Marriage is Murder

Steven turned and looked at Robert as he walked down the corridor to his office then watched Brian walk back with papers in his hands . Steven watched people pass by turning some away and helping others. Hearing Brian he turned slightly " yes we understand and we don't mind " he said smiling at him " we'll help in any way we can, even getting our kids to play and keep the others happy " he said seeing a young man walk down he faced him and shook his head gently the man turned on his heels and headed back the way he came. Steven looked at Brian again "Don't worry they won't even notice how long your gone for." He smiled " just find that cure this rash is damn itchy".

Brian was going to tell Steven that he wasnt' responsible for the cure when he suddenly felt like he had to go check on Khaat. quicly. He didn't know why. He just went quickly to their quarters and opened the door. She was sitting straight up, trying to catch her breath. He knew the look much too well. More nightmares.

"Excuse me," he told Steven. He went into their quarters.

"You have to go home," she told him.

"Me?" he frowned.

"Yes. You have to go."

"Why? What am I looking for?"

"Just go! You can't be around me!" She was insistant. He frowned and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I am not running, Khaat," he was just as insistant.

"You have to get away from the water!" she said. Water? he frowned. What water? He looked into her face. She was clearly not awake yet. He eased her back to the pillows.

"Alright," he said, softening. "I won't go near the water. I promise." He brushed her hair and used the slightest of sleep spells. Her own fatigue took her and she was soon back asleep. He got up, left her quarters again and closed the door once more. He looked at Steven. "I have no bloody clue what that was about. Its not like St. Mungos is oceanside property.

Steven watched Brian and heard Khaat frowning as he listened " water?" he said softly not moving from the spot he stood in. " yeah its in land " he said looking around the dry office and back to Brian " though she's never been wrong before might want to stay away from fishing for a while or the pool " he said chuckling as he saw a young woman heading for the office and shook his head to her. He looked back at Brian " she'll pull threw, she has a strong will and she has the kids to keep her grounded like you do " he said

Over the next couple of hours, she woke three more times, never crying out but when Brian would talk to her, she was still dreaming about water. She got frustrated and then finally got up, not saying much. She was shivering. He picked up a large, oversized dark blue shawl that had silver stars on it and he wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Better?" he asked gently. She nodded. "Would you like some fresh coffee?"

"Please?" she asked. He poured it and gave it to her and then started to pack up his paperwork to move it. "Leave it," she told him quietly. "I'm not going to use the desk for awhile. I need to go make rounds in a moment." He brought some more potion to lower her fever and poured a dose into her coffee. It almost made him more concerned that she didn't protest how he'd ruined perfectly good coffee. But she never said a syllable.

"One of will go with you when you make your rounds," he told her.

"As long as you don't follow me into the patient rooms, that's fine," she said, "I want to finish my coffee first."

"You want to tell me about the water?" he asked.

"Not much to tell," she said. "It was just very vaugue. I know you were in water--because of me. And...you didn't come back out."

Steven stood and listened to them he didn't interrupt knowing it was a personal time and he understood they needed their space he staid at his post at the door when he heard Brian say he would go with her on her rounds he knew he would go too but stay some what at a distance from them. Steven watched people pass by watching for any signs of trouble his eyes flickered back and forth. Nobody came close to the room one mad did but she turned him away, the man became insistent and so did Steven stepping forward the man backed away and walked off moaning about how it was unfair.

Khaat heard the encounter with the man at the door. The voice was familiar. Then it rang a bell with her. The same man had come a couple of weeks before to see her father. She remembered of hearing shouting coming from her father's office next door. She was about to go see if her father needed help when he'd thrown the man out, and the man had left, cursing her father. She was glad Steven had gotten rid of him. She got up and put the coffee cup and her shawl aside. She went to the door, and Brian followed.

"Thank you, Steven," she said quietly. "I didn't want to see him." She wasn't so sure he'd go that far. "Steven, check on my father. Make sure he's okay. I'll take Brian with me. And if you see that wizard you just got rid of, if he's still hanging around, get rid of him." She headed out the door of her office to go make her rounds. Brian just looked at Steven and shrugged. He didn't know whatever it was that Khaat knew but he presumed Steven would handle it.

"I'm sure you'll find us when you get finished," Brian said to him and then took a couple of quick steps to catch up with Khaat.

Steven nodded and sighed " sure Khaat " he said and moved to Roberts office knocking he opened the door " Khaat asked me to check on you " he said looking in his office , " she seems worried about Brian and water , I over heard her saying she saw Brian going into water but not coming back out " he added before glancing back " I should head back to Khaat and Brian unless you have anything for me to do?" he asked standing in the doorway as he waited for Roberts response it was then the man who he'd got rid of in front of Khaats office showed up at Roberts still angry at him Steven moved closer to him and told him he had to go as he slowly pushed him back from Roberts office also.

Robert heard Steven come into the potions lab. He looked up from his work, hearing Steven say that Khaat wanted Steven to check on him. "Now what on earth...?" he frowned. It wasn't like Khaat to send someone clear from the top floor down into the lowest level of the hospital--the sub basement--just to check on him. Then Steven said she had been worried about water.

"Well, then, I suggest that he not go into the pool for awhile," Robert said. "I would prefer that he still shower, though. But that doesn't explain why..." He was going to try to ask why she had sent him downstairs, when Steven's attentions were redirected. Robert knew the voice fairly well. He rose from his potions table and went to the doorway of the lab.

"You have five seconds to leave this hospital," Robert told the man in the sub basement hallway. "No one but employees are permitted in this part of the hospital. And I know you can read." The man began bellowing insults and threats at Robert.

"Four..." Robert counted calmly. "Three..." The man began cussing at Robert and issueing death threats. "Two..." And before Robert could get to "one" the man flicked his wand at Robert, firing the killing curse at him. Robert raised a shield around himself and Steven and fired an expelliarmus, knocking the man into the stone wall. "Bind him, Steven. I'll turn him over to the Ministry for attempting to kill the Minister of Magic."

Steven nodded at Roberts words and then watched him walk up behind him while he spoke to the man it was quick that one minuet he was standing with the man then yanked back to fall over a chair landing on his arm and butt behind a protective spell with Robert now facing the man in front of him. Steven ignored the throbbing from his badly bruised arm and stood with Robert watching the man. Once Robert knocked him down Steven cast a binding charm and moved to pick him up buy the scruff of his coat. " I'll see him out " he said and pushed him down the corridor and out the main entrance before returning to Brian and Khaat.

Robert went back to his potions lab when Steven took the secured man out. He figured if Steven took him to the Ministry and turned him in, they would be a bit safer for awhile. Not forever, but for awhile. At least it hadn't gotten as far as Robert knew it certainly could have.

Khaat had gone to make her rounds and her father's to their patients. So many of them had the illness that it felt like everyone she saw had it. But that wasn't true. there were some who had been as heavily explosed as the others and who hadn't caught it whatsoever. She wasn't sure what was setting them apart. She wasnt' seeing a pattern to it yet.

She got part way through through her rounds and then diverted herself to a place to sit down to take a break. Brian brought her fresh coffee. "Ten minutes, " she said. "Then I have to finish."

"I know," he said. "We will. But you aren't up to 100% yourself. You need to be careful with your energies."

"I am trying," she said. She noticed Steven returning to keep an eye on things while she worked.