Marriage is Murder

Jack loked at Escobar and sighed " so how do we resolve this" he asked " Jess always did this sort of stuff" he said and looked at the sock she held " I guess if we see one we could ask for them to give it back?" he sugested as he stood back watching. " Julia you realy do have a tough one here" he realy culdn't think of what he could do. It was then Jess walked in smiling.

" Julia did you lose something?" she asked and held up a green sock " one of the hosue elves was walking aorund with it so I asked if I could have it back" she said " though jack those nice woll red socks you use to have..." she paused and saw the look on his face that made her chuckle.

" you didn't not my favorate" he said and sighed.

" hey there were full of holes" he told him as she walked over and placed Julias sock with the one she held " There you go".

"Sanks!" she said, taking her sock. "Frog needs her own socks," she muttered.

"Julia," Escobar said. "The frog works for your Papa. She cleans and cooks."

"No," Julia said firmly. "She not. Aggy cook my food. I no eat froggy food." She crossed her arms firmly. Escobar wanted to laugh. Now this looked a lot more like the Lupin side of the child. Julia got this side of her personality honestly enough from her mother.

"Now, wait. Doesn't Uncle Michael cook too? And your Gram, and a lot of people?" Escobar asked.

"I no eat froggy food."

Robert walked in the bedroom, yawning sleepily, with an old children's storybook in his hand. It was a rare book that told a children's story of a house elf trying to find his way home in the wintertime. It had beautiful handpainted watercolor pictures on parchment with gold gilded edges to the pages and was bound in a leather binding with a beautiful cover and a red satin bookmark with a pewter charm on the end that was embossed with an elvish rune.

It was a book that hadn't entered his thinking, but when he had overheard a bit of the conversation, he had figured out enough about Julia's confusion about the house elves to think perhaps a story was a good way to explain it and perhaps at the same time, it would soothe the child back to sleep. He doubted anyone of these younger people even knew the story.

Escobar looked at the book in the Minister's hand and frowned. He certainly knew the book. It had been written long after he had been a boy, but it had been in his home as well because of the children of his staff.

Robert held up the book to offer it to either Jack or Jess to perhaps read it to Julia, hoping it would solve the problem.

Jess chuckled and saw the book she looked to Robert " I'll read it to her Robert you go back to sleep " she said and carefully took the book and moved to sit with Julia as she began to read the story to her. Jack moved to Robert and smile seeing Jess sit with Julia. Jack yawned himself.

"okay time to go back to bed " he said and looked to Robert as he spoke again " okay she looks like it won't take long for her to fall asleep" he said

Robert nodded, seeing Jess had things well in hand. He turned and went back to his own room. Julia, like the rest of Khaat's children, loved stories. It didn't take her more than a couple of minutes to fall back to sleep, dropping the dirty socks on the floor.

"Do they usually wake during the night?" Escobar asked softly. "I don't remember seeing them up at night last night." He did know that it wasn't uncommon for children, in general, to wake, but it had seemed to him, last night, like their parents had worked with them enough that they now all slept through the night actually better than he had expected for their preschool ages.

"I would just prefer to know to keep an eye out for them if they do usually get up. Or to make sure that I don't frighten them if they do not know me," e said. "It certainly isn't hard to pick out which children are Khaat's, is it? They all seem to strongly resemble her."

"Perhaps I should tell the 'frogs' to introduce themselves a bit better to them tomorrow," Escobar said. "Elves generally get on well with children. I know some families used them for nannies, and it went splendidly."

Jess lay Julia back in her bed and covered her up gently. " no its not common for them to be awake ushualy something wakes them" she told him softly as she walked to the door" okay lets leave them to sleep, and I think that is a great Idea" she said smiling " but right now sleep, I know you don't escobar but Jack does , now go" she told Jack who with a nother yawn left and waved as he left them yawning, Jess chuckled " thats his way of saying good night" she told him " ushualy they sleep untill morning but with all this disruption its made them sleep lighter than normal." she smiled at his mention of telling Khaats kids from her own and Cassidys " yes they do resemble her a lot, though I feel the boys take after Brian more" she said turning to her own bed room. " well good night escobar" she said and headed back to sleep jack already flacked out on the bed.

The rest of the night went peacefully. Marcus got at 4 and showered and dressed. He saw Brian and Khaat's door still closed. He went downstairs and found the house elves busy at work with breakfast preparations. The coffee and the tea were on already. When they saw Marcus, they looked a bit flustered, as if they were late.

"You're fine," Marcus said. "You've got plenty of time. Breakfast isn't until 6 or so."

"What time are does the lady's tea tray go up?" Suki asked, a bit nervous.

"Usually by 5:30 or so. If I need it sooner, I'll just send for it," Marcus said. "No rush."

"But the master will be angry if..." she began.

"No. He's not like the other masters. He isn't going to be angry about a tea tray," Marcus said. "What makes him angry is if something tries to hurt his children."

"The werewolves?" she asked.

"You know about that?" he asked.

"Yes," Suki said. "We are elves. We are not afraid of animals. We will not let them hurt the little ones."

"Then all will be well," Marcus said.

Upstairs, Brian had not had an easy night. Khaat had been awake more than not. She had had nightmares off and on all night. Not bad, but enough to wake her repeatedly. They had given up a bit after four. Brian got up and showered and dressed. He had soothed her by giving her one of the magazines Marcus had bought for her. It interested her enough that she didn't feel like she was going to go back to sleep. She hadn't been willing to tell him what she was dreaming of.

He left the bedroom to go check on the tea tray and saw Abbey walking down the hallway, dragging a pink blanket behind her. She was sucking her thumb. Brian frowned. She hadn't sucked her thumb not even when she had been smaller. He went over to her.

"What are you doing up so early, Kiddo?" he picked her up.

"I heared things," she said softly, cuddling into his chest.

"What did you hear?" he asked.

"People fighting," she said.

"There hasnt' been anybody fighting, Sweetheart," Brian said. "Where did you hear it?" She pointed to her head. He began to wonder if she had been dreaming. "What were they fighting about?"

"I no know. But somebody was dead," she said. He frowned. It wasn't normal for a three year old to dream about dead people.

Jack woke and showered and dressed heading down he stopped seeing Abby and Brain " bad dream?" he asked stoping to smooth his hand over his head as he stood watching both of them " say Im on my way down you want I should send up a cup of coffee for you and some cookies for Abby?" He asked smiling at her noting howshe is sucking her thumb. He had never seen her do that before and he knew it was a sign of insecurity as James did it having been threw losing his birth mother at a young age. " I'll send up some juice too might settle her back down" he said having heard what she had said before he had walked out of his room.

"Yep. Her and her mother. Not sure what's up with that. Just the juice, though, please, Jack," Brian said. "I think we'll either go see Papa before long and then try to go downstairs for breakfast as usual. Maybe." Brian was hoping that he could redirect her to be willing to get into her normal daily routine as soon as possible. He didn't want Abbey to think about any bad dreams any longer than necessary.

"There was fighting and dead people," Abbey said to Jack. "I no like it."

"You do not have to be around any dead people, Abbey," Brian told her.

"'Cept bat people," she said, pointing to Escobar who was coming up from downstairs. "He dead?"

"Well," Brian frowned, unsure how to explain an undead to a three year old. "No. Not like you mean. He walks and talks, right?"

She scowled at her daddy. "Unca Ree Ree talk too, and he dead."

"How did you get to be so smart?" Brian frowned at her. He looked at Jack. "How the heck do you explain it?"

Jack held up his hands " hey thats for the dad to explain" he said and chuckled " I guess there a good sort of dead where we can talk to them thanks to magic but no Abby your daddys right the bad dead is something you shouldn't think about " he told her. " as for escobar hes the....um..." he looekd at Brian " your right how do you explain it to a child about the diferences in death?" he asked.

" you don't " Jess said from behind " children should think about life and play not death in any of its forms, when your older Abby then it will be explained" she said and moved down to the kitchen leaving Jack stood speachless.

"That works for me," Brian said, hearing Jack and Jess's explanations.

"You do not should not play with anything or anyone unless your daddy says its okay," Escobar told her. "She's right. There is no way to explain it to her at this age. And anything she needs to know, I think she has the general gist of it anyway."

"I not want dead people come back at night," she said.

"Dead people? In the house?" Escobar frowned.

"In her dreams," Brian said. Escobar nodded.

"Oh. Well, I think her papa is out of the shower," Escobar said. "I smelled his soap a bit ago. I bet he's dressed now."

"I see Papa?" Abbey asked. She looked at Jack. "I gets juice?"