Tuscany Trip

The lunch was great, and Khaat never minded simple fare. That was fine with her. The only thing that ever mattered to her was that it tasted good, whatever she ate. "Maybe I'll bake some shortbread this afternoon," Khaat said, "I can do most of that magically. What do you all think?"
She was thinking of two batches. One with almonds and fresh herbs, and one with chocolate chips. Shortbread was just awesome with fresh coffee or tea. And she really did believe she could manage that by mostly magical means. But then again, perhaps Ronata would enjoy either baking or helping to bake. She didn't know if she'd ever baked or not.

"Well, we've stopped using a lot of the muggle ways of doing medicine," Khaat told her. "We have stopped using ultrasound and a lot of muggle technology. It just isn't as accurate as our own healers are. Its not that we get stuck doing things the old fashioned way, but what looks very advanced to muggles is really pretty primative by magic standards. I'm sure either of us could do what you need done here rather than waiting until you get back to London."

"You can bake cookies if you use magic," Brian told her firmly, "but no work. If anybody needs to take care of healing needs, I'll do it. I am in charge, according to your father, and I'm not going to let you push things. I have no desire to have to find you doing something asinine and having to reset a rib that I didn't have to do. Right now its in place because it isn't broken clear though. I refuse to let you overdo it. I like my job, and I intend to keep it. By the way, try either fresh rosemary or fresh lavender in the shortbread. We have both growing wild on the villa grounds. And they're very good in baking. I know. The cooks at the Paris office have made it both ways."

"I'll check her myself, Khaat," Brian said. "Its not a problem. You just relax. You're resting today."

"I'm fine, Brian," Khaat sighed. "I'm just sore, that's all."

"I know," Brian said. Khaat looked at him. He took security very seriously. And he seemed to be blaming himself for the brawl Khaat had gotten into. Khaat did not blame anybody. She was accustomed to it.

"I can't sit here all day and do nothing. I'll clean up the kitchen. You guys just move on and do whatever it is you're going to do."

"This really will only take a moment," Brian told Ronata. He went over to her and laid his hand on her forehead and then on her abdomen. He checked her carefully and then said, "It's pretty early into it to make many predictions, but so far things look fine."

"Nursery?" Khaat frowned. "You're not even through month one. Aren't you both pushing this entire thing just a wee bit?" Muggles might need months to create a nursery, but even they didn't need nine months to do that. Most muggle families did not start a nursery at 3 weeks into all this. Goodness! Even waiting until month 3 instead of week 3 seemed to make infinitely more sense to Khaat. Khaat saw miscarriages on a daily basis happen to women at this stage, and it seemed to nly add to the trauma and grief of the family when they had tried to prepare a nursery, name the baby, and all sorts of preparations before they knew if the pregnancy was going to be viable. They really were opening themselves to more trouble than they needed to do. She didn't know why they were doing that. Seemed to make no sense to her to deliberately be making some of the choices they were making.

Khaat really, really needed something to do. She felt like she needed something to keep herself busy, and she wasn't getting it. Normally, she would be going for a run to burn off her frustration and it would help her be less edgy. But she wasn't getting a chance to do that right now like she wanted to. Brian was very protective. Not that he didn't have reason to. But she wanted to have some sense of freedom at the same time.

"Dont get rattled with her," Brian said. "Neither of you get it, and she's not asking you to. She's doing her best to keep all her feelings to herself. The healers see miscarriages every day of mothers who are in their the first trimester. Khaat has dealt with young mothers who have either attempted some sort of self harm or completed it because of their grief. These young moms have done what you are doing--begun plans for a nursery and all the rest of it from the instant they knew they were pregnant. And its left her a bit scarred, I think. Its one of those things she doesn't talk about with anybody. Not even with me. I've just seen how much of that pain she absorbs and brings home with her when it happens. She is very, very sensitive. Steven, you know her. You know she doesn't just become cold to something without very good reason. Think. Besides that, do you not think she has her own feelings about having to raise Abbey without Rob? Or having to raise her granddaughter? My being there for her or not--she's not with the man she started this with, and it hurts. It just plain hurts. Rob will always be her one true love, and without him she feels empty, and raising Abbey without him hurts. So she is withdrawing a bit from this whole thing. Its not intentional except to keep from going on some tyrade about how much she believes, especially now, in people taking their time to keep from ending up with broken hearts."