Spring Flowers

Steven looked at him as he spoke "I will do that robert , but who will help heal mine" he said as he walked to the back door smiing as john ran to him and gave him a big hug "hey I hear your magic came threw , nice " he said glancing for only a moment at Robert then he moved out side trowing the tug of war toy for the ottoman to fetch laughing as as john grabbed it the ottoman tugged and he landed on his bottom on the ground as it tried to lick him on his face with a taslle for tounge it just made john laugh harder.

"He doesn't know it is John that will heal him,.does he?" Khaat asked. "Aparrently not," Robert said, watching Steven with John. He turned back to Khaat, "And just when did you become so wise, Daughter of mine?"he smiled. "I learned it from you," she said softly. He went over and kissed her forehead. "I am very proud of you. Have I told you that lately?" "Yes," she said, "But I always like hearing it. So how long do I have to be on this leave?" "Until I say otherwise," he laughed, "You're too early into it to be bored. And you've only cleaned the house once. You're not nearly bored enough."

steven threw the tassled toy once more but this time the ottoman dove right between his legs knocking him to the gound with a thump "owch" he said as john laughed till he fell to the ground holding his sides with laugher"hey wasn't that funny", he crawled over to john and begn tickling as they boy laughed calling out for him to stop, slowly steven began to laugh too enjoying th sound of his son once more , a sound he had never thought he would hear. He stoped tikling him and moved back only to be hugged by john "I love you dad" he said steven wrapped his arms around him and held him in a hug back "love you too john" he said softly back "and don't you forget so did ya mom" he said looking at him. John smiled at him "I know dad"

"They'll be fine, Khaat," Robert said, "Now, you rest that knee while your mother and I go out and finish planting those flowers for you. Should not take more than a moment. " "You're going to do it magically, arent' you?" she scowled. "Of course. It's hard, dirty work. Why should we work that hard when they will grow just as well if we plant them magically? Besides, then we have more time with you." "Oh, alright, " she said.

John took steven by the had "look dad me and kathrine , Khaats mom did this" he said proudly as he pointed to the hert flowers in the flower bed "wow I think Khaat will love that " he said smiling " like the blue around the outside" he said John scowled "there birds Ktyhrine put them in" he said as steven chuckled "I know "he said and ruffled his hair "were gonna do the frount next " he said picking up the tools but as he did he watched the plants magical plant them selves "wow" he stumbled back on to Steven "its ok you'll be able to do that one day" he looked at Robert threw the window knwing he'd done it to spend time with Khaat. then a drop landed on his shulder "ok gather the things its startin t rain, good fur the plants not so fur us" he bent down and picked up a troul and fork and gardening gloves as they moved inside

"Looks like you finished that just in time," Khaat said. "Nice work." She tossed John two sickles from her pocket. "That's for all your hard work. And if you come back in two weeks and weed, I'll pay you again. You know the bigger the baby gets, the harder it will be for me to take care of those flowers. I hope my paint dried before it rained. Otherwise I'm going to have a mess."

"No you wont. I took care of it," Robert said. "I sealed it. It's going to look fine."

steven smiled at John "so what gonna do with ya hard erned cash?" he asked, John thought for a moment "buy a frog" he said steven looked suprised "a frog, why would you want a frog?" he asked siting down to face him "they are the best, all green and hopy , andrew got one we could reace them" steven shook his head and chckled "ok well see " he said loking at Robert and the others"well its not fare andrew has one adn not john but if he saves i guess he could" john jumped and hugged stevens legs

"My guess is that your brother didn't buy his frog. He probably caught it. If you wait til he comes home on easter break in a week or two, my guess is that he'll help you catch one that is just as awesome as any frog you could buy. And it would mean more to you because the two of you caught it together. Andrew sounds pretty smart about things like that, John. And I know we have some really great frogs down at our creek and some at our pond on our farm. The two of you could always go over there to look for frogs. I bet he knows the difference between different types of frogs and knows which ones are the best. I think you should wait. Maybe buy a frog house, but after that, I'd sure wait and let Andrew help you catch one."

Johns eyes lit up at the thought of catching his own frog "do ya think?" he asked then turned to Steven "ow can I " he asked . Steven chuckled " of course ya can and khaats right use the money to buy it a home, Andrew might have caught it the first time but i had to the second, slippery thing it was" he said "i rember coz i fell in the creek , twice when it hopped on my head, i sware that frogs got a peronality and it don't like me" he said with a smile at Khaat and robert.

Khaat watched her father laugh. "If I have learned anything from Katherine in all these years, its that sometimes an animal bonds to someone who it trusts, and it doesn't always take well to somebody else for awhile. Sounds like Andrew earned his trust somehow. You'll have to ask him, John, how he does that. That will help you bond with your frog too. Sounds like he has a way with animals. You'll have to ask him what he does. Some wizards can talk to animals. Maybe Andrew can and doesn't even know its magic. Who know?"