Marriage is Murder

Jack watched as Robert stunned James at Roberts command he moved to lay over James pinning him down to the floor " This is going to be fun" he said but cringed at the smell of the wolfs bane but he kept a tight hold on James. Inside he wanted to snap his neck for what he had done but he knew he could not as he was his brother even if he was a bad egg. Jack looked down at his brother and sighed he wished things had been different and he could have known who he really was inside the man not the beast. Jack looked at Robert grasping the mans mouth he gave a squeeze to open it for him " ready when you are " he said none too happy at leaving this threat alive but it was Roberts decision.

Robert knew it was a gamble. It was the same gamble Khaat had made with Felix Barker. Khaat had lost hers when the Wizengamot had wanted to kill him and Khaat had given him a chance. He was hoping he wasn't making the same mistake with James. He did realize James would be back, but, perhaps it would give them all a chance to have a bit of a life. He waited for Jack to secure James and then he forced the stunned werewolf to consume the entire flask of wolfsbane, right to the verge of an overdose.

"Don't remove the stun spell," Robert told Jack. "If you do, he's consumed enough of that disgusting crap that he'll hurl it all over both of us. Do us both a favor now. Get Steven and deliver this baggage to Lee in Washington. Lee will put this nonsense on ice again for us for awhile. Brian--go with him as far as the compound. If you need Brian and Angus to help you from there, fine. But Steven will know where to find Lee and how to get rid of this nuisance."

"On it," Brian said, deciding to let Jack have the pleasure of getting James out of all their lives for awhile. "One moment, though" he said. He drew out a keychain from his pocket where his shrunken aurors' handcuffs were. They bound whoever was restrained in them from using any sort of magic. He fastened them around James. "In case he wakes up," Brian said to Jack. "Whenever you're ready."

Jack nodded he under stood but he didn't have to go any where as Steven ported in to them his wand out and ready to fire when he saw Jack holding the guy tightly around his neck as he was hand cuffed by Brian, he looked over at him and then at Jack. " let me guess , James " he said and sighed shaking his head " when will this piece of dirt learn.

Jack looked at Steven and shook his head " I don't think he will ever learn, Robert wants us to take him to lee" he growled as he held his face close to James. Steven moved and pulled Jack away from him.

"Leave him jack he's no good dead , some one else would just take his place " he said and pulled on the cuffs " lets go " he watched Jack lift the bound James over his shoulder " we'll see you at the safe house" he said and ported away with jack holding James.

"Looks like they've got it," Robert told Brian. "Lets go home and make sure Khaat and Jess are alright." He an Brian apparated back home and soon found Khaat and Jess. Khaat had taken to the elegant, southwestern styled sitting room off the master suite she shared with Brian. Khaat had a large mug of Kate's cocoa and Jess had a mug of something herself. Sitting between them on the sofa was Abbey with a candy cane in her mouth. When Abbey saw Robert she squealed with delight.

"Papa!!" she jumped off the sofa and ran to him, showing him her candy cane.

"How did you get here?" he said, picking her up.

"Mama," she said.

"Mama brought you?" he asked. She shook her head no.

"No, she came to see us," Khaat said. "She's used to seeing me every day. She's not used to having anyone else but Brian and me taking care of her."

"Ah. You missed your mama," Robert said "I see." She tried to put the candy cane in Robert's mouth, and he took a quick lick off it and gave it back to her, making her giggle. "Good candy," he told her. "Where did you get it?"

"Aggy," she said.

"Ah. Angus gave it to you," he laughed. He looked at Khaat. "Does he know his name will probably forever be Aggy to her?"

"I'm not telling him," Khaat said. "James?" she asked.

"Jack and Steven are dropping him off to Lee to take care of for us," he said. "You two alright?"

"We're fine," Khaat said. "Or I think so anyway."

Jess sat with some tea she was glad to be home and smiled at Abby as she went to Robert. "Good hes becoming a bit of a pain in the rear. " she said and blew over her tea as she watched Robert and Abby she could not help chuckle as Abby called Angus, Aggy. She turned to see their Andrew walk past the door " um where are you going?" she asked him.

" Cookie?" he said but he held a candy cane in his left hand.

" what about the sweet in your hand?" she asked seeing him look at it and pull a face.

" yuckie" he said and placed it next to her then sat down to face her, Jess sighed and accioed a cookie for him " what do you say?" she asked offering him it.

" thank you mommy" he said and chuckled as she gave it to him.

Abbey looked at Andrew like he was nuts for not liking his candy cane. She acted almost ticked at him. Robert looked at her.

"What's the matter?" he asked her.

"Mine!" Abbey said, scowling at Andrew.

"I know," Robert said. "I know its yours."

"No!" Abbey was frustrated, pointing at Andrew's candy cane. "Mine!"

At that moment Fi came down the hallway with a stack of towels for Khaat and Brian's room and heard Abbey becoming angry.

"Its alright," Fi caressed Abbey's cheek. "I think your candy is good." She took a candy cane out of her pocket and put it in her mouth. She looked at the other. "She isn't happy with him because she 'helped' Angus make all our candy canes by hand. She feels like she made them herself. We have one offended little cook here." She smiled and kissed Abbey's forehead. "And I had one of your cookies too. Will you make some with me later?"
Abbey nodded, smiling. "Good. That will be fun," Fi smiled. She took the towels into the bathroom and put them away.

Jess looked at her and smiled " yes Abby it is good Andrew just doesn't like it I have tried everything so don't take offense Abby " she picked up the candy cane and smile as she ate it " it is good , I know some one who likes candy canes " she said and smiled as jack walked in smiling.

" ow is that candy cane I see " he said and walked over to Jess who gave him the candy smiling as he grinned " this is great " he said and sat with Jess " hes tucked away with Lee I might add he was surprised to see us both back with him in tow, I told him about the wolfs....bane" he shuddered at the thought of it " sorry " he said

"No offense taken," Khaat said. "Remus never liked it either. There just is no way to make it taste better. Daddy and Remus tried for decades."

Brian came upstairs with one of the misshapen candy canes that Abbey herself had shaped with Angus's help and some heatproof gloves that Angus had shrunk to her size. He was drawn to that particular little misfit cane because he just knew Abbey had shaped it, and it pulled at his heaert. He almost didn't eat it, almost wanting to preserve it forever, but Angus conjured a copy for him in colored glass, so he could keep an exact copy of it forever. That pleased Brian to no end.

"Dada!" Abbey gushed, all smiles, reaching for Brian. She saw him with the oddly twisted piece of candy. "Mine!"

"Yes, my sweet baby girl," he swept her away from Robert and tossed her up high in the air. She laughed and laughed. It sounded like sweet music in Brian's ears. When he caught her and held her close, she wrapped her arms around his neck, getting the sticky candy in his hair, and then kissing him and getting peppermint sticky all over his face. He didn't remember being happier.

"What's that in your pocket?" Khaat asked. Robert took the weirdly twisted glass replica of Abbey's first candy cane and handed it to Khaat. "It meant that much to you?" she asked him gently.

"Yeah," he confessed. "It did."

"You have that bloody thing stuck in your hair," Robert told him.

"Leave it," Brian said, totally smitten with his tiny daughter.

Jess smiled at Brian and Abby jack pulled Jess close to him. " Know how it feels Brian, we have our own , hay why not start a scrap book we have one for Andrew with all his firsts in it " Jess nodded and chuckled.

"Saves all the sticky up hair. " she said smiling as she rubbed Jacks head making him smile and lean over to kiss her. Andrew sat eating his cookie and watching them all he aw the tray of candy canes and just sat and sighed wishing he could eat it but when he did it tasted wrong to him.

"I have things to put in a scrap book," Khaat said. "I ran out of baby book after her first birthday. But I haven't had time to do it. Nor am I particularly crafty enough to make it look good. I also have baby books for each of the triplets, but all my information for it is either in notes or in memory threads in Mom's pensieve. I haven't even started them. I need to just hire somebody to do those, I think." She sighed, not feeling like she was treating the triplets like she wanted to.

"You know," Brian said. "Fi might take that on after Christmas. And the last I knew, Jess, your books were very nice. I havent' seen if Cassidy does anything like that or not. Maybe you ought to rescue Khaat from herself and make the books for the kids look good. I'd pay whoever does it."

"Will you pay me if I simply get off my dead arse and do it?" Khaat laughed.

"No," he walked over, leaned down and kissed her. "I'll pay you to start following your father's orders."

"You're sticky," she laughed.