LONDON CALLING

Jess nodded to Brian " if we need you we'll send for you, go home and relax, sleep well." she told him and watched as he aperated back to the farm. She was happy he was going to get some rest. She noticed Michael stood out side now changed and chuckled as she too walked out her jacket wrapped around her shoulders.

Jessie and Jack walked the boundry only seeing one or two wolves at a time. " there doing their patrols" Jack explained as they walked.

"have you always been able to talk to animals?" he asked and saw Jack shake his head.

"nope, it was Robert and Jess that brought it out, guess it was my talent but when I got bit by my brother it was supressed, comes in handy now though." he said with a chuckle Jessie looked around the grounds and felt how peaceful it was.

"this is a realy peaceful place, I see why Robert chose it to build his home here." He said Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"Have to ask him about it, talking of that I do hope hes sleeping." Jack looked abck at the house and saw Michael and Jess stood looking over at them as they continued walking." could be a peaceful night if Gelding leaves us alone long enough."

Inside, Kate went into Abbey's room and tucked her in. Abbey was in a sound sleep, but Kate went in and kissed her goodnight anyway and made sure to cast just one more spell to seal the windows tight in her room. The thought had drifted through her mind of what she would do if Gelding came here to claim Abbey. She wanted no chance of that tonight. Robert had reminded her once how very important it was to keep it secret that Abbey's magic had showed itself so early. He wanted only amongst the little team of people they had around them to know because that sort of early magic was such a rare thing in the wizarding world. He was highly aware of how very valuable a prodigy like Abbey could be for Gelding. If he ever got hold of her, she would go for top price. Since he had put that in Kate's mind, Kate never went to bed without sealing Abbey's room from any potential for harm. Once she tucked Abbey in, she dimmed the lights in the house, and she went to bed herself finding something healing and right with the world in being able to go into her own room and get into bed beside Robert. She curled tight to his good side and went to sleep.

"I've always liked the night," Michael said quietly to Jess. "I agree, with you. I can see why he likes this place, too. There's a sense of sanctuary here, I think. It's interesting, don't you think, the little hodgepodge of people that we are? We're an odd blend of folks that are unlikely to have become friends otherwise and yet, he's assembled us into a rather elite squad of fighters that can do some pretty impressive things."

He sat down on the steps and looked up at the stars.

"We'd better take advantage of the peace and quiet now while we have it because I completely expect that by daybreak, when he wakes, he's going to be up and trying to be at it. He's not going to be as ready as he wants to be, but he's sure going to do his best to give it hell. And speaking of daybreak, I think I'll take Faline and the pups home for a couple days, and then I'll bring yours back to you as soon as they're weaned. While I'm out, is there anything we need for breakfast? I haven't looked to see how well Kate is stocked on groceries, and we have a bigger bunch of folks here than Kate normally keeps food for. Brian keeps the estate well stocked, but Kate's never needed to do that here. If there's something we need, I'll pick it up while I'm out. Then after breakfast we can either move everyone over to Brian's, or we can make a better shopping list for here, one or the other. Whatever works best."

Jess nodded in agreement then chuckled at his use of the word hodgepodge. " I think your right , but I also think our diversity is why we work so well, nobody steps on anothers toes." she said watching as he sat down. " I agree, I won't seperate young ones from there mother." she told him " oh I haven't had a chance to look ij their cupboards yet." she said " I'll make a list ebfore you go". She saw Jack and Jessie return and breathed a sigh of relife" its aleways nice when I know there safe, that includes every one." she smiled warmly at him.

" oh boy those wolves can run" Jessie said some what out of breath " I think a ten mile hike is like a jog to them" he lend on his knees breathing in lung fulls of air while Jack laughed out loud.

"oh come on, you use to do more than that in the marines, right?" he asked and Jes simply nodded .

"not done anything like that since leaving, im thinking I should get back to my marine scedual again." Jess laughed and nodded moving to place her hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe you should to keep up with this lot." she told him as he stood upright then looked to Michael. " I'll go and look if they need anything and give you that list." she told him passing him and going to the kitchen. On opening the cupboards she sighed and shook her head finding it some what stocked, fridge was another matter. She took out a pen and paper and began laming a list.

"Well, before you get all excited to leap back onto your old routine, you have yet to be exposed to Robert's new routine," Michael said. "You've been doing Brian's workout, and that's fine, but give it a day or so, and I'm sure Brian can get both you lads going on it." He looked at Jack.

"Robert hasn't had a chance to tell you yet, has he?" Michael asked. "He's been working on a new course--not the obstacle course. This is a new demon he's calling the Endurance course. He said he's not done something like this before. He says the obstacle course is to train for flexibility, but the endurance is designed to extend how hard we can go and for how long we can do it. If I know him at all, this course is going to be just plain evil. I've seen Brian when he's got back from doing it, and, well, I can tell when he comes back that it's a challenge even for him, so this could be interesting. Maybe we should hope Robert needs a few more days for his shoulder after all."

Jessie and Jack bioth looked at Michael and were stunned " something worse than the assault course?" Jack asked. He listened as Michael carried on talking and groaned sitting down hard on the grass as he heard more about the new tougher assault course.

"I just got use to the old one" Jack said in a soft whine. This made Jessie laugh and Jess chuckle as she walked out with a list for Michael.

"Okay heres that list, don't stress over it too much." she said handing him it along with some gold to pay for it all.

Jessie sat next to Jack and lay down. Both now wondered what this edurance assault course had instore for them.

"Thank you," Michael told her. "I'll have it here before you even think about trying to start cooking breakfast without me. And, now, since I'm planning on being up in just a few hours, I'm going to big you all goodnight."

He looked in on Abbey, and he found someone had let the puppies out of their carrier. All the puppies and Faline were curled up on Abbey's bed, snuggled tightly to her, and were all sound asleep. He was tempted to take them all and put them back in the carrier, but since all seemed peaceful, he decided to let it alone for now.

He stopped briefly at Robert and Kate's bedroom door, opened it just a wee crack, and saw they were sound asleep, looking comfortable enough. He closed the door again, went to his own room and settled for a few short hours.

He was up again and dressed just four short hours later. He gathered up the dogs and went into the kitchen. He made full pots of fresh tea and coffee so they were ready for whoever got up first, and then he took the dogs and apparated out.

Robert was up not long after Michael and he was cleaned up and dressed--well sort of. He was wearing a comfortable old pair of jeans and a soft white cotton button down shirt. He'd done away with the sling for now, the pain relief spell and potion worn off during the night. He left Kate still sleeping and went into the kitchen and found someone had made tea and coffee. He poured himself some coffee into an insulated mug with a lid and headed out to the barn and started in with the morning chores, having the farm animals and Kate's always growing menagerie of creatures that needed feeding first thing in the mornings. But wrestling buckets of feed was not an easy task with one hand, and his bad shoulder, no matter how he tried to just muscle through it, was not going to let him use it.

Jess and KJack woke and dressed knowing Jessie would be ready to head to meet Kaden after he'd washed and changed. Jess walked out to the smell of fresh coffee. " morning Michael." she said poring some tea from the pot. " Jack you should releve Jessie " she sugested "while I make morning Raspberry, almond & oat breakfast cookies." she said taking out the ingreidiants and began to make them. She took out 2 ripe bananas , mashed 150g porridge oats 2 tbsp ground almonds, 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon and 100g raspberries fresh from Kates Garden.

Jack finished his coffee and headed out to find Jessie who he'd seen at the barn petting one of the hippogriffs. " all quiet?" he asked and Jessie nodded.

"yep, checked around the perimiter and all's quiet, even the wolves asre being quiet for once." he said and yawned.

"okay go get some coffee and get going to see that man of yours" Jack said chuckling as he saw the tinge appear on Jessies cheek as he moved to the kitchen to get that coffee .

Michael made quick work of dropping off the dogs and of getting everything on Jess's list and several things that were not but were always good staples to have on hand when feeding a group. And one of the things he had particularly included were several slabs of beef ribs to put on and slow cook for American style barbeque ribs. They were best if they were cooked for hours at a low temp. "Low and slow" was the best way to fix them. And he knew how to make a good barbeque sauce to baste them with. They were almost always served with a good cole slaw, roasted ears of corn, sometimes chips (what the Yanks called 'fries'.) It was a good meal for a crowd because so long as the fire was maintained at a steady low temperature, it virtually took care of itself.

"Got your list and then some, Jess," Michael told her, flicking his fingers at the shopping baskets to cast an unpacking spell. "And I have dinner tonight already in the works. That's going to be mine to do tonight. Give me a moment, and I'll give you a hand with breakfast." He went down the hall and saw Robert and Kate's bedroom door ajar. He peeked in and saw that Kate was finishing dressing hurriedly, and he didn't see Robert anywhere.

"Kate? Where's Robert?" Michael asked.

"I don't know. When I woke, he was already up and gone," she was upset and felt a need to find him quickly.

"Calm," Michael told her steadily. "I'll find him. Give me a few minutes. This is his time to be in the barn. He is a creature of habit, if nothing else. I'll wager he's there doing his chores."

"He's an idiot if he is," Kate was angry. "He can't muscle those big buckets of feed. He'll rip the incision open."

"I'll handle it. Let me check the barn, and then I'll let you know." He left her and went out to the kitchen. "Jess, have you seen Robert this morning?"

Jack had seen Robert enter the barn and hurried to help him " need a hand " he said taking the bucket of feed from him "You know you should be resting" he said poring out some feed to each animal. " or at least let me help" he placed the empty bucket down and picked up a pitchfork ready to muck out the stables and place down fresh hay. " so what do ya say?" he asked " ready to let some one else do the chores?"

He started to muck out the stables throwing the old hay into a barrow to take out side to a large compost heap. once done he swept it washed the floor and then added fresh hay watching as if in aprechation the hippogriffs lay down and let him move to the next stall. "so whats after this?" He asked " oh Michael said theres a new assault course, the endurance he called it, Brians doing."

Jess took the bags from Michael and nodded " yep you got everything on the list, thank you" she said placing each in its respective place in the cupboards. "Oh please, these buscuits are a bit more involved than I thought." she said noticing teh large ribs and other meat and smiled " Jack will love you for those." She smiled rolling out the bicuit dough and cutting it into bucuit shapes befor putting them in the oven to cook.

"I know how long you lot went without sleep, so when you finally all got the chance to sleep, far be it for me to wake anyone up," Robert said, trying to explain the need to be up and about. "I really had hoped I could manage it with my good hand, but it really is a pain in the arse to do it that way. So, yes, your help will be much appreciated."

"You've done a find job," Robert told him for his help with the hay and the stalls. "I've got some of the feeding done, except for the other outbuilding, where Kate keeps her other creatures. There are a number of birds there and some other miscellaneous things. There's a note on each cage. There's a walk in supply cabinet that has food and clean bedding and whatnot. I normally take care of that, but I'll send Kate out, and maybe you can give her a hand to get it finished." He listened when he heard Jack mention the endurance course.

"Oh, that," Robert said. "That's not Brian's doing. That little business is mine. Jack, it has occurred to me that if this shapeshifter is, in fact, working with Gelding, then any sort of skirmishes we have could last longer than we've had to muster up for before. And, since she's been on the farm, if she caught a glimpse of Abbey and recognized that she's a metamorph, then Gelding will most certainly want to try to get his hands on her. You and I both know how very rare it is for a toddler to show any traces of magic this early. He would get obscene amounts of money for her. We have to be trained up and ready because I don't really know what sort of trick he'll try next. I just don't want us unprepared. It's one thing for him to try to come straight at me. That's what the business at St. Mungo's was last night. He had every intention of catching me by surprise and overpowering me, but, thanks to you lot, he failed. But I'll be damned if I let him come after anyone else."