[305]She's gonna blow six candles out. [open]

[Tristan Clarke]

As much as Tristan did not want to believe it, Emily was going to be six years old in just a couple weeks. She had already been planning out her party, and said that she was going to invite everyone in her kindergarden class. Tristan smiled as she drew pictures for her 'invitations.' When she said that she was going to invite her mother to come from heaven to the party, Tristan could not help but hold his daughter in a tight embrace. It was the sweetest thing he had ever heard. And it was even sweeter coming from his daughter.

As far as a party went, though, Tristan was not too optimistic for that. For the last five birthdays he had invited family over to celebrate Emily's birthday and that was just fine. But as Emily was growing older and Tristan had lost all his family except for her, he knew that this year had to be different. He was going to make this birthday special for her, especially because it was her first one away from her only home in Greece. So, Tristan was going to stretch this birthday out, bringing her on little trips here and there, spoiling her and making her feel like a princess. Because she was his little princess.

But he was a little stuck on what to do for her. He still had time to figure that out, but it was not too long. A few weeks actually. So, one Friday evening while Emily was in her room drawing more invitations, Tristan was sitting in the living room on the couch, just trying to figure out what he could do. Then, in the middle of his heavy thoughts, he heard a knocking on the door. He frowned, wondering who it could possibly be. He had not been here long enough to make any friends who would just show up unannounced. He walked over to open the door.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly smiled as the door opened and Tristan's bemused face was peering back at her. "Hi there," she said cheerily, her eyes sparkling. "Don't fret, I'm not stalking you or anything but these somehow found their way in with my mail; seems like the owl post is just as reliable as human post." Kelly grinned as she held up three sealed letters clearly not addressed to her, and handed them out to Tristan. "I have to say that it's harshly ironic when the most mail I get isn't even for me."

Kelly hadn't been surprised when she'd gotten the wrong mail; it wasn't the first time, and the woman was quite used to it. Wanting to know whose door she would be knocking on to deliver it properly, however, Kelly had looked up flat 305 in the Follet Towers directory, and had been relieved to find she vaguly knew whom it was. She remembered well the chat between the two, in a random meeting in Muggle London, and couldn't help but be curious as to how Tristan was going.

Dressed in comfortable black trousers and her favourite faded Weird Sisters t-shirt, bare feet depite the cold outside, Kelly shivered involuntarily, smiling all the while. "So how are you, Tristan?"

[Tristan Clarke]

Tristan looked from the mail in Kelly's hand to her face and smiled. "Oh, okay thanks," he said. "I didn't know you lived her in Follett Towers. What a small world it is." He took the mail from her and glanced at it. Two of the letters were junk mail. The other was a letter from an old friend back in Greece. Tristan smiled, glad that someone back in his old country was thinking about him. He looked back up at Kelly.

"I'm doing all right," he said. "A little tired from work and trying to figure out what to do for her highness' birthday coming up." He pointed toward Emily's room where she was still busy drawing and not thinking about who could possibly be at the door. He smirked. "Would you like to come in for some coffee or something?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

He had only just met Kelly but he felt like she was someone he wanted to get to know better. He was actually very glad that she had come by even if it was to give him some mail that was accidently left with her. He held the door open a little wider, hoping to entice her to come in.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly grinned back and shrugged her shoulders, "It's no trouble. Just a couple of flights of stairs, since apparation over small journeys really does my head in," she laughed. "Of course I live in Follett Towers; what self-respecting witch wouldn't these days? Unless, of course, she were a teacher or something akin to that profession."

Kelly smiled warmly, the act lighting up her face. "A birthday? Ah how old?" she asked, her hazel eyes sliding past Tristan to attempt to catch a glimpse of the pretty girl, before she figured that Emily wasn't in the general vicinty.

At Tristan's invitation, Kelly smiled again and nodded, secretly pleased to get out of the cold. "Sure, coffee sounds great, thank you," she said, stepping inside as Tristan held open the door.

[urgh; sorry, not very good.]

[Tristan Clarke]

Tristan smiled and nodded. "Of course," he said. "I should have known better." The thought of being a professor sent a shiver up his spine. He had enough to deal with taking care of his daughter. He did not want the stress of fifty other kids. Well, they weren't kids but by the time one gets as old as Tristan [and that is something we are not going to mention] everyone under the age of eighteen is considered a kid.

Tristan held the door open and held out his hand as if he were presenting the room. "Come on in, my dear." After Kelly had made her way in, he shut the door and went over to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee. He prefered making it the muggle way. It was slower, but he also did not trust magic and things one injests. Obviously, Tristan was not one for potions when he was in school. He had not made a potion since he graduated from school.

"Make yourself comfortable," Tristan yelled from the kitchen. He then put on the pot of coffee and returned to the living room. "Yeah, Emily's turning six in a couple weeks. I always freak out when her birthday comes around. She's just that much closer to being a teenager. I don't think I'll be able to handle when she starts bringing boys home. And if she gets married, then she'll move out and... oh, man."

He sat down on the couch and held his head for a moment. Then after a couple of deep breaths he looked up and gave Kelly a small smile. "Sorry about that. I've always been that way. The day she was born, I was already panicking about her going away to college. My, uh, former wife, Racheal," he gestured toward the painting of her on the wall, "told me that that I was going to end up being one of those overprotective, sheltering fathers." He shook his head and smirked. "I'm a little crazy, I know..."

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly grinned again as she walked further into Tristan's home, glad for the warmth. "Thank you, kind sir," she replied teasingly. Kelly's eyes travelled around the living room as Tristan walked away into, presumably, the kitchen. His request to make herself comfortable floated out into the front room and Kelly obliged, wandering around the room on her bare feet. Gazing at the photographs adorning the walls, Kelly tilted her head to one side, puzzled by the sight. The beautiful woman was, Kelly assumed, Tristan's wife. But...where was she?

Tristan's next comment made Kelly jump slightly; she'd forgotten for a moment where she was, and turning from the portrait smiled at the man as he returned to the living room. It was natural, she assumed, for parents to be anxious at their children's birthdays, and so she passed no judgement on Tristan's worry. Kelly sat down beside him and patted him gently on the back, smiling. "Ah don't apologise. It's okay to be worried about them. But don't stress too much; ten years is a while away still," she said. Kelly couldn't really imagine herself in ten years, even though twenty-eight didn't seem much older to her than eighteen did.

Tristan had resumed talking and Kelly pushed away her musings. Former wife made the witch's automatic curiousity perk up, but Kelly didn't say anything about it. Kelly laughed to cover her pause and shook her head. "For some reason, I doubt that. I know a few overprotective, sheltering parents, mothers and fathers, and you do not seem like one of them," she said, rolling her eyes. "My own, included."

Kelly's eyes travelled back to the photograph on the wall that Tristan had gestured to, and couldn't help her next comment as it fell out of her mouth. "She's very beautiful," she said, turning back to Tristan.

[Tristan Clarke]

"Dang, ten years from now..." Tristan looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how old he would be by that point. That was a scary thought being almost forty years old. Good thing, Tristan still had ten years before he had to worry about that. "Yeah, I seem like I'm not too overprotective. I wanted to sit in the back of the classroom when Emily started her first day of school. But of course they wouldn't let me. I think that is about the only time we're separated though, when she's at school."

Tristan noticed the look of confusion on Kelly's face. He understood very well how odd the phrase, 'former wife' was. Rachael was not Tristan's ex-wife because she did not willingly separate from him. In fact, using the term 'ex' was quite negative. But when Tristan moved back to England, he decided that from then on, he was going to live life calling her his former wife. Before than, he had called her his wife, even after she had died. But he was told that one of the steps to dealing with the tragedy was to move on with life. "Rachael passed away a couple years ago," he admitted, sighing.

"Yeah, Emily looks just like her mother," he said softly. "I'm glad though. There was no way she was going to be as beautiful as she is if she showed more of my genes." He chuckled and looked at the picture of Rachael. If there was ever a daughter who looked just like her mother, it was Emily Clarke.

He sighed and then got up from the couch. "Well, Kelly, what would you like in your coffee? Cream? Sugar? Something really odd and random that I could not possibly think of?"

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly grinned again at the worried expression on Tristan's face, though in the back of her mind still trying to picture herself ten years older. It wasn't easy; all she could see was a few more laughter lines. Such a euphemism. Kelly laughed teasingly, and raised an eyebrow. "That kind of behaviour is okay until she turns about eight and starts to get annoyed," Kelly grinned, thinking of herself as an example. Kelly's mother had been the very epitome of overprotective. Though, come to think of it, Mrs. Evans was still overprotective.

Kelly's smile fell from her face as Tristan told her about his wife, and she mentally kicked herself again for asking questions when she should shut up. Suddenly uncomfortable, as one gets when they find out someone has died, Kelly remained quiet for the moment, her mouth mirroring Tristan's small smile at his banter. The woman's eyes glanced again to the portrait of Rachael, and Kelly's heart went out to both Tristan and Emily. "I'm sorry, Tristan, I shouldn't have asked," Kelly apologised, looking contrite.

"It must be hard," she commented, her eyes soft again. Kelly had thought losing Josh was hard enough. In that moment Kelly realised that she'd had an ultimately safe upbringing, guarded from horrors like death, disease and destruction. She honestly couldn't imagine what that kind of loss would be like. There were plenty of cases where she wished her mother would just go away, but never had she wished it for ever.

Kelly cocked her head to one side as she glanced again at the picture of Rachael and back again to Tristan. "Oh, I don't know. I think Emily has your eyes," she commented, working off memory. At Tristan's question Kelly snapped out of her reverie, and smiled again. "Sugar and milk would be lovely, thank you," she said. "Do you need a hand?"

[Tristan Clarke]

"It's going to be absolutely ridiculous by the time Emily's in high school," Tristan admitted. "But at least I can say I'm an overprotective father. The first step to ending a problem is admitting that you have the problem, right?" He chuckled and when back into the kitchen to get the coffee and all the fixings for it. "Don't worry about it," he called from the kitchen when she offered help. "I got it." He came back out with two cups of coffee, sugar, and milk. He handed her her cup placed everything else on the coffee table in front of the couch.

He could tell that she felt awkward after the question regarding Rachael. Tristan thought that by now, Kelly would understand that he had no problem with her questions. They were curiosity, poking at the world of another. Tristan would probably do the same thing. And he did not mind telling these stories to Kelly.

"We've gotten over the biggest hurdle: the immediate shock has worn off," Tristan said. "Emily seems pretty good now. It was hard to explain it all to her, but I think she understands the concept of heaven. We pray to her mother before going to bed now. It's our special time together." He gave a small smile. "Speaking of which, I'll go get the little rugrat."

He got up and went over to Emily's room. "Hey, Em, come out here. Miss Kelly's here. Do you remember her?" A moment later, Emily came out of the room staring at Kelly. She did not remember much about their first meeting so she just stared at her. Tristan chuckled and guided her over. "We met Kelly at the mall the other day," he whispered in her ear. Emily looked at him, trying to remember.

"We did?" she asked. Tristan smirked and ruffled her hair. He then picked her up and sat her on his lap. With his head next to hers, he looked at Kelly. "Do you really think we have the same eyes?" he asked with a smirk.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly grinned again and shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Think about it like this: being overprotective just shows you care. Some kids wish they had overprotective parents," Kelly said seriously, before she chuckled again. "That's right. Admittance is the first step to recovery." At Tristan's refusal for help, Kelly settled more comfortably onto the couch, looking once more around the room.

It was a lovely house, as far as she could see, and traces of the two Clarkes were stamped all over the place. For a moment, Kelly missed the essence of another person in her own apartment, and her expression turned melancholy. After having Kat in her apartment for so long, Kelly didn't like to be alone anymore. As Tristan returned, Kelly pushed the thoughts away impatiently and smiled at the man, accepting the cup of coffee thankfully. "Thank you," she said warmly.

Kelly sipped the brew gently before Tristan spoke again, and she swallowed, cautious. She accepted his 'don't worry about it' and looked down, still feeling rude. One corner of her lip turned up into a small smile and she thought of the small girl in the next room, still unable to imagine losing a parent. Praying had never been a thing for Kelly, but she could appreciate the gesture for the two of them, and smiled again as Tristan announced Emily's imminent arrival.

Kelly smiled warmly at Emily and waved, one hand holding tight to the coffee mug. "Hi there, Miss Emily," she said, her tone light. "I hear you're having a birthday soon, are you excited?" she asked, playfully. Kelly looked back to Tristan and nodded, sincerity written on her face. "Oh, I do. You probably can't see it yourself," she replied.