He had first noticed at home. Some signs from their pre-wedding planner time were starting to come up again. Hannah was starting to become more frazzled, and he'd gotten to the point where he asked her questions twice because she never heard him the first time.

But it was when Blaise got an owl from the bakery saying that Hannah was driving them up the wall with wedding stress that he knew something needed to be done about it. After making sure the potions needed for the rest of the day's clients were finished and labeled, he closed the lab early and made his way to the bakery.

He didn't see her in the front, so he walked over to an employee. "All right. Where is she?"

"She's in the back with the dough," Sunny said in a whisper. "We're all tripping over ourselves to make deliveries today even though that's mostly Argyle's or Angelina's job."

Blaise snorted. "Don't expect her here any today or tomorrow. She's going on a little vacation," he responded as he headed towards the back. "Hannah?"

Shanti slammed out of the back waving a finger and cursing in Hindi.

"Chienne," Hannah shouted in Italian.

"Hannah, come on," Amy said. "Seriously. This is getting ridiculous. Why don't you take the rest of the day off. Go to the spa or something. Take Grace to the park. Kris will be back soon, and she and I can handle it."

Claire had her back to them and was furiously filling owl orders without looking. She was concentrating as hard as she could to be invisible.

Blaise's eyebrows shot up. "This is past ridiculous." He marched over to Hannah and pushed away the dough she had been kneading and started to remove the apron. "We're leaving."

"What? Blaise? What are you doing here? I have work to do. Stop that."

Claire yelped when Amy grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out front to leave Blaise and Hannah alone.

"You and I are going home and locking ourselves in the bedroom. I'm tossing all the wedding planning things into my study and locking it so even Draco can't get it for you. You are driving everyone around you, including me, up the bloody wall. It's time to relax a bit so you can think and work with a clear head."

Blaise finally got the apron off of her and didn't care if there was flour on his suit. He wasn't going to be wearing it for much longer anyway. He started to drag Hannah to the back so he could apparate them out of the bakery.

"No, There's too much to do. I can't just leave. I have a responsibility."

Blaise ignored her. He pulled her out of the back and apparated them to their rooms at Zabini Manor. Hannah shoved back and slapped at his arm weakly.

"I'm going to run you a bath, and you are going to go in there and relaxing, damn it. You're going to start pulling your hair out soon if you don't. You're not perfect, Hannah. You can't do everything yourself. People are trying to help you, and I wish you'd let them." Blaise sighed as he took off his jacket and threw it on the bed. "I know you want this to be perfect, but if you keep going about it the way you are, you're going to ruin it for yourself."

Her bottom lip gave a little tremble.

"I just want everything to be nice."

Blaise sighed. "It's going to be nice, Hannah. You think I haven't been paying attention, but I have. We only have a few months left. Try not to lose your head over it."

"We have two months, Blaise. Two. I've barely gotten any RSVPs. I don't know how to plan the menu. The dress isn't ready yet. I've owled them. My final fitting was supposed to be this week. I might have to sic Pansy on them. Then your exes keep coming out of the woodwork, and some psycho is owling me saying I won't be attending my own wedding. Over my dead body I won't be at my own damn wedding!"

Hannah let out a huff of air and sat down.

Blaise was making a mental checklist in his head as Hannah let off some steam. He'd ask Pansy to visit the dress shop. Owls were all fine and well, but personal visits were much more terrifying. If Ella even attempted anything and tried to ruin the wedding, Blaise would ruin her career. And this business with the stalker was going to end soon. No one would harass Hannah like that.

"Did you check with any of the house elves about the RSVPs? They do check the owl post that comes through when we're not here, you know. Did you ask Kris or any of the other girls who might be speaking to you at the bakery? Who cares if no one shows up. You know my family will, and our close friends."

"Well, I want to have enough food for everyone. I want people to have a good time. I don't want what everyone recalls of our wedding to be that there was not enough food and Draco made his trousers light afire then explode off."

Blaise grinned. "I've already gotten that covered. Remember how Father works with charms? He's promised to put the most potent fire-repulsion charm on Draco and his clothes. He could try to set himself on fire and there wouldn't even be a spark."

Hannah smiled at him. "How is your father?"

She really liked Blaise's father. He was the complete opposite of how Blaise's mother had been. Calanthe had not accepted her at all. Alessandro hugged her every time he saw her. Blaise's sisters popped into the bakery all the time now. They even liked the Stewarts they had met so far. Hannah knew in her heart that Calanthe would not have. Hannah was surprised she had even had Blaise.

Then again, he'd been leverage. Which made Hannah want to bring the old witch back to life just so she could kill her again.

"He's excited for us. There's also another Zabini female that's going to pop into existence right around the time of the wedding. Aunt Sabrina's oldest daughter is due at the beginning of July, I think. He's also wanting us to come to that massive family get-together. Do you think you'll be up for that? It's towards the end of May."

"If it's the last weekend, we can bring all the children. Speaking of, will you be coming with Kristen, Grace and I to meet James, Sarah and Mina at King's Cross? They come home on Friday the 29th."

The dates worked. Cecelia had mentioned there were Zabinis still in school until mid-May.

"Of course I'm coming. I had so much fun last time," Blaise said with a smirk.

"You are not to hex any children."

He gave her this look. Then he went in to run the bath.

"Will you get in with me," Hannah asked.

She knew it had not been that long, but it seemed like ages since she and Blaise had 'played'. Just the prospect was making her a bit giddy.

"If you can live without some girly-colored bubbles in there with us!" he shouted.

"One of these days I am going to do something that will make you not care what color the bath bubbles are. You'll be in there with me regardless."

Blaise chuckled. "Like hell you will. There are no pink or purple bubbles in these taps. I kept the yellow solely because you're a Hufflepuff, and you'd probably cry if removed them."

"Like I don't know how to acquire bath bubbles." Hannah leaned against the door frame. "You do know the bridesmaids' dresses are pink?"

"I think I showed great foresight on my part when I got your engagement ring with pink in it. I know your favorite color is pink. The bridesmaids will be in the pink dresses. Everyone else is sitting on pink seat covers. I will not have anything pink on me. Ever. Bubbles count."

Just for kicks, he turned on the tap he rarely used because Didly hated to clean out the black stains on the tub, but black bubbles came spilling out of the tabs. Blaise nodded, pleased with himself. "Ready for your relaxing bath?"

"Black? Black bubbles? I think not. That smells like licorice. I'm not smelling like something from Honeydukes. I despise black licorice."

Blaise turned around so she couldn't see his grin as he started to remove his shirt. "Fine. I accept your affinity for the color pink and you won't accept my love for the color black. I guess I'll just take a bath all by myself."

"It's licorice though," Hannah said, pouting. "You don't understand. I got sick off of black licorice and cauldron cakes after my first Hogsmeade visit. I have never cared for them since. Just smelling black licorice often makes my stomach roll."

He grabbed his wand and cast an air-clearing charm before turning the taps off. He went to the closet in the bathroom and grabbed a random scented bubble bath.

"Here. Now you'll smell like..." he looked down at the bottle and made a face. "Freesia? I own freesia bath items? Well that's certainly very manly."

Hannah giggled. She was mostly pleased with his doing that for her.

"Well, you are very pretty. I'm surprised you don't have something that smells of orchids."

Hannah shrugged out of her clothes deliberately slow. He never seemed to mind that she was unkempt at times or had flour on her. Or that her day undies were white cotton. That was probably what pleased her the most. He seemed like he would care, but when it came right down to it, he didn't.

"I probably do in here somewhere." Blaise made a face as he looked back at the closet. "Who knows what the house elves put in there."

Blaise removed his trousers and his pants. He was about to get into the tub before Hannah before turning around and giving her a kiss. "Think you can forget about the wedding for a full 24 hours? I plan on keeping you to myself for a bit."

Hannah chewed her bottom lip. That was a tough one. There was so much to do. Then again, she hadn't had Blaise to herself for a full day in a while.

"Someone will have to let Kristen know. She was out of the bakery and she'll need to get Grace from Finn."

"I already told the girls at the bakery not to expect you for the rest of the day or tomorrow. We're covered. Hell, we could even keep Grace home tomorrow. That way you'll have something to pre-occupy you tomorrow."

Hannah raised a brow. "You aren't planning to occupy me?"

He kissed her again. "I was joking. I'm more than okay with Finn picking up Grace earlier than normal."

"I think you should take off from the clinic and kidnap me more often."



{SUMMARY} Blaise is informed that Hannah needs a de-stressing. He sets out to do just that.