Marriage is Murder

Khaat headed with Brian to her own office but were met by Robert in the hallway. He instantly saw the still glowing stone and her torn dress. He took the torn silk in his hand and moved it away from her neck and laid his hand there.

"You were damned lucky," he said.

"No. I wasn't. Remus was there. And Jiim adn Brian had it in hand. I was alright," she said.

"So that's why you have such a strong energy drop."

"Yes."

"Here." He laid his hand on her forehead and gave her some of his energies. "That will hold for awhile. Where are the others?"

"Steven and Brian are cleaning up the dead bodies in the ballroom. Brian and Jim are upstairs with our sole survivor."

"I'll go down to the ballroom first and then I'll meet you upstairs."

"Fine. We're in your office."

"Good. Well done." Robert went down into the ballroom and Khaat went upstairs. "Well," he saw the mess when he came in. "They surely do know how to make a mess out of things don't they?" he aske Steven and Jack. Khaat and Brian went into her father's office.

"Any trouble?" Brian asked Jim. It looked like Jim had things under control though.

Jim heard voices and jack left him with the man he kept an eye on him not moving till Brian and Khaat walked in " not a squeak" he said " then if he had he'd be dead right now, guess Jackie boy went down to the ballroom " he said and stood up moving to the boy. " Did Ozzie come along too?" he asked and looked at Khaat " I'll tell yo0u this that necklace is one powerful talisman " he said seeing it still slightly glowing at being close to the boy. He moved back to sit facing the boy " so what was decided?" he asked looking at them both as he waited.

As he looked he knew the were waiting for Robert to come back and ask questions himself before shipping him off to azkaban prison. witch to him would be the best place for him.

"Well," Khaat said. "There are things about this necklace I probably will never understand. It didn't exactly come with an instruction guide."

"He's here," Brian said. "Sit, Khaat. I'm not sure what he's going to do until he gets here. I know what he normally would do, but these are not normal times."

"I have to go back and deal with the staff," Khaat said.

"Give them a moment," Brian said. "I'll go back with you." He left the room for a moment and came back with four paper cups of french roast following him. He motioned one to Jim and one to Khaat. The third he put on the desk for Robert, and he took the fourth for himself. Khaat sat on a black leather sofa and took her coffee and just sipped on it quietly.

Robert had gone to the ballroom, but when Jack and Steven had not responded to him, he merely left them to their work and came back upstairs. He was not accustomed to being blown off by his staff but he ignored it for now. He looked into the face of the young werewolf, who attempted to leap up and lash out at Robert, but the bonds held him tightly. Brian moved to defend Robert, but Robert raised his hand to ease Brian.

"He's not going anywhere," Robert said. He drew a flask of wolfsbane out of his pocked and forced the young man to swallow a healthy dose of it. It would make him unable to transform even if he wanted to. The young man almost got sick on the foul tasting potion. "If you're man enough to kill, then you ought to be man enough swallow a bit of potion, surely."

"I'll kill you," the boy hissed at Robert, sputtering on the potion.

"You can try," Robert shrugged. "Have at it." He deliberately freed him from Jim's bonds. "Try it now and see where it gets you." The boy looked at him, uncertain as to whether it was safe to move or not. "So, wisdom does come but a bit late," Robert laughed. "You're right. I'd have killed you on the spot. Now, what shall I do with you? Shall I let you live or deliver your corpse to your father's doorstep?"

"It was you! You dropped my brother off to my father!" The young man had a mixture of fear and wrath on his face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Robert said, making it a more than obvious lie. The young man leaped at Robert in utter outrage, and Robert backhanded him with such strength that it knocked the boy to the ground and knocked out two teeth. "Try it again and I'll shove these teeth up your nose," Robert said, letting the boy think he was completely ruthless. "Now--get up."

Jim took the floating coffee and sat down to drink it he watched Robert with the boy he winced as Robert gave him the wolfs bane. He raised an eyebrow at the boys reluctance to move to attack Robert nor was he surprised when the boy did attack when he turned his back to him. He gave a chuckle at Roberts warning " better do what he says , I have seen him at his worst and trust me you don't want that kid" he said and quickly brought his cup to his lips to hide the smirk he had. He looked at Robert hoping he'd get the message and take over. Jim had seen his act before but knew it was to make him nervous so he would accidentally spill some information on who and what he was doing trying to attack Khaat.

The boy didn't move from his place on the floor.

"I said get up," Robert repeated. The boy sat for a moment and then he thrust his hand out at Khaat and fired directly into her. She fell like a stone, face down, on the floor. She knew exactly what it was. It was a crucio. She felt her mind numbing, not thinking anymore. It was just done. Brian was outraged. He scooped the boy offf the floor and picked him up with one hand, not sure where he got the strength to do that, but he slammed the boy into the wall hard enough that the boy's air was knocked from his lungs and he felll limp, unconscious.

"Don't kill him!" Robert commanded fiercely as he himself dove for Khaat on the floor.. "He's useless if you kill him!" He turned her over and laid his hand on her forehead. "Damnit." He drew his wand. "Finite!" he fired at her. The spell ended, and she slipped into unconsciousness as well. Brian let go of the boy and let him fall in a limp heap. "Jim," Robert ordered, tossing him a pair of aurors handcuffs. "Cuff him. Brian, get Lee here. I want this boy in custody and I have no authority to put anybody in Azkaban right now. Fortunately for us, Lee can jail him far away from here until I say otherwise."

"My pleasure. How is my wife?" Brian asked, firing a blast of sparks through the floo to Lee.

"It was a cruciatus curse," he said. "She'll be alright. He's been well trained if he can fire a cruciatus without a wand at his age. When Lee gets here, you take her home, Brian. She can do no more here today."

"Understood," Brian said, more than glad to get her out of there. "She was concerned abou the staff."

"I'll take care of the staff. You just concern yourself with her," Robert ordered.

Jim stood up instantly the boy fired dropping his cup to the floor and aimed his wand but Brian got their first grabbing the boy he stood watching once over he caught the cuffs in his left hand and walked over to the downed boy " I told ya not to boy " he said and pulled the boys arms behind his back and cuffed him before sitting him up against the wall. He watched Brian send for lee and stood up over the boy waiting " so this Lee's an American , nice going with overseas relations" he said to Robert " how is she?" he asked as Jack and Steven walked in to the room.

" hum he tried it didn't he" Steven said and Jim chuckled at such an obvious statement from him.

"Give me one good reason why I need to let him live!" Brian roared in his utter rage at Robert. Robert was used to Brian's rage, but right now, he didn't see Brian's rage. He just saw Brian's boundless love for Khaat. Robert softened and he went over to Brian and put his hand on Brian's shoulder.

"Do it because I asked you to, Son," Robert said to him gently. Brian took a moment before he replied. He picked up the paper cup of coffee and took a sip, thinking. "He won't have a chance to either help us or to atone for what he's done if we kill him. Let it go. Let me have him." Brian slowly nodded, resigning to give in to Robert when everything inside him wanted to kill the boy. Robert said to him quietly. "I do get it, Brian. And I feel like you do. I just can't let myself go there. "Now--I think you can go. Lee will be here any moment. Take her home." He watched Brian go to her and pick her up and apparate out. Then he turned to Jack and Jim and Steven.

"Yes, he tried it. Brian took care of it, at least for now. I need two of you to stay with him. I want Lee to take this boy's happy little ass to jail. I want him out of England. Whoever is left, I'll take with me. I need to go talk to the staff. They just had the crap scared out of them. They need someone to reassure them. They need to see a leader is still here. Now--who is going with me and who is staying with him?"

Jim looked at Steven and Jack who both nodded and offered to stay with the boy " looks like it's me and Ozzie" he said and moved to stand with him he chuckled at Jack who sighed being called Jackie boy. " Don't worry, means your ok in my book" Jim said and he saw Jack smile as they left with the boy in tow. He looked back at Robert " so what you going to tell them can't tell them we took out four werewolves" he said and moved to the door of the office he looked out and saw nobody around.

" all clear out here" he said and stepped back to let Robert pass him by he kept his wand out as they moved back to the ballroom.

"I need to talk to my secretary first. I don't know what Khaat told them," Robert said. He found the staff and Hannah milling in the ground floor hallway, all in a varied state of panic. He used a sonorus spell to call silence to them all. He told them the ballroom was clear and asked them to return for just a moment. They seemed relieved to see their Chief of Staff there taking charge. They started to calm beyond what Hannah could do and they started to file back into the ballroom. He pulled Hannah aside and got a briefing. He sighed heavily when Hannah told him off her bluff about Grindelwald. Now he had to dash their hopes and their celebrating, but he understood why she had done it.

He motioned to Jim and when the most of the staff had filed back in, Robert walked back in and simply had Jim come with him and then motioned to him to just stand a bit away from the podium to not distract staff by a man they had not seen before. He took the time to calm them and to explain that three of the werewolves had been unavoidably 'destroyed." The fourth had been taken into custody. He reported to them that their director was unharmed and that it was time for him to address them with the facts.

He explained how it had been no secret and had been in the papers that he and his family were back. He explaiined that he had good reasons for being 'gone', but that indeed he and Khaat were back and that they were standing, unafraid, against the threat to their world. And then he relayed the truth. He told them that he and Khaat had known that the hospital was in danger from someone on the inside and that they had no choice but to use a bit of untruth in order to flush the threat out. He reassured them that the threat was past and that the hospital was safe once more.

Then he answered some questions and then let them return to their duties. As they filed out, he looked at Jim. "Do you think they're okay?"

Jim stood to the right of the podium and watched every ones faces he saw confusion and disappointment but it soon returned to normal the more Robert spoke. Jim saw him finish and walk over to him. " they look a little confused but they'll calm down " he said " nice speech though Ozzie" he said as the last man left the room. He knew Robert wanted to get back and check on Khaat " I'm guessing you want to check on Khaat " he asked walking out of the ball room and down to the office. He noticed Hanna at her desk and then looked past her at some others working close by " seems things are back to normal already "he shook his head and smirked " still amazes me how people can just go on."