Who: James and Brianna When: Late morning, Thursday, November 2nd Where: Overlook Estates
Brianna arrived home far later than she really meant to the night before. She’d had a few drinks at the Back Porch, and then once she was positive the kids would be in bed, Brianna drove home, intoxicated mostly on the new feeling swirling inside of her, but maybe a little bit from the alcohol. When she got home, Brianna had walked quietly up to the bedroom she shared with James to get ready for bed and was relieved when she found the bed empty. Assuming James was in his study, or down in the den, Brianna changed quickly, brushed her teeth and her hair and then climbed into bed. She didn’t think she would ever fall asleep, given everything that had happened in the past few hours, but within minutes of closing her eyes she was out.
When she woke in the morning, Brianna rolled over to James but found his side of the bed empty. It was rumpled, which told her he had come to bed at some point, but had risen early. Maybe to go for a jog. Either way, it was a relief that he wasn’t there, and judging by the time, Phee and Sebastian would have already left for school. Perfect.
She didn’t want to waste any time, so Brianna slipped from bed and showered quickly. Once she was dressed, she headed downstairs, tying her still damp hair up into a loose bun on her way. She hadn’t even bothered with makeup, so desperate to get to work where she could call the insurance agency about her car and then try to figure out how to explain things to James, should they come up. Maybe she would get lucky and he would be called out of town for a case, or something before she would have to. Brianna hurried into the kitchen to make a quick cup of coffee to go and to grab a couple aspirin, her movements hurried.
James was in a mood. That was the best way to put it, anyway. He wasn't even sure which mood - there were too many. So James was in moods. There was irritation and wonder, curiosity and a deep sense of betrayal that he didn't know what to do with. He knew his wife fucked around on him, he fucked around on her, it wasn't a big deal. Last night though... He'd felt the heat of her body, unnatural sort of heat that he knew he was only sensing because of his own abilities. Yesterday had been strange enough with his kids magic going haywire but feeling magic radiate from his wife had been a mindfuck. He'd gone to bed anyway, stared at her shadow in the dark and tried to make sense of it all. Needless to say he hadn't slept much.
He was sitting in the kitchen when Brianna came rushing in, greeting her only with a quirked eyebrow. His mood was probably showing, though he wasn't sure which one. The suspicion, irritation, curiosity, wonder? Maybe all of them in one neat fucked up package. He raised his bottle of gatorade and drank, not taking his gaze off her.
Brianna felt a sharp, unpleasant jolt of surprise when she found James already in the kitchen. They had been married long enough that she knew how to read his moods with a glance and almost immediately she felt her spine tense at the way he watched her without greeting. Maybe he had seen the damage to her car and was upset. "Good morning." Brianna smiled at him, her face feeling stiff as she walked over to the coffee machine. She needed something to do with her hands. It would help her focus. "I thought you had gone for a run. Did you sleep well?" Cursory morning questions to get her through these next few minutes before she could slip out and get to work.
"Not really," James said honestly and even now he could feel that energy coming off her, nowhere near as strong as the night before but enough that he noticed. "Is there anything you want to tell me, Bri?" There were probably a lot of things she did not want to tell him and a lot of things he didn't want to hear but when it came to magic, James wanted to know everything. He still couldn't really believe that she was a witch but maybe something had happened to her. It was unlikely, as unlikely as the theory that she hadn't known. She'd asked for no magic inside the house, for their kids not to practice, if there was magic in her blood she had to know.
She felt it too. His magical energy. Brianna had never been able to feel it before, probably because her own magic had been so dormant. But now she felt awake, a soft hum of something intoxicating, just beneath her skin. Given what she had been taught about magic, the danger to her and her family, the insistence that she never try to practice, it frightened Brianna on some level, because she had no idea what had happened, or what it meant. But at the same time, having something trigger the magic in her blood was just...indescribable. She couldn't do anything about it until she figured out what was going on, but Brianna couldn't say it was a bad feeling. Certainly not the kind of nightmare her mother had warned her it would be if she disobeyed her parents and tried to practice.
Brianna's movements slowed a touch as considered his fairly direct question. If she could feel his magic, he could almost definitely feel hers. He was obviously more powerful, more experienced than she. So did she lie and feign ignorance? Brianna knew her husband well enough to know that would only serve to set him off, and she wasn't itching for a fight this morning. So she started the coffee machine before finally turning to give James her full attention. "Do I really have to say it?" Brianna asked, hedging the question without blowing it off completely. "I would say based on the look you're giving me right now, you know what I am."
James wanted to ask her why she hadn't told him sometime during their twenty years of marriage but it was beneath him to be hurt by that. Something had clearly happened to his wife and whatever it was it likely explained the sudden surge in his kids' magic. "What happened last night?" Was the question he settled on out of a multitude of questions, the logical one and the one least likely to show hurt feelings. He was trying hard not to go into cold lawyer mode because this was Brianna but he could feel it there, flickering on the surface.
Brianna might have responded more warmly to any visible signs of hurt feelings from her husband, but the two of them had always had trouble expressing that level of vulnerability. Brianna's emotional pain was usually projected through anger. And James, through control. Despite the fact that she had wanted to sneak out undetected that morning, Brianna now felt a stiffness in her spine, a refusal to back down and run away. Perhaps she was in the wrong here, on some level, but it was what it was, and she had her reasons. Walking around the kitchen island, she approached James, though she paused at a comfortable distance. "I don't know what happened last night," she told him. "I was driving home and something just... it felt like I was on fire, but it didn't hurt." She nearly told him that she ran off the road and fucked up her car, but one thing at a time. "I know you're probably angry, but I don't have any answers for you, James."
"I think you do," James replied and ran his fingers through his hair as he leaned back in his seat. "Did you know?" That was a simple yes or no answer for her. They'd all known that magic ran in the McCarthy bloodline but as far as James had known he had married someone who had none. He might have found it easy to believe that she hadn't known anything about it if she hadn't been so opinionated about his magic and at this point James was beginning to regret not examining her reasons for it more closely.
Her jaw clenched briefly and a hint of temper flared in her green eyes before she shifted and folded her arms against her chest. It was a defensive gesture, and given he was an attorney, he would recognize it. He would also recognize a lie at this point, so Brianna saw no reason to be dishonest. "Yes." The answer was simple and matter of fact. "But I don't know what happened last night, and that's the truth. I never felt anything like that before." Brianna paused briefly, her tone softening. "I had my reasons for not telling you."
"Now that I know, do you want to share those reasons?" James asked, not changing his own stance or his carefully neutral expression. He could be cruel, he could hurt people but that did not include his wife. He kept a careful divide between those personalities of his and while his family definitely heard him rant and curse about other people they never saw the full extent of his ire, particularly not directed at them. He had to admit that the divide felt shaky at the moment because this was big, so much bigger than having secret lovers or squirreling away money. There were a lot of things James did not care about but magic was not one of those things.
Brianna studied him, wishing he would show some emotion beyond that carefully controlled exterior. She didn't even care if he got angry with her, she could work with anger. But this was frustrating her and she knew some of that had to do with the knowledge that she had kept something fairly important from her husband from the get go. "It's complicated," Brianna murmured. "My family hasn't practiced for decades. It was to protect me, and I didn't want our kids to practice because I wanted to protect them. I was afraid of what you would say if you knew who my family was." Did she tell him everything? Brianna wasn't sure whether this was the right time or not, but a part of her felt like he would understand if he knew the whole truth.
James was debating whether to tell her that her hiding and suppressing her magic had done a host of harm to their kids - at least in theory. Something had happened last night and it was clear now that it had to do with her bloodline and not his. He thought about telling her that he was teaching them now but no, it felt prudent to focus on one thing at a time and bringing up what had happened with their kids would shift the focus onto them. Her maiden name didn't tell him a damn thing and while James was sure he could go dig up bloodlines and history, it was easier to attempt to get it from her. "Tell me about your family," he said because while most people did not care who their ancestors were, witches always knew.
"My bloodline dates back to the Six, though they weren't one of the families. They were spared," Brianna explained. Now that she was telling him the truth, it felt like she was lifting some invisible weight from her shoulders. Years and years of lying by omission had taken its toll on her, even if she felt validated by it. Now she wanted him to know, so he could finally understand her. "The name was Baron, but it obviously has changed over the years. Something began to hunt my family, locating them through their magic. So we stopped practicing. All I knew was triggering my magic meant that I would be a target, as would my children, if they began to learn when they turned thirteen. No one could know," she said, finally feeling some sense of guilt that she had never told James, even though she had good reason not to. "The Barons blamed your family for what happened to this town. They blamed the six families. Those grudges never died, apparently. Why do you think my family won't speak to me anymore? I married you."
James got up, leaving his bottle on the table as he strolled over to Brianna. He clasped her arms firmly but gently, studying her face for a moment. "What exactly did you think would happen if you told me this?" he asked, his mind working hard at putting together the pieces in his mind. Sebastian had started learning and last night things had gotten strange. Maybe this was why and his family was in danger. He could have easily been angry with Brianna for it - for not telling him when knowing all of this would have helped him keep things in check. To their kids, magic was forbidden in the way sex was forbidden for some teenagers. Not dangerous, just taboo and exciting. "If I don't know what's going on under my roof I can't protect you, Brianna."
It was instinct to tense when James reached for her, but his fingers weren't uncomfortable around her arms, so she exhaled softly, her fingers curling in against her palms. "I don't know what I thought would happen," Brianna told him. "This was just how I was raised. We weren't supposed to talk about it with anyone and I didn't want to put myself, or our kids, at risk. I never felt like I needed protecting, James. I'm sorry I kept this from you, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time. I didn't expect anything like this to happen. I don't even know what happened, or what caused this."
James nodded and while he still felt a surge of annoyance at being kept in the dark for so long he also felt some pity for his wife. She was the one who usually managed to play on what little empathy he had and he wanted to have more facts on his side before he made any rash decisions. "I'll figure it out," he muttered, filing away the name Baron for later. "If you or the kids are in danger I will protect you, you know that." He eased his grip a little to stroke her arms, brows still furrowed though it was more in thought than frustration. "My fire witch wife."
Brianna felt a sense of relief that he didn't seem angry, or even cold, toward her in that moment. Maybe she should have told him sooner, but she hadn't wanted her family to come into any danger and her mother had been so adamant about never revealing their heritage to anyone, even her husband. This was obviously quite a shock for him and Brianna softened a little at his words. She brought her hands up to cup his face, thumbs brushing against his jaw. "I'll help you figure it out," she murmured. Brianna wanted to promise not to keep secrets from him any longer, but she knew it would have been a lie. He would've known it as well, so she bit back the words. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I should have trusted you."
"Yes you should have," James said and it sounded like a somewhat petulant version of 'I told you so'. He leaned down to kiss her forehead and for now things were good between them, at least on the surface. James did not like to get into arguments unprepared because James liked to win, this applied as much to his family as it did his job. "Your parents never told you who - or what - was hunting you?" It could have been just a story they told her, driven by some other reason, religion could lead down strange paths for example, but if it was true that meant they were walking targets now. James made a mental note of strengthening the wards on the house before he went digging up old history.
Brianna knew things were far more complicated than this conversation, that there was still a lot they needed to learn and understand, but she was grateful that James hadn't gone off the deep end. "They never told me," Brianna murmured. "But I thought it tied back to the Six somehow. My family always viewed yours as the enemy because of what happened so long ago. Not just your family, but the others as well." She sighed in resignation and closed her eyes. "With what happened, I probably need to reach out to my mother and see if she'll talk to me." If this happened to her, maybe it happened to her family also. James would know how Brianna felt about having to talk to her parents, but it felt necessary now.
James had a similar thought about talking to his father but he wasn't sure he felt like dealing with whatever reaction he'd get from the older McCarthy. He'd certainly not be understanding as he'd never been on board with James's kids not learning to use their gifts. If anything he would only resent Brianna more so that was not really a path James wanted to take. He frowned softly at the mention of Brianna's mother, shaking his head a little. "Last resort," he muttered. "I'm sure we can find answers without involving our parents." There were a few adjectives he could have stuck before parents but he had enough self control not to.
Was it a last resort, or was it the only option she had? Maybe her mother knew more than she had ever told Brianna. They hadn't spoken in so long, despite living in the same small town. But she selfishly didn't want to talk to her family, so Brianna decided to cling to James instead. "Last resort," she agreed before sighing. "I don't even know where to start, James. But I'll do what I can." There was a lot to think about, and a lot to prepare for. If something, or someone, was hunting her family, she needed to do whatever she could to keep them safe.
James was still angry somewhere underneath the calm exterior but it wasn't exactly aimed at Brianna and that feeling of wonder was more pronounced. His wife was a witch too, her magic had been so completely dormant that he hadn't felt any of it, not even when she lost control during sex. Now here it was, sparking off her in what he could only describe as the emotional equivalent of sitting in front of a fire, feeling the warmth and watching the light flicker. It was beautiful. "I will put up protections," he muttered, as if he hadn't already done so. "And now that your magic is awake it is time for you to learn how to use it."
Brianna hesitated, the doubt evident in her eyes. She had gone her whole life believing magic was wrong, that it could lead to something, or someone, dangerous. Yes, it was awake within her now, but was she ready to actually use it? "I don't know if I'm ready for that," she told him. "This happened so suddenly. I don't want anyone to get hurt." Brianna wasn't sure where she would even begin. What if she couldn't control it? She exhaled softly through her nose. "The responsibility of all of this shouldn't fall on you, James."
James shook his head, not even dignifying that with a reply. His family, his responsibility - whether she liked it or not. "You can't put it back to sleep," he told her. "It's awake now and you need to learn to control it. Not teaching the kids was a mistake and I don't repeat mistakes, I learn from them." She could argue but he wasn't going to budge on this one and he was sure she knew that after their years of marriage.
"Even if I could put it back to sleep, I don't know that I would want to. Not with how it's making me feel." Brianna had a selfish streak within her, and when something felt good, it was hard to let go of it. Right now the magic, as subtle as it was, made her feel alive. On fire, but in an intoxicating way. No wonder her mother had stressed never practicing. If Brianna had, she wouldn't have been able to stop. She still felt that defensive tension stiffen her spine when James implied that he would teach the children. It was so hard to let go of the past, to relinquish control over the one thing she actually had control of in their home and marriage. "It only just happened, James. Give me a day to just... think about this, okay?"
"Take the weekend," James said somewhat generously while hoping it was clear that that was all she was getting. A few days and then he would start teaching her and the kids. It was probably a good idea to tell her why it was important that they do that, but he was still feeling bitter about being kept in the dark and as such wasn't terribly ready to start telling his wife anything. "Now have some breakfast, I should get going." He let go of her though he kept one hand on her arm, lightly rubbing it. He smiled faintly then, latching onto what she had said. "Feels good, doesn't it."
The weekend. She had some work to do, but she supposed it would be smart to take a few days to get used to this feeling, and to ultimately decide what she wanted to do about it. Glancing back at the coffee maker, she had nearly forgotten what she came in here to go. Grab a coffee and head to work. It was going to be hard to concentrate on much today. His question drew her gaze back to his face and Brianna studied him silently for a moment before responding. "It feels... unusual," she said, not quite ready to admit that he was right. She leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. "We'll talk tonight."
If James had anything to say about it they'd do more than just talk tonight. He might still feel upset and frustrated but his wife was experiencing new feelings that - if James's own experience taught him anything - were quite invigorating in more ways than one. He could teach her a thing or two without it being a formal lesson and already he was tentatively looking forward to the night. "Try not to burn any of your houses down," he murmured with a lopsided smile when she moved away again.
"Ha ha," Brianna said dryly, though she had a feeling that was probably a possibility if she didn't watch it. She didn't feel out of control, but she knew nothing about what was going on inside of her now. She would just have to trust her husband and put faith in him that he could help her. Her hand lingered on his arm for a second more before she moved away to finish her coffee. Brianna was well aware that this conversation could have been bad for the both of them, so she was a little relieved that they seemed to find some common ground. James would no doubt still be angry that she had kept something this huge from him, but they would work it out. They always did.