A new member,

It had been several days since Jacks date and he had still not stopped smiling. Now he had to get back to work. He dressed in a light suit and shirt and black shoes then headed to the kitchen for breakfast he smiled seeing Jess already sat reading the local paper and drinking her usual cup of coffee.

"Morning" he said and kissed her cheek before grabbing a cup for himself. He had just taken a sip when a letter appeared on the counter in front of him. He looked at Jess who just shrugged and looked just as puzzled as he did. Opening it he found a letter from Robert asking him to come to Brian and Khaat's home. he felt something else in the envelope and tipped it up. A small port key dropped into the palm of his hand.

"better not keep them waiting" Jess said as she stood up and kissed his cheek as she headed to the living room. " I'll be here when you get back."

"Okay and its my turn to get dinner in." Jack said as Jess chuckled and waved him to go. Jack held the port key in his hand and thought about where he wanted to go.

Jack appeared in the living room of Brian's home and stood waiting ether for Robert of Brian to explain why he'd been asked to stop by before he went to work.

Kate had come early to help with Abbey because Khaat and Brian were both scheduled to work today. She understood that a couple of new recruits were to be starting. She was just carrying Abbey out of the dining room after breakfast when she saw Jack.

"Oh! Good morning, Jack," she smiled.

"Hi, Goggie!" Abbey said cheerfully waving at Jack.

"She'll get used to you," Kate said, trying to apologize without embarrassing Abbey. "We have a lot to learn at this age, but she isn't afraid of you, so I think it's all good. Help yourself to tea in the kitchen. It's that way." She pointed him towards the kitchen. "Brian's here somewhere. He'll be here in a moment, I'm sure. Abbey and I have some berry pancake syrup to wash off, so make yourself at home."

A couple of moments later, Brian came downstairs, dressed for work, and he found Jack.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I think I got my owl from Robert probably at the same time you did, and if I know him, he didn't give you much of an explanation of why you're here, did he?"

Jack smiled at Kate when he saw her and chuckled at Abby. " Its fine, I'm taking it as her nickname for me." he said and chuckled nodding as Kate mentioned the kitchen. Walking in he saw Cookies and fresh coffee. Now with cokie and coffee in hand he saw Brian walk down to greet him.

"yeah just said something about being here and not to go to work just yet." He said and showed him his letter " oh and it had the port key for here." He said showing him the key. as he finished the cookie. " um..do you have any idea why he asked me to come here?"

"Well," Brian began, picking up a manila folder off the counter, "maybe." He opened the folder and read it. "Here's my instructions about this. 'Hire him.' That's it. That's the instruction." Brian laughed and showed him the yellow sticky note from inside the folder. "And of course, he's included all our standard paperwork for you to complete. Perhaps, before we do that, you ought to know exactly what you're getting yourself into, don't you think?" He poured himself a mug of tea and motioned Jack to follow him back to the living room.

"I think you probably know the most obvious parts of Robert's story. His brother was Remus, and Remus was friends with Sirius Black, Harry Potter's parents and the other original members of the order. There's more to the story, though. After Remus and his class graduated from Hogwarts, they became aware of wizarding children who were disappearing. Kate and Robert and the rest of them all banded together to try to find a pair of siblings from Hogsmeade, and their work took them to Paris, of all places, where they were able to find the beginnings of some people who were making money from muggles by 'providing magical services' to muggles by 'loaning' them wizarding children. Robert and his friends made a pact to rescue all such children in need for so long as the need existed. They formed an organization and recruited others they could trust to help them find and bring back these children and reunite them with their families as often as possible.

"Angus--the man you first met at Jess's--works for us in Paris, but he's going to be starting here today in charge of my house. It's a big estate, and I have too much to do to do all of that. I train aurors but I also run the operation in Paris now. Robert and Kate own it now because they're the only original members left besides Michael Tremaine, whom I'm sure you'll meet in due time. But--I need Angus here. So he's coming on board from Paris, and that means I need another man who will float between here and Paris as I need. And Robert has decided that man needs to be you--if you're up for a challenge.

"What I can tell you is that the pay is excellent. It's how I've made a healthy portion of my money, but, with a pay like that, it also means the job is not without significant risk. And--it is also not open for publication who you work for or what you do. We only discuss that with each other. For me, it gives me a sense of connection and family and purpose. I think you have all the makings of someone who will fit well, but that, of course, is up to you. I know you have a lot of questions, so I'm going to just let you ask away. What do you need to know?"

Jack saw the file in Brian's hands and frowned worried he'd done something wrong but when Brian started to talk he listened and smiled as he continued. Once he'd stopped Jack looked to him and spoke " I'd be honored to be a part of what ever it is you do, I owe you all my life." he said Taking the file he glanced at each contract and signed each one then slid it back to Brian.

"besides the only person I talk to is Jess, and I'm guessing she knows about this?" he asked knowing she probably did seeing she was long time friends with Khaat and Brian. " If I did I would be betraying Jess and I'm never going to do that, I like her a lot..I might go so far as to say I love her too much to betray her." he admitted to Brian

"Knows about what? The organization? Yes. Knows about you're being hired? Not precisely but she may guess it," Brian said. "I didn't know myself until about the same time you did, although I did think Robert probably would hire you. That was just my own thoughts." Brian took the papers and looked them over. "Thank you." He put the papers in the file. "Welcome aboard." He took the gold necklace from around his own neck and handed it to Jack. "You're going to need this." The necklace was made from an old gold doubloon, and it was hanging on a gold chain. It was something Brian had had for a long time. Yes, there were more but this one had been his from the beginning.

"This is more than an ornament," Brian said. "It's a portkey to the office in Paris. It also identifies you as one of us to the other members. I understand Michael is working on some other things for us, but I don't have them yet. When I do, I'll get them to you. Keep the portkey that Robert sent you, and I'll get you one to the farm. Your job could include missions to help us rescue kids, or it could include providing security to any member of the organization if needed. A man like Robert has many friends, but he also has many enemies. And I will tell you his first priority is always going to be his family and the people he loves. So he is always looking for allies and people to stand by him for the greater good. You're welcome to come here any time and use the training course to hone your skills. You'll find any of us are good training partners, even Kate.

"Robert trained all of us because he wants us to be able to defend ourselves, and we all have slightly different skills. So, if you're looking for a partner, don't be shy about asking one of us. Angus will be here later today, so if you have time when you get off work, you're welcome to stop back and have him give you the tour of the estate and the house so you know your way around. And I'm sure Kate would give you a tour of the farm any time you're both free to do it. I'm sure I'll probably take a run when I get home today, so you're welcome to join me for that if you want. I am scheduled to work later, so you'll probably be off before me. Angus would run with you, though, and you could butter him up about more cinnamon rolls." He flashed a grin at Jack.

Jack listened to Brian and breathed out when he said it was most likely Jess knew about the organization. " that's good because I wouldn't want to keep secrets from her." he said and watched as Brian took off a medallion and held it out to him explaining it was their way of tell that they were part of the organization. " well just tell me when you need me and I'll be there." he said slipping on the medallion around his neck.

He could not help but chuckle at the mention of the Cinnamon rolls that Angus makes " Oh, yum will he be making more?" he then looked out the window at the assault course. " oh I will be making good use of the assault course too,I should tell you I'm not one to sit on my laurels for too long." He smiled at Brian. .

"I'm presuming he could be persuaded to make cinnamon rolls. I'm sure Abbey is going to love them, and if it gets her to eat something besides berries, I'm all for it. Honestly. That child is going to become a berry. In the Paris office, he makes some sort of pastry every morning, so it's hard to say what routine he's going to develop here. It's going to be busy, that's for sure. It's a good thing you don't rest on your laurels because there aren't many laurels here to begin with," he laughed.

"Oh, before I forget, you might want to make sure you have a few pair of black jeans and black shirts or black sweaters and black shoes. We have come to call it mission wear here but since we do a lot of missions at night, we generally dress in black when we go out simply for obvious reasons to deter from being seen, unless there are special circumstances that dictate otherwise. You might want to leave a set of those clothes here, and we can store it downstairs with some of the other missions equipment. Mission wear also is something that can and does get damaged pretty easily so, even if you didn't have the full moon issues, you would still not want to rely on just one set, I don't think. And a black jacket wouldn't hurt either. Watch out that you don't get clothes that make a lot of noise though. It's hard to be stealthy if your clothes are making noise."

"This from a man who's wife wears stiletto boots on mission work," Kate laughed, coming back through without Abbey.

"Where's Abbey?" Brian asked.

"Upstairs with her mother, playing in her scarves while her mother dresses."

"You realize I never told Khaat to wear stilettos anywhere, right?" Brian returned.

"I realize, but I also realize you have absolutely no control to make her stop wearing them either," Kate said, proceeding on through the kitchen.

"It's true," Brian said to Jack. "I can control an international corporation and I have no control whatsoever of my wife's shoes."

Jack stood and listened he knew Tobias would have added those to his wardrobe already. " well, just in case Tobias didn't get an inkling about this happening, I'll send word and the money to him so he can send over the gear, as for the jacket I already have one." he said showing Brian the black leather jacket he'd picked up from Tobias's store the day he'd gone and replaced some of his clothing.

He smiled at Kate as she entered the kitchen and listened to the banter between the two of them. " If i have learned anything from Jess, shoes to a woman is important, shoes and Coffee." he said with a chuckle." Its good to see you again Mrs Lupin" he said formally hoping she would see the medallion around his neck and know he truly would do no harm now.

"It's good to see you too," Kate said. "And you're right, Jack, shoes are important, and Khaat is amazingly agile on those spikey shoes, but it doesn't make Brian feel any better, I'm afraid."

"No, it does not," Brian said. "It certainly has never been approved for aurors."

"That doesn't mean the Ministry is right," Kate replied.

"You're taking her side?"

"No," she said, "so don't get touchy...."

"Daddy!" Abbey came down the stairs shouting for her daddy, and since she was still awkward on stairs, Brian went up and picked her up and brought her down, and she was clutching Khaat's two most expensive scarves, Brian was certain.

"Where's the fire, Pipsqueak?" he asked.

"Daddy, Mama says gimme cookie! I want cookie!" she said excitedly.

"Your mama said to give you a cookie?" he frowned. She nodded excitedly, bouncing up and down in his arms. "But you just had breakfast."

"Gimme cookie. Gimme cookie!" she repeated.

"This might be the issue," Kate laughed, pointing to the scarves.

"And she tells me not to bribe her," he rolled his eyes. "'Don't spoil her,' she tells me, and then see what she does. 'Gimme cookie.'"

"No!!" Abbey scowled. "Me cookie, not you!"

"Wait til you have kids, Jack," Brian said sarcastically. "It's a just all sorts of fun." Kate went into the kitchen and brought a small cookie.

"Abbey, give me the scarves, and I'll give you the cookie," Kate said. Abbey surrendered the carves and took the cookie.

"Down, Daddy," she squirmed. "Down. Down."

"Fine," Brian said, putting her down. "She's independent, just like her mother. I think getting more clothes from Tobias is a good plan, Jack. And that jacket should serve you well when it starts to get colder. Did you see about a new wand yet?"