don't worry, it's tomorrow's mess [closed]

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly sat in her chair behind the wooden desk in her dimly-lit office in St. Mungo's, her pretty face marred by heavy lines across her forehead. It was late in the evening; the window stood open to let in the night air, slightly cooler than the day had been, and the hospital on the other side of her office door was quiet, visiting hours had ended, families had gone home to those loved oness not entombed in the hospital.

She stood up quickly from her chair; too quickly, and had to clutch the edge of the desk to steady herself, her other hand pressed to her heart as if she were in pain. A piece of parchment, stamped with the hospital logo and her own name printed in big, black letters, lay on her desk. At first glance it looks like any other test result, innocent of any and all crimes, but in this case, it may as well have its own cell in Azkaban for all its guilt.

The witch shook her head and sat down heavily in her chair again. She picked up the parchment, stared at it for a long moment, then put it back down. Resolutely, Kelly stood up once more, crossed the room to where the medical supplies were and opened the cabinet, trying not to look at her reflection as she did so; pale face, flushed cheeks, wide, dark eyes. She pulled out a syringe and needle, tourniquet, cotton swabs and a bandage, and went back to her desk.

Laying all the equipment onto the dark wood, Kelly snapped rubber gloves onto her hands then tied the tourniquet around her arm, set up the syringe, and, taking a deep breath, plunged it into the soft skin in the crook of her elbow. As easy as this was for her to do, Kelly looked away as blood trickled into the vial, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach and the pounding in her head.

The procedure complete, Kelly swabbed the spot in her elbow and bandaged it, released her arm from the tourniquet and threw the syringe away. She considered doing this the long way, but decided against it; her patience was limited at the best of times, and this was certainly not an example of the best of times. Kelly picked her wand up from her desk and jabbed the vial of blood twice, quickly, muttering a spell under her breath as she did so. It wasn't swish and flick, but it certainly levitated her blood pressure a few decibels higher.

Unable to even drum her fingertips against the desktop as she waited, Kelly simply stared at the vial of blood, her face growing paler and paler as the red blood turned translucent, shimmering in the light. Within three minutes a disembodied voice uttered a single word into the silence of the room, and suddenly the fluttering in her stomach became a tidal wave and she leaned over the waste paper basket and vomited into it, holding her hair back as she coughed up apparently everything she'd had to eat that day.

And meanwhile the bloody vial shimmered on her desk emitting that single word, the word she'd never wanted to hear regarding her own person, and certainly not at this point in her life. After a few moments the test fell silent, but the word rang in Kelly's ears like a bad song, one she'd never get out of her head.

"Pregnant".

[Straw Buckett]

Protocol sucked! You couldn't even get away with a mere paper cut these days without having to fill out piles and piles of paper work and lengthy visits to the hospital. There had been a raid and unfortunately Straw had managed to dislocate his shoulder in the process. It’s what you get when you forget your wand and attempt to dive tackle on a man double you're size instead. Kat wasn't going to be impressed, Straw really wasn't either, this would drastically effect play time with the kids.

Having popped his shoulder back in, cuts stitched up and drinking some potions that tasted worse than Kat's cooking ... [well that's only half true, Straw loved her cooking expect for the times when she was pregnant or mad at him. Then he'd have to smile and eat whatever green lumpy thing she served up. Straw had taken great care to not annoy his wife before it was her turn to cook.] .. he was finally allowed to leave.

Never the less the whole process to fix a dislocated shoulder was more pain then it looked. Arm in sling, feeling a little queasy at the thought of food, Straw thought a quick stop via the Magical Accidents Attending's office before home might make him feel better. It was after hours and the place was a quiet as a ghost town, had he really been here that long? Making his way down the hall he quickly located Kelly's office. Knocking twice he let himself in announcing “Only me!"

"Jesus Kel, are you ok?" were the next words to come from his mouth as his eyes fell on a very pale Kelly Evans sitting at her desk. The vomit from the waste paper bin tingled his nose, not the most pleasant but he could deal with it. The triplets had certainly made worse smells. Straw closed the gap between them and he knelt beside her, placing a hand on her back. "What's wrong? You not well?"

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly half straightened as the knock sounded on her office door, and then bolted upright as Straw sauntered in. She barely registered the sling on his arm; with one hand she opened the drawer in her desk, and with the other swept all the medical paraphenalia into the open drawer with a clatter. She looked down at Straw as he knelt beside her and patted her gently on the back, attempted a smile and gave up. "I'm okay," she said. She stood up shakily, crossed to the sink in the corner of the room and filled a glass of water, downing it in a few gulps.

She filled the glass up again and rinsed her mouth, trying to ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach. Kelly sighed and moved back over to the desk, sitting on its edge instead of in the chair. She crinkled her nose and lifted her wand again, vanishing the contents of her waste paper basket with a silent spell. "Sorry you had to walk in on that, Buckett," she said apologetically, lifting her hair off her shoulders and twisting it into a bun.

Hoping beyond all hope that he'd not heard the hideous ringing voice, Kelly gestured at the sling and raised her eyebrows. "What happened to you, then? Did Kat finally crack and try to kill you?" Better to make nothing of her situation, and everything of his. Distraction 101. Besides, omission wasn't exactly lying, was it?

[Straw Buckett]

Regardless of the circumstances of your childhood, the moment you go from being ‘a guy’ to being a parent ‘you get it’. You get that feeling of what it is to love something more than life itself. You’d do almost everything and anything for your child, a feeling you can’t possibly comprehend till you hold that tiny person in your arms for the first time. Straw had fallen ten times over in love with his children. Every moment, sleeping or awake Straw lavished in. From tantrums to their laughter, Straw believed he could understand their moods from a single look or expression on their little faces. With such love though came interesting life lessons. He now understood why his mother could always tell when he was lying, without witnessing the event; he could tell who had started the confrontation. And he knew when they were hiding something from him. A similar vibe in fact to the one he was getting from Kelly. Straw wasn’t always the brightest tool in the shed but this he was sure about.

Straw stayed unmoved as his eyes followed Kelly across the room and back again. Finding himself going into ‘father mode’ he began to analyse her actions; Standing shakily, quickly crossing the room to down a glass of water, looking slightly pale, quickly hiding the evidence of being sick, attempting to deviate from the question. “I’m ok, dislocated my shoulder whilst attempting to take down a suspect this afternoon. Not my finest moment but I’m ok. Don’t think I’ll be doing much play time any time soon,” He paused and looked the woman up and down. “Was there someone else in the room just now?” Recalling the moment he was about to enter the room and feeling like he’d heard another voice. “I swear I heard another voice,” Straw didn’t take his eyes off her, something about Kelly didn’t sit right and he decided that he wasn’t leaving till he figured it out.

"You sure you're ok?"

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly knew that Straw did not believe her. She knew it as soon as the words came out of her mouth, knew that the bravado didn't quite reach her eyes. She hated lying, even lying through omission, especially to Straw, because she would never accept lies from him. But there was no way she was ready to talk about this right now. Not yet. Not before she spoke to...

At the thought of Jacques, Kelly's heart gave a great leap and settled itself somewhere around the back of her throat. Oh god, what am I going to say to him? She couldn't tell him, not yet. She didn't even know what his thoughts about... the subject were, though given she didn't know what her own thoughts were, fathoming anybody else's was a joke. Kelly forced her mind to focus on Straw as he answered her question. Though in all fairness, she could barely concentrate on anyone's pain but her own.

"Definitely no play time for a while," she commented, her Mediwitch voice kicking in just a little. Kelly pressed her hands to her stomach for a single moment, trying to quell the dragons that were flying around inside, and jumped a little at Straw's question. Keeping her face and her voice clear, Kelly shook her head. "No, nobody was here. I was just analysing a test for a patient from earlier, and it's a vocal test, that's probably the voice you heard."

She fidgeted a little in her perch on the desk, and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Is there anything I can do for you, Straw? Or did you just come in to say hello?" Kelly wasn't trying to be short, she didn't want to hurt her friend, but at the moment she felt all she really needed was to be alone. And probably cry.

[Straw Buckett]

Although he had all the sense to believe her, Straw was not convinced. Something just didn't sit right in the young man’s stomach. A patient's results clearly had not resulted in her strange behaviour. It was very unKelly-ish to react how she was over someone's test results, unless it was someone she knew, something bad to someone she cared about. Suddenly Straw was back standing looking very serious. "I'm sorry but as you're friend you have to understand that I don't believe you,"

Kelly was one of Straw's closest friends. You could even say that Straw had two wives, Kelly practically was a second mother to his children. They'd known each other for almost 10years. No one knew him better and he couldn't think of anyone other than himself and Kat who knew her best. They'd been through too much and Straw confidently could bet his life on the fact that there was something Kelly wasn't telling him.

It was written all over her, he could hear it in her voice, read it with a single look into her eyes and if body language was anything to go by Kelly was a walking advertisement that something wasn't right. Fidgety, on the verge of crying. The attitude in her voice.. the signs rolled over and over in his head till he couldn't without himself anymore.

"Is there something wrong with Kat that I should know about?" He said sternly. An uneasy feeling took hold of his stomach, why else would she be so secretive and upset. It had to be Kat. He knew it, there was something wrong with Kat because who else could it be? Kelly told him everything about her... except when she'd made a stupid girly pack with Kat.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly fought down the urge to roll her eyes, and bit her tongue against the frustrated sigh that threatened to come up out of her throat. Instead she shook her head, tried to smile. "It doesn't surprise me, but I wish you would just take my word for it, Straw," she said, her voice dangerously quiet. She loved Straw, she did. There was very little she wouldn't do for him, or for his family, and generally, when Kelly had a problem, Straw would be one of the first people she would approach with it. But not this. Kelly couldn't talk about this with anybody yet, not until she'd had time to wrap her head around it.

"There's nothing wrong with Kat," she said sternly, standing back up off the desk. "And there is nothing wrong with me, either, so you can stop looking at me like that. You know what the food is like in this place; I've obviously eaten something that wasn't quite cooked properly, and it's disagreeing with me." Kelly felt her temper flare up at the flat expression in Straw's eyes as he continued to gaze at her, unbelieving, and she turned away, not wanting to look at him anymore. Kelly couldn't handle a fight with Straw right now, but she was tired of the questions. She just wanted to go home and figure things out.

"There's nothing wrong with me."

[Straw Buckett]

"That's crap and you know it!" He paused walking aggressively away from her, "I'd expect this kind of behavior and foul attitude from anyone else but you Kelly..." he frowned. Why wasn't she telling him. How bad could it be? There was no valid reason for him to believe her anymore and even if this was becoming rather juvenile of Straw, he was not about to back off until she told him. They shared everything together, what could possibly be THAT awful and precious that she felt she couldn't share it with him?!

"You know what, doesn't matter," Clearly the emotional spin put in his voice suggested that he did care and in fact was hurt by her denial to open up to him. Throwing his one good hand out like an over dramatic drag queen, Straw made for the door. "Fine, whatever Evans. Nothing wrong and the world is made of fairy floss." Now he was just being silly but he didn't care. Straw was mad, mad that she wasn't talking and opening up to him and mad that she was being bloody stubborn about it when he was just trying to help.

"You know, certain people expect certain degrees of behavior and actions from you. As you're friend of god knows how many years.. I thought I was at least privy to such things. Guess we're not as close as I thought we were"

[Kelly Evans]

And with that, the dam broke. It was too much; she'd had people throw that word - expectation - around for too many years, been the target of too many 'but darling, you could do so much better's, from people that were supposed to love her without question, that to hear it from Straw now was the final, well, straw. Slamming her hands against the desk, Kelly spun around and watched as he stalked across the office and stopped next to the door. "Don't you dare, Straw! Don't you dare stand there and make this about you! If I have something going on right now, it's MY decision to talk about it, MY decision to let you in to my thoughts, not yours!"

Kelly straightened her back and squared up to Straw, her feet planted firmly on the ground, her head up to look him in the eyes. She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that this was probably going to be one of the stupidest, most pointless fights they'd ever have, but at that moment Kelly was ready to rip somebody apart, and she couldn't exactly blame herself for her problems, could she? That would be much too logical, and way too mature for her to handle.

"You want to know what my problem is, Straw? It's people like you, looking down on me because my life is different from yours! People like you who decide that their way of thinking, their beliefs and their life choices are the only ones that matter; it's your way or the high way with you, it always has been!" Kelly paused to take a breath and drew herself up even higher. The very ends of her hair seemed to crackle with her anger, and the dim lights in the office flickered, ever so slightly. She saw Straw open his mouth and retort and she held a hand up, cutting off whatever he wanted to say before he could take a breath.

"Just get out, Straw. If you're so paranoid about our relationship that the one thing, the ONE THING that I want to keep to myself is making you question all these years, then I don't want you here. Did you ever think, that if there is something going on with me, that I just don't want you to know right now? That maybe, just maybe, I need to deal with it on my own, before involving you and Kat?" Kelly's dark eyes flashed in her pale face, and she crossed the office floor, flinging the door open and pointing with one hand.

Kelly closed her eyes and in a low, steady voice, muttered, "Go home, Straw. Go home to your perfect wife and your perfect life, and stop insinuating that I don't know how to run my own."

[Straw Buckett]

Eyes ablaze like a raging bull Straw was unprepared to back down. Possibly because there was so much emotion behind their arguments they both were blind to sense. This most certainly not about him, he hated how girls could twist and manipulate his words, turning the argument away from the fact that this way actually about her refusing to respect him and be honest. Straw believed he was only trying to help and she was blatantly lying and treating him like he was some stranger wanting to know her business.

Opening his mouth to rebut her comments he was silenced by her erect hand. Fuming, Straw listened to her ridiculous accusations, every sentence fuelling his anger. "I'm not trying to make it about me, you clearly don't trust me!" his words harsh and rising. "Can't you see I'm trying to help you you idiot," Straw almost burst out laughing at that last comment. He'd never called Kelly an idiot before and the word was so ridiculously lame but he was too angry to stop now. "You're clearly lying to me about something and it's not nothing as nothing doesn't make you vomit sweat and act like a total maniac!" Ok, now he was asking for it.

And suddenly she was at the door pointing for him to get out. "Fine, off I go to my merry old mansion and amazing life! Yeah that's right cos my life's so perfect I'm freaking Mr Stepford himself!" he stated over sarcastically glaring at her. How dare she accuse him of such idiot claims of a perfect life with perfect values? With that he left, fists clenched, heart thumping furiously against his chest and swearing profanities under his breath.