To Be

[Riley Mauven]

Riley stood leant against the kitchen sink as she looked out of the window. She had almost carried her baby to term now, yet still hadn't been able to carry out bringing her family back together. Just one short month ago she had met her birth father for the first time, a chance meeting that had changed everything in her mind, but not in anybody elses. Sebastien had been working as a chef in one of Tamas' restaurants for years now, and it seemed almost too much of a coincidence for the nineteen year old to believe. To think that her own birth father had been working for her step father all this time was something that she had called uncanny and many more words than that. In her time of need Riley's family had grown angry at her, asked her to leave their house, but her birth father had supported her tremendously in the past month, something that only furthered the anger in the Mauven household. Riley had been far too quick to forgive her father for leaving her mother before she and her twin sister were born, this was true. But what was truer was that she needed him now, and he was there for her, something that her mother and sister had not been able to give her. Staring out the window, the nineteen year old wiped a tear from her cheek and thought of her mother, Frances and her new baby girls Wendla and Gwendolyn. Seeing her mother give birth had only scared her further, she almost wished that the baby could stay nestled safe in her womb forever. But this was not possible, Riley would have to give birth to her child in a few months, but it would be different to when her mother had given birth to Kalani and herself, because she would have Will standing right with her. The fact that her boyfriend had stayed with her through her pregnancy was a surprise to her, especially after Tamas had yelled at him in such a way, and the way she had been acting lately, which was terrible. She had lived for a short while with Will in his apartment in France, but for now the couple had agreed to stay separate, with Riley's dismissal from the Holyhead Harpies rumours and reporters were flying close to her Quidditch star boyfriend, and she wanted to do whatever she could to protect him.

The doorbell rang loudly through the empty New York apartment and Riley quickly made her way to the door, letting Sebastien in politely and smiling, things still seemed forced between the father and daughter, afterall they had known eachother no more than a month. Her father was there today to help put together the crib, which still lay in pieces on the living room floor, much to Kalani and Jennifer's disgust. "It's right through here," Riley mumbled as her father followed her through to the living room and stepped gingerly around the wooden pieces and crumpled instruction manual. Setting up a nursery seemed wrong, she was only nineteen and could still hardly believe her eyes when she looked down and could no longer see her feet. So standing amongst what was soon going to hold her son or daughter, the young woman looked up at her father hoping he would understand that she wanted him to fix it all, fix her life not just the nursery furnature. But before Sebastien had the chance to open his tool box Riley fell into his torso and buried her head in his shoulder. Riley didn't feel nineteen, she felt like a child, a child who needed her father and needed to be held and hushed and told that everything was alright. Her slender arms wrapped around his waist and she silently began to cry, not thinking of whether or not the recipient of her hug had wanted it, or whether it felt awkward for him. "Seb-uh, Dad?" she said carefully, trying the word out for the first time, "I'm so scared." and with those words she admitted something that nobody else had been privy too, just how terrified she was of the future, and whatever it held for the teenager. Why Kalani could not forgive this man, Riley could not understand. Though perhaps Kalani would have forgiven him had she known the truth of why Sebastien had not been around as they grew up, but neither of the twins would know that truth just yet. ​

 

[Sebastien Sarfati]

Sebastien didn't know what to truly expect as he apparated into New York City. He was here to set up a crib but what would happen as it did? Had Frances told them that all those years ago the truth had been kept from him, that if he had the choice he would have stayed and been a father to the twin girls and been there during all the rough patches but there was no turning back time, at least not safely or easily. Instead the man knew he would have to be there for each of his daughters, even Kalani who didn't seem to want him around. Right now this was accepting that at thirty-seven he was going to be a grandfather and that he needed to be there for his daughter. He knew that all he was really doing was letting himself know that he actually would have stuck around and been a father to the blonde girls but he pushed that into the far corners of his mind when he rang the doorbell. As casual conversation ensued Sebastien's mind whirled around and realized that eventually he would have to talk to Frances and his boss, Tamas. He would have to confront them in some way instead of treading lightly and pretending he didn't know anything around them because he wanted a relationship with his daughters - even if that was the last thought on one of their minds. He would need there to be, at the very least, civility and the knowledge that no matter what happened he would not loose his job over this because he loved being a chef at Tamas' restaurant. He was happy working there but all the same Sebastien was happy around any sort of food.

Sebastien looked down at the living room floor to the various parts and cringed internally. He wasn't the best of builders but he did hope that what the finished product would be at the very least safe and if not he could always put a spe so it all assembled together neatly. The curly haired man was about to kneel down when he got the first hug from his daughter. It made his breath hitch from the shock but his arms slowly and protectively wrapped around he as if Riley was a child rather than a nineteen yea old pregnant girl. The man's eyes flickered down to Riley when she called him Dad and although he swelled with happiness at being called that, at Riley feeling comfortable enough to address him as such, he felt almost guilty because he knew that Tamas cared just as deeply for Riley and Kalani. As Riley shared her fear with him Sebastien pulled away and gave a sad smile and said, "I know you are." He wasn't going to say that she would be okay because they both knew that there was a possibility that she might not be, that this had been a mistake on more ways than one. "But I'll be here. So will the rest of your family." He kissed the top of her head, like he had actually raised her and known her for years instead of just a month. "Even if they're disappointed now they will turn around because they love you. It happened for Frannie, didn't it?" As Sebastien called Frances by her nickname his head pounded lightly and he felt a wave of sorrow because he had missed a chance of a future with her because she had thought she was noble to lie to him and the blonde twins. It was obvious that Sebastien was in uncharted territory, that he never had to be so supportive and he felt like he wastrambling so he just hugged Riley tighter in his arms, hoping that even if he wasn't doing a very good job that maybe the tight squeeze would make up for it and for his cluelessness.​

 

[Riley Mauven]

Riley's heartbeat hitched as her father held her tightly. It was the simple act of a hug from him that she had waited for nineteen years to receive and now that it was happening she regretted every minute of her life that she had not been able to know Sebastien. Though with her tears dampening his shirt she could not help but feel guilt for not accepting Tamas as her step father so readily. He had sacrificed so much for her mother and sisters, he had even cared for her enough to yell at her boyfriend for getting her pregnant. But as much as he had done for them as a family, he wasn't her flesh and blood, this man was, the man who was now trying to comfort her with his words. The kiss placed on the top of her head seemed to burn in intensity as she tried to nod her head, her family would be there for her, she hoped they would. Riley hoped Sebastien was right, she wanted her family to come around and see that she needed them now more than she ever would. She had hurt her mother more than anyone though, Frances had given birth to Riley and Kalani when she was seventeen and the twins had vowed they would never put themselves in the same position their mother had, as she had struggled with it so dearly. Though Riley still didn't know why her birth father had not been there for Frances, she hadn't the heart to ask him just yet, anything like that could put their budding relationship in jeopardy. She had only assumed it was because he had been just as young and scared as she was in this moment. When her father called her mother 'Frannie' she looked up at him, her arms slipping down his torso ever so slightly. She had only ever heard Tamas and her aunt Frida call her mother by that name, and Frances and Sebastien hadn't seen eachother in almost twenty years. "Did you love her?" Riley blurted out, wiping a tear from her cheek. She couldn't imagine having nobody as a teenage mother like her own mother had been through. If there was anything this pregnancy had given Riley, it was a new found appreciation for her mother's sacrifices.

Like Sebastien said, Riley had to have hope that her family loved her, and they would come around for her in the end. She wished dearly it would be before she had her child, because it was a daunting thought for her, everything had happened faster than she could have imagined. Lea telling Frances, Tamas and Kalani her news, being asked to leave the family home, meeting her father, and now she was nearing her due date. "We should get started." Riley suggested sensibly, breaking her father's tight grip on her. There was still so much to prepare, and while her father was here she needed to make the best use of his strength that she could, as Will was still using his strengths to lead his team to victory. The nineteen year old lowered her swollen frame onto the couch and picked up the instructions, the Alexandra women had never relied on magic heavily, and Riley was sure that she and Sebastien would be able to work out the crib without the aid of their wands.

​

 

[Kalani Mauven]

Kalani knew that Sebastien Sarfati was on his way to her apartment as she spoke on the phone with Edgar. Even if he always said the right thing nothing could detour her from the fact that Riley had so readily accepted him into her life... into their lives. It was infuriating because it seemed that she was the only one who realized how much pain this man had caused their tiny little family. Edgar, unfortunately, had caught onto how distracted she was, as if he could see the dazed and angry expression etched onto her rather simple features. Just before they hung up the phone Edgar would tell her she loved him and she would smile sadly and say, "I know you do," because Kalani couldn't tell him that yet. Even if she knew pretty much all there could be to know about a person she didn't trust her own affections and allow herself to be vulnerable and Edgar understood that she did feel ever so deeply for him. After one guilt slowly seeped away from her Kalani left her room to get tea, knowing that Sebastien had not arrived yet and that she wouldn't dare come outside to face him. Seeing the man once in her life was just enough for her because if he hadn't given their family a chance nineteen years ago why should she know? She didn't speak to Riley as she went through the terribly dull task of making a pot of tea which made the apartment uncomfortable as they were most days. Since the press had found out about Riley's pregnancy there had been a lot of indifference and the only time things seemed to be comfortable was when the young mother to-be was hiding away. As Lani tried to distract herself from the overwhelming chagrin she found herself cutting out Riley from her life more and more which she knew was something she should not do but Kalani felt betrayed. Riley and Kalani Alexandra were a team and had been since they day they were born, with their mother as captain. They would make pacts and keep secrets from the aforementioned captain and it was all between them and because of this closeness and the words said to them by their grandmother and how their mother hurt daily it was expected that they would amount to so much more than just a young mother because they knew that this was what their mom would want. Even if Frances Alexandra vowed for the umpteenth time that she never regretted anything they both knew that to make her proud and to show her that they appreciated it all they couldn't be another statistic of young mothers who birthed more young mothers. Riley, like Sebastien, had betrayed her.

Without Kalani's knowledge the plants in the corner of the room started to snap their leaves and vines around viciously and before she had a chance to finish boiling her tea the doorbell was rung. She thought about running now and leaving the water to cool down so she could lock herself up in her bedroom but she was paralyzed with emotions that all battled for dominance. A lot of it was anger, Kalani could admit this, some was hurt, self-pity, neediness for that lost connection which was quickly overruled by anger. It was lucky that the kitchen was a little separate from the living room or the blonde would've heard that whole pathetic speech Sebastien had probably cooked up but when she had her mug in hand and was on her way to her room, with the plants growing quickly around the house in the direction that Kalani's step, which was normally the gentle one of a ballerina, crashed upon the floor until she stopped short and heard Riley ask the most foolish of questions. "Did you love her?" Before she could stop herself Kalani had turned to face Sebastien and looked straight into his eyes with a pair that matched his own, "Don't fool yourself, Riley. He never did and never will. He's obviously trying to hurt us again, only this time he didn't know he could." The vines were now quickly (well, this term is used liberally) approaching the man from all directions as if they would wrap around his neck and strangle him to death. "Why don't you runaway?" she asked. "Sebastien," she said with the foulest of expressions on her face like she had said the most terrible curse for the first time, "You aren't wanted here in the same way we weren't wanted by you." If it took using magic Kalani would fix up the crib for Riley just to get Sebastien out of their home. Kalani knew that this anger wasn't something she wore well but it this chip on her shoulder was familiar and all she wanted was for it to be gone for once and with that this pathetic excuse for a man.​

 

[Sebastien Sarfati]

There were a lot of questions Sebastien had been prepared to answer today, some personal and some not, but he had not been prepared to be asked if he loved Frances Alexandra. As a young man he had spent so much time doting on her but had been so crushed when she told him that she cheated on him that he let her to rot alone. He had been hurt and lied to but not in the way he perceived, although he had a feeling a paternity test might be requested by Kalani who was busy putting infuriating words into his mouth while plants endangered him. "I don't see why you are so livid with me. I am also a victim of Frances' lies," he stated trying to keep his head but when Kalani said that he never wanted them that was when he let out the anger that had been festering away for nineteen years. "I loved your mother dearly," Sebastien began, knowing that those affections had not been properly put to rest but not wanting to say this, "but she insisted that she cheated on me. She told me that she didn't want me. I would have stayed with her if I had known you were really my daughters but she told me that it couldn't have been ours together and what kind of person decides to tear out another person's heart with such a lie so I believed her!" The man stood up and walked towards Kalani, snapping one of the vicious looking vines in his hands before he said with a heated glare, "You and your mother are too alike for your own good." The chef knew that it might seem like he hated Frances but the truth was that he was heart broken that she had not allowed him to be around their children for all this time for whatever reason but now he was beginning to suspect that it was because she thought he would be an unfit father or perhaps she had cheated on him and truly thought the babies were not his and didn't bother correcting herself after their daughters were born with features that were unmistakably his own, although they looked most like their mother.

Sebastien turned away from Kalani and sat back down on the floor in front of the wood and taking the instructions as he read them to calm himself down but slowly realized that he should not have said the things he had because whatever Frances had done to hurt him, she still deserved to have the respect of her daughters and that probably meant talking calmly to them on her own terms instead of practically spitting it out in fury but the man had to admit that it felt good to get these emotions out because when he was younger he had suppressed everything by studying and abandoning his feelings into his cooking which was what he was doing now as he picked up two pieces of wood and carefully placed them together on the floor before searching for the nail because as much as he had wanted to spend time with Riley he needed to get out of here as quickly as possible because his anger was all-encompassing. He was angry that Frannie lied to him, angry that he missed out on his children's lives, angry that they hated him, angry that he worked for the man who held Frances' affections but he didn't have anyone who would care to hear about it so he just worked on the crib and hoped that Riley wouldn't get too upset about this encounter because he had read that babies were affected by that sort of thing.​

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[Riley Mauven]

Riley had not been immediately aware of her sister's presence in the living room until the plants began to curl around herself and her father, and lash out in anger, mimicking Lani's own feelings. It was something that Riley had seen only a few times, but she knew just how severe her sister's feelings were when the plants took such a form. Quickly turning her head Riley was made aware that her twin sister had heard the question she had left hanging in the air for Sebastien to answer, but instead it seemed that Kalani had pounced on it. Tensions had been high in the New York apartment ever since her room mates had gotten the scent of the nineteen year old's pregnancy. Jenn and Amy had been mad at her, sure, but the strongest of feelings had been harboured by Kalani. She believed Riley had dishonoured everything that their mother had worked for and sacrificed to allow them to grow up so successfully, and it was completely true. Becoming a teenage mother was not something that Riley wished to make an Alexandra family tradition, in fact it was the last thing she wanted. She had still not made amends with her mother, she hadn't known how to. Kalani spat her words towards Sebastien as Riley raised her eyebrows in shock, how was it that she could say such hurtful things to the man who had taken Riley in during her pregnancy, who had loved her despite the distance between them for the past nineteen years? Lani was wrong, Riley wanted Sebastien more than anyone at that moment, and as she felt tears prick at her eyes once more she stood up and faced her sister, but turned her head to her father. "She's wrong, I want you here, I need you here." she stressed, shaking her head at the situation as she protectively held her hands across her swollen belly. Since last night the nineteen year old had been feeling discomfort in her stomach, a feeling she could not place, at first she had guessed she was going into labour, but in truth she didn't know what was going on inside of her body, all that she knew was her intuition was telling her something was wrong. Moving her fingers and her palms along the cotton of her shirt she tried to calm the feeling inside of her, hoping that such an outburst on her sister's behalf wasn't what was upsetting the baby.

After defending her father, though, came the response she had never expected. Of course as a child she had naturally imagined the true reasons her father had not ever lived with her mother or spoken to them or sent cards on their birthday and Christmas, but the twins had always innocently believed their mother as they grew older, their father (who had remained nameless) hadn't wanted them. He had been a teenager, young and not wanting to be tied down, it was only a natural reaction to a pregnant girlfriend. But this, this secret, this lie was something that never should have come out in this way. Immediately Riley knew that Frances would be upset, distraught even. She had only just given birth to another man's child, and here the twins' father was saying he had loved her. Who could know if the feelings he held inside still existed. Sebastien was notably upset, but he tried to hide it as he took a seat and mumbled over the pieces of the wooden crib on the living room floor. Did Kalani believe him? She had been so loyal to their mother all these years, it wouldn't be a surprise if she didn't believe the stranger that had just accused her of being a horrible person. "Lani," Riley began, her eyes and expression softening, they were sisters, this was a secret they had tried to uncover for years together, Lord knows they needed each other now more than ever. But before Riley had the chance to extend her arms to attempt a well overdue hug with her twin sister she felt a wet patch between her legs. Her cheeks flushed and the grip on her stomach tightened. A look of desperation was shot in the direction of anyone that would take it, before she mumbled the words she had been dreading for months now, "I think the baby is coming," she began, looking over at Sebastien, "now" Taking a seat on the couch the young woman's breathing hitched, her water had broken and there was no going back now, her baby was on the way. Even now she wished for her mother to turn up, to hold her hand and kiss her on the forehead but instead she turned to her new found father, "What do I do?" she asked desperately, hoping he had more experience than this sort of thing than she did. ​

 

[Kalani Mauven]

As Sebastien spat something that he would regret saying in hindsight, Kalani was brought back to her childhood when she was to preform as Clara in The Nutcracker Ballet which was even before she was in demi-pointe but it had still been a big deal for her. She remembered expecting to see her father sitting in the crowd beside Riley and her Mom but she had learnt that waiting around for this father of hers was as pointless as sitting up all night to hear some hint of Santa Claus. Reality had hit her at a young age and she understood that she was abandoned by this man so the tie she had formed with her mother was not to be severed with whatever words this man said and however upset he felt. Kalani Ingrid did not believe him and she certainly did not believe his tall tales about her poor Mom but she had expected Riley too. Her twin was far too forgiving, far too easily manipulated so just as she was about to wrap her arms around her round sister's belly protectively something else happened. Before Kalani could quite understand what was happening Riley was telling her that her niece or nephew was coming today. Quickly Kalani ushered her sister into a chair and said, "I'm going to get your bag and we'll go to St. Mungo's, okay?" The short haired blonde didn't give Riley a chance to answer before she was turning on her heals and telling Sebastien to, "Leave. You've done enough." It seemed almost as if Kalani blamed Sebastien for the pre-mature birth of Riley's child and she partly did because that shock must have done something to Riley's fragile body but she didn't realize what sort of damage had been done.

Kalani grabbed a suitcase that she knew Riley had prepared for her visit to the hospital complete with a change of comfortable clothes and her baby blanket that Riley had been carried home in. She also grabbed a her sister's pillow off of her bed and dashed back into the living room only to see that Sebastien was still in the room and only this time he was trying to console Riley which she growled at. "Are you ready, Riles?" She asked as she gripped her sister's hand tightly wishing that she wasn't the one who had to apparate them because apparation was dangerous enough as it is just for Kalani but side along with a woman going into labour was simply frightening but she tried to look as calm and collected as possible because she knew Riley must be scared enough as it is but when they got to the hospital Kalani would get their Mom, Tamas and Will and everything would be on it's way. She only hoped that for the first few nights Edgar would be fine with Kalani staying at his place because there was no way she was going to stay asleep with a wailing babe in the room next to hers and as much as she cared about her sister she also felt that this child was her own responsibility and she would not help out with midnight feedings or changings.​