Marriage is Murder

Steven finished just as Robert stood up he winced as the mugs hit him but he kept quiet " um could cassidy and I go out for a walk, I promised her I would show her around sir " he asked hoping not to have over stepped his mark. He looked down at Cassidy taking her hand in his " we kinda have things to talk about as well" he smiled at her. Jess chuckled and let Andrew out of his high chair and he dove under the table and popped up beside Michael smiling.

"Boo" he said and giggled as he looked at him " you smell funny" he said screwing up his nose at the smell of cigars.

"By all means," Robert told them. Kate excused herself. She was hoping she could get Robert to rest at least a little while.

"Kate," Michael said, stopping her. She looked at him. He shook is head no. He was silently asking her to not try to change Robert right now. He was not going to rest while he had the portkeys to attend to. Kate decided to follow, at least in order to learn where their room was.

When she went past the room where Khaat and Brian had been, they were gone. Kate merely looked back at the attendant.

"Brian got up and took Khaat upstairs to their room to help her get comfortable," the attendant said. "He said he was feeling fine. Your rooms are just across the hall from them. And I beleive you're all unpacked."

"I can find it then," she said. "Might be fun to go on an explore of my own later. Thank you." She dismissed the attendant and headed upstairs herself.

Jess smiled seeing Steven with Cassidy holding her hand as they walked back the way they had come and out to the living room with Fallon and the twins in there arms , jack moved with Jess into the living room and sat down. " you go we'll look after them we're not cold weather people " he said and Jess chuckled.

" no not by a long shot you go and take your time"she said smiling. Steven Accioed a red warm jacket with a fake fur lining and held it out for Cassidy.

" I picked it up for you that time I went to get the cigarettes for Khaat" he said and Cassidy smiled closing it around her. " sorry I was such a jack ass " he said and she smiled moving she kissed him.

" its beautiful and yeah you were, come on." she said grasping his hand they headed out into the snow leaving a smiling Jess and Jack behind

Kate found that she and Robert had an entire suite of rooms, halfway down the hallway, according to Brian and Khaat's specifications. There was an office, a bedroom, a spa like bathroom, a balcony and a sitting room. They were spectacular. There were two separate doors to the hallway, one to the sitting room and one to Robert's office. The bedroom was accessed off the sitting room and the bath was accessed off the bedroom. The balcony stretched across the bedroom and the sitting room, with loads of windows. And of course it was decorated for the holidays.

Brian and Khaat had not asked for expanded quarters for themselves, but the staff thought enough of them to give them quarters very similar to Robert and Kate's, only larger and more extravagant. There were 4 other guest suites close to theirs for special guests. The children's rooms, along with a huge playroom, were on the other side of Robert and Brian's rooms.

Kate found Robert exploring his new office and finding there was a potions worktable on one wall. It suited him well. Kate was pleased at how they had managed to do their room in an elegant nautcal theme, combined with the log cabin structure of the home.


Khaat and Brians rooms were done in pure Southwest and log cabin decor. It fit their tastes very well, and Khaat was immediately more at home here. It felt like their home in England enough that Khaat had become tearful for a few moments. Brian understood her homesickness and he'd made her comfortable and eased her with a touch of a magical spell. He was pleased that she was definitely stronger today. He inspected the unpacking job and gave Khaat a new book to try. One he hoped would be far more fun. Then he decided, if she was alright , to go find the kids. He left her with a cup of tea, left the door open to their rooms and went looking for the children.

Jess sat watching the children enjoying there playing and the warmth of the fire. Steven walked with Cassidy out into the snow his hand in hers as they followed some sort of path down to a play area he remembered from the last time they were there. He sat down but held Cassidy against him.

" I'm sorry for how I have acted Cassidy especially to you " he said and she looked down at him smiling.

" its ok Steven I know what happened but you have to see his point of view as well " she said scooping some snow behind his back and molding it into a ball " although I do have to get you back for earlier " she said Steven looked at her puzzled that was until he felt the cold snow being pushed quickly down the back of his jacket and he let her go as she laughed and backed away but he gathered some snow and threw it at her and it went down the front of her jacket making her laugh even more.

" ow your so dead" she aid and together they had a snowball fight till their fingers went cold and numb. Steven held Cassidy tight and smiled at her before he kissed her deeply deeper than he even thought possible.

" Cassidy, marry me " he asked her again and she chuckled her fingers playing with his hair.

" Steven walker, haven't you learned that once I decide on something I don't change my mind " she said and saw his smile turn to a grin.

" I thought for a horrible moment back at the memorial you were not going to" he said " it...it hurt me where I realized you and those in that those and John are family and all that matter if anything happened to any of them it would be like it had happened to me..." he was silenced by cassidy kissing him hard and he sighed.

" just don't mix work and our relationship again, work is work this is our time " she chuckled " now let go in and warm buy that fire" she said and took his hands in her own as they walked back.

Brian found Jess with the kids. "Did you find the play room upstairs? Did you find the quarters for you four? Come with me. Owens, take over the kids." He led her upstairs and showed her first the mammoth playroom loaded with all sorts of magical toys, every child's dream. Then he showed her where Robert and Kate's rooms were and where his and Khaat's rooms were. The next thing he showed her was where Steven and Cassidy's quarters were and the quarters where Jess and Jack themselves would stay. Each of the special guest quarters had a bedroom, a sitting room, a balcony, and a bath. They were elegant. The same sort of log cabin luxury that Brian's house had at home. Each quarters had a full sized decorated tree and every room was decorated. He then showed her the children's rooms. There were six bedrooms, two children for each room, all fully appointed and beautifully decorated.

"We can have the kids all brought up to the playroom if you like, Jess," he said. "If you think it will do. And do you think the rooms will do?" He asked.

Jess walked with Brian and smiled at each room Andrew walked with them till he saw the play room and ran off giggling and laughing " we can leave him here and yes this is wonderful " she said and waked around " they did you and Khaat proud this time. When she saw the rooms for her and Jack she smiled " I see a king bed this time that's good no more being kicked out " she said and chuckled " ow where will the wedding be , in the main hall?" she asked " I get the feeling its going to still be on" she said and smiled as she saw Steven and cassidy walking down towards their room but seeing them walked over to them.

" um Brian we'd like to know if we can still have the wedding here and still be on the 13th, but we'll understand and respect your decision if we can't. " he said and looked down at Cassidy holding her close as he hoped they could " I was being a jack ass, as some one so kindly told me" he said and smiled.

"I believe Kate and Angus are still working on that," Brian told them. "We heard that you were angry with each other but we didn't really honesetly hear that you two were not doing this. Or at least we knew enough not to take you seriously. So I'm not sure why you feel you need to keep asking if we're still doing this and if we still have things taken care of. Its not our style not to do things we set out to do, not so far as I know." He saw a worker delivering fresh towels to the guest rooms and he turned to them. "Johnson, please have all the children bright up here so that they can enjoy the playroom, please. And workers to supervise them. Make sure they have all their needs met."

"Certainly, Mr. Quinn" he said, leaving. Brian smiled slightly when Johnson got out of sight. "Some of the newer workers whose first duties are to maintain the estate don't know me and don't know exactly what to call me. I suppose as long as they aren't cussing at me, its all good. But on another note, you two haven't notified Robert or me officially if you're going to be gone for any time after the wedding or for how long. And, from a technical standpoint and a security standpoint, we really do need to know that."

Steven looked at Cassidy then at Brian " sorry guess with everything going on we just thought..never mind, we're staying here, we can have our honeymoon another time." he said and cassidy nodded she agreed with him.

" Besides whats the best honeymoon we can ask for, its to be here with our family " she said and smiled at them both. Jess smiled feeling they both had resolved what had started it all off in the first place.

" that's good but please no more kids eleven is quiet enough " she said and chuckled as she saw Steven and Cassidy chuckled also.

" no, no more for us not till were ready for one of us to settle down" she said and looked at Steven who looked surprised but smiled

"I am not going to remind you that you have four kids between the two of you," Brian said. "I do realize I have five, but we do expect Mis may want her daughter to live with her when she graduates this summer. I'm not sure how Khaat and I will deal without Dakota in our lives but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm also not going ot remind you that none of those kids are biologically mine but that it doesn't make them any less mine. I'm not even going to ask you to consider getting them out of diapers first or remind you of the chaos that happens here at diaper and bottle time or what happens when five get cranky all at once. I'll behave myself." He heard a very soft noise from their bedroom, and he peeked into the bedroom. "Excuse me one moment," he told them.

He went into the bedroom and found Khaat's book had slipped of the nightstand to the floor and she was out of bed, trying to stand to go get it. He frowned deeply. He flicked his fingers at the book and it levitated to her. "Was that what you were trying to do?" he asked.

"I couldnt' do it," she sighed. He went over to her and laid his hand on her forehead. "Thats just because your powers are too depleted to do wandless magic. Here." He handed her her wand and laid the book back on the floor. "Try it now." When she used her wand, she could levitate the book to her. "Excellent," he smiled. "You were far too weak to do that yesterday. Good job. But lets not push it shall we? Back to bed, please." He tucked her back into bed and laid the book on the bed beside her. "Alright now?" She nodded. "Good," he kissed her forehead and left again.

"Sorry," Brian said to them. "She just dropped her book."