| Details for Protection and Pleasant Conversation |
| Summary: | Constable Worthington has to deliver the good news to Barrister Preves that it has been determined she needs protection, and that he is the lucky one to draw the straw |
| Date: | 17 June, 1938 |
| Location: | — |
| Related: | Red Chess Club |
| Characters |
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It was early for Carter. Not that he was late or over slept. But he'd been made sure to be early to make he beat Aldercy to the office. He still needed to contact Bannon. He'd had word that the over night guys had made sure no one had attacked Aldercy before she received the good news. Now he's sitting outside her office door waiting for her. He's even got breakfast with him. He figured Stella was catching Thisstle and that was it's on set of complications.
Carter won't have long with his breakfast. While Stella will have plenty of time to catch Thissel, who doesn't come in before she has to, Aldercy has a habit of being 'on time', ie, early. Although she walks quickly, she doesn't seem to be hurrying. This early in the morning, with no one else around, her hips move with a sensual grace that entices the male eyes that may fall upon her. There's a sway in her walk as she looks at the folders she's already stopped to pick up… until she glances up and notices the Constable sitting at her door. The sensual appeal vanishes, and although her walk is still graceful, it's more appropriate to a young woman taught to walk with a book on her head. "I'm surprised, Worthington. Usually wait until lunch and your usual apple to torture me with your presence. This must be a special occasion." She stops in front of her door, but makes no move to open it.
The breakfast is well still in the box, pastries from the really fancy bakery in Diagon alley. Aldercy should recognize the box. He rises and opens the door for her, "Barrister, You have no idea. I brought you breakfast." He though peers in to make sure the room was still clear from when he swept it a few minutes ago. The only thing to hint that he saw the sway of her hips is the knowing smile and wink. "You look particularly alluring this morning."
Aldercy's eyebrows rise as he makes free with the door to her office, but her reply of, "I've already eaten," is more automatic than dismissive as she steps in, setting the folders on the desk and taking off her cloak to hang it on her personal, ornate coat tree. "I am nothing of the sort," her voice turns sharper at the denial of being alluring, although the heat in it isn't entirely angry as she clasps her hands tightly in front of her for a moment. "Are you expecting an acromnatula waiting for me in my office?"
Carter shrugs his shoulders, "It's your choice." He opens the box, "I got chocolate though." There is indeed a chocolate pastry in the box. Two of them in fact. He sighs a bit frustrated, "Yes, you *are* alluring." He shakes his head, "Perhaps, though I would expect a wizard with a red chess piece with a leash on the other end."
There's a certain blaze in Aldercy's eyes, and a tightening of her jaw when he insists that she's alluring that hints to the idea that it's not false modesty prompting her denial, but something else. She looks at him over the desk, and then gives a soft snort of laughter. "Do not tell me you are turning paranoid about this red pawn found on Mr. Dandylion," she tells him derisively. "We'll find another way to prove my client innocent without his testimony against Thomas Chimney."
Carter shakes his head, "Inspector Lovegood and I have been reviewing the case. The thing is Dandylion was dead after he testified. His death doesn't help Chimney. It actually damns him. Somebody's clearing the board. YOu, your client, and Thissel are very much pieces on the board. I'm your security detail."
Aldercy freezes as she looks at him, her eyes going solid granite as she looks at him. "So, what you are telling me is that you are going to be following me around? Who came up with this brilliant idea?" She sits down carefully, studying him. She can't refute the logic behind the move, and doesn't try to, just the choice of person.
Carter shrugs, "Inspector Lovegood." He says with a grin, "Stella drew Thissel." Wait did he draw straws to see who got her and who got Thissel? He says as he eats his pastry. "Besides, could you think of a more capable hit wizard. You know my abilities."
"Apparently Inspector Lovegood has not heard of the two cats of Kilkenny if he thinks this is a good idea." Aldercy raises one eyebrow, and leans forward, resting her elbows on the desk. "If I remember correctly, the last person you were supposed to be keeping safe ended up taking a swim in the canal in Hoxton."
Carter winks at Aldercy, "You're so cute when you try to be a bitch." He says with a lie, "My dear Miss Priss. If I remember right, I was not on duty at the time. We weren't sure that Mr. Dandylion wasn't actually in danger." He sits back, "That is all different now. Besides I can't let anything happen to your cute ass. Who will I have to annoy then by breathing?"
Her eyes narrow slightly at the corners. "I am sure that you it would not take you long, when one takes into account your considerable talent." She mirrors Carter's action, leaning back in her chair. "So, does this mean you actually have to sit in my office and watch me all day? Or perhaps you can loiter with Stella and Thissel… out there?" her hand gestures to the doorway which indicates the outer office where the pupils, including Miss Thissel, do their drudgery throughout the day.
Carter shrugs, "Fraid so… Except wen you need to use the powder room. Then I'll trade with Stella." He smiles at her and reaches into a pocket to produce a book. "I'll be quiet as a church mouse. You'll never know I was here." Wait is that a muggle novel?
Aldercy stills until she appears to be a statue as she watches him. Reaching into her drawer, she draws out a small vial with a potion and drinks it down in one gulp. Steadying herself, she stands and comes out from behind her desk. "That was not actually a request, Constable Worthington. There is no way anyone can apparate into my office, or otherwise enter except through the door. Therefore, you can sit outside with your partner, you can sit with your back against my door if it will make you feel better…" as she speaks, she walks towards the door to open it for the facilitation of his egress.
Carter reaches up as she steps past him. His hand reaching up to take hers and gives it a gentle squeeze. "Ali, go sit back down and do your work. I really won't cause a stir. I don't want to loose somebody else and especial somebody I'm fond of when she's asleep."
Although the gentle squeeze on her hand doesn't quite give an electric current, or the warmth that was felt before, Aldercy still pulls her hand away and steps back as if she's been burned. The gaze she turns on him holds a hint of fear before she recalls her icy demeanor. "You don't know what a stir is," she tells him in a low voice. "There's a reason I have an office to myself. I need my space alone."
Before Carter can respond, there comes a blood curdling scream from the outer room. Carter whispers, "That's Thissel." He then shoves Aldercy out of the path of the door. His wand ready as he opens the door. A horrifed intern from the mail room has his hands up in front of Thissel's desk. Stella got a death stare at the boy. About that that time, Thissel yells, "There's a blood spider under my desk."
Aldercy rolls her eyes at his whisper. "Yes. It is Miss Thissel," she tells him at regular voice. She follows him to the door, and leans her shoulder against the door frame as she watches. "Are you sure it's a blood spider, Thissel?" she asks sardonically, not at all perturbed as the two Hit Wizards go on high alert. "Last week it was a fire crawler." One eyebrow raises as she looks to Carter. "Are you sure you have this under control? Shall I call for backup?"
Carter frown and tucks his wand away. He shakes his head and frowns, "I belive so, there's no need." He looks at Thissel, "Theres another one behind you on the wall."
"Well, it seems Miss Thissel is more in need of your protection than I am," Aldercy muses. "Or perhaps she's taken a fancy to you, and just wanted you to come out of my office. She always has had peculiar taste in men." With that, she turns around, more rapidly than one might think she could move, and slams her door shut. Thissel gives a grimace at the assessment of her taste in men. "She wouldn't know a real man if he bit her on the nose. Have you seen that milk toast fiance her family's chosen for her?" Another grimace, and Thissel sits down again, looking nervously over her shoulder. "Kill it, please?"
Carter rolls his eyes at Miss Thissel. Then he counts for a moment, "Well I haven't bit her on her nose." Stella quickly takes care of the two spiders. She's not afraid of the arachnids. Though she gives Thissel a look that would make Aldercy proud.
Withering under Stella's look, Thissel hunches her shoulders a little. "I'm allergic," she pleads her case wisftully to Carter, hoping he'll have more sympathy for her.
Carter shakes his head and moves to open the door to Aldercy's office. If it won't open, then he'll use a spell to make it open. He then steps into the room. "Oh no.. I'm going to make sure nothing happens to you, even if you fight me."
Aldercy doesn't look up from the file she's studying, or bother to reply, but there is a twitch at the corners of her lips. Her eyes also seem to be lighter than usual, not quite so hard as she bites the inside of her lip.
Carter shuts the door behind him. If she's going to play the quiet game. He's going to let her. He really didn't want to disrupt her day. He goes over to the chair and scoops up his breakfast and his book. He flips open the book, "Where was I?"
There's a snort from Aldercy, but it's not the usual disdainful type dismissal. Instead, it has a shaky quality to it, as if she is trying to hold back a laugh. She turns slightly from him, pulling her lips into her mouth to keep from smiling outright. "You were saving the day, one arachnid at a time?" she suggests with saccharine innocence after she manages to find a little more control, although, that suggestion threatens to it.
Carter laughs, "You're just jealous, I'm not smashing spiders for you. Besides Stella handled the situation. I would ask if she's always like that but I know the answer." He says as he opens the book and starts reading.
Aldercy does snort at that. "I can take care of my own spiders, very much," she tells him drily. "The look on your face…" she has to bite her lip again as she turns the page.
Carter shrugs and turns the page, "Laugh it up. I saw the look on your face when I found the red pawn." He says flipping a page. "And you can lower yourself to kill spiders? I'm surprised. I figure you would have somebody to do that for you."
Aldercy rolls her eyes. "Yes, but at least my look was a reaction to something that is actually threatening." She settles back in her chair. "Since I cant' seem to get rid of you, I suggest that you and Billingslea will have plenty of practice with ear plug charms." She pauses. "I'm only telling you this because I feel pity for your partner being next to Thissel all day. You will be lucky if your partner doesn't strangle you by the end of the day."
Carter shrugs, "Actually we drew straws, she won and chose Thissel." He says with a smile. "And As for you, do you plan to drone on and on about how disrupting I am. When I am sitting here reading a book and actively trying not to provoke you?"
"How little she knows…" Aldercy says. She flips to go over the page she was reading again. "Actually, I haven't said one word about how disruptive you are. Ridiculous, yes, but not disruptive. Although, now that you mention it, you disrupt me just by existing anywhere in a ten cubit radius of my person." Her eyes travel over the page and she swivels her chair around, back to him.
Carter continues to read his book for some time. He didn't take her bait. Though after a bit he quietly pulls his wand and takes aim. Then with a quiet curse he goes to spin her chair around on it's own power.
There's a startled curse, then a thump, thud and whisper of papers scudding across the floor. The chair spins around empty.
Carter shoots up, he hadn't meant to dump her on her ass but give her a spin. He's across the room and the wand put away, "Ali, are you okay?"
The bottom drawer of her desk is open, where she'd been putting away the file that is now scattered on the floor beyond her. A nice little bruise is forming on her forehead, and she holds her side where she bounced off the open drawer before she hit the floor. "If you are very lucky, you will be out of range of my wand when I stand up," she tells him through gritted teeth. "And if you want to live when I stand up, you will stop calling me Ali like we are intimate friends."
Carter wrinkles his nose at her. Then he does something that is probably very foolish. "Here let me help you up." He says offering her a hand. The fact that he caused the mess forgotten for the moment, "Ali, I thought we were intimate friends?" He says and shrugs, "I know a charm to take care of your forehead."
Aldercy glares at the hand, and then takes it, pulling smoothly to her feet and almost against her chest. The warmth he's felt around her before shimmers under the surface of her skin, but it doesn't reach out to him as it has in their past couple encounters. She lets go of his hand and reaches for her wand. "Oh, I know a charm that will do wonders for my head as well," she tells him, her eyes narrowing as she considers what to do first.
Carter goes for his own wand bringing it up in a defensive position. "You wouldn't. It's not very lady like and proper. This isn't dueling club again. Nothing to steal off Jimmy this time." He says keeping the wand between him and her.
Aldercy's eyes darken in color, seeming to approach an almost ebony hue. "Your Inspector Lovegood seems to think I am improper, perhaps he is right," she mutters, her voice almost a hiss. "I never needed to steal anything off your brother, he stole from me. He couldn't stand it that a younger year caught up so quickly in charms. Didn't you know that?" the top of her wand twitches.
Carter eyes narrow, "Jimmy was arrogant. He was a good brother. But he couldn't allow me to beat him at anything. He'd also bought into the same hogwash you do. Him and Pennyworth were going on about blood purity."
It's a good thing that Aldercy drank her potion, else he'd be dealing with more than just feral black eyes as she stares back at him. "Have you forgotten you are supposed to be protecting me," she questions curiously. "Because I'm curious as to who is going to save you from me," her voice drops lower as she advances closer to him. "You know nothing of what I believe, or what I think about 'blood purity'. You've bought into the other side who characterizes anyone who doesn't wish to mix with you as 'wrong' and someone who needs to have their mind changed and be 'more open and elightened'. You're just as bad as the people you think you're above."
Carter turns his head, "Maybe I am. But can you explain just why, you are so much superior to me? I am a man just like any pureblood. What next you'll tell me we're discriminating against Wizards and Witches cause of their ethnicity or their sexual preference? Oh we're saying wizards are superior in ability to Witches? Where does it stop?" He says crossing his arms, "We are near equals in magical skill and power. There are many purebloods that wish they had my abilities. Explain to me why your pure blood makes you superior to my ancestors.
"Oh, I see," Aldercy says softly. "Because I have achieved what I set out to do, I must think I am superior because I am pureblood. None of my pride in myself is allowed to come from what I have accomplished, is that it?" Her wand changes direction and his book levitates before it flies across the room to his chest, and then the door is opening behind him. "Get. Out. Of. My. Office." Her words almost seem to have a life of their own, pushing him back away from her.
Carter takes the book to his chest with an omph. He narrows his eyes. "I have never said anything of the like. *You* are the one that takes the time to point out that I am inferior to you in every way cause I am, in your own words, a mudblood. That my mother, my brother, and I are trash cause we happen to have a human without magic in our blood line. If there's another reason for you to be an uppity, cold hearted, snobby bitch. I haven't seen it. And you're not throwing me out of your office. I'm leaving." With that he turns and storms out.
"As long as you get out," Aldercy replies. The door slams literally on his heels, or heel, barely letting him out before she closes it. Breathing hard, she turns and leans back against it, trying to calm herself, her panicked eyes going to her hands. She raises them in front of her face and then a long breath of relief sighs from her lips. She makes her way slowly back to her desk and slumps into her chair, swiveling so she can rest her elbows on the hard surface. Her hands raise to cradle her head, fingers rubbing at her temples.