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Outfit

~7pm

Over the past month Claudia had spent fewer and fewer nights out at the usual places she had tended to frequent over the years.  In the more recent moments of quiet reflection she had come to several realizations as to why she had started going to clubs in the first place and made note of the fact that she very much hated the club scene.  It was impossible when living a fast paced lifestyle that centered on nearly deafening atmospheres and copious amounts of alcohol to spend too much time looking at what might truly be going on in one’s brain.

She had heard somewhere that things someone seemed to avoid doing the most were usually exactly what needed to be done.  It was all just another way to hide from dealing with life and she was tired of doing that.  She was still trying to process everything that had happened on Sunday, not entirely sure even now what to think of it all or do about it.  The sudden appearance of Alex’s wife who he had apparently met during the time spent out of the country had left her feeling a bit like the wind had been knocked out of her.  It felt like the universe was playing some cruel joke on her for actually allowing herself to put a little trust in another person.

On the coffee table sat an open bottle of red wine, a half filled glass within reach.  She had put on an old jazz album she had always liked before collapsing on her sofa.  There was a new sketchbook in front of her, a pencil in her hand as she stared at the blank page.  Years ago she had always carried on with her, allowing drawing to be her emotional release at the end of a long day.  She had stopped for some reason, and if she looked closely she knew it was around the same time she had started the nightly clubbing and barhopping.

If anyone who knew her now saw her they’d probably think she had gone completely insane.  The image she portrayed at work with the clothing she wore, the high heeled shoes, the perfect makeup and hair was a far cry from the woman sitting on the couch in her flat.

Alex probably shouldn't have been surprised the way that things had progressed.  But what was he supposed to do?  The only way he could have told Claudia about his wife was if he had told her everything about his mission into France.  Something that would mean telling her classified information, that would be against Ministry law.  Its not like he'd be able to say, 'by the way I also was married for a short time while I was in France.'  There was no way that would have been just let go without some level of scrutiny.  And that wasn't too say that they were still married.  He had gotten the divorce before coming back to England.  That shouldn't be surprising, it was all part of an arrangement as apart of the mission.

That's why he was here in the first place, in front of Claudia's door.  There was so much to explain, but the hard part was getting her to listen to his explanation.  It really hadn't been long since the two of them had started dating, so it stood to reason that the two still didn't know a lot about each other.  And it wasn't like he hadn't wanted to tell her, but legally he was bound not too.  But look where he was now because of it. 

He had no obligation to the Ministry now.  He had done a lifetime of service.  Faced down the dark wizards of the IRA conflict.  Hunted down the dogs of Voldemort.  His wife Ariella had died in service to the Ministry, and Alex himself had nearly lost his several times in service to it as well.  Time had passed and now that Alex had finally made the decision to move on, now that he had finally found the motivation to try and live for himself again.  That was when things tried to crash down around him again.

His now ex-wife had crashed a dinner between him, Claudia and his best friend Marcus and his future, Moira.  Yeah, it had been one hell of a night...and he had no idea why it had to happen or even how his ex-wife had known where to find him.  Probably ran into one of his informants that were just as good at digging up info as he was.  And the reason she had hunted him down was...

He shook his head, he would explain everything to Claudia.  Assuming she would let him.  He shifted a large bouquet of red roses in his hands and knocked on her door.  No, red roses weren't his way of trying to apologize, but he wanted to show he was sincere.  He wasn't sure on how to do that either though.  This is what happens when a man who keeps everyone at arms length for so long finally tries to let someone in.  Everything goes wrong.

He hoped that he'd be given the chance to make things right.

She was just putting pencil to paper when the knock on her door caused her to jump.  She certainly was not expecting company and she wasn’t sure who might be making an unanticipated visit.  Setting the sketchbook aside she took her wand from the table and put it in the pocket of her sweater.  If it was one of her Muggle neighbors the last thing she needed was to be explaining why it was she kept a carved ‘stick’ laying out.

Crossing the distance between the couch and the door, she fixed the straps of her top and sweater before unlocking and opening the door.  She had considered several possibilities as to who her visitor might be as she had made her way to the door; however none of those scenarios had included Alex holding red roses.  Claudia stood there for a moment, feeling several things all at once and not really sure which emotion was the one she should latch on to.

There was a part of her that was still completely furious over the entire thing, and that part wanted her to close the door again as quickly as she had opened it.  There was also a feeling of insecurity that crept over her as she stood their without all of the makeup and accessories that usually defined her when she wasn’t in the comfort of her flat.  Yet the strongest emotion she felt was relief at seeing him.  On Sunday in the wake of being interrupted by the wife no one seemed to know about she had been hurt and convinced that she had once again been a complete fool to trust someone.  Listening to his side of the story had obviously not been the first thing she had considered and then pride and the feeling of betray stopped her from seeking him out.

“Alex,” she said when she regained the ability to form words as her mind began to focus again, “what do…What are you doing here?”

It was an obvious answer, yet asking what do you want had seemed to harsh despite the anger she had felt.

Considering he hadn't ended up with a door slammed in his face was definitely a plus.  But maybe he had just been over thinking the situation.  It wasn't like he had known what her reaction would be because he had never in all of his years knowing her, seen her angry.  Honestly there was little he could predict when it came to Claudia.  And actually that was one thing that continually attracted him to her.  He didn't know her, and he for once wanted to find out everything the hard way.  By experiencing and being with her first hand. 

He could have smiled at seeing her, and that he was now given a chance to speak and possibly set things right, but it would be inappropriate and most likely make Claudia angry.  So he began with honesty.

Alex did something totally unlike him.  He got down to his knees and offered up the roses to her as he began to speak in a sincere tone.  He wasn't sure how to approach it, but he wanted it to be made clear to her that Claudia at this moment held all the power of the events that were happening.  He was not looking at her as he spoke.  "I'm not here to apologize.  Truthfully, I was obligated by law not to tell you anything about the events that happened on my mission.  I told you it got complicated.  But I realized something."

This time Alex did look up at Claudia.  "How could I possibly say I trust you if I won't even give you a chance to know the whole truth?  So I want to tell you.  Why I was there, what really happened and also why I was married.  Please, give me the chance to explain."  The last part was a plead.  He wanted to set things, and really he didn't have any idea just how badly he had wanted it until this moment.  She was all he could think about since it had happened. 

He didn't want things to end this way, especially when things had only really begun between them.

Claudia felt her pulse quick with a rush of emotion as he knelt, holding the roses out as a sort of peace offering.  The action itself coupled with the tone of his voice brought caused her eyes to sting a bit with tears and she bit her lower lip to appear completely collected.  This was completely uncharted territory for her.  The few who had actually managed to make it past her usual walls in defense never tried to explain when problems arose and things started to crumble.  To see Alex now kneeling at her door pleading for her to listen to what it was he had to say left her feeling as if she had been on one of those teacup rides she had ridden as a child when her parents took her to a Muggle amusement park.

She looked away for a moment, fighting back the long ignored fears that accompanied the thought of letting someone in.  There wasn’t much that could frighten her, but being hurt again by someone she cared about was certainly one of them.  He had the ability to hurt her, whether he truly realized it or not and she was teetering on the edge of that metaphorical cliff trying to decide if she should take a leap of faith.

Turning back to him she took a deep breath before meeting his eyes trying to calm her mind which was filled with what seemed like a million thoughts all at once.  Taking the roses, she then opened the door fully as she moved aside to allow space for him to pass through.  Her head was as always screaming the safer route which would have been to send him away, but she knew in her heart she couldn’t just do that.

She gave a slight nod, not fully trusting her voice, but managing to say, “Come in.  I…” She trailed off not really sure what the rights words were at that moment.  She was usually so good at expressing her opinion, but this was still so foreign to her.  Finally, she settled on, “I was sort of hoping we might have a chance to talk.”

For a few moments nothing was said at all.  Alex knew the truth about this moment, just how much the two of them had revealed already about each other.  But the whole situation had brought them to another barrier, one that would be difficult to cross.  Him coming here, on his knees was asking something very personal.  That he wanted to be let in, he wanted to be someone who could be trusted.  In the end he was asking for all barriers between them to be torn down.

Alex could only imagine the thoughts running through Claudia's mind.  She was hesitant, as she should be.  He was asking a lot of her.  A lot that he wasn't sure he had the right to do.  After a moment, a long moment, she finally looked at him and took the roses from him.  Then she moved, and finally invited him in.

"Thank you," he said softly as he got to his feet and entered Claudia's home.  He incidently slipped into a old habit, noting the music that hung in the air and as they entered the living room he took note of the open bottle of wine and the glass that was half full.  Obviously she had no intention of seeing anyone tonight, or going anywhere.  Rather than waiting for a indication to begin his story or anything else he took the lead on this.  "Go ahead and get comfortable, this is not a short story."

Alex, of course, had no intention of becoming comfortable himself.  "Just know that you can't tell anyone about what I'm about to tell you.  It all started a couple months before I left.  Somewhere around the time Kingstreet's case was at the top of public attention.  I started getting rumors of something happening in the streets of France.  I followed up on it by getting in contact with their Head of Magical Law Enforcement.  But he indicated no problems.  So I left a warning of things I had heard.  He assured me that he could deal with his own problems."

Maybe jumping right into it wouldn't be some peoples approach, but this had been his sole purpose for seeing her.  He wasn't going to waste her time.  That was the last thing he ever wanted to do.

"Talon Vandalier, my old mentor who taught me my occulemency and leglimency skills originally comes from France and it was his old contacts that were feeding him info and then me.  As the months continued it only got worse.  To the point where I brought my findings and information to Marcus.  I explained that a lot of Talon's contacts were hearing a lot of rumors about corruption in the French Ministry.  And that it was possibly high up.  But more so than that, one single name brought it to the front for Marcus and I.  He is known as Wesley.  Someone that Marcus and I had a lot of dealings with in the past.  Someone we had put in Azkaban."

"He was one of the many that escaped durring the Azkaban breakout some years ago.  We couldn't track him, and Marcus had since gotten out of the game, becoming a Wizengamot Elder around that time.  He went into hiding, so unfortunately there was little that could be done," he sighed.  "If he was apart of what was going on, then we had to act.  It was possible that the French Ministry had already been comprimised.  So we had to act fast.  Wesley liked to use others to do his dirty work, and over the years it was definitely possible he had learned some new tricks.  Originally Marcus thought of assigning someone else to the task, but if we sent anyone there officially on a mission there would have been paperwork that could concievably let Wesley know we were coming.  In the end, there was no choice.  I had to go.  So without so much as a word to anyone, I left.  But things were even worse than we thought."

"My first day there resulted with me being thrown in a cell.  The Head of Magical Law Enforcement wouldn't even meet with me, instead he just threw me in a cell and intended to forget about me.  Also at that time the French Ministry went dark.  Marcus stopped hearing anything from the French Ministry.  Something that might have been more noticable to you if you had known where I was.  I was there for a few days, but Vane Hendric broke me free.  Vane helped me get out of the building without so much fuss, and left me with the thought that many Ministry officials were most likely under the imperio curse.  Which explained why the Head of Magical Law Enforcement didn't ever show face to face with me.  He was afraid that my skill with Legilimency would expose that fact."

"Of course, escaping didn't help me much.  Soon after I was a wanted man under some false charges and I had to go into hiding.  So now I knew Wesley was doing something much more bold than he ever had attempted before, but I was in a extreme disadvantage.  One, I had no place to sleep, or a base of operations which I could retreat too...Second, I had no way of knowing who in the French Ministry was under imperio and who wasn't.  So I had no one I could trust in the French Ministry.  This meant I had to build profiles on basically everyone in the Ministry by talking to residents and family of Ministry workers.  So building psychological profiles and then comparing it to who was in office was the only way to safely determine who was imperio and who was not."

Alex stopped for a moment, "I hope I'm not going too fast, you can stop and ask me questions whenever you want me to clarify something."

There was a lot to explain, and he had no intention of leaving any of it out.  If he wanted to earn her trust, he needed to show that he was in no way going to hold back.  He just hoped that he was going about this right.  A part of him, deep in himself was scared.  The first time in years he was opening up, he was not going to lose her, not when it was something like this.  Not when all he needed to do was be honest and confide in her.  But that was what scared him, what worried himself the most.  It had been so long since he trusted anyone other than Marcus.  Or so long since he had wanted to let someone in...to see the person that he really was.  He wanted Claudia to see him, who he really was.  And above all, how much he cared for her, and how he cared how she thought of him.  That was the most important to him.

Claudia closed the door behind him, taking a moment for another breath before turning back to the living room of her flat.  This was not one of those easy moments in life and she was more then aware of that.  As he didn’t seem like he was particularly interested in small talk before launching into the story, she set the roses on an end table temporarily and moved back to the sofa.  She would follow his lead for now.

She settled back, pulling her legs under her as he began the story.  She took a sip of wine as she listened taking it all in.  She was well aware that anything he told her would have to remain strictly between them.  Over the years she had gotten used to keeping things she wasn’t supposed to know about to herself.  It was inevitable as she moved from office to office working for higher ranking officials that on occasion she would become aware of classified information.

This was different though.  This wasn’t about work, this was about removing the obstacles that stood in their way and that meant she would be sure to guard what he told her in her mind.  His story did, however, fill in some blanks as to some of the oddities she had noticed over the past few months.  The French Ministry’s lack of communication had not gone completely unnoticed, but then again having spent her school days in France it had always caught her attention.

It wasn’t necessarily the easiest story to hear either.  The image of Alex locked in a cell and the attempt to simply burry him there by losing his paperwork and making up charges made her feel like she had a led weight in the pit of her stomach.  She wasn’t entirely surprised to hear that somehow Van Hendric, who had also assisted her not so long ago, factored into all of this.  It all just started to piece itself together as he told the story.

"I hope I'm not going too fast, you can stop and ask me questions whenever you want me to clarify something."

“I think I follow so far,” she said.  “In my mind I can fit some of it together with little things I noticed, or papers that crossed me desk…or suddenly stopped crossing my desk as the case may be.  So, what happened next?”

She knew this was leading to an explanation of what happened on Sunday, and she was slowly starting to see that particular story wouldn’t make sense without the background information.  It was quite possible the only other person who knew of all of this was Marcus and slowly the anger and embarrassment she had felt, the blow to her ego, wasn’t important any longer.  He was truly choosing to open up to her.

Before she could convince herself otherwise, she patted the stop on the couch next to her, hoping he would sit.  He was going out on a limb by telling her all of this, by trusting her with this information.  She could do the same in return and start to put her faith back in him.

His original intention was to come in tell his story and leave, but he also had no right to say no to Claudia, especially if he was trying to get over the hurdle that had been placed between them.  So in the end he sat next to her as she indicated.  But he was here to explain, not take comfort or relax in any way.

"The next step, since I had already determined that I needed to build profiles of pretty much the entire French Ministry, I would only really be effective if I didn't have to worry about where I was going to sleep each night.  Mostly because by this time I hadn't been sleeping at all since I had escaped my cell.  It didn't help that I was exhausted from the break out either.  I would only be able to fight back so much with what little energy I had.  So I made my way slowly away from the Ministry building  but I had no clear destination.  I didn't know the area, so how was I supposed to know exactly where to go?  I had taken note of some possible locations on my way in, but they didn't turn out to be good ideas as I headed back," Alex looked away for a moment.  "I was found before I could find someplace safe."

"These Auror's that had found me were under the imperio curse.  They didn't try to apprehend me.  No, they tried their best to kill me.  Despite having the killing curse being thrown at me like it was going out of style, I managed to subdue them eventually.  But not before getting beat to an inch of my life.  I'm not sure how, but I stumbled away from the scene, taking some back alley, and taking corners.  I couldn't tell you exactly what because what I didn't realize was all the blood I was losing.  After the adrenaline from the fight wore off I collapsed and that is all I remember from that."

"When I finally woke up it was several days later.  I wasn't in a hospital but someone's house.  That was when I first met her.  Her name is Diane Bouvier.  She was a healer at the hospital, but also worked part time at the Ministry.  She had actually been one of the first people to greet me at the French Ministry, but I had forgotten about that.  As it turned out, she was well aware of the events happening in the Ministry, but was unsure of what to do.  So when I showed up she had attempted to warn me about the danger I had been in.  Later she had followed me, looking for the perfect time to approach me.  But I was attacked, and she came along after.  She made the decision to treat me at her home, rather than get me to a hospital.  Which no doubt would have people there that were also being controlled.  So I explained to her why I was there.  In the end she wanted to help me.  I was in no position to deny any help."

He sighed once more looking at Claudia, "The next week or so went by pretty fast.  I had to get back to the top of my game.  But I was still top news, so my picture was plastered everywhere.  I had to depend on Diane to gather the initial information.  Plus it helped because she worked at the Ministry that she was able to supply a large amount of the info herself.  While she did a lot of the information gathering I was mapping out the surrounding area for escape routes and the like.  And it went on like that for a month or so, I couldn't tell you exactly how long.  But Diane couldn't keep people away from her house for too much longer, such as her family."

"I needed to be able to leave the house again, so I had to come up with something.  So I got a crazy idea.  You see when someone gets married, they can use that as a legitimate reason to change their name.  And that was what I needed.  A name change and cosmetic makeover would be the perfect way for me to get back on the streets and really begin to make progress on the investigation.  So I approached Diane with the idea, and explaining to her very clearly the reason behind it.  She agreed.  The next day we went down to the muggle court house and was married.  It was all business to me, a means to an end.  Because of it I was able to temporary change my name to Amando Moreau."

"I want you to know that for me, it was a necessity for my job.  I was in no shape or form ever romantically involved with Diane.  It was something that we had been under an agreement.  I needed the freedom in order to advanced in my mission.  And she needed a way to explain why a man was living with her.  It maybe wasn't the most elegant of choices, but it was the easiest way to handle the situation without drawing too much attention to myself.  I confess I wasn't sure what Diane felt on the matter.  Perhaps at some point she did start feeling something for me.  But I had more pressing matters to deal with.  Especially when the next thing I learned that the French Minister of Magic was possibly the next target."

She was a little relieved when he sat on the couch, although she kept the distance between them.  There had always been something about watching a person stand during a conversation outside of the work place while the other sat that had always been one of those things she couldn’t stand.  She still wasn’t entirely sure what she would do when he finished his story.  She had always felt something towards Alex, although before she had always written it off as an attraction to a man who seemed unattainable.  Yet she what she had felt with him was more real then anything she had experienced in the last few years.

As he continued, she set her glass on the coffee table being careful not to rest it on anything that might cause it to tip, like her sketchbook.  The story was difficult to listen to, between thinking of him in a state when he likely would have been unable to fight back and having to dodge killing curses was more then she wanted to think about.  Yet, she was well aware that near misses with death were likely to be common occurrences in his stories.

It wasn’t long before they got to the story that had played a part in affecting her mood since Sunday, the woman he had apparently sought help from.  She tried not to bristle as he spoke of Diane.  After all, she had probably saved his life and for the Claudia should be grateful.  However the fact that she had decided to make a reappearance in Alex’s life still bothered her and it was only made worse by the initial mention of the trip to the Muggle courthouse and the marriage.

She had looked away for a moment trying to keep herself appearing as calm on the outside as possible.  When he mentioned the marriage being purely necessity she did slowly turn her eyes to look back at him again.  There was a lingering anger in the back of her mind that he hadn’t told her before it all seemed to blow up on them.

“I’d say she was hoping for more,” she commented a bit dryly.  There was no other reason for a woman to follow an ex-husband who had supposedly been nothing more then a business arrangement from France to England.

She took a moment to clear her head before refocusing on the rest of what he was telling her.  In the back of her mind it occurred to her that it was time to let go of some of the irrational resentment and jealousy she felt towards the other woman.  Clearly she had, as Alex had said, simply been a necessity and there was even a slight twinge of pity.

“Alright…I think I understand why you made the choices you did,” she said slowly, shaking her head a bit.  “So, the French Ministry was on the verge of basically imploding…”

She felt her shoulders relax a bit as she trailed off so he might continue.  Still a little upset she was able to at least let go with the realization that the marriage had simply been a means to an end.  Of course it didn’t ease her annoyance that the woman involved had been in England and might still be.

Alex was hardly in a position to disagree, "Often times we grow used to circumstances, to the point that breaking it is a foreign concept.  I believe she had grown somewhat attached to me, regardless of how we were thrown together.  Despite this, I held no special feelings for her.  I owe her, and she is a good friend, but nothing more."  He shook his head.  It was hard probably to accept that for Diane.  He had shown up and essentially stopped the downfall of the French Ministry and its fall to a Dark Wizard.  But it was just Alex's nature.  There was simply no one else for the job.

"Things changed when I learned of the Minister being the next target.  I didn't have a choice, I had to prevent it.  If he was put under the Imperio spell then I would be unable to do anything and would have had to write off the mission.  And the French Ministry would have been lost.  So despite the danger I headed out to protect the Minister," Alex sighed heavily as he remembered.  "I shadowed the Minister for a month.  I was there protecting him, but at the same time hiding from the ones assigned to supposedly protect him.  All progress in my investigation slowed to a snails pace in this time.  That is, until an attempt was made on the Minister's life."

***

"What is with the French Minister and this tea shop?" Alex muttered to himself as he ducked into a dark alley which conviently gave him a clear view of the Minister enjoying his favorite tea.  Many days had this continued on.  The Minister was a man of routine, he did things much the same way everyday, and that seemed absolutely stupid to Alex.  But it wasn't like the Minister knew that someone was trying to overthrow him. 

The same waitress approached, refilling the Minister's cup.  Alex had already done a full inspection of the staff that worked here, as far as he knew none of them had been put under the imperius curse.  But he was still being careful.  He couldn't handle this for much longer though.  He needed to make some sort of progress or he was never going to leave France.

It happened quickly.  Before Alex had time to process the events he was on the move and his wand arm extended, blasting an incoming death curse from hitting the Minister.  The Minister was on the ground and Alex was heading into open ground.  The attackers came from all directions.  Alex pulled the table next to him and then in a display of strength sent it into the air.

"Excidocedere!" Alex blasted the table to bits and caused its shards to fly in all directions.  Alex used a simple shielding spell to block any from hitting the Minister, but this was merely a distraction.  The attackers didn't have time to deflect since they were on the offensive.  Alex moved around to the first attacker, with a jumping side kick he sent him off into the furniture of the tea shop.  Using his wand he hurled one of the chairs at another attacker.  Again and again Alex deflected attacks and sent the attackers flying in different directions.  Seizing his opprotunity he grabbed the Minister and headed towards a back alley.  Before he disappeared he noticed Wesley calmly walking away in the distance.  Alex swore knowing that he had to worry about the Minister first.

***

"Oddly enough it turned out to be a good thing that this attack finally happened.  I was able to speak with the Minister and tell him exactly what was going on.  The process which had been slowed to this point speed up significantly.  The Minister gave me as much information as he could, and I told him to ensure that he only kept those he trusted close to him.  He assured me he would do his part as long as I was able to get the source.  I told him that I would and left," he looked at Claudia for a moment.  "I had pressured Wesley to show himself, which meant he was probably going to do something drastic, so I had to move fast."

"It didn't matter what I had planned though.  He had found Diane.  Wesley laid a trap, and I went right to it," Alex fell quiet looking away.  "Diane was an innocent, someone I had dragged into the situation because of what I needed in order to succeed.  So I had to save her.  Nothing in me would have allowed for anything else.  I knew it was a trap, I knew the odds were stacked so much against me.  And I had no back up.  No one to help me if things went south.  And everything that night...went more wrong than I could have possibly imagined."

***

"Great Idea, just walk in the front door," Alex muttered as he looked around a corner to the place that had been his home for the last few months.  No choice of his own it had become his base of operations.  Now it was the enemy stronghold.  Wesley enraged by Alex's interference was taking direct action.  A mistake on Wesley's part.  But Alex didn't have any backup, and no doubt there would be no easy way to deal with this situation.  All in all, Alex figured he had no chance of doing this successfully.

Sounded like good odds in Alex's book.  Pulling out his wand he apparated to the top of the building and ran towards the roof access door.  Not taking any chances he used his wand to obliterate the door with a blasting charm.  But everything went wrong way too fast.  The attacke didn't come from anywhere he could see.  It came from beneath him.  The roof beneath his feat gave way and Alex felt an extreme pain go through his body.  He wasn't sure if he screamed or if he had time to do it.  All he knew was that he was falling, and he was sure he was bleeding.  He landed at some point, he wasn't sure where, but he faintly heard footsteps.

"So good of you to join us, Alexander Belisario!" came an angry voice followed by a pain in his ribs as Alex was kicked. 

"Amando!" came the voice of Diane.

"Yes I suppose that is a much more French name.  But that's not who you are," finally he realized it was Wesley, not that it could have been anyone else.  The initial shock of what had happened to him passed.

In those moments he realized it had been an enchantment, anyone passing that exact spot would be hit with a blasting charm.  Except it was about ten times more powerful due to the nature of the enchantment.  Effectively giving Alex the beating of his life without anyone so much waving a wand at him.  Alex laughed, but it merely came out as a cough and tasting blood.

"Like my little trap?  I picked up a few new things since we last fought.  I know you way too well, Alexander."  Wesley grinned as he stepped on Alex's bleeding arm.  He cringed from the pain but bit his lip from letting any sound escape.  He let his eyes look around the room, there was only Wesley, no one else.  That was a stupid move.  Then again Alex looked like he was incapable of moving.  Looks were decieving.

"Idiot," Alex muttered. 

"What was that?" Wesley knealt down making a point to kick Alex's ribs again.  "Time to die, Auror."

Wesley's wand pointed right down at him, Alex looked him in the eye and grinned.  Alex summoned his wand and pointed to the ground, letting a blast charm loose the floor easily gave way.  Wesley tried to jump back but Alex had grabbed him with his free hand.  Alex forced Wesley around beneath him and pointed his own wand in his face as they continued to fall.  "Stupify!"  Wesley went limp as they hit the bottom floor.  Alex had no more in him though as he felt them hit the bottom floor.

He rolled off to the side.  He noticed several men charging in.  Alex's last thought as he went unconcious was he should have killed Wesley instead of merely knocking him out.  Then his men wouldn't have had anything to save.  But Alex saw his vision go black as he slipped away from the world.

***

"When I woke up it was a week later and the Minister had come to see me.  It was him and a few of his most trusted that showed up only minutes later and taking out the remainder of Wesley's followers.  And apparently I died for about two minutes, but they managed to revive me.  I spent two more weeks in the hospital before they decided I was allowed to move for fear or opening an injury.  Or rather they thought I would get myself into a stupid situation to get myself killed," Alex shook his head.  "I was given a ribbon of honor for my service to the French Ministry of Magic.  After clearing up some loose ends, and getting a divorce and changing my name back, I headed home.  I saw you a mere week after I checked out of the hospital."

As Alex went on the story got increasingly more difficult for Claudia to listen to and she shifted a bit, looking away to hide the various emotions that certainly read clearly on her features.  It wasn’t entirely surprising that this Wesley would have found Diane and used her as a way to get to Alex.  He was right too in that she had been innocent in it all, simply trying to do what was right to help him.  It also sort of explained another reason why she might have grown so attached to him; he had saved her life and nearly lost his own in the processes.

Gratitude tended to lead to feelings of attachment.  She had seen it happen before, although she had never been the sort of become doe eyed over someone who had come to her rescue.  Of course she wasn’t usually the sort of woman in need of rescuing as she had picked up a thing or two during her flirtations with those who worked in MLE.

And apparently I died for about two minutes, but they managed to revive me.

That statement brought Claudia’s focus fully back to him as her eyes searched for his once again.  The attack had sounded serious, but this was beyond a close call.  He had been dead for two minutes.  The words sunk in and she felt her heart pounding in her chest as she realized just how close she had been to never seeing him walk off that elevator at the Ministry that day…just how close she had been to truly losing him before there had even been a chance for something to begin between them.

She bit her lower lip letting him finish as she leaned against the arm rest watching him.  Through her anger and resentment over not being told about Diane before the encounter one statement played over and over again in her mind… apparently I died for about two minutes’.  No matter how angry she wanted to be at him for allowing her to find out about Diane as she had, no matter how embarrassed she had been at the time, it didn’t really matter.  It was a little reminder that life was indeed to precious to waste time on petty jealousy and angry.

“I…” she began softly trying to will her voice not to crack, “I shouldn’t have rushed to so many conclusions the other night.  I should have given you the chance to explain it all first…”

In typical Claudia fashion she hadn’t felt the need to stick around to listen, figuring the fact that he was a wife said enough really.  Yet in the heat of the moment she had probably made the right choice since she wouldn’t have really been in a place to hear him out.  She had been too upset, or shocked a the time to hear anything other then the voice inside her own head telling her she had been an complete idiot for trusting him.  There was though one thing he hadn’t really answered.

“Why is she here then if it’s all over?” she asked.  “What does she want from you?”  Clearly the woman had come here to seek him out which meant she was looking for something from Alex.

He wish he could say there was some elaborate reason as to why his ex-wife would venture to London.  One would think that it was attachment and that she was coming to cause problems since he had decided to leave without so much as to show any real attachment to her.  But no, the reasons were actually rather simple, it had just been a situation that had angered her greatly and decided it was his fault.

"As it turns out the Ministry refused to pay the repairs for her home and building because the responsibility of that was on a lone operative from a different country," he couldn't help it but laugh.  "So pissed off, thinking that I knew that was what happened.  She hunted me down thinking I was trying to avoid paying the bill."  He shook his head, he always seemed to end up in a situation like this.  "I made arrangements for the whole deal and even gave her money of rent for the time I spent at her place so she left a much happier person."

Alex looked away, fighting an urge to get back to his feet.  "It wasn't my choice to hide anything from you.  But as an ex-Head of Law Enforcement I still know a lot that is considered classified.  Things that only myself and Marcus know about.  So I want to make sure you know that it has nothing to do with trust or any lack of on my part.  I do trust you Claudia.  I would have never opened up to you in any capacity if I never thought I did.  Things have changed quickly for me.  For the first time since I graduated Hogwarts I am not working for the Ministry.  My life is no longer in service to it, and that...makes me uneasy in a lot of ways."

He sighed heavily still not looking at her, "Life is changing for me in so many ways now because of it.  And, I want you to be apart of that life."

It all seemed so simple, and an uncharacteristic blush crept into Claudia’s cheeks.  What an idiot she had been…Part of her felt like her mind had been warning her about this from the beginning that she would somehow manage make a mess of things.  Always too quick to make assumptions she couldn’t help but be reminded in a way of all the times she had accused Archer of not being completely honest with her about any infidelities.  She had made assumptions then and she was still doing it now.

“Life is changing for me in so many ways now because of it.  And, I want you to be apart of that life."

Slowly she looked at him again, her features softening a bit.  He was putting his trust in her and she reminded herself that she needed to do the same with him.  It was give and take and she couldn’t have one without the other.  She shifted so she moved closer to him placing her fingers under his chin so he might look at her.  The last thing she wanted was to say this to the side of his face.

“I…I’m sorry,” she said softly.  “I...Alex I do trust you and I should have thought about that in the middle of my mind making up all sorts of assumptions.  I have this habit of doing that….you know, just assuming the worst.”

With a slight sigh she added, “I understand that there are things I shouldn’t know…I’m honored that you are willing to share some of it with me, I really am.  I know how important it is for something things to remain confidential and I won’t share anything you tell me with anyone.  I meant what I said on our first date, I want to help.  I want to be there of you and I want you to feel like you can tell me anything.”

He couldn't blame her for making assumptions.  Alex had gone for quite sometime in his life with no one to answer too.  He never had to explain or justify the things he did outside of work.  So really there was a lot he hadn't thought about since their relationship had started.  But the thing was, there wasn't really anything in his life that he wouldn't be ashamed of telling Claudia.  There had not been a single woman since Ariella that he had been romantically involved with.  Sure there had been several attempts at him.

His school mate, Christina Graceton had shown back up and confessed her feeling to him, but he rejected her, saying he couldn't look at her that way.  There wasn't many friends from his days at Hogwarts.  He could literally count them on his two hands.  It was sad in a way, how he never really let anyone close to him.  Even going as far as to push his own daughter away.

"Don't apologize.  I would say that assuming the worst of me completely justified.  I mean look at me," Alex shook his head.  "I'm a man that closed completely down when Ariella died.  I pushed away my own daughter and closed myself in a office just so I would never have to face the pain.  I was no different than a spoiled child, refusing to come out of my room until things went my way."

He looked into Claudia's eyes and offered a small smile, "I don't know if it was the mission that woke me up or when I saw you when I returned.  I do know that all this time I've been blind to life and everything it has, including the things I've had the whole time.  Or things that may yet to come.  I won't be the man I was anymore, I have to change."

"That means if there is anything you want to know about me ask.  Aside, I'm no longer a man of the Ministry.  And I doubt Marcus wouldn't trust you with the same secrets he's intrusted to me.  After all you are the man's aide to begin with," Alex grinned.  "Thank you, for giving me the chance to explain."

He grinned and Claudia felt a smile spread across her own features.  It felt a bit as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.  She hadn’t realized just how much she wanted to be wrong about all of her assumptions and to find out she was caused an unexpected relief.  It was a bit of a learning experience for them both, she understood that, and she made a promise to make more of an effort to keep that in mind in the future.
 
“I suppose it does sort of change what I might see as ‘need to know’ information,” she replied.

It had been easy at first to constantly remind herself that there were probably certain things about Alex she couldn’t know.  Yet the more time that passed the more she wanted to know, and, in a way, felt like she should know.  It was a relief in many ways that he should make the offer that she could ask him anything.  It meant no longer having to carefully phrase conversation and that the boundary between them had been officially removed.

“I…” she paused for a moment considering her words, and then said, “Opening up isn’t really particularly easy for me either.  I’ve sort of helped create the superficial image most people have of me with my actions because it was always safer…If people saw me as that girl you had fun with a couple times before moving, I was ok with that.  It meant I didn’t get hurt in the long run.”

It always seemed safer at least.  After Archer she hadn’t wanted to experience another relationship imploding as spectacularly as that one had.  Certainly they had both made their mistakes, but she always did blame herself even if she wouldn’t willingly admit that.

“I guess we’ll just sort of have to figure it all out together…”