Feminine Fire

Khaat had been running the estate by herself for almost a month. Angus had been unexpectedly called away because of a sudden serious heart problem his father was having. He hated leaving, but Khaat and Brian had sent him back to Tuscany with their blessings and their prayers.

And then Brian had gotten wind of an enormous child trafficking ring in the heart of Asia. Kieran wanted to go along. He had been tremendously compelled to give back instead of feeling like he was merely taking. Brian hadn't wanted to go and leave her alone. He made her promise to take the babies and go to either her parents or to Michael's. But it wasn't that easy. There were live animals in the barn to care for, protection of the estate to provide for. And this was her home.

And then beyond all that was her anger. They had sent Steven to recuperate from a very minor injury and they hadn't heard a word since. That was now turning into far longer than anyone had anticipated. And then there was Jess and Jack. Khaat wasnt' stupid. Jess wasn't able to be around Khaat because of Khaat's two children and her impending pregnancy. It had culminated in them ditching out on what should have been a wonderful weekend in Tuscany. Jess and Jack didn't last there 24 hours before they simply decided to start their two week holiday early and ditch the weekend with them. Khaat hadn't said a word. They had asked Brian for permission, when it had been Khaat that had given them the holiday in the first place. She hadn't said a word.

But she had sent them all owls extending their holidays until further notice, with pay. She had, in fact, given them their usual salary and a holiday bonus on top of that. She was taking a stand. She could run the estate, hold her jobs, and take care of her children and her pregnancy by herself. She took the babies with her to the St. Mungo's daycare daily and took care of them by herself at night, usually relying on conjured foods to feed them all, and magical spells to clean the house.

She did still have to do her best to take care of the barn by herself. Some of that could be done with spells and some could not. She had not even told her parents or Michael. So far as appearances looked, all was well. And it had been now for almost a month.

Tonight, she was tired. Her feet and ankles were swelling. The babies were cranky tonight. They both wanted her attention, and they didn't like the conjured food. Besides that, she was behind on laundry. She had set spells in place to take care of that, and it was temporarily amusing the children every so often when a shirt or a towel would fly back upstairs, fold itself and then whisk off to put itself away. She put the children in the playpen and handed them each a soft sugar cookie that she had brought home from Sparks. She realized that was only going to be another mess to clean up, but at least it quieted their ranting and screaming. It was when it got quiet that she realized her head was pounding. And she desperately missed Brian. More than she wanted to say. The deeper he got into his undercover investigation, the fewer the owls were. She hadn't heard from him in almost a week now, and she hoped he was still alive.

Steven paced the floor of his ranch he hated sitting around but thats what he'd done his hand was all healed yet he'd been told to stay off longer buy Khaat. Now he'd had enouph he was bored. Telling Dalilah he would be back once it was sorted he aperated to brians ranch. He found Khaat sat on the couch the two babies eating a cookie each and making a mess. But what he saw was a tired Khaat her tummy even bigger than he remebered. " ok , whats with the exctended leave bit ?" he said walking over to her " My hands all beter even robert said it was completly healed so I don't need to be of work, paid or not " he looked down at her but moved to the kitchen cleaning it he placed everything in the washer then cleaning up the girls he tok them up and bathed them placing each in the crib to sleep.

Returning to khaat he made apot of fresh tea and gave her it siting down he slipped off her shoes massaging her feet gently. He didn't care if she ranted or raved at him he was working " you do know Robert will not be happy you have been alone this long" he said as he continued " acept it Khaat were not here to take over or push you out we all have lives that inculde you, brian, robert and kate ow and keiran...did I hear righr and he got his magic back ?" he said not stopping massaging her feet.

She hadn't had it in her to protest when Steven came in and just took over. She was just too tired. Most of her dinner tonight had been thrown away in the trash. She was too tired to eat, but the tea did taste good and it soothed her irritated stomach.

"I needed to prove I could do it on my own," she told Steven, sipping on her tea. "Thank you. Besides, I've done alright so far. Its only been a month, really. Brian and Kieran went to Asia, and Angus had to go back to Tuscany. His father has been ill. His last owl said his father was getting better. And yes, Kieran did get his magic back. He was talking about going back to Colorado when the mission to Asia came up, so he went with his little brother to see if he could actually be of any use. I'm hoping he doesn't get his arse kicked. He hadn't exactly been a champion in the gym. And his magic was rusty." She thought a moment and looked at him. "So what brought you back? Most people who are paid are happy to stay home as long as it lasts."

steven chuckled at the kieran getting his ass kicked he looked at her when she asked about why he came back to her " I have to be honist I was bored I can never stay not working you know that khaat , if its not here its anywhere else " he said " besides with the twins now starting to eat reguerl foods daliah is finding it easier " he said and smile continuing to massage her feet " that and I missed seeing you ,im suprised Brian hasn't come back yet seeing how big you are how far are you now, seven nearly eight months? " he asked feeling to him it had been longer he was a little worried about her going when he was around.

" I tell you this, if i'd have known you were alone i would have come back sooner, its ok in trying on your own but theres no shame in having help." he said " especialy from those who care about you, well im here now and am going to do what i always do , you rest up, you lok like need it, leave it all to me" he said and smiled making her tea refill " jack and jess said they will be here tomorrow they say thanks for the time off but now there ready to come back too" he chuckled.

"No," Khaat said. "I'm not quite to my 5th month. I have another four months,maybe three to go." She knew Steven was going to find that hard to believe. She was finding even simple tasks difficult now. One of the biggest challenges she had was actually either standing up or sitting down. I really should have thought about the fact that you do like to be working. It truly never entered my mind. I guess...I've been busy. My schedule has been pretty full. By the time I get those two into bed at night, go take care of the horses in the barn, and check the protection spells, its about all the exercise I want. So I go to bed pretty early so I can get up in time to go back to the barn, try to do a little in the gym, get the girls up and dressed and fed, get myself dressed, go to work, drop them off at the daycare at the hospital, jockey my time between the Ministry and St. Mungos...and, so it goes."

"It was definitely easier when I had other people here. Brian knows I'm by myself. I didn't hide it from him. And I promised him I would get help if I truly couldn't do it. But so far, I've managed. It hasn't been easy, but I've done it. It's time Brian and I learned to manage." She still had Brian's last letter laying beside her bed. It had had a rather scathing paragraph in it where he had told her that he had never ever intended for her to try to run an estate that size by herself. He didn't even expect it of himself. He had urged her to put away her anger and had said that if he didn't soon hear she had help, he was sending word to her father through contacts of the organization. He was in too deep to send much more word by owl, but he figured he was going to be able to get word once in awhile to the Paris home office. But Brian's discomfort was something Steven didn't necessarily need to know.

Steven listened and shook his head at her telling him how long she had he found it hard to belive at the size of her. " ever heard of meternity leave khaat " he said and continued to massage her feet " you should bathe and rest don't worry about teh barn and the animals i'll take care of that when jack and jess come they will take care of the babies and breakfast " he said and moved to her shoulders " just let brian know im not making a move on you but just getting you to relax a little " he said and chuckled " I have been on my butt more than once with brian I don't want to end up in another coma thanks to your husband " he said chukeling as he moved his hands carefully over her shoulder.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think it was time for maternity leave yet," she said truthfully. "Honestly, come to think about it, I haven't even thought to mention to Daddy that his granddaughters are just down the hall from his office all day long in the daycare center. That was just not something Brian and I had ever wanted to do. We wanted them home under our protection spells that the house had.

"I would be grateful if you would take care of the barn," she admitted. "I can only do so much with magic, and as you know, some of that work is pretty heavy. I can let them out into the corral, but I can't really exercise them like they need. I"m lucky to feed the cats. And poor Archangel hasn't been flying in days.

"I don't know how you're finding so many sore muscles, but you sure are finding a lot of them," she admitted. "Thank you for putting the girls to bed. They were really fussy tonight. I think they miss their daddy. I can be a mom to them, but I'm just not their daddy."

Steven chuckled " I'll see to that first thing in the morning and archangel can fly tomorrow too " he continued his massage and chuckled again " yeah one pearant at a time " he said and smiled " its fine they looked tired " he said and smiled " they have grown those two , I take it they have teeth now " he asked thinking about breakfast and of what he should make if jess didn't turn up but he knew she would as he had stopped there and sen they both were wanting to get back to work again. No sooner he had thougt about them that he saw jess arrive smiling at Khaat.

"ok steven I said I would be here " she said and moved to khaat to hug her " your looking well , stressed but well and you should eat " she said placing her bag in the kitchen she began to make apricot scones " jack says hi he'll be alone in a bit hes seeing the kids to his mothers finally got them to eat solid food, his mother was keeping them on a bottle and there both potty trained now " she said smiling " once one did it the other seemed to follow " she said still beaming with pride.

Khaat hadn't expected anyone to show up tonight, let alone everyone. It surprised her. Then Jess came over and hugged her. "I'm fine, Jess," Khaat said. "I'm just tired. I'm glad your kids are doing well. All of you." She was about to say something more when she heard a tapping at her window. She raised Remus's wand and opened the window. A little tiny brown owl came with a parchment envelope and dropped it in her lap. She petted the owl for a few moments before he left back out the window again.

She opened it. It was a rather demanding letter from Brian, sent via Paris. The message said, bluntly that he expected word to be passed to Paris immediately that she had help. He was going to pull out entirely of the Asian mission if she didn't have help. He valued all those children, but unless his own family was doing well, none of it meant anything anymore. And he wasn't giving her much of any time at all to respond. He wanted a whole list of specific questions answered. And if it didn't meet his demands, he was coming straight home. She sighed heavily.

She laid the parchment aside. His list of questions boxed her in. If she answered them, she would have to tell her father everything. And Brian had done it on purpose. Khaat felt like her head was just going to absolutely explode. She hurt. "Jess, is there any pain potion still out in the kitchen? My head is just going to come off," she sighed.

Jess smiled at Khaat and sat next to her on the edge of the couch " and than you for giving me that time with them I realy needed it now I know there all ok Im fine to come back to work " she said and smiled she fround a little when the owl came in and gave her the letter she felt Khaats tenshion and gthe hwead ache. Moving to behind her she placed her hands on her head " I can do better than the pain potion" she said and drew off her headache " she smiled and sat back down " I have had alot of practice with my mother in law and jack , mostly jack" she said and chuckled.

Thinking it was late she smiled " now Khaat time to rest I see steven already put teh girls to bed now your turn I'll get some breakfast started for tomorrow , jack's coming then " she smiled at her " time to look after your self as for that letter you can tll him your being looked after by steven and I " she patted her hand " I have some new recipys that jacks mothre gave me and I was going to try them out , blueberry pancakes and valilla ice cream , a lamb hot pot and loads more."