Marriage is Murder

Jack chuckled and gathered his twins and Andrew who already stood with his jacket on " play play" he said excitedly as he bounced from one foot to the other. Jess strapped the triplets in along with Fallon and both sets of twins along with two sets of quad buggie on the back for both sets of twins and a double for Dakota and Abby.

" ok were done" she finally said to Angus Andrew climbed in and sat on a blue car seat that had a car steering wheel attached.This made Jess chuckle " ok you driving us today?" she said and he nodded beeping the toys horn and giggling as she sat next to him Steven rode shot gun while jack sat next to Jess. Cassidy had chose to stay back.

Angus drove them to a park with a huge playground for smaller children. There were only a couple of single mothers and a couple of children. "Muggles," Angus said. "Lets watch our P's and Q's here, shall we?" He got out tossed the backpack on, and started to unpack the strollers for the children. But when he got out of Abbey's eyesight, she began to cry and become frightened again.

"You lot might need to do this," he said to the others. "Those cries just get to my heart. She's never been this frightened. I cant just ignore it." He went back to the car, got her out of her car seat, and picked her up, soothing her as she clung tightly to him. It didnt take her more than a few moments to be able to calm down once she had a grown up back in sight again. He sat back down on the car seat to stay with the kids and let the others get the strollers out and the other kids out, and he simply talked to Abbey to distract her.

Jack and Steven opened out the strollers and placed the babies in Andrew held jacks hand watching the others play he wanted to go to them . " Andrew remember play nicely" Jess said and he nodded jack shook his head as he strapped baby Robert in to the stroller. Jess strapped Fallon in and looked back double checking they had not left any one behind. " ok that's them all , and yes I double checked" she said chuckling at Angus as Steven took the stroller with James, Jaylen and two of the triplets in while Jess took the second stroller with one of the triplets and Fallon.

" come on wanna play " Andrew said pulling a little on jacks arm. Jack looked at Angus.

"I think we should go now" he said and chuckled.

Angus watched the others load up the kids and Abbey didnt make a move to unleash Angus. Finally, he got up, locked the car, and carried Abbey to join the others. He showed her the playground and asked her if she wanted to join them. She shook her head, hiding in his neck. He simply sat down on the ground, holding her. He had always thought Abbey had a much more gentle, tender spirit than Dakota's assertive fighting nature, and where Dakota might have rolled this off, Abbey had been traumatized. He managed with some work to get her to sit on his lap and at least watch, rather than hiding, but it had taken a bit.

Back at the house, Khaat had awakened, and had found her father sharing the sofa with her, sitting at her feet, sound asleep. She tried to think about what she last remembered. She had a strong, dull headache. Then she started to remember. James...Abbey! She tried to bolt up, and wasn't strong enough and fell flat on the floor. Groggily, her father awoke, far more asleep than awake, but definitely hearing a thud on the floor. He looked down and saw his daughter laying on the floor. He frowned deeply, confused about what she was doing on the floor, and not awake enough to connect it in his head to help her. She seemed just as confused about how she had gotten there and where the devil everybody was--especially her daughter.

Cassidy heard the thump and ran in finding Khaat on the floor levitating her she placed her back on the couch " ok so what were you doing on the floor?" she asked hearing her call for the girls she sighed " there with Angus at the park Steven , Jack and Jess are with them and several of Lee's men I believe are hiding in the background so quite panicking " she said and sat her up offering her some tea with restorative potion in. Cassidy looked at Robert and placed her hand on his shoulder " she's fine go back to sleep, I got her " she said smiling at him hoping Kate would reassure him and Khaat more as she was so not use to this.

Robert merely nodded, his eyes fluttering shut. He fell back into a deep sleep almost instantly.

Khaat looked at Cassidy, nothing much registering untii Cassidy had her back in bed. "James...is gone?" she asked. "I...don't remember... Abbey? She's alright?" Brian thought he heard a noise and then voices and came from where he'd been folding laundry in the nursery and saw Cassidy just covering Khaat again with the blanket.

"She is not awake," Brian said. "Well, barely." He brushed her cheek. "It's fine, Khaat. We're all alright. James is gone. At least for now. Drink your tea. You need the energy. '

"Why don't I remember?" she asked as he helped her with the tea.

"Because Remus came back," Brian said. "You weren't yourself." She sighed heavily.

"Evidently it doesnt' bother him to be a woman," she said, yawning.

"I dont' think he gives that much thought, Love," he laughed.

Cassidy stepped back leaving Brian to talk to Khaat she could not help but chuckle as Khaat said Remus didn't mind being a woman " ow let him try that one week of the month , he'd regret it " she said softly and smiled at Khaat but then moved to sit down with a hot cup of coffee for herself she opened a magazine and looked at the wedding scene in front of her and sighed thinking what hers will be like with James now behind a locked door or so she hopped. She remembered Stevens words and took a deep breath turning the page to a different one and continued to drink her coffee " do you need anything Brian?" she asked " I was planning on doing some laps later"

"I'm fine," Brian said. "I was just catching up on the laundry for the kids. Go ahead and do your laps. I have several baskets of clothes to fold and put away. I'll just sit here while they rest and fold clothes. I'd rather them rest while its quiet. However, I might order take out or us all for lunch. Those kids are going to be hungry and tired when they get home. They're going to want to eat right away."

"I can fold clothes," Khaat offered.

"No," he said affectionately. "You're taking the the day off."

"I'm getting stiff and sore from just laying," she said.

"Sounds like a massage to me," he grinned. She merely looked at him, slightly annoyed. "Is that a no?" she asked.

"Not necessarily," she said. "Just boredom."

"I'm sure we can fix that too," he said. Then she really looked annoyed. "I wasn't thinking about that. You were," he laughed. "I was being good."

"Oh sure you were," she said.

Cassidy chuckled at there banter and stood up " ok if you guys are talking dirty I'm going to do some clean laps " she said and chuckled transfiguring her clothes into a swim suit and walked out to the pool and dove in as she swum she felt her self relaxing till she just decided to stop and float in the warm water soon she decided she'd had enough and climbed out wrapping a towel around her and walking back in as she dried herself off. She saw the basket and Brian folding the things in it and smiled. " how are they ?" she asked softly so not to wake them both.

"Asleep. I gave her that book she's been reading for going onto three years now, and it put her to sleep in about 3 minutes. He hasn't moved. I finished the laundry and ordered takeout for a small army. There s a Chinese restaurant down the road that has gone into a large scale panic at the size of the order. I figured I would call Angus on his muggle cell and have him just pick it up on the way back. I know those kids have a lot of energy but they are babies. They play like heck for a short time and then they're done. We'll be lucky to keep them awake long enough to eat before we have 11...well, make that 13..." he looked back at Khaat and Robert, "napping. If you have time, would you set the outside around the pool for enough for all of us and Lee's men? I enlarged it earlier. And, no, it shouldn't remind anyone of anything foul. The men Lee lost were all on the edge of the property and nowhere around the poolside. Besides, there are some folks here who are getting a bit claustrophobic being inside all the time. It would do us good to get out. I have some bottles of wine chilling so we can do a toast to those who were so willing to give their lives for us. We can either do that at lunch today or dinner tonight. Whatever we'd like to do."