Marriage is Murder

"I'll do that," Robert said to Jack. He was glad Jack was looking at what others thought about werewolves. Robert looked over at Michael, who was just plain tired and in a lot of pain. "You need some tea, Mate," he said gently. He got up, went to the kitchen and added a bit of potion to a mug of tea and brought it back and put it in front of him. "You do need to rest after lunch."

"Maybe I will," Michael said, chasing a bite of salad on his plate. He stifled a yawn. He paused and said. "You know, the food is lovely, but I'm honestly not hungry. You'll all excuse me, won't you?"

"Certainly," Robert said. "Take your tea with you and drink it quickly before it gets cold, won't you?" Robert knew that if Michael drank the tea while it was still hot, he would soon doze off. Michael got up and took the tea mug and went upstairs.

Once Michael was gone, Robert looked at the rest of them around the table. "Let him finish the tea and then he'll sleep. Jess, the potions will help him relax enough to truly sleep. Just keep an eye on him. Once he gives into his fatigue, I don't know if he'll be on his feet or not. He might well just need a bit of a rest. Trauma victims sometimes get overwhelmed and it plays out for them physically as well. Let me know at once if it starts to get the better of him.""

Jess nodded as she watched Michael leave." of course I am monitoring them both" she told him and glanced at Brain " observational only I won't interfere in anything you do Brian" she told him as she finished her salad and stood up to take the plat through she smiled seeing Jack reading his book. " nice to see you reading again" she told him and he rolled his eyes.

" better to be in the know, than ignorant right Robert?" he said marking his page and setting it down on the table next to him " beside this guy knows of the wolfsbane potion that's something I'd like him to tell me how he does" he said and continued to eat ,

"I dont know that I'm doing anything in particular," Brian said. "Just being closeby. I just sort of feel like its what I should be doing. I don't know that she's going to eat much. She's just really tired today."

"Don't let it concern you," Robert told them. "Michaels' going through the same thing. Let them rest."

"Do you think he'll stop parenting her soon?" Angus smiled slightly.

"No," Robert answered honestly. "I don't. Whatever they went through, they're not ready to talk about it. We need to be supportive of them for a couple days and they'll resolve it for themselves. And Jack, what do you mean about wolfsbane? What the heck sort of potion do you think I'm giving you? Its not pumpkin juice, you know."

Jack nodded " I know thats whats got me puzzled here look" he turned the page and handed it to Robert " see your potion in detail " he said letting Robert take the book while he finished his food and downed the last of his coffee that was lukewarm in his cup. Jess sighed and shook her head at roberts words.

" I agree with that Robert , they will talk in time if they chose to I guess right now they just want to reassure each other it all fine now " she said as she too finished her food and wiped Catlins face clean.

"Ah, well," Robert said, "I certainly didn't invent the wolfsbane potion. I only use the formula to help those who need it. I can't make any claims to that sort of brilliance. I would hope its the same formula in the book as I use. Its been pretty standard for some time now. Much as the furmula for chocolate cake has the same basic foundation in order to be at least somewhat successful."

"That's precisely what they're doing," Kate said. "Michael has been devoted to Khaat since he found out I was pregnant."

"He was a bit overprotective," Robert laughed.

"It was chivalrous, and it was quite lovely," Kate said. "Especially when all those hours of labor dragged on."

"True," Robert said. "She and you both have a flair for dramatically long labors."

"I'll ask her to have her next triplets in a hurry, then," Kate scowled at Robert.

"No. No more triplets," Brian said quickly. "I'm not going there."

"You're going to have to wait for your granddaughters to do the long labors next then," Kate shrugged simply.

"Wait. I dont' like that either. Those are my daughters you're talking about," Brian said.

"Can't have it both ways, Son," Kate said, getting up and going into the kitchen for more tea.

"I'm having no grandchildren," Brian said. "Because none of my daughters will be allowed to date until they're at least 60."

"And I'm going to enjoy laughing at you trying to make that stick," Robert said.

Jack nodded and shrugged his broad shoulders " true, But I can't help feel the writer knows more " he said and took the book back continuing to read on noting several accuracies that even he had only noted about himself recently. But Jack just read on while he glanced at Jess who listened intently to Kate and smiled at her and Brian's banter.

"Well that will be very hard, especially when their teens " she said and chuckled thinking of her own twins and Stevens John who was soon to join them she hoped from Hogwarts. Steven chuckled and shook his head.

" well here's one father whose looking forward to the day they go out into the wide world, it means Margaret and I did our job." He said as he sipped his coffee with a small smile.

"He's just afraid he'll cave when one of his daughters goes into labor to give him a grandchild," Robert said.

"Caving? Who said anything about caving?" Brian said. "I'm a healer."

"Until its your own. And then its all different," Robert said. "Believe me."

"And yet you managed," Brian said.

"I will manage whatever I need to manage if it means saving my child," Robert said with an iron firmness.

"I'm counting on that," Brian said, making it clear that he intended for Khaat to be safe for a very long time.

"As for your book, Jack," Robert said. "Very likely he was a potions maker who either had the curse or ha someone dear to him that had it. Remember that it hasn't been acceptable to even have the curse."

Jack looked at Robert and nodded " hum... that's possible, he talks a lot about a third party " he said as he turned another page and continued to read on. Jess and Steven both nodded at Brian and Roberts word both glad Brian was still so firm on his love for Khaat and their kids. Cassidy walked down and sat with them.

" Alex had a small accident but we sorted it and their all settled now " she said noting the book Jack was reading " ow I read that book he's got some understanding of the werewolf he even knows silver can harm them in any form like a bullet , sword or even the tip of a cane too" she said now taking a sip of juice.

"Remus didn't care for silver much," Robert said. "But, I've always wondered if the fact that part of the setting in Khaat's necklace, the setting the contacts with the stone itself, has a very high silver content--if that has some effect on the power of the stone itself. Unless I find that Flamel kept some notes on it that still exist we may never know."

"I've always been surprised that the werewolves haven't tried to kidnap her and try to find a way to get the stone off to keep it for themselves," Brian said.

"Don't be so sure they didn't just try to do exactly that," Robert said looking hard at him.

"Then why is she still alive?" Brian said.

"We won't know that, will we, until one or the other of them is up to talking to us," Robert said.

"Michael isn't into explosives, though," Kate said. "The likelihood that he thought he had any other choice is...well,..."

"Absolutely none," Robert concluded. "He didn't believe there was any other way to get both of them out alive. And I want to know what they were up against. Just as soon as they're able to tell me."

Jack looked up again and nodded then listened longer " hum.. maybe they did as Brian said, but because of the high sliver in the setting they couldn't touch it, maybe that's what saved her." he said looking at Brian and Robert again looking from one to the other. " I know I can't touch anything with a high silver content , guess that's why Jess only wears gold" Jess chuckled and rolled her eyes at him.

" I wear gold because its easier to find " she told him softly and Jack made a soft " ow" and sat back in his chair a small smirk on his lips. Steven looked at Robert as he spoke .

" Robert aren't Hogwarts braking up soon for Christmas?" he asked " John and Andrew are wondering if they could come here for the holidays" he said.