Marriage is Murder

"As you wish," Marcus said. He saw the sleepy kids being taken upstairs. And he saw everyone passing on the luxurious dessert buffet that Angus had worked so hard to prepare. "Perhaps, Angus, they'll feel more like it after their workout." He looked at Khaat. "Cheesecake now or later?"

"Let's do it in an hour or so when things quiet down," Khaat suggested, thinking the kids would be asleep by then.

"Fine," Marcus said.

"Can I help you up?" Brian asked Khaat.

"Marcus can do that," Khaat said. "You go ahead. It's fine."

"You sure?" he asked. She nodded. He stood up from the table and kissed her. "I won't be far."

"I know," she said. He headed downstairs, and the house elves started clearing up the table and the kitchen.

"I'll make sure you're settled before I go," Marcus told Khaat. He stood up and went to pick her up and saw her suddenly lay her hand on her stomach. Marcus laid his hand over hers, uninvited. He felt the familiar sensation of a baby's kick. He knew the feeling well from the four of his own. He had been with Khaat every moment of her waking day for months and to the best of his knowledge, this was the first she had felt the kick of this child.

He smiled. "Feels like a boy to me," he told her. The kick felt too strong to be a girl to him. "He's already got the fight of an auror. If that's a girl, then there's two of them."

"You think?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, "Feels like a good Christmas present to me. Suki, some after dinner tea would be nice, please." He picked her up and took her to the daybed. He felt a cold draft where the daybed was placed. He put piles of pillows to help her sit up. Then he picked up a warm blanket and draped it over her and a shawl around her shoulders. Suki brought her a mug of her father's blend of Christmas tea.

"Would you like some, Mr. Marcus?" Suki asked.

"No thank you, Suki," he said. "I am being ordered to the gym. I'll have some when I get back. Khaat, stay warm. Its cold in this corner. I'll tend to the draft when I get back. If there's anything you need,..."

"I'm sure there will be someone to help me," Khaat reassured him, taking a sniff of the wonderful tea. "Go. Its fine."

"Alright," he said. He went down to the gym, changed clothes and began some stretching before beginning the harder part of his workout.

"Yes," Khaat told Jess. "Thank you." She pushed the shawl off her shoulders.

"Well, after the triplets were born, Robert warned us that there could be more multiples if we tried again. Something about lingering traces of that fertility potion that Khaat and Rob were slipped," Brian said. "Not to mention that Kieran told me that somewhere on my mother's side, there are multiples. I had no idea the deck was so heavily stacked, but I guess I don't care as long as our kids are healthy and so is she. It certainly would be different if we couldn't afford them."

"You really think you'll have ten?" Marcus asked.

"I have no clue," Brian said. "I wasn't planning on this one. I was happy with what we had."

"Are you looking to know the sex beforehand?" Marcus asked.

"I find myself honesty avoiding knowing," Brian laughed. "Its hard because when I touch her, I do get inklings. I try to ignore knowing. Not sure why, but I do."

"Its started kicking, you know," Marcus said.

"Really? Well, it took long enough. That baby is going to be a sluggard," Brian said.

"Now, now," Marcus said. "My youngest was almost 3 weeks late in coming, but he's a brilliant lad."

"Since I wasn't here for the others, is there anything I need to know about the ease or difficulty of the others?" Marcus asked.

"She was ill when Abbey was born," Brian said, shortening the tale, "so that doesn't hardly count.  The triplets were normal--so far as triplets go.  We do need to work harder to build up her strength so that she can be in better health in April than she is now."

Marcus didn't say anything for a moment, frowning, concerned.  

"Say it," Angus told him. "What's on your mind?"

"The pain in her shoulder isn't even contained by the strongest pain potions we have," Marcus said.  "You're still thinking of adding to it a standard birth for twins?"

"I'm counting on Robert being able to deal with this by then," Brian said.  "If not, then, no.  The triplets were C-section. We'll handle this the same way if need be."

"I see," Marcus said, "I'll work on getting her up." He returned to devoting himself to his work out.

"Which step are we talking about, exactly?" Khaat asked. They'd been talking about both her being up and about how to deliver the baby. "I'm not sure I'll have much choice in either one, really. I can't stay in bed forever. And its a bit late to decide I might not want to do the delivery room."

She preferred to not have to deliver this child without her father, though. She saw him pick up the newspaper.

"I'm not doing any of it without you," she told him. He looked over the paper to see who she was trying to deliver her ultimatum to. When he saw it was him, he hesitated a moment, wishing too that he had a chance of being able to insure that his next grandchild and his daughter would both be safe. He didn't see it as possible, though.

He merely resumed reading his newspaper.

Frustrated, she picked up a throw pillow and threw it at him, through his newspaper. He sighed, scowling at her, annoyed.

"Are you not going to fight for whats yours?" she demanded. "Or are you going to let Thaor's evil depravity steal from all of us forever, even though he's rotting in the ground?"

As she spoke, an icy breeze began to blow in the room, causing the tree ornaments to jingle together, and the curtains to ripple.

"Gently," Michael said cautiously, knowing Robert was largely unable to hold his temper because of the curse.

"Enough talk," Marcus said, hoping to redirect it. "How about that Italian dessert buffet? Let's serve some tea and have dessert. It is Christmas, after all."

"Dessert," Kate said, hoping to back Marcus up on redirecting this all. "Robert, come fix a dessert plate for yourself. There'll be a new newspaper in a few hours, anyway."

He got up and went to the buffet. Kate motioned to the rest of them. They needed to follow to the buffet and help reduce the tension in the room.

Marcus followed Robert and Kate, picking up two plates, one for him and one for Khaat. The others got Kate's instructions and understood why. They joined in.

There were twelve different desserts to pick from, all cut small enough that everyone could, reasonably, take a few bites of each one and not be overstuffed.