Here We Are

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

6/09, but close to midnight, so basically 6/10
We've given new names
To our hopes and our pain
But love just gets harder to find

This was a bad idea.

She didn't have anywhere to go, though. She didn't want to admit the destruction of her marriage to her family, who would no doubt be extremely empathetic. She had friends who would probably take her in if it was daylight, but it was midnight, and she needed to get out of Wesley's house.

There was only one person on that list, so Lucinda went first to the nursery and then to the fireplace. She was still in her overly fancy ball gown, and she had never taken Tulip anywhere by the floo network before, but it had to be a better idea than apparating. So Luce tightened her grip on her baby, released her fistful of floo powder, and shouted Ruth's address.

When she landed in Ruth's fireplace, she was covered in ash and the baby woke up. Tulip started screeching her high-pitched baby screeches, and Lucinda knew what she should do - calm her down before she woke up everyone, rock her, talk to her. But - now that she was here - she was stuck.

Her marriage was over, wasn't it? She'd left. Her husband didn't want her there anymore. Tulip was pulling furiously at Lucinda's lapels and all Luce could do was kneel in the fireplace because now she had nothing. The furious tears she'd been containing all evening were falling down her cheeks, and the skin of her cheeks was swiftly turning red and blotchy. (Luce had never been a pretty crier.)

"Ruth?" Lucinda called, louder than was appropriate for midnight.

@'Ruth Lockhart' but also @'Magnus Lockhart' should totally pop in b/c uhhhh surprise midnight houseguest
@'Elsie Beauregard' @'Thom Pettigrew'

  

[Magnus Lockhart]

Lock was normally a pretty sound sleeper, but that had changed since the day on the beach. Now, he usually woke up at some point during the night--sometimes because Ruth had woken up, sometimes because one of the children had, or sometimes for no discernible reason at all. He wasn't having nightmares any more (or if he was, he wasn't remembering them when he woke), but he was still waking up.

He wasn't sure what had done it this time. As he blinked in the darkness of their bedroom, Lock reached out gently for Ruth beside him, wondering if she had stirred. Then he heard the baby crying. Assuming it was Calvin, Lock rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. If he hadn't woken Ruth up yet, maybe Lock could get there and quiet him down before she did. That was an very long stretch, of course--as far as parenting went, Ruth was so far beyond Lock's meager skills that they might as well have been comparing, say, a professional Quidditch player to a first year on his second flying class--but he could at least try and let her get some sleep.

In nothing but a large nightshirt, Lock stumbled out the doorway and into the hallway--which is when he heard a feminine voice yell out for Ruth.

... Who was in his house?

Assuming at first that whoever this strange female interloper was had somehow gotten to his children and was the reason Calvin was crying, Lock moved very quickly down the hallway, following the sound of the baby crying. He stopped short when he saw a woman he recognized, with a baby that was most definitely not his son, in their living room. The sight was so unexpected that it would have left him at a loss for words even without his recent accident, so for a moment Lock just gaped at her, eyes wide and clearly confused by the appearance of Mrs. Cavanaugh in his home at--Merlin, what time was it?

  

[Ruth Lockhart]

Unlike her husband, Rue's days of complete, sound sleep had ended the night Margaery was born and had only gotten worse since March, so little got past her ears during the night. Of course the nightmares still left her breathless some nights, but so far tonight, at least she was just her normal amount of restless.

The sound a baby's cry wasn't what woke her, she'd already been staring at the ceiling above the bed for a few minutes, but the sound instantly worried her; she could tell it wasn't Calvin. Call it mother's intuition or whatever else it could possibly be, but Lock was up and out of bed before she was and she waited half a moment before following, wand in hand, every intent on going into the kids' room when she heard a familiar voice follow the baby's cry.

Lucinda.

What in the name of Merlin's beard could have brought her best friend into their living room at this time of night? It was a compulsory check into the kid's room (they were fine, of course, sleeping soundly) that had Rue reaching the living room a little bit after Lock, but unlike her husband, she didn't stop short, brushing past him intently to reach out to her friend. "Luce what's wrong?"

  

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

Lucinda had not accounted for the possibility that Lock would come out first. She stared at him and sniffled. What was there to say? Hi, I broke into your house because my husband doesn't want me anymore? Where's your wife? 

So instead she just said: "Evening."

Relief fell on her as soon as Ruth appeared. The last time Luce had been this upset was when Bentley died, and she still hadn't showed up after midnight when that happened. One of Tulip's tiny baby hands wrapped around Luce's hair - she began to tug it down, screams increasing in volume.

"M-m-my husb - Wes - Wesley told me to leave," Lucinda said, shaking and stammering, "I didn't - I don't - he doesn't - Ruth." 

The following 1 user Likes Lucinda Cavanaugh's post:1 user Likes Lucinda Cavanaugh's post
   Magnus Lockhart

[Magnus Lockhart]

Lock was not yet awake enough to be considered a fully functional human, and so he was not able to formulate any response to her rather casual greeting before his wife arrived in the room. He did have time to wonder why she was just saying evening when it was quite obvious that something was wrong. People did not normally floo into living rooms unannounced with crying babies in their arms. The ball gown and the crying were just icing on top of the cake.

What she said to Ruth was sort of an explanation, but it didn't make any sense to him. Her husband had told her to leave? Lock had not even known that was a thing that husbands could do. There had been times during his marriage when Ruth had been so angry at him that he had ended up leaving and going to Hatch's house, but that was more for his safety--his wife threw frying pans, after all. It wasn't as though he'd ever really been forced to leave his own house--and certainly not with the children. What on earth would make Mr. Cavanaugh do something so irrational?

A surge of anger filled his chest as Lock looked at the crying woman and her crying baby. Cavanaugh couldn't just do this! Mrs. C deserved better. He might not have been one for lengthy conversations, after his latest injury, but Lock figured her husband needed a solid talking to--and, in the absence of his ability to provide one, he could always handle this the beater way.

With a very aggressive look on his face, Lock turned and stalked off down the hallway to fetch his coat. He couldn't very well go beat somebody up in just his nightshirt. It was the least intimidating garment he owned.

The following 2 users Like Magnus Lockhart's post:2 users Like Magnus Lockhart's post
   Lucinda Cavanaugh, Ruth Lockhart

[Ruth Lockhart]

Focused on her friend, Rue hardly noticed Lock stalk out of the room. Whether it was due the fact that he didn't want to intrude (or deal with it) or perhaps he was going to check on their own children now, Rue didn't know, but she did reach out to take Tulip from Lucinda in an attempt to calm everybody down. The hysterical sobs coming from her (basically) niece were not helping the tension in the room at all.

Which she only partially knew what had been going on in Lucinda's marriage she was quite shocked to hear that Mr. Cavanaugh had tossed Luce out of the house and thought maybe her friend was exaggerating. She loved Luce dearly, but she did have the tendency to blow things out of proportion.

As she cradled Tulip in one arm, she wrapped the other around Lucinda and guided her to the nearby sofa. "What do you mean he told you to leave?" Subconsciously she rubbed Lucinda's back while shushing Tulip and trying to snuggle the toddler into quiet.

  

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

Lucinda did not know what Lock was doing, but he looked nearly as angry as she was sad, and she was slightly vindicated.

She sat on the couch next to Ruth and sniffled. Now that Ruth held Tulip, Lucinda could wipe at her eyes, and did so, although it wasn't helping very much. Tulip was obviously calmer now that she was held by a more stable adult, but was still whining loudly.

"H-he didn't come to the party," Lucinda said with a hiccup, "He was supposed to meet me there, but he didn't. So I came back home and he was - he was so drunk, Ruth, and I was yelling. And I - I told him that I couldn't watch him drink himself to death." Now he was going to die of drink and she wouldn't be there to watch which, of course, did not make her feel any better.

"And he - Wes - he told me not to, he said nobody is keeping you here." She started crying in earnest, and blew her nose quite loudly into her handkerchief. 

  

[Magnus Lockhart]

Lock stomped into the bedroom he shared with Ruth and opened up the closet doors. He hadn't bothered to turn on a light, or to grab his wand, so he had to thrust his hands around the coats before he found one of his. He pulled it out roughly, dropped the coat hanger, then nearly tripped over it while he was pulling the coat on and heading back for the door. He grabbed his wand even though he didn't imagine he'd end up using it--spellwork was nearly impossible with a speech impediment. Still, it certainly couldn't hurt to have it on him. You never knew what would happen when you went into another man's house with the intention of punching him.

Lock had the presence of mind to at least tug his night cap off and discard it in the hallway as he headed back to the hallway, but he still looked rather ridiculous in a night shirt, house slippers, and an overcoat. He re-entered the living room with enough time to hear Mrs. C say watch him drink himself to death and scowled more heavily. With his hands in his pockets he edged his way around the two women to get close to the fireplace, taking a small pinch of floo powder and turning towards his wife. Obviously he didn't really want to interrupt what she and Mrs. C were talking about, but it was unavoidable--the floo wouldn't respond to his stutter.

Tapping on her arm lightly to get her attention, Lock held the floo powder out to her imploringly. "C-cav house."

  

[Ruth Lockhart]

Though Tulip was no longer screaming, she was still clearly agitated and Rue rocked her to try and soother. The poor babe. Poor Luce. It had been a rough night all around, apparently. Still, Rue had no idea that Wesley's drinking had gotten that bad.

"Oh honey." Though she had tossed plenty of frying pans at her husband, she had never truly kicked him out of the house. Plus their fights were over things like turning the children green versus a seriously bad habit that could potentially be fatal. "Do you know why-" She was going to ask if Luce knew why Wesley was drinking so much, finally getting Tulip's cries to subside, when Lock got her attention.

Passing her husband a quizzical look about his clear request to be flooed to Lucinda's house, she wondered just what he was up to. However, considering that asking him to explain himself would take time she unfortunately didn't have at the moment, she stood, with a sleepy Tulip on one arm- though the little one squirmed a little when they neared the fireplace, and ushered Lock in, announcing Lucinda's address for him to do whatever it was he had planned.

Right about now she was more worried about Lucinda than whatever it was Lock could do to Wesley. "Do you want some tea?"

The following 1 user Likes Ruth Lockhart's post:1 user Likes Ruth Lockhart's post
   Magnus Lockhart

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

Lucinda did not know why Lock was going to her house, but at the moment was not particularly concerned. Hopefully he wouldn't do anything stupid - or break Wesley's face. When Lucinda wasn't distraught, she was rather fond of his face.

"I'd very much like some tea," Lucinda said, wiping at her eyes with one hand. At least Tulip was almost out now - Lucinda felt bad about dragging her daughter here in the middle of the night and waking her up. But she couldn't leave her. 

"He won't tell me." Wesley was too stubborn to tell her anything.

The following 1 user Likes Lucinda Cavanaugh's post:1 user Likes Lucinda Cavanaugh's post
   Ruth Lockhart

[Ruth Lockhart]

With Tulip still on her hip, Rue edged her way around the room to the doorway to the kitchen, using her wand to get the kettle going and the cups ready. Magic was so damn handy at times like this. She summoned one of Calvin's cups as well and watched as the milk from the fridge poured itself before she heated it up. "Come on Poppet." She carried her niece back to the sofa, letting the little one have the milk to help soothe her even further.

"How strange." For all she knew Mr. Cavanaugh, he seemed rather level-headed, if obviously a former quidditch player. Rue spent enough time with that lot to know that they all shared some similarities, pride and stubbornness among them. (Lock was only partially excused from those traits.) However, whenever she'd seen the Cavanaughs together, she had always thought them to be quite besotted with one another- as much as Lucinda would admit to it anyway. "Has anything else happened that you can think of?" Rue felt like this wasn't something just out of the blue or random. People turned to the drink for a reason, not randomly.

  

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

"I know there's something wrong with him," Lucinda said. Wesley had not always been like this - obviously. She never would have married him if he had been. 

He had been like this for a while, though. A year, or maybe more - and she didn't know why, couldn't quite understand what had started it. She just wished that he wasn't too stubborn to tell her - but if he wasn't stubborn, he wouldn't be Wesley.

"But I don't know what."

  

[Ruth Lockhart]

With furrowed brows, Rue wondered just what men were thinking sometimes. Her own husband included, who was not particularly loquacious himself, Rue always had to question why people couldn't just say what they were thinking. A little honesty could go a long way and shortcut a lot of things.

"I'm sorry honey, have you asked him, point blank?" Sometimes women, for whatever reason, were even worse at rocking the boat. Clearly there was a problem, and while Rue knew what she would do, and what she thought Luce would do, it probably was not always as easy when faced directly with a problem like this. Of all people though, she rather thought Luce would be the last of her friends to put up with any shit from her husband.

Adjusting the drifting Tulip easily, she let her niece snuggle in and summoned a blanket to wrap the little one in. "Hang on, tea should be ready, I'll put her in with the kids." Hopefully it wouldn't jar the little one, being in an unfamiliar place if she woke, but Rue just hoped that she would sleep from here on out. A little conjured cot on the floor and a comfortable pillow and blanket and it was like a sleepover. Rue would have put her right in with Margie, but her own daughter still wasn't well and though Rue didn't think it was contagious, she wasn't going to put them all quite so close. She added one of Calvin's stuffed dragons for comfort, just for good measure.

With one problem, albeit small in comparison, solved, Rue returned to the kitchen and went straight to the cupboard with the bourbon. Lock wasn't a drinker, but she was and this called for a little something extra in the tea. "Something stronger?"

@'Cassius Lestrange'

  

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

"I yelled at him about it," Lucinda said. Perhaps that wasn't an entirely accurate portrayal of her conversation with Wesley - she had yelled at him about a lot of things. Their entire conversation had been one very intense screaming match, and it was not as if Lucinda had learned anything constructive, at all.

She sniffled and curled into herself on the couch as soon as Rue left with Tulip.  She just wanted to close her eyes and be someone else - not somewhere else, because this was the best place for her, but someone. A Lucinda whose marriage was fine, whose Wesley still loved her.

She closed her eyes. The transformation didn't happen. Rue asked if she wanted alcohol.

"Yes please," Luce said, hoping that might soften the blow.

  

[Ruth Lockhart]

Rue pulled the kettle off the stove at the same time as she pulled the bottle of bourbon from the cupboard. Tea and bourbon was certainly warranted in such situations. She brought all of the fixings to the table to let Luce take care of that for herself, though Rue honestly could have just had a glass of bourbon at that point. She also knew however, she'd probably get a look from Lock if he came home to find them drunk in the kitchen.

"You first, I have to base my booze off of you." She chuckled. Turning to liquor was a weak way to deal with things, but lately Rue wasn't feeling as strong as she wanted to be. This whole thing was hard, so hard and she just wanted it to go away, but she couldn't give in. It wouldn't do any good to worry Lock and more than she already did. Hiding it was hard too. Tonight wasn't about her however, it was about Luce and helping her friend was, selfishly, a good distraction.

@'Cassius Lestrange'

  

[Lucinda Cavanaugh]

Luce nodded and poured; her tea ended up being mostly, predictably, bourbon. She took a large sip and it burned not from the heat but from the alcohol, and saluted Rue with the mug. It had been a while since they'd gotten truly shit-canned drunk; now they were responsible adults with responsible hobbies and habits, and yet here was Lucinda, in Ruth's house too-late, with a marriage that was not so much 'falling apart' as 'utterly collapsed.'

"Fuck."