Marriage is Murder

Jack smiled seeing Marcus pick up the wood he followed him into the house and stacked Jack did the same glancing at Marcus as he saw him watch as the table was laid " I'm sure Angus can and has laid a place for you " he said standing up as he wiped his hands on a damp towel that Jess brought over.

"Nice, we have enough wood for six fires now." she said and smiled out the corner of her eye she saw Cassidy and several of the nursery staff walking the kids down to the table. Jess walked over and picked up Caitlin placing her down in her chair.

"Welcome to the mad house " Jack said and chuckled "nah there really good actually, Jess has Caitlin , she's one of ours" he said  as Steven walked in with Abby " and this young lady you have met, Hey Angus did you make a place for Marcus?." he called out.

"I did," Angus replied. "We're good." Marcus watched the kids come in. There were more of them than he thought. He was used to running in diplomatic circles, where dinner was elegant cuisine. People were almost always in evening gowns and tuxedos. But here he was, in a log cabin. Well, a log mansion, surrounded by all ages, in an environment that was about as far from a Bulgarian castle ballroom as he could have imagined.

It made him laugh. Then he remembered his jacket outside on the log pile and accio'd it. He slipped it back on and frowned. He reached into one of the pockets and found an acorn. He certainly hadn't put that in his jacket pocket. Well, this was definitely not going to be any form of traditional assignment.

Speaking of assignments, his client. She was still upstairs in her room. He excused himself momentarily to go find her.

Jack chuckled hearing Marcus laugh " you'll get use to it " he said then looked at the acorn Marcus held. " ah squirrels they hide things in the damnedest places that or Abby's playing with you."  Jack said and looked over to Abby. Brant paced back and forth in his room he stopped as he came to a decision walking out he moved to find Robert in his room. Knocking he paused as he waited for Roberts answer.

Cassidy lifted Jaylen into her chair and moved to help James into his chair. She smiled at Marcus and spoke softly to Steven. " he'll get use to all this soon enough" she watched as Jess stood up and excused herself heading up to Roberts room she had felt the turmoil in Brant as he had entered the house and knew what he was going to ask.

" I think Paris would be a good idea," she told him as she walked up to him. "Brant don't just leave with out trying,go their gain experience and then come back." She smiled in her motherly way to him as she saw him relax at the decision and nodded." ultimately its Roberts decision."

Robert had only gone up to get Dakota, who wasn't in her room. He had had to hunt for her and had found her in his room, playing with Kate's jewelry box. He wasn't sure how Kate would react to knowing a three year old had been playing with real diamonds and gems, but he didn't feel it would overly upset her. He was putting Kate's diamonds away when he heard a knock on the door.

"One moment," Robert said, quickly putting the rest of the jewelry in the box and putting the box away. "Come in," he said, picking up Dakota to keep her from getting into something else.

Across the hall, Marcus had gone into Khaat's room to find her. She was merely sitting and looking out the window. She took a sip from her mug, and Marcus went over to her. He took the mug gently from her, peered into it and dumped out the rest of the contents in the sink.

"You can't live on that," he said, in an uncriticizing tone.

"You're here because I need to make an appearance," she sighed

"Well, you could just decide you're doing it for the children," he shrugged. He was passing no judgement. He was going to try to approach her without even remotely nagging.

She wasn't hungry. She was hurting. She hadn't had even a little break in the pain, and it was tiring her. That made her more sensitive to it, and that made her even less hungry. It was a vicious cycle she heard her patients often complain about if they had a permanent injury. Now she understood it.

Marcus went into the bathroom and got a cold wet cloth and brought it. He leaned against the window and gently sponged off her face and neck, understanding what that sort of sharp pain could do. "Better?" he asked, knowing the cold water would at least take the heat out of it. She nodded.
"Alright," he said, sending the cloth back to the bathroom. "Ready?" She nodded, and he took her downstairs to the table.

Brant opened the door and walked in Jess was behind him. " um, " he said as he walked in and took a deep breath in. "I don't think I'm ready to be here" he said and looked down at his hands. Jess walked up beside him and spoke.

" Robert what he'd like to do is go to Paris for a while,  know as you did with Stephen and Cassidy, I'm sure they can give him some extra training, confidence and maturity he needs" she looked at him. "  sorry Brant but its what you need" she said and Brant looked to Robert.

"Please sir I  don't want to leave but I right now but I don't think I can stay ether" he added hoping Robert would see it his way and let  him.

"Probably a wise choice," Robert said. "I don't know that you are particularly gifted in combat, but around here, those skills are essential just to stay alive. I would advise that you take a moment to talk to Steven and Jack before you go. They had to work at trying to figure out how to fit in too.

"They found Paris to be a big help. The men in the unit in Paris have to function as tight ship in order to survive doing what they do. You'll learn how to fit in with an organization or a family like ours because you won't have a choice."

Downstairs, Michael and Angus fixed plates for the kids and put them in front of them. Michael fixed a plate for Khaat with small servings--designed not to make her feel uncomfortable. He knew he was lucky to get her to eat at all. He wasn't going to pick on her.

Brian arrived at the table a bit late. He had been in his office, working.

"My apologies," he said. "Sometimes my work doesn't seem like its ever caught up."

Brant looked at Robert and nodded " I'll do that, um when will they expect me?" he asked " I can be there tomorrow" he said as Jess looked at Robert and placed a hand on Brant's shoulder.

" I'm sure Robert will let you know, I'll take him down for dinner, I believe its ready and being dished up." she said moving Brant out of the room and down to the dining room. Jack looked up and saw the look on Jess's face he nodded he understood and spoke.

" Hey Brant, fancy coming on my patrol?" he asked " could use the company" he said sounding some what like a request he did.

Brant looked up at Jack and nodded " sure" he said remembering Roberts words" I was going to ask if we could talk" he said and Jack raised an eye brow. Jess nodded as she fed the kids Cassidy looked at Steven who rolled his eyes and spoke. 

" well I was going to put the horses in the barn could join you too Jack if you don't mind?" he asked and Jack shook his head.

" nope just no horse rides" he said and chuckled at Brant's expression.

"That's up to you. You decided to go, so all you need to do is show up and join what they're already doing," Robert said. "Its not that structured unless we're doing a large scale training. Go ahead downstairs. I'll join you in a moment."

Dinner was lovely. For Marcus, it was a definite shift from Lobster Thermador and Caviar, but he did like it. Khaat had given him permission to not wear his black suit, but Marcus hadn't quite felt comfortable in changing. He was catching on quickly, though. This wasn't that formal here. He was wishing he'd brought more jeans and casual shirts. He was going to have to surely go into London.

Robert arrived a few moments into dinner and took his place at the table.

"My apologies. Did I miss anything?" Robert asked.

"Not that I know of," Brian said. "Except that Khaat got her magic back today."

"Did she, now?" Robert said, frowning.

"She did. Somehow," Brian said. "I was getting a nasty migraine, and she got rid of it for me."

"Well, isn't that something?" Robert cast her a bit of a foul look, knowing already exactly what had to have happened. He saw something shiny in Dakota's hand. "Give that to Papa, please," Robert said, holding out his hand to her, seeing it was still one of Kate's diamond earrings. She stuck out her bottom lip at him, pouting. "Now, please," he said quietly, waiting.

Jack , Jess and the others sat and ate there dinner feeding the children. Jess looked at Robert as Brain spoke of the migraine he'd had hoping he'd not know what she had done. Everything went fine.

Next morning Jack was up early, he stood in the gym working out. He was lifting weights twice the weight of a normal man. Steven walked down and began his work out.

"I'm going to do a few laps after this" he said starting on the treadmill and started he kept turning it up.

Brian was already up. He was in the showers in the basement, off the gym, when he heard Steven and Jack arrive. Brian yawned sleepily. It hadn't been an easy night. He dressed and tossed his towel into the hamper before going out and seeing Steven and Jack there.

"Good morning," Brian said. "Belby might be in for a rude awakening. He left for a run quite awhile ago, saying he was going to run the perimeter of the estate. I don't think he knows just how bloody far that is. I did try to tell him. I guess we'll see." He was very seriously hoping that Angus was up and had made coffee. "Did either of you see whether there was any coffee on yet?"