Out of the Fire

Brian finished packing the bag that he'd brought with them to Tuscany. He had well equipped them this time so that in the future they would not have to bring a bag. The house was done. It had given him something to do in his downtime. It had been necessary for him to work. To work off his frustration and rage.

One day had turned into two. Two had turned to three, then four, and then five. It had been pure hell for both of them. He had brought Khaat here to have a safe place alone to deal with her demons. She had done her best to run him off, to let her fight the battle totally alone. But he knew better. He had refused utterly. He wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't leaving her to walk this fire alone.

And it had been hideous. He wasnt sure what had been worse--her efforts to keep it contained, or what it actually looked like once it had been set free. The screaming had been endless. The torture of her own mind had seemed bottomless. Her thoughts had been all muddled between what, at the time had been past and present. Between hallucination and reality. And it all was terrifying.

It had all come hopelessly unravelled for her when she had finally exhausted herself. He had pushed her that day. He had pushed her to go down to the beach and go swim until she wore herself out. Well, she had fallen asleep on her own, as he had hoped, but it had relaxed her enough that her horrors slipped through her defenses, as strong as they were, and she had awakened in the middle of the night. Her endless blood curdling screams had jolted him wide awake. That had been the beginning of a whole new chapter of the nightmare.

That had been between day one and day two. The madness then unleashed had seened to need to play itself out. For hours, all there had been was screaming. Endless screaming. Then the pain set in. The mental agony of it pushed out past the fear. The whole time he was with her, he had made only one mistake, but it had not been a small one. He'd brought her a glass of fruit juice and left her to try to relax just a bit. But leaving her alone had been the error. She had broken the glass deliberately, and even though he'd heard the glass break, by the time he'd gotten back to her, she'd slashed her wrists repeatedly and deeply. He'd had to wrestle the glass from her, sedate her, and heal her wrists. She had worn heavy bandages for days. They were looking better now, and he did not expect them to scar. He had put spells in place to prevent that. Still, she tended to hide her wrists with long sleeved blouses and sweaters.

His fighting with her with the shard of glass had released her tears finally. Finally. And the tears had lasted for days. He had gotten her to talk. It hadn't been easy. The memories of it had been powerful and had made her sick. He'd had to take a day and nurse her through that as well. It seemed like every bodily system she had had revolted and rebelled against her. She had lost more weight, a problem she did not need. Her face had taken a ghastly gray color, and he was fearful that this was just too much for her.

And then, a couple days ago, the tide had finally turned. And he wasn't sure why. All he had done was love her. That was all. Just love. She had awakened a couple days ago with a new quietness. It was a sort of an emptyness. But it wasn't the torture that had been holding her hostage. He wasn't sure where all that ugliness had gone, but it seemed to be wherever hurricanes went. Maybe it had just spent itself out. He wasn't sure.

So, now, yesterday and today, he had simply taken good care of her. Loved her, fed her, held her, kept her warm and close to him. She was capable of speech again now, but she seemed to have nothing to say. That was so much better than where they had been. He was fine with her not being talkative. It was a step forward.

He had found her beginning to hover in the nursery that Brian had had made for the girls. She had been staring at photos of Abbey. It was time to go home. She wasn't entirely ready, but her pull to Abbey was strong. He could not see that staying here would do her any more good. Not right now. So, while she was sitting quietly in the sun, reading, he packed while he could keep an eye on her. He zipped the bag shut.

"Khaat? You ready to go?" he called. He watched her rise from her lounge chair and come inside.

"Yes," she said softly. He waved his wand to secure the house until they needed it again. He wrapped her close to him and flicked his wand. He was taking her home.

They apparated into the living room of the Cornwall house. He was bracing himself to see how she would respond now being back at home.

Jess smilewda she sat in hers she watched her son try and crawl her youngest was sat watching giggling at Abby as the played with some sort of toy she ahd made for them Jack busied himself in the garden tidying up the place as it had ben left for such along time. Jess felt something and smiled , Khaat and Brian were back in the area.
"Jack take care of the kids I'll be right back " she said and as he entered she aperated away to the farm.

Appearing infront of the main door she gave a knock and waitewd she wasn't sure if she should come so soon after they returned but she wasnted to know both were alright after the extended deadline of the vacation.

"Coffee!" Brian flicked his wand in the general direction of the kitchen and then put his bag on the floor. He kissed her softly. "Sit, Babe. You want your blanket?"

"My sweater?" she asked softly.

"No problem. I'll get it," he smiled. He lowered her into a chair and went upstairs for her sweater. She started to smell the coffee starting to brew. It was beginning to smell like home. She looked out the glass. There were still some little bits of leaves on the trees but they were more bare than not now. The ground had a thick layer of multicolored leaves on it. She could see the wind kicking them about, and she thought it looked cold. Tuscany had been at least warmer than here. She hated snow. She hated the thoughts of its arrival. She pulled her jacket closer about her.

Brian brought down a thick warm red thermal knit hoodie sweater and handed it to her. It wasnt' glamorous, but it was warm. He hadn't been concerned about glamour when he had bought it for her. He had been practical. He thought she was glamorous no matter what she wore, anyway. As a last thought, he picked up her slippers and brought them as well for her.

"Thank you," she said, taking off her jacket and putting on the sweater and changed into her slippers. While she did that, he sent her coat and shoes to their places and lit a fire in the fireplace. As the fire began to draw, he heard someone apparate in. "Hi, Jess," he said, without looking, putting a little bit of kindling into the flames.

Jess smiled as he heard Brians voice pushing open the door she looked at Khaat "Hi Brian, how was tuscany?" she asked "felt you were back " she said and wealked over to Khaat "so how was it, and the girls missed you though Abby has taken to our Andrew. " she said with a smile and sat down with Khaat " how are you?" she asked seeing the paleness of her skin, "humm" she said "no need to ask, I can see it , the girls are ok jacks looking after them and i'll bring them tomorrow so you can settle" she paused and smiled "its good to have you back" she said and hugged her feeling her thinness against her.

She turned to Brian and she shook her head "did you not feed her?" she said but she knew ofcourse he would have she was concerned for her now she was looking not like the khaat she knew but some thin woman.
"hard parts over, now comes the recovery " she said soflty to her as she sat with a smile.

"Tuscany was nice and warm," Brian laughed. "I keep telling Khaat we have to stay in England because I love the snow."

Khaat scowled at him. "Snow sucks," she sighed. She hugged Jess back. "I'm fine, Jess. Thanks for taking care of the girls."

"She's a lot better, Jess," Brian said. "It wasn't very pretty, but well, I didn't expect it to be. She got really sick while we were there. I think she probably has it figured out that I"m going to be back on her about her weight and her toning again."

"I know," Khaat said. "Once a trainer, always a trainer."

"That's right, my love," he smiled. "Coffee, Jess? I just brewed some. Oh, and Khaat hasn't seen. I haven't had the chance to tell her. I added a lap pool in the basement. Its not a full sized pool, of course, but it at least lets us swim here at home in bad weather. I want swimming to be part of her daily workout, so I had to add the pool."

jess smiled as Khaat spoke though softly she still spoke " I can here , good to hear you speack again, and don't worry the twins loved having them " she said smiling to her " thank you Brian i think jack can handle them a few hours " she grined "snows not all that bad but i do know how you feel , warm air and no snow sounds good we have ahd it wet here but it might snow as usual" she said smiling a she saw Brian with a hot cup for both of them.

Brian delivered large mugs of coffee to Jess and to Khaat. She took the cup in both her hands to warm herself. "Her weight loss is making her chill," Brian said. "That, and I'm not so sure she didn't run just a touch of a fever the other night. I'm glad the girls behaved for you. They're just starting into that stage where they want to be into everything."

"How are you going to keep them out of the pool?" Khaat asked.

"Well, first, they don't know how to go down stairs yet. And second, I enchanted it. It has an age line around it. They won't get past that. Age lines are wonderful things. I have a lot of age lines drawn now to keep them from tearing up my art collection and getting into places I don't want them to go just yet. Jess, do you think Jack would be interested in perhaps the four of us going out for dinner?"

"Out?" Khaat asked, suddenly anxious.

"Stop that," Brian smiled, sitting on the arm of her chair and taking her hand in his. "You're safe. Relax. Yes. Dinner. I think you can handle one night out with us, don't you?"

"I..I guess," she said.

Jess loked at her then smiled at Brian suhestion "thats awonderful Idea Steven can Ronat can mind the kids for a night, hes not stopped asking me about them and when can he have ago " he said "i think he misses having a small child around he spent a lot of time with john i think getting him use to the idea of him and Ronata being married, but they seem happy or should i say happier " she said and lightly blowing on her coffee and then taking a long deep sip "ow thats so good"

"Thanks," Brian laughed. Khaat had insisted he make good coffee. "She won't let me make crappy coffee anymore. And, yeah, I think Steven and Ronata might look after the kids--if they don't get offended that we didn't ask them to go to dinner with us. I would not want them to feel left out. I mean, it really is just dinner. I think we need to go someplace special. Someplace elegant. What about Murrays? They've got great food and we can dress up just a bit."

"Dress up?" Khaat echoed.

"Yeah. You know. Actually use one of those little short cocktail dresses you seem to like to collect. The ones that makes your legs look a mile long."

"It's the shoes that do that," she said.

"The short skirts don't hurt though, Babe," he laughed. "There's a lot of leg in between."

"I lost my tan, though."

"Stop making excuses. We do know magic. Alright. Dinner. Jess, do you want to check with Jack and see if he's interested, and if he is, would one of you check with Steven about the girls? Then let us know. I'll send an owl to Murrays for reservations if its a go."

Jess grinned "ow if he knows whats good for him he'll go" she said grinning "and Brian thsats abit too much info for me " she said grinning at both of them "I'll get jack to owl Steven and before coming here later or would ytou rather we meet there. im easy ether way " she said taking another sip of coffee "Khaat you tought him well" she said and chuckled as sher though of the red dress she ahd hid in her wardrobe she wanted to wear with the matiching sparkaly heels that lay still in their box.