The Ties That Bind

Even busy over at the apartment with Kieran, Khaat could clearly pick up on Jess's panic. She called Brian, who came in. "My senses are picking up panic from the main house," she told him.

"Your father is there. Is it him?"

"No," she said. "He's fine."

"Then leave it alone. Short of an invasion, I think he could handle it. Just so you're alright," Brian said.

"He's frozen. What's he going to do to me?" she frowned.

"Let me finish," Brian said, having some ulterior motives about making Kieran feel a bit humiliated. "Do me a favor and make some extra strong French roast. A fresh pot, please?"

"Anytime," she kissed him. "So you know, I did tell him that as your wife, I could evict him entirely."

"And you can," Brian told her. "You own half of this just like you do everything else, my love." He kissed her slowly, knowing Kieran was seeing every second of it.

"You are so bad," she laughed, knowing part of this was performance for Kieran's sake. She went to make the coffee, and Brian went over to Kieran.

"Now you have to deal with me," Brian said to Kieran.


"I sent Jack to get a walking stick for Angus," Robert said. "Dont worry. He won't be gone long, Jess. Lower your fear, Jess. You're safe. I won't let anything happen. I promise. If you want to learn how to heal, come be a part of this. Just diagnose for now. Come lay your hand very lightly on his ankle. See what you feel."

Jess looked at Robert drawing her stregnth from his words and nodded , Placing her hand on his ankle gently like a feather against his skin " I feel it ..its like paper all torn , theres infalmation too, you came down hard didn't you" she said and chuckled at him " looking at Robert she focued on it more " this is going to take several days to heal " she felt the smaller fibers pull together but she stopped feeling a little exausted " Robert this is taking alot of energy?" she said thinking it was ether her einexperiance or the fact she was worryed abut Jack inhibating her control.

"Very good, Jess," Robert smiled. "You're exactly right. Thats what a tear does feel like. Look again. See if you get the edges of the tear. They're not clean. What I feel is more of a fraying sensation--as if each fiber tore at a bit of a different place. I get an image of a rather feathery or fringed feel to it. At this point, what I can do is to set a spell in motion to cause each individual fiber to try to knit itself together. Hopefully it will do that without my doing surgery on it, but I might not know til morning if his system will respond. Then we will ice it, wrap it for support and to protect it from getting about three times its normal size, and elevate it. It needs to be higher than his heart, which means, he needs to either be on the sofa relaxing, or up in his room. And you're right. He did come down hard. His full weight slammed right down on that and then it twisted. Thats' how that sort of thing happens. You lot will be serving him for a week or two instead of him serving you."

"Hm." Angus mused, now that the pain was gone. "Breakfast in bed? I could get to like that." Robert just rolled his eyes and laughed.

Jess smiled and nodded feeling just what he said she set the spell in motion and moved back accioing a bag of ice to place on it while it was healing. " that was someth ing new i never felt that before , it was like the egdes of a feather but all diferent lengths some were still there bearly others gone " she said and smiled fee had learned somethling like she had learned something new " you won't get me chasing around after you, I seem to be learning something new every day now" she said then looked at Cassidy and walked over kneeling she placed her hand on her for head " Robert shes hot?" she said she place her hand back down and looked closer " her energys all out of whack, but how?" she asked hoping to learn more.

Robert double checked her spell. It would serve to help him determine if Angus would need surgery or not. "Alright, Angus. I don't want you putting any weight at all on that before I check it in the morning. Let's keep ice on it and keep it elevated. I'll check it in the morning."

When he finished with Angus and getting him comfortable, he went over to Cassidy and laid his hand on her forehead. "You really do need to learn how to travel, Cassidy," he said to her. "Unless you plan on using muggle travel for the rest of your life, and trust me, thats a pain in the ass." He summoned a glass from the kitchen and poured a dose of a potion out of his bag. "Here. This will fix it. Drink. Its not overly pleasant tasting, but its not disgusting either. Have Steven, perhaps, work with you on apparating and portkeying."

Her not being able to travel was not a good thing. He would rather have her learn how to deal with it, rather than his having to restrict her duties because she couldn't travel. He was hoping it would not ever come to that.

Cassidy looked up at Robert and nodded " y..yes..s..sir" she said taking the glass with the potion in her shaky hands she drank. Jess looked at Robert "I'll get her in bed so she can rest " she said and stood Cassidy up and slowly walking her to a spare room as son as cassidy sat down on the bed she fell to one side out cold . Jess chuckled and covered her over " you'll feel better when you wake" she sahd and moved to the living room again just as Jack arrived with both the crutches and the walking stick.

"well will he live" he asked jokingly as he wlaked over laying the crutches and stick down just as jess wrapped her arms around him and he held her back " was I gone that long ?" he asked and kissed her gently " I told you I would not be long." he smiled at Robert " how was she?"he asked knowing she must have paniced.

"She did alright," Robert said. He said little else. He knew how to block his thoughts from a seer, after all the years of being married to Kate, and he often chose to. This was one of those times. "And yes, Angus will live. He's already dreaming of being served breakfast in bed. Alright, I want you lot in bed getting some sleep. Brian and Khaat and I will be taking the nightshift. I need those of you who are up to it to be ready to relieve Brian and Khaat especially. Understood?"

He wasn't giving much information and what his thoughts were. He just expected, for now, for the team to just follow what he wanted.

"I will be up with Khaat and Brian tonight. One of us will be awake and up over here at all times. Two of us will be over there. That should give the rest of you a chance to rest and then relieve us in the morning. Its been a very long day for all of you. I will probably try to sleep during the morning. Any questions?"

Jack chuckled and nodded " well looks like its me tonight " he said and looked at Jes " go and sleep " he said prying her arms from around his waist . Jess looked at him and nodded realizing she been acting silly " Sorry Robert I'm not sure why i am acting like this , its not like me to be scared being left alone like that " she tapped Jacks chest and kissed his cheek " maybe tomorrow will be better." she said and moved of to bed.

Jack sat down in a chair shaking his head slightly " I think its being away from the kids after just getting back into a rutine " he said accioing a cup of coffee into his hand and taking a drink of it.

"No, Jack," Robert said firmly. "Go to bed. That order included you too. I didn't misspeak. I said that Khaat and Brian and I would handle it. I will send Brian back to take care of the house. I want you all fresh in the morning. Khaat and Brian do need to sleep, but in the morning. I want you all fresh. Go to bed when Brian gets back. I want Jess well rested, and it appears she needs you right now. I know what I'm doing, Jack. Put the coffee away and go to bed."

He apparated back to the apartment and a moment later, Brian came back. "I hear you've been ordered to turn in for the night," Brian said. "Its okay, really. I"m just hoping that you all can come up with an awesome breakfast. We're liable to be starving by then. I really can deal with it. I slept for a couple hours. Most nights I only sleep about 5 hours even when I get a full nights sleep. I'm fine. Why don't you just turn in? If I need you, your hearing is sensitive enough that you'll know. It'll be fine.

Jack was going to protest when he realized Robert was right " yes sir " he said and made the cup of coffee disapear as he stood up " sir could all this with jess be from her being tired ?" he asked as he stretched himself . he saw Brian aperate back and chuckled " Im sure jess can help cook something up " he said and moved out of the room " good night " he said and moved back to the room they were using jess had her back to him already in bed she rolled to face him " Im going to owl Jeffery about how im feeling " she said softly as she ran her ahnd up his back " I don't understand why i feel like such a teen " she said as he lay down in bed with her.

Jack sighed and wrapped his arm around her as he lay with her " jess you just got to relax a bit," he rolled to face her " you know there is something we could do to relax " he said his finger tracing up and down her arm as she smiled at him.


Jess hummed as she cooked breakfast fast feeling some what happy in her selfeeling, she cooked a full english breakfast, coffee sat in the pot and fresh juice sat in a jug on the table. Jess placed toast on the table as Jack wondered in in his jeans and kissed her shoulder " morning beautiful" he said and she chukled " f eeling better ?" he asked and she nodded kissing him back gently " I wonder if any of the others are up yet?" she asked sensing no movement yet or not from the main house.