Tuscany Trip

"He's fine," Angus reassured them. "He'll be hard to keep in bed by tomorrow if I know him. You might be able to get him to agree to sit on the sofa or something but I doubt you'll get him to stay in bed. By morning, he'll be much more concerned about taking over the whole business of taking care of Khaat, if he's true to form."

"I'm not going to let him start that all that easily," Khaat said.

"You won't win, and you know it. You are not the Director here, with all due respect, Khaat," Angus said. "You might win that if he were in St. Mungos, but here, well, he will hardly be told what to do. Not while you are his primary assignment." She glared at Angus. "You know what I mean. You have never been just an assignment to him. Not ever. Don't read into my words."

"I know," she admitted. She looked at Jess. "Yes. He changed it because it was starting to seep through a bit. He added some extra layers to it so that it wouldn't seep through again so quickly. And, yes. these silly little games are wonderful. I really, really like both of these. One is solitaire and the other is some weird thing about shooting all sorts of little colored boxes. I can understand why muggles love them. You found a porcelain figurine that looks like me? Now that just sounds scary." She laughed. "You'll have to show it to me. I don't know if I can see myself in porcelain or not."

When dinner was nearly ready, Angus woke Brian and brought him a fresh tall cola in a glass with ice. He wanted to give Brian a few minutes to wake up. By the time Brian had his eyes open, Angus served Khaat her tray and then returned to the kitchen, got Brian's and brought it to him.

"It looks wonderful, Angus, as always," Khaat smiled, "Thank you."

"Glad to help," he said. He served everyone else family style in the dining room. He allowed one man at a time to come in, sit and eat, and then return to duty. His men were good about eating quietly and quickly and then returning right away to work.

"I see Robert's brought in a platoon," Brian sighed. "I hope we won't need that very long."

"Maybe another day or so," Angus said. "We'll just see how you feel and when Robert says you're duty fit."

"I can determine that for myself," Brian said quietly but firmly. Khaat read his mind easily. He took protection of her more seriously than just about anything in his world. She reached over and laid her hand on his.

"Relax, huh?" she coaxed. "I don't mind having you around."

"I don't mind being around either. I do mind being in bed," he said irritably.

"I can fix that," she laughed. Seeing as he was done with his tray, she sent it and her own with a wave of her hand back to the kitchen. She apparted herself from her own bed into his twin bed, snuggled up right beside him. "Is that better?" she asked. He nearly roared with laughter.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he replied, still laughing. He kissed her forehead affectionately.

Khaat showed Brian the muggle games that Angus gave her. Brian just laughed, having seen them before. "I am definitely not buying you a pinball machine, then, if this fascinates you," he laughed.

"What's a pinball machine?" she asked.

"Oh, come on. Nobody in the muggle fishing village you grew up in ever had a pinball machine?" he asked.

"No. What is it?"

"A muggle game where the idea is to keep a little silver ball, about the size of a snitch from going down a hole in the board itself. You'd be addicted to that for sure."

"Sounds like fun."

"And you're just enough of an adrenalin junkie that I wouldn't be able to get you off of it," he said. "Angus, any sign of Tasha or her partner?"

"No, and we don't know if they are really partnering, Brian," Angus said, serving them each a slice of his lemon cheesecake. "They could well be gunning for whichever of you they're after independently. Robert mentioned that it was possible that they were after you because you keep thwarting Tasha's plans."

"Well, that's the general idea of a bodyguard," he frowned.

"And so far, you've kept her alive, and that's what Robert is counting on. He thinks that whoever hired them might be not willing to continue to pay Tasha for utter incompetence. They might want the job finished up."

"Well, they can try all they want. I am not giving up."

"That's what Robert is counting on," Angus said gently. "I did see the alley. I don't think either of them should be back soon. Both of them lost as much blood as you did. There were three distinctive pools of blood. One for each of them at either end of the alley, and yours in the center. You were lucky to escape alive with those sorts of odds."

"No," Brian said. "I was well trained." He thought of all the duels he'd had with Robert that had sharpened his skills and was now grateful for it.

"Will you be here all night, Angus?" Khaat asked.

"Not me, but someone will be," Angus said. "You won't be alone until you are a well armed, well conditioned foursome again."

"That's fine," Brian said, comfortable that his men could cope with this.

Khaat saw Jess stressing, and she softly told Brian what she knew, just by Jess's behavior, was going on.

"She has no clue," Brian sighed softly. "She thinks she knows what she's up against. If Robert says its more than I can handle, I seriously doubt she can handle it either. If she could have, Robert would have made her an auror a long time ago."

"She just is a really good friend and she worries," Khaat said, curling into him.

"Overconfidence will just get one of us killed, though," Brian said. Khaat knew he was right.

"When do you think we'll be up again? Truthfully, now," she asked.

"I'll be back up tomorrow. I might be a bit slow, but I won't be in bed. That's for sure. You, my dear, we are not taking chances with. If you feel better enough to be out of bed and maybe on the sofa, then fine. We'll put our living room back to its normal shape. If not, then, just be comfortable awhile longer." She groaned softly, unhappy. "I know, but you know as well as I do how quickly you could bleed out from this wound. Let's not aggravate it. It bleeds constantly as it is, but the more you horse around with it, the closer I come to losing you, and I'm just not going to go there. So, for me, huh?" He kissed her slowly. "Please?"

"You win. You always do. Alright. Fine. I really will do my best to behave. I promise."

"Good," he smiled. "I promise I will make it worth your while. But I refuse to tell you what the surprise is. You have to earn it by following orders."

She frowned a little and then laughed. "Okay. You're on."

"Good," he replied.

Khaat was curled up comfortably with Brian and was half asleep as he played with her hair. It made her feel safe and secure and very, very happy. Part of her worried that if Brian kept seeking Tasha and her new companion, she would end up losing him. He had reassured her time and time again that she and Abbey would never have to worry about anything again ever in their lives, whether anything happened to him or not. She didn't care about that for one moment. She could be very happy in her little Hogsmeade cottage, which Angus told her her father had rented out, on her behalf to an old friend, Michael Tremaine. Khaat didn't mind that. She liked Michael, and her belongings were safe with Michael. All but perhaps Otto. She didnt think Michael had any sense of humor for an enchanted footstool that thought it was a cocker spaniel. Well, on second thought, the always-snarky hat rack might end up as firewood too, unless her father had forbid Michael from harming or changing the furniture. She hoped he had told Michael that he could not harm her enchanted furniture.

"Oh, by the way, Brian," Khaat said softly, more asleep than awake, "I forgot to tell you--Michael Tremaine has moved back. He's renting my cottage."

"Thank you for warning me," he said. "I like him, but I think I'll hide your jewelry all the same."

"He would never touch my jewelry."

"A thief with morals? Since when?"

"Well, since Michael. Well, sort of. He sort of has his own rules to live by."

"Antisocial. Now, that sounds like the Michael I know."

"He's not exactly antisocial...."

"Close enough. Don't get me wrong. I like him. There are certain things that I just would not like him to know we have. They would tempt him. Believe me...."

"Brian?" she said, so far asleep now, he could barely understand her.

"Yes?"

"Can we forget Tasha exists? Please?"

"Yes. For now," he said, soothing her, allowing her to fall asleep in the safety of his arms. She fell asleep soundly.

"Can I just say that I have never seen either of you happier?" Angus asked quietly, putting a cup of coffee for Brian on the end table between the two beds.

"Then, if that's the case, she's been happy all her life. She seems like the same old Khaat to me," Brian said honestly.

"Sometimes you're a bit dense, Brian," Angus said.