LONDON CALLING

Jack finished his own tea and chuckled " great and thank you , means he'll sleep and so will I." he stood up and took the cup walking to Jessie door he knocked gently. Jessie opened the door and jack shook his head " here tea to make you relax." he told him.

"Thanks can't seem to settle after tonight" Jessie said Jack sighed and lent on the door frame. " is this normal?" Jessie asked and Jack shruged his shoulders.

"I remeber I think I freaked out the first time, I think your taking all this realy well." he said watching as jessie drank the tea and handed him back the cup. He noticed Jessie yawn then lay down. With a sigh he chuckled and closed the door softly " sleep well Jessie. He said and walked to the living room " thank you Kate, he's finally asleep." He said smiling as he palced the cup in the washer and returned to his own room with Jess following.

Kate and Robert were up bright and early, and while Kate was making pancakes and eggs and a warm mixed berry sauce for the pancakes, Robert was out feeding the animals. It didn't take him long, and, besides, he had gotten an earlier start than Kate had had with breakfast. He took a short walk to see if he could find any sort of clues left from last night, hoping that in the daylight, he might find something, but he found nothing helpful.

Needing to work today, he realized he was going to have to turn this over to the others. He sent an owl to Michael, asking Michael for whatever assistance he could lend to the situation, and then he went to the kitchen, finally ready to get his first cup of tea for the day.

"I can smell your pancakes," he told her. "They smell wonderful."

"I hope they are. I diced some fresh strawberries and put them into the batter, and then I made a warm sauce with some mixed berries to put over the top instead of standard syrup."

"Abbey is going to love you forever," he laughed.

"Well, I just happened to have an overabundance of berries, so I thought I should use them while they're fresh. Going to St. Mungos today?"

"I am. I'm feeling better, so I really do need to work today. I did send an owl to Michael and I asked him to lend a hand with our shapeshifter. Surely that boggart has taught him something about shapeshifting that might be useful."

"I would hope," she said. "And I'll try to track down the name of that bloke my mum knew. I don't know if that will help us or not, but I'll try."

"Sounds like you'll have a full day," he smiled, watching her stack pancakes on a serving plate and cover them with a cloche to keep them warm while she made another batch.

Jack woke and after showering he dressed then headed for the kitchen " yum something smells good." he said heading to the kettle. " tea or coffee any one?" he asked filling it and setting it to boil. Jessie walked in looking worse for wear. His hair was messy and he looked like he'd not slept.

"what did you put in that tea last night?" he asked brushing his fingers threw his hair to try and tidy it up. giving up he cast a charm that cleaned him up and stood in his suit trousers , white shirt and vest along with black polished shoes.

"Bit of a sleep potion , shouldn't have done anything to you?" Jack told him and looked puzzled at Kate. " should it?" he asked as Jess picked up the cup he'd just filled with coffee. He added suger and a drop of cream and took a sip.

"Na actualy it was quiet refreshing to have a dreamless sleep even if it was short." Jessie looked at Robert out side and headed out to stand with him. "we realy should get Michael to take a look sir" he said stiffeling a yawn as he took yet another drink of coffee. " sorry got to have a coffee before I am fully awake sir." he told him glancing at the ground around them. Trampled as it was he could not see anything out of the ordinary but it might just have been his half asleep eyes.

"Jack, I've got those ham slices ready, but I'm thinking perhaps we could grill them for lunch instead of breakfast," Kate said, "if that's alright with you? I've made a great big stack of pancakes and a big platter full of eggs for breakfast. It's supposed to start storming today by about one. So we could have lunch just a wee bit early so you could grill the ham. Jess and I are going to make some savory scones for sandwiches, so some really nice slices of grilled ham would be just the ticket, I think. And we'll add a big kettle of homemade soup to that, along with some of the cookies that are in the cookie jar. That should hold us til dinner tonight, I should think."

"I'm glad the sleep potion did you good," Robert told Jessie. "I've already sent an owl to Michael, so I expect he'll be around soon enough, most likely by the time we finish breakfast. I did take a look over the grounds already this morning, in case daylight would shed some additional light on what you lot dealt with last night, but I didn't find anything new. I have to go into St. Mungos today, so I'll leave it to you lot, with Kate and Michael to help you. I expect either Khaat or Brian will come over sometime today to check on Abbey, so if they're here, they might be a little help."

"Come get some breakfast, you lot," Kate called them. "There are strawberry pancakes, warm berry syrup, and eggs. If you want fruit, there is still some fruit salad in the fridge. Help yourselves."

Robert and Kate fixed themselves plates with a pancake, some syrup, and a couple of eggs. They decided to let Abbey sleep in a bit since she had been up so late last night.

Jack looked at Kate and nodded " I haven't forgot." he said smiling " I'll get right on that once I've eaten" he took some pancakes and syrup then moved to sit down. Jessie made a plate with eggs and a pancake with a small amount of syrup.

Jess walked in holding Abby " sorry guys Abby woke early and we've been playing. " she said setting her in her high chair. " oh look pancakes with berry syrup." Jess said smiling as she placed some on a small plate with syrup for her. Then she went to fix a plate for herself.

Jessie ate quietly as he thought more about the creature from the night before. " I can port over to Michael's and fetch him if you wish." he asked taking a fork ful of egg and eating it " food delisious Kate, Thank you." he said hoping he could get away for a while to have his tea with Kaden.

"No hurry, Jack," Kate told him. "We've got a few hours before lunch."

"I don't think I need you to go get Michael," Robert told Jessie. "He always responds when I send him word that I could use his help. Kate looked at Robert, and Robert got her silent message. "Perhaps, Jessie, it would work better if you worked the night shift, rather than the day shift."

Robert and Kate had both picked up on Jessie's obvious relationship with Kaden, and they both decided that, essentially, was none of their business. However, neither could they have Jessie getting into a pattern of looking for ways to slip off the farm or the estate during his shift either. Since Kaden appeared to work the night shift, if Jessie worked the night shift, then Jessie might not have such a drive to want to find ways to go into town on his shift. By offering to move him to the same shift that Kaden worked, it might be a better arrangement for Jessie.

Michael arrived as if on cue, and he set a wicker pet carrier on the floor, opened the door, and out stumbled half a dozen tiny footstool puppies in a whole variety of styles and colors, with a shrunken Faline as well. Michael resized Faline, and Robert scowled at seeing six little footstools running through the kitchen and peeing on the floor.

"What is that?" Robert asked Michael unhappily.

"Six little reasons I'm late this morning," Michael said. "And they're all yours."

"Mine? They're not my dogs," Robert said.

"No, but you're not doing anything to help me spay or neuter them either, so as I see it, this batch is yours."

"Over my dead body," Robert said, and as he spoke, an excited Abbey transfigured unintentionally to her puppy form and joined the chaos. Robert rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. Kate looked at Jess.

"As if one toddler isn't busy enough. Now we've got puppies to look after too," she told her.

"So, what's on the agenda?" Michael asked. Kate handed him a roll of paper towels.

"Puppy puddles, and then, we've got to find out how a shapeshifter got onto the farm last night while Robert and I were gone," Kate told him.

"Really?" Michael frowned, now serious.

"Really," she nodded.

"Well, that's not good. Alright. Well, we have our work cut out for us, then."

"We do indeed," Kate said. She looked at Jessie. "Go have your tea and then get straight back."

Jessie looked at Kate and smiled nodding " that would be great, I'll start my first night shift tonight if thats okay." he asked looking from Kate to Robert " sir" he asked.

"Jack chuckled and nodded " yeah we got it...wow!" he exclamed at the small foot stools. " those things realy multiply michael." he said moving his feet to allow them to scamper past and inside the house. This made Jess laugh and pick one up.

"awe, can't we take one home?" she asked and Jack scowled but then chuckled and smiled " yes, our very own footstool pup" she said " what to call you?" then she furrowed her brow " are you a male or female, I can never tell?" Jack walked over and strocked the pup.

"is that okay with you Robert, one less for you to deal with." he said chuckaling as it clambered all over Jess.

"That's fine, Jessie," Robert said.

"And so far, they average about 4 litters a year," Michael sighed. "I'm not sure I really know how to determine gender of a footstool, but so far, the ones with the tassels tend to be little blokes, and the ones without tend to be, well, not blokes." Kate burst into laughter as Michael tried to explain, with some sort of delicacy, the differences he'd noticed in footstools.

"Take two, Jess," Michael said, "They're small. Robert, before you go, would you be so kind as to change your granddaughter back to her two legged form? She might be able to be more help if she can speak English."

"Certainly," Robert said. He picked her up and sat her on the sofa and then fired a burst of wandless magic at her and transfigured her back.

"Well done," Michael said, hoping that perhaps now Abbey might be able to give them some insights that she hadn't been able to tell them last night.

"Alright," Robert said. "Time for me to go." He gave Kate a kiss. "Send for me if there's trouble, my dear." She nodded.

"Of course. Have a good day," she told him. He smiled, drew his wand, and apparated out.

"Jack," Michael asked, "can you take me out to where this all happened?"

Jess smiled gleefully at being able to take two, she took one with tassles and one with out. She knew what would happen eventually but hey she'd love them all the same. Jack looked to Michael and moved to his side . " sure this way." He said and walked him to the flattened ground not far from the back door. " Right here" he told him.

He watched Michael and looked up into the clear sky remebering only the night before it was filled with a light net covering the whole area. The grey clouds loombed over the mountainsand he heard the wolves howl off in the distance. " good there behaving" he said to himself and followed Michael.

Michael went out and walked the grounds, hoping to find something, anything that would be a clue. Two things bothered him. First, how did someone who did not appear to have been here before find an unplottable farm? And, second, what did they want?

"Jack, let's check the protections along the property lines, just to satisfy my own curiosity. Is that alright with you? You up for a bit of a hike? It seems to me that there almost had to be some sort of flaw in the protections for someone to find an unplottable location. I want to know how they got in. My hunch says the flaw is more likely to be along the far side of the property, right on the property line itself. My money says that's how they got in and out again. I think we need to find it, and fix it before we have more company. The spells you cast last night are what are keeping us safe right now, but we need to find the original problem. If we cast a reveal spell every so often, we might be able to see where the issue lies. A reveal spell should cover perhaps the distance of a city block before we'll have to cast it again. Let's see if we can find anything, shall we?"

Michael knew the farm well, so he figured he might be able to spot some sort of problem in Robert's original unplottable spells that might show them how their intruder got in. "

"Too bad we can't work out an agreement with some of those wolves of yours to keep guard for us in the far reaches of the farm in exchange for some meat. That might serve as a handy alarm system, so long as they didn't come close to the barn or the house," he said to Jack as they walked.