"Yes, you can," he said, holding it out to her. "Trust me, take it," he added, looking deep into her eyes, trying to make her understand that it was okay to take it. He smiled encouragingly back at her, happy that she was cheering up. "I do understand you, but try to understand me. I need to know you're safe," he insisted, placing a hand on her cheek. He softly pecked her on the lips and whispered in her ear gently, "I can't loose you."

Lucy swallowed. She still wasn't used to this displays of affection.
She look at him with the kindest look on her eyes.
"I don't know..." she was slowly giving in. She had an idea, well, sort of.
"I think you should give it to your niece." she suggested.

Jake had become an important person in her life but Lucy couldn't erase the past six years: three of marriage and another three running.
"I don't know what I'm suppose to do." she whispered.

Jake raised his eyebrows and a surprised expression crossed his face. I hadn't thought of that, actually... She good, he thought as he pondered her words. He finally shrugged, held out the bracelet and said, "Lucy, I barely know the girl, so imagine how I would scare her if I gave her this bracelet. Plus, she's family and she's in Ravenclaw, so if she's anything similar to what those things imply, then I trust her to look out for herself."
The bracelet dangled on his fingertips, diamonds catching the light and sparkling on their faces as he watched her closely, happy to see that she was using excuses now, instead of just plain refusing.

"Hey, that's insultive! Just because I was 'puff!" she almost said 'Slytherin', once she identified way more with the green house. Lucy spoke with false annoyance, with shadows of a smirk on her lips.

Lucy sat down and put the glasses on.
"Can you give this to Samantha?" she held out a hand full of parchments Samantha should sign. This attitude of hers was just a way to make him forget the subject for some minutes.

"I didn't mean that to insult you," he said, fighting not to laugh. She might be older than me but as far as I can tell, she sometimes has the most childish of thoughts! He snapped out of his musings when she stuck a few pieces of parchment in his face. "Er, no I can't. My niece is still in there," he said, putting the parchment back on the table. He held out the bracelet again; "Lucy, I'm not dumb, and I'm very stubborn. Just take the stupid bracelet!" he said, getting slightly frustrated.

Lucy rolled her eyes.
"I. Can't. Take. It." she said. "I need you to understand that. This was given to you, not me." she stood up to give the documents to Samantha herself. She didn't really care if Rachel Rider was still there or not. She turned again at Jake:
"Don't you think it's time for you to meet her?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

A shy smile appeared on her lips while she studied him
"Only you..." she shook her head.

"It was given to me so that I could do whatever I want with it. So, my wish is that you take it. It isn't a question anymore, it's an offer. And when people decline my offers, it usually hurts me. So decide, hurt me and endanger yourself or protect yourself and make me happy as well. Pick," he said, the smile gone from his face. It was taking a lot of will power to be this serious, and he was sure it was working.
He heard her comment, but brushed it off with a shrug and storing it to talk about later, once she accepts the stupid bracelet. It caught him off his guard when she smiled shyly at him and he almost smiled too. Almost. His hand twitched, wanting to touch her cheek but he forced it to stay put.

He didn't just say this!
"Oh please. You didn't just play the emotional card!" she said, struggling inside. 'The emotional card' was when someone, usually somebody Lucy cared or liked a lot, asked her 'either you do this or I'll never speak to you again.' Aww, she was sort of used to hear that. For brief seconds she reminded when Lisa played 'the sister card'... Lucy always end up doing what the oldest girl wanted.
"Alright, alright." she answered with a sigh. "Give me that."

Afterall, there's only one thing you can not rum from: yourself. And Lucy certainly wans't different.
Deep down, she was still a true Hufflepuff. Deep down.

He broke into a smile and handed her the bracelet. "It might look delicate and fragile, but trust me on this one; It would take a really powerful wizard to destroy that!" he said. Yay! It worked! he thought joyously to himself as he watched her put it on.
I wonder what her husband is doing now... His eyes scanned the room for the thousandth time, searching for any sign of movement other than the new guy.

"I hate you." she said, not because she meant it, but because she had that need to be rude if her will wasn't fulfil. "I really don't care. Now..." she began syaing but cut it off. She looked worriedly at the bracelet.
"What if people think we're involved because of this?" she asked looking at him but glancing at the bracelet for once in a while. She cared a lot if her reputation was in cause; if people doubted her skills or abitilies because of her personal life. It had happenned before and it had been enough.

"Yes, me too," he said and bent down to peck her on her lips. He noticed her worried look at the bracelet and frowned; Bloody hell, she worried about the bracelet! Women...
But his frown soon dissolved into a puzzled expression as she asked if people were going to think that they were involved. Involved? Involved in what? "Er, I'm not exactly sure what you mean," he said, totally confused. [Jake doesn't really know all the different terms well, which explains the situation.]

"What if others think we are involved, in a romantic way, because of the bracelet?" she asked, this time, trying to explain herself better. "People might think we're... together." And would it be that bad? Lucy didn't know.
"In a place like the Ministry, there are too many people working. People talk. Believe or not, there's a lot of gossip around." her expression was, at least, funny. Lucy was seriously worried about other's opinion.

He frowned as he finally understood what she was getting at. "And is that a bad thing, Lucy?" he asked in an unintentionally cold voice. He shook his head and his lips twiched as he saw her expression.
"Sorry," he apologised, his voice warmer than before, "Yes, I know all about the gossip, but frankly I couldn't care less." He really didn't, people had been talking about him behind his back all his life, he wasn't about to let them get to him now. Seriously, why is everyone always so worried about how they look in front of complete strangers?

"I don't know!" that was what she kept trying to answer. She didn't know it was a bad... or not, but she really wished to find out.
"We are not together and I don't want other people, including our boss, think we are. Understood?" the use of this word wasn't intencional; it was just an old habit. She had decided to wait for his reply to make up her mind about what she really thought about all of this confusion, as she named it.

He kept his face blank as she rattled on, though in his eyes it was obvious that she was hurting him. "Yes, miss," he said formally once she was done, his voice expressionless. "So, now that's cleared up, I think I'll get going. I do have to move all my stuff to the new office, you know," he stated and headed to his table to clear it. She deserved that, he thought as he packed, and I don't feel the slightest guilt in accepting the job.

Why do I always end up doing this?!
She asked herself why what she was seeing in his eyes was pain. She had never meant to hurt. Besides, it's better for him if he walks away now, she thought. That way, it was easier to deal with her own pain.
Does he think we...well, we're not. Right?
Her head was full of doubts.
A little voice inside her head poke: See, that's why you shouldn't get along with men. You always end up broken.
"Shut up." she told the little annoying voice.

Why was he being so cold with her?
Can't he see? I'm doing because I love him.
That though was mecanical and it scared Lucy. It took her too many minutes to realize what she had though and the truth in that. That is why she didn't listen his next words.
She was sitting down at her desk. She hide her face with her hands. Merlin, I can't be in love with him. But she was. Lucy knew herself. She knew her strenghts and her weaknesses.
"Oh God." a muggle habit. "I love him." she whispered only to herself.
She didn't think he was still in the room.

He froze solid just as he was about to pack the last of his possessions. What did she just say? His brain was numb, and it took all of his strength to turn around and face her. Be cold, Jake. Remember, she might love you but she's still embarrassed of you...
"You know Luce," he said as he shouldered his bag, having finished packing. He used her nickname on purpose, just to see how she would react. "The thing is, if you'd have told me that a few minutes ago, I would have been happy. Now, I'm not so sure," he finished coldly and made his way to the door.
"Oh by the way," he added with his hand on the door knob, "Try not to lose the bracelet. It is very expensive, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste." He sighed and willed his hand to open the door but for some reason he just couldn't do it. "I guess I'll be seeing you around. Or not," he said to her without facing her.
He clenched his teeth and forced his hand to turn the knob and he left without a backward glance.

Lucy didn't reply. She felt tired, physically and emotionally. She stood up, having a lot to say but hiding it inside. She had a diploma on being cold. She just had to hold it for a bit longer.
She started doing the maths on her mind while she stood up and pass by him. She loved numbers. At least numbers were always right and never let her down. With numbers, you always know what to expect.

She knew what would happen next. She would grab a cup of cofee, drank it all, order another one. Then, with a very hot cup of coffee on her hands. she would be back. She could watch it like a movie. She would sit down, focus on her job and would do everything. Later, at home, she'd cry. During 24 hours, she was allowed to be pity of herself. During those 24 hours, wether she thought a lot and decided to stay and continue her daily life, or she would disappear.
Jake is right. See you around... or not, she thought.


She also knew what she needed. But there was a problem: she could go home, visit her parents for a couple of days or... she could take care of her personnal 'problem'.
Drinking her second cup of coffee, she wondering what her mother would tell her to do.
'Come here. You work a lot. Bla bla bla. You need to rest.' Lucy knew the speech.

Suddenly, she had an idea. In fact, there was somewhere she could go. She had never heard Lisa's advice in life... would she remember some of it yet?

Lucy stayed there until finish her job. She though she'd better say something to Samantha before leaving. She headed to Samantha's office.

Annamaria was working on some exam templates, going over them again and again until she felt she needed a breather. She felt somewhat lost in her own element now; It was as if she wasn't quite herself. She knew that it was because she hadn't gotten over Jake, now her superior, like she thought she would, and then it seemed that Lucy was also strained a bit too. Everything was quite a bit odd in the office now. As always, she resolved to do her best and not let those things affect her work, even though they were, if just a bit.

Samantha walked into the room with Rachel at her side. She noticed that both Lucy and Annamaria were there, and wondered how they would take her coming announcement. "Hello, ladies, I would like you to meet Rachel Rider," she said. "Rachel is the niece of Jake, only he doesn't know that she's here visiting. Rachel, this is Lucy and this is Annamaria. They both work together here in the Examinations Authority." And are apparently both quite taken with your uncle, Samantha thought to herself with amusement.

Well, if the situation with Annamaria was odd, when Rachel and Samantha entered it got... too strange.
"Hello. I'm Lucy..." Merlin. Lucy realized she seemed like one of the evil stepmothers of farytales, intruduccing to the children. She was at her work place, for Merlin's sake! She added: "...Stedman. Nice to meet you again Rachel. We hadn't been introducced yet." she said. She had seen the girl in Samantha's but, due to the shok, Lucy had left without a word to the young girl.
What Samanthat said, she was aware of that already. Lucy swalowed.
"Jake doesn't know she's here, huh?" she asked just to be sure.

Rachel grinned mischievously at the two women, then mentally smacked herself and changed her expression to one of politeness. Idiot, she thought as Lucy introduced herself. "Hey Mrs. Stedman, it's nice to meet you too. So, um, I was wondering if I could ask you both," (at that point she turned to face Annamaria as well) "something about my uncle. I already know a lot from Ms. Rose, but I wanted to get a second opinion." She smiled apologetically at Samantha, hoping that she wouldn't be offended.
"How was he as a co worker?" she asked, not giving any examples to how she wanted her answer. If they answer what they think, then it's fine by me, she thought as she looked over at them.

Lucy swallowed. That wasn't a good start.
"He's really cool and very hardworking." she said, refraining herself from being too motherly ro Rachel. "By the way, it's Miss Stedman." she corrected the young witch. She had no idea what more to say.

Rachel nodded and took it all in. "I'm sorry," she apologized and smiled meekly at her, embarrassed. "Er, so, is there anything else? About his personality, any flaws? Seriously, you can tell me, I can take it," she said, grinning at the three women in the room. He seems like a god, no flaws, no blemishes... and it's supposed to make me feel better she thought bitterly to herself. She sighed and waited for someone to speak up.

"Flaws...? Hum... He's hugely stubborn and perfeccionist." she said. It was hard for her to name Jake's flaws. She didn't think he had many. With a smile and remebering a certain time at Leaky Cauldron she added:
"He might be arrogant sometimes but he's... very sweet." she forgot she shouldn't have a dreaming look on her face.