A flock of owls, post-dated to after the evil

[h_m_winter]

Comments

[chance_silvey]

Henry,

Are you really sure you want to do that? Marriage isn't all it's cracked up to be. Trust me on that one.

Chance

[h_m_winter]

Chance,

Believe me, I don't undertake this lightly. Camilla and I both know what we're doing.

-Henry

[chance_silvey]

Chance feels that she and Henry have reached a sufficiently close working relationship over their Nebulonian ordeals that she can speak frankly. When Chance speaks frankly, it's not always pretty.

Henry,

I thought I knew what I was doing when I got married too. In the end there isn't much to commend it except that if one of you has a job then the other one gets the health insurance coverage. That's not really the case at Hogwarts, though.

You didn't knock her up, did you?

Chance

[h_m_winter]

Henry raised a dry eyebrow. He knew Chance could be...blunt, but this was about as blunt as bluntness got.

Chance,

No, I haven't. Camilla and I have thought this over, though, and we believe the time is right. As both of us would say, it's Fate.

-Henry

[chance_silvey]

Ha, yeah, right. That's definitely code for 'she's knocked up'. It might even be code for 'I'm not the one who knocked her up, but someone did'. While Chance doesn't really care one way or the other, she does think kids deserve supportive families, so she guesses it's nice Henry's stepping up. But come on, rushing it like this, he might as well be honest about it. At least with the people he works with.

Henry,

OK. What makes next Tuesday the right time?

Chance

P.S. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in fate. Magical liopleurodons, yes. Fate, not so much.

[h_m_winter]

Ah, the explanation. Damn. He really should have known better than to say such a thing to Camilla, but then again she was Camilla, and therefor impossible to predict--she could just as easily have laughed, like she had at the bats.

Chance,

Honestly? Camilla said pick a day, I said 'next Tuesday', and she decided to run with it. I didn't for a moment expect her to actually take me seriously, but that's what I get, I suppose.

-Henry

P.S. Perhaps the liopleurodons are connected with Fate. It's an interesting angle.

[chance_silvey]

Chance actually cracks a smile at that. She doesn't know Camilla nearly as well as she knows Henry, but she can just about picture the scene. She scribbles a quick note back.

Henry,

Believe it or not, sometimes it's hard to tell when you're joking. Or if you're capable of joking.

Chance

P.S. Then why the hell can't I be fated to find the damn liopleurodon, is what I want to know.

[h_m_winter]

Henry knew his sense of humor was more or less invisible to anyone who didn't know him very well. That was all right--it wasn't something most people would understand, anyway.

Chance,

I've been told that before now. In this case, I'm not; if I'd had any idea she'd take me seriously, I would have set a later date.

-Henry

P.S. Maybe you are, just not yet. Sometimes Fate can take a while.

[chance_silvey]

Henry,

I didn't think you were joking just now. I believe you. What I'm saying is maybe she didn't know you weren't being serious. Marriage isn't usually a laughing matter.

Chance

P.S. How long does Fate take, in your experience?

[h_m_winter]

Chance,

Ah. Camilla can usually tell when I'm joking, but it's always possible she didn't this time. Believe me, both of us know marriage is quite serious; it's taken us a long while to reach this point.

-Henry

P.S. It varies. Fate is capricious by nature.