Marriage is Murder

"That wasn't Angus," Michael said. "It was me. I set the spells in place because I didn't think anyone heard me." He watched Dottie and Suki go upstairs.

"Minister?" Suki called, from Robert's doorway. "Would you like a tray for dinner tonight?" Robert looked up. He shook his head. He preferred to eat with his family instead. He got up, put his books aside and went downstairs.

Brian finished changing Khaat's dressings and immobilizing her shoulder just as Suki got to their door.

"Master?" Suki said to Brian. "Dinner is served. Will you be eating with your children or your wife?" Brian looked at Khaat, feeling like he missed spending time with her.

"Go," she told him quietly. "You need to be with the kids. Marcus will be here. Its okay. I understand."

"Please just send a tray for the two of us," Marcus motioned to Khaat and himself.

"Yes, Sir," Suki said. "Right away."

"Thank you, Suki," Brian said. "I'm coming." He went downstairs, followed by Suki. Angus and Michael finished assembling a tray for Khaat and Marcus, and they turned it over to Suki to take upstairs before joining the others at the dinner table.

"Lovely lamb," Kate said. "We really should have lamb more often. Very nice."

The others let Cassidy and Brant continue to discuss Brant's dislike of the marriage law. Brian had no trouble believing that Brant could just walk away from a wife and kids to go do whatever he wanted and abandoning them completely. Brian saw Brant as very capable of it, and Brian did not intend to comment anymore on it. Instead, Brian concentrated on helping his kids with their food. He said very little.

Edward looked up at Brian. He could understand Brian's thoughts. Brian was, ultimately, responsible for making sure that everyone under his roof was safe and provided for, and Edward knew Brian took that job very seriously. Edward was in much the same position in his own compound. He knew Brian never turned away anyone in need, and he sensed Brian starting to dislike Brant because of what was sounding to Brian like a selfish attitude.

"Brian," Angus said, sensing his friend's anger with Brant, "let's go for a nighttime run after we get the kids in bed tonight. What do you say?" Angus was hoping to get Brian out of the house a bit and get some distance between him and Brant before things really blew up.

"You need to go, Mate," Michael said to Brian quietly.

"Perhaps you're right," Brian said, giving some berries to Abbey and a slice of buttered bread to Julia. He glanced up at Robert. Robert nodded. He would do his best to look after things so that Brian could get some air.

"A word of caution," Edward told Brant. "If you want to be part of this crew, then you need to figure out soon that the people in this house come together in a spirit of unity. Of helping each other and supporting each other. For the most part, no one here lives or acts alone. If you truly want to be part of this crew, then you need to consider that there is a world beyond yourself. This house works as a team."

"Let it go, Edward," Brian said quietly. Brian didn't see how Brant could have spent so much time in Edward's family loving environment and have come out of it with such a deep hatred of people. Instead, he saw his boys were done eating. The girls were still eating. "Come on, Boys, lets get your baths done." Brian's boys bounced off their chairs.

"Boats, Daddy?" one of them asked.

"Okay," Brian smiled. "We can play with your boats. You can each have one. Go get them." They ran off, and he stood up and laid his napkin aside and went upstairs.

"The fact is that you are being forced," Edward said. "Along with everyone else that isn't married. But, Brant, you aren't the only one this effects. Michael and Angus are right in there with you. They're not happy either. I'm sure there aren't a lot of people who are happy with it. So what do you intend to do? Gripe about it for the rest of your life? Sit in a cell in Azkaban? Or marry and then buggar off so someone else can support your wife and kids? Or do you have some other solution that I haven't thought of? All you're doing is giving people here, the same people who really have thought well of you, some reason to dislike you. And that really isn't what you want."

He watched Brant leave.

"He knows how to socialize and interact," Edward told Jess. "He wasn't raised in a vacuum. He didn't get any less love and attention than anyone else. At least not when he was with me." He looked at Angus. "When you go running with Brian, do impress upon him that I will not let a member of my family go without. If Brant does make some poor choices, I will not let his wife and kids go without what they need. Brian Quinn does not need to support us all. I will take care of my family."

"Understood," Angus said. "And agreed. No one is going without." Angus would also help if that day came. It would not be up to Edward to cover Brant's bills.

"I don't know if locking him out of the lab is the answer," Kate said. "It isn't going to make him like people any more if we force him to be with us. My own thought is that if he wants to be by himself, then so be it. I don't know of anything else we can do to make him a part of us. He has to choose to want to be with us. That's not to say he couldn't be a bigger part of the chores. But that won't make him care."

"Its not something you need a manual for," Kate said. "As I see it, one of two things will probably happen. One--you will figure it out together, or, two, she'll teach you."

"Don't read the books," Michael said. "They're largely full of crap."

Robert accio'd a book and flipped it open. Kate looked over to see what he was looking for. She snatched up the book quickly and closed it.

"Stop that," Kate scowled at him. Edward was tempted to laugh out loud. He knew the book very well.

"Let's not even suggest he do that," Edward laughed. "He already thinks potions are the answer to everything. Let him not even know that potion exists." Robert shrugged.

"Robert, you have a strange sense of humor," Kate scowled. Robert frowned. He had only partly been kidding.