The Ties That Bind

"I guess I never finished because I like what I do--and who I do it with," Angus said.

"You don't have to lose that," Robert said.

"Angus, if you agree to finish that one class, I'll pay for it--1o0%," Khaat said.

"What?" he frowned.

"I'm serious," she said. He looked at her for a moment, frowning.

"You are serious, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Well," he said a bit tentatively, raising his glass of iced tea, "Here's to finally finishing that one course, then. Who's going to cook for you on the days I'm in class? School runs 2 days a week from 7 am til 9 pm for about 8 weeks. Do you think..."

"We'll manage somehow," Brian smiled. "And I'll raise your pay for finally completing it. After all, you won't just be our cook. You'll be our chef."

"You don't have to do that...." Angus began.

"I know, but I will. Its worth that to me," Brian said.

"You really are making it impossible to say no. You know that, right?"

"Yes," Brian laughed.

steven chuckled and picked up a whisk " erm witch end do I cut with ?" he joked placing it down in the rack again " only kidding " he said and smiled " Brians right we'll manage , besides Cassidys not going to be gone that long she can cook too her and jes could do it on the days your away " he said and loked at Jess who chuckled and nodded .

" yes I would , I don't mind jack can help so can Steven " she said and saw his smile slip a little " serves you right for volantering me , even if I don't mind you two can take over thej stable dutieds while I cook and together we all can take care of the inside of the house " she said holding on to jack as she knew he wanted to move to grb more ribs as he evaded her words.

Khaat felt slightly mischievious. She barely flicked her finger, so no one would see,and four huge caveman sized ribs floated over and landed on Jack's plate. She made sure she was occupied with her other hand, lifting her tea glass and taking a sip of it. Her eyes met her father's. She was positive he had seen what she had done, but he was not going to tell everyone about her little trick.

Brian frowned. "Did you levitate those ribs, Jack?" he asked, curious. He had never seen Jack do something like that when Jess didn't want him to. It was out of character for him. Kieran just looked confused. The babies delighted and giggled with glee at seeing flying food at the dinner table. That made Kate and Robert laugh.

"These two are going to be handfuls when their magic comes in," Kate laughed. "They enjoy it entirely too much already."

"You don't suppose..." Angus began, frowning.

"Uh..no," Robert said. "They are entirely too young to levitate ribs that size and land them successfully on Jack's plate. Definitely not."

Jess looked at jack and shook her head as he held up his hands " hey don't look at me , though... waste not want not " he said now grining as Jess let his arm go and he began eating the ribs any way .

" hes suposed to be watching what he eats " she said then chuckled " guess he is , hes watching it as he eats it " she said and looked down each of them and stopped on khaat, but just smiled knowing it lightened the mood all round , he turned to face Jack " you do know its ten minets on that tread mill?" she said

Jack looked over the ribs and smiled at them " hey I like ribs what can I say " he said and chuckled loking at Jes as she kissed his cheek wiping some rib sauce from his lip .

That seemed to make everyone laugh. When dinner was over, there actually wasn't a whole lot left. Angus was pleased. And everyone looked either comfortable or uncomfortably stuffed. Angus flicked his wand to set the mess to clean itself. He went out to the kitchen, between all the floating dishes and such, and made a fresh pot of coffee for after dinner. He flicked his wand again for thigns to gather into a basket.

He sent the basket out to the deck. "Brian, would you light a fire in the firepit and then go get some sticks?'

"Sticks?" Brian echoed.

"Yeah. Sticks, Dude. You remember what a stick is, right?"

"Uh. What kind of sticks?"

"About 2 feet long? Thin, young, green sticks?"

"Uh. Sure. How many?"

"Oh, a dozen or so."

"Okay," he frowned.

"I'll go with you,' Kate said, smiling.. "I know what he wants. Come on, Tenderfoot." Brian frowned and looked at Steven.

"Hey, Cowboy, was I just insulted?" he asked. Robert and Angus roared in laughter. Kate motioned to Brian to follow, heading out the door. Brian just shrugged and followed.

Steven looked over at Brian and chuckled " better a tenderfoot than a green horn " he said and chuckled again as he sat looking at the stars that now shone above them thinking was Delilah looking at the same star as he was " its a perfect night , I wish Delilah was here " he said and sighed but smiled as he thought of her loving the memories he could bring back to be with her and dylan.

Jess gathered her plate and took it to the kitchen smiling as she heard the banter placing it in she moved to the balcony and sat down Jack folowed moments later sitting he wqrapped hisa rm around jer and pulled her closer to him " that meal was wonderful " he said softly and kissed her head .

" yes,he is a good cook angus " she said softly and lent against him watching the stars above them.

Brian and Kate cut some sticks and brought them back to the firepit and handed one to everyone. Angus produced a big sack of marshmallows from the basket.

"S'mores!" he announced. "But with with a twist. Have you ever had them with peanut butter?"

"Peanut butter?" Khaat frowned.

"Yep. Spread peanut butter on one of the graham crackers, put the chocolate on, and then put the warm gooey marshmallow on top of that and the other graham cracker. Its heaven!" he grinned. "Try it."

"Alright. Give me one of those marshmallows," Khaat said, determined. "I have to try this for myself."

"Have I ever let you down?" he laughed.

"No. Never."

"Give me one of those too, Khaat," Robert said, just as determined. Khaat took a marshmallow out of the bag and threw it at him. He laughed and caught it, skewered it on his stick and put it to roast over the firepit. Khaat soon had her own stick in the firepit. Brian and Kate followed suit and passed the bag on around to the others. Angus put a stick in a cooler part of the fire once he got a marshmallow on his stick, and then he got out the graham crackers, the peanut butter, and some chocolate bars to be ready for everyone to asemble their s'mores.

Jack looked over and jumped up " S'MOOOOOOORES!!!" He yelled and grabbed a stick and marshmallow in and into the fire then made it up. Biting in he sighed and smiled " humm , S'mores" he said with a sigh

Jess laughed " and you thought he'd eaten his fill at the table " she said and grinned " and yes hes like this at home , Robert do all wears have a hugh apatite or is that just mine ?" she asked looking at jack as he slipped another marshmallow on his stick. seeing jess shake her head and laugh.

" hey im a growing man who needs he energy " he said jess walked over and kissed him stasting the marshmallow and chocolate on his lips .

" don't worry just don't pig out dear " she said and sat back down smiling " hes like a small boy whos found something he likes " she said " but I do love him so"

Everyone got a hearty laugh out of Jack's delight with the discovery of the s'mores. Khaat and Brian and Robert all tried the s'mores with the peanut butter. When Khaat bit into hers, it was divine. She looked at Angus. "Alright. S'mores--nightly. That's an order," she said. Angus just laughed.

Kieran ate two very quickly. He hadn't said much, but Khaat had noticed that he evidently had a sweet tooth too, because he had swallowed two quickly and was looking to make a third. He looked up and saw Khaat looking at him and got self conscious.

"Eat what you like," she said gently. "Knowing this crew, we're all going to have several." As she said that, she stuck another marshmallow on her stick and one on Brian's empty stick.

"Thanks, Babe," he smiled. "Eat up, Kieran. You worked your butt of today. You deserve it." Kieran didn't respond. He only frowned and then took another marshmallow.

"Brian, this is completely lovely," Kate said. "I can't think of anything better. All the people I love, under the stars, in a gorgeous place, With truly wonderful food, its perfect."

Khaat had placed the babies in their playpen with an assortment of toys, and she could hear babbling so she knew all was well. She heard Dakota repeating her word for kitty and she looked to see that Mo and Max had jumped into the playpen and were curling up with the girls and appeared to be doing their best to safeguard them. It made Khaat smile. This was so different than a couple nights ago when things were so ugly and so stressed for everyone.

"Daddy," Khaat said, "Thank you. Thank you for helping us fine our way out of this mess."

"You all did the work, not me," Robert said, sliding his marshmallow off his stick into the middle of his second s'more. "Angus, you need to find a way to include raspberry or cherry in this instead of the peanut butter."

"Oh thats easy," Angus said. He accio'd a jar of cherry jam. "Try that instead of the peanut butter. It works just as well. The cherry and the chocolate really works."

steven smiled and took his marsh mallow from his stick making his S'more and eating it as he chuckled " thats me done " he said and placed his stick in the fire pit to burn with the others " I have eated enouph "he announced and sat down ion the bench watching the stars and glancing at the cats in the crib and smileng " watch cats thats new " he said and chuckled as a tail flicked out and laid on abbys knees .


Jack groaned his fullness and threw his stick witch poped into the fire " thats it is offical im done in " he said and sat down next to Jess " no mor smores i couldn't eat another one if I tried " he said and rubbed his tummy to jess's chukaling , he leaned over and kissed her " sleep for me im afrain jess .

" thats ok Jack you did work hard in the stables or was that the chicken that chanced after you working hard "she said smirking as he roleld his eye s at her.

" it had it in for me damn thing wouldn't stop chasing me , steven had to talk to it to get it to calm down " he said and chuckled " well last laughs on me next time we have chicken its in the pot " jess hit him " what?"

" its not an eating chicken so leave it alone " she said then rested her head on his shoulder as he held her close to him.