Marriage is Murder

"Yep," Jeffrey said, looking at the smaller fish. "Looks like it could be a problem." He took his fishing rod and, foregoing a bobber, he chose a lure, attached it to the line and then baited his hook. He used a fly fishing style cast to toss out his line. Then, after reeling in the slack, he sat down on the sand to wait.

Marcus decided Khaat shouldn't stay down under deck in her cabin all day. He talked her into at least take a book into the mail salon and read. Kate, on the other hand, decided to sit up on deck and work on a fabric art piece she was making. She had a small loom that she set up on the table on the rear deck, and put a basket of weaving supplies on the floor of the deck beside her. She poured herself more tea and sat down at the table, working on the fabric art piece.

Cassidy watched Kate and liked what she was doing " thats a nice piece " she said moving closer to look at it. Jack watched Jeffery and raised an eye brow at what he did next and the hook he had placed on it

"So what are you planning on catching with that?" he asked looking at the hook he had attached to the end of the rod that  now sat bobbing in the water in front of them both." ow we decided he who gets the smallest fish has to clean and fillet it " he said looking at Steven then to Jeffery " you in?" he asked.

"Thank you," Kate said. "I've found that, in being married to Robert, I am so much better if I can keep my hands busy at time. I just don't get much of a chance to work on art anymore. Or at least I haven't had that sort of time for the last couple of years. And I do miss it."

Jeffrey listened to them wondering what he was fishing for and then asking him if he was willing to place a wager on who was going to catch the smallest.

"Sure," Jeffrey said confidently. "I'll wager that. Just remember that bigger fish live in deeper waters. I'm not looking for the sort of fish you lot can catch with bobbers. I'm looking for bigger fish."

Robert was gone for a couple of hours and then came back. Michael noticed a couple of cigars sticking out of his shirt pocket. He walked over to him, took one out of Robert's pocket and sniffed it.

"Cuban? How'd Tobias get Cuban cigars?" Michael asked.

"He is a wizard. Muggle customs weren't exactly going to stop him," Robert said.

"But you only brought two? Whats' the matter with you?" he frowned.

"Oh no, I have more than that," Robert said. He drew out a handful of tiny little wooden boxes from his pocket.

"You bring back wooden Legos?" Michael frowned.

"No," Robert said, snapping his fingers. The boxes resized to reveal they were boxes and boxes of all sorts of top notch cigars.

"Nice," Michael grinned. "Shall I hide them for you?"

"Nah. I've got a better idea." He cast a charm so that the boxes bit and nipped and growled unless Robert commanded them not to. Michael reached towards one of the boxes, and it growled and snapped at him and ran off under one of the deck chairs.

"Well, that should slow him down," Michael laughed, listening to the box still growling unhappily.

Brant looked up at Jeffery and understood his logic and chuckled. "Makes sense" he said and went back to fishing he had two bites, but both were too small and he had to throw them back , He changed his lore and looked to Jeffery as he cast his line in again watching it sink a little this time. Jack shook his head and continued but it was Steven who caught the first good size fish dropping it into a bucket that sat next to them. Cassidy walked to look closer at the basket and smiled.

"Can you teach me how to do that to keep me busy while Steven is off doing his thing?" she asked and sat down next to her hoping she would teach her a hobby.

Jeffrey sat patiently, waiting. He saw Steven catch a nice sized fish. Jeffrey wasn't after a lot of fish. He was just after one nice fish, and he was patient enough to wait for it.

Kate watched Robert for a moment, watching him showing Michael the Cuban cigars that Tobias had given him. She wasn't surprised that he had come back with some sort of guilty pleasure, and it was fine with her.

When Cassidy asked about her fabric art piece and she saw her looking into the basket, she said, "Those are just the different yarns and fabrics i'm using. This sculpture is going to be a wall hanging that is about different textures in their original natural colors and raw, unprocessed textures and fibers. It's made of a number of weaving techniques. If you want to learn to do something like this, you should start with some simple weaving."

She rooted to the bottom of the bag and got out a tiny, simple loom and resized it. Even resized, it wasn't very large. It was, perhaps, washcloth sized. She got out a skein of regular rug yarn in a tan color. She showed her how to thread the yarn onto the loom and how to do a very simple basic weaving stitch and how to keep the stitches tight.

"Here. Try this first. You can make it as short or long as you like until the yarn runs out," Kate said, handing the loom to her.

Cassidy watched Kate and nodded she saw the loom and sighed picking up the yarn and began to weave she didn't realize she sat with her tongue out as she wove back and forth."This is very therapeutic" she said and smiled. Jack sighed as his line went un-bit not that it mattered to him being out and hearing the lap of the water against the pontoon as they sat waiting for a bite. He looked over at Jeffery before he spoke.

"So hows Robert?" he asked " couldn't help notice the rather angry sounds from his room last night" he added he reeled in and then cast out one more time.

"Art is therapeutic," Kate said. "So is gardening, cooking, and anything else you can do with your hands. Its part of why I don't use magic, generally, for those things. Robert didn't used to live on the edge. That was Remus who did that. I wanted someone more stable than wondering if my husband was going to come home alive or not. So, I starting dating Robert instead. Little did I know that it is just a Lupin thing, period. I did art and domestic things before, but not like I had to learn to do to cope with where the Lupin's life seemed to always take us."

"Robert? You mean this morning?" Jeffrey asked. "He's clearly not been well for the better part of a year. He's underweight, has more vitamin deficiencies than I thought he'd have--enough that I"m not sure how he's on his feet, he's lost a lot of muscle tone and strength, he's sleep deprived. And he's always cranky, but he's hit a new level of grouchy. The last thing he needed was to take on all of Brian's negativity. That was a physical, emotional, mental, and magical drain. And he's not trying to take care of himself like he needs to be. He's either going to start doing it, or I'm going to keep tangling with him. Its pretty much that simple."

He thought he had a tug on his line but it wasn't enough for him to reel in anything. Not yet.

Brant nodded as Jeffery spoke " yeah we all notice that" he said softly " we all want him better again and trying to lessen his stress so he can work on getting better. " he glanced at Jack who nodded.

"yeah I know didn't help with Jess returning as she did" he said his voice sarcastic as to say he knows that every one had not forgiven her and would not any time soon.

"Hey past is the past , Brian and Khaat need us focused not thinking what ifs and why did she?" Steven said fall tug on his line feeling a small tug on his line he left it to see if it will get any bigger.

"That's because her plans were ill-conceived and not thought through," Jeffrey said. "And she's working much too hard to try to defend herself. None of her excuses are logical. They don't make any sort of sense, and it only makes people distrust her more. She's making it worse by not simply just admitting she farked up.

"Nobody is going to buy that she didn't have time to say even a single word before she left, and nobody is going to buy that she left the family that she said she loved more than anything on earth to go see a mother she didn't have any contact with anymore. And nobody is going to buy that she couldn't find any way to contact anyone if she managed to contact me.  It just doesn't wash, and they are more and more angry with her the more she sticks to that story. For them, it isn't just that she abandoned them when she had the responsibility of protecting lives--which was bad enough.  The fact that now it looks like she's not only holding back but lying on what she is telling, it's making it worse. The truth makes sense. A lie never makes sense, and right now, she makes no sense to them. So, no. They're not going to trust her.

"Frankly, now they feel like they never knew her at all when she said that they were her family.  And they don't believe a word she says anymore. They don't trust that she's loyal. They don't trust that she gives a damn about anyone other than herself. And, generally, they're not going to trust her any farther than they can spit her.  

"She hasn't just got to start over with them. They don't trust her nearly that far. If she had to just start over, it would be because they were going into it presuming that most people are basically good hearted and worth trusting until they do something that burns someone else. Once people get burned badly enough, they aren't open to trusting again.

"Jess committed what this family sees as the unforgivable sin.  I honestly don't know if anyone in the Lupin family will ever trust her like they did before. They might allow her to work up to some of her old duties, but trusting her like before? That just might never happen.  And friendship? That's not in the picture right now. And a sense of her belonging in this family? That might not ever happen again, and she's done it to herself."

In the salon, Marcus was, himself, reading lightly, not concentrating deeply, while Khaat appeared to be finally engrossed in a mystery novel that he'd bought for her the last time he'd bought her a stack of books for recreational reading. After a point, though, she wasn't reading. She was caught up in her own seer's senses. She found herself somehow seeing the scene again, the underwater nightmare from the morning before. She was reliving it again, and again, and again, but from a different point of view. She was seeing it through Brian's eyes. She didn't understand it, but she was seeing everything he saw. She saw it in a rapid blur, but she saw it over an dover and over. And then she saw something no one else had seen. Something Brian hadn't noticed. Something he hadn't paid any attention to, and most likely didn't remember.

She got up suddenly, dropping her book on the sofa. Marcus closed his own book immediately, looking at her. He knew that look. He knew it too well.

"What is it? What do you see?" he asked.

"Do you dive?" she asked.

"Of course," he said. "I dove to get you, didn't I?"

"I have to go back. I don't have a choice," she said.

"What?" he frowned. "You can't swim. Why are we going back?"

"We missed something. Will you go with me?"

"If I don't, you'll drown. We're taking a second diver along, though."

"Get Angus, then. He's probably the best diver on board," she said.

"Not necessarily," Marcus said, knowing his own skills. "But I'll ask him." He sent a paper bird to Angus.

Jack sat and listened he could not disagree with Jeffery, she had up and left and not sent word to any one. He reeled in his rod and stood up " sorry but I can't listen to this " he said and rowed back to the boat climbing up he didn't see Steven looking nor Brant just shrugging.

"whats wrong with him?" Brant asked holding his line in the water Steven shrugged his shoulders. Jack walked in and down to where Brian was and Jess he looked at her and then to Brian.

" hows he doing?" he asked Jess looked at Brian before she spoke.

"As well as can be expected" she told him " but thats not what brought you here is it?" she asked her voice mono tone as she looked at Jack.

" no its not" he said his voice like a snakes bite, sharp, painful and to the point.

" I see, we'll talk about this when I am relived, " She said softly "This is not the place nor the time" she added not sure what had brought Jack to become open with his feelings to her.

"No now Jess, you left every one, not one word." he said as he walked over to her and looked down at her.

" Yes I did" she hung her head " and as my penance I stay at Brian's side and do as they ask, I lost there trust and yours when I left I know that, I should not have, but hindsight is a wonderful thing" she added and Jack turned his back pacing trying to stay calm. Cassidy had seen Jack return as she stopped her weaving.

" do you think i should go talk to him?" she asked knowing who he had gone to speak to and why.