LONDON CALLING

Ruby saw him put on his sunglasses and nodded her head " well then enjoy it." she said as they entered the kitchen she could not help chuckle at Edwards discription of Angus and the banter between them both " well I guess that makes you both quite the gentelmen, Jess already offered." she said and moved to the kitchen to make the pot of tea.

"Agreed and Im on it" she told them both as she filled the pot with hot water then let it sit befoer emptying it and adding the tea bags and hot water. Hearing Edward tell Angus not to come down till morning Ruby nodded " I have the kitchen so I'lll make sure some food is saved for you." she set a tray ready to send up to him.

She waited until he was headed up before she breathed out in relif " he will be okay won't he?" she asked Edward " I can tell hes stuborn about showing how he feels.. regarding the dart." she added " and yeah, truth be told I am worried about him, and how the heck do I make his cinimon rolls?" she pulled a face but sat down on a stool to think.

"Thanks," Angus said to Ruby, and then he headed upstairs.

"It does indeed make us both gentlemen of the same mind, doesn't it?" Edward laughed at Ruby's joke. When she asked about how to make his cinnamon rolls. Edward had at least some idea.

"I would ask Michael or Kate," Edward said. "Michael was on his way down from his room, I think. He's made some cinnamon rolls of his own, and they're not as big as Angus's but they're very tasty."

"Angus? He'll be fine," Edward said. "Robert obviously removed the danger from him before Angus got home. It's a good thing he took care of it as quickly as he did. Angus really is in no danger now. He's just going to be achy today, but I expect he'll be better by morning. And, yes, he is rather closed about showing he doesn't feel well. I attribute that more to his parents. They worked hard to provide for the family. Angus is the oldest of five, you know, and his parents always expected more from him than the others simply because he was the first born and the eldest male. I think he got pushed into acting like an adult before he was ready for it, and so it made him rather closed. He came to stay with Caprice and me as often as he could manage to make it happen because when he was with us, he was allowed to be just himself. He'll lighten up again as he feels better. You'll see."

Michael came into the kitchen, and he went straight for the biscuit jar, lifted the lid and took two biscuits from it.

"Oh, good. Kettle's on," Michael said. "Biscuits are getting low in the jar. I might have to make some soon."

Ruby listened to Edward talk about Angus " yes he told me about his large family." she said "For me its just my three brothers,the twins and Jessie, but I guess I know how he feels, I was placed in Hogwarts as soon as I was old enough and always told my brothers would do better, phef I worked my butt of becuse I wanted to and..thank you, I can't talk to my father like this, you probably know about what happened to Jessie when he told our father about his boyfreind. " she said noticing Michael walk in to the kitchen and head to the buscuit jar.

"oh then I should make more" she said to Michael smiling " but could you help me with something though, I was hoping to make Angus cinamon rolls, to kinda suprise him while hes feeling rough." she asked Michael " do you know how he does them?" she looked back at Edward as she continued to talk.

"so why did he get into the werewolf hunting?" she asked " im just curious" she placed the warm pot on the tray and gathered the things she needed to make some cookies. " red berry cookies okay for you?" she asked placing all the dry ingridiants into a bowl and began mixing.

"You know," Edward said, "that really is your father's loss, not yours or your brother's. And some men like that don't realize it until their final chapters. When they're on their death beds, they never are thinking about how much money they've made or all the nice things they've bought. In those last hours, all they can think about is the emptiness around them and the children that aren't there for them to say goodbye to. If your father doesn't figure that out and make amends, then that's all on him, not on Jessie. What Jessie does with a consenting adult in the privacy of his own room is no one's business but his own. It isn't contagious, and it makes him no less a man and certainly no less a fighter. Your father's a git if he doesn't see that."

When Ruby asked about the cinnamon rolls, Michael smiled.

"I know that recipe in my sleep," Michael laughed. "How about we make them together? If we prepare the dough this afternoon, it will be ready to bake off either tonight or it will hold til morning. I think he'd like seeing that someone besides he and I can make them. The trickiest bit about them is blooming the yeast and not killing it, but once you have that bit, then the rest is easy sailing. And, yes, berry cookies are more common here than you possibly can imagine. How about we make chocolate dough and toss the berries in the dough and then do a bit of a free form raspberry icing drizzle over the top as decoration?"

"Oh, that," Edward smiled when Ruby asked about the werewolf hunting. "He learned to do that because it's what I do. He could twist his father's arm into letting him spend more time in Tuscany than in England if he was working. His father believed Angus needed to always be working because he believed work would make a man out of him. I promise you I never put that crap in his father's head.

"So, Angus learned my trade in the magical world and learned my muggle job that gave legitimacy to having an estate in a muggle area of Italy. Our family has a number of private luxury ships that we charter out to muggle elitists with far too much money and who are willing to throw us a significant chunk of it for a 5 star sojourn on the Mediterranean. My son fully intended to have Angus take over running the ships, but Angus, much as he likes sailing, would have none of it as a career. He spent too much time with me for that, and he learned to love adventure through and through. So, his brothers run the ships. They don't have any interest whatsoever in the sort of adventure Angus craves."

Ruby listened to Edward as she mase the buscuits then looked at Michael " that sounds perfect but I'd like to make a batch right awy as I would like to send one up to Angus." she told him as a slight blush crept across her cheeks. Turning abck to listen more to Edward she nodded.

"Yeah, he is, I tend to stay away as much as I can, I only talk to my mom." she told him but listened as he spoke more of Angus and how and why he went into werewolf hunting he chuckled softly and shook her head he said that Angus father belived work would make a man out of him. "its a good heart that does that, and He has that in abundance" she said with a smile. " I will admit I have known a few jerks in my time, and walked away from them all."

Ruby went on to make the chocolate dough by adding coco powder to the dry mix then folding in the eggs and milk. once in a rollable consistancy she cut out the cookies and placed them on a baking tray to cook. Clearing away the cookie things she set about arranging the things for the cinamon roll mix. " okay now the rolls." she said looking at Michael.

"He does have a good heart. He's like his grandmother in that. He adored her, but everyone adored Caprice. Anyway, I like to think he got that from her. I don't mind him following that need for adventure, but I am glad he does not want to hunt werewolves for a living. It can make a man hard hearted, and I would hate to see that rise up in him. For that to happen to him? That would be a stronger toxin for him than any blowgun dart, that's for certain," Edward said.

"Straight away, huh?" Michael said, hearing her say she wanted to send one upstairs to Angus. "You do realize that these are yeast rolls, and the yeast does need time to rise, right? We can try to accelerate the rise a bit. I do know an oddball trick that does work. Won't be in any of your cookbooks, but it does work. Alright, lets' put the dough together."

Rather than putting the dough together himself, he coached her how to do it herself. He taught her how to take the yeast and how to feel the right temperature of the water for the yeast and how to get it to bloom faster by feeding it just a teaspoon of sugar to activate it quicker. Then he showed her how to mix it all up and how to knead it to just the right consistency for the first rise.

"Well done," he told her. "Now it needs to rest until it doubles in size. So, here's my trick. There's a clothes dryer downstairs in the laundry room. Take your dough down there, and set it on top of the dryer. Then, crazy as it sounds, set the dryer temperature on the lowest warm setting it has, and then set it to run for an hour, and turn it on. Go back in an hour, and I think you'll find that your dough is almost double in size. You can add some time to your timer to get your dough up to a proper doubling size. Once its there, then we'll prepare it for its second rise. And that gives us an hour or so to get on to whatever other task you have in mind."

Ruby looked at Edward and nodded " I'd hate to see him become that man, I like him how he is now" she said as she followed Michaels instructions to make the dough. She smiled as he praised her for doing it right. then chuckled as he mentioned the drier. " wow, okay" she placed the dough in a bowl and covered it with a semi damp cloth. " if you'll excuse me gentelmen" she said and carrying it down to the basment. Placing it ontop of the drier she set it going on its lowest setting and headed abck up to the kichen to tidy up.

"Well thats done, cookies should be cooked" she lent down and opened the oven letting out a delishious aroma that wafted around the room. Taking them out she placed them on a cooling wire " now they just have to cool and then top them with icing sugar and berrys or what ever topping you'd like." she chuckled feeling the Bowtruckle shift in her pocket.

"Your pocket is moving," Edward said to her. "What have you got in there? Is that poor little Fudge in there? I haven't heard any crying so he must be napping. I'm sure that much crying wears even a bowtruckle's body to a frazzle. They eat Roly Poly's, you know. I think Kate has Robert cultivating some in one of his bug jars for him."

"So, we could crack on with some supper ideas if you like," Michael told her. "I'll give you a hand if you want. There are a couple of beautiful whole chickens in the walk in. We could roast them in the convection oven and then pan roast some vegetables to go alongside. Or any other ideas you have. I'm sure you're welcome to fix whatever you like."

Ruby chuckled and nodded to Edward " yeah, I followed Angus out to the lean-to and he showed me the animals, this little guy made him self at home in my pocket, so I let him stay."

Jess chuckled and spoke up " I'll fetch some I think its about his feeding time anyway" she said and stood up heading down she found the jar and removed three roly polys placing them in a small jar so she could take up to Ruby.

Ruby nodded at Michael " we could do that for supper, ther all going to wnt a good feed." she said " oh and I like the roast veg to go with it, they et al crunchy but sweet too." she took out teh chicken and whole veg and began to prep them " um..could you do the chicken while I do the veg, please." she asked Michael as she saw Jess return with a small jar.

"Here you go Ruby, just one at a time okay." Jess told her smiling as she placed it down on the counter. Ruby rounded the counter and took one out lifting Fudge out she held the rolly polly for him to take.

"eat slow now." she said softlyas he took it and ate.

"Well, Fudge's a good little fellow, even though he is bit needy," Edward said, and at that, the little bowtruckle chattered a bit unhappily and blew raspberries at Edward. Michael laughed out loud "And he can be a nervy little devil when he has the mind," Edward said.

"I guess he told you what he thinks of being called needy," Michael laughed. "Of course, i'll handle the chicken." He took some butter and, with his hands, he lifted up the skin on the chicken and spread some butter between the flesh and the skin to flavor the bird. Then he cut a couple lemons and an orange into wedges, leaving the skin on, and put them in the cavity of the birds, and made up a rub with thyme, smoked paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and onion powder. He stirred up the rub and then rubbed it generously all over the chickens, trussed them up appropriately, and put them on sheet pans and put them in the convection oven.

Kate apparated in carrying Abbey who was sleeping on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, All. Khaat had Abbey scheduled for a dental visit this afternoon, and she really, really does not like the new dentist in the office. It was completely awful. She cried herself into a complete emotional meltdown," Kate said. "I've never seen her react to anyone or anything like that, not ever."

"Kate," Edward frowned, "that is not like her at all. That might merit some attention. Perhaps you should ask her Papa to talk to her when he gets back from Paris. Robert sometimes has a way with her when she's upset."

"You think something activated her seer's energies again?"

"I don't know, but I don't think you should just dismiss it."

"He's just a dentist for children. It isn't like he's James or anything."

"And how did she react the one time she encountered James?"

"She was disgusted and angry. She was afraid, of course, but she was more disgusted and angry."

"So what was so much worse about this fellow today? I'm saying its worth trying to figure it out."