Marriage is Murder

"I can manage one," Marcus said to Jim. "Can you manage the other?" He went over to Daniel, who seemed to be the crankiest of the two boys and started the chore of changing his diaper.

"I'm glad to see Daddy able to read with the kids again. He's missed it," Khaat said.

"So have they," Marcus agreed.

Michael went to the kitchen and heated up two bottles and floated them out to the living room. Khaat motioned them to herself and plucked them out of the air.

"Oh, no, no," Marcus told her. "I refuse to get diaper duty and then not the fun part of feeding and rocking. I'm almost done here. You just get ready to hand that bottle over here."

"You ready to be spit up on too?" she asked.

"Oh, it certainly isn't the first time for that," he said. "And I've certainly seen and experienced far worse than that."

"I feel like I should be doing more myself," she sighed.

"Its only been a couple of days," Marcus said. "Enjoy the help now while they're pretty oblivious as to who is helping them. You're going to have the rest of your life to parent them. But if you really feel like you need to be doing more, you can start by getting up with them at 3 am." He grinned at her, teasing her.

"No,no. That 3 am stuff is Brian's job," she laughed.

"Does he know that?"

"Not yet," she said. He laughed.

Jim chuckled and threw a clean diaper to Marcus" that should stop the spit up getting to your shirt" he said as he finished with Ben and did up the last popper on Ben's onsie. Lifting him he walked over to Khaat and placed Ben in her arms and handed her a bottle.

He then walked back to clean up and place the dirty Diaper into the bucket close by. He even changed the sheet in the bassinets for both boys. " there they should feel more comfortable now" he said and looked at smiling. " I do have three children of my own" he said softly as he walked back to his chair and book that he had been reading.

"I wasn't worried," Marcus said. "When you do the sort of work I do, you get used to all sorts of bodily fluids and mess." Marcus had seen more than his share of injured clients, his own injuries, hungover and sick clients, ill espionage partners, and that was all aside from parenthood issues. "I am rather wash and wear, I think."

Khaat was glad to have an opportunity to hold one of her newborns, but she had to shuffle Ben a bit to try to rest him on her bad arm so she had a hand that functioned to be able to feed him with the one hand that worked.

"You doing okay?" Marcus asked her, starting to feed Daniel. "Managing with one hand?"

"Trying," she said. "This really is more than a little difficult without two hands." She understood that her father didn't see it wise to heal her since she was the visible face of the Lupin family. It was too well known that he was the only one capable of healing her, and if she were healed, it would be obvious he was well. And that would put the entire English wizarding world in deeper danger. The villain that plagued them would go deeper underground.

"We'll make sure that we help," Marcus said. He made a small backwards circle with his index finger and fired a small charm at the baby bottle in her hand. It would maintain the bottle at whatever position she put the bottle in, in order to free up her hand. "Try it now," he said. "Its not foolproof but if you're right there with it, it will help."

She took her hand away from the bottle and found that as long as she could guide it and make adjustments, it allowed her to manage to feed her child herself.

"I've never seen this spell," she said. "You'll have to teach it to me."

"Oh, its a very simple motion spell sort of turned a bit sideways," he said. "Its a first year spell sort of twisted a bit. I'll show you later."

Brant watched and chuckled he smiled again seeing the spell and how Marcus adapted it to be used with the bottle "Nice thinking Marcus" he said as Steven finished cleaning up the changing area.

"yes, its something every new mother could use." he said and chuckled as he walked into the kitchen to place the laundry in the basket. Brant shook his head and watched he understood why Robert hadn't healed Khaat's arm yet as it would give away the fact he was better and healthy as well.

Cassidy walked down and smiled as she watched Khaat with Ben happy to see her finally feeding him by her self sort of.

Robert came downstairs after reading the bedtime story and putting the kids to sleep for the night.

"Where are my grandsons?" he asked, rather rhetorically.

"Which one?" Khaat asked.

"Um...I'll take this one," he said, taking the baby Marcus was feeding. He studied the baby and looked into the face of the one Khaat was holding, comparing them. "Hm...completely identical. Which one is this?"

"Daniel," Marcus said. "Here. Go by this." He showed Robert this bracelet on the babies' wrists.

"Baby 1 and Baby 2? Not very imaginative. Khaat, do you mind if I do something a bit more permanent?"

"Do not etch their names on their foreheads," she scowled.

"No, no. Not nearly that ostentatious. I promise. Are you sure this one is Daniel?"

"Yes, Sir," Marcus said. "Those bracelets have not been removed."

"Very well," Robert said. He used a charm to magically tattoo one tiny pin-head sized dot on the inside of Daniel's right wrist. He used the same spell to tattoo two tiny pin-head sized dots on the inside of Benjamin's right wrist.

"If you'd made them brown, people would just presume they were freckles or birthmarks, not tattoos on a newborn," Khaat said.

"Well, that's not hard," Robert said, touching the tiny dots to change their color from black to freckle colored. "Better?"

"Much," Khaat said. "But why did you choose their wrists?"

"Well, simple. As they get older, they won't have an issue showing us their wrists. I could have put them on their bums, but that would probably get to be problematic at some point."

"You think?" Marcus laughed, as Daniel began to fuss a bit because of his grandfather's preoccupation with the freckles and not on Daniel's bottle.

"Feed faster, Papa," Marcus smiled.

"Indeed. I think he's going to be a bit less patient than his brother."

Brant watched and chuckled " yeah might be a bit problematic when they moon you at eighteen" he said chuckling " but thats a good idea " he said as he finished clearing up the table and the sticky cake mess that had been left behind. Cassidy chuckled as she walked down and watched the marking of the twins .

" well now we won't get them mixed up but whats to stop Daniel adding a spot when hes older to play a trick?" she asked moving to sit down in a seat by the window where she could feel the cool breeze on her face and hear the lap of the ocean on the shore.

"They're Lupins. They wouldn't wait that long if we left them to their own devices," Robert said. "Especially if either of them take after their great uncle Remus."

"Don't you dare claim to be such a saint yourself," Michael said, bringing in a tea tray. "I grew up with you. You weren't a bit more innocent. You just didn't get involved so much with James Potter. James was a showoff and you know it, and he called attention to himself and everyone around him. You, on the other hand, got away with far more because you were quiet and sneaky about it."

"And this spoken by a catburglar," Robert scowled.

"Indeed," Michael said, not denying it. "I invented sneaky. So I certainly know it when I see it. And you're right, Cassidy, Daniel might try to add one but Benjamin can't take one off, so, believe me, if they try that on Robert, he'll be able to handle it."

"Indeed. My spell, my rules. Hopefully, by that time, they'll know what they can and can't get away with," Robert said.

Cassidy chuckled and nodded " so true" she said then sat listening at the banter between the two men and she could not help but chuckle and sigh knowing they were both right at how the boys would be.

"Ow too right Robert," Steven said and chuckled " I do think though they will be okay though Khaat, because look who they have as role models" he said and smiled looking at Michael and Robert both. Jim just shook his head and chuckled as he walked out onto the patio with his cold drink of juice to admire the sun set and the warm breeze that came with it.

"They'll be fine because if they're not I'll just ground them for the rest of their lives," Brian said.

"Spoken like a true parent," Robert laughed. "Practicing for when they are old enough to understand what that means, are you?"

"Abbey is old enough to understand the concept now," Brian said.

"The only problem is that she doesn't go anywhere," Khaat said.

"We have a very big house. I can ground her into or out of anything in the house I need to. I can be very creative."

"Do wait until she's at least five before you start some of that, would you?" Khaat scowled at him.

"Look, you," he frowned. "We have enough kids to make our own quidditch team. Do not start spoiling them. They will learn to behave right from the start."

"You actually have exceptionally well behaved children, especially considering how many you have," Edward said. "Do yourselves a favor. Have a cup of tea and another slice of birthday cake and enjoy the evening. You have a decade or so before you need to worry about their mouths running away with their manners."

Brant chuckled at the banter between the two men and continued to clean up " I think they will know come the time theres enough of us to make it perfectly clear whats acceptable and whats not." he said wiping the last crumbs off the table. He moved then to sit next to Cassidy who accioed a tray of tea cups and a large pot of tea.

Brant accioed a large plate of precut birthday cake and set it next to the tray of tea cups. " there now relax they will be fine" he said Jim nodded as he walked back in.

" no kids are perfect angels, its what makes them kids" he said and smiled " John never was when he was younger, but hes turned out okay."