Marriage is Murder

"I think they'll handle it," Robert told him. "We seem to be at full staff, more or less. Go ahead." Khaat came out of the office, ready to go to work. Robert stood up and laid his hand on Abbey's forehead, casting a gentle spell to soothe her. She settled against Brian as he fed her more fruit.

"We'll go ahead," Robert said to Brian. "You follow when she's eaten."

"I'll take her," Angus said. "We'll manage." He picked her up from Brian, and to Brian's surprise, Abbey just cuddled right into Angus. Angus picked up the fruit and began feeding her right where Brian left off.

"I guess we'll be going then," Brian said. "Unless someone has questions?"

Khaat and Robert and Brian went in to work. Angus finished feeding Abbey and found she was not willing to let go of him so he could clean up the breakfast table. He finally just set a spell in place to clean up the kitchen and decided to just take her into the living room and sit in the rocking chair and rock her a bit. He knew that making sure that there was plenty of food was a priority. But sometimes, a sick child was a bigger priority.

"Looks like its going to be a quiet day here," Angus said, cuddling with Abbey. It didn't take long for Robert's spell to make Abbey comfortable and for her to fall into a restful sleep in Angus's arms. Angus accio'd a blanket for her and made a place for her on the floor andmade her comfortable there and covered her to let her sleep.

Kate was spending the day between shopping and setting up a living quarters for Robert in the hospital potions lab. She was also setting up a well disguised living quarters for Khaat in her office at St. Mungos. She found Khaat was miserable, struggling to just stay at her desk, much less to get up and do much. Kate thought the whole concept of Khaat going back to work was ridiculous. She understood why Khaat and Robert felt like they needed to try, but she didnt' see it working well.

Kate complained quite loudly to Robert around lunchtime about the whole thing.

"She is always entitled to a lunch hour," Robert said calmly. "Take her home and let her rest awhile."

"Awhile?" Kate echoed. "As in, until she gets better?"

"No," Robert said. Kate left him and went back upstairs and sent an owl home to tell them that she was bringing Khaat home for lunch and to rest and would be there in about 30 minutes. She was not sending lunch into Robert. She was letting him fend for himself.

"Um..maybe," Angus said, unrolling the parchment that the owl had brought. "Maybe not. Kate is bringing Khaat home for lunch in the next 30 minutes so she can rest and she is being abundantly clear that we are NOT sending take out lunch to Robert. Sounds like Robert is in the doghouse again."

"And that surprises you?" Rene asked, coming in. He went straight through to Brian's office and borrowed a large roll of blank sheets of parchment and headed back to his guest house to finish drafting more plans. "I would suggest you not cross her if he riled her temper. Good day." He left the house.

"You know," Angus laughed. "I think he's right. I think I'll just make a large kettle of soup and make some cold sandwiches with that new fresh loaf of bread I made early this morning."

"Not rolls," Angus said. "Sorry to disappoint you, but its just bread." He headed for the kitchen. He put together a homemade chicken noodle soup rather quickly. It had thick fresh noodles, carrots, onion, parsley, and pieces of tender, fresh chicken. With that he put turkey paninis--smoked turkey, with smoked swiss cheese, on his fresh whole wheat bread, with a delightful pesto sauce. He decided to just serve it with bottles of soda and keep it simple.

By that time, Kate and Brian brought Khaat home for lunch. Neither Kate nor Brian were seeing how Khaat was going to start working around the clock at the hospital again when she could barely make it to lunch time. Facts were facts, and the fact was that Khaat was just too sick to to what Khaat and Robert both felt were essential to do right now. Brian had his suspicions that she was nipping into an enegy potion. He hoped that it was at least Roberts and not some of Rob's toxic stash that perhaps Brian had not uncovered and pitched. Or worse yet, that pehaps she had gone to get more from Rob's labs in Knockturn.

They brought her home, and Brian let her just sit in a chair in the living room. Didn't try to move her further.