The Ties That Bind

Kieran finally noticed his mouth was bleeding rather badly. He wiped it with his fist and found his fist covered in blood. Then he noticed a few of his teeth laying on the floor. Khaat expected him to be outraged, but instead, Kieran started to laugh at Brian.

"Well, well," he said, amused, "So you're finally growing a pair? And did you say babies? Wait. No. You didn't...You did! You honestly procreated--with the tart! Tell me--do I have nieces or nephews? How many?" Khaat saw Brian's jaw muscles tense. The last thing he wanted was Kieran believing he was an uncle, but Khaat had fully expected it.

"Where's your wand, Kieran?" Brian asked, his voice now a low hiss of rage.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I gave that up," he laughed. "Useless stuff, magic." Khaat frowned. She went over to him and laid her hand on his forehead. She stood up and looked at Brian.

"He's a squib. He's lost it. He has no magic whatsoever. He didn't give it up. He lost it," she told Brian.

"What did you do?" Brian looked at him deeper. This was not good.

"Eh," Kieran waved the matter away. "I got into, shall we call it, a difference of opinion with another wizard awhile back, and well, you know, that stuff just wasn't for me, anyway."

"No," Brian did agree on that. "You're a lousy wizard. You always were."

"Shall I put his teeth back for him?" Khaat asked.

"No," Brian said. "I think I'd like to see him in dentures. Or toothless."

"That really isn't a good look for me," Kieran looked at her, smiling. The normally dazzling smile was now a bloody mess with holes in it. Khaat understood. It was as close as he was going to go to asking for help.

"I'll do it this once," Khaat decided. She picked up the teeth off the floor, went out to the sink in the kitchen, rinsed them off, and used her skills to put them back in his jaw where they belonged. She did nothing to reduce the swelling or the pain or the bruising he would surely have. That, she believed, he deserved at the very least. As she was finishing, he clutched her wrist, drew her tight to him and planted a kiss on her lips. Khaat froze, horror filled memories rushing back and flooding her mind. "Thank you, Sweetheart," he grinned. "Well, maybe she is a useful tart after all, Little brother."

Brian moved in and swept his arm around Khaat the instant that Steven pried Kieran's grip free of her. He drew her back out of his brother's reach. Neither of them moved while Steven made some very clear points with the older Quinn.

"I'm fine," Khaat said softly. "Thank you."

Kieran looked at Steven, Khaat and Brian and frowned. He was obviously picking up on a new vibe in the room. He studied them for a moment. He watched Brian fiddling with some odd coin on a chain around his neck.. "He's not just a travelling companion, is he?" Kieran mused. "For some reason, you've hired bodyguards for the tart, didn't you? Who exactly is she, anyway?"

A new figure apparated into the room and stood firmly in front of Khaat and Brian, between them and Kieran, just as Kieran spoke.

"The 'tart'," Robert Lupin's imposing voice boomed, "is my daughter, you little twit. You haven't changed a bit. You're still an arrogant ass."

"Kieran, meet my father in law," Brian said, hiding his amusement at the new look of shock on Kieran's face.

"Now, you'll deal with me," Robert said with iron firmness.

"If you so much as breathed on my daughter...." Robert began.

"This? This is who you married?" Kieran looked astounded at Brian. "This is little Khaaty Lupin? The little girl with the blond hair and the freckles across her nose? The one who had the little pink flipflops? This is the tart you married? How the hell did you do that? Isn't that like marrying your sister? Oh, wait. Its probably the only one either of you could get."

Robert ignored the sharp, acidic tongue on Kieran. He turned to Khaat and Brian and looked at them questioningly. He had seen the fresh blood and the swelling and the bruises on Kieran's face. Besides that, Kieran was clearly letting himself go. Untoned, flabby, and every sign and symptom of alcoholism. Brian had more than enough firepower to handle Kieran. He wasn't sure what the issue was. It looked under control to him.

"I'm fine, Daddy," Khaat said very softly.

"He's in league with Gelding and Burke," Brian said. "Up to his eyeballs." Robert wheeled around sharply to look at Kieran.

"Then you are a bigger fool than I ever thought you were," Robert said. "And you are also..." he hesitated before he spoke his last word, considering, in his head, his options for the man on the floor in front of him. "...mine." Kieran looked back at Robert, trying to show absolutely no fear, but Robert felt how intimidated Kieran now was, and with good reason. Kieran had learned very early into his relationship that Robert never ever said anything he didn't mean, and that he never threatened anything he was not fully prepared to follow through with. Kieran knew, even as a Hogwarts student, that Robert Lupin could be a very dangerous man when he had to be.

"Jess and Jack, ," Robert said, not taking his eyes off Kieran. "take Khaat back to the house...."

"There is more," Brian said. "More that you need to know. Much, much more. Before you do anything."

"More?" Robert looked back at Brian. Brian nodded, very serious now.

"He's not going anywhere, Daddy," Khaat said. "He's lost his magic completely."

"Oh, has he now?" Robert asked, repressing a slight smile. "I wondered how long it would take before that happened. Well, then, since he is quite captive here, lets leave him stew a bit in his own juices while you fill in the blanks. Let's go to the house, and you can catch me up."

Khaat felt deeply relieved with her father here. She remembered all too well how egotistical Kieran had been and how quickly her parents had gotten him under control. He wasn't sure what Kieran had been like around his own parents, and she didn't remember ever asking Brian. So far as she knew, her parents hadn't cared how Kieran had behaved around his own parents. They cared far more about how he was currently behaving and had dealt with it accordingly. Kieran had never liked being told no. Not ever. It was what had driven him away from the Lupins eventually. As for Fiona, she had not been ever able to deal with her grief and had not wanted any adult to try to replace her parents. Even though that had never been Robert and Kate's intentions, Fiona had rejected them and remained at Hogwarts.

Khaat remembered the anger and bitterness that had consumed Brian for the first few months after the loss of his parents, and how her parents had never been afraid of it, never walked away from him and had known that below all the vinegar and fizz he exuded was a deeply wounded young man. In the end, it was Robert that Brian had opened up to when he had awakened screaming and crying from reliving the accident in his dreams one more time. It was Robert who had weathered it out with Brian, and it was the Lupins who Brian had thrown his lot in with--completely and totally. It had been an agreement, though, between Robert and Brian that Brian would never be adopted. He had wanted to maintain his sense of being a Quinn, of not losing his family.

Kieran hadn't understood it and had never been around to even know. Brian and Khaat had never considered themselves siblings. Just friends, and legally that was all it ever was. Kieran had been wrong to acuse Brian of marrying his sister, and she had seen how it brewed with him. Kieran was toxic for Brian, and Khaat wanted this finished quickly so that she could somehow get Kieran back out of Brian's life.

"Kieran is just not good for Brian," Khaat said out loud finally. "He brings up old wounds for Brian deliberately to hurt him. So far, Brian's hanging in there better than I expected, but I really would like to use Daddy's bug spell on him."

In the apartment, Robert responded to Steven's question. "I might need you, Steven. When we get to that point. For now, if there is more that I need to know before I deal with this sorry mess here on the floor, then I need to get to it. Let's go back to the house." He looked pointedly at Brian. "I will need you to show me what you have." He didn't want Brian lingering here alone with Kieran. Brian got the message and apparated without another word back to the house. "Let's go, Steven," Robert said. "We can come back for him anytime." He apparated to the house.

Khaat had a feeling she knew what Brian's first order of business was. When her father apparated into the house, Brian motioned him to follow, and Robert excused himself and followed Brian down the hallway. Khaat sighed. She had no doubt that her father would be unhappy, but if he were true to character, he would not display much emotion outwardly about it all. Not yet anyway.

"You're right, Jess," she said after watching Brian and her father leave the room. "He is doing well. And thanks again, Steven, for getting me loose from Kieran. I should have been more careful. We already saw more than enough signs that he was a womanizer."

"Womanizer?" Angus asked, coming back into the room. "My apologies. I was arranging rooms for everyone. I obviously missed something. Did Kieran show his true colors again?"

"Yeah. Just Kieran being Kieran," Khaat sighed. "So I take it we are set for the night?"

"We are. Except I don't know if my father will be staying or not."

"Your father?" Angus frowned.

"Did your medallion not pick up Brian's signal?" she frowned. He reached for the chain and found it was gone. His eyes grew wide.

"Its not here," he said, alarmed.

"Don't panic. It could not have gone far. We'll figure it out. Spread out. Lets all look for it. By the way, where is Cassidy?"