May Angels Lead You In (Lucy)

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Anna felt sick. She wasn't really, at least not physically, but she'd been worried about Oscar for days. He was supposed to come back from his assignment the first week of December. He was a week late and he hadn't been in contact with her for a week before that. He'd left on a trip mid-October and it was supposed to be 6 weeks. For the first five weeks he and Anna wrote one another constantly, receiving owls every two to four days, but she hadn't heard from him in two weeks now and he was a week late coming home. Anna didn't know for sure, but she knew something was wrong. Oscar wouldn't stop talking to her unless he had a good reason, and she couldn't imagine him having one. 

She'd kept to herself the past two weeks, other than going to the Auror training. Their plan was for her to quit when Oscar got back because at least the training would give her something to do while he was gone. Anna didn't want to be jobless when he was away. She'd called in sick the past three days, choosing to hide in her bed instead. She was desperate for news from her husband. 

It was late, about one in the morning, when Anna apparated to her sister's house. She was desperate to talk to Lucy. Maybe Lucy would have some good advice or be able to calm Anna down at least. Or ... maybe she'd go with Anna. Anna was thinking about going to Paris to search for Oscar, but didn't know if that was ridiculous. That was why she was coming to talk to her sister before acting. She knocked on the door, praying that Lucy would wake up. If not ... Anna would probably sit down on the steps and wait here all night, welcoming the cold. At least it might distract her from how much she missed Oscar and how worried she was for him. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy wasn’t home when Anna knocked on the door to her flat, the flat in which they had once lived together. She was however, just a few blocks away at the time and turned the corner to her block about 10 minutes after Anna arrived at her doorstep. Lit by street lights along the lane in London, she saw Anna’s red hair glowing on the steps. “Anne?” she asked softly as she came up to the girl on the steps. “What are you doing here? Were you looking for me?” She asked. She wondered if her sister would ask why she was out so late, but it was easy to say that she had been out with friends at a pub, or in a late rehearsal. She wasn’t too worried about that. Once Lucy got closer, she saw the worry and stress on Anna’s face, she leaned down and then sat next to her sister. “What’s going on?” she asked. Anna was probably the one person in the world that Lucy actually cared about. She hated seeing her upset.

@annelise

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Anna didn't know how long she sat on the steps before Lucy showed up. To be entirely honest, she didn't care. She'd sat down and closed her eyes, trying to focus on the cold and how it made her fingertips and toes tingle instead of how her heart was aching. She was so focused on the sensations that she didn't hear Lucy approaching until her sister's voice said her name. Anna looked up slowly and she locked eyes with her sister. "Lucy," her voice sounded dead, even to herself, but Anna couldn't help it. She nodded at her sister's question, trying to find her own voice. "I ... Oscar still isn't back. He was supposed to be here a week ago. I haven't heard from him in two weeks and I- I think something terrible happened." The words came out in a rush and by the time she was done, Anna was barely holding back tears. Saying it out loud made everything worse. She couldn't pretend that it was just a coincidence and that Oscar was fine, not anymore. "I don't know what to do!" Anna added, leaning toward her sister, almost like she'd lost the will to sit up straight. In a way, she had. Anna didn't feel strong anymore. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy could have guessed what was plaguing her twin before she even had to ask. She knew that her husband, Oscar, was scheduled to be back last week. Lucy didn’t know what was going on for sure with him, but she was sure she would have heard if Oscar had come back. She was sure that she would have gotten invited to have dinner with the couple to welcome him home or something along those lines. Lucy had always liked Oscar, more than that, she liked Oscar for Anna. He made her twin happy, and that was all Lucy could ask of him. “Oh Anna, I’m sorry. I’m sure he’s just been delayed…” she said softly, trying to give her sister a little emotional encouragement. Anna leaned over and Lucy wrapped her arm around the girl. She didn’t know what to do, Anna told her. Lucy sighed. She didn’t quite know what to do either. She couldn't think of any reason that Oscar wouldn’t return, but she knew what Anna must have been thinking. “Well let’s wait a few more days. And if by next week we don’t hear anything, we can take further steps. Do you know where he was?” she asked. “Maybe he’s just been delayed. Maybe his boss is making him stay longer and he hasn’t been able to write.” Lucy wasn’t always a very positive person, but she wanted to be now, for Anna.

@annelise

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Anna nodded as Lucy turned to her, apologizing and giving excuses for Oscar. She knew her sister was only trying to help, but Anna definitely already thought of all of that. She'd rationalized to herself for a week about how she was overreacting and it was highly probably that nothing was wrong. She told herself repeatedly that maybe he found something important and was working on it ... but at the same time she knew his feelings for her. She was more important to Oscar than any work assignment. He would take the time to make sure she knew he was okay, she was certain. That was what worried her the most. "I know Lucy, but ... something doesn't feel right. He was writing me every few days. I never went more than three days without an owl from him, even when he was super busy. Now ... it's been two weeks. I think something is wrong or that something happened." She bit her lip, not wanting to seem pushy, but also not wanting to be convinced to make a decision she didn't agree with. "I've been waiting. I've waited for a whole week. I don't know if I can make it all the way to next week." Anna looked down at her feet, knowing she was probably being overly dramatic, but unable to help it. "I already almost lost him once. I really don't know if I could do that again." She leaned forward, resting her head in her hands and closing her eyes. "I don't know what to do," she moaned. Anna wanted to go after Oscar. She wanted to search him out and find him. If he was okay, then she could get mad at him for not contacting her and they could laugh about how insecure she was sometime in the future. If he wasn't okay, she wanted to know, but at the same time she trusted her sister's judgment.

@lucyweasley

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Lucy knew Anna. She knew that Anna wasn’t one to overreact. But she also figured that if something had happened to Oscar, she’d know about it right away. She figured they would have contacted Anna first thing. His boss would surely know, wouldn’t he? Anna couldn’t be the only one wondering where he was. Lucy wondered if she would have heard about it too, maybe from on the purifiers, at least, if anything had happened to him at their hands. But she couldn’t say she had heard anything. Nothing since the attacks. “Okay.” Lucy said slowly, “Then we’ll go.” she decided. She rubbed her sisters arm as she held her under her on the steps. “I’ll work on clearing my schedule. Can you get some time off?” she asked. Though, Lucy was sure that Anna wouldn’t mind too much if she got fired for taking time off anyway, she knew Anna didn’t love her job. “Let’s figure out our plans, and then, if he’s not back by the time we get it figured out, we’ll go.” She wasn’t entirely sure that this was a good idea, but as she spoke, she started to feel maybe the same bad feeling in her stomach that her twin was feeling. “And I think you should plan on just staying here with me in the meantime.” Lucy suggested. She didn’t like the idea of her sister going home to her empty house.

@annelise

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Anna sat up straight again, turning to stare at her twin when Lucy agreed to go with her. "Really?" she whispered, wondering whether or not she made up her sister's agreeing to search for Oscar with her. Her eyes were wide as Lucy continued, saying she would try to clear her schedule. Anna nodded, "Yeah, I have plenty of time off." Not that it mattered. She planned on quitting once Oscar got home anyway. if they wouldn't give her the time off that she wanted, she would simply quit right now. She didn't care about being an auror anymore. She was more interested in Cursebreaking, or maybe working in that Charms department her Aunt talked about a few weeks ago. Anna wasn't going to be an auror. She nodded slowly as her sister continued, saying that they could figure things out and if Oscar didn't return before things were figured out, they would go. "Thank you Lucy," Anna said, feeling her eyes well up with tears as she turned to her sister and wrapped her arms around her. She couldn't express how much it meant to her that Lucy believed her. She nodded when Lucy said she should stay with her for the next little while. "I will. Thank you," she answered again. Anna was almost dizzy with relief. She'd worried that Lucy would tell her she was being ridiculous and that she needed to stop worrying. Lucy was the first person she'd gone to about this, the only person she really wanted to tell about her worries. She loved her sister.

@lucyweasley

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“Yes really.” Lucy promised with Anna asked her if she really meant what she was saying. “He’s kind of like my brother, right? Of course I want him to be safe.” he admitted. She never cared for Oscar too much, but she knew that Anna did, and she knew that Oscar made Anna happy, so that was all she needed. If her sister had to marry someone, Oscar was surely the best person for her to marry. She certainly didn’t like the idea of Anna back on the dating scene. She liked her sister being off the market, there were too many bad guys out there only looking for one thing. She didn’t want to see her sweet sister caught up in something like that. “It’ll be okay.” Lucy promised, her words uneven. She wasn’t sure that she even believed what she was saying. “Do you want to come inside?” she offered.

@annelise

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Anna didn't really expect Lucy to answer her when she said really, but her sister's confirmation was definitely reassuring to her. "Yeah, you guys are family," Anna answered, a small smile growing on her face. She liked the fact that Oscar and her sister got along reasonably well. She didn't care what her parents thought of her husband, but she did care about Lucy's opinion. Lucy answered that it would be okay and Anna nodded half-heartedly, not sure if she really even believed it. She was pretty sure things weren't going to be okay until she saw Oscar again. Then she nodded, "Yeah, thanks." Anna rose to her feet, shuffling into the house. Being with her sister definitely helped, but what we really wanted was to get out of here. She wanted to act, not just wait along.

--- time jump ---

"Lucy?" Anna called as she walked into her sister's apartment a few days later. "I got work off. I couldn't do it before Christmas though, they want to do some particular things before then." Anna almost quit when they told her that they wouldn't give her time off. Granted, she wasn't telling them why she wanted the time, but still. Then she'd taken a deep breath and realized that maybe Lucy would have a hard time getting the time off work as well. Christmas time was a pretty busy time of year, after all. "What about you?" She walked through the hall, searching the rooms to figure out where her sister was exactly.

@lucyweasley

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Lucy ushered her sister into the apartment and didn’t say too much more that night, at least not about Oscar. The words that she spoke were necessary ones, but she couldn’t help but notice the tense silence that surrounded the sisters. These next few weeks weren’t going to be easy, but at least they would go by relatively quickly. Christmas was only about a week off, they could surely make it a week.

~

Lucy was home when Anna walked in that evening. She had been crafty about taking jobs this week, since she knew the odds that her sister would believe that she had rehearsals from 8-12 each evening weren’t great. That was an odd time for a rehearsal, even if Lucy explained it as a back-alley production and that the only time the cast and crew could all make work was late. Anna told her that she got time off, but not until after the Holiday. “That’s fine, we can make that work.” Anna agreed. “We can try to call and book tickets… or however they do it.” she hadn’t taken the train in a while. It was expensive and pointless to take a plane when they could get there on train in about 3 hours. “Yeah… well I don’t have a show I’m doing right now. My next one starts rehearsal in January so I’m fine.” she explained. That was the truth. She had got cast a few weeks ago as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice in a regional theatre in London, it was perhaps her biggest role yet. As for her other job, her appointments were voluntary, she didn’t have any that she had to take.

@annelise

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It didn't take long for Anna to find her sister once she started talking and Anna nodded as she entered the kitchen, slumping down in a chair in the kitchen. She really just wanted to leave now. Head to the airport or train station and get a ticket and be on her way, but she knew that going on her own wasn't a good idea. Anna also couldn't expect her sister to drop everything on such a whim. At the same time, staying here was hard. Every day that passed without news from Oscar made her feel worse and worse, though Anna didn't really want to talk to anyone else about that. She just wanted to go out and find Oscar. "Thanks Lucy," Anna muttered, offering a weak smile to her twin. At least she didn't have to pretend with Lucy. Lucy knew exactly how much she was struggling, that Anna could hardly sleep and when she did they were nightmares. "I can call. I'll do it tomorrow morning." She could probably call right now, but Anna was tired. Too tired to bother with something like that when it wouldn't help her leave any sooner. Lucy said that she didn't have any rehearsals until January and Anna nodded yet again. "Is it selfish of me that I'm glad? I know you need the work, but I don't really want to go on my own." 

Anna sighed and rose to her feet. "Are you hungry? I can make something for both of us ..." she glanced back at her twin. Anna wasn't really the best cook, but even though she was exhausted she couldn't sit around. She needed to be up and doing things. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy had been doing her best to try and distract her sister, though she knew that there was really no use in trying. Even if Anna was able to have a conversation, Lucy knew where her mind was. She knew that she was thinking about her husband, and she didn’t blame her at all. Anna insisted that she could call tomorrow and Lucy nodded, she wasn’t sure what to ask for if she called. She couldn’t remember the last time that she even rode the train. “Okay. thanks.” Lucy said, happy that her sister was deciding to take the reins on that. Lucy knew Anna was probably just trying to keep busy. “No it’s not bad. I’m happy to go with you, Anna. I’d go even if I had things to do. This is important.” it was important because it was important to Anna. In an effort to keep busy, Anna stepped up and asked if she could make something for them. “Uh, sure. I don’t think we have to much here… a trip to the market might be worthwhile.” Lucy admitted, opening the fridge beside her and peering inside. She rarely ate at home.

@annelise

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Anna wasn't surprised when Lucy didn't argue with her calling the train station to get them tickets the next day. She was pretty sure that Lucy knew she wanted to keep herself busy and was trying to help her do that, as much as possible. She nodded, "No problem. I'll get it taken care of on my way back from work," Anna said simply. It wouldn't be hard at all and it would give her one more thing before returning to Lucy's apartment. Hopefully it would take long enough that Lucy would beat her home. She felt a tiny bit of the tension inside her release when her sister said that she was happy to accompany Anna, that she would do so even if she had work. "Thank you," Anna said simply, surprised when her eyes filled with unshed tears. She was about to cry now? That was so annoying! Anna wasn't really the type to cry in front of other people, even her sister, but this really was a special situation. Her husband was missing. There wasn't anything she could do about it until Christmas. Being emotional was almost a given. 

"You wanna come with me?" Anna asked, rising to her feet again. She was so ready to go to the store and get food. She'd probably buy something they could just eat right now and then food that she could cook tomorrow, assuming she was in the mood. She just didn't want to stand around. She couldn't do that right now.

@lucyweasley

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Anna insisted she could take care of it all after work tomorrow and Lucy nodded, “Okay, just tell me how much I owe for my half.” she shrugged. She was glad to have a sister who didn’t mind getting involved in muggle affairs. After Lucy told her that they didn’t have much in the house and suggested a trip to the market, Anna seemed interested in the idea right away. “Uh, sure.” Lucy agreed. She didn’t go to the market often, actually, since Anna moved out, she had gone maybe twice. She usually just stopped at a bar on the way home, or she would pick up a few things if she was in Diagon Alley already. Lucy didn’t grab her purse. The girl didn’t carry a purse. She carried her money in her jean pockets and her wand tucked in her sleeve. “Lead the way.” Lucy insisted.

@annelise

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Lucy agreed, telling Anna to let her know how much she owed and Anna simply nodded. Cost didn't matter to her right now. She'd pay enough attention to be able to answer Lucy when her sister inevitably asked, but she wasn't going to press the issue. All she wanted to do was get out there. She wanted to be searching for Oscar right now, but she couldn't. She had to work and so did her sister. As much as Anna hated it. Lucy agreed to come out with her and go shopping and Anna just nodded. She didn't really care about food, but by now she was going through the motions. She was pretending to care about things that she couldn't care less about. At least she didn't have to do it alone. Anna was glad to have her sister alongside her. They went to the store in silence, grabbing a few items of food before returning. Anna didn't even realize the lack of discussion throughout the rest of the day.

--- the end ---

@lucyweasley