Help! I Need Somebody!, Ro-doll-face.

[Anne Sanderson]

Annie felt like she was spinning. It could have been the sleep deprivation, or the slight malnutrition… but she had a feeling it was most likely because everything was happening so quickly. Usually she processed things fast, finding ways to cope. It’s how she’d survived so long in the field. But apparently anything having to do with William Freeman turned her mind, and her knees, to mush. She was going soft, and as dangerous as it could be, she’d never before been rescued by a man. She’d done plenty of rescuing in her day, but she couldn’t recall a single instance, not one, where mr. knight-in-shining-armor got to swoop in and save her. Never before had she played the part of the damsel in distress.

She clenched her teeth as he wrapped her in a tight hug, but when he increased the pressure, she couldn’t help but let out an agonized scream, pushing him away. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to feel close to him, she did. But her ribs were bruised, at least, and the pain shot all the way down to her toes when he did that. However unconsciously it was done. She raked in a ragged breath, leaning on the bars of the cage a bit. “C-can you just… take me home?” She asked him, pulling herself upright, though she continued to wear a tight expression. After a shower, and showering Rosy with kisses… then they could talk. Then she could figure out all of the confusing, and yet, unusually strong emotions she was feeling at the moment.

For someone who’d made a living being logical, and decisive, she found herself unbalanced. I guess this is what it was like, living in a grey area. “Please.” She asked, in a voice that was smaller than she’d ever used before. More vulnerable, broken, than she even thought was concievable. Her tone shocked her, and the fact that she could still be shocked at all, shocked her. What was going on here? What the hell had William Freeman done to her?

[Rodolphus Lestrange]

“The last time I checked, YOU LIKED THAT I WAS A SICK SON OF A BXTCH!” He shouted after her as he, wearily started to follow after her. She would get tired soon, she was too swollen and too heavy to march around (in the wrong direction, he might add) all night. He had felt his heart leap into his throat when she almost took a spill, he was concerned for his child. His heir. But it was more than that. He realized the sickening feeling. He was actually concerned for her welfare. And that thought, while not totally improbable in a normal functioning relationship, appalled him more than it should have. But then, his marriage was neither normal or functioning, so really… it shouldn’t have surprised him all that much.

“And since when is doing my job, making me a jackass? Huh? Since when did you start caring for anyone other than yourself Bella?! Your going SOFT!” He accused her, though really, he felt that he was talking to himself. Berating himself. “Compassion is WEAKNESS! We can’t afford COMPASSION!” He said, as if he were a drill captain. But he wasn’t, he was a scared father-to-be who was experiencing human emotion for the first time in his life. And not being completely repulsed by it. Scary thought.