27. DMLE head.

“Hmmm…Let me see…” Helios scanned the crowd. “Not him, he’s too short. Too fat…too creepy…gay…”

Smirking, Carter nodded along with all of his comments. She agreed with each one, which surprised her. Apparently he knew more about her than she'd assumed. "Getting warmer." She said lazily, watching his gaze move further to the right.

“Central park.” Helios smiled, glad to see she was already enjoying herself.

"Central Park? New York?" She hmphed, nodding and furrowing her brows. "Isn't that like, super big? Like, finding a needle in a haystack, big?"

“Zac were there at the festival when Richard threatened me. Richard also threatened my mum. She’s still in England, but I can send her an owl and I’m sure she’d be more than happy to send back an official statement. And there’s all the healers at St. Mungo’s who looked after me when I was injured. They saw the extent to which I was hurt.”

Carter nodded, jotting down what she said as they spoke. She was already forming a plan, but she'd need all the information she could get in order to follow it through. "That'll be fine, but it'd be better if I could talk to her in person." She countered, wanting to ensure her specific questions were answered in one go, and not waste more time on correspondence. "I can go to her, if she'd be amenable to speaking with me, and swing by St. Mungo's while I'm there."

“At most,” Paige added. “I will probably have it done sooner than that.”

"I appreciate it." She nodded, debating whether to keep her for another second longer before continuing. "How are you? Adjusting well?"

Micah stopped smirking. “All right, all right.” He sighed. “I’m not at a good place right now and paper work is hardly distracting.”

Carter fought a smile at his expression, taking it as somewhat of a personal achievement as his own faded. "Join the club. There's only so much even I can control."

“True, but I usually have a pretty good guess.”

"You must be far more patient than I am." Carter chuckled.

“Yeah, about the same.” Ros sighed. “I hate people sometimes. What is it about winter that brings out the criminal in people?”

"You know how when you let a dog out in the cold, and they come back in all riled up and start doing stupid things?" She asked with a sigh, propping her head on her hand and looking at the other woman. "I think it's like that."

“Do I have to go back? I don’t want to. I can sleep with the dogs, I don’t care.”

@carteryaxley

"You already sleep with the dogs." She pointed out, without looking up from her copy of the Daily Prophet. "And yes, you have to go back."

“Think of it as ‘improving department relationships’, he suggested with a slight chuckle. “At least, you can call it that if you ever have to write any reports.”

She rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh, although she was smiling. "Ian, please, I've got a boyfriend." She joked, giving him a look. It had fallen off her lips the way it used to - easily, naturally. Maybe they really could put it behind them.

“That mean we can go back to normal? Because I have a lot of reports I need you to sign off on, you know,” he jested.

“Oh, ha ha.” She deadpanned, giving him a pointed look, although unable to stop the actual laugh that fell from her lips a moment later. Carter shook her head, licking her lips. “I mean, if you insist, I suppose.” She finally let up, still slightly uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Jess shook her head. “No. I’ve never been out of the states before.”

“Never? Love, you’ve got so much more than just Paris to see. You should have told me, I’ve got connections nearly everywhere.” Carter had people all over the globe that owed her, she had been collecting favors when she worked in the field, in case she ever needed to call them in. “Italy’s got to be next.”

“I guess that could work.”

“Of course it’ll work, so come on, take your best shot.” She smirked. “Which one of ‘em do you think is my type?”

“Well, the guy’s name is Peter Townsend. He’s 25 and has quite a long criminal history. Unfortunately, he became obsessed with a young woman by the name of Trudy Jordan, a witch, and he saw her using magic. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, but he saw it all the same. Once she realized he’d seen, she reported him to us and we’ve been looking for him ever since. The guy’s quite good at hiding. As for your shoes,” Helios looked down at what she was wearing, “I’d say you should pick something you can walk and even run in more easily.”

She nodded, listening quietly as he explained the case to her. This was what she had lived for, when she had been in England. This was what got her blood pumping, excited her, made her want to get out of bed in the morning. She was in his debt for letting her come along, although she would never tell Helios that. “Easy enough.” She replied simply, pointing her wand towards her shoes and transfiguring them into something more sensible, and much more flat. “Where does he live? No, where was he seen last?”

Deirdra took a deep breath to steady herself. “He followed me and he hurt me. He sent threatening letters, he even threatened my mother. When I tried to report him to the aurors in England, he put me in Saint Mungos for a week. I felt England and came to the states to get away from him, but he followed me here. I saw him at the fall festival just a few weeks ago. He didn’t touch me, but he did make threats.”

Nodding, Carter resisted the urge to ask who in Europe had been on her case. Clearly, they hadn’t been doing their job, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference now - she had cut all ties to her old life, and she needed it to stay that way, as much as she could. She ignored the blatant hole in her reasoning - Thaddeus - and continued. “Do you have any witnesses?” She glanced curiously at the other man, wondering how he played into all of this. “I need as much information as I can to file the report - and it’ll be much faster to put an end to this for you that way. I’m - I’m sorry, I know it can be uncomfortable.”

“No, it doesn’t. That’s why I’m glad I chose an area of work that deals with plants, not people.”

“Oh merlin, more power to you. At least people can tell you when they’ve fucked it all up. Plants keep you guessing all the time.” Carter laughed, shaking her head. “I guess I just don’t have a very green thumb.”