An act of desperation (Plum)

[Deleted]

They had spoken a few months ago. And he was only coming to her now? Only now were they having this conversation. Plum didn’t understand. “Why didn’t you approach me before now? Why did you wait?” It seemed a strange to wait such a long time. It had been months. That was such a long time to wait.

Plum had to take a metaphorical step back away from this because in her own mind it sounded like a judgment and that was absolutely not acceptable. Whatever his reasons were, he had waited the months to find her and speak to her and that was just fine. He had come to seek out her help now and she was going to help him if she could.

“The portal?” Plum asked. That was also an odd question. She didn’t know much about portals to be honest. It hadn’t really come up in her training. Her private tutors hadn’t ever really said anything about portals and what she knew was really only from personal experience. Portals had never really crossed her mind as something to study. “Well a portal uses a kind of transportation spell and there must be some kind of other magic or spell to locate where a person needs to go. I don’t know much about the portal here, I’m afraid. Why do you ask?”

[Dimitri]

Contemplating her question a moment, Dimitri gave her the easiest answer he could offer. “Pride?” he shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve never been one to ask for help on anything if I can avoid it.” It was true enough, and more than that it went against his male pride. Asking help from a woman, magic or no, somehow made it even worse.

Getting right down to the meat of the problem, he felt his hopes sink when she sounded so taken aback by his question. Maybe this was just a bad idea all around; Door had been drunk when she’s suggested it, after all, and maybe he should have just left it at that. The problem was that the longer it took, the longer his Anya was away, the worse everything seemed to feel. What if she gave up on him? What if he took too damn long to get back to her? What if something happened to her when he wasn’t there to protect her? What if, what if, what if?

Then, of course, there were the problems here, like the girl who was essentially Anya but who barely knew him, who didn’t share all the history with him, yet who he couldn’t help but be drawn to. The girl who, the more he got to know her the easier she was to distinguish from his Anya, the more he realised how different they were... yet the more he seemed to like her.

The girl he was currently avoiding like the plague.

But no, there was hope yet.

“I’m trying to get home, but there seems to be a problem, so I was hoping maybe you knew how to help me get there?” Dimitri finally asked, finally throwing it all out there. “Maybe we don’t even have to use the portal, just one of those transportation spell things?”

[Deleted]

Plum could understand pride and not wanting to ask for help. It was something that she herself couldn’t bring herself to do very often. Though her problem wasn’t one of pride. She just couldn’t bring herself to admit that she needed help because for someone in her position that could be misconstrued as weakness or vulnerability. She had a reputation to uphold and appearing weak or vulnerable was not part of that reputation. Perhaps there was also a bit of pride thrown in there as well, though she wouldn’t admit to it.

She nodded, but didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much she could say but admit to her own shortcomings and she didn’t particularly care to do that. She also didn’t want to wound his pride. It must have taken a lot to even speak to her, never mind asking for her help. Nothing seemed to better option.

She listened intently as Dimitri explained the situation further. He was having trouble getting home? That sounded very odd and if he was using the portal then something must have happened to it. Or perhaps something else was going on. “Do you know if this is happening to anyone else?” she questioned. “I can get you home. That’s not a problem. But if the portal won’t let you through and it’s happening to other people then it might just be a maintenance issue. If it’s only you then it must be something else. I’ll look into the issue of the portal.” Her mind was turning with the different possibilities and the kinds of research she would have to do. “I can get you home any time. As long as you wish it, I can grant that wish. I don’t even have to be with you. If you make a wish I’ll know.”

[Dimitri]

When Plum asked her question, Dimitri opened his mouth to reply, but already she was elaborating, and as she did none of it seemed to matter. She could get him home. It wasn’t a problem, she could get him home. Any time he wanted, she could get him home. All he had to do was wish it and she could get him home.

It sounded too good to be true. That was it? The portal was broken but it didn’t matter because she had magic and could just send him home if he wished it so. Simple as that.

Suddenly, Dimitri was laughing. He couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stop. He laughed loudly and he laughed hard. Leaning back in his chair he held his sides and felt tears prick his eyes as he continued to laugh. All these months, all this time wasted worrying, brooding, driving himself crazy; he’d avoided friends, avoided everything... hell, he’d even gotten evicted from his flat and all he’d had to do to fix it all was make a wish!

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” he blurted out, still laughing. “Screw the portal. If I don’t need it, screw it.” He tried to calm down, tried to look sincere, but he felt so relieved and so stupid and so... scared. “Send me home. I wish for you to send me home.”

[Deleted]

Plum was still thinking about the many possibilities that could have caused the portal to close against a person. She didn’t really know anything about portals, having never needed one herself, but there had to be some logical reason behind it. Magic usually worked logically, even though it tended to defy logic and reason. But there was logic in there somewhere, though sometimes it was twisted logic. But it was logic all the same.

Plum was brought out of her thoughts by Dimtri’s laughter, however and for a moment she was confused. She didn’t see the humor in the situation. In fact, she hadn’t said anything funny at all. She wasn’t usually witty and she wasn’t one for telling jokes. In fact, she was almost sure she didn’t know any jokes. So she really didn’t understand why Dimitri was laughing like this was the funniest joke in the world.

She was taken aback by the sudden turn of attitude though. It seemed rather odd really. Again, it was something she really didn’t understand. But a wish was a wish, nonetheless and she pulled out her wand. “Of course,” was her diplomatic response, because who was she to question him? And then she waved her wand, granting his wish.

[Dimitri]

She had a wand. She had an actual, honest to goodness magic wand! If he hadn’t already laughed himself silly, if he wasn’t completely terrified of what the outcome of this would be, Dimitri probably would have burst out laughing again. If someone would have told him five years ago that sometime in his future he would be making a wish to a fairy with a magic wand and actually expecting it to come true he would have thought them an idiot. Now, after everything he had seen, after everything that had happened in the past few years, he actually believed. He believed in magic and fairies and traveling between time and space, and while he didn’t know how to feel about that, it didn’t make it any less true.

Unconsciously he squeezed his eyes closed when Plum waved her wand at him and he waited. He expected to feel something, some tingle or a whoosh of air. He expected the warmth of the fire to fade along with the smell of apple pie and hot cocoa. He’d had no time to prepare except to hold his breath and close his eyes, neither of which he actually chose to do, but perhaps it was the possibility of it not working he really should have prepared for.

After a moment of nothing, of hearing nothing and feeling nothing, Dimitri cracked open one eye to look around before falling upon Plum, who still sat directly across from him looking rather confused. “Um... any time you’re ready. I don’t need to pack or anything, I’m good to go.”

[Deleted]

Granting wishes was something that Plum had been doing since she could hold a wand. It made her feel wonderful to grant someone’s wishes, to make them happy. She loved to help people and to take care of them. To grant wishes was her life. It was in her blood, quite literally. This is what she did for a living and it was so rewarding.

Dimtri seemed to want this badly enough and Plum was more than willing to help him out in any way she could. She owed it to him, for one and if he really wanted to get home so badly then so be it. And she could feel her magic pulsing in her veins at the words. More specifically at the wish. And as soon as she pulled out her wand and waved it, she felt the magic begin to work.

And that’s where the problem started. Because the magic was working. If one could see the magic it would have surrounded Dimitri and then sent him on his way. For some reason the magic surrounded Dimtri, but instead of sending him anywhere the wish became null and void. It made her pause for a moment because it wasn’t something that happened often. In fact, it was very rare that something like this even happened.

She looked at Dimtri with a mix of confusion and deep thinking. She opened her mouth for a moment to speak, but then she shut it again trying to come up with the right phrasing. “You see, that’s the problem. I granted the wish, but it seems that it has become null and void. What exactly did you mean by home? Were you thinking of a place, a person, a pet perhaps? And I’m not asking to be invasive. I’m just trying to figure out why it didn’t work.”

[Dimitri]

Dimitri opened both his eyes now, a look of confusion settling on his own face. She’d granted the wish. She’d granted the wish and unleashed the magic and... nothing. He felt his stomach drop.

“Home. You know, my time... where I came here from,” he said. But that hadn’t been all he had been thinking, had it? It had been what he had meant, but how could he think of that place without thinking of her? Would she be waiting for him? Ecstatic to see him? Had she been trying all this time, just as hard, to get back to him? Of course he would stay there with her, for what did he really have here to return to? What did she have? It would be nice to come back and say goodbye to a few people, but there was no way he would let her out of his sight again, so she would have to come with him.

This thought had caused his mind to wander, even as the magic swirled around him. If he brought his Anya back here, what would happen to the new one? Could the both exist here at the same time? It seemed unlikely, as she hadn’t shown up until his had been away, and he had never heard of this happening before... so what, then? If he brought his Anya here would this current one just poof back to her own home? Or... what if she ceased to exist all together? It was a distressing thought, far more distressing than it should have been considering how happy the rest of the scenario was.

Of course he hadn’t had time to dwell on any of these thoughts, as they’d run through his head in mere seconds, and now here he was, still sitting in this cursed place, trying to figure out what went wrong.

“I want to get back to Anya, my Anya, so that means Paris, 1920s,” he said, sounding unsure. Or was it the 1930s now? He had been here so long he didn’t even know. Did time even move linearly? “My time, with her. Wherever she is, that’s home.”

Two years ago he would have believed it, even a year ago. Even now he believed it, but so much had happened, so much time had passed, and so many doubts had sprung up. Try as he might, none of this could truly be ignored.

[Deleted]

Home often meant very different things to very different people. To some, home was a place. It was the place where they felt most secure. For others it was a time. But for many, home was a person. The one person they truly loved was home because they couldn’t imagine being anywhere without them. And to Plum, it sounded like Dimitri’s home was this Anya.

She nodded, taking in the rather possessive attitude curiously. He had differentiated his Anya from any other Anya and she was sure there was a reason for that. It wasn’t often that someone was so specific without a reason behind it.

Plum chose her words carefully because she was still trying to work out what had happened and he sounded so unsure. “You were trying to get back to your Anya. Okay. What exactly were you thinking about when you made the wish? Were you thinking about her and only her?”

[Dimitri]

What exactly had he been thinking? There was a question if he’d ever heard one. How could he even begin to describe it? Did he even know?

“I was... I don’t know,” Dimitri admitted, heaving a frustrated sigh. “I can barely keep my head on straight on the best of days, and I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to think of only one thing at a time.”

Resting his elbows on his knees, he ran his hands back through his hair. Why couldn’t anything ever go right for him? He had been to happy. Sure, life with Anya had been difficult with her short temper, the men constantly falling for her, and the crazies trying to kill her, but Dimitri had loved her and he had been happy. Of course the universe had sensed a disturbance and destroyed everything, repairing the status quo. Surely the whole world would collapse if he was allowed to be happy for any length of time.

“Why does it matter what I’m thinking? I told you what I wanted, isn’t that enough?” He didn’t mean to sound short tempered or ungrateful, but this whole situation was doing his head in and it only seemed to get more complicated on a daily basis. Something had to give, and soon.

[Deleted]

Plum knew that it was a difficult question. To know what one was thinking about at a specific time was difficult. Often there were many thoughts at the time and trying pinpoint any one of them would be difficult. She could understand his frustration. But she would think that if he was so deliriously happy to get back to his Anya his thoughts would have been only about her. But still, Plum was patient. He had said that his head was screwed on straight at the moment, which she completely understood. “Do you know what direction in which your thoughts were going?” she asked instead, trying to be gentle.

He seemed frazzled really with just a hint of something else. Despair perhaps. She wanted to help him, she really did, but there was only so much she could do. She only had some much control over her own magic. It was a wild thing and quite often had a mind of its own.

“Magic doesn’t always work that way,” she explained calmly. “It needs to be guided. What you were thinking matters.” She paused for moment to let what she was saying sink in. Gathering her things, she stood. “Perhaps I should let you alone with your thoughts for a while. Take your time and when you’re ready we can discuss this again.”

[Dimitri]

Of course it didn’t work that way, how could he have possibly expected something to work out right for him for once? The magic didn’t care what he wished for, it had to go and be all telepathic on him. Great. That was just... great.

Did he know what direction his thoughts were going? No, and he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to think. He was tired of thinking and waiting and wallowing, now he just wanted to do and to act and to finally accomplish something. Only now what he was beginning to believe was his only hope was gathering her things and preparing to leave.

“Wait!” Dimitri jumped quickly to his feet. “Let’s just try it again, okay? I’ll really concentrate this time, really pay attention to what I’m thinking about. Alright?” He’d rounded the table right now and laid a hand on Plum’s elbow, gesturing back to her chair with the other.

[Deleted]

Plum waited when she was asked. It was the polite thing to do after all. Plus Dimitri sounded a bit desperate. And then he was trying to amend the situation. And he really was desperate, making such promises that he might not be able to keep. And though he gestured for her to sit she remained standing.

“You made your wish once. Most people don’t get a second chance.” She paused. One thing she had always stressed was that one had to be careful when it came to wishes. “Neither of us can explain why your wish went wrong the first time. There’s no guarantee it will work the second time around either.”

She didn’t want to refuse Dimtri his wish. She wanted to help him, but she couldn’t grant a second wish in such close proximity to the first. Plum sighed. “I want to help you Dimitri, but I take my magic very seriously. You have can’t be too careful when you make a wish. I can’t imagine why your wish didn’t work, but the fact is that it didn’t and I can’t help you unless you help me in return.” She felt for Dimitri and sympathized with him, but there was only so much that she could do.

[Dimitri]

Dimitri didn’t understand it. She had wanted to help him, she had said she would do anything to make up for the pain she had caused him, yet the second things got difficult, the second something didn’t work the way she had expected, suddenly there were no second chances. She was trying to find an excuse, a way out; Dimitri could see right through her. There was always a second chance, his entire life was built on them.

“But there’s no guarantee that it won’t either,” he countered quickly. He was sounding desperate now, even a little frantic, but he didn’t care. If this didn’t pan out and Gwen didn’t pull through then he was going to have to do something... drastic.

Of course Plum couldn’t know that, she didn’t know anything about the entire situation, but he still couldn’t help but feel that she was being unreasonable and overly cautious. People used magic here all the time! What was the big deal?

“How?” he queried. If this was going to turn into a I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine sort of thing then he was fully prepared to play the guilty You killed me! card. “What do you want me to do?”

[Deleted]

Plum was tired. She just felt so emotionally drained. And the worst part was that she could see that Dimitri didn’t understand her intent. She was usually better at this. She was a politician by trade. She was usually so much better at this. She just wasn’t herself today. Everything was not going to plan.

Dimitri was certainly determined, but at the moment it seemed like he was only determined to get his way regardless of her feelings. Dimitri was feeling desperate and Plum was beginning to feel like she was going to cry. She took a deep breath. “I still don’t like those odds.”

She had to keep her arms pinned to her sides to keep herself from reaching out and touching him comfortingly. She didn’t want to be reminded that she had taken his life once. Instead, Plum straightened her spine and looked Dimitri in the eye. There was no more beating around bushes. She wouldn’t do it. “Tell me what you were thinking when you made the wish. It’s important. Something that might have crossed your mind, however briefly, when you made the wish. Give me something to work with. I have been granting wishes since before I could speak. I know what I’m doing. You have to trust me.”