Marriage is Murder

"So, we do need to consider where we want to spend the holidays. Snow or no snow?" Robert asked.

"Snow," Khaat said. "Its not Christmas without snow."

"I knew you'd feel that way, but if the rest of you feel that way, we can portkey to Brian's mansion in Colorado to enjoy some snow, some traditional holiday-ing, and perhaps some winter sports? I know Khaat and Brian like ski-ing and skating."

"Oooh. Skiing," Brian grinned. "And some romantic skating after dark, maybe some sleigh rides...A huge tree, lots of lights....When the pond freezes over we will have a huge skating rink. And the mountains give us some great downhill skiing. We have enough land for limitless cross country skiing...."

"Do we have snowmobiles?" Khaat asked.

"Of course. We have to make ourselves look muggle, don't we?" Brian asked. "And..." he kissed her. "I bought you an entire winter wardrobe to wear in Colorado that you haven't had a chance to use. Hopefully, the fact that they are last years fashions won't bother you."

"You know better," Khaat smiled, kissing him back slowly.

"It sounds like our lovebirds are voting for a little snowy romance," Kate laughed. "What about the rest of you? Tropical Christmas? Or traditional snowy holidays?"

Cassidy and Jess turned and spoke at the same time "snow!!!" they said and chuckled " I'd like a white Christmas I never got one and sleigh rides with hot coco and marshmallows sound good " she said and smiled as Steven brought Fallon in to the room and stood with her as she smiled at her. Andrew bounced in Jacks arms " snow snow!" he said over and over " miss muss soon?" he asked and jack chuckled.

"Not long son, not long " he said and Andrew grinned clapping at the possibility of gifts to come , Jess chuckled knowing they would have to get Christmas presents in soon for every one.

"Snow it is, then," Robert said. "Brian, contact Kieran, please and let him know we'll all be descending on him soon."

"Consider it done," Brian said, heading off to Robert's office to send a secured message. "Ill have them find a way for us to do some secured Christmas shopping while I'm at it."

"Excellent," Robert said.

"I hope Fiona comes," Khaat said. "It would be nice to have one big family for the holidays."

"Well, there will, no doubt be several rogue organization members who will decide to join us because Brian has trained some of them that being an independent man of the world without ties is the best way to live," Robert laughed. "I'm sure they will be a bit surprised to find that he is no longer an independent, unattached man of the world himself since he preached it so much."

"Not as surprised as you might think," Angus confessed slowly.

"What did you do?" Robert frowned.

"Oh, nothing much," Angus said, trying to look innocent, trying to suppress a grin by staring at the ceiling.

"What did you do?" Robert repeated now.

"I just sent them a little picture," he said, trying to be more innocent.

"What do you mean by a little picture?"

"I...uh...replaced that ugly old seascape over the sitting room fireplace with a portrait of Khaat and Brian on their wedding day."

"That ugly old seascape..." Robert began.

"Was one you found sitting next to a dumpster in Paris," Kate finished. "It was no prize, believe me. I've been asking him to let me replace that with something else for decades. I'm glad its gone. A portrait, you say? A photo or a real portrait?"

"A wizarding portrait," Angus said. "It really was beautifully painted. Compared to that old thing, this one really is a whole lot better."

"Then maybe after Christmas, I'll make Robert take me there on boxing day to see it."

"That all depends, my dear," Robert said.

"On what?" Kate asked.

"If you're going to make us walk through the Louve again," Robert said.

"And that depends on you, my love," Kate said. "It depends on whether you take me to that glass maker that makes all the beautiful glass beads for my jewelry making or not."

"Done. 30 minutes in the bead makers is better than days in the Louve any day," Robert laughed.

Cassidy looked at Khaat and nodded " yeah she better be, I want her to make my dress " she said and smiled at Brian knowing it was a significant thing for her. Steven smiled and spoke up " of course she'll be paid for her time " he added and Cassidy nodded she agreed with his words. Jess smiled just as a red and green macaw tapped at the window holding in its beak a letter.

" Its from my friend she says... what again, and she will be happy to do the flowers, she'll send them personally on the day, fresh cut and she also says, stop panicking " she chuckled at how accurate her friend had got it. Cassidy sighed knowing that the flowers were now done. " Ok, so something old , something new , something borrowed and something blue" she said thinking what it could be she had nothing that fit. Jess shook her head and held her shoulders gently." ok, you have new the dress, um... borrowed is Angus " she said and chuckled looking at him " old and blue?" she said quizzically and looked at the others in the room.

"We have time to figure that all out," Kate said. "You don't have to do all the planning today. sometimes part of the fun is when you have things that are a bit spontaneous. You don't want everything coommpletely preplanned do you? Perhaps you should leave some things to others. After all, Jess has some great ideas herself, Angus is a very accomplished chef,...it just doesn't have to be all you. Not unless you have some very strong ideas of things."

"Brian had firm control of a good portion of our wedding," Khaat said.

"That's because I had some things that I wanted--a lot," Brian said. "It was important to me. I wasn't accepting less. As it turned out, it seems to me that we ended up doing things pretty equally---with those things we did. The rest was handled by everyone else. It felt to me like everyone worked on it together."

"That's because it was," Khaat said.

Cassidy smiled and nodded to Kate " your right, I should just leave some things to others and I trust Jess and Angus and you all to do whats needed. " She faced Steven as Khaat spoke of their wedding day she smiled thinking of the fairytale like wedding she was about to speak when he did first.

"Shush, I will deal with anything that's needed " he said smiling having formulated a plan for the big day he would wait till she was sleeping and discus it with Brian and the others. " you just focus on the dresses and suit " he smiled at her then kissed her gently " I might need to get some tips of you later Brian" he said looking at him with a sly wink.

"Not a problem," Brian said. "I just knew what I wanted, that's all. Maybe thats what you need to think about. What you think you want. That makes the rest of it easy. If Khaat and I made any mistake, it was that neither of us didnt want to tell the other one what we wanted for the other. Fortunately, it turned out that we were thinking the same thing. But it doesnt' always work that way. You and she might want to go take a walk, have a conversation, and actually really communicate so that you're on the same page."

"But here's the bigger thing," Khaat said, "The wedding day is just one day, just a few hours. The foundation for communication that you set now will go a long way to directing how you two decide to live your lives for the rest of your lives."

"And how did you get so wise?" Robert looked at her, smiling, pleased with her.

"I learned it from you all--you and Mom and Remus."

"That and the fact that you and Brian have been developing that deep heartfelt communication since you were kids," he said. "You've never really had secrets between the two of you."

"Not that I can remember of," Khaat said. "Not when it really mattered."

"Christmas presents and surprises don't count," Brian grinned. "And, yes, I already know what you're getttin for Christmas."

"You do?" she frowned. "And here I thought that I was surprising you by already knowing what you were getting." Brian laughed out loud, amused. Robert laughed.

"You two are on the same wavelength all the time. Just get used to it," Robert laughed.

"Oh, holiday reservations are completed, and Fiona is coming. She and her husband and their kids are coming. She was rather cryptic, but she said things have changed between her and Dean. It sounds like it has somehow gotten better. I hope so."

Steven held Cassidy and smiled at her. "Come on lets do just that, ow good, I'm glad things have improved between her and dean i it hadn't I was ready to knock his teeth out. " he said then taking Cassidys hand in his own he spoke again this time softer." now if you'll excuse us, Cassidy and I need to talk " he said and chuckled as Cassidy wrapped her arms around his waist as they walked out on to the beach each with an arm around each other.

Jess smiled as they left. "They will be fine. " she said and looked at Jack " We know just what you mean, Jack and I talk and hide nothing from each other , if we're scared we say it and look at how long we have been together now " she moved to Jack and kissed his cheek " and still going strong" Jack smiled down at her holding her against him.

" That's something I agree on " he said softly

"Do you remember the first thing you and I ever talked about?" Brian asked Khaat.

"Not a clue," she said.

"I was sitting on the beach in the village. I was mad. Mom and Dad had brought me on that holiday to the beach, but I had no one to play with. I was angry an bored and alone."

"You were skipping stones into the ocean."

"Yep," he replied. "And you asked me how to do that."

"Oh, that's right. I didn't know how to skip stones. You could make them bounce at least 5 times. I'd throw a stone and it would just plunk down into the water and not skip at all."

"And you brought those wonderful long pieces of Turkish Taffy. I'd never seen muggle candy before. You gave me that big piece of banana flavoried turkish taffy, showed me how to slam it on that big rock and break it into little pieces to eat it."

"And then you vented at me about how boring my village was."

"Yeah, but I showed you all the cool things to do."

"And I have never been bored since," he said softly, brushing her hair off her face. He kissed her slowly and deeply.

"Me neither." She looked at her mother. "Did you know we were going to end up married?"

"Yes," she said softly.

"When did you know?" she asked.

"When I was pregnant with you. I saw you--sort of. And Brian--sort of. But when you brought him into the apothecary for those bottles of root beer, I knew for certain he was the one."

"Wait. The root beer? That was the day I met him."

"I know," Kate laughed.

"And you let me marry Rob anyway?" she frowned.

"You two were deeply in love. Brian wasn't a part of your life then, and who was I to make your choices? Look at how long it took you two to admit you were really even in love in the first place. I am quite certain every one of us knew it long before either of you were going to admit it. Am I right, Jess? Didn't you and Jack see it months before these two were willing to own up to it?"

Jess smiled and looked at Khaat and Brian " yes I did, we would talk about it for hours at night and jack would tell me to leave you to find out on your own." she said and chuckled as she felt Jack kiss her cheek gently. Jack smiled and nodded.

" The amount of times I told her that, but I was happy when you guys finally got together, your perfect for each other... your like a pair of gloves, alone your just not right, but together your perfect." he said and then pulled a face " wrong analogy" he said chuckling " But you know what I mean, your not you, with out each other khaat gets annoyed and grumpy, so do you Brian if shes not here or around and in a good mood and mate I so know how that is " he said and smiled at Jess.