Marriage is Murder

"How does that happen for a guy that spent most of his life in a pup tent?" Robert frowned. "Don't forget he had to be housebroken when he got here."

"Robert," Kate looked at him dryly.

Upstairs, Marcus had managed to help Khaat gather her thoughts and to temporarily get James off her mind. He managed to get her interested in going to spend some time with the kids. It was good for her to change her thinking away from death and into life--young life. The nannies had taken the babies and put them in a playpen in the nursery so they could tend to them and the other children at the same time. That allowed Khaat to be with them all together.

They hadn't been in the nursery more than a few seconds when the boys began to hurl blocks angrily at each other. Marcus merely frowned at them and froze the blocks in mid air. Now angry at him as well, they began to scream and cry angrily, tantruming.

Khaat sighed. Two tantruming three year olds. Great.

Jack chuckled and shook his head " I have no idea, guess we domesticated him too much." he said and chuckled taking the matches from him and lighting it using scrunched up paper as kindling and lit it. Brant stood behind him softly cursing why he couldn't do it any more. "Don't be so hard on your self Brant, your rusty thats all" Jack said as he patted the guy on his shoulder as he passed him by and headed back to the living room.

" your right I have been too soft with myself " he said and looked at the grass out front of the main house. " I'm going back to camping out" he said and Jack sighed and chuckled.

"Just don't hurt yourself doing it Brant" he told him Brant just shook his head and pulled a tongue at him behind his back but jack stopped.

"Just do that to my face, shorty" he said and chuckled as Brant stepped back acting scared but hiding a grin.

"Oh for goodness sakes," Robert said. "Stop being so self conscious, Brant. Put the wood in the grill, and add a fire spell to it. It really does not require you getting out your tent again. Do try to stop operating in extremes, would you? You've gone from compulsive hermit, to compulsive bookworm, and now back to compulsive hermit again? You do take life too seriously."

Up in the nursery, Khaat looked at Marcus and then at the floating blocks and at the screaming children. "This is better?" she asked.

"Eventually it will be," he said. He was about to speak again when Dakota simply got angry and smacked Abbey about four times in rapid fire succession, spilling a plastic pitcher of water on Abbey accidently at the same time. Abbey suddenly got so angry at being hit repeatedly and getting wet that she accidently transfigured into her Labrador form and bit Dakota, bearing her teeth and growling and barking.

"Whoa," Marcus frowned. He went to pick up the little pup, but Abbey raced out of the room and down the stairs, as Dakota screamed in pain and fright.

"Daddy!" Khaat shouted from upstairs. Robert looked to see the growling Labrador puppy run into the living room and hide under a chair.

"What the devil..." Robert frowned. He had only seen Abbey transfigure if she were blissfully happy, in water. She was far from happy now.

Jack chuckled at Brant who stood frowning at both of them his arms crossed on his chest " I'm not a hermit" he muttered softly but this just caused Jack to laugh out loud.

"Ow, you so are Brant, even... hold that thought." He would have said more but he saw a lab puppy dive under a chair. Walking in he got down on his hands and knees and look at her then sigh. " your wet?" he said and glanced at Robert. " Abby will you let me pick you up and dry you off, might make you feel better and I do know theres cookies in the kitchen too.." He lent closer to her to speak again. "I know because I want one too, but I can't get one with out a good cause, if you let me help you, you can help me and together we can both get a cookie? " He moved to sit facing her and waited.

"I have never once heard her growl," Robert frowned. The puppy was very firmly planted under the chair, growling.

Upstairs Khaat checked to be sure Dakota wasn't badly hurt, healed the bite mark, then left Marcus and the nannies with the kids and went downstairs.

She heard Abbey growling.

"What the devil is going on?" Robert asked.

"She bit Dakota," Khaat said, rattled.

"Was she a dog at the time?"

"Well, sorta. More or less," Khaat shrugged.

"Was she provoked?"

"Well, yes."

"Then you can't be critical of a puppy for acting like a puppy."

"She's not a puppy, she's an animagus," Khaat scowled. "We do not bite our siblings."

"Toddlers do it all the time," Robert shrugged. "Abigail Lupin," he called. "You're not in trouble--yet. Not unless you decide to keep growling." It took a moment but the puppy quit growling. "Jack, just take her out from under there. If she nips you, there shall be no cookies and definitely no berries. Can you undo her accidental animagus spell, or do you need me to do it?"

Jack looked at Abby and sighed turning he looked at Robert and nodded "More than likely I'll bite her first." he said but chuckled as he picked up the puppy and carried her over to Robert. "Well she didn't bite, so now what do you want me to do with her?" He asked looking to Khaat as well. He accioed a towel and started to dry her off much he felt to her annoyance.

"Hey you could catch a cold or worse" He told her" but your mum's right we don't bite others, unless there asking for it, but even then its rare, but its still not good." He told her softly knowing how hard it had been for him as a wear not to bite anything and every one when he was first bit.

"Got yourself stuck in your fur, haven't you?" Robert asked the wet puppy in front of him. "I'll change you back, but you have to tell me why you bit your sister." He changed her back, and the puppy was replaced with a wet little girl.

"She hit me!" Abbey exploded in anger. "Lots. She hitted me and hitted me and then poured all the water on me....and I gotted mad! She was mean! I wanted to hit her....but I didn't got no hands. So I hitted her with my teeth!....I no wanted my fur, Papa! I just put my fur on. It just...it was just there...." She started to cry. She didn't know how she'd done it. She didn't know how she'd turned into a puppy. Nor did she know, once she was a puppy, what else to do. So she'd bitten her.

"You put your fur on by accident," Robert soothed her. "You'll learn to have more control over that as you get older." He kissed her forehead. "No harm done. But you'll have to say sorry for biting her. And she'll have to say sorry to you for hitting you and for pouring water on you."

"I no wanna say sorry! She hitted me lots..." Abbey started.

"But Abbey," Robert said softly, stroking her wet cheek. "Sweetheart, that's what families do. We make mistakes, we say sorry, and we move forward. Now--I can't really help you with the whole biting thing like Uncle Jack can. Why don't you let him take you for a cookie and you can talk about it?"

Jack let Robert take the wet puppy and smiled when he saw Abby the little girl appear. He let her go to Robert and stood listening as she said Dakota had hit her. and that she had changed with out thinking and didn't know why it happened.

Jack then heard Robert say about going with him so they could talk about when she could bite and when she could not and he smiled nodding to her as he picked her up and dried her hair with the towel then placed it over his shoulder. He walked with her into the kitchen and set her down on the counter as he opened the jar and took out two cookies. Handing one to her he started to eat one.

"This is okay to bite, you know that, if you feel the need to bite again bite a chair leg or a stool, biting people its bad, it could get you and your papa in trouble." he said softly as he took a bite of his own cookie.

"I no like her no more," Abbey said quietly, looking down at the cookie. "Not no more never."

"Jack has his work cut out for him this time," Khaat said. "I don't think I've ever seen her this mad."

"She's four," Robert shrugged. "Toddlers get angry--a lot. However, it does take a lot for her to get angry, even then. And it does concern me just a little that Dakota was even given the chance to hit more than once."

"It happened quickly," Khaat said.

"It always does. But--we're going to have to work on Dakota's anger and aggression. She might have a bit of her mother's fiery temper."

"Mine?" she frowned.

"No," he laughed. "Your temper isn't like that. Don't forget, though, Mis is a werewolf. We dont' know if Dakota will be or not. But--it is possible that she has more of a tendency to be hot tempered than Abbey does. Abbey, overall, is just a very mild mannered child. Dakota has never been mild mannered. Not ever. We do really have to start being a bit tougher on Dakota for that behavior."

Jack looked at Abby when she said she wouldn't like Dakota ever again he gave a sigh and shook his head. "Abby, your a very lucky girl to have Dakota as a sister, she's younger than you and so your who she looks to, some of us don't have siblings like you do." He said keeping his voice soft and gentle so she would know she was not in trouble but he was trying to let her know he didn't have any now they were killed by James and she was lucky that she had Dakota with her.

" One day you'll be glad you have her with you Abby" he smiled at her gently. He knew her all too well knowing she was stubborn like her mother was and would not be easily dissuaded. He ate his on and sat watching her.