Marriage is Murder

Jess walked back to Khaat and belby smiling as she looekd at her. " of course its fine, I should have asked that myself, sorry Khaat." she said smiling " I'll make sure your not disterbed by the kids , if your not up to them around" she said smiling as one ran past with Steven quickly following Jess just pointed and he nodded running after the small boy.


" thanks, good to see you home Khaat" he said and smiled " okay where is that boy" he said meaning James who giggled rom behind a door and then disapeared into the room which was Jess and Jacks.

"Its fine, Jess. And I don't mind the kids," she said. Marcus took her into the bedroom and made her comfortable on the sofa.

"That's fine," Marcus said. "But you will forgive me if I keep them from jumping on you."

"It probably wouldn't do much harm," she said.

"Yeah, well, I prefer to be protective. Now--would you like a cup of coffee of your own? Perhaps some food?"

"Coffee would be wonderful," she said. "Should I be hungry?"

"Um...by my math, yeah," he said. "As near as I can figure, its been at least four days. Your father had planned for you to have something very light and mild yesterday but you slept. What would you like?"

"Oh, I have no idea. I'll leave that up to Michael or Angus. I'm not really hungry."

"That's because its been too long since you've eaten. Your stomach isn't getting the message anymore. It happens. If your cooks don't know how to handle that sort of symptom, I can give them a couple ideas, I think. I've...been in that boat myself a couple times." He turned to Jess. "Do you think coffee would be alright? And do you think they'll know what to get her to eat? I don't want to seem rude by giving them suggestions. I just don't know how skilled they are in these matters."

Jess smiled and nodded at Belbys question " the suop Steven made was full of nuriants she would need see if they have any left and try her with small sips first her stomach might not be able to handle much more than that " she said softly as she moved to the door " I'll go and check if theres any soup left " she said and headed down passing Steven with James sling over his shoulder laughing as he was returned to the nursary.


"Everything okay?" Jess asked Steven chuckled and nodded.

" yeah this guy thought he was hudini and escaped" he said and chuckled " but he soon found out I have eye watching him" he said and tickled the boy making him giggle.

Michael had headed into the kitchen when he got back. He was feeling driven. He was now understanding more of what had driven Robert all these years to need to be close to her. He had been with Robert through Khaat's illness after Remus's murder, but he hadn't needed to be drawn into the situation from a parental standpoint.

Now he was feeling very parental, for some reason, towards Khaat. He had always been close to her, but this was different somehow. He had gone to the fridge and was chopping up fruit in rapid fire succession and scraping the pieces into a bowl. He had set out other ingredients on the counter already--eggs, ice, wheat germ, protein powder, vitamin powders, honey, nuts, and some fresh toasted coconut.

Abbey had made her way to the kitchen. "Unca Mikey?" she asked, tugging on his pantleg. "I can have berries?"

"Berries?" he asked. "Oh. Sure, sweetheart. Just a minute, okay? What kind of berries do you want?"

"Storberries?" she asked.

Jess chuckled and left Steven to take James back she headed down to find Micahel already there " ow when did you get back" she said and saw all the ingrediants on the table and smiled " good idea" she said she listened to Abby talking she smiled at her innocent speach " do you mean strawberries?" she asked having seen some in the fridge earier that day.

" I think theres some in the firdge if Jacks not got to them" she said and walked to check . Opening it she smiled and looked at Michael " you think she can have some?" she asked not wanting to give her them if she had already eaten that morning though she hadn't been there nor seen anything of breakfast so she didn't know.

"I came back when Robert sent Khaat back," Michael said.  "Brian certainly doesn't need me there, and I can be more use here. I know Khaat. I know what she'll eat and what she won't when she's having tough time.  I think we both know that when she's having a hard time coping, she loses her apetite."

Michael was reminded of how close they had come to losing her when she had been pregnant with Abbey because she hadn't been able to cope with Rob's change of personality and with his choice to leave her.  She had nearly lost Abbey because her inability to eat had nearly caused her to starve.

"I think Abbey can have all the 'storberries' she wants," Michael said. "I don't think I've seen a kid that would prefer berries to candy, but so be it.  There are worse things."  He went back to his work, putting the fruit in the blender and starting to add other ingredients now to it.  "Tricky business, this is," He said, still working. "I've learned that she's better with smaller servings, more of them, and a wide variety, and offered without any sort of pressure.  If I just design the plates as simple snacks she can graze on, and then set the glasses or the bowls beside her and not mention them, she either eats it to please me or she doesnt' think about it.  One or the other. I'm not sure which. I just know it works. And I know that when her father has tried to force her to eat, it only makes her angry and defiant."

He whizzed up the smoothie in the blender and poured a portion into a glass for Khaat. "There's enough here for perhaps 3 more glasses if anyone wants one. Or I can put it in the fridge for later.  Let me know when she wants some French Roast. I'll send up a coffee tray for her. She'll want that sooner or later, I'm sure."

Jess nodded and took out a bowl and filled it with strawberrys she lifted Abby into a high chair and placed the bowl down infront of her. " I already told Belby to do just that, little and often." she said "but the smoothie is a good idea will give her the vitamins she needs but she won't know " Jess smiled feeling she might have to implament that idea in St mungos for those who were fussy about food.

Steven walked in and smiled "Strawberries" he said smiling at Abby " good choice" he added sneaking one from the packet still sat in the counter before he put it back in the fridge and walked back to the table.

Michael hadn't heard Jess mention of Khaat wanted coffee, but he decided to make a coffee tray to send up anyway. He put the smoothie on the tray as Angus came into the kitchen. Angus floated over a basket covered with a bread cloth and landed them on the tray.

"What's that?" Michael asked, putting a couple of stoneware coffee mugs on the tray.

"Fresh, bitesized sweet bread crackers. Khaat likes Hawaiian sweet bread, so I make them into bite sized crackers for her. It will give her something to nibble if she wants it."

"If its ideas you want, Jess, I have a notebook of recipes that I've learned to tweak up with all sorts of extra nutrition for when we get into these little pickles," Angus said. "Maybe you'll get some ideas there for your patients. IF I just remember where the devil I put it..."

Jess watched as Michael got the coffee tray ready she chucled listening to Angus and nodded to him " that would be fantastic Im sure my patiants would agree too" she said watching as the basket was put on the tray " I'll take it up to them" she said and picked up the tray walking up to the room . Knocking she called out before she entered " foods here, enjoy" she said placing it close to Khaat and Belby.

Jack stood watching Brian in the bed he watched everyone as they passed by the room knowing each might be a possible assasin and could attack Brian as he slept." How is he Robert?" he asked.

"Thanks for taking that up, Jess," Michael said. "You'd better not lose that book, Angus. The only reason she's alive now is because of you and those recipes, from what Brian tells me."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked, coming in to refill his tea mug.

"Khaat nearly died when she had Abbey," Michael said. "Nearly starved to death, long story short. Brian hired Angus to come and help when he brought Abbey and Khaat home from the hospital. Angus developed those recipes to entice her to eat again. If he hadn't, she'd have simply continued to not be able to eat. She'd have surely starved to death.

"Robert still uses those recipes now when someone here has been significantly ill or injured because the food is jam packed with nutrition. And I've had worse food at 5 star restaurants. He's a fine chef, but I think his real talent is in taking old recipes and making them ridiculously healthy."

"I don't know if its an art," Angus said. "I just didn't want it to be such a psychological struggle to try to eat. Food should be fun and taste good. Not a punishment."

"Well, you did remember your grandmother, then," Edward smiled. Angus looked at him.

"I would never, never forget her," he said.

"I know," Edward said. "And wherever she is, she loves you for it."

"But Michael has his own collection of high nutrition foods. He needs to add them to the book," Angus said.

"Perhaps you should do just that, Tremaine, and make sure that everyone who wants one gets a copy. I think you could probably get Flourish and Blotts to get a small number of them printed up for us if you wanted."

"I hadn't really thought about it," Michael said. "Didn't really think anyone would be interested until Jess brought it up, quite honestly."

Belby had found a deck of playing cards in Khaat's underwear drawer, with Khaat's permission, and he was shuffling them, using a quick, snappy riffle.

"So, gin, was it?" Marcus asked.

"If you think you can win," she said.

"Then let's see," he grinned. He dealt the cards with the snap and the precision of one who had spent a great deal of time in the casinos. He saw Jess come in the with the tray. "Oh, good. Thank you," he said. "That smoothie look fabulous." He removed it from the tray and put it in front of her. "Next time, I'll have to have them send me one too. What are these?" He took the cloth off the basket.

"They're delicious," Khaat said. "Could I have a mug of that coffee?"

"Sure," he said, still holding the deck of cards in his hand. "One moment. Let me finish dealing and I'll get us both some. You're welcome to stay and play with us, Jess. I'm going to beat her at gin."

"He's going to try," Khaat said.

At St. Mungos, Robert finished adding a note in Brian's chart when Jack asked about him. "He's better," Robert said. "Significantly. Seems he really needed to see her. He's honestly resting now. He wasn't able to truly settle into a restful sleep until now. My best guess is that once he knew she was alright he was able to really relax and settle."