Have You Seen Him? (Vincent)

Bridgett was looking for her brother. She wanted to talk to him about moving her bed this weekend to his house. She knew that it would be hard for him, but it was hard for her too. While he was here at work or with that girlfriend of his she was at home dealing with her mum crying...or snapping at her. She loved her mum very much, she just felt that she needed to spend more time with Lucas. She didn't want to hurt her mother...but...but Bri had no father to speak of and she really relied on her older brother for that kind of bonding. He was thirty after all, the ideal father age.

Walking through the ministry with her backpack weighing somewhat heavily against her shoulder she continued through the Ministry. She knew that Vincent Bauer was one of her brother's friends...so she was sure that he would know where to find him. And if not...she could at least get a free lunch out of it. Vincent always treated her to lunch if she met him during his break. He was very nice and she also thought he was very cute. She would never tell her brother that...Luke would take great pleasure in never letting her live something like that down.

Adjusting her backpack once more she continued through the auror's office in hopes of finding either her brother or Vincent. But something told her that she would find Vincent first. He was usually always around the Ministry, with his wife being pregnant now he tended to shy away from the real dangerous cases. Going down the hall she stopped as she reached his office and knocked.

"Vincent?" she called, softly. "It's Bridgett...are you there? Can I come in? I need your help."

Bridgett

Vincent was running ragged today. He was so behind on some of the files he needed to get done, three cases to write reports on, and then he had an appointment with Candy to see how Grace was developing. He'd been on the run since he'd arrived in the office, and didn't see any end in sight.

At the moment, he was in the Records Department of the Ministry, waiting for the files he needed to do his reports, and if they didn't hurry up, he was giong to go back there and get them himself, and rules be damned. He'd been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, and he'd had to explain the list to the woman three times before she'd been able to go off to attempt to get them for him.

He drummed his finger impatiently on the counter, about ready to ring the blasted bell again if she didn't appear soon. He decided he'd give her five more minutes, then he was not going to be held responsible for what he said to her. She finally came sauntering up to the corridor behind the counter, munching on a cruller, just as she'd been doing when he'd arrived in the office in the first place.

She told him that she'd had the most difficult time locating one of the files, but then she'd found it almost right under her nose. Listening to her braying horse laughter, Vincent found himself wondering how someone so incommpetent could have ever managed to aquire a position in the Ministry of Magic. He smiled grimmly as she handed over the files, all of which were sticky from the cruller; she'd smothered it with jam.

He rushed back to the lifts, and punched the button to his floor, sighing internally when it, of course, stopped on every floor. He finally got to the Auror's office and stopped to speak with one of the Aurors that had been on the last case with him and told her that he needed her deposition before lunch or he'd never get his work finished. He finally reached his office and had just sat down when he heard a knock on his door. He looked up, frustrated and ready to snap, until he saw who it was.

"Oh, wow!" he said, his eyes lighting up when he saw Lucas's sister. "Come on in!"

Vincent

Bridget smiled as Vincent invited her in and going into his office she sat down in the spinning chair behind his desk. She usually took Lucas's seat as well when she was in his office, so it was only out of sheer habit that she did the same thing to Vincent. He was so cool and Bri had the hugest crush on him...well not the hugest...he couldn't hold a candle to Lucivar...no one could hold a candle to her Lucivar. She knew that Lucas and Vincent didn't like Luci, so she rarely spoke of him while they were around. Although her thoughts were on him constantly. She loved him...and she knew that he loved her as well. He just chose to show his love in a different way then what other people were used to.

Taking out her sketch pad she smiled and thumbed through a couple of pictures she had drawn. She knew she had one of Vincent in here somewhere. Bridget drew everything and everybody. She couldn't help it. She was so in love with paper and the pencil that words would never properly describe it. She had worked very hard on this picture as well and she had to work her mind into exhaustion to remember every detail that pertained to her uncle...but she was pretty sure she had nailed it.

"I drew a picture of you Vincent!" she smiled. "I worked very hard on it, and I drew one of Lucas too, but that's a surprise..."

Turning to the page that had Vincent's picture she smiled and turned it around so that he could see it. She hoped he liked it....Bridget always felt so hopeless when people hated her artwork. She put her heart and soul into every picture...if someone told her it sucked it was like stomping on her very being.

Vincent Drawning

Vincent was stunned when he saw the portrait that Bridget had drawn of him. It was amazing! He knew that she was talented, but this was far and beyond that. It was almost as if she'd made a twin of him, he could swear that the image of himself would be able to jump of the page and start talking to him. Of course if that happened, he would be scared shitless, but it was just so life like to him.

"Oh, Bri, that is wonderful! You are very talented." He smiled at the young girl warmly. He'd seen her artwork before, but never when it was of him. He thought Candy would be even more impressed and want to hang the drawing up in their new home. She might even ask her to do a portrait of the two of them together.

That was an idea! Vincent had been wanting to get Candy something, and he'd recently found a set of pictures that he'd thought were lost to them forever after the fire had taken their first home from them. They had been in the back of his desk drawer, along with the negatives of all the pictures that had been taken at their wedding. He had no idea what they'd been doing there, but he'd been thrilled to find them. They, and now Bridget's arrival in his office, had been the only bright spots to his day.

"I have a question for you. Well two actually. One, would you be interested in doing a portrait of me and Candy? And two, are you looking for Lucas?"

Bridget smiled when Vincent said he loved her picture. She always loved getting a reaction from people. She hoped that maybe one day she would get such a reaction from Lucivar, but she was sure that would never happen. She loved him with all of her heart, but she knew that he didn't really like her pictures. He only said nice things about them when he thought he hurt her feelings...and even the nice things weren't all that nice. But she supposed she should thank him...because now when people said they didn't really like her pictures all that much she wasn't so offended. Lucivar made her so much stronger and she loved him day in and out for that.

"I could draw a couple's portrait of you and Candy...do you have a picture of her I can have?"

Bridget typically didn't need to look at a person while she drew them. Their faces would stick in her memory. She was great with names, just because she drew so many different people. It was something she just had a talent for...but there were times when she felt a bit overwhelmed by the faces of those that were still stuck in her head. When that happened, and she needed to clear her mind, she would think of Lucivar and just like that her mind went blank. Then she would draw a picture of him and everything would just fall right back into place. He was her muse...her love...her obsession. But she would never let anyone else know that...she knew that Luci wouldn't appreciate it and Bridget did not want to get her beloved angry.

"And yeah..." she nodded. "I wanted to have lunch with him and ask him when he was going to help me move my bed to his house...I'm moving in with him!"

Bridget was so excited to live with her older brother! She loved her mother...but she yearned for that fatherly presence...and she could only get that from her older brother Lucas.

Vincent smiled. He couldn't imagine Lucas living with his little sister. It just seemed so domestic for him. Not that it was a bad thing at all, but Lucas, having a girl in his house? One that wasn't his girlfriend? That was going to put a small kink in his love life.

"Sounds like you are really looking forward to it," he said with a grin. "Hope he's given you a decent room, and not some pigsty."

He stood up and moved over to where there was a picture of Candy hanging on the wall where he would be able to see it at all times. It was his favorite, and he was so glad that it had been here in his office, and not destroyed in the fire along with almost all their other pictures. He took it down and brought it back to Bri.

"Be careful with this, it's my favorite. And since Candy gave it to me right after we were married, it's also one of the oldest pictures I have of her. The edges are a little frayed, but I don't have the negative to get it reprinted."

He handed it to her and returned to his seat, looking over the stack of files that were waiting for him to finish them. Suddenly he didn't want to get them done anymore. He just wanted to sit here and talk to Bri.

"So, what's going on in your life? Other than moving in with Luke?" he asked with a grin.

Bridget took the picture and gently put it in her book bag. It would be safe in there and she could begin drawing it as soon as she got back to Hogwarts. Just so long as it did not take her attention away from Luci for too long. He wasn't very welcoming to the idea of her focusing on something other than him. But sometimes when it came to her drawings she could not help it. When her pencil reached her sketchpad she could go for hours without moving again. Taking a seat in front of Vincent's desk she sighed. She supposed things were good with her, she didn't want to tell Vincent about Lucivar. Mostly because she knew that he was a lot like Lucas. He would probably tell her that Luci didn't love her, or that she needed to end it with him before she went and got herself hurt....but Bri loved Lucivar and she knew that deep down inside he loved her too.

Gently she reached around to the side of her neck. It was slightly bruised from when Luci had grabbed her last, but she just told people that it was a love bite and most of them seemed to buy it. She usually would hide it with her red hair and the only people that really knew what it was was Lucivar and his sister Helena. Gently kicking her feet against the bottom of her seat she shrugged.

"Nothing much I suppose," she said softly. "Just the same old, same old....I heard you and Healer Bauer are having a baby? Lucas brought it up last week when we went out to lunch...is it a girl? Do you know yet? Maybe I can draw Baby Bauer when she's born for you."

She was really hoping to change the subject...she was not in the mood to defend Lucivar. She did so everyday when people asked her about it regularly...she was not int he mood to do so when she was supposed to be around family friends.

Vincent smiled. Bridget seemed to be just as excited about his coming baby as he and Candy were. He nodded in response to whether they knew or not what the baby was going to be.

"She's a girl, and her name is Grace Valentine Bauer. You're more than welcome to draw her when she arrives, I'm sure that Candy would want a million pictures of her before she's a month old." He grinned and added, "I would as well." He stood and moved over to her side, hugging her gently before continuing to his filing cabinet and putting some of the files inside. He'd managed to get them done that morning, and was surprised that he'd managed that much. Especially when he thought that he'd had to deal with the incompetant woman with the pastries in the records office.

He turned back to his desk, grimmacing at the pile that still rested there. It needed to be done that day, or the next morning at the absolute latest, but he just couldn't concentrate now. He wanted to entertain Bri. So he turned his back on the pille and smiled at her.

"You want to come with me and see if we can find Lucas? I have work to do, but you're more interesting than that, and I haven't seen you in a while."

He tilted his head to one side and caught sight of something on her neck. His blue eyes narrowed. She had bruises there, and they looked like finger marks to him.

"Bri, what happened to your neck?"

Bridget froze as Vincent made a remark on her bruises. She couldn't tell him that it was Luci that had done them! If she did she was sure that he would tell Lucas! And if he went and told Lucas all hope would be lost for her older brother would try and KILL Lucivar! Or worse...they would make her choose. Moving her hair to hide the bruises better she cleared her throat.

"I don't know what you are talking about..." she whispered. "Those are....just.... marks...birthmarks."

Bridget knew that was a horrible lie, but that's what she got for even trying to lie in the first place. Bridget couldn't lie to save her life, a trait that Lucivar said would damn her one day...but she wasn't so sure it would damn her as much as it would him. And Bri could not live without her Luci.

"Can we just go and find my brother now?" she sighed. "I want to see Lucas now...."

(Abby seeing as this thread isn't extremely long yet...I think we should start transferring it over to the other MoE...I will start it and we'll just copy and paste)