Hunting the Hunter

"Well, you're right, of course," Kate said, knowing that it wasn't good for her to be up and working the same day she'd had hours of surgery. "But at this point, she's running from Robert, clearly. He may be the only one to really stop this, if I can talk sense into him. Jess, why don't you try to simply stall for a bit of time? She surely would need those dressings checked or changed if she's going to be on them, right?" She was trying to give Jess an idea of what she might try to buy a bit of time. "And I'll go talk to Robert."

She went downstairs to the office. "You need to stop this," she told him firmly.

"Stop what?" Robert looked up at her frowning.

"You know bloody well what!" Kate said.

"Look, I'm down here, minding my own business and..."

"Stop it. This is me you're talking to," she said. "I know your game. You've simply stonewalled her, haven't you?"

"I did no such thing. She spoke, I answered."

"And you hurt her," Kate said.

"She needs to grow up!" he said. "She needs to let him go!"

"You are not in a competition for her affections! You never have been! You push against each other because you love each other and you each try to out-protect the other, you idiot. Get a clue here."

"She'll get over herself," he said. She stormed over to the desk and leaned down on the desk to look straight into his face.

"I'm going to tell you just one time," she said. "You suck it up, get done with this, and go upstairs and talk to her! She's running off to work this to get away from you! You make this work. She doesn't need to be on that leg."

"Well, she can't be," he said simply. "It won't hold up. It won't be weight bearing. She won't have a choice."

"And what if she pushes it to try to force it to work?"

"She'll bleed out," he shrugged. She stared at him, wide eyed, not liking that alternative, and not liking how calm he was. He looked at her. "Well? You asked me for the truth, didn't you? That's what will happen.'

"This isn't hypothetical. She's getting dressed to go to work, and we're stalling for time." He groaned, angry and frustrated, standing up.  She stopped him in his tracks. "Breathe," she said quietly, her hands on his chest. "She's your daughter. She's never going to be so old or grown up that she won't need her father. She needs you to just love her. How many times have you tried to get her to obey you just because you demanded it? It never worked. The only thing that ever worked is when you were willing to drop your guard and meet her halfway. That's all I'm asking. Is that so hard?"

Jess looked over at Kate and nodded moving from Jack she gathered her kit and headed up the stairs. Knocking on the door she gently pushed it open " Khaat I've come to check and change the bandages on your leg." She said ignoring the fact she could see her stood in her work clothes. She fought not to lose her composure as she looked at both of them.

"If your going at least give me ten minuets to make sure that leg is going to stand up to the pressure, though I don't think it will and you'll be on your ass within an hour" she snapped before taking along deep breath in as she began to clean and fix once again the wound in her leg.

She knew she hadn't done a good job on bandaging her leg after her shower. It wasn't easy bandaging the back of her own thigh anyway. She'd given it a go, though. She wanted to make it work, so she decided she'd give her the time she asked for, but no longer.

"It'll work," she told Jess. She believed Jess's bandaging job would hold, and that was all she cared about. She could muscle through the rest of it. She heard the tension in Jess's voice. She hadn't missed it, but she wasn't going to argue with her. She decided to let it go.

Marcus wasn't happy when he saw how much the wounds were bleeding because her shower had stirred them up. He'd had enough of his own wounds to know that this wasn't going to work the way Khaat wanted it to. He had to trust that the others here were working on something to keep a bad situation from getting worse. He looked at Jess, wanting her to know that he saw too that it wasn't at all good and he wasn't going to let anything happen to her if they did actually go.

Robert went upstairs, and when he appeared in the doorway, Marcus felt just a bit of relief, hoping he had a resolution for this.

"Give me her wand, Marcus," Robert said quietly. Marcus drew it out of his pocket and handed it to Robert and then went to Khaat, simply laying his hand on her shoulder. Robert looked at the wound and saw it was a mess. "You've got this, Jess?" he asked. Marcus felt Khaat tense up when she knew Robert was, in his way, offering to help Jess if she needed it. Marcus simply rubbed her shoulder a little to try to reassure her.

"What are you doing this for?" Robert asked her quietly. She glared at him, furious.

"Grown ups have jobs. Its what they do," she said spitefully.

"Indeed," he agreed. "They also have limits and days off. You know your St. Mungo's contract. You have to be physically fit. You're not ready, not today. If you want to work here at home, then fine. We'll get you what you need."

"I don't need anybody for anything," she said.

"Fair enough. I probably deserve that," he said. "We need to talk about this."

"You had your chance. I'm done," she said.

"Hey," Marcus said softly. "give him two minutes, okay? As I see it, Jess has at least five left. You can give him your attention for part of it. This wasn't what anyone wanted this morning. Everyone's being a little reactive. Maybe we need to sideline any thoughts and plans about James for today and simply take care of ourselves."

"Good advice," Robert said.

"I'm not talking to you as long as you want to be friends with a man I want dead," Khaat said.

"Friends?" Robert said. "I have no intention of being friends with Fenrir Greyback. I haven't forgiven him that much. I thought you surely knew that." He sighed. "Okay, look, I'll put that on the backburner for now. So far, James has only gone after you this time. Here. This is yours." He handed her back her wand. Marcus wasn't sure about his decision, but he understood he had to prove to Khaat that he had some faith in her choices. That only meant for Marcus, though, that he had to be on his toes.

Jess glanced at Marcus as he looked down at her then she turned to face Robert who stood in the doorway. refocusing on the wound she slowly got the bleeding under control. With her hands on Khaat she looked up as Robert spoke. "Tension's a little high, making it difficult to focus as I should, but yes I Have it, slowly, but I have it." she said softly letting him focus on Khaat.

When Marcus spoke again she looked up at Khaat " I third that Khaat, this leg isn't going to heal as fast as I like it if you don't relax more, its like your psychically blocking me from doing my work." she continued to pore her energies into closing the wound and making it heal but to her it was like walking threw mud, a slow and exhausting process.

Jess watched as Robert gave Khaat her wand she hoped she wouldn't leave as she was no where near the point she could say her leg would heal.

"You'd do better if you didn't try to make it close, Jess," Robert told her. "I can close it with an incision. It's too deep to heal from the outside anyway. It'll just open up again." Deep wand blasts that went clear through weren't that common, and they were stubborn. "You'll just use up entirely too much of your energy that way."

Marcus said to Khaat, "Look at me for just a minute." She looked at him. She could see the concern in his face. "Now, listen. I try to let you make your own choices, always. I'm asking you, just this one time, put this off for today." He looked at her and saw she wasn't good with that. "I'll make it work," he assured her. "Trust me." She was tempted to trust him and then started to change her mind, not believing he could possibly make it work. "Come on. For me. If I screw it up, I'll buy your next 20 pairs of shoes myself." She instantly invisioned him bringing her 20 pairs of flats. "Heels. Heels, I promise," he laughed, realizing he hadn't clarified.

"For now," she finally gave in.

"Thank you," he said.

"Okay, if we're to get her settled for the afternoon, you'll need my help. I don't know Jess has that much energy left," Robert said. Robert wanted Khaat in bed and off her leg, preferably with her leg elevated a bit.

Jess looked at Robert and nodded backing off trying to close it and just stopping the blood flow so Robert could heal it later. as he spoke her name she looked up at him then to Khaat and nodded that she had little energy left.

Moving back she let Robert move her to the bed and sat down in a chair so she could regain her energy enough to head to her room to rest. Jess smiled when she felt the tension lift slightly it was like a weight had lifted off her shoulders but she knew they would be alright now.

"I'll send some soup up for her and you." she said standing with a slight wobble as she headed instead back down to the kitchen and Michael. " is there any of that soup left, I need to send two bowl up to Khaat and Marcus."

"Thank you, Jess," Robert said to her before she left. "I'll take over for you for awhile." He knew she couldn't do much more.

"I'll send it," Michael said to her. Kate had been baking and had some seers' tea brewing, and she poured some into a cup with a couple drops of a restorative. "Sit, Jess," she said, "This will help." She went to the oven and pulled out a batch of chocolate cookies that had big, dark, gooey melting chocolate centers. She put two on a plate and put them in front of Jess.

"Remus would have given you a bar of chocolate. These are far better, though. He'd have liked these. Chocolate lava cookies. They're better when they're warm. He was right, though--chocolate does help restore magical energies."

"Taste better too," Michael said, his mouth full of cookie already. He got out a couple of large soup mugs and put some soup in them, put some crackers in a little basket and put a couple of bottles of wizarding soda, with some glasses filled with ice. "Its about time they got something to eat."

"Don't forget the cookies," Kate said putting a little plate with four cookies on the tray. "Now, I think its ready." Michael flicked his wand at the tray, giving it very specific instructions. Kate laughed.

"As odd as it looks for you to talk to them, the trays usually get there exactly as you intended them to," she said.

"Of course. If they know what to expect, then decent tempered ones will..." he cut himself off. "I've been in the house too long, haven't I? You lot don't talk to your furniture, and lately its the only adult conversation I seem to get."

"How's it going upstairs, Jess?" Kate asked. "I don't hear screaming. Is he civil?"

Upstairs, Marcus and Robert soon had her out of her work clothes and into bed.

"You've got to quit moving it," Marcus told her. "You can't afford to lose much more blood."

"He's absolutely right," Robert said, sliding a pillow under her thigh. "If you were anybody else's child but mine, you'd be in St. Mungos right now. You have a surplus of healers here. You have to stay off it and keep it elevated to give the spells time to work. You know that."

"Don't nag," she said, leaning back, her head spinning, feeling her father cover her.

"And that dizziness would be bloodloss," he told her. "How much did you lose in the shower?"

"Some," she said. She understood he hadn't intended her to shower today. She wouldn't have even considered it for one of her patients.

"Yeah," he said, knowing "some" meant she knew it was more than she should have. Marcus saw the tray arrive and took it and set it on the dresser. He'd completely forgotten all he'd gotten was a few measley crackers before he'd been called away again.

"Get some food and some rest," Robert told her. She wasn't up to talking, and he knew it. "Stay off it. Marcus, we'll have to watch it. A little bit is fine, but more than that is too much." He brushed the hair off her face, casting a bit of a calming spell and a pain relief spell. Then he got a bottle of pain potion out of the bathroom medicine cabinet. "That little spell isn't going to be enough. Add a dose to her drink after you two eat. I'll be back." He went back downstairs, went to the kitchen and simply poured himself a cup of coffee. It was still hot, but he could tell by the smell that it smelled like it had been brewed at 5 am. He sighed. Well, at least it was hot.

"Call me if they need anything," he said calmly, as if it was all good. "I've got work to do."

"Robert," Michael said. "Before you do that, come have a cigarette with me." He really just wanted to get him out of the house and give him a moment to breathe.

"Good idea," Robert said.

"I'll be back in five minutes," Michael said. "Then I'll think about dinner tonight." He went outside with Robert.

Jess smelt the cookies and sat down at the kitchen table her head resting on her arms but she sat up as a plate was placed down in front of her and Kate spoke. " Thanks I need it." she said taking a bite out of one and feeling her energy slowly rising " these are good." she added and smiled as she sat back in the chair " well there talking and I get the feeling they've both come to an agreement." she stopped and looked as Robert walked down she was about to mention the coffee he pored might not be fresh but stopped as he spoke.

She watched Michael ask Robert to go for a smoke with him out side and looked to Kate. she took it as a sign that he wanted to talk in private. A shout came from the living room that sounded like Jack who then promptly walked in dragging the foot stool.

"Okay whose is this it stole my socks?" He said making Jess chuckle " my good black ones."

"Michael must have forgotten to bring socks for the dogs again," Kate said. "That's all the dogs eat. Jack, can you send to Hogsmeade for more black socks? They try to stock them for the dogs. In the meantime, wear your tube socks. They don't like those. Oh, and, if we forget? We might want to leave them out every so often...well, you know."

She saw the lunch dishes and decided the kitchen needed cleaning. She could have decided to set a cleaning spell in place but she decided she really wanted to do it by hand. She stacked them up and started washing them. She hated days like these, when her family seemed to want to implode on itself. These were the times she wanted to fall apart and she never could afford it. They had never been able to afford for all three of them to not have it together.

Archangel arrived with the mail and with a stack of memos from the ministry and the hospital both. Kate dried her hands and picked up the mail, starting with the work memos for Robert and Khaat and filtered them out, pitching non-essential things, just as if she were entitled to do it. She pitched at least 3/4 of it.

"I think I'll make a stew for tonight over homemade noodles," Kate said. It was the most labor intensive thing she could think of off the top of her head. It would need a lot of vegetables peeled and chopped. Noodles to feed that many people took a lot of work. She wanted to be busy, very busy indeed.

Michael had come in just in time to hear her talk about stew over noodles. "Want to do that by yourself, do you?" he asked.

"No, of course not," she said with a smile.

"And, fruit crepes for dessert?" he asked, picking up on what she was trying to do. It was an old coping skill but apparently she still thought it worked.

"Perfect," she said as he came over to her and then just quietly wrapped her into his chest in a strong hug. "I can't do this again, Michael," she whispered very softly, soft enough that only he could hear her.

"We've got this, Kate," he said. "Its all good." It took her a moment to believe him, to trust that it wasn't going to go down the same ugly road it often went down whenever they fought about Remus. "Now, you ready to peel a few bushels of fruit and vegetables?" he asked her with a grin, ready to change the subject for her. "I bet I still peel faster than you do."

"You?" she frowned. "I've beaten you the last three times in a row."

"Sloppy peeling, that's all," he said. "Mine were better."

"Were not," she frowned, as he headed to the fridge.

"One steak dinner says I'm faster and cleaner than you are," he said.

"Oh, you're on," she said, never able to resist a challenge.

Jack groaned and threw the only black sock he had back at the foot stool who happily picked it up and ran to a corner. " okay I'll send an owl for a tonne of socks to be delivered." he said then looked at Jess who sat eating her second cookie and feeling some what better. He saw her roll her eyes and nodded to Kate. " okay doggy duty detail it is." He turned back to the living room just as he saw the hat rack knock over Li. " might want to duck more, helps to stay alert around here." He added and heard Jess laugh.

"Only if there not let out on time" she said leaving the kitchen and sat down on the couch. Jack smiled and nodded. " like dogs they have to have a routine." She said glancing back at Kate and Michael as they talked she could not help but smile at the banter than now was going on. "Oh I'd take that as a challenge Kate." she said chuckling.