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Ann Shimpling ([info]healerstouch) wrote in [info]valesco,
@ 2008-03-07 21:50:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:noralie thompson, west sumpter

Who: Nora and West (I know, it's mind bottling)
Where: Diagon Alley
When: Friday between 5 and 6 pm

Nora made it through the week. Despite all the poking and odd looks and blunt questions from both her students and the doctors, she'd survived. And she didn't mind it all so much, it just got bothersome after five straight days of seven year olds calling her chubby. But...that wasn't important. Right now the only thing on Nora's mind was Italian food. Carbohydrates, garlic, tomato sauce and...bugger, ice cream as well. That'd be easy enough, though, she would just make a quick swing by Fortescue's before heading home. She felt her stomach turn oddly and her hand subconsciously went to her stomach. It wasn't hunger, but...well, she wasn't sure if it was the baby either.

There was an adorable display up in the Quidditch store, so adorable that she was unable to tear her eyes away from it. She thought briefly of Griff and the upcoming match before she ran into something solid and stumbled back again. A quick panic ran through her body but she didn't end up actually falling over (thank goodness). "Merlin, I'm really sorry," she said quickly, turning to the person she ran into. "I should be more careful." She was blushing a horrible shade of red, breathing deeply to try and get rid of all her unnecessary adrenaline.


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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 06:50 am UTC (link)
"Right," he grunted, waving to the counter, "So, water and some sort of huge ... fluffy ... pastry ... thing?" Girls liked that sort of thing, he seemed to remember. Griff liked them, so that was always a good point of comparison. "Since we can't have you ... you know, fucking with the kid. Pretty sure Griff would flip his shit." And truthfully, West wasn't so anxious to mess around with a kid. That was over the line.

"Look, uh. We're going to have to talk about what happened eventually," he muttered low under his breath, shrugging off his jacket and setting it down on the back of one of the chairs. As much as he didn't want to ... well. Maybe it would make things easier in the long run?

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:02 am UTC (link)
She smiled at the suggestion of fluffy food. Food was always good when you were eating for two. It didn't matter what kind of food it was.

But her smile faded when he mentioned everything that had happened. She'd tried so hard to forget about it, she didn't want to think about it...or talk about it, or whatever. "Would you rather do that in private?" she asked quietly, watching her fingers as they idly drew circles on the wooden table. "I don't think it'd be good to try and talk about this out in public..."

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:05 am UTC (link)
"People seem to avoid what I say more often than not," he admitted with a shrug, coming back to the table with a coffee for himself and a water and cruller for Nora. "We could ... talk in private, though." Later, after the food.

Which meant that they were going to have at least twenty minutes of awkwardness while they ate. Great. Just ... great. And having the woman at his flat would be disastrous -- he didn't clean up much. Hopefully nothing was ... erm, growing.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:14 am UTC (link)
Nora nodded, still staring at the table. "I think that would be...better." As much as she wanted to avoid it all together, she had a feeling West was going to insist upon them talking. And if it had to happen...private, definitely.

"So, how bad have things been lately? What with finals coming up, it's probably been..." she trailed off mid-sentence, figuring he knew what she was getting at. To be honest, she had no idea what else to discuss with him--Quidditch just seemed the best option.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:18 am UTC (link)
Quidditch was definitely something that was considered 'safe' with West. It was a good way to put him at ease, at least. "All right, then. My flat's not too far from here." Bugger, why hadn't he asked if they could go to her flat?

Probably because he didn't want to think about being in the same place that Griff and the woman in front of him had had horrible, wrong, heterosexual sex. West took a sip of his coffee and then glanced to her curiously, brow arched.

"It's just that training's a lot more intense, I think. Everyone's sort of high strung." No matter what team they played on.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:29 am UTC (link)
She nodded. "Probably nothing like Hogwarts Quidditch," she said off-handedly. It was really the only thing she had to compare to, but she distinctly remembered getting overly stressed when she was the captain for Hufflepuff, especially in 72 when they managed to win it all.

Nora took a large gulp of water (hey, at least she was a cheap not-date date, right?) before shrugging. Bugger, she couldn't think of anything else to say. This was going to be extremely awkward.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:32 am UTC (link)
Definitely. It wasn't like they were going to trade sex tips about Griff, because West was definitely not comfortable thinking about his lover in bed with a woman. Ugh. He shrugged, taking another long sip of his coffee. "...Yeah, not really. More like you're competing against mutant Slytherins, when it comes down to it."

He was surprised that he hadn't made her cry or something already. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant thought ... as long as she kept her hands off Griff.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:49 am UTC (link)
Oh, no, her hands were far away from Griff. She hadn't talked to him much, let alone seen him since everything happened. She supposed it was because they were so busy, but...well, she wasn't with him. Really. Maybe it was bad, but she was slowly getting used to her independence again.

"Oi. Mutant Slytherins...good luck dealing with that," she replied with a smirk. The Falcons would probably live that to a T in the upcoming match. She felt really comfortable at the moment...it was somewhat scary.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 05:22 pm UTC (link)
"Oi, it's the same as every year." He'd been playing long enough that it was starting to become routine, the few weeks of playoffs out of the year being more intense than the rest. She was comfortable ... which meant, of course, that it was time to make her uncomfortable again. He looked over to Nora with a hesitant arch of his brow and then nodded down to her mostly-finished pastry. "We ... should get going, you know? Head out." To his flat, where they could talk about personal matters. Not being able to talk about them was starting to make West one ansty Quidditch player.

Never mind how baffling it was that they were getting along, at least superficially. Maybe it was his subconscious trying to one-up Griff so that he wouldn't be in danger of being the one who got hurt.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 05:36 pm UTC (link)
Biting her lower lip to stop herself from pouting, she nodded. "We'll have to go to a floo grate, though. Apparating is yet another item on the very crowded ban list," she said as she slowly pushed the plate away from her. The food had been nice but it wasn't settling like it should have; her nerves were getting to her, now. Did they really have to discuss all of this? What was there to discuss anyway? She'd seen him...well, doing THAT with Griff and that was that. It still upset her a bit to think about it all but it was no use trying to push it out of her mind now, not when she was heading over to his flat to re-hash it all over again.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 05:45 pm UTC (link)
West wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but he was fairly certain the niggling feeling in the back of his mind was going to persist until he talked to her about ... certain things. At least he could bring up things that he was relatively sure that Griff would never bring up out of politness' sake: it meant that he could ask her a few of the questions he hadn't even brought up with Griff yet.

He let out a breath and finished up his coffee, nodding as he pushed out of his chair.

"All right, then. I think there's one about a block away?" He was relatively certain, at least.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 05:52 pm UTC (link)
She stood up slowly, really not wanting to cause a scene because she decided to move too quickly for her body to handle. "Let's go, then," she murmured in response. She pulled her coat back on, holding it tightly to her body as they exited the cafe and headed down to the nearest grate. She'd never been to his flat (obviously), but she wondered if it was similar to Griff's or smaller or bigger or what.

She honestly didn't care. She was just grateful that they weren't heading over to her place instead.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 05:56 pm UTC (link)
Definitely smaller. He nodded, rubbing his hand through his hair and glancing over to her. Merlin, this was going to be awkward. They arrived at the floo grate without any trouble and West offered her an arm, assuming that she wouldn't want to fall on her arse as she got into the floo or anything.

West was definitely at the head of a moral dilemma. On the one hand, she'd been pretty civil for having found him blowing her 'boyfriend'. That meant she at least deserved a more coherent explanation, right? Right.

And he wanted to figure out just how much she ... wanted to have the kid. "So. Do I need to get you some sort of special furniture to sit on when we get there, or can you deal with the couch?"

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 06:04 pm UTC (link)
Nora laughed as she stepped into the grate. "Couches are just fine. I'm needy, but I'm not that needy." She paused. If she could afford a decent couch, she knew a Quidditch player could afford one.

"So, where are we flooing to?" It'd probably be good to know since...you know.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 06:06 pm UTC (link)
"Oh, it's still within the area. Ten blocks away, maybe." He was hesitant to give her his actual address in case she ... went crazy and decided to go vandalize it in the middle of the night or something. That would be just his luck.

Then, of course, he realized since they were flooing...

"Harpsing Apartments. Fourteen-A." West picked up a handful of floo powder for himself and then smirked. "I'm not promising it's going to be ... neat. Just so yo know."

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 06:15 pm UTC (link)
Nora rolled her eyes. "I have two older brothers and work with small children. Messes are my life." Oh, she really didn't like going to visit Mark and Nathan at their places; things moved on their own.

But, you know, it took agility and sneaky skills to vandalize in the middle of the night. And both of those had gone out the window when Griff knocked her up. So, West was relatively safe. Relatively.

She got her own bit of powder and waited a few minutes after he disappeared to do so herself. It wouldn't be good to pop in directly onto him, she decided. Especially since...it was him.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 06:20 pm UTC (link)
That would definitely not have gone over well. West nodded to himself once he got out of the floo and unlocked the door of the apartment so that Nora could walk herself in once she popped up. Merlin, this was a horrible idea - especially with him having a match tomorrow. His planning skills had never been particularly good, though, so he'd chock it up to that.

"...okay," he muttered once she came in and he closed the door, "Look. I don't know how you feel about your -- thing -- baby -- daughter -- but ... Griff is kind of a girl, right? So he's gonna want to see it." Right, he'd start off with that. Put her at ease about how Griffith wasn't just going to ignore the fact that there was a child involved with them, now.

West had tried that for a few months and it hadn't actually ... worked.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 06:28 pm UTC (link)
She sat down gingerly on his couch. Well, the mess wasn't too bad. She listened carefully as he spoke and felt hopeful at the mention of Griff wanting to see the baby. "Of course he will. I mean...he's been to my check ups, so...he wouldn't just change his mind once she's born," she said softly. If he was dedicated enough to all of this to see the baby in utero, he'd want to be there once she was...right. "I wouldn't just keep her from him. He's got just as much right to be with her and around her as I do." Even though it was her life on the line when it came down to child birth and actually bringing the baby into the world.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 06:32 pm UTC (link)
She was agreeing with him - that was a good thing, right? West frowned a little to himself and then nodded. "Yeah, I mean -- I'm glad you realize that. I'm not sure how you ... feel about it yourself. I know that chicks don't really dig the 'surprise pregnancy' thing anymore than us blokes do." Not that it had ever happened to him because he was relatively careful on the off chance that he shagged bints.

He huffed, opting to stand and pace instead of sitting on the couch next to him. "He's -- a good guy, you know. Just kind of soft and stupid." At times.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 06:43 pm UTC (link)
"You'd have to be pretty thick to not realize that," she replied with probably a bit too much annoyance in her voice. Okay, so that was probably wrong of her, but really. She wasn't a fucking moron.

"I cried the first two months. Because I didn't know how to tell him. And...well, I wasn't sure how to deal with everything," she said slowly, quietly. She'd never vocalized that to anyone--and yet here she was, telling West. It felt so wrong. "I know he's a good bloke," she retorted. If she'd thought she was in love with him, of course she knew he was one of the good ones. "I just don't know..." she shook her head.

"He's not--" Merlin, why couldn't she form a decent sentence? "I just want this to turn out well for us. I want him to be around the baby, and I want to be around the baby myself but--" she stopped again. She was having a breakthrough of sorts. She and Griff had only discussed it once or twice, but it was really sinking in now. She wasn't sure if she wanted to marry him; to deal with the publicness of their relationship, with the scandal, with ending up with a bloke that didn't really love her the way she loved him. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and tried to hold them back, but...fucking hormones.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 06:49 pm UTC (link)
He grunted. "Look, I don't know you real well and it's not like we've got a very good track record, but I don't think it's fair to Griff or you to end up being caught in some sort of ... stupid ... fucking ... marriage because Griff's not quite man enough to stand up to his family when it comes down to it," he admitted, starting to pace once more. West seemed to remember a case when one of his cousins got knocked up for the sake of someone else and ...

Well, that was brilliant. "...I'm sure we can ... figure out something," he shrugged, trying to keep the glint out of his eyes. It was more than a little insensitive to just blurt it out, but West wasn't exactly Mr. Sensitive.

"I mean, if you wanted to ... surrogate." He really only half-knew what that word meant.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:01 pm UTC (link)
Wait, what? He wanted her to just...but. She pouted up at him. "Are you saying that you want to be part of my daughter's life? And--if Griff won't even admit to being..." she paused, trying to figure out the right word to say without being offensive, but gave up quickly. "If he had to date me to keep up his 'stright front,' I doubt he'll want to be so public about it. So...we're stuck with this." She didn't exactly want to be stuck but...well, it was all up to Griff how this went, really.

"And if I decided to go that route, you two would have full custody of her after she was born. I wouldn't...well, legally, I wouldn't have any right to see her. And I don't know if I'm okay with that." She wanted to be around the baby, she knew that. She just didn't want to marry the baby's father? She held back a laugh at the thought of the recess rhyme that the little girls in her class threw back and forth at each other first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in a baby carriage. Somehow she and Griff had missed that memo. "If I'm dealing with being bloated and hungry and hormonal for nine months, I think that entitles me to being her mum..."

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:06 pm UTC (link)
"Right, well Griff has less choice in that matter than he thinks." Because he wasn't about to just ... deal with being queer and having Griff keep up the straight front. "And what you're meaning to say is 'if Griff won't admit that he loves the cock'." See? Not so much with the sensitive terms, here. He continued to pace while she spoke, trying very hard to keep from just tuning her out. This was important.

"And you really think that Griff would let me be enough of an arse to just keep you away from the kid? I'm sure you have this skewed vision of me as a homewrecking bastard, but I'd be inclined to remind you ..." That she was the one who got knocked up? "...that I'm not the one who got you pregnant." That was Griff. "It's not like we've both got a lot of free time during the matches and playoffs and practices, love." He snorted.

"Anything but free time."

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:14 pm UTC (link)
Yes, she did think he was that much of an arse.

"So...it'd be a public thing?" she asked slowly, wanting to be sure about what she was agreeing to as a deep blush developed on her face. She was just going to ignore that whole 'loves the cock' statement. "And...essentially she'd be mine to take care of while you two are off playing and practicing?" Not that she minded it, she rather liked the idea of being around her daughter that much. Maybe this could work out. Maybe.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:16 pm UTC (link)
She was agreeing again! Score one for West. And he was not that much of an ass ... at least not privately. In pubic was another story.

"...yeah, I mean. It'd save the both of you a lot of hassle in the long run, I think, to explain it like this." He paused when she spoke, nodding. "Er, and I mean ... more or less often as you see fit, I guess." It couldn't be that hard to balance custody, right? Sure, West, delude yourself further. At least he'd stopped pacing - he was now standing in one place, fidgeting. He crossed and uncrossed his arms.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:27 pm UTC (link)
"This means that you're still going to have to deal with me and being around me." She wanted to make sure he realized that. If they were even thinking about forcing Griff into some sort of weird contrived surrogacy story, they'd have to be together on this. And at least civil towards each other. And once the baby was around, it would be juggling between the three of them and keeping everyone informed of health concerns and other things and--oi, was she really thinking about all this?

She wouldn't want to have the bulk of baby time, just because she--well, she had work as well. But maybe they could figure something out. "So...you got a plan for how this is going to work out?" she asked softly, looking down at her hands. She felt comfortable and weird about all of this at the same time.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:30 pm UTC (link)
"That's been a surprisingly small problem so far," he pointed out. After all, they'd had coffee and then she'd come back to his place. Now they were talking like civil people without shouting ... and coming to actual conclusions. That pretty much summed up the ideal situation in which people 'got along'. But ...

"Yeah, I do realize that. We're going to have to gang up on him over this, you know, but it's better for everyone in the long-run." See, West was capable of occasionally thinking about other people besides himself - especially when Griff was involved - so people really ought to stop being surprised when he did something decent. "'s far as plans go ... I don't know. We're going to have to do something big, you know? Make sure it sticks and that the 'rags aren't just making shit up."

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:38 pm UTC (link)
Ugh, she was so fucking tired of the rags. "Well, you've got more experience dealing with the publicity than I do," she said with a shrug. She didn't know the first thing to say or do to come up with a good, logical solution to their problem.

"Just...let me know when you come up with something clever," she said slowly with a smirk. "If you're capable of doing something clever." Okay, so she was poking him a bit, but she meant it all in jest so...it was okay, right?

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:42 pm UTC (link)
West snorted when she spoke. "Oi, I know that people think we beaters are all brawn and no brains, but ..." Well, he'd hidden a homosexual relationship for two years! That had to count for something.

"I'll let you know," he arched his brow and let out an intensely relieved laugh, scrubbing his hand through his hair. "I've got an idea of something clever, but it might end up with his fist in my face instead of the reaction I'm hoping for," he admitted. It was the sort of men that they were. "Long as you're ... uh, not going to throw anything at me over this, I think we'll be good."

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 07:55 pm UTC (link)
"Well, the throwing things all depends on how out of whack my hormones are when it happens," she said slowly, smiling. "But...it can't be as bad as what happened the first time around, right?" No, it couldn't be that bad. Nothing would ever touch that.

She wasn't sure what else to say, but...ugh, she wanted to apologize but that probably wouldn't be good for right now. No, she wasn't going to. She still didn't think she'd done anything wrong. Everything that had happened so far...happened for a reason.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 07:58 pm UTC (link)
"Oi, well ... I'm pretty good at dodging, being a beater and all. I'll try not to hit it back at you." Because Merlin knew that would be horrible. He smirked, shaking his head and glancing over to her.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't a completely horrible woman. That was ... an interesting epiphany. "So we're good, huh? As ... good as it can get, considering." At least she wasn't still shagging Griff. That would have made things at least a hundred times worse.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 08:08 pm UTC (link)
"Five years of Quidditch at school. I think I'm decent enough at dodging myself," she explained with a wink.

Of course she wasn't still shagging Griff. That had stopped a while back. But bugger it all if her sex drive wasn't out of control. And of course, no way to really take care of it. "I suppose so. Who would've thought..." Well...plotting did make for strange bedfellows.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 08:14 pm UTC (link)
Strange bedfellows also made for ... strange bedfellows. He laughed, shaking his head. "I'm sure Griff will flip his shit, but that's half the fun, you know." He couldn't help the fact that his smirk was only widening...

And there were plenty of ways for her to handle her sex drive. She had a hand, didn't she? Of course she did. He licked his lips.

"Can ... I get you something?" He heard pregnant chicks wanted to eat constantly so it was only polite to offer, right?

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 08:25 pm UTC (link)
She wasn't a do it yourself kind of girl when it came to her sex drive...well, not by choice at least.

She smiled. "Not unless you have pickles and grapes on hand." Actually, she still wanted Italian. "And garlic bread." Yeah, she had weird cravings. The little bugger was going to have such odd eating patterns once she was born.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 08:27 pm UTC (link)
"...no, but I can order in if you're interested. I dragged you here to talk about your impregnated-by-a-queer baby, I think it's the least I can do." Which was ... definitely true, the more he thought about it.

West arched a brow at her and then laughed. "I've got the grapes and pickles. Garlic bread ... not so much." And really, he could go for some Italian, he supposed.

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[info]healerstouch
2008-03-08 08:38 pm UTC (link)
She shrugged. "Up to you. I mean, if you think you can handle spending more time with me," she said with a smirk. She wasn't that bad, she didn't think. She shifted a bit on the couch, trying to get comfortable since she'd been sitting there for a while.

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[info]westisbest
2008-03-08 08:41 pm UTC (link)
"I'm sure I'll be able to handle it. You said yourself we're going to have to be united on this 'forceable coming out' thing." Because Merlin knew Griff wasn't just going to lie back and take it unlike in bed.

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