|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 2:03:34 GMT -5
"He's not my boyfriend." Diana set the paperwork and file aside calmly. She stood, ignoring Christian completely, and left the room
She went to do as Christian asked and began to owl Derek as an owl appeared at the window. She let it in, recognizing the creature. Derek had owled them first. He was out of town for the next week.
"Figures."
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 2:35:42 GMT -5
Diana was worried about Christian peering into her mind and discovering some secret she kept from him, but he had never considered using Legilimency to figure her out. He didn't want to see the horrors she'd experienced because of their week long affair half a lifetime ago. He blamed himself for Alyx's kidnapping, though Diana's father obviously shouldered infinitely more of the blame as he had actually orchestrated it. But it would have never been an option if Christian hadn't been such an arrogant prick and left Diana without telling her he was going to Bosnia. Of course, had Christian any idea of the nature of the secret Diana kept from him, he might risk it.
While Diana was gone, Christian made the bed. He didn't like Diana sleeping in here as he had other plans for this room. He moved to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. A stack of records from the popular artists lay in the drawer. He picked up the top album and looked at it. The music was rubbish according to Christian who preferred the rock n roll bands he'd grown up with. But the clerk at the record shop said these were what teenagers were listening to.
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 3:37:29 GMT -5
Once Christian had found out about Alyx, Diana didn't have anything to hide. He had proved extremely skillful in Legillmency and thus Diana didn't see the point in hiding things from him or shielding her thoughts. Then again most of her thoughts were on finding Alyx. But now her thoughts were conflicted, there was still a burning passion to find her daughter, but an ever increasing terror at having a new baby and how that changed all the dynamics. Just when she was getting used to the idea of having Christian and Alyx in her life.
She had irrational fears of Christian leaving her. Irrational fears of him controlling her, well maybe not that irrational as he liked to have a say in her life even without the baby.
So Diana felt she had to hide. She had to stay away from him, and she knew that she was most vulnerable toward him when they slept together, both literally and figuratively. Still the distance was hurting them both.
There was no hope for it, she was either going to have to work on shielding her mind or she was going to have to tell him.
She quickly took the steps up the stairs again.
"Burke's out. We'll have to figure this one out on our own. I think the cruise is the best time to strike. He has a female companion with him. We could steal his vacation as we did Hadelman's."
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 3:47:00 GMT -5
Christian was deep in thought when Diana returned but her voice brought him back and he quickly shoved the record back into the dresser and shut the drawer.
He agreed with her premise, that the cruise was the best time to strike. Ling would be the most vulnerable there. But did she really need a vacation when she'd done nothing but lie about for a week?
"Now you want to lounge about on a cruise ship?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 3:55:27 GMT -5
"What the f*ck is your problem Ward?" she asked a dangerous edge to her voice. It was the first time she took that tone with him since she had tied him up oh so long ago.
He was pushing her this time, he wanted a reaction from her, and suddenly she wanted it too. She was angry. Irrationally angry. But very angry. She was angry that she was pregnant. She was angry that he had made her pregnant again. She was angry that he had left her the last time she was pregnant. She was angry at her father for sending her away. She was angry at herself for looking for Christian, for losing the baby, for her father's betrayal. She was worried about this baby and whether or not he or she would be safe. She was worried that the mystery assassin would take her out. He wanted an emotion, and she had several to spare, but right now anger was the easiest to focus on.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 4:09:42 GMT -5
Christian turned toward the woman that had becomes like a stranger to him. He loathed this pathetic, soft girl she had become and now she appeared the dangerously unstable madwoman who captured him and forced a truth serum down his throat. The levels of her manic-depressive state were unreal to him.
"My problem, Diana, is that you've been lying on your ass for a week, without any reason, and now you want to go on a bloody cruise! We don't even have the f*cking whereabouts of the remaining board members and there's no f*cking guarantee that Ling will provide us with anything useful! But by all means, if the bloody queen Diana wants to go on a cruise then we'll forgo looking for my daughter and have a f*cking vacation!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 4:21:53 GMT -5
"I'm tired!" she screamed at him, and it was true, since acknowledging the life inside of her all Diana wanted to do was sleep.
"You've done this for less than two months I've done it for two years! I don't mean your side life or whatever it is you do that makes you so good at this, I mean the running, hiding, fighting for your life, day in, day out, no rest, broken bones, wake up and take a pill because you have to do it all day the next day." she spat at him venom coming from her words as she approached him.
"And I've kept that schedule every God damned day since bringing you in!" she yelled at him her chest heaving, "Until you decided I needed to take it easy, but even then I fought to go back. But your doctor a-and the medications a-and-"
She lost steam as she nearly told him about the baby. Her eyes turned hard, "Well they've screwed me up! It's like the past two years are catching up with me and excuse me if I want to take a page out of your book and go slow for a bit! Wasn't it you that said I needed to slow down if I wanted to make it through all of this?! So what changed Christian? What f*cking changed?!"
She wanted to yell at him some more she wanted to hit him.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 4:37:10 GMT -5
"I want to be a f*cking father!" he bellowed, his face reddening. "I'm ready for her. I wasn't sure before, but I bloody am now. Every day you lie in her f*cking bed is one less day I get with my daughter, and I've already missed 16 bloody years!" His fists were clenched and stuck to his sides, afraid of what he might do if he freed them from their invisible restraints.
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 4:56:03 GMT -5
"Her bed?" Diana asked confusion written on her face, though it was only barely discernible over the anger. She looked at the room they were standing in, "Her room." Diana clarified for herself.
He had obviously been giving this some thought, and so had she, but their thoughts were not the same. For so long Diana envisioned reuniting with Alyx and going back to her estates. Somewhere along the line she lost that dream and settled for killing the rest of the board members, a little further down that line and she just wanted to last as long as she could and take as many as she could down with her. But then Christian came into her world, and suddenly board members were dropping like flies. Other than the mysterious assassin, there was no show from a highly skilled assassin after her. Life had taken a turn for the better and Diana didn't know how to prepare for it. Now she was pregnant. And Christian was clearly planning a future.
Where did Diana fit in with that future? Did he want her to stay with him? Did he intend for them to be a family? Or would they work out some sort of custody agreement? Would Alyx sleep at his place on the weekends and Diana's during the week?
Diana felt the nausea rising upward as she tried to wrap her head around everything once again.
Suddenly another thought crept up on Diana that she couldn't swallow back down. She had told Christian she was tired, explained that she was trying to slow down so she could make it through all of this. A week ago he cared about those things. A week ago he cared about her. Sometime during that week he stopped. At least the scales had shifted. He cared about getting Alyx to them more than he cared about Diana's sanity or health. While she had felt the same way for so long, it sent a chill down her spine that Christian was all of a sudden willing and ready to push her into combat she might not be ready for to hurry his timeline.
As the shock of that thought settled in, so came the self deprecating doubt that she had expected too much from their affair in the first place. She had done it again. She may have buckets of blood on her hands, could curse like a sailor, and shimmy in a red dress, but she was still Diana and he was still Christian. Only he was much better at breaking her this time.
In a detached almost frozen voice she spoke, "Forget the cruise. We'll take out Ling, and then we'll hunt down every contact Copperbottom has until he shows himself. If he doesn't know who the last board member is, then I will burn Crawford Industries to the ground until there's nothing to fight over anymore."
She gave him a fleeting glance, "I have to pack." she wanted to cry, but you couldn't squeeze water from a stone.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 15:33:06 GMT -5
He watched angrily as the gears turned in her head. There was no direct correlation between his feelings for her and his desire to be a father. They were completely separate. Diana's process gave Christian time to stew in his emotions and while he was still furious with their wasted time and utterly confused by Diana's sudden turn in character Christian found that he had released his tight fists and his jaw was no longer clenched.
"Good. I'll be back tonight. We can establish a plan of attack then."
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 17:14:17 GMT -5
Diana hurt, deep inside she felt something fracture. "Fine." she told him, her voice hollow.
She was resigned, tired, frustrated, but it was her shoulders that signaled defeat as she left the room to pack her things.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 28, 2016 17:56:23 GMT -5
*** Christian had rescheduled this dinner several times since he reconnected with Diana but this time her mood swings gave him no reason to stay at home with her. Christian's father had long since passed, but his mother was the epitome of health and planned on "sticking around until I get my handsome Christian settled." She would outlive them all, without help from any elixirs or dark magic. To appease her, he had dinner with her once a month. Her cooking was atrocious and the inspiration for Christian learning to cook, but he stomached it for the evening and feigned enjoyment. What his mother lacked in culinary skills she made up for in sage advice and the uncanny ability to get Christian to open up to her.
As they ate, Christian complained about his "lady friend" whom he was helping. His friend's daughter had been kidnapped and they were tracking down the men who were responsible. Obviously his mother's skillful ability to get Christian to speak did not prevent him from altering the truth to save Diana her secrecy. It did, however, get him to admit his feelings for Diana and the concern he now faced as Diana had begun acting so strangely. It was put to him in much the same description now as Diana had given him earlier.
Diana was stressed and weary from her battles. She hadn't been afforded any opportunities to stop prior to now, and the injuries she sustained while hunting Sanchez paired with Christian's overbearing concern forced her to take a break. "She may need more time to recover emotionally than physically, dear. You should give her a break, the woman clearly needs a vacation."
Christian scoffed. "She wanted to go on a cruise," he said as he rolled his eyes again at the thought of slowing down.
"Well that sounds lovely, when are you going?"
"Going? No, ma, I told her we didn't have time to waste with something like that."
"Christian Anthony Ward! This poor woman has lost her daughter and been beaten down by the same men who stole her away! You take her on that cruise and give her anything else she asks!" His mother rose angrily from her seat and began clearing the table by hand, muttering about her "stupid boy, no wonder he's not married."***
The house was quiet when he returned home. The lights on the first floor were all off and he climbed the stairs in the darkness as he thought about how to apologize to Diana.
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 28, 2016 18:14:38 GMT -5
Diana, not surprisingly, was asleep. After Christian had left, she took a shower and ate. Feeling clean and fueled she went over Christian's schematics and information again. She planned their route by herself. She was careful to go over everything a million times before putting it away, she didn't want Christian to question any of her ideas. When she had finished all of the preparation for the mission she threw up. She tried to quell the nerves going off in all directions, but she couldn't.
Her bag was packed and set by the door, mostly potions, a change of clothes, and weapons, as well as any tactical gear she might have needed for the mission. She had forgotten the vial of nausea medication Dr. Hanley had given her and went to retrieve it. She had intended to sleep on the couch downstairs as a statement, but "their" bed was too inviting. She set the potion on the night stand and fell asleep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 29, 2016 1:44:18 GMT -5
He was less annoyed now when he found her sleeping again. At least she was in his bed again, and it was night. His mother's explanation of Diana's emotional state made him see things more clearly, even though it was essentially what Diana had been telling him all along. Sometimes hearing it from an outside source made things appear more logical.
Christian took off his shoes and set them neatly in the closet. Then he removed his suit and pulled on a pair of grey pajama bottoms. He wasn't terribly loud, but the fact that Diana didn't even seem to stir when he pulled the cord for the light in the wardrobe right next to her proved just how exhausted she really was. He was a bastard for not believing her.
He sat in bed, propped up against the headboard watching her sleep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 29, 2016 1:55:02 GMT -5
Diana was dead to the world. Christian could have been an assassin after her and she wouldn't have stirred, perhaps he had a right to be concerned about her. The hormones were kicking in and sleep was no longer in her control. She couldn't keep going the way she had been, she had to be more careful. She also had to get this finished and soon. She couldn't be running a mission at seven months pregnant.
It was when he sat and watched her that she could almost feel his eyes on her and it woke her up. Her eyes opened and landed immediately on his. "You're back."
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 29, 2016 2:13:47 GMT -5
He hadn't meant to wake her, but at least he could apologize for being such an asshat earlier while his mother's nagging was still fresh in his mind. He nodded at her statement and brushed her hair away from her eyes.
"I'm sorry I woke you," he said in a slight whisper.
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 29, 2016 2:23:20 GMT -5
She wanted to make a sharp retort, but his gentleness stilled her tongue. It didn't heal the hurt though. Diana was still wary about his affections and about him. It was only so easy to fall back on experience which told Diana that Christian's affection could come and go from one minute to the next.
Diana often thought about their last night together when they were younger. That night had been the peak of Diana's sexual life. She had never felt more passion before or after, until meeting him again. She would have bet her life that he had felt what she had, and she would have lost her life, evident by his leaving. Sure she was older and the situation was different, but she knew she couldn't trust her feelings where he was concerned.
She sat up brushing her own hair back, "I think I have a plan for Ling." she said moving straight to business.
She summoned the file he had given her earlier, ready to show him her ideas. She didn't want to hear apologies. She just wanted to get the job done.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 29, 2016 2:40:16 GMT -5
He raised his eyebrows at her. He hadn't expected she would do any work while he was gone. He mostly envisioned that she would destroy his home out of spite between naps. "Diana, we can talk about this tomorrow. I'm sorry I was pushing you so hard. The mission is important, but your health is equally as important. You're right, we can't kill ourselves in the process of finding Alyx."
|
|
|
|
Post by Diana Ward on Oct 29, 2016 2:59:24 GMT -5
"It's fine." she said determined not to dwell on it, "I already packed, and we'll need to leave early if we want to make our window. We need to get to him just as the ship takes off. Too far away from port and it'll be difficult to apparate to, but he'll have heavy guards with him until he leaves and obviously once he hits land again."
She showed him everything, "They have a 2:00 boarding, but the ship doesn't take off until 7. I figure we have an hour from the time the ship departs to take out Ling. That means we'll need to apparate tomorrow before 8."
The sass in her wanted to ask if that was fast enough, but she curbed it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Ward on Oct 29, 2016 3:07:40 GMT -5
Christian curbed his desire to make suggestions. Her plan was thought out and would work just as well as anything he had considered. He'd just be an ass if he insisted on doing things his way, and since she obviously didn't want to hear his apology he would need to show her.
"We can disapparate just before the ship docks in Sydney."
|
|
