LONDON CALLING

Kaden agreed with the young woman. He accioed a cold pack and placed it behind the mand head. On hearing the younger man was called Jessie he looked up at him then to the other men in the room. One of whitch had spoken. Brushing down his trousers he only then spoke " Kaden Phoenix Whittemore, I just transphered to St Mungos, If your Brian Quinn this genteman must be Robert Lupin, the gentelman I had an apointment with, its nice to meet you mr Quinn." He held out his hand for him to shake.

"He will heal with rest and time, but please do not let him near any explosives again." he said with a slight joke in his tone.

"If you wish reasurance, I am more than willing to stay and observe him threw out the night so you can sleep, I have to send word to the head nurse to let her know so she dosn't think I ran away, I was sceduled fror the night shift so would still be doing my job." It was now the younger of the men walked over with a cup of tea for him. " oh thank you" he said smiling as he took the tea.

Brian shook hands with Whittemore.

"You're right. That is Robert Lupin," Brian answered. "I'm sure he'll be right as rain, and probably before any of us want him to be. He does not know how to stop or slow down. Nor does he know how to take any sort of orders. He never has. Robert knows how to lead, but I don't think he knows how to follow worth a damn. You're welcome to stay, of course, if it doesn't leave St. Mungo's too short handed. I suppose they could send a message and call you back if they need you."

"I doubt anyone will sleep until he's conscious," Khaat said. "Brian, we have enough people here that we shouldn't have issue with levitating him and floating him to the bedroom, should we?"

"No. We'll be fine," Brian said. "I should think Whittemore and I can handle it ourselves and get him to bed. With a little luck, he'll sleep for a change."

"Well, that's the other issue, isn't it?" Khaat said, annoyed. "He's exhausted. Badly sleep deprived. Its got his entire body in an uproar. I should ground him here and home and off work for a few days until he gets some rest." Brian sighed.

"Save yourself the effort of the paperwork, my pet," he replied. "He won't listen anyway." He looked at Whittemore. "Robert is a chronic insomniac. He's been up for days. Probably what caused all this, actually. He does try to sleep, but it just doesn't work. If it goes much longer, we'll get him a proper sleeping potion, something in a strong variety. A normal strength usually doesn't help him."

"I've got a sledgehammer in the barn," Kate said sarcastically, frustrated and angry with him for worrying her. Brian and Khaat laughed out loud.

"Now there's the Kate that we all know and love. I dare you to put that sledgehammer beside the bed and see how long it takes him to notice when he wakes," Brian told her.

"Don't tempt me," Kate said, thinking it might just make her point if she did.

Kaden nodded to Brian " of course" he said and listened to Brian's wife talk he knew her to be Khaat but since they had not been introduced he was polite in calling her Mrs Quinn. " Mr Quinn, shall we?" he asked before gently levitating Robert up to his waist hight, the younger man moved to the other side walking with them and clearing anything that could get in their way out of it.

"Hes a useful, man to have around." Kaden said as they moved " may I ask his name?" he just wanted to know out of politness. Soon they entered a narrow corridor and Kaden paused feeling his clustraphobia start. But a warm hand on his shoulder made him pause and take a dep breath. Looking back he saw the young man. "Thank you, narrow passages and corridors set my phobia off." he said moving again towards a bed room.

Now stood in the bedroom Kaden manovered Robert to the center of the bed while Jessie pulled back the covers and removed Roberts shoes so they could lay him down. " there he should be more comfortable now, as for the insomnia he could try going to bed and wake up at the same time every day, relax at least 1 hour before bed, for example, take a bath or read a book, make sure his bedroom is dark and quiet – use curtains, black out blinds, an eye mask or ear plugs if needed, I know he exercise regularly during the day, also he could make sure his mattress, pillows and covers are comfortable." he said not knowing what else to try. " theres also Valerian root or even try chamomile tea before bed."

Brian helped move Robert to his room, and while Kaden was removing Robert shoes, Brian flicked his wand and transfigured Robert's clothes to a pair of dark blue knit sleep trousers and a blue long sleeved tee shirt and then he pulled the covers over him.

"This is Jessie Tyler," Brian introduced them. "He works for me. Tyler, this is Kaden Whittemore. You've got some good suggestions Whittemore. I don't know how many he's tried, but we can ask him later."

Khaat brought in a stack of ice packs and hand towels to wrap the ice packs in, and Brian took them from her.

"I'll get it," he told her softly. "Thank you. How are you?"

"Fine," she said. "I should be used to this. I think I'll go down and see if I can clean up the weapons room."

"Wait. Don't go down there without me. You don't know if there's still any magic powder running amuck. I'll go with you in a moment. The bottom line to all this is that he has to sleep before we can be sure he's not going to make another potentially costly mistake."

"I'm sure he'll be very aware of that when he wakes," Khaat said. "He takes everything so seriously."

"Well, maybe that's the problem. Maybe he needs to lighten up a wee bit."

"The only one who can get him to lighten up is Michael," Khaat said.

"Then we send for Michael in the morning," Brian said.

"No, no. You should know that isn't how you deal with Michael. You send for Michael tonight and let him decide when he's coming," Khaat said. "Or someone will catch holy hell for certain." Khaat left the bedroom and went out to the living room. "Jack, will you pop over to Michael's and root him up and tell him what's happened? I don't know if he'll come with you or not, but he'll let you know."

Brian looked at Whittemore. "I think I should go with Khaat when she goes downstairs, just to be safe. I'll leave Jessie here with you for a bit, in case you need something. We'll try not to be very long. Is there anything you need before we go downstairs?"

Kaden nodded to Brian then turned to the young man who he now knew as Jessie " as long as Jessie dosn't mind, then nether do I, and I have everything Thank you." he said. A bigger man he knew as Jack walked in behind Kate and then nodded.

"I'll go right now" Kaden heard him say in a gruff voice then aperate out. Kaden pulled a chair next to the bed and picked up cold pack to put on the back of Roberts head. Jessie would you mind lifting his head slightly" Kaden asked and waited while he did just as he asked. "Thankyou." then he placed the cold pack under and agenst the back of Roberts head. Jessie placed Roberts head gently back on the pillow and stepped back.

Kaden sat down " so how long a were?" he asked seeing Jessie look suprised at him. " you and Jack, is it have the same gruffness in yout tone but yours is ..softer as if you grew up with out it but then aquired it." He watched as Jesie sat down in a chair opastie him.

Jessie spoke carfully to Kaden not knowing if he could trust him fully but something about him calmed him inside.

Jack aperated to Michaels home and called out " Hey Michael, you around." he called out " Roberts been hurt Khaat wants to know if you could come to his, I think shes a bit shook up I know Kate is, hey you here?" he shouted again.

Michael was just cleaning up the dishes in the back garden where he had grilled himself a steak and a potato. It had been chilly outside, but the steak dinner had been lovely. When he heard Jack shouting and saying something about Robert getting hurt, it got his attention straight off.

"Snidely, get the dishes to wash themselves up, would you?" Michael shouted, dashing back into the house. The hat rack scrambled out to the back garden to shoo the dishes into the kitchen sink.

"What the hell happened?" Michael asked, frowning, as he picked up his cigarette case, went into his study and made quick work of refilling the cigarette case, pocketing it and snatching up his lighter. "Do I need a weapon, other than my wand?"

Jack hadn't told him if Robert had been attacked or what had happened, so Michael didn't know if he needed to help fight someone off or not. And he could understand everyone being rattled. Robert as the one that kept things stable and solid, and that had been rocked. Michael could try to add some stability perhaps.

He opened a desk drawer and found a 10" Italian stiletto blade. It slid nicely into the holster with his wand. Better armed than not, he decided. Coming out of the study, he met Snidely who handed Michael his brown lambskin jacket. Snidely was right. It was chilly, and it would be even chillier apparating. He had clothes stashed at the farm and at Khaat's so he didn't need to pack anything more, not that he knew of.

Jack saw Michael and breathed out "No, no weapons, he was doing something with explosives, knocked himself out and burned his face and eyes, a guy from St Mungos and Khaat have been looking after him but Kates worked her self up over it and Brian feels having you there would calm her. let me put it another way she also said something about a sledge hammer by the bed for when he woke up, so yeah" Jack told him.

Kaden listened to Jessie and nodded " Its tough but your with the right people, im new to all this myself, hogsmead and St Mungos and all that not magic, I was born with it my mother and father both have it, only child you see." he saw Jessie nod "So being an only child I was , yes spoiled but at the same time taught all I needed both in hogwats and after, and befoer you ask no no girlfreind or wife."

Jessie chuckled at the last part that Kaden had said " Im suprised by that, guess though no time what with trainning and all" Kaden nodded " same here with Marines recovery no time." He saw Kaden look towards the sound of aperating and chuckled again " thats probably Jack and Micheal knowing him he'd want to make sure for himself everything was okay."

Kaden relaxed a little. " its nice when theres people who care about you around." He said softly " I have seen patiants come in and stay for weeks and not one relative comes to visit them, I make a point for those to sit with them for an hour or two so they know some one cares for them even if its not their own familys"

Jessie nodded " and thats what makes you a kind and caring person." he said and thought he saw a slight pinkness creep on Kadens cheeks at his words.

"So, basically, he was a git," Michael said. "I might help her find that sledgehammer." he was teasing, but he could completely understand how Kate was feeling. Kate was strong, like iron, but it took someone as strong as iron to be married to someone like Robert. "Alright. Let's go." He was ready to apparate out when Snidely shoved a paper bag into Michael's hand. Michael didn't even look in it. He just drew his wand and apparated out.

He landed in the kitchen, and the first thing he saw was that the coffee was on, and so were two pots of tea. He opened the bag and saw Snidely had sent a couple slices of fudge. He put the bag on the counter and went through to the living room and saw Kate there, trying to look cool and calm and collected, but he knew her. She was trying too hard. He went over to her, and she turned just in time to see him as he wrapped himself around her in a strong hug. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest, feeling strong relief washing over herself. Neither of them said a word for a long moment.

"How badly is he hurt?"

"Concussion, bumps and bruises," she said softly. "Still unconscious."

"How'd he do it?"

"I don't know exactly. He was tinkering with something in the weapons room and blew himself up," she said. He frowned.

"What the hell was he doing?"

"Haven't the foggiest," she said.

"We'll figure it out."

"I'm glad you're here," she said softly. "He can't keep going like he has been. You're the only one he listens to when he gets like this. Talk to him when he wakes, will you?"

"Of course," he said. "Where is he?"

"In his room," she said. He led her to the kitchen table and lowered her into a chair and brought her a fresh cup of tea.

"Sit and breathe and drink your tea. I'll be back in a little," he said. He went down the hall and into the master bedroom. He saw Tyler there and another bloke he hadn't seen before.

"How is he?" he asked them.

Kaden looked up and stood up as a man walked in he'd not seen and asked how Robert was doing " well, his vitals are stable, but theres not much else we can do till he wakes." Kaden told him. " I'm Kaden Whittemore, a nurse from St Mungos." he said " hes a lucky man he could have been hurt worse." He saw Jessie stand up and walk to stand next to him.

"Kadens just staying as a percaushion, but I think our hike should wait till Roberts awake." Jessie sugested to Michael. "Kadens just staying the night to watch him should anything..untoward happen." Kaden nodded.

"We'd do the same if they were in the hospital too." Kaden explained " no major trama just things we can't assess till he wakes, but from what Kate had said he could sleep some time, especialy with his level of insomnia."

Kate couldn't stay seated. She was too restless. She followed Michael down the hall and simply stood and listened.

"He won't sleep," Michael said. "Not willingly, that is. This will rattle him when he realizes what happened. He'll be more than a little upset by his own mistake. You lot might have to leave that to me. I know a sleep potion that may help, but it isn't used all that often. And I'll have to go get it because it isn't the sort of thing Robert will keep in the house. Any objections to a sleep potion to help him finally past the insomnia so he can rest?" He looked at Whittemore.

"Go get it, Michael," Kate said calmly. "He can't go on like this. Even if we don't use it tonight, this has gone on for days. We need to have it here for when we can get him to take it."

"He's had it before without incident," Michael said, "when he and I were in Italy together after a difficult mission. It's been a few years but I have no reason to think it wouldn't work now."

"Then go get it," she said. "Will you be gone long?"

"No, probably not," Michael said. "But I need to go see Lee for it. As I said, it isn't used very often."

"Then take someone with you," she said. Michael looked at her skeptically. No one was going to leap at the chance to go to Washington at this hour. It was in the wee hours of the night there right now. Only someone crazy would come with him.