"Gon' have nightmares," Maggie murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're gonna be close, right?"

Marin's smile was a little sad, knowing that nightmares were the least of the fears re-awakened by the day's events. With luck, Cal would forget as quickly as he had experienced it, but Maggie would always be afraid of fire and the men who set it.

"Course we are," he assured her gently, as he lifted her into his arms and got to his feet to follow Marin to the bedroom. "And I learned a spell for keeping away nightmares. You wanna learn it?" he asked, though he'd really learned no such thing, but whatever little white lie helped her feel more secure was worth it. He wondered if there was a charm or something to keep nightmares away. It was something worth looking into.

Maggie nodded, trying not to yawn and give away how tired she really was. "Does it work even if you're not magic, like us?" she asked hopefully, glancing ahead to watch as Marin eased Caleb down into the middle of the big bed that was normally reserved for their parents only.

"Yep! It's 'specially for folks who ain't magic, like us," he replied, waiting for Marin to get Caleb settled in before tucking Maggie in beside him. "All you do is close your eyes and think about your favorite things. Think about all the folks who love you, and try to see a picture of them in your head. Think about sunshine and flowers and horses," he suggested, starting her out, waiting for her eyes to drift shut before touching a kiss to her forehead. "May the dream fairies keep all your nightmares away and may you only dream of happy things," he whispered, tapping her nose three times in succession. He was making it all up as he went along, but he hoped it gave her a little comfort.

Maggie sighed softly, cuddling in next to her brother as their father wished her off to sleep with happy thoughts and pleasant dreams, smiling as she drifted slowly into the deep oblivion that only children can truly enjoy.

Marin smiled as she leaned against the end of the bed, not daring to offer a kiss of her own in case she roused the newly sleeping girl. "Sweet dreams, my little darlings," she whispered to their children fondly, absentmindedly rubbing the bruise on her hip from her athletics earlier that day.

Evan seemed reluctant to leave them, even to move a few feet away, watching them in their sleep as if he was afraid they might wake up screaming in terror at any moment. "What kind of man hurts children?" he asked, quietly, though he wasn't really expecting an answer. This was the second time he and Maggie were living this nightmare, but thankfully, this time the tragedy had been averted.

"The cowardly kind," she murmured softly, content to wait until he was ready to leave the children asleep for the time being. "The kind who sends men to do his dirty work for him and thinks he can intimidate a grieving daughter into selling her body and her land with it."

Evan clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth, just barely withholding a growl at the reminder of what both Rogier and Dobson had done to or tried to do, if it had not been for him. "Rogier was behind this," he said, his voice dripping with loathing, though his voice was a hushed whisper. He tucked the blankets around both daughter and son, and leaned down to give them both a soft kiss.

"Who else would want us so broken?" Marin murmured sadly, easing from her lean to slip out through the open door and into the room beyond. She hadn't really allowed herself to think about what had happened, or the implications of it, moving from one capable solution to the other until this moment, when there was nothing left but to think on it.

Evan, too, had wanted to think on how things could have ended, but thankfully hadn't. They had come far too close to disaster. But for the grace of God ....if there even was such a being, he thought to himself. He hovered over their children a moment longer before following Marin to the next room, knowing she was going to need some comforting and reassurance of her own. "Mare," he started as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's all right. They're all right. Dobson is dead, and I'm gonna make sure Rogier never hurts anyone again."

She breathed out shakily, leaning back into his arms, enveloped by his embrace. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I should never have let them out of my sight. He wouldn't have got to them if I'd just kept them under my eye. I'm so sorry."

"Shh," he whispered, forgetting the anger and hatred for a moment, so he could focus on soothing his wife's undeserved guilt. "It ain't your fault. They're kids. They should be able to play on their own land without us worrying about some ....someone trying to hurt them." That wasn't the word he'd wanted to use for Dobson, but he didn't want the children to wake up and overhear their father cussing either.

She twisted about, wrapping her arms around his waist as she leaned into him. "And I forgot that stupid gun, too," she muttered. She hated the thing, but Evan had trained her how to use it. "As soon as Sam mentioned Dobson, I just ran. I knew where they'd been playing, I needed to see them, and ....and he was already there."

"You wouldn't have been able to use it, anyway. Not with the children so close," he reminded her, though it had inevitably been a bullet that had taken Dobson's life, but not by her hand. He could have blamed himself, too, for arriving too late, the barn already in flames, but there was no point. It was no one's fault but Dobson's and, beyond him, Rogier. It was just that simple. "He's gonna pay. I promise you that."

She nodded, forcing herself not to cry. Evan didn't deserve to have to deal with her tears today as well. "Bill says Sam didn't know the truth," she told him. "Mr. Hale will have told him as much as he knows, too. Perhaps we can put Sam in Rogier's place, and have a neighbor we can trust."

He wouldn't have minded if she cried; in fact, he would have understood and was half expecting it. "Seems the logical thing to do. Just a matter of how and when," Evan agreed, even if it took him calling the man out for a duel and putting a bullet between his eyes.

"We don't have access to a lawyer until the roads clear a little," she said quietly, drawing him down onto the couch to sit with her as they talked it over. "Mr. Hayes would see to it all, I'm sure. I am fairly certain he was the solicitor who took custody of the original deed and will, too."

"A lawyer," Evan echoed with obvious distaste and doubt. "You really reckon Rogier will submit himself to a trial?" he asked, dubiously. The man was as slippery as a salamander and had more tricks up his sleeve than a magician. No, there was only one way to put an end to Rogier for good, but it was a bloody one.

"We're going to do this right, Evan Lassiter, or another one just like him is going to pop up out of the ground and make life hell for us all over again," Marin told him firmly. "The law is with us on this, we should make use of it. Send to the Watchhouse on the river for a sheriff to take evidence and arrest Rogier."

He would have had other plans for her, if they both weren't so tired from the day's events and if there weren't two exhausted children already taking up space in their bed. "I ain't proposing anything, but I have been wondering what you might think about the prospect of having another baby," he whispered, nudging his nose playfully against the side of her neck.

She smiled, tilting her head as his nose and breath teased her throat. "Missing the cuddles from babies too small to escape, sweetheart?" she asked him teasingly, turning her head to touch her nose to his as her fingers played through his hair.

"Would you laugh if I said yes?" he asked, admitting to having a weakness for children, the smaller the better. For such a gruff-seeming man, he was a sucker for children, as evidenced by his own son and daughter. "We could adopt," he suggested, knowing how close she'd come to tragedy when Cal had been born. There were plenty of orphans in Rhy'Din who needed good homes, after all, and it would be a way for them to help someone less fortunate than themselves.

She was relieved to hear him offer that alternative. Despite her initial dismissal of how seriously Cal's birth had affected her, as the years passed and their children grew, Marin was more and more aware that pregnancy carried too many risks for a woman of her stature. She had almost died the first and only time she had given birth. It was not a scenario she wanted to repeat. "Maybe we should talk to Cal and Maggie about it before we start looking into the whole thing," she suggested. "Find out how they feel about having a baby brother or sister. But ....I know what you mean. I actually kind of miss the broken nights, in a way. But I'd never put you through that with me again. It was just too close to a line I might not be able to cross again if I have to go."

"You've made me a very happy man, Marin," he assured her, not wanting her to think he was ungrateful or unsatisfied with the two children they had. Marin had accepted Maggie as her own child, and Maggie has blossomed under Marin's care, and Caleb was growing like a weed, but he wondered if they didn't have room in their home and their hearts for one more. "I don't wanna risk losing you again. That's why I haven't mentioned it, but Cal ain't a baby no more, and if we're gonna have another, we should probably do it sooner, rather than later."

"I'd love to have another child," she confessed softly. "I haven't wanted to say it, because I didn't want you to think that I'm not happy with you and our family - I'm very happy. But ....another child would be lovely, and good for the kids, I think."

"Let's sort out this mess with Rogier first, and then we'll see what Maggie and Caleb think about having a little brother or sister," he said, suggesting a sound plan of action. He doubted either of their children would be against the idea, but it was only fair to find out for sure before they made a decision that would affect their rest of their lives.

"I think you have yourself a deal there," she smiled, brushing her lips to his in a gentle, tender kiss. "I love you, Evan. Have since the day we met. I love our family, great and small alike. We'll make it work, once the immediate crisis is out of the way."

"I have no doubt," he replied, touching another kiss to her lips, a soft smile on his face. "I love you, too, Marin. Always have, always will. Question now is ..." He glanced toward the bedroom where two small children were peacefully sleeping and snoring a little. "Where are we gonna sleep?"

She giggled softly. "On either side of our children, in that huge bed you laughed at me for buying a couple of years ago," she informed him sweetly. "Doesn't seem like such a silly frippery now, does it?"

He chuckled at her question. "Reckon not," he replied, moving to his feet and pulling her up with him. "Shall I tuck you in, Mrs. Lassiter?" he asked, smiling softly at her. Despite the day's excitement - or maybe in part because of it - he was feeling closer to her than ever before.

Lifted up and set on her feet, she grinned up at him. "Let's see if we can get in there and ready for bed without waking up either of the angelic monsters," she suggested laughingly. "If we can, then you can tuck me in."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a small chuckle of his own, as he led her back toward the bedroom to get into their bedclothes and sneak into bed without waking a soul. For two supposedly full-grown adults, a lot of giggling ensued before they eventually accomplished that task. But giggling or not, nightmares or not, the Lassiters slept well that night, secure in the knowledge that one half of their greatest problem was already in the grave.