Sand and Snow

Cassidy stood up and moved to the bowl lifting the cloth she looked in then covered it back up "would help skills seeing how he fights I guess " she said and chuckled "yeah they should be ready now for sleep" she looked over at him and sighed " the breads twice the size now , im guessing its ready for baking" she said taking the of f bowl to show him. "Ill get this in the oven then get them down to sleep, unless you want to then I could meet you in the gym" she looked at him .

"No, no," he smiled. "Bread has to have a second rise. Look." He went over to the bread and checked it and punched it down in several places to take the air out of it. "Like that. Now, you want to see it get to double its size. Its most likely not going to be ready to bake until morning. The yeast will need time to develop. We need to just let it go and I'll bake it off in the morning when I get up. You're welcome to take the girls upstairs if you like. I'm going to head downstairs, I think."

He went in and saw Khaat was already working on feeding Abbey a bottle of warm milk, and Abbey was getting a little fussy. She was tired and fighting it. Kate was playing with Dakota to deliberately wear her out a bit. Dakota just didn't have the slightest desire to wind down to go to sleep. She was giggling and playing and having a great time.

Meanwhile downstairs, Robert had ordered Brian into what he called "practice" with him. They were preparing for a duel.

Cassidy saw him smile it seem to make her heart race a little, watching as he pushed it back down in the bowl then covered it again and said it wouldn't be ready till morning to bake. " ok" she said and followed him into the living room and smiled as she saw the two girls more so abbey with her mother and she sighed "I think i'll head down to the gym , they loook happy, maybe kate would prefer to put them to sleep tonight " she said still watching but glancing at Angus . Moving to one side she trasphigured her clothes to a gym suit and headed down to see whas hapening with Brian and Robert .

Robert took his stance in the gym and waited on Brian. "I don't want to do this, "Brian said quietly.

"Did I ask you if you wanted to?" Robert asked, unmoved, his wand at the ready. "I need to know you haven't gone slack on me."

"Slack!" Brian was angered easily. "So thats what this is about! You think I can't handle it, don't you?"

"Show me you can," Robert replied calmly. He was prepared. Brian's anger was raw. He threw a cruciatus at Robert, and Robert blocked it with a Protego spell. Robert easily returned a spell that blasted Brian right off his feet and threw him back into a wall. Brian hadn't even attempted to protect himself.

Robert walked over to where Brian laid on the floor. "Get up," Robert ordered. "You have to do better than that if you're going to protect my family. Stand up." Brian got up, as Robert began throwing remarks at Brian that tapped directly into his guilt for Khaat's being taken by barker twice and being nearly killed twice, and then being unable to cope with what had happened to her. He threw remark after remark to fire him up. Brian finally began to fight back, finally letting his anger loose. The duel heated up quickly. Spells flew back and forth at lightning speed. To anybody else, it would have looked like they weren't doing it fairly. Robert wasn't concerned about rules. He was concerned about giving Brian a way to redeem himself and a way to burn off the guilt and pain he had built up inside himself. Actually, Robert was rather proud of Brian today. He was holding his own and not allowing himself be overtaken easily. He was fighting with energy, with drive, and more determination than Robert had seen in Brian for a long time. Brian was a man who was driven by his own rage. And he needed a chance to get rid of it.

Cassidy mhts but she watched as Robert se weigoved to a weights machine ae began opulling thend sat down she notied how the out n his fit clung to her as she worked out but alos how easly Robert sent Brian on his backside . She gasped a little Robert being powerful and froand resisted the urge to go help Brian she had heard roomers about Robert being powerful and he was fare too from what she saw . Stoping her workout to watch she sat glancing at the doorway but mostly watching how they cast there spells and held them selves she stood up and tried to copy but at a sharp stabbing pain from her calf she sat back down and cursed slightly.

Angus walked silently over to Cassidy and spoke in almost a whisper. "This is not the time to workout. This is the time to watch and learn. Study your boss. Study his boss. Learn from them. Get your mind on what's going on right in front of you. This is not practice. They play for keeps. Blood will spill. Usually Brian's, sometimes both, rarely ever just Robert's. It is altogether possible that one of them could die doing this. They have an agreement between each other. They decided, when Brian took his position with Robert, that when they practiced, they would play for keeps. Both of them would rather die at the hands of a friend than to ever die at the hands of an enemy. They call it practice, but this is, for every practical purpose, a very real duel. Watch and learn. Robert won't expect you to practice at the same level, but neither of them will ever put an employee in any situation they would not go into themselves. Stop trying to overwork your leg and pay attention."

Robert just kept firing at Brian. Not killing spells, but he kept firing at him, like a muggle machine gun, not giving him time to regroup. He knew Brian would keep up. Brian was wired, determined not to fail. He kept firing back as quickly as Robert was firing. One of Robert's spells struck Brian in the knee, and they heard a loud audible cracking sound. Blood poured from his knee, and he faultered, his leg giving out from under him. That made the knee crack again with a sickening sound. But Robert's wand kept firing. That only made Brian finally break though with his rage. He began firing ruthlessly at Robert.

Robert wasn't phased. This was what he'd been working for. He made sure his shield held and kept firing at Brian and using all sorts of remarks to get him to unleash the issues he'd kept pent up inside for months.

"Are you trying to kill me, you bastard?" Brian exploded. "I can't do it, so you'd rather just kill me?"

"Shut up, you little idiot," Robert said. "If I'd wanted to kill you, we'd have ended this a long time ago. Get up. On your feet. You can't defend butkus on your ass." He let Brian get up, even though Brian kept firing spells at Robert. Brian grew angry enough that he fired a spell with all his rage right towards Robert, although only half aiming.

It blew right through Robert's weakening shield. Robert had not renewed his shield, and Brian's spell hit him in his left shoulder, blowing open a hole in his shoulder, the blood poured. Robert knew he would bleed out in minutes. Brian stopped, stunned that he would hurt the only man he respected now as a father figure and that he would do it so badly. His wand fell to the floor.

"Pick it up," Robert said quietly. Brian didn't move. Robert waited for a moment and then made it an order. "Pick it up," he told him quietly but with iron firmness.

Cassidy jumped slightly at the sound of Angus's voice beside her "gess, don't sneak up on a girl would ya" she said but smiled as she watched the scene her hands quickly covered her mouth to stifle a gasp as she saw Brians knee pore with blood , she looked at Angus then back to the fight " I have watched fights but nothing this intense " she said " I hope one of them is in control" she said frowning as Brian cast his spell and it hit home her hand grasped the first ting she could not realising it was Angus's as she felt anger , concern and fasination as to why this was so bloodie. She held back her urge to help Brian and Robertboth knew how to repa thought she knew how to repair the damage.

"Robert is always, always in control," Angus told her softly. "He is very strategic. Almost everything he does is for a reason." He winced slightly, feeling sympathy when he heard Brian's knee crack twice. "Well, that's gonna hurt," Angu sighed.

When he saw the great hole blow into Robert's left shoulder, he knew the duel was over. He saw it just stop. And he knew there were only minutes to get to Robert to stop the bleeding before he bled out. Brian crumpled, unable to stand on that leg anymore. He was hurt. He wanted to help Robert, but he couldn't get there.

"Go to Brian. Go do whatever he tells you," Angus ordered Cassidy. He apparated upstairs and said. "Khaat, we need a healer downstairs."

"Oh, so the duel is over, then," she stood up, laying Abbey on the sofa.

"Yes, but we have to hurry," Angus said. He took hold of her arm and apparated her downstairs. "Go tend to your father." She went to her father quickly, looking at Brian's bloody leg as she went.

"What did you do?" she asked her father.

"I'ts just a flesh wound," he told her, his hand over the wound.

"Mind if I check that myself?" she asked. She put her hand under his shirt onto the wound itself and using a spell to start to close the wound. "Are you two ever going to stop this nonsense? Ever?"

"No," Robert replied. "Probably not."

"Two year olds," she sighed.

Cassidy quickly moved to Brian and wrapped a towel around his leg holding pressure to stop the bleeding till Khaat could heal it she shook her head turning she saw Kaat and Angus return and breathed out a sigh of relif she had nothing to say but had a greater respect for them both knowing they had to know their limits to be able to duel like they had with out killing each other. She knew she had along way to go and a lot to learn from both men. She chuckled hearing Khaat tell her father they were acting like two year olds somwe what agreeing but also seeing why it ahd been done if Brian had not relases his ager it would have festered and then it could have been a liability on a mission she hoped both men had got over it.

"so?" she asked " how do you feel now ?" she asked her hands still keeping presure on his leg .

"Stupid," Brian confessed with a slight smile. "I fall for that old trick every single time. He keeps doing it, and it keeps working. I'm not going to be as much of a help to Khaat as I want to be for awhile, though, I don't think. But thank you. It doesn't hurt as badly. And its good not seeing it bleed so much. I guess I really hit Robert this time, didn't I? Well, its ended worse in other battles. Thanks for your help."

Angus walked over to Brian and handed Brian a pair of crutches. "You're stuck with them for awhile, my friend, I think."

"You've been in the attic," Brian said.

"No, Khaat's closet. I just made them longer for you."

Khaat took her father's bag and stopped his bleeding for the moment and padded it heavily and bandaged it. She put his arm in a sling to support his shoulder and drew the pain off it. "This isn't going to heal so quickly," she told him. "There are burn marks around the edges of the wound."

"Yeah. I know. I can feel it. I'll be alright."

"Is Brian still angry with me?"

"I doubt it. Ask him yourself. Go check his wound. Please. I'm alright now." He paused and kissed her cheek. "Just remember--if he didn't love you so much, he wouldn't be so stirred up. He loves you more than he has any concept of, my darling. And he wants you to know that he's in for the long haul, for whatever it takes. Go soothe him a little bit. He could use a little comfort right now."

"Thank you, Daddy," she said softly. He carressed her cheek. She went over to Brian. "Thank you, Cassidy. You've done a great job. Can I check it please?" Cassidy had done a fine job on stopping the bleeding. But when she felt Brian's knee, she detected that he had torn some of the largest, strongest tendons and pieces of cartiledge around his knee. She sighed heavily.

"Broken, isn't it?" he asked her.

"You'd have been better off if you had," she said. "The bone is intact. But you've destroyed the cartiledge and the tendons. Daddy's going to hvae to see to it. And you're not going to be on it for awhile. Brian," she said softly, kissing him very slowly. "I am so sorry I drove you to all this. I just...find its hard to talk about. I don't want to relive it, and I don't want to make anybody try to imagine what I had to live through. Can't we just leave it closed?" She worked at wrapping his massively swelling knee so that it had some support.

"No, not forever. But for right now? Yes. Just for right now. Okay?" She nodded. "Khaat," he said to her, "No matter what it was, I can handle it. What I can't handle is being shut away from you. I'm a strong man, Khaat. But I'm not strong enough to be shut out from you."

"Okay," she said softly. "If you think its that important. Later. We'll talk."

"It is that important. And yes, we do need to talk." He looked at Angus, "A hand, please?"

"My pleasure," Angus said. He easily helped Brian up to his feet and handed him the crutches. Brian found quickly he had no choice but to use them. And he had been injured enough in his past that he still remembered how to use them correctly.

Khaat looked at Cassidy. "Thank you for your help. I think the war is over for tonight. They're both going to need to sit down and rest and put ice packs on their wounds. Can you and Angus get them upstairs and get some ice packs for them and perhaps some sort of relaxing tea, please? Then I need to get the girls into bed."

"We can help there, too, Khaat," Angus said with a smile. "We're multitalented."