Sand and Snow

"What?" he frowned. He wasn't sure what she meant by her remark. He had been merely taking a couple of bottles to the girls so they wouldn't get off schedule. Was she going to take that personally? "I'm only keeping the girls on schedule," he replied. "I have a lot that I do during a day's time and it all revolves around timing. I'm not skipping out on you. I just have a lot of things to juggle, and being short staffed by two only makes me do the work of three."

"I can always bring a couple more people from Paris to help out," Brian said.

"I'm fine, Brian," Angus said quietly, irked by how his hand delayed him in doing much of anything.

"Its only for a day," Brian reminded him. "You don't have to keep up today. I can bring more people here."

"No. I said I'm fine," Angus said.

"Then let us help you. After all, we live here too," Brian said. He looked over at Abbey who was already in a sound sleep on Khaat's shoulder. Dakota had different ideas and had no intention of willingly surendering to take a nap. "Cassidy, would you please take Abbey up to her crib and put her down for her nap? Khaat's just not strong enough to make that trip upstairs by herself yet. Another day or so will make a huge difference, and you're good with the girls," Brian said. "I think you can do it without waking Abbey up."

Brian was just wearing out Dakota who was falling asleep on his shoulder, still wimpering and sniffling in his neck. She was growing heavy on his shoulder as she finally gave in and sank into sleep. Khaat watched him carrying Dakota and how natural it looked now for him to carry one or the other of the girls. Neither of them were his biologically, but he had never flinched for one brief second. He had taken them as surely as if they had been his and he had loved them every bit as much.

Khaat's thoughts wandered to Mis. In a couple years, Mis would more than likely want to take Dakota and try to raise her on her own. Khaat couldn't blame her for that, but still, at this point, it felt a lot like Mis would be taking one fo Khaat's daughter for her. She began to believe she mad made a mistake by letting herself treat Dakota like her own.

"Where are your thoughts?" Brian asked her gently, as he felt Dakota start to breathe heavily and evenly with sleep.

"Nothing that we need to talk about again," she smiled.

"Oh. That," Brian smiled. He watched Cassidy come back downstairs. "Any trouble?" He didn't expect there to be trouble. Abbey was the easiest of the two to put to sleep. Dakota was the tough one. "I think this one is finally asleep. She's really stubborn. Maybe I should take this one upstairs myself. You're welcome to try, but its not an easy job." He smiled at Cassidy.

"Alright," Brian said to Khaat. "The kids are taken care of. No more excuses. Lets go see how much ground we need to regain. Downin the gym. Let's go." Khaat sighed. She dreaded this. She knew full well how far she had slipped physically and how difficult it was going to be for her just to be able to walk through the house without help, much less for her to being to start to workout again. She wasn't sure she really wanted Brian to know. This had potential to be very ugly.

She fell silent as he took her downstairs to the gym. By the time she got there, she was winded and weak and tired, even with his help. He allowed her to sit and rest. He didn't say anything, and she coldn't read whether he had anticipated this much or not. At least he wasn't making her change out of her jeans. She wsa beginning to wonder if perhaps he was maybe more onto this than she had given him credit for.

"I thought you were going to wait for my father," she told him, not sure she really wanted that to happen either, though.

"If I do that, we'll be waiting til after dinner," Brian said. "He's obviously gotten waylaid somewhere. This isn't going to take that long. I think we need to just do this." She sighed heavily.

Khaat submitted herself to Brian's series of stretches and exercises. They were things that she normally could have done in her sleep. Things she could have done without thinking. She couldn't do them anymore. It was just damned hard work now. She had lost too much. She felt hopeless. She didnt' feel like she wold ever get it back again. Not ever.

And Brian was pushing. She was going to meet his demands no matter what it took. Wasn't going to fail. She kept pushing herself, giving him no feedback, just working.

Then she heard him, sorta. His voice was telling her to stop. "Khaat--stop. Quit. Wait a second..." he was saying. The next thing she knew everything went completely black.

From Brian's point of view, he began to see her giving out long before this, but she wasn't listening. Just kept trying, and while he admired her for it, it wasn't a crime if she didn't meet her old standards. He hadn't expected her to. And then, he didn't like what he was seeing--at all. He had tried to stop her, called to her. And then she collapsed completely on the gym floor. He cursed and raced to her. He checked her quickly. She had fainted from exhaustion. She had done too much. He signed heavily, picked her up and apparated her back upstairs to her room, putting her on the bed.

Khaat woke slowly and found Brian there with her. She frowned when she saw herself in her room. She could see by Brian's face he was ticked.

"Did I fail that badly?" she asked softly.

"The test was over at least 2 minutes before you stopped," he said. "You do that again, and I swear, Khaat, I'll hit you with a Petrificus Totalus so hard, it'll take you a week before you can scratch your nose." She rolled her eyes at him in irritation. He opened his mouth to say something in pure anger, closed his mouth again, and walked to the door. "Do us both a favor and rest," he said, going downstairs.

He found Angus coming in from outside. "Where'd you go?" Brian asked irritably.

"Ok, either you're angry with me, or Khaat didn't pass her test," Angus said.

"Leave it alone," Brian said quietly. He grabbed his jacket and went outside to take a walk in the snow to cool off. Angus sighed heavily.