Marriage is Murder

"Its not wise for us to dive until morning," Brian said. "We've lost too much daylight today, Jim." He noticed Cassidy seemed to be better for the moment. He hadn't made an outward notice of her leaving, so he made no outward notice of her coming back.

"We have decided to eventually end up in Monte Carlo for a couple of days," Robert said. "Does anyone need to shop for any sort of evening wear?"

"Need to?" Brian laughed. "I doubt Khaat and I need to, but will I end up taking her shopping? Definitely. That's just a given."

"Well, that's true," Robert laughed. "Alright. We'll plan a shopping trip."

"Not in Monte Carlo," Michael said. "The prices will be too high in season. We'll stop off before then to shop, if we're wise."

"Well, then I'll put you in charge of making sure we are appropriately dressed," Robert said to him.

Jim finally rid himself of the cube and sat back down cassidy chuckled at the mention of shopping she smiled " ow I do , I so do I don't have an evening dress " she said Jim looked up from his seat.

" ok I'll escort cassidy " he said as Jack looked at Jess who chuckled and shook her head.

" I have one already so will stay with the kids " she said " jack will you join me?" she asked and Jack smiled.

" if its ok with Robert I'll stay" he said " Shopping's not my thing" he said watching as cassidy lay back enjoying the sun and smiling.

"We can be there, at the shopping stop, at the rate we're going, sometime tomorrow. Then we could well be at Monte Carlo tomorrow night. Do yourselves a favor and get more than one evening gown, Ladies. I know it just isn't fashionable to be seen in the same gown twice. If we're here for two or three days, you might want two or three dresses. Gents, make sure your tuxes are clean and pressed daily. Personally, I preer just to have more thanone tux, but thats my own preference," Michael said.

"How glitzy do we get?" Kate asked.

"Its not about shine," Michael said. "Its about elegance. Elegance in formal wear, elegance in cocktail dresses, elegance in your daytime looks, elegance even in your swimwear. Nothing cheesy. If I were you I would go for something royal looking, and be very careful with sequins and glitter. If you want something to sparkle, make it your jewelry and make sure its the real thing. Renting it is fine. Wearing fake just isn't okay. Not here. If you're ever going to be royal in your lives, it has to be here. Suits during the day, Gents. Ladies, classy day dresses are generally the accepted wear."

"I feel outclassed," Brian laughed.

"Not at all," Michael said. "Everyone here is very capable of doing this."

"Then our fashion is in your hands, Michael," Robert said.

"Robert, if anyone is capable of elegance, its you," Michael laughed. "You are not someone I would ever worry about in an environment like this."

"Thank you," Robert laughed. "I think."

Jim chuckled and lay back " good more time for the wonderful Spanish sun" he said ans glanced at Cassidy who lay next to him also sunning. "Don't get too red " he told her and she rolled her eyes and pulled her sun hat down over her face. Jim chuckled flicking some cold water at her.

"When do we stop so we can swim?" cassidy asked looking at Brian then at Jim and back smiling as she thought of getting her own back on him for flicking cold water at her.

"We can anchor whenever you want to swim," Angus said. "When did swimming come up? I thought that we were diving tomorrow because its getting too late in the day to do much underwater. I remember that we talked about that. I don't remember swimming coming up. Did I miss something?"

"Not that I know if," Brian said. "But if they really want to swim, then go ahead and anchor. If they want to dive, they willl need to take their wands to light their way underwater." Brian's thoughts went to Khaat and the act that she just hadn't come back up on deck. "Whatever you decide to do is fine by me. Excuse me." Brian went back downstairs to check on her.

She was stretched out face down on the bed, reading a book.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Fine," she said. "I'm just entirely sick of drawing people to me out of necessity just to keep me alive when they have more than enough of her own drama in their own lives to deal with. I want you to stop this. Right now."

"Stop what?"

"No more bodyguards. End it now."

"I think we need to think carefully about this," he said gently. "She's just been in a bad mood."

"I told you what I want. I want this done," she said.

"Alright. For now, I'll take care of your protection. They'll just be our friends who are joining us."

"Whatever," she sighed. He decided to just let her calm down and talk to her again later.

Jim saw Brian move and staid on the chair Jess how ever after some time followed him down an knocked on the door waiting. Jim sighed and shook his head and went back to sun bathing noting the sun was going down and transfigured his clothes back to trousers and a shirt then turned to poke Cassidy " come on suns gone, time to dress." he said and she did the same sitting up and looking over the horizon.

" beautiful" she said softly but on hearing the kids below she sighed and stood up " a mothers job is never done" she said and Jim chuckled.

" leave it to the nannies just relax " he told her and Cassidy moved inside to sit inside with a drink as she hummed a she smiled.

ooc: i'm a wee bit confused. it sort of sounds like jess went to talk to khaat but i'm not sure, so i just wrote it that way. Brian was about to leave Khaat to her book when he heard a knock on the door of their quarters. He opened it and saw it was Jess.

"Come in, Jess," Brian said. "She's just reading. She's feeling just a little edgy, I think, and I know she doesn't want to take it out on anybody else. I understand that. Sometimes we all need just a few minutes to ourselves." He accio'd Khaat's drink from up on the deck and put it beside her on the nightstand. "Do you need anything else, Babe?" he asked her.

"No, I'm fine,"" She said quietly. "I just want to de-stress a little. These are my issues. They're not things I want others to have to deal with. Its fine. Really."

Brian left the room and ran into Michael and Angus both heading towards the galley. He stopped them and told them he needed them to just settle into being her friends and put that first beyond bodyguarding. He was passing the word on, one person at a time. He made mention then to Edward and Robert. He managed to have a word with Jack, but he didn't want to rattle Cassidy, so he waited until later to talk to Jim.

Jim saw Brian and nodded as he was told about how Khaat felt. " I thought we were just that Brian ?" he said and looked at him now a little puzzled at Khaats feeling that they were bodyguards and not just friends, he'd always thought of himself more as her friend. Jess walked in and sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hay Khaat " she said softly feeling she was not in the talking mood. "Good book?" she asked looking at her Jess sighed as she spoke again " Khaat were worried about you , I felt you feel were here just because Robert asked us to as body guards, well I for one came, because I am your friend and I know the others came too because they are your friends, Robert gave us the choice and we all chose to come , no orders , ask any of them" she said softly to her.

"I'm sick of bodyguards, Jess," she said. "No more. I don't mind having friends around. But I will have no more bodyguards. Ever. I will look after myself, like everyone else does. If Brian keeps you on as employees of the organization or to look after the kids or the house then thats between you and him. But we really are very capable of hiring farm hands. I do not want to lose anyone else because they can't take the heat of being around me, or becuase they feel that being around me is beneath their dignity...." She realized she was saying entirely too much. She fell silent again.

Brian didnt say a word. He'd been over this subject repeatedly with her. And nothing seemed to dull the deep emotional wound Steven had left in her heart. Brian and Michaelhad managed to keep her from pulling away from them, but Brian knew she was going to, at some point or another, have to stop actually running from them. And when she did, he had known that at some point, some of those feelings were going to surface towards the others.

He didn't know what it was going to take for Steven, if he came back, to restore any relationship with her, but it surely was not going to come overnight.

Jess sat and listened to her she sighed and shook her head " Khaat we are here as your friends, yes we work for Brian but not right now right now we are here to enjoy a holiday with you and Brian and the rest of our friends if we didn't want to come we wouldn't have but we are , we care about you like a member of our family, any one of us would say the same thing" she told her " hay I have been your friend along time even before the organization and I have stuck with you, not because of Brian or the organization but because were friends and that's what they do" she looked at her then at Brian " farmhands, would you really?" she asked and shook her head , I can just see Abby playing with a farm hand " she said and put on a Cornish accent as she spoke again " oow ar right proper job." she said making she hoped Khaat laugh as she chuckled her self. " and nobody here thinks their job or being with you is beneath them you can ask any one" she said .