The Clock is Ticking (Jason)

[Julie Paige McGreggor]

4:45.

Julie only had fifteen more minutes left. She had a headache the size of The Big Ben and she couldn’t wait to get out of her apartment and into the club that was simply calling her name. All her friends were waiting there, and Julie only had one class left before she could join them. Julie really did love her Pre-school class, she really did. It was just…they did get a bit aggravating at times. The class full of four year olds wasn’t exactly her favorite, but they were a blessing at times. Right now though, was not one of those times. Right now Julie just wanted to get this class over with so she could get to her little gathering with her friends and end her day with a few laughs and a lot of dancing. She sighed, cleaning up the orange paint that one of the children had spilled during the last couple of minutes of the class.

4:47

Only thirteen minutes left to go. Usually the parents started to flood in right about now, but none of the parents had arrived just yet. Julie turned around and picked up the half empty jar of bright orange paint while the class was still busy at work painting their little sculptures. She didn’t notice the little girl standing just behind her with a bright smile on her cute little face. Julie set the jar of paint down on her desk and turned around, only just noticing Darcy Blade standing behind her with her completely finished sculpture of something that must have been an orange panda bear. Julie smiled down at her, despite her throbbing headache. “Miss Julie! I’m done with my panda! It’s orange see?” Cried the little girl happily. Julie smiled at her and took the scupture from her small hands.

4:49

“It looks great Darcy. And you got it done just in time. Now maybe you should help the other kids clean up. Your parents will all be here soon.” She said warmly, glancing once more at the clock on the wall. She had exactly eleven minutes until all these students would go back to their parents and Julie could start getting ready to go. She really loved these kids a lot, but today would be the first night off she’d had in weeks. She was always busy doing something or other. Always taking care of paperwork for the bills or cleaning up the perpetually messy studio room where her classes were held. Julie sighed and spoke up to alert her class. “Alright class, it’s time to get yourselves cleaned up and ready to leave. The first table sitting quietly with a clean desk gets candy!”

5:15

The class had been over for a full fifteen minutes, and Julie was not in her bedroom slipping on her well deserved new black dress. She was not carefully applying her favorite shade of bright red lipstick and eating her quick dinner before hitting the club. She was sitting in her living room watching sponge bob with Darcy Blade waiting for Darcy’s grandmother to arrive. Darcy’s stern, demeaning grandmother came to pick her up every class, and she was never greeted with any politeness or even something as small as a smile. And now that lady expected it was fine to come late and take that sweet little child with another one of those curt little nods and those thank you’s that seemed like she had to be strangled to even whisper them.

6:45

Julie was getting tired of waiting. So, she asked Darcy to wait in the living room while she cleaned up and got herself ready to leave. Normally she wouldn’t mind having Darcy over here after class, but she was tired of babysitting her kids after class. It was a full hour later and Darcy had already seen about four sponge bob episodes and was starting to twitch a bit from so much television. But what was she supposed to do with her? Gosh, I feel like I’m a babysitter in high school again! Julie grumbled under her breath. Julie was dressed in a knee-length black dress with her classic red lipstick. She was placing her earrings on when she heard the doorbell ring outside. “That must be your lovely grandmother. Come on Darce.” Julie forced her lips into the fake smile that she always had to use when dealing with the Blade family. “Good evening, Mrs. Blade…..I mean err….who are you?” Julie looked up and noticed the handsome young man that appeared in the doorway. He didn’t look like Darcy’s grandmother at all.

[Jason Blade]

”Order’s up!” the large man in the white chef hat called loudly through the crowded kitchen of Magical Delights, the finest gourmet restaurant in wizarding Wales. True, it was a simply named restaurant, much to its own dismay considering the type of restaurant it strove to be, but the quaint name was anything less than quaint in its quality of food and service. It catered to only the wizarding community and was listed in the top 10 wizarding restaurants of all time. From this information alone it was enough to make the young owner extremely proud and he was. Jason Blade, twenty-three years old and a successful businessman, was quite a shock to his parents and friends. Not only had he created a successful restaurant from scratch, but also he had done it while raising his 4-year old daughter Darcy. He was a single parent, his wife having taken off not long after giving birth, abandoning them both.

The thought made the six foot two man’s smile falter just enough to make the chef frown. ”Everything alright boss?”
Jason’s brows furrowed as the familiar smile made it’s way across his lips again. “Yeah Deacon just wondering if you burnt the food or not this time,” Jason said as the smirk widened on his face.
Deacon shook his head and chuckled, ”You burn the food once and you’re scorched for life.”
“Once Deacon?” Jason asked in an innocent tone as he flicked his wand at the hot plates, levitating them in the air before him. He didn’t wait for an answer as he laughed heading out the door to a customer’s table. He took it upon himself to actually serve the tables every few days. It was good for business. Not to mention it kept him humble which wasn’t an easy thing these days.

“Is there anything else I can get for you?” Jason asked the guests as the plates set down right in front of them. When they shook their heads he nodded and smiled. “I’ll be leaving you in the hands of one of our finest waiters Mr. Jules Beck. If you need anything don’t hesitate a wave of your wand.” The guests nodded and Jason made a slight bow before turning from them and headed back into the kitchen, hands already moving around the waist of his apron to pull at the strings. Digits wrapped into the fabric and pulled it from his waist, tossing it into the pile of dirty aprons in the corner of the kitchen. Deacon’s eyes were watching him and Jason quirked a brow up at him. “What is it Deac?”

“You’re late sir…again.”
Jason glanced down at his muggle watch. “No I’m not, it’s only 4:30.” Jason held his watch out for Deacon to look at so he could prove that he wasn’t late.
”Uh…boss. Not that I know much about muggle artifacts…but aren’t the dials supposed to move?”
Jason pulled his hand back and looked at the watch. “Bloody hell…” he mutter tapping it soundly. He moved quickly then, his hands grabbing up his jacket and throwing it over his arm. “The one night I have to go pick up Darcy and I’m late. Make sure you clean up and lock the restaurant up securely.”
”I know the process Jason…just get out of here” he laughed heartily as Jason rolled his eyes and took off out the door, his form Apparating the instant he was out the back door.

His appearance at the front of the building that Darcy’s teacher lived in was hardly noticeable and he straightened his clothes as he rang the bell. There was a few seconds that passed, enough to make him want to ring it again after he realized he was nearly two hours late. The door swung open and the woman was already speaking as if he was his mother until she stopped dead, just like Jason did as his brown orbs took in the woman’s appearance. “Uh…” his tongue tied for a few seconds before a squeak from his daughter brought him back to attention as she wrapped her little arms around him. He bent and pulled her up into his arms, hoisting her with just one are as he extended the other. “Jason Blade, Darcy’s father. Sorry I’m so late. Watch batteries died,” he said as he made a motion to his wrist and made a frown. “Sorry if I ruined any plans for you. I really had no intention of being late.”

[Julie Paige McGreggor]

(Just to make this straight, I always imagined Darcy to look like Suri Cruise. Unless you had a better idea of who to use for her.))

Julie had never seen Darcy’s dad before, but somehow she couldn’t help but think she had seen him before. This place was crowded with witches and wizards living amongst the muggles, so she wouldn’t be surprised if she had gone to school with the kid. But Julie couldn’t remember too much of her teenage years to be perfectly honest. She was either drunk, sneaking around, or partying. She didn’t remember much else about her Hogwarts years. She didn’t get along with many of the sports players or those Queen Bee type of girls. She was a rebel, and most times, she and Vi were known as the crazy boyfriend stealers of the school. She couldn’t help it to be honest. She was a rebel at heart, and if dressing the ‘wrong’ way and going against the grain could piss enough staff members off, then there was no chance she was going to grow up.

But there was one major event, one major person that had changed her life forever. Julie was shoved into reality the day she graduated. By the end of her seventh year, she had been dating Ricky Harrison for a total of two and a half years. Ricky was already twenty-two by the time she turned seventeen, and now that Julie would be moving out of her aunt and uncle’s place it was the perfect time to start their life together. Julie figured she was going to be with Ricky for the rest of her life. But then she found out she was pregnant with his child, months before a wedding was even spoken of. Julie remembered sitting in Viola’s apartment taking the test with Vi waiting excitedly outside the bathroom door. But that happiness didn’t last for long. Once they were married and the honeymoon was over, Ricky proved to be nothing more than a drunk with no values or respect for his new wife and child. And then he pushed you and his baby down the stairs and your first child was never born. Son of a…. Julie thought bitterly to herself, but her thought process was interrupted by the voice of little Darcy’s father.

He was quite good looking, to say the least. He was a handsome young man who looked about her age. Vi would have jumped on this opportunity in a heartbeat. But this guy was a student’s father. Julie never liked to follow rules of course, but the rule about not dating from the workplace was probably a good one to follow at this point. But he probably didn’t have much interest in Julie anyway. Julie wasn’t stupid. She had seen Mr. and Mrs. Blade and she had seen the clothes Darcy was always dressed in. It was obvious the Blade family was of good money, and if magical, they were probably of good blood as well. The McGreggor line had practically always been pure, but Julie could really care less about blood status. In fact, she’d love to marry a muggle just to piss them off a bit. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Jason probably wouldn’t be interested in dating a poor pathetic art teacher who taught from her apartment, even if he did recognize her surname. She couldn’t wait to change it. She hated what people assumed of her after hearing the name McGreggor.

She stepped back a bit, allowing him a chance to enter if he wanted to. But being that Julie had never met him before (as far as she knew anyway) he was probably a busy man and needed to get out of here. She smiled that same polite art teacher to parent smile and shook her head. “No, no, it’s not a problem. Darcy is wonderful. Truly a great kid. She actually finished a project today. It’s not dry yet, but would you like to come see it? I mean you probably have such a busy evening planned. She’ll be able to take it home next class, so I guess you’ll see it then….” Julie stopped herself. This was so awkward. Here she was standing in the most expensive little dress she had ever owned in a scruffy art studio that was still a complete mess despite her desperate attempts to clean it up. Not to mention she was with a young parent that she never met before. “I’m sorry. I tend to talk a lot sometimes with new parents…though I can’t help but think I must have seen you somewhere before…” Julie glanced at Darcy, who was smiling brightly at her from her daddy’s arms. “You know, she looks just like you.”

[Jason Blade]

((uh…I don’t know what Suri Cruise looks like…lol so sure…I just kept thinking Abigail Breslin since I decided to use Ryan…Definitely, Maybe has been stuck in my head since I decided to use his face.))

Jason didn’t even know what to stay as he stood there and tried to remember to keep his eyes to himself, but the woman before him was no mere teacher…at least she couldn’t be in those clothes…looking like that and then there was an air of familiarity around her that Jason just couldn’t shake. He was at a complete loss for words really which made having Darcy in his arms feel so much better considering he had no idea what he was going to say to the woman that had answered the door. It’d been a long time since he’d been stunned silent by something as small as a woman opening the door…and that thought just brought him to a full circle and back to Morgan. It was a slap in the face really and made his thinking clear up immediately and he smiled back at his daughter briefly who had taken to playing with the collar of his shirt.

With the soft chill in the air and Darcy’s small frame Jason didn’t argue with himself as he stepped through Julie’s door so he could keep the wind from getting to Darcy’s sensitive flesh. Besides he had always wanted to see the inside of this place. It was the one reason why he’d been very happy to find out that his mother would be too busy socializing at the latest upscale wizarding mixer than to pick up her granddaughter. It made him finally feel like he was doing something right as a father, especially after Morgan left. He’d felt like a complete failure to his daughter then and he wasn’t sure if she would ever forgive him for letting her mother disappear, but like always he was harder on himself than his beautiful daughter was, which was probably a good thing. It had been very hard in the beginning though…when Morgan left he had been completely broken. He had loved her more than he could possibly imagine and when Darcy was born he thought things would be perfect, that they would be the perfect family he had always dreamed they would be. There are no words that are strong enough to describe the utter emptiness he felt when she left. The only thing that had saved him from disappearing all together was the girl that now clung tightly to him as he looked around the studio.

The place was smaller than he imagined it would be, but perfect in every way possible. It was the place he’d always imagined to see Darcy in. She could see why she loved the class so much…and the teacher… The thought drifted off as Jason shifted Darcy a bit in his arms to find a more comfortable position so that he could smooth her hair down a little bit. “You finished a project today Darce?” he asked as he looked at her with a silly shocked expression and she chirped with happiness. “Well let’s see it then.” He put Darcy down as she beamed with joy taking off for where she had placed it. His eyes drifting back to Julie. “I didn’t have an evening planned really. Besides it seems like I’m the one that’s keeping you from an evening out.” A hand gestured to her outfit as he ran a hand over the back of his head and fluffed his hair a little. “I am sorry about this. I tend to lose track of time at work…if my watch hadn’t died I would have been here on time. Next time this won’t happen.” He was no good with apologies…never had been, but he felt embarrassed by his lack of timely appearance. His mother was definitely going to have a field day with that one. If only she’d bother him about something more important…but at least it wasn’t completely wasteful.

Another squeak and giggle made Jason turn fast enough to scoop his daughter back up into his arms her hands holding out the masterpiece she’d created earlier. Jason was rather impressed as he looked at the little sculpture. “Is that an orange panda?” he asked in a voice full of awe and appreciation. Darcy grinned and nodded, his eyes shooting over to Julie for a second and then back to the little bear. “That’s amazing Darce! We’re going to place that on the mantel in Grammy’s living room when you get to take it home tomorrow. She’ll be absolutely excited to see how great an artist you are.” Darcy beamed incredibly at his words and he couldn’t help but beam back at his little girl. She was the spitting image of her mother really, both painfully so as well as wonderfully so. One thing was for sure he loved her more than anything. He held her tight to him before he looked back up to Julie her words reminding him that he was not alone with his daughter.

Her words of familiarity reminded Jason of what he was trying to do earlier when he first got there, his memory searching back to find the familiar face that now stood before him. “Hogwarts I’m sure,” he said as he adjusted to set Darcy back down so she could run off and put her sculpture back. “I was in Slytherin.” The words didn’t hold the same amount of pride that they would have several years ago. Truth was Jason didn’t hold much pride for his old house anymore. The way people had existed in that house was not something he would readily choose again and he only hoped his daughter would choose a house in which real lasting friendships could be achieved, but those days were years away and there was no way he was going to think about them right now. Time was already moving by so quickly with her…he didn’t want to jump ahead now and miss the time he had with his little girl. He smiled at her comment about Darcy looking like him. “She looks more like her mother than me.” The words were sad…almost filled with remorse as he watched Darcy silently for a few moments, sighing softly before his expression returned to the mask of joy he’d taken to wearing around others. “Anyway, we should get out of your hair…hopefully we haven’t destroyed your night too much.”

[Julie Paige McGreggor]

((Haha I never saw that movie actually, though I’ve been dying to. And I just figured she looked more like she’d be Jason and Morgan’s kid. There’s a picture here.))

Julie couldn’t believe she had been caught in this position. Here she was, looking like this insensitive art teacher just dying to get rid of her last kid so she can go take off and party the night away. This didn’t look good. This really didn’t look good. Julie bit her bottom lip nervously, not knowing what to say as Darcy and her father re-united. He was so kind to his daughter, so sweet. Never in all her years of teaching kids (which in actuality wasn’t all that many) had Julie seen such a loving father. In fact, she’d pretty much seen every class of parent walking through these doors. There was the stressed out single mom who only signed her kid up for class as an alternative for cheap daycare. Then there was the overbearing parent who wanted the best for their children and practically loved them to death. They always came to pick their kid up together. And there was the married sleaze ball father who really only came to pick their kids up because either their wives made them or they wanted to sneak a peak at the hot teacher.

But then there were the fathers like Jason. They just radiated love for their child throughout the room. Darcy talked about her dad a lot. To be honest, Julie felt like she knew him by the way she spoke of him. She smiled softly as she let the two into her apartment, which smelled of acrylic paints and slightly burnt cookies. Julie was never really a very good cook. Julie’s diet consisted of frozen dinners and cold cereal. Dinner was anything that could be found in the fridge or cooked up in less than five minutes. Of course she did try to cook on special occasions, but Carson was starting to grow tired of pretending to like her food and then dumping it in the flower pot nearby. It didn’t hurt her feelings really, she knew she wasn’t all that great of a cook. But that didn’t stop her from attempting to bake cookies for her class today, resulting in misshapen cookies with burnt ends. She would buy her snacks next time. Julie could tell Jason had noticed her very un art teacher-like clothing. She wasn’t a stranger to guys checking her out. She just didn’t let it inflate her head like it did for other people she knew. For a moment there, Julie could have sworn that Jason’s mind trailed off as his loving expression toward his daughter fell into that of almost sadness. Julie found herself pulling her lower lip in just a bit with her teeth once more; biting her lip was a nervous habit of hers. She led Jason and his daughter into the studio, where her small orange panda bear still sat on a piece of last week’s newspaper. Julie never did like to read the paper. Plus they made for great art projects.

Julie listened to Jason’s apologies. She’d heard all the excuses before, but part of her actually believed his story. Things really did happen sometimes. Julie didn’t mind much. Vi and the girls could wait until later. They were going to be there all night anyway. Besides, Darcy was one of Julie’s favorite students, so she and her family were worth missing an hour or two of clubbing. “Oh no, it’s perfectly fine. I wasn’t planning on leaving for an hour or two anyway. No harm in getting ready early, right?” Julie spoke with a nervous smile, while continuing to wonder where on earth she had seen this guy before.

And it was as if Jason could read her mind, because the next moment he answered her question willingly leaving Julie’s mouth to hang down slightly. She regained her composure after a few moments of shocked silence. “Well, that was a very bold move there, Mr. Blade. If I was a muggle, you probably would have been breaking some major rules just from telling me where you went to school.” Just hearing the words coming out of her mouth seemed funny. “Though I’ve never been too bothered by those dumb rules.” Julie added with a roll of her eyes. “I was a Gryffindor myself. Class of ‘97. So it makes sense why we don’t know each other too well. Our houses didn’t exactly mix well. And forgive me, but you don’t seem at all like you’d be a Slytherin.”