“What are you looking at?” Jasper asked of his son’s kneazle, left behind in an otherwise empty home. The dejected kneazle, whom Jasper wasn’t entirely convinced wasn’t an evil assassin sent by Bellatrix Lestrange - even if it was curse free, padded away with a sad mewl. “Yeah, happy fuckin’ New Year’s to you too.”
Shit. Now he was being rude to a living, breathing ball of fluff. Jasper was about to engage in another round of self-pitying shot of whiskey when his phone rang.
birdie p. calling...
“Me, Jasper,” he attempted feebly. “If this is another fucking cat, I’ll rescue it but then I’m shoving it right up Yaxley’s—”
On the other end of the line, Birdie waited for her colleague to pick up, hoping that he wasn't too deep in the New Year's Eve celebrations. Once the call was picked up she didn't wait to be greeted before getting down to business.
"Williamson, you need to get down here. Now."
“What?” He could hear the urgency in her voice. “What happened?”
"Some shit went down and now your kid's in the holding cells." There was no point in beating around the bush.
A sharp intake of breath, and then silence. Some shit. Holding cells. Jasper’s mind ran through every possible scenario — but in the end only one piece of information mattered: Luca. “Got it.”
* * *
Jasper knew his own way to the holding cells, but Birdie walked him to Flick’s nonetheless. It was probably better for his whole plausible deniability defence if anyone did ask. As far as he knew, Flick was leaving with their son and he’d given her the money to do it.
“I just needed them safe,” he explained, even though it was obvious. Tybalt would probably tell him to shut the hell up unless he was present, even if he considered Birdie, along with the rest of his Former Auror colleagues, trustworthy. “I don’t know what her plan was. Or where she was going.”
Birdie was glad that she had decided to keep up with her tradition of working the holidays. She didn't even want to think about how Yaxley would've handled the situation. All she could do was nod along in understanding, listening as Jasper explained the situation. Privately she couldn't blame Felicity for trying to help a Muggleborn get away, but she didn't agree with dragging a kid into it.
Once they reached Felicity's cell, she called out for the woman, before turning back to her colleague, "I'll give you guys a few minutes, I'll be waiting
over there." She nodded to the wall behind them, before moving to lean against it.
“Hey,” Jasper greeted as he entered the cell. There were a million things he could have said, like, I told you not to take Eli with you. Or, what the fuck were you thinking?! But he didn’t. He just pulled Flick into a hug and pressed a kiss to Luca’s forehead. “How long has he been sleeping?”
“Since we got here,” Felicity answered, letting out a breath when Jasper arrived. “He hasn’t been sleeping well so I think he’s exhausted.” Her own eyes were heavily bagged and she leant in to the hug, whispering a “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ll call the firm when I get him home,” he assured her. “You’ll get out.”
Flick nodded, squeezing her son tighter to her chest before reluctantly passing him to Jasper. She reached out and took Luca’s hand not even a second later, not ready to let go of him yet. “Maybe let him sleep with you tonight,” she suggested. “In case he has nightmares.”
Jasper nodded, lingering because he could imagine how she was feeling right now. He’d felt the same — wondering when the next time he’d see Luca would be. If he’d ever see Luca again. And that had only been a few days ago.
A beat.
“About the other night...” he started.
Flick shook her head. He didn’t need to go on, she’d already spent too much time replaying that night, feeling guilty that Luca’s last memory of his parents together was that. “I’m sorry too.”
Birdie had done what she could to give the pair time to say their goodbyes, going so far as to let them have longer than normal. But there was only so long she could hold off on breaking them up before someone got suspicious and came looking. She gave them an apologetic look as she stepped up to the cell.
"Alright folks, time to get this show on the road."
Jasper hovered for just a second longer, letting Flick have a moment more with Luca -- then stepped back out of the cell.