|
|
Post by Tom Linwood on Oct 14, 2016 22:41:29 GMT -5
Tom ignored her threats and continued with what it would seem was a very pleasant chat, on his end at least. "Come now, Rachael. You've always wanted your family nearby, you should be pleased. Think of how much time we'll get to spend together now."
He gave her a slick smile then picked up a decorative item from a shelf and examined it. "You know, Rachael, good families help each other out when they need it. You always wanted to be a family. It's time to start acting like it." He looked at her pointedly. "I've had some run-ins with a couple of loan sharks..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Oct 15, 2016 23:34:29 GMT -5
Talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. Had he always been this annoying? He seemed to have more interest in hearing himself talk than in listening to what she had to say or answering her questions. "I warned you," she said, taking aim and firing a spell at him "Affligo!"* Even if the spell didn't hit him, she needed him to see that she was serious, because she was getting sick of hearing him dance around the subject with his feeble attempts at being cute and charming. It might have worked when he was 19, but he was a long way away from 19 now, and his charm was definitely lacking now. "We are not family. You walked out on me, served me with divorce papers... oh, and you used an Unforgivable Curse on me, so you have lost all right to call yourself my family. I am not interested in seeing you more often, or actually, ever again, if I have my preference. State. Your. Business." And there it was. Loan sharks. She should have known. "So what? Do you want money? Do you want me to track down these loan sharks? And what good reason can you give me to compel me to do either of those things?" *Affligo: Strikes a person, as if a blow were made.
Source |
|
|
|
Post by Tom Linwood on Oct 16, 2016 0:24:45 GMT -5
Her spell shot right toward Tom and shattered the trinket he was holding. He dropped the remaining pieces and shook his hand as if this action would lessen the pain. He was no longer in a cheery mood.
"If you really don't want to see me 'round here again, you'll use some of this posh private investigator money to eliminate my debts. Once I'm no longer indebted to these moneylenders, I'll be free to relocate elsewhere."
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Oct 16, 2016 17:24:57 GMT -5
Ricki shook her head. He really was unbelievable. To come here after all this time and ask for money to cover gambling debts? As if she owed him anything after what he had done.
"What, you mean your friends can't help you? Death eaters, you guys call yourselves now? Some of them are pretty prominent members of wizarding society, or so I'm told. I would think one of them would be able to spare a few hundred galleons to help a colleague. Or do they hate you as much as I do? Maybe they're the ones you owe money to...."
She lowered her wand arm now, having made her point, and she leaned against the edge of the desk. "You know, if you had come here and apologized... or even acknowledged what you did to me, maybe I would have been a little more forgiving. Maybe I'd have even been amenable to helping you out. But instead you waltzed in here and acted your same arrogant self and acted like we were family, when you were the one who destroyed any hope of a family between us. So no... I won't give you any money. Good luck with your financial troubles, but you need to leave. Now." Once again she pointed her wand at him, aiming directly at his head.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom Linwood on Oct 16, 2016 20:39:44 GMT -5
Although she was telling him no, Tom heard a secret message hidden in her words. He had destroyed any hope of them being a family. But obviously she still wanted things to work out. Tom smiled knowingly at her.
"Alright, Rachael. I understand, you can't help me out right now." He walked to the door and pulled it open. "I guess I'll see you soon." With a mischievous glint in his eye, he left her office and headed back down the street. He'd be visiting her again very soon.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Oct 17, 2016 21:12:27 GMT -5
When he left, Ricki didn't even care about the ominous words "I'll see you soon" or the wicked gleam in his eyes. All she cared about was that he was gone. She practically collapsed in the nearest chair and began to cry.
Tom was right about one thing. She did want a family, but not with him. What she wanted was her baby back. She wanted him to say he was sorry, to acknowledge what he had done and express even the slightest amount of regret for hurting her, and causing their baby's death.
His name was William. Billy, she'd called him. She'd imagined him playing with his toy broom in the backyard, learning to block a quaffle and dodge a bludger. She'd imagined him getting his Hogwarts letter, being sorted into Gryffindor (of course), and playing for his house quidditch team. She'd imagined him complaining about his Potions homework and practicing transfiguration. She'd imagined him graduating, becoming an auror, and getting married... But none of that was to be. He'd lived only 6 days, and she'd only ever held him one time. The rest of the time he lay in an incubator, struggling to breathe. It hurt like hell to think of him and that was why she never did.
But seeing Tom today brought Billy's memory back to her mind, and it was like a floodgate had been opened. She didn't think she'd ever be able to stop crying.
|
|
|
|
Post by Milo Chevalier on Apr 24, 2018 9:51:04 GMT -5
The cheating spouses cases never became old. Dirty business it was. Sometimes the woman was crazy and the man actually was working late or vice versa. Sometimes, however, the spouse was correct in their partner's infidelity. That was the news Milo always hated giving. A target could always be on Milo's back, but for the most part it worked out. He disliked the cheating spouse/partner cases, but it was money. Bills always had to be paid. Being a PI wasn't always glamorous but it got the job done.
After meeting with a woman about her estranged husband, Milo headed back to the office. Tea or coffee was in order, maybe even a bite to eat. He wanted to check in with Ricki and see how things were going so far. Their relationship was going well so far. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders once they both revealed their feelings. He felt like he could breath again. Life felt great and he could see things in a new light.
Passing a well dressed gentleman that appeared to have come out of the direction of the office, Milo entered the office thinking nothing of it. Entering the foyer, Milo was going to head in the direction of the coffee pot but he paused when the sound of crying filled his ears. Walking toward Ricki's area, he realized it was her crying. His stomach felt like it hit his feet. Dropping his folder, he went to her and quickly put his arms around her. "Ricki," he said quietly, but worriedly, "what's wrong? What happened?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Sept 16, 2019 13:56:50 GMT -5
Ricki wasn't really thinking conscious thoughts. She was reliving endless hours in a hospital bed, waiting to hold her baby boy. She was remembering his tiny hands and feet and blue-tinged skin as he struggled for each breath. She was sitting in a wheelchair, staring through a glass window at him, barely the size of a kitten. Her heart was breaking all over again as she remembered him taking his last, shaky breaths. With all of their advanced medicine, so far ahead of Muggle medicine, there was still no way to save a premature baby whose lungs hadn't formed properly.
Dimly through her tears, Ricki heard Milo's voice as if it were very far away, then felt his arms encircle her. She sobbed harder and clung to him for a very long time, until she had run out of tears and the images finally faded from her mind.
At last she lifted her face from his tear-soaked shirt. "Milo... There's something I never told you. About my ex-husband."
|
|
|
|
Post by Milo Chevalier on Sept 16, 2019 14:20:16 GMT -5
Milo could tell something was very wrong by the way Ricki was clinging to him. He would sit there and hold her for hours if that was what she needed. Naturally, his mind was racing while he was holding her as to the issue at hand. Could it be that there were things that were getting to emotional in the job? Could it have been a sad story from a possible client? No. Not the last one. Ricki seldom cried. He put a hand to her head and pressed his lips against her hair. Quietly Milo held on to her, careful not to ask questions at the moment.
The moment when she lifted her face, he knew that she was ready to talk. Her ex-husband? Milo did not know much detail about her ex-husband, nor did he try to dig into her past. What could have set her off like that? He couldn't have visited, could he? Maybe she let her mind wonder to old memories came while it was quiet in the office?
"What about him," Milo asked gently as he reached to wipe her cheek.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Sept 18, 2019 9:57:17 GMT -5
Where was she supposed to start? She had never even mentioned her ex-hsuband to Milo, except to say that she was divorced. He had never really talked about his past, so she hadn't either. Somehow, deep down, they both knew that the other one had ghosts in the past that they wanted to leave there. It had always worked for them before. But now things had changed. She and Milo were a couple now, and they couldn't just keep these secrets to themselves. Especially not when one of them walked right in the office door.
Deep inside, Ricki had always known that Tom would come back some day. She had hoped he would have died or landed in Azkaban by this point, but instead he had come back, with his impeccably bad timing as always. Curse him. She had no feelings left for him at all--not even hate. She felt total indifference. And she didn't want Milo to think that Tom was the reason for her tears.
She took a breath, and instead of mentioning Tom, she decided it would be better to pull off the bandage and tell him the truth.
"I had a son," she said, her voice breaking. "He was born more than 6 months premature, and his organs weren't fully developed. He only lived for 6 days. My ex-husband... Tom... is a death eater. One of the first. He didn't want to be a father so he left me... and..." She stopped abruptly, looking at Milo as the tears streamed down her face. "I was on a raid against some dark wizards... and Tom was there. We fought and he... he... He was the reason I went into labor early. He killed our son. My Billy..."
She had more to say, but she couldn't go on. She pressed back against Milo and began to sob all over again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Milo Chevalier on Sept 18, 2019 13:41:41 GMT -5
That was not at all what Milo thought that Ricki was going to say. It was true, neither one of them would really mention anything about their past. It was always good to move forward, but there were sometimes when the past had to be faced. He was trying to process everything she was saying. His heart ached for her. Her ex-husband was a death eater. At the last part of what she said, it felt as if something slammed into Milo. He felt anger, sadness, the need to make all of Ricki's sadness disappear. Milo wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words to say to her. Tom was a monster.
Milo tightened his arms around her and kissed her hair again. "Oh sweetheart," he said ever so lightly. If Tom was alive, he felt as if he could kill a man. "I am so sorry." He started to rock back and forth with her. What triggered Ricki's memories? Milo wanted to do whatever he could to make whatever he could better.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ricki Crawford on Mar 16, 2020 16:11:05 GMT -5
It was strange how, after all these years, she could still see her little boy's face in her mind when she closed her eyes. Most of the time she shut that memory out of her mind and forced herself not to think about it, but now, it all felt as real and as raw as it did the day he died. She could even picture, if she concentrated very hard, what he might have looked like when he got older. But he was just a dream, a ghost of someone who had never really existed. These memories were all she had of him, though, and she did cherish them, as painful as they were. Other than the pictures in her mind, they were the only evidence that he'd ever lived at all, however briefly.
Seeing Tom today had brought all of it flooding back to her, and she felt like a raw, exposed nerve. She'd worked hard to build up this armor and rebuild her life and it just wasn't fair that he came back to remind her of all of this just as she was finally starting to find happiness again with Milo.
After a little while, she stopped crying, but she was still shaking a little as she pulled away and looked up at Milo. "He's back, Milo. Tom. He was… he was actually just here not 10 minutes ago." She choked back a sob and rubbed furiously at her eyes. "Of course he wants money… as if I'd give him anything. I wouldn't even spit on him if he was on fire. I don't give a damn about him…. I don't feel anything for him. It's just… Seeing him makes me think of Billy. Tom I could live without… but my baby… that was… is… a lot harder."
|
|
|
|
Post by Milo Chevalier on Mar 16, 2020 23:09:19 GMT -5
It was obvious that Ricki was beyond shaken. If he hadn't decided to do the last follow up on the case he already knew the answer to, this situation may not have happen. If he had just not wanted to put the last nail in the proverbial coffin to make sure that the case was fully closed with absolutely no questions, he could have been there. Now Milo wanted to put the last nail in Tom's actual coffin.
As she mentioned that Tom wasn't there just ten minutes ago, Milo felt like he kicked himself again. He should have known something was going on with the man he passed. The man was extremely well dressed and he failed as a private investigator to really pay attention to that. He thought he saw an almost smug expression on the man's face but at the time Milo did not think anything of it.
The distaste that Ricki had for her ex-husband was obvious. Milo could see how the whole situation caused a break down. "Why does he want money? How did he know that you were here?" He reached gently to touch the ends of her hair. He didn't know the whole story of what exactly happened with her little one, but he could somewhat put the pieces together. Losing a child is something that Milo did not experience, but he did experience the loss of a loved one. That was painful and he could understand that losing a child would have been a bit more so. "I am sorry," he said softly. "I know it hurts." He did not want to ask what happened, especially with all of the emotions. "He will not come back here."
|
|
