Robert went upstairs, apparently unseen by Ruby and Aria, and he sat, and took a thermal mug of coffee out of his bag, sat, drank his coffee, and read his copy of the morning paper and merely waited until Angus woke up.
When Angus woke up, he felt like he was sleeping so deeply he hadn't been breathing. He did know what it felt like to wake up gasping for breath, though. He'd done that before. This felt a hell of a lot like it. He breathed in, opened his eyes, found himself in his own room and saw that it seemed to be morning once again. His head pounded and his stomach rolled. It was then that he saw Robert there.
"What did you do in that potion?" Angus said, far more asleep than awake.
"Me? Nothing except I made sure you got some damned sleep for a change. It's been weeks and weeks since you've slept more than three or four hours at a time. I know you. I can read you like a book. Your inability to sleep is all over your face. The rest of it that you're struggling with this morning? That's all you, I'm afraid. I knew this was coming, so I came early." Robert got up and sat on the edge of the bed. "Alright. Let me help." Robert cast a spell to stop Angus's rolling stomach. Then he blended two or three things together and found Angus's coffee and mixed it into his coffee.
"Here. Ruby brought you coffee," he told Angus.
"And you ruined it," Angus said.
"Yes, you're welcome. Drink it. You'll feel massively better," he told him. "Don't you have any idea why you feel like shit this morning?"
"Other than your potion perhaps? No."
"It wasn't my potion, you little idjit. How long have you been struggling with Suzanne?"
"Almost a full two years, just shortly after Ruby and I got together,"
"Exactly. And its been nearly an every day fight for your very survival. It's been continuous frontline warfare for you, and its nearly killed you on multiple occasions. Everything from your magical system being wiped out, that whole business in the swamp, and a hundred other things. Consider what happened yesterday. It made you relive New Orleans. When you saw the caskets, they were designed to look and feel and even smell like that night in the swamp. They were specifically designed to screw with your head. There is no way you didn't feel like you were being swept right back there."
"I was, for a moment," he admitted, as Robert encouraged him to drink more coffee.
"Precisely. Now, listen. Let me explain. I think this is important for you to understand how our minds work. Your senses are some of the strongest recorders of memories, especially the sense of smell. When we combine a sensory memory, like a smell, with powerful emotion, like thinking we're going to die, that binds that memory to us forever...."
"You're telling me I'm going to remember being buried alive forever," he said.
"Well, yes. You will. But that's just how all our minds process powerful sensory and emotional memories. How you deal with that memory can differ widely from person to person. I have no doubt whatsoever that Suzanne was planning to use those newly built caskets as part of a bigger plan to try to bring as much pain to you as possible over a much longer period of time. Perhaps years. I can see her trying to do that, and I, for one, am very glad she didn't get to put that into motion. And we also have all the most important pieces now to understand how the history of this really went. Not only that, but I really do believe Diamond is safe now, and Suzanne has been immobilized as much as we can do for now, short of executing her. So, as painful as yesterday was for everyone, it was exceptionally profitable. Now tell me that getting to the end of all of those things didn't all feel like relief to you."
"It did. Immensely," Angus said.
"And that--that relief of having her out of your life for awhile is what's causing all these symptoms this morning. This is the release of two whole bloody years of constant hypervigilance, of your needing to be ready, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to fight for your very life. Now your system needs some time to catch up. That potion you're drinking in your coffee is a blend of a few things to minimize your symptoms for you so you can feel better, and if you take it like I've prescribed for a few days, you're going to feel massively better. What I want you to do is to take a day or two, let yourself rest up, maybe do some fun things, or anything other than fighting for your very existence, you'll start feeling like yourself again. Then I think you and Ruby should take a day or two away from everything and everyone just for yourselves. I know you like boating, but you're not going to have enough use of your shoulder for that yet. I suggest you think about some sort of camping perhaps or somewhere upscale. Some luxury where you can be pampered and still have some privacy."
"I'm sure she'd like that," Angus replied.
"So would you," Robert said. "Now, while you're finishing that, I'll take out those stitches in your shoulder, and you can start working with Andrew to start getting some movement and strength back in that.
"I'm not vehemently against a couple days away but it isn't what I really want, though."
"So what is it that you want?"
"Because of Suzanne's madness and because of having kids way, way before I wanted any, I wasn't able to develop any sort of routine to my work. I really miss working on some sort of a regular basis. I mean, I've squeezed in my duties at home. between emergencies, but I want to have a regular routine. I want to see things get done. Ruby isn't used to my leaving the house on a daily basis and going to work because I haven't had a chance to do it. I want some normalcy."
"Understandable. You know you can continue to work in pieces from home if that's what you find you need to do, but, granted, things would get done faster if you had a few hours a week in your office where you weren't putting out fires. I'll tell you what. You give my potion and some rehab work with Andrew a try, and talk to Ruby about starting to think about what you want life to look like once Marcus and Aria move out. I'm sure their cottage has to be almost finished by now. Once you and Ruby decide what you want, you let me know. We'll talk again about how we might make that work. Fair enough?"
"Yeah. Fair enough."
"And if she needs a couple days away?"
"Then, I suppose that's what we'll do," Angus shrugged, setting the empty coffee cup aside.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes. Thanks."
"Good," Robert said, leaving the bottle of potion on the nightstand. "You're going to need this mostly first thing in the morning but if you start to feel an energy drop, it's fine to take some. Dosage is marked on the bottle. Now, while your stomach is settled, I want you to get some breakfast. On, and one more thing. If I get the money released to you, you need to consider what you want done with it. It's a massive sum, so you need to consider carefully."
"Okay," Angus said. "I'll let you know." When he was dressed, they both came downstairs.
"I'll see you lot later. I have work to do on yesterday's debacle. Have a peaceful day," Robert told them, leaving.
"Need a warm up on your coffee?" Marcus asked Angus.
"That would be great," Angus said. Marcus took his cup, and seeing the dregs of a potion in the bottom of the cup, Marcus put the dirty cup in the sink and got Angus a fresh cup, poured hot coffee in it, and took it to him.
"Thank you," Angus said, grateful for coffee that wasn't buggared up.
by 
