Marriage is Murder

Brian opened the door to his quarters and found them all there. Khaat was more relieved than she could say to see he was alright. He went over to her and wrapped her close. He kissed her smudged forehead.

"What were you thinking?" he asked her. "What was so important?"

"I was," the portrait piped up. Brian looked down on the floor and looked at the portrait.

"You," he sighed. He wanted to reprimand her that the portrait was not important, but he'd never get her to agree with that. "You alright?" he asked her, ignoring the portrait. She nodded and he looked at the others.

"You're okay, I hear? And I hear the staff are spoiling the kids already. Good," he said. "That's good. So, here's the plan. Robert sent me to summon and mobilize two teams. One to go to the estate and help put out the fires, secure the estate and start repairing the damage. He's sending the second team to open the farmhouse and equip it and secure it so we can go there temporarily. He's sending for Lee for additional help at the estate.

"As I see it, I think we'll need to camp out here for the night. There will be lots of quarters unused here tonight, so we'll put clean sheets on the beds and just deal with it for the night. There is plenty of food and staff, and I'll send someone out for clothes for us all, unless one of you wants to do it.

"I am just presuming that when the crisis is over at the estate, the rest of us will be coming here. Do we need anything? Did I miss anything?"

Back at the estate, Escobar had been perfectly motionless, watching the werewolf in front of him. He knew it would be far more difficult for James to leave in defeat than to off him. But he didn't want James to know that.

"I say we kill him," Escobar bluffed.

"You don't have enough of an army to do that," James sneered.

"No," Robert said, with Lee, walking up to the scene, standing with Jim and Jack and Steven. "But I do."

"Oh, and believe me, so do I," Lee smiled. "I'm tired of tangling with you."

"You'll never get them here in time," James laughed. Even as he did, wand bursts fired all over the yard as Organization members and Lee's men started arriving one after the other. James frowned, surprised.

"You were saying?" Escobar asked, amused. A female werewolf tugged on James's arm.

"Come on. James--we've got to go. Now," she said. She gave a signal for them to leave. James didn't know who he was more angry with. Her or just losing this battle. He waved his arm in one big angry flourish and ported out with the rest of the werewolves.

Jess tended to Brant who was wincing like a four year old. " ow its not that bad." she said but he winced again and she sighed shaking her head.

"Hey its not your arm being poked and prodded...OUch!!" he said pushing her hand away." enough please." He asked Jess sighed and nodded turning to see Brian enter and head for Khaat. Jess stood up and moved closer to Khaat and Brian.

"Well, sorry but Brant's not going any where, he needs at least two days to heal," she told them " his clavicle is shattered and his shoulders dislocated, normally it would mean his arm would be useless, but I can fix it, slowly." She told them.

Jack glared at his brother but also saw the female tugging at his arm. He could not attack and would not at James words and seeing the men arrive he grinned watching Jame's face. He could not help but curse when he decided to leave. " damn it" he said and struck a tree near by in his anger.

There were certainly easier ways to heal Brant's shoulder but he had never let anyone help him, so Khaat left it alone and let Jess deal with him.

"I...need to go see my kids," she said, needing to know she hadn't lost everything. She left the room and went up stairs to see her children.

"If you're determined to keep him here," Brian said to Jess. "Go see Owens to get quarters for both of you. He'll help you get hooked up with your basic needs. As for me, I need to save my home and my family and get a roof over our heads, get us clothes, and...well, never mind. I'll get it done. Seems like I need to get to work. Excuse me."

He sighed and headed to his office in the Paris office. He hadn't used it in a long time, but it always stood at the ready. Usually it was to save a family--but now, for the first time, it was to save his own.

Jess looked at Khaat then to Brian as he spoke " thank you , it would be easier if he could tolerate the healing potions, but he can't and after the last time he took it, I think its best we play it safe" she told him. She looked back at Brant who struggled to stand. " what do you think your doing?" she asked.

"I'm... going to help. " He said standing on his feet and swayed back and forth. Jess stood up and shook her head touching his shoulder gently Brant cried out and sat back down.

"No your not." she told him as she wrote a note then helped him to stand " I'll join you once hes in bed I can at least bolster the numbers, even if it is a little." she offered feeling she had to do something to help.

Khaat went upstairs to see her kids. They were all being cared for in the third floor ballroom, flooded with toys and loads of attention.  They didn't really even notice she was there.  They saw her, but were so caught up with toys that she wasn't their first thought.

Finding the kids were okay, she went back downstairs. She found Brian working.  "Can I borrow your credit card? I think mine melted," she told him.  

"Going out?" he asked her, looking up.

"Yeah, I think I might. I need to clear my head."

"Marcus isn't here, honey," he said, leaning back. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Fine.  I won't be far. I promise."

"Be careful, huh?" he asked. "I don't want to lose you too."

"You won't."

"I'll hang Remus in our room as soon as they get Brant out of our quarters to something else," he said.  "I know he's not used to sitting on the floor."

"He'd deal with it for the night."

"Yeah, but that somehow feels creepy," Brian laughed. "If Marcus gets here, I'll send him after you. But if you see trouble, just apparate back.  Promise?"  

"Sure," she said.  He handed her the credit card, and let her leave. She couldn't live in a box all the time. Neither could he. He had to trust her sometime.

Jess moved Brant to a small room with a cot in and lay him down sending him to sleep she began to set his bones to heal. " watch him , I don't want him out of that bed or using that arm, if he does...he could damage it " she told a man who stood out side the room.

Walking away from the sleeping Brant's room she saw Khaat leave Brian's room. "Khaat, how are you feeling?" She asked as she walked over. "No side effects from the smoke yet?" She asked seeing Brian's card in her hand. "You know there are a few things I need to get, um..essentials you might say, would you mind if I came along?" she asked " its been a while since...we talked, friend to friend." She hesitated only as she didn't know how Khaat would react. She had wanted to spend some time with her friend.

"Brant's sleeping, if he stays in his bed he'll be find in the morning" she said then sighed and chuckled. " I know him too well , he won't stay put but I'll put Jack on him when he gets here." Jess looked to Khaat. "You think they will be okay?" she asked but inside she knew they would. "No, they will be and they will rebuild the house good as new too."

"I'm fine," she told Jess. She honestly hadn't even paid any attention to the smoke sensation in her chest. It wasn't unliveable. She just rather ignored it because she had more on her mind.

"You can come if you want, but I don't know that I'm really shopping. I just need to get out and clear my thoughts a bit, and since everything else went up in smoke, I figured I ought to at least have a credit card with me."

She listened to Jess comment about Brant. "I'm going to leave Brant to you. I truly don't understand him. He seems to prefer to suffer as to getting help. Sometimes he won't allow anyone to use touch to heal him, in favor of potions only. And this time, he won't use potions. Odd for a potionmaker. But whatever. You do as you feel best."

She stepped out onto the street and the November air felt chilly against her skin without any sort of a coat. She sighed. She didn't have one anymore. Or at least right now. She wasn't going to shop, but she was starting to think that perhaps she needed some sort of outerwear--a coat, a cape, a jacket--something.

Jess listened to Khaat and chuckled " yes, hes a suborn one and it will get him in trouble one of these days." she agreed with her "but I'm introducing the healing potion to his very system slowly so he gets use to it so he won't react as he did that first day." she told her walking with her out into the cold chilly.

"Wow that bites." she said rubbing her arms to keep them warm." look that shop sells coats and scarfs" she pointed to a small corner shop across from where they stood. "Well...no point in us freezing while we look around...right?" She looked to ehr then started to walk over to it.

Khaat followed Jess towards the shop. "Here's the thing, Jess. It doesn't impress me. It doesn't make him smarter, braver, or tougher to give a houseful of healers a lot of jazz when they want to help him. It only makes him less of a team player."

She opened the door of the shop and went in. She looked around for awhile, not satisfied with some of them. She knew what she liked.

She did have a hard time trying them on when she still couldn't use her left arm. One of the clerks did finally help her to find a coat she liked and that fit.

She ended up with a maxi length double breasted military style coat in black wool, with a belt around the waist and a high collar and a full hood.

She let the clerk talk her into a pair of black stiletto knee boots, and a pair of black leather gloves. It wasn't hard to talk her into the boots because she liked them from the start. The gloves, she bought mainly because she knew how insistent Marcus always was about her using them since her feeling wasn't the way it needed to be in her left hand.

Jess chuckled and nodded " yeah, I get that Khaat, I'm not trying to defend him in anyway, but, god I want to slap some sense into him,  it was the same with Jack when I first met him, he'd disappear into the woods for days at a time, but he came around, thanks to Robert, as will Brant and some people have a thing about potions, they just react badly to them so they avoid them as much as possible." She said picking up a short Grey waist length Jacket with a belt, a scarf and matching gloves.

Jess wasn't into flashy or expansive as long as it did its job and kept her warm thats all she cared about. Walking over she smiled at the clerk and paid for her jacket. "So where do you want to go now?" she asked lifting the collar of her jacket to keep out the cold wind.