Rose can't say she's too surprised when Landon officially tells her he's begun the paperwork to transfer to the American Muggle Relations MACUSA equivalent, but that doesn't mean she's not a bit disappointed by the decision all the same. One can see the writing on the wall and still hope for a miracle, after all.

At least he's not leaving immediately.

"The guy they have filling in right now is ultimately going to be the Head Political Representative while I'll be managing all the behind-the-scenes stuff which I'm fine with." Landon tells her one day during a rare thirty minute break between meetings, training, and interviews. They're taking the time to go through the newest giant pile of applications Department Head Morgan had dumped on their desks overnight as well as to just relax and chat with each other. "After this year I'll be fine if I never have to speak with a politician again for the rest of my life."

Rose laughs. "Color me jealous - the Council made clear in our last meeting that they expect to keep working with me in the future, and that if I sent in anyone 'subordinate' they would see it as an insult and disrespectful." She tells him, though she knows she's smiling. After everything they've survived this year - her and Landon's fallout included - the Council really doesn't bother her as much as they used to. Especially considering the one guy who's actually become more and more of an ally over the course of the year - she still isn't sure what changed his mind, but she's not complaining about that one whit.

Landon chuckles as well. "Poor thing." He teases. "Can't get away with dropping your unwanted work on other people anymore."

Rose nearly chokes on her own startled laugh. "Hey, piss off, that was months ago!" She whines playfully, kicking at him and grinning to show she's not upset at all. Really, she's thrilled - if they can joke about it then that means he really has forgiven her. "I'll have you know my work ethic these days is flawless - even my incredibly picky partner was impressed."

He grins back. "I have to say, I just hope this new guy is reliable - I'd hate to end up with a crummy partner in a permanent job."

Rose hums. "At least you have one?" She offers after a moment. "Looking through all of these applications makes me realize exactly how naive and ridiculous I was a year ago - these are children. They have no knowledge of the world, and now they wish to shape it."

Landon looks at her in confused amusement. "Is that a quote?" He asks, and Rose gives him a predatory grin.

"Of course! Rose Evans, twenty nineteen, one of the greatest thinkers of the century." She sobers after a moment. "But seriously, how the heck am I supposed to put together a proper team when at least seventy percent of these applicants are twenty-one and younger? Half of them have never had a real job before! Look at this resume, it's entirely debate trips. I mean, sure, debate is a good skill that not many people have, but the cover letter basically implies we'll never find anyone with these skills anywhere else when I've seen three other resumes that are basically this one saying the same thing." She snorts. "The real world isn't some planned debate, and I'm looking forward a little bit to the first time some of these guys actually have to stand up in a hearing and make their case - ten Galleons says they trip up and panic during cross-examination."

Landon snorts. "I mean, we went in with even less experience than that, so if we managed it I think they'll be alright." He points out. "But I know what you mean - there are a surprising number of applications with 'McDonald's' as their one big job, and don't get me wrong - customer service absolutely prepares you for dealing with entitled jackasses but a lot of these people were only there a few months."

Rose shakes her head with a grin. "I feel sorry for Department Head Morgan and the Senior Undersecretary now." She jokes. "I can only imagine how much harder this would have been last year!"

The conversation is comfortable, and they set aside about a dozen more applicants to be called in for an interview. After that they have to wrap up their short break and Rose heads for the Council room for her third meeting of the day.

The lift ride down is thankfully quick - she and Landon may have pushed their break a little bit longer than they should have - and she hops off and trots confidently down the hall to the Council meeting room.

This gathering is really just a formality at this point, but the group wants weekly updates on progress in the transition from Initiative to full Department and Rose is happy to keep telling them about how well everything is going, mostly to rub it in the faces of the snottier members who obviously are waiting for something to go horrifically sideways. But with Yurina and Finn now out of the picture, Rose doubts things will ever be as bad as they were this past year. There will, of course, be other setbacks, dramatic moments, and personal screwups on the part of the new Department, that Rose doesn't doubt. She's just confident that after surviving the absolute nightmare that was the end of twenty eighteen and the first three quarters of twenty nineteen their group is sturdy enough to survive anything thrown its way.

She smiles brightly as she pushed open the Council's door, knocking as she does to announce her arrival. "Good afternoon gentlemen! I'm here to report that all continues to be well on the eighth floor."

She grins at the few scowls she gets, and then launches into a quick overview of everything that's been done in the past week.

"Interviews are continuing to go well even as more applications come in each day - most likely we'll have every position filled by the end of September at the absolute latest, and only because Aruna and Liam are being very particular about who they hire for the Law Offices." She jokes easily. "There have been eight new hires this week and training for everyone already brought on officially began yesterday. So far that's going well, though I'll have a more thorough report on effectiveness next week when we've had time to actually see how effective the training is.

"I have officially been named the sole Head of the Policial Cooperation Offices as of a few days ago. Landon Colvin will continue to work as my support for the next few months, but he has formally begun the process of requesting a transfer to return to the United States. As such we have added a secretarial position for Political Cooperation which I will personally be interviewing for in the coming weeks." She pauses to think, and then nods. "And that's about everything different from last week. Any questions?"

The Council members don't rasie their hands - Merlin forbid they learn proper manners, honestly - and instead immediately begin pestering her with inquiries, most of which she answers by repeating the information she'd already given (as usual). After about an hour, when the jerks can't find anything to get angry about (and the one decent one tells her to keep up the good work) Rose heads back to the lift and up again to the eighth floor. She has her afternoon training session to do, which at this point is mostly just getting to know their four new hires and trying to figure out where best they'll fit into the Office based on their strengths, weaknesses, and general personality.

It's a good group honestly - three are in their twenties, one in her late thirties, and they're all relatively eager to learn as quickly as they can.

When Rose arrives back in her new offices the thirty-eight year old is already there, talking curiously with Pup. Miranda Whits is always early, so Rose isn't surprised to see her, and she walks over to the two with a bright grin.

"Hey Miranda! Pup isn't stealing you away for International Interests, is he?" She jokes, and Miranda laughs and shakes her head. She's a former housewife who's youngest just began first grade and who is currently in the middle of a very messy divorce, so Rose is always amazed at how optimistic and generally amiable the older woman always is, especially considering she's a lot more experienced than even Rose herself.

Pup raises his hands defensively. "I'm not, I promise. If she chooses to come over from the dark side she's always welcome though." He adds with a bit of a wicked grin, and both women laugh. They continue to chat as the rest of the new hires file in, and once Rose's youngest employee Tyler bursts in they quickly wrap up their personal chatter to get started.

After initial opening statements, Noah takes his two employees to the International Interests part of the offices, and Rose takes sole leadership of the remaining people. "Alright, so today I wanted to go ahead and throw you all right into the deep end of what we'll be doing here. Each of you will be given a topic based on the skills and specialties you shared with me yesterday, and you'll have one hour to put together a short presentation on the topic. You'll need to pretend that the person you're presenting to has absolutely no clue about any of the details, as depending on who your audience is they may not. We'll be presenting to each other at the end of the hour, and there will be fifteen minutes after each presentation for the rest of us to ask questions - and I for one will be making sure to ask tougher ones. Any questions?"

The four shake their heads, and Rose hands out their pre-assigned topics and settles back to read through a few more applications while her new hires get to work.

"Ms. Evans?" That's Riley, a girl the same age as Rose who despite being softer spoken had one of the stronger resumes due to her two summer internships working for the attorney general. "Are we able to consult external sources for our presentations?"

Rose hums. "You may, though obviously it must remain within the one hour limit." She reminds the woman, who nods, gives a quick 'thank you' and then darts out the door. The other three glance after her for a moment, obviously considering if they should gather outside testimony as well, but ultimately they all remain in place. Riley barely gets back before the end of the hour, but she looks quite pleased so obviously she'd managed to fully accomplish whatever it was she'd set out to do.

Rose puts down her stack of applications, leans back in her desk chair, and points to Miranda. "Right, pencils down. Ms. Whit, you're up first. What can you tell us about the benefits of integrated magic/Muggle schooling?"

The next three hours fly by - all four employees do a decently solid job in their presentations and defenses, though Tyler trips over himself a bit when Rose successfully gets him angry.

"You need to watch your emotional reactions." She tells him when they finish his question period, "Those can be the difference between someone agreeing with you and writing you off as an overdramatic fop. We need to present as professional in all situations."

Tyler looks suitably chastened, and Rose dismisses them all soon after, assuring them they're doing well and reminding them that the next day's training starts an hour earlier.

She glances at the clock to find it's nearly six o'clock now - she hadn't meant to go so long, but Riley's presentation on possible governmental integration ended up being fourty-five minutes long, and the discussion afterward had gone another twenty. It had been fascinating for sure, but Rose is now an hour behind where she'd expected to be. She can only laugh, though - it had been fun, after all.

She's surprised to find that Landon is still at their desk, flicking through applications, and she hurries over to join him.

"Hey, I would have thought you'd gone home by now." She greets him. "I hope you weren't waiting for me?"

Landon shrugs. "I don't mind; I'm going to call a few of these guys in anyway, so it was time well spent." He says gesturing towards a small stack of applications on the desk. "I actually wanted to run a few of today's interviews by you - I think there are a couple that would be good additions to the current team."

Rose smiles and settles across from him. "Sounds good - hit me."

They talk work for maybe fourty minutes, at which point they do end up veering off course to just talk casually, not bothering to pack up just yet. They aren't the last ones in the office by a long shot, but it's a lot quieter now than it had been earlier, and it's almost reminiscent of their time in the Initiative.

"So America, huh?" Rose finally says, unable to veer away from that particular elephant any longer.

Landon smiles. It's mostly a wistful, happy expression, though there are traces of something bittersweet folded into it as well. "Yeah. I'm sending out my transfer forms first thing in the morning when the owl post reopens." He confirms. "It's weird. On the one hand I'm obviously really happy to be going home, but on the other I am going to miss you guys."

Rose hums her agreement, wondering if it's appropriate to make a joke at this point. She ultimately decides that it's Landon, and if he's expecting reverence from here after everything they've been through then he obviously doens't know her very well. "Anyone you'll miss in particular?" She asks with a grin, placing a pointed emphasis on the last word. "Maybe a certain reporter?"

Landon chuckles, a bit sadly. "I mean, yeah, obviously I'm going to miss Celine. I really like her, you know? It would have been nice to see where that could have gone if we had time to properly explore it." He shrugs. "But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and... I don't want to put my life on hold for a maybe, and I can't ask her to do the same for me."

Rose pats his shoulder sympathetically. "Sometimes things just don't line up the way we want them to." She agrees quietly. "But hey, it's been a heck of a ride, hasn't it?"

Landon's smile is stronger now, less nostalgic and more alive. "Yeah." He agrees. "I don't think I'd trade it for the world."

Rose would have to agree.

Desmond is beyond ready to start the new school year in September - has been for months now thanks to all his down time during the repeated crises of the year - but there's still one major problem. He still doesn't have anybody to take over as Head of the Education Reform Division of the Social Support Offices, and time is very quickly running out. As it is, even if he finds someone literally this second he'd only have a little over a week to properly train them for the role, at which point they'll be entirely on their own to figure things out as they go.

He does have a few newly hired employees, but they're either former substitute teachers with no real curriculum creation experience (Ashley) or barely out of school themselves (Wyndon and Rider). Desmond needs someone with solid, full-time teaching experience to keep pushing Roberts and the private institutions to modernize and standardize their education across magical lines. There has been a little more interest in change now that things are officially, legally staying open, but it's a slow process and Desmond still has to do a lot of leaning on people to keep things moving. Much as he does like the three Education employees, none of them have the determination or passion to keep up the pressure the way he has been.

But because his Division is a smaller one he can only justify two more hires - one who will take over his position - and so he's being extremely picky with the latest incoming applicants. He wants to make sure he has a strong leader, as well as a fourth team member who compliments the three already present.

He also, admittedly, is waiting for someone magical to apply. Everyone in the Division at the moment is fully Muggle, with no real understanding of how the magical education system works. Having someone from the other side really is common sense. Desmond's problem is that no one from the magical side of the world is actually applying for his Division (or at least, Mrs. Morgan isn't sending him any).

He's honestly getting a bit stressed at this point, and he ends up dumping all of it onto Estelle one evening over dinner.

She gives him a sympathetic look when he finished explaining the problem. "Well, that is unfortunate. None of the people you worked with this past year are able to take over? I know that's what some of the people leaving are doing."

Desmond shakes his head with a sigh. "Unfortunately they're all busy for the exact same reasons that I am. Plus, none of them wants to give up teaching."

Estelle laughs a bit, quickly covering when he looks at her miserably. "Sorry, sorry. You academic types are all so similar, it's cute." She thinks for a moment. "Well, if you aren't getting any luck with people coming to you, I guess the only thing left is to go actively searching for someone to fill the role."

Desmond frowns. "I wouldn't even know where to begin." He admits after a moment. "I suppose I can ask Roberts at our next meeting, but that's not for a few days yet and I really want to find someone by tomorrow."

Estelle hums thoughtfully, hiding what Desmond is certain is a smile behind her hand as she thinks. "Well obviously I can't promise anything, but have you considered trying to recruit someone from the Department of Magical Education? They're pretty small so they may not be willing to lose anyone, but it's certainly worth asking, right?"

Desmond blinks at her, long enough that she frowns and raises an eyebrow. "Des? You still here or did I somehow set off a  mental spiral?"

He shakes his head sharply. "No, no I... There's an Education Department in the Ministry? How is it that this is literally the first time I'm hearing about it all year?"

It's Estelle's turn to blink in shock before she starts laughing. After a moment, Desmond chuckles as well, though less from mirth and more from the fact that if he doesn't laugh he may start crying due to sheer stress.

Eventually his girlfriend manages to calm down enough to form words again. "Sorry, that's just... wow, I knew that Department was falling to the wayside, but that's a whole other level. I guess maybe they won't be the best place to find someone, then, if even Deputy Headmaster Roberts didn't say anything about them. I recall him being pretty strict about details, so if they didn't come up at all then they're really not in touch with academia anymore." She tilts her head in thought for a moment, before addin, "Or they're just super swamped and Roberts didn't want you bothering them. Which is also possible."

Desmond just sighs, and Estelle promises to ask around the Law Enforcement department the next day to see if any of her coworkers happen to know anybody who might be up for the task of taking over for Desmond, not that he's too optimistic she'll find anything. What bobby is friends with a school teacher? Nonetheless one with the kind of experience he's looking for?

No, the Education Department is probably his last, best hope to find someone effective, otherwise he'll probably need to start training Ashley for the role, regardless of her wishy-washy tendencies. She's both the oldest and most experienced member of the team to date, as well as the most experienced of all the applications he's been receiving, so there isn't really another logical choice.

He and Estelle move on from work talk after that, and overall the evening is a very enjoyable one, even if Desmond does maintain a steady undercurrent of panic and dread throughout it. He at least has a plan, which helps him keep his nerves tamed during the rest of the night.

The next morning they're making themselves known loud and clear again, and Estelle can only sigh when he jumps out of bed before the alarm has even gone off in order to start getting ready for the day. She turns over to watch him get ready, not commenting though Desmond can pretty much hear her disapproval anyway. He knows her too well.

"I know nothing will be open for over another hour." He tells her, and swears he hears her sigh, "I just couldn't keep sleeping. You can go back to bed if you want."

She sits up and rubs her eyes blearily. "No, I'm awake now too." She sighs. "Though I must say that as much as I love barely getting any sleep, I'm not sure how functional you'll be in a few hours. When you have this sort of nervous energy it usually results in a hard crash a few hours later."

Desmond knows she's right, but he also knows he won't be able to sleep either way so he may as well take advantage of the energy boost his stress is giving him for now. "I'll have coffee later." He decides, and Estelle snorts.

"Really? You've never been much of a coffee guy - do you even know if it will work?" She asks, and he grimaces and nods, prompting a laugh. "Oh my gosh is this a trauma story? Share." She demands as she finally rolls out of bed and walks over to join him in the bathroom, bumping him to the side to brush her teeth.

He rolls his eyes slightly. "It's not anything drastic." He says. "I just get... very excitable, when there's caffiene in my system is all. Last time I had coffee was before one of my lectures after an all-nighter and I high-key insulted the professor's intellect. I mean," He adds as Estelle attempts to not choke on her toothpaste around her laughter, "Everyone agreed with me, the man was a dunce. We just normally wouldn't have said anything. So coffee makes me a little loose-tongued, I guess, so I don't love having it. But I do need to be awake today."

Estelle looks distinctly amused. "I want to get lunch, just so I can see this. You're chatty, but we both know you usually have full control of your vocal chords. I want to see what excitable, filter-less Desmond looks like." She laughs at whatever expression he makes (which is definitely not a pout). "I think it'll be cute! Come on, I can tell you if I found anything interesting in my hunt for Aurors and Hit-wizards with nerd friends." She wheedles, as if Desmond was ever going to say no in the first place.

They end up making a large breakfast, since they have the time to do so, and then they walk together from Desmond's flat over to the Ministry about twenty minutes away. Estelle keeps the conversation light but still intellectually stimulating as she shares her latest case files (after the situation with Finn she's decided to begin training towards becoming an investigator, which is safer than being a Hit-Wizard and has a lot of the more interesting cases). Desmond occasionally makes comments, but is mostly content to just listen to his girlfriend excitedly chat. Normally he'd be all-in on this topic, trying to help discover discrepancies or details that would help solve the case, but today he's too wired and twitchy to really be able to give his all to the hypothetical Estelle is sharing.

Once they reach the Ministry, Desmond decides to go straight to the Education Department and asks the new greeter where exactly it's located. She has to stop and actually think, which really isn't a good sign, then tells him it's on the first floor, opposite the Minister's Offices.

With increasing trepidation he makes his way to the simple wooden door that's been pointed out, unsurprised he'd never seen it before now - in a room as busy and large as the Atrium is, there are probably quite a few small offices scattered about that he's completely unaware of. He debates for a moment on whether to knock or not, but ultimately just pushes the door open, knocking at the same time to announce his presence.

Despite having not expected much, the office beyond still manages to surprise him with how small, disorganized, and generally dingy it is.

A single man looks up from one of the desks looking frazzled. "Yes, hello?" He says, and then properly focuses on Desmond. "Oh! Oh you're from the Initiative. Yes, no one is really here right now? We mostly meet during testing periods so I'm the only one working right now but... um, how can I help you?"

Desmond just gapes at him for a moment before quickly swallowing and clearing his throat. "Um, right. As you seem to know, I'm an employee of the Initiative - specifically, I'm the Education Specialist for the team. I was hoping you might have knowledge of a person who could take over my position as Head of-"

The man doesn't even let him finish, shaking his head regretfully. "Nope, no sir, we're just one of the smaller, part-time Departments. I'm sorry you don't have anyone to take over, but there's not anyone here who could help you out."

Desmond is honestly taken a bit aback by the rude dismissal, but he takes a deep breath and tries another tactic. He refuses to let this visit be in total vain.

"Perhaps, then, you would know of a way to contact people within the magical world who might be interested in working for us?" He asks politely. "We only have Muggle representation in the Education Division at the moment, and we of course want both sides of the world working together on this highly important area."

That at least gets the man thinking a bit, before he finally shrugs. "Dunno for certain, but you probably would have to get someone out of the most recent graduating class at Hogwarts - those're the ones who won't have jobs yet. Can't help you past that."

Desmond forces himself to thank the man, despite his honestly being horridly unhelpful, and heads for the eighth floor to mull over the minimal new information and try to do something with it. At the very least, he might be able to ask Roberts about recent graduates - the man could potentially give him a list and Desmond could start reaching out to them to offer them spots on the team. But of course, that doesn't solve his main problem - an eighteen year old fresh out of school isn't going to have the skills or experience to run the Division.

He collapses at his desk and pulls out his pencil and notebook, determined to try and work something out before his lunch with Estelle. At the very least he hopes to come up with a proper, worst-case-scenario game plan that he can put into action this afternoon before his three current employees arrive for training.

He gets a... decent outline sketched, though he has to admit he really hopes that things somehow turn out for him and he won't have to resort to the rough plan. Sighing, he gets up from his desk again and heads down to the Atrium, waving to a few other Initiative members as he goes.

He does wonder, as he takes the lift down, if any of them might have suggestions for his dilemma? Kylee might be worth asking at least, seeing as she's had to find three separate Division Heads in the past three weeks. Surely she's developed some skills for locating good division leaders.

He'll have to try and catch her right after lunch - she's almost constantly (though unsurprisingly) rushing around, so she's notoriously difficult to get hold of these days. He can't say the new idea really makes him feel any more confident, but it is nice to have a plan that isn't his worst-case-scenario now.

Estelle is grinning brightly when she meets him in the Atrium, and he can't help smiling back. "Good morning?" He guesses, and she beams.

"Excellent morning - Tristan tripped over someone's dropped paperweight and did a front handspring to avoid falling, but then he screwed up the landing because there was a desk in the way. It was both awesome and absolutely hilarious." She declares, tugging him towards the Floo hall as she talks. "Also I totally fixed your problem, you may begin bowing down to me whenever you want to."

Desmond frowns, but before he can ask any further about that particular information bomb she hops through the Diagon Alley Floo connection and he's forced to wait before he can push her on it.

She's cheerfully evasive on the other side of the Floo, though, just saying that he'll see soon enough and refusing to give any more than that. Desmond eventually gives up - if Estelle says she found something, it's not like he doesn't believe that she at least thinks she has, and considering the rather desperate situation he's ready to try almost anything at this point. Really, trusting his girlfriend is one of his better options.

So he lets her pull him down the Alley to their usual diner and the to their usual booth by the windows. It's here that the conversation turns back to work.

"So how did things go with the Education Department?" She asks curiously, not bothering to look at the menu that they both have memorized by now. "Any good leads?"

Desmond sighs. "Not in the slightest." He admits. "I'm going to owl Roberts to see if I can get a list of unemployed recent Hogwarts graduates and try reaching out to them to see if there's any interest, but that's hardly a solution to the bigger problem of leadership. I'm half-ready to just start preparing Ashely today and hope that two of the grads will accept my invitation to apply."

Estelle hums, her eyes trained more behind Desmond that at him, but that's not uncommon when she's deep in thought. What's less common is when she lights up and starts waving.

"Estelle, what are you...?" Desmond twists in his seat to see if she's waving at someone (logic dictates she must be, but he hasn't the faintest clue who she would be waving at here of all places), and spots three men making their way towards the booth, none of whom he recognizes.

The shortest of the bunch shoves himself into the seat beside Estelle, one of the other two men sliding in next to him. The third man, tall and dark and honestly a bit intimidating, looks over at Desmond with an apologetic smile.

"I'm guessing you didn't know we were coming?" He asks, as Desmond shuffles uncertainly to the side so the man can sit. "I apologize, Seamus said that Estelle would inform you. I'm Dean Thomas, former English teacher for the Bromfords School. Unfortunately I'm currently unemployed after my previous employers had an... unfortunate reaction to my status as a wizard. Seamus says you're looking for someone to help out with the Education Division of the new Muggle Relations Department?"

Desmond blinks, taking a moment to process all that, before turning to Estelle who's beaming smugly.

"Told you I fixed your problem." She says proudly. "Dean's got massive experience teaching both magic and Muggle schools, and he lives in both world too! Isn't it great?"

Desmond nods slowly, looking back to Dean. "If you're up to it, it does sound like this could be a good fit for you." He agrees. "I hope you don't mind if we make this lunch into an informal interview? If we both agree at the end that you're good for this role you could come with us back to the Ministry to meet the current employees of the Division this afternoon?"

Dean looks a bit regretful. "Not this afternoon, I'm afraid- I have to take my boys shopping for Hogwarts. I'd be happy to report in first thing in the morning though?"

Desmond nods immediately - it will give him a chance to prep the other three (and maybe find a fourth) anyway, which is probably a good idea knowing how Wyndon and Rider can get. All in all it's a very successful lunch, and he's feeling worlds better as he and Estelle (and Seamus Finnigan, a Hit-Wizard and Dean's friend who had set the whole thing up after Estelle told him about Desmond's dilemma) head back to the Ministry for their afternoon work.

Training is solid, and all three Division employees seem interested, if not excited, about meeting Dean the next day. It's not the warmest of welcomes, but Desmond knows that the three are just used to him. Give them the next week and he's confident the transition will be a smooth one - Dean is one of those people who's impossible to dislike.

Desmond is practically humming when he heads back to his flat and begins writing Roberts to get the list of recent Hogwarts graduates. With his biggest stressor now fixed - and by a wizard! - he's no longer as worried about getting someone magical as the fourth member of the team, which means he can look back over some of his rejected apps tomorrow during lunch to see if any of them is worth calling in for an interview.

He's startled when his fireplace suddenly lights up and Estelle hops through, a bit sooty but grinning all the same. He looks at her with bemusement.

"Hello? I didn't know we were having dinner today." He observes, glancing at the takeout bags in her hand with a confused but honest smile.

She grins back. "I figured today was worth celebrating - you got your new Head, I got to help out, and we both got to suffer through Seamus and his husband being insufferably cute over a decade into their marriage."

Desmond laughs at that. The third man at their lunch had indeed been Seamus's husband, but he wouldn't say they'd had to suffer the happy couple - if anything, he's rather hopeful that whoever he ends up with will still like him as much as Nathan and Seamus like each other several years into their marriage.

Estelle had brought Pad Thai, and the two of them opt for an informal dinner in front of the TV, playing muted made-for-television movies while talking about life and the Initiative and what comes next.

They've hit a comfortable lull in the conversation when Estelle shifts uncertainly. "Actually, speaking of the future, I've been doing some thinking, lately. Did you know that Finn and Yurina were lovers?"

Desmond raises an eyebrow. "I... would not have guessed that." He finally says, unsure of where the comment is coming from, exactly, but morbidly interested despite himself. "How did you find out?"

"Letters, actually. Since Fe- since we know how they communicated with each other, Aidan Ward was able to raid Finn's belongings and reverse his messages. Nearly twenty years of communication between the two of them, and by year four it was pretty obvious there was romantic tension going on on both ends." She shrugs. "I guess it really made me think - love comes in all forms, even places we might never expect it. Do you think Voldemort loved anyone, when he was alive?"

Desmond hums, shrugging. "I don't know enough about that history to even guess." He decides. "It is certainly a testament to how powerful a romantic connection can be. You have to wonder if they'd have been nearly as effective if there wasn't that element present."

Estelle tilts her head curiously, and Desmond elaborates.

"Well, being in love involved a level of deep trust in the other person - without that trust, would Finn have eventually gotten bored and flipped sides again? Would Yurina have offed him at the first sign of things going sideways and replaced him with the next person on the chain? They each trusted the other was doing their best with what was available, and that the other person would overcome any obstacles that appeared. It would actually be really sweet if it wasn't so... well." He shrugs. "World-ending-y?"

Estelle chuckles, a bit subdued. "Yeah. Yeah I see your point." She's quiet for a few moments, obviously thinking hard about something, and Desmond leaves her to it. He can tell there's more to this entire conversation thread that he's not yet privy to, but he figures Estelle will fill him in if and when he needs to know. They both go back to eating, and Desmond is honestly content. He has his replacement for the Initiative, his curriculum is complete, and he's a lot more optimistic about finding a fourth team member in the next week than he had been even that morning. And ending the day with good takeout and his girlfriend? Nothing could be better than this.

Well, at leats he'd thought that, until Estelle suddenly rolls herself off the couch and onto one knee, and it takes Desmond a moment before he actually realizes what's happening.

"Des, I know we've been through some ups and downs, especially in this last year." Estelle says, and Desmond can already feel himself starting to turn red. "But after all of it I can't imagine doing any of it with anyone else. Desmond Edevane, would you-"

He's dropping to the floor and kissing her before she has a chance to finish.

As it turns out, ending the day with good takeout and his fiancée is just a little bit better.

Author's Note: I totally forgot I'd put in solid confirmation that Finn and Yurina were lovers xD Anyway, I think this chapter is a little less bittersweet than Saturdays? Still some goodbyes, but overall thre's a lot of love and hope going around for everyone <3 Only one more chapter this Saturday, and then we finally have to say goodbye ;; I'll save my full spiel for then!