Breakdown {{Braeden, please?}}

[Elizabeth James]

March 30

((I know it's not planned, but I need to get back into Lizzie mode, and they need a thread to talk about everything before she goes into labor. =D))


Lizzie sat in her office, petting Demon and reading a book, glasses sitting on her nose as it was late, dark, and she didn't feel like bothering with her contacts anymore. She looked down at what her book was resting on, jolted from her grim concentration as Demon jerked, waking up from a nightmare. Her hand slipped from its hold on the book, leaving the other to prop it up, as it fell to her stomach, feeling the kick of one of her babies. She smiled. "Easy there, little fella..." But her smile faded, and as they settled down, she put aside her book, marking the page. Her glasses came off, hanging from her mouth absently as she rubbed her eyes. She was tired, but she'd tried that cup of tea already; not working.

No, scratch that. She was exhausted, and it was past midnight. She had already ended March 29, and now it was March 30. Looking at the clock, she groaned. 2:19 AM. Great. Just great. As she stared at the wall, Demon seemed to sense that something was wrong, and she looked down at him. She sighed, and he tilted his head to the side, butting her hand in comfort before gently licking it. She got to her feet and said,"Come on, Demon. Neither one of us are getting any sleep..." She needed to get out, so she left, Demon on her heels. She stepped into the hallway, locking her office, and started down the hall, pausing as she passed by Braeden's door. She stared at it for a moment, biting her lip, and wished she understood this.

She wanted to know where they stood before she had his kids. But they hadn't talked much since the dance, and she turned away from his door, knowing that he needed his sleep. She wasn't going to disturb him just because she couldn't sleep, had a migraine, was exhausted, wanted a nice tub of Ben & Jerry's, and was fucking terrified. Oh no. Because then it would mean that she needed him, and that was just a bad thing to get into. How could she... No. But what if...? No. No, no, no, no, no. She was not going there. No way was she going there. So she set off for the one place she knew she could go, and in a few minutes, she was walking into the Staff Room and plopping down in a nice comfy armchair by the fire.

She settled in and stared into the flames for a while, Demon exploring the room. Finally, her thoughts turned back to Braeden and their kids. Oh, God. Oh, God. She couldn't do this... Bit late for that now, huh? Her mouth parted, and her breathing picked up. Okay, late pregnancy jitters? More than that. She was completely and utterfly terrified, but she really had no reason to be. Where would she be after all this was over? Braeden... Sure, he might be there, but he wasn't going to be there. He would be there for the kids, but what about her? Oh, no. She was doing it... She bit her bottom lip, hard, but it still didn't stop the tears, and as she began to sob, she found it harder and harder to stop.

Soon she was crying, her shoulders shaking helplessly, and she hid her face in her hands, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She felt so... alone. Never before had Elizabeth felt that much loneliness, that much hurt, and she didn't like it one bit. Demon whined, hearing his mistress, and came over, resting his head on her lap in comfort. She moved her hands, looking down at him, and whispered,"Oh, Demon... I've made a mess of things, haven't I?" He just whined, and she started to pet him, giving her hands something to do as her tears poured down. After a moment, the sobs returned, and she put the back of her hand to her mouth, trying her hardest to stop them. Her eyes squeezed shut, but nothing she could do would make them stop.

What was happening to her?

[Braeden Andrews]

Yeah, Braeden? Not asleep. Far from it. He was working, as usual. He was working like he had been for the last night, and the night before that, and the night before that. He hadn’t fallen asleep before two for more than a week now, and that night was no exception. His workload - which usually consisted of classes to prepare - now had paperwork added to it, which had grown larger since the house attacks. He had to organise the arrival of all the new students. He had to monitor the house points. He had to fruitlessly search for Aurors to protect the school, when Adeline now knew full well that no one was going to come for them.

She had changed, she had fucking changed. Now all she had on her mind were her own private affairs; ones which Braeden knew full well about. She hadn’t told him right out what was supposedly going on with Alec, but the woman tended to lose control of her tongue when she got frightened, panicked or nervous. So, yeah. He knew, and he didn’t like it, because it meant that he had to do all of her work. Sure, he had a life, too, - heck, he’d gotten Elizabeth fucking pregnant - but he kept it out of work. He didn’t let it affect his mind when he was working, because it was the only place that he could get away from it. Though he should face it… because time was quickly running out. Those nine months? Yeah. They shot past.

“So why come, then?” His deep voice broke the silence in his office, and he murmured things in response to his work. He was reading the reports and applications of students wanting to attend the school. “SEVEN siblings? Holy shitus. That’s gonna blow a fucking hole in our dormitories.” He put down the file and searched around for another piece of paper. ”Where’s the bleeding room count, now?” He bashed his elbow on the corner of the coffee table in front of him and swore, but still got down onto the floor to look beneath it. No room count. Where was the damn piece of paper? He needed that to sort out where this bloody wave of new students was going to sleep.

Grumbling, he got to his feet and walked over to his bed. “Must have left the thing in the damn staff room…” He grabbed the blue tee shirt that lay on his pillow and pulled it on, fingers barely brushing the dark jeans that were already on his legs. He pulled on a pair of tatty trainers that he’d had for God knows how long, but he didn’t bother with socks. The staff room wasn’t that far, after all. Just a couple of floors above them. He was pretty sure that he could deal with a bit of shoe rubbing until he got there.

The hallways, he gladly noticed, were rapidly getting warmer with summer coming. That was good as, in winter, most of the corridors had had a similar temperature to the Ice Pass, just without the ice. It had been awful, having to pull on a jumper or coat every time you wanted to go somewhere. Total waste of thirty seconds. Soon, the staff room hit Braeden’s eye, and he took a turn until he reached the door. He paused, wondering if there was anyone in there, and listening. He couldn’t hear much, so if there were teachers in there, they were being awfully quiet indeed. Shrugging, Braeden entered, looking around the room for the file.

He then heard the sobs, and blinked, staring at the person that they were coming from, and then to that bloody huge dog on the floor. “…Elizabeth?” Stupid kind of question, but he was a man and… he didn’t know what to do with crying females that he hadn’t spoken to for several days, who was pregnant with his child. It wasn’t the sort of thing that he was accustomed to, y’know? He was accustomed to running. Which happened to be what he wanted to do now, but something held him in place. Maybe it was the tears dripping down her beautiful face, or maybe it was just the promise of the dog tearing after him and ripping him to pieces if he tried to go.

Whatever it was, it was damn powerful.

[Elizabeth James]

She didn't hear the door open, didn't have any clue that the father of her children was in the room. But she did, however, hear her name spoken as a question. Her breath caught, and she made a small strangled noise as she bit her lip, trying to get the tears to stop, begging. They wouldn't, though, and she covered her face in her hands before making a frustrated growl of some sort, though it was more like a low-pitched scream. Whatever you wanted to call it, it didn't help. Damn hormones. Demon whined and looked up at Braeden. He didn't move towards him, instead trotting a little ways away, close enough to not leave his mistress but far enough to give her space. She didn't move yet, though, simply sobbing into her hands.

After a moment, she was able to calm down enough, reducing herself to silent tears. "Goddamnit, Braeden, I hate hormones. I just... I hate all of this. Not the babies, but everything else... The attacks, the deaths, the tension... Everything! But especially, I hate how I feel..." She looked at him, eyes red and slightly swollen. Her voice was thick with tears, but she paid them no mind. "Braeden... Before these babies are born, there are things I need to know... Braeden, we have to talk. I know this is hard on you, and I'm so sorry... It's just something more for you to worry about, and I'm terribly sorry for it, but I need to know certain things before I can bring life into the world... I'm still a woman, Braeden, and now I am a mother too..."

She took a deep breath and stood, walking over to him. She stopped about three feet away, crossing her arms and lowering her head for a moment, staring at the wall closer to the ground. Then she spoke. "Where do we stand, Braeden? Where do I stand with you? Am I just a friend to you, or is there something more there? I need to know, Braeden. For my sanity as well as for the future of our children. I don't want to force you into anything, and I am not asking for you to marry me, for God's sakes! I just need to know where we stand. Because, damnit, Braeden, I love you. And that in itself is enough to make me crazy, because I don't know how to handle all this. I'm just one person, and right now, I'm just one person who needs help... I can't do this alone..."

She paused, biting her lip. She had looked up at him once she had said that she needed to know, and now she looked away, wishing the tears would stop by now. "I'm new to this, Braeden... Not just the pregnancy, but the whole loving someone I'm not related to and everything... I'm not very good at this, and I don't know how it's supposed to work, but I know that it's not supposed to be like this..." She looked at him and whispered,"I'm not supposed to be like this..." She sniffed and said,"I need you, Braeden... Yes, you've been here through the pregnancy, and I can't thank you enough, but I need something more than that. I need at the very least a friend to just be there for me... You don't have to love me, Braeden, but I need at least this from you... Because I just don't have the strength anymore..."

She didn't touch him or go closer, unsure of if she wanted to or not. Because frankly, feeling his warmth just made her heart ache even more. It was crazy, this whole thing, and as much as she wanted to fix it, she wasn't sure how or even if she could. She turned and walked away from him a few steps, her back to him and her face looking at a painting on the opposite wall. "I'm so very tired, Braeden... Physically, mentally, emotionally... All of it. I'm just tired. But I can't let myself be weak anymore, because now I have two other lives who are going to depend on me to protect them and keep them safe. To love them... So I can't fall apart like everyone else is during these times... All I can do is pull myself together and get through it all... And I'm sorry you had to witness this, Braeden..." A hand lifted to cover her mouth as a sob racked her body.

"I'm just so terribly sorry..."


((Meh. A bit more than I was going for, but hey! Blame the hormones! xD))

[Braeden Andrews]

And, as Elizabeth sobbed into her hands for a moment, Brae just watched her. His features didn’t betray anything- his face was blank, though he hated watching her like this. He hated knowing that he’d made her like this more, though. It was his fault that she was pregnant in the first place, let alone in bits about it now. He should have been there was the months had passed. He should have been holding her hand and telling her that he loved her.

But he just couldn’t do it. Parts of him wanted her to leave him. Hadn’t everything that had happened, everything she knew about him, scared her away yet? Braeden just didn’t understand her at all. For years he’d wished that some good, intelligent woman would stick around him long enough to like him even just a little bit, and now that one did he was well on the way of messing everything up. He wanted her to go away, because he was convinced that all the wants he’d had before were just because he’d been alone for so long.

He was torn. He wanted so bad to run away, to get away from the danger and the pain and the love. To maybe even get caught by the Death Eaters and killed so that he’d save her from coming after him. Anything. The man had never wished himself dead before, to just get it all over with, but now? Now he wasn’t so sure. Maybe if he just… didn’t exist anymore, then no one would get hurt by him. Then Elizabeth wouldn’t have to care about and need him anymore.

But the other side of him wanted to give in. Just give in. The other side wanted to go to her and kiss her and tell her that he’d never leave her again, that he had been unforgivably dumb for leaving her for so long and that he loved her. That he loved her with all his heart. That, heck, if she wasn’t asking him to marry her then someone should make the proposal.

The sides were battling, though, and pride amongst other things was wearing the second side down. He just couldn’t go over to her and say those things. It squeezed his heart, it made him angry, it made him choke and it fully made him hurt inside.. He wanted to hurt someone, just to let off the frustration of battling himself. This was so difficult listening to her say all those things. The man didn’t know what to do, what to say, how to act. How to get how he felt off his chest. He just didn’t know.

Brae’s fingernails dug into his palms, leaving curved red indents, as she walked to him, still saying all these words. These words that she said both persuaded him to go to her and scared him right away. Scared him completely and totally. He’d never been so frightened of anything in his life. He could handle war, he could handle death, he could handle psychopathic servants of the dark lord, but when it came to himself and feeling anything near as big as love? Holy shit. It scared the life out of him, because he just didn’t know what to do with it. So now he’d fallen- how did he get out? How did he deal with it? He had no idea.

Elizabeth turned away and finished her speaking, and he was left slightly breathless. She’d just bought stuff out in him, feelings that he’d only felt once in the past before he locked them up tight, because they usually only ended in tears for him.

Braeden walked up behind her after a few seconds of silence. His hand gently touched her right arm, his head lingering near her left ear. “Don’t be sorry…” He was sure he’d said it to her before, but now he was saying it again. “Don’t be sorry about something you have a right to do.” He should be the one saying sorry, and for a moment, he wished she could see into his brain, where he was repeating the word over and over and over again in his mind and weeping bitterly as he did so because he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. Perhaps if she looked into his eyes she’d see. Maybe.

He wanted to turn her around and tell her he needed more time. He did. But there wasn’t any more time left for her to give. These babies were coming, and they were coming soon.

He realized this, and moved away from her. “I don’t understand anything that’s going on in my head right now,” he said, drifting to the door. “You’re saying these… these things to me and they make me want to explode. My heart hurts, it damn hurts because I can’t bring myself to tell you the way I feel when I see you. When I see you walking in the halls, your pretty face and your baby bump and your beautiful personality. When I hear someone come walking past my room at night and they stop for a second, and I look up, thinking that maybe it’s you, that maybe you do still need me. But then they walk on and I go back to my work because there’s nothing else I’ll let myself do.”

Braeden was breathing even heavier now, hardly believing he’d said what he had. “I hurt because I can’t bring myself to tell you that I love you more than I’ve loved anyone in my entire life, especially when you tell me that you love me first.” He laughed bitterly, as if not registering that he was saying all this out loud, and then went on, “Because, hey. Who would love me, right? Who would think that someone would stick around long enough to fall in love with me, let alone make me love them so much I want to tear my own head off?”

He tugged on the door handle of the door, preparing to run yet again, even though he’d just told her the things that he had. The door flung open and he left in anger. But he was angry with himself, more than anything else. Why, though, he wasn’t even sure anymore.

{Ick, lame post and even lamer ending of it, but it’s difficult to make him show emotion. *gnaws on lip* But make her go after him, yes? =D This thread is FUN to write in, and t’is not the end, methinks.}

[Elizabeth James]

Elizabeth just stared as he spoke before he backed away and darted out of the door. She stood there for a split second before she ran to the door, slamming it open as she yelled at his retreating back. "BRAEDEN WILLIAMS!" She reached out and grabbed his arm before he could get away from her, pushing and pulling as hard as she could so she could turn him to face her. "You are the biggest coward I have ever met! How can you sit there and tell me all of these... these things and expect me to just go on as if nothing had happened? How can you be happy just living the way things are. Because let me tell you something, Williams. I'm not. I am not happy at all." She was breathing hard, her eyes furious.

The tears had stopped, for now. But they started again as she continued,"I am standing here, pregnant with your children, and I am stronger than you. At least I'm not a coward! At least I can admit my feelings! At least I can admit when I need help, because goddamnit, Braeden, I need help! I can't do this on my own. I don't know the first thing about raising a child, Braeden, because I was never raised myself! It was me and my brother, so I wouldn't know the first thing about what to do. And yet you stand there and tell me how much you care and that you love me, and you leave! How could you? How can you do such a thing? You can't just tell me that you love me and leave, because I won't stand for it. I won't stand for it at all."

The tears, instead of being out of frustration and sadness, were now hot and furious. She was angry, and most of her anger was at him and his stupid wall. "Don't you get it, Braeden? I love you. I fucking love you! That doesn't come with conditions, Braeden, it is something that I can't change and I won't change no matter what! I'm not just going to stand here and pretend that everything's okay, because news flash: it's not. I can't just go on with my life, because without you, it isn't a life, Braeden. It just isn't. I need you as much as I need the air I breathe! Why can't you understand that?!" Frustrated and angry as much as she was hurt, she shoved him hard in the chest and turned, running down the hall.

She had to get away from him before she lost it completely...

[Braeden Andrews]

Elizabeth's shriek of his name made Braeden wince, and then he was being tugged hard and slammed about. His back hit the wall and when he could see her, he was convinced for a second, that she was going to pull her fist back and punch him. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it, or anything. But still.

Her angry hysterical voice shattered his ears and he cringed again. He wished, as awful as this sounds, that she'd just shut up a little. Maybe, at the bare minimum, lower down the tempo of her yelling. His fright and cowardliness faded, however, when he heard exactly what she was screaming out at him. The Potions Professor snorted. "You think I'm happy? You heard what I just said to you. Did that sound happy?!"

Braeden scowled, hackles immediately raised. "Scared to admit my feelings? Hell yeah! So I am. So what?" The words were soon being spat from his lips like acid. "Everyone has flaws, Elizabeth. You know that. What do you want me to say? Was that there before not soppy enough for you?" Well boo-fucking-hoo. "Tough. You said it yourself- I know fuck all about that kind of thing."

When Elizabeth said that she loved him, Braeden himself almost lost it and bellowed back at her, "NO. NO. YOU DON'T. YOU DON'T LOVE ME." Then he was silent, breathing and listening to the rest of her rant. The shove in his chest knocked her backwards and this time, his head knocked against the wall. This argument seriously wasn't going his way, was it? What a shitty night.

"Fine. You go, this time. You do what I always do. Run."

{I KNOW IT'S LAME. ><}

[Elizabeth James]

This caused her to stop dead, back facing him as she had her fists clenched. Demon had trotted out of the staff lounge, and he looked at Braeden with calm eyes before looking at his mistress. Catching her distress, he slowly walked towards her, but stopped halfway between the two of them and sat down to wait. He knew she would come to him when she was ready and not a moment sooner. She stared down the hall before looking down at her stomach. Lips trembling, she began to shake a bit, before she relaxed. Her right hand lifted to rest on her stomach, followed by her left, and she choked back a sob. She'd really screwed up now, and there was nothing she could do. A strangled cry escaped, muffled by her closed mouth, before she sniffed and forced herself to stop.

At this point, Demon trotted over to her and gently licked her left hand as it fell to her side. This seemed to jog her awake, as she lifted her head a little wiped her eyes and mouth. She looked at Demon, her right hand still on her stomach, and scratched behind his ears, not trusting herself to speak yet. After a second, she spoke in a neutral tone, her voice painfully empty. It shook only for a moment before it strengthened, but she still didn't look at him. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't love you..." It was a whisper, frail and fragile as a butterfly, and it wasn't true at all. But he didn't know that, did he? No, he thought she didn't love him, so that was fine. She'd play that role. If it would make him happy, she would play that role just fine.

"Maybe there isn't such a thing as love, not for someone like me. Maybe you don't love me, either." She shook her head a little and continued,"Doesn't matter, Professor Williams, because that doesn't change the fact that I am pregnant, and I will be having these babies soon." She paused, biting her lip, and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. Tears were in her eyes, barely managing to keep from falling, and were balancing on the edge of her eyes, but she refused to let him see her cry anymore. She couldn't be weak, not now and not ever. Especially if she was going to be a single mother, and the way things were looking now, she was going to be raising these kids alone with no one to love her.

"Don't worry, they'll know their father. I hope you can find it in your heart, whatever's left of it, to love them; I would hate for them to grow up not knowing the love of a father. It would be a terrible thing. As for their last names... If you want them to have yours, then they will, but if you don't, I will give them mine. You won't have to worry about child support or anything; I have enough money to take care of the three of us." She swallowed, her stomach burning while the rest of her froze. She was shaking, but she didn't notice, nor did she care. "Do you want them on the weekends? We'll have to work something out if you want shared custody... And I would like for them to know their father."

She couldn't face him, simply couldn't do it right now. Facing him meant that she would be showing him how weak she was, and she knew she would break if she did. Her voice was cold, empty and emotionless, and that was what she needed right now. She couldn't handle all of these emotions, especially not with her having to fear for her children's lives with all the attacks. "As for while I'm working, I will probably ask Emilia if she will watch them. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. They'll probably have to stay with her for a few days anyway after they are born just to make sure everything is okay..." She closed her eyes and whispered,"I won't let anything happen to them. Never. No one will hurt them; if they do, I'll kill them myself."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you to your business. I'm sure you have things you need to do, and I'm sorry if my... weaknesses interrupted you." She took a step before pausing and adding,"And if you wanted to know, I haven't decided on names yet. If you are there after they are born, we can decide. I'm sure you will need time to think about it, as you've been so busy you probably haven't had time to think about it." She took a deep breath and finished,"Now you know, so you can let me know later, I suppose. Good night, Professor Williams." She then started to walk and remembered she had left her wand in the staff room, so she turned and went inside, making certain not to look at Braeden. Demon trotted along, and she found the table by the fire, picking up her wand and putting it in her pocket before turning for the door.

[Braeden Andrews]

Dog. Ew. That thing was still frighteningly huge. Braeden's slightly narrowed eyes flicked from the potentially dangerous - he tended to constantly forget that he had a wand and all that and the dog didn't - animal to it's mistress, and he waited for her to say something. Why had she stopped, and turned around? He'd thought she'd keep on walking, right out of there, and he'd be left to think about what an asshole he was being and how he should fix it.

Good lord, he made things so complicated for himself sometimes. In fact, most of the time, actually. Just this time he'd complicated someone else's life as well. He really didn't know what to say, because different parts of him wanted different things. And he kept changing his mind about things that were going on constantly, all the time. And really, right then was not a very good time for him to start being overly indecisive. Seriously.

When Elizabeth finally spoke, he blinked at her. He'd really wanted her to say that, to tell him that there was a chance - he'd hoped it was a very big chance, as well - that she didn't love him. But now she did, he found it didn't make him feel relieved or remotely pleased or anything that he'd hoped it would. Quite the opposite, in fact- he seemed to have changed his mind again. He didn't know if she was lying or telling the truth, but he was highly surprised that she'd suddenly changed everything by saying that.

And things got a whole lot more complicated, again. Oh, yay. Brae really appreciated that. Because this time, it was Elizabeth that was changing her mind again. She'd seemed to have given up claiming to love him now, and really, he couldn't blame her. Eh. He would never love someone like him.

And ah, yes. The babies. They complicated things, too. He'd wanted to leave Elizabeth and walk away from her before (for whatever reason- danger, difficult feelings, so on... like I said, Braeden tended to change his mind and switch from ideas often and that) but it was so much harder when he wasn't just leaving her. He was leaving two other people, as well, who I knew would come to hate him if they grew up without him and Elizabeth told them the truth about how he'd left.

Hell, he'd been there. He himself automatically despised his father, thought him a coward, blamed him for the death of his mother. All just because the man had done what Brae himself was apparently trying to do- flee. Not having a father, only hearing about him by your bitter mother, was one of the worst things that you could go through. Because you just didn't know. Anything. It would be difficult, and he didn't want to make his children go through something like that.

So, yeah. The twins didn't just make it difficult for him to leave- it was already as difficult as it could get with just Elizabeth. No, the babies made it downright impossible.

The man visibly flinched at some of the things Elizabeth was saying, and he stayed silent, green eyes staring at her as she spoke. She'd turned from rather hysterical, to angry, to this... formal... tone. It was really quite shocking, and her change of tones, her expression and her voice and what it was saying just hit him like a bludger. He didn't like talking about the babies, even though their due date was so soon and he was going to have to take and actually go through and deal with everything that she was saying.

And he wished he hadn't had time to think about any of it, but even when he was working it would creep up on him. If he even paused in whatever he would doing, he'd get flashes of what was going on in his life and he didn't like that. Because it completely distracted him and he could barely do anything properly afterwards because of names and babies and Elizabeth popping into his head and making him feel. When all he wanted to do was freeze his mind and do his work like a robot.

God knows, Adeline was piling enough work on him anyway. He was probably messing it all up anyway. The school would be in ruins if he was left in charge of any more important jobs for much longer. Damn.

When she had first began to speak in that tone, about the babies and arrangements and everything, Braeden had spluttered something incoherent in response before he fell into silence, just slowly nodding and closing his eyes as he listened to her voice. Occasionally he murmured a, "Yeah." Then she stopped and pretty much announced that their meeting was over, along with probably most other things, too. Elizabeth turned and walked further away, disappearing into the staff room. Braeden sighed.

Letting his back rest against the wall again, he let himself slide down onto the floor. He rested his arms on his raised knees, and let his head dip a little. He didn't think she'd come back out again- she'd probably stay in the staff room doing whatever she'd been doing before, and he could just breathe in the quiet. And try not to freak out.

Yeah, that would be good.

{I'm sorry, but I'm laughing. xD Not at this, but because Elizabeth got his name wrong. Or something. I think I should really just change it to Braeden Williams instead of Braeden Andrews, because I keep writing it as the former as well. But alas: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA. Alrighty.

... xD

But I also can't wait for the birth, because I'm already forming an idea about my post or whatever when we come to it because it will be SO FRACKING AWESOME. =DDD So yeah. Please excuse this hyper OoC talk which I should really be posting in the CBox or PM or something because yeah, I've had to much sugar and alcohol. ¬_¬}

[Elizabeth James]

Seeing that he wasn't coming inside, she took a deep breath and looked around, making sure she hadn't left anything. She was an absolute wreck, but she would fall apart later. Well, before these babies, at least. After that she simply couldn't fall apart, couldn't be weak. She had to keep them safe no matter what. Her eyes slid closed and she reached into her pocket absently and found her glasses there. She put them on her face, the plastic frames cool against her skin. All at once, she felt a chill, and she shivered all over for just a moment. Then it passed and she looked at Demon and whispered,"Come on, boy..." She took a few steps for the door and hesitated, Demon stopping and looking at her questioningly.

She sighed and braced herself, unsure if he had left or not. Stepping into the hall, she saw him out of the corner of her eye on the floor. Refusing to look directly at him, she turned the other way and politely said,"Good day, Professor." Then she started back down the hall, turning the corner and pausing. She took one last look around the corner to see the man she had given her most precious thing to one last time. She had given him her heart, her trust... And all he had done was thrown it back in her face. She couldn't blame him; the odds had never been great for the two of them. But was it really that easy for fathers to leave their kids and the mother of their children? She would never know.

Trembling, she left him and disappeared for good around the corner, walking slowly towards her room. Demon had trotted up ahead and now waited for her by the stairs. She gave him a small smile and sighed softly as she climbed down the stairs slowly, holding onto the railing tightly. She made it safely down the flight, now on the first floor, before she paused and took a deep breath. She was tired, but she still had to make it down these stairs and into her room before she could sleep or even think of the notion. So she started down the stairs, not paying as much attention as she should; and on the third stair from the bottom, there was a wet spot that she didn't see at all, being so distracted...

And suddenly, Elizabeth James was on the ground, having taken a rather hard fall on the stairs and knocked her head against the wall. She yelled rather loudly, feeling her heart jump out of her chest as the only thing she could think about was her children. Luckily, though, she fell backwards and sideways, though she landed hard on her rear and hit her head. It hurt pretty badly, but she didn't land on her stomach. Gasping, she blinked a few times, struggling to gain her bearings. After a few seconds, her head cleared, and she felt the side of her head. It stung when she touched it, but there wasn't any blood or even a knot. Relieved, she slowly got to her feet, finding Demon at her side by now watching her closely.

"I'm okay, boy... Come on..." she whispered, holding onto the wall rather tightly as she made her way down the rest of her stairs. Her glasses had fallen to the floor and bounced to the bottom of the flight of stairs, so she stooped and picked them up. They were broken, so she simply repaired them with her wand and slowly walked the rest of the way into the corridor where the staff rooms were. She then made her way to her room, unlocking it, and stepping inside, where she promptly locked the door again and leaned back against it. Demon trotted over to his bed and looked at her expectantly. She stood there for a moment, breathing a little harder than she should have been, before she finally moved.

Throwing herself away from the door, a scream exploded from her as she flung herself toward her bed. She sat down roughly on the side, tossed her stuff onto her table, and turned out the lights as she spoke to no one in particular. "JERK! The least he could do was ANSWER me when I talked to him instead of acting like a child! What nerve! Well, we'll see, Professor, we'll see what will happen in the end! Someday you will regret all of this, but I will so be over you!" She threw her shoes across the room and laid down, covering up and rolling away to face the opposite side of the room that Demon was on. Tears leaked from her eyes as she whispered,"I will so be over you..." Then she closed her eyes, crying herself to sleep.


((xD I got bored. There are actually a few different endings to this I came up with. I WAS going to have her just fall and be bruised, hurry to her room, scream really loudly, and cry herself to sleep. Then there was this one. Then there was another where she just went to her room and fell asleep. Then there was one where she fell, went unconscious, and her water broke. Etc., etc. xDDDD So take your pick; I can always alter the ending. ;o

Why the heck DO I keep calling him "Braeden Williams"? xP))