Tea Time

Khaat had needed to feel that she was back into some sort of groove to her life. As wonderful as the summer had been in Tuscany, she was back now, and she was trying to get her life in order.

Two days ago, her father had nearly killed her. She was coal black more places than she could count, and she had a massive wound in the left side of her chest that went from just within a hair's width of her heart all the way up to the outside of her left shoulder joint. Brian had it massively padded with thick heavy dressings. Part of the wound was an earlier one obtained from a badly gone duel in Tuscany. That part was enchanted to keep bleeding, but Robert was working on undoing the continuous bleeding bit so it could heal. Robert's wound two days ago had almost blown her chest apart because of the prior wound. Now her chest had countless layers of dressings and miles of gauze wrapped around that. And her shoulder was completely immobilized and secured with a sling and a belt around her waist so that it would not move in the slightest.

Brian had insisted on going with her to give Rob the bank card she so wanted to give to him. He had helped her dress in jeans, sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt that warded off the chill of the autumn morning. Brian had draped her favorite old suede jacket around her shoulders and had loaded up the babies in a double stroller. He wasn't letting her go alone. Not a chance.

They arrived at Sparks and chose a table. The place was busy. The only table left was a very large one. The server hurried and brought tea, coffee, scones, and bowls of fresh fruit, with pitchers of cream on the side. The fruit was a mix of peaches and blueberries. The scones came as a large platter of a variety of flavors. There was an assortment of butters, cream cheeses, honey, jams and jellies. Brian made sure Khaat had a comfortable chair and had poured her coffee and had helped her to a scone with butter and honey, and a bowl of the fresh fruit and cream. The babies were sitting quietly in the stroller, babbling and cooing and playing happily. Brian put the stroller between them, and sat at the head of the table, with Khaat on his right. He poured coffee and helped himself to fruit, cream, a cinnamon scone with orange marmalade. He had wanted to get her out of the house to get her some fresh air. He just didn't want her overdoing it.

The autumn seemed to work better for Fauve and Thierry who were used to the chill of Paris in all seasons. They looked healthy after an exertion in the park near Diagon Alley. Rob and Jen had liberated them from the chocolaterie in Paris, managing to convince the possessive Camille that they weren’t going to do anything to the children apart from spoil them for the day. Still the Frenchwoman, who was desperate to prove to Elijah that she could be trusted, insisted she tag along. With that of course came David and Christophe. David was only there to make sure his husband didn’t do anything stupid and Christophe wanted to dress up the children.

So now Fauve and Thierry looked ‘spiffy’ and stylish in the outfits Christophe had supplied. Rob wasn’t going to say anything on the matter but he did think they looked good. Fauve was wearing this emerald green number that contrasted with her hair which had naturally developed a red tinge to it. Not Weasley red but crimson. Thierry had been given a suit to wear but Jen had long since robbed him of the black jacket. He was wearing an emerald shirt and he had a black tie to match the suit itself. They looked spiffy indeed, especially as they walked along beside each other.

Don’t think for one moment that Christophe hadn’t gotten to everyone else, either. Rob had been suited up in something akin to what Thierry was wearing but he’d added his own style to it – ditching the tie and leaving the first couple of buttons open. Jen had been given a black dress with an emerald sash. It didn’t have any straps and was secured tightly around her. Christophe had convinced David to do her hair and so her dark locks fell in curls over her back with an emerald ribbon decorating the very top. Camille had been given a scarlet dress and she seemed thrilled with it. Then, much to David’s chagrin, he and Chris were in matching suits that worked with Camille’s dress. Everything worked but it was a bit in your face; just like Chris wanted things to be.

“Rob I don’t get it,” Thierry said, fiddling uncomfortably with his tie. The seven-year-old looked up at the man and pouted. “We’re not going to meet the Queen!” He protested. “Why do we need to wear all of this stuff?” The child had a point. They weren’t going to meet the Queen; they were going to retrieve Rob’s money. Still, Christophe had decided that it was a good thing to do. He decided that it was a good idea to flaunt the money that Rob didn’t have.

“We need to wear this because none of us want a hormonal Frenchman coming down on any of us, Thierry.” Jen answered the boy with a smile. Thierry laughed and she leaned down to kiss his cheek.
“If you’re finished,” Rob cut in with a smirk. “We’re here so-” Rob didn’t get to say anything else because Christophe had squealed and was already dragging David and Camille inside. Rob’s eyes fell to the paper in the window and smiled. Naturally, the Frenchman would want pastries. “Come on,”

Fauve and Thierry raced ahead of the two siblings and Jen only just managed to warn them to be careful. Rob chuckled and wrapped an arm around his sister’s waist. The two walked inside and Rob caught the back of Thierry’s shirt. He tugged the boy over to him and Thierry pulled Fauve along. The two children laughed with each other and Rob sent them over to the table where he spotted Khaat and...“Brian.” Jen filled in for him. “Family friend,” Rob nodded.

The siblings stopped in front of the table and Jen looked over Rob’s shoulder to see Christophe and David disappear into the kitchen. Camille was talking to someone – someone she knew, Jen figured. She turned back to the two and spotted Abbey in the buggy. Jen smiled and pulled away from Rob, moving closer so she could see. “She’s growing up fast,” Jen commented. “She was as good as gold for her daddy when she was with us. I don’t think she liked Christophe much though.” Jen laughed.

"Its' good to see you all," Khaat said, smiling. They all looked wonderful. And here she was with Brian, and both of them in their jeans. "Sit,"Khaat invited. "There's plenty here." She felt she probably needed to do introductions. "Jen and Rob, this is my new housemate, Brian Quinn," she said.

"Pleased to meet you," Brian said.

"You all look really great. Obviously Chris has been at work," Khaat laughed. "Whatever posessed you to let him go crazy with every one of you? That is sooo not like you, Rob. You don't normally let him have carte blanche like that." She noticed Abbey was starting to get a bit testy all of a sudden. Not badly, just a bit restless. She picked up on it the instant it started. She tried to get a bottle out of the diaper bag, but it made her fumble a bit with the zipper on the bag while she tried to do it one handed. Brian reached over and unzipped the bag.

"Let me," Brian said gently. He reached into the bag and got out the bottle and uncapped it and warmed it magically and tested it. When he knew it was alright for her, he picked up Abbey from the stroller and then looked at Rob. "Would you rather?" he asked. He didn't want to step in where perhaps Rob would rather have the privilege of doing it if he chose, but he did know that feeding Abbey was not impossible but was incredibly difficult for Khaat with her shoulder so immobilized.

“Jen...this suit is itchy.” Thierry complained quietly. Jen smiled and pulled a chair out for him. He jumped onto it and Jen leaned down in front of him. She unbuttoned the first button of his shirt, allowing him to breath, and pulled the tie down slightly. Thierry took deep breaths and Jen laughed lightly. “Better?” She asked. He boy nodded enthusiastically and she sat down beside him. Jen held her hands out for Fauve and the girl went to her surrogate grandmother. Jen lifted her up and put Fauve on her lap.

“Likewise,” Rob returned, being the one to hold up the conversation. He wasn’t happy, Jen could tell, so she cut in. Rob was being an idiot. He had no claim on Khaat yet he was getting angry over the fact that she had clearly moved on. Rob needed a girlfriend or someone to keep him busy. “The alternative is much worse. He’s gotten all hormonal now so you can’t say no to him. He just bursts into tears and starts ranting and raving. Then someone will be on the other end of a particularly nasty stinging hex.” Jen looked thoughtful as she recounted what happened last time.

“Christophe loves to play dress up!” Fauve told Khaat the obvious. “He doesn’t like the dresses my dollies wear though. He came to the Chocolaterie to see me and Thierry! He’s going to make new dresses for my dollies now.” Fauve grinned happily and looked at her brother who was laughing to himself. “I don’t think my Molly Dolly likes dress up though,” Fauve added. “She likes to sleep like daddy.” Jen laughed at this part and covered her mouth in an attempt to sober herself up.

Rob meanwhile was watching Brian with a calculated gaze. The idea of him around Abbey was bizarre and a little bit too much for Rob to comprehend. He was jealous, yes. The little green monster was bouncing around inside his head. He was very jealous but he wouldn’t say a thing. He looked at Brian and combated a scowl. Abbey was bigger, Jen was right. She’d grown. Rob hadn’t really thought about it when she was with them. She was just a child, his child. But she was also Khaat’s. That was why Rob looked at Brian and then at Khaat. “If you don’t mind...” He said to her, hoping she would agree.

"Of course not," Khaat told Rob. "That's fine." Khaat loved every second she spent caring for Abbey, but she had no problem sharing her with Rob. Especially after Rob had gone to such extraordinary steps to save her. She watched Brian as he took Abbey to Rob and handed her over, along with the bottle. Khaat wanted Rob to have a good relationship with Abbey. She just really, really did not want his Knockturn whores to be caring for her or for her to grow up knowing crap about an illegal potions lab. If Rob would just not take Abbey into the dark side of his world, then Khaat was good with it. If he just wouldn't do that!

Brian returned to Khaat and sat down beside her and took a sip from his coffee. Khaat was delighted to see Fauve again. "You are so beautiful," she told Fauve. "You must have grown six inches since I saw you last. Do you think so? I'm sure Chris will make some wonderful dresses for your dollies. Molly doesn't like dress up? Well, maybe Chris needs to make her some wonderful pajamas or nightgowns and some pretty blankets. I used to have a sleepy dolly too, but she was just a baby. My mother made some really pretty baby clothes for her. Maybe Chris will do that. Oh, Fauve, we have a special fall drink you might like. Its hot spiced apple cider. Would you like that or some cocoa? I presume they can have what they want?" Khaat looked at Rob questioningly. She realized she was getting a bit warm with her jacket still draped around her shoulders. She took a hand and cast it off her good shoulder. Brian reached over and very gently removed the jacket from her bad shoulder and hung the jacket on the back of her chair.

She reached in her jeans' pocket and drew out the bank card. She hesitated a moment and then laid in on the table in front of Rob. "I owe you at least this much," she said softly. "Thank you. My father told me what you did. Thank you for being there for her. I..I didn't know. I didn't know any of it until it was over. My father never told me she was gone until the day I came back from Tuscany. Its a long story, and its not pretty. But he told me I was better in Tuscany than to put Abbey in danger by going home to her while Tasha was after me. I had no clue Abbey or Dakota either one had been put in harm's way. You do know that if I had known, I would never have been simply off having a good time in Tuscany--right?"

It felt fabulous to have his daughter back in his arms again. He’d missed that little being falling asleep on his chest every night. Christophe, David and Pierre had stayed after he’d bought Abbey and Dakota. Everyone had spent some time with each other. David liked Dakota a fair bit. He called her a “Dark bit of kit” upon first clapping eyes on her and the two bonded over some bizarre things. Whereas Abbey and Rob, already having their bond, slept most of the time. It was only when Jen stole the child off of him did she remain awake to appease her godmother. One thing she didn’t have to work at staying awake for were stories. Rob or Jen or even Pierre would tell Abbey stories and David and Christophe would recount something bizarre to everyone before they fell asleep. Now he had his daughter back, things felt right again.

He hugged the child close and held the teat of the bottle close to her mouth. She took it without trouble and began to drink, her eyes staying on her father. Rob felt as if he’d not held her before. It was a bizarre feeling. He smiled a little and moved to sit down next to Thierry. The boy looked interestedly at the baby and Rob realised that Thierry had not come into Elijah’s life until he’d left for Paris during the latter part in the summer. Rob showed Thierry the baby and the little French boy smiled. “She’s so pretty!” He said to Rob who nodded, agreeing with him.

Fauve grinned widely at Khaat’s compliment and Jen smiled with the child. “I think so too! Papa said I grow too fast and Robbie says I’m going to overtake Jen,” The dark-haired girl grinned at the woman in question and Jen smirked back at the child. “Molly likes to sleep a lot. I think you’re right, pyjamas would be good for her!” Jen leaned forward and took a pear off of the table. She handed it to Fauve and the little girl smiled again. “Thank you, Jenny.” She sang. “What does apple cider taste like?” Fauve asked Khaat.

Rob looked up when Khaat spoke to him and he bit the inside of his cheek. “I presume so,” He said with a slight shrug. “It’s up to their pappy I suppose...” He looked back down at Abbey until a familiar piece of plastic landed on the table. He looked at it and arched an eyebrow at Khaat, not quite believing her. “He didn’t tell you?” Rob asked. “I thought you knew...” He sighed in irritation and shook his head. “Why the bloody hell wouldn’t he tell you your own daughter has been kidnapped?” Rob paused and took a breath before saying, “Tasha is rotting somewhere now. She’s not a problem.”

"Ah, well, now that's a whole different story," Khaat sighed. "He knew how strongly protective I"ve gotten about the girls. He knew that I would be very likely to just go to Paris and start murdering any and every witch, wizard or muggle that got between me and my girls. And, .." she sighed, "He was right. I would have. I presume he didn't want me spending my life in the Paris wizarding prison. So, he deliberately set Brian and me up not to know. He told us we had to stay in Tuscany because Tasha was after me and that I could not risk Abbey or Dakota that way. He said he had the girls and that they were fine and he was taking care of them. I had no bloody clue. None whatsoever. I used to have repeated nightmares about Abbey, and he would drop in, all hours of the day or night, say something generally pretty cryptic to keep us where we were, blow off my dreams, and apparate out again without actually telling us anything. He and Brian almost came to blows over it repeatedly.

"Then he appeared out of the blue and said it was over and Tasha was dead and it was safe to go home. So, we went home. It was that simple. Brian and I found the stuffed puppy with the bracelet, and I sent to see my father to see how in the world Abbey had gotten that, and that was when he told me she had been kidnapped, auctioned, sold, and had been with you all that time. Honest, Rob, I didn't know. He and I...we had a fight. Probably the worst I've ever had with anyone. I actually fired on him. I tried to off my own father."

"Yeah, well, you got the worst of that," Brian said, a bit soothingly, knowing she would never have harmed Robert had she not been so angry when it had happened. "He's fine. He fired back, remember? And got off a damned good shot in the process."

"Meh," Khaat shrugged slightly. "That's just Daddy being Daddy." Khaat signallled a server and ordered a pitcher of hot spiced cider and mugs for the children. They were delivered in short order and Khaat managed, despite some sharp twinges in her bad shoulder from just movement, to pour each child a part of a mug of cider. If they liked it, they could certainly have more.

"I understand you spent 100..on them," she said, being deliberately a bit cryptic now herself about the card. "There's 150 there. I know you can use it."

Did anyone wonder how much Rob hated his father-in-law? If these people thought for a second that Rob was getting along with the man then they were wrong. He put up with the idiot but it didn’t mean that he liked him. This was out of order though. Not only had he failed to inform Khaat that her own daughter was missing but he didn’t seem to be sorry about it either. He was treating it as if it had just happened and there was nothing else to it. He was right in not telling Khaat straight away. The woman would have killed everyone she could get her hands on in Paris so perhaps it was a good idea to keep her in the dark.

Rob smirked at her admission. If at all possible he liked her even more than usual at the thought of her trying to kill Robert. It was a brilliant concept but Brian’s words made Rob scowl. “Oh that’s the saving grace is it?” He asked angrily. “It’s okay Khaat; he got you back and hurt you more so don’t worry! Yes, we can’t have the great Robert Lupin dead can we? But we can afford to lose his daughter. Shut up you idiot.” He scowled at Brian.

He looked at Khaat and shook his head. “Thanks but no thanks, love. I can earn the cash back somehow.”

"It is yours anyway. Here's the sunshine in that little card, just to make you giggle," she smiled. "We managed to find out the Gelding is paranoid enough that he trusts muggle banks more than Gringotts. Idiot. He thinks that the Ministry would lock up his funds. Which I actually might have done. However, Daddy has a...friend...that is very good with such matters. The bottom line is that Thomas Gelding is stone cold broke. Bankrupt entirely. What you have there is a portion of the returns on that little venture. So, I have no problem whatsoever in giving that to you. Gelding owes at least that much to you. Please--take it. If you don't do anything else with it, then invest in a college fund for Fauve or Theirry or something.

"Rob," she switched gears on him. "We do need to come to an agreement about Abbey. I have no issue with you seeing her. I can see how much you love her. We can work out some very liberal visitation. I want you to be a strong part in her life, and I probably will let you see her pretty much whenever you like--within reason. The only thing I ask is to not introduce her to your 'employees' or to the family business. Please. You and Jen I trust. But I really, really don't want her involved in the dark side of the wizarding world. Do you suppose we can work that piece out? And I don't mean giving me lip service and then doing what you want to do anyway. I mean honestly not taking her into that."

She truly did want Abbey to know her father, but more than that, she wanted Abbey to know what a truly wonderful man he could be. The man that she fell in love with. He was the same fellow who had rescued Abbey and spent every cent he had to snatch her out of harm's way. And the same man who was delighting in the simple pleasure of feeding his daughter. She wasn't sure what had happened that had sort of twisted Rob's brain inside out for at least awhile, but this was not looking so much like the demon possessed idiot that she had been introduced to in May. This man was worth at least an inch of trust, and she wanted, almost more than anything, for her and Rob to be able to come to some sort of amicable relationship. That was still important to her.

Have you ever been somewhere and the realisation of reality has hit you like a punch in the face? Elijah has. His particular realisation was also a punch in the face but one that was reminiscent of Andrew’s in the grounds on September 1st. Thankfully Elijah hadn’t recoiled from it like last time because it wasn’t literal, it was figurative but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t felt it. He’d been in Hogsmeade, in the Hogs Head, enjoying a well deserved drink when it hit him. He was going to be a father. He was going to have this ...this thing that needed him.

You would have thought this would have affected him when Chase had first told him and in a manner of speaking it had, just not as powerfully as now. He’d registered immediately that he needed someone to talk to. He couldn’t sift through everything on his own – he’d go stir crazy! So, Elijah got up and jumped into the fireplace before quickly Flooing to the Leaky Cauldron. He’d appeared, been greeted by the bartender and he’d muttered a “Hello” before diving out of the pub, letting himself into Diagon Alley and setting off at a run.

He needed to find Khaat or Rob or Jen or just someone who would hear him out and listen to him. And he did. He burst into Sparks upon seeing them all gathered around the table, just as Rob was going to say something about his so called ‘visitations’. Elijah heard Fauve yell “Daddy” and he felt the little girl throw herself at him. He exhaled heavily and caught the girl, hugging her close to him. He hadn’t run like that in a while. He kissed Fauve’s cheek and her hair before setting her down on the floor.

She smiled up at him but frowned upon seeing how strained he looked. He looked as if someone had grabbed his legs, someone else had grabbed his arms and they’d both pulled. She stepped backwards, right into Thierry and the boy supported her, stopping her from falling. Elijah patted his son on the head and walked over to where the adults were sat at the table. “I’ve made a mistake,” He said as a way of greeting, the desperation really showing. “And I don’t know what to do...”