Hi Castle! How did Abby find out about magic in the AU?
A chance to talk about an AU??? Yes please
After about 6 months of working there, Abby accidentally walked in on Rose while her latest client was still recovering from having their mind rifled through. It could have been brushed off except for Abby suddenly hearing Rose’s voice in her head telling her to close the door. It was a moment of carelessness on Rose’s part and Abby was already perceptive enough as it was. Only instead of leaving the office and closing the door, Abby stepped inside and waited for Rose to be done. She watched while Rose finished the rest of her meeting and let the client stumble out the door several million dollars poorer- all while never speaking a word. At the time Rose figured she could have a little fun with Abby before firing her and looking for a new assistant. Maybe she’d hire a vampire to take care of the memories of that day, or of Abby’s time at the office altogether, it didn’t really matter to her beyond being mildly inconvenient. So she beckoned Abby to come towards the desk, still only speaking in her mind, and gave a half-hearted answer to whatever problem Abby had barged into her office for to begin with. She thought it was cute when Abby not-so-subtly tried pinching her own arm and decided to peer into her mind a little more.
Abby wore her heart on her sleeve and her inner monologue, while loud and cluttered, was no different. So if Rose poked around and Abby’s secret fantasies about her boss happened to rise to the surface, well that really wasn’t Rose’s fault, now was it? And it was cute watching Abby try to keep a straight face while suddenly all she could think about was Rose and, more importantly, Rose’s *comments* on how she thought about Rose. It was only a few minutes at most and when Rose was bored she instructed Abby to take some files back to her desk to organize and to close her office door behind her. Abby did as she was told and realized that neither she nor Rose had opened their mouths once.
She put two and two together after about a day because, as insane as it sounded, how else could Rose be so good at digging up dirt on people? Even people who dropped in to the office without warning who Rose wouldn’t have had *time* to do research on. She always just seemed to… know. So Abby did what she believed to be the smartest thing she’d ever done and kept her mouth shut. She didn’t mention what had happened to anyone, not anyone in the office, no one in her personal life, not even a journal tucked away on a shelf she never looked at. She didn’t breathe a word about it to anyone and kept doing her job as if nothing had happened.
And nothing else happened for the rest of the week. She wasn’t fired or demoted or taken out into the woods in the dead of night with a shovel. She just kept doing her job as Rose’s personal assistant. Then the month passed and still nothing. Abby kept doing as she was told and didn’t try to think about how Rose watched her so much more closely now.
More months passed and nothing changed for Abby except for the fact that, if anything, she was spending *more* time in the office. Rose kept seeing clients and the business kept growing more and more, so meetings got longer and Rose needed Abby by her side to take notes and run errands almost constantly. Abby did her best not to think too hard about how some nights she’d be asked to stay at the office and just sit across from Rose as she worked on the latest contract. Nothing to do but let her mind wander and then desperately try to reel it back in. And she definitely didn’t notice how sometimes when Abby’s mind would wander a little too far and she’d desperately try thinking of anything else to distract herself, it looked like Rose had to cover a smile or her pen would conveniently stop writing.
With all the evidence piling up that most certainly didn’t make her sound like a crazy person, Abby started thinking a little more instead of less. She’d coincidentally remember a dream or make a mental comment about a particularly unpleasant client while in Rose’s office and wait to see if there was any change to her boss’s expression. There rarely was, but once in a blue moon Rose’s eyes would dart over to Abigail like she was shocked, or impressed, more likely than not just exasperated because even when Abby doesn’t open her mouth she’s still a chatterbox.
After Abigail’s 1 year anniversary with the company, she started getting anonymous emails, calls, DM’s all offering her exorbitant amounts of money for any information on Rose, or anyone high up in the office. She ignored them all; blocked, deleted, and moved on to trail behind Rose to her next meeting. This went on for weeks. New emails and new numbers, offers of wealth morphing into outright threats. Again, deleted and ignored. She knew that at this point she probably should have gone to the police, to Rose at the very least. But so many people would talk about how no one had ever lasted so long in her position, how she was the *only* person to make it so far and she had only gotten their by carrying on and keeping quiet. So she stayed quiet until the last email showed up in her inbox.
The office was sent home early that night, the entire building shut down except for the private office on the top floor. Abigail had stayed late dozens of times but this was the first time that even the security team had been told to go home. It was just Abigail and Rose, truly alone for the first time.
Rose offered Abby a promotion. Even higher salary, better benefits, and the expectation that Abigail would be carrying out all her normal duties until her replacement could be found. Technically Abigail was a PA under the company, but this promotion would make her Rose’s subordinate in strictly personal affairs. A round-the-clock assistant at Rose’s beck and call at any time, any place, all on Rose’s dime. The details were left intentionally vague but all Abby knew was that she would be attending to Rose for whatever she needed or wanted and was expected to be as discrete as she had been up to this point. (Abby had guessed many of those offers and threats were all a test but she didn’t dare say that out loud, what was the point anyway? Rose already knew.)
Abigail said yes and her immediate promotion was accompanied by a Non-Wielder Liaison License, procured by Rose pulling several strings to make sure it all happened under the table. Abby was expected to learn everything she could about the magical world in order to best serve Rose and she took to the work instantly. Any questions she had were answered and any roadblocks to her education would be conveniently removed without her ever having to ask.
Rose had long since decided that Abby was more useful as an assistant if she was kept close and given a few extra privileges in order to keep her entertaining. Plus it would have been so inconvenient to try and find a new assistant, at least for now until an up and coming Open Wielder would apply to work for her.
And the rest is morally questionable history!
