Rosekiller

It’s the littlest things that make the biggest difference, James learned that today, last night was hectic,
Reggie almost got hit by a truck, and now he doesn’t want to talk to him about anything he hates it,
he hates that he doesn’t know what’s wrong, he hates Reg not talking to him, and most of all he hates that there’s nothing he can do about it, there will always be things in this world that he can’t protect the people he cares about from,
Like he can’t protect Evan from this stalker, or Reg from the nightmares, or Sirius from the memories, or Remus from the scars, he wished they could go back to when things were simpler but that’s impossible.

There is one thing he can do, play therapist; everyone always wants a safe space or someone they can talk too when things get tough, it took a few years but James became Reg’s safe space even right now the younger man is curled up into his side chewing on his sleeves it's a habit he picked up after last time,
The two sat on the couch watching beetlejuice, beetlejuice. But none of them were watching, Reg was thinking about something while James was carefully watching him.

They stayed like that until Reg unexpectedly broke the silence. “You don’t think ghosts exist right?” he thought for a little bit, he did because that would explain why he hears the doors open and close at night, but he doesn’t say that.

“Well I think anything is possible” was that the right answer? Regulus curled more into his side, and hummed.

“Why?” he shook his head.

“Just wondering, Jamie?”

“Yes love?”

“You don’t blame me right? For what happened last time” why was he thinking about that now?

“No of course not, why would you think that?” The shorter of the two, stood up and extended his hands in a hugging gesture, James pulled him in and the other straddled him and rested his head in the crook of James’ neck.

“Darling?” he hummed.

“Who called last night?” he didn’t answer, he was about to ask again when he heard a soft snore, coming from the man on top of him, he smiled and carefully got up and walked to their shared bedroom, after he tucked Reg in, his phone vibrated it was a text from one of his workers apparently there was someone asking for him, so James wrote a quick note and made his way to the restaurant.

_________________________________________

After he arrived it turned out the person that was asking for him was a karen he handled that quickly, but when he tried to leave again it was problem after problem.
He actually got a small break once a familiar couple walked through the door, he smiled.

“Hey Marls!” The blonde immediately turned her head with a bright smile on her face, she and Dorcas walked up to him.

“Jamie boy I thought you were off today” he grinned.

“What? Not happy to see me?”

“My previous statement still stands” he playfully rolled his eyes at her.

“I got called in there was a karen” she nods in understanding.

“Yeah me and Siri get a lot of those, there was this one who walked out mid tattoo because it was taking to long”

“What did you do about it?”

“It’s not what I did, Siri was still carrying Teddy at the time, and he was in a really bad mood so he dragged the girl back in by her hair and told her if she was gonna walk out she better pay up first” he wiped away a fake tear.

“All I feel is pride, they grow up so fast” Dorcas snorts. And Marlene sends him a knowing look.

“Speaking of growing up, when’s the baby shower?” he paused.

“I don’t know what you're talking about, what baby? Why shower?-who’s grown up I’m a toddler”

Okay believe it or not James is not good at lying, I know shocker, but this time he thinks he won I mean the ‘Why shower’ line is really believable-oh who is he kidding? No actually who is he lying to right now?

“Relax, Reg told us, well he told Dorcas and Cas told me so” she trailed off, same knowing look still on her face.

“What are you guys thinking about? Adoption? Surrogacy? Because Cas is willing” that earns her a slap on the arm.

“I am not, unless it’s our child” that makes Marlene turn red.
“So when’s the baby shower?” he teases.

“Just show us to our table you arse” he does after a few more snarky remarks.

By the time he had to close all of the worker’s had already gone home, he got out his keys and was about to lock up when he heard something in the kitchen.

“Hello?” no answer, he pulled out his phone and put on his flashlight, and he walked to the kitchen.

He looked around a little but nothing was there, then his phone went off Lily was calling him.

“Lily?”

{James come to St. Mungo’s quick}

“Why what happened?”

{It’s Sirius and Remus, there was a car accident and-}

“Where’s Teddy?”

{With Dora and Fleur, their gonna pick you up okay, I need to go I need to call Reg}

“Yeah I’ll see you soon” he hung up, and the next thing he knows he feels a sharp pain in his stomach, he looks down and sees a knife sticking out of him, he falls to his knees then onto his side.

Well this isn’t good.
___________________________________

Narcissa didn’t like being home alone, that’s the reason she’s always pushing Alice to come home early, but its days like this that really puts her on edge, she was laying on her bed with Dobby, while on the phone with her sister’s they were talking about the family dinner they are forced to go to.

“-who do you think is gonna yell first?” asked Bella.

“Probably Mum at Dad” answered Andy.

“I don’t know my bets on Siri” Andy nods her head. “Yup you already know someone’s gonna try and comment on Teddy”

“Oh and he is not gonna have any of that, maybe if they try and talk bad about Remus too”
Narcissa scoffs.

“Don’t forget about Reg, oh and the twins” Bella laughed.

“Reggie’s gonna flip out, the twins will just be there backing him up and refilling wine glasses so that everyone will get drunk again” Andy lets out a signature Black family gasp.

“That was them?! Oh my god, remember when Dad fell down the stairs!” all three laughed, just then Narcissa heard a knock on the bedroom door.
At first she thought she heard wrong but then it happened again and all three of them stopped.

“Is that Alice?” she shook her head, fear was coursing through her body she locked the bedroom door for a sense of security, but now it actually came in handy.

“Then who the fuck is knocking on the door?” asked Bella.

“I don’t know, nobody else has a key” Andy called for her husband off screen and told him to call the police.

She looked next to her at a sleeping Dobby, she gently picked him up and put him in the walk-in closet.
It had enough space so he should be fine, then she pulled out a handgun from Alice’s drawer, she then got back on the bed and looked at her sister’s.

“Everythings gonna be okay, Ted’s on the phone with Alice she’s on her way” she sent both of them a grateful look, then there was another knock though this time it was more aggressive, she flinched.

“Cissa stay on the call, me and Ted are gonna take a drive to you yeah?” she nodded.

“I’ll be there too, okay, just stay calm” the person practically banged on the door, and Narcissa got the gun ready. Both of her sister’s were in their cars with their partners in the driver's seat.

Narcissa aimed the gun at the door, with shaky hands, then the door burst open, on the other side of the door was Mr. Layden the gardener. He had a wild look in his eyes, and tried to grab the gun from her, she fought with him, he smelled like alcohol, and his eyes were blood-shot.

She didn’t know what was happening, he wrapped his hand around her neck and she started to choke, he pushed her down on the bed, the gun was on the floor, she kept struggling, then the worst thing possible happened he kissed her, she bit down hard on his lip, he didn’t react he just let his hand go up her thigh.

She managed to kick him off and immediately went for the gun, he grabbed her leg and she screamed, it all happened so fast, one moment she was on the floor struggling hearing her sister’s calling for her, then the next moment she has a gun-shot wound in the arm while she’s aiming said gun at her assaulter.

She had shot him in the side, he was clutching onto his stomach, she looked to the mirror at the side of the bed, the strap of her night gown was falling off, her hair was a mess and she had a little blood on her lips, the thing that made her choke up in tears wasn’t the bruises on her neck and wrists, or the fact that she had shot a man, no the thing that made her a sobbing mess was the fact that she had done the one thing she swore never to do; kiss someone other than Alice.

She broke down on the ground, she was screaming, she felt disgusting. What would Alice think if she saw her right now? Would she think the same?

She felt like her skin was burning where he had touched her, she felt like she was drowning, the more she looked at herself the more disgusted she was, why was she feeling like this? Oh right, didn’t this happen before? But the last time, it went further- She was broken from her thoughts when she was wrapped into a hug.

She knew this warmth, she looked up and saw the face of her wife, her beautiful, angelic wife, she felt herself calm down, she saw Bella holding Dobby in her arms, thank god he wasn’t hurt, she then heard Mr. Layden speak.

“She wanted me to do it, she called me, she gave me the key and everything-sh-” Frank cut him off with a punch in the stomach.

“I suggest you stop talking unless you want another one, take him away” two officers escorted him out, while Andy and Ted were talking to another one.

Bella and Rita were with them, and Alice was cradling her in her arms.

“Are you okay? He didn’t do anything else, did he?” she weakly shook her head. “Okay that’s good Mi amour, we’re gonna take you to the hospital okay?” she hummed.
[My love]

Alice then picked her up in a bridal style, and carried her out, she blacked out by the time they reached the car.

She just felt like sleeping.
____________________________________________

Pandora watched as Lily paced back and forth they were in the waiting room, both Remus and Sirius were in surgery, Fleur and Dora were stuck in traffic and James’ hadn’t called them in over an hour, Regulus arrived a few minutes earlier along with Barty, Evan, Dorcas and Marlene, Mary and Emmeline were on their way,

And Regulus was on the phone with Monty, Effe worked here, she was just busy with other patients, Evan was trying to call Dora, and Barty was trying to call James.

“Fuck” Barty placed his phone in his pocket, and got up, Pandora stopped him. “Where are you going?”

“I think James is in trouble I have to go” he was talking softly as to not alert Regulus, Pandora picked up her bag, and grabbed Evan’s arm.
“We’re going with you”
________________________________________

Once they arrived at James’ restaurant the first thing Pandora noticed was that the door was unlocked, which was weird on its own but what added full to the fire was the stench of blood coming from the kitchen.

All three of them rushed inside, Pandora let out a gasp as she saw James lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

“His breathing is weak but he is alive come on I’ll carry him” Barty then picked him up [piggy back style] as they started to leave the building Pandora smelled something else.

“Gas” her brother said, they ran out of there just in time for the building to explode, a few minutes later and James would have still been in the building, a few minutes later and he would have died.

On the ground in big bold letters was the words;

Welcome to the show!!

Barty let out a shaky breath next to her, and Evan froze, the three of them stood there staring at the building Pandora broke the silence.

“Let’s go, we need to get him to a doctor” they both nodded, and got in the car, Evan drove while Barty and Pandora were tending to James, the man in question groaned in pain as the car moved.

“R-Reg?” Barty let out a breathy laugh.

“Wrong guy buddy”

“Bee? What’s going on, is Reggie okay?” Pandora shook her head with a small smile even though he’s the one bleeding out all he can think about is the safety of his fiance, she couldn’t tell if it was admirable or stupid.

Though if she called it the latter it would be hypocritical because she would do the same, Barty’s the one who answered.

“He’s okay, you should worry about yourself”

“What happened?” she asked.

“Hi Panda” he his head to her with a smile. “I don’t know, one minute I was on the phone with Lils then the next I’m on the floor bleeding-”

“Save the rest for the cops later, we're here” said Evan, his voice sounded angry but she could tell he was just worried.
________________________________________________

Regulus was gonna kill James, he stood outside the hospital next to Mia, she was trying to calm him down but nothing was working.

“Reg, James is gonna be okay”

“Why didn’t they tell me where they were going?” She held him close. “They didn’t want to worry you” he scoffed.

“Too late for that” his tone was harsh, and he realised it right after he said it. “Sorry this isn’t your fault he’s your son your worried to and I’m-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, you have as much right as me to be worried he is your fiance, and he may be my son but I know it will be harder on you especially today with Siri-” she cut herself off, and Regulus saw that she was crying.

He felt himself start to cry and he pulled her into a hug, Monty came outside with doctors ready, all the doctor’s here knew James and as the car pulled up they immediately got to work,
When James was close enough, he held out his hand, Regulus took it and the other smiled.

“Imma be right back Reggie, I promise” before they took him, Reg kissed him on the head. “I love you Mon Soleil”
[My sun]

“And I love you just as much Mi Estrella” And with that he was taken away.
[My star]
_____________________________________________________________

As they walked back inside Barty saw someone he never thought he’d see here, Seph, the real question is what the hell was he doing here?

Barty walked up to one of the nurses.

“What happened to him?” he gestured to the man in question. “Oh, he was the one who drove into the couple in surgery” Barty paused.

“What couple?”

“The Lupin-Black’s” motherfu-he smiled at her. “Thank you for telling me” she nodded.

Seph was being carried on a bed, he was screaming something Barty couldn’t hear, so he walked closer, once Seph saw him he grabbed his hand.

“Please you have to believe me, someone’s trying to kill me!” he looked Seph in the eye,

“Well then they better be quick about it” he tilted his head, and grabbed back his hand, he then walked towards the waiting area, with a new question in his mind.

Who [apart from the obvious] is trying to kill Seph?
___________________________________________________

Barty doesn’t really believe in jinxes but then again he doesn’t believe in coincidence either, it had been an hour, Remus and Sirius were still in surgery, James was also being operated on, and Dora and Fleur arrived with Teddy and the poor kid just kept asking about his Dada and Papa,
That's when all of them heard an ear shattering scream, of one of the nurses, Effe was the first to go then Evan then himself.

And once they arrived well, let's just say Seph wasn’t going to be seeing a lot of this world anymore, how can he? His eyes are gone, not to mention the whole lower part of his body, Jesus, talk about not being able to walk in the morning, this guy wasn’t gonna do anything let alone walk.
Behind Seph was the words ‘Traitor’ written all over the wall.

Evan was next to him his hand was shaking so Barty took it. “Nothing’s gonna-”

“Stop” Evan deadpanned, and Barty sniffled a laugh. “Stop what?” They both looked at each other.

“You know what”

“No I don’t, there’s a corpse so we sing”

“That was a one time thing”

“You're right……….I feel you, Johanna-”

“Barty” he said sternly.

“Okay fine sorry……...Green flinch-”

“I am going to kick you if you sing”

“....”

“Good now stay quiet”

“Knee deep in the passenger seat-”

“Are you really singing Casual while looking at my dead ex’s corpse?” he shrugged.

“You sang; Not while I’m around while looking at my dead father’s corpse”.

“Touche”

Barty smiled and continued, when one of the other nurses asked why he was singing that song specifically Evan told her that it was Seph’s favourite song, and she gave them an empathetic look and played the song on her phone.

God, all this happened on a Saturday night…