RP: Passing on the Result

[tt_cecilia]

Date: 2. March, 2002
Characters: Charlie Weasley and Cecilia Proudfoot
Setting: The Ark
Content: No Adult Content
Status: Open: Private, Complete


It had been a long week. A long week with a lot of time and opportunities to think, and it seemed that no matter how hard she had tried not to, Cecilia had ended up doing so anyway. Even Jamie had caught up on it, and had been none too subtly asking her why she was being odder than normal. The people from Two, who had taken care of the kids, had done a marvelous job of explaining the situation to them, without frightening them, and now that they were back, the school was making a big effort to teach them about the effects of all the mind altering potions and charms. No, Cecilia wasn’t worried about the immediate effects on Jamie, but she hadn’t a clue how he would react if that one potion Charlie hadn’t taken turned out to have been missed on one of the days she had missed her potion.

The results of the missing potion hadn’t been the only thing on her mind, though. Sirius had figured there a great deal too, just like Charlie had. She missed Sirius, missed talking to him, missed spending time with him, but though she was trying not to think, she had meant it when she had said that she needed time to do just that. Because, how could she properly be with a man she cared for, and still did, when her mind kept drifting to another man that she had found she had come to care for as well? They were so different, so completely different that she found it difficult to really compare how she cared for them and what attracted her to them.

When she had arrived at the med center, her entire being had been a jumble of contradicting emotions. Hope, dread, embarrassment, pride, annoyance, delight, acceptance and denial were all making her feel as if she was walking through a dream. The test itself hadn’t taken long, and she had left the med center with a clear answer, and even more confusing feelings.

Cecilia apparated directly to the Ark’s main entrance. She had promised Charlie that she would let him know as soon as she did, and with his invitation for her to come out this weekend to get the plants she needed for her research, now was as good a time as any. She spotted him on the steps to the HQ, and sent him a small wave to catch his attention. On her way to him, she fished out a small bag from her backpack. “Hi Charlie,” she greeted him, holding out the bag to him. “You forgot this. Figured you might want it back.”

Comments

[tt_charlie]

It had been a long week for Charlie as well. He'd had the distraction of dealing with the chaos at the Ark, but in the back of his mind was always the chance that Cecilia had gotten pregnant while under the love potion. Charlie wasn't entirely sure what the hell he was going to do if she was. Oh, he knew what his mum would want him to do but he wasn't anywhere near there in his life.

She was due out to the Ark any minute and he went out onto the front steps of HQ, wanting to meet up with her before any of the other workers could intervene. Charlie waved in return when she showed up, coming down the steps to meet her halfway. "Oh, thanks," he said, taking the bag. "Appreciate that." Charlie tucked it into his back pocket for the time being, gesturing for her to follow as he headed for the path they'd both been on last week.

[tt_cecilia]

“So,” Cecilia started, falling into step with Charlie as they headed to the trail they had followed two weeks ago. Two weeks? Was that really all? It felt odd to think about, because on one hand it seemed almost a lifetime ago that she and Charlie had walked here, and yet it still held that feel of it only having been yesterday. That wasn’t really important though. The test results were, and Cecilia felt a little like she ought to make an introduction to get onto that track. Then again, what would she say? They both knew what had happened and why she had come here. But also just starting out with it seemed… off. “Just came from the med center,” she tried again as they turned down the path. This far, and a little further, she already knew the path, but after that, she would have to rely on Charlie’s guidance to get her where she needed to be.

“The Healer there, Ginny Weasley, she wouldn’t by any chance happen to be your sister, would she?” She arched an eyebrow at him, mildly amused at the coincidence and very relieved that she had turned down his offer to go with her for the test. “Yeah, I thought so. She’s nice, pretty, very thorough,” she assured him, still trying to get to the point. “Gave me both a Muggle and a magic test, just to rule out any doubts.” Turning on her datapad, she swiped through the data until she came to the note they had made for her, and turned the screen so Charlie could see the result for himself. “I’m not pregnant.”

[tt_charlie]

As much as Charlie wanted to know what happened at the medical center, he held his tongue as they climbed the trail together, flashbacks in his memories matching up to the scenic views around them. He could easily remember the feel of her skin under his fingertips.

"Gin? Yeah, she's my baby sister," he answered with warm pride in his tone. He chuckled, holding out a hand as they got the a rocky point in the trail. "She agreed to learn Muggle medicine as well so I suspect she was using that as a training exercise."

Cecilia took out her datapad and Charlie stopped then, feeling a mixture of trepidation and hope swirling together in his thoughts. When she showed him the results, he nodded. "I would have believed your word, Cecilia. I'm not an ogre. Well, I won't lie - that's a relief. I've done a lot of thinking this past week and while I'm pretty sure I want kids, its not something I want now."

[tt_cecilia]

The pride in Charlie’s voice when he spoke of his sister was endearing and made Cecilia smile. Her smile, though, grew just a tad warmer and a little amused when he held out his hand to her. She didn’t hesitate in accepting his help; along with all of her other vivid memories from this path, the one of stumbling on the rocks was very clear too, just like the mental image of what that stumble had led to. “Well, anything for education, right?” she chuckled, and looked down to ensure that she wouldn’t lose her footing this time. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a negative memory, and with that in mind, Cecilia raised her gaze, first to the path ahead and then a glance up at Charlie.

“I know you’re not an ogre,” she assured him with a soft chuckle, “but they went through all the trouble of working out the documentation, I figured I had to show it to someone, and you’re… well, you’re the only one I’d want to show it to.” With a small sigh, she sobered a little and put her datapad away before she ran her fingers through her hair. She glanced up at the trees that surrounded them until she was looking back up at Charlie. “You don’t have to excuse being relieved, Charlie,” she said softly, then shrugged slightly. “I mean, I am too. Most of all, I’m relieved, though I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t just a touch of disappointment, or… I don’t know, a small sense of failure somehow.” Cecilia really had felt relieved when she had been given the result, but that had been a different sort of relief from the relief of admitting this to Charlie. "Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have to have more children now, but I think that with the wait, I’d pretty much come to terms with both scenarios, so when she said I wasn’t pregnant, it was like I’d failed at what I had accepted as a possible outcome.” Meeting his gaze for a moment, the realization of how much she had just bared herself to him made a slight blush creep into her cheeks and had her look away. “Which is probably silly, I know. The dragons? Just this way?”

[tt_charlie]

"Since you put it in those terms," he chuckled warmly in return, feeling more at ease with her today than he had on the day they'd awoken from the potion. Of course, the physical attraction remained. He was only human, and she was a gorgeous creature.

"Factoring in the surprise of what had happened and the fact that I'm sure both of us would prefer to plan an event like that, I don't think there's any reason for you to feel like a failure, Cecilia," Charlie assured her firmly. In his life as a dragon keeper, he'd been well suited as an impulsive Gryffindor but Charlie preferred things in his private life to be simple and calm.

He shook his head, pointing south of them. "The dragons are down there, we're not in their area, don't worry. The plants you are looking for are just over that ridge there," he pointed in the opposite direction, up the trail from where they were. "Mind your step, it gets steep about here."

[tt_cecilia]

”That is true,” Cecilia agreed, shrugging slightly. “Didn’t say it was rational, just that it… feels a little like it.” She wasn’t going to elaborate any further on it, knowing perfectly well that if she couldn’t fully explain it to herself, there was no way she could explain it to Charlie. She was an Herbologist. She had spent most of her life learning how to make things grow, but apparently not this time around. Then again, Charlie did have a point, and it did work to make her ease up on the regret she felt.

“Ah, okay.” With a nod, she accepted Charlie’s explanation, and continued in the direction they had been headed. “I’m looking for plants that grows in magical creatures’ habitats,” she began explaining, when indeed the path they were on got steep. Mindful of her step, careful not to slip the way she had done the first time she was here, she still kept a firm grip on Charlie’s hand. “Monitoring any changes that might provoke in a place that’s never been touched by magic before.”

[tt_charlie]

"Dragons aren't magical. Oh, sure, they seem magical, but they are natural animals, if a bit mythical due to their size and temperament. But they aren't magical. The ones that breath fire, its like a snake with venom, they have openings like that in their jawline. Its a mixture of their 'venom' that's highly flammable when combined. Makes them seem magical, but they aren't," Charlie explained.

"The spot I'm taking you to is frequented by the unicorns. The request did say it had to be an area used by the magical animals, after all," he chuckled.

[tt_cecilia]

With a soft groan, Cecilia scrunched her face up, covering her eyes with her hand. Embarrassed. There was no other words to describe how she felt just then. Alright, maybe there was, she thought, as the word ‘mortified’ came to her mind. “And of course, as I’ve just made so blindingly clear, there’s a reason I don’t work with animals,” she chuckled from behind her hand, though after a deep breath, she lowered her hand; best not to take her eyes off the path and make even more of a fool of herself than she already had.

“Unicorns should be good, though. Perfect, actually,” she agreed with him, though she couldn’t help but wonder where all the nervous energy in her had come from. She couldn’t even claim that it was because she was in unfamiliar territory; they were surrounded by amazing forest, her element, even if she had only visited this place once where it hadn’t been as part of a tour. With that option ruled out, her next guess would be it was the situation, because even now, when they were on their way to a specific point to do a tangible job, she couldn’t help but ask herself what the hell she was doing there. Only, then she looked up to see Charlie right next to her and her heart pounded just a little harder, which in turn made her feel like she was being unfair to Sirius. No, now wasn’t the time for her to figure out what to do there. That was something she needed time to herself to figure out.

[tt_charlie]

"Don't feel bad. You know what my kid sister said when I first told her that? 'Breaths fire. Magical.' Let's just say that the portion of wizard-dom that knows that about dragons can fit, well, inside the Ark HQ. As in, all the other dragon keepers," Charlie chuckled warmly.

She was a smart bird, he knew already, and it touched on his preference for such. There was just something about smart birds that was smoking hot. "All right then, this way," he directed, taking the right fork in the path. "We're almost there. There might be a unicorn or two roaming around but they won't be too much of a bother, unless they think I've got treats."

[tt_cecilia]

And just like that, with the effortless relay of an old incident followed by a warm chuckle, Charlie had managed to make Cecilia smile, and the feeling of having been stupid evaporate. “Oh, I’m with her on that one,” she chuckled, nodding emphatically and for the first time in days she relaxed completely. Yes, she still had things to figure out, a whole mess of feelings to sort through, but it didn’t have to be done today. Today, she would do her work and enjoy that it included being in the company of a genuinely nice man and possibly a unicorn or two. Cecilia could easily think of worse ways to spend her day.