Marriage is Murder

Michael opened the door to the room and looked at Steven and Jim. "I'm going to settle the tab. We have her stable enough to move home. Jess and Jack are home making the house secure. She's a medical mess. She has complete amnesia. You two will stay here and make sure that Brian and Robert get her home safely. Oh, and by the way, if you see those enormous diamond and emerald rings she wears, she already notices they're missing and I'm sure she'd like them back." He headed back down to the front desk of the hotel to pay the bill. A nights stay was not a problem.

Robert presumed that Steven and Jim would know enough to not act horror stricken when they saw her.

"We're going to take you home," Robert said to Khaat, picking up her coat. He helped her on with it, resizing it. She began to feel hesitant about going. He felt her stiffen. And Brian saw it. Brian crouched to look at her straight in the eye.

"I know you don't know us," he said gently. "You certainly don't have to go with us. But look at it this way. You don't have a cent to your name, no ID, and you can't even stand--much less walk. Without help, you'll be out on the street, which is where your clothes look like you came from. At this point, what are you out?" He looked at her. He'd just given her facts. He wasn't going to try to muddle her brain with emotions. She thought for a second. Her head hurt. She put her hand up to her head, feeling it pound. "Let me take you home. Please," he said softly. "Let me help." She looked at him for a moment and nodded. He was right. Without help, she would have no alternative but to go back where she came from.

Brian helped her up but her legs wouldn't hold her. They gave way just like water. He and Robert caught her. Brian picked her up easily. She'd never been this thin. It frightened him. Robert accio'd her old clothes into a bag and put them into his bag.

"Time to go home," Robert said. "You lot ready?" Robert asked Steven and Jim.

The porting felt entirely new for her, and it totally overwhelmed her. She fainted from the shock of it.

"Poor thing," Robert sighed, stroking her cheek. "I'm just so used to her being able to do that, that I honestly forgot it would feel completely foreign to her. Take her to bed, Brian. I'm going to have to get a much closer look at her."

"Perhaps a sleep spell for that?" Brian suggested.

"Yes, indeed," Robert said.

"I'll take care of it," Brian said. Kate came over and looked into the face of her daughter.

"She's still alive?" Kate asked.

"Yes," Robert said. "She'll be alright. But I do need some time with her."

"Be very sure that she is alright," Kate said firmly to him. Brian took Khaat upstairs, put her to bed and put her under a sleep spell so that her father could tend to her properly without upsetting her any further.

"Thank you," Kate sighed. "Sometimes I think I get used to this, and then sometimes I'm just not."

Robert went upstairs and spent at over three hours. He resorted to anaesthesia to keep her comfortable. He had to rebreak her ribs and her fingers and her arm and her elbow and reset all of it for her and cast her arm clear up to her shoulder and bind her ribs. He knew that she would feel better once the broken bones were in the right places and it became a matter of controlling the pain and providing her very careful treatment for her head injury and her severe thinness. He began healing spells for a number of things and checked her with the utmost meticulousness. He finally covered her and lifted the anaesthesia to let her merely sleep without pain now.

He came back downstairs. "She's sleeping," Robert said. "Let her rest. I had to do surgery on her arm and on her ribs. She needs the rest now. I want total control of everything she eats or drinks for awhile because if I don't, she'll be sick."

The operation done with, Robert motioned for Jess to follow. He took her into the room he used as a lab and drew one of the books off the shelf and flicked his fingers at it to open it to the proper page. "Magical treatment of starvation," He told her. "Read it. Its tricky and needs very precise care." He drew out paper and a quill and made precise orders about the very few things he would allow Khaat to eat for now. Chicken broth, water, chamomile tea--but none without the very special potions that he had put in her tea earlier. He put the bottles on the table when Jess could find them. "Careful amounts. Because she won't be able to do more than a few sips at a time. It will be too much for her. Nausea meds so she doesn't lose what little she gets. Frequent offerings. Rest. Pain spells or pain potions. Keeping her comfortable is key while she heals a bit. Hopefully in a couple of days we can work on helping her start to move about a little but she's so wasted away that we must be very careful how we handle her. She's rather fragile. No one gets past you or Brian or me in regards to food-not without my permission. None of the kids leaping on her...none of that business. She may or may not remember whats happened in the time she's been missing. Either way is okay. But I do expect the rest of her memory to return as soon as her head heals. As near as I can figure she had enough of a skull fracture it should have killed her."

He showed Jess his notations with the very exacting amounts of potions he had calculated. "Oh, and gently with the spells. Try child sized doses first. Her system will probably be very sensitive for now. I would ask you and Kate to keep an eye on Abbey at least temporarily. We all know she seems to have the ability to be rather bonded to her mother. Let us try to keep her from being any more aware of her mother's state than necessary. Not to mention that the last thing tiny children need to know is that their mother does not know them. These calculations should do it until she improves. And, I have included extra potions in case she has trouble sleeping, increased pain or other things. I think I've covered most of it." He gave it thought and then said. "Oh, standard wound care for the incisions and the broken ribs. The arm must be entirely immobilized. And if you don't have any questions, I'm going to go turn some of the men lose on trying to find out what might have happened to her."

He rose and sealed her clothes in a plastic bag. He was going to turn the exam over to other hands today. He went upstairs with the bag.

"Which one of you will take these to Washington and ask Lee to have them thorougly examined for any forensic evidence? Tell him I needed them stat," Robert said to them. "I want every spec of dust examined."