Marriage is Murder

Jack and Jess had followed Marcus on their way to there room and smiled watching as he cleaned up his foot caught a rather soft blue turtle. " Here this what your looking for" Jack said and picked it up handing it to Marcus and smiling as he moved with Jess to the other rooms. Steven walked past and picked up some plates carrying them to the kitchen he walked back.

"How is she?" he asked softly " and sorry about earlier, I still get emotional thinking of my first wife, not your fault Marcus." He said hoping he would understand as he felt Cassidy take his hand in her own. " sorry got to go" he said and chuckled as Cassidy kissed his cheek and smiled.

"She's fine," Marcus said, taking the turtle. "Pretty much. She has a lot of nightmares these days. Brian says she's done it before, but these days she's reliving the mauling she took from James. At least her nightmares are pretty much at night now. It used to be every time she closed her eyes."

He knew about the death of Steven's first wife. Marcus was efficient and had read the dossiers on all of them before he started to work with them. When Cassidy interrupted them, Marcus took his cue and walked away, leaving them alone.

And that had been largely what had created her bond with Marcus. In the days that she had been so critically ill, she could not rest for fear that she would wake and find James there. For Marcus, it seemed like she would wake every few minutes, and he would have to reassure her. She had learned, out of necessity, to rely on him to survive.

Now, though, she didn't want to go anywhere without him. It was a bit of a turn of events for him. He was much more accustomed to his client wanting to ditch him at every turn.

He had never had a client who insisted on taking him everywhere. Nor had he ever before had a client who instinctively knew to literally wrap herself around him in order to not be separated from him. He honestly had tried to teach a wife of a diplomat to do that, but she never quite had caught on.

Nor had he had a female client before that either didn't want to sleep with him or that he hadn't wanted to sleep with. No--this was a very different assignment. And he liked it that way.

Jim walked in and saw Marcus and chuckled " stop worrying shes fine and get use to it. " he said softly as he patted his shoulder as he moved to get some tea" hum no earl gray" he said and opened a cupboard "ah" he said triumphantly as he found the tea bags and made a pot" returning he sat down out side " you know Marcus relaxing isn't a crime." he said softly as he took out his pipe and lit it as he sat back puffing on it and drinking his tea.

"Its just in our business, its a rare thing more so with you because Khaat realize on you and Brian both so take the time to smell the roses Marcus and unwind" he added and looked up at the sky where he saw stars twinkling down at him. He kept puffing his pipe the breeze taking the smoke away.

"She's very different, Jim," Marcus said. "I have a firm rule about not getting emotionally connected to my clients. A sense of professionalism, you know. But this is the first time that I've had that all tossed out the window before I got started good at it.

"And what's more is that I've never met a female client who has the real life, practical experience of meeting death head on like she has. To be honest, my clients have either been rather pompous heads of state that got there by old money, or their socialite wives that thought they would look important if they could be seen in the newspaper photographs as needing a bodyguard. Or several.

"I have worked plenty of dangerous assignments, but when Robert said this would not be boring, he certainly was using more than a little understatement.

"And this is the first person who didn't expect me to wear black suits all day, every day. My last employer expected me to wear them to bed so that if I needed to get up in the middle of the night, I was formally dressed even in an emergency. Pain in the ass is what it was.

"I went from centuries old Bulgarian palaces to a log house--literally overnight. Its certainly been an adjustment. At least you lot didnt' put me in a cot off the kitchen. One of my assignments used a charm on a kitchen pantry and shoved a cot in there. And that was where my partner and I bunked. In the same bunk--on separate shifts. He slept while I worked, and vice versa. Miserable place. And cold as hell. At least here, I don't feel like I belong sleeping in a broom closet."

Jim sat and let Marcus talk he puffed silently on his pipe as he listened " sounds a right pompous ass" he said but stayed sat back in his seat. " Robert works on a principal that loyalty is earned not given and if your loyal to the family you won't stray " he said and relight his pip that had gone out. " Nasty habit tried to brake it once, just can't" he said " well no closet here, your own room and part of a group that care if you get hurt, like a brother" he said leaning back to look up at the stars

" sometimes good things come to good men and ...your one of those" he said as he let out a smoke ring from his pipe as he sighed happy to be smoking it again, not that it had bothered him not being able it just felt relaxing when he could and now was one of those times.

He was about to speak to Jim again, when he heard the sharp sound that he had learned to hear at a distance. Most ears would not have heard it, but he knew it too well. She had been awakened, with a jolt, again.

"Excuse me," he said quickly. "Nightmares again." He went back inside and saw Brian had fallen asleep and Khaat had been awakened again--with more nightmares, reliving yet again James crushing her shoulder and marring her face and her throat. Brian had started, at times, to sleep through the nightmares because they came so often.

Marcus didn't. He heard them--every time. He sat down on the floor beside the mattress and just talked to her, in a whisper, in the darkness. Tonight, she was angry that Brian had slept through it, and she kicked him.

Brian woke with a hard jolt, sitting bolt upright. It took him a moment to get his bearings and then he looked at her.

"Again?" he yawned, sighing. "Why'd you kick me?"

"How dare you sleep when he keeps coming back again and again and...." she began angrily..

"Oh," he said. "My bad. I promise I'll stay awake with you indefinitely then." She seemed to miss his sarcasm, but Marcus hadn't missed it. He gave Brian a very slight smile of amusement. Marcus figured in another month or so, the worst of this agitation would pass for her.

Jim nodded and smiled " its perfectly fine Marcus" he said and saw him leave to go inside and tend to Khaat he stood up and walked in following not too close behind him then lent against the frame to show he was watching he saw Angus and smiled " so what you making?" he asked walking over to see what he was doing. He turned to see Jack walk out all ruffled and yawning. " hi Jack" he said and smiled as Jack waved to him.

" sorry Jess woke me " he said " she kicked me out of bed, not to ceremoniously ether" he said and moved to get a drink of water then he breathed out and looked at Angus and Jim. " Khaat woke as well, nightmares again" Jim nodded as he too sat down accioning a can of soda to him and opened it. He downed it in one and then went back to his pipe.

"Not making anything," Angus yawned. "Just punching down the yeast dough for breakfast so that its ready for baking when morning comes. Then I'm heading back to bed. 5 am comes early enough without being up any sooner than that.

"You lot are all up for no good reason," he said. "Brian and Khaat and Marcus have this covered. You really aren't going to miss anything, but if you're all sleep deprived, then they still aren't; going to be able to get some proper sleep tomorrow. Go to bed so that you can take care of the kids in the morning so that Khaat and Brian and Marcus can get a proper sleep."

He yawned again and headed back to his room, done with the dough for now.

Brian, meanwhile had managed to soothe Khaat's ruffled nerves for the moment, and she started to doze a bit again.

Jim watched Jack and chuckled as he too yawned and stood up putting out his pipe he headed to his room to sleep. Jack made a sandwich and sat down to eat it. " I'm okay I don't sleep deep anyway" he told Angus as he ate the sandwich. Soon he too was done and headed back just as Brant walked out with a note book in his hand mumbling something about a potion not working and where he had gone wrong.


Jack shook his head and continued on to his room where Jess was waiting for him. Steven and Cassidy slept all threw the night not waking until the sun rose and Steven woke for his morning patrol which was his normal routine even at home. Steven walked out by the pool and around the houses looking for any thing off but found nothing and returned to make a fresh pot of coffee and a pot of tea.

When she got up, Khaat didn't feel like anyone truly had taken advantage much of having the night off. The rest of them had seemed like they had needed to be up and checking on the kids most of the night.

Marcus and Brian didn't think much about it. They took the kids over to the main house for breakfast, and then both men came back to Khaat. Marcus and Brian leaned up the mess from the campout and then they brought Khaat back to the main house as well.

Khaat went to her room and showered, and while she was gone, Marcus showered as well. When she was dressed, Khaat went outside to enjoy the morning sun. Marcus took her a cup of coffee while Brian showered.

Robert and Kate got up and joined the kids at breakfast. The kids were chattering and eating. It seemed to Robert and Kate like it was the start to just another normal day.