Anyone who has spent time around a television set has seen the show where the little boy gets left home all by himself when his family left to go to Paris for Christmas and forget him in the attic. What most people remember is the look on the little boy's face, his wide brown eyes, the way his mouth dropped open in complete shock, and then the eventual scream that he let loose when he thought that his prayers not to have a family had been answered. Well, that was the look on Marc Caffey's face when Anya had pushed open the door to her lawyer's office, and she half expected him to raise his hands to his cheeks and scream just as the little boy had done, but instead, he he took a step towards her and raised a hand to try to touch her arm.
She shrank away and took a step to her right. "You have got to be fucking with me." She shook her head, tears had filled her eyes, accusations sparking in the green depths as she looked from the man she had started to fall hard for, and the incubus that was watching her reaction solemn-faced.
"Anya, let me explain." Marc's deep voice echoed his worry and she shook her head at him when he tried to touch her again.
"You were put on the plane to-to meet me." Her voice broke as she spoke, and she ignored the tear that slowly made its way down her cheek.
"Anya." That was Mr. Bricker, he was now moving around the desk to approach her.
"No, no, I want the truth. Did you get seated by me on purpose? Were you there to meet me?" Anya held up a staying hand at her lawyer.
"Anya," Marc tried again, she was angry, miserably so, and he sighed, "Yes, I was sitting by you on purpose."
"Why?"
"Does it matter, Anya? The two of you are getting along fine, what does it matter how you met?" Ned asked gently, she was shaking and she coughed out an irritated noise.
"Does it matter? Are you kidding me? Why did you-I had sex-are you spying on me? Why, Marc? Why did you put yourself in my life?" Anya knew her voice was raising as she swept her hands out around her, her questions directed at the man she'd fed a cannoli to just a few hours ago. God damn them all, how could they do this to her?
"Anya, Mr. Hughes felt that you might need-."
"Mr. Hughes felt. Well, thank GOD for fucking Mr. Hughes and his feelings! Who said I wanted any help from any of you when I left Vorhees? I didn't go there to change my entire life. I didn't go there to lose so much weight I struggle to gain any, I didn't go there to have my future decided for me, I went there to get fucked, properly fucked, do you remember that, Mr. Bricker? Do you remember ANYthing that I said?" She had turned to the incubus and wasn't surprised when his skin turned a little deeper pink.
"You said you were lonely." He said darkly, concentrating on his breathing, she was making him heated and it was causing his non-human form to want to come out.
"I didn't say I wanted to have a bunch of men decide who I dated, who I fell for, and who I made love to. Mr. Hughes had no right to try to instigate a relationship between me and ANYONE." Her tears were still falling and she felt Marc move close and he wrapped her in his arms.
"Anya, the way I feel for you is real, this isn't a job for me. I want to be with you."
"The fact that you have to say that makes this whole thing sleezy, Marc. No, no, I can't do this. He can't decide my life this way." She pushed at his chest and looked up at his face as he took a step back, he was frowning, sad, desperate for her not to push him too far away.
"Anya, I was only to approach you and see what happened, I wasn't asked to do anything else. Shi is my cousin, and her boss knew I lived in this area. He suggested that we meet, he said that you might be the type of person that I was attracted to. That was it. I wasn't told to do anything. He just thought a spontaneous meeting would be best for you." Marc tried to explain, her eyes had dropped to the desk, she couldn't look at any of them right now, her breasts were rising fast as she breathed, her mouth slightly open as she tried to figure this out for herself.
"Did he suggest that you tie me up when you fucked me?" Her question surprised him and he looked from her to the lawyer and then back at her face before he answered.
"He said that you liked to be bound a little, yes, but-." Marc stopped talking when she sat down on the chair that faced the lawyer's desk.
"And you're here to what? What was your meeting with Mr. Bricker about?"
"Anya." Ned frowned at her.
"I want the truth, damn it. I deserve that much."
"I meet with Mr. Bricker every week, to let him know how you're doing."
"At the suggestion of Mr. Hughes." She sighed, staring at her knees.
"Anya." Marc nodded, knowing she didn't see it, but she had already known the answer. She hadn't asked a question.
"I want you to leave. I don't want to see you again." Her words were whisper soft and she was shaking hard, her hands fisted in her lap and she looked defeated.
"Anya," Marc took a step towards her, "Anya, no. I love you."
Anya bit her lip and closed her eyes at his words, damn damn damn you, Mr. Hughes. Looking up at him with watery eyes she shook her head, "If you loved me, you should have told me that very first day, in Central Square, you should have told me that we didn't meet by accident. You should have given me a choice."
"Anya, you have every right to be upset. But please, I don't want to lose you."
"I'm sort of feeling like you never actually had me right now, Marc. I need you to go." Anya was growing frustrated, she was tired of being toyed with, she needed time, space, she needed to figure out what she wanted, and falling head first into a relationship with this man had backfired spectacularly.
"Anya-." Marc was going to move over to her chair when he saw the lawyer stand straighter, his chin moving side to side slowly, letting him know that when it came down to it, the lawyer would side with the woman.
"Goodbye, Marc."
"Anya, please, this can't be goodbye. I'll go," The lawyer had snarled, "I'll go, but please, call me. Don't leave."
Anya looked back down at her lap and shivered as she felt him finally walk through the door and close it behind him. She closed her eyes, concentrated on her breathing, tried to calm the sobs that had torn from her throat the past few minutes.
"That was cruel, Anya. He is sincere. He comes here because he knows that I will just come to him if he doesn't. He does not like to inform on your condition." Ned sat down on the chair beside hers and leaned forward to force her chair to face him.
"I am not some doll that you all can play with like this. I can't BE that person for you, or Mr. Hughes. I won't be set up, I won't be in a relationship like this. I have a right to choose." Anya looked at her lawyer, her eyes pleading with him to understand.
"You're really going to end things with him, then? You're going to walk away from a good man, a human, by the way, despite how he made you feel?" Ned shook his head at her, humans and their free will was never something he would understand.
"I will not let him decide my life." She said simply as she stood up and moved herself into his lap, comforted by the heat of his body as he wrapped her tightly into his arms and sat back, her head tucked up under his chin.
"Arc?"
"I didn't want to leave him, Mr. Bricker. He made me. He made me leave." Her sobs broke through her resolve to stop crying and she pushed her face into his shoulder.
"Are we talking about Marc, or the angel?"
"We are talking about that tattooed asshole that told me to forget him and made me get on a plane." She shifted slightly to raise her eyes to his.
"So you're punishing him, as well as Marc, for trying to tell you what to do?" Ned stood up and put her back down in her chair.
"No, that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to find my own way, Mr. Bricker. I want to decide who I love. I don't want it handed to me on a soccer playing, hot, muscled plate." She frowned as he rounded his desk.
"You are very difficult, Anya."
"Mr. Bricker, did someone tell your wife to date you? Was she told to get close, see what happens, and then report back on whatever you tell her?" Anya wanted him to understand.
Ned frowned, shaking his head, "Brigitte and I have been together for an incredibly long time, Anya. No one would have expected the two of us to even find each other, let alone marry."
