Marriage is Murder

"Thank you," Brian said, grateful for the coffee. Marcus nudged Khaat. She didn't move. He knew she was okay because he could feel the even breathing of her breath on his neck. He realized she had, somehow, managed to fall deep enough into a restful sleep to escape the pain of her shoulder.

He picked up his mug and waved it under her nose to let her smell it. It began to register with her, and she began to try to wake up.

"Hey," he called, tapping her cheek very softly. "Merry Christmas. You kids want to open presents, and they can't do it without their mama." She groaned softly. "And besides, I'm going to drink your coffee."

There was a pause, and she said very softly, more asleep than awake, "Hand it here." He laughed.

"Here," he said, feeding her just a sip. The coffee was starting to make her feel alive. She yawned and opened her eyes.

"Shall I bring plates, Mr. Marcus?" Suki asked.

"Let the others start eating," Marcus said. "Can you just send us some scones and some fruit?"

"How about the fresh Orange Cinnamon Rolls?" Suki asked.

"Wonderful," he said.

Brian and Robert and Kate sat down at the table and joined the others for a beautiful full Christmas breakfast. The kids were extra excited and the breakfast table was pure chaos, and as Brian started to feel more awake and alert, he found himself feeling satisfied.

"I hope someone is going to take pictures today for the photo albums," Brian said. "And, Angus, please add those orange cinnamon rolls to the breakfast recipes, please. They're awesome."

Brian didn't flinch when they started taking pictures, including one of him before he'd had his first cup of coffee. He was glad Marcus was making sure Khaat was at least eating.

He had been hoping that the adults would have given Khaat and Marcus a few minutes to eat least freshen up and get some clean clothes before they let the kids tear into the presents, but the kids seemed extra amped up when they got the idea that the only one holding them back was Brian.

"Give us just five minutes, Brian," Marcus said gently. "She and I can shower and change when the kids are done." Brian nodded. Marcus and Khaat gave up on eating breakfast and went upstairs to at least have a chance to wash their faces and brush their hair, and Marcus wanted to shave.

Then he brought her back downstairs and put her back where she was. He sent their uneaten breakfasts back out to the kitchen and made sure his tea and her coffee were refilled.

Brian looked at the kids. "Okay," he said to them. "You make sure your presents belong to you. Your present will have your picture on it. If it does, its yours. If it doesn't, leave it alone. Got it? Grownups, I expect you to make sure this is supervised and that there's no unnecessary craziness."

"Perhaps," Edward suggested, "every adult needs to find a place on the floor for each child to sit and hand them one present so that there isn't any fighting."

"Good idea," Brian said. "I can manage Abbey and Dakota. Come on, Girls." He took them into the living room and found them places on the floor and handed them each a present.

Robert took Julia and Kate took one of the boys. Angus took Khaat's other son and found them places on the floor. The kids weren't waiting. They were ripping paper off boxes already, but at their young age, it was going to take them a bit to get the boxes unwrapped.

Brian opened the gift made by the shaman. "Very cool," he nodded. "Thank you. We can use all the protections from the dark arts that we can get in this house. And its a good addition to my collection."

Robert took the gift from James and nodded. As he opened his gifts, he was amazed that anyone could still come up with such amazing gifts for him. In a way, he knew they all still loved him, but their gifts showed that everyone had put great thought into the gifts they'd bought.

Michael saw that Robert was genuinely impressed with every gift he bought. He picked up a box and handed it to Robert.

"Open that one next, Mate," He said. Robert opened it to reveal a pair of gold quills. "They're just standard quills, I'm afraid," Michael said. "They were willing to see if they could design a charm to make the quills write everything you were thinking, but..."

Robert frowned. Having a quill write down every thought that came into his head? He wasn't sure he wanted that down on paper. Kate laughed out loud.

"Nobody wants that much information, Michael," Kate said. Robert shook his head. Having a quill that could write his every thought was just not a good idea at all.

Kate opened her box and found the original inside. She lifted it out of the box. "Its absolutely beautiful," she said. "You know exactly what I like. Thank you so very much."

Marcus and Khaat opened their gifts, and they were very impressed. Brian handed out the gifts that he and Khaat had bought for everyone else. Robert laid a stack of parchment envelopes for everyone so Kate could pick them up. He refused to even hand things to energy workers, in case they might brush up against his hands. Kate picked up the envelopes and handed one to Steven and Cassidy, one to Jess and Jack, one to Jim, one to Angus, one to Edward, one to Brant, one to Michael, and one to Marcus.

Robert and Kate had bought them each a two week trip for each of their entire families--all expenses paid, five star quality, to anywhere in the world they wanted to go.

Khaat and Brian had decided, instead, to buy their friends an all expense paid luxury romantic get away, knowing that their friends loved their children but sometimes every one of them needed some adult time just to be with the ones they loved.

"Well, as nice as it is to have a houseful of kids, Robert and I knew you all need some time to be alone with your own families and some time to just be alone with each other," Kate said. "We're glad you're going to enjoy it."

Marcus handed Brian the large box that she'd bought at Harrod's. Brian read the tag and saw it was from Khaat.

"Don't drop it," Khaat said.

"Uh..okay," He said. He opened the box and drew out the one-of-a-kind handmade glass sculpture that he had wanted. "Northern Lights," he said softly, taking it out of the box carefully. He looked at her. "How on earth did you manage it? There were so many other bids on this."

"I managed," she said.

"I don't know what to say. Thank you," he said. He handed her a small box. "That's just a token. My real gift for you comes later." She frowned, but opened the box and found a beautiful antique gold bracelet with a huge oval emerald set.

"Its beautiful," she said, stunned. "Thank you. I've never seen this size of a stone."

"I had a little help in finding it," he admitted. "I thought it would look good on you." Marcus helped her put the bracelet on.