Who: Demi Robins and Rocco Spinnet What: Stalker plot/ Challenge thread When: Jan 16 Where: Rocco’s office Status | Rating: Will update when complete | High (Language... Roc.)
No.
She knew that there had been something weird happening with her best friend. the what, however, was not entirely clear. Erin had seemed off and upset. Then again, a dead bird gifted by anything other than a deranged cat is unacceptable. Still, she never brought up what it was about. Or that it had been a thing that was part of a series of things. And that was where Demi was blindsided by all of this. A letter. It seemed harmless enough. It had been left to her at work, and she had no real way to know it was anything other than another fan letter. Maybe it was a person telling her that she should try out for the Welsh team again. That was so wonderful to have read the day before. So the girl opened it happily. Then she read it. A threat.
Do not get between my love and me she was warned. What was that about? It was clearly not something Conrad would have found funny. Really, she could have broken his nose (or attempted to) over a statement like that. Erin was his, not hers. His love. What in the world? But the more she read it, and the notice that she was being watched was what made the whole thing click to the woman. This was a threat. And someone was not just watching her. Someone was obsessed with her best friend. And she had not been told.
But she was some how now in danger. This person had gotten a message to her through the security here, what could he get to Erin at her work. It was another time that Demi wished she had more of a life like her best friends. This was not a desire for the boyfriend, but for a big brother. And her mind immediately went to the one less likely to start breaking things at the idea of a threat. It was to Rocco, who was at least more sensible and a lot calmer. The truth was, Demi couldn’t really remember the steps she had taken from her locker to get dressed, but she knew she did, for the witch arrived at the front door of the offices of the Magpies fully clothed and blowing by the interns. She told them she was looking for her brother and kept going, leaving some confused people in their wake, as it was well-known that there was no magical brother of hers.
By the time she got to Rocco’s office, ehr face was bright red and her eyes blotchy and stinging from tears. She opened the door and immediately shut it behind her. “Roc…?” she asked softly, her whole body shaking as her hand clutched the letter.
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Truth was, Roc was tired and running on fumes. Everything that he’d been through in the past few weeks was really starting to catch up with him. He hadn’t minded in the slightest sitting in the hospital with his sister, making her laugh, keeping her occupied and tried not to work too much from her room. He and Alicia had always been the responsible ones, and at times he thought a little guiltily, that his sister had been more so. But then again, it was also hard to take care of everyone from around the world. A very harsh lesson that he’d had to learn time and time again. And since moving back home for good, Rocco had tried to make up for lost time, and probably went a little overboard at times. But that’s just what he did. There was just something in his DNA that forced him into making sure that things worked out...or at least go down swinging (though, preferably, not literally) in an attempt.
Which brought him to the second reason why he was so damn tired. As loathed as he was to admit it, his personal life was in shambles. This whole divorce thing was giving him a constant headache because he never knew if he should be actually going over the papers stuck in his drawer or not. There was a very big part of him that wanted to just do it and get it over with, but at the same time, after spending time with his wife...he was starting to doubt it. Not very much, but there was a little bit of a crack there, enough to make him want to keep trying. No matter how big of a headache it gave him. He knew that the number of nights that he’d spend laying awake thinking about this paled in comparison to the number of nights he’d have in the future pondering the “what if” question.
And then on top of all of that plus all of the actual work he was doing for his job...this whole thing going on with the Falcons and Callen’s little sister...he didn’t mind he didn’t. But...Roc was starting to feel more than a little drained by everything. However, he didn’t complain. Because he didn’t see the point in complaining about it. By the time Demi made her way into his office he’d been working through a rather large stack of papers his one palm pressed against his forehead and his elbows on his desk trying to make sense of what was in front of him, scratching out this and that with red ink from his quill. “Yeah?” he said half paying attention to what was going on, since, he really wasn’t sure what was going on right now. After scratching out one more thing he looked up and was almost taken aback a little by what he saw in front of him. “What’s going on?” he said immediately shoving his papers into a folder and into his desk, showing that this was his focus right now.
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Oh. Well, crap. She caught him while he was busy. Demi attempted to just back out of the room and make it seem like he had been hearing things, but her hand couldn’t seem to get the door to open-like it was locked somehow. So when he looked up, her brain froze again and her arm was folded behind her as it tried one last time to jiggle the handle. Well, so much for saying ti was nothing. Dammit. She should have owled first to see if he was free. She knew the man had a lot going on, and Dem also knew she didn’t even know half of it. Not that the rumour mill had told her, but if her own best friend was keeping stuff to her, the big brother of Em was not going to be sharing all of his deep dark secrets with her. So instead, she was stuck staring at him blankly, still holding the letter in one hand and the door knob in the other.
He had caught her and he had interrupted. It’d be foolish to just try to back out now that Roc clearly knew something was off about her Demelza was not exactly the one to wander around looking like she was having a panic attack every five minutes. So she took a deep breath and stepped back further into the room. Her arms crossed in front of her and cleared her throat. “The dead bird thing,” she started quietly. “With Erin at the Match against the Falcons. This wasn’t a one-time thing was it,” she asked cautiously. If he didn’t know about it, then he didn’t want Rocco freaking out. Because if Demi was a target, so was Em, his actual little sister.
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Rocco slowly stood up as he watched Demi’s weird behavior and started to move to one side of his desk. Slowly, on purpose, and then half sat on the edge of his with his arms across his chest. It wasn’t out of a defense type mentality, it was just more comfortable than not. That and it came from just never knowing what to do with his hands, so there they rested on his arms. Before he even said anything he nodded slowly in understanding, ah. Right. The dead bird thing. The thing that caused himself and Straton Roper to babysit Callen for the rest of the evening. Though, truth be told, even Rocco couldn’t blame him for it. Had it been one of his siblings, he would have gone off the handle as well. At her question Rocco bobbled his head slightly from side to side before responding. He knew how he wanted to answer, but he also didn’t think that being that blatant would be a great idea right now.
“Probably not.” he said after a moment, trying to sound like he had hope that it wasn’t the case. “Though, I doubt that they’ll be many more dead birds given out.” he added thoughtfully. As freaky was the situation currently was, he was fairly sure that this person would not repeat that action. And that he actually did have faith that Padraig Warrington was moving mountains over at the Falcons pitch to keep everyone safe. The man had too many connections not to. Not to mention he knew Jasper well, and he knew that he was probably in the same mindset. He shifted slightly in his head and looked at her, trying to keep any sort of panic from showing, though he was sure that worry was showing around his eyes right now. No matter how stoic he tried to be, his eyes always gave him away.
“What happened.” he said it dawning on him as all of the puzzle pieces fell into place, trying not to jump to conclusions before he had any of the facts.
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By now, she knew Roc well enough to not think that he was being defensive or off-putting when he crossed his arms. Over the years, she had seen him do this plenty of times. And while, yes, some of them were accompanied by shaking heads, for the most part it was just the way he stood. Like how her hands were always in her pockets if she had a hooded sweatshirt. But she focused on the way they were crossed and not on his face just yet. That would require eye contact. Demi had done enough public blubbering for her own liking for a solid two years in the last few weeks. No need to add another event to that. His comment sounded simple enough. No, this was not a one-time thing. She didn’t care about the damn dead bird now. Her best friend had been hiding a rather big thing from her. The why would have to be discussed with Erin in person, but not right now. Mostly because he finally asked her what happened.
Demi looked up at the man and her hand gripped the letter a little tighter as her mouth went dry. When her eyes met his, the witch felt her heart drop a little. No, this was bothering him. This was a very big deal. That meant what was in her hand would make this a big and bad deal. Finally, the hand hidden behind her back moved in front of her and she held it out with a shaking hand. “I got this in my box at the pitch today,” she explained in an uncharacteristically small voice. “Been getting a lot with the whole pumping up for the World Cup Teams, so I thought nothing of if but,” she unfolded it and handed it to him. “Says I shouldn’t get between him and Erin. That I’m being watched, and whoever sent it will know if I try to do anything about his love for her.”
Dammit. A tear dropped down her cheek. Demi bit her lip and looked over Rocco’s face. “What’s going on?”
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He sat there quietly as he waited for her to get everything out. Having three younger siblings just automatically put him in that mindset. Rocco might not have always been around, especially in recent years, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t any less committed to his siblings. Which might have been part of the general problem, but they were his family, and they came first. Either way, he drummed his fingers a bit on his bicep as he waited and listened for Demi to get everything out. As soon as she held out the letter he stood up, took it from her and read it standing perfectly still. He let his hand drop slightly, a quizzical look on his face, before he picked his hand back up again and reread the letter a few more times, making sure that he was processing it correctly. “Fuck.” he said under his breath, letting his brain kick into gear.
“First of all, did you make it here okay? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?” he said as he put the letter down on his desk and looking at her, trying to give her a comforting look, but also sounding like he had a plan in mind. “As shit as it is that you got this,” there was that older brother tone that was missing. “we now know who this fucker is targeting more than just Erin.” a wave of panic hit him thinking that meant his little sister too...but he’d deal with that. After he took care of Demi, he’d make sure that Ems was taking care of too. He’d get Alicia in on this as well. Since, he actually feared Alicia smiting him more than anything if he kept her out of the loop. “Which means I’m going to need to get in contact with your head of security over there, and see who is going to basically become your shadow.” he tried to give her a reassuring smile.
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The longer Roc took to process and then speak, the worst Demi felt about even bringing it up, but she knew there was something wrong. And she knew that Roc would take care of her. Yes, she had a head of security, but it felt so much better to have him be the one who knew first. She felt safe with him. Even if the door was apparently jammed. But when he swore, Demi’s heart dropped further. This was very bad. And she had to give the man credit, he was doing a great job at keeping his voice calm and peaceful, but she knew him all too well. She nodded at first to his question. “Nothing weird, I left my building, apparated here and came inside yours and immediately came to you. I think I only asked that goofy looking intern the one with the--” she began to indicate big hair before waving her hand. “Not important. Him, and then came here.” She wiped her eyes and let Roc continue, but her body was shaking.
Someone was for sure following her best mate. Not just sending a weird gift. Which means she had been kept in the dark on a very important thing. But she will discuss that with her later. Or just ask her if there is something she needed to tell her. She coughed slightly when her security was brought up. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to be followed by anyone to keep her safe. Demi hated that feeling, but she was not about to argue. Rocco had to be thinking about Emilia, as well. “Who is following Erin? Like how long has this been a thing? She seemed distracted but fine at her party last night.” Demi waved her hand again. Not important. “Let me tell Corner. I think he’d react less venomously with it coming from me and not from another team’s lawyer.”