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UnBroken	By : OddDoll Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 6172 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Unbroken
By Odd Doll
Chapter 30
Phoebe parked outside her brother's home and sat without moving. They had not called, except for a quick hang-up to determine that he was home. When Severus questioned the wisdom of arriving unannounced she had not wanted to tell him that it was best not to give her brother time to put her off.
"Are we getting out?"
She sighed and reached for her seatbelt. "I suppose we must."
"Is there bad blood between you and your brother?"
"Things are a bit strained."
She had never seen her brother's home in rural Virginia before and decided he must be doing well. Or perhaps his wife was. The large ranch-style home sat back from the street behind a lush expanse of crisp-edged lawn and large shade trees. A shiny pickup truck sat in the drive, so new it had no plates, and through the open garage door she could see a late model sedan.
"We need his help, Severus, so be on your best manners."
He pursed his lips a little but said nothing. Phoebe resisted the impulse to walk across Brad's pristine lawn, using the long walk instead. At the door she took a deep breath before she pressed the bell. It opened in moments, far too fast for Phoebe to really compose herself.
Brad's wife, Christine, stared at them without recognition before she said, "Phoebe! My God, we weren't expecting you!" It took her an awkward second before she said, "Come in, please."
Christine was one of those disgusting women who could have a career earning six figures and still keep a pristine home. Perhaps she had a maid. Yes, definitely, Phoebe thought. As she led them through the living room, Phoebe took small satisfaction in the small signs that four children lived there: a backpack left on a sofa, a bat and glove by the back door. She told herself that she was being petty and that Christine had played no part in that ugly scene twenty years ago.
"Brad is out back." She led them through the kitchen. "I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you."
The buzz of a string trimmer met them when Christine slid open the back door. Brad stood far off across the back lawn, grooming the edges of a flower bed beneath a tree, his back to them.
"Brad!" Christine shouted. He looked over his shoulder slowly at first and turned with a puzzled frown on his face. The string trimmer dangled from his hand, his finger still on the trigger. Phoebe put on her best smile.
"Hi Brad."
"Phoebe." His lips moved but she couldn't hear it.
"Turn that thing off, honey," Christine shouted.
Brad turned off the trimmer and laid it on the grass. Phoebe braced herself as he crossed the lawn.
"What are you doing here?" Not a challenge, merely the surprised, curious expression of someone taken totally off guard.
"I wanted to see you."
"You should have called. I mean we're having a party in a few hours. Angel's birthday party."
She should have known it was Angela's birthday, she thought. She knew all the other nieces' and nephews' birthdays.
"I'm sorry. I won't stay long, but I did want to talk to you."
Brad looked at Severus then, who had been hovering in the background, dark and silent. He wore Muggle clothes, but everything from his long stringy hair to his uncomfortable bearing screamed 'wizard out of water.'
"This is my friend, Severus Snape." Introductions were made, and the children called out to greet their aunt. They clustered around her and asked questions that ranged from politely curious from the older pair, to excited and eager from the younger ones. And every question they asked from where she lived to what she did for a living suggested that Brad had told them nothing about their aunt. It made her sad.
Phoebe and Brad went out to the swing on the back terrace while the children set up streamers and balloons in the kitchen. It took very little argument to convince Severus that it was time for his doctor-ordered exercise, and he set off toward the small river that bordered the back yard.
The swing creaked softly and they sat side-by-side in silence. Through the open windows they could hear Christine and the children talk, and from the edge of the yard came the quiet hiss of the water.
"It's nice here," Phoebe said.
"Don't you live right on the ocean? Dad told me."
"He's told me a lot about you, too. You work for the Pentagon now. Congratulations."
"It's been five years now." The conversation dropped off as she thought about how much she missed having him as part of her life. As urgent as their situation was, Phoebe did not want to waste this opportunity to talk to him.
"Brad--"
"Phoebe, I've been wanting to apologize to you for years now, but it never seemed like the right time."
Elated, she almost laughed in relief. "Oh Brad, I forgave you years ago."
"It was none of my business and not my place to tell him."
Privately, Phoebe agreed. Over twenty years before, Brad had told their father that she was working as a domme to support herself while she earned her college degree.
"You were doing what you thought was right at the time."
"He's quite proud of you, you know, and what you've made of yourself. He says you're quite the business woman."
"He's proud of you, too. He talks about you all the time." She grinned. "Probably as a not-so-subtle way to remind me that we needed to get over our differences."
"I'm..." He stared at his feet for a moment. "I'm still not comfortable with what you do."
"I'm glad you can admit it to me," she said quietly. He slipped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.
"You know, the other girls didn't get all those character-building exercises we did."
"It doesn't seem to have harmed them. I wondered why he stopped, but I assumed Mom put her foot down."
"No. I did."
Phoebe sat up to see his sad, grave expression. "You did? Why? You always said they prepared you to 'take on the world' or something like that. I always thought that they did that for me." Even as she said it, though, a little doubt nibbled at the thought.
"They did, I think, but..." He hugged her again. "I told him to stop on the same day I told him about you."
She frowned. "Brad, you couldn't possibly believe they're the reason I went into the sex trade."
"No, I think Phil was. I watched you, Phoebe. All those years when you went farther and farther away. At first I thought it was that school, but after I met him, I realized it was Phil."
Phoebe did not want to discuss Phil with Brad. Feeling herself grow angry, she fought to remain calm. She needed Brad. Mostly, though, she wanted to hear what he had to say.
"What has that got to do with Dad?"
"Dad expected so much of us, Phoebe. He pushed you and pushed you until, I think, the only thing you could do was fall down. But Phil never expected anything of you at all. In fact, I think he wanted you to fail."
She leaned into him again, resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't like to think much about that time of my life." She let the swing rock them once, twice, before she said, "You need to understand, Brad, I was doing it for enjoyment long before I started taking money. And although I took the money because I was hungry, I never was one of those desperate women who walk the streets and go with any stranger."
"I know." He sighed. "That's what made it so hard. There was nothing we could do to help you. You were doing what you wanted to do."
Hearing in his voice the betrayal he had felt, she had to turn her face into his shoulder. Her eyes stung and she closed them. Like she had done a hundred times before, she let the hurt drain away so she wouldn't cry, but she had to hold onto him for a long time before it stopped trying to return.
Gradually they began to talk of old times and tried to catch up on their families and the history they had missed. Once, Severus appeared at the edge of the lawn, but she shook her head at him and he turned back toward the river.
Finally, she steered the conversation to the business that had brought her there. "Brad, Dad told me to come here, although..." she tried to think of how to explain without lying or revealing anything "...he doesn't exactly realize it."
"He wanted us to reconcile?"
"Well, yes, probably, but that's not why. I'm in trouble and you may be the only person who can help me right now."
In whispers, so that Christine and the children wouldn't hear, she told him enough to make him understand the seriousness of their situation, but with fewer details than she had given her father. Unfortunately, she couldn't use a Memory Charm on him if he were to be able to help her.
"Do you understand the pickle I'm in? I can't use magical methods of travel, and we don't have the papers to travel the regular way."
"I don't understand why you want to go back to England. It seems that all your trouble started there."
"And it ends there, too."
He said slowly, "You're fighting."
"I don't know."
They rocked the swing back and forth without speaking for a full minute before he said, "Do you remember the war games."
"How could I forget?" Every summer, until both Brad and Phoebe had left for college, they staged elaborate war games with the neighborhood kids that included weeks of planning, spies, double-agents, and ultimately, a colossal battle with paint guns.
Brad grinned. "Would you tell me one thing?"
"What?"
"Where did you keep your plans during that last year? You found mine, but I searched for weeks and never could find yours."
"I kept them under your bed. You never cleaned under there."
"But, but what about Charlie?" Brad and Charlie had shared a room, and Charlie had always been on Brad's team.
Phoebe laughed. "I bribed him to bring them in and out for me."
"Why that dirty little traitor!" Brad said, but he laughed too. "What did you give him that was good enough to keep him from looking at them and telling me."
"Oh, something very important to him. A love potion to get him laid."
"He was only fourteen."
"And as horny as any fourteen-year-old boy."
"Did it work?"
"Yup. He's still married to her, too."
"Gracie?" He shook his head. "You always amazed me, Phoebe. Everybody always loved you because you were the nicest leader and it made them feel good to be on your team, but when it came down to it, you were not only the best organized and the best prepared, but the most ruthless in battle." He glanced over at her. "I suppose that's what makes you so good at..." he looked uncomfortable "...what you do."
Phoebe thought about it, and decided he was right. With her clients, she was concerned and attentive to their needs; she was truly a sympathetic person. But when it came down to business, if they wanted her mean and brutal, she was able to put all her feelings aside and be what the situation needed her to be.
But this wasn't a game.
"Brad," she said quietly, "it's different when it's real. I think you know that." She looked at him and saw his jaw clench. He had been in Kosovo and before that the Gulf War. "I saw a good friend lying unconscious and had to run away and just leave him. And a man died right in front of me, Brad." He voice rose. "It's different when it's real, and I really suck at it. I made terrible decisions. People followed me because I always take charge, and I screwed up major. I won't do that again."
Brad put his arm around her and drew her close, again. Only then did she realize how much she had missed him.
"Phoebe, I can't believe you've changed so much that you would give up after the first problem."
"It was more than a problem, Brad!" she said, but she didn't pull away. She didn't want to spoil things now.
"From what you've told me, it sounds like people are dying without your help. You might as well pitch in. You have a lot to offer. Dad saw to that," he said wryly. He gave her a squeeze before adding, "Knowing that you're not perfect is the first step to getting really good. You'll learn from this and be even better."
When she didn't say anything, Brad sighed.
They sat quietly for a few minutes until Severus walked up from the river's edge. Phoebe guiltily watched his slow gait and saw his pale, tired face. She had kept him walking too long.
"Do you have a recliner or something. Severus hasn't been well, and he could use some rest."
"I'll be all right." Phoebe thought that she might have stung his pride, but he did look relieved when they stepped into the cool of the house and Brad led him to a recliner in the den.
"There's the TV if you like."
"No, thank you." It sounded as if the offering of television had been an insult. "Have you talked?"
Phoebe turned expectantly to Brad. "Can you help?"
Brad went to close the door. "I can do nothing personally. When it came out -- and it would come out -- there would be a scandal and I'd lose my job. But, I do know someone."
"So you're in covert operations?"
"Just on the paperwork end. I do this sort of thing sometimes, but mostly I, well, I can't tell you." He grinned. "Or I'd have to kill you."
Phoebe smiled, but Severus said tersely, "Will the papers be good?"
"The best." Brad turned serious again. He glanced at Phoebe. "They'll be expensive, and you'll have to pay cash."
Phoebe thought quickly. "That means a bank withdrawal, or turning Galleons into Muggle money."
"Muggle money?"
"I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you."
Severus wore a pained expression. "They might question you."
"Then all I'll be able to give them is the same name I give you."
"And they'll question him too," Severus said, "but by the time they get that far, hopefully we'll have disappeared into Britain."
"There's things you can do. The person I'm sending you to can help with that. How soon do you want them?"
"The sooner the better," Phoebe said.
Later, as they said their goodbyes at the door, Brad pulled Phoebe aside to say, "You said he was a double agent?"
"Yes."
"Which side was he on first?"
"Theirs." Phoebe wondered where this was going.
"Then be wary of him, Pheebs," he said, using her childhood nickname for the first time in twenty-two years.
"Brad, he blew his own cover, taking great personal risk to save hundreds of kids."
"That may be as you say, but I've seen his type before, and no matter what they say or do, their first loyalty is not to any country or cause, but to themselves."
Phoebe thought of Severus as she had found him, injured, dying, and so utterly broken in spirit that he hardly cared if he lived or died, and it prompted her to say, "I don't know what he was before, but I don't think that man exists anymore."
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UnBroken