Marriage is Murder

Robert picked up Dakota who began demanding the instant he entered the room. "You do have to learn some manners," he frowned at her. She began demanding juice from him. "No juice until we change that diaper. Thats just the way that goes." He and Kate got the other kids up, changed them, and took them downstairs.

Khaat sighed seeing the parade of kids coming downstairs. She was feeling a bit frustrated at Dakota.

"How did we get four that were so well behaved and then there's that one?" she sighed. "I don't remember treating her any differently from Abbey."

"Ah, well," Robert laughed. "It is high time to start treating her differently from Abbey. Abbey doesn't need to have manners beaten into her like this one seems to want. I do not get defeated easily, though. She will learn. If I home school her straight up through her graduation. She will learn."

"Her mother might have different ideas," Khaat said.

"Well, hopefully, she'll have to get my permission before she gets full custody of her back."

"Of course you know, if Dakota goes to live with Mis, you and Brian are free to have more triplets," Kate laughed.

"Hush," Brian frowned. "That is not in my plans."

"I do," Khaat said, "because Mis was 15 when she had her and she won't graduate until this June. And I expect it will take her a bit then to get her own place and be ready to support herself and Dakota. We arranged that with Mis before Dakota was born. And then Mis had a bit of a mental breakdown and I really didn't have a choice then. But Dakota barely knows Mis because Mis just hasn't had much of a chance to be around. And I do worry that perhaps Dakota will have a hard time being uprooted to go live with a mother she doesn't even know. And I worry that Mis doesn't know the first thing about raising a child."

"Valid concerns," Robert said. "But Mis isn't without a family. When the time comes, all we can do is offer to be there for her. I know you. You love Mis and Dakota enough that you will want to give them a chance to be mother and daughter."

"You're right," Brian said. "We do. But not without our help--at least at first."

"Well," Robert said, "There is another catch to this. We dont' know anything about the father. We haven't had a chance to sort that part out with Mis. But...Mis is a werewolf. If that father was a werewolf too then there is virtually no chance that Dakota will escape the curse. None that I know of. And, if that is the case, then at some point, Dakota may not be able to around Khaat because her necklace would drive the beast off. And--if Khaat retains custody, then at some point, Brian may well being doing battle with his daughter alone. I know we might run the same risk with the triplets, but the risk goes up proportionally if both parents are werewolves. And none of us want any of those kids feeling that they are alone in whatever genetics gives them."

"Thank you," Khaat said. "The last thing I ever want any of my children to know is that they can't come near me."

"That is not the case," Robert said. "Jack is living proof that the stone does not react except to the transformation and to the intent of a werewolf to do harm. thats more than we knew before. The stone does not attempt to harm him when he is defending you, even though he does carry the curse. It will however relentlessly go after James and Fenrir. So it does seem that intent does figure into this somehow. I dont understand it fully, but I know what I've seen."

"Didn't they face the same business with Teddy?" Brian asked.

"Yes," Robert said, "But he inherited his mother's animagus, not his father's curse. He was fortunate that way. they never had to deal with training him how to live with the curse."

"Agreed," Brian said. "Lets not borrw trouble that is at least a decade down the line. No one is promised tomorrow. All we have is today. So I think we need to shelve this topic for another day. "

"That sounds good to me," Khaat said. She perked up, almost feeling a need to listen. Something in the house had changed. An energy.

"Relax," Kate told her. "Its Angus. He's waking up out of the damage from the hex. I felt the shift too. You might want to check that, Robert. The boy can't sleep forever."

"I think I will. He's going to want to refresh a bit and get some food. I'll go up and see him. Can one of you get him even some sort of a light meal, please?" Robert asked. "In the meantime, somebody else has to watch this little monster." Robert gestured to Dakota.