bradley wood has been lost for six years (lostwood) wrote in ourtimethreads, @ 2013-06-08 12:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | *june, aiden wood, bradley wood, december o’conaill, isla wood |
Who: December O’Conaill, Bradley Wood, Aiden Wood, Isla Wood, NPC parents & St. Mungo's staff
What: Brad wakes up with 6 years of lost time & memory and reunites with loved ones
Where: St. Mungo’s
When: June 8th. Late morning.
Rating/Status: Low/Complete Log
It was just a normal day, nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. She’d spent some time talking to Patrick in the morning, and had done her rounds. December was talking to one of the nurses about the boy the nurse fancied. December was always there to listen and people tended to talk to her about pretty much anything and everything. Even though it’d been years, December still thought about her ex every single day. Today it came when the nurse was telling her about something the boy she fancied did for her.
“It sounds like he might fancy you too.” She said smiling as she lifted the glass of water she was holding to her lips. “I think you should go for it.” She told her.
“Really?” The nurse said as her eyes shifted.
“Yeah, really.” December said nodding. “Go!” She said as she watched the nurse head off she smiled leaning against the desk. She was getting ready to turn to check some paperwork when she heard someone say that someone was looking for her. “Do you know who it...”
Everything in her world stopped as she turned around to see someone from reception standing with the man she thought was either dead or had fled the country. The glass of water in her hand fell as December nearly fainted herself but caught herself, and thankfully was leaning against the desk or she would have fallen over. The shock of seeing Brad was... It was too much for her to even think about. “Bradley.” She whispered his full name as she shut her eyes and opened them again.
“How...” She started. “What...” And the next thing December knew was that it felt like it was impossible to breathe. “I...” She couldn’t even function as she looked blankly at the man who she had planned on spending her life with...
~~~
When Bradley came to in the alley, it took him a moment to get his bearings. What? He must have slipped or something. That was really the only explanation, right? Shaking his head, he pushed himself up and took a look around. He didn’t seem to be far from St. Mungo’s and he took off at a brisk pace. December would be expecting him. As far as he knew, it was still the day he was meant to take her home. Home to the flat they would be sharing now that she had agreed to become his wife.
Brad smiled in anticipation as he drew closer. It felt like this was the moment his life was going to truly begin. He hadn’t even given his family the news, yet. It was silly, but he wanted to wait until she was well enough that they could tell them together.
The first sign that something was amiss came when Brad walked into St. Mungos and checked in, saying her was there for December. He was directed to somewhere other than the floor she’d last been on. When he saw her there, in a uniform and clearly working, his confusion grew. “‘Cember?” he questioned her. “Why aren’t you in your room? What’s going on?” It was the first hint that he’d done more than simply pass out for a few minutes, but he still had no clue just how much time he’d missed!
~~
The thought of actually getting words to work wasn’t happening. It seriously wasn’t happening. December couldn’t think, she could barely speak, much less even move from where she was. She was staring at him in a way that was different from how she’d ever looked at him before. It was as though she was looking at a ghost. The number of time she’d thought about seeing him, she wasn’t expecting this. She REALLY wasn’t expecting this.
“What do you mean why aren’t I in... Where have you...” Again she couldn’t get a single thought out. “I need to owl...” December turned and started fumbling with some parchment. “Have you seen your family? Do they...” December didn’t even notice it but she’d started to cry, tears were streaming down her face. She couldn’t.... “Alive.”
Dropping the parchment she managed to make herself move towards him. It took a moment but she reached out touching his shoulder. The shocked breath that followed almost hinted to the fact that she might faint any second.
~~
Bradley was growing more and more confused by the moment, but all of his questions were shoved aside when December started to cry. Without another word, Brad wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him.
“Shhh, don’t cry, baby, it’s all right. Whatever it is, it’ll be all right.”
It was obvious that something was seriously wrong. He didn’t know why she was so upset, but he did know that he’d do anything to fix it, anything she needed. In that moment, nothing else mattered but reassuring her that everything would be okay.
~~~
There was just so much that December could handle. She was shaking as his arms wrapped around her. It was hard not to fall into the comfortable and safe feel of his arms, but the fact was, in some ways December couldn’t tell if it was real or not. She was struggling with the intense emotions she was feeling and the intense amount of fear she was feeling.
Her weight was more on him than it should have been and the emotional side of her told her not to worry about it, but the healer side told her she needed to worry about it. Slowly moving away from him, her left hand moved to rest on his shoulder as her watery eyes looked to search his. “Where have you been all of these years?” Had it been a patient she might have realized he didn’t seem to know what happened, but for December this was the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with.
“Are you okay? We should get you to...” She paused realizing her own mind was blanking. “To... well, here.” Spell damages would make sense... if it were... it had to be... December’s mind was just running in too many directions.
~~
“Years?” Bradley’s expression grew incredibly confused, if it hadn’t been already. “‘Cember, what are you talking about? I was just coming to get you. I-” he trailed off. It was obvious that nothing was really as it seemed.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember. I was coming to get you and then I- I just woke up.” Shouldn’t he have known how much time had passed? Shouldn’t he have felt that it more more than minutes of even hours he’d laid there? No, that wasn’t right, either. If he’d been in that alley for long, someone would have found him.
“How long- what- what year is it now?” he asked finally. His brain was full of other questions, but who knew how those would ever be answered. This was one thing she could give him, though. She could tell him how long it had truly been.
~~~
“Bradley, it’s 2026.” She said trying to search his eyes. “We need to get you into a room, and healer... And...” She was struggling because she couldn’t exactly form full thoughts in her minds because she’d been positive that Bradley had probably passed away somewhere and his body was never going to be found. She hated the thought, but he’d disappeared in 2020. The day he didn’t show up came flooding back to her.
The fear as she waited, and waited. Luckily her sister Anne had been there, and eventually Aiden had showed up and helped get her to her sisters place. The days and months that passed with no news. She talked to most of his family every single day for the longest time. She’d talk to Aiden only about once a week asking if he’d heard anything or if his muggle contacts found anything, but the weekly turned to monthly and now she only spoke to him once every other month. December was supposed to be apart of their family but it hadn’t happened, and it was hard to... She was trying to move on and it just... She couldn’t figure it out.
“Come on, let’s get you to a room.” She said reaching out for his hand which had this mix of feeling like a normal day and mix of what the hell was happening and the fear that this was just a horrible dream again. December pulled lightly as she stopped a nurse saying she needed the head healer right away in the exam room she brought him towards.
~~~
“2026?” he asked incredulously. Rather than moving, he just stood there and stared at her. “I’ve been... six years? Why can’t I remember that? How can I have been asleep for six years?”
He didn’t understand how that was even possible, but he did understand what it must have done to his family, to his fiancee. “Merlin, ‘Cember, I’m so sorry. You must have been out of your mind. Aiden and Issie, Mum and Dad, they must have been-”
He nodded mutely, squeezing her hand as though it were a lifeline as he let her guide him toward one of the exam rooms. Brad didn’t want to see a healer, not when his family still didn’t know he was all right, but he’d do it for her. He never had been able to deny her even the simplest of requests.
~~
“Yes, six years.” She said softly. It was hard not to want to tell him everything they’d been through and how much she’d missed him, how worried everyone was. She couldn’t imagine how she would actually be able to explain everything. It was difficult for December to even focus on anything past well... he was here, but she needed to take it slow. That was all she could really do.
As they made it to the room she nodded. “Here, the healer is going to come in, and I’m going to go owl your family, because they need to be here.” She said searching his face for a moment but needed to look down before looking back up and slowly letting go of his hand as one of the nurses rushed in.
It took awhile for December to be able to actually move, a minute or so, but she finally started to move away and turned to leave the room, she hurried towards where she could get an urgent owl out, but as she got closer to where she’d needed to send out the owl, she had to pause. She leaned against a wall as her whole body started to feel like it was going to fall apart. “Get it together December.” She said as she finally started to force herself to stand up and move forward.
As she scribbled three different owls they all basically said the same thing Bradley just showed up at St. Mungo’s. By outwardly appearances he appears to be in good health, he doesn’t remember anything, he thought it was 2020. please hurry. - Love December. She sent the three off, one to his parents and one to each of his siblings.
It took December a few minutes to make her way back to the room where she’d left Bradley. She knew she had to owl his family but she regretted leaving him all at the same time. She could have asked a nurse to do it, but she knew she had to be the one to tell them. December just wasn’t sure how they were going to take it. As she rounded the corner to the room she’d left him in with the head healer there she smiled softly not wanting to interrupt.
~~~
Bradley would have resisted letting her go for any other reason, but he knew she was right. His family needed to know he was there. He felt awful for causing them even a moment of worry, any of them. So, he let December go as she pulled her hand from his and nodded.
“Thank you,” he told her, grateful as always for her. This whole mess was mad and confusing and he was really glad she was here. A part of him wondered what his long absence meant for them. He wouldn’t blame her if she’d moved on, but that was a conversation for another time. It wasn’t something they could discuss surrounded by mediwitches and healers.
The head healer came in shortly after December left and he let himself be examined, answering the questions he was asked as well as he could. That wasn’t very well, considering he had no memory of what had happened to him. When December slipped back in, he gave her a small smile, trying to somehow let her know he was all right, regardless of being unsure if that was really true.
~~~
Issie was, as she always had been during a working week, sitting glumly at her desk in Terror Tours, a bored expression on her face and a bottle of nail varnish at her side. It was always too hot or too cold in the office, and the moment it was the latter, and she shivered as she worked on a flower design for her nails. The hours seemed to go by slowly, and she hadn't had a customer in for hours. When the owl arrived, she perked up, hoping it was an invitation out or SOMETHING exciting. If she had to think about sitting at this desk another minute she would JUST DIE. Instead, the owl contained a scribbled note that Issie had to read 3 times before she fully let it sink in. Brad? HER Brad? BACK? She stood up so suddenly that she knocked the nail varnish all over her desk, and she swore loudly as she pulled out her wand to clean it up. Mungo's. She had to get to Mungo's NOW. With a huge grin on her face, Issie dashed an owl off to her boss that she was closing Terror Tours for the day, busily created a sign for the door, and set the wards as she grabbed her broom and flew to Mungo's as if she were on fire. Because, really, on the inside she certainly was.
The poor registry nurse and Welcome Witch were nearly bowled over as Issie raced to find December, Bradley's room and...her brother. She was out of breath and her hair was disheveled (and her nail flowers hadn't dried, ugh what a mess. She'd fix it later), but she didn't really care. There, on a bed looking every bit the handsome tutor she loved and missed and always HOPED would return, was her very own Bradley.
She couldn't even speak, her heart was in a lump in her throat, and instead a sob escaped as she rushed to his side and threw her arms around him, ignoring the warnings of the mediwitches who were poking at him. "Oh Brad, where WERE you??" she cried, tears of joy running down her face. "I KNEW you'd come back, I just KNEW it!"
~~~
It was a wonder Bradley managed to catch the girl who flung herself at him so quickly, before he could even register she was in the room with them. His arms went around her automatically, comforting her as if it were a reflex rather than a conscious maneuver. His heart ached at seeing his little sister like this. He had always been protective of her, always Issie had been the reason behind his few displays of temper, anytime he had seen her heartbroken and had instantly wanted to hurt the cause. Issie was hardly a fragile creature and yet he felt that instinct to protect her always. The thought that he had been the one to cause her distress in this instance nearly broke him and he was crying right along with her as he held her.
He wanted to answer her questions, but he didn’t know those answers himself. The healer seemed puzzled thus far, himself. Aside from the amnesia, Brad seemed to be perfectly healthy. There was absolutely no sign of trauma at all.
“Of course I came back, Is,” he told her instead, “I could never leave you forever.” He wouldn’t have left her at all, had it been his choice.
~~~
December was nervously waiting for any of the Wood family to show up, she guess Issie would be the first to show up, and when she was proven right she let out a small smile and soft happy laugh at her responses at seeing her brother again. She couldn’t imagine how happy Issie was to see Bradley again, of course she could understand it, but she just loved seeing Issie see her brother like that, tears once again were falling down her eyes as she watched. She took a few steps back so she could give them some more space. The last thing December wanted to do was to get in the way. He needed his family, he needed his siblings and what was more, his siblings needed him.
She nodded to the healer who came and December decided to whisper softly to figure out what exactly was going on. The healer while puzzled mentioned wanting to run a few steps and keep Bradley overnight just to make sure that everything really was okay. December nodded figuring that was probably the best option considering how long it had been and consider he seemed to think it was 6 years ago. She was about to say something but just at that moment the eldest Wood brother came bursting through the door.
~~~
Aiden had been leaning against a large table with a number of different handguns sitting on it that had recently been cleaned. It was very rare that he got owls and everyone who knew him knew he didn’t want to get owls while anywhere near the base unless it was a life or death situation. Lately he’d been more on the outlook because of everything that had been happening with the wizarding world. The muggle one had it’s own problems, but wizarding world was starting to hint to the dark days of the past coming back.
He was just about to start talking to his team when a private came towards him holding a letter as though it’d been delivered by a monster. “Sir. A letter arrived to you... By bird sir.” The private said as he handed the letter over.
“We’re testing a new method of covert communication, if you are going to be worried about one simple bird, I suggest you think if this is really the place for you.” He said trying to cover as best he could for the fact that an owl had just delivered a letter to him. He opened it and his complete stance and appearance changed. He’d often gotten annoyed with December when she used to right too much with possible sightings of his missing younger brother, but this was different. This saying he was... That wasn’t... How could it... His men started give him a funny look and he picked up on it quickly.
“Jackson, take over.” He said to his most trusted member of the team as he as calmly as possible took off, when he was finally out of sight he jogged to the appearation spot. He didn’t often travel by magical ways, but this was a case in which he had to. When he got to St. Mungo’s he got a number of strange looks as he often did, these days he screamed muggle. “I told you, I want to know where Bradley Wood is, I’m his brother.” He snapped as the witch at the reception desk seemed uncomfortable with letting him in. After another heated few words he was waved over by someone who was close to December.
It was almost as though he’d walked into a different world as he saw his baby sister there with is little brother. The rush of emotion that was filling him was challenging and he glanced at December nodding to her but his attention was on his siblings. “It’s about time you showed your face again, I was starting to think you prefered being missing.” He said although the words might have sounded less than friendly, the tone and the look on his face screamed out how much he’d missed his younger brother and worried about where he’d been.
~~~
It was almost too much when Aiden arrived. There they were-her handsome brothers! A hand went to Issie's face as she took the scene in. To think that just this morning she was bored out of her mind thinking nothing exciting would happen and now EVERYTHING was wonderful again! Of course, there was still a matter of what exactly had happened the last 6 years. Was he kidnapped? Under a spell? Did he get caught in a time vortex? It must have been important for him to leave December and his family behind. She glanced over at the other women, and brushed her tears away. December looked more confounded than she had ever seen her, and she could hardly blame her. Who would expect this to happen, after all? She let Aiden and Brad talk now that the brothers were together, and slowly made her way over to the woman who looked like she was trying to fade into the wallpaper.
"December," she started, quietly, putting her hand on her arm. "Are you...are you all right, love?" She took in the other woman, but her face was so hard to read. Was she happy Bradley was back? Or was this just hard? She knew December had tried to move on with her life. Of course she did, how could she not? But Issie had never given up hope that Bradley would return. The way December looked, it seemed clear that she had. She looked like she was looking at a ghost. And maybe they all were.
"Thank you. For owling me like that."
~~~
Anyone else might not have realized how affected Aiden was, but he was Brad’s brother. They might have had their differences, but Brad knew him well enough to read his emotions. He knew now matter how unfriendly Aiden’s words might have sounded, he was relieved to see him and that rush of guilt hit him all over again. Despite not knowing what had happened or where he’d been, despite being sure he never would have left them of his own volition, Bradley could see that the people he loved the most in the world had hurt because of him and he hated that.
“Sorry,” he choked out at Aiden’s words. That one word encompassed so much, but he couldn’t find the words to apologize for everything he had obviously put them through. “Next time I fall off the face of the earth, I’ll be sure to drop you a note.” That perhaps sounded a bit cheekier than he intended, but the pure anguish he felt at hurting December and his family was written all over his face. It was enough that the mediwitches asked him if he was in pain and he had to shake his head. He wasn’t, not physically, and there was no potion they could give him to ease the growing seed of guilt. He’d done this. Whether he remembered or not, he’d managed to hurt the people closest to him.
Aiden had always made December somehow nervous and feeling safe at the same time, and luckily she knew him well enough to understand what he meant by the words he'd said to Bradley.
It was easy to get lost in the moment. In many ways it felt like time had stopped. She glanced from sibling to sibling so happy not just for the fact that she got Bradley back, even though she didn't have a clue what that meant, but that his family got him back. Actually she was thinking more about his family than she was herself. They needed him and that was really what mattered. She was trying to stay out of the way when Issie started to talk to her.
Her eyes drifted from Brad to Issie as she tried to think about how she was supposed to answer that. Instead she just nodded, that was the best that December could handle. It was too hard figuring out anything else, it was too hard to find words and she was scared she'd say the wrong thing. Part of her though maybe leaving the family be would be better but she decided against that quickly. "Of course, I owled as soon as she could." She said finally giving off a for smile.
"You didn't do anything wrong." She said softly as she caught sight of Brad's face. She still knew him, that had never changed.
~~~
A short nod was directed at Issie as she checked on the clearly shell shocked December, the poor thing did look as though she'd seen a ghost. Aiden's eyes drifted back to his brother as he clearly started to judge for himself just how okay he was. He'd be trained to take in a situation, asses it and figure out the best course of action. Those habits had become more ingrained since Bradley had disappeared. He was always on the outlook for him, and every time he went on a mission he secretly hoped to find his brother.
"Please do, although I suggest muggle mail, it doesn't frighten my team." He smirked although he glanced at December. "However the right cases do sometimes call for it."
There were a million questions that he wanted to ask Bradley, where had he been, what was the last thing he remembered, were there any scents or sounds that he could think of. There were too many things that he needed to now, although he supposed his brother had the same level of questions, if not more.
"You would have been my best man, but… you missed a very lovely nonexistent wedding." He said hoping maybe he'd get at least half of a laugh out of either of his siblings. The thing about Aiden was, he didn't really date. Ever. He was clueless with women and everyone knew it.
~~
"Right, the sheep ran off," Issie joked, hoping to lighten the mood. She was so happy she could hardly hold it in, though she knew why there should be, and would be, so many emotions flowing through the room. The brother that had been given up for dead or gone forever (except by her, though she wouldn't rub that in now) had returned. She wondered when her parents would come barreling in here. Oliver wasn't exactly known for being reticent. If anything, Oliver showed all of his emotions all the time and she could well imagine that the room would be filled with the burly old Quidditch player's sobs before long. Glancing back up at December and nodding a bit at her response, she made her way back to Brad. December had a lot to work out. She didn't blame her for being weirded out. But all Issie could process at the moment was that her lovely Brad was back. She took his hand, squeezing it, a huge smile plastered on her face.
"You're late to your tutoring duties. You're lucky I passed OWLs and NEWTs."
~~~
Bradley did laugh at his brother’s joke. It helped that they were both trying to lighten the mood. Laughing pulled his mind away from unanswered questions, from both awaiting and dreading the moment when he and December could be alone to really talk.
“That’s my girl, you aced them anyway, didn’t you?” he smiled, looking at Issie with such pride. It didn’t matter how she’d done, really, because she was his baby sister and he would love her even if she’d failed them all. And it was easier to continue the joke rather than to let that nagging voice tell him he’d failed her. He knew he had, but he was trying to keep this reunion a happy occasion.
Brad, too, wondered when his parents would come barreling in, Mum with her calmer demeanor that was so like his own and Dad who would be all emotion. He wanted to see them desperately, being kept overnight when all he wanted to do was apparate home didn’t sit well with him, but his protests fell on deaf ears as the staff at St. Mungo’s insisted it was for his own good.
~~~
The number of emotions that December felt was terrifying. In many ways she had no idea how to handle everything that she was feeling. She knew Issie was lightening the mood, or at least trying to. December just wasn't sure exactly what she should do at that moment. Stay with them, give them family time, go fall over from shock? There were a lot of things that could happen but what should happen was what she was trying to figure out. What did they need? What could she do to try and help them all out? December really didn't know and she didn't have answers. She wanted answers.
The Wood siblings always seemed to have their own kind of conversation and December always had enjoyed it, and now while she smiled she still felt an aching as she couldn't figure out what to do.
Luckily for her, she didn't really get the chance to as Aiden's attention clearly shifted to the door.
~
His own lightness had been followed up with one of Issie's own. The lighter tone and conversation was probably exactly what they all needed at that moment. There would be time for the more serious conversations and most likely they'd be a more "one on one" thing than anything else. Aiden knew he'd want to speak with Brad and Issie one on one and just the three of them.
He put a hand on Issie's shoulder when he was about to say something about his sister and passing anything that involved tests when he heard rustling and his attention turned to the door. He didn't really get a chance to say anything as Oliver and Penelope Wood came barging into the room to see their missing son returned.