Who: Bess Zeller, Veronica Zeller, and Fabian Prewett (ultimate Kristin thread!)
What: DDDD:
Where: Bess' flat
When: Saturday afternoonish?
Bess awoke with a start, breathing heavily. She had quite possibly just had the worst nightmare anyone's dormant mind could imagine, and even though she knew she was awake now, was still shaking at the images. Death eaters---well, she only saw one, but it felt like more, things were moving so fast and...and one pinned her down to the couch, it was--horrible, she couldn't--Sadie had been crying so hard and then all of it just
stopped and---
The sound of her front door slamming elicited a shriek, and Bess finally took the time to look at her surroundings. Tables were tossed on their sides, plants were knocked over and dirt was spilling to her normally impeccable floor---picture frames were crooked and her wireless was shattered against the wall.
It--it hadn't been a dream, she'd---Bess looked down at her self and noticed for the first time since she'd been startled awake my her nightmare--the
images---and let out a frightened shout as the sight of her shirt ripped open and her stockings torn and---
"SADIE!" she shrieked, nearly falling to the floor as she flew off the couch. Her memory was foggy, but things were quickly coming back--he'd pushed her onto the couch and--there had to be someone else---Sadie wasn't in her playpen, they'd just come back from the park and someone had pushed her into the flat---"
SADIE IT'S MUMMY!"
Bess' hands grabbed onto the frame of her daughter's room so she didn't topple into there, her legs felt like jelly and she nearly collapsed at the sight of the empty nursery. "SADIE?
SADIE! BABY---WHERE'S MY BABY----"
Veronica stared down into her pocketbook, rustling through a few things to find the bottle that she was supposed to bring back to Bess. After watching Sadie a couple of night ago, she had held onto it, but knew it was her niece’s favorite. “Where is that…oh!” She stopped in her tracks as she saw someone coming down the hallway from the opposite direction, towards her sister’s door. It was Fabian, who didn’t seem to be paying much attention to where he as going either. He looked up to see Veronica, a smile crossing over his lips as he stepped towards her. “Hey, didn’t expect to see you here!” He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek, which was returned. “Yeah, I’m…sorry, did you guys have plans or something?” “Huh? Oh, no, I was just…dropping by. You?” “No, I just have to give something back to Bess. She left something at my-…”
It was then that the both of them stopped talking and turned to look at the door once they heard Bess scream Sadie’s name. “…did you hear that?” Fabian spoke quietly, stepping closer to the door before he looked at Veronica, who was frozen in place. Then they heard her scream again, which made them both go towards the door and turn the handle, pushing open the door to rush into the apartment. Veronica got there first, and tossed her bag to the side as she bolted into Sadie’s room, stopping dead in her track as she saw Bess crumpled up on the floor.
“Oh my God…” she whispered, bringing a hand to her mouth as she stared at the empty crib, her eyes watering before she lowered herself down to place her hand on Bess’ shoulders. “Bess…” That was the only thing she could think of to say. And while she struggled to find more words, Fabian passed the both of them to go further into the room, placing his hands on the side of the crib, staring into it. His heart was racing, and there was a knot forming in his throat. He shut his eyes and lowered his head, gripping tighter onto the furniture, where Bess’ daughter was supposed to be. Veronica, on the other hand, moved closer to her baby sister. “Bess what-…what happened?”
She'd dissolved into tears long before Veronica had come in and at the sight of her sister Bess frantically reached for her, grabbing onto her shirt as she tried to explain. All that came out was choked cries of terror and---
Fabian was here
too and oh
God why couldn't they have been here---she--she didn't even
know when all of this had happened, it could have been an hour ago, it could have been yesterday, it could have been
ten minutes and---and---
"They---they---they
took her!" she shrieked, pushing herself up but finding that there was absolutely no strength in her legs and Bess leaned helplessly against the frame of the door, "Death--
death eaters and---and---I
know it was him, I
KNOW---HE USED TO TELL ME HE WANTED---AND---AND I COULD HAVE---I DIDN'T---"
Bess let out a long, sorrowful moan, burying her face in her hands, not paying attention to the others in the room. She had always been a horrible mother, she
admitted that to herself long ago, but
this?
THIS? She let her daughter be taken by death eaters and---and she'd
fought for her too, she could
remember that, but there was nothing---there was
nothing she could do now and Sadie was
gone she was
gone--
"She's
gone," Bess bawled, flinging herself out into the hallway, just to get away from the nursery. She stumbled into the wall and could barely walk straight but she needed to get away, "She's---
gone!"
Her hand moved to brush through Bess’ hair, feeling herself get worked up, knowing what had happened that night. Those large blue eyes traveled down to her sister’s clothes, her heart beating hard against her chest before they returned to look at Bess’ face. She stayed crouched on the floor, wanting to be able to do something for her, to be able to think clearly enough to tell her what she should do, or what they could do to get Sadie back. But she couldn’t, because her head was currently spinning in every direction, and even as she reached out for Bess as she moved from her crumpled position, she couldn’t to anything but sit there and turn to Fabian, looking at him helplessly, hoping he would do something.
It was really a lucky thing that he had turned around by now, because if he hadn’t caught her eye, he probably would have stayed fuming until his name was mentioned. Knowing that she knew it was that son of bitch who had done this, that he was a
death eater, just made his blood boil. He should have done something when he had the chance, when he knew that he kept coming around the apartment building. He thought about these things, but eventually he came back to their current situation, when Veronica finally muttered his name. He swallowed and moved over to Bess, knowing that it was probably better that someone who wasn’t a Zeller, who wasn’t
related to Sadie took charge at this moment. Fabian felt close to the girl, and he
loved Sadie, but he couldn’t imagine what Veronica and Bess were going through. He’d probably die if anything happened to Fred, or George, or Charlie, or Bill, or…
any of his family members. Molly, Gideon…even Arthur. So, he’d do as much as he could.
Stepping towards Veronica, he let Bess sob for a moment before he cleared his throat, running his hand through his hair. “Can you…just get a glass of water…for her, it’s…for her.” His voice was quiet, and tense. Veronica nodded, she too now crying even though she was trying to hide it, for Bess’ sake.
Once she was out of the doorway, Fabian moved himself over to where Bess was, placing her hands on her waist to keep her steady, allowing her to lean into him if she needed to. While his first reaction was to take her out of the apartment, he knew that she was too hysterical to leave. “You need to sit down…” She wouldn’t want to do that. She would want to do whatever she could to get her daughter back, but she was just going to wind up hurting herself. “We’ll all sit down…we’ll figure this out…”
She gasped loudly at his touch, as if taking in a deathly cold breath of air. He shouldn't
touch her and---Bess pressed against the wall for a moment, eyes blinking frantically as she tried to get the images of the death eater's mask out of her eyes and...no, no, this was
Fabian. Fabian was her boyfriend, she---he was here to
help, not to hurt her.
"They took my baby, Fabian, they
took my
baby" she started to cry, repeating the lament over and over as she fell into his arms, not willing to support her own body anymore. Calling Sadie 'my baby' had never happened so easily before, and Bess hated herself that it was a great tragedy like this that made her feel more motherly instincts in the entire time she's actually been the girl's mother.
Oh, this was God's way of punishing her, it
had to be--she fucked up, she
fucked up and now he had taken Sadie away from her and--and---
Bess had never passed out before, she'd never come
close to collapsing, but right now she felt ready to throw up and drop to the floor and never get up. How
any sort of real thought was going through her mind was
beyond her, and she slumped pitifully into Fabian, shoulders and chest hitching with choking, shaking breaths as her knees and entire body gave out underneath her. "I don't know---I don't know what to do--"
“I know…” He said quietly, almost to the point where she couldn’t hear him. He wrapped his arms tight around her and let her cry, feeling her weight shift against him even more as time passed by. He adjusted her in his arms, feeling her practically convulse due to her sobbing, and eventually he just scooped her up into his arms, bringing her into her bedroom so that she could lie down, and so they could clean her up. Her shirt was so torn, and her stockings were ripped into shreds and he couldn’t even begin to think what could have happened to
her. She obviously didn’t seem to remember, and now wasn’t the time to bring it up.
He placed her down on the comforter, kissing her temple as he pushed hair away from her face. “We’ll figure things out, love…we’ll figure out what to do…” He was reassuring as he spoke, and only turned away from her to grab the glass of water that Veronica had brought in. Her eyes were red, but he just thanked her and took the water.
“Is there anything I can do?” The other woman’s question caused him to shake his head, sighing lightly as he reached down for Bess’ hand, even though he looked back to Veronica shortly after, talking quietly. Not because he didn’t want Bess to hear him, but he was suddenly mentally exhausted, and didn’t want to put effort into speaking any louder. “I don’t think so…I think right now we just need to get her cleaned up…get her changed…we need to owl your brother. Tell him what happened…your parents, anyone who knows about Bess and Sadie…I’ll…I’ll have to tell Sirius…” He placed the water down on her bed stand and raised his now free hand to rub at his brow. Veronica just stood there, staring at her sister before she nodded. “I’ll go and run a bath…and I’ll write to Adam while the water’s running.” With that, she turned around and headed into the bathroom, leaving the two of them alone again. He gave her his full attention once more, placing his other hand over the one he was already holding.
Bess sat slumped forward, not trying to pay attention to the short and quiet conversation her sister and boyfriend were having. Some faraway part of her was glad that they'd been the ones to find her and not some random neighbor, because Bess was not sure how she would have faired with strangers. Her eyes watched the glass of water move from Veronica to Fabian to her bedside, but she had no urge to find the energy to drink it, nor did she feel like she deserved it. Her daughter was gone, missing,
taken, she didn't deserve to have anything to help her pain until Sadie was
back---
Fabian was touching her again. Bess didn't mind it as much as she had initially, but it was causing her head to throb far more than it should. A small functioning part of her brain told her that she was only seeing flashes of the event because of a faulty memory modifying charm, or--that her mind itself had blocked it out, and neither scenario was a good one so Bess didn't know which one she'd rather have. She wasn't worried about herself right now, but the strange feeling she had in her gut was making the entire room spin.
"I think he---kissed me, I'm sorry," she whispered, eyes shutting as she pushed into Fabian. Exhaustion was taking over, and even if he'd tried to talk to her she couldn't have heard. Bess had let her failing body take over and had fallen to sleep--or into unconsciousness, who knew if there was a difference at this point.
