Help Wanted

He had no idea why he had been so sure that he could do this. He still wasn't so sure. Even as he stood outside her office, even as he stared at the familiar doorway. His eyes flickered back toward the way he'd come, images of blond hair and teasing whispers as they'd snuck in, just like old times. They'd held their fingers to their lips and giggled as they passed by Deedee, and he'd been so confident when he looked those bright blue eyes that he had had absolutely no reservations. It would be easy.

But now she was still up there, and he was here. It wasn't looking like such a grand idea anymore.

Clearing his throat at the way her secretary was shooting him looks, he raised a fist and knocked.

How difficult could this be?

The days had worn on passed her wedding, the few - glorious - days she had agreed to take off for something like a honeymoon were gone, but when the light from her window would come down, glint off that second gold band added to her finger, Kallie couldn't, no matter how rational she attempted to be, ignore the little thrill jolted through her. It still hadn't worn off, the wonder, the truth of it. Even if it wasn't exactly how a younger version of herself would have imagined it, she Kallie Nikkala, was married.

Mrs. Eli Patterson.

She wasn't sure if the wonder of that would ever wear off.

Still, all happiness, as Kallie knew all too well, was tinted with its own sort of sadness. How else, then, would one know that they are happy? If the did not also know the sad. Bitter-sweet, was a taste that Kallie was becoming quite use to. In fact, she might almost say she liked it.

At the knock upon her door, her head snapped up at the sound of the knock; through a series of spells and communications already aware of who was standing outside.

For a brief moment the bitter sweet was too much to stand, but then the woman swallowed and everything was back to how she knew it.

Kallie had once stated that they would always be friends, if he would allow it, and she had meant that. There was too much between them for Kallie to handle losing all of it completely.

She never did have very many friends.

"Yes? Come in."

He paused at the sound of her voice, quite unaware that he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. He swallowed thickly, bracing himself before pushing through the door, a small smile growing on his lips as he looked at her. He would not glance down at her left hand. He would not glance down at her left hand. He would not focus on the little gold glint that was oh, so distracting...

Throwing himself against the armchair he usually occupied in her office, he yawned, stretching. "Hey Volchonka." He greeted easily. Much easier than he thought he would be able to. His mind wandered briefly, to thoughts of blond hair and bright blue eyes, and he was suddenly grounded, looking back at her again. "I need to ask you a favor." He said, grin boyish and charming. As if nothing had changed, when, in all honesty, it had.

Everything had changed.

"I want another secretary." He said, no preamble, no bull... well not yet anyway.

Her eyes followed him around the room, the familiarity of his movements; even with extreme changes, he managed to be the same old Brock. Again the bitter-sweet feeling spread through her, and again she was okay with it.

Maybe, just maybe Kallie had finally found a way to balance both worlds; maybe they had avoided most of the pain. Though what would be gone was always there, somewhere.

She let out a snort, watching him jump from favour to demand. One of her eyes brows raised slowly and pointedly, all business, "And just what do you need another secretary for? As far as I can tell Ms. Walker has been doing a more than adequate job at handling your secretarial needs."

"I need more structure." He supplied easily. "Another secretary will supply that. I'm also in so much backwash of work from going on leave, reorganizing, all that. I'm sure they didn't touch your things, but mine were all moved about." He gave an elaborate pout, crossing his arms childishly.

"You can even interrogate... I mean... uh... interview her. She'll pass with flying colours." He nodded again, offering another boyish smile. "Besides, Deedee doesn't help me in my office. She's only appointments. I do all my own paperwork. It's exhausting."

He crossed his arms behind his head, relaxing further, as if his stomach wasn't doing backflips and butterflies with razor wings of anxiety weren't trying to force their way out of his stomach. "Besides, I need more support than only Deedee can supply. Someone more reliable. However, I can't spend the time to retrain her to do Deedee's job as well. We don't have time for that. Crime doesn't wait and all that."

Kallie was silent as the man spoke, and for a long time afterwards the silence remained. Her face was impassive, the business face she wore for anyone. For all that Brock could tell she was deliberating what he had just stated. And although one part of her mind was doing just that, there was another part of her that was just...

Against all odds, the silence was broken not a business like response, not a serious and formulated response to his articulated points, but by a soft, almost disbelieving laugh. The disbelief was not coming from what he would always think it was, "See, this is exactly why I always told you you were smarter than you portrayed yourself as. Don't believe me if you want, Pentu," the name slipped out without her thinking about it. A fond pet name for a life long friend, "But this proves what I always knew; you just need the right reason to apply yourself." Smiling slightly, only for a moment, her face lapsed back into the one she wore for work. Kallie slipped away, and the Minister of Magic came back.

She straightened some papers upon her desk, "Now, as for your claims. I never attempted to hide my doubt about Ms. Walker's over all abilities, however as previously stated, she has surprised me. If I were to grant you permission to add yet another member onto our own payroll, I would of course require to interview," there was a glint of Kallie flashing in her warm brown eyes before she went back to being professional. "them myself. Now, something tells me that you already have someone in mind for this job."

Her suspicions were peaked at the specification that this new secretary would require to aid him within his office. "Would I be wrong in this assumption?"

He refused to squirm, knowing that on some level all of that which he'd just spewed was true, but that all of it was going to go out the window when she heard who it was. Most likely anyway. He gave a smile, ignoring the beat his heart missed at his old nickname, and laughed. "You're crazy if you think that wasn't rehearsed every moment before I got here."

"You know me too well." He murmured, looking up at the ceiling almost wistfully, mind wandering toward the girl he'd left there. Had he removed all his alcohol from the bar? He blinked again, eyebrow creasing in concern. Maybe he should have Deedee go check on her? Eyes glancing over in the doorway's direction, he bit his lower lip, before looking back at her with a grin.

"Vol- Vera." He said with a grin, something reminiscent of the times he'd said Kallie's name in his voice. "Vera Parker."

"And you seemed to have forgotten everything about me if you think I have problems with repetition, and rehearsing," the twitch of her lips, and warmth in her eyes was entirely teasing, an expression that Kallie often to herself would say the man across from her taught her. Before she had gone to Durmstrang, before she had met him, Kallie had no idea what teasing, laughing, smiling, fun really was. "Other than the usual problem, of I do them far too much."

Her eyes watched his every movement, as she would with anyone who came into her office, though this time she was merely struck by the familiarity of it all. He was right, she did know him too well. Just like he knew her. Relationships come and go, love is won and lost, but no one could erase all the time they had spent together. When you are another person's world, you pick up a few details. There wasn't an action, movement, tone of voice, or sound that Brock could make that Kallie hadn't heard at least once.

He could, however, change the meaning of it, change who it was directed at.

Change who it was felt for.

It was easy for Kallie to move the twinge, the pain at watching the last line of their romantic relationship slip away into the dust, into a more practical outlet.

And that was a knowledge of just what Brock enjoyed doing with those he cared deeply about- dare she even think loved?

"So, what you are telling me is you wish to allow me, to let you hire your girlfriend, to spend all day in your office with you," Kallie's lips were in a thin line and her eye brow was raised again. "And tell me, just what do I get for a guarantee that you two will even do this work you said you need done?"

He refused to believe that a light blush was rising to his cheeks, that couldn't be true. He didn't even- not Vera. He didn't-

"She's not my-" Skipping over that part, he gave a short nervous laugh, finally realizing something. "I don't-" yes he did. "-uh. We-" He shook his head. "I mean- we can't- she-" the color in his face rose, and he cleared his throat. "Haven't you noticed the little person growing inside her yet?"

This was, officially, where his notes on how to get her hired had ended.

"Besides." He said, leaning backwards until his head was completely upside down. He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "How do I know you and Eli get any work done, eh?"

Her eyes never swayed from the man as he blushed and shuttered. Kallie was torn between wishing to laugh at his discomfort - he always had looked so endearing when he was struggling to find the words he wanted - and feel sorry that he had been put in that position.

"Oh." Her voice fell flat, ever so slightly at the answer he was given. It was an odd feeling that she was coming over her as she came to the only conclusion that she really had with the information present to her. She hadn't, in fact noticed the woman's state, though that made the yelling she had over heard at the wedding make more sense. "So, you two have-I mean- congratulations are in order then?"

It was only by miracle of her own unnatural nature that her voice stayed neutral even as her own face continued to blush. She could control so many things about her nature, but blushing was the one natural biological reaction that nothing she could do could stop.

"Well the fact that Eli rarely spends any time in my office, nor I in his, does seem to hinder any suggestion that we might be to -" she cleared her throat, and returned to fiddling with her papers with more focus than she had before.

"Do you really want to do this Brock? Is it something that's important to you?"

Brock paused, looking up at Kallie with evident confusion. What on earth was she going on about? Congratulations? Congratulations on what?

It was a full minute before something clicked in his mind, and his cheeks rose in color completely. "Wait- you think I- hang on- you think we- what?" He shook his head to clear it, closing his eyes and pressing his palms into them to try and alleviate the sudden rush of emotions. "It's not mine." He gave another short laugh and ran his fingers through his hair, swinging his feet down to where they were supposed to be and sitting up. "How quickly do you think I get around, exactly?" There was something teasing in his tone, though his eyes shined with something almost... insulted. As if he would run off and get someone else pregnant when he had Andrei to take care of. It was, quite frankly, completely irresponsible.

He should have understood why she jumped to that conclusion, but she was supposed to be different than everyone else. She was supposed to be the one that thought the best of him.

He supposed that could have changed after a marriage too.

"Anyway." He said, standing. "I do want this. She's important to me, and this job is important to her. I'll send her down, alright? Get the interview out of the way and all that."

He turned to go, but paused, hesitating briefly. "I hope he makes you happy, Volchonka." He said softly, before pushing through the doors.

Just like that, he was gone.

Plastering a smile across his face, he went to go find Vera.

There was something like relief at the announcement and then guilt that followed. The words themselves weren't enough, she saw the look in his eyes, she saw her own blunder. What he had thought, but wasn't true at all. She always had supreme faith in him, in everything that he did. She just thought...

Well she thought he loved her; was there any other way to show that emotion - anything else that wasn't just simply, feeling. Not just societies confirmation of it.

"I didn't mean- I don't-" she stuttered but he was already moving on. Her shoulders sagged slightly, her voice dropping completely, "Brock."

It wasn't until long after she was staring at her closed door that she even remembered his last comment. Glancing down at her ring, she let out a sad sigh and then smiled.

"He does. He really does." Eli eclipsed her favourite bitter sweet feeling for a moment, feeling only love and affection for her husband before her old worries came back. Her old pains - the bitter sweet. Pushing back her chair, she walked slowly over to her window, looking out unseeingly at the image that was below. Her mind was back where it always was. "But what about you?"

It was almost ironic that the answer to that question would walk through the door mere moments after the minister of magic had proposed it. The sound of the door, however, didn't knock her out of her thoughts. In fact it seemed to send her deeper.

"There's nothing worse, you know, than knowing you royally ruined one of the only things you need to even stay sane," her voice was soft. Although she was in fact talking to the woman who had entered, the woman she had met maybe only once in her life, it sounded as if she could have been talking to herself. "When someone's been such a big part of your life, you don't want to see them go. I don't want him to love me any more, not like that. I want him to move on, I have, mostly, but can you blame a girl for wanting to keep her best friend? Its what he was you know, more than just my boyfriend, my relationship. He was one of the only friends I ever made. And I can't even feel bad about him wanting nothing to do with me, thinking I'm different, because I did it all to myself."

Letting out a breath, she gave something almost like a laugh, "Yes, I know I did it myself; you can save yourself the trouble of that speech."

Kallie knew that her whole life; part of her wondered if she knew it at the time. That one day, she was going to ruin it.

Glancing at the ring on her finger, she hoped, vowed that she wouldn't be able to ruin that relationship too. She might have to deal without Brock, but she couldn't do it without Eli.

Not on top of Brock. Maybe not even with him.

Vera for once in her life cared about what she looked like. As she walked down the hall towards the Minister's office, she couldn't stop fiddling with the edge of her skirts - black, and pencil, it was the most professional looking thing she owned - and every few moments changing her mind on whether the blouse looked better tucked in, or hanging out. Finally she decided to leave it out. She needed this job, but she also needed to be herself. Vera wouldn't allow herself to get something on a principle that wasn't herself.

And besides, it wouldn't be long before she couldn't tuck her shirts in anyway. Might as well just not bother starting.

"Excuse me, name please?" The secretary, someone who actually looked like she was far more willing to do the job than Vera ever had when she had one, jumped to alertness as she approached. The woman just waved her off with an 'She's expecting me' and opened the door without stopping.

She supposed that was proof in and of itself that she was in fact being expected. Vera wouldn't imagine the minister's office to be so easy to get into, on normal circumstances, let alone with the series of mishaps that the woman had received recently.

Opening her mouth to great the woman she was left with it hanging open as the other woman spoke. The door closed with a sharp click behind her, but neither Kallie nor Vera noticed. Both were too locked on the other, and the thoughts the younger of the two was spewing out. Vera, was honestly lost as to what to do. This was not the image that Brock or public appearance had lead her to have. Of course, Brock had given her an image of this Kallie - vulnerable, almost needy - but he had given her the impression that it was something rare, something only he himself - and now Eli - saw.

She had no idea why she was seeing it.

For once in her life she was completely lost for words, honestly scared to set off something she couldn't deal with if she spoke out of turn, miss spoke at all.

She said the only thing she could think of, "Uh, Minister?"

Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes met the girl's blue ones, and a smile crossed her features, "Do not be frightened; despite what may be going through your head I am not a time bomb. Is a woman not allowed to mourn what she has lost? One would think you out of anyone would understand what I am missing. After all, when it comes right down to it, you and I are not all that different, are we?"

Her raised eyebrow was met by uncharacteristic silence. It almost amused Kallie to feel as if she had somehow caused silence in this vocal creature. After all, even in their brief encounter that was an impression that she had gotten, without any problem at all.

"But forgive me, for acting out of turn, we are not here to discuss me, nor are we really here to discuss you, at least, not in the way I was making it to be," taking a calming breath, she straightened her shoulders, flattened the creases of her suit and took a seat, waving her hand to indicate that Vera should do the same. Taking a moment to glance at the contents of her desk, she straightened a folder for the umpteenth time, dusted off the completely clean surface, and fiddled with a picture frame before folding her hands on top of her desk, and piercing the woman with an welcome but cool and professional look, "I hear, that you desire a job with our Auror department. A job I might add, that until this moment I was not aware we needed, is that correct?"

Her first impulse was to insist that she was nothing like the woman across from her, that she would never be like her but the words didn't come out of her mouth. It opened for half a second and then closed again. She wasn't sure what was stopping the words from coming out. Maybe she was still terrified of setting the other woman off, or maybe she could see some grain of truth in her words.

Vera wouldn't be quite so controlled if she were in the other woman's place. Swallowing she smoothed her long blond hair over her right shoulder and followed the gesture, sitting almost primly in the seat directly across from the minister. Crossing her legs - a slight struggle in the rather tight skirt - she spent a few minutes unsure what to do with her hands until she finally gave up, and left the to rest in her on her lap, just brushing against her abdomen.

"Yes-er-well, I mean I didn't ask, Brock sort of - oh er, Mr.Cox?- I just-" she sounded like an idiot and she knew it. What was wrong with her? The woman wasn't that intimidating. Hell, Vera knew her probably as well as she knew Brock, even though she hadn't met the woman officially until a month or so ago. Letting out a breath she pushed that timid, unsure self back. "Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I need a job. Did I ask Brock to ask you to get me a job, no, not directly, but he did and I'm not going to turn down the opportunity." Vera didn't have many professional assets in her basket. She had been to unruly a youth to ever settle down long enough to get any. She wasn't going to say that allowed, but she also wasn't going to forget it either.

If she didn't get this job, she wasn't entirely sure what other kind of job she would be able to get.

"Neither of us feel particularly natural referring to him as Mr. Cox, we do not have to pretend to be strangers; as good as it is to be professional in such settings, it is a slightly over kill to behave as such," Kallie intoned, watching the woman closely. Out loud she didn't want to admit that she was enjoying her discomfort, and to an extent she wasn't, but there was undeniably...

The other woman, whether Brock realized it or not, was her replacement. She was the only person, in Kallie's witnessing, who Brock ever got close to talking about, looking at like he use to look at her. Kallie, always worried at the time, had never noticed the difference, but now a little older, a little wiser - she did see it.

And Vera Parker has been the only on her witnessing that got close to being like her.

Even happy as she was with Eli, she couldn't help but be a little jealous. Be a little happy, that in one situation, she could win, in a sense.

"Well as noble as not giving up opportunities is, that doesn't always mean you are the most suited for this job. Qualifications, are really neither here nor there, doing Brock's paper work for him, doesn't take all that much special skill," Kallie wasn't trying to be cruel, but it was true. Brock had presented her as a person to do office work for him, and it didn't take much work. "But we both know, that's not my concern. Don't we?"

She raised an eyebrow, only continuing to smile at the other woman's vague attempt at dodging the question.

"So, you can see my dilemma, can't you?"

Vera couldn't help it, the little quip just slipped out of her mouth, "Of course, some of us only get to know the version that the other of us broke." It wasn't professional, it wasn't even relevant, but she could feel the other woman thinking she was better than her, at least in this room. Kallie, to her credit only allowed her face to twitch, a slight frown crossing her face.

"Well," the other woman spoke evenly, eyes staying on her interviewee, "Allow me to thank you for cleaning up my messes. Hurting Brock was never my intention, nor if I had the chance to do it over, would I do it again. Though, I do think, if we are keeping all things in mind - we should remember I was a child, and not nearly as mature as everyone assumed I was. We all make mistakes, don't we?" It was only through her own supreme will that she didn't give a response that was equally childish.

More or less put in her place, Vera kept her mouth shut determined to not let her mouth get ahead of her brain. This woman really did hold part of her future in her hand. She couldn't raise a child without a job, and she really didn't know if she could get any other job but this.

"I can assure you, Brock has shown-" Vera bit her lip, looking down at her hands. A combination of both her pride, and her growing uncertainty stopping her from making what was going to be an absolute statement, "Minimal interest, in such things. And really, as I'm sure he told you, I'm not exactly in a position to be whoring myself out to anyone." Her hand twitched on her stomach, ever so slightly to emphasise her point.

"So, really - unless your concern is related to the job itself, which I can assure you, I'm qualified to do," Secretary jobs was all her pretty little face seemed to get her out of Hogwarts. And she hadn't really been in shape to keep them long, so she had experience with a lot of them. "I really can't say you have anything to concern yourself with, Minister."

Kallie was silent for a long moment; something almost like sympathy crossing her mind as she looked at the woman, listening to speak and feeling emotions she had felt at more than one point in her life.

"I can assure you," she said voice low, softly, kindly. "It's only because he hasn't truly realized it. Sure, I may have broken him Vera Parker, but you... I do believe you fixed him. And trust me," she spun the gold band on her finger absent-mindedly, "The fixing kind of love, the gratitude that creates it, is stronger than anything. It just sometimes takes us longer to realize it."

Letting that sentiment hang for a moment, she nodded her head, finally making her decision, "You are quite right though. My concern for your relationship with your immediate employer is something that I suppose I must not concern myself with at the moment. You need this job," and she had a suspicion Brock needed her.

"You may consider yourself hired, on one condition. You are on probation so to speak. I will be watching you two; if I catch any hindrance in either of your work performance, I'm afraid you'll have to look else where."

Silent for a moment, Vera blinked back at the woman in front of her, unsure what to do with that information, she just sat there, fingers running through the edge of her hair. She had spent so many years building up a completely arbitrary opinion of the woman across from her, born of jealousy and sympathy for another person, and now...

She wasn't sure if she could keep all of it. And it was leaving her more than a little muddled.

"Thank you," she nodded her head, meaning it as she slide out of the chair. "I promise, you won't even notice anything is amiss." Giving something close to her usual lively smirk she winked and pulled herself out of her chair.

"See you around, Minister."