Marriage is Murder

Jess looked up seeing Marcus stand up she was none to happy about it and quickly moved to hold him up "Wow, Hey, back in bed, to awnser your question, their fine, some small scratches, nothing like yours, you took the worst of it, Brian is with them now."she said as she made him sit back down. " every ones sleeping" she told him and checked he ahd not undone her work on his ribs. Turning she pored a glass of water and added two drops of pain potion " drink this , it will help" she told him and placed it in his hand.

Lifting his legs she pulled the sheets and blanket over him once more now rest or will I have to give you a dose of sleep remady " she said and moved to sit back down with her book again. Jess hoped he would sleep untill morning to give his ribs time to heal abit more and his muscles time to relax. But she also knew Marcus could not help himself in his dutys as a body guard and would do anything to be at Khaats side.

He frowned. He looked again at the clock.

"At 5 am? When is this house asleep at 5 am?" he said. "And I know I smell breakfast cooking. I might have been hit with a tree, but it didn't smack out my brain. I appreciate the pain potion, but I don't need a sleeping potion. By the looks of it, I've slept several hours already."

Marcus was used to working through worse than this. Even though it wasn't comfortable now, he had spent a lot of years working on his own, and he figured he might offend her sensibilities if he mentioned what he'd had to resort to in order to survive. He did understand her need as a healer, but he needed to not be sidelined for days with this.

"Truth be told, I will hurt a lot less if I can get up and get into a hot shower to loosen up the muscles and then stretch just a little. Not a lot but a little would help," he said. "So--as much as I appreciate your caution, you'll be helping me more if you let me up. I promise I don't intend to overdo anything If I have trouble, I'll come back. I promise. Deal?"

Jess sat listening to him she knew where this was going and sighed as she placed down her book. " deal but your on light duties until those ribs heal" she looked at him as if she was telling one of her own children off but with a mere hint of a smile on her lips as she looked at him. Jack pushed open Marcus bed room door and chuckled softly.

" any one in trouble?" he asked and Jess shook her head as he walked over to her.

" nope just laying down some ground rules" she said and Jack looked to Marcus.

" wow, haven't had those in a long time" he said and chuckled himself " don't worry her barks worse than...scratch that her bite is worse than her bark" he said as Jess gave him a dig in his ribs before looking at Marcus.

"Just play it safe, I know you always do any way and you've had worse that a few busted ribs but still" she said then left the room and Jack just smiled at Marcus and followed her out.

Marcus muscled his way up out of bed a second time and did some very light stretching, his muscles unhappy with him. He saw the snow piling up in deep drifts outside in the yard. And it was still snowing heavily but the wind was dying down a bit. He expected to find, when daylight would come in another couple of hours, they were fully snowed in.

To his surprise, when he got out of the shower and came out into his room to dress, there was, beside his suit, a pair of jeans, and a navy pullover sweater that he actually liked. It was thick and warm, and not a sissy sweater. There was no note, no tag, but he, hesitantly put the suit away and chose the jeans and sweater with a pair of tough, sturdy, all weather shoes.

He made his way towards Khaat's room and heard the soft giggling of little girls who were trying to be quiet. He peeked in and saw Abbey and Dakota and Julia disappearing into their mother's closet, one of them dragging a flowing, pink taffeta evening wrap behind them.

He looked and saw they'd made a huge mess in her closet. Dakota had a pair of her red heels and was trying to wear them. Marcus didn't see that a three year old was going to be able to walk in stilettos. Julia had yanked a gold sequined evening gown off the hanger and was putting it on and trying to figure out how to walk in it. Abbey had Khaat's evening wraps out and was trying to wear several different colored ones all at the same time, with strands of diamonds and pearls.

"Oh, lord," he laughed.

"Shhhh!" Abbey hushed him. "Mama sleeping!"

Jess was dressed and just about to head down to get ome food when she heard Marcus's voice and sighed . " ow my, you girls look pretty but I think your mama would like them in her closet, sorry girls." She said softly seeing the girls and the state of the closet. Setting a cleaning spell in place she quickly took the clothes and hung them back up carefuly chuckaling as she did. " you have dressing up dresses in your own box in the playroom why not use those instead, " she said and smiled " and how are you feeling today Marcus?" she asked watching how he moved " still stiff?" Jess placed Khaats shoes back in the rack with the others.

"We want pink pancakes!" Abbey said to Jess happily.

"Yeah, pink!" Dakota echoed.

"Shh," Marcus whispered. "Mama's sleeping."

"No, I'm not," Khaat called sleepily, her voice sounding to Marcus like it was a bit muffled by the warm comforter. He laughed a little.

"Now you did it," Marcus teased the girls. They ran out of the closet at the sound of Khaat's voice. "I'm fine, Jess," he said to her, glancing out of his peripheral vision to see the girls all about to pile up on the bed, and it looked very much like they were going to land on Khaat. "Excuse me," he said hastily, racing to catch Dakota mid air and Abbey and Julia about to leap. "No," Marcus said firmly. "What's the rule?"

"No jumping," Abbey recited it from memory.

"And what were you doing?" Marcus asked.

"Not jumping," Abbey replied.

"Really?" he asked. Abbey pointed at Dakota.

"She jumped. I no jumped," Abbey said. Marcus paused, looking at the kids. Were they supposed to know, at three and a half how to blame things on each other already?

Jess smiled and looked at both of the girls " I'll send word to Angus to make sure there both pink" she said and wrote and note on a peice of paper the folded and sending it flapping like a bird down to Angus " not there done" if you come with me he'll have them on the table read and hot with syrup" she said and took their hands to lead them out the some door and down for some food. " take care of her Marcus" she said as she left the room walking both Abby and Dakota down to the dining room where Steven sat reading his paper and sipping his coffee as he turned a page of the paper.

"Good morning girls, I wondered who the pink pancakes were for" he said and lifted a large lid. " Angus just made them" he said smiling as Jess lifted Abby into her chair then moved to get Dakota but found Jack had come in and now held her in his hands while she wriggled her feet into her chair then finally sat down. Jess smiled to Jack who also sat down and pored two cups one for him and the other for Jess who sat next to him.

The kids enjoyed their pink pancakes, and the house elves took up coffee and breakfast to Khaat and Marcus.

"I haven't seen Brian today, have you?" Khaat asked Marcus.

"Only briefly," Marcus said, pouring coffee for her. "He mentioned he had things to do."

"But aren't we snowed in?"

"Oh, definitely," he laughed.

"Then what could he possibly have to do?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea," he said.

"Did all my gifts for everyone get here on time?"

"Presuming that Jack and Steven went back for them like they said they would," Marcus said. As they ate, he approached a new topic with her. "Khaat, its Christmas Eve tonight. Surely you don't want to stay up here tonight and tomorrow and miss this with your children, do you?"

"You have a better plan?"

"Actually, getting out of this room however we manage it, is a better plan. Its not like I can't carry you and move you. And you are able to stand and walk a few steps with help. You're not contagious..."

"I get it. You want to take me downstairs."

"Yes. I do."

"Tired of my room?" she gave him a slight smile.

"This isn't about me. Its about Christmas, and your family."

"Alright," she gave in, "as long as I'm out of the way."

He bristled. She was the lady of the house. She didn't need to be out of the way.

"I'll take care of it," he said to her, rather than to argue with her. He figured his best bet was to talk to Jess and see if they could arrange, perhaps to transfigure a chair into a chaise for her someplace, with some pillows and a blanket. That would allow her to be able to be with everyone else and not shut away.

He made a mental note to talk to Jess as soon as he could get a moment with her.

Steven accioed the gifts all wrapped and placed them under the tree as he watched the girls eating. Jess smiled knowing they had gathered everything on the list Khaat had given them each wrapped in red and gold wrapping paper with a simple bow on it. Finishing her breakfast she moved to help Steven as Cassidy took over. Once both girls and other children were done eating Cassidyped them out of their chairs then took the plates threw to the kitchen.

"The girls loved the pancakes Angus" she said placing each plate in the washer and turning it on to start washing them. Jim walked in from out side and kicked snow off his boots by knocking them against the door frame.

" well its snow white out there" he said " nobodys getting in or out" he added and hung his jacket up on a peg beside the door.

"Speak for yourself," Michael said, coming downstairs with his winter coat. "I have to go out." He needed to go see if Robert was willing to come back yet. Michael knew there were a lot of little kids that certainly wanted their papa home for Christmas.

"In this weather?" Edward frowned.

"Yes," Michael said. "The weather doesn't matter. I have to go."

"Oh, yes," Edward said. "You want someone to come with you? And do you even know where to look?"

"Yes," Michael said. "I have a very good idea where to start. I'm sure everything is fine, but I'm not taking more than one more person with me, and they can't be an energy worker."