A New Reason to Hate Paris

"Yes," Angus said, "that's what I came up for. Kate's really tuned into him for some reason, more than usual. I don't know, my grandfather does that sort of automatically when one of us are sick or injured. Maybe for Kate its a maternal thing. With her, sometimes I'm not sure where the seers' stuff ends and the mothering starts. Seems to be connected..." He heard little footsteps in the hall, and it interrupted him, causing him to turn around. Abbey arrived in the doorway.

"Hey, Abs," he said, "Hungry? There are cookies in the kitchen."

"There are monsters," Abbey said sleepily.

"Monsters? What monsters?"

"I saw them. I saw monsters," she said.

"What did they look like?"

"They were big and tall and dark," she said. She went past Angus and went over to the bed and looked at Brian, frowned, and then looked up at Remus's portrait. Remus raised an eyebrow at her. "Are they yours, Ree Ree?" she asked accusingly.

"Not mine," he told her. "Did you see them before or after you woke up?"

"I don't know," she sighed, frustrated. "They're in the house. Daddy should be getting them."

"Ah," Remus said, understanding. He looked at Jess. "Robert does know how to stop dreams, Jess. If you think it merits it, you could ask him to stop that. Perhaps it would take care of...other things too." He shifted his eyes towards Abbey.

"You think I made it up," Abbey narrowed her eyes at Remus.

"No," Remus said, looking at her calmly. "I don't." Angus looked at her. This wasn't the Abbey he knew. Abbey was the calm, easy going child. For her to be so quickly agitated wasn't her. It made him wonder if it was some of that weird stuff she'd always seemed to have, the uncontrolled magic that she'd had when she was small--Angus wondered if now that she was 7, if those raw skills were becoming more pronounced. He wasn't used to junior seers. He looked at Jess.

"I've got nothing here," Angus said. "I've got cookies. That's what I've got."

Jess sighed and nodded with a soft smile to him as he spoke “ I agree, as a mother my instincts tell me when something isn't right.” she smiled again and continued “ but Kate is certainly tuned to him more.” On hearing the footsteps she too looked at the door and listened to Abby. Glancing at Remus she nodded at his words.

“I'll get Robert to check it out” she heard Angus and nodded “ Abby I think Kate and Khaat will allow you to have some cookies, but just this once.” she said softly to her hoping the girl would go with Angus so he could send Robert up for Brian. Looking at the expression on his face Jess chuckled to her self.

“I know that look Angus and yes its possible they are becoming pronounced since there are four of us in the house,” she told him glancing at Brian's energy's only to find them at an acceptable level

"They're Daddy's monsters, aren't they?" Abbey asked, looking at Jess and then at Remus.

"Yes," Remus said, "but its just a bad dream. That's all, nothing to worry about. Jess is right. Your daddy's not alone, so even though it's late, I think your mother will let you have a cookie this time. Besides, I bet Papa's down there. You haven't seen him almost all day, did you?"

"You'll like these. They have berries," Angus said to Abbey with a smile. She smiled and nodded, and Angus looked up at Jess and gave her a grateful smile, glad for her help with Abbey. He took Abbey downstairs and handed her a cookie.

"What are you doing up at this hour, Abbey?" Robert asked, surprised that, of all things, their discussion of a burglary would be interrupted by a child.

"The monsters did it," she shrugged.

"What monsters?" he asked. "We have no monsters."

"Wait a second," Kate said, knowing the things that she'd already seen in Brian's head. "Did you see these in your head?"

"Maybe," she shrugged. "Ree Ree said they weren't his. Jess says Daddy's got bad dreams."

"Yes. He's having a bad dream tonight," Kate said. "I bet you saw his dream monsters. I saw them too, and they scared me too. Come sit with me." Abbey went over and sat on Kate's lap. "Goodness. You're soon going to be too big to sit on my lap," she laughed, wrapping her arms around Abbey.

"I'll go draw them off," Khaat said quietly.

"Drawing them off isn't going to be very effective," Robert said, not wanting her to absorb Brian's trauma. He was looking to redirect her away from that. "I'll go block them for him so he can sleep. You and Gram spend some time with Abbey so that she can go back to sleep. This will only take a moment, and then you can see him if you like." Robert got up and went up to the bedroom. "Not settling, is he?" Robert asked. "Let me see if I can help. He doesn't let things get to him very often but he has had issues w/ nightmares before. Wouldn't be the first time I ever had to block them for him."

He went over to Brian and checked him and found Brian's vital signs were racing--anxiety to be certain. He laid both hands on Brian and cast the spell to block the nightmares. Once it was in place, he looked at Jess.

"He shouldn't have any more trouble tonight," Robert said, "Not with that, anyway. The blocking spell is an energy spell I can show you, but it's an advanced spell. It's complicated. You can certainly learn it but you need to learn to take your time in casting it. You can't rush it, and it's one spell where you cannot absorb those energies. It works entirely differently. In fact, I really don't know if I've ever shown you anything like this one, so you may need to use it several times before you feel comfortable with it. I might have a chapter on it in one of my books at the farmhouse--if I can remember which book it is."

Jess saw Robert enter the room and was relived as he crossed the room to Brian's bed “ no he's not” she said “ his body can't recover because of the nightmares.” she added “ and well as you know I can't block dreams, yet.” she looked hopefully up at him, hopeful she would learn some thing new this night she could learn and help lift the responsibility and burden off Robert.

Jess watched Robert cross the floor to the bed, then at his command Brian's face calmed as Jess saw his eye movement stop. She looked up at him as he said he could teach her the spell and she smiled. “ I'd like that and no you haven't but then again I haven't asked for you to teach me anything you didn't feel I wasn't ready for.” She told him then chuckled at his unsure name of the book it was in. “ I'm sure some one would know the name, if not I don't mind reading threw your library as it holds books even the hospital library doesn't have.”

Jess sighed and looked back to Brian laid on the bed , “ I'll stay for now then Jack said he'd take over so I could rest.” she told Brian “ I'm thinking Michael and Brant are up to something?” she asked “ he seemed eager to please Michael all too quick.”

"I can explain how it works, but that doesn't mean you'll do it straight off, of course. Took me a few years to get it. To understand how it works, you need to understand how dreams work in the first place. There is a lot of mythology about dreams, and I'm not at all dismissing the psychic things that can happen with someone with those gifts.

"However, for most of us, our minds never stop functioning. They're still problem solving, or trying to, even when we're asleep. The majority of our dreams are our own thoughts that we're trying to muddle through to work out our stressors.

"That being said, to block a dream, it presumes that the dream is harmful in nature. Otherwise, we probably would not have a need to block it. We'd leave it alone, most generally. So, the first thing that the energy worker needs to do is to stop the panic that a nightmare can cause. The first part of the spell has to do with replacing the panic with peace. Once the energy worker has those negative energies redirected, then it becomes a matter of setting up boundaries or blocks in the mind of the patient to restrain the dream pathways from restarting the nightmare sequence. That's the trickier part of the spell from the first bit.

"And, the healer does not want to put blocks up in such a manner that the patient gets trapped within his sleep state and cannot wake. That can happen too if its buggared. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to correct. Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to detect in the first place. Anyway, those are the mechanics of it. As I said, putting it into practice is anther matter entirely. We'll have to find a willing guinea pig to let you practice on. I'll see if I can find a volunteer somewhere ho is willing to just let you prowl around in their dream state. No problem," Robert cast her a bit of an amused smile. That was another problem with dream blocking--there weren't a lot of people, not so far as Robert knew, who did it simply because most people didn't want anyone else mucking around in their dream world, given the types of dreams they had. People were even more panicky about what an energy worker might find.

"But, yes, we can go over to the farmhouse and prowl through the books there sometime tomorrow when things are a bit quieter, if they are. Let' see how it looks in the morning."

Robert heard voices in the hallway and glanced out to see Khaat taking Abbey back to bed.

"And there's the other thing I do have to do tonight," Robert sighed. "Right there. I can't do the kind of healing she really needs. I'm afraid Brian is the only one who can truly provide any relief for the pain she's feeling. He's her first priority. I'm just her father now. Still, perhaps she'll let me put a small bandaid on it for tonight so she can get some sleep herself."

Robert took a moment and checked the wounds they'd bandaged earlier and all the bandages on Brian's head injury. He did not believe they needed any dressing changes tonight.

"He looks a little better than I expected him to be. If you detect any more swelling from that head injury, get some ice packs on it. You can add another pain relief spell if you need to, but if you get into much more, you should wake me. Any questions or concerns before I try to catch Khaat?"

Jess sat and listened to all Robert had to say finding and knowing it would never be easy, even possibly dangerous to change the course of some ones dreams. “ I'd like that and I wouldn't dream of attempting it without your supervision, putting some one in a coma would be the last thing I want to do.” She heard his suggestion and nodded knowing a controlled environment would be best especial with Robert so close by. “ I will look forward to reading those books, I have read all the books in the library here at least twice over.” Hearing the motion out side the door she smiled and nodded.

“It might lift her spirits and let her sleep with out seeing monsters.” she said looking at Abby “ but she's another strong seer that's growing along with her powers.” Jess sat her hands crossed on her lap as she hard him speak again.

“ Jack will be here in an hour or so to relive me, I'll let him know.” She glanced back at Brian who was sleeping next to her. “ I hope most of his wounds will heal and he will wake, that's what she needs most to hear his voice, I know if it was Jack I'd be the same.” she couldn't help but empathize with Khaat, she knew she shouldn't but this was personal and she could not help it.

((sorry its short))

"I know you're a reader," Robert said. "I can understand that. I am too--which is why I have entirely too many books. You could put someone in a coma, but there other things that could happen if it got all buggared up. We aren't going to talk about that, though.

"I think Abbey will be alright, if she pays more attention to you and Kate than she does to her mother right now. I did not fail to notice that Khaat has not asked about Brian. Nor has she comes to see him or asked about seeing him. Now, if this were anyone else, I would restrain myself from reading into it. However, this is Khaat we're talking about, and this is about as far away from how I would expect her to act as we can get. I don't understand where her head is. I need to go see if I can catch her when she leaves the nursery and see what the devil is going on. Hopefully Marcus is still with her. If I find anything you need to know, I'll let you know."

He left Jess with Brian, and he headed to the nursery.

Jess nodded and sighed hearing Robert again, she knew he was right. A slight smile crossed her face as he mentioned Abby paying attention to her and Kate in regards her seers ability. As Robert left Jack walked in and kissed her gently before she stood up and headed down stairs to the kitchen for some coffee.

“Angus is this pot fresh?” She asked holding up the glass pot filled with black French roast coffee. “ I need something strong to re energize me” she said with a soft chuckle looking at the rows of cookies still cooking on the wire on the work surface close by her. Jess glanced around looking for Kate and sighed realizing she too must have gone up with Abby. She sat and listened to the quiet around her only glancing over at Angus as he worked in the kitchen.

"It is," Angus told Jess. "Marcus made it for the same reason you're coming down for some. I don't think he's going to be sleeping tonight either, or at least he didn't think it was going to happen." He took the cookies and put them into the cookie jar. "But if I know you lot, someone's going to be looking for something to eat in the middle of the night, and cookies are not going to do it. I think I'll take some of that leftover chicken and make a chicken salad so there's something to make a sandwich with whenever the munchies happen."

Robert went down to the nursery, and he waited for Khaat to finish tucking Abbey into bed. When she came out in the hall, he was waiting.

"So, how are you?" he asked her quietly.

"Tired," she told him.

"You can see Brian if you like," he said, trying to feel her out.

"Thank you," she said. "I'll do that in a bit."

"In a bit? What does that mean?"

"It means I'm going to get a shower first," she said.

"That isn't like you," he said.

"Don't overanalyze it," she said. "I'm really tired, so I'm going to get a quick shower. I'll come see him in a bit. I'm sure he's in good hands."

"I wouldn't do less for him," he said. "You're not okay, I can see it."

"Stop it," she said, walking around him and heading for the bathroom. He looked at Marcus.

"She said she was going to get a shower and prepare for that board meeting at St Mungo's later this morning," Marcus shrugged.

"Keep an eye on her," Robert said. "She's doing the exact opposite of what she'd normally do."

"She asked me to go to her room and find her pajamas and her briefcase. That's about all I know."

Jess laughed and nodded at Angus's words about the cookies. “I know one man whose going to be disappointed.” she said as she took a sip of the coffee and sighed. At the sound of what he was going to make her stomach rumbled and she looked up at him with a lopsided smile . “Sorry haven't eaten today, been busy at the hospital” she admitted knowing it could affect her own energy's when she didn't eat.

Brant walk back into the living room and found it empty having left Michael. Hearing voices from the kitchen he walked into it and smiled. “Chicken salad sounds wonderful” he said to Angus “ ranch or some other dressing?” He asked as he too pored another cup of French roast this time adding some honey to sweeten it slightly. He wondered if any one else took there coffee as he did with in there family and he looked at Angus.