Sand and Snow

"Good," Robert said. "She needs to destress. She's not taking it well. I'm concerned about her. I don't see her often like this, but she's grieving. She's doing her best to stuff her grief out of the way so it doesn't affect her. I'm not sure exactly why she's hurting, but she is. When she hurts she tries to just pretend she doesn't hurt as if it will all go away. But its not that easy. She just doesn't do that so well. When Remus died, it damned near killed her. I dont' ever want to see her hurt like that again. Not ever. I love my daughter, Steven. I'd do anything to protect her. But its a lot harder to protect her from what I can't see."

Meanwhile, Brian closed the door and went over to her. "What's on your mind?" he asked softly.

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me," he whispered, curling up on the bed with her. "Come on. This is me. How much more ugliness can you be storing away that I haven't already seen?"


It took hours for him to get her to talk, to release all the fears. All the ones she hadn't named, It had been, as it had been when he had taken her here after Barker had her the first time. Tremendous fears that were tough for her to put a name to, ones she held back so that she didn't want to release because the depth of the emotion that came with it. It had ended with her falling into an exhausted sleep and with him brushing the tears off her cheeks, covering her to let her rest. He decided to stay. He conjured himself a cup of french roast and sat back beside her, unable to leave her.

Steven nodded to Robert "yes I know its like me and John " he said and quickly turned to Cassidy " its a parent thing" he said and took cassidy to the nursery. Laying Abby down he looked at the fresh diapers.
"ok your lesson starts now , grab one of those " he said pointing to the pile.

Cassidy watched thinking she would do nothing but watch , how wrong she was when Steven asked her to grab a diaper, she was even more surprised when he stepped away and motioned for her to change her.

Steven folded his arms across his chest smiling "open the onsies an slip out her legs, carefully" he watching her.

Cassidy shook a little knowing this was Khaat's daughter she was changing with both legs out she looked at Steven then at Abby "ok I can do this how hard can it be , she felt Steven move behind her .

He moved to stand closer behind her and pointed to two tapes ether side of the diaper "undo those and slid it out ,but be quick , if its mess well you'll find out" he said chuckling at the look she gave him. Cassidy did as she was told finding Abby was just wet much to her relief, taking the powder she followed his instructions and smiled as she slipped Abby's back into her dry onesie that steven had fetched .

Steven picked her up and held her for a moment "well it didn't come off , god job" he said and smiled "come on lets get back to the others this ones about ready for her drink" he said moving Cassidy who had baby powder on her cheek from the room back to the living room.

"ok who wants this beauty?" he asked as Abby squealed in delight holding her arms out to Angus.

Angus took Abbey easily who started chattering to him. He loved the babies as if they were his own, and her chattering warmed his heart and made him laugh. He carried Abbey into the kitchen where he had put on a large kettle of a hearty Italian soup for the start of a warm, comforting dinner that night. Somehow they'd gotten a late breakfast, so he'd decided to do a rather early dinner.

Abbey smelled the food and began squirming and shouting at him eagerly. "Oh," Angus laughed. "So you're hungry, huh? I think I can fix that." He opened a cabinet and got her out a couple of arrowroot biscuits for her and handed one to her. She began to try to gnaw on with the one tooth she already had and the one tooth she was starting to grow.


Upstairs, when Khaat finally woke, Brian waas still there. She was surprised. "You stayed?" she asked.

"How could I not?" he asked softly, brushing her cheek. "Feeling better?"

"Maybe. I feel better with you."

"Thats how its supposed to be. Can I help you freshen up?"

"No, I can manage, thanks. But did I smell coffee?"

"Its only conjured. I'll get you some fresh. I'll be right back."

Brian came downstairs. It had been hours since he'd gone up to talk with Khaat. He figured he'd been questioned, but he didn't feel a great need to answer. "Soup smells good, Angus," Brian commented, going into the kitchen.

"Its ready, anytime everyone else is ready to eat. Oh, and I have ham and cheese panini's on focaccia bread. Is Khaat alright?" Angus asked.

"She had a bit of a sleep. I think it helped. She'd like some coffee now. I'll bring her down for dinner in a few minutes. That should get you all time for you to set the table for dinner. I"m sure everyone is hungry, aren't they?"

Cassidy moved to stand buy the window looking out glancing back and smiling a she heard Abby in the kitchen with Angus. She also saw Steven walk over and stand in front of her,he raised his hand and she pulled back from him fearing he was about to strike her.

Steven sighed "i'm not going to hit you, you have powder on your face " he said and brushed it off , he felt her soft skin and felt himself start to drift. Quickly he moved his hand seeing the puzzled look on her face at the sappy look on his.

She felt his hand on her cheek and sighed she knew he would not hit her yet she had been in this situation so many times and been struck she could not help her self. She looked at him then saw his face change it became softer and she raised her eyes brows at him and coughed.
"any way thank you, I'm mean for the lesson in diaper changing" she moved back to sit in a chair next to Jessica smelling the soup drifting from the kitchen and her tummy rumbled.

Khaat showered, feeling like she had a lot of emotional dirt to wash away. But to her surprise, Brian had surprised her. He had replaced her worn out sweats that she tended to wear when she felt depressed and didn't beleive much in herself. He had given her the most elegant chocolate colored silk chemise and robe, all trimmed in handmade lace, that she had ever seen in her life. He'd included matching delicate slippers.

"For me?" she asked.

"For you," he said softly, kissing her deeply. "The sweats are gone. You don't need to wear trashy sweats. You're as close to a princess as I have ever seen. You deserve to be treated as one. Let it all go, Babe. There is so much more for us out there that we haven't even begun to do."

"Promise me one thing," she said very softly.

"What's that?"

"That you will never, ever leave me. Not ever."

"Oh, I promised you that a long time ago, Baby," he smiled. "That's a guarantee. I'm not going anywhere. I swear." He helped her dress and said, "I have one more little thing for you."

"What's that?" she frowned.

"Here. Its not much." He handed her a small box. She opened it and found a pair of chocolate diamond earrings. They were beautiful. She looked at him, amazed.

"Not much?" she asked.

"Not really," he shrugged. She put them on and looked in the mirror. They were elegant, and she loved them instantly. "Now, there's my princess. I'm afraid I can't escort you to anything exotic for dinner. Its just soup."

"That's perfect. Just what I was thinking I wanted whenever we are.

Cassidy watched Steven and she saw Jess watching her with a smile "what?" she asked her wanting to know why.

Jessica looked at Cassidy then to Jack "its ok hun Steven isn't the type to hurt any one but who hes told to " she said taking Jacks hand "I saw your reaction to his brushing off the powder from your face " she smiling at her before jack kissed her.

Cassidy rolled her eyes and decided to head to her room to clean up, but as she stepped into the corridor she bumped right into Steven , her hands resting on his chest as she looked at him "god can't you stay out of my way?" she said annoyed with her self than him.

Brian took her downstairs just as Angus was serving up dinner. She didn't see her father there. She saw the babies in their high chairs with fingergoods already.

"Where's Daddy?" she asked Angus.

"He had a meeting back in London. He had to take care of that. He said he would be back, maybe in the morning. He felt you were safe enough with us," Angus smiled. "Hungry?"

"The soup smells wonderful," Khaat said. Her mind started to wander, knowing her father was in London and she was here. Was he safe? Should she be closer to him? Or did she have to worry enough about Burke and Gelding that she needed to run farther? And just how far could she really run from two wizards?

"Come sit," Brian said to her, picking up on how quickly her thoughts seemed to wander off. "Come help feed your girls. They need time with their mama, and they look foward to dinner time with you."

"I may regret wearing silk to dinner with those two," she sighed.

"We'll fix it," he laughed, helping her to her seat as Angus put a huge tureen of soup on the table and a large platter of paninis.

Jack stood with Jessica and moved to the table Steven chose to stay on duty choosing to eat after the others as he kept an eye on the beach below the window his eyes watching as the sea rolled back in to cover the foot prints on the shore below.

Cassidy walked out wearing a feminine and totally unlike her cotton top she smelled the soup and crossed to the table "good to see you looking better " she said and smiled she jumped slightly as she felt a small cold hand on her shoulder "ow no you don't " she said grabbing the strap before Dakota could pull on it .She gently untangled it from the small girls fingers and moved slightly to her left .

"Come and eat, Jess and Jack," Brian said. "There';s enough of us to keep an eye while we eat. It'll be alright. " Khaat knew Brian had a perfect view out the large windows to see if anything approached the house anyway. Well, if they approached from the beach side, that was. Besides that, her seers powers seemed to be working overtime today. She really believed she would know if they tried to approach again. But Brian had told her he was not pinning their security on that as much as it was a valuable tool. He wanted their safety to be a combination of the skills that they all brought to the table.

Khaat saw how quickly Dakota had seemed to take a shine to Cassidy. She was glad for that. "If you put her in her high chair we'll feed her," Khaat told Cassidy. "Have they been allowed to crawl for awhile?"

"No" Angus answered, "Not while we've been on alert."
"Let them eat first and then they can crawl," Brian answered. "They'll get cagey if we don'tgive tthem something to do before too long."

"Yeah," Angus laughed, "Angus laughed, "And that does get ugly. Can I serve everyone soup?"

"Please," Brian said.

Cassidy looked at Dakota and smiled "OK trouble, in the chair you go " she said as she pulled her hair , she just sighed and strapped her in "I can see I have my work cut out with you Dakota "she said and sat down as she brushed her hair back behind her ear as she waited to eat she saw jack and Jess join them from the hallway. then came Steven the only seat left was next to her and Dakota.

Steven moved from the window and over to the table he paused seeing he only space was next to Cassidy and he sighed ,"it just had to be there" he thought to himself moving the chair out he nodded to her and sat down seeing her obviously uneasy body language " your going to have to relax around me if were to work together Cassie" he said sitting down.

Cassidy looked at him from where she sat and shook her head "I'm comfortable with working with every one , its just you seem to end up with me a lot these past few days." she said making Dakota leave her strap alone.