Alicia Spinnet-Pucey (_alicia_) wrote in thelaststation, @ 2013-11-22 23:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: alicia, character: cormac, status: complete, type: log |
Log: Alicia and Cormac
Who: Cormac McLaggen, Alicia and Isla Spinnet
What: Big ‘ol truth bomb! :| (“Who’s your daddy?” And other pick up lines Cormac’s not allowed to use anymore!)
When: Friday, November 22
Where: The Three Broomsticks & Alicia’s house
Rating: PG-13 (lots of swearing, name calling, slapping lol)
Status: Complete
It had been a long day at work. Alicia couldn’t remember the last time she had to justify her approach to Healing to this many patients, and she was certain that if she heard another person with a broken bone demand Skel-e-Grow, she might just… do as she always did, because she was a bloody Healer and causing physical harm to your patients was generally frowned upon. Once home again, she had taken one look at the planner on the wall, and had sent her brother a message to let him know that even if she had invited him for dinner tonight, it wouldn’t be home cooked, and could he please just meet them at The Three Broomsticks instead?
Isla, of course, had been thrilled by that idea, and seeing her grin as she bounced while finding her prettiest skirt, lifted Alicia’s mood considerably, and suddenly it wasn’t too difficult to smile again. So when the two of them arrived at The Three Broomsticks, Alicia followed Isla across the floor towards the booth in the back that Isla seemed to favour.
Sitting at a table rather than a booth so he could prop his leg up, Cormac leisurely sipped on a glass of whiskey as he waited for his supper to arrive. He wasn't the greatest of chefs so when he really couldn't be bothered to cook, he came to The Three Broomsticks.
His head perked up at the sound of a child's laughter, and soon spotted a curly haired toddler rushing past. She was soon followed by Alicia and Cormac nodded his head at her. "Evening Ali, didn't think I would be seeing you again so soon." Usually he saw her at the Clinic and on the pitch at pick-up quidditch, but not much between that.
Out of the side of her eye, Alicia had registered someone nodding at her in greeting, which wasn’t unusual, however, her attention was on Isla and whether or not she would go for the empty booth – like she hoped – or the booth next to it, occupied by- She didn’t get further than that, before whoever had nodded at her addressed her by name, which meant that she couldn’t just ignore it. “Evening,” she smiled back, though her smile froze a bit when her eyes landed on Cormac. “Cormac,” she concluded, trying for all the world to relax, stay natural like when they were at the Clinic. “Yes, it’s the hazard of living in a small town, isn’t it?” A hazard, indeed, though so far – probably by sheer luck – she had managed to only see Cormac when Isla hadn’t been near.
Her eyes darted to Isla who was now pointing to the empty booth, waving to catch Alicia’s attention. “Mummy! Mummy!” she called, now bouncing in place as if her little body contained far more energy than she knew what to do with. “I did found a table!” The way she struggled with the Ls still made Alicia’s lips twitch despite the awkwardness of Cormac sitting right there. “I’ll be over in a moment, love,” she told her, keeping her voice calm. “Mummy’s just talking to… to Mr. McLaggen, alright?”
Cormac looked back and forth between Alicia and the child. He had seen the little tyke before running around at pick-up quidditch, but never fully connected them before. Made sense though, since they looked almost exactly alike.
"Huh," Cormac mused aloud, "forgot you had a kid. You know, this makes you Hogsmeade's hottest milf. Though that Morag is sneaking up on you."
Alicia’s eyes narrowed. Cormac’s comment felt like a Bludger to the gut. How could he forget? Glancing over at Isla, she sent her a small smile and waved for her to take a seat before she moved, physically putting herself between Cormac and her daughter, and leaned close to him, her eyes level with his. “You took a curse to the knee, McLaggen,” she sneered, “not the head, do not play dumb with me. The least you could do is stick to the agreement you asked for. You. Not me.”
Standing back up straight she looked down at him. “The usual result of a pregnancy is a kid, so I’m not sure what you’d expected would come from it. A Hippogriff?”
Honestly, Cormac had never seen Alicia act like this before. That included when they'd broken up after unsuccessfully dating for 3 weeks or so. Actually, they'd parted on pretty amicable terms. Or at least friendly enough that she agreed to be his primary healer after his injury.
"What in the bloody hell are you talking about?" What had been his idea? And of course he knew where bleeding children came from. What was her problem?
“Her!” Alicia snapped at him, trying to keep her voice as low as possible so as to keep it between the two of them. “And your own request that everything that had to do with her and the settlements to be kept quiet. That I can’t contact you about her for anything, just like you can’t ask for it.” Holding out both her hands she looked down at him, incredulous at the level his arrogance had reached right now. “I know your lawyer put it in much fancier words, but… ring a bell?”
At first Cormac was confused, but now he was growing angry. How dare she speak to him like that? Clearly he had no idea what she was talking about. What benefit did he have in playing dumb?
"I've really no idea what you're on about. Why would I need a lawyer?" Cormac snapped back.
“You tell me!” Alicia burst out, throwing her hands up. “I sent you an Owl when I found out and you sicced a lawyer on me to deal with all proceedings regarding the unborn child of one Miss Alicia Helen Spinnet or some such rot.”
"When you found out what? That you were... Pregnant?" Cormac asked dumbly. "Why would you send me--" he stopped, feeling his insides go cold. "No. After we broke it off I was gone for months. Couldn't even owl my parents to let them know I was okay. So I never got any letter from you or called any lawyers!"
Merlin. Was she really saying what he thought she was saying? If that kid was his... "And you've been my healer all this time and you never said anything before? Are you mental?"
“Well, I have a pile of signed documents that claims otherwise,” Alicia shot back, her hands on her hips. Suddenly, she didn’t recognise herself, how could she be this wound up about something she had been so completely clear about from the get go? But she was, and it angered her that Cormac could be this callous about it, even if right now he looked as if he might be sick or throw a hissy fit.
“Mummy! Mummy! Is Unca Sam!”
Isla’s voice from behind her drew Alicia back to the here and now. Schooling her face into a warm smile, hoping to keep all the anger and confusion at bay while talking to her daughter, she looked first to her, then to the door, where her brother was standing, just like Isla had said. “Yes, that is Unca Sam. Get your coat and go to him, yeah love?” The slight waver in her voice frustrated her, because she wasn’t sad, dammit, she was angry, furious, really.
“Sam, can you take her to mum’s?” she asked, cutting off her brother when he looked ready to object. “Now, just… now. Isla go to Sam.” With a pout all too similar to the one she had seen on Cormac’s face just last week, Isla slid down from the bench and ran to her uncle.
Once they were gone, she looked back to Cormac. “Don’t call me mental, you arrogant prick. We had an agreement and there was no reason to assign you a different Healer.”
Cormac was silent thought the exchange between Alicia, her (his?!) daughter and the other bloke who had appeared, too confused and angry to say anything intelligible. He also figured if he opened his mouth right now a bunch of curse words would come out, and that probably wouldn’t be good to do in front of a child.
Once they were gone, however, Cormac glared at Alicia. “What papers? I didn’t sign any fucking papers. I told you. I was gone. Out of the country. For months.”
He could feel his face flushing with anger, but what Alicia was saying was absolutely bonkers. There was just no way that was his kid. And if it was, there was no way he would have ignored her for the last three years.
“Clearly she’s not mine,” Cormac added. “I’ve no idea what the hell you think I’ve asked for, or what this supposed agreement is. But it wasn’t me and she’s not mine.”
The sound of her hand against Cormac’s cheek reached her before she was even aware that she had raised it. “I. Didn’t. Cheat.” It was one thing for him to call her a milf, but for him to insinuate that she had been with another man while they’d been together, even if it could barely be categorised as ‘being together’, was more than she was willing to take from him.
“And according to the papers from the offices of Lewis Trimble, C. McLaggen signed off every fucking right to her.” Though she was shaking from fury and fear inside, Alicia’s eyes were firmly on Cormac’s. She clenched her jaw a few times before she shook her head and turned and walked towards the door. She couldn’t do this in here. Not with everybody staring at them like they were. Even if Cormac claimed to be ignorant, she was scared to think what it might mean if he was right.
"Fuck!" Cormac cried out as her hand slapped across his cheek. That was definitely leaving a mark. If he weren't so angry, he actually would have been impressed at the force behind the hit.
If their squabble had gained them a few spectators before, the whole section of the pub stared at them after the smack echoed throughout the room. "What the fuck are you doing?" He growled.
Holding his cheek with one hand, his free one dug around in his trousers for a few spare coins. Tossing them on the table, as he figured they should cover his drink and dinner (that he never got to eat!), Cormac glared at Alicia once more. "I want to see these goddamn papers you keep going on about. Because I can guarantee it's not my signature."
“18B Main Street.” Alicia glared up at Cormac, a small part of her highly satisfied with the redness on his cheek that had nothing to do with his anger; she chose to ignore the larger part that was claiming she had been downright stupid to do what she did. “I’ll set the ward to let you in.”
Once outside The Three Broomsticks, Alicia Apparated directly back to the stairs behind her house. Three minutes was all she needed, really – two for the climbing the stairs and one to change her ward to allow Cormac through. Even if she hadn’t been a relatively organised person, she doubted she wouldn’t have known exactly where that folder was at all times. Four minutes later, she was standing by the dining table in her kitchen staring at the folder in front of her, and very glad that Sam had done what she had asked of him, rather than taking Isla here.
She rubbed her forehead when the first shimmers of doubt began appearing in her. What if Cormac was right? She couldn’t see how he could be, though. The timing alone made it impossible for Isla to be anyone but his, so she knew that any accusations about that from his side would be wrong. It just didn’t make any sense to her.
Cormac hung around the pub a moment later, much to the staff’s chagrin. Usually when people caused a scene they got booted. He flagged down his waitress, asking her to box up his food because he’d be back in a few minutes to pick it up and it was all just a friendly misunderstanding! For some reason, he didn’t think she believed him. Maybe it was the hand mark still visible on his cheek that swayed her to that decision.
He ambled down the street to Alicia’s, choosing to walk rather than apparate for a bit of fresh air and to clear his head. This is all surreal. How could she honestly think he was her baby’s father? Actually, the timing seemed to work out about right. What confused him more was the fact that she kept insisting she’d contacted him and they’d reached some kind of settlement. He had been away for a long time on a mission, with no contact to anyone. So whatever owl she’d sent clearly did not reach him. Who in the bloody hell signed documents for him though?
Finally arriving at 18B Main Street, he knocked, waiting for Alicia to open the door. The cool air had helped him clear his head a bit, and he figured knocking rather than barging in was the decent thing to do at the moment. A rare instance of courtesy for Cormac.
At the knock, Alicia blinked a couple of times, confused at first who could possibly stopping by at this time of day, until she remembered and then wondered how the hell she could have forgotten in such a short time.
Seeing Cormac standing outside, she drew in a deep breath to keep from going back to the same fury that had been there before. “The kitchen,” she told him, fully expecting him to follow her. In the kitchen she picked up the folder, gestured for him to take a seat before she held it out to him. “Every piece of paper and parchment that has to do with this, including a copy of the Owl I initially sent you.”
Feeling very much like a scolded child, Cormac walked over to the table, though did not sit. This wasn’t going to take long anyway and he didn’t want to give Alicia the satisfaction.
He flipped it open, first reading the owl she’d supposedly sent him. “Never seen this before in my life,” he said, glancing at her with narrowed eyes. This felt like a terrible joke gone wrong. He was pretty sure he would remember a letter telling him he’d fathered a child though, right? But this was not familiar in the slightest and the whole situation was becoming quite ridiculous.
“Are you sure you never obliviated me or something?” He asked, flipping to the next page in the stack. She’d certainly have the opportunity when he visited her at the clinic.
Alicia quirked an eyebrow at Cormac. “You’ve given me plenty reasons to hex you, but Merlin knows I’ve only ever performed Healing spells and Charms on you,” she said before she sighed. “I don’t even know how to obliviate anyone.” Though that still didn’t explain why Cormac didn’t remember, and it made even less sense for him to pretend not to remember.
“And this is the return Owl from your lawyer,” she continued, flipping to the next letter in the folder. “October 24th, 2001, all correspondence regarding this should go through his office, and even though you do not wish to have any part in this child’s life you would still be willing to pay a monthly sum to ensure… well, you can read it yourself.” She glanced up at him. “I turned down that offer,” she said, flipping to the next letter.
Cormac held up a finger to Alicia, trying to get her to stop talking as he read the paper. It was hard to concentrate with her jabbering on and on.
The paper said exactly what Alicia said it did, and the sinking feeling returned to his stomach. “I honestly never saw any of these,” Cormac said, glancing up again before returning to reading. This was… wild. He scanned through a few pages of paper describing Alicia’s pregnancy, Cormac opting out of any involvement in the child’s life and offering to pay support to the child. Finally towards the end, he saw signatures. He easily recognized Alicia’s, but where ‘his’ signature was…
“This is my father’s signature.”
The nervous energy that had made her blather on in spite of his ability to read on his own was now instead making her pace the kitchen after she had shrugged out of her coat. But now, she stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Cormac. “Beg your pardon?” she asked, her stomach feeling like a horde of elephants had taken up permanent resident in it. In a few strides she was next to Cormac, looking at the signature he had just claimed wasn’t his. Not that that would make any difference; she had never seen Cormac’s signature anywhere else but on those papers.
“Why is your father’s signature on those papers?”
“I don’t know,” Cormac shot back, irritated at what a stupid question it was. Hadn’t he been saying he’d never seen these papers before in his life? Why the hell would he know why his father’s signature was on a piece of paper giving up rights for a child he had fathered?
“Fucking hell,” Cormac groaned, shielding his eyes with his right hand. Nope. He just could not deal with this and if he opened his eyes right now he would still be in Alicia’s kitchen dealing with this bullshit. “I don’t fucking know why my father’s signature is on this paper, but do you still think I’m playing stupid? I swear, I didn’t fucking know.”
Pressing the palm of her hand to her mouth Alicia shook her head. “No,” she said quietly, still shaking her head and her eyes wide as realization began setting in. She didn’t believe that Cormac was playing stupid any longer, not that he was simply pretending not to know. By no means was she an expert on the law or legal matters, but she did know that if a signature had been forged, the document was worth only the paper it was printed on and it held no significance at all. Except for the major significance that her sole custody of Isla had all been a big, fat lie and that the git who had just yelled at her now had every bit as much right to her daughter as she did and his family had connections in high places.
That thought nearly took her breath away. “Oh, good Godric,” she gasped and swallowed down, once again pacing the floor while she was trying to make heads and tails of it all, though all she came back to, was the fact that she at best would have to share Isla with Cormac and at worst would lose her altogether. She shook her hands to stop them from shaking, but it didn’t work, and as her gaze darted around the kitchen, she spotted the bottle of Firewhiskey up on the high shelf with the rest of her limited supply of alcohol. A drink, yes, they could probably both need a drink. Most likely it wasn’t wise, but she didn’t care. “There’s a-,“ oh gods, this was embarrassing to have to do. “There’s a bottle of Ogden’s up there,” she said, pointing to where it was standing. “Could you take it down, please? I can’t reach it.” And she didn’t dare test her abilities to Levitate it down without smashing it against something.
Although their fling hadn’t lasted long, Cormac knew enough about Alicia to know she wasn’t a big drinker. To say he was shocked at her requesting firewhiskey was an understatement. He really didn’t want to get slapped again, however, and just nodded. Besides, he needed a damn drink as well.
Once he’d grabbed the bottle, he turned to Alicia and raised a brow. “Glasses or straight from the bottle?” These were the easy questions right now. Because everything else was too complicated and just plain hard. Drinking was much more preferable than talking what was running through both their minds.
While Cormac got the bottle, Alicia not only praised herself lucky that he had done so without a smarmy comment or a lewd suggestion, but also picked two glasses from the cupboard. She hesitated for a moment, looking at the selection of Potions and Salves that was on the shelf directly above the glasses, then took the small brown jar as well.
“There’s a glass, but you can take the bottle if you prefer,” she muttered and placed one of the glasses and the jar in front of him and reached for the bottle. “Bruise Healing Paste,” was all the explanation she gave him while she poured herself a healthy serving of Firewhiskey.
Leaning against the kitchen counter, she took a slow sip, savouring the burn of the liquid, first in her mouth then slowly spreading throughout her body. “Do you see now why I thought you knew?”
Cormac was no novice to whiskey drinking and poured himself a fair amount once Alicia was done. Sipping immediately, he focused on the burn before addressing her question. “I guess. Still doesn’t explain how you could be my healer. Didn’t seeing me these past few years drive you mental?” He reckoned if he had been in her shoes, it would have been hard to cope. Alicia was much more lionhearted than he ever gave her credit for.
Alicia chewed on her lip for a moment, considering how best to answer Cormac’s question. “There’s a long and a short answer to that question,” she finally said. “I don’t know which one you prefer right now.”
“This is just… a total fucking mess,” he muttered, drinking more. “I don’t think I can handle anything more complicated,” he said, getting lost in his thoughts for a moment. What was he supposed to do with this? At the very least, he would be visiting his parents and demanding answers. How could they do that? How could they not tell him? Finally looking up again, he glanced at Alicia and said, “Give me the simple version.”
Alicia sighed deeply, swirling her glass and looking at the liquid as it ran along the edge. “I compartmentalise,” she said, simplifying the explanation as much as she possibly could. “I don’t bring work home with me, just like I leave my home life by the door every time I meet in. It got easier, especially when I saw how easily you did it, then it became almost a dare to be as good at it as you were.” She gave a short, sharp scoff before she took a drink. “Then in time you were driving me mental for other reasons.” She looked up at him. The truth of the matter was, that the first time he had come in, he had been a patient in dire need of help, and it wasn’t until after he was in the clear that she had found herself tempted to talk about Isla with him. But the non-disclosure agreement had weighed heavily on her mind, and since Cormac hadn’t said anything, she had kept quiet, and had slowly more or less perfected the art of simply being Healer Spinnet with him. “Simple enough?”
Cormac could understand the need to separate one’s personal and professional life. When he was a Hit Wizard, it would have been very dangerous for him to be dwelling on personal matters while working. It could have even gotten him killed. Distractions were not welcome in that profession. “You certainly did do better than me, considering I had no idea.” It was almost comical when he thought about it. Almost.
“So what the fuck are we supposed to do now?” He asked, drinking and frowning again.
Alicia looked at her feet for a long time. What were they supposed to do now? This was all completely new to him and she had already been through it once before. Except this time it was completely different. She wanted to tell him to just leave, to forget what had happened tonight and just let her keep Isla all to herself, but she had yelled and cursed at him, even resorted to slapping him which made her think that that probably wouldn’t go over well with him.
“I think you need to decide whether you want to press charges against your father for impersonating you or not,” she started out. “Then you need to figure out if you want to go back to the way things were before or if the new arrangement that needs to be made should be different.” She swallowed down before she looked up at him. “But I think that first you should know, that her name is Isla Amelia Spinnet, and she was born at 8.55 in the morning on June second, 2002.”
Cormac had managed to empty his glass by this point and took the opportunity to pour himself some more. Tonight was going to require a lot of alcohol. “Need a refill?” He asked, glancing towards Alicia. Maybe if he focused on drinking (he was starting to feel warm and a little numb inside -- a welcome feeling at time like this) he wouldn’t have to think about how fucking furious he was at his parents.
“I’m going to go see them. Tomorrow if I can manage it,” Cormac sighed, looking at his cup. He was 99.9% sure he couldn’t go back to how things were. How could he now that he knew? Did he want to? Yes. Could he? No. Probably not.
He honestly didn’t know what was going to happen with his parents or Alicia, so rather than commenting one way or the other, giving false intentions prematurely, he just said, “Nice name. What’s it from?”
Well, shit, this was real now. She had a goddamn name.
“No, thanks,” Alicia shook her head. She still had most of her drink left, and though she longed for that numb, warm feeling of just being… well, numb, she still wanted to keep her head about her for this, and not risk any more than she already had.
She took another drink, letting the burn linger before she swallowed. Whatever response she had expected from him, it hadn’t been this. “Amelia’s my Nana’s name,” she said with a small, fond smile. “It’s also the name of the first woman aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, so I found it rather appropriate. Isla’s just…” her smile turned even warmer and her gaze grew distant when she thought back to the first time she had known for sure. “I always liked the name and the first time I saw her I just knew that it was right, that she was my Isla.”
With a deep sigh, she combed her fingers through her hair. This was a lot to take, for both of them and for very different reasons. She wanted to offer him to help out with his parents, offer him her support and maybe even go talk to them herself, but she just couldn’t. She had more than enough to consider herself and she needed to rethink just about everything she had come to know as the truth. “I made the decision to keep her even before I sent you that Owl,” she said quietly, “and I didn’t want to force that decision on you, which was why I did what I did and accepted your, well, what I thought was your decision.” She swallowed down and looked at him. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way and that I couldn’t give you that option this time around.”
The more Alicia talked about Isla and the wider and dopier her grin got, the more ill Cormac felt. What the fuck was he supposed to do with a toddler? She wouldn’t even know who he was. What if it confused her and gave her emotional damage or some shite like that? Maybe he’d just be doing her better by never seeing her. But what if he saw her again? He would know he was her father and it would cause him emotional damage.
“Yeah, me too,” Cormac agreed, gruffly. If he had known from the get-go, he would have been shocked and freaked out, sure, but he wouldn’t be so traumatized. He’d lived his life a certain way for the past three years and now it was suddenly over? He didn’t even have that awkward phase of knowing she was pregnant and getting the drinking and sleeping around out of his system before needing to man the fuck up when the baby actually arrived.
Shit. What the fuck was he going to do? Pushing his glass of whiskey away, Cormac stood up abruptly, saying, “I should go. Yeah. I’m gonna…” he trailed off, his brows furrowing.
Alicia nodded. “You should,” she agreed with him. There was no way they could possibly find a solution to this mess tonight, not even if they had both been rational at this point. Personally, Alicia felt like she just might need a few minutes alone, possibly more, to panic a bit, maybe even cry a little, before she… figured out what to do. She wanted to be alone, she wanted to bring Isla home only she didn’t want to expose her to this, she wanted Julian here except that she didn’t want to put him on the spot like this while she was in the middle of a panic attack. Most of all, though, she wanted what Cormac did: for him not to be here too much longer.
She could feel her throat begin to grow tight, but before Cormac left, she closed the folder and duplicated it, handing him the copy along with the little brown jar. There was no way she trusted her voice not to crack at this point, so she just nodded again, and went back to the kitchen counter, hoping that he would just leave.
Cormac accepted the file and jar without question. Honestly, he probably wasn’t even aware of what they were at the moment he was too stunned and confused by everything else. He glanced at Alicia out of the corner of his eye, briefly considering if he should make sure she’s okay… But voted no. He had bigger concerns right now and Ali could always look after herself.
Giving the briefest of nods, he exited the kitchen and began making his way home.