Finding Femininity

The moment they reappeared from Paris, Angus put Dakota to bed in the playpen. He watched Cassidy shift from anxiety into action. Good for her. He was pleased with her. He looked at Khaat. She was frozen. What bothered Angus was that Robert was late in getting back.

Everyone else had been back for several minutes before Robert and Kate apparated back, unharmed apparently. Robert had his medical bag with him. "Sorry I'm late," he said. He didn't give explanation about where they had been. He began double checking Cassidy's work. "Well done, Cassidy," Robert said.

"Robert," Brian called urgently. Robert went over to Brian.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You have to find out what the hell he put into her head," Brian said. "He got to her. Somehow he got to her."

"I will. Where did he get you?"

"I'm alright. Its just flesh stuff. My damned knee again, and my shoulder. But I"m fine. Robert, you have to get ...."

"Brian," Robert said, the calmness of his voice silencing Brian. "I will. Relax. We're alright. Cassidy, report. What are the injuries you found?"

steven watched cassidy and chuckled.

Casidy looked at Robert " well, jack's sholder burn and blistering , Khaat is in shock , brian like he said has his shoulder and hes damaged his knee again, steven his arm is burned but not badly and kate and your self " she breathed out as she looked them over " seem fine " she said smiling " thank fully " she said hoping he would understand why she had said that " the only two seriuse i can see is brian and khaat " she sat beside Brian and moved the cloth she had on his shoulder to show him.

Robert double checked everyone's injuries. Cassidy had done a good job of tending them. He felt Brian's resistance to being treated before Khaat, but he silenced Brian and took care of his shoulder and his knee and bandaged him securely. He tended Steven's burn, and once he was sure everyone else was alright, he looked at Khaat. He didnt' see any wounds. She was just sitting, unmoving on the sofa. He walked over to her and simply reached for her hand, not saying a word. She didn't respond.

"Khaat Karina," he commanded, "take my hand." She slowly reached up and took his hand, not looking at anything. He got her to her feet. "We'll be back," he told everyone. "She and I need to talk. She's alright. We just need to talk. The rest of you need to unwind. Mission well done. Thank you. Give me just a few moments and I'll be right back."

He took Khaat upstairs to her bedroom. He sat her on the bed. "Now," he said softly. "Let's talk. Tell me everything he said to you."

Steven thought now would be a good time to shower and so left for a spare room he sent an owl to delilah telling her he wa ok and would be home soon. Jess and jack lft to go home , to be with their children for a few hours leaving cassidy to move back to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for everyones return.

Steven walked back down drying his hair and feeling so much like he should he sat with Brian and smelt fresh coffee " i swear she's a mind reader" he said softly as he then stood up and walked to the kitchen to grab two cups one for him and one for Brian. placing it infront of him he sat down " at lest we know hes dead now " he said softly.

Cassidy busied her self trying not to think of the injuries her freinds had had she worried about khaat she ahd only ever seen that look once and that was her best freind when she ahd saved her it had took her months to come around but she knew inside Robert could help her. " Angus can you pass me the flour I might make some scones for snacks for every one " she said hoping he would have a new sugestion or aprove her idea.

"I know. Coffee sounds great," Brian said. "Its been a long night, and its about to get longer. Thank you. I'm glad he's gone. But, something's not right. I saw his eyes. He had completely lost his mind before he died. And I dont' know what shit he was putting into her brain, but I have a feeling it was 99% pure horsecrap. Whatever it was, it got to her. You have no idea whatsoever what I've already gone through with her trying to get her to chase out the lies and ugliness that Barker and Burke both put into her head. I have no idea what its going to take to get whatever this is out of her head this time."


Angus passed Cassidy the flour. "Try cookies," he told her. "They're comforting. Nurturing. And everyone looks like they could use just a little bit of nurturing right about now. Here." He got out a couple of simple cookie recipes. One was for chocolate chip cookies and the other was for snickerdoodles. "Try one or the other of these. They mix up and bake up fast, and they smell great. And besides that , there's nothing quite like a warm cookie to make someone feel better."

Cassidy loked at each recipy and sighed she pushed them around on the table chocolate chip cookies she mixed the ingrediants in abowl and made the cookies placing each on a baking tray soon she sliped them into the over to cook while she sat back at the table rolling out the cookie dough for more cookies but stopped to take a sip of coffee she ahd made ehr self . She could not help think about Khaat and that look on her face her face showing her worry she knew Angus had tolsd her everything sould be fine but deep inside she worried her self sick.

Robert was upstairs with Khaat for over an hour. Brian had taken to pacing, despite the fact the new damage to his knee hurt like hell. He had channeled all his focus, or tried to, into talking with Steven and Jack and Jess while the smell of freshly baked cookies rose pleasantly out of the kitchen. It was a comforting message that life would go on. And that not all was bad or lost.

Robert finally came downstairs. And from where Brian sat, Robert's face looked the same as ever. It didn't look better, and it didnt' look worse. He could see Robert trying to decide if he wanted to talk to Brian first alone, or whether to just save the extra energy and tell everyone. There wasn't anyone closer to Khaat than the people who were already here.

"Robert?" Brian asked, more in a demanding tone than an asking one.

"She's alright. She's just relaxing a bit. She's sitting on the sofa in her room with a cup of chamomile tea. Conjured, I'll admit, but she's better. She doesn't feel like talking, but she's not in shock anymore," Robert said. "She'll be alright."

"So what happened?"

"Are you all sure you really want to know?" Robert looked at his crew. This might be the most difficult portion of the evening for any of them.

Steven looked at him and spoke up " how are we supposed to know how to be around her if we don't know, i know just be normal , yes i think we should know sir" he said and stood to face him not wanting to give any disrespect to the man . Jess and jack rose also " sir he's right , we'd lie to know why she froze out there so we can guard against it happening again" jack said to him.

"You can't guard against it happening again," Robert said calmly. "I didn't come back right away after the battle because I took Burke's body back to St. Mungos to the morgue. I took something important off him." He pulled out of his pocket a very large oval shaped onyx ring. "Dont touch it. Its extremely dangerous," he told them. "Look here." He put the ring on his finger and with the slightest movement, it flicked open a sharp piercing needle out of the band. "The stone is hollow. It held a powerful potion in it--a potion designed to spread a long suffering, terrible death. He obviously was a dying man and the disease had progressed to his brain and driven him quite mad. The good news is that, if caught early enough, it is entirely curable. Burke either didn't know that or chose not to get treatment in time before it became too progressive. The bad news is that he injected Khaat when he grabbed her.

"He told her, first, that he had arranged the attack in the alley in London in order to make sure that there were more little Burkes in the world after his own demise. And then he said he was planning on injecting Khaat with the toxin anyway so that she couldn't 'taint' his children into a different way of living. Khaat believed he had left her pregnant and dying. Thats why she froze. She was mortified.

"The good news in all this is that she is neither pregnant nor dying either one. I went back to St. Mungos and retrieved the antidote potion for her. She's fine. She's angry, she's upset that she believed him, and she's disappointed in herself that she froze out there. But, all in all, she's doing remarkably well. The antidote causes a bit of an upset stomach, so I suggested she just rest tonight. But if thats all she ever has to cope with because of it, then she is far more fortunate than Burke ever was."

Brian said nothing. He was outraged.

"You all should get some rest. We won a small victory tonight. Tomorrow starts another day," Robert said. "Well done, All. Go to bed. Kate and I will watch the house tonight. I want to keep an eye on Khaat til morning anyway. Thank you, All. You don't know how much I appreciate it."

Steven listened turning when he heard the shocked gasp from jess , jack held her as she took in what Burke had done to Khaat , jack sat jess down and sat with her he breathed out when Robert told them she was not dieing nor pregnant .

Steven sat down now physicality tired as he looked at Robert " no you can't guard against that, but you can be aware so that we can stop it by being weary. " he said softly as he looked at him with a concerned tired look on his face , after a moment he stood up and headed for the spare room not feeling like going to Delilah even though he had sent word he was all right.

Cassidy had over heard Robert also and sat at the table " thats...thats just pure evil " she said softly looking to Angus " it makes me think i was lucky he didn't do that to me when i was rescuing kids alone" she said she gave a shiver and wrapped her arms around her waist .