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The Park - Tuesday Afternoon

By the time Wilson had gotten home he'd had just enough time to notice that a certain Guardian was headed out towards the school with fire in his eyes.

Ut oh.

So after a quick shower, Wilson had gone about packing the picnic basket with cookies and fresh brewed tea. Lots of cookies, lots of tea. He'd then taken the basket and a blanket out to the park and while usually he would have settled on the park bench, he was just worn out enough ~~three guesses why and the first two don't count~~ that he decided instead to lay out on the blanket under the shade of a tree.

And wait.

[ooc: Open! As parks are open. Phale and Wilson's thread locked to them but other than that please feel free to come and get a cookie or use the park for your own needs! :)]

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The angel was pissed. If the look on his face wasn't evidence enough, perhaps the fact that the occasional random bit of flora burst into flames as he stalked across town might have been a good clue.

He stopped when he saw the picnic laid out in the park, though, and felt a sudden surge of guilt mingled with affection. Not enough to completely wash away his anger, but it certainly took the edge off.

With a little smile, Aziraphale walked slowly over and lowered himself onto the blanket. "What's the occasion, James love?" he asked softly.

Pushing himself up to a sitting position, Wilson reached for an iced oatmeal cookie and held it out to the angel.

"I'm a friend to hapless dandilions?" He suggested, mourning the loss of the wee weeds as they'd gone 'poof!'

"Or, I've had two unfortunate conversations with the woman and know just how she can pluck a nerve?"

Taking the offered treat with a sigh, Aziraphale leaned back on one elbow and stretched out his legs.

"I'm quite certain I hate that woman," he muttered. "Did you know what she did to Phoebe?"

He figured Wilson already knew how angry the angel was over what had happened to the young doctor, of course. But Phoebe's experience was that added bit of fuel that had pushed him over the edge.

Frowning slightly, Wilson shook his head.

"I hadn't heard that she'd hurt Phoebe but I can't say it surprises me now, particularly after ... well, after some of the things I've heard in general about this situation."

"Took away her voice," Aziraphale replied, around a bite of oatmeal biscuit. "I reversed it last night."

He glanced over at Wilson, starting to feel just a little bit worried now about the consequences of his meeting with Umbridge. "I...think it might be a good idea if you stayed away from that woman for a couple of days. She's quite mad, you know."

Nibbling on a gingersnap, Wilson popped the cookie into his mouth and set about pouring out tea for both himself and Aziraphale.

"Whelp," he began speaking around the cookie, which he quickly chewed and swallowed. "I agree with the mad part. What do you think got me in such trouble yesterday? I pretty much called her a paranoid lunatic to her face..."

Wilson paused.

"Actually, I think I did call her that to her face, hence the leeks. Anyway, I'll try my best, love but I won't just stand by if there is something I can do to help protect the students from her, even if it means tangling with her again."

"I know you won't, James," Aziraphale acknowledged, gratefully accepting the tea Wilson was pouring. "It's just that I have a sneaking suspicion that she may have threatened you as I was leaving today."

He turned his head to look at the young doctor. "If she does anything more to you, though," the angel added in a low voice, "I'll do a great deal worse than a little redecorating."

Ut oh.

"Redecorating?"

Aziraphale cleared his throat guiltily.

"Er...remember how everything in her office used to be pink?"

Wilson shuddered delicately.

"Unfortunately. I think I'll have nightmares in the color for a while after all of this."

"Quite." Aziraphale nodded, thinking that he'd gained a bit of animosity himself toward the color of late.

"It's not exactly pink anymore, though. I'm afraid I rather lost my temper."

Actually, he'd been pretty proud of how well he'd managed to keep his temper, considering.

Quickly, Wilson looked over his shoulder and up towards the school.

"Err ... the school seems to still be standing? What did you do to her?"

Because he was actually quite familiar with Aziraphale's temper and since he hadn't heard Umbridge's office explode, he was a bit concerned about what might have occured up there.

"I would never do anything to the school, James. There are innocent people who don't deserve to be hurt by the punishment that wretched harpy has coming to her."

Aziraphale scowled, and sipped at his tea for a moment until his temper cooled again. "I changed all the pink to tartan. Two patterns. Rather garish ones, I might add."

He looked up at Wilson out of the corner of his eye. "And then I turned her tea into ashes."

There was a pause and then, very slowly, Wilson began to chuckle.

The chuckles grew louder and louder until the mortal was outright belly laughing.

"Oh, love ... that's beautiful!"

The laughter drew a smile from the angel as well, and after a moment, he chuckled softly himself.

"She did seem rather unhappy about it. I just...well, what I really wanted to do was shake the woman senseless. But I thought perhaps a bit of her own medicine might suffice."

Aziraphale laid back on the blanket, looking up at the blue sky. "I've never in all my existence wanted so desperately to do harm to a person."

Oooo angel mattress!

Wilson wriggled himself around so as to take advantage of said angelic mattress, stretching out beside Phale and curling up on his chest.

"She does seem to bring out the best in people," he said dryly.

"Brings out something, anyway," Aziraphale commented. He wrapped one arm around the young doctor, feeling himself relax a bit more, and closed his eyes.

"If she does true harm to one of our kids, James...I will hurt her in return."

He didn't think he needed to elaborate on what he'd do if the woman did true harm to Wilson.

The only thing that would be better would be a wing blankie but Wilson figured he'd be pushing his luck to ask for one.

Instead, he remained sprawled across Phale, cuddled close.

"Let's not borrow trouble, lover mine. We just need to hold on till Zoe gets back, which will hopefully be soon."

Wilson paused and then chuckled.

"How about we distract ourselves from the unpleasant now by figuring out what sort of ohmyGodthankHeavensyourbackdon'tevergetpregnantandleaveusagain!!! gift to give Zoe when she returns?"

The suggestion drew a warm chuckle from the angel, and although he didn't fulfill the young doctor's wish for a wing blanket, he did wrap a small wash of power around Wilson's form, surrounding the mortal with sensation of love and protection.

"Heavens, I'm not certain there is a gift big enough to express the gratitude we'll all feel over having her back," Aziraphale laughed.

It wasn't that Anders was sorry about Phoebe getting her voice back; he was ecstatic.

But Bel kept talking about fireballing her, and Anders was feeling a little cranky about his lack of ability to do something that didn't require the help of somebody magical. Not that this was going to stop him from trying to implement at least one of the two plans he had in mind, but he was still going to have to get help and . . . that kind of bugged him.

There might have been a slight bit of stalk in his step as he made his way across the park.

"Oh," he said, his effort at nonchalance visible as he noticed the picnickers. "Hey."

Wilson looked up and smiled warmly at Anders as he saw the young man.

"Hey there, Anders. Cookie?" He offered, holding up a fairly well stocked container of ~~totally moddable~~ cookie types.

"That'd be nice," Anders said, managing to sound at least slightly subdued as he picked out an almond cookie. "Thanks, Doc."

He tried to manage a convincing smile as he nibbled at the cookie. He might not have succeeded all that well.

Aziraphale gave Anders a sympathetic smile.

"It's been a rough few weeks, hasn't it?" he said.

Anders, at least to Wilson who had known the young man almost since his first days on Fandom, did have a bit of an open face and so that also got him a cup of tea and a hand waved towards the edge of a blanket.

"Sit down and join us for a bit?" He offered, not wanting Anders to feel as if he needed to race off.

"Uh huh," said Anders sulkily around a bite of cookie, as he dropped down onto the edge of the blanket -- the scowl dissipating for just a moment as he flashed them a grateful look. "And I can't do anything about it except break the rules, because I think I'd get in trouble for blowing certain -- you know -- up.

"Despite how very satisfying blowing certain things up would be," Aziraphale agreed. "Well, consider this the required lecture on how you should do your best to keep out of trouble."

His tone was quite bland, however, and he gave Anders and Wilson both a little wink. "And now that I've fulfilled that obligation...I see nothing wrong with a bit of rule-breaking, when the situation calls for it."

"Just, if you do break a rule or two, don't go to her office if she summons you," Wilson said firmly. "She's utterly cracked in the head, Anders and unfortunately, she's fairly powerful as well."

Well, at least to Wilson she was powerful. Course that wasn't saying much given Wilson's inability to even ... blow things up.

"Come find Aziraphale or myself, promise?"

"She got Phoebe," said Anders in a low voice tense with frustration, "which I'm sure you know. And now she got Bridge, too. And if they couldn't stop her, what am I gonna be able to do? Bel's got all kinds of tricks up his sleeve, but me . . ."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then took a sip of his tea. "I will. Promise."

Aziraphale frowned. He didn't really have any way to keep up with which students were being attacked -- and in his mind, they were attacks -- so he hadn't heard about Bridge.

"What did she do to Mr Carson?" he asked, moving perhaps just a bit closer to Wilson, in an instinctively protective gesture.

"I heard on the radio last night that he got hit by a spell, so I went to find out." The scowl on Anders's face deepened a little bit further. "Xander said something about heat breath that hurt his throat. So that's two people I care a lot about. And then there's the threats and the insults and it's making me frakking nuts."

Wilson shook his head.

"This is getting to be beyond insane. I've never heard of Bridge doing anything that would warrent such a punishment."

"It isn't about whether the punishment fits the crime, for her," Aziraphale remarked, shaking his head. "It's about power, and wanting to frighten people into absolute obedience. She's a bloody menace."

"Bridge is one of the best people I know," said Anders, forcefully. "He's training to be a cop, for frak's sake, and he takes that seriously. And Phoebe? I don't even have to tell you how mad I am about that."

Reaching up, Wilson rubbed his hand over his face and shook his head.

"Unfortunately, it seems all our hands are tied for the time being. I guess, it's important to remember that despite what that prune faced harpy thinks, this situation is only temporary."

"And so far, the things she's done have been temporary. Hurtful, yes, and sometimes scary. But neither permanent nor truly dangerous."

Aziraphale looked at the other two men. "I don't think she'd dare really test us. I think she knows there's a line she had better not cross."

"I hope not," Anders muttered. "But the way she gets more and more crazy in the announcements every day, I have no idea how much longer that's going to last. And me . . . I'm just an ordinary powerless guy. I feel so frakking helpless."

"I know how you feel," Wilson muttered in a tone that was really only meant for Anders' ears.

Sighing, he gave his head a shake.

"I kinda have to side with Anders in worrying what might happen if she becomes even more unhindged. She obviously has access to powers and knowledge on how to use it. I didn't get the idea that she might be off her medication out of thin air you know?"

The tone might have been only meant for Anders to hear, but it was hard to keep the words from reaching the angel's ears. He cast a worried frown in Wilson's direction, and then nodded unhappily.

"She's one woman. Pitting herself against an entire town full of people. People who care about one another, and who have seen bigger threats. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if she were pushed beyond her limits. If she broke down completely, there'd be no choice but for the board to replace her. And we'd be completely within our rights to lock her up, for her own good, even."

He looked at Wilson again, and then at Anders. "It doesn't take someone with special powers to hit this woman where it hurts. She can't stand the idea of anyone flaunting her authority. I think it galls and frightens her more than any threat of personal harm."

Anders remembered what Wilson had said on his birthday, and blinked. If anybody understood what he meant . . . "Yeah," he muttered, "I guess you would, huh?"

"It's not hitting her where it hurts that I worry about," he added, looking back at Aziraphale. "It's her trying to get people back for it. And everybody who's been affected by what she's done so far."

Anders' response drew a curious glance from Wilson and he gave him a slight nod and then made a mental note to follow up with him, sometime when they could talk, just the two of them.

"Unfortunately, we can't stop people from standing up for themselves and we can't stop her from punishing people for making that choice."

"No, we can't do of those things. And I don't think we should."

Aziraphale made an apologetic face. "James knows how I feel about choices, and about trials, Mr Anders. Part of me wishes we could protect everyone from having to suffer these rules and punishments. But part of me also believes that it wouldn't be fair to do so."

He paused, and then shook his as he added, "Not that I'm above making an exception when the people being threatened are my own 'family'," the angel admitted. "Believe me, I'd prefer to just banish the madwoman and have done with her."

Anders sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Being human is way more complicated than you'd think it is, sometimes."

After a moment's thought, Wilson reached over and tossed a cookie at Anders' head.

"If you have time, swing by the clinic tomorrow, would you?"

Aziraphale smothered a laugh with his hand as Wilson cookie-assaulted the young man.

"Haven't you two already had that talk?" he teased.

"Oh, gods," laughed Anders, snagging the cookie -- but breaking it in half in the process. "Don't remind me."

Tilting his head inquisitively at Wilson, he nodded. "Sure thing, I will."

"Excellent," Wilson said with a grin.

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The Park - Tuesday Afternoon

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