Marriage is Murder

"Thank you," Khaat said, grateful for the extra warmth. She knew that others that had had the bloodloss she did often chilled for a few days. Not to mention the fever that Brian said she'd had. That would cause her to chill for awhile yet. She glanced towards the kitchen and saw a banana and a carrot running towards the nursery, followed by three green onions that were slithering by like snakes.

"Um...where are they going?" she frowned. Her father looked at them and looked back at her.

"I don't know. Its your magic,my dear," he replied.

"Mine? Great," she sighed. She watched Max and Mo start stalking them.

"Someone go get those groceries. I don't want the onions thinking they can bite the kids," Robert said.

"If I did it, I should go get them," she said. She attempted to stand up, and she immediately fell.

"No!" her father exclaimed, catching her quickly. "You barely survived yesterday. You need to take this seriously. We do have others who can survive a battle with a vegetable."

"Papa?" Abbey asked. "I go get them?"

"You're not afraid?" he asked.

"It a nana. Why I be scared?" she frowned.

"Alright. Someone go with Abbey and help her get the vegetables," Robert said, more than a little pleased that Abbey was, for the first time, displaying some of the Lupin fighting spirit.

Jim stood up and walked over to Abby " I'll go with her " he smiled as he looked down at her " Banana busters, both of us" he said and took her hand leading her to the nursery door " see it just behind the chair , you go left I'll sneak right" he said and moved off knowing he was going to let her get it on her own. " there , now Abby grab it " he waved his hand just as she cough it and it turned back to a normal banana in her hands and he smiled " well done Abby, just onions to get now. " he said and stood up seeing a carrot he grabbed it and hung it up as he saw the onions running and hiding behind a cupboard " over there " he said softly.

Abbey grabbed the banana and frowned at it, seeing it was no longer magical.

"Dumb," she muttered. She saw him catch the carrot and watched the onions slither behind the toy cupboard. She went over to the cupboard and threw herself on her belly and looked under. One of the onions hissed at her. "Naughty!" she narrowed her eyes at the onions. She reached under and snatched them up forcefully. She brought them out, as they wiggled and hissed like angry little snakes. One of them bit her. "Stop!" she commanded, annoyed with them. "Bad!" With her other hand, she slapped the onions.

"You want them?" she looked at Jim. "They naughty. Mama's birdie eat them." She was more than willing to feed them to Archangel. "Or Unca Mikey cook them."

Jim smiled as he walked over and took them from her " I think your uncle wants them back in the fridge" he said and turned them back to normal veg again " but you were very good in catching them, just like your mother" he said " I think that's them all " he said and walked to the door and opened it " after you Abby the fearless veg hunter , ow here " he accioed a small gold badge and pined it to her , on it was a gold basket with veg in. " now its official your the veg wrangler, even seven has to salute you now, and he was a Texas ranger , but there scared of vegetables" he said and walked her back to the living room. Steven saw them and noted the gold pin and smiled.

" well done " he said and gave her a salute and sat back down" don't think I would have got those onions , I cry every time I see them" he said " your braver than I am Abby." Jess and Cassidy smiled and nodded.

Abbey smiled at the little badge Jim gave her. "Unca Mikey want them?" When they took them back to the kitchen, she dashed to Michael.

"I catched them, Unca Mikey!" she exclaimed.

"You catched them?" he looked at her. She nodded, excited. "They naughty, but I catched them."

"Good job!" he took the vegetables from Jim and put them back in the fridge. "Did they give you a hard time?"

"Snakes bited me," she said.

"No. They did? They bit you?" he asked. She nodded. "Let me see. Did the snakes hurt you?" She held out her hand for him to see the back of her hand where the onion had nipped her. He kissed it. "I think its all better now," he smiled. "You were very brave. Good girl."

"I can has a cookie now?" she asked. He picked up a little shortbread cookie with pink sugar sprinkles and handed it to her. "'Sanks!" she was pleased.

"You earned it," he smiled. She took the cookie and scampered back to her grandmother.

"That really was incredibly brave for a child not quite three," Michael said to Jim. "Thank you for letting her do that. She's normally such a timid child that its good for her to have a chance to come out of her shell a little bit. You know. we really should encourage more of that if we get a chance."

Jim chuckled as Abby ran of happy to tell Angus about her capture. He looked at Michael and nodded " that was my pleasure and she real is turning out like her mother, we should it would make her feel as if she was helping" he said softly as he handed over the carrots to Angus and walked back out " may be the other kids would like to go on a hunt , well Easters soon how about an indoor egg hunt" he suggested then glanced at Steven " could turn Steven there into a bunny and have him hope around with Easter eggs" he said and laughed seeing the look on Stevens face " it will all be for a god cause" he added Jess held herself trying not to laugh as well at the thought of Steven as a bunny being chased by several dozen children.

"I think I have an idea for them," Michael said. "Its supposed to rain this afternoon. That would be a good activity for them for after their naps. We can set it up while they take their naps. I have a friend who is a muggle dentist, and he keeps little tiny plastic treasure chests for kids to keep their teeth in for the proverbial tooth fairy. I can't believe muggle kids still believe that rot. Anyway, I'll go into town and get a boatload of those little plastic chests from him and then I'll stop at Honeydukes and get a large bag of tiny chocolates. We can put a little chocolate in each treasure chest and then hide them for them. I can't imagine they'd be choking hazards since they'll melt as soon as they put them into their mouths."

"I think that would be fine," Angus said, "especially if we supervise them. What are you making, anyway, Michael?"

"Robert did ask me to find something Khaat would eat. I'm working on something special," he said. "She won't be able to resist."

"It looks like you're using every dish in the kitchen," Angus said.

"It'll be worth it."

"And we wont' get to taste any of it."

"Oh, not so," Michael laughed. "I'm going to use it for lunch too. We might just do lunch a bit earlier than usual. I doubt anyone will really mind. I've not seen them generally turn down food."

"This crowd? They're always happy to eat," Angus said.

Jim chuckled and nodded he agreed " sounds great like a treasure hunt" he said and looked to Steven " shame would have been nice to see Steven hop around a bit" he said and Steven backed of a few steps from him" I'm sure we'll all help hide the chests around the area closest to the house don't want them near the cave right now" he said he smiled at the mention of food " ow with out Jack around I'm sure there will be left overs too" he saw Jess chuckle and nodded to Cassidy who was laid against Steven.

" if you need help with those chests I can come to" he said " rather do that than be a fluffy white bunny" he said

"How did you get a cookie?" Robert looked at Abbey, frowning, knowing he'd said no just a short time earlier. She looked at him, quite pleased at getting one over on her papa. She laughed, delighted. "You little scamp," he laughed. "So much for your mother's grand plans for you to eat healthy."

"I like cookies," she told her papa.

"So I see," he answered. "So how'd you get that cookie?"

"Unca Mikey gived it to me," she nodded.

"Oh, he did, did he?" Robert laughed. "Did you trick him?"

"Noooo," she said. "I catched the snakes."

"Oh. I see. Well, I suppose its okay this time then," he said, as she bit into the cookie, not wating on him to decide she couldnt have it. She merely nodded at him, not intending to give it back anyway.

"You lot are spoiling the kids," Khaat said weakly, wincing as her shoulder started to pound again. The pain meds just werent' holding. Her father had seen. He did something he never did. Never. He poured a glass of firewhiskey and poured a dose of the gold potion into it. He brought it to her.

"Now--" he said seriously. "If this doesn't help, I won't have any choice but to simply sedate you until some of the healing takes place."

"The hell you will," she grumbled at him. "Not unless I agree, you won't."

"Oh, shut it and drink. Before I change my mind," he said, not liking his questionable medical decision. He fed her the glass of firewhiskey laced with pain potion in nearly one long continuous drink. It made her head spin. Gave her a rush for a bit. She felt herself fade into a temporary floating state where the pain was only a slight dull aching. It was infinitely better than where she'd been a moment before.

"Do try not to overdose our child, won't you?" Kate was ticky with him.

"I don't believe we're quite there yet," was Robert's calm and composed reply.

"Its alright, Kate," Brian said quietly from the edge of the room where he'd come in just long enough to see Robert give her the potion in the firewhiskey. Even though the choice itself had been questionable, Brian was glad to see her without suffering for the moment. "Let her rest. Fighting that sort of pain is damned hard work."

Steven chuckled as he walked over to where Abby was with her cookie " its okay she did earn it" he said and smiled " she caught a banana all by herself" he said smiling at her as he then saluted her as he moved back to the couch and sat back down next to Cassidy who lent against him. Jess watched Khaat and sighed wishing she could do more for her and she wondered how long Jack would be away for at Jeffery's. Cassidy looked at Kate and looked at the cup beside Kate making it refill with hot coffee again. Jim moved from the kitchen to the living room and made the fire light its warmth warming the room for Khaat and Kate.

"do you think Jack will be back soon?" he asked knowing it was out of the blue.