The Minstry of Magic (late 2054 FF)

Kiara entered the Ministry of magic, not on offical work for once.. no this was a family matter. After her talk with Tav afew day previous, she was concerned for her youngest daughter. Originally it had been Rossa that had her worry, Rossa always being really close with her Dad, but Rossa had Demyan and there two children to keep her going... Where Greta... well Greta was not her sister..

"Oh I hope she is alright..." she muttered to herself, merlin knew she couldn't handle it something happened to one of her children, grown up now or not... if there was anyway she could help her daughter... she would do it. If she indeed needed help that was..

Coming up to the Auror department, that hadn't really changed since she had been there all those years ago.. She walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where Auror Greta McConn is located please?" She asked the Front desk personel.

The older man at the desk glanced up wearily and blinked several times, as if not believing the fact that the Headmistress of Hogwarts was speaking to him.
"Err..." he cleared his throat, his voice wheezy even after. "Her office." the map had pinpointed her location and he gave it willingly, smiling kindly. He'd never before met the famed woman, but his grandchildren were all currently attending Hogwarts.

Kiara smiled "Thank you Sir" she said as she looked at the map. Her smile widened as she noticed Greta currantly occupied her formor office when she was an Auror... It made her wonder if this was by chance or it had been set up.

But without wasting another moment she nodded to the older man, "Have a good day" she said and moved on toward her daughters office.

Arriving at the door she knocked...

"Greta?" she asked softly.. suddenly second guessing her self for going to check on her grown daughter at work.. Would she be mad? would it embarrass her? She suddenly wasn't sure now... But than again she hadn't been able to find her at her house... so this was her only option.

Busily scribbling on the parchment trailing all the way to the floor, Greta did not hear the knock on the door until the charm she'd set up to alert her sent a shock up her arm. A swish of her wand banged the door open and without looking up she continued working at a feverish rate. She had to get this report done and into her captain as soon as possible. Not that Tav demanded it or anything... it was a demand only she set up.

The familiarity of the feel lifted her head and she gaped at her mum, eyes going wide. What was she doing there? was the first thought that leapt into her frazzled mind. Rising to her feet, she pushed light shoulder length hair from her face.
"Mum?" she murmured, hurrying to remove a stack of files from the other chair. "Uh, wont you sit?"

Kiara blinked at her daughter, seeing her acting very much an mirror image of her was a very odd feeling. She could almost see the need coming off her daughter to get the work done.. The sweet desperate need that takes over everything.. One could say it was a addiction, the sad fact she had to rip her self from her desk or classroom to visit her family was proof of that.

She bit her lip suddenly feeling very unsure if she was the best person to talk to Greta at this time.. She her self was barely keeping herself together.. How could she help Greta?

“I can‘t turn around now…. Now I am worried” She thought to her self as she stepped in to Greta’s office and gathered her nerves.

She then gave Greta a kind smile and nodded “hello dear” she said in a soft voice.. Not daring to use a stronger voice for fear she might not be able to hold it…

Catching the shocked look still on Greta face at her presence, she wasn’t surprised… she rarely ever dropped in on he children at work… but this was different.

“Been trying to contact you, but you seem to have taken up my habits..” she said as she looked around the office, but said nothing more on that..

Sitting down in the chair Greta had cleared for her, Kiara turned her tired and sad gaze to her youngest daughter trying to look in her eyes.. “How are you?” she asked simply, wanting to hear her answer.. Weather it was the truth was beside the point.. As she already knew better… but she needed to ask all the same…

Greta bit her lip so hard she tasted the metallic tang of blood. Some horrid part of her wanted to ask her mother to leave. This was not what she needed; a nice quiet sharing of minds with tears and tissues and understanding. She was a strong auror who took everything life threw at her with the same rebellious streak that had made people part the crowded hallways for her during her school days. She was Greta McConn and the name meant something to those she'd arrested and she'd marked enough graves to mean business. No this was not what she needed.

But... deep down, she knew her strength was gone and all that remained was that trembling child who'd lost her papa.

"Fine." Damnation she was good... her voice even sounded well and good. Maybe she'd missed her calling as an actress. "You?" Yes, she was doing her best to ignore the fact that she'd caused her mother trouble. It sent a pang of guilt through her as she remembered all the messages she'd ignored from Tav, Edan... hell, even her Grandpapa and Esis had tried to get ahold of her.

Kiara couldn't say she was surprised with that answer, it was what she would have said...

"Fine" she said in the same sofl voice.. her eyes locked on Greta.

Taking a deep breath she added, "But we both know that is a lie..." she said softly though she clunched the arm of the chair to hide the fact her hand was shaking.. Oh how she knew what Greta was going through, the blissful tiring need to let one self be consumed in work...to escape. She knew that what she and Greta did was not healthy and someone should drag her out of it, but It was like a recovering drug addict trying to convince another to stop taking. Generally neither was strong enough to pull it through..

"Greta... ever since your Dad died.... " she stopped. Oh how could she do this?

Why had she come?... yes she was worried sick about Greta, but could she help? or just make things worse...

She sighed looking at her daughter.. She looked so tired..
"I am sorry" she muttered unable to think of anything else to say.

Recognizing the same word to mean the same thing, Greta wanted to scream. It wasn't fair. Not at all, that she felt so lost, alone, afraid and angry. It wasn't fair that her mother was now alone... not fair, not right and not like her father. From her earliest memory of him, he'd always been kind, fair and most importantly there. Skinned knee, her papa helped her up... black eye, her papa put conjured ice on it... angry temper, her papa calmed her down. Until; well until she'd become too grown up for her papa.

Now he was gone... and she wanted to be that five year old with a broken wrist.

Her mother's words yanked her back to the present and tears nearly flooded her eyes. But big, grown up, free and rebellious Greta wouldn't let them come and she swallowed thickly, wanting to drown suddenly in the liquid that her legs felt like. Merlin life hated her.

A lie... she'd never thought of her mum as stupid, but damn, Kiara was sharper than she'd ever given her credit for. Fine; the definition for it should be exactly was it was in the Italian Job, some muggle movie her brother had rented for their family to watch when she had been a child...

Freaked out...
Insecure...
Neurotic...
Emotional.

Damn, she couldn't believe she was thinking of muggle movies while her mother struggled with what to say about her papa's death. Maybe she had died... yeah, really just blown. And all that was left was that stupid mantra singing auror who wanted to kill, hurt and bleed until she felt nothing. Maybe Esis had been right about her, she was falling apart.

"No..." the single word hung like a dead man from a noose; cold, stiff and yet with so much meaning. "I'm sorry." And the dam broke and Greta McConn, who hadn't cried since her first broken heart in her fourth year, sobbed like a newborn baby.

Kiara looked and saw the tears in her daughters eyes, and it ran pain through her to see her daughter in such pain, the pain she knew Greta was holding back.

As Greta finally let her self cry, it took all of Kiara's will not to fully join her... tears escaped her eyes as she got up moved beside her daughter, she placed both her hands on Greta's shoulders, enough in her opinion to let Greta know she was there for her.. with her.. but not so much to make her feel smothered.

She didn't try to stop her daughters cries.. they needed to be let out, before the futher tore her apart...

"You don't have to be sorry Greta, I know how you feel... really I do... " she said.. again seeing a mirror image of her self in the very spot, wanting so much to hug her daughter...

Greta all but threw herself into her mother's arms, wanting to be comforted. She wanted nothing more than the comfort; no more rebellion, no more pain... just youthful peace... young innocence.
"It's such a mess..." she sobbed. "Everything is tangled." her words trailed off as her mind became too muddled to think clearly.
"Why...why?" Greta looked up with blue eyes wet with tears and brimmed in red. "Why did it have to be him? Couldn't someone else have died?" she didn't mean it, but it came out anyway.

Kiara hugged her daughter tightly when she held on to her, she put her hands through Greta blond hair and kissed the side of her head. Silently she cast a ward around the office so her daughters sobs wouldn't be heard... and it seemed more private...

Tears of her own soon soaked her face as Greta sobbed, "I don't know dear" she whispered.. and it truely wasn't fair. Ciaran up until his stroke she had always known to be healthy...never sick enough to even see a doctor... it made no sence that he fell to quick and in the way he did... It tore her heart apart just thinking about it. It was so unfair...

"Couldn't someone else have died?"

Kiara sucked in a breath, the thought often crossed her own mind... but she couldn't imagine or bare to think of any of them dieing... if it would have made a difference she would have died herself... But then she knew Ciaran would likely have been just a broken hearted as she was... and wouldn't wish this fate on anyone...

"I.... Don't know why it had to be your Dad Greta... merlin knows, I wish every moment of everyday it hadn't been" she whispered as she rubbed her daughters back. She believed there was a reason for everything... but be damned if she could find the reason for her sweet husbands death...

Kiara... dispite her tears, managed to keep her own sobs down.. for Greta's sake she supposed.. it was her Daughters turn to let her pain out... it was something she needed to do, even if she didn't know it..

"Oh my dear.... I know it is not the same, but your Dad will always be with you, watching over you. He loved all of you so very much" she whispered recalling the day she finally broken down in her office and she sworn she saw the ghostly form of her husband, and ever so loving smile that she loved so much...

She sniffed back warm tears, the salty stain with its unwanted tracks on her cheeks and chin. Her mother was right...
"I know." she muttered. "I know..." but knowing didn't lessen the pain. Didn't bring anyone back... didn't do anything but bring about more grief. Ignorance was bliss, to hell with whoever claimed it wasn't.

Ignorance... her dull eyes widened suddenly as her thoughts strayed into what things her mother didn't know. Pulling back from Kiara, she lifted a suddenly trembling hand to her mouth. "Oh damn..." she cursed, tears continuing to leak from her now tightly closed eyes. There was a slight kick against her stomach and her hidden secret leapt to her mind despite the fact it never really should have left.

Her hand went to her abdomen, not in motherly affection but rather sudden despair. Ara... once upon a time she'd loathed her aunt for becoming pregnant without wanting to... now she loathed herself. It was one of her many rules; careful Greta. She'd slept with more men than she could ever keep track of; but was careful... dead careful. But she'd loved one man, a fellow auror, in fact the very man whose funeral she'd attended two months earlier.

'Mum... there's a baby." well... what a sweet gentle way to tell her mother news that should have been the best ever. Not, 'You're going to be a grandmother again' not 'I'm pregnant', not even 'I'm going to have a baby' just... 'there's a baby'... how callous, Greta she mumbled within her mind. How selfish and cruel.

Kiara contined to hold Greta until she moved away, however what she saw and heard did nothing to ease her worry... in fact she felt it rise in her heart.. At first she thought Greta was going to be sick...

"Greta?" She asked worry thick in her voice as she touched her daughters arm...

She wanted to ask if she was alright, but givin what that had just went through of course she wasn't alright... Damn it..

Then...

"Mum... there's a baby."

Kiara felt her breath catch in her throat... A Baby?"What?..." She blinked several times, her eyes drifted from Greta, to seeing hand on her stomach and back again...

"A Baby?.." she muttered... still wrapping her head around it... Was she pregnant? when had this happened? The father... who?

Confusion so clouded her mind as more questions and worry flooded her.. Was she alright? Was the child alright? would she be?

"Greta?... Are you...are you pregnant[?" she asked softly... normally this question was asked with joy and ecitment or announced in much the same fashion.. This was different, Greta told her in fear and dispare... And she now returned it in worry... not that she would ever fronwn on a child entering to the family.. but... With Greta already in such emotional pain.. it she now worried for both Greta and her now unborn grandchilds health. Question as to the father crossed her mind, as far as she knew Greta wasn't in a deep relationship with anyone...But then she knew Greta was more on the wild side, so she left the question about the father for later...

She gently held Greta's hand and gave it a squeese as she wipped the tears off Greta's cheek with her thumb, she loved her so much... and it pained her to know Greta was having a child in such a difficult time in her life. "Its going to be okay" she whispered perhaps trying to convince not only Greta but herself to.. "You are not in this alone, I promise"...

"Yeah... I am." she muttered, sighing softly. "I'm due in January..." Lifting the glamour, she winced at how large she was. Her coworkers would have killed her to find out she'd been heavily pregnant on most of those dangerous missions... what would her mother do... it worried Greta almost more that she cared what her mother thought than the actual doing. Merlin life was confusing.

Gripping her mum's hand with a death grip, she sighed at the kind words. Yeah, she needed to hear them and believed them... "I know... it's just." she groaned softly, in partial mental anguish.
"Mavon Recimp....he's the father. And well... he's dead." she muttered. "I'm not a horrible person, Mum. He would have married me and we would have raised our son... but that damned curse and now..." she was rambling and the tears didn't help.

Kiara let a shaky breath and closed her eyes at the sight of her daughter, she was at least 6 months along….her heart was pounding so hard in her chest it hurt and was holding back another flood of tears… Greta was still in active duty!? And with a child, she could have gotten both of them killed…. Had Greta not been in so much pain already she would have told her it was just plain foolish and stupid, but she didn’t have the strength for the anger, or the will to make Greta feel worse.

The very thought of what could have happened so easily scared Kiara to death… and her face paled… if anymore blood drained from her face she would likely faint…

“Oh Greta.. Why? Why didn’t you say anything sooner” she asked softly looking at her daughters tear stained face…

She pulled Greta into yet another hug, how her daughter, remained so stubbornly strong through all this was beyond her… “Your Son…” she muttered, so she was having a baby boy… She kissed Greta’s forehead before pulling back again..

“Have you talked with anyone about any of this? Been to a healer?” please merlin let her at least have gone to a healer to ensure her baby was alright.. That she was alright…. Cause if she hadn’t… oh she going to see one weather she wanted to or not…

She couldn’t take it if anything happened to Greta…she didn’t know what she would do…. They would both be perfectly fine… they had to.. Yet again wasn’t that the same thought that went through her mind when Ciaran had his stroke?..
She surpressed the worry and panic that rose inside her... no she would rant, cry and yell at her reflection later....

"I know you are not a horrible person Greta... I am so sorry all this has happen to you all at once.... but we can make this work.. I know it" she said wanting to give some hope to her in the seeming to be her daughters darkest hour.. and she didn't doubt they could work it out... Greta had fiestiness in her.... She could get through this.. she knew it...

"I don't know... I don't know why." she muttered, not noticing how pale her mother had gotten due to her tightly closed eyes. She allowed the embrace, needing it... But the truth, she had known... part of her had wanted to die and the baby with her. No way in hell was she going to confess that to her mum. Not now, not ever.

She had spoken to a healer, her friend, Chelsea Smi, about it and due to her supported emotional strength and physical health, her friend had told her the gender and the due date. Damn, she'd acted so happy.

"Yeah, to Chelsea." Greta mumbled. "She said the baby was healthy and all that." she sounded nearly disappointed by that fact. Her eyes opened and she blinked with surprise at how frankly horrible her mother looked. "I'm fine, Mum." she murmured. "Physically fit and all that." she assured her, knowing suddenly that another pain would be all it would take to snap Kiara's fragile balance. Honestly, she should never have brought any of this up.

"I know too... I just need to come to terms, I guess." she sighed, smiling softly. "Maybe I just needed to explode once."

Kiara sighed in relief and let out a breath she had not known she held... glad the despite everything... Greta and her son were in good health..

"Thank merlin..." she thought... then another thought entered her mind... and it was a thought she liked to think.. perhaps Ciaran had protected Greta in her time of need... Somehow in someway... it sounds like something he would do if it was possible..

"Oh Greta, you have any idea how lucky you are? to have gone through all this and still have a healthy baby? It is wonderful thing at that....

It warmed a bit of her soul to see Greta smile again, and she managed to return one of her own.

"Maybe..." she said softly with a nod.. she wasn't sure of all the was needed was one release.. but she was relieved Greta has atleast done that..
"Oh I love you, my Dear..." she said holding her hand again..." So much"

After a moment of silence and lifted her gaze back to her daughter again, having gathered back a little bit of her nerve that she had nearly lost...

"Now, what do you plan to do next?" she asked, curious to what Greta's plans were for her self and her child...

"And... could you do me a favor? Please Greta have your self be taken off active duty.. if not for your self and your baby then for the rest of the people your care for you?" she said. She knew if a number of her siblings found out what Greta risked few of them would give her a piece of there mind...

Rossa... oh she could only imagine how Rossa would react to her sister behavior....
Rossa was having a hard time with her fathers death to.... only her children it seemed kept her going and out of full blown depression...

"I am not asking you to leave work completly... just stick to safe stuff for the time being?... I know keep your mind busy helps.. and feels better then sitting around and dwealing on everything... but I just ask you take it easier? " She all but begged Greta....

After all they all should know, that good health could change.. and she desperately wanted Greta to avoid risks of that change...