LONDON CALLING

Ruby was happy that Fudge was happy too. She let Michael do the chicken while she prepped the veg for the dinner. Jess stood up and sighed as she walked over to the sleeping Abby " sometimes kids just don't like some one, if its anything serious Im sure Robert will know." she said Ruby nodded as she finished the veg and placed them in a roasting tin. gently spreading some oil over she placed it on the bottom of the oven leaving room for the chickens to go in.

"okay I think the dough has had long enough to rise2 she said and moved down to the basment to pick up the bowl with teh dough inside. Returning she placed it on the counter and lifted the cloth." wow that did double in size" she said looking at Michael " I have to use that trick again." Now taking half the dough she rolled it out flat before spreading out the sugery, cinnimony mixture onto one side. Then she slowly rolled them. Glancing at Michael she hoped she was doing it right.

"Well, yes, I'm sure you're right, Jess," Kate sighed. "I think I'll just put her on the sofa in the living room for now. Hopefully he comes back soon." She took Abbey into the living room and laid her on the sofa and covered her with an afghan from the back of the sofa and decided to let her sleep. Then she went bac to the kitchen.

"So, what did I miss? Any developments in Paris?" Kate asked.

"Well," Edward said. "He and Daphne have assembled a team to go raid Gelding's estate and the lodge property. That's what they've been doing all day."

"I hope they get the bastard this time, but I think that's too much to hope for," Michael said.

"Sounds like I need to fetch a bottle of firewhiskey," Kate said.

"Good idea," Gabe said. "I think it will be very welcome indeed. Is it downstairs? I'll get it."

"Yes. In the wine cellar."

"Good man," Edward said, as Gabe went downstairs. It wasn't all that long before Robert and Brian and Mira returned. They were tired and dirty.

"Well?"

"The damned estate was completely empty when we got to it. Not a stick of furniture, not so much as a dust bunny in sight," Robert sighed. "On the other hand, we got plenty from the lodge, enough to send him across the veil in the death chamber if we can ever catch him. Daphne has officially seized it. Gelding wont' be using that property again."

"Oh well done, Robert!" Edward was elated. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you, but now we have to find out what rock the little weasel has crawled under," Robert said.

Jess nodded and watched ash Kate set down Abby on the couch and went to the kitchen she sat not far from her and read a book she'd found. Ruby finished rolling the dough and began cutting them. Each one placed into the backing tray then washed with milk. Placing them in the oven to cook. " Im sure the dentist isn't some big bad man but, I agree, let Robert know. " as she finished both Robert and Brian appeared in the living room.

"thats weird " she said to herself. "Everything piinted to him being there. Then she looked at Kate " give me goose bumps thinking Abbys reaction might be something now." she said cleaning up the kitchen as she went making it ready for the next day.

"What's that, Jess?" Robert said, hearing just a piece of what she had said.

"You're right about Gelding, Jess," Michael said, hearing her clearly, "except one critical thing. Surely he got word that we were at the lodge property last night and rescued Khaat and Marcus, so he had to know we were going to return to shut down the jail. And, if he didn't suspect that Robert would have to notify the authorities of the bodies you found, then he really would have been a complete moron. And he had hours to clear out his house and escape. And, if someone tipped him off when you lot first arrived there, he'd have had hours more. Flat out, he knew we were coming for him, and he hit the road. He'll resurface again, but he'll be someplace else, some new mansion because he believe he is entitled to live that way."

"Do check Abbey for me, would you, Robert?" Kate asked.

"Abbey? What's wrong with Abbey?" he frowned.

"Well, that's just it, isn't it? I don't know. Khaat wasn't going to be up to taking her to her dentist appointment today so I took her. This was the first day with that bloke that took over Dr. Newton's practice."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. You could have just rescheduled under the circumstances," he said.

"Well, I just figured I'd take her. Anyway, for some odd reason, she just had a complete meltdown there, crying as if her little heart was completely shattered. Robert, she's never had such a severe reaction to anything in her entire life," Kate explained.

"Did he do anything to her procedurally?" Robert frowned deeply.

"No, he just checked her and cleaned her teeth--just routine, and she generally is so good at the dentist's. But she carried on even after we left until she just wore herself out and fell asleep on my shoulder. She's been sleeping since. She's in the living room."

"Did she tell you anything?"

"Not a syllable. She was crying too hard," she said. "It isn't like her at all."

"No, it isn't. I'll go check her right now," Robert said.

"I'm coming with you," Brian told him. "Maybe we can get her to tell us." They went into the living room, and Robert laid his hand on her forehead. That immediately drew his attention to her cheek. He checked it thoroughly.

"What's the matter?" Brian asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. There's something there. Something...metallic. And it's under the skin."

"In her teeth?"

"No, it's inside her cheek. Feel." He showed Brian where he was feeling.

"It almost feels like a knot, like a bug bite."

"It's not a bug bite. I'm telling you it's metallic, and it wasn't there before. If it had been, I'd have known it. This might be what she's so upset about. I imagine it's probably uncomfortable."

"Some sort of...well, what sort of treatment could that even have been?"

"That's just it. There is no reason for anyone to have implanted anything in her cheek. He was supposed to be only cleaning her teeth. I think he did something really inappropriate today right in front of Kate's eyes--maybe a slight of hand thing, I don't know, but I am going to find out exactly what that thing is."

"If he's hurt my daughter..." Brian began.

"It isn't an 'if' now. We're past that already. This is now a 'how'," Robert replied.

He woke Abbey very gently, and the instant she had her eyes open, she burst into sobs, wrapping her arms around Robert's neck, clinging tightly to him. Robert picked her up from the sofa.

"Come with me, Poppet," he said soothingly, letting her curl tightly into him. "Papa will fix it. Let's go make it better." He carried her into the kitchen towards the basement steps, with Brian following him.

"Robert?" Kate asked.

"I'm taking her down to the sickbay because I need the equipment there. We'll be back in a moment," he said. He and Brian went downstairs, and after casting a sleep spell, he did a bit of magical surgery to remove the metal object. He removed a metal bead of some sort that was rather egg shaped, about 5-6 mm in length.

"What the hell is that thing?" Brian frowned.

"I don't know," Robert said. "Gabe needs to see this immediately. I am going to get to the bottom of this, I promise you." Robert rinsed it off and put it in a little glass jar, and then he healed the little incision he had made in Abbey's cheek and cast a pain removal spell so she would be comfortable. "I'm sure it hurt, but I'm also feeling quite a severe imbalance in her magical energies. That's what caused the upset, I'm absolutely certain now. It just tilted her seer's energies all upside down and all around, and that was what got her all uncomfortable and rattled. Kate can help me realign those since all the Fawcett women basically have the same energy signature. I could realign them myself, but I can do it more accurately if I basically copy Kate's signature to do it."

"Shall I go get her?" Brian asked.

"And Gabe, please," Robert nodded. "She'll sleep until I wake her." Brian went upstairs and came back with Kate and Gabe.

"What did you find, Robert?" Kate asked.

"That charlatan implanted this in her cheek, under the skin," Robert said, holding up the jar.

"What is that?" Kate was shocked. "When could he have..."

"I think he must have used some slight of hand to implant that when you thought he was cleaning her teeth. I am not certain the man you saw was actually a dentist at all. Gabe, do you have any idea..."

"No, but I can find out," Gabe said taking the jar from Robert. "May I use your little lab upstairs?"

"Of course. Help yourself," Robert said, as Gabe turned and left in a hurry. He looked at Kate now. "Somehow her magical signature has been badly distorted and scrambled. It's completely gone haywire. No wonder she's crying. I'm sure she feels like the devil, and since all the women in your family basically have the same signature, I could use your signature to try to realign hers. Do you mind? She'd feel worlds better then."

"Of course. Can't you somehow infuse some of my signature into hers?"

"Well, actually, yes, I could. It's called an energy alignment transfusion, and it's similar to a muggle blood transfusion. It shouldn't hurt you unless you feel just a trifle fatigued temporarily, and it would be an even more accurate way to align her system again. It isn't as fast, but it's more accurate."

"Then take what you need from me and give it to her," Kate said. "We're not interested in fast, are we? I say we should be far more interested in being accurate."

"Wait, Why have I never heard of this or seen this done?" Brian frowned.

"Because it isn't done very often. And it isn't done very often because most healers don't know about it. I realize that's a bit of a Catch 22, but there it is. I doubt Jess has ever seen it either. Kate knows about it because we used it when Khaat needed realigning after Remus's death. As Abbey's father, you're alright with this, then?"

"Is there any risk to her or Kate?"

"Not unless I foul it up, which I am not likely to do."

"Absolutely, then. Do what you need to do."

"Ask Jess if she wants to learn it then. She'll never get a better chance than now," Kate said.

"You're alright with Jess watching, Robert?" Brian asked.

"Of course. Abbey's asleep, so it won't bother her. If Jess wants to watch, that's fine. Edward and Kaden have some healing skills, so it might interest them too for all I know."

"I'll go ask them," Brian said. He went upstairs and saw Jess and Edward still in the kitchen. "Hey, I don't know if you're interested, but Robert says he's going to try to do an energy alignment transfusion from Kate to Abbey. I didn't know such a thing was even possible, but he says he's going to do it. So, if you want to see how its done, he says you're welcome to watch. I've never seen one done, myself, so I want to learn it. I don't know where Kaden is, but I'd ask him too if he's available."

"An energy alignment transfusion? Never heard of such a thing, but I guess that's why I'm not Robert. Now he's piqued my curiosity," Edward said. He got up and went downstairs.

Kaden wlked in from out side with Jesie at his side " I was feeding the animals with Jessie." Kaden said "an alignment transfusion, oh I have to see this, I have only read about it in books." he quickly gave Jessie a kiss then headed to the lab. Jess looked up from her book and sighed

"oh poor Abby, wish my seer abilitys were back." she said as she placed the book down but not before marking the page she was at.

Once the rolls were cooled Ruby placed one on a plate then on a tray with a fresh pot of tea. Picking it up she ehaded to Angus's room and knocked.

Opening it she walked over to a small table and placed it down. " the tray I promised, with a cinimon roll, I hope its to your liking, I did have Michael helping." she said " oh and there doing something in the lab an energy alignment tranfusion." she kept her voice soft and low so not to agravate his headache.

While Brian was gone, Robert had Kate sit in a chair close to Abbey, and he had Kate just sit and close her eyes and relax. When everyone was gathered, he spoke.

"This isn't done very often because it isn't a well known technique. Done correctly, though, it can be very effective for energy damage done to the body's magical system. Let me explain very briefly the inner workings of the magical system.

"The magical system is interconnected to every other system in the body of a person with magical abilities. However, there are three main magical energy centers in the body. You're all probably familiar with the muggle belief system of Chakras. This isn't necessarily connected to that Chakra system, but I'll use it to make it more quickly understandable. One system is located in what the muggles would say was the second Chakra--the sacral area. This area of the magical system takes the physical body areas and converts some of it to magical energies. Think of it as, more or less, the powerhouse of the energy system.

"The second center of the magical system is located in the heart. This takes magical energy that is created by the 'sacral' area and, in the case of seers, converts it to seers' energies. For wizards that have different specializations, this is the location where those specific conversions happen. Magical energies that are even more finely converted and then distributed through the body so the wizard can use them. So, for example, if you fire a wandless magic spell with your hands, that physical energy was converted to magical energy in the sacral energy and sent to the heart, which converted it to that wizard's particular abilities and then sent the magical energy to the hands for the wizard to be able to use that energy. Make sense?

"The third area is what the muggles call the third eye, in the center of the forehead. Think of this as the body's gateway. All magic coming into or going out of the body have some area of magic leaving or entering through that 'window' accordingly. If you set up a magical shield to defend yourself, you're basically closing and locking and guarding that window. Now, that is all a really simplified explanation of an incredibly vast and complex bodily system. Did I lose you all somewhere?"

"Not me," Brian said. "Makes sense to me, but I don't know about anyone else."

Jess and Kaden both listened intently at Robets words. "Nope not me" Kaden said as Jess shook her head " I think we, the healers understand what you mean." he said Jess smiled at Robert and nodded.

"If your ready then we are." she said looking down at a sleeping Abby. " we'll be here if you need us." she said this time it was Kaden who nodded and moved one step closer as did Jess. Both stood ready to assist if he needed it but most of all ready to learn the most never taught lesson of their life.

"Some of you know what a muggle blood transfusion is, when a piece of plastic tubing is used to take blood from the body and put it into a container to be infused into a different muggle. This works much the same way. Kate is the donor, I am the energy source, and I will combine Kate's energy with my healer energies and implant them into Abbey. If you ever decide to try this, you absolutely must keep in mind any size differential between the donor, the healer and the patient. Underpower it, and you won't have any effect. Overpower it, and you could seriously injure the donor, the healer, the patient or all three. So be very careful. Since Abbey is so small, this will have to be done slowly at a very small rate of infusion. It can go much more quickly between adults.

"Because of the specific damage to Abbey's seer energies, I'm going to take threads from each of Kate's magical systems, bind them together and add my own healer energy thread to it. That combined thread is what I will send to Abbey. So, give me one moment to create that thread. Kate, if this makes you uncomfortable at any point, in any way, you say something." She nodded.

He sat down between Kate and Abbey, and he drew the first thread from Kate's sacral area--a shimmering coral colored thread. Then he drew a second thread, one from her heart, a shimmering, bright green thread and Robert put them together so that the threads ran side by side. Then he drew a third thread, this one from her third eye region, a vibrant purple thread, and he ran it alongside the others. The last one he did was to draw a thread from himself from his head--a glistening thread of bright white light. He layered that over top of Kate's threads and with a motion of his wand and the fingers on his other hand, he spun them together and twirled them until they seemed to become one intricately braided thread that was shielded by a covering of bright white light.

"Why does that look incredibly advanced and complicated?" Brian asked, definitely impressed. He was fascinated.

"That might be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen," Kate said.

"Light energy is beautiful. Dark energies, not so much," Robert said. "Alright. The thread is finally ready. Now, let's see if little Miss Abbey's body will accept them. Brian, would you mind laying your hand on Abbey's forehead for me, please?" Brian did as Robert asked and Robert took the thread, fired it from his wand, through Brian's hand, and into Abbey's forehead. Robert continued to spin the threads together as he took them from Kate and himself to combine them as he infused the thread slowly into Abbey.

"She's getting warmer," Brian said.

"A little warmer is good. Hot is not good," Robert said "Warmer, in this case, means her body can accept it and use it. And now, we just infuse however much she can accept."

"I admit it. You amaze me, Robert Lupin," Edward said.

Kaden crouched as he watched the spectical infront of him " its like watching a magical ballet of pure energy." he said softly, Jess watched both Robert and Abby. When Brian walked over and lay his hand on Abby she moved close to his side. Kaden saw her and moved to Kates side but not too close so each had some one to help should they need it.

Ruby pored two cups and sat in a chair close to him " I don't understand whats going down there, so I came up here, best I stay out the way." she said. Seeing the book they had found she picked it up and opened it and began reading it quietly.

(sorry. didn't mean to leave ruby behind. my bad.)

"So, why is my hand in the way?" Brian asked.

"Fair question. The thread can be powerful, and her because she is so small, there is the potential for the thread to burn the skin. So if I'm going to burn someone, I'm going to burn you first." He cast an amused look at Brian.

"Gee, thanks," Brian laughed. "Seriously, I would gladly be burned instead of her. No question."

"I know," Robert said.

"You're right, Kaden," Kate said "It really is like a dance, isn't it? But Robert, how will you know when she's had enough?"

"She will start to reflect that light when her system can absorb no more," he said. "And then once the energy is infused, it will repair her system. Some people find the repairs are instant and some find it can take a little time--like a good night's sleep. We'll have to see how she adjusts."

"My kid is going to glow in the dark," Brian frowned.

"Briefly, yes," Robert laughed.

"Thank you, Ruby," Angus told her when she brought in the tea. "And a cinnamon roll--how thoughtful. You made them yourself? They look perfect, and they smell great. You did a great job Well, good. i don't have to make them anymore. You can make them instead. Share them with me?"

He was half teasing, but he really did appreciate her efforts. "An energy alignment transfusion...hm..I am absolutely no healer whatsoever but if i were to try to translate that into English, it sounds like they're transferring energy from one source to another, or person to person, or something. You know that's some weirdness by Robert or my grandfather or Gabe. Michael would not be doing any sort of energy spells like that. Hopefully there's a good story with it."