Baby Stepbs
_{before leaping}

It wasn’t often that ideas came to him, even less did those ideas come to him in the middle of the night. He was trying to think of ways that the sickness could have been weaponized, how it could have worked, and he had been thinking about other projects that he had worked on. There were papers scattered all around his room from files that he had brought with him. Books that he had taken from the hospital, patient files. None of it added up, none of it made sense. How the hell was it working? He had no idea, and it was driving him insane. So he had drunk a few beers and half a bottle of whiskey before going to sleep, but it was that that helped him.

He got out of his own head and it woke him around four in the morning. He bolted upright and ran to his desk, falling twice on the way before getting his footing and sitting down. How had he not seen it, it was right there before his eyes. He went over a few notes and grabbed a case file before getting out one of the texts. It was so simple but so important. Protein inhibitors! Damn it! They were used in the research that he had done when he was with Doctors Without Borders. Protein inhibitors had helped their medication be absorbed into their bodies with HIV and AIDS medication, but could it work with a virus?!

He flipped open book after book, ordered room service and then ran and took a shower before taking his notes to the lab. He had tests to do. It was early still, barely after six when he arrived that the labs and he put in headphones, music blasting as he pulled out notes and books and spread out on his work station before running test after test. It took him just under two hours and then… it worked.

His cheer went out over the lab and he covered his mouth before doing it again, and then again, and again once more. He had to make sure that this was right before he looked around and then saw the light in the office. ” Yes! Yes, yes yes yes.” He said to himself as he ran towards the office and slid when he tried to stop, hitting the casing with a light ‘oof’ before straightening himself and knocking on the door lightly. ” Dr. Avery? I think I might have discovered something.” He said with a small smile. This was huge, like bigger than huge, this was gigantic. If they knew this, then maybe they could make something to work against it as a cure. They were one step closer.

tag: @emmaline // words: 457 // OUTFIT

template by eliza @ TB & THQ

baby steps

run and hide

she's got wings, she's going to fly

They were a family, and as much as Emmaline had never really expected that, she was glad for it. She was glad that her children had so far seemed to accept that this was going to be her new reality. A life with both Rabastan, and Andromeda was not what any of them had pictured, but it was the life that she had chosen, nonetheless. She knew that it was far from traditional, but nothing about her life thus far had been traditional. She had walked away from a pureblood marriage. She had chosen a different life, and a different path, and now she was going to embrace yet another one.

A path that didn’t vary too far from what she believed in. Which was love, and partnership, and being with someone that you cared about far more than you cared about what the rest of the world was going to think. That had been her choice, that had been her life. And she was sure that it was going to remain that way now. She knew that this was the life that she wanted to lead. The one that she was going to raise a second chapter of her family in. Because the first chapter was never going to be erased. Travis would always be a part of her life.

He was a part of everything that she did, everything that she had become. They had four beautiful children. And she didn’t think that she was going to be able to replace him. But she didn’t want to replace him. All she wanted was to be happy again. To experience new things. To know that it was okay to live, and to love. She didn’t know if she was there yet, she didn’t think that she was in love with them. But she did love them. And she loved the possibility of a future.

One that was very, very real. One that she couldn’t feel yet, but that she knew was there. Because there was a child that nobody knew about yet. One that had Lestrange blood. One that had Avery blood. And she had never thought that she would have pureblood children. The four miracles that were walking around with her DNA had been enough. She hadn’t planned on having more. On having a second chance for all of this. But she had it. She had this opportunity, and the last thing that she wanted to do was waste it.

They were settling into a routine, and she knew that it was about to be shaken up by Zoë’s arrival this morning, but she was looking forward to that. She wanted her to meet Rabastan. She wanted, and more likely she prayed, that they were going to get along. Her daughter had been through so much. Losing her father had taken its toll. But she was doing her absolute best to hold it together for her. The last four years there had been more surviving than there had living, and it was high time to start living again. For both of them.

That meant moving to the island. That meant starting this blended family. Her and Zoë. Andromeda and the boys. Rabastan. Her older children. They were all a family. They were going to be a family. And she didn’t know what that family was officially going to look like. She had no idea where they were headed in the long run. But this was what she wanted. She wanted this family. To grow, and to learn, and to build. Emmaline wanted to put in the work. She wanted to earn this family. To earn her place here.

And it was actually here, in these halls of the Foundation, that she thought that she had the most to contribute right now. Yes, she was worried about the transition to the new job. But she thought that it was going well enough. It was better to be in Ireland than it was to be at St. Mungo’s. She had loved it there, but moving on, truly moving on, meant that she had to let go of the past. And spending every day of her working life in the room where her husband had died, was not properly moving on with anything. It was just being stuck in the same horrible day, over and over again.

She had thought that she was alone here this early in the morning, until she heard someone calling out from down the hall. And then the footsteps had told her that they were headed in her direction. Jakub barred the door for only a moment before he realized whom it was that was crashing through the building at such an hour, and he let the man pass. “Good morning to you too, Doctor Bridgeman.” Emmaline’s response to his enthusiasm was less than stellar, but she had been waking up with headaches more and more frequently as of late, and while she was keen to blame the babe, she also wasn’t entirely keen on mentioning them out loud.

@ why on earth are you yelling at this hour
843 • emmaline's outfit

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