Pushing You Away (Vic!)

[TEDDY LUPIN]

Teddy signaled for his team to follow him. It was late afternoon, and they had to raid the home of a wealthy pureblood, on account of suspicious activity, a.k.a, dark magic. Teddy had been put in lead of the three men, and two women that were accompanying him. They had worked out a plan, using blue prints of the house that had been provided by one of the Head Auror’s assistants. Teddy went to the front door, watching as one of his teammates took a side entrance, and two went around back. He had thought that the whole thing had been unnecessary, but they weren’t given a chance to just go in and scout the premises. They had been told the raid the place, gather whatever evidence there was, and get out of there. Simple as that.

Teddy knocked on the elaborately-decorated front door three times, hard. “This is the Auror Squad, open your door now, Mr. Rodriguez!” He stated loudly in an authoritive voice. He heard the scrambling of four or five pairs of feet and hands, probably trying to hide something, and he signaled to the others to break in. He slammed his left shoulder against the door, breaking it down. The lock had an anti-alohamora charm on that, and so he was reduced to having to do it manually. His shoulder was now throbbing, but he now had five people with their wands out, firing at his group. Apparently, there was something going on that was related to dark magic. He and the head one, Alberto Rodriguez, were immediately locked, spells flying back and forth with quick, practiced precision. He had no chance to even hesitate.

Teddy bit down on his lip when a cutting hex hit his upper left arm, the blood beginning to flow profusely. He had no time to do anything about it, though. He saw one of the men go down, and swore. This was going south pretty quickly. He saw three of the aurors go running after two guys that had ended up running off, hiding things in a bag, and a book each in their arms. Now, it was three against two. He was firing at two of them, now, at once. A well-aimed stupefy knocked one of them out, and he saw the other auror knock the woman he was fighting out, and now he was binding her with rope at the wrists. He lifted her, and was now lifting her out, going out of the house, past the anti-apparation wards, and escorting her back to the ministry. He heard another three audible pops and that meant that he was now alone here with the man that was down, and this guy. The other man had come to, though, and was about to leave when Teddy shot a cutting curse, accidentally, at the man’s throat. It hit, and blood went spilling everywhere.

The man was gurgling it, and the thick, dark red liquid spilled out of his mouth and cut as his eyes rolled back into his head. Teddy start to shake, and had to shake his head hard to snap himself out of it. He was still shaking, but he jogged over to help the other guy up, and got them out to the edge of the apparition and apparated back to the ministry. He went back to his office, still shaking, with the image of himself throwing the hex, and the blood everywhere replaying in his mind over, and over, and over…

Teddy woke with a start, shaking the whole bed. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, and shaking. He got up and ran a shaky hand through his hair, throwing back the covers and walking out of his and Vic’s bed. He really hoped that he hadn’t just woken her, but that was the last thought on his mind at the moment. How could he have killed that man? He had a family; a three year old daughter, and a five year old son, and a wife. How could he have let himself do that? He walked over to the antique vase that was sitting on the coffee table, and pushed it off, the resounding crash not making him feel any better. He plopped down onto the edge of the couch and put his head into his hands, willing the images out from in front of his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, and then it went back to his face. He felt so guilty. He hadn’t meant to do that. The word murderer, though, floated around in his head in a taunting manner. That was what he was. A murderer.

[VICTOIRE WEASLEY]

This week had been an odd one for Vic, and a tense one at that. It had started when Teddy had come to Saint Mungos after a raid. She had fixed up his arm but he had said very little to her. She had asked him how it had gone and he had not really answered her. She understood that it had not gone well but really so badly as to cause such silence from him. She was concerned at first but everyone had their off days and everyone made their mistakes. She felt that way when she lost patients. Still as time had continued his mood showed no sign of lightening and she began to become concerned.

So for Vic it had been a week of waiting and trying to spoil him to a point. She just wanted to cheer him up after all. That was the good girlfriend thing to do, and she intended to do it now that they were back together. There had been general joy from the family upon this occasion. She was back for holidays and birthdays and goodness knows, every stupid little family thing she could. She was trying to play catch up with it all. Thing had been going really well, or at least Vic had thought so. Then she saw something that she had not wanted to see. That intern had been lurking around the hospital the night that Teddy had started to fall silent, and over the past few days her mind had gone wild.

After that she could only wonder about what was happening. Had the raid really gone badly or was he regretting that they had gotten back together? Was he pining for that little intern who she knew was watching him, watching both of them? She wondered if they had been together at some point during the year she still could not remember. She tried not to think that kind of thing, as it tortured her. Still there was that seed of doubt that he might end everything again, and it scared her, it scared her a lot.

So when his movements woke her in the middle of the night she simply cracked an eye open. She watched him get up and leave. She laid there for a moment, a frown across her face. Vic jumped a little when she heard the vase crash. She got up and went into the living room, pulling out her wand and mending it. ”We break that vase a lot, don’t we?” She looked down at him and then sat down next to him on the couch. Vic just sat for a moment with her hands in her lap, looking at him. Then she reached out and pulled him into her arms, whether he liked it or not. She placed a soft kiss to his temple. ”Teddy, love, talk to me. What is bothering you sweetheart?”

[TEDDY LUPIN]

Teddy felt Vic sit down next to him and talk about the broken vase. He let out a bitter laugh. Yeah, apparently, this vase just loved to be broken. The multi-colored glass shards of the shattered vase glinted in the soft light that filled the apartment. He almost laughed at the weirdness. Even broken, the individual shards looked beautiful. Put together, it looked better, but still, it was a fabulous sight to behold. He shook his head slightly. “Yeah.” He said, his voice slightly hoarse. He didn’t even try to mask the tiredness that seeped into it. He would hide it when he went to work, but at this point in time, what was the point in masking it? Victoire would probably be able to sense his weariness out of his posture, or his expression. She knew him that well. So there was no point. He ran a hand through his hair as she repaired the vase. He would've preferred if she had left it broken, but he wouldn't say that out loud. He didn't want her to know that there was anything so wrong that he was taking his frustration out on a poor vase, and then preferring to stare at the destruction, as if it would make him feel better in some way.

He was being pulled into a hug, and he pulled away from her a second later after being asked that question. He stood up and started pacing. He couldn't tell her. That wasn't an option. She'd probably be horrified, and would leave him right there, or do something equally as horrible. Maybe voice the fact of his newly gained status. He knew he was a murderer, and if he said what had happened aloud, she'd know it, too, and he didn't know if he could deal with her judgement. He didn't know what she'd think, but he knew that he'd rather not know. After all, the whole situation was so messed up...why would he want her to worry over him while he was worrying over himself? He turned and went back in the same direction that he had walked, his steps making metaphorical holes in the wooden flooring, making one track where he had gone back and forth numerous times. "I can't tell you. It'd be better for you not to know." He said, and stopped pacing, plopping down onto the chair next to the television, opposite the couch that Victoire was sitting on.

[VICTOIRE WEASLEY]

Vic looked at him for a moment. This was about as tense as things got with them, and that was worrying her. She didn’t like how distant he was and it worried her. It was like she was looking at a statue of what was supposed to be a living, breathing, and loving person. The past couple of weeks have been incredibly wonderful, and then once again everything had changed so horribly in an instant. She was scared about what it meant and all she could do was think back to the terrible moment when she found out that they were not together. She thought that her heart was going to stop in her chest when that happened. She was glad she did not remember the last year, as that might be the difference between them being together and being apart. It made her wonder what would happen if she ever remembered. She yawned as she tried to wake herself up a little more. It was the middle of the night but on the bright side she didn’t have to go into work until afternoon. Her heart dropped to her stomach when he pulled away from her and got up. Now that was not like Teddy at all.

She watched him move back and forth, obviously irritated, obviously hurting in some sort of way. There were so many things over the last year that could have caused this. He could have a plethora of secrets that she was not aware of. It would be so easy for him to just keep everything from her. He had been wonderful so far but what real confirmation did she have of that? So she sat on the couch, feeling like there was nothing that she could do. When he told her that it was better if she did not know she bit her lip. Those words opened the door to her worst fears. She looked at him for a long moment. ”Teddy, please talk to me. If we’re going to be together there can’t be any more secrets, secret pulled us apart for a year.” She had to pause for a moment to collect herself. ”Whatever this is, you need to tell me. I love you.” She silently prayed as she sat there across from him. Please don’t tell me that you’re cheating on me, please don’t tell me that you actually don’t want this. She didn’t want to hit that cycle again.