Up for discussion. Those were the words that ran through Vivienne's had when she was falling asleep last night and they were the words that dropped into her head when she was cooking breakfast this morning. As if, she had seethed over the stove, Ed Pratt would have anything useful to add to her decision! It wasn't like she ever demanded they meet to discuss which hexes the aurors should be using!

Now however, as the Healer made her way down from the other end of Diagon Alley, the anger had resided. Summer was here and the weather too pleasant for anyone to be kept in a foul mood for long. The entire street was flooded with noon heat and a strong breeze that came in from nowhere had turned the alley into a wind tunnel. The effect was diverting. She had switched shifts at the last minute to get the day off for this business, so why shouldn't she allow herself to relax? It was a relief to be out of St.Mungo's during the day; even if it meant another night shift tomorrow evening.

The door into the Leaky Cauldron opened as soon as the witch reached it and Viv ducked in, smiling sweetly at the fellow who held it ajar for her-- a tall blonde wizard. He nodded back at her: "Windy out there?" Her smile widened into an affirming grin as the door shut and she ran hand through her hair-- though nothing could repair the tousling it had received.

The pub was not very busy today. Most people sat outside when the weather was this good.  Vivienne looked around the room absently as she approached the bar... too early, maybe, for the idiot Auror to be here. There was still a few minutes before noon. She ordered a glass of her usual wine (because really, it was never too early for wine) and waited patiently for the barkeep to run down to the cellar. Viv unconsciously brushed the wrinkles from her shirtdress the way she would have with her robes, already feeling idle.

The time taken to walk to the leaky cauldron from the Ministry of Magic was negligible yet Eddie was still late. Obviously he was not a man known for his promptness, organisational skills or tidiness. Therefore the fact he strolled into the pub clad in his spare black robes 10 minutes past midday surely shouldn’t have surprised Vivienne Thorpe, his lunchdate.

The tardiness, as Ed thoroughly blamed, was the fault of his wardrobe. He had left the auror office, the smart uniform robes of the profession hanging off his shoulders and framing the ‘smart’ jeans and black open necked shirt beneath. However, as he waited for the lift to carry him towards the entrance, a thought dawned upon Eddie. An auror turning up to a pub for a casual lunch in his uniform robes was akin to a prostitute going shopping in her underwear and high heels, suspenders holding up the netted stockings. With that image in mind, Ed had stopped the lift and returned to his cubicle.

Finally inside the pub, Ed scanned the room before his bright blue eyes fell upon the woman he had no doubt infuriated with his own. She hadn’t even responded to his own message so he hadn’t been positive if the delightful healer would even turn up.

Yet there she was stood at the bar. An eyebrow cocked mildly in surprise before the auror carefully navigated a group of wizards playing cards around a table and he arrived at the bar to stand beside Thorpe.

“I weren’t sure you’d accept me date invitation, Viv.”

It occurred to Vivienne, for reasons she was not quite sure of herself, that Aurors would be punctual people. You would think that they would understand the value of prompt timing, at the very least due to the nature of their occupation. That had been a silly assumption, really.

The Healer was sipping her drink when the tardy figure drew up at the bar: “I weren’t sure you’d accept me date invitation, Viv.”

It was all she could do, not to choke on the wine. She placed the glass down delicately and turned to fix a  stare on Ed Pratt; he looked a good deal better than he did the last time they had met. Grumpy and dishevelled was not a very flattering look on grown men. What surprised her was the absence of a uniform, however. Having received case after case of injured Aurors in their robes, she involuntarily pictures each of them in such a state of dress at all times. In retrospect, it seemed like a silly expectation. The equivalent of herself coming down in lime green robes.

Vivienne's smile was nonetheless strained as she greeted the wizard: "Charming. I hadn't realized it was an invitation, really," the anger that had subsided earlier on in the day bubbled testily in her tone of voice, "It sounded more like a demand..." she trailed of hesitantly and tried to stifle her irritation, which she knew would not be any help to their conversation this afternoon.

"Désolé, I am unfair. I am here in response to your concern for Daniel, naturellement." Her expression softened though the look in her grey gaze remained decidedly dissatisfied. Duty first: she could curse Ed Pratt as much as she wanted later on, when she could forget he was related to a patient!

The wand happy healer didn’t look particularly pleased to be joined by the auror. She was smiling nonetheless, but it was the kind of smile that if Ed didn’t know better, he would have presumed she was in need of using the establishment’s lavatory facilities. As it was she was just doing a pathetic job of being professional and looking as if she was eagerly anticipating their discussion.

Ed could deal with the strangely accented, grumpy, eager to stun healer not jumping up and down on the spot to spend her lunch hour in the pub with him, but what he struggled to handle was the injections of some fancy pansy words into normal, everyday English conversation.

A pair of dark blonde eyebrows twitched up as she slipped the words ‘desolate’ and something about being ‘naturally real’ into her sentence.
“Yes it is real.” The auror grunted in response to what he understood from her statement before leaning against the bar and waving at the tall scantily clad witch being chatted up by the fat bald man at the end of the bar. “And ye ‘ent that bad, Viv.” She wasn’t quite desolate of emotions, no. “Just over eager with yer wand. So I have to make sure ye ‘ent bein’ the same with me only brother’s treatment.”

The barmaid now stood in front of him, the bar between them. “Yes, luv, just a pumpkin juice for me and another wine for her.” Ed spared a cursory glance at Thorpe and his eyes very quickly scanned her body before he refocused his attention on the barmaid. “And 2 steak and ale pies with chips.”

Vivienne was beginning to wonder if Ed Pratt had suffered some sort of head injury before coming to meet her today. Real? And what did he mean by saying that she wasn't that bad? She stared at him, trying not to look confused but keeping as neutral an expression as possible. It was as though they were speaking different languages!

The barmaid took down the auror's order with practiced speed as he spoke. Viv was about to thank him for requesting her a second glass of wine but stopped short as he gave her what seemed to be a quick, appraising glance before going on to ask for two pies. Did she look hungry? Or was he checking to see if she looked like she could consume a steak pie? The Healer tried not to think about that now-- the fact that they were ordering food meant that this wasn't going to be a quick meeting... and she had hoped  to get away after a quick explanation of Daniel's medication. She suppressed a sigh. C'est la vie.

As the barmaid moved away to start on their orders, Vivienne thanked her with a smile much sweeter than the one she'd greeted Ed; and then she looked back at her companion: "I didn't realize we were really having lunch," she remarked. He called it a date invitation but the very idea made her want to bristle in horror. She cleared her throat gently: "More to the point Aur-- uh, Ed. I'm here to assure you that we're not... how do I put it..." Viv paused, trying to think of the right words as she met his blue gaze: "We're not jumping the gun with Daniel's medication." That seemed about right. She wanted to be more casual around the wizard but when it came to his kind at the hospital, she was either professionally indifferent or openly hostile. The middle ground was shaky.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself," the witch broke eye contact and looked past Ed at the rest of the Leaky Cauldron: "We should probably take a seat before I get into such things. I'm sure you have questions..." Vivienne gestured towards some of the tables at the emptier end of the pub, hoping to further the distance between herself and the increasingly noisy group of wizards playing cards in the center.

Vivienne Thorpe hadn’t realised that they had met in a public house that served food at lunch time and they would in fact be eating lunch. Ed once more surveyed her, this time as if she was mentally ill, herself, and shouldn’t have been treating his own brother. Eyebrows rose and he took the pumpkin juice offered by the barmaid. “Well a glass of juice ‘ent gonna see me through t’teatime, Viv.” And what a silly thought of hers that it would!

Very quickly the witch got down to business and Ed frowned. They weren’t jumping the gun...he bloody well hoped not and hadn’t expected that the healers were. The reason Vivienne was here now was to explain what they were doing with Dan. Ed had made a promise to himself and to his brother that he would be more involved, that he would look out for his older brother’s interests. So here he was making sure his brother was being looked after correctly.

“That I do Viv.” The auror responded in accordance. He had plenty of questions. After taking a sip of the juice, he nodded and began to head in the direction the healer had gestured. Once at a table in a dimly lit corner, he lowered himself onto the stool and watched his companion very carefully. She didn’t want to be there. It was a misfortune considering what marvellous company Eddie knew he was.

“I don’t presume you’re jumping the wand with my brother, Viv.” Ed muttered, eyes intently remaining upon her own. “I just want to know why now you have decided to change tactics. Was he not faring better? He remembers my name for Merlin’s sake.” Yet perhaps the name was thanks to increased exposure. Daniel no doubt remembered having a brother better when he got to see him more often.

Vivienne could relax a little once they had found a table at which to discuss Daniel Pratt. Her patients were all familiar territory. She didn't have to think very much about the annoying auror across from her when she was discussing the hospital because when St.Mungo's entered her head, everything else pretty much faded into the background.

"Oui," the Healer replied in a soft voice, "He may remember you but he doesn't always remember which Ed he is thinking of. Time sometimes stands still on the fourth floor but it is...c'est tres important, that he knows the present. He is capable, I'm sure of it." Pausing, she took a sip of her wine and hoped that she had phrased her dilemma appropriately. Daniel's problem wasn't necessarily with names. A child could remembers nouns but chronology was a more complex thought process.

Her grey gaze rose to absently study Ed's face and she tried, as she did the first time they met, to trace the resemblance between brothers: "I wouldn't call it a change of tactics. His previous medications were ineffective and now we want to administer him something plus pertinent. To sedate the mind and prevent further outbursts." Like the one that had occurred in May, she wanted to say, but decided that neither of them needed the reminder.

Distractedly, Viv swept a lock of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear as she frowned: "We are going to disguise it in his meals. If we are lucky, he will not notice..." They were, after all, beginning with Greenburg's recommendations. She hadn't perfected her own sedative yet. Not in terms of taste.

“... but he doesn't always remember which Ed he is thinking of.”

The rest of what Vivienne had to say right then fell on death ears. Ed stared at his brother’s healer, mouth slightly agape and forehead creased into a rather confused frown. Before he could stop himself the words came out, overlapping Thorpe’s own.
“How many Ed’s are there?” Mr Edward Pratt didn’t much like the idea of more than one Ed out there; of his brother growing confused between him and other, unextraordinary blokes. Of Vivienne Thorpe with her pretty little foreign accent making out he wasn’t around enough for his big brother to start recognising him and remembering him properly. Apparently there were other ‘Ed’s’ that Daniel knew more...

Edward happened to tune back in as Healer Thorpe suggested sedating the mind of his older brother and pointed out her plan of hiding her new little potion in his food, thus numbing the mind of his poor unsuspecting sibling and from the sounds of it, turning him into a passive vegetable.

He liked this even less than being made to feel unremembered by his own brother. Ed nursed the glass of juice in his hands and looked down at it for a moment, considering her words.

“My brother is a wizard, Viv, not a sick puppy.” The carefully formed words began as green eyes shot up to meet hers. “He knows he’s taking medication, why do you feel the need to slip it into his food without his consent? Enough of my brother is there to know and understand what is happening to him.”

Vivienne narrowed her gaze at the auror across from her, not quite glaring but very close to it.

The way he spoke, you would think that the Healers were diabolical miscreants out to get every other patient. Drug them up and send them milling about the floors like mindless zombies. This wasn't an unusual insinuation: relatives often expressed some form of paranoia where there loved ones were concerned at the hospital. What they didn't do was demand for pub meetings in the middle of the afternoon.

And even if she was used to it, Viv didn't like to be made out as the villain. She was starting to see that her many approaches to dealing with visitors was not working with Ed Pratt-- subtleties were wasted on him at any rate, or so she felt based on his reactions. He seemed dazed by her reference to Dan's chronological confusions and Merlin knew whether a crumb of her explanation had penetrated that thick skull...

"I beg to differ," Vivienne responded after allowing for a moment's pause: "Of course your brother is... mostly conscious of the fact that he is in a hospital. Oui, he knows but he isn't always comfortable in that knowledge. Sedation is difficult and patients can become even more violent when they are aware of our interference." There was no real way of illustrating the problem to anyone without turning it into a lecture, so she stopped here and leaned back in her seat to give her companion a good look. Her grey eyes focused on his face seriously.

She didn't have to explain herself. Not like this. It was one thing to justify her methods to a Healer-in-Charge but Viv didn't have to justify her perfectly good intentions to an auror of all people. Clearing her throat, she added in a controlled voice: "You have to trust us,  Ed. We mean the best and we want Daniel to recover. I'd greatly appreciate it if you would simply let me do my job instead of--" the Healer broke off. The barkeep had just approached their table to set down paper napkins and a set of plain cutlery each.

It was a good thing too, Vivienne realized. Ed Pratt bothered her more than she would have liked but she wasn't going to let him rile her up like this!

Instead of what? A frown creased Eddie’s features as the healer paused to allow the bartender to place napkins and cutlery on their table. The bald wizard seemed to take his time, making the most of conversation stopping power all bar and waiting staff seemed to possess when they graced a table. Their mere presence shot conversations dead and this was no exception. Pratt didn’t however spare the cutlery bearer a glance. Instead piercing green eyes remained on Vivienne, studying her pretty face carefully.

Finally the bartender left and Eddie slowly lifted his glass of very manly pumpkin juice and took a large gulp.

“Instead of what, Viv?” The auror slowly demanded, still not peeling her eyes from the witch opposite him. “I’m asking you these questions because I worry for my brother. Dan doesn’t have anyone else to worry for him no more.” It was obvious the healer wasn’t thrilled to be there with an annoying relative. “I do...” lips twisted for a moment in consideration “trust you. You’re the expert on this stuff. But I know my brother. Or I did before he was attacked.”

The glass of juice was placed back on the table and the auror leaned forwards, resting his elbows on the wooden surface, still watching Thorpe carefully. “Ye don’t like me much, Viv. Should I take it personal or are you like that with every handsome patient relative?”

Vivienne found herself, quite deservedly, in a staring contest with Ed Pratt once the barkeep had left them with their napkins and cutlery. Her expression remained perennially indifferent to everything the wizard was saying-- until, that is, the moment he told her: "Ye don't like me much, Viv." At that point she couldn't help but flush.

Had she been so obvious?

Even at the worst of times, the Healer tried very hard to veer away from confrontation-- and at the best of times, she simply lied to keep people from jumping out of their seats. Not that either approach would work now; every conversation with the auror was beginning to look like a confrontational one, "Should I take it personal or are you like that with every handsome patient relative?”

Oh, please. Vivienne's hand, which had been very delicately caressing her wine glass up until now, tightened over the stem. He could stare at her with those lovely green eyes as much as he wanted but they weren't persuading her of anything!

Handsome! In a regretfully adolescent tone, she thought: as if. Of course, none of that betrayed her calm. She knew a cocky bastard when she saw one, or at least she'd dated enough of them to know that much. Viv smiled. A perfectly insincere and unpleasant smile: "Oui, I would say the latter but I'm fairly sure that none of my patients have handsome relatives. Obnoxious, maybe."

Then, remembering herself, she broke off eye contact and looked down at her drink: "It's not that I don't like you very much Ed," there was little point in mincing words now: "I simply don't like you at all." Vivienne paused to glance back up at him curiously. He wasn't a patient and she didn't really have to be nice to him, did she?

Not wanting to completely antagonize the auror, she added in a less supercilious voice: "But I like your brother and I care a great deal for all my patients. There's no reason to be suspicious of my methods."

The response received from Vivienne was completely unexpected. He hadn’t expected her to reach across the table, grab him and press her lips against his own in a show of how much she secretly did like him, no. But he hadn’t expected such a blunt harsh kick in the quaffles. If the healer didn’t like him she hadn’t needed to be so straight about it! Her uncomplicated answer only served to show how she understood nothing of protecting a precious male ego.

Edward didn’t know how to react. He’d never had someone plainly inform him that they didn’t like him. How did one respond in such a situation? Was she joking? Ed’s eyes searched her own. They weren’t the eyes of a joker. She didn’t like Ed and she didn’t find him handsome. Silently he leaned back in his chair, consciously coming to the conclusion that Vivienne Thorpe was a lesbian.

Perhaps he was just losing his touch. Edward’s previous experience with women had ended up in divorce from his childhood sweetheart and sleeping alone for the last few months. Maybe he’d never had a ‘touch’. Quincy would no doubt be happy to tell him he’d always been useless with women. And he could handle being blown back by an attractive lady. But to be told she completely disliked him? It was cruel.

“The last time we met, healer Thorpe, I was informing my brother of-” the auror paused, watching Thorpe and frowning. “Forget it.” He pushed himself up from the stool, leaving his juice on the table, half finished. “Thank you for meeting me about my brother, Ma’am.” He finally added, his tone taking on a cold professionalism before he nodded to the witch and turned on his heel to leave.

Nearly gaping, Vivienne stared after Ed when he turned, leaving her at the table with two unfinished drinks and sets of unused cutlery. Did... that just happen? Mon dieu, that wizard must have had his knickers in a knot, or whatever it is the Londoners were saying these days. He just left! That was her job, non? And he'd called her ma'am.

It did not occur to her, of course, that aurors even had feelings to hurt. Not when it came to trivialities like looks or... handsomeness. Viv brought her drink to her lips, paused thoughtfully and then took a sip. The wine ran down her throat smoothly and unstuck the surprise of Ed Pratt's reaction to her words. What an odd man. What had he been trying to say before he walked off like that?

Then, just as she was beginning to consider taking a cue from his departure, the barmaid from earlier came over to the table with a large tray. She set down two freshly-baked steak and ale pies with a loud thump. They'd already been paid for at the bar but Vivienne couldn't quite picture herself eating one of those pies, much less two of them. She stood, repressing a heated sigh, and walked away with a hard click in her heel. Aurors. Hardly worth taking a day-off for them.