New Day, New Life

OOC: they are at the evening meal.

"I think he was taking her out for dinner this evening," Angus said. "I wasn't counting on them being back any time soon." Angus filled plates and floated them to the table.

"Khaat?" Robert said. "You feel like trying to sit at the table with us?"

"I could?" she asked.

"Certainly, with help, yes. Alright--you all, please take Abbey and Dakota to the table." He went over to Khaat and helped her to the table while Kate helped Angus by serving the salad and beverages.

Khaat felt deep relief at being able to sit at the table again and to actually be able to sit close enough to the table to enjoy her meal rather than the distance of triplets away from the table itself. It felt like it had been forever since she could pull herself up close enough to the table. It felt very odd.

"Okay?" he asked.

"Fine," she smiled. "Thank you."

"Feels good again to be here and able to actually not have babies in the way," Khaat laughed. "Angus, this looks and smells delicious. Thank you so much. It always looks like it should be in a food magazine."

"Ah well, we eat with our eyes first," he laughed, sitting down with them. Khaat watched Dakota throw the lettuce leaf. She watched Jack put it back on her plate and watched Dakota promptly toss it again, angrily this time.

"Apparently she has decided she does not like lettuce tonight," Khaat said.

"Allow me," Brian said calmly. He got up, picked up the little lettuce leaf and walked over to Dakota's high chair. He coaxed her into opening her mouth and he put the lettuce in her mouth and got her to eat it.

"How'd you do that?" Khaat frowned.

"Patience. Practice, and being more stubborn than our daughter is," he said, calmly returning to his own chair. He watched her carefully as she picked up a little bite of fish and ate it without further problems. "Besides that, she knows that if she does it again, I'll set her on the floor and she'll go without dinner. And she gets really unhappy when I do that. So, that was her first and only warning. If she does it again, the next she eats will be just before bed, and it will be a meal, not dessert. She will learn to eat her meals without a fit because I'm not having that nonsense."

"Well, I wonder where he learned that?" Kate laughed, knowingly, looking directly at Robert. They both remembered how they had had to do the same thing with Brian when he was so angry and moody after his parents had been killed. It had been what had worked with him when he was small. He had learned hunger worked wonders.

"Of course I hire out," Brian laughed. "But I learned it from Robert. It works. And its what he uses with them when he has them. The more consistent we are at it, the better they learn. You've seen that we never have an issue with Abbey mainly because she doesn't want to go through this again. Abbey loves food. She eats almost anything."

"Well, thats really different from her biological father. He is a vegetarian when he's in human form. He eats meat only when he is in his animagus form. Brian has taught her to eat and like everything," Khaat said. "You really are a wonderful father, Brian."

"Its because I love you so much, my darlling," he kissed her slowly. "Its easy. You make it easy."

"You flatter me, but you're so easy to love when you're so wonderful," she said softly.

"I think I"m gonna be sick," Angus laughed. Kate socked him in the arm.

"They rarely show affection in front of anyone. Let them do it," she reprimanded. "They are a good fit for each other. Always have been."

"Me?" Angus frowned. "What do I need a girl for? I live in a house that has 4 women living in it."

"But three of them are wearing diapers," Khaat laughed, "and the other is taken. Don't you ever want to date?"

"its not out of the question, but I haven't met anyone that is the right thing I want in my life right now. If Ms. Wonderful comes up, I'm not going to turn my back on it."

"You know, thats the first time I ever heard you say that," Brian said. "here I thought you were going to end up a bachelor like Michael. " They all laughed.

"Broccoli?" Khaat asked. "That's easy. Get Angus to give you a bottle of cheese sauce and then pour a bit on the broccoli. My kids eat it just fine now."

"And, it helps because I started the girls eating broccoli cheddar cheese soup," Brian said. "Angus makes it with extra sharp cheddar cheese soup and they like the flavor of it. Angus also adds bacon to it and just a bit of the bacon drippings in order to add a bit more flavor to it. Once they ate that, then we broke made the broccoli pieces a bit smaller and put the cheese sauce on it and added a few bacon crumbles to it. Now we don't have to add the bacon or the cheese either one. And, by the way, the other day, Abbey ate a small piece of raw broccoli with some ranch dressing on it and then ate a baby carrot with ranch dressing. I think tomorrow I'll try some cauliflower with her."

Angus got up from the table and got a bit of raw broccoli and put it on a plate. He made a hasty dip with sour cream, some fresh herbs and some off his secret recipe grill spices. The dip would taste like a greshly grilled steak. He didn't tell Jack what it would taste like, He just took the dip. put a generous spoonful on the plate and took it to Jack.

"Try that, you big chicken," he teased.

"You're going to invent something new and not let us try it?" Brian frowned. "Bring that out here." Angus laughed and went back to the kitchen, put the large batch of dip in a crystal serving bowl and a glass bowl that held an assortment of freshly cut raw vegetables. He brought them to the table.

"Help yourselves," he said. He dipped two little broccoli flourets into the tip and handed one to Dakota and one to Abbey. "My toughest critics," he laughed. The babies ate the dip and the broccoli and big smiles came across their faces. They began each chanting, "Mine! Mine!" and they tried to reach for more and squirm out of their high chairs to get to more.

"Whoa!" Brian laughed. "You'd better give them more quick before they crawl over all our plates to get to it. What'd you put in that, anyway?"

"That's a secret," Angus laughed, giving the girls spoonfuls of dip and some raw veggies to enjoy. Brian helped himself to some, put some on Khaat's plate, and made sure they each had some veggies. Kate and Robert did the same thing. Kate ate a piece of a red bell pepper and groaned.

"Oh, Angus!" she said, crunching the pepper strip, "This is divine! How about taking a round loaf of sweet bread and hollowing it out like for spinach dip and putting this into it, with maybe some veggies?"

"That might be good."

"Or for breakfast spread on a toasted asiago cheese bagel," Robert said. "Its fabulous. Excellent work."