Out of the Fire

Robert laid his hand on the man's head. "That won't be necessary, Jack,' Robert said quietly. "You've wiped out the last 24 hours or so. Well done. Now, take this garbage to Knockturn, and dump him a short distance from one of the back doors of one of the bars. Make sure it looks like he just had a few too many firewhiskeys. That will put him off Khaat's trail for awhile. Oh, and make sure you get any and all identification, sickles, or anything else of value off him. We need him to think he was robbed in Knockturn while he was laying there passed out. Oh, and one more thing. Don't get caught. Don't be seen. We don't need idiots asking questions.

"Brian, get Khaat inside. I'm not coming back in until I'm sure you have her back in the house."

"Will do, Robert," Brian said. Brian picked Khaat up off the ground and apparated back inside with her, as Robert kept a sharp eye peeled to watch to be sure Khaat was not followed into the house.

Jack picked the man up and placed him over his shoulder with one hand with a soft growl he turned and walked away from the house aperateing impresivly as he did .

aprating to knoickturn ally he found just the place it was fithy ,dirty and rats frquented the dark corners , rummaging in his pockets he took out his wallet and sickles dropping them down a sewer great as he earched further all papaers he ripped and dropped them down the same sewer grate. hearing several men aproching he could not resist curking his fist and slambing it into the mans Jaw knowing he had rattled lose several of his teeth and would feel it when he woke, he scowled at him then whispered.

"I know you won't remenber this but if i ever see you again , you'll die" he growled and stood back up before aperating back to Brians home smiling as he entered the main lounge "done " he said rubbing his hand.

"Good," Brian said. "Thank you." He had laid Khaat on the sofa and had gotten some wet compresses to clean up the blood all over her face and neck. Robert was now seated on the edge of the sofa beside Khaat and was looking to see what exactly the damage was.

"Looks like a huge cut that is mostly up in her hair," Robert said. "And she's getting a whale of a goose egg up there. She's going to have one hell of a headache for a few days. " He stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound for her. We'll have to use pain spells or pain potions for a few days, Brian. She's going to find that an ice pack will do wonders."

Khaat thought she heard voices somewhere, but they were distant for a bit. It was a struggle to come back. She became steadily more and more aware of pain. Her head felt like she really might be better without it. She woke slowly, groaning softly.

"Brian, that ice, please," Robert said. A moment later, the icy cold relief of an ice pack seemed to go to work battling the pain. She woke slowly and found it took a moment for her vision to focus. "Welcome back," her father said. "How many of me do you see?"

"How many should I see?" she groaned.

"No more than you usually do," he said dryly.

"Then I'm fine," she replied. "How'd I get back inside?'

"We saved your ass," Brian said. "I don't mind you going off to battle the bad guys because that's just what we do, but, damnit, take me with you next time. "

"Deal," she sighed. She wanted to sit up, but her father laid a gently restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Give it a rest for a minute. Jess or Ronata, would you be so kind as to go brew that pumpkin spice tea that I was going to make before we were so rudely interrupted? I think we could all use a cup. Then maybe Khaat can tell us if she learned anything helpful."

Jack watched as jess and Ronata went to the kitchen he stood rubbing his incresilgly red hand but he didn't care he ahd done his job though he though he should have Robert look at it later .

"will she be ok?" he asked voiceing what both he and steven wanted to know. He shifted hiding his bruised and red knuckles behind his back for now not wanting to explain just how he got them as usually he would not have any injury but he had this time and he knew he had to work out he was getting soft .

He jumped as jess grabbed his hand to hold innocent as to how sore it was. "shit jess don't do that " he said stepping back from her shaking his hand looking at a stunned and rather unamused Jess who stood arms folded.

Ronata moved with the spiced tea to Khaat and handed Robert the tea "I hope its all right I followed you instructions " she held up the cup for him to take then moved to sit in an arm chair.

"She's going to be fine," Robert said. "She's just going to have a headache for a bit. Thank you, Jess. It smells great. I think you did a fine job with the tea. Here, Khaat. Try a sip of this. It will warm you up and help steady your nerves. When you get yourself together, tell me what barker said to you."

"It wasn't Barker," she said. "He laughed at me because he said I couldn't detect it was someone who'd taken polyjuice potion to look like Barker."

"What!" Robert frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Khaat said.

"Then we may have bigger problems that I thought. The only one I know of, outside of Gelding that could pull that off is Luther Burke. Jack, did you get a look at any of his identifcations or papers? Any chance it was Burke?"

jack turned to face Robert and nodded "he has loads on him, but yeah all of them said Luther burke, I was wondering why he had those on him, huh now I know " he growled as he shook his hand again. Pain was never a good thing for him ,his pain threshold was always shallow/ He flexed his fingers and looked apologeticly at Jess who shook her head at him and walked off into the kitchen to clean up the dinner things and the tea making things.

"I found this too " he walked over and held out a small vile "bet you can guess whats in that in one, didn't think you wanted that going down the drain." he said handing it to Robert as he held back his hurt hand from him for the moment Khaat was more important at that moment.

Robert had seen Jack's pain when Jack first entered the house and knew pretty well what had happened. He just had not had time to tend to it. Now he simply reached over and laid his hand on Jack's and uttered a healing spell. "It may bruise but that's about all now," Robert said. "You probably aren't going to feel a whole lot of painwith it now. I've resolved that for you. I suggest you get some more gym time in. Steven, how long has it been since you worked out really well? Which one would you two prefer to spar against? Brian or me?"

Khaat looked at her father, wondering what he was up to.

"Don't look at me like that," he told her. "We need a sharp crew. Its that simple."

"Can I go get changed now?" she asked him.

"Not by yourself. First of all, you'll be lucky if you don't fall flat on your face getting up this soon, and second, I don't know if Burke told anyone else where he was going or not. Take Brian with you."

She looked at Brian.

"We'll be right back," he said to them. "Excuse us. I can udnerstand her wanting clothes that are not saturated in blood. Keep the tea hot." He helped Khaat to her feet and led her carefully upstairs.

Jack sighed as Robert stopped his pain he flexed his hand and smiled " you sir , if I can come half as good as you are, then i'm maing some progress" he said and looked down at Khaat "its been a while sir and I agree I need to get in the gym, don't usually hurt my hands on some ones jaw this easily " he said smirking as he had given away what he had done to Luther in the alley.

He watched as Khaat and Brian moved be it ever so slowly up the stairs , He saw ronata holding the cup of tea , then turneds to Jess who still looked knowing at him "hey I had to give him a warning " he said she sighed then kissed his cheek "ok, work out more, im not having you go all soft on me " she said and poked his abs.

Jack smiled "not unless Robert says so " he said looking up as he placed his arm around jess shoulder "sir do you want me on watch while there upstairs ?" he asked feeling aneed to patrol the outside of the biulding he knew robert would have it in order but he had to ask anyway unless he ahd something else he wanted him to do.

"I want you all to stay on alert especially for any movement out the windows," Robert said. "We don't know if Burke came alone or not. My guess is that he did because Burke typically works alone. However, it looks to me like Tom Gelding's patience is wearing thin. It's not like him. Not generally." Robert thought a moment and then smiled. "You know that this means, don't you? It means we're getting to him. He's actually frustrated with us. He's been trying to kill Khaat for months and months in order to upset me and thereby get revenge. This means he's getting really ticky about this whole business, and that could put us at an advantage. It could be, that if we continue to persevere, Tom Gelding will make a mistake. Perhaps a big one. And that might work out, not only for Khaat, but it migh talso work out for the organization as well. And that is something that I truly would enjoy. "

Meanwhile, upstairs, Brian had helepd Khaat freshen up with a shower and a shampoo to wash away all traces of being attacked. So far, Brian hadn't said a word to her. Not like what she knew he wanted to say. She got out of the shower and wrapped a large fluffy bath sheet around herself. He'd done her a favor and drawn out another pair of jeans and a soft flannel shirt in a pink plaid for her. "Thank you," she said softly.

"Khaat," Brian said, going over to her and running his fingers through her wet hair. "I know how badly you want Felix Barker. I do too. But don't run out there alone. Don't go without me...." He felt her bristle.

"Brian," she said, "There is not one bone in my body who feels able to risk you. I didnt' want to feel again. Didn't want to care about anyone ever again. Not ever. But I do care about you. Please don't ever ask me to sacrifice you." He held her and kissed her softly and slowly.

"Okay," he said quietly. "But you can't ask me to surrender you either. We agreed. We went into this with eyes wide open. We can't go back. Hang with me, Khaat. Trust me. We're so much stronger together than we are apart. Take me with you from now on. Please." She looked into his eyes. There were few people she trusted more.

"But what if..."

"We're not going to think about that. We're going to stand up to this and be the warriors we are. It'll be alright. Okay? I know you're scared. You have a right to be. But you don't have the right to give up." She thought a moment and nodded. "That's my girl. You ready for some tea now with me?"

"My head hurts," she tried to shake her head gently.

"Here,"he said, laying a hand on either side of her head and drawing off her pain. "It won't last forever. You really will have to take care of yourself. You could very well develop a concussion from this. You know that."

"I was hoping we weren't going to go there."

"We have to," he laughed, putting his arm around her waist. "Come on. Let 's go make a fire in the fireplace so you can dry your hair and get warm." He led her back downstairs.