Marriage is Murder

Jess looked at Robert and nodded " yes sir I will " she said finishing she placed her plate in the washer and sat in the living room her focus on Khaat she could sense her from there and so if needed could go and top her up. Cassidy and Steven looked at each other and sighed.

" sir...she will be alright won't she?" Steven asked looking at him " I'm mean, I don't think we could cope with Brian if he went off the rails, if anything should happen to her, not that it would " he said biting his lip like a small school boy who had told something he should not . Jack and Cassidy looked at him too.

" we're all worried about her, dang it, both of them , he is her and she is him , its like their one person, sir " Jack said softly.

"I won't accept less than her being alright," Robert said. "Remus and I knew the risk. We knew what we were up against when we did it. He was protecting her, and I agreed to it. She began to sense it towards the last of it, but she would never tell either Remus or me no. Not under those circumstances. Brian is just having to deal with feeling like he's cursed. He told me often, when he was so angry as a boy, how cursed he felt because every time he loved someone, something bad happened to them. I talked with him a lot about his fears that if he got involved with her that he would curse her to something bad happening. And in her own way, she felt that she woul doom him to all the dangers of what the Lupins have always had to deal with because of who we were. They were both full of nonsense, and Kate and I talked to them both. they knew the risks of two fighters falling in love, and Kate and I not only agreed to them being together, we encouraged it. I won't let Brian fall apart, and I'm not going to let her die. My grandchildren will grow up with both their parents."

Jack sat back and nodded " if any ones cursed its James and his gang not Brian" he said folding his arms over his chest. Steven and Jess both nodded Cassidy just staid quiet playing with Abby as she fed her. Jess sighed and placed her now empty cup down on the table.

" he has to stop thinking that way none of us feel any more in danger than we would out on our own, and we chose to be at his side and be part of his family so he's not cursed " she said and moved to the living room and sat down picking up the news paper to read it . Steven looked at Robert brushing his fingers threw his hair .

" she's right we all chose on our own to be here, Brian is a friend no family and so is Khaat, we made the choice no one else so he's not cursed or we'd all be thinking like him and please don't let him think that way were all fighters who have fallen for other fighters god Jack and Jess have been together as a married couple longer than they have and there still happy even after ...other things happened " Steven looked at Jack who nodded.

"You really do need to talk to him, Robert," Kate said. "Nobody could ever make sense to him when these things happened except you. Not even Remus or me. Just you."

"There was only ever one reason for that, Kate," Robert said.

"Because he was a violent little cuss when he was a kid."

"No," Robert said. "He was a little kid with a lot of great big hurts. I just wasn't afraid of his temper tantrums."

"He sees you as the one consistent in his life. The one person who has always, always been there for him no matter what," Kate said.

"He sees us all that way," Robert said. "But here's the thing I don't know if any of you know. This is the first time Brian has been in love, and I mean really in love. And he's fallen harder than any man I know for the woman he loves. Truthfully that scares the daylights out of him when anything happens to her. He'll be okay. I'll get him in the gym and we'll burn it off. It 'll be alright. I just need to get her stablized enough to have the time to spend with him."

Cassidy sat listening and looked at Steven taking his hand in her own and holding it close to her self " we all know that love Robert " she heard Steven say and he smiled at her " I guess I'd be the same with Cassidy and jack with Jess if the roles were reversed in any way " he said and jack nodded. Jess got up and moved to Khaat and Brian's room she placed hr hand on Khaat and topped up her energy a little smiling she returned to the living room and sat back down again.

"I would do as Brian is doing right now " she said to them all and watched them " its a natural reaction for some one so much in love." a she spoke Jack walked over to her and sat with her taking her hand in his.

Robert looked at Jess. "If you can keep Khaat stabilized, Jess, I'll go talk to him. Call me at the slightest change."

"Go," Kate told Robert gently. "I'll be right back." Robert went downstairs to help Brian deal with his grief and anger. He drew Brian's anger forward deliberately and lured him into the gym to spar. Brian always sparred for keeps when he was this angry, and Robert never wanted anyone to get hurt. He would not permit anyone to spar him when Brian was like this--just Robert himself.

The fighting was rapidfire, brutal, ruthless. Things were destroyed. And blood flew, bones broke. It was loud and rough. Kate ha been through this too often. She looked at the others.

"Leave it alone," Kate said to them all. "Robert knows exactly what he's doing. Leave them alone. So far, neither one of them have died doing this, and I seriously doubt Robert would let that happen today."

Jess nodded to Robert " already on it " she said softly and smiled at him as she saw him leave to go to the gym. they all heard Kate's words but it was Steven who spoke " we all know Kate, its nature to want to help but we all know its for his own good" he said and stood up " right wheres desert Angus, I'm still hungry and knowing you its gonna be good. " he said and smiled poring out some fruit juice that sat on the table in the kitchen. Jess walked into Khaat and Brian's room she decided to sit next to the bed so she could monitor her better but she could still see the living room and Kate from where she sat.

When the sparring ended, there was a quiet spell downstairs before they both came upstairs. Kate didn't say a word. They were both bleeding. Kate could see that both of them had taken some heavy hits. "Alright. So you'd done it. Now go patch each other up. You're both healers. Go fix each other. We are not responsible for correcting your stupidity."

"We're fine, Kate," Brian said. Brian accio'd a couple bottles of beer from the fridge and handed one to Robert.

"Are you man enough to follow that much firewhiskey with beer and not get sick on top of injured?" Robert asked Brian.

"Watch me," Brian said. Robert simply shook his head. He watched Brian walk ouside.

"Robert Thomas Lupin," Kate said. "You make this right."

"Stop mothering him," Robert said. "He's a grown man. When he's ready for help, he'll ask for it."

"Are you going to let us help you?" she asked.

"Stop mothering me too," Robert said gently. "Its minor. I can fix it myself, Dear." He headed for the bedroom to clean himself up. Kate sighed, rolling her eyes in frustration.

Cassidy looked at Kate and shook her head " boys will be boys I'm afraid " she said and sighed " they will get over it " she hoped her words would help her but she had a feeling they would sound harsh even thought they were meant in good faith. Steven kissed her head and pulled her to him.

" Kate they will be fine, I'm guessing there over the worst of it " he said and sat back in his chair holding Cassidy close to him feeling her sigh and lean on him heavily. Jess sighed and shook her head touching Khaat once more to top up her energies once more , she realized it was not as much as last time and assumed Khaat was growing stronger as she slept.

"That's crap," Kate said. "Do you think Khaat would let them go and not deal with them?" Kate accio'd Robert's bag and took it outside. She did what basic healing spells she knew on Brian. She could tell that Robert had tried to not damage him. She had seen worse. He had burned his shoulder rather badly from a wand blast and then she had found that he had sprained his elbow and had sprained some muscles in his back. She knew enough to give him a couple of potions but wasn't able to do more than that. She just wasn't a healer. Brian hadn't said a word. Between the alcohol and the dueling, he was tired. Very tired. She left him sitting quietly on a lounge chair by the pool sipping on his cold beer.

She went to the bedroom and found Robert sitting beside Khaat's be. He hadn't done a thing to even stop the bare basics of bleeding.

"Robert," Kate said gently. "I am not putting up with this." She did basics of first aid to try to stop the bleeding. She could see he was hurting but she wasn't finding more bleeing and didn't know why. And he wasn't saying. He just said it was nothing. He was putting his priorities on trying to do that experimental potion for Khaat. He wasn't going to think about himself. He was merely resting a moment, doing his best to charge her and then going to his potions lab. She said nothing and let him go downstairs to the potions lab.

Kate had some suspicions that he had taken a rather serious hit because of Brian's rage but Robert wasn't going to tend to it until he felt more certain Khaat was alright. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen Robert wounded before, and generally, the more serious it was, the quieter he became and the more he stayed to himself. And she couldn't tell where he was with that because he was so preoccupied with Khaat. She didn't know what else to do except simply be watchful.