Marriage is Murder

Jack and Steven looked at each other both thinking the same thing " no way, your doing it" they said and pointed at each other but cassidy walked back in and looked blankly at them as she stood with Steven. " your bigger than me and will fit in the costume " Steven said to Jack and cassidy caught on quickly and laughed at the thought.

" that might well be but I got Andrew who would notice if his father was missing on that day " jack said and Steven sighed as he looked at Robert.

" ok I'll do it, I'll wear the costume" he said and saw cassidy smile taking his hand in her own.

" be thankful its once a year and jacks right it is for the kids " she said and he smiled at her nodding to her.

"You won't even have to wear the fake beard," Khaat said picking up her father's wand and flicking it playfully at Steven. She transfigured his red hair and beard to white.

"Oh, No. You didn't," Brian laughed.

"Well, now we have it. A preview of 40 years from now," Robert said. "It looks good. Use that spell and just the costume and you'll be fine."

"You know that will go well with your wedding tux," Brian teased Steven. "Maybe we'll leave it just the way it is."

"Oh, good idea" Khaat agreed.

cassidy could not help but laugh at there antics " ow god Steven it does suit you too " she said but Steven rubbed the whiskers against her and she yelled out feeling them brush against her " ow no, no they have to go " she said " but for the day I like it " she said and grinned Jess holding back a laugh as he rubbed against Cassidy.

" I think he looks better with out the beard for now " she said and flicked her wand undoing Khaats spell much to Cassidy relief " but if he so decided to play around I might just use that spell to remind him not to " she said and smiled at Steven who rubbed his whisker less chin and nodded.

" ow don't worry, I'll be in that costume come Christmas and I won't mess around Jess, its not my nature " he said and Jess nodded smiling at him " besides if I did jack there would rip off my....well lets just say it won't be pretty" he said holding Cassidy close.

" no it won't be" Jack said grinning as Andrew walked up to him.

" daddy when is missmus?" he asked holding up his arms to be picked up.

About ten minutes later, Khaat saw filled plates and filled glasses heading for the table with silverware. It smelled incredible.

"Cantonese," he announced. "Its ready. Come and eat. Shrimp and chicken, vegetables and rice."

"Sounds good." Kate went over and took Abbey and Dakota by the hands and led them to the table. "Can someone bring the triplets and the rest of the kids?"

"I'll help," Brian said. He kissed Khaat. "I'll be back to help you in a minute."

"Here," Robert handed her one of the bottles of ruby potion. "Drink." She didn't question. Within moments, she felt a bit better. "Well?" he asked her.

"It helps," she said.

"Good," he said. "You realize, this doesn't speed the body up at regenerating. But it does mask your symptoms until you can catch up on your own. See if you can feed yourself tonight. That will be enough of a test for the first dose. Besides, I want you to conserve your strength for tomorrow." She nodded. She understood. Brian went and picked up Robert Remus and Michael and brought them to the table to the high chairs. It always made Brian smile to see the army of high chairs around the table. His family. His family was growing up.

Jack carried Andrew and Dakota to the table and returned for Fallon, James and jaylen while Steven carried the last triplet and Abby to the table freeing Brian for Khaat. Jack sat with Jess and Andrew while cassidy and Steven , now whisker less sat with Fallon and the twins, Steven gave James some carrot witch he gummed at and chuckled loving the feeling against his hard gums. " I have a feeling James is teething " Steven said looking across at Kate for confirmation he wasn't about to stick his finger in his mouth to find out Jaylen watched happily drinking from her bottle.

Brian watched, overly protective of Khaat at dinner. He noticed she ate almost half her plate tonight instead of merely a third. That was better than it had been since James had started to visit. He noticed, though, that the potion definitely gave her a sharp headache. He'd seen wizards in St. Mungos with migraines with less pain.
He silently laid his hand on her forehead and took a prolonged moment to draw it off for her. "Damn," he sighed softly. "That's the first side effect we've seen of that potion. We'll tell your father after dinner. Right now, they're all pretty busy over there at the table. How do you feel now?"

"Better," she said softly, taking a break and leaning back agains the back of the sofa. He could tell she was done. He floated her plate to the kitchen.

"Honey," he said very softly, "Maybe we need to stay behind at the new safehouse tomorow. Maybe..."

"Stop," she said. "I'm going--potion or no potion. I"m going. Either way. And I'm facing it on my feet. You'll need to be there, but I'm going. Those men died to protect us. I'm going to honor them."

Cassidy served Fallon her bottle and her own food happily watching Steven with James and jaylen both looking at the last piece of carrot on the plate in front of them till Steven took it and broke it in two giving one piece to each as they giggled , finally he could eat his own food. Jack smiled knowing both would be cutting teeth soon he glanced at Khaat and nudged Jess.

" she's looking a little in pain" he said softly to her Jess looked at Robert then at Khaat before she spoke to Jack again.

" must be a side affect of the potion I'll have to let Robert know so we can adjust the quantities a little" she said and touched her necklace.

Brian noticed that Khaat pushed her plate away and he had reduced her pain, he saw her lean back and fall asleep quickly. That, silently, concerned him. For her, that was a bit like falling asleep at the dinner table. Just not somethign she would do. He checked her again. He found she had fought the pain, hard, and it had simply tired her. He said nothing but he wanted a word with Robert. Her headache clearly was more severe than she'd begun to let on. Enough to tap her pretty seriously. She wasn't gaining ground. Not significantly. Not yet. And at the moment, he wanted to ring Remus's neck. He took the plates to the kitchen and cleared them off and put them in the sink and returned to her, dropping a light blanket over her.

Robert glanced back at her and saw her sleeping. "How's she doing?" he asked Brian.

"Not like I'd hoped," Brian said frankly. "We do have some side effects. We'll talk later."

"Do I need to worry?" Robert asked.

"You're the potions master. Not me. I don't know if you need to worry, but I dont' have to like it," he said. Robert got up from the table, laid his napkin aside and went over to her and checked her himself.

"Alright. I need to reformulate a bit," Robert said. "Jess, we're taking all that back downtairs after dinner, and I'm going to add some pain potion to it--hopefully without exploding it. Those binding agents are touchy. They don't like being messed with."

Jess nodded not surprised in the least at his request , she finished her meal and placed her plate in the kitchen picking up the leather bag she headed down stairs to the potions room taking out the jars she placed each on on the table and poked the fire back into life taking the pot off it and placing it to one side she then took down a bottle placing that with the smaller ones on the label in script were the words 'Pain potion' then she stood waiting for Robert.

Cassidy yawned and laid against Steven on the couch where they both now sat " Angus that was magnificent as always " she said smiling as she saw James push up to look around the room before crawling to a toy.

Kate and Brian set the triplets loose to crawl on the floor while Abbey watched them like she'd never seen them move about. Dakota just wasn't happy that they were intruding into her territory. She walloped Robert Remus with a big stuffed bunny and he began to cry, falling over on the floor. Michael Brian merely picked up a torn off ear from the rabbit and stuffed it in his mouth, while Julia looked confused. Abbey went to Angus reaching to be picked up. He picked her up and put her on his lap. She picked up a piece of untouched bread off his bread plate and began gnawing it. Brian just sighed, not knowing whether to go to Robert Remus for smacking Michael or to get the bunny ear out of Michael's mouth.

Grandpa Robert, though was already on his way down to the potions lab. "Pour all that potion back into the copper cauldron, Jess," Robert said. "I'm not sure why I didnt' get a headache like that. Do me a favor. Take a test tube to Brian and ask him to get a blood sample from Khaat. He probably can manage without waking her. Lets see what happens when we mix a sample of our existing potion to her blood before we do anything to it."