You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake)

Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:02 am

The news had not been what Jake was expecting. He'd never really thought about what had happened to Azalea, he'd never asked. He'd had a short, quiet time to himself to mourn the loss of the witch he'd known over a decade ago when he'd received the letter from Kit, and then he'd moved on. He hadn't seen Azalea in over a decade, he'd moved on, why would he have looked further in to what had happened when her own father had not offered the details?

But as Clara pulled him in to her arms as his emotions overcame him, crying in to her shoulder because he'd really gone and messed up. How Clara could look at him was beyond Jake at this moment in time. How she was not hurling obscenities at him for not looking after Azalea, Jake would never know, but he appreciated the comfort she was offering in that moment, appreciated that she wasn't blaming him, even though he was blaming himself.

Slowly, though, the soothing actions of Clara's mixed with Jake's own wish to stop crying brought the flow of his own tears to an end, and the young man removed himself from her embrace. His gaze found the floor as his hands wiped at his face, pushing the remnants of the tears from being as he settled in to a softer breathing pattern.

And then came the talk of Mimosa.

The child who had been born in to the... horrible situation. The child that... Azalea couldn't have known before she'd left. She couldn't have known that the reason she was leaving was no longer real. That somehow, they'd defeated the odds, and they were going to have a child together.

But Mimosa hadn't been brought in to a safe environment, and the idea the child had suffered multiple broken bones made Jake feel sick. If losing Azalea to such a manner had been bad, imagining a child being subjected to the same was worse. He focused on the fact, though, that Clara had seen the culprit brought to some kind of justice. That was a penance in itself, wasn't it?

But Clara was right, the child's father wouldn't have mattered after all this. Mimosa had been Azalea's, and they'd done what they believed to be the right thing. Jake could understand that much, after all they would have gone through when they'd found of Azalea's passing, he couldn't blame them for wanting to make amends.

A few moments passed by, Jake's eyes shifting back and forth, unsettled as the Auror tried to process everything he'd heard. When he'd left Hogwarts, this had not been what Jake was expecting to happen. He'd not expected to hear all this, and the fight he'd been looking for was never going to materialise. Now... now, he felt like he was going to have to beg for... something in Mimosa's life, because he'd let the whole of the Harrington family down.

But, even if it took a life time trying to make up for the lack of... checks he'd made back then.

"She's my daughter, Clara..." Jake managed softly after a few minutes had passed, his eyes now taking in the room around him and the pictures of the young witch. Some moved, some didn't, but they all showed Mimosa beaming at different stages of her young life. She was a happy child, Jake could see that from all of the pictures, well looked after, well loved.

He'd missed so much...

"Please..."

Jake didn't finish the question, it was obvious what he wanted though. He was asking so, so much... but even if he could have something...

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:54 pm

It broke Clara's heart to see the young man in front of her all but begging to be a part of his daughter's life, a daughter he didn't even know he had until it was much too late. Jake may not want to hear it but he had more in common with Kit than either man realized. Kit had experienced much the same pain after realizing Azalea was his biological daughter after she had been so cruelly taken from them.

"I know sweetie," the psychic soothed, patting his shoulder as comfortingly as she could. "But our kiddo isn't a baby anymore. She's got..." The witch gestured to all the pictures around them. "A whole life. Friends, grandparents coming out the wazoo, even a job. Our Mimosa is quite talented, and ambitious as her mother was." A fond smile touched Clara's lips as she admitted it, she really did miss the brat.

"We can't just stand her in front of you and force her to like you because you're her father. It's something we all need to discuss. First the three of us and then you with your family and us with Mimosa's... extended family." Just then, an image of Jake flashed behind her eyelids, him carrying a little toddler in his arms as a little boy followed behind. "And you have to understand the impact this will have on your family, your children... Do they even want a big sister?"

Of course, Clara tried her best to say it all sensibly and not discouragingly. A child could never have enough people who loved her to the moon and back in her life. Or at least that's what her new fangled parenting manuals said. "But we can make a start today. Why don't you have a cookie and I go wake Kit up. We can have breakfast together and... figure something out."

Taking a cookie and pushing it into Jake's hands to keep him occupied, Clara rose from her seat beside the wizard and mad her way up the stairs, this time to finally get him what he'd been asking for all along.

A meeting with Kit Harrington.

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:18 pm

Clara moved to talking sensibly. Of how he couldn't just barge in to the child's life without thinking about what he was doing. How she was already grown in to ten year old girl with her own life, her own friends, family and even work. Loathe as Jake might be to admit it, Clara was right, but that didn't mean Jake was going to admit as much out loud.

But the point about his other children, of Ivan and Adrienne made Jake pause from the reeling feeling that was flooding his system, and look across. No where in all of the parenting guidance had Jake seen anything about how you tell the children that they had an older sibling. How would Ivan react? How would Adrienne react knowing that she was no longer the only 'Daddy's Little Princess' in the family. It was not, of course, a competition, but would the children see it that way? Would they accept Mimosa...

There were so many questions down that avenue, but Jake... Jake was quite positive his younger children would embrace the news... They were good kids...

But what if he was wrong?

Jake was so occupied with that much that he had barely noted the mention of Mimosa's extended family, too worried about the immediate family to give a second thought to an extended family. After all, they were birthday and Christmases only, weren't they?

With a cookie being pushed in to his hands, Jake watched Clara retreat from the room feeling somewhat... numb. His mind was trying to cover so many feelings it had gotten overwhelmed and stopped. Jake didn't know how you were supposed to feel upon finding out you had a daughter who was ten years old, with a woman who was... just a memory now. But he knew it wasn't supposed to be easy. That much, he knew his body was dealing with correctly.

Standing from the sofa, Jake moved to the pictures on the mantelpiece, watching a younger version of Mimosa taking what must have been her first steps. Another picture showing her laughing beautifully somewhere that wasn't Carmel from the pictures of fallen leaves in the background.

Each picture showed her mother quite clearly in them, with the exception of the eyes. The eyes were unmistakably his own, and Jake couldn't help but feel a little bit choked.

She left because this was never supposed to be possible.

She left because she never believed she could give you a child... a child that would, in Azalea's mind, make his love unwilting.

If Azalea had known...

Jake wiped an errant tear from his cheek once more, his eyes focusing on another picture of Clara and Mimosa heading off in to the sea together, hand in hand, wading in to the calm waves.

He'd missed so much...

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Wed Feb 28, 2018 1:18 pm

As usual, Kit Harrington had fallen asleep in his studio. His work at Bondi Beach had only been the first step to developing what would go down as the best shoot of the year. The fact that it was only January and Kit was ready to proclaim the best work of 2024 may have colored him as over confident but the man was not. He was simply aware of the work he did and how it resonated across people and cultures. While a string of photos depicting scantily clad women garnered much attention, it was momentary and easily forgettable. And Kit Harrington was not in the business of making forgettable art.

As a result, the photographer now lay sprawled in his beanbag chair at an angle that would have hurt a man younger than him upon waking up. On an easel in front of him rested an enlarged photographed, magically enlarged to focus not on the breast of the young woman modelling but the waves crashing behind her. It was obvious the work was incomplete as some waves crashed faster than the others, giving the image an inharmonious aura.

But it wasn't the aura Clara noticed as she came in to find Kit once again asleep in a way that would make him complain about back aches for days. The psychic often claimed that though Kit's body had come to the realization that it was in its fifties, his mind was stubbornly stuck in its 21 year old starving artist phase.

"Kit," the middle aged witch called out softly from the door, only to be met with light snores. Venturing further into the room, Clara spared not a single glance at his work, instead her eyes landed on the sleeping male, disapproval written clearly in the lines of her forehead. "Kit wake up, we have a visitor."

"I didn't do it," the photographer mumbled sleepily, prompting a reluctant smile from the witch.

"You certainly did," she corrected, shaking him gently into full consciousness. The man looked at her blearily before reaching up to rub his eyes.

"Ouch," he exclaimed, sitting up from his sprawling position. "My back hurts."

"Can't imagine why," Clara mumbled under his breath before reaching out for his hands. 'Come on, Kit, I can't keep doing this forever. one, two, three." With a groan, she tugged the wizard up onto his feet. The man may look lean and fit for his age but as the woman who still had to drag him now and then, Clara begged to differ. "Jake Newbury's downstairs and he needs to speak to you."

The name would have been a complete blank to the artist had the Newbury kid not written to him about a month ago, jogging Kit's memory. "What does he want?" the man asked as Clara straightened his shirt and then reached to do the same to his hair. "Kid said something about not bothering us anymore."

"He's here to talk about Mimosa," Clara explained, finally letting go of her best friend who didn't look nearly presentable enough but would pass as not a hobo. "And Azalea, in a way....I told him about her." At that Kit straightened up, his gummy eyes now alert to the situation.

"What does he want with her now?" The bitterness was clear in the American's voice.

"Now now," Clara interrupted before he could get pointlessly angry. "The kid is here, and he wants to talk. And he deserves to be heard. You will listen to him, alright?" Ushering him through the door, she directed a pointed glare his way before motioning to the living room.

"If I hear yelling or hexing, so god help you both," she warned before letting him go. The two men clearly needed to talk and she would make a much better observer now that the hardest part was done. Kit on his part, completely unaware of the bombshell awaiting him, entered the living room with a scowl on his face, a scowl that darkened when he saw Jake examining the pictures that were scattered all over the room.

"What can I do for you, kid?" he asked gruffly, sinking down into the sofa with a soft groan. His back was really going to get fucked up over the next few days.

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:21 pm

Jake's eyes had taken in each of the pictures on top of the mantelpiece with an element of both happiness and sadness combined. Mimosa had had a fruitful childhood, and she had experienced so much. The love for the child was palpable in the room. The sadness crept in when Jake realised that he had missed each and every one of these moments with the young witch that was his daughter.

"What can I do for you, kid?"

Jake had not been ready for the arrival of one Kit Harrington, and the younger American wizard jumped slightly from his focused zoning in on the pictures of his eldest daughter, turning instead to come face to face with the man who had aged more than a little bit since he'd last seen him.

If Jake had been ready to admit it -- which he was not -- the intervention from Clara had been something of a gift for Kit. The anger Jake had been feeling upon apparating to America had dimmed enough to allow logical reason to come in to his thoughts. Though, this did not mean Jake was in the slightest bit happy with Kit Harrington for what he'd done.

"With respect, sir, I'm not a kid anymore." Jake replied, not taking well to being spoken down to by the man who was, still, a complete bastard in Jake's mind. Clara might have explained that they had not looked in to the parentage of the child that they had known to be Azalea's, but Jake found that to be inexcusable in itself. Timelines... well, they were not difficult to work out.

"And, without respect, sir, how does an aspiring artist like yourself not see the God damn obvious?" Jake asked, motioning to the pictures of the young witch who undoubtedly had his eyes. Kit Harrington might not have had many photos of Azalea and him, but Jake knew the older man had at least one, somewhere. He had to of had. "You've kept my daughter from me for ten years, knowingly or not, whatever you wish to believe. And... I'm here to make sure Mimosa gets to know at least one of her parents."

The room was tense, and Jake was not about to make this easy for Kit. No, Jake hadn't been the one keeping the truth at bay from the other party, so he had nothing to be sorry for -- not sorry to Kit, anyway.

He would be apologising to Mimosa for the rest of his life, but right now, his problem was with Kit Harrington.

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:47 pm

Rebelliousness, Kit understood. He'd done a fair bit of it. Still was really, a registered independent funding a republican candidate who wasn't even winning in Wisconsin, rebellious. Living as an artist instead of taking over the much more lucrative family business, rebellious. Living with Clara and raising a second daughter without as much as a thought to the conventions of marriage, check, check and check.

Disrespect howe er was a different kettle of fish. And the boy had needlessly picked a losing quarrel when he'd called the Harrington male an aspiring artist. Had Kit been in a better mood, he'd have let it go because he knew it was meant to instigate. But the photographer had a back ache coming on and needed some actual sleep.

"Get out," he simply stated, not bothering with any of the accusations the man was hurling at him. "And come back when you get some manners, kid." He had given the boy a fair chance, even opened with a nice enough sentence. But if the boy was spoiling for a fight, he'd come to the wrong.

"And if you want to make this between lawyers, I assure you mine are much better than yours."

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:48 pm

"Manners?" Jake scoffed back at the man before him, ignoring the demand to get out. "Tell me, Mr Harrington, if you'd just found out your daughter had been kept from you for ten whole years, do you think you'd manage to mind your manners? Not that you'd understand, of course, I'll give you that, but don't you dare try to talk from a higher ground here!"

Jake's anger was starting to grow once more, Clara's previous work coming undone slowly in that moment.

Or, what would have been slowly, had Kit not just played the lawyer card.

"Are you threatening me? Threatening to keep my daughter away from me? Do you not think you have done enough all this time in depriving the child of her father? Yes, I'm sure you've done a grand job of raising her, the pictures show she's a happy child, but you know the importance of having just one parent, Mr Harrington. And do you really think that Azalea would be happy that her dad is sat here, being a total dick because his lawyers are better?

"No, the Azalea I knew would be disappointed in you. We both know that." Jake finalised, knowing he'd thrown much too much in to the fire in that moment, but Kenneth Harrington was, as Jake had been telling himself all the way here, a complete bastard. He deserved nothing less than that much.

"Now, I suggest you start thinking of some more agreeable terms, because if you don't then I will find the lawyer who will get me what I want, even if it bankrupts me. Because I am not missing another day with my daughter because her grandfather thinks he gets the final say." Jake explained, firmly now, showing he was not going to be bullied away from this situation like a child.

He was an adult, a man grown and a father to three now.

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:48 pm

The kid was clearly angry, and maybe another time there would have been enough patience in it to give the young man a chance. Not today though, and especially not when he was claiming what he was claiming. Kit had had one daughter taken away from him and he would be damned if he let history repeat itself.

"Suit yourself," the artist replied nonchalantly. Age had only a few benefits to it and one of them was making a point without getting aggressive like Jake was doing right now. For whatever higher place the intruder thought he came from, the truth was that he was the lunatic foaming at the mouth while Kit was in perfect control.

The young buck still had a lot to learn.

"If you're important enough, I'll try to read about your bankruptcy in the Wall Street Journal or whatever rag gets published wherever you now live." The words came with a lifetime of confidence that, should a legal battle ensue, he could certainly beat a nobody like the man claiming to have fathered his granddaughter.

"However if you want more agreeable terms, you will apologize, thank myself and Clara for allowing you into our home, sit your ass down on our sofa and speak respectfully. Why would I introduce my granddaughter to someone who can lose it in front of her like you currently seem to be doing - even if what you're saying turns out to be the truth?"

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:48 pm

Kit Harrington was pushing him. Fueling the fire as he made no uncertain promises that he'd look Jake up in the bankruptcy section of the newspapers. Jake's jaw kept tightening and relaxing in that moment, trying to keep calm because even though he wished for nothing more than to hex the man in to next year, Jake knew that would solve nothing.

The terms that were laid out for the conversation to continue, though, were not in the slightest bit agreeable to the younger man. For a few moments, the Auror stood simply glaring at Kit Harrington, shaking his head once to show he was not happy with the situation, thinking about telling Kit to shove his terms somewhere unpleasant because he'd fight him through hell if he had to, before slowly realising that he did not, in the slightest, hold the cards in this moment.

Begrudgingly, Jake took his seat upon the sofa, running a hand through his hair in that moment, his eyes on the floor as he tried to reign himself back in. Kit was -- loathe as he was to admit it -- right. What man would allow his granddaughter to see a man who could not compose himself properly? No, Jake understood, and for a few moments, he sat quietly, getting himself together, before he looked back up to Mr Harrington.

"I'm sorry for shouting, sir." Jake told him, sincerely. "I don't wish to make excuses, but today has been a roller coaster of emotion. Mimosa took my class today, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and I just... I knew upon seeing her. And then... just... so many emotions. I don't... I don't know where to begin. And Clara... she explained what happened... to Azalea. We weren't supposed to be able..."

Jake's voice caught in his throat, and he shook his head from side to side.

"She left because she thought she could never give me what I truly wanted. I told her that we'd be okay, even if we could never have children of our own, there were other ways. But she left... and there had never been a need for her too... Mimosa is a testament to the impossible, and I... I o-owe it to Azalea..." Jake tried to explain, but his lower lip started to shake as he voiced what was going on in his head for the first time.

"Please... I don't wish to fight, I just hope to... to be a part of my daughter's life. To do right by her mom..." Jake explained, his eyes falling away from Mr Harrington once more, his head falling in to his hands because a headache was forming, and he no longer knew what he had to say to be able to make amends for what he'd done, to allow Mimosa the chance to know her dad, if she wanted to.

To do the right thing...

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Subject: Re: You Kept This From Me?!? (Kit & Jake) Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:49 pm

As the boy spoke, Kit picked up on all the things that weren't explicitly being said. So the kid worked at Hogwarts these days. Probably lived somewhere in the UK too. The information in why Azalea had left came as a shock but not one that was portrayed on the topographer's face. No, his features betrayed nothing but calm indifference as Jake Newbury continued on about how hard he'd had it.

Why would his daughter even be trying for a baby? She was only nineteen at the time... And as happy as Kit would have been placing the blame on the sputtering young man siting opposite him, he had to admit what he had learned about himself after Azalea's death still stood true.

Kit had barely known his daughter... If he had, she would still be alive.

He just had to make sure not to repeat his mistakes with Mimosa.

"So you think Mimosa is your biological daughter," Kit finally spoke, not so much asking as concluding what Jake had been trying to say. "I have her birth records somewhere with her DNA reports, but I'll have to double check. And if you are as confident as you think, I'll ask you to submit for a paternity test as well. Even if you think it's unnecessary, I'm not taking any risks with my granddaughter." Appearances could lie, even if Kit had a string suspicion they weren't doing so this time, and Kit would need more than a desperate man's word.

"In the meantime I'll ask you not to reveal your identity to the child, she has never really understood or cared for the idea of biological parents. We've told her nothing about her mother and obviously nothing of her father too. Her family and friends'c circles spans the US, UK and France and she's never claimed to be unhappy with the family he has."

The photographer felt silent, contemplating his early morning visitor. Should the results come back positive - and the hauntingly familiar blue eyes staring at him claimed they would - there would be more complications to come. "Mimosa is an extremely intelligent child," Kit began, trying to explain to Jake what it would take to even consider being a part of the little witch's life. "Fiercely independent like her mother. She already works as a child model, is encouraged to make ehr own decisions about travel and about who she would like to have in her life. So if the results show you as her father, you in no way get to force yourself into her life. I or Clara will ask her how she feels about having a father and then let her decide how much she would like to be associated with him."

Looking up, he added almost sparingly because he could understand how rushing it would feel to entertain the possibility of your possible children wanting nothing to do with you. "You may however interact with her in your capacity as a teacher. If you are her father... I won't deny you that." And it would also help Mimosa to get to know her potential father better before she has to make a decision.

"Ten years is a long time kid, we've all changed. You must have too. Marriage, kids, deaths in the family. Make sure Mimosa doesn't becoming the victim of any of that baggage or I'll make sure to put a retraining order on you. Its not her fault the people that came before her fucked up."

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» Clearing the Air [Jake]
» How Will I Catch Up?! {Jake}