Marriage is Murder

Jack walked out and looked at Brian left " ok did I see Brian leave and why has Steven got such a smirk on his face ?" he asked moving to sit opposite Khaat not long followed by Jess who wrapped his arms around her waist as she looked over at Khaat " its a nice night not too cold not to warm ether " Jess said and sighed feeling the loss of the energy a little. Cassidy walked out and sat cross legged in front of the fire pit finding it comfortable to do.

"Any one seen my husband to be around?" she asked and looked at Jess then Khaat.

ooc: its only midafternoon. we just finished lunch and haven't gotten anywhere near the evening meal.

"I sent Steven and Brian both on errands," Khaat said. "They wont be long." Husband? she wondered. The last she knew, Cassidy and Steven weren't married yet. She wasn't sure exactly why Cassidy was referring to him as her husband, but she said nothing. She was about to shift the direction of the conversation when Angus sent out a tray of tall glasses filled with ice and some sort of tropical beverage.

"Try that and see what you think," he called to them. Khaat took a glass off the tray and tried it. Fresh made limeade. It was a nice, refreshing change.

"Its wonderful," Khaat said. "Its a nice change from lemonade."

"Well, thats what I thought too," he said. "And I am making some sweet bread crackers and an extra sharp cheddar and bacon cheese spread if you all want some sort of a snack between now and dinner."

"Sweet bread crackers?" Khaat asked.

"Not like you're thinking. The yanks don't eat what we call sweetbreads like we do. This refers to a dough made from a bread dough that is sweet. Just like it sounds. They're thin and sweet with just a dusting of pretzel salt."

"I'll try them," she said.

Cassidy and Jack took some juice and drank it " very refreshing Angus thank you " Jess said and smiled resting against Jack just as Andrew ran out and sat with Jack looking at Khaat smiling and swinging his legs. Cassidy smiled at him and he jumped down running around the fire. " Andrew sit down fire is dangerous and can hurt little boys " he said and he sat in front of them quietly as he took out a small car and began playing with it. Cassidy rolled a second to him and he smiled playing chases with the small red old style fire truck.

" hope you don't mind, it was mine for along time" she said smiling " she said and saw Jess look at her " its ok I think hes best having it for now " she said smiling as she watched him then looked at Khaat "don't need to hang on to my past when I can share it and make my future a much better place".

Khaat was the only one who seemed remotely interested in the crackers and fresh cheese spread Angus was making, so he simply disappeared into the house silently to bring her a small plate of them when they were out of the oven. He knew if Brian was back by then that he would also have some with her. Today he felt frustrated by serving as the house butler. The original contract called for him to be a bodyguard and to run Brian's massive estate. Now he was a cook, a butler and a nanny. And then, most of the time, he felt about as regarded as the furniture. Tuscany was starting to look like a good alternative for the holidays--with his family. He said nothing and began quickly rolling and cutting more cracker dough into the right shapes to go with the cheese spread--which was chilling in the refridgerator.

Khaat picked up quickly on the icy discontent that came from Angus. That was so rare for Khaat to ever, ever see from him that it concerned her. She said nothing but merely made a mental note to ask Brian to spend a bit of time with him. Khaat could not begin to see their home without Angus in it.

Then he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye, and he spun to see a toy--a large, colorful, metal spinning top, sliding at breakneck speed across the floor towards Abbey and Dakota. At this rate, one of the girls was about to be hurt. He flung himself on the toy and tackled it, just as it came within a couple of inches from plowing right into Dakota. He looked up at her, his face only a few inches from her.

"You really do have to learn some control if you're going to start doing that," he scowled at her. She just giggled at him and swatted his nose happily.

Jess felt the discontent form Angus and walked inside just as he dove for the toy " no need to ask if you play American football with a tackle like that Angus " she said and chuckled to him as she helped him up off the floor " lets just hope next time its something soft and not bigger or heavier " she said then faced him " ow and by the way... your not furniture and you are appreciated Angus, some of us might not show it but I'm glad your here " she said smiling at him as she took the toy and placed it down with Dakota brushing the girls hair from her face.

"I've played a time or two," he shrugged. "I just didn't want it to smack Dakota. She doesn't have any control or concept that being hit with that would hurt." He listened to Jess and simply smiled and said. "Yeah, I know. Its just that...well, I enjoy what I do, but I'm a damned good bodyguard and an auror and sometimes all I do is laundry and cooking and changing diapers. It gets frustrating."

"That's because we all need to do better at sharing the load around here," Kate said, coming into the room. She went over and kissed him on the cheek. "Why don't you take some time when we get back from the memorial service and do some surfing? Or take a long weekend to visit your family?"

"Because its too close to the holidays" he said simply.

Jess nodded " I know but she has to learn some time it does hurt " she said and saw Kate walk over she smiled " yes let us do some things rather than taking it on your self , its time those two learned to do laundry and cook " she said meaning jack and Steven " though I believe Steven can cook " she said " maybe one day he had jack should take over for you." Steven aperated back with the cigarettes under his arm and looked at the two women.

" hay just because I don't smoke doesn't mean I won't stop any one else doing it" he said and walked out to Khaat " here you go" he said and smiled showing her a small black box inside he knew were two white gold rings inlaid with mother of purl and two diamonds. he looked for Cassidy and saw her reading and quickly opened it to showed Khaat " I had them specially made " he said softly " could Brian hold these for me till the wedding " he said and smiled knowing Brian was his best man.

"Sure," Khaat said. "Thank you. Did you smell that tobacco? It does smell like fine brandy. Michael has those custom made in Italy. He got me a box last year to give to Eli for Christmas, and Eli loved them." Khaat tucked the ring box into her robe pocket. Khaat suddenly picked up an odor of a potion gone wrong.

"Jess," she said, "You've had some experience with potions. Since I can't help Daddy, would you look and see if you can help him downstairs? Clearly, the experimental potions hasn't worked out the way he'd hoped, and every time I've smelled that odor, he's caused a bit of a cloud of smoke in the potions lab. Hopefully, he hasn't burned himself.

"Khaat," Angus said. "Would you like me to pack for you and Brian?"

"I think I'll have Brian do that, but if you would pack the girls? And, if I could get someone to pack the triplets, please?" She looked at the clock. Brian had been gone almost 2 hours. She was getting a trifle worried. She had no reason to think there was trouble, but she still was concerned. She didn't figure she'd feel better until he got back.

Jess looked at Khaat and smelt the air wrinkling her nose up " ok Khaat " she said and walked to the basement door and down to the potions room door knocking she opened it to a plumb of smoke " ok what went wrong Khaat sent me to help " she said waving away the smoke from in front of her as she searched for Robert. Steven smiled and nodded " I'll do that you rest " he said and moved into the nursery he packed all that the triplets would need and a little bit more adding some toys for them in case they got board.

"The binding agents I have to use in this are extremely unstable until blended and heated," Robert sighed. "I've tried it with stable ingredients and the damned thing doesn't just go up in a small puff of smoke. It becomes dangerously explosive. Anything that explosive can't possibly be good to ingest. So, the only binding agents I've found are unstable, and It takes a combination of two of them. I've blown this thing up more times than I can count. Too little and this is what happens. Too much, and I end up blowing the room apart. You might not want to stay for this. I still think that if I get the ratios right that it won't explode. But its very, very tricky." He sighed and got out a bucket of soapy water and a few rags to wipe up the mess. He flicked his wand at a cellar window to let out some of the fumes. "Sometimes, a bit of cleaning, by hand, helps clear my head," he said to her. "Helps me review what I've done and where perhaps I've misstepped."