As he spoke, Adrianna's eyes narrowed. Somehow she suddenly felt that something was not going to go well at this point. But what could she do now? She'd agreed to listen, and listen she did.

And as the story continued, Cooper would have seen the changes in her expression - Adrianna never hid her expressions and could never learn, no matter how much Shaozu had tried to coach her. First the narrowed eyes. Then her eyebrows raised in obvious shock. Then sympathy, and pity. Then her eyes focused on the scar, and then the realisation of the meaning dawned on her.

Her expression darkened, and then she closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths - her hands were starting to tremble, and she clenched them into fists in order to stop the shivering. She could feel her fingernails digging into her skin, and scrunched her eyes up tight.

The Auror stayed like that for a few minutes before releasing her grip. She glanced at the fingernail marks on her palms, and then looked up at him with a wan, tight smile. There were so many things going through her head, and she knew saying any one of them would probably get him angry with her. But how was she to say anything that was coherent and not rage-filled or bitter?

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I can see why you're deeply concerned with the case. Um. How can I say this? I have nothing against you, Cooper, you're a lovely person as far as I know, but...but, you know, maybe this isn't the right time to get into details." She got to her feet, taking the mug of coffee with her. "If you're worried about why I'm saying all this, don't worry so much. It's not you."

In the meantime, she realised that she'd moved her hand up to the dragon-phoenix pendant that rested just above her sternum, hidden by her blouse collar. She grasped it tightly and gave Coopr a polite nod. Regret was already welling up inside her - not for offering to listen to Cooper, but for saying all of what she had just said. It hadn't been his fault.

But she just couldn't. It hadn't been his fault was the cause of turning for that man, too. And where had that led to?

She found herself unable to walk. Great. Adrianna leaned a hand against his desk and closed her eyes, her trembling now full-body and very obvious. Taking deep breaths wasn't exactly working, but it was better than whipping out her wand right now and threatening him with it unless he swore never to go near her for the next week or two. She put the mug down before she dropped it, but it was now consuming her. The dreaded mental breakdown.

It was one of those heart stopping moments, when everything was suddenly quiet –despite the fact that the Headquarters was full of activity- and still, and it appeared as if the only thing that mattered in this moment was the two of them. The clock seemed to slow, as Cooper’s index finger dragged along the edge of his scar, green eyes focused on the woman’s face: the quick change from narrowed slits to wide opened shock and sympathy, to outright darkness might have happened in a split second, but it felt so much longer, and as Adrianna’s eyes screwed tightly shut, the werewolf’s heart beat a staccato rhythm against his ribcage. He couldn’t quite make a guess at what her reaction meant, or if she was about to nod and accept it, or try to kill him out of hatred for any lycanthropes.

His decision to reveal what he was had been a dangerous play –he didn’t know the woman, and even now there were still people with extreme prejudice against is kind. Sod, he was one of them! Still, it had been the best way to gauge whether she should be considered a suspect, or if she could be trusted, without giving too much away. From the fact that she was trembling, and her hands were curled into tight fists, he gathered she hadn’t known what he was, which was a good indication she wasn’t the mole –but her entire reaction was also not quite positive for him.

It was an instant later, his gaze on her face as she opened her eyes, that he noticed the scars once again –and began to have an inkling of what might have provoked them. Cooper suddenly felt sick to his stomach, as her mouth spread into a tight smile, and his own lips gaped like a fish out of water. What was he supposed to say? He couldn’t even be entirely sure his suspicions were true. However, she made quick work of eliminating any need for him to speak, as she swiftly informed him this wasn’t the time and stood with her mug of coffee in her hand.

She was holding something against her collarbone, and suddenly everything was happening too fast, in stark comparison to the slow trickling of time just a few seconds previously. She was leaving, but then she wasn’t. She was standing, but then she was leaning against his desk as if it were the only thing keeping her from falling. She was trembling all over, and that didn’t seem to stop, and Cooper suddenly felt worried: he’d already witnessed one death recently, he certainly didn’t want to be the cause of yet another.

“Adrianna,” His voice was low, and he used her first name because sod politeness or any sense of respect. Stepping forwards, he hesitated an instant before placing a hand on her left shoulder, holding tight but in a move that was supposed to be comforting. “What’s wrong? Should I call a healer?” Stepping around her, he looked at her once again, taking in her scars. Cooper inhaled deeply. “It was a werewolf, wasn’t it?”

She barely heard him, but heard him she did. His usage of her first name, though, reminded her that it would hardly be polite of her to collapse on him now. She reached out and groped around, and by chance found his arm. Her hand gripped tight as if it was the only thing in the world that could keep her grounded and not breaking down. His voice, too - that helped.

With her othre hand she groped for the chair she had been sitting in and adjusted it before she sat back down and gripped the edges of the chair as she bowed her head. She was taking deep breaths as she tried to calm herself and stop her trembling.

Adrianna finally opened her eyes and looked up at him. She was still breathing deeply, and she felt quite giddy and pale. "I don't need a healer," she managed, "and yes, you're right. Long story. Since you've told me yours, I can tell you mine. And don't worry, I've moved on. Mostly."

As she spoke, she released her grip on her pendant and lowered her hand, letting her pendant slip out of her collar. It was best to at least let herself know that she needed to move on as much as she could. It was almost a year. And, she told herself, as long as she wasn't reminded that the man opposite her was a werewolf...well, at most she would just not talk to him as much, if push came to shove.

Her hand was on his arm, her other gripping the chair and she was somehow managing to keep in a standing position. Adrianna refused a healer, which made sense: in his experience, most Aurors –him included- liked to believe they were too tough to ever need medical help, even if they were currently caught in the middle of what seemed to be a nervous breakdown. The fact that Cooper himself wasn’t feeling all put together at the moment wasn’t helpful, but somehow he managed to keep himself in control and not move a single muscle as she spoke, and he nodded slowly.

Deeming she was back to being capable to standing on her own, Coop edged towards the side until his hip came to rest against the edge of his desk, and he gingerly folded his arms over his chest, staring at her through heavy eyelids. This was how he worked best: while under stress from an outside source, he was able to gather himself entirely and bring himself under full control. It was amazingly relaxing, as a matter of fact. “I’m listening,” He said, giving a quick jerk of his chin to indicate she should start. “Just tell me all about it.”

She didn't look at him as she spoke. Her eyes were affixed to the dark footwell under his desk. "I spent the last seven years of my time in China assigned to what was known as the Wolf-Man Murders. A man, a serial killer. A werewolf supremacist. He'd pick a spot, wait for the best time...and then attack several victims, at least five, at least one child. Whether they got away with it alive or not...was up to the healers in China, not him.

"In Britain, two Aurors get assigned to a case. In China, depending on the dangers of the case, one to ten. We lost five Aurors before the Office sent out fifteen. I was one of them." She kept her sentences short. It would do no good for her - and him - if she drifted off while she was talking.

"It wasn't just me. There was my best friend, Shangquan. There was my fiancé, Wei Long." Her tone was flat and emotionless, a stark contrast to her friendly tone earlier on. "The murderer led us all on a wild goose chase across China for seven years. In the end..."

She had to stop. The memories were still fresh, and they were coming back to her now. Adrianna took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes to steady herself. When she continued, her voice caught slightly at the beginning. "In the end, it was just me. He killed them all. Every single one of my group either were turned into werewolves or killed. Shangquan and Wei Long didn't survive.

"In the end, I got what I wanted. I brought him down and turned him over to justice. They spared him Hell's Penitentiary[1] and sentenced him to death. But I'll never get back what I've lost." She smiled as she lifted her head a little, a bitter, mirthless, tired smile. "He gave me a present to remind me of that." She lifted a finger to her lips and traced the raised, discoloured skin on her face.

After a moment of silence, she looked up at Cooper. "I'm sure you're a good man," she said, "but I'm sorry. I can't work with you, now that I know. It...brings back too many memories." Her hand lowered to her pendant again, curling around the golden dragon and phoenix and grasping it so tightly that the feathers and scales bit into her skin. She could just hear Wei Long's voice echo, a distant memory, as he spoke of their plans for the future.

Without thinking, she brought the pendant up to her lips and kissed it gently. It took a minute for her to realise what she'd done, and when she did she let her pendant go in a hurry and picked up her mug. "I'm sorry," she said again, averting her gaze from him. "I really am."

1.	The Chinese subterranean wizarding prison.

There was something just slightly awkward from the way she adverted her gaze from his face as she spoke, her eyes instead focused a tad bit lower and away from him –as if she were either afraid to tell her story directly to him, or embarrassed by what she had to say. Or perhaps she simply couldn’t allow herself the connection –an understandable reaction. Cooper, on the other hand, kept his green orbs directly on her face, his gaze pounding against her forehead as if wishing to print a drawing upon the flesh. His arms were tight around his chest, but his breathing was calm and his muscles relaxed and he was entirely focused on her words and nothing else –it was what made him a good listener, his ability to shut all else off and focus on that moment. It was perhaps also his greatest strength as an Auror.

Her voice had started out flat, with not a hint at emotion –but as her story got deeper, so did her tone, and Cooper felt himself actually wanting to grab for her, as well as sensing the ability to understand her reaction to his revelation. As it turned out, it’d been idiotic to show her his scar and tell her his story –but not because she was dangerous, but simply because it would lead her to pull away. Which might not be a bad thing –Cooper found himself remembering his school years, when he’d been so afraid of what he was and what he could potentially do every full moon that he’d closed himself off almost entirely. He felt it now, once again, that urge to wrap a wall around himself –he’d lost everything, and the very final joke on him would be if he ever hurt the Auror that stood before him. But it was a temptation he forced away, for he couldn’t afford it.

“I understand,” He stated, again closing himself off and focusing only on the matter at hand –though Bella tried to keep kicking through, and her memories pestered him all the harder. “I really,” And suddenly, he felt sick to his stomach, a lump crawled up his throat and he caught it just in time –caught himself on the verge of speaking words he’d regret, of revealing his lies and secrets, for some strange reason, to this woman he barely knew. “Do. I do.” He nodded, knowing he was making little sense as his gaze fell to the pendant around her throat. “What is that?” He wondered –perhaps it was the fact that she, too, had lost a loved one, or perhaps the universe was just toying with him in ways he wouldn’t understand, but Cooper felt like he wanted to keep talking with this woman. “The pendant, I mean.”

Adrianna looked up at him, her eyes glassy but remaining focused on his face. It was not often people saw her necklace; she kept it tucked into her blouse, to keep it close to her heart and to prevent people from getting ideas about stealing it. It was not pure gold, but it certainly was sentimental to her.

"This?" It was completely unnecessary, but a lump had lodged itself in her throat and she had to get it out before she spoke anymore. She eventually cleared her throat enough to speak again, after a minute or so.

"My fiancé gave it to me." She smiled. It was a sad, bitter smile. "Well, not really fiancé, but he'd all but proposed. We'd been talking about plans. For everything. Housing. Moving. Getting myself a licence. I told him it wasn't that great, discussing all this on a walkway above several roads. So he said, let's go out tonight. Book a table at a restaurant. Have dinner, talk about it.

"And then right in the evening..." She closed her eyes. "We got the call. Shanghai. A code white. For death. Basically means that death is literally walking in the streets. And it was for him, like it had been for the others." Her gaze remained fixed on him, as if daring him, challenging him, to understand this one. "We were talking in the alleyway, keeping an eye out. He was grumbling about the change of plans. And then--"

She couldn't maintain it. Her voice broke, and she looked down and away, taking deep breaths as she clenched her fists. Her knuckles were going white and she was outright shaking, so much that she had to put the mug down again. There was more that she remembered, but she actively forced it out of her thinking.

Still, the pervasive thought of Gan Shaozu prevented her from outright collapsing. She would always remember the fact that he took the time to be there as her pillar. It only made her want him to be there in Britain, to keep her upright and moving her through the day again.

But he wasn't. She said, in a tight voice, "I should go home today, there's no way I can work like this." A drink would calm her nerves. That would help.