Marriage is Murder

Robert merely shook his head. Some things about Jack never changed.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Kate asked.

"No, my darling," he looked at her, smiling. "Its just a straight forward tonic. Shouldn't be an issue. You've been putting in a lot of hours towards all these celebrations. Go get soem sleep. Rest while she's resting."

"You work too hard, Robert," Kate said.

"All in its proper time, Dear. I'm coming to bed when I get this tonic done. I promise."

"Liar. You'll go check on her before you come to bed."

"Will not. Brian's with her. I have no need to intrude on that. I do have some scruples."

He was as good as his word. he simply finished his potion, put it under an enchantment to secure it and then went to bed.

By the next morning, before 5 am, Brian was downstairs, warming up. It was time they all got back into their regular schedule. He had broken up the training into three groups to cover the entire staff. One at 5 am, one at and one at 7. And he had planned to train them hard--himself. He was counting on Angus to make sure Khaat had food, and counting on the staff to make sure the kids were taken care of. And counting on Khaat's own staff to tend to her. And at the moment, in the predawn hours of the morning, he was betting that Andrew and John weren't going to make it unless Steven dragged their sleepy butts out of bed.

Andrew got up silently--silent because he was more asleep than not. He slipped on a pair of sweat pants and a t shirt and headed down to the gym. Brian watched the bunch roll in. the adults were awake, ready to work. There were several who had brought their teens down to see what the grownups did.

"Warm up!" Brian shouted, "You know the drill. Stretching first. Then give me five laps. Normal jogging pace. That will get your blood pumping. Except you two." He looked at the very sleepy Andrew and John. "I have a special warm up for you two. Go hit the pool. You'll find it isn't nearly as solid now."

Andrew merely followed the orders. He went over to the pool room and found swim trunks. He changed and then rather sleepily dove in. That was immediately followed by his own shocked screech. The adults in the gym laughed, having been victim of Brian's rather bruthal wakeup calls before.

"Damn! That's cold!" Andrew shouted, now seeing bits of clear ice floating in the pool, left from the skating rink. "Not fair!"

"You're right. Its not," Brian replied. "But training isn't fair. Its work. You two give me five laps across that pool. Then you can start your jogging with the others." Andrew groaned. Christmas had never been like this.

This was NOT how Christmas vacation was supposed to be. He was supposed to be in England, gathered with Robert and Kate and people they knew, around a tree and a fire in the fireplace, with Kate's cocoa, and sleeping in til noon if he bloody well wanted. What was this nonsense?

Andrew finished his 5th lap and sat for a moment on the side of the pool with John. Brian watched him out of the corner of his eye. When they took far too long at their break, Brian looked at Steven for a moment, to let him know that he wasn't going to hurt the boys but he wasnt tolerating slacking either. He walked over, silently, up behind them and shoved them both back into the pool.

"Welcome to bootcamp, Gentlemen," he announced. "Now--get your arses out of there and get over to the gym and start your laps. 5 laps around the gym. You have 2 minutes. Go."

"I am soooo going back to England," Andrew grumbled. "Sod it. I'm done with this." He got out and changed back into his workout clothes.

Brian met Andrew, standing toe to toe with him as Andrew got to the gym door. Brian glared at him and John right in the face. Brian grabbed both boys chins firmly, forcing them to look at him right in the eyes. "

"Look at me," he commanded. "This is serious business. If you two are coming into my family, you're walking right into the line of fire. Second, if you're going to go to school when one of the most dangerous wizards of the last century is at the helm, then you need to be able to figure out the difference between staying alive and getting yourself killed. My job is to do my best to pull your teenage heads out of your arses and teach you how to survive yourselves. If you think, for one single nanosecond that you're going to steal my wife's portkeys again, you have another thing coming. That was stupid and it put your family and mine in grave danger. If you even let it go through your brain--those few short inches that exist between your left ear and your right one, I will bind your magic until you are very old and very gray, and you will live like a squib for the rest of your lives. Do you both understand me? Now you get yourselves in there and shape up. This instant. Oh, and by the way, try smarting off to me once more, and you'll be snorting your breakfast up your nose because I will hex your lips right off your face. And if either of you doubt I can do it, try asking any adult in there. They know better than to be stupid around me."

"Steven," Brian ordered, "Take over this workout for five minutes. I'll be back." He went upstairs and had a word with Robert. He told Robert about Andrew's mention about buggering back to England. Robert just leaned back in his office chair and smiled.

"Oh, beleive me I can take care of that," Robert laughed. "Keep them busy for about 15 minutes. And then if either one of them try anything like that, we'll know. Oh, and by the way, I have told Khaat I don't want her apparating on her own for at least the next two weeks until she feels better. She almost splinched herself into bits last night. I really dont' want to have to go around the house, gathering little bits of her to reassemble her with. It would be great training for Jess to learn how to correct someon who splinched themselves, but...I really would rather we not use Khaat as the guinea pig for that."

"She's never splinched in her life," Brian frowned. "Ever."

"Ah well, there is a first time for everything," Robert said. "She is temporarily a bit better this morning. I had Kate help her shower and dress and get her coffee and her first doses of potion. They're meeting with Fi right now to finalize their ideas for last minute Christmas gifts. Unless they catch Fi before breakfast, they aren't going to find her. She's just too busy right now."

"Yeah. She told me. Thank you, Robert. I'm going to go back and see if the boys are any ore workable."

"They're good boys, Brian. And you have a lot to offer them. Don't give up."

"No. Never," Brian promised. He went back to the gym and joined the runners to finish their laps. When that was done, he sent them to work on the weights and their strength training. "Jack and Steven, take the boys and get them started with some hand weights. Don't let them overdo. You might want to show them why we still need muscles even though we have wands."