Feminine Fire

"And his hearing when it comes to food is just about as bad a a bloodhound's," Brian laughed.

"Where'd Dean?" Fiona asked.

"Haven't seen him, Fi," Brian said. "Not in a couple hours. The last I saw he was going to go riding, but as I said that was a couple hours ago. Maybe he's down in the stables. Should I look for him for you?"

"Nah. He'll turn up. You're a sweetheart, but I'm sure he's fine. He's probably still riding then. Its hard to get him off a horse once he's on one. I think I'm going to go up and find that book I was reading. It looks like I have a little time before dinner." She went upstairs. Kate disappeared and went into the kitchen and got out a bottle of soda, opened it and went out to watch Robert and the others with the girls in the pool.

"You want to swim, Khaat?" Brian asked.

"No thanks. It took me all day to get this hair and makeup. I think I'll keep it for a few minutes," Khaat laughed.

"Let me get you something to drink then. What would you like?"

"Surprise me," she said. He got up, went to the kitchen and got her a bottle of soda, but before he brought it to her, he poured a dose of a potion into it for her. It was odorless and tasteless, but he believed she needed it. He brought it to her and handed her the bottle of soda.

"Try that. Its a red cream soda."

"Cream soda? We haven't had that since we were kids," she laughed. "Where did you find that?"

"A muggle shop, believe it or not. I bought us a whole case of it."

"You are completely wonderful," she laughed.

jess laughed at Brians comment and nodded " ow too true brian " she said smiling as she moved out to the pool side smiling as she saw Jack swiming and stephen just resting against the side of the pool next to Khaat " I am in agreement with Khaat, we went threw all that suffering and I would like to enjoy my new look" she said and wiggled her toes as Jack swum up to her.

" lovly color jess , why didn't you paint your toes before ?" he asked and grined at her as she roled her eyes.

" talk about the oviose " she said and threw a pice of ise that went down the front of his trunks he yelled and swum away.

" ice assult" he said as he swum away holding himself as he laughed trying to get the ice out.

Khaat leaned back against the back of the sofa determined to just close her eyes and relax and enjoy being home with Brian where she belonged again. She didn't realize she was tired until her eyes had fluttered shut on their own and she had started to fall into a light sleep, her head falling onto Brian's shoulder. She wasn't there for long when she was jerked awake by him bouncing up sharply off the sofa.

"Draw your wand," he told her softly.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"It's probably nothing, but I know I heard something. Just be careful til I come back," he said, drawing his own wand. She noticed he decided to deliberately go check out the noise himself. He went upstairs. And the next thing Khaat knew, she heard the sound of fighting, things breaking, a hell of a brawl going on upstairs.

"Daddy!" she heard herself call sharply. "Upstairs!"

"Kate, Steven, Jess--take care of the girls and Khaat. Jack, you're with me. Apparate upstairs to the main hallway upstairs." Robert leaped out of the pool, accio'ing his wand. He apparated upstairs and heard two men fighting with all they were worth--in Fi and Dean's room. By the sounds of it, whoever it was fully intended to fight to the death. He dashed down the hall, hoping to keep someone from being killed.

Stephen jumped up grabbing Dakota as he saw kate take Abby jess drew her wand and stood her ground next to Stephen. Jack ran still wet accioing his wand to him as he moved with Robert up stairs his heart beat ready for a fight as they quickly moved to a door where the sounds was coming from he glanced at Robert waiting for instruction as he knew Robert would go first but something made him open the door and his blood ran fire hot. He looked at Robert then at Brian and finally at Dean, he slipped slightly letting out a wolf like growl but he pulled it back quickly holding his fire on Dean for fear he would hit Brian he instead moved to fiona lifting her away from the two of them he could feel she was still breathing.

"Get her out of here," Robert ordered. "Take her to one of the empty rooms. I'll be there in one moment. Get my bag, Jack." He looked at the two fighting. Obviously this was not the first drunken brawl Dean had ever been involved in, but Brian was dead sober and he had been trained far better than dean. And when he looked into Brian's eyes, he could see that Brian had no intention of stopping. Robert was not about to let Brian kill his sister's husband. He aimed his wand carefully and fired, knocking Dean into a wall and hitting him hard enough that he went unconscious. Brian turned, furious.

"I won't let you kill him," Robert said quietly but firmly. "You go do something useful. Go tend your sister. I'll be there in a moment."

"I need to..."

"You need to obey my orders. Now," Robert said, more firmly. "He's not going anywhere, I promise you. Fi needs a healer. Go." Brian pulled himself up, bloodied and bruised, and went down the hall. Dean had gotten some good licks in, but Brian was far less bloody than Dean was and that was still far less than his sister. Brian was outraged. It didn't take him a moment to find where Jack had taken Fi. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly to get himself together and to quiet his rage. Then he went in.

Jack nodded carrying Fiona to an empty room laying her down on the bed he quickly grabbed Roberts bag and dove back to sit with her he turned his hands at the ready to fight but seeing it was Brian he relaxed " how can he do this , is he mad " he said " this is not right Brian , even sterphen when he was drinking never did anything like this " he said his own anger now rising though he fought to keep it down for fear of losing his control completly he would not break his promise to Jess and the others but this came close.


Jess felt the tenshion and fear and felt she all ready knew what it was about her hand shook slightly as she thought of Fiona. She felt a hand on hers and turned to see Stephen holding her hand and she smiled telling him she was gratful he had done so , pulling her thoughts back to what she was doing and not what was going on up the stairs.

"Fi's been holding out on me," Brian said quietly. "I should have known. I should have figured it out." He sat beside Fi and laid his hand on her forehead. "Looks like she's got a lot of old head injuries and old broken bones. This is not the first time he's done this. This--this is why she's so shy and withdrawn. He's beaten her down in every way. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Jack, get some wet washcloths and some towels from the bathroom, please. We have to clean her up a bit." He began checking her carefully for a concussion, for severe bleeding, for broken bones. He wasn't going to miss anything. Not on his sister. So far, he didn't find a concussion. She appeared to be just knocked out. But she had a knot the size of a goosegg on the back of her head. She was bleeding in several places and her left eye was so black it was swollen shut. Her cheekbone was broken and so was her nose. He wanted Robert to tend that so her beautiful face wasn't marred. Dean had knocked out two of her teeth too. Brian needed to find them to put them back for her before the nerves that were in the teeth died. He found a sprained left shoulder, several bruised vertebrae in her back, and two broken ribs. And more bruised places than she had places that weren't bruised.

He turned his wand and created a protective shield at the window and the doorways of the room, prohibiting Dean from being able to pass through to get to her.

A few moments later, Robert entered.

"What'd you do with him?" Brian asked.

"Bound his magic for now, for starters," Robert said. "Arrested him, and tossed him into a temporary holding cell in Azkaban. A few hours with the dementors helping him to detox ought to find him a changed man in about 3 or 4 days from now." Brian nodded, satisfied. For the moment, Fiona was safe. And all the work she had done to make herself so very beautiful. It was all undone in just a couple of moments after she got home. He made up his mind he was going to make it all up to her.

"I'll take over," Robert said gently. "Go see Jess and Khaat. See if they will get her things out of her room and move them here. She doesn't need to be reminded of him, and it puts her closer to you and Khaat anyway."

"Fine," Brian said, going downstairs.

Jack moved and got what he asked for he shook his head " its men like him that give us a bad name " he said his eyes flashing yellow of his wolf side even as he fought to hold it back . he handed the cloth to him and then moved down to Jess passing Robert as he went " do you have anything in there to helpo me not loose my temper Robert ?" he asked looking at him.

Jess slipped her wand away feeling things hand settled " I feel things are settled but we need to move Fiona's things " she looked at Kate " I don't know why but jack will tel us " she said and moved inside to find Jack she saw the look in his eys and gasped a little quickly she moved up the stairs and to the room that had been Fiona and Dean's she felt her legs wobble but jack held her " shes with Robert and hes some where he can't so any damage and can sober up " she heard jack say. Jess looked at Kate " I knew it , I knew she was hiding something I should have said " she said gathering Fiona's things.

"Go for a run, Jack," Robert said. "Go burn off the energy outside. You need to let out the energy from the anger more than you need a potion. I don't want you relying on potions. Just go run. Anger builds up adrenalin. The best way to reduce the anger is to do something physically difficult in order to burn that off. Go. It will do you good."

Brian sat washing off the blood on his sister's face. It was probably best that Dean was going to wake up and find himself in Azkaban. He said nothing. He heard the sickening crunch as Robert set her nose with an Episkey spell. He began to set spells in place to stop pain and bleeding and reduce bruising and swelling. "She never had the old wounds tended," Robert said. "Looks like she probably hid when he did this before. Brian, listen to me. We have a chance to make a difference in her life now. My best guess is that she's far more used to this than we are. Some of these fractures could be over a decade old. From about when they first got married or before that. We can make a difference here by offering her the support that she has never had before."

"She'll get it. Anything she needs," Brian promised.

"Good lad. Once we patch her up, as long as she has pain potion in her system, she might be able to be up to eat with us. Then she should rest. We'll have Jess or Khaat help her change."

"I don't want her to see herself as less beautiful because of this," Brian said.

"Then don't treat her as less," Robert said simply. "You're already good at that. I"m almost finished her. Then we can wake her up."

Jess finished gathering Fiona's things as jack kissed her cheek " Im going for a run " he said and she nodded taking the things threw to the spare room she knew they would be. She took a deep breath and walked in but she could not help but gasp before her training kicked in and she placed everything down to one side of the bed . " do you need any help Robert " she asked looking from fiona to Robert knowing he would know fiona had told her about Dean's drinking " she told me in the shop that he drank " she said and looked at the sleeping Fiona " I knew she was hiding something as I felt her fear , I...I didn't thnk he was this bad " she siad looking at him.