The Ties That Bind

Khaat finished eating about the same time that her mother finished feeding the girls. Khaat took the dishes out to the kitchen and brought back in a wet cloth to wipe off little baby hands and faces. Kate took it from her and made quick and expert work of cleaning up the girls.

"Now, Khaat," Kate said. "Don't stew about the girls. Your job right now is to just take good care of our boy. Got it?"

"I do," Khaat smiled. "I wouldn't let anything happen to him. I promise."

"If you need your father to come to talk to him, just say so. Robert is making Brian give him a portkey so that he can get there if he needs to. Call for him with your medallion if you have to."

"And then I"ll bring a bezillion wizards."

"Better to get a bezillion than none, my dear," Kate smiled. She looked up, seeing Robert and Brian returning. Brian looked better. Considerably. Robert moved over and picked up Dakota.

"Come here, you little monkey," he laughed. "You and I are going to work on that whole 'beating-up-your-sister' business while your mama and papa are gone."

"Be good to her, Daddy," Khaat laughed. "But no spoiling allowed."

"Khaat," he frowned. "Thats what grandparents do. Get over it. We're entirely allowed to spoil as much as we like. You just need to get over it." That made her laugh out loud. Kate picked up Abbey. Khaat picked up the shoulder bag she had packed for the girls, and Kate slung it on her shoulder, while Robert picked up the carriers, magically, that held the cats. "Call if you need me," he told Khaat, kissing her cheek.

"I will. I promise," she replied. He and Kate apparated away taking the girls and the cats with them. "Are we ready?" Khaat asked.

"No, but we might as well go," Brian said. He tossed everyone an old wooden nickle. The kind that Americans gave away in carnivals as prizes. "Your portkeys. We'll see you there in a few minutes. Try to go at least in pairs. Its a long trip." He picked up the bag Khaat had packed for them and reached for her hand. "Khaat? Shall we?"

"We'll see you there," Khaat said, taking his hand. And with that, he portkeyed them out to Colorado.

"Either way is fine with me. I know the way. You two want to go with me?" Shouldering his own bag, he took hold of Cassidy's hand as Steven took her other hand. He portkeyed them to Colorado, to Brians largest estate. He had purposely wanted them to see the house from the outside and he landed them outside, standing on the asphalt drive, a short distance from the house, just far enough to try to take in the massiveness of it. Even as large as the estate in England was, this was larger still. By a good deal.

"This," he said quietly, giving them time to catch their balance and breath, "is what Brian does not want to lose. Look at it. Its spectacular. And the view? There is nothing like it anywhere. Mountains, woods, meadows, valleys--I mean, whats not to like?" The last time Angus had been here had been in wintertime, and everything was covered with several feet of snow. Now, the grass was beginning to get green again, and there were the small beginnings of buds on the trees. The air was crisp and clean and had a totally different smell to it than the estate in England. This was heady with herbs and pine and mountain freshness. It was just different.

"Oh. Here," he opened his shoulder bag and handed them each a piece of paper. On one side was a detailed floor plan of the house. On the other was a very detailed map of the entire massive estate. "I figured Brian would not have time to give you the tour. So, I thought these might be helpful. It might take Brian a few minutes to sort out who is going to have which room, so be a bit patient with him. Once the worst of the fireworks are over between him and Kieran, I'll go into the pantry and assess our food situation. There are 4--no maybe 5 vehicles here. I know there is a very large, heavy duty truck. Red, I believe. There is an average sized SUV, and another that is very large and very heavy duty--both black. There is a large black luxury car, for formal occasions, and also I think a white sportscar. And yes, there is a six stall garage to accomodate it. And, no, Brian didn't buy all these. Kieran bought most of them as investments. I think Brian bought the truck for work use on the grounds, and I think he bought perhaps the smaller of the SUV's. I think Kieran bought the rest, but its all in Brian's name because Kieran's credit isn't worth diddly. My guess is that Kieran has most likely been somehow masquerading as Brian because no one in his right mind would get into any sort of money business with Kieran."

Khaat and Brian arrived to see Kieran, wearing a pair of sweats, sitting on an Italian leather sofa, with his feet propped up on some sort of obviously one of a kind coffee table. He had a pizza box sitting on the coffee table, and at least half a dozen empty beer bottles laying around, in addition to the one in his hand.

"This is my house," Brian said with an unyielding firmness.

"Posession is 9/10 of the law, Little Brother," Kieran said, laughing, unmoving. "I'vc been here. You haven't been. Who's the babe?" Brian's cheeks began to flush red with anger. He drew his wand and flicked it at the mess and disapparated it completely. "Oh, now look what you've gone and done. And that was a perfectly good deluxe pizza, too," Kieran said.

"I told you what quarters were yours. This is not it. Go back to your apartment, or I'll send you there," Brian said.

"Now is that any way to be? How many years has it been? And you still haven't introduced me to the dish," he got up off the sofa and moved towards Khaat. Brian apparated in front of her, standing firmly between Kieran and Khaat.

"Don't you even think about it," Brian said. "She's mine."

"Like your shirt or your shoes or...oh looky here!" He snatched Brian's left hand and drew it up to look at the platinum band on his ring finger. "Really? You? And...her? What on earth does she see in the likes of you?" He laughed uncontrollably for a moment and then he glared at Brian. "Oh thats' right. The money. Thats' why she likes you. You buy whatever you want. You bought yourself a trophy wife too, didn't you?" Brian flicked his wand at Kieran and he vanished completely.

"Brian! You didn't!" Khaat panicked.

"No," Brian said. "I didn't. I wanted to, but I didn't. I locked that prat in his apartment. He's magically sealed in. Let's hope he doesn't have anyone else in the house. We'll need to check it thoroughly to make sure we don't have guests."

"Oh, believe me, I have a pretty good idea," Brian sighed. "Just the same..." He flicked his wand and set in motion a powerful cleaning spell through the entire house. "I dont' want a trace of him remaining in my house. He can trash his own place--if I let him stay there after this. All of you--watch him. Do not let him even consider laying his hands on Khaat. As far as he knows, she's my wife. Thats what I want him to think. I don't trust him any farther than I spit him."

"I can take care of myself. What happens if I get a chance to turn him into a teacup?" Khaat managed a smile at him.

"Do it. And then break the cup," Brian said dryly. Khaat took his hand.

"Brian, we're alright," she reassured him.

"For now. I need to search the house for information on his gambling debts. Its in this part of the house someplace. He hasn't been living in his part of the house. I need to get everything he has on what he's up to his eyeballs in," Brian said. "Khaat, go take a look at the house. You all take the tour. I'll..."

"No," she said softly. He stopped and looked at her. "We're in this together. Isn't that what this..." she showed him her rings, "...is all about?"

"You shouldn't have to be," he said.

"And what road would you not walk with me?" she smiled.

"Alright," he said. He looked up at the others. "Search every drawer, every nook and cranny, every shelf, everyplace you can find. If there is any paperwork here about who, specifically, we need to talk to, then...."

"If we can't find anything, I suggest we use veritaserum. He is a wizard, afterall," Khaat said. That had not entered Brian's mind before.

"Yes, we certainly could," Brian said.

ooc: were we going to bring jack and jess on this too? i couldn't remember. i thought we had talked about it at one time.

Khaat and Brian had each found more bills. Khaat had found some when she had gone to place some of the clothing in the now empty bedroom drawers. Somehow someone had made room for her in Brian's drawers and in his closet in his room. The master bedroom was beyond exquisite. She remembered how even his small quarters in Paris had the flare of elegance to it. It wasn't overdone, but it was full of rich woods and so strongly looked like the captains quarters in an old time sailing ship from the 1500s or 1600s. It was a room she had really liked. And Robert's quarters were not that much different in Paris.

Here, it was done in every sort of way to acknowledge nature. To salute the untouched beauty that lay right outside every window and every door, off every balcony and porch. And she could see places where obviously some of his most precious pieces of Native American Art had been. Now they were gone. She hurt for him. And when she opened one of the drawers to put in her lingerie and nightwear, she found a false bottom in the drawer and a number of more debts and threats that had been sent to Kieran. They threateneed to kill him, his entire family, and burn the house to the ground. And by the date on the note, they didn't have much time left. She wasnt sure she wanted to show this to him at all.

Angus had gone into the family room and found it had been used as some sort of den of iniquity. It was revolting. He set spells to put the room to rights. He wanted to burn Brian's expensive furniture rather than to have anyone sit on it. He knew a lot of spells, but he didn't know if there was one to scrub his brain of the images of things he knew had happened here. Maybe he'd have Robert obliterate that memory from him or have Kate take that thread out and just toss it altogether. He found a huge rip in the bottom of the black Italian leather sectional and when he turned it over, he heard noise. Rooting inside, he found several large manilla envelopes that had presumably more damning evidence inside. He opened them, having a strong desire to go breech Brian's containment of Kieran Quinn and throttle Brian's older brother. Instead, for now, he took what he found back upstairs and laid it on the table.

Brian had gone into the office and gone to the inwall safe there. There was the most damning evidence of Kierans crimes that he had done so far, and crimes yet to be committed. He sat heavily with it in front of him for a long moment. Kieran was lucky he wasn't a dead man yet. Brian had either come just in the nick of time, or he was going to get them all killed trying, and he wasn't sure which.

He took his finds to the living room and saw Khaat coming back with more. He saw Cassidy had put out the meal she had prepared back home. Home? That was home now? The concept rolled around heavily in his brain. This had been home for a lot of years. But now, it just felt like some place he used to live. When the whole concept of home came forward in his brain, all he saw was Khaat's face. Her beautiful face. And the faces of his girls. Wherever they were, that was home. Nothing else mattered now.

"Thank you, Cassidy," Brian said quietly, staring at the piles of gathered information. It would take all night to sort through. He saw Khaat's face as she laid her pile on the table. Her eyes were full of pain for him and reluctance to add to it. "Its not your fault," he told her. "We knew there would be more. I'm alright. Lets just do what we need to do, okay? This place used to be a lot of fun. Maybe when we get this settled we can find it again." He laid his own stack of evidence on the pile, with a pile of computer discs, cd's and dvds and memory cards from cameras, presumably holding photographs. There were a lot of those in, of all things, a ziplock plastic bag. This was going to take hours and hours.

"I'll help," she told him. "However long it takes."

"And me, Mate. I can go as long as you can," Angus said gently. "You're not alone. We're here for as long as it takes and for whatever you need." Angus saw some sort of battle drawing closer. And he had a feeling lives would be risked, maybe some lost. He didn't know. But it felt massively dangerous. He wasn't leaving. He had pledged his loyalty to the Lupins long ago, and he knew it meant he pledged to stand by them, and, if it called for it, to die with them. He was fully prepared.

"Any of you remember how to use muggle technology?" Brian asked. It was a long time, but he was sure he remembered, and Khaat had to use it periodically for her job, so he knew they were relatively good, but he wasn't sure about Steven and Cassidy or Angus.