Marriage is Murder

Cassidy walked in with bubbles all around her on hearing Abby " hey does any one want these they seem to want to follow me " she said and chuckled sending them around Robert and Abby " Abby these bubbles want to play those bubbles hurt and area bad " she said sending several more to abbey changing the colors as she did to pink , blue and yellow, she looked at Robert "its a trick I learned with my kids this summer" she said sending one that looked like a bug and one like a cat into the air and gently blew it across to Abby. Jess handed Dakota to Cassidy and headed down to the basement .

" Khaat , Khaat you ok?" she asked walking over to her and seeing the bubbling glass beaker on the counter" I'll get Jack to get Robert to sort that out " she moved to look at Khaats hand placing ehr hand over it and healing the redness until it disappeared.

"I'm fine," Khaat said. "But there was no way to know if this was going to bubble over or get so hot that it broke, or...well, anything could have happened. It was just hot. And I didn't even think. I was just thinking of Abbey. I should have known better, really."

Abbey was delighted with the bubbles. So was Dakota. It was just the sort of thing they wanted.

"Sparkles, Papa?" Abbey asked, looking at the bubbles.

"If you like," Robert said. He cast a wandless spell at the bubbles and filled them with sparkles. Abbey giggled and Dakota clapped, completely enchanted. "Jess, please take these two to a better place to play with their bubbles? Not here?"

Cassidy took Abby and held both motioning for the bubbles to follow as she took them to the nursary room to play . Jess smiled at Khaat " Its okay Khaat , you acted like a mother, if it had not have been you I would have done the same. " she said softly removing her hand and smiled as she saw it was back to normal again. Jack, Jim and Steven placed the jars back on the shelf where they had come from binding them to stay put.

" these won't move unless some one older takes them down " Jim said and looked at Robert " its only temporary but I'm sure you know a stronger spell " he added and moved with Steven and Jack to help clean up the potions that still remained in the bottles.

"No, thats fine," Robert said. He floated the herbs up against the ceiling in the middle of the room. "Now, unless they find a way to transfigure themselves into chimps they wont get the herbs either. I do need to know, though, how they got past my age line spells. Look for yourselves." He fired a spell from his hand to reveal the age line that was still intact.

"See?" he said. "Its still there. If they wont or can't tell me, then I shall set one of you up on a stakeout in this room and plant something irresistable for them to see if they repeat it. I'd rather find out how they're doing this and stop them before something disasterous happens."

Jim looked and hummed " well I never " I have no Idea but I'd be wiling to stay watch " he said and turned to the others " we can rotate shifts till we find out" he offered Jack and Steven nodded they agreed.

" we need to find out we can't have them in here when they feel like it " Jack said folding his arms across his chest as he looked at the now visible age line across the doorway " we should cast it again to be on the safe side" he said knowing even if they did if Abby and Dakota knew how to get round it it would do little to stop them getting in.

"Well, then, let us set a bit of bait out for them," Robert said. "Jack, go into Diagon Alley. Get a new dollhouse. Get the biggest one they've got. Lets transfigure it into a large fairytale castle."

"Make it pink and purple," Kate said. "With glitter."

"I think you're right," Robert said. "And perhaps I'll make it glow. That should entice them. We'll have Jim stay off in the shadows where he wont' be seen easily and then we'll wait."

"He'll scare the life out of them," Kate frowned. "Perhaps he needs to look like he's been assembling it and merely took a break for a short snooze. This isn't an enemy, its a pair of two year olds."

"What do you think.?" Robert asked.

Jack nodded at Roberts words and left quickly. Jim stood listening to Kate and Robert and chuckled. " I agree with Kate, no need to scar them too much" she said and accioed a chair to sit on placing it in a darkish corner " this should work " he said smiling as he sat down. Jack returned dolls house in hand it was big sparkly, purple and pink Jack set it down close to Jim but not too close and looked at Kate.

" Do you think this will work?" he asked casting a spell to make it twinkle as if it was a real fairy castle " I think this would capture the attention of any curios two year old" he smiled up at them both.

"I think it will be fine, but you don't look much like you've been assembling," Robert laughed. "There should be either some pieces not put together or some tools or directions or something laying about, don't you think?"

"Will we need to plan to allow them to get away from the playroom?" Kate asked.

"No, I don't think so. They're pretty good at that, as it is," Robert laughed. "I think it should be fine. Remember, they're not in trouble. Not yet anyway. We just want to find out how they do it."

"Should I ask Max and Mo to follow them?" Kate asked.

"No, let's leave them on bug patrol for a bit in case there are any we didn't gather up," Robert said.

"That would probably be best," Kate agreed. "There are some of us, including me, who don't appreciate bugs in the house unless they are in the jars. Anything they get is theirs."

"Agreed," Robert laughed.

Jim chuckled as Jack placed down the dolls house then room out the instructions and lay them around the house and added a screw driver " there that looks more like it " he said and brushed the dirt off his trousers. Jim looked over and nodded.

"now that does look like I was making it up" he said looking towards Robert and the others as he waited " so now we wait and see " he added as Jack and Steven left the room Cassidy looked at it and added some sparkle as she passed by to head to the living room ad chuckled.

It didn't take Abbey and Dakota long to find their way back to the potions lab, slipping away from the nannies. The tots had found that the grates over the cold air return on the furnace between the potions lab and the playroom were loose. The girls had found the cold air return was a dandy tunnel to play in, and they had been crawling about in the tunnel off and on for a couple of days before they had found they could get into "Papa's room."

So back they came, and when they saw the dollhouse, they were delighted. Abbey jumped when she saw Jim "sleeping" in the chair, but she soon discounted him. They sat down on the floor and began to play very quietly with the dollhouse they'd found in "Papa's room."