Marriage is Murder

Jess moved forward and snapped of the tag looking at it she walked over to her workstation and wrote a cheque sending it via floo to lay on the shop's counter. " hopefully they will think you left it before you left, they didn't see it and not call the police." she said tossing it into the bin " not a bad choice , thank you Steven" she said smirking knowing it had to have been Steven as Jacks taste was way off.

Steven looked at Belby and smiled "Nice job, Brian want I should take care of that?" he asked him " not like they haven't met us before. " he offered  Jack nodded his head to agree. Both stood facing Robert while Jess moved to Khaat she placed her hand on her shoulder and drew of some of the pain. Lifting the bed slightly she offered up a fresh glass of cool water.

"Here, its just water no potions" she said letting her sip it gently.

"Yes, please," Brian said to Steven. "I'd appreciate that."

"Thank you," Khaat said softly, grateful for Jess's help.

"Belby?" Khaat asked.

"He's here, " Robert said. "You both survived. He's fine." Belby got up and went over to her.

"I'm fine with you chasing someone, but its easier to do if I know who we're chasing and why," he smiled at her, laying his hand on hers. Her fighting spirit amused him. He didn't know where she got it, but she was one little package of pure fight. He had a feeling they could well end up friends. He did like her drive, a lot.

"How'd we miss the train?" she asked.

"A bit of luck," he shrugged.

"And a bit of skill," Robert said. "Clearly. How's the shoulder, Khaat?"

"I definitely still have it," Khaat said, trying not to give in to it. He felt her forehead. Jess had done a good job. But this hadn't helped Khaat's shoulder. He was going to have to step up his efforts.

"I'll stop the pain for awhile, but its going to most likely make you sleepy," Robert said. "I don't want you alone."

"She won't be," Belby said.

"You're not firing me?" she asked Belby, expecting him to resign.

"Not yet," he laughed. "Maybe next time, if you play it any closer with the trains. That was a bit too close as it was."

"I'll try to fall farther away from them next time," she said.

"Works for me," Belby smiled.

"Belby's going to take her home," Robert told Steven and Jack. "Do whatever you can to either make his job easier for today or help Michael find out what's going on with the pack, if you can."

Steven took the note and placed it into his pocket Jack watched and nodded as Robert spoke , as this was happening Jess wrote to Cassidy and sent it on its way " everything will be ready when they get home I sent a note to Cassidy explaining and requesting she make ready both Marcus's room and Khaats" she said softly. Looking at Steven and Jack they both left the room and ported away. Jess looked to Robert. " she won't because I'll be here to she is my patient till she leaves this hospital " she said and looked to Belby." So are you, now sit." she said and once more moved the chair closer to the bed side so he could sit next to her.

Back at the house Cassidy got Jess's message and now moved to Khaats room with clean sheets. Ordering the bed to change she moved to Marcus's room and did the same placing both with fresh flowers. Cassidy headed down to the kitchen " seems there's been an incident Khaats hurt again so is Marcus" she told Angus ," might need some of that special soup tonight for them both, just been asked to prep their rooms" she told Angus as she placed the old sheets in the washer and set it going looking at him as she did.

Michael and Angus were cleaning up the breakfast dishes when the shawl was delivered. Michael didn't like the looks of it. He saw it shredded and saw the black stains. He frowned and checked the stains and smelled them.

"Oil," he told Angus. "Cinders and ash."

"What?" Angus frowned. "Where was she?"

"Not a bloody clue," Michael said.

"She's not going to like losing that shawl."

"She won't," Michael said. "I think Tobias will know where I can get it repaired. I'll take it to him right away." But his mood grew more serious when Cassidy told them that Khaat and Belby had been hurt. "Good grief," Michael sighed. "They've barely been gone an hour. How can she get into trouble already?"

"She's a Lupin," Angus said, agreeing with Cassidy's suggestion of the broth. "It comes in her DNA. She gets it from her uncle."

"Well, that's very true," Michael said, as Angus got out the ingredients for the red wine broth that Khaat liked so well. And if the bedrooms were being prepared, then he was hoping it wasn't terribly serious. But with several healers in the house, the fact that Belby and Khaat were coming home didn't exactly mean a great deal.

An instant later, Angus and Michael heard the distinctive crack of a wand, someone apparating in. He looked to see his grandfather had returned.

"Where are they?" Edward asked.

"Where are who?" Michael asked.

"The werewolves," Edward said.

"I give up," Angus said. "Where?"

"Knothead," Edward sighed. "Robert just sent for me to come back immediately. He wouldn't have sent for me if there were none."

"Not likely," Michael agreed. "Hopefully, someone will give us a report soon. Edward, it appears that Khaat and her new bodyguard were injured somehow within the last hour."

"Cassidy," Edward said. "That may mean things will get chaotic here shortly. Send a message to Kieran and Fi and ask them to come and help with the kids. That will take the pressure off you all and let you deal with whatever the heck the pack is doing."

At the hospital, Robert tended her shoulder. Robert detected some bone fragments or something not right there again. "Jess, assist me please," he said, motioning to the cabinet where the suture kits were kept. "Something's not entirely right."

"You're going to do surgery in here?" Marcus asked, frowning.

"It can't hurt much worse," Khaat told Belby. "Don't stress."

"I'm not stressing," Belby said. "Its just weird." And to Marcus, it was. He was reminded of the times he'd needed stitches. What he normally ended up doing was using a complimentary hotel sewing kit that had been given to him by a hotel desk clerk. He remembered of stitching himself up with some bright blue thread simply because it was the first bit of thread he could find the end of. He didn't use healers. Not normally. He just tended himself in whatever way he could improvise and kept going.

He wasn't used to healers, and so he really wasn't used to Jess's methods either. Robert glanced up at Belby as he cleaned his wand to prepare to work on Khaat's shoulder.

"You look about as much like a fish out of water as a man can get," Robert laughed. "You aren't going to faint at the sight of blood, are you?"

"If I do, I'll try to faint quietly," Marcus replied, a tad sarcastic. In his line of work, Marcus saw a lot of blood. It didn't bother him. The whole surgery thing in an ER room? That was just weirdness.

Jim waked over to them and saw the shawl "| I'l take it if you want not doing much of anything else " he said and reached out to take it from them Cassidy looked at them both .

" hey, it doesn't matter what they have been threw just that their safe and headed back here. " she said and walked to the nursery leaving Jim and the others in the kitchen. Jim shrugged at Cassidys out burst and looked at them both " okay,I'm off to see if Tobias can fix this" he said and ported to the small shop.

Walking down the alley he soon came to the shop and knocked a young woman opened the door " hi I need to speak to Tobias its an emergency" he said and held up the shawl the young woman gasped and nodded showing him in side the shop. Jim stood for a moment looking around he saw several shawls in different colours.

Jess moved to Robert and did as he asked she shook her head at Belby as he made his wise crack but said nothing more her mind focused on what Robert asked of her the blood and situation nothing new to her now. She turned to a healer and spoke " that bowl pass it here , quickly" she said and used it to place the bloodied rags into " destroy them and bring fresh" she looked to Belby " we have to be safe here we have no clue as to what's causing the slow healing" she said hoping it would be enough of an explanation.

"Not questioning your judgement," Belby said.  "But if we're not safe, perhaps I just need to go keep an eye on things." He wasn't sure why they should not be safe at the moment. He saw his chart laying on the over bed table at the foot of Khaat's bed.  He drew a pen out of his pocket and opened the chart and hastily scribbled his signature on the release form on the inside of the chart. "I'm fine," he said with finality. "I'll get back to my business so you can get back to yours."  

Robert couldn't hide a small smile of amusement. Belby apparently had a stubborn streak.  "Let him go, Jess," Robert said, opening the suture kit.  "Belby, if you're going to look official, do clean yourself a bit.  Try to look presentable."

"Yes, Sir," Belby said,  "I'll pack a spare suit next time I plan on leaping in front of a train."  He went out into the hallway.  Robert couldn't help laughing at him.

"At least he'll be good for a laugh," Robert said. "Let's get this taken care of, shall we?"

Jess was about to argue with him when she heard Robert speak and she nodded as he laughed at Belby" yes that's something, I'll send for Jack with a spare suit your about Steven's size I'm sure he won't mind ether that or he can fetch a new one" she said sending a quick note. Jack appeared a suit hung and covered in his hand.

"Some one order a new suit?" he asked and looked at Belby walking over he stood waiting for him .

"There's a bathroom right opposite here you can change in, or pull the curtain around, not like we haven't seen a man's naked form before " Jess said still looking at Khaat and Robert." Shall I clean and close?" she asked wondering if he was done yet or just paused to catch his breath "

"Yes," Belby said, not expecting Jack to arrive that quickly with a suit. "Thank you. I'll get out of your way." He headed back to the room he'd been in. The little blond healer that had batted her eyes at him saw him step out into the hallway. He watched her nearly melt just by looking at him. It was juvenile, he knew, but it amused him. A bit of a boyish smile flashed across his face, and then he leaned over and whispered in her ear. She giggled and blushed and moved down the hallway, glancing back at him. He couldn't stop a wide grin, managing barely to stifle a laugh.

"She's going to be bloody awful when she grows up," Belby said quietly to Jack. "I can be a bit hard on suits, by the way. Shall I presume you can keep the monsters away for a bit while I change?"

Back in Khaat's room, Robert was working on getting out bone fragments out of Khaat's shoulder. He wasn't sure he was satisfied with it yet.

"You're being too picky," Khaat told him, tired of this now.

"And that's exactly why my bone work is better than yours," Robert said. "I still think there's a large fragment somewhere here but its buried a bit deep. I need to find it before I close."

Jack watched Belby and smirked at his actions with the young healer " yes and heart broken when your done I'm guessing." he said and handed him his suit " yeah I think I can, as for the need to replace suits, I hear you on that score." he said and flexed his over large muscles to show how tight they were in the shirt and jacket he now wore.

Jess looked down at Khaat as Robert spoke to her "no such think as over picky , that one time he's not, could cost some one there life or even limb" she said and listened again to him " maybe in time it will work its way to the surface. " she said in more of a question than a statement but on hearing him say he was going to find it before he closed Jess kept cleaning away the blood so he could see it. The healer she saw was blushing and she rolled her eyes "Belby" she said softly a she handed her the bowl now with dirty swabs and took the clean ones to continue.

"No," Robert told Jess. "I don't think this will work out. This is already deep. Its going to either go deeper or continue to jab the hell out of her. I want it."

"You're a pain in the butt," Khaat told her father.

"Thank you, Dear," he laughed. "Then my reputation preceeds me. I've worked hard to be a decent pain in the butt."

"And you're doing a fine job," she said.

"Ah, there it is..." Robert said, finally finding a very large jagged shard of broken bone. It was a large fresh chip. "It was underneath the joint where...wait...You fell face forward on those tracks. This is a chip from behind. When did you injure it again and not tell me?" He frowned at her, dropping the ugly piece of bone in the basin.

"I didn't," she said. "Not exactly. I bumped it a little on the bathroom door last night."

"Uh huh," he said dryly. He already knew that had been a not so small hit. He double checked the wound carefully, not feeling any more bone fragments. That at least took care of some of the new damage. He wasn't going to tell her that this set her recovery back somewhat significantly.

Belby changed rather quickly. "I won't be taking her out much of any place soon," Marcus said. "Not while I'm working, anyway. Jack--what the hell is with the glow in the dark necklace? If I were her, that would annoy the hell out of me."