Marriage is Murder

Robert nodded. It was all he could figure too.

"I know too much about Abbey and what she's already done at her young age not to know she's going to inherit her mother's ad her grandmother's talents," Lee said. "But right now, her innocence protects her. Robert, I think you should enjoy it." I

If Abbey could be that hope that kept him anchored and focused, then, Lee felt that Robert needed to perhaps allow it and keep that hope close to him for right now.

Robert was glad they'd found clothes and more polyjuice for him. He wasn't sure he wanted to change back, though. That meant he had to let go of Abbey.

"Papa," Abbey said. "You gonna put Gramma on? Like I put my fur on?"

"That is precisely what he's going to do," Lee asked. "How did you know?"

"I see-d it before," she shrugged. "That juice makes people." She pointed to the bottle.

"You are entirely too smart. That is exactly what it does," Lee said.

"She definitely would," Lee said. "And don't you think you ought to explain to her why you can't touch her? That might come a bit easier if you looked like you and not like a second mother."

Robert didn't relish trying to tell her that. He didn't want to upset her. He looked at Lee, not sure the timing was good on that.

"Robert," Lee said. "I know you, and I know how you raised your daughter. She's strong. You have no idea what a relief it will be to her if she understands that you don't hate her, that you do still love her."

Robert looked at Lee, frowning. Hating her had never once entered his mind.

"Robert, look at her face. Look at all the bruises that you put there because your curse made you so afraid of passing the curse onto her that you hurt her in trying to keep her from being hurt. If I didn't know how that all worked, I'd be confused. I'm sure she is. Talk to her. It'll help her to understand. And that can only help her."

Robert felt Abbey patting his cheek. He looked down at her.

"Papa? Mama has a boo boo?" She asked. Robert smiled slightly. Abbey had a way of understanding bits of conversation enough to get the gist of things.

"Abs," Lee said. "Yeah. Mama has a boo boo. She's here, and we're all taking care of her."

"Who hurt my mama?" She looked at Lee with hard, cold eyes. Lee had seen that look before. It was the same hard stare that Robert had, that Khaat had, that stare that made her all Lupin. Lee looked at her.

"Abs, it was the doggies," Lee said. "The same ones that sometimes come to your yard."

"I hate them," she said coldly. "I hates them lots!" Her fear of losing her mother was taking over, and her anger followed closely behind. Robert petted her hair and then wrapped her close to him again. She cuddled close, now needing her papa for comfort.

"You kill him," she looked up at Robert. She was insistent. She wanted James dead. So did Robert. Robert nodded. He had every intention of making sure James was dead. "I see Mama?"

"Abbey," Lee said, "her boo boos are pretty big."

"She MY mama. I see her," Abbey got up off Robert's lap and faced Lee, her little hands on her hips. Robert raised one eyebrow, not used to her being quite so assertive. He almost found it amusing.

"I'll take you downstairs, and we'll ask your Daddy," Lee said. "But if he says no, there isn't anything I can do. Okay?"

"She not his mama. She my mama," Abbey scowled.

"We'll try," he said. Robert got up and went into the bathroom off his office and made a quick change. He looked, on the outside at least, like he was back in power, back in command. But he was nowhere near ready for it. He shrank Kate's clothes and put them in his pocket, along with the bottle of polyjuice.

"You'll go ahead and see if they're okay with her visting before we go downstairs?" Lee asked.

Robert nodded and motioned to Jess to go ahead and help him explain to the others since he could not speak.

Brian was not entirely surprised that Robert had had to return in his own identity, but he also knew that unless he resorted to polyjuice he could not stay. He was very surprised to see Abbey walk in the room with as much authority as if she owned the place. He looked disapprovingly at Robert, who had no expression whatsoever.

Brian went over to his daughter.

"Abbey," he frowned. "This is no place for you to be, sweetie."

Abbey looked around him at her mother. "She not dead?"

"No she's not dead," he said firmly. "She is definitely not dead."

"Then it fine," she said, trying to push him out of her way by shoving on his leg. Robert reached for her hand, and Abbey took it. Robert led her around Brian and took her over to the bed and picked her up and let her stand on the chair next to the bed so she could see her mother.

"Doggies did this?" she asked her papa. Robert nodded. "I kill them," she said angrily. Robert looked at her. She looked up at him. Robert shook his head and then pointed to himself. If anyone was to die, Robert would do it. He didn't want his three year old granddaughter to decide to kill. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You promise me?" she asked. Robert nodded slowly.

She looked at Marcus. "You go'd with her," she remembered.

"Yes," Marcus said. "I did."

"Why you no kill him?" she demanded. Marcus wasn't quite accustomed to being called on the carpet by a three year old.

"I tried to, Abbey, but my first job was to make sure your mama got out alive," he replied.

"You no let him get her again," she said. "You kill him dead."

"You have my word," Marcus promised.

"Abbey," Khaat called softly.

"Mama?" she looked, surprised. "I wake you up?"

"No, sweetheart," Khaat said. "Marcus, put her here beside me."

"I...don't know if I should," he said. Robert nodded. Marcus picked her up.

"Be very careful, Abbey," Brian said. Marcus put her on the bed and Abbey snuggled tight to Khaat's good side.

"Now, listen," Khaat said to her daughter. "Not all doggies are bad."

"This one very bad," Abbey said.

"Yes," she said. "He is. But you let the grownups take care of him...."

"But he give you boo boos!"

"And boo boos always get better, don't they?" Khaat asked. Abbey wasn't sure, but she finally nodded slowly. "Alright, then." She looked at the others in the room. "Is there any chance that any of you would not help my boo boos heal, or that you'd let that doggie get away?" She wanted them to reassure Abbey that she didn't have to be responsible to help Khaat heal or help kill James either one.

"Feel better?" Khaat asked Abbey gently. "They aren't going to let anything bad happen. That's their work. Its what they do."

"What my work? What I do?"

"Um..." she wasn't prepared for that question. Robert tapped on the bedrail to get Abbey's attention. Abbey looked up. He made a simple gesture. He pointed to her, made a symbol for a hug, and then pointed to him.

"That not a big job," she frowned.

"Abs," Lee said. "You don't know how important a job that one is. Your job is to hug Papa. Papa has a bit of a sickness that he can give to some of us grownups. But you can't get it. He can't hug us because we might get it. But you can't get it, so you can hug him. You need to give him all the hugs we can't. And that's a lot of hugs."

She looked at Khaat. "That true?" she asked her mother. Khaat nodded. She looked at Brian and Jess.

"You make Papa better," she said. It wasn't a question. It wasn't a request. It was an instruction. She wanted her papa better.

"You will always, always be very important," Khaat said to her, agreeing with Jess. "To all of us, but especially to Daddy and me and to Papa and Gram."

"Abbey, Papa is going to go home soon," Brian said. "I think you should go with him. You can sit with him all day if you want."

"Can I?" she looked at Papa. He nodded, smiling at her. He motioned to Lee to see if he would take Abbey out in the hall for a moment.

Lee picked her up.

"Not nice," she scowled at Lee.

"Really? And I saw the trolley lady in the hallway. I bet she has some lovely fresh pumpkin pasties if we go ask her."

"Ooooh. Can we?" Abbey asked.

"Let's go find her," Lee said, not having seen any trolley lady whatsoever, but hoping that by some happy coincidence he would find something to distract Abbey's attention. Marcus laughed, knowing how lame that was going to be. Abbey just never forgot anything like the promise of a treat. Lee was about to get chewed out for no trolley lady.