Marriage is Murder

Jess and cassidy sat listening to Brian as he had returned and took two cups of cider " that;s a start I guess " Jess said " should keep her busy now I hope Stevens dealing with my unruly husband " she as Cassidy gave her a cup of cider and smiled.

" I'm sure he is in his own way " she said chuckling a she blew over the top of her cup her eyes fixed on the stairs to the gym where Steven and Jack were.

"If he doesn't deal with him, I will," Brian said.

"If Robert or I don't get to him first," Kate said. "If its one of us, trust me, you won't need to follow up." They all knew how tough Robert could be, but Brian knew that sometimes Kate was the tougher one of the two. If Jack didn't learn from Steven, if it took Kate, Brian knew Jack would regret it.

Michael knew too, though. "That boy just doesn't have any idea when he's better off, does he?"

"No, but it might be interesting for him to find out," Brian said.

Jess laughed " ow too right he'll learn" Jess said and looked at them all " even if I have to do it myself " she said as she blew over her cup and smiled at Kate knowing she would not have any one but her teach Jack a lesson and Kate new it . Cassidy sat quiet as she glanced over at the stairs Steven walked back up a little worse for wear and with a black eye.

" well I think he got the message " he said and sat close to Jess who rid him of the black eye and smiled" its all right I dealt with him all his issues are gone" he said Jess loked at him " don't give me that look took some doing but hes ok"

"I will do my best to hold my tongue, then, for now," Kate said. She was done with letting Jack get away with acting like a child. "But I do hope he makes this stick longer than usual."

Michael's ears perked up to something that the others did not appear to hear. "Uh oh," he scowled.

"What?" Brian asked.

"She wasn't just reading those bloody books," Michael sighed. "We're about to be invaded. Heads up." At that moment, Brian heard what sounded like thousands of tiny little feet all running towards them like a great stampede. And he heard giggling. Thousands of teeny tiny voices giggling hysterically.

"What the devil...." Brian scowled. Michael headed out to the foyer.

"Alright, you lot," Michael bellowed at something or another. "If you're going to run about the house, que up in a straight line....I said a straight line, or I'll turn the lot of you into socks and feed you to the dogs!" Kate looked up to see an endless line of furniture, books vases, and other household items, all miniaturized, and all fully animated and running through the house, giggling incessantly.

"Well, whatever that spell was supposed to be, its gone a bit sideways, hasn't it?" Kate frowned.

Jess sat wide eyed as the furniture and other assorted things ran past her feet Cassidy lifted hers up and gave a squeal " ow my how'd she manage that" she said her legs up to her chest as Steven just sat watching them and chuckling .

" well this is a new one on me " he said gently moving a vase back in line " what spell was she looking at ?" Steven asked looking at Robert and Kate. Jess looked at the line and then to Robert as she spoke.

" want me to put them back?" she asked softly as she stood up as if nothing was happening she'd not seen before, she moved a small foot stood from her foot and walked over to him.

"Who knows?" Robert sighed. "She has done this one before, remember? Its how we ended up with Otto."

"We?" Michael frowned. "WE didn't end up with Otto. I ended up with that footstool because you lot all got attached to him and wouldn't let me change him back. And then Rob and Khaat went and found him a girl. Just what I needed. Two footstools and lots of little footstool puppies. Not to mention a kleptomanic hat rack. As I recall, you told me one of conditions of the lease was that I keep them."

"And that condition hasn't changed," Robert said as an unruly drapery tie decided to wind its way up Robert's leg. Robert scowled at it. "How would you like to be a sock?" he asked it. It slithered back down to the floor. "Get back in line this instant," Robert ordered. The drapery tie obeyed.

"Did she animate the entire house?" Brian frowned.

"Apparently," Michael said. "Here come the kitchen knives. Might want to keep the kids away from those."

"Jess, I think this is too large scale of a mistake for one person to undo," Robert said. Michael knew Robert was looking for the experience of older wizards for this and some combined energies.

"Shall I assist?" Michael asked. "Sounds like its one of those 'over 50' things."

"I think it probably is," Robert said. "We will have to work together, with combined energies, on a finite spell to undo it."

Jack looked at Kate and sighed " yeah we need to boost security and add something to pick up vamp signature as well" he said looking at them as he sat with Jess and Cassidy again. " sorry about earlier" he said looking at them all " I worked out my anger with Steven " he said and sat back quietly beside Jess. Jim looked up at them all and shook his head as Cassidy made a move on the board she took his Bishop and chuckled as she sat back to watch for his next move so she could find her next move .

On hearing Robert Jim looked at Cassidy then spoke to Robert " count me in Robert " he said shrugging his shoulders " we'll continue this later Cassidy and not because your about to win ether , some times other priority's are more important " he said and walked over to him " so whats the plan?" he asked.

"Kate, I will need you as well," Robert said. "The center of the house is....uh..." he looked around, calculating.

"The center of the foyer," Brian said quietly.

"Then, Jim, you and Kate and Michael and I need to go there," Robert said. Michael and Kate followed Robert to the foyer to the center of the room. "Each of you face a different direction. Robert chose the north, Michael stood with his back to Robert, facing south.

"East or West, Jim?" Kate asked. She knew what he was doing. He wanted them to cover the house with one large powerful finite to end the animation spell by having them each face a different direction and casting a finite spell all at the same time.

Jim nodded and followed them into the foyer " west for me , always west" he said and chuckled taking out his wand ready for what Robert had in mind " well I'm ready " he said moving to stand facing west between Michael and Robert leaving the other direction for Kate to take. Jess wondered just what Robert had in mind as he stood with his wand at the ready in the foyer she glanced back at jack who sat looking at the chess board Jim had just left with Cassidy still studying it intently for several moves she could make when he returned .

Brian was amazed that Robert figured it would take that much magic to undo Khaat's mistake. He began to get concerned that perhaps he needed to encourage her to have a bit more supervision when she did her spells rather than doing what he had thought were harmless little charms on her own. Kate could feel Brian's concern and his over protectiveness. Kate understood Robert well enough to know what his concerns were and knew that Brian was misreading Robert. But until the miscast spell was undone, there wasn't time to correct Brian's thinking.

Kate took the east, and raised her wand to the ready.

"On three," Robert raised his wand and counted, "Nice and strong, All. One....Two....Three..." He fired his wand. "Finite!"

"Finite!" Kate and Michael fired their wands at the same time Robert did.