Parks and Rec

The park wasn't crowed, though any other kid was more than the slowly pampered girl was use to any more. Sure she had grown up in an orphanage, surrounded by other people, so there was some knowledge to fall back upon, but in the recent months she had spent almost all her time exclusively with Silas, her aunt or Mitzy. The first few weeks at the park had been an odd experiment, that had been more inclined to look like a failure. Drifting away from all the other children, Cordelia would take Bubba and purposely play in the area that was away from every other child.

She had slowly grown in the weeks, and even though she still did not interact with the other children who would run and yell to each other across the park, but she would walk near them now. At the present moment she was climbing herself up the stairs of the jungle gym to set Bubba at the top of the slide. After giving him a light push she would run as fast as she could to be there to catch him at the bottom. So far she had never missed. Once it was all done, she would hug the bear to her chest, giggle and run back up to the top to do it all again.

It was the most child like she had behaved in a while. She was almost unaware of her surroundings.

Almost.

"Annie!" He whined, frowning up at his sister. "You don't need to take me to the park anymore. I mean, it was alright when I was younger, but now it's just embarrassing. I'm thirteen."

"I know, I know," she said, grinning cheekily down at Xavier. Reaching over to ruffle his hair, the dark haired boy quickly moved away. "But I can't help it. It feels like just yesterday you were tiny." She grinned fondly. How she'd missed those days.

"Feels," he accentuated. "Feels. But it's not." Shaking his head at the professor, he glanced over his shoulder. "I'm going to meet my friends. Please," he pleaded, clasping his hands together. "Don't embarrass me."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Marianne vowed, a bright grin dancing across her face. Waving the boy off, she collapsed onto a park bench, looking around her.

Soon, her gaze was caught on a little blonde girl, watching her play with her teddy, a warm smile flitting across the woman's face. Pulling herself up to her feet, she swerved around children making her way towards her. Stopping beside the slide, she looked up at the girl.

"That's a cute bear." She nodded towards the stuffed animal. "What's his - or her - name?"

Cordelia had heard the crunching footsteps of someone coming towards the slide, however that was not the first time she had heard such things that day, or any other day, so the small girl assumed that whoever it was was planning on walking right passed her towards the street beyond the park, just as every other person that day had.

So when she turned around, Bubba safely caught in her arms again, and she was startled, to say the least, to find the adult right there. Blinking slowly, the small girl's eyes widened and her mind began to whirl. Blue eyes glancing around she looked for the safety of her house elf, before looking back at the sound of a voice.

Why was this lady speaking to her?

Ducking her head, she spoke to the ground, "Boris T Wilson."

She took a small step away from the girl, not wanting to frighten her. But it looked like she already had, especially from the way she was looking around.

"Sorry," Marianne whispered, cringing for being so tactless. She was better with older kids, it seemed. They were less likely to be terrified of her. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

Marianne nodded slightly, a small smile on her lips as she looked up at the teddy bear and by extension the girl holding him. "That's a nice name. Did you come up with it yourself?"

Cordelia watched the woman step away with a slight feeling of relief. Her nerves were still telling her to be suspicious and she was still on guard, but her logic stated that if she wanted to harm her, she would be stepping closer, not further away, right?

Unless it was a trick. Were people really that committed to getting her that they would say one thing to get another? Cordelia did not know.

"I not scared," she muttered stubbornly into the ground. She didn't want people thinking she was afraid - although that was what she was. If people thought she was afraid then they would think she was easier to get, right? Silas and Aunt Ksenia never had anyone after them and they didn't seem afraid of anything.

Despite herself the next question drove Cordelia to look up at the woman. She shook her head firmly a frown on her face.

"No. He tolded me." Why would Delia make up the name? That was just silly, and her tone as she informed the woman of her mistake stated that was what she thought.

Noting the relief when she stepped away, Marianne took another half step back, offering a small smile. It was paramount that she was alright and comfortable, wasn't it? Rubbing the side of her head, the professor scrunched up her face slightly, trying to remember what Xavier had been like around that age. Merlin, that'd been years ago, now.

And she wasn't sure that she'd really cared about her half-brother's development back when she was thirteen.

"Well, that's good. Being scared - really, really scared - it isn't fun at all." Her lips twitched, her expression losing its happiness. But she shook her head, ignoring the thoughts already forming. "It's best to fear as few things as possible."


A little smile flitted across her face, the woman unable to not be amused by the little girl's tone. "I wasn't sure, because my brother..." she shook her head, laughing softly. "He named his wolf."

Twirling on her heals ever so slightly, the wavy shirt she was wearing over top of her surprisingly neat little jeans swung slightly with the action. Holding Bubba a little higher and a little closer, she watched the woman take another step back. That had to be alright didn't it? She had to just want to...

Well, Cordelia wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she couldn't see how the woman could harm her as she moved farther and father away.

"No fear, then you no know when to keep yourself safe." Delia hated being afraid, but one of the few things that she could clearly remember her mother saying was that. Any time that Cordelia was frightened, her mother would tell her one thing - it would be okay, because she was scared, because she knew what to stay away from.

Letting out a soft 'oh' the small girl frowned as she thought about the statement, "Well, Bubba's special."

She tilted her head from side to side, humming softly. She had to admit that there was some merit to it. When you were scared, you knew it was for a reason. Like her fear of thunderstorms had always reminded her of that pain that had come with being hit by lightning.

But being scared of so many things couldn't be at all helpful.

"And being safe is one of the best things to be." She smiled softly, brushing strands of her light-coloured hair over her shoulder.

Marianne grinned. "Or maybe my brother's just weird." The woman laughed softly, shuffling her feet in the sand.

Her bright blue eyes never wavered from the woman that was before her. She was watching the expressions on her face, wondering what they meant, and seeing if she could link them to anything that she did know. Cordelia thought that perhaps that she was being listened to. The older woman may have been thinking about what she was saying.

Cordelia nodded her head slightly, cuddling the small bear closer to her, "Bubba makes me safe." She announced this with an assurance that only years of reliance on the bear could have cemented. Her expression contorted for a moment as another thought came to her, and she hesitated. Her foot kicked the ground softly. She didn't look up as she spoke again, "My aunt and my-my Daddy saided I'm safe wif 'em."

She wasn't entirely sure if she had refereed to Silas as her father outside of her own head, but at some point over the last few months that was the term she had slowly been supplementing for him. With nothing else to call him, it had only seemed natural for that to be the word to fall out of her mouth.

Daddy.

"I don' gotta brother... boys are stupid." Still the way she glanced up at the woman, quickly and then back down again seemed to say a different thing. Cordelia wasn't entirely sure she wanted a brother, or any family - Bubba had been enough - but she was certainly curious as to what it was like, to have siblings and family.

She nodded, a tiny smile flitting across her face. She remembered those days when she'd felt unconditionally safe. That no matter what would happen, she had her family. And she still did, didn't she? No matter what had happened to over the years, her siblings and her parents were still here.

Marianne glanced over at Xavier with his friends, her smile widening before she returned her gaze to the little girl. "And you always will be safe with them. Trust me, I know these things."

There had to be some benefits to her age.

She smiled brightly. "Don't worry, most boys get better as they older. Some are still really stupid, but most grow up." Marianne let out a small laugh. "Do you have any siblings?"

Silas had relieved Mitzy several minutes ago, leaning unobtrusively against a shadowed tree trunk as he kept an eye on Cordelia. He had tensed at the appearance of the Asian woman, but remained where he was when it was clear she would keep her distance. For now. Nonetheless, his wand had found its way to his hand and spun it around his fingers in a deceptively casual manner.

It seemed a rather long conversation to be holding with a four-year-old stranger. Cordelia certainly would not have initiated it. Pushing off from the tree, Silas strolled forward several paces to resituate himself on the end of a vacant bench, which in turn made him far more visible. He made no attempt to mask the fact that he was keeping an eye on the woman.

Her eyes remained solemn on the older person who was telling her to trust her. It was an unusual situation in which Cordelia understood the words but she didn't quite understand the context. The older woman meant it in a passing manner, she wanted the girl to simply trust the words that were spoken to be the truth, but Cordelia couldn't understand this simple context of the world. She didn't know the woman at all, more than a few words. She thought that the woman wasn't out to hurt her, but that didn't mean that she trusted her.

The question in fact made her step away from the woman just a bit more, it made her wonder why she wanted her trust her in the first place. Would it not in fact make her easier to hurt, if she trusted this woman. The step back, however had a dual comfort. The distance was in fact the main goal, but in doing so she put herself in position to notice her father, Silas, sitting on a bench. Looking around her and then back again a grin - tiny but still a grin - came across her face when she confirmed that he was in fact still there.

"That my daddy over there," she announced with a tiny head nod, more to point out that the man was watching than to brag or make discussion as some little children might do. With the knowledge that Silas was watching - and the comfort that he shouldn't let anyone do anything to her, Cordelia focused again on the woman's words and shook her head in response to the question. Opening her mouth to give a one word response, perhaps something about her mother or her aunt, Cordelia found herself falling to the ground instead as some older boys - probably playing tag or some other rumbustious game - came running around the slide they stood at the bottom of and bumped into the girl.

Silent in just about everything she did, Cordelia didn't make a sound, as she laid slight stunned on the ground. Bubba had been held tightly to her chest to protect him, and as such the just barely rough ground - wood chips in fact - had managed to lightly scrape the soft skin on her elbow.

Blinking back at the little girl, she cringed inwardly at the silence. She'd said the wrong thing, hadn't she? Mentally cursing herself, she stared down at her feet. When had she gotten so awkward? Once upon a time, this wouldn't have bothered her in the slightest, but she supposed a predisposition to panicking did that to someone.

Merlin, she'd missed that time, so long ago now, when she'd been almost normal.

Looking back up at the sound of the voice, she smiled slightly at the grin on the girl's face before glancing over her shoulder. Chewing absentmindedly on her lip, her smile fading slightly, she couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by the look on his face. But then again, she was talking to his daughter. Her parents had been the same when she was younger.

Suddenly awash with a sense of longing for her own parents, she gave her head a small shake. She could see her parents whenever she wanted. And besides, these days she didn't need her parents as much as she once had.

Turning back to the four year old, she blinked up at her, too stunned to move fast enough to catch her. Taking a small step towards the girl, she paused, glancing over her shoulder back at her father before looking back, hovering above her. "Are you alright? D - Do you want me help? I could..." She trailed off, glancing back over her shoulder.

Whether she'd do anything or not was up to her father, wasn't it?

A volley of stinging hexes wordlessly followed the careless boys. Silas crossed the playground quickly, long strides eating up the distance.

"I've got her," he declared. The words were brusque, dismissive and quite nearly rude. Silas didn't particularly care. Cordelia was up off the ground and tucked securely against his side an instant later.

"Miss Cordelia, are you all right?" the man queried, brown eyes looking over the child. "Show me where you are injured."

"I-I-" her lower lip trembled as her brain attempted to figure out what had occurred. The woman was still close to her, and she wasn't sure if that was helping or hindering the situation. What if-if-

She found herself in a familiar hold, with a familiar voice speaking to her, and suddenly her lip didn't feel like quivering quite so much. Snuggling closer to the man, a sign of trust that her slightly distressed state did not even think about before doing, and she was later proud of herself that she did not shed a single tear - though a few did brim up in her blue eyes for a moment.

"I hurteded my elbow. See." She held up the offeding limb as if there were a possibility that the man would believe she was lying. The small and shallow cut had blood oozing out of it slowly.

She glanced over her shoulder again before she was looking back at the little blonde girl, nervously shuffling her feet. So she was almost relieved to hear the man speak as he approached. Nodding, she took a few steps backwards, watching the two of them for a moment.

There wasn't a need for her to be around anymore, was there? The little girl - her father had called her Cordelia - looked like she'd be fine. So really, Marianne was allowed to make herself scarce. After a few more moments of rationalizing it, she nodded to herself.

Glancing around her, she found her brother almost immediately. A little smile flitting across her face as she watched him play basketball with three friends, she glanced back at the little family before her. Offering them a tiny wave that she doubted either of them noticed, she wandered off, intent on embarrassing her little brother.