It had been a minute or so since the doorbell rang and Jenna had disappeared to answer it, and Hudayfah was now becoming concerned that she had yet to return. He excused himself from Faris and Tamer, and made his way to the foyer coming to a halt as he spotted his wife, and her brother.

"Muhsin?" he asked in disbelief, and the man grinned.

"Hey Hud!"

Hudayfah took a step until he was standing behind Jenna.

"Look Jenna, its Muhsin," he glanced down, "with suitcases." He turned to whisper in her ear. "Why is Muhsin here with suitcases!?"

"I don't know." She whispered back, and Hudayfah straightened up, eyeing his brother in law.

"Woah looks like I'm late to the party!" Muhsin glanced around at the group of men, "where is your butler to take my things?!"

"We don't have a butler," Hudayfah said through clenched teeth, "what are you doing here Muhsin?"

"You invited me bro!"

"I did no such thing!" Hudayfah exclaimed, and Muhsin rummaged around in his pocket until he produced a ticket.

"Bam! Hand delivered to my house yesterday!" he exclaimed handing the ticket to Hudayfah. Hudayfah took it, and glanced at it, before his eyes widened.

Omar's ticket!

In a flash he had pinned Muhsin to the wall.

"Where is Omar?!" he hissed into his ear.

"Hudayfah!" he heard Jenna gasp behind him, but he didn't relinquish his hold.

"Who?" Muhsin asked a bit hoarsely as Hudayfah was pushing on his windpipe.

"Omar. The guy whose ticket you took!"

Muhsin gagged slightly, before pushing on Hudayfah's hands.

"I didn't take anyone's ticket! I'm telling you, this was delivered to my house yesterday!"

Hudayfah slackened his hold slightly.

"By whom?"

Muhsin shrugged.

"I don't know. I'd never seen the guy in my life. But I swear I'm telling the truth! You can call and ask one of my sisters, both were there!"

As Hudayfah let go of him completely, he felt Jenna put a hand on his arm, and he glanced down at her face, her eyes wide, regretting that she saw him lose his composure like that.

"Ahem," he stepped back, straightened out his jacket, and slipped an arm around Jenna's waist. "So you just decided to hop on a plane and fly across the country?"

Muhsin shrugged again.

"I thought Jenna was just missing her favorite brother."

"You're my only brother." Jenna muttered and Muhsin laughed.

"So who is going to show me to my room?"

Both Jenna and Hudayfah stared at him, their eyes wide, their mouths open.

"What?' Hudayfah eventually asked, and Muhsin nodded.

"Well yeah! You wouldn't make family stay at a hotel would you!?" he didn't wait for them to answer before bounding over to the middle of the group, a few eyebrows raising as a few of the men recognized him.

"Hudayfah I swear, I had no clue he was coming."

"I know, I'm just wondering how he got that ticket." He said a bit absently, following Muhsin with his gaze.

Soon Rana came over, her eyes on Muhsin as well.

"Who is that?" she asked a bit suspiciously, and Jenna sighed.

"That's my older brother Muhsin."

"Ah," Rana gave the briefest of glances at Hudayfah, making Jenna wonder if she knew about what had brought them together. "Hud, can I talk to you?"

Hudayfah nodded, and skimmed a hand down Jenna's arm.

"I'll be back in a minute to introduce you to everyone." He said with a smile, walking to the side with his sister.

"What is it Rana?"

"My friend called me back from the lab," she said, her face grim.

"And?"

"It was laced with Ricin."

Hudayfah felt his stomach sink.

"What does that mean? Is it lethal? Is there an antidote?"

She nodded.

"It is lethal depending on the dose. The dosage was pretty high, and I know it was intended to kill him, but because he weighs so much, Alhamdulillah it won't kill him. As for the antidote, it has only been tested on humans a few times so it is going to be hard to get my hands on it."

"Money is no object." Hudayfah said and Rana nodded.

"I've already made some calls, InshaAllah it will be here in the morning. Cost a bundle. But we will have to really watch him, his symptoms are going to get worse. Vomiting, he's going to be delusional and feverish. We have to make sure he keeps drinking water even though its going to be hard for him to keep it down."

Hudayfah nodded, and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'll speak to the boys now after I introduce them to Jen."

Rana's mouth quirked up in a smile.

"Jen?"

Hudayfah colored slightly.

"Shut up."

Rana laughed, and nudged him gently.

"I'm going to go try to force Rami to drink a glass of water. I'll take the first watch."

Hudayfah nodded, before walking back towards his wife.

"Ready to meet everyone?" he asked and she nodded a bit nervously. "What's wrong?" he asked, and she gave him a small smile.

"I'm nervous they won't like me."

"They'll love you." He took her hand in his. "Come on darling."

*** Darling.

He had called her darling!

She stared at her feet as he pulled her towards the middle of the room and whistled for attention, wondering if he realized what he had said.

Darling.

"Everyone? Everyone I want you all to meet my wife." He shouted, and as the room quieted down, and everyone turned to look at them, she flushed slightly. "Everyone, this is Jenna."

"Salaam Jenna!" all the men cried in unison, forming a slight circle, and Jenna had to laugh. They sounded like a bunch of schoolboys greeting their teacher.

Hudayfah pulled her arm, coming to a stop and pointing at the first man.

"This is Hassan, Ramzy, Farris, Khalid, Tamer, Bilal, Shareef, Mohammad, and my cousins, Jafar and Ali. Jafar lives on Long Island and Ali goes back and forth for his job."

Jenna nodded her head as Hudayfah said each man's name, and they in turn all said salaam.

"It's nice to finally meet you Cousin Jenna." Ali said cheerfully. "We were so disappointed there would be no wedding in Egypt. Weren't we Jafar?"

Jafar nodded.

"It was indeed disappointing." He said, and Jenna smiled.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet all of you. I am very glad to see how many good friends Hudayfah has." She said with a smile, and Hudayfah pulled her closer to him.

"As you all have no doubt noticed, Rami is not here to welcome you."

"I figured he was at the gym or something!" Farris shouted and as a chuckle went through the room, Hudayfah winced slightly.

"I wish that was true. But the fact of the matter was he got shot yesterday, and is now suffering from poisoning."

There was a shocked silence through the room as everyone exchanged worried glances.

"Is he going to be okay?" Ramzy asked, and Hudayfah hesitated before nodding.

"InshaAllah I hope so. Rana is doing everything in her power, but the antidote won't be here until tomorrow morning. That means we have to take turns watching him tonight and making sure nothing dire happens to him. Rana is watching him now, but let's divide up the rest of the night.

*** Jenna sat up as Hudayfah entered the room, watching him carefully. He seemed distant and slightly out of focus, and he had started to remove his clothes before realizing she was awake.

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't see you were up." He said hurriedly buttoning up his shirt again and she blushed slightly.

"No problem. What took you so long? It's one in the morning."

He sighed, and began to walk towards his closet. A few minutes later he reappeared in his pajamas before crawling into the bed next to her.

"I just had to go over some things with the boys. Why are you still up?" he asked, and she smiled shyly.

"I couldn't sleep without you next to me."

He smiled, and brought her hand up to his lips before yawning.

"Well let's get some sleep."

As they lay back down, she stared at the ceiling, wondering if she should bring up the fact that he called her darling. It could have been a fluke. Just a slip of the tongue, and she would just embarrass both of them by bringing it up. She would just leave it be, and see if he did it again.

"Whatever happened to Muhsin."

"He retired to the downstairs guest room hours ago." He mumbled sleepily, and she propped herself up on her elbow looking into his face.

"What are we going to do about him?"

He shrugged, and gave another yawn.

"I don't know. Let's talk about this in the morning."

They slept for two hours, before she woke up with her usual nightmare, and he turned towards her a bit sleepily, pulling her against his body, and wrapping his arms around her. She nestled into his chest, and he kissed her forehead, before laying his head atop hers.

"I'm here darling." He whispered, and as she wrapped her arms around his, she felt her heart speed up.

Darling.

*** He slipped into the room, the knife he held in his sweaty hand almost slipping from his grip. The house was quiet, they had just gotten out of a meeting with Hudayfah, and everyone had gone to sleep. He glanced at where Rami was laying on his bed, twisting and turning in his sleep, and where Rana slept in a chair near his bed.

It would be so easy to take both of them out.

Just one quick slit of their throats, and no one would figure it out for another few hours. He would be long gone by then.

He glanced down at them again, tightening his grip, poised over Rana, ready to strike her. She would have to go first. Rami would be too delirious to realize what was going on even if he did wake up. He stared into her face, a face that he had known forever.

A face that he used to have a crush on when they were in high school.

A face that didn't deserve to die because of his greed.

But he couldn't afford to risk Jamaal's wrath...

He inched closer to her, freezing as he bumped into the side table next to Rami's bed, causing it to rattle slightly.

He held his breath as she stirred, and by the time she had opened her eyes, he had hidden the knife up his sleeve.

"What's going on?" she mumbled softly, and he cleared his throat.

"It's my turn to take watch. Go sleep Rana."

She smiled, and stood up.

"Thanks. Wake him every half hour to make him drink water, and if he starts to vomit, please get me immediately."

He watched her as she left the room, sitting down in the chair she had vacated, staring at Rami, before putting the knife back in its sheath.

He couldn't do it.