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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 1, 2017 1:13:52 GMT -5
Christian had made a point to be more civilized with Diana, and if he was in a mood he kept to himself by holing away in his office or his bedroom. It was harder to avoid her now that she had full rein of the house, minus his Dark Arts room, office, and bedroom, but he was trying to keep the house calm. Her child was his and while he still felt no emotional connection, he couldn't help but feel a gut wrenching guilt as he thought about the stress he was putting on the unborn child. He even suggested Diana move her crazy string theory board into the large storage closet at the end of the hall. There was plenty of space and she wouldn't have the constant reminders of the dead men's pictures and mystery men's question marked cards staring at her as she slept.
Currently he was in a decent mood and cooking breakfast. Diana was still sleeping in the spare room but he knew she'd be up in a moment as the baby urged her to the bathroom frequently. Christian fixed two plates and set one down on the kitchen table in front of his chair. The second he left in the oven to keep warm. He opened the economy section of the paper and straightened it with a sharp snap before reading through the articles.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 14:32:14 GMT -5
Diana for her part mostly kept to herself. After her rather embarrassing display she was too ashamed to be around him. She worked the mission and stayed in the spare bedroom counting the days until her forced incarceration was over. She did leave her room to eat, but she mostly waited for Christian to leave before taking advantage of her new found freedoms.
The house was quiet. Unlike her dreams which took a turn for the macabre. She never used to have such vivid nightmares before, well with exception to when she was in the psych hospital, and shortly after she lost Alyx, and when the first assassins came for her. But since she had accustomed herself to the life she led, her dreams rarely haunted her as they had been.
She woke with a jolt and reached for the weapon she kept at the side of the bed only to come up empty. She was a prisoner, she didn't have weapons, a fact which made her feel even more vulnerable in the wake of the nightmare she had just had. It took her a few trys to clear her mind. She must have been tense too during the dream, as her muscles were stiff and sore. As if hearing her complaint her body began to issue more grievances in the form of a stomach growl.
"Alright Liam." she said quietly putting her hand on her stomach, "I'm sure your father's already left the house, let's go get something to eat."
She stretched a minute before getting out of bed and heading down the stairs. Christian had cooked - it smelled divine - she wondered if there were any left overs for her to steal out of spite (and because she couldn't cook).
She was utterly surprised to see Christian sitting pleased as punch at the dining table and stopped in her tracks. She chewed her lip contemplating if she should go back upstairs or make a mad dash to the fridge first. She really hadn't noticed that he made a second plate for her.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 15:10:54 GMT -5
Christian heard her coming down the stairs and readjusted his position in the chair so that his back was slightly more toward her. He had yet to acknowledge aloud that her child was his, that both of her children were his. It was awkward and uncomfortable to think about. Whether he liked it or not he obligations now and that knowledge sat heavy on him.
"Plate's in the oven," he said in a neutral tone as she came into the room. He didn't lower his paper or turn to look at her, but he didn't feel as though he was being exceptionally off-putting either. He wished he could remember what Diana knew, he was sure it would quell the headache he got whenever he thought about their situation.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 15:20:39 GMT -5
She looked at him, or the newspaper that hid him, and then the oven, and then back at him. He didn't have to currently be off putting, he had more than filled that cup a couple days ago. Diana still wasn't sure how to act around him.
So much had changed in her life, yet he was somehow a constant, and her feelings for him were constant too. She had loved him since she was eleven years old. She never stopped. He took her breath away, and she wanted him beyond reason. How he had viewed her had changed over the years. She was another love struck girl that he couldn't remember in school, a brief fling after she had graduated, the love of his life, and now a stranger who was mother to his children and the best f*ck he had ever had, but a stranger none the less. Perhaps she was less of a stranger now, and perhaps he didn't want to see her dead (particularly with the life bond, but even without it), he might even find her incredibly hot and desirable when they fought. But he still didn't love her. And he still acted as though she were the worst thing that could possibly happen to him.
So that was the limbo she lived in. Being resented by the man she loved beyond reason or will power. Even being in the same room as him made her ache, and thanks to his command, she couldn't conceal how she felt anymore.
With a few reluctant steps toward him she reached for an apple that sat on a fruit stand. "I'm not all that hungry", she lied intending to take the apple and run.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 15:33:17 GMT -5
"The f*ck you aren't," he said, calling her out on her lie as he lowered the paper to look in her direction. She needed to eat. Hanley said the baby wasn't getting enough nutrients and Diana had scolded him for basically starving her. "Get the damn plate and sit your ass down," he said, mildly annoyed. Then, to avoid any undue stress he added, "please."
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 20:12:24 GMT -5
Diana sneered at him, but did as was commanded. She retrieved the plate from the oven and sat down. She had no intention of eating until he said please, which startled her into realizing her own futile stubbornness.
She ate silently, but after a while her dream began to bother her as she tried to remember the details which caused her to lose interest in her food as she pushed it around her plate.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 20:16:06 GMT -5
The clinking of her fork on the plate was irritating and after a while of it Christian sighed angrily and set his paper down. "Something wrong?" he asked, clearly annoyed. "If you don't like the food you can try your hand at cooking again."
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 22:32:53 GMT -5
"What?" she asked startled out of her thoughts, "No, the food is fine." she frowned, but set her fork down.
She wanted to talk to Christian about her dreams. It was almost instinctual to open up to him at this point. He had spent three months using every trick in his arsenal to get her to open up to him, and now that she depended on him naturally, he had no desire to be her partner, and certainly no desire for her to depend on him.
She chewed on her lip some more, it was raw from the anxiety of her incarceration.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 22:44:24 GMT -5
Christian wasn't a talker. He gave orders, he yelled, he was fluent in expletives but conversations were not his cup of tea. And clearly Diana had something on her mind. His mouth twitched as he successfully suppressed the sneer that was fighting to come out.
"What is it, then?" His voice was clearly strained as he attempted to keep his annoyance in check. Merlin, this no stress thing was difficult to pull off.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 22:52:01 GMT -5
He didn't pull it off nearly as well as he thought he did. He didn't know Diana, but Diana knew him. He was like a barely leashed tiger, and she was a field mouse. At least that's what she felt like these days. Her pride had fled sometime ago and she had been reduced to the insecure, isolated, neurotic mess she had been before, only without the badass attitude to match.
"It's nothing. It's stupid." she said waving off Christian's concern, which wasn't really concern but annoyance.
"I need to...don't you have work?" she asked. She was tired of working the mission without any new intel, and she wasn't entirely sure that the mission wasn't responsible for giving her nightmares. Instead she was hoping Christian had something to do so she could relax in his absence.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 22:57:25 GMT -5
She brushed off his half sincere attempt at starting a conversation. That was fine with him. He had tried, and that was more than she deserved after the chaos she'd brought upon him.
"Merlin's beard, you're stubborn," he said as he shook his head in disbelief. He picked up his fork and finished the small amount of food left on his plate.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:02:38 GMT -5
She scoffed, "That's rich coming from you." she said with a little heat. She certainly could be stubborn, but his calling her out on it was akin to the pot calling the kettle black. In either case, his mild insult to her overly sensitive emotions was enough to make her feel comfortable. She could handle his mild frustration, but when he played nice or completely destroyed her, she was very lost.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:10:29 GMT -5
He was about to comment that she didn't know him to speak of such things, but stopped himself. She did know him, apparently. Enough so that she knew the ins and outs of his home, they'd been married, and she was carrying his child. She knew him enough to name that child after his grandfather. He had opened his mouth to reply, fork pointed at her as he was about to make his point then paused and instead stole the last sausage from her plate.
"Since you're not hungry," he said instead as he took a bite.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:16:06 GMT -5
She braced herself mentally for him to bark at her and put her down in some way for daring to speak back to him, but when all he did was steal her food she smirked. She had his number whether or not he could remember it.
"Any news from Burke?" she dared to ask, it had been a few days and the man usually checked in more often before an op.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:24:58 GMT -5
"He owled a few days ago, but nothing since. There was an...incident." Christian had kept the news of Diana's stand-in's death a secret. After their blow out, Christian didn't want to put any undue stress on the baby, and hearing that an assassin had gotten to Eve seemed like an awful lot of stress. Still, he'd have to tell her sooner or later.
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:44:48 GMT -5
She perked up at Christian's tone. She recognized trouble from most people, but particularly the man in front of her she could read like a clock.
"What happened?" she demanded, "Is Derek alright?"
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 2, 2017 23:49:34 GMT -5
There really was no gentle way of saying it, and there was no avoiding it either. Without Eve, Derek's plan to "hire" Christian to take out her enemies had collapsed. Perhaps Derek was attempting to contact Diana herself, but as he thought her to be in hiding he wouldn't find it suspicious that he couldn't reach her.
"One of the hit wizards that was after you thought they found their mark. That girl Burke hired; Eve."
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 3, 2017 0:20:11 GMT -5
Diana showed confusion, "Eve? Who the hell is Eve?"
She felt relief at first knowing that Burke was still alive, but this brought up an entirely different set of questions.
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Post by Christian Ward on Jan 3, 2017 0:29:49 GMT -5
Christian's brow furrowed. "Who the bloody hell do you think? The girl Burke hired as your stand in. The one I'm supposed to think I had an affair with over the summer. Don't tell me you never met the girl."
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Post by Diana Ward on Jan 3, 2017 1:23:02 GMT -5
Diana's face remained blank. She wanted to express concern, worry, remorse, anything for this woman who had died and was somehow connected to the assassins that were after Diana, but she had never heard of Eve before.
"Derek hired someone to ..." color drained from her face. Some innocent girl died for her. She felt sick. She shook her head no, "No, Derek wouldn't do that. He knows how I feel about...no"
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