Reunion (Lainey and Eli)

"Alright!" Eli shouted jauntily as he walked into the restaurant, "This is my first night in London and I'm not letting it pass me by without getting something to drink."

"Dear," he said to the girl nearest him who looked like a waitress, "I'll have a pint of Guiness." Eli sat down at the bar.

Lainey looked up from wiping a section of bar. "Sure thing," the redhead shot the man a quick smile. Pouring the requested beverage, she handed it over.

"Anything else I can get for you tonight?" she asked, her hand unconsciously rubbing at her left wrist. It was bare. It shouldn't have been, but she had somehow lost her bracelet. She knew she should have had that clasp fixed...

Eli couldn't help but smile back at the girl. Taking the drink, he looked back up at her.

"How about some advice?" he asked her, "I've recently inherited an establishment a lot like this one... and I have no idea how to run a bar. You seem to know what you're doing. Is there anything I need to know before going into the buisness?" He took a long drink of the beer.

He was extremely unsure about the whole ordeal, but it was the only job he could find on such short notice. No one else wanted the place.

Lainey raised a brow, leaning against her side of the bar. "You're asking the barstaff?" she asked, then laughed. "That's certainly a first. You might have a winning strategy there, mister.

"Hire good help," the redhead suggested, then smirked. "And never run out of the good stuff."

Eli laughed with her. There was something about this girl that he just couldn't help but appreciate, "Now that's a winning strategy. The alcohol I have. It's the help I can't find. Maybe I can trick some students into working for me part time."

"So what about you, how long have you been in the glamorous career of waiting tables?"

"I'm sure you'll find someone," Lainey remarked. She started organizing glasses, reaching under the bar for clean ones, as well as more coasters.

"Off and on for longer than is strictly legal," she answered with a wry grin. "Mostly restaurants or diners. I've been here for maybe 8 months or so? Yeah, that's about right. It's not so bad. You meet some interesting people. Some more interesting than others.

"You said you inherited a place... does that mean your folks retired, or..?" she trailed off with a faint grimace.

Her last comment wiped the smile off of Eli's face, "No, no nothing like that. I mean, it's not like my parents.... well I don't exactly know where.... it was my friend's. He was going to sell it. I was moving here anyway and I needed a job so I offered to take it off his hands."

He had found his voice again, the thought of his parents had totally flustered him, "It's sort of a historic place, and neither of us wanted to see it go to some company that would just tear it down anyway."

"I'm sorry, I never caught your name." Eli wanted to change the subject before she pursued the topic of his family again.

"Oh, good," Lainey sighed. "That'd be awful. I wouldn't wish it on anyone..." She plied her attention to drying dry glasses, feeling a bit flustered that she'd asked such a very awkward question.

"That's pretty cool, then!" She smiled enthusiastically. "A historic place, huh? Anywhere I would know?

"It's Lainey. What am I to call you?"

Lainey's coworker came up beside her as she asked the question.

"Look what I found," he said, holding up a silver charm bracelet so that it dangled in front of her. He jerked it out of reach when she made a grab for it. "It was in the walk-in. And if you think I'm just gonna hand it over when I've had to listen to you bitch about losing it all night, you're sadly mistaken. It'll cost you."

The redhead sneered up at him. "Hand it over, Ben!" Grabbing his arm, she tried to reach up and reclaim her lost jewelry.

"I doubt it. It's one of those places in a back alley that's been around forever. It's very hard to find, so we never get any new customers except for a couple of history buffs here and there." Technically he wasn't lying. Almost all his customers had been there before, or were accompanied by someone who'd been there before. It was almost funny how easy it was to twist the truth a little. He found that he had to do it more and more as he got older.

"Lainey... that's a beautiful name. I used to- nevermind. My name's-" But he was cut off by the guy with the bracelet.

Eli put his hand firmly on the man's shoulder and looked him right in the eye, "Why don't you give her the bracelet?" He took it out of his hand before we could respond, and gave him a harsh slap on the back. Eli smiled, "Get out."

He turned to hand the bracelet to Lainey, but immediately dropped it when he saw what it was, "Oh my god." Through watery eyes he looked at his sister, "Elaine?"

"Bastard," Lainey snarled after Ben as he decided to retreat. He made a lewd gesture at her as he departed. "Real mature, Ben!

"Sorry about him," she apologized, turning back to the man. "He thinks he's -" She broke off at his query, green eyes widening minutely.

"It's just Lainey," the girl responded, expression carefully blank. Reaching across the bar, she snatched the bracelet from him, quickly placing it in her pocket. "I've got work to do in the back."

Grabbing a tray, she stepped around the bar, intent on going to clear the tables in the back corner of the pub and distancing herself from this... this person.

"Elaine!" he ran toward her, not believing what was happening yet not daring to question it, "I thought you had... well, I didn't know what I thought. I was at school and they wouldn't let me go home and I asked why but they said you were gone. Not dead, just gone. I thought my family had abandoned me. Eleven years! Lainey, I never heard from you once you were as good as dead, why did you DO that? I mean, them I can understand, but you? I really thought we were closer than that."

Eli kept following her around the room. It was nearly empty, so he didn't have to worry about knocking over chairs to get to her.

But why was she avoiding him? Did their parents really get to her with all their religious crap?

"Elaine, please. Talk to me."

No, no, no... Lainey thought frantically. She tried to ignore the man now following and the rising panic that clawed at her chest.


Lainey whirled on him, green eyes furious. "It's been twelve years!" she snarled, only to sputter incredulously at his next line. "Why did I - you think I... Don't you talk about them - don't you say a single thing about my family!"

She was breathing quickly - too quickly - her chest constricting painfully. No, no, no...


"Why would I talk to you?" Lainey demanded, her vision was tunneling and she could hear her heart pounding in her chest. "I don't know you! My family is dead! My brother -"

And suddenly, she was curled up on the ground, hands clasped loosely about her throat as she gasped desperately for air, a loud buzzing filling her ears as the world started to fade to black...

Eli's eyes lit up with anger, "I can say whatever I want about them, after what they did to me!"

She'd been brainwashed to hate him, just like the rest of the family.

"Fine... FINE!"
He turned to leave, grabbing a glass of, whatever, and letting it crash to the ground.

Eli felt the blood rush from his face when he heard what she said next, Dead?. "I-" He saw Lainey's eyes roll back, "No! No, no, no, no." His hands frantically fumbled for his wand.

Someone walked over to them, "Oh my god, is she okay?"

Muggles, he sighed, "No! Just- please- just leave."

"Are you su-"

"Go!" He looked around to make sure no one else was there, and took out his wand.
She was beginning to choke. "No, no, no, no..."

"Anapneo!" He didn't know what else to do. He wasn't even sure that the spell would work, since it only helped with choking, and Lainey was clearly suffering from much more than that. "Please, please don't die."

The world had been slowly fading out, then suddenly, it started fading in again as she was able to draw in air again. Slowly, Lainey opened her eyes. Why was she on the floor? Her gaze fell upon the person over her.

Lainey groaned. "Dammit," she declared as she realized what must have happened. She sat up and away from him, pulling her knees up so she could rest her head on them.

"Not dyin'," she muttered, a trace of a Welsh accent showing through. "What? Never saw aneone have a panic attack, b'fore?"

"Not in a very long while," he sat down on the floor from the crouching position he was in before. Then, without knowing why, he started laughing. It was a long time before he stopped, and when he did, he put his head in his hands.

The last time he'd done that was when... well when he was a kid, "I should probably go, before you decide to kill me."

"Don't have anethin' t' kill ye wi'," Lainey remarked quietly, turning her head to study him. "Th' tray 'd break b'fore I c'ld bash your head in wi' it."

The redhead reached out a hand and pressed it against his cheek, letting out a indecipherable sigh. "I don' know who ye are, but ye're not me brother," she stated. "I'd know if ye were."

Eli laughed bitterly, "Glad to see you're still as fiery as ever," at least she admitted that she hated him, and wasn't pretending to do it 'for his own good'. He absentmindedly began to rub the scars on his arm from a decade ago that still hadn't faded away.

Eli looked straight into her bright green eyes, "How?"

"My brother is -" she began, British accent back in place. She shook her head. "I would just know. You've confused me for some other girl with a bracelet."

Lainey gave a sad smile, then moved to stand. She felt absolutely drained and shaken after her panic attack. The room was still a bit unsteady. She just wanted to go home. She wanted Frank. Or a bottle of vodka, though the first was preferable.

Eli sighed, "Clearly, there's no convincing you that I'm you're brother. I don't know why you don't see it, but I know, positively, that you're my sister."

He held up his wand at the broken pieces of glass on the floor, "Reparo"
Then he walked around the room, setting chair upright that had been knocked over, "And don't even think I'll leave you alone just because you don't think I'm still alive. I AM coming back, like it or not, I'm not losing you again."

He stopped when he reached the counter and leaned against it for support as he asked his next question, "Are mom and dad really... gone?"

Lainey gaped after him, horror in her expression. "No..." she murmured. Jogging after him - the room wobbling as she did so - she grabbed his arm, touching his bare hand with hers. Then, his face, once more. Nothing.

"How did you do that?" she demanded. "That's not possible! If you're a - no! It's not possible!" She sank down into a nearby chair when the room decide to start turning circles around her.

"I don't know what happened to them," Lainey murmured, too stunned to deny him an answer. If he was immune to her ability, then who else was? "Haven't seen them since I was nine. When I went back two years later, there was nothin' but a hole in the ground."

So she really didn't believe him, that he was her brother. For the first time since he was little, Eli was genuinely hurt. "Well, I'm your brother, aren't I? And your brother is a wizard, smart one!"

Then she started... touching him. He gave her a puzzled look as she sat down, "You sure you're feeling alright?"

"El, what the HELL are you talking about? What do you mean "went back"? Did mum and dad send you to boarding school or something?" He was utterly confused by Elaine's behavior. What had happened while he was gone?

"SH!" Lainey hushed him, gazing quickly about the pub to be sure no one had heard him. "Your kind isn't exactly welcome here," she hissed. "And I'm still not convinced you're related to me! You haven't even told me your name."

She rested her head in one hand with a sigh. "I'm fine," she murmured tiredly.

Looking up at him, Lainey began to laugh; a few soft chuckles to start with, before it became full-on laughter.

"Calm down, no one's here," he still made sure to hide his wand, though. He laughed bitterly, "It's not like we're welcome anywhere, anymore. I've gotten used to the whole angry mob with pitchforks thing."

Eli scoffed, he couldn't believe he was having to go through this whole song and dance, "My name is Eli. Eli Patterson," he was starting to get really annoyed.

He looked at Lainey with a completely straight expression, pretty sure that she had finally lost it. He needed answers, and she was laughing at him. Typical.

Lainey eyed him speculatively, but refrained from comment. Her captors knew her brother's name. If they had somehow found her, they would know she'd be inclined to trust him. A name wasn't enough to go by. Lainey was not so easily convinced.

The redhead abruptly stopped laughing. She pushed herself up from the chair, closing the short distance between them. There wasn't a trace of mirth in her features.

"I wasn't sent anywhere," she intoned, her voice very nearly a growl. "I was kidnapped."

Lainey didn't make any indication to show that she believed him. Of course not. What was he supposed to say? Forget it. She's never going to be your sister. Not now that you're a fully-fledged heretic.

Eli didn't know how to respond to what Lainey said. Kidnapped? How was that possible? He was wrong. Their situation COULD get more horrifying. Oh, Elaine, what happened to you?

He had so many questions, but he somehow couldn't bear to ask him. He was terrified of what the answers would be. Eli could only stare in shock.