Marriage is Murder

Jess nodded and quickly moved to the kitchen and brewed the tea. Cassidy looked at Khaat but said nothing but one word " James " she said and sighed having not seen Jack she knew he was off someplace, Steven walked back in " every where secure now " he said and folded his arms across his chest. Jess walked back in to the room with a mug of tea.

" ok drink this Khaat" she said and took her hand gently to place it in it so she could drink and feel better, Jess looked at Robert knowing Khaat would be alright.

"Thank you, Jess," Brian said gently. He took hold of the mug, wrapping Khaat's hand around the mug and then he wrapped both his hands around her hand. "Here," he coached her softly. "Drink."

"He wont' leave me alone for one bloody weekend! He just keeps coming!" she said, upset.

"He's not here," he soothed. "I know. It frustrates me too. You're safe now...."

"I'm NEVER going to be safe! NEVER! I can't even see what I'm fighting now..."

He sighed. He could understand her being upset. He knew he'd be upset too if it had been him. Sightless, her hearing decreased, her hand burned, her head aching...it took away almost everything she needed as a healer.

"We'll cover you," he said lovingly, kissing her forehead. "I swear. Come on. Its just tea. Nothing in it. Just tea." He fed it to her slowly a sip at a time, not speaking. He felt Robert come back from London. He was glad to feel his presence in the house again. He was not being quiet in his footsteps on purpose, so Khaat could hear him.

He came into the bedroom, and Brian's eyes met his. Robert felt for her. He hated it when his daughter hurt. "Khaat," Robert called quietly. "I brought what I needed to wrap your eyes and your hand for a couple days until you heal. You'll feel better when the pain stops." He put the bag down on the bed and drew out what he needed. Then he looked at Brian and Jess. "Clean dressings twice a day in order to get fresh medication on the wounds. Do it exactly as you see me do it. Watch carefully." He washed his hands with a special liquid soap that he'd formulated in the potions lab. He left the beautiful bottle that was etched with seashells, sitting on the bathroom vanity. With meticulously cleaned hands, he took a sterile eye dropper and put the slution, a blue solution, into her eyes.

It stung at first, but then the burning stopped an pain relief began. He put a couple drops on the gauze patches that he put over her eyes and then wrapped gauze around her head to hold the patches in place. He tended to the temporary hearing loss next by taking a smaller bottle with a yellow colored potion and put three or four drops in each ear. From there he took a jar of burn ointment and tended the burn on the inside of her hand and put more on the gauze dressing and bandaged it. He put burn ointment on the place on her chest at the base of her throat where the stone had burned a heart shaped angry blistered burn on her chest. He put some ointment on the gauze dressing and taped it into place. The last thing he did was to put a bit of a magical ointent on the bruised knot on her forehead from her hitting her head and then he reinforced the calming and pain reduction spell.

"Better?" he asked her.

"It stopped hurting," she said quietly.

"Good. Very good," he said.

Jess watched closely as Robert tended Khaat she noted every little thing that Robert did so she could do the same come the time she had to change the dressings. Cassidy watched also and breathed out when Khaat said she felt better " I'll start some lunch, though I think Angus left something for you guys " cassidy said and headed to the kitchen to make dinner for every one. Jess looked at Robert and walked over to him.

" what was in the liquid I haven't seen it before " she said and picked up the bottle carefully " beautiful bottle " she placed it back down and watched as he placed bit of a magical ointment on the bruised knot on Khaat's forehead.

"Its a special liquid soap I made to cause as much of a sterile field on the healer's hand as possible. It is, however, only good as long as the healer doesn't touch anything. The moment they do, the contaminants from what they touch infect the field. That's why I started with her eyes before I did anything else. Get your equipment ready before you start to dress her eyes. That way you don't contaminate your hands between washing your hands and dressing her eyes." He looked at Brian who was easing Khaat into laying down and taking a rest. he got up to get a throw to cover her with, and she reached out, grabbing his arm hard.

"I'm not leaving," he assured her. "I'm just getting you a blanket."

"I dont' need one," she said quickly. Robert flicked his finger to send a blanket over to the bed.

"Sensory deprivation is one of the worst things that can happen to a seer. Especially after all the sensory deprivation Barker already put her through," Robert told Jess quietly. "She isn't going to trust being alone. She's going to want to be able to feel someone right with her. I would guess Brian is going to anchor himself there, but you all might want to periodically allow himself to at least use the bathroom once in awhile or something. She will try, but you know yourself, as a seer, how important your senses are to you. And she's just had her hearing, her sight and her touch diminished. Its disorienting and frightening for her. I've given her a bit of a sedative spell, but I don't want to increase it unless I have to. As long as Brian is dealing with her with it, I'd rather try to leave that to him. Keep an eye on what she eats and drinks, will you? She's not going to try to decrease eating any further, but I do know that her appetite drops when she's under stress. Lets not say anything to her and add to her pressure, but lets do keep an eye on it. Hopefully this will repair itself in a couple days. We can weather it that long, I think."

Jess listened to Roberts instructions and nodded " I'll remember that " she said and then as he spoke again sighed she knew all to well about that " yes I know about that from my incarceration" she said " that was the one thing he did to me that hurt the most" she looked down at Khaat and sighed knowing what she was going threw and it wasn't pleasant " don't worry I will relive him when he needs it " she said softly and smiled at Brian as the blanket made its way across to the bed and lay over Khaat and Brian.

"Go and make lunch. I'll wait here a bit to make sure shes okay," Robert said. "Lets let her rest." He went downstairs, letting Brian take care of it. Her father's spells made Khaat sleepy and she dozed off. She hadn't slept more than a few minutes when she jolted awake--hard--pulling against Brian, jerking away from him.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I cant do this anymore!" she told him "I can't...every day, looking over my shoulder...watching every step I take...putting you and my kids in danger...I can't. I can't stay here...."

"Wait a minute," he wrapped himself back around her. "You arent' doing this. You didn't ask for this. But I am not letting you face this alone..."

"I won't drag you down with me!.." she insisted.

Downstairs, Robert had just gotten settled with a newpaper when her high level of distress alerted him. He got up.

"I think I'm going back upstairs, Jess," he told her, and headed back up to just check on things. And on his way upstairs, he completely missed the faint beginnings of the scent of Turkish cologne in the living room.

Jess looked up and nodded she had heard Robert as Cassidy came out of the kitchen and looked at Robert " you smell that?" she asked and sat down she settled back and let her self go now to stand in front of Remus. " so whats is it that's wrong now?" she asked him hoping he'd only stopped to check on Khaat but she knew better than that , he never came unless something was very wrong. Cassidy looked him up and down waiting for his words she respected him and if he said jump she would not stop to ask how high she would just do it, to her he was the best of the best.

"Blood has already escaped. The instant our men left him, he killed two prison guards and left" he told her. "He will be back. But not before he recovers from Robert's cruciatus and a wound he got escaping. He wont be able to return in the next 48 hours. He has hidden personal objects around the property--to make the unplottable plottable again for him. Check the grounds of any place he's intruded." It took him a moment to gather more energy to talk to her. He looked towards the stairs and then back at Cassidy.

"Its not the stone," he said. "Tell her its not the stone. The stone protects. It is becoming more aggressive because Blood is becoming more aggressive." He paused and then told her. "I cannot stay. She's not strong enough for me to stay. Tell Robert to stop waiting. He can't wait anymore. He'll understand. I don't know if I will be able to return unless he stops waiting."

Cassidy listened and nodded " I'll let them know " she said and stepped back into her own body breathing hard as she looked at Robert and spoke " He says you can't wait anymore and James has escaped again but he wont be able to return for 48 hours." she said and stood up moving up the stairs to Brian and Khaat she moved to touch Khaat " Remus told me to tell you its not the stone, the stone protects, It's only becoming more aggressive because Blood is becoming more aggressive" she passed on the message then looked at Brian " he was here hes said He has hidden personal objects around the property, I'll get Steven on to it " But Steven walked up behind her .

" no need I heard you" he said and left the room to make a search of the grounds taking several men with him.

"Wait," Brian said. He reached over to the trashcan beside his bed and pulled out a large handfull of hair. Course, black, odorous. "This has to belong to James. It was in Khaat's hand when I got back here with her. My guess is that she yanked it out when he took her. It might help. You or Jess might be able to use the hair to identify his magical signature and help you at least know what they're lookiing for or where to look. Take it"

"If you can't, let me know and I'll send for Kate," Robert said. He laid a hand on each side of Khaat's head and cast a much stronger calming spell. It made her limp. He and Brian were ready for it, and they caught her. Brian laid her back down and she seemed to already be asleep. "And Cassidy? If he's still there, tell him I won't wait anymore. I understand."

"Care to tell me what he's talking about?" Brian asked.

"She's getting too thin, too weak, and the illness isn't helping. I have to pull the plug on her overworking herself. I have to make sure she can eat, that she can rest. I have to help her start to build her strength in every way I know how. If I don't, she won't be strong enough for him to return to help her. If she gets weaker and he tries to return, he will soon be risking her life by doing it. He's trying to use Cassidy in order to preserve Khaat's energies but he doesn't have the link to her that he does with Khaat. Brian, we have to talk to her about the stone when she wakes. While she sleeps, I'm going to head for home and get Kate, and I"m sending for Angus."

"Why?" Angus asked, suddenly leaning on the bedroom doorway with a stub of an Italian cigarette in his mouth, his bag thrown over his shoulder. "Didn't you think my grandfather would send me back?"

"Well, good. That saves me one message. So, get to work already," Robert said. Angus just smiled, glad to be home, even under the circumstances.