Marriage is Murder

Jack nodded and headed down to the fence working hard to replace it as Jess watched from the kitchen door with her arms crossed Cassidy returned with an arm full of vegetable and placed them on the table for Angus to check over. " Stevens bringing flowers over for the rooms and fruit some of the trees had fruit on" she said smiling " Abby will love this is he had cherry trees" she said and looked to Angus " um..Angus can you make a cherry pie, please?" she asked looking at him as she smiled as Jess chuckled from the dinning room.

It took Khaat awhile to explain to Abbey that she really was going to be alright and that no one was going to let any doggies hurt her.  She had to work to explain to her daughter that she wanted her to be here with her family.  Abbey finally settled, but she didn't say much of anything.  She just settled next to Khaat.

"Yes," Angus said. "Michael actually has a better recipe, but, yes, I think one of us can handle it. I think Michael was taking care of the venison, but I sorta lost track of him." He finished making a large vegetable casserole for dinner and checked on some bread dough that he had rising. He wasn't quite satisfied with it, covered it again, and decided to wait awhile longer.

Jess chuckled and walked into the kitchen " I'll do it I think I can remember how to make a cherry pie" she said winking to Angus and began to make the pastry. Cassidy grinned and moved to the living room then up to the nursary and sat playing with the children. brant came out of the lab and paced then sighed refilling his cup.

"Drat,that potion will be the death of me" he said and sat down hard in a chair by the fire to think his moves out one by one since his fifth attempt didn't and had failed now he wondered why.

"Can't you do it yet?" Edward asked. "Have you figured out where you're going wrong on it? Until you get it right, go check the potions book, step by step. Most people have issues with not having the fire under the cauldron quite right, and when its not right, it cooks too fast or doesn't cook through enough. It sounds like that might well be the issue. I see more people not cooking it long enough or hot enough.

"You need to be very gentle with that potion," Kate said. "I've seen Robert do that one hundreds of times. He chooses a lower fire and brews it longer, but he's also figured out there is a bit of a trick to the newt. His friends would simply add a pinch of the newt, and it would curdle. Robert's always came out, and they could never figure out how he was doing it. But I saw him brew it once and figured out how he was doing it.

"He handled each ingredient like he was simply dusting it in, with a very light hand--especially the newt. Try that. Not even a sprinkle. More gentle than that. Try dusting the ingredients on the surface of the potion with as light a hand as you know. From what I've seen, that might be the trick."

"Come to think of it, that's pretty much what I do too," Edward said. "I've just done it so often, I don't pay attention anymore. Its automatic, I suppose."

Brant listened and sighed nodding he probably was being too heavy handed that was his way " okay I'll try that " he said and accioed a cookie to his hand and ate it . Jess shook her head as she passed him taking the cookie and replacing it with an apple.

"Healthy eating in the house please " she said and he rolled his eyes but ate it anyway. Jack walked back in and went to the sink Jess moved to him and moved hia hand she saw a nasty cut and sighed placing hr hand on it and healed it to a silver thin scar.

"Thanks cut it on the fence " he said and dried his hand off " um angus sorry about th tea towels " he said showing one covered in his blood. " well its fixed but we should look at replacing the whole fence its all rotten in places further down" he said and took the cookie Jess had taken from Brant and ate it all in one before she could stop him.

"I'll talk to Brian about the fence," Angus said. "We'll be pushing for time to get that much fence replaced before snow comes. That's a hell of a lot of fencing. And that's going to require a lot of hands, and a lot of money. Especially under these circumstances. He doesn't normally miss this stuff. I've never known that of him."

"You've also not known of him to have to stand up to the pressure he's been feeling the last year or so," Edward said. "To my knowledge, he's not been married before, and he's now a father of five with another on the way, and his household has gone from just him, by himself, to how many under this roof? He and Khaat are each trying to work two jobs and own a business. And I haven't even brought up the monsters, and the fact that James nearly killed his wife very recently. Its a lot to have happen in a couple of years. I wouldn't blame him for being a bit distracted."

"I'll talk to him. Haven't even seen him much today."

"Nobody has, I don't think," Edward said. "Wonder where the heck he got to."

Jack watched and loked at them both " hay, it will only take, these hands and a day or two, I have all the fencing in mine so no cost" he said " I can work on it this after noon " he told them as he downed a glass of water to wash the cookie down with that he saw Jess give a disaproving look to him at for eating. Jack just kiss her cheek and smiled as he moved past her to listen to Edward and Angus as they spoke about Brian and Khaat. " give him his time were dealing with the estate " he told them " the fence is a minor thing that I can take care of." He looked at them both " I want to do it for them." He told them both as he watched hoping they under stood his hidden meaning in his words to them.

"Okay," Angus said. "Let me know if you need more materials to do it with. We do have an estate account for supplies for some of that. Brian has just set some cost limits for us to not go over without his knowledge. But go ahead. Let me know if you need any help."

Michael seemed to come in from nowhere, and Angus frowned.

"Where have you been?" Angus asked.

"Did you miss me?" Michael laughed.

"Maybe I shouldn't ask a catburglar where he's been."

"Nothing so notorious," Michael said. "Brian and I took the boys out for an hour or so. He and I brought them back so we can take Dakota and Julia out. Not sure what got into him but he's feeling a bit of a need to spend some dad time with his kids, and I told him it wasn't wise to take two toddlers out alone. Not under these circumstances."

"Agreed," Angus said. "Did you have a good time?"

"Amazingly, yes," Michael said. "There are still a few places where one can find a carousel year round. We took the boys there and treated them to a snack. He seems to have other thoughts about the girls, but he hasn't told me what those are."

"Any thoughts about Abbey, then?"

"I think he has some ideas, but he hasn't mentioned it. Not yet. I think I have a moment for a cup of grown up tea before we take the girls--maybe." He poured himself a cup of tea.

Jack chukled and nodded he understood then smiled seeing Michael walk in with the boys "Hey Michael" he said and looked to Brian nodding his head as he move out to fix the fence.

"Don't forget to come back for lunch." Jess called out after him " when he gets into the flow" she said and chuckled Cassidy led the chattering boys up the the nursary before returning and checking on Robert to gather his tray.

" you need anything?" she asked holding the tray and smiling at Abby sat on his knee. Brant moved to the lab again and did as Edward and Angus had told him he was soon gipping in delight as they worked all but one as it still popped and sent up a ball of white and pink smoke.

"hum thats odd" he said softly and opened a book to double check what hed done.

"Hello," Michael said. "I presume you lot have lunch under control?"

"We will try," Angus said, being just a trifle sarcastic. "I'm not sure how we'll make it without you but we will try our best."

"You do that," Michael said, "but don't leave my kitchen a mess."

"Your kitchen?" Angus looked at him.

"Seniority, Buddy," Michael said. "I'm older than you are, so my kitchen."

"That makes about as much sense as whatever that muggle saying means about riding shotgun," Angus frowned.

"I'll explain it to you later," Michael said.

Upstairs, Robert saw Jess come in. He had gotten Abbey when Khaat had gotten done talking with her about not needing to be afraid to be home because of doggies. He wished he could talk to his granddaughter, but he had to resort for simply sitting with her and rocking with her and casting simple charms across the ceiling to delight her. For now, it seemed like enough.

When Jess came in Robert shook his head. There was nothing more he needed at the moment. Not anything they could provide. He needed to be rid of the curse, but he wasn't seeing that happen anytime soon.