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Post by Alana Kalb on Mar 10, 2011 22:35:09 GMT -5
Alana laughed at her. If it were anything like the food served in the cafeteria at the German office, Alana could definitely sympathize with her. That was something Alana could never get used to, no matter how much she ate at it. She often went out to eat, which often caused money problems, but as she got older she got it under control... for the most part.
"I haven't. This is all I know so far." She said, motioning to the group around her. "But, I'm sure--I hope--I'll meet more soon. People have always been a strong point of mine." She smiled. She was going to enjoy being here with all the new people she could meet, she was sure of it.
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Post by Kit Cunningham on Mar 10, 2011 23:17:10 GMT -5
"Well, you seem to be getting along fine so far," Kit told her. "This is really a pretty cool bunch of people. They actually forgave me for sticking my foot in my mouth the first day I was here... I was so sure they were going to boot me right back to America."
And she would have deserved it, too. Her big mouth was the reason she was sent here in the first place, and it wouldn't have been surprising if she'd been sent back for the same reason. Luckily for her, though, Angelique had sympathized with her and let her stay. And Kit had somehow managed to settle in and make some friends. Now they could even laugh about the terrible first impression she had made.
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Post by Veronica Massey on Mar 10, 2011 23:36:14 GMT -5
Veronica had just walked into the office and saw the gathering near Cassidy's desk. Kit's voice, as always, was the loudest, and Veronica grinned in amusement. She had sort of befriended the American in the last few months. Kit was always worth a laugh, and Veronica needed a few good laughs. She was usually much too tense.
"Don't let her fool you," she said, approaching the group. "We can still boot her back to the States at any time." She gave Kit a playful nudge, then held out her hand to Alana.
"Hi, I'm Veronica."
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Post by Alana Kalb on Mar 10, 2011 23:49:40 GMT -5
"You must certainly keep it lively around here." Alana said, and smiled at the interaction between Kit and Veronica. She got the impression that they were friends. Either that, or the entire office was really close to each other. Alana liked that, and only hoped that, if she decided to stay in London, she could be included one day, too. This was a good start, she thought, as she took Veronica's hand.
"Alana. Well, this certainly is a female dominated office, isn't it?" She joked, giving Kole a sympathetic look. "So different from Germany. There are only three other women in the department there."
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Post by Veronica Massey on Mar 12, 2011 12:51:52 GMT -5
"There are kind of a lot of us, aren't there?" Veronica agreed. "Well, there are a lot of men, too, but I think most of them see a group of women standing around talking and run the other way." She laughed at that and glanced around the office. "There are a lot of good guys, though... My partner is actually Andi's husband, Ted. He's around here somewhere, I think he just stepped out for a few minutes. And I know Roland's around here somewhere... our resident superhero. Just don't tell him we call him that, we don't need his ego to get any bigger. And then of course, there's Mad-Eye Moody... but he hardly ever spends any time in the office."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Mar 12, 2011 15:25:58 GMT -5
"I heard my name. Hope you're saying good things about me, Ronnie."
Ted had been at his desk, then at the cafeteria, back at his desk, outside. It was one of those days where he just had energy to burn, and it was strange for him because he was usually so calm and laid back. When he came back to the office, he noticed the gathering and had to join in. He ruffled Veronica's hair, then found his wife and kissed her briefly. "Hey, feeling all right?" His words were softer, meant only for her.
Turning back to the group, Ted nodded. "I saw Riley around... which usually means Roland's nearby. You must be the Auror from Germany.... Alana, was it? I'm Ted."
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Post by Masika Hotepankh on Mar 12, 2011 15:49:38 GMT -5
As if the boys needed to be further outnumbered, another female Auror walked in.
Masika was usually quiet, the type to fly under the radar, so to speak. She had to be, considering the role she was playing here, as a spy for Voldemort. Lately, though, she'd been trying to be friendlier and get to know the other Aurors better. Given what was going on right now, she knew exactly who Rutger and Alana were. Seeing the girl in the middle of the gathering, she hid a smile... the was an opportunity she definitely needed to grab.
"Sorry," she interrupted in her thick accent. "Is there a meeting or something?"
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Post by Alana Kalb on Mar 15, 2011 15:47:33 GMT -5
Alana nodded at the man, Ted. "Yes, that's me. It's nice to meet you, Ted. Hopefully next time we all have a gathering like this my partner will be here. I bet all the girls around can get tough to deal with." She said with a laugh. Honestly, she would rather work in an office full of guys. There was much less drama that way, but she wouldn't mind having a couple girls she could gossip with.
Alana turned to the new girl who walked up. She had an accent that Alana couldn't quite place, but she would ask about it later if she didn't bring it up in conversation. "We were all headed to lunch." She replied, happy that the group kept growing.
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Post by Andromeda Tonks on Mar 17, 2011 23:45:24 GMT -5
Andi beamed as Ted joined the group. "I'm fine," she whispered softly, and moved to lean up against him. She had finally passed the morning sickness stage, and the pregnancy was just starting to become visible. Occasionally, she had strange cravings, but luckily, she hadn't had much of a problem with back pain yet.
She turned to the others and gave a friendly smile at Masika. The woman was rather aloof most of the time, but Andi hoped they could make her feel comfortable. "Hi, Masika! This is Alana, she's one of the German aurors working with us for a while... We're all taking her out to lunch. I hope you'll be able to join us."
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Mar 17, 2011 23:53:36 GMT -5
Roland and Riley had just finished talking to poor Fiona in the Department of Mysteries, once again trying to get some information from her about her boss, Augustus Rookwood. Unfortunately, the poor girl was just as deluded as ever, and did nothing but sing the man's praises. Frustrated, they had given up and started back to the office, but Riley needed to make a stop, and she sent him on ahead.
As he entered the office, he was surprised to find a large gathering of aurors in the middle of the office. He stopped in his tracks and eyed them for a minute. Ted and Andromeda seemed to be in the middle of it all, along with a woman he didn't recognize. The gathering was mostly women, and Roland couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "I should have known... a gathering of women, and Ted's right in the middle. Spreading gossip again, are you, Ted?" he teased as he walked over to the group.
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Post by Ted Tonks on Mar 23, 2011 1:13:42 GMT -5
"Pleasure to meet you, Alana."
Ted was about to say more when Roland made his entrance (and Lord, weren't they used to Roland making entrances?) He glanced over at his fairly recent friend, and shrugged, smiling. "You know it's more the group of women I'm interested in than the gossip," he said with a wink, and a kiss on Andi's cheek to assure her he was joking.
"And speaking of women.... where's yours? I thought you two were surgically joined at the hip."
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Mar 28, 2011 23:04:02 GMT -5
"A likely story," Roland teased as he came to a stop next to the group.
Even he was a little surprised that he and Ted had become friends. But they were in similar stages in their lives; they were both in love, they were both about to be fathers. They had a lot more in common than they might have before. Besides, Roland had definitely mellowed out a bit since falling in love with Riley. Some might even say he'd become downright jovial, although he still could be a bear in the morning before he was fully awake.
"Oh, she's around," he said, glancing at the door, unconsciously searching for her. "We were both on the way back to the office, but she had to stop off to... powder her nose," he explained carefully. "So, seriously, what's going on over here? Don't leave me in the dark."
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Post by Alana Kalb on Apr 25, 2011 20:54:45 GMT -5
Alana smiled at Ted, ready to return the saying to Ted when someone else came up and began talking. Alana smiled as Ted and the new guy started talking, passing jokes back and forth. It reminded of a friend Alana had while she was in school, and wondered if she would still talk to her if she wrote to her. Alana left in such a hurry to Germany that she wasn't sure if her friend would want to speak to her again.
Alana loved the closeness that seemed to exist in this office. She could tell everyone must have been working together for a while just in the way they interacted. Sometimes she wished Rutger was the joking type, the kind she could sit around with after work and have a drink and a laugh with.
"Hi, I'm Alana. I'm here from Germany for the Kryshna case." She said, holding her hand out to the new Auror that arrived. "We were all headed out for lunch, if you would like to come." She said.
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Apr 26, 2011 17:39:38 GMT -5
So this was the German auror. She wasn't bad-looking, although of course, in Roland's mind, she didn't compare to Riley. He smiled and extended his hand to her.
"Nice to meet you," he said. "Roland Ferrera. I thought there were supposed to be two of you? Where's your partner?" He looked around, trying to spot anyone else who was unfamiliar. Not seeing anyone, he looked back at her with a crooked grin.
"Lunch sounds great. But I should check with my... partner, Riley first. As Ted so graciously pointed out, we're usually attached at the hip. She should be here soon."
Again, he looked toward the door, hoping Riley would walk through it. As much as he had always prided himself on being independent, he now felt strange when he was away from Riley for too long.
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Post by Riley Neves on Apr 26, 2011 19:23:02 GMT -5
Unlike Andi, Riley was experiencing morning sickness in full vengence mode. She left Roland, asking him to see if he could find her ginger ale or something to settle her stomach. She couldn't eat when all she wanted to do was throw up.
A little pale, she stepped into the Auror office to find a fairly large gathering, and Roland already looking at her. She went into alert mode. "What's wrong? What happened?" At least it was something to think about other than how queesy she felt, and she came towards Roland out of habit. For better or worse, they were a team no and she looked at him as her Partner in every way.
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Apr 26, 2011 21:53:42 GMT -5
Roland smiled softly when he saw her, but he couldn't help but notice immediately that she was still looking a little green. It worried him; shouldn't the morning sickness have passed by now? But he didn't say anything; he just circled his arm around her waist and kissed the side of her head before handing her the bottle of ginger ale he'd bought from the vending machine earlier.
"It's all right," he assured her in a low voice. "We're all just meeting Alana, she's one of the German aurors visiting to work on the murder case. Everyone's all going to take her out to lunch... do you think you can manage it?"
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Post by Riley Neves on Apr 27, 2011 16:16:15 GMT -5
Riley seemed to visibly relax when Roland put his arm around her, and she took the drink with a quiet 'thank you.'
Her eyes settled on the blonde auror who was practically in the middle of the circle, and she finally smiled. "Oh, right. Alana, and your partner is Rutger, right? I'm Riley. Nice to meet you." Her words were directed at the girl, rather than Roland who explained everything to her.
Was she up for lunch? No. In fact, all she wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep for a couple of days. But since that wasn't really an option, and since she wasn't sure if that was fatigue from the pregnancy or some kind of lasting mental thing from Roland's death, she decided against even mentioning it, and she nodded somewhat enthusiastically. She was quieter now, her words for Roland only and she looked up at him. "Yeah, I'm up for it. If you are."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Apr 27, 2011 16:33:42 GMT -5
Ted rolled his eyes when he watched Riley come in, immidiately folded into Roland's arms. So what if he had done the same thing to Andi? "They're trying to out-cute us again," he pretended to whisper, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear. "I won't stand for this."
Giving Andi that little boy grin of his, he kissed her temple gently, letting her know he was just joking.
"I am starving though... can we get this train rolling towards food?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Apr 27, 2011 23:38:38 GMT -5
Roland knew her better than that, though, and he knew she was forcing herself to do this; to work, to go out to lunch, and even just to stand here being social. She was just trying to be brave, and he loved her for it. He suspected she wouldn't be able to eat much of anything, and he was tempted to beg off and pretend that they had important work to do or something like that. But he had already said he wanted to go, and Riley was saying she was up to it. And maybe it would be good for her. She could order a glass of ginger ale and maybe nibble on some bread.
"If you're sure, then yeah, I'm up for it." He gave her another squeeze, letting her relax against him. He didn't mind being her support. "But if you feel like you need to rest, let me know and we'll leave early."
He was about to speak to Alana again when he overheard Ted's comment. Making a face, he insisted, "Please. I am not cute. Riley's cute enough for the both of us."
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Post by Andromeda Tonks on Apr 28, 2011 16:07:05 GMT -5
Andi just smiled at the two of them. Despite Roland's protests, they were definitely adorable--though not as cute as she and Ted, of course. But they had fought hard to be together, and looking at them now, it was almost impossible to believe that they had once been at each others' throats on a daily basis.
She gave a sympathetic look at Riley. Although the morning sickness had passed for Andi, she remembered all too clearly how miserable it had made her, and she silently resolved to pull her aside and tell her of some of the nausea remedies that had worked for her.
"Yeah... I guess we can't stand around all day and wait for everyone to show up," she said in response to Ted's comment. "Probably everyone is here who's going to be here. A lot of people are out on assignment," she added as an explanation to Alana. "It's too bad only three men are here... we really do have more guys than this."
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