together towards the elevators to get to my department.

I headed for my desk, watching as Coco continued across the office to Mr. Danworth's door.

"Excuse me." Kaitlyn chided as Coco walked past her desk without a second look. Coco knocked on the door as she finally glanced back to the woman.

"Yes?"

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No." Coco quirked an eyebrow and knocked on the door again. Kaitlyn was getting agitated, I could see it in her face.

"You can't talk to Mr. Danworth without an appointment."

"Calvin, It's me, Coco." That gave me pause- she knew my boss's first name?

"He's not going to-" the door opened and Mr Danworth stepped out before Kaitlyn could finish.

"Coco- Hi."

"I need the statements, Helene is on a deadline." Mr Danworth looked confused.

"Yes, I sent those in a while ago."

"They didn't make it to Helene." Coco shrugged.

"I sent them with Kaitlyn up to your office." Mr. Danworth looked to a still annoyed Kaitlyn for confirmation. She nodded.

"He did. I left them on your- ridiculously messy desk." Kaitlyn confirmed.

"Can you please just- rewrite it out for me really quickly? Please?" Mr. Danworth's eyes softened and he nodded, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Of course Miss Selwyn. One moment."

"It's Mrs Nott, actually." Coco corrected him.

I definitely didn't imagine the way he flinched.

He closed his office door behind him and I finally turned my attention to my desk, frowning at the note that was sitting on the top of my blotter. It was simple pure white paper and my name was written on the top in black ink. I grabbed it and unfolded it, my heart dropping.

"Who the hell did this?" I snapped, looking around the office, as if I could tell the guilty party by the look on their face.

"Theodore." Coco hissed, crossing the office back to me. "What in the hell are you doing?" She asked.

"I said, who did this? Someone left this note on my desk, someone had to have seen it happen. Who did it?" I repeated, my voice growing louder. Coco reached over and snatched it out of my hand. She opened it up and she went white as a sheet.

'I hope you find someone to sneak around with like your whore did for him'

"Theodore."

"I want to know-"

"What in the world is going on here?" Mr. Danworth had come out of his office, with a folder in hand.

"Nothing." Coco answered quickly. Before she could hide the paper, he took it from her, reading it over. He turned as white as she did.

"What?"

"It's nothing." Coco repeated.

"You should go." Mr Danworth held out the folder to her.

"Right." Coco's voice was a whisper and for the first time ever, I saw not rage, not anger burning in her clear blue eyes. I saw tears that threatened to spill over.

I narrowed my eyes, reaching out and grabbing the paper back, before following Coco out of the office.

"Nott." Mr Danworth called after me.

"I'm taking the rest of the day off." I called back.

Coco didn't slow down, she didn't look back to find me following her. She kept going, beelining for the doors out of the office and even after she plowed through those she didn't stop until she got to the elevator, her fingers pressing the button over and over as if she could will it to come faster.

"Coco."

"Leave me alone, Theodore." She snapped.

"I won't. What the hell is this note talking about?" I asked.

"You can read? Yes? Then you should have some kind of clue." Finally the elevator came. For the first time ever it seemed the elevator was empty. She walked on and before she could hit the button to close the doors, I hopped on after her and hit the button. "You're an ass."

"What. Does. The. Note. Mean?"

"How should I know? I didn't leave it."

"And what in the hell is happening with you and my boss?"

"Nothing." The elevator started moving and she was tapping her foot, eager to get off of the elevator and escape I was sure.

That wasn't happening, I reached over and hit the emergency stop. The elevator came to an abrupt stop, nearly sending her toppling over.

"What the hell, Theodore?" She snapped.

"You're not getting out of this that easy, Cordelia."

"You think any of this is easy?" Her lip wobbled a little and she tilted her head back. "Fix the elevator."

"No. Answer my question."

"No." I shrugged

"Fine, then I suppose we will be here for a while." I leaned against the wall. She stared at me then when she realized I was very much serious, she shrugged and lowered herself to sit, hugging the folder to her chest.

"Fine by me." We sat there in silence for a while but I knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. "You're being ridiculous."

"Just tell me what is going on. What is the weird-ness between you and my boss, I have to work with this man every day. I should know what in the hell went on with him and my wife."

"It's not that simple"

"I'm sure it's not but I'm even more sure we have plenty of time for you to explain it."

"I can't!" She yelled, scrambling up from her place on the floor, the folder now laying forgotten. "I can't. I can't because that means thinking about it, that means thinking about what a fucking moron I was and how I thought-" She cut herself off as the tears that had been sitting in the corners of her eyes broke free, flowing down her cheeks now.

"Coco"

"I can't because he turned me into the one person I swore up and down my entire life I would never emulate. That no matter what, I'd never end up like him."

The question was written on my face because when she finally looked at me, the words eeked out of her, soft and broken

"My father."