Everything Is Eclipsed by the Shape of Destiny

It had been a month since Bill had wed Fleur, a month since Emerson had resigned from her position at Gringotts in Egypt and had begun working at the Aztec Ruins in Mexico. It had been a month, thirty one days to be exact, but it felt as if it had been just yesterday that Bill had sworn his undying love for another.

The memories of his wedding plagued her thoughts, though they mostly came out at night when she was trying most desperately to fall asleep. She could still remember the twinkle in his eyes, the beauty of her laugh, everything was vivid; her torture was excruciating.

There were nights when she prayed that she wouldn’t wake up in the morning so she wouldn’t have to deal with the pain of living without Bill. She knew it was stupid to want to die but there is no greater pain than living without one’s imprint; that’s a fact.

A fact that had been spoken of in various legends that Emerson had heard growing up. She always thought that the elders were exaggerating, that no pain could be so acute, so positively maddening but if anything, the pain had been understated by them.

They had not done it justice.

Not even Emerson could do it justice if she tried describing it. There were no words to capture the agony, no words to communicate just what kind of a hell she was living in and it was alright, Emerson didn’t want to describe it to anyone.

She didn’t want anyone’s pity, she didn’t want them to ask her if she was alright or if she could use some company, no, Emerson just wanted to be left alone so she pretended to be perfectly content with her life.

Because no one ever bothers the happy person, it’s just kind of assumed that they’re fine because why would they be smiling if they were miserable? People don’t smile when they’re sad . . . some people do, maybe a lot of people do, but a smile wards off the questioning glances and that’s what Emerson wanted.

Emerson wanted to be left in peace so that she could spend her days working in the Aztec Ruins like she had always dreamt of doing but even the Ruins, which she had hoped would take her mind off Bill, weren’t enough. Sometimes when she was decoding some of the writing, she couldn’t help but remember days gone by when she and Bill had been doing just that in the pyramids.

How she longed for those days, things were simpler then, much simpler. There was no Fleur, no war, it was just them, a couple of hormonal twenty something year olds that were basically boyfriend and girlfriend without the title; sometimes Emerson allowed to believe that they were actually together, in fact, that was what she was believing when Bill told her about Fleur.

That was the single most shocking news she had ever heard and it also served to ruin the romantic dinner that she had planned for that evening. It was at that dinner that she was going to confess her feelings for him and tell him about the imprinting but she decided against that, if he had a girlfriend there was no need for him to know, especially since his girlfriend was a French Veela because how could Emerson compete with that?

There was no competing, at least not with looks, Emerson knew that if she was going to win him over it was going to be with her charm, her personality and her cooking but that hadn’t been enough to win him over, he had to get married to Fleur, he had to completely break Emerson’s heart.

But it was alright, in the end it was alright, because Bill was happy, he was leading the life he’d always wanted to lead and that was enough for Emerson to get by on, that was enough for her to fake her joy.

Although her grandfather, Pedro, begged to differ, he thought that Emerson was being a very foolish girl. He came from the school of thought that people had to fight for what they wanted. He himself had actually interrupted his wife’s wedding to another and had stolen her from the alter, it was quite the scandal, but they didn’t care, they were happy that they had made it work and he thought that Emerson should’ve done the same.

To him it didn’t matter that Emerson was a girl, he thought that she had to fight, that she had to make things happen and her decision to let Bill get married was one that upset him greatly, he had even contemplated kicking her out of the house so she would be forced to go back to Egypt or America but his wife, Sophia, didn’t let him and in their home; her word was law.

Even though he couldn’t kick her out, he did make it his personal mission to show her what a fool she had been. He hoped that by annoying her he would convince her to go search for Bill but Emerson was just as stubborn as he was, she knew what he was trying to do and she wasn’t going to give in.

Mexico was therapeutic for her, if she had to live in America or Egypt she would probably kill herself, no, not probably, she would actually find a way to kill herself because life would’ve been to much to endure.

At least in Mexico she has the ruins, she has her grandparents, she has her grandparent’s fields to work and there are meadows in which she takes strolls through, Mexico was as close to heaven as she was going to get and she wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon; even if that meant enduring arguments with her abuelito (grandpa) on an everyday basis.

“¿Pero Emerson por que no lo vas a visitar? Ve y da una vuelta así el se recuerda de ti y tu lo puedes ver a el. ¡Es un plan genial! (But Emerson, why don’t you go visit, him? Just drop by for a few days, he’ll remember how amazing you are and you’ll get to see him. It’s genius!)”

“Papa Pedro, no. (Papa Pedro, no.)” She told him.

“¿Y por que no? (And why not?)” he asked.

“Porque si voy, se va enojar su esposa de el y no quiero causarle daño a el. (Because if I go, his wife’s going to get mad and I don’t want to get him in trouble with her.)” Emerson replied.

“¡Mentirosa! (Liar!)” Pedro shouted.

“¡No estoy mintiendo! Es la verdad, y le suplico que por favor deje eso en paz. Ya no quiero pensar en el, ya no quiero volver oír mencionar su nombre, nomás quiero vivir una vida calladita. Eso es todo lo que quiero. (I'm not lying! It’s the truth and I beg you to just drop the subject. I don’t want to think about him anymore, I don’t ever want to hear his name again. I just want a quiet life. That’s all I want.)” Emerson lowered her gaze, blinking away the tears.

“Eso no es lo que quieres, eso es lo quieres hacerte querer pero adentro de tu corazoncito sabes que tu todavía lo quieres a el. ¡Tu sabes que suenas con hacer su esposa, con pasar toda la vida a su lado de el y yo quiero que eso pase, yo quiero que seas feliz con el! (That’s not what you want. That’s what you want to force yourself to believe that you want, but deep inside your heart you know that you still love him. You know that you dream of being his wife, of spending your life at his side and I want that to happen. I want you to be happy with him!)”

“Eso no va pasar. El no me ama, el nunca me va a amar como yo lo amo a el y no hay nada que yo pueda hacer para cambiar eso. Yo ya hice todo lo que pude y estoy cansada, me quiero relajar, tener un bien tiempo y. . . (That’s not going to happen. He doesn’t love me, he’ll never love me like I love him and there’s nothing I can do to change that. I already did everything that I could think of and I'm tired, I want to relax, to have a good time and . . .)”

“Sin el, no vas a tener buen tiempo, y tu sabes eso. Tu sabes que te estas condenando a la miseria. (Without him, you won’t have a good time, you know that. You know that you’re condemning yourself to being miserable.)” Pedro interjected.

“Entonces déjeme condenarme. (Then let me condemn myself.)” Emerson whispered.

“Tu sabes muy bien que yo no voy a dejar que te condenes, soy tu abuelito y lo que mi importa es tu felicidad y voy hacer que seas feliz aunque tu no quieras. (You know very well that I can’t let that happen. I'm your grandfather and your happiness is what matters most to me so I'm going to fight to make you happy even if you won’t.)”

“Voy a salir a caminar. (I'm going to go out for a walk.)” Emerson sniffled.

“Emerson, todavía no acabo. (Emerson, I haven’t finished speaking yet.)”

“Papa Pedro, por favor. (Papa Pedro, please.)” Emerson pleaded.

“Pues vete, pero cuando regreses vamos a hablar muy seriamente. ¿Okay? (Well then go, but when you come home we have a conversation pending. Okay?)”

“Okay.”

Pedro watched in silence as Emerson left the house, he wanted to apologize to her for having been so rough but he couldn’t help it. Whenever he looked into her eyes, he saw how depressed she was and he wanted to change that. He felt like a failure for not being able to help her more.

With a soft sigh he walked to the kitchen where his wife, Sophia, was busy preparing the nights dinner. He pulled up a chair and sat beside her, staring at her with love. She was his rock, his everything and if he didn’t have her in his life, he would die and he was just a wizard. Their bond was special, there was no denying that but it wasn’t as strong as the bound between a shifter and their imprint.

From the stack of tortillas his wife had made, he grabbed four and began pouring chile inside them so he could have some tacos, whenever he was upset he ate, it was a bad habit of his.

He continued to eat until a knock came from the door.

The elderly couple shot each other questioning looks, wondering who it was that could be at their door. Pedro told his wife that he would go check on who was visiting them. He quickly washed his hands and began the walk to the front door. Perhaps it was his son and his son’s wife, coming to visit their daughter. They had been stopping by quite frequently.

He readied himself to greet his son but when he opened the door he found himself staring into the face of a fiery haired young man. His eyes went wide; he’d seen that face many times before, always in pictures, never in person. He was nervous to speak to him but he was excited, excited that the young man had gone to Mexico to visit his Emerson, because that was the only reason why he could be there.

“Hola señor, uh, yo me llamo William y. . . uh, quiero hablar con Emerson. ¿Esta ella en casa? (Hello sir, uh, my name’s William and . . . uh, I want to talk to Emerson. Is she home?)” Bill asked in horribly butchered Spanish.

“She no here right now,” answered Pedro in English. “But I her grandpa, Grandpa Pedro and you can come inside if you want.”

“Oh thank Merlin, you speak English,” Bill felt relieved. “I was afraid that I was going to have to talk to you in Spanish the whole time and that wouldn’t have been pleasant, I'm horrible at Spanish.”

“Its not so bad,” Pedro reassured him. “I heard much worse. My daughter marry an American, oh no, he ca not speak a word in Spanish and he been married almost twenty years.”

“That’s a really long time for him to not know any Spanish,” commented Bill as he followed Pedro inside.

“That what I say, but no, he says he don’t need Spanish because I can talk English but I no talk English in front of him, no, he want to talk to me he talk in Spanish. Now, come in, my wife in kitchen she make dinner. You stay? Yes? Yes.”

“Um alright, that sounds brilliant.” Bill responded.

“Sophia,” called Pedro when they were in the kitchen, “Sophia, look, this is William, Emerson’s friend.”

Her eyes widened at the sight of him. “Hello William. How are you? You hungry, you look hungry, sit down. I feed you.”

“No, thank you, I’ll wait until Emerson gets here.”

“Emerson went on walk, Emerson take long time when she goes on walk.”

“Really?” he asked.

“If you want, Pedro takes you to Emerson,” offered Sophia.

“Would that be alright?” he asked Pedro.

“Oh yes, I take you, come on if we hurry we catch her in flowers because when she gets to the corn we can never find her.”

“You raise corn? That’s brilliant, I’ve always loved farms.” Bill was being sincere.

“Then you come here when you want,” Pedro turned to Sophia. “I be back soon, amor mio (my love).”

The pair fell into a pleasant conversation during their walk. Pedro really liked Bill, he seemed like an easy going young man that would make his granddaughter very happy and Bill really liked Pedro’s energy, it was contagious.

Bill was mesmerized by the beauty of the countryside. He didn’t snap out of it until he heard Emerson singing out loud. He looked around for her and when he found her, a huge smile swept across his face.