Tea, cake, the whole shebang. (Private)

Carol listened to her IPOD as she walked down the hallway toward the lobby of the Domicile. Adjacent to it were the entrances to her office, and connected to that, her separate living quarters. She was rolling a 21 inch suitcase behind her lithe, dancer shaped legs. It rolled quietly down the steel hallway and she tried not to pay attention to the significance of it.

As she neared the lobby, she nodded to the lone receptionist behind the large minimalist steel desk. It had no drawers and nothing but a small computer monitor on its surface. With a nod she passed the the red head sitting behind the desk.

'Miss Hedley?'

Carol stopped and rolled her suitcase backwards.
'Ayup?'

The receptionist held up a large manilla envelope. 'This came for Miss Shalimar O'Mannon.'


Carol peered at it and then shrugged.
'It did? From whom?'

'The newly returned member, Marcalla.' The receptionist smiled. 'He's quite large.'

Taking the manilla folder in her hand, Carol looked it over and answered her without looking up.

'Yes. Aren't they all?'

With a sigh a memory niggled the back of her brain, trying to remind her of something. Something about Shay and Marc and some discussion over at the Abby. She remembered talking to Marc, seeing Shay again and getting absolutely fucked up beyond belief on whatever they were drinking. A job offer, maybe? That was probably it, she decided and handed it back.

'Make sure she gets it then.'

'Yes, Miss Hedley.'

Carol saluted the subordinate and then rolled her suitcase to her door, opened it and then entered.

Simon Huntington 15 years ago
It was the day after the incident in the conference room with Ellis. Simon entered the Domicile and ignored the cheery hello from the new receptionist behind the desk in the lobby. He ran his fingers through his hair and continued down the corridor to the elevators. Suddenly he stopped.

Who the hell was sitting behind the lobby desk?

Simon walked back into the lobby and stared at the redhead with the retro hair style and polka dot boat neck shirt.

'Hello Mr. Huntington.'

Simon blinked and walked closer to the desk.
'Hello...?'

'Kenley Merriweather.'


'Hello Kenley...Merriweather? Who are you?'

The redhead smiled as she stood. 'Miss Hedley's assistant.'


'I don't recall her mentioning a new assistant.'

'I was hired yesterday morning, Mr. Huntington.'

He pointed at Miss Merriweather and then toward Carol's office door.
'Is she in?'

'Yes, Mr. Huntington.'

'Uh...yeah. Ok. Carry on, Miss Merriweather.'

'Yes, Mr. Huntington.'

Simon gave the young redhead a final look before knocking on Carol's door and then letting himself in. The door leading into her quarters was opened and he could hear her moving around in the walk in closet that separated the two spaces. He had not talked to Carol, much less seen her, since their argument in the conference room and the realization of his bond with Ellis.

He walked to the opened door and stood in the door frame, looking into her closet and watching her...pack?


'Wait. Why are you packing?'
Carol 15 years ago
She hadn't heard him come in. It only made what she was doing that much easier but hurt even more. Simon was standing in the doorway from the walk in closet to her office and he wanted to know what she was doing.

Carol considered telling him she was spring cleaning, even though it was fall. Or maybe that she was donating her clothes to charity, but she didn't know why a homeless woman would want to wear see-thru mini shifts. In the end she went with the obvious.


'I'm not packing.' She looked down at the step ladder and the packed suitcases. 'I'm not.'
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
And she said it with a straight face.

Simon took several tentative steps into her walk-in and fingered one of the suitcases. He pulled at the handle and felt its weight. It was full.


'Are you leaving, Carol?' He tried to read her feelings but confusion, sadness and a little anger muddled his concentration. She was leaving and he didn't blame her. But he didn't want her to leave, not like this. Not at all.

'About the conference room....' He pointed up to his nose and then dropped his hand. 'Carol you can't do that, not in front of the clan. It's one thing to question me privately...and I tried to talk to you, but you put this wall up between us. I didn't have a choice.'
Carol 15 years ago
'I put a wall up?'

Carol stepped down from her ladder and moved the suitcase Simon was touching from in front of him. She stood looking up at him, all five foot five of her and six foot four of him.

'If there's a wall between us, Simon, it's because you put it there. What were you doing down in the sewers with her in the first place? What were you asking about the werewolves that you haven't already asked her? Why are you letting her come in between you and the clan?'

Simon stood there, his eyes dark and his body stiff. You could never tell what he was thinking, how he was feeling but she could. They had their bond and she always knew what bothered him, and more importantly, how to make him feel better. His emotions were a thousand colors on a white canvas to her - complex, vibrant, and all hers. Now?

He was nothing but a blank canvas. White, empty, and unknown.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
'I'm not,' he tried to say. She kept talking, asking all those questions he had been asking himself and was afraid to answer. Carol was angry and upset but he couldn't feel that from her. Not like before, not like Ellis.

Was Simon letting Ellis come in between him and the clan? Between him and Carol? What had they risked for their love? He killed his creator, took her empire and made her familiar his lover and why? Because Ellis wasn't worth the trouble she caused and had no intention of putting the clan first before her needs. No interest in solidifying the clan's place in the vampire nation. Ellis regarded the Council with disrespect and he did what he had to do.

Yet here he was, bonded with Ellis and losing his bond with Carol. He answered Carol with all the truthfulness he could muster.


'I...don't know.'
Carol 15 years ago
'And that's why I'm leaving, Simon.'

Carol turned and began to move suitcases around, just so she could hide her hands shaking and because she just couldn't look him in the eyes anymore. He was tainted and it broke her heart.


'I'm not leaving the clan, though. I'm just moving my things topside for now. I'm...tired of living half a fucking mile underground, in the dark. I have my apartment still and I'm going to do my work in Duibne, Kenley out there can handle the day to day workings and new member entries.'

She was doing a bang up job avoiding eye contact until he took hold of her arm gently and made her look at him.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
Simon's eyes drifted to above her head and they unfocused as she spoke. She was leaving him. Her staying in the clan was some sort of consolation. This was wrong, so very, very wrong.

'Carol please, don't do this.'

The words spilled out of his mouth and they were tainted with regret. She was making him choose between her and Ellis and was there a choice? Really a clear choice? His life with Carol had been so short, so fleeting.

'Please don't leave like this.'
Carol 15 years ago
Carol sighed, exasperated. 'Don't you understand, Simon? I can't compete with fifteen hundred years. I had you for what, two? Hell, babe, she had you human.'

Maybe that was Ellis' hold on him, Carol wondered. What she would give to have known Simon as human. To have known him without all the petty in-clan squabbling, dark nights and hail of gunfire. To have seen him in the daylight with his hair glistening in the warm sun. Instead she had him in the cold, dark depths of the Domicile or far and away from everyone at the house on Juniper Hill.


Now that house was off limits to them. It's security compromised by the recent werewolf events and their bed probably tainted by Ellis herself.


Carol closed her eyes just thinking of it. It made her stomach turn, the thought of Ellis in their bed. But was it ever really hers to begin with? Carol was beginning to accept that she was a temporary replacement, why couldn't Simon?

'Figure out what and who you need, Simon. Just hurry up because I can't wait fifteen hundred years.'

Carol grabbed the large pullman suitcase and quietly left Simon.

((OOC Carol out))