Tatiana had done her fair share of stupid and embarrassing maneuvers in her life. Frankly, everyone had, or so she assumed. But most of her less-than-proud moments had happened back in Hogwarts, or at least in her early twenties. It was probably far past time for these kinds of antics. Yet, that really hadn’t stopped her from actually climbing out of a window like she was sneaking out of her parents’ house when she actually was sneaking out of her boyfriend’s apartment to go to her mother’s house. That was just about the opposite reason as to why teenagers sneak out—which she supposed made sense since she was hardly a teenager anymore. But it had been over a month that she’d been staying at Ben’s, and since people were watching her constantly—for her own protection, she supposed, but Tatiana hadn’t seen her mother since then. After all, it wasn’t like she could tell Ben she had go to take care of her mother without questions being asked. But Jen could only do so much work, as normally the nurse was only around when Tatiana was at work, as she preferred to take care of her mother herself.

She had been lucky that she’d even had shoes on in the bathroom, because if she hadn’t, she still would have taken the opportunity and went out the window with no shoes on—and that was just taking it to a whole other level. Tatiana walked down the street of her mother’s neighborhood slightly cautiously, glancing over her shoulder. This had been the first time since the stalking situation had escalated that she’d actually be one hundred percent by herself and she was surprised by how tense she was. Shaking her head, she cleared the thought from her mind as she approached the front door. What were the odds that the man had been watching the apartment at the exact moment she left and was able to follow her here? It seemed like incredibly slim chances. As she pushed open the door, she realized that she did feel bad about just vanishing from the apartment like that, when Ben and everyone helping in the auror department were just trying to solve this and keep her safe and she was repaying them by jumping out damn windows.

“Hello?” She called, closing the door behind her but not bothering to lock it. She knew that it was important to alert her mother and Jen to her presence. It was really unacceptable that she’d been gone this long and having a stalker really didn’t excuse that—though it wasn’t as though that was something she could tell her mother about. Tatiana headed into the kitchen first, not seeing anyone, before jumping in surprise when she heard a voice from behind her. Yes, she was certainly more on edge than normal, “Tia, darling, it’s been ages,” Jen stated, smiling widely. After Jack had died, Tatiana had to hire someone to help her, or she wouldn’t be able to work at all. Since paranoid schizophrenia was a Muggle condition, she’d hired a Muggle nurse—of course, that wasn’t Jen. She’d gone through a dozen nurses, no one being able to handle her mother for more than a few months. But Jen had certainly lasted the longest, “Work’s been an absolute nightmare,” Tatiana explained, apologetically, wrinkling her nose slightly, “Take a few hours off—I have time to stick around,” she added, pausing slightly as she glanced into the nearby living room, “How is she today?” Jen followed the younger woman’s gaze into the room, before looking back at her with a slightly tentative expression, “Not a good day today,” she warned, before patting Tatiana on her arm and walking past her, “I’ll be back in a few hours,” she added, before heading to the door.

Taking a breath, Tatiana headed into the living room, not even bothering to turn the lights on as she knew that her mother preferred to be in the dark anyways. She saw her sitting pretty much where she always sat, an armchair by the window—though the window was covered up, “Hey,” she stated, as she approached her, crouching down in front of her and trying to make eye contact with the woman’s flat gaze. Tatiana placed a hand on her mother’s arm, causing her to jump, startled, “Why did you leave me here?” She asked, darkly, her eyes finally moving toward her daughter’s, “They’ve been here every day this week, you know,” she added, her eyes moving frantically around the room, gripping onto Tatiana’s hands, “They’ve been watching and you’ve been gone too,” her grip tightened, “You’ve been with them, haven’t you?” She continued, her voice getting louder. Tatiana winced slightly at her mother’s grip though didn’t attempt to pull away, “I haven’t,” she replied, soothingly, “In fact, I’ve been talking to someone who says they know how to make them go away,” Tatiana added. One of her mother’s many delusions was that the Muggle government was going to find out that she was a witch and experiment on her, and apparently that was the current delusions and hallucinations she’d been having, as it did differ sometimes.

@benjamin

Outfit

Benjamin had been working around the clock, it had seemed, to try to find out who the stalker had been. Of course, because he was the Head of the Department, he couldn’t always focus his attention on the case with Tatiana. Much of his actual work hours were spent doing work for some of the other cases and compiling paperwork, as always. However, his time off of work was nearly spent completely focused on the case for Tatiana. He knew that Harry, his subordinate who had taken the case, was fully capable of accomplishing his duties, but that didn’t stop Benjamin from wanting to get involved where he could. Tatiana was his girlfriend after all. This case was most certainly personal.

Though, Benjamin couldn’t exactly just use all of his vacation time in order to stay with Tatiana through every step she made. This forced him to utilize some of his connections and favors, getting surveillance for her whenever he couldn’t be around. The fact that he couldn’t be with her more was driving him mad, but he had to trust his workers, knowing that they were properly trained. He supposed he thought that was too soon as by the time he returned to his apartment after an emergency call into work, his eyes narrowed. At first glance, he hadn’t seen Tatiana, turning towards the person he had put in charge while a frown crowned his features.

It had taken less than five minutes for Benjamin to be informed about the happenings: Tatiana bloody snuck out. And this is why he doesn’t let her use the restroom with the door closed. She bloody held one over on all of his workers, deceitful enough to use an old trick to escape. Despite this, Benjamin still wasn’t satisfied with the fact that Tatiana had escaped, putting herself in danger for her silly prank or stunt. Not only that, she put whoever she was going to bloody visit in danger as well. Putting his connections to work, he quickly found out that she had a mother living in the Muggle world, apparating as closely to that area as he possibly could, but needing to hitch a ride in a Muggle car for the rest of the ride over. Pulling up to a house, Benjamin thanked the driver, compensating him fairly as he turned back towards the house.

Benjamin took a deep breathe before reaching up his knuckles towards the door, knocking on it. He was fully prepared to nearly pull Tatiana outside of this area, wanting to keep her and her family safe, even if she was bloody kicking and screaming on the way out. What he didn’t understand was why she hadn’t told them about her family, reminding him once again, that he knew nothing of importance about her. Benjamin found himself growing anxious at her return, wanting to make sure she was safe.

Jen had no idea where Tatiana had been the past month, but she wasn’t one to ask questions. Work got busy, she could understand that—but she was certainly excited for a break, even a brief one. Selma was a piece of damn work, she thought, pulling her purse over her shoulder as she headed down the hallway to the front door. Before she had made it, there was a knock, and since Jen knew that Tatiana would have to be dealing with Selma’s reaction to the visitor, she knew that she’d have to answer it, “Yes?” She asked, once she had pulled open the door. She looked over the man in question, as he certainly didn’t look like someone they normally found on the doorstep, “Can I help you?”

Once she had figured out that he wasn’t a murderer or someone that shouldn’t be there, Jen stepped aside to let him inside, “Tia’s in there,” she told him, gesturing toward the darkened living room. Jen would have to assume the man would know about Selma and everything that was going on there, but since the woman was in her care, she wanted to make sure he was well aware, “Mrs. Fowler isn’t having a good day,” she warned him, “So make sure you announce yourself, yes? And no fast movements,” Jen paused, making a face, “and try to look less… official.” The man had government written all over him, and she had no idea how that was going to go over with Selma. As she spoke, she could hear Selma yelling from the other room, though that didn’t faze Jen in the slightest. Nodding in agreement with her own advice, she cast the man a smile before heading out the door.

So far, absolutely none of the medications that her mother had been prescribed had done any good. It certainly hadn’t helped that Tatiana had known very little about the Muggle world before being forced into it in order to keep things as easy as possible for her and her mother. After all, the mental illness couldn’t be treated by the magical world, which meant it was far better for Selma to be here where it could at least be possible to regulate. Of course, medications either did nothing, or came with worse side-effects, which left Selma on an odd mixture of Muggle pills that didn’t seem to do much of any good. Her delusions and hallucinations happened as often as ever, her violent streak had yet to die down, along with the rest of her symptoms. Taking it day by was all that they could do, which wasn’t exactly easy when nothing ever changed or got better, “Did you find out?” Selma asked, her eyes widening, though her hands still tightly gripped her daughter’s, “Did the bastards tell you anything?”

Before Tatiana could even open her mouth to attempt an answer, glad to see that she was slightly calming down, there was a knock at the door. Since she knew there was no way that Jen had left the house yet, she didn’t move to answer it, focusing back in on her mother in time to see her eyes darkening with anger, “You told them, didn’t you?” She snapped, her grip tightening to a nearly bone breaking level, “You told them and now they’re here to take me and cut me open for their experiments,” Selma continued, her voice rising louder. Tatiana could vaguely hear people speaking, assuming that the post or a package was being delivered. Great timing that was, she thought, finally attempting to pry her hands out of her mother’s grasp with little success, “You stupid bitch,” she yelled, shoving Tatiana backwards before getting to her feet to begin pacing. Tatiana barely reacted to Selma’s small act of violence, used to far worse than a simple push. She didn’t move from her position on the ground yet, knowing that any quick movement could make matters worse if her mother didn’t calm down, “I always knew this would happen one day—betrayed by my daughter, you naïve little twit. What did they offer you? What was worth selling your own mother out?”

Benjamin really hadn’t been certain what to expect when he arrived at the house. It infuriated him that even still, Tatiana was trying to hide secrets. He had half a mind to tell her that if she couldn’t be completely honest with his crew about what they said they needed to know, then they would have no choice but to let the case go because they had other cases with people who would be willing to actually have them solve it in a timely manner. This sneaking around she was doing was simply adding more work for him when they could be doing something actually useful. He couldn’t waste his resources by holding onto a personal case, especially not when there was so much going on with the Ministry and their interrogations. At any point, it was very possible his name could be slipped and he couldn’t allow that to even have an ounce of validity.

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt as the door was opened by a woman he hadn’t known, looking like she was heading out. “Hi, I’m looking for a Tatiana Fowler?” he asked, keeping his face stern. If the woman didn’t necessarily ask about his credentials, he supposed he wasn’t obligated to give it just yet. Perhaps he’d luck out and saying that he was looking for Tia would be sufficient. This was business, not a bloody social call. “Thanks,” he said briefly as the woman stepped aside to allow him to enter. His eyes glanced towards the direction she pointed, nodding once in thanks before letting his eyes glance across the room, assessing the house. “Right,” he stated slowly, not really sure what she was talking about. He wasn’t about to take out his bloody wand or anything.

Stepping towards the room, he glanced about briefly before letting his eyes settle on where Tatiana and another woman were. Hearing the words of the woman, his eyes narrowed further, trying to make a connection of what was going on in the room. Seeing Tatiana shoved onto the ground, he made a move forward to assist her up, wondering why the woman, who he assumed was her mother, was pushing her daughter down. “What is she on about, Tatiana?” Ben asked, lifting her up but keeping his eyes on the woman. She seemed slightly…crazy, if he were to be honest. It wouldn’t be like he would bloody know anything since Tatiana didn’t want to tell him anything.

Tatiana didn’t think much of the footsteps she heard entering the room, assuming that Jen was just bringing it whatever it was that had been brought to the door. As far as she was concerned, the only answer that made sense was that it had been the post—no one ever came to the house for any other reason. Instead, she focused on her mother’s pacing, trying to determine just what route would be the best one to take in order to get her to calm down. Being gone for a month was apparently putting her out of practice, but she’d been taking care of her mother since she was seventeen—she knew how to sort her you from any rambling or delusions—for the most part, because sometimes the only option was simply riding it out. She was just about to get to her feet when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, finally glancing over to see what Jen had needed.

She had always thought it was just an expression when someone said that all the blood drained from their face—what kind of situation would actually merit that kind of reaction? But the moment that Tatiana saw Ben, she could feel her face paling. Shit, shit, shit, shit, she repeated, her mind not being able to wrap itself around any manner of a complete sentence. Tatiana let him pull her to her feet, attempting to move away from him the moment she was standing. There had to be a way to still talk her way out of this, she thought, frantically, but she was coming to a complete blank. All she wanted to do was ask him how he’d found her, or if he’d followed her—two questions that would set her mother off on all manners of suspicions. Taking a breath, she looked over at Selma, before glancing back at Ben. She could still get out of this. Tatiana took the few steps forward to her mother, keeping her pace slow and measured before reaching out to touch her arm lightly; Selma jolted backward, her gaze moving rapidly between Tatiana and Ben, “What have you told him? What does he know?” She asked, wringing her hands together, “They took your father and now they’re coming for me—they’re coming for me,” Selma grabbed Tatiana’s hand, gripping it tightly, “If they come to take us, I’ll kill myself. I’ll kill you and then I’ll kill myself. To protect us,” she added, nodding as if in agreement with her own assessment, “Is he with them, Tia? Is he? If you brought him here, you’ve killed us both you stupid, stupid bitch,” Selma snapped, her hands tightening over Tatiana’s as she avoided looking over at the newcomer.

Nodding soothingly, Tatiana began to lead her back over to her chair, “To protect us, yes, good thinking,” she stated, keeping her face impassive as her mother’s grip tightened, “If he was with them, don’t you think he would have brought back up?” Tatiana reasoned, sitting her mother down and crouching in front of her, “No, he’s not with them,” she whispered, conspiratorially, “He’s against them, like we are—that’s why he’s here. So, you stay here and make sure that you stay quiet in case they’re listening and I’ll talk to him in the other room, all right?”

Once her mother had nodded in agreement and released her vice grip on her hands, Tatiana headed into the kitchen, not bothering to see if Ben was following her. How was she going to talk her way out of this? She supposed she could try to rely on the fact that he more than likely didn’t know anything about Muggle diseases, “How did you find me?” She asked, pulling open the door of the refrigerator and taking out a beer. After a second’s pause, she offered him one as well—anything to stall this conversation a bit longer. Tatiana took a swig of the alcohol, looking at him expectantly.

This was not at all what he had expected when he came by here to find Tatiana. The woman, whom he assumed was Tatiana’s mother, was apparently mentally instable. She had to have some type of mental disorder, though Benjamin wasn’t exactly sure what it would be. Paranoia was something he could immediately detect, but beyond that, he hadn’t a clue. He released her arm the moment she tried to pull away, allowing her to get her distance. Benjamin let his eyes travel back to the other woman, not really finding this an appropriate time to glance around the room.

Benjamin remained silent as the woman continued with her rambling of nonsense, not that he would ever say that aloud, obviously. He wanted to pull the woman’s grip off of Tatiana, knowing that the grip probably hurt. He didn’t even feel threatened when the woman apparently threatened her own life as well as that of Tatiana’s, waiting to hear how it would be addressed by his girlfriend. She obviously had more experience in this type of situation than he had, which was something difficult for him to admit to. There was really no way for him to look less official, he realized, noting the reasoning behind the words that the woman at the front door had stated. All he could think about was how frustrating it was going to be to get her to talk about things, or he would have to have Potter dig a bit deeper into Muggle information. It was either that, or they would drop the case…which just did not sound like a viable option to him at this point, no matter how frustrated he was.

Benjamin listened intently to the conversation, thankful that the woman seemed alright after Tatiana spoke to her. Really, he wanted to know who “they” were, but he supposed that wasn’t the best question at the moment. Smiling slightly and nodding once towards the woman, he stepped out after Tatiana. Now, they had some things to talk about. He rose an eyebrow at her question, slightly amused that she thought she had the right to ask him that right now. “It’s my job, Tatiana,” he answered. “Now, did you still want us to have your case or not?” he simply asked, arms folding across his chest. She was putting herself and her mother in danger simply because she was apparently too embarrassed or whatever to tell them the truth. To him, she was acting too much like a child now and it had to stop.

She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Ben was standing in her kitchen right now. Her mother was one of the best-kept secrets in her life—one of the main reasons that she was as secretive as she was. It wasn’t like she was embarrassed of the woman, as that wasn’t the situation at all. It was just a personal matter that she didn’t like other people knowing about. Others judged what they didn’t understand, a lot of the time. But she also didn’t want anyone to know and feel bad for her, her mother, or feel obligated to help. That was why she didn’t take seriously, knowing that she could never have a real relationship when she spent most of her time with an aging schizophrenic that couldn’t be treated. Tatiana couldn’t put anyone other than herself in the situation to have to deal with that.

Really, she did feel bad about the way that she’d left the apartment. She was a grown woman that had climbed out a damn window for Merlin’s sake. And she felt bad that this situation was going on as long as it had. This stalker was apparently cleverer than they’d thought, still managing to send letters, pictures and presents but they still didn’t have a clue who he was. It put Tatiana on edge when she was just about anywhere, other than Ben’s apartment. But she couldn’t expect to inconvenience him forever. Especially how that he was seeing one of her biggest secrets firsthand. She had no idea how he’d found her, but wouldn’t have risked leaving if she’d thought it would be so easy for him to.

Instead of replying to his first statement, she took another sip of her beer, nodding. Drinking was a good distraction from having to focus on this at the current time, and she found that it was a decent defense mechanism because it gave her something else to focus on. Tatiana paused slightly at his question, not having realized that they’d already gotten to the point where the department wanted to drop the case. She supposed it had been quite a while with no new leads or information, and she couldn’t expect them to chase after him forever, “I’m sorry I left like that,” she stated, reluctantly, as she really was, she just also had run out of foreseeable options, “Your department is welcome to drop the case if that’s what you think is best,” Tatiana said, suddenly feeling even worse that she’d been wasting his resources this long. It was just a stalker, and something that she probably could have figured out herself, “I can deal with it myself,” Tatiana added, unsure whether she was speaking to him or herself. The man had been in her apartment, after all, so she could always try to set up a trap or something dramatic like that. Or she could always just stay here for a while, though she’d woken up to more than a few knives against her throat when her mother was having one of her delusions—so that was dangerous in its own respects. Regardless, it was past time she just sorted it out herself, no matter how anxious the thought made her.

When Benjamin had gone back to the apartment and saw that Tatiana was in the bathroom and had been for a bit of time, he immediately knew that she had left. Upon further investigation, it was proven true and he had to use company resources to try to track her down, taking away from time that they could have been using to find the stalker. He had immediately found himself worried that something bad was going to happen to her since the stalker was probably getting pretty angry right about now and would take advantage of the second she was away from her body guards. He hadn’t stopped worrying until the moment he saw that she was okay, though he was now worried about her mother. Perhaps the stalker would try a different source to get her attention. Clearly, Tatiana cared enough about her mother to sneak away from her safety in order to check up on her mother.

Benjamin really cared about Tatiana and he really didn’t want to see her harmed, but he had to be a leader and follow the rules of the system. They should have already caught the bloke, and really, they were getting really close to doing so. But with stunts like this, it would prolong the process and even let said stalker in on some of their weaknesses. He wouldn’t need to get to Tatiana if Tatiana was making it easy by coming to him. The thought of her getting seriously hurt was really bothering him, though he tried to focus on being professional while he was standing in her kitchen, waiting for her response. Benjamin let out an exasperated sigh at her response, running a frustrated hand through his hair while he turned away briefly. Finally looking back at her, he continued. “What I think is best is if you cooperate and let us protect you. Let me protect you. I don’t think you realize the severity of the situation, Tatiana, if you’re willing to sneak out to come visit your mother. If you wanted to visit, you could have said so and I would have escorted you here personally so that you would have personal time with her. I just…I don’t understand why you didn’t say anything. We won’t drop the case unless you want us to. But I don’t want you to want that. I want to be able to take you on a bloody date in public without worrying about repercussions of that decision.” The bloke sighed again, leaning against the counter. “Even if you want the department to drop the case, I can’t because…” he paused, looking frustrated, before continuing. “Because I just can’t. You matter to me, Tatiana, and I want you safe.”

Tatiana knew she must be desperate for any reason to stall if she was actually glad that they were talking about her stalker and the case. Anything was better than him asking about what was going on here, and any moment spent not discussing that was giving her more time to figure out what to say. How could she really lie to him when he was just trying to help her? It wasn’t as though she wanted to lie. It simply had always been the route she took, but this relationship was already feeling dangerously different than her past relationships and dangerously close to what she’d had with Jack. This was getting out of hand, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could fool herself and act lie anything about this relationship was her usual, when apparently it was becoming anything but. She took another sip of her beer, needing something to distract herself with as he spoke.

Now she was just getting bloody confused. She had thought that he’d wanted to drop the case, which she had obviously understood, but he apparently didn’t, “Cooperate,” she repeated, raising an eyebrow. This had been her cooperating—well, everything leading up until today at least. Tatiana hadn’t even attempted to ditch her bodyguards or Ben once since she’d moved in there, hence why it had come to this. She couldn’t just expect Jen to take care of her mother around the clock, “I thought I had been cooperating,” Tatiana stated, slowly. She had done just about everything they’d told her to do—hell, she had even taken some of her vacation days, which she had been thoroughly against to begin with. Not knowing what to say about the severity of the situation, Tatiana took another swig of her beer, “I know it’s severe,” she snapped before taking a breath, “Sorry,” Tatiana added, glancing into the other room to make sure her mother was still calm, “I’m sorry—I know the severity of the situation, Ben, I was the one receiving photographs of myself showering and bloody sleeping for Merlin’s sake.” Tatiana cut off again, running a shaking hand through her hair. This had been a bloody long couple of months, she mused, attempting to use the time he was speaking to calm down further. What was incredibly irritating was even though she was excellent at hiding personal details about herself, she was apparently incapable of hiding when she was upset about something—or so she’d been told numerous times, even by Jack back before she had a reason to be hiding anything. Luckily, even the moment’s pause gave her enough to stop herself from looking outwardly overwhelmed, “My mother doesn’t trust people she doesn’t know,” she said, vaguely, not going into any other details as to why she couldn’t very well come here with an escort—though, trying this way had also led Ben to them, which meant he ended up knowing either way.

“I don’t want you to drop the case,” she stated, almost groaning the moment she spoke. It would be a hell of a lot easier on him if she just told him to drop the case; then he could worry about something else instead of this, as she probably should have kept this her problem to begin with. Her lips twitched into a brief smile at his mention of going on a date in public, but she supposed it wasn’t the time to be amused, “We could go on a date in public now,” she countered, unsure what these repercussions would actually be. Her stalker had seen her date before, after all, and had probably witnessed some of her one-night stands without her realizing it, “Okay,” she answered, quietly, her mind unable to formulate a full sentence. This was certainly different than her previous relationships, she told herself, unsure if that was a good or bad thing.

Benjamin wondered if they were going about this case all in the wrong way. Perhaps they were constricting Tatiana too much that she really needed to just breathe every once in a while. Of course, her sneaking out was immature and unnecessary, but perhaps they just needed to come to some sort of understanding. Like, if she ever wanted to go out somewhere, to tell him and he’d personally go with her. And maybe, just maybe, she could actually tell him a bit about herself. He was trying to understand the fact that she was secretive, and it was bad enough that they couldn’t find out anything about her work, but the things that would actually be useful? He would have hoped she’d be a bit more forthcoming with the information. He knew that this wasn’t just his professionalism speaking, as much as he tried to convince himself of that. This was more personal to him, finding that he actually cared about her more than he thought he had.

Benjamin’s lips twitched slightly in very slight amusement at her response, letting out a heavy sigh. “Cooperating means actually answering our questions…like about your family…and not sneaking away from your watch that is trying hard to keep you safe while others are trying to find out who is doing this, Tia,” he said, almost sounding defeated. “I just wish you would understand that we are going to find him…but that we need your help to do so. Stunts like this get us nowhere. I would have taken you here and waited outside so you could have your privacy,” he explained, shaking his head lightly. He nearly made a face at her comment, his nose wrinkling slightly. He didn’t want to remember the photographs, though they were always on his mind.

“Good,” he agreed, nearly breathing out a sigh of relief as she commented about not wanting them to drop the case. He knew he wouldn’t bloody be able to, though he’d have his workers drop it. Benjamin would have taken it on himself personally, forgetting about any personal time. “Okay?” he questioned, uncertain he heard that correctly. Merlin, it was like pulling bloody teeth just to get her to agree to anything. In one swift movement, he was reaching out his hand to take hers, dragging her into his arms as he then wrapped his arms around her. He placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, brushing some hair out of her face. “We will go on a date in public when this is all over,” he grinned.